Advanced Microsoft(r) Office PowerPoint 2007: Insights and Advice from the Experts

This is the only book that will help an intermediate PowerPoint user improve their skills to an advanced level. In doing so, they can benefit both professionally and personally. This is not a comprehensive book that will bore you with every detail of PowerPoint, but a guide to specific actions you can take to create the ultimate presentation. The book covers the powerful formatting engine new to PowerPoint 2007, and how it can be used for applying soft shadows, reflection, and glows to make a presentation look attractive. It also covers PowerPoint's new 3D engine. The book goes into deep technical detail about the Office 2007 theme engine and how color schemes, effect schemes, and font schemes work; as well as the new PowerPoint XML file format, showing you how to edit PowerPoint files without using PowerPoint at all. The authors walk through programming a macro and explain how to format shapes, diagrams, charts, text, tables with gradient and picture fills and different kinds of lines (e.g. a beveled compound line with a diamond arrowhead). Also covered are those all important slide show shortcuts that few people know about like — seeing your private notes while presenting on a projector, starting the slide show from the current slide without fumbling through the user interface, and how to black out the slide show screen with one key press.

Jeff Huang is currently working as a developer for Microsoft on his second release of PowerPoint. He has learned the ins and outs of the product by implementing features and exposing himself to the inner workings of PowerPoint. Each day that he spends working with the talented people who make PowerPoint, he picks up an obscure new trick or shortcut. Jeff hopes to empower you to create better presentations not only by making PowerPoint a better product, but also by helping you become an expert PowerPoint user. He wants you to be the person who does something new, cool, and unusual in PowerPoint, the person who makes others exclaim, “Wow! I didn’t know you could do that!”

When not writing books about PowerPoint, Jeff can be found skiing, playing golf, or playing with his dog, Pouncer.

Introduction

Part I Finding Your Way Around

1          Introducing the Office 2007 User Interface 7

Part II Creating Content

2          Everything You Need to Know About Text 27

3          Text Support 41

4          Working with Pictures 63

5          Diagrams and SmartArt 85

6          Rediscover Charts 101

7          Working with Shapes 117

8          Tables Like You've Never Seen Before 137

9          Inserting Content into PowerPoint 151

Part III Manipulating Content

10         Formatting Your Presentation 173

11         Dissecting Themes 199

12         Formatting Shapes, Text, and More 217

13         Demystifying 3D 245

14         Positioning Slide Elements 265

Part IV Wowing Your Audience

15         Going Beyond Slide-by-Slide 283

16         Running Slide Show Like a Pro 317

Part V PowerPoint Files Unleashed

17         Migrating Files to PowerPoint 2007 337

18         Publishing Your Presentation to Any Format 351

Part VI Finding Help

19         Using Help and Other Resources 381