Beginner's Guide to PowerPoint 2003

PowerPoint is a software program to enhance your oral presentation and to keep the audience focused on your subject. It operates like an old-fashioned slide show, but uses modern technology in the form of computers and digital projectors rather than a slide projector of old. This more in depth description will detail what PowerPoint is and why you would want use it.

When you are new to any program, it takes a while to get used to the "lingo".  This list of the ten most common PowerPoint terms will get you off on the right track.

Each page in a PowerPoint presentation is called a slide. PowerPoint presentations run just like the slide shows of old, only they are broadcast through a computer instead of a slide projector. This PowerPoint tutorial will show you all the different slide layouts and slide types.

PowerPoint has several different views to look at your slides. You can see each slide on its own page, or as several thumbnail versions of the slides in Slide Sorter view. Notes view offers a page to add speaker notes under the slide. This PowerPoint tutorial will show you all the different ways to look at your slides.

The only reason I can think of the keep your slides plain white, is for printing purposes, and there are ways to get around that. Add some color to the background to jazz it up a little. This PowerPoint tutorial will show you how to change the color of the background in a variety of different ways.

Now that you have changed the background color of the slide, more than likely it is hard to read the black text. It is easy to change the font style, color and size so that your slide is easily readable. This PowerPoint tutorial will show you how to change the font sizes, colors and styles.

Pictures and graphics are a big part of any PowerPoint presentation. They can be added using the icon on the content layout slide types or simply by using the Insert menu. This PowerPoint tutorial will show you how to use both methods.

Sometimes you like the look of the slide, but things are just not in the right places. Moving and resizing slide items is just a matter of clicking and dragging the mouse. This PowerPoint tutorial will show you how easy it is to move or resize pictures, graphics or text objects on slides.

Just a few mouse clicks is all that is needed to add, delete or rearrange slides in a presentation. This PowerPoint tutorial will show you how to rearrange the order of your slides, add new ones or delete slides that you no longer need.

PowerPoint includes many professionally designed templates that enhance your presentation quickly and keep it looking like a coordinated package. This PowerPoint tutorial will show you how to make your presentation colorful and more interesting by using design templates.