You want your presentation to convey key points to your audience. The new 3-D effects in PowerPoint 2007 give you dozens of ways to create graphic effects that pop off the slide and highlight the information you want to be remembered. Watch the demo to see how to do this with slides. Similar options are available in Excel 2007, Outlook 2007, and Word 2007.

• To create a new presentation press Ctrl+N.
• To open an existing one press Ctrl+O.
• All done? Close your presentation using Ctrl+W.
• And to save it press Ctrl+S.
• Get out of the program all together using Alt+F4.

(By the way, this batch of shortcuts works with all Office applications.)

Let’s get the show started:

• Hit F3 and the slide show will start from the present slide.
• Ctrl+Q will close all slide show windows
• Ctrl+Alt+Shift+P will pause them.
• Ready to resume? Use Ctrl+Alt+Shift+R.
• Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Left will let you go backward through your presentation.
• Need to view the last viewed slide? That’s Ctrl+Alt+Left.
• Restart your current slides (works for your animations) using Ctrl+R.

Need some input in your PowerPoint presentation?

• Send it in with an automated message by pressing Alt+F, then D, then C.

And during your slideshow, you can still use shortcuts.

• Type the slide number you want and hit Enter and voila! You are magically taken to that slide.
• Want to pause and see only a black screen? Hit B.
• Prefer a white screen? Hit, you guessed it, W.
• To get back out of those, hit B or W, respectively.

wizTEQ Staff

First, remove any text boxes from your first slide. Now right click the slide and choose Background. From the background color dropdown, select black and click Apply. When you set up your slideshow, you can have it all ready to go and let it sit on the first slide. This will give you a plain black screen rather than letting everyone gawk at your desktop, and when you’re ready to roll just click to the next slide.

While unusual fonts can be interesting, it’s best to stick with those that aren’t narrow or condensed.

Use a background color that isn’t too dark or too light. A background that is too dark with a very light font or vice versa can be hard on the eyes. A medium blue, green or purple gives a nice effect. When deciding on a font color, size and slide colors, do a trial run. Stand at the back of the room and see for yourself whether or not your slides are legible.

Transitions, animated graphics and sounds can definitely enhance your presentation but hold to the adage that less is more. Too much can seem like fluff, and you want the focus to be on what you have to say.

Finish as you started, with a plain black slide. This gives the viewer a sense of finality, and again, looks very professional.

wizTEQ Staff

Mistake #1 – The Projected Image on the Screen Is My Comfort Blanket. 

Solution: Set up your computer so that it is facing you.  You can be facing the appreciative audience, and you don’t have to look at or read from the screen. The last thing the audience wants to see is the back of your head.  What you are seeing on your computer screen is the same image that is projecting onto the screen behind you. At all costs, you want to make eye contact with your audience in order to engage them in your presentation.

Mistake #2 – Leaving a Slide on the Screen Keeps the Audience’s Attention

Solution: A slide should only be on the screen as long as you are talking about related material -– somewhere between 30 seconds and two minutes. Tip: To blank out a screen just press the “B” key and it will turn the screen black; pressing “W” will turn the screen to white. This only works when you are viewing a show. If you pressed the “B” or “W” key, press it again and the screen will illuminate. (Value-added hint: research has shown that audiences will remember your presentation best if they are allowed an opportunity to digest a new slide for a few seconds before you start speaking -– especially if the visuals are complex.)

Mistake #3 – I Have To Go Through My Slide Show in a Linear Fashion, i.e., Slide #1 Followed by Slide #2 and So On.

Solution: You can navigate through your presentation however you like, i.e., slide #1 goes first, slide #2 goes second, etc.  But, if you want slide #23 to follow slide #1, just press 2 and 3 on the numeric key pad followed by “enter.”  Power Point will automatically go to slide #23 in your presentation.  This will only work when you are in the View Show mode. This also is another good reason to print your slides as Handouts because the printout will have the slide numbers on them.

Mistake #4 – It is Too Bad Power Point Doesn’t Provide a “Pen” Function to Use While Presenting; the “pen” function allows you to write on your screen while presenting. (To sometimes great effect, football commentator John Madden uses a similar screen pen to diagram and analyze plays.

Solution: For those of you who like the “John Madden approach,” you can press Ctrl “P” while presenting and a John Madden-style pen will come on the screen.  Hold the left mouse key down while moving your pen around the screen, and you, too, can analyze the “play.”  To make this work, go to the Tools pull down menu and go to Slide Show, and choose your pen color (make sure it contrasts and compliments the background color of your slide).

Mistake #5 – Audiences are Wowed by All the Animations and All the Transitions I Use.

Solution: Less is more   We recommend that if the audience has a copy of your presentation that they can look at while you are presenting, show the material on a slide at one time without any animations –- the audience already knows what’s coming.  On the other hand, if the audience will not receive a copy of your presentation as a handout, you should use some animation.

Mistake #6 – The Room’s Lighting Won’t Have an Impact on My Slides’ Visibility.

Solution: You should check out the environment in which you will be presenting. First, try to make sure that all lights that directly hit the projected screen are turned off, if possible. The visibility of your slides influences readability. Although light text on a dark background looks best in a dark or slightly darkened room, in a light room the dark background may look so faded that light text may not show up as well.  For this kind of situation, it doesn’t hurt to try dark text on a lighter background.  While we are on the subject of lighting, remember this: Do not subject your audience to a presentation in a dark room. At all costs, try to have the most light possible without diluting the impact of the color of your slides. Other than in a movie theatre, a darkened room will put people to sleep. This is not one of your objectives.

Mistake #7 – My Presentation is So Powerful That My Audience Will Be in Their Seats As Soon As the Break is Over.

Solution: Consider using a break timer which can be projected onto the screen if you take breaks during your presentation.  You can use a count down digital timer and can even put the client’s logo as the wallpaper behind the digital clock.

Mistake #8 – The Presentation Pop-Up Menu Helps Me Run Through My Power Point Presentation

Solution: Turn off the presentation pop-up menu. It is a sign of a Power(less) Point presenter.  To turn off the presentation pop-up menu, go to the Tools pull down menu, then to View and uncheck both the Pop up menu on right mouse click and Show Pop Up Menu Button.

Have fun with your next Power Point presentation.  Your audience will appreciate the care you show by making a presentation that is lively, fun and targeted towards them.  You’ll get a standing ovation!

1.       On the Standard toolbar, click New .

If this or any other toolbar mentioned later in this procedure isn’t visible, on the View menu, point to Toolbars, and then click the toolbar that you want to display.

2.       Switch to master view by pointing to Master on the View menu, and then clicking Slide Master.

3.       Make the changes that you want to the slide master (slide master: The slide that stores information about the design template applied, including font styles, placeholder sizes and positions, background design, and color schemes.):

•  To change the background, on the Format menu, click Background, make selections in the dialog box, and then click Apply. If you have inserted a title master and want the changes to apply to it, too, click Apply to All.
• To work with color schemes, on the Format menu, click Slide Design, and then, in the Slide Design task pane, click Color Schemes. The color scheme that is currently applied will be selected.  Click any other scheme to apply it.
• To change the color scheme, click Edit Color Schemes at the bottom of the task pane, and then make the changes that you want.
• To change fonts or other font options, click the text or the placeholder containing the text (such as footers). On the Format menu, click Font, and then make your selections in the Font dialog box.

Note:  You can change font color for title and body text as part of the color scheme.

• To insert a picture or to add a shape or text box, use the buttons on the Drawing toolbar.
• To move a placeholder, click it to select it, and then point to the placeholder border. When the pointer becomes a four-headed arrow, drag the placeholder to a new location.
• To resize a placeholder, click it to select it, and then point to a sizing handle. When the pointer becomes a double-headed arrow, drag the sizing handle.

4.       If you want additional slides to be part of this template, click the Normal View button in the lower-left of the window, and then add the slides and any text that you want on them.

5.       On the File menu, click Save As.

6.       In the File name box, type a name for your template, and then, in the Save as type box, click Design Template.

7.       Click Save.

The template is saved to the Templates folder. (This is the folder that PowerPoint uses by default when you select Design Template as the file type in the Save As dialog box.)

After you exit and restart PowerPoint, the template is available in the Slide Design task pane, in alphabetical order by file name, under Available For Use. Also, after you apply the template once, save your presentation, and restart PowerPoint, the template appears in the New Presentation task pane (File menu, New) under Recently used templates