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All about themes, Quick Styles, cell styles, and background styles

What is the difference between a theme, a style, and a layout anyway? Check out this article that explains how these elements relate in PowerPoint and other Microsoft Office applications.

Community video: Presentation navigation examples

What is a "relational presentation"? Find out how to make your slide show more interactive by adding navigation.

Change the style and width of lines connecting SmartArt shapes

Customize your SmartArt graphics by changing the color, weight, or style of a connecting line

Animate text or objects

Go beyond static images by adding animation effects to your presentation! Read this article to learn how to increase the visual appeal of your slides by adding animation.

Create a "snake trail" animation effect

Do you want to create an image that "slithers" across your slide? Read this tutorial on PowerPoint Heaven on how two create a snake-like animation effect.

Free animated text effects template for PowerPoint 2007

Create stunning build slides, animated title slides, and professionally-designed logs using the examples and instructions in this template.

Coordinate the color, fonts, and effects of all your Office documents

Courtesy of Eli Journals, read this article to learn how to create a single, unified look and feel to your Office files.

Create a vertical block list

Diagram a task or process with multiple sub-steps quickly with a vertical block list.

Format lines and shape outlines in PowerPoint 2007

Learn how to customize lines and shapes from Geetesh Bajaj, PowerPoint MVP, in this in-depth tutorial.

Using PowerPoint in the classroom

You can find some of the most creative PowerPoint experts ... at your local elementary school. In this video, a teacher and some students describe how they use PowerPoint to create eye-catching presentations.

What do kids know about PowerPoint that we don't?

Creativity is infectious. Read about what happens when you give three ten-year-olds PowerPoint and tell them to "come up with something cool."

More PowerPoint experts - How fifth graders presented the Bard

"To bullet point or not to bullet point: that is the question." Find out how two students applied their PowerPoint skills to their report about Shakespeare.

Free 3-D shapes and objects template for PowerPoint 2007

Use this professionally-designed shapes to add pizzazz to your presentation. Or, if you prefer, you can learn how to create these shapes yourself!

Create a relationship graphic

How do you illustrate the relationships between several ideas? Create a relationship graphic quickly and easily using SmartArt graphics.

Create an organization chart with pictures

Have you ever looked at an organization chart and wondered, "Who are these people?" Learn how to create an organization chart with pictures to help you place a name to the face.

Deliver presentations using PPTPlex

Imagine your presentation like a broad canvas, where you can pan and zoom in on different slides from a panoramic view. You can easily achieve that effect with PPTPlex from Office Labs.

Add a texture fill to a shape in PowerPoint 2007

Apply texture fills to the shapes on your slide easily by following this tutorial from Geetesh Bajaj, PowerPoint MVP

Create a Venn diagram

How are three ideas or groups similar? How do the differ? You can illustrate these ideas elegantly by creating a Venn diagram with SmartArt graphics.

Put your photos into PowerPoint

Take this comprehensive training course on how to insert pictures into a presentation, create a photo album, and even apply frames or color effects.

Community tutorial: Add a showcase navigation to your PowerPoint 2007 presentation

How can you turn a linear slideshow into a freeform presentation? By adding navigation to your PowerPoint file, you can adjust your message while you present.

Animated text effects for PowerPoint slides

Check out these professionally-crafted slides featuring sparkling title slides, animated bulleted lists, and moving timelines.

Static picture effects for PowerPoint slides

Download and use these slides designed by PowerPoint MVP, Julie Terberg. This professional-quality template includes instructions on how to recreate the effects on slide!

Add text to the overlapping portions of circles in a Venn diagram

You've added a Venn diagram with a SmartArt graphic, but now you want to label areas of overlap. Follow these steps to add text to those overlapping regions.

Overview of creating quizzes, games, and menus in PowerPoint

Learn how to add interactive content on your slides. Glenna Shaw, PowerPoint MVP, describes multiple methods for creating slides with quizzes, games, and more.

Create a Venn diagram

Follow these step by step instructions to create and format one of the most popular diagram types - a Venn diagram, using a SmartArt graphic layout.

Add text on top of a photo

See how you can add text on top of a photo using either WordArt or by drawing a text box and then typing text.

Add a gradient fill to a shape in PowerPoint 2007

Go beyond solid fill colors by using gradients! Follow these easy steps to add a gradient fill to your shapes, courtesy of Geetesh Bajaj, PowerPoint MVP.

Add a picture fill to a shape

Want your pictures in a circle, arrow, or even smiley-face shape? PowerPoint MVP Geetesh Bajaj shows you how.

Create a Venn diagram

Follow these step by step instructions to create and format one of the most popular diagram types - a Venn diagram, using a SmartArt graphic layout.

Add text on top of a photo

See how you can add text on top of a photo using either WordArt or by drawing a text box and then typing text.

Add a text placeholder and custom prompt text

Learn how to create templates for others to use to create new presentations and overwrite the text in the default placeholders by adding custom prompt text.

Create a flow chart

Follow these step by step instructions to create a flow chart using SmartArt graphics.

A new tool for the New Year!

Check out our new one stop shopping for all things SmartArt graphics!

Webcasts and podcasts: Office PowerPoint 2007

View recordings from live events by Microsoft Office experts, see step-by-step demos by presenters, watch short videos for quick tips, or listen to audio-only versions of previously recorded webcasts and 5-10 minute "mini" podcasts focused more on specific tasks.

Change the look, position, or function of bulleted or numbered lists in your presentation

Learn how to change the style, color, and size of the bullets or numbers in your presentation. You can also change the number that you want to start from, increase or decrease indents, and increase or decrease spacing between a bullet and its text.

Apply a theme to your presentation

See how you can quickly change the look of your presentation by applying a group of slide layouts, that contain combinations of coordinating colors, fonts, and effects.

My ten favorite PowerPoint tips

Read PowerPoint MVP, Geetesh Bajaj's, 10 favorite tips including how to put your picture in a star, create timelines, and create Star Wars-style credits.

Apply a theme to your presentation

See how you can quickly change the look of your presentation by applying a group of slide layouts, that contain combinations of coordinating colors, fonts, and effects.

Demo: Assign an action to a built-in button or picture in your presentation

Watch as an action button is added to a presentation and then an action is assigned to it. The action can occur when a presenter clicks or mouses over the action button.

Template: Holiday or Winter vacation photo album

Create a photo album keepsake to commemorate your winter holiday event! A great gift idea for those who participated in your holiday event. You can save it to CD or share it up on your web site.

Edit a presentation that is marked as final

See how to determine if a presentation has been marked as final, which makes a presentation read-only. Note that anyone who receives an electronic copy of a presentation marked as final can reverse the Mark as Final status and edit the presentation as this command is not a security feature.

Embed fonts in a PowerPoint presentation

Learn how to embed fonts in a presentation, thus saving the font with the presentation. When you embed fonts your text will always display as you want even if the host computer doesn't have the fonts you are using installed.

Create and use strong passwords

Read about the 6 steps to a better password; plus, common strategies it's better to avoid.

Change the order in which stacked objects, placeholders, or shapes appear on a slide

See how to change the order in which stacked individual components (objects, placeholders, or shapes) or grouped components appear on a slide, so that one appears in front of another.

Selling with PowerPoint: Taking Control of That Critical First Meeting

Learn how to create a presentation that allows for highly flexible access across all visual content, allowing instant tailoring to customer needs and interest, or any objections that might arise along the way.

Install updates for Microsoft Office 2007 Help

$\Documentation\Office Shared\Office 12\End User\Help.

Add callouts, captions, or lines to your SmartArt graphic

Add text comments or highlight key points by adding callouts or lines to your SmartArt graphic.

Advent calendar template

This PowerPoint show counts the first 25 days of December. You can play with the calendar in one sitting, or refuse to peak, and use it to countdown the holiday day by day. Select the corresponding button(s) reflecting the day(s).

Add a picture to a SmartArt graphic

Learn how to insert pictures into your SmartArt graphic to create a more compelling document, worksheet, or presentation.

PowerPoint Rebellion: One Professor's Pioneering Experimentation with Interactivity

Read about how ten years ago, a professor, Dr. C. June Maker, rebelled against the normal PowerPoint mentality of reams of bullet points and linear slide shows to become a pioneer of the visually interactive presentation.

Deliver a presentation on two monitors by using Presenter view

Learn how to run your PowerPoint 2007 presentation from one monitor (your laptop, for example) while your audience views it on a second monitor (projected on a larger screen, for example).

Office podcasts

Check out the new podcasts available for PowerPoint from Office OFFline and our community podcasters. Watch the latest demos optimized for mobile devices and listen to experts who can deliver tips, tricks, and training direct to your computer.

Create an organization chart

Illustrate the reporting relationships in your company or organization by creating a SmartArt graphic that uses an organization chart layout.

Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 demo

See Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 in action. This demo shows you how PowerPoint 2007 can help you create dynamic and high-impact presentations faster than ever before using new graphics capabilities, formatting tools, and sharing functionalities — all presented in the Microsoft Office Fluent user interface.

Add a text placeholder with custom prompt text

See how you can overwrite the text in the default placeholders by adding custom prompt text. You can use custom prompt text to describe or specify what you want people using your template to enter into various text placeholders.

Free! New SmartArt graphics available

Download new SmartArt graphic layouts, including Picture Organization Chart, Interconnected Rings, and Tabbed Arc.

Demo: Create a basic presentation quickly

If you're new to PowerPoint 2007 and just want to pick up the basics, this demo will get you started fast. You'll see how to create your own slides for a show and add headings, bulleted lists, and pictures. And see how the new Preview feature helps you choose theme colors and background design, minimizing the guesswork and giving you a polished result.

Add pattern fills to PowerPoint 2007 shapes

Although pattern fills have been removed from PowerPoint 2007, you can use this workaround from a PowerPoint MVP to get the look that you want.

Winter Holiday Photo Album

Learn how to create a photo album keepsake to commemorate your winter holiday event! This is a great gift idea for those who participated in the event.

Download and install custom fonts to use with Office

See how to find, download, and install custom fonts to use with your Office programs.

Cross Platform PowerPoint Compatibility

Learn the essentials for sharing PowerPoint 2007 files between a computer running Windows and an Apple Macintosh. Geetesh Bajaj, PowerPoint MVP and site manager for Indezine shows you how.

Animate turning a grayscale picture into color

See how you can animate turning a grayscale picture into a color picture.

Community video: Make a 3D keyboard with effects in PowerPoint

Watch a short video on how you can use effects in PowerPoint to create a 3-D keyboard.

Show Me! What Brain Research Says About Visuals in PowerPoint

Do you want your audience to take away more from your presentations? In this article, Robert Lane and Dr. Stephen Kosslyn describe how you can use brain research to make your PowerPoint presentations more effective. You can also increase how well your audience remembers your message by using meaningful visual aids or cues.

Create a Scrolling Effect in PowerPoint 2007

In this article, Microsoft MVP Glenna Shaw discusses ways that you can scroll through a large image or document on a PowerPoint slide, moving forward or backward or stopping dynamically. Depending on the object that you inserted into your presentation there are a number of ways to accomplish this effect, including using add-ins or features in PowerPoint.

Seven key principles to tailoring PowerPoint messages

What if your presentation was supposed to last an hour but your time slot was reduced to only 20 minutes? What would you do? Now imagine that next time this happens to you, you’re ready for it. You can completely restructure your slide sequence on the spot, without making any changes to the actual PowerPoint slides themselves, because you’ve added navigation elements to your slide shows. In other words, you can instantly adjust to accommodate any circumstance, any audience question, any threat or opportunity instantly. This article by Robert Lane and Chantal Bosse helps you discover how you can use the Seven Key Principles for creating a visually interesting and flexible presentation to tailor your delivery to any circumstance.

Demo: Use 3-D effects

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.

Wrap text around an object in PowerPoint 2007

This article shows you how you can manually wrap text around any object, such as a table, picture, shape, chart, SmartArt graphic, and more in PowerPoint 2007.

Award pre-designed sports certificates to players and coaches

Are you a parent of children who play sports? Are you a coach or the designated "team mom"? Most importantly, if you are the person who plans the end-of-season parties and orders the player and coach trophies, you might find this article helpful.

Try the 2007 Office products online

Take the latest Microsoft Office programs out for a spin in this quick, easy-to-use, browser-based trial experience.

Demo: Spice up your text with SmartArt graphics

SmartArt graphics add color, shape, and emphasis to your text and data, and they're a snap to use. You can easily try out a variety of SmartArt graphics to see which one works best for getting your point across. Watch the demo to see how easy it is to add dimension and impact to your text.

Use the keyboard to work with Ribbon programs

If you prefer to use the keyboard instead of the mouse, the programs that use the Ribbon, which is part of the Microsoft Office Fluent user interface in the 2007 Microsoft Office system provide keyboard shortcuts that enable you to quickly perform tasks without reaching for the mouse

Install and run PowerPoint Viewer 2007

To run a presentation on a computer on which Microsoft Office PowerPoint is not installed, or to distribute a self-contained presentation to an audience that might not have PowerPoint installed, use Microsoft Office PowerPoint Viewer.

Demo: Up to speed with PowerPoint 2007

Watch this demo to get familiar with the new design, and to see for yourself that you won't have to learn PowerPoint all over again.

Create a basic presentation in PowerPoint 2007

This article is a great place to start learning (or remembering) how to use PowerPoint. By the end of this article, you will have a new PowerPoint presentation, and a solid foundation of knowledge and confidence about using Office PowerPoint 2007.

Create dynamic sales presentations using Office PowerPoint 2007 templates and your Slide Library

This article shows you how to use PowerPoint 2007 to create professional presentations faster; add attention-getting charts, diagrams, and tables; and share what you create easily in a variety of formats.

Create a photo album in PowerPoint 2007 in 6 steps

This article shows how you can create a photo album in PowerPoint 2007 in just six quick steps.

Roadmap to building a PowerPoint 2007 presentation

If you want to create a PowerPoint 2007 presentation but you aren't sure how to begin, you can use the information in this article to create a rich, compelling presentation.

Save a file in PDF format

You can save files created by many 2007 Microsoft Office system programs in Portable Document Format (PDF), which is a common format for sharing documents. PDF preserves document formatting and enables file sharing.

Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 demo

This demo shows you how PowerPoint 2007 can help you create dynamic and high-impact presentations faster than ever before using new graphics capabilities, formatting tools, and sharing functionalities — all presented in the new Microsoft Office Fluent user interface.

Demo: Spice up your text with SmartArt graphics

Free! New SmartArt graphics available

Check out this article to see how you can download new layouts for SmartArt graphics from Microsoft Office Online for free.

Use a theme from another document

Did you know that you can easily use themes from other documents, including documents with customized themes and documents from different 2007 Microsoft Office system programs?

Discover the power of custom layouts

Take this training course to learn how to create a custom slide layout, add a picture (logo) to your layout, use the custom slide layout in your presentation, and save the custom slide layout for reuse in future presentations.

Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 top 10 benefits

Here are the top 10 ways that PowerPoint 2007 helps you increase your productivity and improve collaboration with others.

Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 new interface

With PowerPoint 2007, you can produce better results faster by taking advantage of the rich feature sets presented in the Office Fluent user interface. The overall look and feel has been streamlined, and new technologies have been introduced that enable you to "browse, pick, and click" rather than select from dialog boxes.

Things to do with shapes and objects in PowerPoint 2007

Although visual elements should never overpower the contents of your PowerPoint 2007 presentation, some visual elements such as objects and shapes might help you convey your message in a “picture is worth a thousand words” way.

New and revised PowerPoint 2007 templates

Check out the wide variety of new and revised templates that you can use with PowerPoint 2007

Create, customize, and apply a slide master

When you want to make a change to the look of all of the slides in your presentation, you don’t need to change each slide individually. You can make the change once on the slide master.

Apply one or more slide masters

In a presentation that is associated with a newly customized slide master, you can add blank slides (and then add content later), move slides that contain content into your presentation from other presentations, or import slides from a Slide Library.

Move around in a PowerPoint presentation

As you deliver your presentation, here is how to move from one slide to the next, move to a previous slide, or move to a specific slide.

Brand your slides with a background picture, color, or watermark

You can insert a picture behind your entire slide as a background or behind part of your slide as a watermark. You can also insert a color behind your slide as a background. By adding a picture as a background or watermark to one or all of your slides, you can make your Office PowerPoint 2007 presentation unique or clearly identify your presentation sponsor.

Change or remove a text box or shape border

Follow these instructions to change the look of the outside border of a text box or shape, or remove the border.

Demo: Add animation effects and sound to text and objects

This demo shows you ways to add animation and sound effects: by using the built-in animation effects in PowerPoint, by creating your own customized effects, and by adding sound.

Change the color of hyperlink text

An quick and easy answer to a very common customer question: How can I change the color of my hyperlink text in PowerPoint 2007?

Tailoring your message to the audience is everything!

For information about how to effectively customize your message for your audience, check out this exerpt from Robert Lane's book Relational Presentation: A Visually Interactive Approach.

Create pan and zoom effects in PowerPoint

PowerPoint allows you to easily create and distribute photo albums, and you can add action to your electronic photo albums through the use of panning and zooming effects.

Unconventional tips for eliminating the fear of public speaking

What can you do to lessen the common fear of public speaking and make your presentation experiences more productive and fun?

Personalize your slide design

Take this training course to learn how to change a slide background using a color or picture, customize the theme of your presentation, and save your customized theme for reuse in future presentations.

How to tell if a digital signature is trustworthy

Digital signatures play a central role in software security. This article explains what a digital signature is, and how you can check to make sure that a digital signature is trustworthy.

Making your PowerPoint 2007 presentation easy to create, edit, and manage

Microsoft Office System MVP Stephanie Krieger talks about how to use the tools that PowerPoint provides to make your presentations far better than you might expect.

Editing shapes in your presentation

Microsoft Office System MVP Stephanie Krieger talks about how to use shapes, including WordArt and clip art, to make your work easier when you need custom graphics.

Working with SmartArt graphics

Geetesh Bajaj, Microsoft Office PowerPoint MVP and author of the Cutting Edge PowerPoint for Dummies books, gives a fun and comprehensive look at the benefits of using SmartArt graphics in your presentations.

Turn the snap to grid and snap to object options on or off

When you draw, resize, or move a shape or an object, it will align or "snap to" the nearest intersection of lines in the grid, even if the grid is not visible, or snap to other shapes or objects. If your shape or object does not move where you want, you can turn off the snap-to options.

Display and use gridlines and guides

You can use gridlines to identify the center of your slide or document and position shapes and objects more precisely, and you can use drawing guides to position shapes and objects on slides.

Tips for improving the performance of your presentation

If your presentation runs slowly while you deliver it to your audience, this article can help you improve it by adjusting the performance settings or changing how you use objects and animations.

Use Slide Libraries to share and reuse PowerPoint 2007 slide content

You can share and reuse slide content by storing individual slide files in a centrally located Slide Library on a server running Office SharePoint Server 2007. You can publish slides to a Slide Library and add slides to your presentation from a Slide Library.

Add or change an effect for a picture

You can enhance your picture by adding effects, such as shadows, glows, reflections, soft edges, bevels, and three-dimensional (3-D) rotations to it.

Keyboard shortcuts for working with shapes, text boxes, and WordArt

This article describes how to use your keyboard, rather than your mouse, to work with shapes, text boxes, and WordArt in PowerPoint 2007 and other Office 2007 release products.

I want to animate individual cells, rows, or columns in my table

In PowerPoint 2007, the maximum table size has increased to 75 rows by 75 columns, which makes it impossible to ungroup and animate parts of a table, as you could do in PowerPoint 2003. However, you can follow the steps in this article to mimic the effect of animating parts of a table.

Change the color of hyperlink text

An quick and easy answer to a very common customer question: How can I change the color of my hyperlink text in PowerPoint 2007?

Install and run PowerPoint Viewer 2007

Demo: Add colors, fonts, and effects with PowerPoint 2007 themes

Watch this demo to see how themes in PowerPoint 2007 replace design templates in PowerPoint 2003 to bring a more professional look to your presentations.

Demo: Add slide transitions to your presentation

This demo shows you how to add transition effects (such as fades and dissolves, wipes, and stripes and bars) to one or more slides, set the transition speed, add sounds, and remove the effects.

Demo: Add colors, fonts, and effects with PowerPoint 2007 themes

If you've been using design templates in PowerPoint 2003, you're going to love themes in PowerPoint 2007. Themes pull together color schemes, font styles, and effects into appealing design packages that you can apply to many types of presentations.

Demo: Distribute a PowerPoint presentation on CD

Now that your presentation is finished, you're ready to get it out to your intended audience. The Package for CD feature in PowerPoint 2007 makes this task fast and easy for you. This demo steps you through the process and explains helpful options such as packaging for the PowerPoint version your viewers will use, adding linked files, and choosing type fonts. You can make one or more CD copies.

Connect with other PowerPoint users

You can tap the collective wisdom of other PowerPoint users by posing questions in discussion groups, reading PowerPoint blogs, or using any of the other community resources mentioned in this article.

Demo: Place your favorite commands on the Quick Access Toolbar

There's a fast way to put the commands and buttons you use most often within easy reach — put them on the Quick Access Toolbar. This row of buttons above the Ribbon already contains several buttons by default, but you can add new commands. The demo shows you two ways to do this, as well as how to remove them later if you want to.

Show the slide number and total number of slides on every slide

You can display the current slide number and total number of slides on all of the slides in your presentation. For example, 1 of 12 slides, 12 of 15 slides, etc.

Add slide or page numbers or the date and time

Follow the instructions in this article to add slide numbers, notes page numbers, handout page numbers, and the date and time to your presentation.

Demo: Add a background to your presentation

Want to add some punch to your presentation? This demo shows you how you can make your slides grab the audience's attention by adding a background to them.

Apply a theme to your presentation

PowerPoint 2007 contains several built-in themes, which include theme colors, theme fonts, and theme effects. Whether you use an existing built-in theme, create a new theme, or modify an existing built-in theme, follow this procedure to apply a theme to your presentation.

Change a shape into another shape

Follow these steps to turn one shape that you've used in your presentation into one of many other shapes available in PowerPoint 2007.

Add or delete a fill, outline, or effect for text or WordArt

You can change the look of your text or WordArt by changing its fill, changing its outline, or adding effects, such as shadows, reflections, glows, or three-dimensional (3-D) rotations or bevels. In Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007, you can also make these changes to text on a slide.

Change the default theme

A theme is a quick and easy way to give a professional and modern look to an entire 2007 Microsoft Office system document. A document theme is a set of formatting choices that include a set of theme colors, a set of theme fonts (including heading and body text fonts), and a set of theme effects (including lines and fill effects).

Create a photo album

A PowerPoint photo album is a presentation that you can create to display your personal or business photographs. You can add effects that include attention-grabbing slide transitions, colorful backgrounds and themes, specific layouts, and more.

Using PowerPoint 2007 themes and background styles

In the 2007 Microsoft Office system, themes simplify the process of creating matching, professional-looking documents not only within one program but across multiple programs.

Set new formatting defaults for a shape or text box

You can change the formatting defaults associated with a shape, text box, or other object and then make your changes the new defaults for all shapes, text boxes or other objects that you add. For example, you can change the fill color, weight of lines that make up the border of a shape, or the fonts used in a text box.

Use pen and ink tools on a Tablet PC to review and comment on a presentation

If you use a Tablet PC, you can review and comment on a Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 presentation by using the pen and ink tools in PowerPoint.

Apply one or more slide masters to a new or existing presentation

The key benefit to applying and using slide masters is that you can make universal style changes to every slide in your presentation.

Move a picture, shape, text box, or WordArt

When you add pictures, shapes, or other objects to your documents, they automatically stack in individual layers as you add them. This article tells you how to move individual pictures, shapes, or other objects or objects in a stack. For example, you can move objects up or down within a stack one layer at a time, or you can move them to the top or bottom of a stack in one move.

Add or delete a shape fill or shape effect

You can change the look of your shape by changing its fill or by adding effects, such as shadows, glows, reflections, soft edges, bevels, and three-dimensional (3-D) rotations to it. You can also change or remove the outline or border of the shape.

Add or delete a text box

A text box is an object that you can add to your 2007 Microsoft Office system document to emphasize or set off text. Check out the new demo at the bottom of the article to show you exactly how to delete a text box from your document.

Add a new slide with a built-in layout

This article now contains a new, minute-long demo at the bottom that shows you exactly how to add a new slide with a built-in layout to your presentation.

Apply a different layout to an existing slide

This article now contains a new, minute-and-a half-long demo at the bottom that shows you exactly how to apply a different layout to an existing slide in your presentation.

Change or delete a placeholder

This article now contains a new demo that shows you exactly how to change or delete a placeholder. Placeholders are boxes with dotted borders that hold content in its place on a slide layout. You can change a placeholder by resizing it, repositioning it, or changing the font, size, case, color, or spacing of text within it. You can also delete a placeholder.

Create new or reuse existing PowerPoint 2007 templates

This article now contains a new demo that shows you exactly how to create and reuse PowerPoint 2007 templates. A PowerPoint 2007 template is a pattern or blueprint of a slide or group of slides that you save as a .potx file. Templates can contain layouts, theme colors, theme fonts, theme effects, background styles, and even content.

Apply a theme to your presentation

This article now contains a new demo that shows you exactly how to apply a theme to your presentation. PowerPoint 2007 contains several built-in themes, which include theme colors, theme fonts, and theme effects. Whether you use an existing built-in theme, create a new theme, or modify an existing built-in theme, follow this procedure to apply a theme to your presentation.

Office Hours: PowerPoint without bullets

Microsoft's Shellie Tucker reports in this Office Hours column, "Could we give a PowerPoint presentation and use NO BULLET POINTS? Could we divorce ourselves from the tried and true — and deadly boring? We decided to try."

Change the brightness, contrast, or transparency of a picture

Read this article to learn how you can adjust a picture's relative lightness (brightness), the difference between its darkest and lightest areas (contrast), and the transparency of one of its colors. After you edit the picture, you can undo any changes that you made or keep the changes but also save the original version of the picture.

Change the action settings of a button, picture, or clip art

You can change the action settings if a picture, clip art, or button shape has an action assigned to it (such as move to next slide, move to previous slide, go to the last slide of the show, or go to a Web page or other Microsoft Office PowerPoint presentation or file.)

Demo: Create a basic presentation quickly

If you're new to PowerPoint 2007 and just want to pick up the basics, this demo will get you started fast. You'll see how to create your own slides for a show and add headings, bulleted lists, and pictures. Use built-in layouts to organize your slide content. And see how the new Preview feature helps you choose theme colors and background design, minimizing the guesswork and giving you a polished result. Watch the demo to see how easy it is.

Demo: Change the color of hyperlink text

An quick and easy answer to a very common customer question: How can I change the color of my hyperlink text in PowerPoint 2007?

Add narration to a presentation

Narration can enhance Web-based or self-running presentations. You can also use narration to archive a meeting, so that presenters or absentees can review the presentation later and hear any comments made during the presentation.

Security prompts appear during my presentation

If security alerts from the Microsoft Office Trust Center appear when you open your presentation or click certain content in your presentation, read this article to find out how to resolve the issue.

Demo: The new PowerPoint 2007 Fluent interface

Get an overview of how new design tools and close integration with Excel 2007 make it easy to create engaging presentations with PowerPoint 2007.

Create a photo album in PowerPoint 2007 in 6 steps

This article shows how you can create a photo album in PowerPoint 2007 in just six quick steps.

Learn more about SmartArt graphics

A SmartArt graphic is a visual representation of your information and ideas. You can create SmartArt graphics by choosing from among many different layouts to quickly, easily, and effectively communicate your message.

What's new in Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007

To help you produce professional-looking presentations, Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 provides a comprehensive set of features that you can use to create and format your information. You can create and add designer-quality SmartArt graphics with only a few clicks of your mouse.

Reference: Locations of PowerPoint 2003 commands in PowerPoint 2007

This article introduces the basic elements of the new Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 interface, and also provides lists of commands that you may already be familiar with in PowerPoint 2003, showing you how to accomplish the same results in Office PowerPoint 2007.

Add captions, annotations, or subtitles to presentations

In this article, Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Glenna Shaw discusses three things you can add to your presentation to compensate for auditory limitations, such as hearing impairments, background noise, poor sound equipment, or presentations delivered in a different language. By adding captions, subtitles, or annotations, you can increase the reach of your presentation and ensure that your message is delivered clearly.

Office Hours: What happened to PowerPoint design templates, and what are themes?

In this article, Microsoft writer Joy Miller explains that, to create color-coordinated slides with matching fonts and backgrounds in your next PowerPoint 2007 presentation, you should understand the difference between PowerPoint 2003 and earlier design templates and PowerPoint 2007 themes.

Find a feature or command in the new PowerPoint 2007 user interface

Take a look at this article if you can't find a feature or command in PowerPoint 2007 that you used in PowerPoint 2003 or earlier.

Office Hours: Use Office 2007 on your mobile phone

In this month's column, Michael C. Oldenburg shows you how to use your favorite Microsoft Office 2007 programs on your cell phone.

Deliver a presentation on two monitors by using Presenter view

You can run your PowerPoint 2007 presentation from one monitor (at a podium, for example) while your audience views it on a second monitor.

Open a PowerPoint 2007 presentation in an earlier version of PowerPoint

To ensure that you can open your Office PowerPoint 2007 presentation (.pptx) in an earlier version of PowerPoint, you can save a copy of it that is compatible with PowerPoint 97-2003, or you can download the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats.

What's new in Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007

This article now contains brand new mini-demos that clock in at around one minute and highlight several of the new features in PowerPoint 2007. Check it out!

Apply multiple themes to a presentation

If you want your presentation to contain more than one theme (layouts that contain colors, fonts, and effects), apply muliple slide masters to your presentation This article shows you how.

Create a vacation keepsake using your photographs

In this article, Microsoft writer Joy Miller demos how to use PowerPoint 2007 to create your own photo album slide show and download a free photo album or travel-related template from the main Office Online Templates page and customize it to meet your needs.

Demo: Keep sane with the Selection Pane

If you work with layered items on PowerPoint slides, the Selection Pane, new in the 2007 Office release, can make that task easier. The Selection Pane lists each item on your slide so you can apply custom effects to just that item, without having to click through the layers on the slide itself. When you finish, you can preview the effects and unhide all the items — and your slide is ready to go. Watch the demo and you'll be a Selection Pane pro in no time.

8 ways to get ready for PowerPoint 2007

To prepare you for working with PowerPoint 2007, this article introduces eight of the product's new or significantly improved features. If you’re upgrading to PowerPoint 2007 from a previous version, you’re probably most interested in the differences between the old and new versions and how they will affect you, as well as how to find out about them in the quickest possible way.

Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 top 10 benefits

Here are the top 10 ways that PowerPoint 2007 helps you increase your productivity and improve collaboration with others.

Create a PowerPoint 2007 template

A template is a pattern or blueprint of a slide or group of slides. You can create your own custom templates and store them, reuse them, and share them with others. You can also find hundreds of different types of free templates on Office Online and on other partner Web sites.

Cafe-style PowerPoint: Navigation's Conversational Touch

Read about transforming presentations into dynamic—even conversational—speaking experiences similar to conversations in a Cafe. This article by Robert Lane and Dr. John Sweller introduces you to strategies that might be useful in your presentations and shows you how to use PowerPoint to create dynamic, navigation-based slide shows.

A Presentation Expert's Tips on Building and Editing Slide Shows

In this article, Robert Lane interviews Chantal Bosse, a presentation professional offering development and training services in the province of Quebec, Canada. She specializes in visually interactive presentation techniques for improved learning and sales results and shares some of her top tips for creating great presentations, and five common mistakes that she sees in presentations.