iCheck Express™ Microsoft® PowerPoint 2007 Real World Applications

These articles allow you to further explore various computing topics and include a quiz for review.

Introduction Learn about how organizations use advanced features of applications used to create presentations.

Directions Read the information below and apply what you learn to answer the questions. Check your work carefully, and click Check Answers.

How Businesses Use Advanced Features of PowerPoint

So far, you have learned to use PowerPoint to create basic presentations. As you know, PowerPoint includes features that allow the user to create slides that contain titles, bulleted lists, graphics, charts, and other elements. Animation schemes and transition effects can easily be added to slides to make them more interesting and attract attention to important components. Applying design themes gives presentations a unified appearance. Placing elements on a slide master causes these elements to appear on every slide based on that master. In addition, PowerPoint allows users to create custom presentations and to add annotations during slide shows.

Making attractive, attention-getting presentations is important in many business situations. Knowing how to use some of PowerPoint's more sophisticated features, such advanced slide formatting and exit effects, can go a long way toward helping you create superior slide shows.

Some of PowerPoint's advanced features and their common applications are explained in more detail below:

• Advanced Formatting. Text can be formatted in a variety of ways. The user can change text direction and align text either vertically or horizontally. The margins and indentations used in text boxes can be modified, as well. Using special effects makes text more compelling and can attract the viewer's attention.



• Formatting Tables. Tables can be formatted by changing cell alignment and rotating their contents. In addition, images can be inserted into cells.



• Modifying Charts. Many business presentations use charts to share information such as company profits, growth, and so forth. Charts can easily be modified in a variety of ways, including adding and formatting labels and legends. A well-labeled chart is easier for viewers to understand.



• Modifying SmartArt Diagrams and other Graphics. Content in bulleted lists can be converted into SmartArt diagrams. SmartArt can be modified in a variety of ways. The user can add text to them and change the colors and styles. Illustrations, shapes, and other graphics can be modified to meet the needs of the presentation.



• Templates. Presentations can be developed from templates. Business users often use templates to save time and provide well-designed presentations. Templates can be modifying by deleting slides that are not needed and changing the formatting of individual slides.



• Entrance and Exit Effects. Interesting entrance and exit effects can be specified both for slides and for objects on the slide, such as text boxes, graphics, and diagrams. For example, you can specify both the speed and direction in which a graphic appears and disappears from the screen.



• Saving Presentations in Different Formats. Slides can be saved as Web pages. This option allows anyone with access to a Web browser to view all or part of the presentation. Slides also can be saved in different image formats, such as GIF and JPG, which can then be used by various applications, such as photo-editing software. This kind of flexibility is necessary in business, where employees often need to provide information to many people in a wide variety of situations.



• Security Measures. An invisible digital signature can be added to a presentation to confirm that identify of the presentation's author. Users can set up a password that prevents the presentation from being viewed. They can also set up a presentation so that the presentation can be viewed but a password is required to edit it.



• Handouts. Providing handouts to accompany your presentation helps your viewers remember your main points and provides documentation they can refer to at a later time. The handouts can be formatted in a variety of ways; for example, you can specify how many slides should be printed on each page. Handouts are helpful in a business environment when a presentation is being given to a large group.

1			What are two ways in which text can be formatted?
2			Why is it important that charts be well formatted?
3			Give an example of a business situation in which you might want to save a slide in a different format.
4			Why is creating handouts a good idea when giving a business presentation?