Datasheet

PowerPoint 2007 presentations have the special extension .pptx added to
the end of their filenames. For example, Sales Conference.pptx and
History Day.pptx are both valid PowerPoint filenames. When you type
the filename for a new PowerPoint file, you don’t have to type the .pptx
extension, because PowerPoint automatically adds the extension for you.
Windows may hide the .pptx extension, in which case a presentation file
named Conference.pptx often appears as just Conference.
Previous versions of PowerPoint saved presentations with the extension
.ppt instead of .pptx. The x at the end of the new file extension denotes
that the new file format is based on XML, a popular data format that makes it
easier to exchange files among different programs. PowerPoint 2007 can save
files in the old .ppt format, but I recommend you do so only if you need to
share presentations with people who haven’t yet upgraded to PowerPoint
2007. (You can download a program called the Microsoft Office Compatibility
Pack from www.microsoft.com that enables PowerPoint 2002 or 2003 to
read and write files in .pptx format. This program enables you to share your
.pptx files with people who haven’t yet upgraded.)
PowerPoint is set up initially to save your presentation files in the My
Documents folder, but you can store PowerPoint files in any folder of your
choice on your hard drive or on any other drive. You can write a presentation
to a CD-RW drive or to a removable USB flash drive if you want to take it
home with you to work on or if you need to give it to other people so they
can use it on their computers.
What’s in a slide?
PowerPoint presentations comprise one or more slides. Each slide can con-
tain text, graphics, and other elements. A number of PowerPoint features
work together to help you easily format attractive slides:
 Slide layouts: Every slide has a slide layout that controls how informa-
tion is arranged on the slide. A slide layout is simply a collection of one
or more placeholders, which set aside an area of the slide to hold infor-
mation. Depending on the layout that you choose for a slide, the place-
holders can hold text, graphics, clip art, sound or video files, tables,
charts, graphs, diagrams, or other types of content.
 Background: Every slide has a background, which provides a backdrop
for the slide’s content. The background can be a solid color; a blend of
two colors; a subtle texture, such as marble or parchment; a pattern,
such as diagonal lines, bricks, or tiles; or an image file. Each slide can
have a different background, but you usually want to use the same back-
ground for every slide in your presentation to provide a consistent look.
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Part I: Basic PowerPoint 2007 Stuff
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