Datasheet

Starting PowerPoint

Here’s the procedure for starting PowerPoint:

1. Get ready.

Light some votive candles. Take two Tylenol. Put on a pot of coffee. If

you’re allergic to banana slugs, take an allergy pill. Sit in the lotus position

facing Redmond, Washington, and recite the Windows creed three times:

Bill Gates is my friend. Resistance is futile. No beer and no TV make

Homer something something . . .

2. Click the Start button.

The Start button is ordinarily found in the lower-left corner of the

Windows display. When you click it, the famous Start menu appears.

The Start menu works pretty much the same, no matter which version

of Windows you’re using.

If you can’t find the Start button, try moving the cursor all the way to the

bottom edge of the screen and holding it there a moment. With luck on

your side, you see the Start button appear. If not, try moving the cursor

to the other three edges of the screen: top, left, and right. Sometimes the

Start button hides behind these edges.

3. Point to All Programs on the Start menu.

After you click the Start button to reveal the Start menu, move the

cursor up to the word All Programs and hold it there a moment. Yet

another menu appears, revealing a bevy of commands.

4. Choose Microsoft Office➪Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007.

Your computer whirs and clicks and possibly makes other unmention-

able noises while PowerPoint comes to life.

If you use PowerPoint frequently, it might appear in the Frequently

Used Programs List directly on the Start menu so you don’t have to

choose All Programs➪Microsoft Office to get to it. If you want Power-

Point to always appear at the top of the Start menu, choose Start➪All

Programs➪Microsoft Office. Then, right-click Microsoft Office Power-

Point 2007 and choose the Pin to Start Menu command.

Navigating the PowerPoint Interface

When you start PowerPoint, it greets you with a screen that’s so cluttered with

stuff that you’re soon ready to consider newsprint and markers as a viable

alternative for your presentations. The center of the screen is mercifully

Part I: Basic PowerPoint 2007 Stuff

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