Overview

Microsoft PowerPoint is a popular program for creating presentations and slide shows. It is one of several standard applications included with Microsoft Office and is used in both business and educational environments. PowerPoint provides several master templates that can be used as slideshow themes, and also allows users to create their own templates for custom-designed presentations. Newer versions of PowerPoint save presentations in the Office Open XML (OOXML) .PPTX format, while older versions use the proprietary .PPT format.

User Interface

The PowerPoint user interface, like other Microsoft Office products, provides program menus and toolbars as well as a slide design view. Slides can be viewed from multiple perspectives, such as the standard view, which shows the current slide with the presentation outline, or the slide deck view, which provides a thumbnail image grid of every slide.

When creating a presentation, users typically start with a pre-installed template or a custom template provided by their organization. A slide deck often begins with a title slide, which may include the presenter's name and company and title of the presentation. Subsequent presentation slides usually have a slide title, followed by bullet points that are used to emphasize key ideas during the presentation.

Capabilities

PowerPoint templates can be applied to all slides as a "master theme" or to individual slides within a presentation. For example, the title slide template may be configured separately from the remaining slides in a presentation. Each slide may also use one of several different layouts, such as a bulleted list, paragraph format, or media slide. Users can select an automatic timed progression through the slideshow or may choose to advance slides manually.

Slides may include text, images, drawings, and sounds, which can help communicate key points to the audience. Individual objects within a slide can be displayed all at once or as series of events. For example, a presenter may choose to display one bullet point at a time instead of listing all the points at once. Several several effects can be applied to objects within a slide, such as fading in an image or scrolling text across the screen. Transitions can also be added between slides.

User Community

PowerPoint is most commonly used by business professionals and teachers. Business users recognize PowerPoint as a standard tool for giving presentations in business meetings. It is also used for displaying marketing and advertising materials at trade shows and sales events. Teachers use PowerPoint to create lesson notes and provide visual aids during lectures. Slide show notes may also be printed and distributed to students before the lecture is given. Other PowerPoint users include personal users who create slide shows for weddings and other celebrations, as well as photographers who use PowerPoint to display slide shows of their digital photos.

Screenshots:

New Presentation	Presentation Templates	Design View
Presentation Info	Print	Save & Send
View Options	Slide Sorter	Open File Types

Features:

• Industry-standard, widely used presentation tool
• Pre-installed themes and custom template support
• Built-in image manipulation and custom shape drawing tools
• Support for dynamic animations and other media files
• Built-in shapes and flowchart diagrams

System Requirements:

Mac OS

• Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later
• Intel processor
• 1GB RAM
• 2.5GB disk space
• 1280x800 display
• DVD drive

Windows

• Microsoft Windows XP with SP3 or later
• 500MHz processor
• 256MB RAM
• 1.5GB free disk space
• 1024x576 display
• DVD drive