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Title -  Power Point 2007 For Starters - The Missing Manual
Author - Linda Q. Thede, GCPCUG Member
Category - Book
Subject - Instruction manual for Power Point presentations
Date - November 2008

E.A. Vander Veer is the Author of Power Point 2007 For Starters, published by Pogue Press O'Reilly. Anyone who has experienced the Microsoft Office upgrade to the 2007 version has experienced the frustration that comes from a completely new interface. There is often a gain in functions available, but figuring how to use functions that before were easy, has now become a guessing game. Power Point 2007 is no exception. This book, however, is very helpful in this PowerPoint2007ForStarters.jpgaspect, as well as explaining some of the new features of this version of Power Point. There are ten chapters plus an appendix summarizing how to obtain help from Power Point, Microsoft, the Power Point community and an index. The chapters are divided into three sections, creating slide shows, delivering slide shows, and beyond bullet points. For some of the instructions I found myself wondering if the authors were using a beta version of the program because they were not consistent with the current version. For example, I could not find any way to look at a preview of a file despite the book=s description of how to do this. The options described were simply not there.

The introduction chapter is worth looking at. It provides an overview of the program. There are several boxes throughout the book that deal with text, when, and how to use it as well as suggestions for other ways to impart a message. An important box in the introduction discusses when to not use Power Point. Given that one of the causes of the crash of the space shuttle Columbia was laid to the use of Power Point to explain a complex subject, this is very timely. There are a few errors in all the chapters and checking online at missingmanuals.com did not show any corrections (They are needed). In chapter 1, in the figure 1-6 there is no J in the diagram as mentioned in the book. This, however, does not detract from the overall value of this chapter, particularly to those upgrading from a prior version.

Chapter 1 introduces how to create a basic slide show. It includes a discussion about useless handouts and makes suggestions for making them useful such as publishing to Microsoft Word together with slide notes. Including a listing of the extensions for the various types of files is also very helpful.

Chapter 2, editing the slides, includes many of the things that anyone familiar with prior versions should know. The information about editing slide and layout masters is somewhat helpful, but it would have been more helpful to add information about how to save a layout for future use. More information about the color themes would also have been helpful.

Chapter 6 has an excellent description of charts, diagrams, and tables and how to create them. The section on tables is helpful, but in places is confusing. The appearance of two Design tabs when a table is selected should be mentioned and the fact that there is no selection for Table Tools creates difficulties. It does include information about how to select a complete table which is needed for those users of prior versions. (Click a corner cell, and drag the entire table.)

Chapter 7 about delivering presentations includes information about the various presentation modes along with tips for making the files smaller. A table listing all the key presses available when doing a presentation is especially valuable.

Chapter 9 explores using images on slides and is very informative. Instructions for adding connectors and modifying the shape (one method-click on the shape, drag the yellow diamond), and rotating shapes are a few of the many features explained. Some of the instructions are hard to follow, but much of this is due to the way that Power Point uses context choices. One of my pet peeves of this version of Power Point is that this feature can make it very difficult to find what you need unless you happen to be in exactly the right place with the right object selected.

A weakness of the book is that many details are covered that would be needed by someone who is not familiar with using the computer, such as the find feature and editing text. But then in more advanced options, things that a beginner needs are omitted, such as when drawing a table the table can easily extend down below the screen and one has to scroll down and use the mouse to move the border up. Some of these faults may be Power Point’s but the book should acknowledge them. The strongest point in the book is the information about using Power Point correctly; suggestions to counter the “dumbing down” effect that some have ascribed to Power Point. How I wish all the people whose presentations that I have to endure would read and heed!

For someone like me who needed to cope with using the new version of Power Point this book was helpful, even with all the errors that I found. It might also be helpful to someone just starting to use Power Point provided that they are very computer familiar and know some of the computer conventions such as right clicking a selected object. As a beginning computer book, I would not recommend it, even though starting with a fun program such as Power Point might help some get over computer phobia.

Power Point 2007 For Starters: The Missing Manual
By E.A. Vander Veer
Publisher: Pogue Press O'Reilly
January 2007, 305 pages
US $19.99
ISBN 10: 0-596-52831-0
ISBN-13 978-0-596-52831-7

Discount of 35% for User Group members
Use code: DSUG
http://www.oreilly.com
 
 
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