Creating a New Presentation 2007
The Blank Template
When you open PowerPoint, in the Slide Pane, the first slide is a title slide with a title text box and a subtitle text box. By default, PowerPoint 2007 applies the Blank template. To add text, just click inside the placeholders and type.
For practice in working with the new PowerPoint 2007, type in the name of your department for the title and your division for the subtitle.
Adding a New Slide
Add a new slide using the New Slide button 
on the Home tab in the Slides group. By default, PowerPoint adds a slide with Title and Content layout.
Choosing a Layout
Click on the arrow next to New Slide on the Home tab in the Slides group as shown. Click on one of the layouts to apply to the slide.
Adding Content
The text box at the top of the slide gives the title of the information on that slide. The main text box indicates “Click to add text.” To add text to the slides, click inside the placeholder and type the desired text. Type in an appropriate title and text. For this exercise, type in your division as the title and its departments as bulleted items.
Next, click in a blank space just outside the edge of the slide to deselect the text box. The hatched lines and resize handles disappear.
With the insertion point at the end of a bulleted item, you create additional bulleted items by pressing the Enter key. As you add more text to a bulleted list, PowerPoint automatically adjusts the font size to fit in the main text placeholder. If the font size doesn't automatically adjust so that the text fits within the main text placeholder, click the AutoFit icon 
and then click AutoFit Text to Placeholder.
You can click on the placeholders with colored icons to automatically insert objects such as tables, charts, and clipart.
Applying a Theme
PowerPoint 2007 has a variety of design themes to choose from on the Design tab. In the Themes group, click on the document theme you want to apply to your presentation. Live preview allows you to see how the current slide looks with that theme. All you have to do is rest the cursor on the thumbnail of that theme and it appears on the current slide. To see more themes, use the scroll buttons beside the theme thumbnails.
To apply a theme only to selected slides, select the slides in the Slides tab (holding down the CTRL key to select multiple slides) and then right-click on the thumbnail to access the shortcut menu shown below.
You might want to save a design for reuse and easy access. Click on the dropdown menu button (shown below) beside the theme thumbnails on the Design tab.
Using the dropdown menu, you have the option to save a theme. This will add your current design to the thumbnails on the Design tab for easy application to selected slides in a new presentation.
Adding a Template
To use a template for your presentation, click on the Office button 
and choose New. This opens the following window. Under Templates, you have options to use Installed Templates, My templates, or Microsoft Office Online Templates.
Click on the thumbnail of the desired template and click on the Create button. This opens a new presentation with the new template. Once you save your presentation, you can use its design as the basis for a new presentation by choosing the option "New from existing" in the New Presentation window. Remember. Once you choose New on the Office Button menu, it opens this window.
Some of the templates provide numerous design slides which you edit to insert your own content. For example, under Installed Templates, choose Quiz Show. It has eight slides using a question and answer format with animations built-in. Its suggested use is "reinforcing teaching through audience participation." The AutoContent Wizard is gone, but you still have autocontent features in PowerPoint 2007 using the installed templates as well as the Microsoft Office Online Presentations. Some of the sample presentation slides available for download include cycle diagrams, tables, and 3-D pie charts as well as unique design templates. If you select online presentations in the business category, you will find presentations designed for project overviews, progress reports, employee orientation, company meetings, products and services, and more.
Online Office 2007 Training Presentations
In fact, there are online training presentations for all of the Office applications. Simply click on the Office Button and select New. In the New Presentation window under "Microsoft Office Online," select "Presentations." You will see "2007 Microsoft Office System training" link under Presentations.
Saving
Click on the Microsoft Office Button 
to save your document. In Office 2007, the Microsoft Office Button replaces the File menu. You click on the button to open, save and print your file as shown below. You can still use the same keyboard shortcuts to open, save and print (CTRL + O, S, and P).
When you choose Save As, you have options to save in the new default file format or in the PowerPoint 97-2003 format as well as other formats. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in Office 2007 have new file formats based on XML. Therefore, they have new file extensions to reflect this--extensions with an X at the end or an M if the file has macros.
If you select the first option, to save as a PowerPoint Presentation, the file extension will be .pptx. If the file had macros, then it would be .pptm. If you save it as a template, its file extension would be .potx. However, you can save it in PowerPoint 97-2003 format. You don't have to though since there is a file convertor that can be downloaded from Microsoft that works with Office 2003 applications allowing them to open the Office 2007 files. Just go to the Download Center to get the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for 2007 Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint File Formats.
The new file extension for a PowerPoint Slide Show is .ppsx. The new XML formats allow anyone with an XML editor and a ZIP utility to open Office 2007 files. The ZIP utility is needed because the new XML formatted files are automatically compressed when saved and uncompressed when opened. If you have Microsoft Office 2007, this is automatically done for you.
Return to Course Topics or go on to the next topic on Slide Masters in PowerPoint 2007.