Learn how to use Microsoft PowerPoint 2007-- the best presentation program on the market today. This version of PowerPoint is very different from previous versions because of its new interface in which a Ribbon replaces the menu bar and toolbars.

You'll find out how to create dazzling slide presentations consisting of slides that contain text, objects, animation, slide transitions, sounds, charts, outlines, media clips, clip art, and hyperlinks. You'll learn how to work with the new PowerPoint Ribbon, task panes, the clip organizer, and how to access Microsoft's Web site to download clip art and templates for your presentations. You'll see how to make global changes to your slides with the Slide Master. Finally, you'll discover how to save your presentations so you can share them online or copy them onto CDs.

The instructor will share valuable tips and keyboard shortcuts that you'll use all the time with PowerPoint 2007. She'll also provide you with many links to Web sites to broaden your knowledge of PowerPoint even further.

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Syllabus:

All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end. Two lessons are released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have to be present when the lesson is released, but you must complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.

A new section of each course starts on the second or third Wednesday of each month. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

Week One

Wednesday - Lesson 01

In our first lesson, we'll start by exploring the basic features of Microsoft PowerPoint 2007. You'll get familiar with the new Ribbon, which replaces the menu and toolbars most Windows programs have used until now. You'll also learn how to plan a presentation and work with different views, task panes, tabs, and templates.

Friday - Lesson 02

Now that you know the basics of PowerPoint, you can create a presentation from scratch. So we'll start today by choosing a PowerPoint theme from the Design tab on the Ribbon to add color to your presentation. Then you'll select a layout for your first few slides. You'll discover the new Live Preview feature, and we'll discuss the two things you need to do to save a file so you know where to find it later. Finally, we'll go over the different ways to put on a slide show.

Week Two

Wednesday - Lesson 03

You'll find that there is usually more than one way to perform a task in PowerPoint. In this lesson, we'll explore multiple ways to open a presentation. Then you'll see how to open a file and save it with a different name. Chances are you'll need to edit the text on your slides, so we'll use the Outline tab to work with text. You'll also learn how to create and edit tables and work with the Table Tools contextual tab and the Design and Layout tabs.

Friday - Lesson 04

No program is complete without a Spell Checker, and today you'll discover how to use this feature in PowerPoint. We'll also explore the AutoCorrect feature, which you can use along with the Spell Checker to check the spelling of your presentations. After that, we'll cover the Research task pane and the Thesaurus, all found in the Review tab's Proofing group. And then you'll learn all about the options in the Print dialog box including how to print slides, handouts, an outline, and notes. I'm sure you'll be surprised to see how the Print dialog box in PowerPoint is different from the print feature in other programs.

Week Three

Wednesday - Lesson 05

We're going to switch gears in this lesson and work with images instead of text. You'll find out how to embellish your slides with media clips, which could be a piece of clip art, a photograph, a movie, or a sound clip. You'll even learn how to download an image from a Web site and insert it on a slide. We'll spend a lot of time talking about the Clip Art task pane, which is the tool you'll use to organize, search for, and insert media clips on your slides.

Friday - Lesson 06

I hope you like to draw, because that's what we'll be doing in this lesson. The good news is that you don't have to be an artist to use the WordArt and Shape tools to draw shapes on your slide. With the WordArt feature, you transform your text into an object that you can design with color, texture, patterns, or just about anything you like. With the Shapes tool, you can draw all kinds of shapes including lines and connectors, a smiley face, a crescent moon, stars, banners, block arrows, flow chart symbols, callouts, and more! You can format these Shape objects with color and texture just like you format WordArt objects. We'll also discuss SmartArt graphics, a new feature in PowerPoint 2007. With the SmartArt feature, you can use graphics to add visual interest to your slides. Finally, we'll delve into editing WordArt and SmartArt graphics.

Week Four

Wednesday - Lesson 07

Today, you'll learn how to create and edit chart slides to illustrate statistical data. Even if you don't like working with math and numbers, you don't need to worry because we'll walk through everything you need to do and know to create a chart slide. If you've used a spreadsheet program, such as Microsoft Excel, creating chart slides in PowerPoint will be a breeze. And although you're working with numbers and math, you'll find that you can still be creative with your charts by changing the options with Shape Fill, Shape Outline, and Shape Effects on the Shape Styles group.

Friday - Lesson 08

In this lesson, we'll explore ways to change a presentation's look with masters, color schemes, and backgrounds. You use Masters to make global changes to your slides, handouts, and notes. For example, if you want to increase or decrease the font size of the text on all the slides in a presentation, make the change on the slide master. Another global change you can make to a presentation is to modify the theme colors or background. You'll get a chance to work with both of these options today.

Week Five

Wednesday - Lesson 09

Today, we'll delve into PowerPoint's hyperlink feature, which allows you to create links in a presentation that jump to other slides, other presentations, other documents, or to Web pages. You can make links out of either text or objects. In fact, PowerPoint has its own version of hyperlinks called Action buttons. You draw an Action button on a slide with your mouse, and then instruct PowerPoint where to link to. You can add interest to your Action buttons by changing their color and making them three-dimensional. In addition, you can associate a sound or other action that initiates when you click an Action button.

Friday - Lesson 10

This lesson is all about animation. First, you'll learn about slide transitions--an animated effect that occurs when a new slide appears. For example, a slide might fly in from the top or push up from the bottom. After covering slide transitions, we'll explore how to apply animation to the text and objects on your slides.

Week Six

Wednesday - Lesson 11

Today, we'll explore custom animation--a feature that helps you apply animation to text and objects on individual slides. The Custom Animation task pane allows you to customize the animation on any slide. You'll learn how to use the Custom Animation task pane to add and reorder animated text and objects on a slide and to add sound effects and music to your presentation.

Friday - Lesson 12

In this last lesson, you'll discover how to save a PowerPoint presentation as a Web page and view it online. We'll also explore the Package for CD command on PowerPoint's Office menu, which allows you to save a PowerPoint presentation on a CD.

This course includes a knowledgeable and caring instructor who will guide you through your lessons, facilitate discussions, and answer your questions. The instructor for this course will be Kathy Van Pelt.

Kathy Van Pelt has been involved in education for many years, teaching and assisting students with microcomputer application courses. Kathy specializes in Microsoft Office applications, the Windows operating system, and keyboarding. For the past 20 years, she has taught computer courses at a community college, teaching both in the classroom and online. Before that, she spent nine years teaching word processing and business classes at a private business college. She loves being in the ever-evolving educational field, and she's especially excited about the flexibility that online learning offers students.

Requirements:

Microsoft Windows Vista or XP, Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 or Microsoft Office Professional 2007 (please be sure to install this software on your computer before the course begins), Internet access, e-mail, the Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox Web browser, and the Adobe Flash and PDF plug-ins (two free and simple downloads you obtain at http://www.adobe.com/downloads by clicking Get Adobe Flash Player and Get Adobe Reader).

Note: This course is not suitable for Macintosh users, nor for users of any older versions of Microsoft PowerPoint.

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