Starting a New Presentation

PowerPoint XP
 PowerPoint X
The Task Pane in PowerPoint XP   The Project Gallery in PowerPoint X

PowerPoint XP (Windows)

When you first start PowerPoint XP, the program automatically opens a new, blank presentation in the Normal View. The Task Pane will be displayed along the right of the screen; if it is not, choose ViewTask Pane. The Task Pane may be used to:

  • Open a presentation section
    • This section will list recently opened presentations
      • click on one to open that presentation
      • or click on More presentations… to open the Open Dialog Box to enable you to open a presentation not listed
  • New section
    • click on Blank Presentation to open a second new, blank presentation (note you already have a blank presentation open
    • click on From Design Template to create a new presentation based upon a Microsoft design
      • this is the same as choosing FormatSlide Design
      • I prefer to concentrate on the content of the presentation first, then apply a slide design
    • click on From AutoContent Wizard to create a new presentation based upon a Microsoft wizard
      • The Microsoft “company line”: Wizards are PowerPoint’s way of making it easy to quickly and efficiently create professional-looking presentations. Wizards are a guided approach to creating a presentation. Just answer the questions as they appear on the screen and the “wizard” will help you develop your ideas and design your presentation. In My Humble Opinion: Forget them, don't worry about them, ignore them, they are not necessary.
        • This wizard starts with a title slide and then helps you choose from a selection of presentation categories (selling a product, presenting an idea, etc.). Once you have a title and a subject, PowerPoint makes an outline for you to follow based on how you answered the wizard’s prompts. Once you have answered the questions, you will be required to type your own text over the placeholder text in the presentation created for you. You will then still have to develop you own “look and feel”. By the time you have done all this, you will have exerted more effort than if you had started with a blank presentation and entered your own ideas from the outset. Again, my humble opinion is to not follow the Microsoft “company line”. Do NOT pick this Wizard when you start a new presentation! Basically, I think you are too intelligent to need this kind of help.
  • New from existing presentation section
    • click on Choose presentation… to open a previously created presentation under a new name, Presentation# where # is a number
      • you can now create a new presentation by modifying the previously created one and then save it under a new name
  • New from template section
    • any files listed above General Templates… are slide designs recently used
    • using this section is the same as choosing FormatSlide Design
    • I prefer to concentrate on the content of the presentation first, then apply a slide design


PowerPoint XP Task Pane

More about the Task Pane

I recommend that you leave the Task Pane visible as you work on your presentation. If you do you will note that the Task Pane is dynamic and will change as you select different commands. The title bar of the Task Pane will change as well indicating what the pane is offering:

Task Pane Title Bar
New Presentation Choices		 Task Pane Title Bar
Slide Design Choices
You can use thebuttons in the title bar to switch from one Task Pane to another with respect to content.
You can use thebutton in the title bar to open a drop-down list to select a different Task Pane.
The drop-down list after clicking on thebutton. The currently open Task Pane is indicating by the check mark  

PowerPoint X (Macintosh)

When you first start PowerPoint X, the program automatically opens a new, blank presentation in the Normal View. In addition, the New Slide Dialog Box will be displayed, Before you can start working on a presentation, you must first select the Slide Layout for the first slide.

The New Slide Dialog Box
Note that this is a scrollable box.

After choosing the slide layout, and I recommend using the Title Slide layout for the first slide, you can begin to work on your presentation

The Project Gallery

The Project Gallery allows you to access any Office document from any Office program. In addition you can access a variety of templates for any Office document. To learn more about the Project Gallery click here.

If you do not want the Project Gallery to appear when you start up one of the Office programs, you can turn it off by click the <Do not show at startup> check box at the bottom of the window. You make this selection for each program, so it is possible to have the Gallery show when you start up one program but not another.

Even if turned off, the Gallery is always available to you in all Office programs at any time. 
Choose FileProject Gallery (Cmd+Shift+P) to display if and when needed.

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Copyright © 2003
last updated August 12, 2003