My Favorite PowerPoint Links

Here are some of my favorite PowerPoint Links published in the last few months.

Avoiding Death by PowerPoint

PowerPoint is my Slave

How Not to use PowerPoint

How to insert U-Tube Videos into PowerPoint

This is just a great page, it doesn't have anything to do with PowerPoint

Why it is good for you to be a vegetarian

PowerPoint 2007 hints

The first few times I fired up PowerPoint 2007, my main reaction was confusion and frustration. It took about three times longer to do the same thing in 2007 that I could easily do in 2003. The menus had all changed and it seemed that there were certain things that were downright impossible.

What happened to the 2003 .pot templates? What's this Ribbon thing at the top of the page? Why is it so hard just to change the basic font or colors on my template (now called Theme)? These and dozens more questions have bogged down my workflow. That is, until I found Microsoft'2 2003 to 2007 Command Reference Guide!

This interactive Tutorial displays the familiar 2003 interface and menus. When you click on the 2003 menu to perform a common task, such as Insert New Slide, the 2007 interface appears and the command sequence blinks to show you the way. In this case, you click on Home and then click the icon for New Slide. Since almost every command has moved or changed in some way, this tutorial is a life saver.

I'm just beginning to catch up since my 2 week vacation to Seattle. I just uploaded 4 new PowerPoint templates in two versions (2003 and 2007), a new web template, and over 40 new photos all taken with my Canon 40D in Seattle and Portland.

Next month you should see a signifant increase in templates and the 2007 versions will take advantage of many of the new features possible with the upgrade, such as different background for the eleven standard layouts and customized handouts.

As you peruse the inzones.com site, be sure to send feedback to help@inzones.com if you have any problems or have suggestions for improvement.

Judy Cox

July 8, 2008: Better late than never

Two recent events inspired me to finally start a Blog on InZones. One was a 10-day working vacation to the Pacific Northwest and the other was a recent upgrade to Office 2007. Both of these events have caused a serious gap in my custom templates. The good news is that my trip to the Northwest has provided dozens of new photos that I will be uploading soon to the Picture Zone. Many InZones members are now using Office 2007, so as much as I loved 2003, decided that I had to upgrade. Little did I know how dramatic a change this would be to the way I make templates.

For the next year or so, I will be uploading 2 versions of each template: one for Office 2003 and the other for 2007. This is so people who don't want to upgrade can still use all of the templates and so those who have upgraded will be able to take advantage of many of the new features. Future blog entries will focus on some of the new features of 2007 and how to do what you used to do in 2003 in the new format.