Question: I need a PowerPoint presentation that closes itself soon after the last slide has been shown. How do I make such a presentation?


Answer: Follow these steps (works for PowerPoint 2002 and 2003):

1. Choose Tools | Options to bring up the Options dialog box. Select the View tab and uncheck the option that reads End with black slide. Remember, this is a machine specific setting -- not a presentation specific one.
   
   
2. Choose Slide Show | Set Up Show, and uncheck Loop continuously until 'Esc' if it is selected.
   
   
3. Get to the last slide of the presentation, and choose Slide Show | Slide Transition to bring up the Slide Transition task pane. Select the Automatically after option, and enter a time value (any time value).
   
   
4. Choose File | Save As..., and change the Save as type to PowerPoint Show (*.pps).

You're done.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Question: How do I add multiple horizontal and vertical guides to my PowerPoint slides.

Answer: Follow these steps:

1. Make your guides visible if they are not already visible.
   
   
2. Select one of the guides, and press Ctrl as you drag the guide. You'll see the guide coordinates as you Ctrl-drag them to create new guides if your Ruler is visible (View | Ruler).
   
   
3. You can add up to 8 horizontal and 8 vertical guides using this process.
   

If you need more guides, follow this process to create a mock guide-map:

1. You can create guide lines with PowerPoint's line tool -- and then add a dash style to those lines.
   
   
2. Create variations of thick and thin lines to create major and minor guides.
   
   
3. These lines can then be grouped -- and cut, copied, and pasted over any slide you want to use the same "guide-map" for.
   
   
4. You can also copy the guide-map between presentations -- delete this guide-map when done.
   

Thursday, May 17, 2007