A First Look at PowerPoint

PowerPoint is a popular tool for people who give presentations as part of their jobs and also for their support staff. With PowerPoint, you can create visual aids that help get the message across to an audience, whatever that message may be and whatever the format in which it is presented. Although the traditional kind of presentation is a live speech presented at a podium, advances in technology have made it possible to give several other kinds of presentations, and PowerPoint has kept pace nicely. The following list outlines the
most common PowerPoint formats:

• ■ Podium. For live presentations, PowerPoint helps the lecturer emphasize key points through the use of computer-based shows (from a notebook or tablet PC, for example) or overhead transparencies.
• ■ Kiosk shows. These are self-running presentations that provide information in an unattended location. You have probably seen such presentations listing meeting times and rooms in hotel lobbies and as sales presentations at trade show booths.
• ■ CDs and DVDs. You can package a PowerPoint presentation on a CD or DVD and distribute it with a press release, a marketing push, or a direct mail campaign. The presentation can be in PowerPoint format, or it can be converted to some other format, such as PDF or a video clip.
• ■ Internet formats. You can use PowerPoint to create a show that you can present live over a network or the Internet, while each participant watches from their own computer. You can even store a self-running or interactive presentation on a website in a variety of formats and make it available for the public to download and run on a PC.

PowerPoint is useful for people in many other lines of work as well.

• Sales
• Marketing
• Human Resources
• Education and Training
• Clubs and Organizations