Advanced Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007: Insights and Advice from the Experts

by Wayne Kao, Jeff Huang (Contributor)

From the Publisher: This is the only book that will help an intermediate PowerPoint user improve their skills to an advanced level. In doing so, they can benefit both professionally and personally. This is not a comprehensive book that will bore you with every detail of PowerPoint, but a guide to specific actions you can take to create the ultimate presentation. The book covers the powerful formatting engine new to PowerPoint 2007, and how it can be used for applying soft shadows, reflection, and glows to make a presentation look attractive. It also covers PowerPoint's new 3D engine. The book goes into deep technical detail about the Office 2007 theme engine and how color schemes, effect schemes, and font schemes work; as well as the new PowerPoint XML file format, showing you how to edit PowerPoint files without using PowerPoint at all. The authors walk through programming a macro and explain how to format shapes, diagrams, charts, text, tables with gradient and picture fills and different kinds of lines (e.g. a beveled compound line with a diamond arrowhead). Also covered are those all important slide show shortcuts that few people know about like-seeing your private notes while presenting on a projector, starting the slide show from the current slidewithout fumbling through the user interface, and how to black out the slide show screen with one key press.

428 pages, Paperback

First published November 29, 2007

Reviews

[Bluesky]

This book is excellently good. I really recommend it.

[Pete Aven · Rating 1 out of 5]

the book, billing itself as an advanced, insiders look, authored by 2 who know the ins and outs of PowerPoint, states in the summary:

"rip open the new PowerPoint XML file format and learn how to use VBA and the PowerPoint object model" - there is none of that in here.

The closest the book comes to delivering on the above is through references to links on the web. The links however, refer to old versions of the PowerPoint object model (Office 2003,XP).

This is just another how-to-use powerpoint book. Very disappointed in the publisher and the book. Its probably decent for somone who wants to learn how to use PowerPoint, but its a waste of money for anyone interested in XML, VBA, or PowerPoint application development.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

Skimmed it after I realized this was a 14 day book, not a 28 day one, and as I detest late fees out of principle and was at the 20 day mark, had to take it back to the library the next day. However, the 'advanced' part of this book I didn't seem to get. Really, it was just one very large user manual, going over everything from how to bold text to some of the newer menu techniques available in the latest power point version. Really didn't come across anything extraordinarily useful, although once I actually need to make a spectacular presentation and I run to the library to get it again, maybe I'll change my mind.