Customer Reviews

PowerPoint 2007: The Missing Manual

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a terrific, exhaustive resource for people who have hands on experience with a previous version of Powerpoint and who want to take advantage of all the features the 2007 software has to offer. However, it fails as a How-To Manual for people who have little or no prior experience with Powerpoint.

These manuals are great for people who aren't dummies! The book is well written, explicit and easy to follow. I've been using PowerPoint for years but of course have to transition to the 2007 version. The book did an excellent job at bringing me up to date.

This is a good book on PowerPoint 2007, as are all the "Missing Manual" books. However, there is very little information on writing VBA code for PowerPoint in this book. Since the ability to record macros was removed from this version this strikes me as a fairly glaring omission. Other than that, highly recommended.

Generally, Missing Manual books are great software guides and this one does not fall short. I had already mastered the basics of PowerPoint before purchasing this product, but I was able to learn a few new tricks when reading through.

The only downside? It's easier to search online to find a quick solution than flip through a book. But, that has nothing to do with the quality of these manuals and you can't just sit down with an internet manual and browse.

I am finding this book adequate but that's about it. Were I to choose again, I would go with Faithe Wempen. This could be a personal style thing, but I am just not loving this book. I can't really put my finger on it. There are areas which are glossed over as too complicated, such as DIY Shape Fill Gradients. This is probably a good book for beginners but I need a bit more.

Title: PowerPoint 2007: The Missing Manual
First Edition: December 2006
Series: The Missing Manuals
ISBN 10: 0-596-52738-1
ISBN 13: 9780596527389
Pages: 488
By E. A. Vander Veer

The introduction tells in general about:
Improvements like Keytips, Less customization, Live previews, MiniToolbar, Improved scree tip help, new file formats, improved graphics, more theme options, and XPS [eXtensible Paper Specification] which is a file format like PDF but a new Windows only option to control slides better.
Microsoft dropping revision tracking in PowerPoint 2007. Do it yourself or purchase MOSS (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server) [or acquire another revision tracking program] are your new options.
There are four parts, each having several chapters:
Slideshow Basics
Presenting Your Slideshow
Beyond Bullet Points: Multimedia, Animation, and Interactivity
Working Faster and More Effectively
This book starts out with a quick success: Creating your first PowerPoint 2007 presentation. Basic but satisfying.
I liked the following chapters quite a bit:
Chapter 11 Slide transitions and animated effects
Chapter 14 Macros: putting slideshows on autopilot

Part Four was the best overall with two outstanding chapters

Chapter 13 Cutomizing PowerPoint
Chapter 15 Collaborating with others
Chapters 13 and 15 were the very best in the book, depending on whether you were more interested in customizing or collaborating.

This book is worth 5 stars. Well done.

I really like PowerPoint 2007 and find it to be an impressive communication and collaboration tool.

Frederick J Eccher Jr
MBA
M.S. Management of Information Systems
A.B. Psychology
B.A. Biology
CIO, Community Partners
President, Board of Directors, Saint Louis Visual Basic Users Group
[...]

The books seems quite useful. I've already referred to it several times and gotten the answers I needed.