Office 2008 for Macintosh: The Missing Manual

Step 1: Specify a Theme

Even though your slides may display different kinds of information—text, charts, tables, and pictures, for example—it’s usually best if they follow a consistent design that uses the same fonts, background graphics, color scheme, and so on. The design sets the overall tone for the presentation, so your choice of one that suits the topic and audience is critical.

Pre-designed Templates

Thankfully, Microsoft makes life easier for presentation newbies—and for anyone who’s not a trained graphic designer—by providing an assortment of prefab themes and layouts. They let you start building your slideshow without having to spend any time on the design elements or layouts. When project deadlines are looming and there are a million things that need to be done (including creating a presentation), you’ll welcome these timesaving features.

You can choose a theme in the Project Gallery’s Office Themes Category, but you’ll probably appreciate PowerPoint 2008’s new theme chooser in the Elements Gallery. Click the Slide Themes tab of the Elements Gallery bar to reveal the line up of colorful theme thumbnails, and use the arrow buttons at the right end of the gallery to scroll through the other theme options. If a theme looks like it might work, click it to display it in the slide pane.

You can continue clicking theme thumbnails and previewing them at full size until you find your ideal one. Don’t be disappointed, by the way, when your chosen theme doesn’t show the same colorful ...