Introduction

Although well-illustrated slides can't make up for a lack of content, you can capture your audiences' attention if your slides are vibrant and visually interesting. You can easily enhance a slide by adding a pictureone of your own or one of the hundreds that come with Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007. If you have the appropriate hardware, such as a sound card and speakers, you can also include sound files and video clips in your presentation.

Microsoft Office comes with a vast array of ClipArt, and there are endless amounts available through other software packages or on the Web. When going online to look at clips, you can categorize them so that it's easier to find the best choice for your presentation. You can use the Microsoft Online Web site to search for and download additional clip art.

With all of your digital photos or scanned pictures, you can organize them in an album. Certain elements, such as adding text or oval frames, make cataloging your pictures an easier process. If you need to modify your pictures, you can resize them, compress them for storage, change their brightness or contrast, recolor them, or change their shape by cropping them.

WordArt is another feature that adds detail to your slide presentation. Available in other Office applications, WordArt can bring together your slidesyou can change it s color, shape, shadow, or size. Because WordArt comes with so many style choices, time spent customizing your slides is minimal.

Another element that will give your presentation a real professional look and feel is the addition of movie clips or sounds. Imagine watching a slide show presentation with music playing at key points or starting a slide show with a movie clip that loosens up the audience.