Opening an Existing Presentation

You can open any PowerPoint presentation that has been previously created and saved to view or modify it. Opening a presentation is a simple process. In fact, it's almost the same as the steps you use to save a presentation. The only requirement is that you supply the saved presentation's location (drive and folder/ subfolders ). In PowerPoint, you can see a preview of the presentation file before it's officially opened. Figure 23.3 shows the Open dialog box with the Preview option. Use the following step to open a PowerPoint presentation:

1. Choose File, Open from the menu.

Figure 23.3. You can preview your PowerPoint file in the Open dialog box.

Or, do the following:

1. Click the Open button on the standard toolbar.

2. Select the correct drive or folder.

   

   To open a presentation document that's in a different location, select the drive or folder from the Look In drop-down list.

   
   

3. Select the presentation name from the file list. To see a preview of the presentation (if one is not showing), click the Views button on the Open Dialog Box toolbar (to the right of the Look In textbox) and choose Preview.

4. Click Open.

PowerPoint "remembers" the last four files you have worked on. A quick way to open a presentation you have been working on recently is to select the filename from the bottom of the File menu.

Selecting and Opening Multiple Files

With PowerPoint, you can work on one presentation at a time or open several concurrent sessions. To open several presentations at once, follow these steps:

1. Choose File, Open from the menu to display the Open dialog box.

2. From the displayed list of files, select the files you want to open.

   

   To select multiple contiguous files, click the first file, hold down the Shift key, and click the last file. All files will be selected.

   To select multiple noncontiguous files, click the first file, and then hold down the Ctrl key while you click each subsequent file. Only the files you clicked will be selected.

   
   

3. Click the Open button to open all the selected presentations.

When you have multiple presentations open, you should use the Window menu item to switch between presentation documents. See the "Navigating Open Presentations" section of this chapter for more information.