19. Using Help and Other Resources

In This Chapter

Some people see using help as a sign of weakness. We suppose that it’s like having to ask for directions after you get lost. This chapter provides you with some resources to get help from within PowerPoint itself, in addition to the online PowerPoint community.

Integrated Help

The Help feature in PowerPoint is useful; we use it all the time. You can think of it as a search engine for PowerPoint related material. To access the Help feature:

1. Click the question mark Help icon near the top right of PowerPoint (see Figure 19.1).

Figure 19.1 Click the question mark Help button near the top right of the application window.

image

2. The Help window that pops up contains a large text box that you can type questions into (see Figure 19.2).

Figure 19.2 Help can search for answers to your PowerPoint questions.

image

This searches all the help databases that came on your Office CD, but if you are connected to the Internet, it also searches the large database on a website that the Microsoft Office team maintains. You can use it to find answers just as you would search Google.

Note

In case you don’t have PowerPoint installed but are itching to get your question answered, the same content is available on the Microsoft Office Online website: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/

microsoft.public.powerpoint Newsgroup

If you couldn’t find the answer for an obscure question using the built-in PowerPoint Help feature, the next place to turn is to the PowerPoint newsgroup. This group is full of passionate PowerPoint users and partners who have answers to even your most obscure PowerPoint question.

Knowledge Base

Though not as accessible as the Help feature or as comprehensive as the newsgroup, the Microsoft Knowledge Base is where the Microsoft support teams write articles about how to solve common PowerPoint issues that people run into. It also has a search box that you can type questions into: http://support.microsoft.com/search/

Microsoft Employee Blogs

These blogs give you fascinating insight behind the development of PowerPoint. Though they might not solve your immediate problem, they will definitely contribute to your knowledge of the product:

Community Sites

Here are a handful of our favorite independent PowerPoint websites. These are all pretty awesome.

  • The PowerPoint FAQ—Our favorite independent PowerPoint site. It contains great tips and tricks about most areas of PowerPoint: www.pptfaq.com
  • A PowerPoint Blog—A frequently updated blog devoted to PowerPoint. Often links to beautiful templates you can download, in addition to links to other interesting PowerPoint websites: www.indezine.com/blog/
  • PowerPoint Heaven—A collection of advanced PowerPoint presentations you can download from which you can draw inspiration. These presentations push PowerPoint animations to the limit, and the site offers recipes you can follow to create similar effect: www.pptheaven.mvps.org/
  • PowerPoint Tips Blog—This blog offers a grab bag of advanced PowerPoint tips, walking through fun step-by-step recipes: www.ellenfinkelstein.com/PowerPoint_tips_blog.html
  • Beyond Bullets—Whereas the book you are holding focuses entirely on the technical aspects of using PowerPoint software, the Beyond Bullets blog teaches the softer skills on delivering a great presentation: www.beyondbullets.com/
  • Office Tips—For aspiring PowerPoint VBA programmers, this is the place to view sample code and go through code tutorials: http://skp.mvps.org/
..................Content has been hidden....................

You can't read the all page of ebook, please click here login for view all page.
Reset