PowerPoint 2003 Personal Trainer (Personal Trainer (O'Reilly))

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 332 pages
• Published by: O'Reilly Media, Inc.; Pap/Cdr edition November 22, 2004
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0596008554
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0596008550
• Book Dimensions: 9.9 x 8 x 0.8 inches
• Weighs: 1.2 pounds

Product Description
PowerPoint is the world's most widely used presentation program, a favorite of educators, trainers, and, of course, those in business everywhere. Yet, every time Microsoft releases a new version of the program, they introduce another set of features---most of which you'll never understand or use. Even if you have experience with PowerPoint, you'll struggle to keep up with the improvements. If you're a beginner, you probably don't know where to start. Now, with PowerPoint 2003 Personal Trainer, beginners and experts alike can become black belts with this presentation program, quickly and easily. This fully illustrated book takes a modular approach to learning, allowing you to start with the basics and work your way to advance topics through dozens of task-oriented lessons--at your own pace. The companion CD tutorial guides you through each lesson interactively. PowerPoint 2003 Personal Trainer includes sections on editing, formatting, drawing, working with word art, tables, organization charts, multimedia, other programs, the Internet, and how to optimize presentation delivery. Every chapter includes detailed diagrams and a review at the end to help you absorb and retain all you have learned. If you already use PowerPoint, you can dive right into those topics (and only those topics) that you need or want to learn. Unlike many consumer software tutorials that dumb down the material or present it in a confusing fashion, PowerPoint 2003 Personal Trainer is written in a non-technical and engaging style that you will find fun, easy, and most of all, clear and informative. You don't have to wade through tons of jargon and technical information to become proficient. Part of our new Personal Trainer Series, this book is based on content from CustomGuide (www.customguide.com), a leading provider of computer training materials. Founded by instructors who grew dissatisfied with the industry's dry course materials, CustomGuide offers courseware (for instructors and students), quick references, to software bulletins and e-learning courses that are fun, flexible, and easy to use.

Reader Reviews
O'Reilly has a new series of titles out called the Personal Trainer series. I had a chance to review PowerPoint 2003 Personal Trainer, and it's pretty good for what it's setting out to accomplish. Chapter List: The Fundamentals; Editing a Presentation; Formatting Your Presentation; Drawing and Working with Graphics; Working with Tables and WordArt; Working with Graphs and Organization Charts; Delivering Your Presentation; Working with Multimedia; Working with Other Programs and the Internet; Advanced Topics; Index The theming of the book is supposed to be muscle/superhero-related, but it's a pretty light application of that theme. You don't see a lot of efforts to fit everything into that motif (which is probably good). Each chapter starts out with a list of objectives, followed by a target task for the chapter. There's a short list of prerequisites you should know/have in order to be able to do the lessons. What follows is then anywhere from 4 to 18 lessons that clearly walk you through activities and features which are directly applicable to the tasks you'll do when using the software. Each lesson is followed by a quick reference (one of the few places you see the superhero motif), and the entire chapter ends with a summary, a quiz, and some homework you can do in order to enhance your learning and stretch your wings. The writing is clear and concise, and I think just about anyone should be able to follow along without feeling like an idiot. The other nice feature is that the book comes with a CD that contains a simulation of PowerPoint. You can use the CD to work on the exercises, without the worry that you'll mess up your real software. This could also be used as true "homework" in order to learn skills you may use in the office without necessarily having the software at home. The simulation software definitely makes this book stand out from most other "teach-yourself" type books on the market. While the cover might make you wonder how serious it is, the content is solid and useful. If learning PowerPoint is on your list of "to do's", this book will help you get there.