Laptops All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies- P35: Okay, I’ll admit it: I’ve got a strange biography. I’ve been a writer all my life. My first semi-pro job was sports editor of my high school newspaper. (Go Commodores!) After college I was a political reporter for daily newspapers in Ohio and New York (I covered four national nominating conventions and two Presidential campaigns) and a correspondent for The Associated Press. And then, in 1983, I gave in to my inner geek and became the first Executive Editor of PC Magazine, back in the days when most people asked, “What is a PC?”. | 314 Pointing out Your Power Spots Normal view is fittingly named for what is the normal new opening PowerPoint presentation screen. It presents a blank canvas along with a full suite of power tools on standby in the ribbon or menu bar at the top. See Figure 3-1. Figure 3-1 An empty PowerPoint presentation in the Normal view of PowerPoint 2007. Slides tab Main pane Notes pane The main slide pane on the right side of the view within the area marked by the horizontal and vertical rulers is where you create edit and refine individual slides. Depending on the style you chose the main pane may include predefined locations where you can add a title or subtitle or insert a drawing photograph or chart. The slides tab on the left side of the screen shows a thumbnail miniature version of each slide already created. You can see how the current slide relates to those that precede and follow it and you can also drag thumbnails into a different order or delete them. The Notes pane at the bottom of the Normal view is where you enter comments or a script the information here will not be projected onto the screen at a presentation but if you work in Presenter view you can see them on the laptop. Notes can also be printed out as handouts for your audience. Designing and Refining a PowerPoint Presentation 315 When you first start the Notes pane is just one-line deep. To increase the available space to read notes point to the pane s top border and wait a moment until the pointer changes into a two-faced arrow keep the mouse button pressed down and drag the border up. The slide you see on your laptop gets smaller to accommodate the growing Notes pane but changes you make to the Notes pane size don t affect the size of the slide when it projects. The best presentations are those that keep the information displayed onscreen to just the essential points and use the notes for your background information. You can fill the Notes pane with material cut and pasted from a word processor from .
