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Making Presentations Easier with Microsoft® Office® XP

Microsoft Windows® XP?

If you haven't seen it yet, you have probably at least heard about Windows XP. This is the latest version of the Windows operation system. It comes in both a Home and a Professional edition, and both versions are full of many new features — all designed to make the digital experience as simple as possible.

• Windows XP Home
  This version contains a new visual design, state-of-the-art Internet security features, and numerous options for digital photos, music, and video. It also contains built-in Internet, home networking, and real-time voice, video, and instant messaging support.



• Windows XP Professional
  Windows XP Professional contains advanced capabilities designed to optimize productivity. It provides improved reliability, security, performance, and ease of use. Windows XP Professional is designed for businesses and power users.

Microsoft Office XP

So, if Windows XP offers so much — what about Microsoft Office XP? Office XP is an entirely new experience. It is packed with many new features and a modified look and feel. Importantly, there are several features that make creating presentations easier than ever before. Most of these features are derivative of the new Office XP Task Pane and its related task panes: Search Task Pane, Clipboard Task Pane, Insert Clip Art Task Pane, and the Clip Organizer. [Following image courtesy of microsoft.com]

Office XP Task Pane

The Office XP Task Pane lets you make common tasks a simple click away. It gives you one location for the actions you use most. These include opening a file, creating a new document, applying a style, etc. For presenters working in PowerPoint, the Task Pane is especially useful in the early stages of creating a presentation — when you are creating new files, templates, etc. [Following image courtesy of microsoft.com]

The Task Pane is located on the right side of the screen and is open when you first start any Office XP application.

• There are two arrows in the top bar of the pane. These buttons behave like the Back and Forward buttons in Internet browsers. After switching to a desired Task Pane, you switch back to the previous one by clicking the left arrow. You return to the current Task Pane by clicking the right arrow.
• The down arrow lets you move directly to a specific Task Pane.
• The X closes the Task Pane.

Office XP Search Task Pane

The Search Task Pane enables you to search for files across your hard drive, local networks, and the Internet. It contains basic and advanced search capabilities. The basic search allows you to search for file titles, words in documents, or properties. The advanced search lets you design more specific queries based on dates, names, file sizes, and more.

Best of all, it doesn't matter which Office XP program you use. The search provides all possible matches — across applications. And when you select a file to open, Office XP opens the appropriate application automatically. This is a wonderful feature for PowerPoint users: you can search for that piece of clip art, animation, or Excel data — all from a single pane.

Office XP Clipboard Task Pane

The Clipboard Task Pane allows you to view thumbnails of anything that can be cut or copied by an Office XP program: text, graphics, etc. This pane can store up to 24 items at once. You can preview items and select single or multiple items to paste. This is a great tool for PowerPoint users. No more opening separate dialogs or toggling between applications just to find a bitmap. [Following image courtesy of microsoft.com]

Office XP Insert Clip Art Task Pane

The Insert Clip Art Task Pane provides easy access to clip art by offering a search function that finds and displays clip art by title, type, or collection. When the clips are displayed, you just click on the right arrow next to the desired piece to perform an action. [Following image courtesy of microsoft.com]

Office XP Clip Organizer

Office XP also includes the Microsoft Clip Organizer. This standalone application helps you organize and use clip art, drawings, photographs, sounds, and videos — essentially anything you may want to add to Office application files. The Clip Organizer even comes with a variety of stock media clips.The first time you open the Clip Organizer, it scans your computer for media files and organizes the files it finds into separate folders, called collections.

• My Collections: clips you have added, either automatically or on your own.
• Office Collections: clips on the Clip Organizer CD-ROM and the clips included with Office XP.
• Web Collections: free clips and possibly content available for purchase on the web.
• Shared Collections: files stored on a server or common workstation.

While the Clip Organizer seems to reorganize your media files, it doesn't actually copy or move the files — it simply creates shortcuts for accessing them.

Learn more about Microsoft Office XP and how it can help make creating presentations easier than ever!