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NOSTALGIA CORNER: Good-Bye, AutoContent WizardĬlear back in 1994, as part of PowerPoint 4-spurred by reports that thousands of folks were firing up PowerPoint and then just sitting there sipping coffee while they stared at the screen, unsure of how to proceed-Microsoft debuted a feature called the AutoContent wizard. When you fire up PowerPoint and select Office button → New, you see the following six choices for creating a presentation, each of which is described in detail in the following sections: PowerPoint divides these two basic choices into six specific options that are based on whether you want to piggyback your new presentation on an existing template, theme, or presentation. PowerPoint comes with a handful of professionally designed templates and themes, but you can also create presentations based on a template, theme, or presentation that you’ve previously created, or one that you’ve found online and downloaded onto your computer. Templates are the better option when you need to crank out a presentation in a jiffy. If you’re creating a presentation for your local school board, for example, then you’ll need to add the content that describes your findings, conclusions, and suggestions. Complete with themes (see the box), background images, and even generic content (such as page numbers and placeholder text), templates let you jump-start your presentation by giving you everything you need except your specific content. A template is a generic presentation file designed for you to reuse. You can create a new presentation based on an existing template, theme, or presentation. (As daunting as “from scratch” sounds, you don’t have to do all the work yourself Section 1.2 shows you how to apply a canned look and feel-or theme-to your new presentation.) If you’re familiar with earlier incarnations of the PowerPoint program, or if you’re interested in learning the ins and outs of PowerPoint quickly, then you’ll probably want to choose this option. You can start from scratch, using a blank canvas.