Live Preview in PowerPoint 2007
Author: Geetesh Bajaj
Product/Version: PowerPoint 97, 2000, 2002 and 2003
Date Created: May 15th 2008
Last Updated: February 27th 2009
Excerpt/Capsule:
What is Live Preview
How Live Preview Works
Enabling and Disabling Live Preview
What is Live Preview?
Live Preview is one of the best new features in PowerPoint 2007 that allows you to preview how an actual change will look on the slide before you decide to accept or decline that change.
Since live preview is more of an interactive option than an interface element, it's not part of the visible PowerPoint 2007 interface -- it is active only within some of the options such as Themes, fonts, Quick Styles, etc. With Live preview you can see a quick preview of how the formatting options look on the selected object before you commit to them.
How Live Preview Works
Follow these steps to use Live Preview:
- Open any presentation in PowerPoint 2007.
- Insert a Shape on a slide. Select the shape so that you can see the Drawing Tools Format tab on the Ribbon as shown in Figure 1. Activate this Ribbon tab.
Figure 1: Format tab
- Now click the downward pointing arrow next to the Shapes Styles option to see the dropdown gallery that you can see in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Shape Styles dropdown gallery
- With your shape in an area that is not covered by the dropdown gallery, you can see a live preview of the selected Shape Style, as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Shape Styles
Now hover the cursor over any of the styles in the gallery -- as you move over different styles, the selected shape shows you a live preview. Click on the selected style in the gallery to apply the style.
- If you applied a style you don't want to use, press Ctrl+Z to undo.
Note: Previewing the styles this way does not modify your original shape. You can safely preview, apply, change, and remove styles as often as you want.
Enabling and Disabling Live Preview
While the Live Preview feature works great most of the time, some older computers may not have the processing power required to show live previews in real time -- this might lead to sluggish performance.
Fortunately, you can disable Live Preview by following these options:
- Access PowerPoint Options by choosing Office Button | PowerPoint Options. This brings up the dialog box that you can see in Figure 4.
- Choose the Popular tab on the left -- and uncheck the option that says Enable Live Preview (see again Figure 4).
- Click OK to get back to the PowerPoint interface.
Figure 4: Enable/Disable Live Preview
Tip - Remember, you can enable Live Preview the same way -- just check rather than unchecking the option.
Carmine Gallo is a communications coach for the world’s most admired brands. His client list includes Intel, Chase, Barclays, IBM, Nokia, and many others. 
