See Also

• SharePoint slide libraries II: Use slides in the library
• Roadmap to SharePoint document library training
• Use Slide Libraries to share and reuse PowerPoint 2007 slide content
• Demo: Simplify collaboration with a SharePoint team site
• Create a presentation from slides in a Slide Library

Purpose and benefits of a slide library

Slide repository for all to share   A slide library provides a shared location for slides that people frequently need to use, making them always available to everyone who uses the site. Teammates can always find slides they want to reuse.

Slides are easy to publish and copy   Publish slides to the library or copy them from the library to a presentation. Your starting point can be the browser or the presentation open in Microsoft® Office PowerPoint® 2007.

There are many ways to search   You can filter slides by sorting on information such as the presentation they came from or a slide description. The library can be customized to suit a team's organizational preferences.

Latest slide content is stored   The library serves as the sole location for the original of a slide. All revisions to the slide's content are made to the one in the library.

You get notified of updates to slide content   PowerPoint 2007 keeps a connection to the library when you have copied a slide and checks to see if a slide you have copied has been updated in the library.

Software requirements

Here's what's required in order to create the library:

• A Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007 site. You access the site through your Web browser.
• Slide libraries must be enabled as a type of library that can be created on the site.

If you're not sure whether you have a SharePoint site with slide libraries enabled, ask someone in your IT department to help you find out.

Once you've created the library, to do any work with slides, such as publish them to the library, you need:

• Microsoft® Office Professional 2007 installed on your computer.

  This installation includes PowerPoint 2007, which the library uses for any slide work.

Required permissions

To create a slide library, you need to be part of the Owners group on the SharePoint site. The person who created the site is the one who determines this. Ask this person to give you permissions for the Owners group, if you don't have them already.

As a member of the Owners group, you'll have access to the Site Actions menu on the SharePoint site. This menu enables you to create lists and libraries on the site (document, picture, and slide libraries, for example).

Create a slide library

1. Click the Site Actions menu, and then click Create.
2. On the Create page, under Libraries, click Slide Library.

   Note   If the slide library type isn't available in the list of libraries, that means that the site is not enabled to create slide libraries. Contact your site administrator to ask about this.

3. Type a name for the library, and type a description.
4. Under the option called Display this slide library on the Quick Launch?, be sure that Yes is selected. (This means a link to the library will appear in the left navigational area of the team site.)
5. Under the option called Create a version each time you edit a file in this slide library?, select Yes. This means that each version of a slide will be saved. You can refer to older versions if you need to or revert to an older version.
6. Click Create.

Add slides to the library

1. In the library, click Upload, and click Publish Slides.

   This opens PowerPoint 2007 and a Browse dialog box.

2. Browse for the presentation that has the slides you want to publish.

   You can publish all of a presentation's slides or just a selection of them.

3. In the Publish Slides window, select each of the slides that you want published to the library. If you want all of them published, click Select All.
4. In the Publish To box, the path to the library will be displayed.
5. Click Publish, and close the PowerPoint window.
6. In the library, click the Refresh button to see the slides you published.

   Note   You can publish slides created in PowerPoint 2007 or earlier file formats. Slides in earlier file formats are converted to the PowerPoint 2007 format (.pptx).

Work with slides in the library

When slides are published to a library, they are converted to individual files. Each slide gets a unique file name, based on the presentation's name and the slide's order in the presentation. Other properties are also listed, which you can use to filter the slides when you want to find a certain one. These properties include:

• Presentation name.
• Description, based on titles from the slides.
• Modified By, which tells you who published or last edited the slide.
• Modified, which gives the date the slide was last published or edited.
• Checked out to, which lets you know who's editing the slide at the moment.

For tips about customizing libraries, see this course, SharePoint document libraries IV: Tips and tricks.

Edit properties for a slide

To change the file name, presentation name, or description that identifies a slide in the library:

1. Point to the file name next to the slide, and click the arrow that appears.
2. Click Edit Properties.
3. Change any of the fields, and click OK.

Pointers for copying and editing slides

Details for how to copy and edit slides are given in the second course in this series, SharePoint slide libraries II: Use slides in the library. Here are general pointers:

• To copy a slide to a presentation, select the check box next to it, and click Copy Slide to Presentation.
• To edit a slide, point to its file name, click the arrow, and click Edit in Microsoft Office PowerPoint on the menu.
• To see a larger preview of the slide and additional commands, click the slide thumbnail. In the preview window, you can copy, edit, delete, change properties, and do other things.

  Tip    You have the option of checking out slides to work on them, which means no one else can change them at the same time. See this course for details about checking files out from libraries: SharePoint document libraries II: All about checkout.

Put your team in touch with the library

Give your team the two main methods for accessing the library:

1. Provide them with the URL for the library so they can open the site and add it to their favorites. You can send the link in e-mail.
2. Emphasize to your team that they can always access the library from the SharePoint site by clicking its link on the Quick Launch, in the left of the browser window.