Hey, Power. Earlier you mentioned you had a Wizard friend. Is he going to pull a rabbit out of a hat for us?

Not exactly. The AutoContent Wizard walks you through the presentation, offering suggestions on visual design, as well as tips on how to organize data. He's great if you're a beginner or in a hurry.

He's sort of like an AutoContent consultant or guru.

Absolutely. Though, we thought "Wizard" sounded better. Especially because some of his results can be pretty magical.

What is the AutoContent Wizard? The AutoContent Wizard is a good option for creating a presentation if you are a beginner. The AutoContent Wizard offers suggestions for templates to use and types of content to put in. This option is also good if you are in hurry and want to create a presentation quickly.

So how do you use the magic of the AutoContent Wizard? Do you have to say some magic words like "Alakazam"? Or is it something much easier like answering questions in a dialogue box?

Jim, you're right on the second try. Although the Alakazam idea isn't bad, that's really a Harry Potter thing. I'll talk to my producers about it.

Creating a Presentation using the AutoContent Wizard. If you have just launched PowerPoint, in the Open Window, click Create a new presentation. From the New Presentation window, click the From AutoContent Wizard option to start a presentation. If you are already working in PowerPoint, here's how you start the AutoContent Wizard: 1. Click the File menu, then click New. The New Presentation window will appear. 2. In the New Presentation window, click From AutoContent Wizard. 3. The AutoContent Wizard will start. Working with the AutoContent Wizard The AutoContent Wizard will guide you through some simple steps. 1. Read the information on the start screen, then click Next. 2. In the next dialog box, select the type of presentation you want to give, then click Next to advance to the next dialog box. 3. Continue entering options until you reach the Finish step. 4. Click Finish. The AutoContent Wizard will display your presentation in Outline View. The outline is made up of sample slides, each of which has a suggestion for the type of information that should be entered in the slide. You can customize the information in the slides in either Outline View or Slide View.