Another question. I'm a terrible speller. What happens if I'm giving a school presentation on Michael Jackson, and I say he's basically a pretty "norml" guy? People are going to think I'm the strange one.

That's why I offer a spell checker. It will flag those words and offer a correct spelling.

Checking your spelling It's a good idea to check the spelling in your presentation before the audience sees it. Let PowerPoint's spelling checker check the presentation for you. When you activate the spelling checker, it checks the spelling in all of your slides. 1. On the Standard toolbar, click the Spelling button. 2. If a spelling error is detected a Spelling dialog box appears. 3. The Spelling Checker suggests an alternative spelling in the Change To box. An additional list of suggestions may also appear below the box. 4. If you want to continue without changing the spelling, click Ignore. 5. If you want to change the spelling, enter one of the suggested alternatives in the Change To box, then click Change. After you've made your selection in the spelling dialog box, the spelling checker will continue checking the remaining slides. When it has checked all the slides in your presentation, a message box will appear telling you that the spell check is complete.

But what if for some reason you wanted to purposely misspell a word? What if my pet turtle's name was "Norml"?

PowerPoint is all about choices. You can refuse to change the spelling or even turn the spelling checker off.

Turning the automatic spell checker off PowerPoint 2003 also has an automatic spelling checker. As you type, a red wavy line appears under misspelled words. If you want to correct the spelling immediately, you right-click your mouse on the word, and a menu appears suggesting spelling alternatives. If you don't want to see wavy red lines under misspelled words as you type, you can turn the automatic spelling checker off. 1. Click the Tools menu, then click Options. The Options dialog box appears. 2. Click the Spelling and Style tab. 3. Under Check spelling as you type, click the check box to deselect it. The check mark disappears. 4. Click OK to close the Options dialog box. The automatic spelling checker is now deactivated. Note: The automatic spelling checker is turned off, but the main spelling checker still works. You can check the spelling in your presentation at any time by clicking the Spelling button on the Standard toolbar.