By Chuck Easttom When creating web graphics two problems routinely present themselves. The first is that in a web page, layout can be a pain. You can use tables to force your graphics and text to stay in a particular format, but that is very cumbersome and not very versatile. What I choose to do is to create a PowerPoint slide and save it as a .gif or .jpg. There are a number of ways in which this can be useful. 
Formatting: One of the most difficult things facing a web designer is setting up a format and then getting that format to remain stable from one platform to the next. Using a PowerPoint slide you can easily insert pictures and text and place them in a set manner. Since it is then going to be saved as an image, that format will now remain stable regardless of platform, Internet browser, or machine. The first step is to open PowerPoint and select "Blank Presentation" 
You can also easily format your text and images to fit angles that are very difficult with traditional web design techniques such as HTML, DHTML, and Java. For example putting text at an angle, placing text at odd positions relative to the images, and other formatting problems. Creating Graphics Quickly: It can take some time and effort to create a collage in Photoshop and then place a caption over it. This can be accomplished incredibly quickly in PowerPoint (though with some limitations). First start with a new slide. Then simply go to the drop down menu and select Insert>Picture>From File and insert your picture (or use PowerPoint's own clip art by selecting Insert>Picture>ClipArt). This will allow you to insert pictures on your slide that you can then reposition and resize just by dragging your mouse. 
Now you can overlay some text by simply choosing Insert>Textbox and then altering the character properties (such as font, size, shadow, color, etc). This is a very quick way to place text on to images. You can also get a bit more flash by using the word art. Simply select Insert>Picture>WordArt. You can get a wider variety of text styles this way than you could with Photoshop or Illustrator. 
Now you can place interesting text on your slide and use the rotate tool (bottom tool bar just left of "AutoShapes": You can also set background colors and texture by clicking on your right mouse button and choosing "background": 
When you are done placing text, WordArt, images, clipart, and setting your background you can now save this image as either a gif. or jpeg: Now you can use PowerPoint slides to create custom graphics and layout for the web with minimal time and effort!! Copyright 1999 Chuck Easttom, All Rights Reserved | 