It's back to school time: Does your youngster PowerPoint?

A fact recently rounding the Internet:  79% of Office users aged 18-24 learned to use the Office programs before learning to drive, compared with 24% of their elders aged 25 and older.

So, where’s Driver’s Education for Office? Over the next few weeks, we will be giving you our best advice and material on what is needed for the back to school crowd (from elementary to college, but more of the latter). See our Back to School page debuting this week with links to templates, free math and chemistry add-ins, and the interactive Mouse Mischief.

I coach youth soccer and there is an expression that “the game is the greatest teacher.” This means teach them some basics and get out of way. Let them discover, gain skills, and bump into everything—literally—on their own. [The opposite approach has parents and coach shouting through every minute of the game about what the kids should do. Not pretty. Not fun. OK, end of sermon.]

You can do the same with something like PowerPoint. Start them young, show them only basic things they are interested in: how to add pictures, change fonts and colors, the cool stuff (and don’t show bullet points). Then get out of the way. More complex things can be learned later, just like in soccer practice.

This approach worked for cartoonist and author Scott McCloud with his 13-year-old daughter Sky (as the Crabby Office Lady wrote about earlier this year). Now, the kid surely has a knack for presentation, but look at her slides about their family trip. There are no charts, no bullet points, just pictures and single words. It’s pure fun and information.

Sky McCloud Presentation from Duarte Design on Vimeo.

Come to think of it, do you need more photos in your PowerPoint? Check out the cool new photo features in Office 2010 and how to make a PowerPoint photo album (for those who like structure in their layouts).

Welcome back to school (sorry, kids). --Doug Thomas