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Guidelines for the PowerPoint Support Forums

Most online support forums have a few simple guidelines. Following them will help keep the forums user-friendly, and will help you get the answers you need quickly and accurately.

First, remember that most forums are for user-to-user support. Most of the members, even if they have icons or badges indicating some special status, are volunteers, not paid support staff.

PowerPoint MVP Sonia Coleman summed it up best long ago, and it's still good advice:

"The help you receive on the internet is not really free, though it is willingly and happily provided at a very low and reasonable cost. The price of admission is respect and professionalism and is due and must be paid in full with each post and reply. That's what makes it such a great place for learning and for sharing what we have learned."

How User to User support forums work

Support forums are the internet version of the old "infinite number of monkeys at an infinite number of typewriters" trick:
Tell your problem to enough people and one of them is almost sure to have a solution.

Forums put your message in front of thousands of people. All you have to do is type it once.

Actually it's even better: When somebody answers your question, somebody else will reply with other ideas, more details or yes, corrections. Anyone with an interest in your problem can join in. That's why it works as well as it does.

And it gets better yet: Using Google or the forum's search feature, you can search for answers that someone already wrote instead of posting your question and waiting for a reply. Instant Gratification!

How to get help

First, do your research. People on these forums are generally friendly/polite, but they're liable to get testy if you ask a question that's been answered 12 times in the last month or that a simple web search would have answered in a few seconds.

If that doesn't help, post your message on the forum. Be sure to include all the information needed to solve your problem. Please describe your problem as completely as you can. Include:

Now you know what to do. Before you go off to do it, there are a few things you shouldn't do.

How to avoid annoying the people who can help you

End of Sermon. Thanks for bearing with it.


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Guidelines for the PowerPoint Support Forums
http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00036_Guidelines_for_the_PowerPoint_Support_Forums.htm
Last update 11 July, 2025
Created: