Yes, you can use PowerPoint to make a great chapbook. In fact, some of the tools that come standard in Power point, like the templates, make it easy to produce a chapbook that has a lot of flair!
Making a chapbook in PowerPoint
PowerPoint isn’t the obvious choice, but it’s genuinely handy for a chapbook. Each slide is a page, you can drag text and images anywhere you like, and the built-in design tools give a booklet some flair without much fuss.
- Go to Design, then Slide Size, then Custom Slide Size, and set it to your page dimensions, for example 5.5 by 8.5 inches.
- Make one slide per page. Put one poem on each, with the title where you want it.
- Use the alignment guides to keep margins even from page to page. Leave room on the inside edge for the fold.
- Keep a title slide at the front and, if you like, a contents slide after it.
- Watch your total page count, and keep it on a multiple of four for a folded booklet.
- Export to PDF (File, Export, Create PDF) so the layout stays put when you print.
PowerPoint won’t impose the pages for folding the way Word’s book-fold or InDesign’s booklet feature will, so either print the PDF through a booklet-printing option in your print dialog, or hand the PDF to a print shop and let them impose it.
For the page-count math and margins, see the format guide, and for the full process, how to make a chapbook.