To create a poster in PowerPoint 97, you need the PowerPoint 97 program. If you've purchased the MS Office 97 Suite, it should be one of the programs. In addition, you will need access to a plotter.
Plotters are usually available in computer centers in universities.
Kinkos and other facilities providing copies are your best sources of machines that can create color versions of your poster outside universities. You could think of this as story boarding. The next section lists a number of possible poster sections for use along with a set of definitions. Poster Sections Posters can be created with as many or as few descriptive sections as you wish. For your first attempt, you may wish to use combination 7 or 8 which has relatively few headings.