New Podcast Episode! #139
Every updated install of Microsoft Office has new visual refresh. The Visual Refresh is not new features, but a new look to all of our Office apps; PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, Word, etc. Troy, Nolan and Sandy talk about what they see in the refreshed interface, things we like and the things we are not excited about. So, let’s have a conversation about the Microsoft Office Visual Refresh!
Listen to the conversation here.
Setup Teams to Display the File Size
The file explorer in Microsoft Teams does not, by default, show the file size – which I really miss.
To show file size, follow these steps (will need to be done for each separate Team environment)
- Click the three dots next to a file and click “Open in Sharepoint”
- In SharePoint, click “Return to classic SharePoint” in lower left of screen.
- Click “Library” near the top left of screen.
- Click “Modify View”.
- Find “File Size” in the Column Name list, and check the box and click “OK” in upper right to save changes.
- Back in Teams, File Size should now be displayed. You may need to click refresh (Circle Arrow in upper right next to the Meet button) to see changes.
- Please note, file size only displays for individual files, not for folders.
Troy @ TLC
MS Teams – Open in App
The biggest tip I can offer when using Microsoft Teams is to know about, and use, the “Open in App” feature. This assumes working on a computer with desktop Office apps. The default action is to click on the file name, as example PowerPointSamplePresentation.pptx, and it opens directly in Teams using the Teams version of PowerPoint (which is pretty much PowerPoint for web).
BEFORE clicking on the file name, (1) click the 3-dot menu, or right-click the file name, (2) click OPEN on the popup menu, and (3) click OPEN IN APP. This will change the behavior of opening the presentation directly in the Teams version of PowerPoint and instead, open the presentation in the full desktop app (with all features and toolbars – say yes to the QAT!).
IF you have clicked the file name and the presentation did open in Teams, click the “Open in Desktop App” in the toolbar. This will launch the desktop app and open the file there. Note, the presentation is still connected to teams. Any edits are saved to the Teams file, and others can collaborate on the file.
TIP: the default action of launching a file in Teams can be changed! Click the three dots (or right click) the file name, click “Open”, then click “Change default”
In the pop-up dialog, select “Desktop app” and SAVE.
Now clicking on file will open the file automatically in the desktop app! If you want to open the file directly in Teams, use the 3-dot menu.
Troy @ TLC
Let’s Talk Microsoft Teams This Month
The TLC Creative Services team has over the past 2 years gone from using Microsoft Teams as a novelty, to a more forced use when Microsoft killed off Skype for Business, and now it has become integrated into our daily workflow (and we like it). Like anyone that uses an app a lot, you cringe when you see others not using that app to its fullest. So, here are 10 Microsoft Teams tips to make your use of it hopefully better 🙂
Troy @ TLC
Rotating the Feathers
From the previous “Turkey” post, here is the secret to the feather animation.
Morph moves everything based on the object center. To accomplish the tail feathers fanning out and looking natural, each tail feather needed to have a ‘ghost’ feather added to create a center point that is at the end of the visible feather.
In the above image, the orange feather (really two shapes grouped to make the feather design) is what is seen in the illustration. I duplicated the lighter color orange, which is the larger feather element. Then flipped it and positioned to be a mirror image. Then group all 3 elements. The end of the orange feather is now the center point of the object. The final step is selecting what is grey in the above image and changing it to no fill (eg. transparent).
Play this video to see the center point in use. Note, this animation is the SPIN effect, which also uses the object center. The black dot shows the center point we want the animation to rotate from.
- The left feather is the one above, with the mirror image feather in the group still grey so it can be seen.
- The middle feather is the same as the left, but the grey feather is set to no fill (eg. transparent)
- The right feather is the original feather, which is spinning, but not in accomplishing the visual needed as it is spinning based on its center point (the red dot)
Troy @ TLC
Happy Thanksgiving!! Having Fun with PowerPoint and Morph Today
Happy Thanksgiving (to everyone in the United States)!!
Using morph as the sole animation, I created this fun animation in under 10 minutes. If using motion paths and other “traditional” animation options this would have taken greater than an hour. So, this is really a composite of slide animations; Morph with a very fast .10 second transition duration and all slides set to auto advance instantly.
The only negative to this style of animation is slide count. This 12 second animation is 32 slides.
Troy @ TLC
The Office Toolbar – New – Collapse and Expand Options
Here is my standard PowerPoint toolbar configuration. Tabs + Ribbon (toolbar) + QAT
With the Office Visual Refresh, the view options. Click the icon in lower right of the TOOLBAR to show the display options. And my standard toolbar configuration above is the ALWAYS SHOW RIBBON option.
Clicking the FULL-SCREEN MODE option removes everything in the toolbar; tabs, toolbar, QAT. Note: click the very top of the screen, or PowerPoint app window, and the full toolbar temporarily is added over the slide edit view (then click the right icon to show the display options menu).
SHOW TABS ONLY is basically the same view we had previously when the toolbar was collapsed.
And now the SHOW/HIDE QUICK ACCESS TOOLBAR is an option in all 3 of the toolbar display options. By hiding the QAT, here is my standard toolbar setup without the QAT available (something I would never do!)
Troy @ TLC