Create Presentations? Listen to this Episode of The Presentation Podcast!
What do presentation designers do when they need to create a presentation for themselves? Do we follow our own best practices, or do we take shortcuts? Troy, Nolan and Sandy are joined by Lori Chollar of TLC Creative Services, and as a group we to explore that question – and there are terrific tips and ah-ha moments for everyone during this episode!
episode 134
Be on the Presentation Guild Board!
The Presentation Guild has announced that next year’s Board of Directors elections with occur soon, and anyone that is a Presentation Guild member (and if you read this blog, you should be!) is welcome to nominate themself, or any other Guild member.
More information, and the nomination form, here.
Troy @ TLC
A Cool PowerPoint Gradient
As we approach the 2021 Presentation Summit, I am finalizing my session talks (and packing equipment for our team to coordinate all live streaming of the entire conference – don’t miss the fun!). One of my talks is on using PowerPoint gradients as a design tool within PowerPoint. The gradients tool is very robust and over the years I have found myself less and less in Adobe Illustrator or even Photoshop, creating gradient styling elements, in favor of staying inside PowerPoint and having the gradients be editable there. Well, I am not giving away the talk (it is going to be good!), but I am highlighting one of the gradient examples our design team created, because it is amazing!
This beautiful slide background is 100% created in PowerPoint. It is a very creative use of PowerPoint gradients, and multiple overlapping PowerPoint shapes. As example, here is one of the vertical bands pulled from the background composite. It has a gradient fill created with 5 gradient stops, at a custom angle, and with varying opacity per gradient section.
On its own, the above gradient is not spectacular. It is technical, but not really amazing. The full background is a composite of 11 PowerPoint shapes over a white background slide to create a wonderful slide background.
For inspiration, the editable slide can be downloaded HERE.
Troy @ TLC
Noun Project PowerPoint Add-in Does .SVG Images!
The Noun Project is the first 3rd party plugin we have seen that enables .svg images to be added direct to slides (others insert .png images). Which makes it exciting to say “The inserted icons are now vector .svg!”
Note noun project is a nominal annual fee ($40). It is a web adding, go to the insert tab select “Get Add-ins” and search for “Noun Project”.
The add in is found on the insert tab and clicking the ICONS button opens a right action pane that shows the Noun Project library.
If you have not paid for the service, you will see the icons that are locked.
Search for an icon category or key words. Click the selected icon, then click the INSERT ICON button.
All icons insert as vector .svg graphics. Resize large or small with no quality loss. select and change the fill color, outline, apply styling effects. Ungroup the icon in order to enable the ability to edit the shape(s)!
Christie @ TLC
The PowerPoint Blog – New Episode!
Jump over to The Presentation Podcast for a great conversation about client questions! Clients ask questions, and many of the same questions. This podcast episode Troy, Nolan and Sandy pose the questions they hear from clients consistently to see if the others also hear the same question – and their answers to those questions.
Listen here.
Quotes and Full Frame Images
I am wrapping up this series on slide layout ideas for Quotes and PowerPoint formatting tips with a set of slide layouts created by several designers on the TLC Creative Services team. They all share the concept of using an image that provides an open, focal point area for the quote text to be positioned.
This does not mean each image was ready to use when downloaded. Most were sized, cropped, and positioned to fit the slide. All were cropped to have a focal point area for the quote text. All also used PowerPoint typography for the text.
Troy @ TLC
Quotes and Curved Text
Thank you to Kelli Willcoxson for the inspiration slide.
Design Process:
- Find an image to support the quote
- Size, position and crop the image to create a clear area for the quote text
- Stylize and position the quote text
PowerPoint Formatting Tip:
- This layout has a lot of custom PowerPoint formatting applied to the text. Easy to do in Adobe Illustrator, a bit harder in PowerPoint.
- The text is filled with a gradient giving it a subtle blending effect with the background
- The text also has a subtle glow effect applied, making it seem to glow like the stars in the background
- But most impressive, and difficult, is the text has a curved layout – using PowerPoint options, and remains 100% editable!
– Applying the curve effect is a hidden feature in PowerPoint
– Select the text > go the SHAPE FORMAT tab > go to the WORDART STYLES section of the ribbon > click TEXT EFFECTS > click TRANSFORM (I believe this is the only way to access the text transform feature in PowerPoint) > select a WARP effect, the curve down effect was selected for this slide layout
- Note: the text warp effect has no interface adjustments, but it is adjustable.
– By stretching and adjusting the text box the warp changes. As example, make the text box very tall and thin and the curve becomes more pronounced
– All warp effects have an adjust node, the yellow dot. Sometimes the adjustment is helpful, other times… well, it is obvious we are not using Adobe Illustrator with its greater control options 🙂
Download the editable version of this slide HERE.
Troy @ TLC