ToolsToo for PowerPoint 2026 Review
ToolsToo for PowerPoint, an amazing productivity suite of tools (in my opinion), recently released a significant upgrade to v12 – and then quickly released v12.1
My initial goal was to write a post about the new features added in v12. But as I reviewed the ToolsToo ribbon, the release notes, and reflected on where I use ToolsToo features, I was struck not by how great the new features are (and they are great!), I was struck by realizing the number of ToolsToo features that have become a part of my daily presentation design and formatting workflow. So, let me start with a summary of what is new in v12:
New in v12
- Make Same Shape
- Swap Formatting
- Extract Comments
- New chain tools; select body and select title
- Split Text to Two Columns
- Auto check for update
- Option to set the layout name to be used by the Agenda Generation tool
- Horizontal and Vertical Direction can have the direction specified (eg. Left to Right, or Right to Left)
Changes in v12
- Distribute Horizontally and Vertically. Now, use the Direction setting vs the text direction of the Reference Shape
- Renamed some tools
- Make Same Width, Make Same Height, Make Same Size. Now, set the perpendicular dimension(s) when the target shape is rotated 90 or 270 degrees
- The Reference Shape now works, even if the selected shape is a text selection
- Several bug-fixes listed (see the ToolsToo website for details, but I can say that none of the listed fixes were anything that impacted my use, or created problems with PowerPoint)
TROY, WHAT DO YOU USE?
I use so many of the ToolsToo functions daily – often hourly! So, needless to say, this is an honest review from someone who truly leverages the tool. Let’s shift a bit and focus on what ToolsToo features I use often and can’t function as a presentation designer without. To start, ToolsToo is a very full ribbon, complete with dozens of additional tools hidden in the many dropdown menu options.
NOT ALL ARE CUSTOM
- One of the unique things about ToolsToo is the entire right selection of features in the ToolsToo ribbon (when set to the Intermediate or Expert modes) is three sections of PowerPoint tools added. The theory is that these are so commonly used that it saves clicks to have them on the active ribbon
- For me, these are never used, but obviously, others find them helpful
CLEANUP TOOLS
- This is one of the v12 updates, and I like it. This set of tools has been put into its own menu, the Cleanup Tools dropdown
- Previously, all of these were found in the Side Tools menu – making it a very long, scrolling menu
- Of note, the green stars are ToolsToo features I use routinely. These are either a faster, 1-click to accomplish a native PowerPoint option that requires far more clicks to accomplish
REFERENCE SHAPE
- It is nice that this selection is easy to locate and use by not being buried in a sub-menu
- While I have the FIRST SHAPE selected nearly all the time, the PRESENTATION SPACE is an amazing feature (and highlighted in one of the upcoming posts in this series on ToolsToo), and while not used often, it is my 2nd Reference Shape option
ALIGN
- These features are special in that they take over the native PowerPoint alignment tools, making them far more useful
- For example, with the First Shape selected as the Reference Shape, when selecting a 3-4-5 image on a slide, the Align Left option will not move all images to the furthest left; instead, all images will align to the left edge of the first selected image
- All of the options in the ALIGN section, except the Replicate (grid icon), are on my QAT and used daily, no hourly!
MAKE SAME
- On the far left is the SAME section
- I use so many of the functions in the MAKE SAME menu!
- The yellow stars are tools I value so much that they are on my QAT
- The green star tools are ones I find myself going to the ToolsToo ribbon for often
- Basically, everything in this menu is of value for presentation design, either saving clicks to accomplish things, or doing things that are not available in native PowerPoint (but should be!)
SHAPE TOOLS
- This button hides literally dozens of great formatting features
- The yellow stars are functions I find so useful that they have been added to my QAT
- The green stars are functions I routinely go to the ToolsToo ribbon for
- And the Red star is one that I not only routinely am in the ToolsToo ribbon for, but it has become my replacement for a tool Shyam Pillar, a former Microsoft MVP for PowerPoint, had coded and released almost a decade ago (which is sadly no longer available – but now there is a replacement)
WHY?
A common reason many PowerPoint add-ins exist is to provide functions that are not available in PowerPoint For example, why are these not available in PowerPoint?
- You know when a line is just not quite level or perfectly vertical, and we spend too much time manually working to make it straight – well, these accomplish it in 1-click!
ToolsToo for PowerPoint is a wonderous suite of functional improvements to PowerPoint design and formatting. Of note, ToolsToo is Windows only. It is under $25, and everyone on the TLC Creative presentation design team has ToolsToo installed on their computer and used as part of our daily workflow.
Get more info and details at the ToolsToo website: https://toolstoo.com
Troy @ TLC
Club Ichin LED Wall
New Podcast Episode Released Today!
Podcast Episode Available! “100+ Hours for an Eight-Minute Presentation with John Chen”
In episode 243 of The Presentation Podcast, Troy Chollar of TLC Creative Services, has a conversation with certified speaking professional John Chen. They discuss the immense amount of unseen effort behind every presentation. The conversation focuses on John’s eight-minute keynote at a Canadian Association of Professional Speakers event, and the 100+ hours of preparation, collaboration with coaches, technical stagecraft, that preceded the actual presentation delivery.
Listen in to hear about the challenges of crafting concise, impactful presentations, the value of rehearsal, and innovative techniques as both an in-person and remote presenter. In this high energy conversation, John shares many personal stories and expert insights, and we get to feel John’s dedication and artistry for professional presenting.
Listen on your favorite podcast app, or at The Presentation Podcast site here.
Change Comes to Microsoft
“Something’s in the wind” or “change is in the wind” are phrases that means a transformation is imminent. Over the many years of presentation design projects and upgrades to PowerPoint and Keynote, one observation has been that Apple tends to move forward with software improvements… even when it means that older versions of the software will not be able to have those improvements. Whereas Microsoft has admirably lived by the mantra that legacy versions must be supported – above all, even if it means the newer version becomes bloated or performance impacted.
I can admire, and not admire, the long standing Microsoft position of wanting to assure legacy software versions of PowerPoint, Word, Excel, etc. always work with files from newer versions of the app. BUT, as the saying goes, “change is in the wind”. For the first time I have seen, the Microsoft Suite is officially moving forward – and not bringing along legacy versions of its software (and by legacy, we could be talking about support for PowerPoint 2000!).
-Troy @ TLC Creative
New Podcast Episode Available! “Is Your Content a Presentation or a Document?”
New episode of The Presentation Podcast now available!
In the world of business communication, the line between a presentation and a document is often blurred—especially when PowerPoint is the authoring tool of choice. In episode 242, our three industry experts—Troy Chollar (TLC Creative Services), Sandy Johnson (Presentation Wiz), and Nolan Haims (Nolan Haims Creative) dive into how they view the differences – between presentation slide, and content document. Their conversation is packed with insights, technical tips, and real-world examples for anyone who creates and delivers presentations – or business documents. Listen on your favorite podcast app, or at The Presentation Podcast site here.
Windows 11 Additional Clocks
Meeting in different cities. Clients in different cities. Staff in different cities. Keeping track of time zones is another mental challenge.
Windows has the ability to add 2 additional clocks time zones to the task bar. But Windows 11 has changed how to set/update the additional clocks (side note: I hope you find this blog post helpful – but really, it is for me to have a reference of where to find these settings when I need to update my computer as I generally update one or both of the additional clocks weekly 😊).
- Right-click the clock in the task bar.
- Select ADJUST DATE AND TIME
3. In the DATE & TIME section
4. Locate the LANGUAGE AND REGION section and click the arrow to go to the settings
5. Located the SHOW TIME AND DATE IN THE SYSTEM TRAY section and click the arrow icon to expand
6. Windows 11 enables up to 2 additional clocks to be added. Click the CHANGE button.
7. Select a time zone and give the additional clock a personalized name
8. Done! Mouse over the lower right clock and the popup displays the 1 or 2 additional clocks.
-Troy @ TLC
PowerPoint For WEB Makes Selections Like Adobe Illustrator – Really!
At TLC Creative Services Inc, we spend every day inside PowerPoint, and most of the time, our muscle memory serves us well. We know the keyboard shortcuts, the menus, the add-ins and, of course, how to manipulate and format objects. But there is one specific UI inconsistency that creates chaos with our workflow, and it’s when we switch between the Desktop and Web versions of PowerPoint. This is not a missing feature; it’s literally how you select objects.
Let’s start outside PowerPoint, in Adobe Illustrator. First, Illustrator is a much (much) more robust vector image app vs. PowerPoint (but PowerPoint does have a lot of vector image editing and creation features!). The most basic feature is selecting elements or objects. Illustrator has a few variables based on the tool being used, but we are keeping this very simple – and Illustrator’s process is very simple. When drawing a selection marque in Illustrator, if ANY pixel of an object is within the selection, that object is included in the selection.
Okay, that is how most graphic designers learn how object selection works. But the rules change in PowerPoint – and they change based on which PowerPoint app version is being used! Desktop or Web.
If you’ve been using Desktop PowerPoint for years, you are used to the strict selection rule (which is completely different from Illustrator). To select an object or a group of objects by dragging your mouse, you must fully enclose all objects. If you draw a selection box around a group of items, but miss even just one corner by a pixel, that object is ignored and isn’t included in the selection.
PowerPoint forces you to be deliberate. You must draw a massive box to ensure the entire object is “roped” in. Miss just one pixel, and that object is not part of the selection. This can be used to the advantage of the designer, or it can become a tedious part of the object selection process!
But take the same slide and the same objects to PowerPoint for Web, and the rules change completely! PowerPoint for Web behaves much more like Adobe Illustrator. Draw a selection marque, and if the selection box touches even just one pixel of an object, it’s included in the selection. So yes, you can enjoy Adobe Illustrator-like selections in PowerPoint…for Web.
It seems like a small detail, but when you’re moving fast, the inconsistency in selection methods between Adobe Illustrator and PowerPoint, and between Desktop PowerPoint and PowerPoint for Web, can easily throw off muscle memory workflows!
Our ask of the PowerPoint Dev team – please add a preference setting in the future to both Desktop and Web versions of PowerPoint to toggle this behavior! Until then, you simply must remember which “mode” your brain needs to be in when you’re designing in the worlds of Adobe and Microsoft.
Talk about a difference in user interface design! Which selection do you prefer, the precision of Desktop or the speed of Web?
-Jake and the TLC Creative Services Design Team