Monthly Archives: February 2016

New Auto Layout Designer

Another new feature of PowerPoint 2016, only available to subscription users, is DESIGNER, which is an automatic layout tool. Here is an example of how it works.

  1. Start with a blank slide – on a Microsoft supplied template (I am using the standard white background new presentation)
    Designer 1
  2. I entered some text in the title placeholder and used the Insert Image option for the content placeholder
    Designer 2
  3. Go to the DESIGN tab and click the new DESIGN IDEAS button
    Designer 3
  4. The right action pane opens the DESIGN IDEAS interface, click LET’S GO
    Designer 4
  5. The Design Ideas pane displays a number of layout options
    Designer 5
  6. Scroll through the options, select any to see and use, these layouts (and several others) were automatically created with a simple click
    Designer 6

Fantastic feature for both the designer and non-designer! But at this stage there are a few downsides to the new DESIGNER tool.

  • The biggest downside is if you do not have PowerPoint 2016, and a subscription version (eg. Office 365), Designer is not available in PowerPoint.
  • The biggest limitation is that it will only work with Microsoft supplied templates. Open the DESIGN tool on a custom template and get the message below.
  • If you do not use layout placeholders (eg. add your own text boxes and insert images not through a placeholder insert image icon), and you get the message below.

Designer 7

Overall, a great idea and smooth implementation. But because TLC virtually never uses a Microsoft template (or theme), this feature has very limited use for us – but I am hopeful Designer will continue to expand its capabilities.

 

-Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T08:41:53-07:00February 5th, 2016|PowerPoint, Software/Add-Ins|

MORPH Now Available in PowerPoint 2016!

Office 365 subscription users have a new feature in PowerPoint called Morph, which was automatically added* (and you may not even know it is there). There is a long list of animation requests, but this feature is a slide transition that creates animation visuals, all without looking at the animation tab. Here is an example animation that took less than 3 minutes to create.

Morph Demo:

[KGVID]https://thepowerpointblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/unnamed-file-2.mp4[/KGVID]

The process is easy. If you have used Mac Keynote’s Magic Move, the concept is similar – but PowerPoint’s Morph has a few distinctions. Slide setup is easy. For this sample, I added an arrow to the first slide, duplicated that slide and moved the arrow to a new position. Then, I duplicated that slide and re-positioned the arrow, flipped it, and recolored it. Finally, I duplicated the slide 1 last time and added in a collection of additional arrows. No animation.

Morph 1

After designing the 4 slides, it just needed to have a few slide transitions. To find Morph, go to the slide transition tab and look for the new transition option.
Morph 2

(1.) Slide 1 = Fade slide transition

(2.) Slide 2 = Morph slide transition

(3.) Slide 3 = Morph slide transition

(4.) Slide 4 = Wipe from Right slide transition

Again, all of this motion is achieved with no animation!

Morph 3

Download this Sample Animation.

*Morph is available as of this post to Office 365 subscription users that has opted in for the Insiders Program (basically Microsoft’s Beta release program).

-Troy @ TLC

By |2019-10-31T22:16:49-07:00February 3rd, 2016|PowerPoint|

Office 2016 Subscription or Not?

office 2016

Microsoft has released Office 2016, but saying “PowerPoint 2016” can mean several things…

I am sure the goal for Microsoft is to make things simple, so using one name for all platforms made sense – on paper.

Here are a few of the variations:

  • Office 2016 Windows Desktop
  • Office 2016 Mac
  • Office 2016 subscription (Office 365)
  • Office 2016 perpetual license (purchased)

Which are you using? Which is best? How do we let someone helping with troubleshooting know what variation is being used? All important because every variation has slightly different features, limitations, bugs, etc.

The biggest decision is Subscription or Perpetual License (I make this assumption, because if you use a Windows computer you are going to get the Windows version, and if you use a Mac you are going to get the Mac version – I am not saying which platform is best). There are some disadvantages to each option. But there is one advantage to the subscription option that makes it, for me, the better option.

Office365 Logo

Microsoft and Adobe (Creative Cloud) are now offering feature improvements and additions to only their subscription versions. So, if you purchase Office 2016, that is the feature set you will have. Microsoft will continue to update it with security and compatibility items, but new or improved features are not going to show up in a perpetual license version. Very quickly PowerPoint 2016 perpetual and PowerPoint 2016 subscription are going to be very different applications. And I can confidently say, the PowerPoint development team has more exciting features cued up for the next year than we have seen in the past (big number) years.

The next post demo’s one of the new subscription only features!

-Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T08:42:16-07:00February 1st, 2016|PowerPoint|
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