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NXPowerlite to the (PowerPoint) Rescue!

At the 2026 Presentation Summit last week, completely unplanned, Lori demonstrated the NXPowerlite PowerPoint add-in during her speaking session. Troy also demonstrated the NXPowerlite PowerPoint add-in during one of his speaking sessions! Here’s a demo of NXPowerlite in use:

NXPowerlite is from the super-talented code team at neuxpower. The same developers that brought us Slidewise!
Running NXPowerlite compresses all images in a presentation to the resolution profile selected. This is my #1 go-to for optimizing presentation files that are too big; clients ask me to “shrink the file”. It can also optimize PDF, PowerPoint, Word, Excel, JPEG, PNG & TIFF files.
- NOTE: This is a Windows PowerPoint add-in (no Mac version).
Approximately $60 USD.
More details and download here: https://neuxpower.com/nxpowerlite-desktop

– Troy @ TLC Creative Services, Inc.

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2026-09-17T08:27:25-07:00September 24th, 2026|Software/Add-Ins|

New Podcast Episode Available! “Confessions of a Reluctant AI Presentation Designer”

New episode of The Presentation Podcast now available!

Artificial Intelligence is no longer a futuristic buzzword. AI is a practical, transformative force in business workflows, AND, for the world of presentation design, AI has become part of our workflows. Troy Chollar (TLC Creative Services) and Nolan Haims (Nolan Haims Creative) share their firsthand experiences and insights on how AI tools like Microsoft Copilot, Claude, ChatGPT, and standalone image AI Tools like Adobe Firefly and others are reshaping the way professionals are now approaching presentations and daily operations. Listen on your favorite podcast app, or at The Presentation Podcast site here.

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2026-09-21T17:12:21-07:00September 22nd, 2026|Resource/Misc|

You Need Thor’s Hammer (for your PowerPoint formatting)!

This free add-in for Windows PowerPoint is something everyone (that works in PowerPoint, on a Windows computer) should have! It accomplishes a simple thing – and it’s something the developers of PowerPoint overlooked. It’s also something I use 10-20x a day… sometimes up to 300 times a day while formatting slides!

The long and short of it is that it picks up and memorizes the position of any item on a slide. You can use Thor’s Hammer to place any other item in that exact same location.

The position is held in memory, until you pickup and memorize a new location. Use it on different slides throughout the deck. Use it to position things into that position on OTHER decks!

This is one of those things that you cannot believe you worked in PowerPoint without it, once you have it!

Download this PowerPoint add-in from PPTools here: https://www.pptools.com/free/FAQ00002-THOR-The-Hammer.htm

– Troy @ TLC Creative Services, Inc.

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2026-09-17T19:28:52-07:00September 17th, 2026|Software/Add-Ins|

Free PowerPoint QAT Profile!

The PowerPoint Quick Access Toolbar, or QAT, is the #1 native PowerPoint feature everyone should be using to improve their productivity!

Included with PowerPoint
PowerPoint for Mac QAT has limited options (hopefully something the PowerPoint dev team will update to match the Windows PowerPoint QAT!)
The tedious process of setting up the QAT layout with buttons is super easy by importing a saved profile!
note: if the buttons on the QAT are words and not icons, go to this earlier post with the steps to change things back to icons (My QAT is All Words! Give Me Back My Icons, Dec 26, 2204)
Note: all of the examples, and the downloadable preset QAT profile, are all for Windows PowerPoint

FIRST

The default setup for the QAT is to be above the Ribbon.
Move it to under the ribbon.

DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL

Download the TLC Creative QAT (CLICK TO DOWNLOAD)
Open Microsoft PowerPoint.
Go to File > Options > Quick Access Toolbar (or Customize Ribbon).
Click Import/Export
Select Import Customization File.
Choose either a QAT you have saved, or the downloaded “TLC Creative Custom QAT_PowerPoint Customizations.exportedUI”

THE TLC CREATIVE PRESET QAT

This version of the QAT is all native PowerPoint functions (search “QAT” for previous blog posts where I talk about add-in functions I also have on my design computer).
44 formatting functions always available!

Hoping this makes your work time in PowerPoint faster and more efficient!

-Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2026-09-14T16:13:23-07:00September 15th, 2026|PowerPoint, Resource/Misc, Software/Add-Ins|

Rounded is Here to Stay in PowerPoint

Back in July 2021, we wrote about PowerPoint’s visual refresh and Microsoft’s generous use of rounded corners throughout the user interface. At the time, Microsoft was referring to the style as “Soft Corners,” and we pointed out how it showed up across the Ribbon, the QAT, and, especially, the slide thumbnails in the left filmstrip.

Now we have an update, five years later.

THE UPDATE

The rounded corners are still there, and for presentation design work, they are still not great.

The main issue still is the slide thumbnails. A PowerPoint slide is a rectangle, and designers build around that rectangle. And while the actual slide canvas still displays correctly, the thumbnail preview rounds off the corners, which slightly changes how the slide appears at a glance.

Sometimes that is barely noticeable… but other times, especially with slides that use strong borders, corner details, or a very clean linear style, the thumbnail can make the slide look different from what it actually is!

That sounds like a tiny UI detail, but in a visual design tool, small UI details like this matter so much.

Rounded corners can make an interface feel modern and consistent with current app and web design trends, but in PowerPoint, the slide thumbnail is not just decorative; it’s a working reference. Designers use thumbnails to scan layouts and spot design issues quickly. When the thumbnail changes the perceived shape of the slide, it becomes less reliable as a reference tool.

So, five years later, our view has not really changed: the rounded UI is still part of PowerPoint, and the rounded slide thumbnails are still not ideal.

-Troy @ TLC Creative

By Briana Hernandez|2026-09-01T11:49:24-07:00September 3rd, 2026|Resource/Misc|

New Podcast Episode Available! “What Makes the 2026 Presentation Summit a Must-Attend Event for Presentation Professionals?”

Episode 253 welcomes Presentation Summit founder Rick Altman to chat with hosts Troy Chollar, Sandy Johnson, and Nolan Haims about the upcoming 2026 Presentation Summit. Celebrating its 24th year, the Summit remains the gold standard for presentation training and networking.

It is a fully virtual event, globally accessible (for both attendees and presenters!), a packed schedule with the industry’s best presentation instructors, and amazing non-industry guest keynotes. Want to know what makes this year’s event special? Tune in and get a behind-the-scenes preview before the conference begins. Listen on your favorite podcast app, or at The Presentation Podcast site here.

By Briana Hernandez|2026-08-25T09:27:04-07:00September 1st, 2026|Resource/Misc|

Adobe Stock Images are Free!

TLC Creative Services has maintained an Adobe Stock (https://stock.adobe.com) subscription for our design team for several years. Yes, it is a budget expense, but the freedom when designing of not having any issue with getting high-quality, royalty free images for design projects has been worth the expense.

Well this is something new that I observed just this week – and I am not certain how I feel about it…

Adobe Stock has had a limited number of “standard” images available for free, to anyone that has a free Adobe Creative Cloud account. But this week as I am searching for images the “Download for free” label has been on upwards of 50% of the images! Good for everyone, but kind of makes me wonder what TLC Creative is paying for as we rarely used the monthly credits (which do not roll over to the next month’s allotment).

I am going to look into what changes Adobe has made to their image offerings – my assumption is their push to expand the Adobe Express app use included a significant increase in free assets. So if you need art assets for a presentation, or any design project, Adobe Stock appears to have more (lots more!) available for free!

-Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2026-08-27T12:06:37-07:00August 27th, 2026|Resource/Misc|

Stop Adobe Express From Automatically Opening Downloaded Images

If you are suddenly experiencing (and most likely being frustrated) downloaded images automatically opening in Adobe Express – you are not alone!

My first frustration was – why is Adobe Express installed on my computer, I did not install it! Yes I have Adobe Creative Cloud and have several Adobe apps installed. But Adobe Express is not an app I clicked to have installed. My assumption is that a recent Adobe update silently included this as a companion app – argh!

So here is what I am talking about. I have found this image on our Adobe Stock account and downloaded it. Note: Adobe Stock is not the reason, or connector – any downloaded image, from any web resource, is going to trigger this new “helpfulness”.

To confirm, the image is my downloads folder:

But after downloading, the Adobe Express app launches and displays the downloaded image. Apparently Adobe feels they know a better workflow and feel they should change my workflow to working on this image in their app – argh!!

The only good news is, this is easy to turn off! In Adobe Express, click the account icon in the upper right and then Settings.

There are surprising few settings options. Turn off the “Images Downloaded from the Web” option.

Done. Adobe Express will no longer launch and open each image you downloaded (BTW, I was downloading 20+ icons for a presentation project from The Noun Project – and the constant interruption of Adobe Express opening each image is what set me off on figuring out how to turn of the unwanted behavior!).

Perhaps I will do a future post on Adobe Express’s capabilities as it does offer some good image editing features – and a paid Adobe Creative Cloud account is not needed to install and use it, although there are many limitations in the free version.

-Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2026-08-22T15:55:42-07:00August 25th, 2026|Software/Add-Ins|

PowerPoint’s New Open Dialog

PowerPoint’s open file recently had a makeover. Previously there was a small information text line and status bar in the lower right. Now that information is in the center of the edit area and much larger.

If you have not noticed it, it is most likely your computer is fast, and the PowerPoint files are small. I have noticed that many files do not have time to display the open information or status bar because the file is instantly open.

It is a small item, but I like that it shows us the PowerPoint team is focused on improving PowerPoint!

-Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2026-08-19T18:24:45-07:00August 20th, 2026|PowerPoint|

New Podcast Episode Available! “Midyear Check – Where Do You Use “AI” for Presentations?”

New episode of The Presentation Podcast now available!

As we reach the midpoint of 2026, the world of presentations is undergoing profound transformation, thanks to the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence. This episode we are joined by presentation experts who share their real-world experiences, frustrations, and triumphs with AI-powered tools for their PowerPoint-related workflows.

Across all conversations, a clear theme emerged: AI is a powerful assistant, but not a replacement for human expertise. Listen on your favorite podcast app, or at The Presentation Podcast site here.

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2026-08-15T13:33:05-07:00August 18th, 2026|Resource/Misc|