The PowerPoint® Blog

I work with PowerPoint on a daily basis and I am very honored to be a Microsoft PowerPoint MVP. We have a talented team of presentation designers at TLC Creative Services and ThePowerPointBlog is our area to highlight PowerPoint tips, tricks, examples and tutorials. Enjoy! Troy Chollar

“Backstage” Defined

In PPT 2010 when you click the upper left button the Backstage opens.

On a recent call with the Microsoft PowerPoint team I heard this quick definition of the backstage area that is great:
“Backstage has things you do to a document” (such as save, print, convert, etc.).

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T10:43:55-07:00November 27th, 2010|Resource/Misc|

Flow Diagram – Before & After Slide #22

These slides come from a recent project. The original had a Visio (?) flow diagram. Aside from being an uneditable .jpg image, it was full of colors that were inconsistent with the rest of the deck and could use a bit of professional polish.

The recreated diagram used a subtler color scheme, separate elements to show the sections, and everything recreated in PPT to allow animations and section-by-section edits as needed.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T10:45:28-07:00November 24th, 2010|Portfolio|

GREAT Deal on Video Backgrounds from Footage Firm

One of the Technical Directors I work with sent me a link to this great deal over the weekend (thanks Paul!). The company, Footage Firm (as in film footage), is doing a special promo and basically giving away a selection of their DVDs (approx. $9 each in shipping vs. regular price of $139 each).

With PPT 2010 supporting video and audio as embedded and ability to add content on top of them, this is a great opportunity to expand your video library with professional footage. Only 500 copies of each DVD is available on the promo (now 499 as I purchased a full set). Here is the webpage with details.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T10:48:09-07:00November 22nd, 2010|Resource/Misc|

The Questions Slide

This is a slide from a recent project. The supplied original was the template title slide with the word “Questions” in the middle. This was the final slide of the presentation and I wove in a puzzle theme throughout.

Using a stock photo (from Thinkstock.com) the entire effect was developed in PowerPoint. First was adjusting the photos color by going to PICTURE TOOLS >> FORMAT >> ADJUST >> CORRECTIONS >> and using a preset Brightness/Contrast setting:

Then adding the reflection to the inserted logo and text. For the logo reflection PICTURE TOOLS >> FORMAT >> PICTURE STYLES >> PICTURE EFFECTS >> REFLECTION >> and using a preset. For the Text reflection DRAWING TOOLS >> FORMAT >> TEXT EFFECTS >> REFLECTION >> and using a preset:

And finally, the final touch of the cast shadow under the logo with a gradient filled oval shape:

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T10:48:29-07:00November 17th, 2010|Portfolio|

Sales Funnel Slide (Before and After)

From a recent project here is an example before/after slide set. The initial slide had all the data, labeling and graphic.

My process was to make the slide and its content consistent with the style, color scheme and layouts of the redesigned presentation. So the funnel graphic and the text remained intact, just with new, stylized graphics and layout.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T10:48:58-07:00November 15th, 2010|Portfolio|

Free eBook “…7-Minute Rifle-Shot Presentation”

Presentation messaging expert Joey Asher has a new book out “15 Mintues Including Q&A: A Plan to Save the World From Lousy Presentations“.

From the book he offers a FREE 38 page eBook titled “How to Create a Seven Minute Rifle Shot Presentation”. In the first 2 pages it will either have you applauding or revolting at the idea (I applauded). I, of course, like the way Mr. Asher always carries the concept of a quality, visually appealing presentation as an underlying priority.

Go to the PDF here.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T10:49:51-07:00November 10th, 2010|Resource/Misc|

MVP Glenna Shaw on PPT 2010 Transitions

Indezine.com has an interview with fellow PowerPoint MVP Glenna Shaw that talks about using the new PPT 2010 Dynamic Content transitions to solve an animation request – And I am mentioned in the article for offering suggestions on how to use the new transitions.

See the interview write up here.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T10:50:06-07:00November 7th, 2010|Resource/Misc|

Working Backstage

Just a quick picture of myself backstage at a recent corporate show where I coordinated the presentation design and show computers (for what was projected). I am on the left – surrounded by computers.

Thanks for the picture Paul!

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T10:50:32-07:00November 5th, 2010|Personal|

Recolor .png Images in PPT

I am continously reflecting on how much more I can do inside PPT 2010 vs. going out to an external application such as Photoshop when developing slides. Here is an example from a recent project that was done in PPT in a matter of seconds vs. opening image in Photoshop, adjusting, saving, importing new version of image.

Here is my highly stylized trend line (used on a slide to show the economy is making progress, without showing any detailed numbers or facts). It is a .png image I prepared in Photoshop and inserted into the presentation.

Here is the same image, now full screen and on the presentation template backgound – it does not have enough contrast against the background.

By selecting the image and then going to FORMAT >> CORRECTIONS I used the presets (all based on the template color scheme) to recolor the trendline image to a color with more contrast.

Done. Move on to next slide.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T10:51:13-07:00November 3rd, 2010|Tutorial|
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