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

Office 2003 SP3 Release

Yesterday Microsoft released the largest Office Service Pack ever (SP3). It covers security, improvements, Vista compatability and interoperability with Ofifce 2007.

Here is some of the facts Microsoft sent me:
• Over 6000 fixes.
• Over 70% focused on security.
• Includes 600+ new hotfixes (including fixes to Watson crashes).
• Includes 50 public updates/security bulletins.
• Includes SP1 and SP2.
• Total of 77 languages and 398 distinct patches.

Easiest way to download is from Microsoft Office Update.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-11-17T16:26:29-07:00September 19th, 2007|Software/Add-Ins|

PowerPoint 2007 for Dummies

As mentioned, I have been entrenched in two large projects that are being developed in PowerPoint 2007. There are tons of great features in the version – and there are tons of old-and-new annoyances, bugs, etc.

I could either fumble through many of the new features, or I could use some of the great resources that are available to all. Over the past few weeks I have referred to “Cutting Edge PowerPoint 2007” from the “For Dummies” series many times.

This great book is written by fellow PowerPoint MVP Geetesh Bajaj. Not really advocating this book over any other, but I am saying everyone – myself included – has some great resources available.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-11-17T16:26:06-07:00September 17th, 2007|Resource/Misc, Software/Add-Ins|

NXPowerlite Soon for Office 2007

Over the past few days I have been testing a beta version of the next NXPowerlite. Tommy over at Neuxpower Solutions contacted me at a perfect time, as I have been working exclusively in PPT 2007 for two large projects and have plenty of test subjects.

NXPowerlite is compression software for PowerPoint, Word and Excel files. I have been using this software for at least 3 years, so it has a proven track record with me. Version 3.5.1(beta) works with the new .xml format of Office 2007 files (ie. pptx, docx, etc.). The results have been great. One file produced an error, but they are still working out the kinks of embedded objects. The rest of my files did as promised – they got small, without visible quality loss. As example:

File 1: lots of large images and several charts created within Powerpoint. Original 20.8MB, after compression (at the ‘excellent’ level) 12MB.

File 2: LOTS of large images. Original 146MB, after compression 44MB!

When I hear the new product is available I will let you know. In the mean time, you can get the details about NXPowerlite here.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-11-17T16:25:39-07:00September 12th, 2007|Software/Add-Ins|

What is it; Macromedia or Adobe Flash?

Mergers and acquisitions even effect the most seemly stable companies. So the question came up that a client could not find the Macromedia Flash Player, would the Adobe Flash Player work?

Both are the same thing. The Flash format was developed by Macromedia, hence – Macromedia Flash (player). Recently Macromedia was purchased by Adobe and now the Macromedia Flash products have been rebranded Adobe Flash.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-11-17T16:25:10-07:00September 10th, 2007|Software/Add-Ins|

Animation Contest Showcase

Received an email from PowerPoint MVP, Tohlz (Shawn)of PPTHeaven about a PowerPoint Animation Contest held by Korea’s PowerPoint Expert Club.

Shawn has posted the 1st and 2nd place presentations on his site. These are worth the effort to download and look at – lots of great animation effects!

Click here to download and view the winning entry by Coolguy7.

(Note: image shows all of the animations on slide)

Click here to download and view the 2nd place entry by Zzagdol.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-11-17T16:24:27-07:00September 7th, 2007|PowerPoint|

Put PPT 2003 buttons and menus back in PPT 2007

Okay, the time has finally arrived. I am doing a major project in PowerPoint 2007! It is not that I have a problem with PPT 2007, I just have not had a client request. So up until now I have actually used PPT 2007 more when it was in Beta that after its release. Well, like many I am finding it somewhat tedious to learn where everything is in the new interface. I am also working under some tight timelines, so I do not have the luxury of learning at a leisurely pace. So for me a short term solution has been to add back some of the familiar PPT 2003 tool buttons.

This is a limited interface – it does not give you all of your customized layout from PPT 2003 (I wish!), but it does give a familiar look and feel to things. This is a free add-in that can be downloaded from here.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-11-17T16:23:35-07:00September 3rd, 2007|Software/Add-Ins, Tutorial|

Organize and Enhance Movies in Presentation (3)

To add a professional touch to the aesthetics I create a feathered edge rectangle in Photoshop and save it as a .png with a transparent background.

I make sure it is sized just slightly larger than the movie image/placeholder and then send it BEHIND them. This provides a great aesthetic to the slide by adding some depth to the movie and making it float a bit off the background.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-11-17T16:23:15-07:00August 31st, 2007|Portfolio, Tutorial|

Organize and Enhance Movies in Presentation (2)

How does the person reviewing a printout of the slides know which movie is to be played, or even if it is a movie? When a movie is inserted on a slide it adds an image of the first frame of the movie. Sometimes this provides enough information to identify it. Other times it is something abstract or even black.

For all of my projects I take advantage of the fact that a movie will always play on top of all other content. I create a rectangle autoshape that is the same size as the movie image and place it ON TOP of the movie. I then add descriptive text.

Now anyone reviewing the slides in PowerPoint or from a printout knows exactly what is going to happen on this slide. Another benefit of this is that is does hide that first frame image of the movie that PowerPoint created – we’ve all seen the awkward image of the person with their mouth open – eyes closed – and out of focus, it’s a good thing to hide it!


Again, the movie is UNDER the autoshape, but during show mode it will “pop” to the front and hide the autoshape.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-11-17T16:22:56-07:00August 29th, 2007|Tutorial|

Organize and Enhance Movies in Presentation (1)

Do you think of the aesthetics of the slide when adding a movie? Are you satisfied with the fact that the slide is now “high-tech” because it has a movie? Well, that must be the thinking of lots of presentations I receive, as there is often no thought of the overall slide layout and aesthetics.

(1) If there is no other content on the slide, center it.

(2) Respect the template background elements and position the movie within these boundaries (ie. don’t have it overlap the title bar or other framing elements of the background design).

Sounds simple but I see dozens of presentations where movie placement is an after thought.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-11-17T16:22:33-07:00August 27th, 2007|Tutorial|
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