The PowerPoint® Blog Archives - Page 180 of 233

PPT Art – Captain Jack Sparrow

How is this PowerPoint art?

When it is created in PowerPoint with hundreds of autoshapes! Just the mustache is made up of what looks to be over 200 autoshapes (I stopped counting after 75)!

This incredible work by the UK’s Colin Neal can be downloaded from the PowerPointHeaven site. Look for the entry called “Captain Jack Sparrow.” Click here.

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-09-16T10:50:00-07:00March 16th, 2009|PowerPoint, Resource/Misc|

iStockphoto’s

The video is a bit of a commercial for the host, but I do like what Kelly Thompson, iStockphoto’s Vice President of Marketing has to say about images vs. bullets in presentations.

Watch the video here.

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-09-16T10:51:30-07:00March 14th, 2009|Resource/Misc|

Who is Watson and Why is He Important to Microsoft?

In this case Dr. Watson is a debugger for Microsoft, not Sherlock Holmes assistant.

If Dr. Watson is running and a Windows application crashes, such as PowerPoint, it creates a report with technical information that Microsoft developers use to determine what caused the crash. The key is sending the data, which I have been promised is anonymous, to Microsoft.

After spending a few days with the PowerPoint developers at Microsoft last week, like it or not, Watson reports play a HUGE factor in what gets fixed, or updated. So submit those Watson reports whenever possible – they make a difference.

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-09-16T10:52:51-07:00March 12th, 2009|PowerPoint, Tutorial|

Instantly Select The Box – Not The Text

With text boxes, or autoshapes with text in them, there are two types of selection:
1. Selecting the text so it can be edited.
2. Selecting the shape so it can be edited or moved.

Selecting the text is easy, just click inside the box near the text and you get the text cursor. Note, when you have text selected the shape has a dotted line border.

But to select the shape I see people struggle all the time. The three common ways are:
1. Select the text, then carefully click on the dotted line border to change the selection to the shape.
2. Carefully position mouse at edge of shape and click (same as #1, but skipping the text selection – usually).
3. Select the text, then press the ESCape key to change the selection to the shape (this is a great trick if you are unfamiliar with it).

But the 4th, and often best, way to select a shape and not the text is also the easiest.
4. Hold the shift key and click on the shape – anywhere. This only allows the shape to be selected, never the text.

Note: the border is a solid line when the shape is selected.

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-09-16T10:54:15-07:00March 10th, 2009|Tutorial|

SmartArt Balancing Act

SmartArt really makes you look – smart! But did you know the Balance graphic is smart enough to adjust itself…?

Go to INSERT >> SMARTART >> RELATIONSHIP >> BALANCE

Like all SmartArt the graphic is actually controlled by a standard bulleted list.

Here is my sample Balance SmartArt graphic. It has two categories, one for each side. And it starts off with equal balance – 1 bullet point per side.

But if you add more bullets to one side, the scale automatically ‘tips’ to the heavier side! Here I have added a second bullet to Category 1 and tipped the scale.

Note: only primary bullets affect the balance. Adding sub-bullets is fine, but they have no impact on which way the balance beam leans.

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-09-16T10:55:15-07:00March 8th, 2009|Tutorial|

Camtasia 24 Tutorials in 24 Hours

If you use Camtasia Studio, or have an interest in it, the people at Techsmith did a huge internal project of recording 24 video tutorials, in 24 hours, on using Camtasia.

I use Camtasia for lots of projects and got some great tips and alternate production methods. It’s also great to put a face with all the people you hear from at Techsmith.

Check out the videos here.

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-09-16T10:56:19-07:00March 6th, 2009|Software/Add-Ins|

MVP Summit ’09

Spent the day at the Microsoft Conference Center. Everyone can be excited about “Office 14”, the next version of PowerPoint that will (someday) be released.

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-09-16T10:57:44-07:00March 3rd, 2009|Personal|

Microsoft MVP Summit (1)

Heading up to Seattle today for the Microsoft MVP Summit. One of the big honors of being a Microsoft MVP is being a guest on the Redmond campus and getting some indepth time with the PowerPoint product development team.

Looking forward to spending time with the other PowerPoint MVPs, the PowerPoint development team, and hearing from the Microsoft executive team.

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-09-16T10:58:16-07:00March 1st, 2009|Personal|

Lexus LS

The final portfolio post this month is a slide from a 16×9 high-def show (1920x1080px projection onto 28′ wide screen). The template design was subtle gradients with stylized swooshing lines (used in the collateral materials for the meeting).

What makes this slide stand out is the photoshop work. The ‘LS’ chroming and drop shadow was applied to standard text (using the provided Lexus font). Each car was cutout to remove the background (and keeping wheels looking round and proper is not an easy task). The text was done in PPT 2007 with a custom bevel effect. And the nice animation entrance cannot be seen in the static image – but it was nice too.

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-09-16T10:59:21-07:00February 28th, 2009|Portfolio|

Before and After

I received enough email since the last post to make me change my plans and show some of the Before-and-Afters from the project highlighted in the previous post “Higher Education”. As a side note: I have been collecting images for a month long series of before-and-after slides which should be good to go in May (don’t hold me to that) – and this is one of the posts you will see again 🙂

With this project I received a “raw” presentation and was tasked with developing a new template and updating all of the slides. The great thing about the presentation is the content for each slide was very minimal, allowing it to be big – dominant – and on a dynamic template.

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-09-16T11:01:12-07:00February 26th, 2009|Portfolio|