The PowerPoint® Blog Archives - Page 184 of 238

Online Paint Program Sumo Paint

Don’t have Photoshop and want something a bit more feature rich than Paint? I spent some time experimenting with the online image editing program “Sumo Paint”.

Sumo Paint is flash based, so the only thing needed is the flash plugin. There are a number of youtube videos (some better than others) that demo some of the unique features like the Symetry brush. For an online application it worked virtually identical to an installed application, it is free and does lots of great stuff.

Head over to Sumo Paint here. Even if you do not need another paint program/image editor, it is worth a few minutes to play with Sumo Paint and see how feature rich the new generation of online applications are. Here is a quick image I created in 20 seconds using the symmetry tool and then a few filters.

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-09-16T10:43:45-07:00March 26th, 2009|Software/Add-Ins|

It’s Like Cheating To Be a Graphic Designer These Days

I am working on a simple project this past week, #10 envelope return address layout, for a company. I have the logo, important information (address, phone numbers, web address, etc.) and begin developing a series of layouts for the client to review and indicate what design direction they like. After my 4th layout I am beginning to really have to think to come up with alternative layouts, then my best idea comes out – go to Live Search or Google and do an image search for ‘envelop design’ It’s like cheating! Instantly I have 1,000’s of ideas in front of me (actually 3,340,000 in 0.06 seconds).

Instant creativity. Instant design diversity. Instantly I realize the internet has changed the world of design and it is a communal thing now. And instantly I realize that all the new designers are cheating – they are not spending $500 per stock photo, not spending hours tweaking designs to come up with something new for their client (although this is the most valuable education a designer can get) and not even having to spend real money on computers (only the software has stayed costly, like the $1,700 I just gave to Adobe for CS4). Maybe it’s not so much cheating as it is not fair… Oh well, onto the next project, at least I gained lots of experience along the way that clients seem to like 🙂

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-09-16T10:46:09-07:00March 24th, 2009|Personal|

Right-Click From Keyboard

It can happen, just watch the 1:00pm – Customizing ExpressShow with Dan Davis video at TechSmith’s 24-in-24 Camatasia tutorials where someone had to run out and grab an external mouse to use a right-click to access the needed menu. Well now you will never be stuck in that situation with this nifty trick.

Just press the SHIFT + F10 and you have right clicked!

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-09-16T10:47:11-07:00March 22nd, 2009|Tutorial|

Baaaad Slides

CIO.com has some really bad slides for all to see. Each has a little info about the origin of the slide. Not that I agree with all of the comments (I have seen worse), but it is a good use for 5 minutes of your day. Click here to see them all.

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-09-16T10:48:26-07:00March 20th, 2009|Resource/Misc|

MVP Summit 09 PPT MVPs

Fellow PowerPoint MVP Geetesh Gajaj posted this great group shot of the PowerPoint MVPs and a number of the MS Office and PowerPoint developers. It has a fun interactive rollover feature that tells you who each person is. It is on flickr here.

I am over on the far left.

-Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-09-16T10:49:10-07:00March 18th, 2009|Personal|

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|