The PowerPoint® Blog Archives - Page 186 of 239

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|

Higher Education Presentation

This project was for a university program. They needed a template that integrated their school colors, but was lively-energetic-modern-cool. That was the direction provided and from there I was able to go in any direction. I developed 5 concepts and this was the one selected.

The template also used a custom font, which was installed on all presentation computers vs. embedding in the presentation. It featured 3 master slides:
1. Title slide
2. Content slide
3. Full Frame slide

The full frame layout is unique in that generally this style master slide removes the title bar to allow room for images/charts that need the full frame. In this template the title are is actually defined by the absence of the content area. So the Full Frame slide has the content area extended, creating a full canvas for content.

Of course there is a lot of competing visuals with a template like this. The background is full of contrasting, dominant shapes. It has a definite flow that draws the eye across the slide (from left-right). Lots of small text could easily become lost. And this would not be first choice for “standard” corporate template.

For this project I was provided the full (raw) presentation before any design work began and was able see the type of content. Because the content was large, minimal and to-the-point (eg. no inserted 200 cell excel charts or 20 bulleted lines) I was able to go with a more dominant and visual template design.

Here are few slides from the presentation:

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-09-16T11:02:15-07:00February 24th, 2009|Portfolio, Templates/Assets|

Secret Saturdays Template

If you have boy, age 6-12, you a probably familiar with Secret Saturdays. This is a new cartoon series on Cartoon Network and with my 3 girls I was forced to enjoy some research watching several episodes to get in touch with my inner adventurous boy before developing this marketing template.

Working with entertainment properties, especially animated properties, is great. They have all the visual assets needed. And they are all high-res and layered (so no background).

For this project I assembled all of the characters into good and bad. Then selected the most vertical poses and went to work in Photoshop to create my layouts. The key characters (the good guys) are on the left, remain a constant throughout all master slides and positioned just far enough off the slides to not interfer with the content area. The background is a great line drawing the characters overlayed on the primary background color (pulled from the style sheet). And there are 4 master slides:
1. Theme (used at beginning and end of presentations)
2. Title slide
3. Content slide
4. Full Frame slide

Definitely not your standard corporate template – and I bet these presentations are more fun to sit through!

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-09-16T11:02:43-07:00February 22nd, 2009|Portfolio, Templates/Assets|