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

It’s a Small World – But Not This Small

This is from an actual email I received – it was too good to not share. Everyone says, “it is a small world” and “technology brings us together”. But a company over 5,000 miles away (8000 kilometers) is not “just down the road”…

BTW, created the above graphic in less than 3 minutes using PowerPoint as the layout canvas and some Noun Project icons (see, connecting this random post to the blog focus!).

-Troy @ TLC

By |2022-10-21T07:48:47-07:00October 21st, 2022|Personal|

Why Do My Slides Start at Zero? (an update)

The question is why do the slides in this deck start with zero!?

Back in January 2007 I answered this question in the blog post. Fast forward 15 years and I just had a slide deck that started with zero. I do not hide that this blog is as much my resource as anyone’s. So, a quick search gave me the answer to a long forgotten how-to in PowerPoint and I was able to finish the presentation makeover project.

But I noted that back in 2007, PowerPoint’s interface was bit different and getting to this setting is a bit different now.

To change the starting slide number:

  • Go to the DESIGN tab
  • Click the SLIDE SIZE drop down menu
  • Select CUSTOM SLIDE SIZE
  • The Slide Size dialog is much the same today as it was in 2007 (now with Microsoft’s flat design aesthetic)
  • Set the starting slide number in the NUMBER SLIDES FROM field

Troy @ TLC

 

By |2022-10-07T07:32:13-07:00October 6th, 2022|Tutorial|

Real-Time Presenter Notes Edits Through Teams

As a follow up to the previous blog post (Edit Presenter Notes Live While Presenting!), I have been leveraging Microsoft Teams real-time collaboration (which I find an amazing tool!) for updating presenter notes for quite a while. The process is very easy, assuming you are running Office 365 and have a Microsoft Teams account. The presentation file is uploaded to Microsoft Teams. I open the PowerPoint file using the OPEN > OPEN IN APP, so desktop PowerPoint is used (vs. Teams or PowerPoint for Web). The SAME presentation is opened on the show computer (the computer running the slide show) and on my production computer. The only limitation is the internet connection speed (which is a constant concern while working in a hotel ballroom!). My goal is to NOT touch the show computer, I like it to just present – never lose focus on the slide show, never escape out of slide show.

I make edits on my production/design computer, and they show up on the presentation computer – including presenter notes!

Troy @ TLC

By |2022-09-28T07:05:29-07:00September 29th, 2022|PowerPoint|

Edit Presenter Notes Live While Presenting!

The ability to edit presenter notes, while presenting, is now available on both Windows and Mac desktop apps!  In edit view, presenter notes are added, and edited here:

And when presenting, those notes display here in Presenter View:

What is new is the ability to in Presenter View click into the Presenter Notes area. The notes area gets a white outline, indicating the focus is there. While the notes area is the focus, the presenter notes can be modified!

This is great for all presenters and a great addition to the functionality of PowerPoint!

Troy @ TLC

By |2022-09-27T13:13:04-07:00September 27th, 2022|PowerPoint|

The Presentation Team in Chicago

If you listened to the podcast that released Tuesday of this week, these are photos from that event. When asked if TLC Creative can supply a top-level presentation team – well just look at the photos! Lori, Sandy, Echo, Paul, Jake, and several others not shown – we have any event, and any presentation needs covered!

By |2022-09-16T07:00:51-07:00September 22nd, 2022|Personal|

Make the Windows 11 Start Menu Better

I have moved to Windows 11, on my main design computer. So I have been spending lots of time tweaking the interface to be more familiar and work better for my workflow. The Start Menu is a big change from Windows 10, but I found a small feature set that is making it better – adding these shortcut icons!

To add these time saving shortcuts to your Windows 11 Start Menu, go to SETTINGS > PERSONIZATION > START > and then the part that is not intuitive (to me) is calling these shortcuts “folders”. Click on the arrow icon to see the options.

From the Folders menu, turn on all (I did not turn on PERSONAL FOLDERS for my workflow).

Done! The Windows 11 Start Menu has all of the shortcuts I was using in Windows 10, just in a different location (I prefer the Windows 11 location).

-Troy @ TLC

By |2022-09-16T05:19:16-07:00September 16th, 2022|Software/Add-Ins|
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