The PowerPoint® Blog Archives - Page 63 of 228

When Scientists Present – a new PowerPoint Podcast Episode!

A new episode of The Presentation Podcast is available today! This episode listen in as Troy, Nolan and Sandy are joined by Mike Morrison. Episode, 87 – When Scientists Present is a fantastic conversation about the scientist mindset to presentation content and a new approach to Poster Presentations!

Listen in on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify and Soundcloud – just search for “The Presentation Podcast” – or go direct to the episode page here: https://thepresentationpodcast.com/podcast/87

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2019-09-27T22:07:29-07:00October 1st, 2019|Resource/Misc|

The Power of Feedback – Morph and Microsoft MVPs

A recent article from Microsoft talks about PowerPoint’s Morph and how internally it continues to improve. In addition, I am often asked what it means to be awarded as an MVP from Microsoft – this article gives a nice callout to how Microsoft interacts with the PowerPoint MVP group for real-world use testing and input on features/bugs/problems/needs. I am happy to report I was part of this discussion – and yes, I had many recommendations on updates that would make Morph even better for our real-life uses 🙂

Full article here.

Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2019-09-27T00:29:10-07:00September 27th, 2019|Personal, Resource/Misc|

Lettering Workshop

This is the banner ad for a hand lettering workshop my daughter is leading later this month (Kelli graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in graphic design, is active with the AIGA leadership and has been asked to lead a workshop in Orange County, California (yes, I am a proud father).

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2019-09-16T09:30:16-07:00September 19th, 2019|Resource/Misc|

The Presentation Podcast Talks Google Slides

A new episode of The Presentation Podcast is available today! This episode we are joined by Vincent Thompson, a Creative Consultant at BrightCarbon to help us better understand Google Slides. Listen to episode, 86 – Should You Use Google Slides for Your Corporate Presentations. Listen in on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify and Soundcloud – just search for “The Presentation Podcast” – or go direct to the episode page here: https://thepresentationpodcast.com/podcast/86

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2019-09-16T09:34:53-07:00September 17th, 2019|Resource/Misc|

Things To Know About The Presentaiton Summit (New Episode! The Presentation Podcast, Episode 85)

A new episode of The Presentation Podcast is available today! This episode join Troy, Nolan and Sandy talk with Rick Altman, the Presentation Summit conference director. Listen to episode, 85 – Things To know About The Presentation Summit (w/ Rick Altman) for news about this years conference and stories never told before!

Listen in on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify and Soundcloud – just search for “The Presentation Podcast” – or go direct to the episode page here: https://thepresentationpodcast.com/podcast/85

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2019-09-01T17:29:35-07:00September 3rd, 2019|Resource/Misc|

The Magic Of F4

While doing some production design on a presentation, the client – who is very PowerPoint savvy – leaned over with wide eyes and said “how are you doing that!?”

What I was doing was making the very tedious process of applying custom paragraph spacing to various text boxes throughout a presentation. How, the power of the F4 key. F4 – first introduced to me I believe by the late (and very great and very much the queen of the color red accessories) Sonia Coleman.

F4 is “repeat last command’. It is not new, but it is one of those small gems for production work that is not widely used.

In my case I had set a paragraph of text to have a custom SPACE BEFORE of 18 pt. The key was adding space before just the primary paragraphs, not the sub-bullet paragraphs. This means the setting cannot be applied to the entire text box, and the current Paragraph Styles functionality is not modal, so must be applied to each paragraph separately.

The tedious process of applying this even just few paragraphs is a minute. Applying this setting to paragraphs throughout a presentation can be 5-10-30 minutes of many extra mouse clicks selecting the paragraph – opening the Paragraph Styles dialog – updating settings and repeating for every paragraph. BUT, do this to 1 paragraph, select the next paragraph and click F4. The last command is repeated, in this case, applying a custom paragraph style. Fly through the slides, selecting paragraphs and clicking F4 and be done with the formatting in a few minutes!

before and after example of where the above custom paragraph spacing was applied to specific paragraphs.

Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2019-08-22T16:34:54-07:00August 23rd, 2019|Tutorial|

New Podcast Episode Released Today!

A new episode of The Presentation Podcast is available today! This episode join Troy, Nolan and Sandy talk with Echo Swinford and Glenna Shaw from the Presentation Guild about the upcoming launch of the Professional Presentation Certifications.

Episode, 84 – Presentation Professional Certifications are Here! (with Echo Swinford and Glenna Shaw) is a behind the scenes conversation with the organizing team at the Presentation Guild about how the certification program came to be, the rational of the test experience, how often the test questions may be updated and more. Listen in on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify and Soundcloud – just search for “The Presentation Podcast” – or go direct to the episode page here: https://thepresentationpodcast.com/podcast/84

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2019-08-19T23:34:05-07:00August 20th, 2019|Resource/Misc|

What to Wear, as a Presenter

I do not repost other stories very often, but this is a good article for anyone that is presenting on stage, or in front of the camera. It is written about being in a video, and all of the tips apply to a presenter on a large stage (where you are also generally on camera too!):

https://sproutvideo.com/blog/help-executive-look-good-camera.html#close

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2019-08-10T18:31:25-07:00August 16th, 2019|Resource/Misc|

SMK-Link Navigator – How To Train an Additional Receiver

TLC Creative Services really likes the SMK-Navigator presentation remote. We have used them for several years, but it is not for the presenter, it is the remote we use backstage to run the computers while the presenter has a cue light remote that signals when to advance the content.

One of the key features of the SMK-Navigator remote is the receiver, the unit connected to the computer, can be sync’d to a remote. More importantly a single remote can be connected to 2-4-12 computers!

The key to the great feature is knowing how to program, or train, the additional remotes to the receiver.

1. Remove USB Receiver from USB port, wait 5 seconds and reconnect.

2. Press and hold the Next button (right arrow) for 10 seconds until red light rapidly flashes.

3. Click the advance button on the remote and the LED light on the receiver should turn solid green (and then back to a slow flashing green).

Done! Now that receiver will work with that remote. Repeat for as many computers as you want the remote to simultaneously control.

Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2019-08-08T13:52:49-07:00August 14th, 2019|Resource/Misc|

No Video Playback, Try These Nvidia Settings

Out of the box we found that our new fleet of show computers did not play .MP4 videos in slide show. We checked PowerPoint was up to date (Offie 365, 64-bit). We confirmed Windows 10 Pro was up to date. We confirmed we had the most current Nvidia drivers. To make things more confusing, videos would play in slide edit view, but not in slide show. A very frustrating situation!

Fortunately for our IT manager, I have already encountered Nvidia and PowerPoint issues. After a few setting updates in the Nvidia control panel, everything works great. Let me share the settings we use on our Nvidia graphics card laptops.

Right click desktop and select “Nvidia control panel”

Go to MANAGE 3D SETTINGS and set these PowerPoint specific settings:

Go to PROGRAM SETTINGS tab
Select MICROSOFT POWERPOINT from program drop-down list
Change Preferred Graphics Processor to HIGH PERFORMANCE NVIDIA PROCESSOR
Change POWER MANAGEMENT MODE to PREFER MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE

Go to MANAGE 3D SETTINGS and update these global settings:

Power Management Mode = Prefer Maximum Performance
Texture Filtering – Quality = High Performance
Threaded Optimization = On

This final Nvidia setting is not a factor in videos actually playing, but it can affect the video quality. The issue is the default color space is not actually pure white and pure black. So if you have seen a video with a white background that does not match the slide white background, this may be the reason.

Go to ADJUST VIDEO COLOR SETTINGS

Select WITH THE NVIDIA SETTINGS
Go to the ADVANCED tab
Dynamic Range = FULL (0-255)
Click APPLY

Hopefully you have not encountered videos not playing issues, but if you have, and you have an Nvidia graphics chip, these options solve things for you!

Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2019-08-08T13:44:01-07:00August 12th, 2019|Resource/Misc|