The PowerPoint® Blog Archives - Page 7 of 209

Why Separate Text Boxes Over Shapes is BAD

Continuing on from the previous post, “Circles and Text (that does not fit)“, with some best practice reasons for NOT stacking a text box on top of a shape.

It is lazy formatting.
Often it is because knowing how to control PowerPoint’s text formatting within a shape are not features used (see the previous post on using shape internal margins as an example of formatting options that are not commonly used).
It makes future edits to the slide tedious. As an example, two elements, the shape and the text box, need to be moved together to stay aligned.
Text boxes stacked on top of a shape generally are not truly horizontally aligned to the shape. As example, a text box stacked on top of a shape with the text horizontally centered is most likely not actually centered, because the text box margins push the text off center – ugh!
Animation seems easier, but again, a shape and text within the shape can be set as independent elements on the animation timeline – overcoming almost every instance where the two separate elements have been stacked and animated separately.
The Office/PowerPoint accessibility tools do not work, because they have several limitations on identifying stacked elements. As example, white text on top of a light blue shape is (currently) not seen by the accessibility checker as a flagged low contrast item, because PowerPoint looks at a text box, what that text box shape fill color is, and then the slide background. It ignores layered elements.
It is easier to manage text line wraps if the text is within a shape vs. manually adjusting – and the line wrap needs are automatically updated when the shape, or the text size, is updated – if the text is part of the shape.

The important message is, creating PowerPoint slides is a balancing act of what is fast and looks okay vs. using best practices to create slides that are future-proofed for easy formatting and use.

Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2023-08-31T16:21:06-07:00September 1st, 2023|Personal, PowerPoint|

Circles and Text (that does not fit)

I really (really) do not like it when a separate text box is placed on top of a circle, because “the text would not fit”. In transparency, this may be exactly what I dealt with while formatting a presentation – and I am solving the problem by showing how to “make the text fit” in a circle.

Here is the common situation. The circle is where it is needed, and the size needed. The text is added to the circle object, but it does not fit and wraps to two lines.

Looking at the circle and its text properties reveals the problem. The circle has an interior text margin applied, making full circle not available for the text.

If we remove the interior margin and set the Left/Right/Top/Bottom to zero, the text now has room to fit inside the circle! Same font and font size, the text just needed to be able to get closer to the edge of the circle.

Here I do not want the text to fit, I want it large and overlapping the circle. But PowerPoint is being too helpful and keeping the text inside the circle. Note: the shape margins are set to zero’s (which is great).

In this situation, turn off the text wrap. This allows the big text to stay as part of the circle, but go beyond the circle shape

Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2023-08-16T09:32:16-07:00August 29th, 2023|Tutorial|

Windows Snipping Tool Has Taken Over the PRINTSCREEN Button

I have been a Techsmith Snagit user for a long time, and I use it 10-50 times each day, primarily for screen captures (design feedback where an image is easier than 2 paragraphs, or tutorials like the screen capture images in this blog post!).

Windows added the “Windows Snipping Tool” to the OS, and it is a nice screen capture tool. We use it on our rental fleet of show computers. But I cannot live without Snagit.

A recent Windows 11 update changed the behavior of my PRINT SCRN button – it made the Windows Snipping Tool activate when it was clicked. But I have purposefully set the PRINT SCRN button on my computer to launch the Snagit app. And, the Windows OS settings are different now, making it a bit more awkward to allow a different app (instead of Windows Snipping Tool app) use the PRINT SCRN button. If you found this blog post from a search, I am guessing you too want to change what app is opened when print screen is clicked. Here is the solution:

Open the Windows Search bar
Type “Snipping Tool”
Select the option “Use the Print screen key to open Snipping Tool”
This opens the Settings > Accessibility > Keyboard dialog
Turn OFF the option telling Windows to open the Snipping Tool app when the Print Screen button is clicked

That’s it. Now the preferences in Snagit, or any other app, can be set to use the Print Screen button.

Now, here is what I am guessing you did (I did):

Open the Snipping Tool app
Click the 3-dot menu and select SETTINGS
Scroll down to the SHORTCUTS section and become perplexed by the info to open Windows Settings…
Eventually go to the Windows Settings and update as noted above.

Keep this blog post handy. I assume each major Windows 11 update will reset this setting and the Print Screen button will revert to opening Windows native screen capture app – Snipping Too.

Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2023-08-16T09:31:43-07:00August 24th, 2023|Software/Add-Ins|

Slidewise Has a New Icon (Yay!!)

Neuxpower’s Slidewise PowerPoint add-in has an updated version. Version 1.10.0.0. If you have Slidewise installed, it is a free and quick install. Go to Slidewise on the PowerPoint toolbar and select CHECK FOR UPDATES, which opens the Slidewise website to the download page (or go here).

There are a few feature updates. But the update that has me excited is the app icon has changed! This is most likely only going to be exciting for those that also use Slido – which I do. Both icons are located on the HOME tab. Both are green. Both have a large letter “S”. And both (were) round. All the similarities to assure you click the wrong icon often!

I welcome the new square Slidewise icon and say THANK YOU to the Neuxpower dev team for making changes to their app to help users!

Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2023-08-18T09:55:25-07:00August 22nd, 2023|Software/Add-Ins|

Outlook’s New Emoji Reply to Emails

Microsoft Office apps continue to evolve. I mentioned this on The Presentation Podcast episode that was released this week – Outlook has a new “emoji” reply option.

So instead of replying with an email message we can now make our replies like a text message and “like-heart-smiley” them…

If you give an emoji reply, Outlook replies with an email like this:

Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2023-08-15T09:00:29-07:00August 17th, 2023|Software/Add-Ins|

The Presentation Podcast – Whatever Happened to TED?

Technology, Entertainment, Design – TED, ideas worth spreading. TED talks provide an amazing platform for presenters. The organization has made quality presentation skills and presentation design a factor to be considered in all presentations. Our conversation today is that for the three of us, it feels as though the age of the TED Talk has diminished. We are revisiting TED talks and sharing our favorite talks, old and new, what talks we have been involved with, and where TED is today.

Listen to the conversation here.

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2023-08-14T15:12:01-07:00August 15th, 2023|Resource/Misc|

Office has a New Default Color Scheme!

The last post highlighted the new default font, Aptos. There is also a new default color scheme!

The revision is subtle as you can see with the side-by-side comparison. The Standard Colors remain unchanged (unchanged since 1998 I believe!). I learned much of the color decisions the Microsoft team takes into consideration are for accessibility needs – and there is a lot of documentation and reason for each color selected. The formula for the color tints remains unchanged, and not accessible to users.

Here is a larger view of the color chips

In researching the previous color schemes for a comparison, I located color schemes for Office 2007-2010, then Office 2013-2022 and the new theme that is just labelled “Office Theme”. There is not a missing color scheme. The naming is based on the version number of PowerPoint, and we had no new version of PowerPoint between 2010 and 2013!

Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2023-07-31T14:00:12-07:00August 10th, 2023|PowerPoint|

Office has a new default font – Aptos!

PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook officially have a new default font.

Note: As of today I am not seeing the new font used when I open a blank presentation, on both desktop app and PowerPoint online, but it is coming! The Aptos font family is available in the font list, but not used as the default font when opening new, blank documents. Because the Aptos font has officially been announced and released, I think it will be rolled out to everyone within the next few weeks – assuming they are on a Microsoft 365 subscription.

Quick history of the default font in Microsoft Office apps:

Times New Roman – default font until 2007
Calibri – 2007 to 2023
Aptos – 2023 to ??

From Si Daniels, a principal program manager at Microsoft, “Aptos is a part of a broader wave of features coming to Microsoft 365. We’re pushing to make the software more expressive and inclusive,” explains Daniels. “There’s a newly designed font picker experience, along with new themes, colors, and backgrounds.” More on these over the next few posts!

Other notable information about Aptos:

It has 24 font types
It is designed to work equally well for high-resolution display and print, from very small to very large
It is designed for global use, supporting all major languages
The process began several years ago when Microsoft started the replacement to Calibri by adding five new fonts in 2021; Tenorite, Bierstadt, Skeena, Seaford, and Grandview
Bierstadt and Aptos are the same font. In 2023 the Bierstadt font was renamed to Aptos, but the font in both names remains available

I am excited by this font. The variety of font weights and sizes means a single font can be used throughout a presentation or document and provide visual variety, hierarchy and creativity.

-Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2023-08-01T10:28:23-07:00August 8th, 2023|PowerPoint|

NXPowerlite Update – v10

NXPowerLite is one of those PowerPoint add-ins the TLC Creative Services design team relies on and uses continuously (no paid endorsement, this truly is software we use!).

If you are not familiar, NXPoweriLte from Neuxpower, is a file compression add-in. We use NXPowerLite for PowerPoint, but it also handles Word, Excel, PDF, and JPG images.

I have a custom set of optimize profiles. We have the same set of profiles on all of the TLC Creative team so we are literally doing the same thing. In version 10 of NXPowerlite, there is an improved set of default profiles that should make the compression options easier and better when used right-out-of-the box. Note: currently v10 is only available for Windows OS. It can be run as a standalone app (drag and drop PPTX files onto the app), or activated from within PowerPoint and it will optimize the file that is currently open.

The big improvement I am most excited about is NXPowerLite now being better and overcoming issues that stop a file from being compressed. e.g. the compression process fails. It still does not identify the issue (generally an image in a file format that errors out), but there is a host of really good online info and a direct integration with 7-zip to open the PowerPoint file and deal with the problem image directly. I think many “power-users” will find this a faster process to what they were already doing (we have 7-zip installed on all computers here at TLC Creative and all of the design team has been trained on how to open a .pptx file, locate the problem file, edit and replace).

Lots of other improvements too. One that I am excited to see – because it has created problems many times for me – is maintaining the EXIF orientation data in compressed images. This should eliminate a conflict where a cropped image is compressed and then displays in the wrong orientation and squeezed into the image container size after running NXPowerLite.

More details on the v10 updates can be read about on the Neuxpower website here. The NXPowerLite product page, including download of free trial to test, is here.

-Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2023-07-28T11:02:26-07:00August 3rd, 2023|Software/Add-Ins|

Now returning to our regularly scheduled program

I hope everyone had a great summer! It has been busy here at TLC Creative Services, and the PowerPoint blog summer hiatus enabled me to focus on some specialty projects.

My original thought when setting up the summer break was “how much can happen in PowerPoint, the presentation industry, and at TLC Creative over the summer?” Well, turns out it was a busy summer and there has been a lot of change and news! One planning update is The PowerPoint Blog will have fresh presentation and PowerPoint posts every Tuesday and Thursday, starting today.

-Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2023-08-01T14:57:02-07:00August 1st, 2023|Personal|