PowerPoint

With the Microsoft new office look, there is a generous use of rounded corners, which Microsoft labels “Soft Corners.” But is this good for presentation design?

As example, all four corners of the Ribbon, and in my setup the top of the Ribbon and bottom of my QAT because it is positioned below the ribbon, have a subtle rounded corner styling.

In edit view, the left film strip slide sorter has been changed so all slides have a subtle rounded corner design. Very mobile app and social media inspired. The actual work slide area maintains the full rectangle shape.

New is not always better. Are rounded corners on the slide sorter better? While I appreciate the creativity the Dev team has implemented, I am voting that this update can impact visual reference of the slide design. As example, this presentation in the full slide sorter view – which also has the rounded corner styling applied.

The template, developed here by the TLC Creative design team, has a very linear styling. These newly introduced rounded corners to the slide preview add to, alter, and impact the viewer interpretation of that design. In addition to cutting out (small) portions of the content at each corner. For reference, here is the Title slide layout in full (rectangle) view. I feel the above slide sorter view of the slides and this full slide have very different design aesthetics, even though they are the same slides.

That’s it, just an observation. As an end user we cannot turn off this new view, it is what PowerPoint gives us. The Microsoft PowerPoint team has already received lots of feedback on this aspect of the new Office look and I am hopeful that this specific update revert to the more practical slide shape is what is represented everywhere.

Troy @ TLC

Part of the New Office look are some improvements to the QAT. But in the excitement to showcase what is new, Microsoft steps on our customized settings and alters the QAT for those users that rely on it. Aside from the initial shock of my QAT becoming virtually useless, there are good improvements.

So here is my standard QAT; 37 curated action icons set in specific groupings and order that enable the TLC design team to work faster and more efficient in PowerPoint. The QAT on all TLC design computers is positioned below the ribbon.

After the New Office Look update, my QAT looked like this. 12 icons + the word description of those action items. This rendering my QAT, and my workflow virtually useless.

It took some looking. Here is the action item you want to know and do. Find an open space on the QAT between the left most icon and the right most icon. Right click to bring up the QAT right-click options menu (it will most likely take several attempts). I am sure this menu is accessible in another location, but I have not found it yet.

The important new addition is the HIDE COMMAND LABELS option. Click it and your QAT will return to the efficient icon layout and presentation work can return to normal.

Troy @ TLC

Microsoft has started rolling out the “new Office look”. On my test computer, running the Office Insider, Beta Channel build the “new” Office look was updated last week. So, all builds of Office 365 should see this in their updates within the next few weeks.

If you clicked the “not now” message to the mini info tour of what the new Office look is all about, here are the 4 information screens – when clicking “Show Me”.

Troy @ TLC

This episode on The Presentation Podcast Troy, Nolan and Sandy to talk money. They are joined by Bethany Auck, President of the Presentation Guild, to talk about the “2021 State of the Industry and Salary Survey Report.” The report is full of great data collected specifically about compensation of presentation professionals and we will tell you how to get a copy of it for free!

Listen to episdode 130 through you favorite podcast app or on The Presentation Podcast website here.

Auto Fix is a new native PowerPoint feature that is designed to help align content on slides more quickly.

Auto Fix can help automatically align, uniformly resize, and distribute elements and straighten the connectors between them. It is pretty magical (okay, really good coding). But it is only currently available if using PowerPoint for the web

Select the objects (images, shapes, text boxes) > go to the HOME tab > SHAPE > ARRANGE > AUTOFIX

Or, find Auto Fix button with a right click. Select the shapes > right click one of the shapes > AUTO FIX is half way down the options available.

As example, here are 3 randomly placed shapes on a slide.

After selecting all three shapes and running Auto Fix, this is what PowerPoint provided – vertically aligned, equal spacing between objects and centered on the slide:

One note, Auto Fix currently does not work with SmartArt, group shapes and elements that overlap.

Another recommendation is to use Auto Fix on smaller groups of elements to get their positioning and alignment updated, then adjust any additional elements either with another Auto Fix run, or manually position for the final layout.

One more Before & After example of something a bit more complex.  The bottom aligned layout was created by Auto Fix in a single click:

Christie @ TLC

Microsoft 365 has a new AI integration. When you go to File > Home, there is a list of presentation files that PowerPoint has determined you want to open now.

This feature should be available on all 365 versions (Windows, Mac, mobile and web). Go to FILE > HOME > RECOMMENDED FOR YOU section. Based on your workflow, Office’s AI algorithm lists the presentation files it feels you are most likely to want to open now!

The Recommended for You list is only presentations that are stored on Teams/OneDrive/SharePoint. So any files you have on your local computer or local company network are not included. And it is not a list of just the 6 most recent files you have opened. I open dozens of presentations files each day (okay, I open 50+ presentation files each day, but currently about a dozen+ are hosted on Teams and show up in the Recommended for You area). The far right file in the list is dated May 21, which was over a month ago vs the other presentations in the list, but it was a similar topic and was amazingly similar to the topic I was working on…

The only confusing thing about this feature is that it is not a part of the File > Open information.

Troy @ TLC

Looking at an image on a slide, it is not easy to know what the original image size is. Is it HUGE, adding unnecessary file size? Or is it tiny and not going to display well? There is a quick and easy way to figure out original image sizes within in PowerPoint:

On this example slide, the image is on the slide relatively small. But is this its real size?

To visually see the true size of the image, go to the top menu and click the Picture Format tab, then select the “Reset Picture” dropdown, and choose Reset Picture and Size

Once the picture has been reset, it will size to its real size. With this example, the image was MUCH larger than its displayed size (which depending on animation needs, could be okay to keep as is)

If you are “numbers” person, click on any image. Go to the “Size and Properties” tab in the Format Picture settings. Look at the Scale Height and Scale Width percentage. For our example image it shows the small image is displayed at only 40% of its original size. That tells us the image is much bigger, could easily fill the slide at its native 100% size – or it is bigger than needed for the slide and adding to the file size of the presentation.

Just a few tricks of where to look, or what to do, to know if the image on a slide is what you need as far as its file size.

Jake @ TLC

Our final custom PowerPoint color scheme is inspired by the classic trilogy of Indian Jones. The PowerPoint slide shows the reference image, the color chips, and you will need to download the PowerPoint file to enjoy the creative color naming.

Indiana: Warm yellow tones, set as a monochromatic scheme. Colors taken from the main character clothing and the objects in the surrounding background.

Download the PowerPoint deck with preset color scheme here.