SlideWise’s New Transition Audit!

Slidewise, v1.8, has a new amazing feature – a slide transition audit! The dev team at Neuxpower was super responsive when I suggested a slide transition audit. And the final release is better than my simple description and request! Here is a quick look at the feature:

Open a presentation (that is a local file, no support for Teams/network files – yet). If running version 1.8 or higher, a new icon is available in the nav bar.

The Transitions tab shows an audit of the presentation showing what transition is set for each slide, the duration of the transition, and if an auto advance has been set. On this example presentation I can within moments identify:

  1. a slide with no transition
  2. a slide with a different/longer transition duration
  3. a slide using a different transition than the others (TIP: I always inspect Morph transition slides to assure the content is set for Morph – eg. there is content on the previous slide connected to content on the Morph transition slide. If not, the Morph transition is just a long fade transition).

The default view is displaying in slide order. But the information can be filtered to sort by transition type (eg. see all of the FADESMOOTHLY transitions grouped, the MORPH transitions grouped, etc.), duration or auto transition.

But wait there is more!! This is not just a super helpful, consolidated list of all slide transitions. Click any specific slide (highlighted in green in below image), that slide is selected and updates to that slide can be made on the Transitions tab.

The Slidewise add-in website is here.

Troy @ TLC

By |2022-07-22T12:30:45-07:00July 25th, 2022|PowerPoint, Software/Add-Ins|

Remove Text Margins – in 1 Click!

Here is something I do dozens, if not hundreds of times per day. Select a text box > open the Format Shape pane > find the inner margin settings.

Then change all to zero’s

Recently I added this amazing icon to my QAT

It is the “Remove (inner margins) from Selection” feature now in Brightslide.

The Brightslide “Text Margins” has 3 options for removing inner margins; from selected shape (this is the one added to my QAT), from every text box on every slide (wow!) or from all Master Layouts (which means any text box associated with a master placeholder will have the inner margins set to zero, but all individual text boxes on slides not connected to a master layout will remain as set).

And the Brightslide PowerPoint add-in suite is FREE from the super people at BrightCarbon!

Troy @ TLC

By |2022-05-23T18:42:09-07:00May 25th, 2022|PowerPoint, Software/Add-Ins|

You’re a Pill!

For a recent project (can we all say “pharma deck”) I needed a medication/pill icon.

  • Option 1, which i will admit is my primary option, is to open the Noun Project in PowerPoint, find the icon, copy to slide, modify as needed (because the icons are editable .svg graphics!).
  • Option 2, go to Adobe Illustrator and quickly create the needed pill icon (and shortcut the process by selecting – copying – pasting into PowerPoint – which is an editable .svg graphic!).
  • Option 3, add a PowerPoint shape, give it a color fill and add text (into the shape – not as a text box on top of the shape!) that labels that shape as a “Pill”. This is a common solution when formatting a 200+ slide deck and have a time constraint budget.

But on this recent project I created option 4, which is really spending some additional time on Option 3 and making it great! Here are a few of my full editable, resizable, recolorable, ready to use “pill” PowerPoint shapes.

The pill shape is simply a rounded rectangle PowerPoint shape with the rounded corner adjuster moved inward to create fully rounded ends to the rectangle.

It is also a 2 color gradient, with 4 color stops.

The tricky part is manually entering the middle color stop positions vs. click-and-drag. Set both to 50%, which eliminates any gradient soft edge and completes the 2 color pill icon.

For my presentation, I also moved away from a flat icon styling to a slight 3D bevel look by using PowerPoints 3D shape option.

Download the PowerPoint Pill Shape on a slide HERE

Troy @ TLC

By |2022-05-18T18:22:49-07:00May 23rd, 2022|PowerPoint, Tutorial|

Still Waiting for the Office Refresh?

I just worked with another designer that noted that their Office had not yet updated to the new “Windows Refresh” – the updated app styling. Sure enough, PowerPoint on their computer had the “rectangle” interface still.

The solution, at this time because the “refresh” has rolled out to all Office 365 accounts now, is to click the “Upcoming Features” megaphone icon.

Scroll down the Coming Soon content, find the “Try the Experience” toggle, turn it on, and restart PowerPoint.

The app interface for all Microsoft Office should now be on the most recent, “rounded corner” interface 😊

Troy @ TLC

By |2022-05-18T17:52:44-07:00May 19th, 2022|PowerPoint, Tutorial|

3D Sphere – Using PowerPoint Gradients!

With creative use of PowerPoint shapes and gradients 3D objects can be created directly in PowerPoint! Note: these are 2D shapes with a 3D appearance, not true 3D models.

For the final blog post in this PowerPoint gradients series, is a step-by-step process for creating this 3D sphere.

Download the step-by-step slides here.

Troy @ TLC

By |2022-03-28T21:00:33-07:00March 31st, 2022|PowerPoint|

Metallic Gradients

Metallic surfaces are created with gradients. Here are gold-silver-bronze-copper metallic gradients, all created within PowerPoint.

As example, the gold gradient is 6 color stops with asymmetrical spacing.

Download all 4 metallic gradients here.

Troy @ TLC

By |2022-03-07T11:08:51-07:00March 24th, 2022|PowerPoint|

Stylized Bevel Text Bar

Combining long gradients and hard transition gradients within a single shape was used in creating this beveled bar. In addition, because this is a PowerPoint shape, it can become a combination graphic element, and text box.

The bevel effect is created with a set of tight/hard stops on the far left and right. The bevel bar is created with 8 color stops.

Download a slide with the Beveled Callout Bar here.

Troy @ TLC

By |2022-03-07T11:36:55-07:00March 22nd, 2022|PowerPoint|

Spring 2022 PowerPoint Template – Free

We’re celebrating the first day of Spring with this new Spring 2022 template that we’ve made available for you to download for FREE!

This spring template features retro flowers & stripes.

Thank you to TLC Creative staff designer, Karen, for this fun and vibrant full feature PowerPoint template! Click the button below to download it now.

DOWNLOAD
By |2022-02-03T13:36:46-07:00March 20th, 2022|PowerPoint, Templates/Assets|

Create “Hard Transition” Gradients

By using the color stop positions gradients can be designed to be very short transitions, or “hard transitions”, to create new styling options.

As example, this full slide PowerPoint rectangle is created with 10 color stops* going from very dark blue to blue with long/smooth transition and a white hotspot (vertical line) created by positioning the color stops very close to the white creating “hard transitions.”

* TIP: the maximum number of color stops PowerPoint supports is 10.

Download a slide with this gradient fill shape, here.

Troy @ TLC

By |2022-03-07T10:53:09-07:00March 18th, 2022|PowerPoint|

PowerPoint Rainbow Gradient

Gradients from one color to another have nice smooth transitions. As example this 6 color rainbow:

On the design, the gradient fill is composed of 6 equally spaced color stops using the rainbow color spectrum.

Download the Linear Gradient Rainbow PowerPoint shape here.

Troy @ TLC

By |2022-03-07T10:46:27-07:00March 16th, 2022|PowerPoint|
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