PowerPoint

Live Transcription Goes Backwards

Presentation Live is a great addition to PowerPoint presenting (see these posts from last month for more details: …). One feature of the transcription that I did not point out clearly was the user experience when they change the selected language.

It’s easy for audience members to switch the transcription to their language of choice. After joining the meeting, the selected language is in the lower left.

Click it and choose from the list of 60+ languages.

[KGVID]https://thepowerpointblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/unnamed-file.mp4[/KGVID]

Now the great part! The newly selected language is used almost immediately as the presenter continues their presentation. In addition, all of the previous translation is updated to the new language selection as well (pretty nice feature Microsoft!).

[KGVID]https://thepowerpointblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/PresentationLive-3.mp4[/KGVID]

Of course, if the audience member speaks the same language as the presenter and doesn’t want to see the transcriptions at all, they can toggle it off in the same Languages menu.

This will likely never fully replace live translators, but for remote meetings and audience members joining in from their homes, it’s a fantastic alternative.

Troy @ TLC

By |2020-06-28T17:38:15-07:00August 12th, 2020|PowerPoint, Resource/Misc|

PowerPoint Metallic Text with Image fill

We just reviewed how to make metallic text with gradients, but we can also use Image Fills to create unique effects as well. We used the following still images from Adobe Stock for this example:

For our first example, we just filled the text with the images. Right-click on your text box and select FORMAT SHAPE. Go to the TEXT OPTIONS tab, then choose PICTURE FILL. What’s great is that the text remains editable, and the image will make itself a pattern to fit as much text as is necessary.

Next we took this image-filled text and added a gradient outline on the text to help jazz it up a little bit. Right-click on your text box and select FORMAT SHAPE. Go to the TEXT OPTIONS tab, then scroll to TEXT OUTLINE. We added a similar gradient from our Metallic Lines post. This helps give the text a literal border, as well as add a little more dimension to the text.

Finally, we added a bevel in addition to the image fill and gradient outline to really elevate the metallic look. Right-click on your text box and select FORMAT SHAPE. Go to the TEXT OPTIONS tab, then the EFFECTS tab. Adjust the bevel depth until you get the effect you’re looking for. We used a deeper bevel to match the bold font.

By |2020-07-28T20:19:07-07:00August 5th, 2020|PowerPoint|

PowerPoint Metallic Text

We’ve reviewed creating metallic effects on shapes and lines, but the real question is – how does it work on text? The answer is, very well and very easily. Adding metallic effects on text is simple to accomplish in PowerPoint, and the best part is that the text will always remain editable even with the effects applied.

To start off, we’re just applying a gradient to the text. Right-click on your text box (important, make sure it’s the text box and not while editing text) and select FORMAT SHAPE. Go to the TEXT OPTIONS tab, and under TEXT FILL, apply a GRADIENT FILL. Here we used a 6-stop gradient to get all the metallic colors, and a 10° angle to get a reflective effect. Download an editable PowerPoint slide with the Gold, Bronze, and Silver metallic text here.

We can further emphasize the metallic effect by adding a bevel onto the text. This can be tricky depending on the font you use – fonts with thin serifs like this one can be problematic with the bevel, but it worked well in this case. Right-click on your text box and select FORMAT SHAPE. Go to the TEXT OPTIONS tab, then the EFFECTS tab. Adjust the bevel depth until you get the effect you’re looking for. Here we used a slightly different gradient for a different look. Download an editable PowerPoint slide with the Gold, Bronze, and Silver metallic text here.

By |2020-07-28T19:59:28-07:00August 3rd, 2020|PowerPoint|

PowerPoint Metallic Lines

Continuing our exploration of PowerPoint’s capabilities to create metallic effects on shapes, let’s look at how we can create some metallic lines. These are super useful for underline effects, outlines, or other accents in your presentation.

For this first example, we used a very similar gradient to yesterday’s shapes. Select any PowerPoint line, right-click and select FORMAT SHAPE, go to the LINE section, and select the GRADIENT line option. Here we used a linear gradient, 4 gradient stops, but 0 angle. Download an editable PowerPoint slide with the Gold, Bronze, and Silver metallic lines here.

For a more sophisticated metallic look in this example, we added more gradient stops (7 total) with darker colors. The thinner lines also create a more elegant look. Again, create any PowerPoint line, right-click and select FORMAT SHAPE, go to the LINE section, and select the GRADIENT line option. Download an editable PowerPoint slide with the Gold, Bronze, and Silver metallic lines here.

We can make these lines even more convincingly metallic with the same bevel trick that we used with the shapes. The gradient used here is similar to the above 7-stop gradient, with a bevel effect applied on top. Right-click on your PowerPoint line and select FORMAT SHAPE, go to the EFFECTS tab, and open the 3-D FORMAT options. Manipulate the bevel depth for different effects. Download an editable PowerPoint slide with the Gold, Bronze, and Silver metallic lines here.

By |2020-07-28T14:16:11-07:00July 31st, 2020|PowerPoint|

PowerPoint Metallic Shapes

Adobe Illustrator is the best vector art program for creating metallic effects. Adobe Photoshop is an amazing raster image editing app with tons of presets for realistic metallic effects. PowerPoint… We use metallic effects in PowerPoint all the time! These are surprisingly simple gradients that can be created and applied directly in PowerPoint. Over the next several posts, we’re going to highlight some great ways to create and apply metallic effects in PowerPoint.

First up is making a PowerPoint shape have a metallic fill. By using the right colors and gradient stops, you can achieve some pretty nice metallic effects on any sort of PowerPoint shape. Select any PowerPoint shape, right-click and select FORMAT SHAPE, go to the FILL section, and select the GRADIENT fill option. This examples uses a linear gradient, a 60° angle, 4 gradient stops with slightly lighter and darker hues, and an off-center position. 

Download an editable PowerPoint slide with the Gold, Bronze, and Silver metallic shapes here.

You can also make the metallic effect even more emphasized by layering a PowerPoint bevel effect on the shape. Same thing; FORMAT SHAPE > FILL > GRADIENT. Then go to the EFFECTS tab > 3-D FORMAT. Download an editable PowerPoint slide with the beveled effect Gold, Bronze, and Silver metallic shapes here.

By |2020-07-28T13:55:07-07:00July 29th, 2020|PowerPoint|

How to Toggle the Brightslide Instant Selection Pane

Working on densely layered or animated PowerPoint slides is where the Selection Pane shines. It is almost essential to be able to hide select layers. Usually this involves navigating to the selection pane hidden deep in the view tab. Tip: every TLC Creative computer has the Selection Pane on the QAT for fast access. To do things even faster, the Brightslide add-in has a 1 click toggle to turn off the visibility of any element selected!

Select any object, go to BRIGHTSLIDE, SELECTION & OBJECT section, and click the “hide eyeball” icon. Done, object has been turned off on the Selection Pane!

There is only one option in the BrightSlide tools to turn an object back on – that is to turn on ALL of the objects in the selection pane. Go the the Brightslide tab and click the “eye” icon to turn on all hidden layers.

The BrightSlide add-in for PowerPoint can be downloaded for free at: https://www.brightcarbon.com/brightslide/

 

Troy @ TLC

By |2020-07-11T14:00:47-07:00July 27th, 2020|PowerPoint|

Combining Static Images with Videos in PowerPoint

The design team is thinking of cooler weather (it is summer in Southern California right now, so warm – okay, hot). This a nice slide design demonstrating creative combining of static images with videos all in PowerPoint for dynamic slide design concept.

Here is the .jpg image for this example.

Combining Static Images with Videos in PowerPoint 1

Here is the .mp4 video for this example. Note: the bottom grass area is not going to be seen, or a factor in deciding with video. We are only interested in the moving clouds at the top.

Combining Static Images with Videos in PowerPoint 2

In PowerPoint, the blue sky above the mountain range was removed using the Remove Background tool.

Combining Static Images with Videos in PowerPoint 3

The video was then added and positioned under the mountain image (see, the grass area at the bottom of the video is not see).

Combining Static Images with Videos in PowerPoint 4

Some PowerPoint text was added and here is the final composited slide!

Troy @ TLC

By |2025-06-10T08:20:50-07:00July 24th, 2020|PowerPoint|

PowerPoint Live: Personalized Subtitles for Every Viewer

As talked about in the  previous post, PowerPoint has two different options for displaying live transcription. One from PowerPoint, which displays a single selected language on the presentation screen, and another as part of the Presentation Live feature which adds the transcription to the viewers device, leaving the presenters slides clear of additional content.  This will likely never fully replace live spoken translators, but for remote meetings and audience joining in from virtually anywhere, it’s a fantastic alternative.

[KGVID]https://thepowerpointblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/unnamed-file.mp4[/KGVID]

One amazing feature I only referenced in the earlier posts, is that every audience member has the ability to switch the transcription to the language of their choice. It is a very intuitive interface, just click the language button in the lower left (on a mobile device in portrait orientation) and choose from the list of 60+ languages.

[KGVID]https://thepowerpointblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/PresentationLive-3.mp4[/KGVID]

One nice feature, that is a bit more hidden, is that if the audience member speaks the same language as the presenter, they may not want to have the transcription scrolling up as it repeats what the presenter is saying. Click the same language button and in the upper right is a toggle to turn the live transcription on or off.

Troy @ TLC

By |2020-06-30T22:44:32-07:00July 1st, 2020|PowerPoint, Resource/Misc|

PowerPoint Subtitles (Different than Presentation Live Translation)

We are super excited about all the features included with Microsoft’s new release of PowerPoint Live Presentations; remote audience seeing your slides and hearing the presenter on their mobile device, seeing earlier slides, and – most impressive of all – live transcription of the presenter’s speech in the language choice of each viewer.

But the last item, live transcription, can be confusing. Presentation Live’s transcription is different than the existing PowerPoint Subtitles (which is also a live transcription feature).

I believe both services are powered by the same engine (which does a very good job, and is improving with expanded use). Here is the way I am describing each, and how they differ:

PowerPoint Subtitles – These display on the presenter’s slide in one selected language.

PowerPoint Live’s Live Transcription – These display on the screen of anyone logged in and viewing the presentation. They do not display on the presenter’s screen, because everyone can choose what language is displayed on their own screen.

Both features need access to the presenter’s microphone, and both have the ability to instantly translate into 60+ languages .

 

See the previous few posts for examples of Presentation Live’s live transcription. For the balance of this post, I am going to overview the PowerPoint Subtitles feature.

When you start a presentation with subtitles turned on, this info dialog greets you (same cartoon character styling as the Presentation Live QR Welcome screen)

Before the slide show starts, most of the subtitle settings can be accessed directly in the ribbon. After the slide show starts, clicking CHECK SETTINGS from the info dialog gives you another chance to set details for how the subtitles will display. As example, from the ribbon and check settings dialog, where the subtitle text will display can be set.

Click MORE SETTINGS (WINDOWS) and the Windows Closed Captions settings options opens (assuming you are running PowerPoint for Windows). This is a great clue that many of the new services are not exclusive to Office, but a collaboration among several Microsoft development teams.

And here is the sample presentation in slide show using the default “Below Slide” position. Note: I am not a fan of how this was implemented. The slide maintains the correct aspect ratio, is sized down to make room for 3 lines of subtitle text and leaves the unused area on the left and right as part of a thick black border. I understand my ideas for making this more eloquent require a lot of coding, but I cannot justify this simple approach as an onscreen display for a professional meeting. 

If I was to use PowerPoint subtitles in a professional meeting, I would have a template that integrates a clear area in the lower section and use the BOTTOM (OVERLAID) position. The slides would remain full screen, the sub-titles would have a branded area to display on, and the presenters would need to adhere to the clear area in their slide design.

The important point is, PowerPoint Subtitles and Presentation Live transcription are different features, display the translation in different locations, and can actually be used at the same time (I will leave it to you to experiment with that idea 🙂 ).

Troy @ TLC

By |2020-06-29T12:20:56-07:00June 29th, 2020|PowerPoint, Resource/Misc|

PowerPoint Live Gotcha’s

PowerPoint Live is an amazing addition to presenting with PowerPoint. I am excited for the potential of this feature in use, especially with the sudden surge of online and remote meetings and conferences. As side note, just this week at TLC creative, a client conversation was about how to handle multiple languages for their meeting. At past, onsite events, there was translation booths at the back of the ballroom with translators providing live translation. But in the new virtual meeting world, this is a different process. I tossed out the idea that Microsoft’s new Presentation Live feature may be an option. Reading a transcription is not as powerful as translation, but PowerPoint Live is now a very easy-to-offer solution for a virtual meeting. No decision on this meeting yet, but this new feature has already made it into project conversations for me.

As great as PowerPoint Live is, there are many “gotchas” we have already discovered.


Setup and Logistics

You need to use an updated browser. Not only will Presentation Live not work, if you are the presenter, the option may not even be available. The official list of supported browsers is Microsoft Edge version 80+, Google Chrome version 72+, Mozilla Firefox version 68+, or Opera version 60+ on Windows or Mac. Currently Safari is not supported for presenters, but works fine for audience members.

The presenter must have a Microsoft 365 account, but the audience does not need a subscription, or need to be signed in to a Microsoft account to participate. But it’s not that easy.

There are two “share” options, my organization and anyone. The default setting for sharing a presentation is “Only People in my Organization.” This means anyone connecting to see the presentation will need to sign into their Microsoft 365 account to prove they are in the presenter’s organization. So much for the note about the audience does not even need a Microsoft account, now they need a Microsoft 365 account, with the same domain. 

To enable anyone, with or without a Microsoft account to watch the presentation, the presenter must change the audience option to “Anyone” (every time they start a presentation).


Running the Presentation

Presentations must run from PowerPoint Online. And PowerPoint Online has two options for the toolbar: Expanded Ribbon, which is more similar to the desktop app, and the Simplified Ribbon, which is a very streamlined set of options. The PRESENT LIVE button is in the SLIDE SHOW tab (which makes sense) on the Simplified Ribbon!

In the Expanded Ribbon, it’s more hidden. Go to the VIEW tab to find it.

 

When the presentation starts, you’ll see this Welcome Screen that allows audience members to join your presentation by just pointing their phone or tablet at the QR code (the process is easy and works flawlessly – even if I am not a fan of the cartoon like styling that does not align to my clients corporate style guide).

The slide show pop up tool bar has a new icon and options. Show the Welcome Screen again any time. Go to the Live Menu and select SHOW WELCOME SCREEN AGAIN.

You can also copy the URL link and send as a quick email or chat.

The audience has the option to send “Reactions”in real time while you are presenting (small emojis that float up on the presenter’s screen).

These only show up on the presenter’s screen. The audience viewing on their own devices do not see them. Of course, if the presenter is at a large meeting with the presentation on the screens, or if they are screen sharing their monitor, then everyone can see what you see, which includes the floating emojis. TIP: If you find the emoji reactions distracting or just don’t like seeing them, they can be turned off in the Live Menu (note that audience members can still send them; you just won’t see them).

Also important to note is the difference between pausing the presentation broadcast and ending the presentation session. You can pause the presentation any time you click away from PowerPoint. Pausing stops any animation and stops the live transcription. The presenter see this yellow band below the Ribbon:

The audience will see the last slide before the presentation was paused (so make it a good one!) and a notification that the presentation is paused.

ENDING a presentation clears the screen for anyone watching and the URL/QR code is no longer valid. The presenter needs to click the END SESSION button to truly end the presentation (vs. pause it). TIP: A presentation can be paused for 30 minutes, and then its broadcast auto-expires. There is also a countdown in the yellow notification bar. 

The Audience Perspective

Viewing a presentation on a cell phone can be portrait (vertical) or landscape (rotated to horizontal) orientation. We found  in landscape view, the transcription text seems finicky and does not always display on the screen.

One of the very exciting features is the ability for the audience to go back to a previous slide on their device, any time. Equally important is they cannot get ahead of the presenter and see upcoming slides. If the presenter goes back a few slides, everyone goes back a few slides. That slide is the ‘current slide’ no one can advance past, even if slides past it were shown earlier. When someone goes back to see an earlier slide, a CURRENT SLIDE button is active as a one click way to quickly get in sync with the presenter.

Warning: you may accidentally scare someone! Presentation Live tries to be helpful, but I feel showing the audience how many slides are in the deck may be a scare for some. As example, you have a sales deck of 400 slides, but the presentation is only using 20 of them. The audience sees the total number at 400 (and they fear a ‘death by PowerPoint’ meeting is happening)!

Also be aware, everyone will know where you are (sort of). Again, maybe this is a little too helpful. Presentation Live displays what your local time is (or is this the local time of the person viewing? – something I need to test). To me, this makes it easy for the audience to calculate how long you have been on each slide…

TIP: a mobile device screen is small. Good news, viewers can zoom in on the slides! Pinch to zoom is supported. 

Let everyone know they can turn off the transcription feature – they are in control of that. It is in the language selection dialog, on the audience interface, and they can turn off transcription.

Evaluations and feedback. Yes, every audience member is shown a Microsoft feedback form (no we cannot change its content – or styling – or turn it off). Don’t worry, Microsoft is not keeping your presentation evaluations. Presenters receive an email after the presentation with the feedback (see previous posts for an example). The Microsoft Forms are not kept on Microsoft servers for long, I believe under 10 days. 


Final Thoughts

Last, and perhaps the biggest question to those new to PowerPoint Live (oh wait, it’s brand new – that’s all of us!), is; what is ‘present live’? What is presentation live? What is PowerPoint Live Presentations? I feel Microsoft does an overall poor job in naming products (how many different services are called the same name; Skype, OneDrive, Office 365, Windows…). Maybe someone noticed this trend and decided to go in the opposite direction? Now we have 1 feature with three different names… For the record, the official name of the live presentation feature is PowerPoint Live Presentations, but it goes by the shorthand of PowerPoint Live. And ‘present live’ is the action you take to begin your live presentation.

 

Troy @ TLC

By |2020-06-25T21:57:31-07:00June 26th, 2020|PowerPoint, Resource/Misc|
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