PowerPoint

Back a decade+ ago, onscreen fonts being “smooth” (aka anti-aliasing) was a big conversation – and concern. Windows did not have a good story on its display technology and PowerPoint relied on Windows for content rendering. In 2016, Microsoft had recently updated Windows the display engine, and PowerPoint was finally able to confidently display text anti-aliased (eg. “smooth”). Happily, this is not a conversation much today, as smooth font rendering and display from PowerPoint is taken for granted.

This post is just a good reminder that the PowerPoint team continues to improve its software, and general knowledge of what anti-aliased display rendering is (here’s a thought, do design schools even address this issue today…?).

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Picking a font style is important. Should it be a “safe” font, a professional font, a bold font, etc.? Any font style needs to display well and anti-aliasing is a big part of that. So, what is anti-aliasing?

The simple description of anti-aliasing is that it makes fonts display with smooth curves and angles, not jagged, low res looking edges. So if “anti-aliased ” is smooth, the opposite – hard edged fonts would make sense to be called “aliased.” However, the better term is “bit-mapped.”

Here’s a visual showing Aliased and Anti-Aliased Text:

Aliased (Jagged, Hard Edges):

Anti-Aliased (Smooth Edges):

The good news is PowerPoint applies anti-aliasing to text (which has not always been the case). But it is applied when in slide show. Objects and text may appear to have jagged edges (aliased) when editing. Anti-aliasing is also applied when printing, but through a different ‘engine’ than when presented. So, when running as a slideshow, everything is smooth, when printing, everything is (almost always smooth), when editing, it may not look as smooth.

In addition, Microsoft Windows OS has its own term and feature for anti-aliasing called ClearType. ClearType is basically Microsoft’s technology for doing anti-aliasing and making fonts have nice smooth curves and angles. ClearType is currently used by web browsers (all web browsers) and the operating system dialogs. But not Microsoft Office at this time.

On PowerPoint, when using the PowerPoint web app it is viewed through a browser for editing and slideshow. So, all text is anti-aliased in both views because the Microsoft ClearType works with all major web browsers.

So, should you be worried about anti-aliasing or smooth fonts with PowerPoint? Yes, it is a concern, but starting with Windows 10 and PowerPoint 2007 all fonts display anti-aliased with presented as a slideshow – and I can attest to being happy with text that is projected 20′ tall is HD, is smooth, and overall display very well (with the caveat that there is room for it to be better!).

-Troy @ TLC

This is from our Look Back series, rediscovering previous blog posts with relevant PowerPoint tips, tricks and examples. The original post from May 13th, 2016 can be viewed here.

When using Microsoft PowerPoint on a Windows computer files save to the “Documents Folder” by default. But is that the best option for your workflow?

Where PowerPoint saves a file by default is an app setting that can be customized. For TLC Creative, we update to have presentations saved to the desktop as the default. Here’s how:

1. Open Microsoft PowerPoint.

2. In PowerPoint, click on the File tab located at the top-left corner of the window.

3. Near the bottom of the File menu, click Options.

4. In the PowerPoint Options dialog, click on the Save category on the left-hand side. This section contains settings related to saving presentations, such as file locations.

5. In the Save presentations section, locate the Default local file location field. This is where PowerPoint saves files by default, and the location can be changed here.

To get the desktop folder path, on Windows 11, do the following:

• • Open a File Explorer window
  • Navigate to the desktop folder. The path for the desktop folder is typically C:\Users\[ Username]\Desktop
  • Right click the Address bar and select Copy Address as Text

• • Back in PowerPoint, with the PowerPoint Options dialog still open, paste the copied address for the computer desktop into the Default local file location field.

6. Click OK in the PowerPoint Options window to save the changes. From now on, PowerPoint will save any new presentations to the desktop by default!

Notes

• This is for Windows users only: The steps above apply specifically to users on Windows computers. If using an iPad or Mac, the process may differ, and we recommend checking specific support resources for those devices to find the correct method.
• This is an app setting: The save setting will apply to all PowerPoint presentation files going forward. Every time a new file is saved, it will default to saving on the desktop unless a different location is chosen manually.
• Corporate Environment Considerations: If working within a corporate environment, PowerPoint options may have been pre-configured to save files to a shared network drive or another location. In such cases, it’s usually best to leave that setting as-is. Changing it might interfere with company protocols for file storage, access, and sharing. If unsure, it’s always a good idea to consult the IT department before making this change.

There are several benefits to setting PowerPoint’s save location to the desktop. Saving directly to the desktop ensures that presentations are easily accessible. There is no navigating through multiple folders to find them. Also, customizability. While PowerPoint typically defaults to saving files in a more general location (like the Documents folder), customizing allows personalization of the workspace to make your workflow a little smoother.

Pantone’s 2025 Color of the Year, Mocha Mousse, is the inspiration for these 2 PowerPoint templates – and both are Free to download and use!

Christie, on the TLC Creative design team, used the Pantone Mocha Mousse color as PowerPoint’s Accent 1 and created a rich color template.

This full feature PowerPoint template has all core styling elements preset – and includes a theme layout, plus three full frame (eg. no placeholders) layout options!

Download the editable PowerPoint file HERE. (2.7 MB, .pptx)

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Mike on the TLC Creative design team also used the Pantone Mocha Mousse color as PowerPoint’s Accent #1 for a PowerPoint template.

This full feature PowerPoint template has all core styling elements preset – and a master layout picture placeholder is preset for the logo on the Theme and Title layouts (insert either layout, click the picture placeholder to insert your logo).

Download the editable PowerPoint file HERE (2 MB, .pptx)