We recently came across a PowerPoint bug while working on a client project. And because there is no update coming to resolve it, if you found this post, our hack will hopefully solve the problem for you as it did for us. For reference, a Picture Placeholder is a pre-formatted object on a Master Slide Layout. On a slide, a user clicks the preset placeholder to easily add images. In addition, the image has a preset shape, size, and formatting, all to make it easier to format slides quickly and consistently. Picture placeholders are a great time saver when creating slides, and assure styling is consistent throughout the presentation.
On a recent template design project, the goal was to create visually stylized image frames with a preset rounded corner shape, drop shadow, and outline. For this specific template, we stylized the picture placeholder frame with PowerPoints’ 3D effects. The 3D effect automatically adds a frame to the photo that is colored (with a template color), subtle bevel and lighting effect.
But we discovered a bug in PowerPoint, illustrated in this animated .gif. Attempting to click the icon to add a picture to the placeholder did not open the insert picture dialog. Instead, PowerPoint acts like the placeholder is a text box and adds a cursor to the shape – not what a user needs!
During troubleshooting, we discovered that if the 3D bevel and lighting effects were removed from the picture placeholder, everything worked (eg. click the icon and the dialog to select a picture opened).
We knew it was a programming bug because with the 3D styling effect removed, the insert picture icon once again was clickable and brought up the image selection dialog.
We reported the bug to Microsoft. But more importantly, we figured out a hack to “fix” the problem. And it is easy to do.
The placeholder “Click icon to add picture” text is by default set to the Middle vertical alignment. Moving the info placeholder text so it doesn’t overlap with the “Click to add picture” photo icon solves the problem! Simply change the text vertical alignment from MIDDLE to TOP (or bottom) and everything works as intended.
This allowed us to deliver the Microsoft PowerPoint template with styling as we intended. The modified Picture Placeholder looks like this – and the insert picture icon works again!
Microsoft PowerPoint is the most powerful and flexible presentation software available. My guess is, it also has the largest Dev team of any presentation software. However, the frustrations of coding bugs, or just plain software limitations, exist. At least there is an easy solution (aka hack) for this frustration.
~Special thanks to Amber on the TLC Creative presentation design team for assisting with this post
