The business side of presentation design is hard. Setting up processes and workflows is also hard, but they minimize the business side time needs and maximizes the design side time. Troy and Lori of TLC Creative Services, Inc. share a behind-the-scenes look at the project management system in place and the multiyear evolution to get it to where it is now. Click here for the conversation!
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
Join us on a journey through the cutting-edge world of AI assistants and tools as we explore Microsoft 365 Copilot. Imagine having a personal assistant that not only understands your needs but also anticipates them, seamlessly integrated into PowerPoint to create and edit presentations, elevating your productivity to new heights. In this episode, Troy and Nolan chat with the wonderful Yulia Barnakova, a thought leader in the realm of AI tools and presentation work. Don’t miss this fascinating conversation that delves into the heart of Copilot as part of our daily workflows. This presentation industry conversation is just a play button away!
Can AI generated art be copyrighted? Can AI generated art be used in client presentations? Troy, Nolan and Sandy spend this episode going through the many online articles they amassed on the topic of the legal use highlights of AI generated content. While no guidance is provided, it is a lively conversation!
Join the conversation through your favorite podcast app, or online at the episode page with shownotes here.
What started in 2016, and is celebrating its 200th episode today? The Presentation Podcast!
At 2 episodes per month, 24 conversations per year, and a predictable episode #200 in year 9. That’s what this conversation is all about, celebration, fun conversation – and 50 special guests!!
Listen at your favorite podcast app, or online here.
Troy, Sandy, and Nolan continue our conversation on roles in the presentation industry. In today’s episode we focus on the roles of the writer vs. designer and more deeply explore the role, process, and structure of writing when building presentations. Join us for updates, spirited conversion, and of course, pro and tech tips.
Listen to episode 199 on your favorite podcast app, or online here.
Troy, Sandy and Nolan have been talking about the difference between “design” and “production” in presentation work. Join the conversation as they unpack the concept of slide production vs. slide design, titles used within presentation design and much more.
Listen on your favorite podcast app or online here.
Okay, let’s try this post again as my previous post had a title and no content (oops!).
Our website, https://tlccreative.com, has finally had a content and styling refresh and is now live! This is big news here at TLC Creative as we were ready to launch a website refresh in early 2020, which did not get finalized as the world went into lock down. Then over the next few years we focused on our virtual meeting platform (https://vxpmeeting.com) and that changed the content we wanted for the presentation design side of the company. As of this month, the new website refresh is live and we are excited!
Troy @ TLC
Troy, Nolan and Sandy have some time with Jamie Garroch of BrightCarbon to talk about the PowerPoint Brightslide addin’s features, new additions and other coding projects he and his team are working on. Plus his upcoming sabbatical plans to adventure through many U.S. states in his custom Minion yellow car and trailer.
Listen through your favorite podcast app or direct here
Presentation work is often intertwined with the AV equipment – software – settings – setup needs. At a recent event a presentation designer asked about the types of SDI and what was needed for the meeting. The simple answer is resolution. The different numbers (3-6-12-24G) relate to the maximum resolution the cable can handle. Of course all the other equipment connected to the cable also needs to be capable of that resolution.
The above image is an SDI cable. It is for the video signal and pretty much the same as an HDMI cable (but more durable and able to be really-really long). SDI is not new, but us presentation people are part of the technology setup conversation more and more. SD SDI was launched back in 1989. The highest performance, and most recent version is 24G SDI which was launched several years ago in 2020. An important note is all SDI cables have the exact same connector. They are not directional (eg. plugging in either end will work). And the thickness is more about the durability than the resolution and quality.
An SDI cable is common on AV setup meetings, and for the most part, presentation computers are going to use HDMI connection. It is generally the equipment beyond the presentation “show” computers where SDI cables are used. On this particular meeting, the video switcher for the breakout room, where the other presentation op was working, was an SDI ATEM Mini Pro. So, SDI cables and connection were part of the setup conversation.
So if you get into a conversation about SDI cables to connect the presentation computer to the AV system, here is a quick definition of the flavors of SDI for reference:
We don’t want to talk about or use SD SDI cables (low res interlaced video) or HD HDI (the first progressive video option, but still too low resolution for everything a presentation computer is used for).
3G means 3 GBs of data per second. In presentation terms this is up to 1080p at 60 Hz.
6G means 6 GBs of data per second. In presentation terms this is up to 4K (2160p) at 30 Hz.
12G is 12 GBs of data per second. In presentation terms this is up to 4K (2160) at 60 Hz.
24G is 24 GBs of data per second. In presentation terms this is up to 8K (7,680 x 4,320) at 60 Hz.
Last, for this meeting, there was the question of how does the HDMI show computer connect to the SDI cable? The answer is an HDMI-to-SDI converter. TLC Creative uses these Blackmagic Bidirectional Converters (meaning they can convert HDMI-to-SDI or SDI-to-HDMI).
The AV production company standard equipment pack is generally the more versatile (and costly) Decimator HDMI-to-SDI converter.
There are other differences between the 3-6-12-24G protocols, but for presentation needs, we are good to know how each relates to resolution.
Troy @ TLC