Resource/Misc

2014 Presentation Summit is Next Month!

summit2014

This year is the 12th annual Presentation Summit, and it is being held in TLC Creative Services’ backyard (okay, next city over, but on a global scale, it is pretty much our backyard). This a great event and truly one of the few places anyone can find fantastic PowerPoint and presentation workshops and have the ability to be in a single place with the largest number of industry experts, and Microsoft PowerPoint developers.

October 12-15, 2014 in San Diego, CA. More information is available at the Better Presenting website here.

 

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T09:26:49-07:00September 29th, 2014|Resource/Misc|

The Problem with PowerPoints Selection Pane

The Selection Pane, introduced in PowerPoint 2007 is a great (and long over due) addition. But I think the dev team was not looking at the feature from a real-world use – and has not been updated yet (sigh…).

Here is my sample slide, that has many items on it. A good example of where the Selection Pane would be used.
SelectionPane_1

 

To open the Selection Pane: HOME >> EDITING >>  SELECT >> SELECTION PANE
SelectionPane_2SelectionPane_3

 

Note the on/off icon is on the right.

SelectionPane_4

 

When the Selection Pane is made a smaller width, the tools at the top (Show All, Hide All, Move up/down) wrap nicely to fit the narrower layout.

SelectionPane_5

 

When the Selection Pane is made narrower, the names do not wrap, but the on/off icon is cut off and disappears rendering that feature unusable. At the bottom is a scroller, which does allow access the on/off icon – but it requires so many additional mouse clicks and movements it is not a practical option.

SelectionPane_6

To answer the inevitable question from the MS Dev team – “why would you need to make the Selection Pane so narrow?”. In the real world, we work with different resolutions (please test the Selection Pane at 1024×768 to see how much screen real estate it needs to be functional), have several panes open side-by-side, have dozens of objects on a slide – on and off the slide area – and want to work at the largest viewable size, and many other real situations where the selection pane is in the way when so wide.

 

So what should the MS Dev team do? Simple: move the on/off icon to the left side and let the names get cut off.

SelectionPane_7

Leave a comment about your experience with the Selection Pane tool (in PPT 2007, 2010, 2013).

– Troy @ TLC

 

By |2016-08-10T09:32:03-07:00September 17th, 2014|PowerPoint, Resource/Misc|

5th Annual Outstanding Presentations Workshop

OutstandingPresentationsThe 5th Annual Outstanding Presentations Workshop begins September 9th. PowerPoint MVP, Ellen Finkelstein, has gathered another great line up of presentation experts this year. The series focus is on how to sharpen PowerPoint skills, clearly communicate the message, design powerful slides, and much more. I definitely endorse this as one of the most economical and easy ways of getting quality presentation information (and I was honored to be a presenter in past workshops).

Get the details here. There are 7 live webinar workshops, 1 hour each, and only $10 for the entire series!

Workshops are scheduled every Tuesday, starting next week, through the end of October! And things start off with a good friend Nolan Haims, one of the newest Microsoft MVPs for PowerPoint (MS has awarded only 32 globally) and he has a lot of great insights into presentation design and messaging. See you there!

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T09:35:26-07:00September 4th, 2014|Resource/Misc|

Search for Images on Google by Usage Rights

Legal use of images is something we at TLC are always concerned about. It is also something we see abused by many presentation designs (ie. using copyrighted images without permission). One of the largest image resources for someone putting together slides is web images searches, particularly Google Images.

But, Google does provide some good search options to use “legal” images, by searching by usage rights.

Begin by initiating a Google image search for what you are looking for (in our case, we searched for “picture”), and hit enter, or click search.

After the search results for “picture” have loaded, you’ll find you have some additional search tools available. What we are looking for in this case is “advanced search,” which you’ll find by selecting the gear icon at the top-left corner.

After selecting Advanced Search, you’ll find in the following options available to you under usage rights:

A cautionary note: Some of the images returned under “free to use or share, even commercially” still required attribution, so it’ll be important to double check the terms for each image.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T09:42:15-07:00May 16th, 2014|Resource/Misc, Tutorial|

WHY? – PowerPoint’s Default Animation Setting for Videos

Video in presentations has been something I have used for many years. PowerPoint has vastly improved its video features, but currently, and in all legacy versions, when a video is inserted, the default animation settings is a Trigger animation, which is something I am constantly disappointed by.

default animation

A trigger animation is “triggered” one of two ways, direct interaction (ie. move mouse on screen and click on the programmed item) or secondary action from a programmed animation (ie. when one item is animated, it activates the trigger animation).

default animation

So, when a video is inserted onto a slide and then present, the video will not play until you move the mouse cursor on the slide and click on the video. Obviously, for majority of my meetings, the goal is to hide PowerPoint (and hide any software) to create a seamless environment where things “just happen.” Seeing a mouse move across a screen is a bad thing.

default animation

Up next is a step-by-step tutorial on changing the video play animation settings to eliminate the need to see a cursor on the presentation screen.
– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T09:45:25-07:00May 1st, 2014|Personal, Resource/Misc|

SharePoint Calendars and Internet Explorer Visual Formatting Issue

TLC adopted Office 365 before it was publicly available and have only good things to say about its use in a small business environment. Recently something has gone awry with the SharePoint calendars – something we rely on daily.

Up until 2 weeks ago, they looked like the left example, but suddenly the visual formatting changed to the ugly and hard to use right example.

But this formatting issue is only seen when using Internet Explorer. If logged in with Firefox, Chrome or any other browser, nothing changed, all looks good. So ironically, only the Microsoft web browser seems to be rendering the Microsoft SharePoint calendars useless!

After some research and testing, here is the fix we have implemented on every computer here:

– Open Internet Explorer
– Click the TOOLS icon in the upper right
– Select COMPATABILITY VIEW SETTINGS
– In the ADD THIS WEBSITE field, enter SHAREPOINT.com
– Click ADD and CLOSE
– Now SharePoint calendars should once again display as expected

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T09:46:05-07:00April 19th, 2014|Resource/Misc, Tutorial|

Duarte Releases SlideDocs ‘Book’

If you have used PowerPoint to create a print document that was never intended to be projected as a slide show, fear not, you are not alone. TLC Creative Services has been creating lots of projects over the past few years that we internally refer to as “PowerPoint Documents.” Nancy Duarte has release a new “book” all about using PowerPoint for non-slide show documents called “SlideDocs.”

The downloaded book is a giant example of how PowerPoint is used for document design, because it is a PowerPoint file.

The core message of SlideDocs, which I agree with, is there are a range of documents. On the left are formal print design documents. On the right are slide show presentations. In the middle are print documents that are designed in PowerPoint.

I recommend everyone, especially clients, read SlideDocs if nothing else for the overview of graphic design and layout principles in the middle section. Get more info and download the free SlideDocs book and templates here.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T09:47:41-07:00March 20th, 2014|PowerPoint, Resource/Misc|

Office 2013 SP1 Released

Last Wednesday, Microsoft released the first Service Pack (SP) for Office 2013. The list of updates to PowerPoint is fairly short and deals only with stability issues – no new features or refinement of current features. If you want the details, here is the Microsoft KB article on Office 2013 SP1.

The world of MS Office is now split into two types of installs: MSO (installed from an actual installer app) and CTR (click-to-run which is a cloud based install). How you get SP1 depends on what type of install you have.

Unfortunately, there are not labels on the About Screens that tell if an install is MSO or CTR. Here is one way of identifying the install type:
Go to FILE >> ACCOUNT >> look at the info in right pane.

If there is only 1 box “About PowerPoint” – it is an MSO install.

If there are 2 boxes “About PowerPoint” and “Office Updates” – it is a CTR install.

If you have MSO (traditional installer), the update should be available through Windows Update. Or, you can go direct to Microsoft and download the SP1 installer.
32-bit Office = https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42017
64-bit Office = https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42006

If you have CTR, SP1 will automatically install when you are online.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T09:50:12-07:00March 3rd, 2014|PowerPoint, Resource/Misc, Tutorial|

Webinar by Troy – PowerPoint 2013, What’s New, Better, and Different

AudioSolutionz has asked me to present a live webinar on PowerPoint 2013. It will be this Wednesday, February 19 at 10am PT/1pm ET.

I have a large list of features that are new for the application, the designer, and the presenter.

Knowing where the PowerPoint 2013 new features are, how to turn them on, and how to use them can be a frustrating experience of trial and error. This is a one-stop overview the new features demonstrated and explained. Session Highlights:
• Learn what is new with video: playback, export and usable formats
• Discover 6 menus that are no longer pop-up dialogs – and have added formatting features
• Instantly apply any color on the screen to a shape or text in 2 clicks!
• Explore all the new slide transitions
• What are Smart Guides, and what is “Equidistant?” – they are both in PowerPoint 2013
• Widescreen is now the default, but it is not the same as the old widescreen
• Presenter View is now useable
• Learn how to zoom in on a slide – during a presentation
• and more, plus Q&A

Details and registration is here.
Use the promo code “Troy 20” for a $20 discount.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T09:51:01-07:00February 17th, 2014|PowerPoint, Resource/Misc|

Live Webinar – PowerPoint 2013, What’s New, Better, and Different

Next month, I am the presenter for an AudioSolutionz webinar “PowerPoint 2013, What’s New, Better, and Different.” With the number of companies transitioning to Office 2013, I have been asked to demonstrate my favorite features and overview what’s new and improved. Here is the webpage with all the details (Note: I will post a discount code next week).

https://www.audiosolutionz.com/1001-conference-updates-to-powerpoint-2013.php?utm_source=E99NACK2M

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T09:52:10-07:00February 3rd, 2014|Resource/Misc|
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