One of the tedious tasks is when asked to get all of the PowerPoint Speaker Notes into an email or a Word doc. But knowing which PowerPoint add-in makes all the difference. Using the Brightslide PowerPoint add-in it is super easy! Here’s a demo.
Troy @ TLC
Brightslide has some great features. Many already exist in PowerPoint, but now are faster to use. As example, a faster way to use PowerPoint’s Selection Pane features of hiding objects and showing all objects.
Here are the 2 webpages for Brightslide. The first is where you can download the installer, and the second is an info page that covers almost 80 of the features.
Troy @ TLC
Brightslide has soooo many features, and I use many of them almost daily. This is just one feature that fills a gap in PowerPoint’s formatting features, and has some really nifty hidden functionality.
Here are the 2 webpages for Brightslide. The first is where you can download the installer, and the second is an info page that covers almost 80 of the features.
And, Brightslide is one of the few productivity PowerPoint add-ins that has both Windows and Mac versions!
-Troy @ TLC
At the 2026 Presentation Summit last week, completely unplanned, Lori demonstrated the NXPowerlite PowerPoint add-in during her speaking session. Troy also demonstrated the NXPowerlite PowerPoint add-in during one of his speaking sessions! Here’s a demo of NXPowerlite in use:
– Troy @ TLC Creative Services, Inc.
This free add-in for Windows PowerPoint is something everyone (that works in PowerPoint, on a Windows computer) should have! It accomplishes a simple thing – and it’s something the developers of PowerPoint overlooked. It’s also something I use 10-20x a day… sometimes up to 300 times a day while formatting slides!
The long and short of it is that it picks up and memorizes the position of any item on a slide. You can use Thor’s Hammer to place any other item in that exact same location.
The position is held in memory, until you pickup and memorize a new location. Use it on different slides throughout the deck. Use it to position things into that position on OTHER decks!
This is one of those things that you cannot believe you worked in PowerPoint without it, once you have it!
Download this PowerPoint add-in from PPTools here: https://www.pptools.com/free/FAQ00002-THOR-The-Hammer.htm
– Troy @ TLC Creative Services, Inc.
The PowerPoint Quick Access Toolbar, or QAT, is the #1 native PowerPoint feature everyone should be using to improve their productivity!
FIRST
DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL
THE TLC CREATIVE PRESET QAT
Hoping this makes your work time in PowerPoint faster and more efficient!
-Troy @ TLC
If you are suddenly experiencing (and most likely being frustrated) downloaded images automatically opening in Adobe Express – you are not alone!
My first frustration was – why is Adobe Express installed on my computer, I did not install it! Yes I have Adobe Creative Cloud and have several Adobe apps installed. But Adobe Express is not an app I clicked to have installed. My assumption is that a recent Adobe update silently included this as a companion app – argh!
So here is what I am talking about. I have found this image on our Adobe Stock account and downloaded it. Note: Adobe Stock is not the reason, or connector – any downloaded image, from any web resource, is going to trigger this new “helpfulness”.
To confirm, the image is my downloads folder:
But after downloading, the Adobe Express app launches and displays the downloaded image. Apparently Adobe feels they know a better workflow and feel they should change my workflow to working on this image in their app – argh!!
The only good news is, this is easy to turn off! In Adobe Express, click the account icon in the upper right and then Settings.
There are surprising few settings options. Turn off the “Images Downloaded from the Web” option.
Done. Adobe Express will no longer launch and open each image you downloaded (BTW, I was downloading 20+ icons for a presentation project from The Noun Project – and the constant interruption of Adobe Express opening each image is what set me off on figuring out how to turn of the unwanted behavior!).
Perhaps I will do a future post on Adobe Express’s capabilities as it does offer some good image editing features – and a paid Adobe Creative Cloud account is not needed to install and use it, although there are many limitations in the free version.
-Troy @ TLC
Recently I have been in several conversations about inconsistencies across PowerPoint on different end points (as example, in Presenter View, why is the “End Show” button at the top in a different order on Windows, Mac and Teams!).
Because inconsistency is something I am thinking about, I caught another inconsistency that encounter daily, but have ignored – for years. While working on a multimedia project this past week, this time I the inconsistency between Adobe Audition and Adobe Premiere registered. Granted, this is a small thing, but in thinking of the design work, this has been a mental pause and break in workflow every time I am moving between these two apps.
Both Audition and Premiere work with layers. And the layer height, for visibility, is adjustable. But why is how you adjust the layers different between the programs!?
With Adobe Audition, to make a layer taller, the adjustment is by dragging the BOTTOM of the layer.
With Adobe Premiere, to make a layer taller, the adjustment is by dragging the TOP of the layer.
No action items or hacks from me, just documenting my design life thoughts – and why companies with many apps do not look at things wholistic and see inconsistencies that their users have to deal with…
Troy @ TLC
Sometimes, reducing a formatting process from 6+ clicks to 3 clicks is just not enough. In this case, my previous blog post showcased the ToolsToo Remove Unused Masters feature, which reduces the 6+ click process of opening the PowerPoint presentation master, finding an unused slide master, deleting it, and closing the master slide view.
But I do this process often enough that I have moved it to my QAT, and it’s now a 2-click process!
All you have to do is click the QAT button, then click “Yes”, and you’re done!
Troy @ TLC Creative
The ToolsToo add-in has a lot of tools! One of my favorite “hidden” features is the Remove Masters option. I use this on every event where I have a master show file of 2-3-9, or more individual presentations that have been combined into a single presentation to run during that event. At the end of the event I need to break apart the master show file into those original individual presentations again for the archive. But if I only delete the unneeded slides and do a save as – that is a sloppy and unprofessional file. There are lots of steps in finalizing a presentation for the archives or to provide back to the client; remove PowerPoint sections, clear the file properties, optimize, and remove master slides from the other presentations.
ToolsToo makes the step of removing unused master slides, and unused master layouts, a 2-click process!
Troy @ TLC