Software/Add-Ins

PowerPoint Presentation Translator Add-in

Microsoft has a secret garage where lots of amazing things are thought up, and few escape into the public realm. One recent Microsoft Garage app is the PRESENTATION TRANSLATOR. The add-in is really multiple parts; powered by the “Microsoft Translator Live Feature”, part PowerPoint add-in, part mobile app, and part 3-things-in-1, this add-in has a lot to offer a lot of different people.

At its core, the Presentation Translator is an add-in from Microsoft that is designed to help presenters communicate with audience members who speak a different language, or may be deaf/hard of hearing. It does slide translation as automatic narration, live subtitling, and interactive live translation using mobile devices. While not perfect, it is impressive, and fun to use.

To install you need to download direct from the Microsoft Garage webpage here (no Office Store install option yet). 

Live subtitling, one of the key features, allows the presenter to speak in 1 of 10 spoken languages while the add-in creates real-time, live subtitles translated into one of more than 60 text translation languages. The customized speech recognition feature uses the slide content to learn your language, helping ensure proper translation.

To start the live subtitles, go to the Slide Show tab and select Start Subtitles.

Presentation Translator 1

Click Accept to agree to the terms of use.

Presentation Translator 2

Walk through the overview by clicking Next until you reach the settings options. Select the speaking language and the subtitle display language. Check Customize speech recognition if you would like to use this feature, and select your microphone device.

Presentation Translator 3

You can also enter a presenter name, select subtitle locations, log in for authentication settings, and turn on or off the optional instructional slide by clicking Additional settings. When finished with all settings, click Next. Once loaded, your presentation will begin and subtitles will appear in the location you selected.

Presentation Translator 4

Here is one of our sample slides with the sentence “The Live Subtitles feature translates spoken content into subtitles” translated into English, French, German, and Spanish subtitles.

Presentation Translator 5

Presentation Translator 6

Presentation Translator 7

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Personal Translation: Through the add-in and corresponding mobile app, the audience members can also use a custom code to access personal translations, allowing them to follow along and communicate in their own language. The add-in also translates audience questions during an unmuted Q&A. If the audience members don’t speak one of the ten spoken languages, they can use one of the 60+ text based languages. In turn, those who are deaf or hard of hearing can more easily follow along with the presentation.

To use this feature, you will need to download the Microsoft Translator app on your mobile device and follow instructions provided during the presentation.

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Presentation Content Translation: the add-in also offers a tool to translate an entire presentation, while still maintaining formatting. See our original example here, in English.

Presentation Translator 9

To translate the content, go to the Slide Show tab and select Translate Slides

Presentation Translator 10

Select the current, slide language and the new language to translate to and click Translate Slides

Presentation Translator 11

Locate the folder you would like to save the translated version in, rename if desired, and click Save. Note the by default, an abbreviation of the new language is added to the end of the filename.

Presentation Translator 12

A new file will open with all content translated while still maintaining the original formatting. Here is our example after being translated to French, German and Spanish.

Presentation Translator 13

Presentation Translator 14

Presentation Translator 15

For some layouts, reformatting may be necessary to best display the translated content. For example, here is a slide that features large, stacked text of different sizes.

Presentation Translator 16

When translated into French, German or Spanish, the length of the words change and cause issues with the content fitting into the existing design. Notice that the word “wrap” may become two lines and some text ends up overlapping or off-slide.

Presentation Translator 17

Presentation Translator 18

Presentation Translator 19

By resizing and moving text, most of these layouts can still function after translation. Here is our French slide before and then after fixing the formatting.

Presentation Translator 20

Presentation Translator 21

The slide content translation was the feature of most interest to me, and for a standard bullet list style presentation it does a good job. As the examples above show, for more stylized layouts, there is still a lot of layout revision needs. And, because I do not fluently speak or read any of the languages used, I cannot say how accurate the translated text really was. The world is becoming much smaller all the time, and the PowerPoint Translator add-in is making it happen sooner than later.

Troy @ TLC

 

By |2018-03-17T22:51:34-07:00March 30th, 2018|Software/Add-Ins|

Pro Word Cloud Generator Add-In

Word Clouds are images composed of words pertaining to a particular subject, in which the size of each word indicates its frequency and importance. They are a popular way to visualize a message and something we have integrated into many presentations.

Pro Word Cloud

Pro Word Cloud is a Microsoft add-in that is free and can create world clouds with your custom text directly in PowerPoint. To install go to INSERT > STORE > search WORD CLOUD > and ADD the Pro Word Cloud add-in.

Pro Word Cloud

Installing the add-in gives direct access to a side pane to quickly and easily convert on-slide text to stylized word clouds directly from within PowerPoint itself. The action pane provides a nice selection of styling features, including; custom font, many preset color scheme options, word case and size.

Pro Word Cloud

 

Creating a word cloud with Pro Word Cloud is not completely intuitive. First you need to add all of the words to a text box in PowerPoint. Then select all and copy, because the add-in uses the text copied to the clipboard, there is no text entry area in the app. In the Pro Word Cloud action pane, click CREATE WORD CLOUD. Now, right-click the small word cloud image and copy, then paste onto the slide. 

Here is my example, with text I copied on the left and the Word Cloud the add-in created on the right.

Pro

A few observations:

  • Add-in does not use the PowerPoint template color scheme for the Word Cloud
  • Available color options are limited to preset color schemes, with no custom color setup
  • Use the size option to create a large enough word cloud image, I generally use 900x500px as the smallest size
  • The Word Cloud is an inserted flat image, so no animation by word or editing options
  • I recommend adding the word list to the presenter notes or to an off-slide text box to have available for any update needs

Troy @ TLC

By |2018-03-20T13:49:27-07:00March 28th, 2018|Software/Add-Ins|

PickIt Image Add-In

Pickit is another image resource site, but it is uniquely focused on providing images for PowerPoint presentations. The home page boldly says “Legally Cleared images for people at work. Make your work stand out with unlimited access to royalty free photos and clipart in PowerPoint.”
Pickit
To go with the PowerPoint (and Word) focus, Pickit has a Microsoft Store add-in that provides quick and convenient access to a large library of royalty-free and legally cleared™ images directly inside PowerPoint (and Word), meaning you can use them all without worrying about infringing on copyright laws. 

To install the add-in go to INSERT > STORE > search for PICKIT > ADD.

Pickit

Access the image library any time by clicking the PICKIT IMAGES button on PowerPoint HOME tab.

Pickit

Open the Images action pane, search for any image, click INSERT, and the image is added to the current slide.

Pickit

There is a free version that accesses the image library only from PowerPoint (no website access) and no HD resolution. The subscription is $1.99/month and makes all ad-free with unlimited app and web access, and access to HD resolution images.

Troy @ TLC

By |2018-03-20T13:47:33-07:00March 26th, 2018|Software/Add-Ins|

PowerPointLabs Add-in for PowerPoint

We continue our March Blog Posts on PowerPoint Add-ins with PowerPointLabs. When we tested PowerPointLabs it was FREE, and full of features, many we have not seen in any other offering. I do recommend spending time going through the tutorial walk-through that is available after the add-in is installed.

PowerPointLabs is an entire ribbon, with a lot of good design, layout and styling features. 

powerpoint-labs-7

For this post I am just going through one of several styling options that stood out. The Picture Slides Lab tool automates making text stylized over an image (inserted image or background image). This feature is in line with the PowerPoint Designer feature, in terms of take text only content and make it visual for me. It provides a number of preset styling options: 

powerpoint-labs-17

1) Frosted Glass TextBox Color (Option to add custom colors)

2) TextBox Transparency (Option to display multiple transparency options)

3) Special Effects (Options for how image is displayed)

4) Brightness (Options for image brightness by percentage)

5) Font Color (Options for custom font color)

6) Text Glow Color (Option to add custom glow color)

7) Text Position (Option to position your text in various positions on your slide)

8) Font (Option to choose a custom font. It doesn’t appear to load all fonts from your system.)

9) Font Size (Option to choose various preset font sizes)

10) Picture (This option allows you to add effects to your images)

Beyond the preset options, and a feature that always makes things better from my perspective, is the ability to use each preset as a starting point then customizing it.

 

Here is an example of the Picture Slides Lab in use:

 

1

Add a Blank Slide (to an existing presentation or new presentation) 

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2

Go to the PowerPointLabs tab and select Picture Slide Lab, then select Images to import.

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We added 5 visual images to the presentation.

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3

Select one of the imported images and select one of the preset styling options, then Apply.

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4

There is a dialog with thumbnail to confirm the selected image and styling (okay, this step feels a bit redundant and not needed). Highlight the image (1) to add to the presentation and click (2) Select.

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Everything is added to the presentation. And it is not a flat image, the text, image styling and graphic accents are all native PowerPoint content, so it can be modified in PowerPoint after inserted.

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5

In addition to the content being editable in PowerPoint, another nice option to easily update the image and styling by going back to the PowerPointLabs tab, selecting Picture Slides Lab again and updating the image or styling options by clicking (1) Change Style.

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Once you’ve selected your new style, click (1) Apply.

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(1) Select slide to be inserted in your project – (2) Click Select.

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Here’s the new style applied to the slide.

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The PowerPointLabs add-in is good for both the non-designer (professional preset designs for all) and designer (instant formatting for faster production). Have fun formatting some visual slide layouts on your next presentation!

 

– Troy @ TLC

 

By |2018-03-20T13:42:52-07:00March 21st, 2018|Software/Add-Ins|

YAY Images PowerPoint Add-In

Previously, we looked at Adobe’s Image Search PowerPoint Add-In. Today, we’re looking at a similar tool, YAY Images. This add-in searches for images directly in PowerPoint and it has some advanced search filters to find the perfect image.

YAY Images 1

Go to th INSERT Tab> click the STORE button > search for “YAY.” Select “add” and after installed PowerPoint will open the YAY action pane.

YAY Images 2

Within the action pane, search for images using a variety of options: (1) search for similar images, (2) insert previews into your presentation, or (3) directly license and insert image.

YAY Images 3

Our favorite thing about this tool is the advanced search options (it would be great to see some of the “big” stock photo sites integrate some of these options), such as the search by aspect, number of people in the photo, and the “TextSpace” is a great option! 

YAY Images 4

But as with most image licensing tools and websites, licensing any of the images requires a subscription plan. Signing up for the account is free but plans range from around $10 – $100 depending on the number of images you are downloading each month.

Enjoy!

By |2018-03-20T13:42:29-07:00March 15th, 2018|Software/Add-Ins|

Adobe Stock PowerPoint Add-In

AdobeStock is a large royalty free image resource offering. TLC Creative opted to make it our current project resource (we change out services every few years). Adobe has released a PowerPoint add-in for Adobe Stock. If you’re a Adobe Stock subscriber, you can easily access the image search directly in PowerPoint.

 

 

Install the Adobe Stock PowerPoint Add-in: Insert Tab > My Add-ins (or Store) > See All > Add

Adobe Stock PowerPoint 1

Adobe Stock PowerPoint 2

Click the Adobe Stock add-in button on the Insert tab to open the Adobe Stock action pane.

Adobe Stock PowerPoint 3

The process of searching, finding, selecting and inserting images onto a slide is very intuitive and easy. A few observations:

  • You need to log in to your Adobe account the first time the Adobe Stock action pane is opened.
  • When you select an image, there is an option to license or insert a watermarked comp image (Preview in PowerPoint).
    Adobe Stock PowerPoint 4
  • Images only exist in the PowerPoint file, vs. downloading an image file through the Adobe Stock site and then adding that file to a presentation.
  • Vector graphics are inserted as raster .png images (but can be downloaded as vector files if downloaded direct from the Adobe Stock site, which ironically cannot be downloaded as a raster image from the website where it is only available as a vector graphic that must be converted to be PowerPoint compatible).

 

Enjoy!

By |2018-03-10T19:43:41-08:00March 13th, 2018|Software/Add-Ins|

Beautiful.ai Review

Beautiful.AI is a stand alone (eg. not a PowerPoint companion or add-in) web-based presentation design app.

The immediate thing the TLC Creative team noted when testing Beautiful.ai was the visual and clean styling and layouts for presentations. Less is often better and the Beautiful.ai app focuses on that design aesthetic – in a good way. 

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On the technical side, it is web-based. So no internet, no app. In addition it is a browser-based app, so no standalone app to launch, or even “button” to open a browser to the app. It also only functions in the Google Chrome browser. We have fast fiber internet service at the TLC Creative studio, but has noted other web-based apps still pause and have noticeable performance issues. Beautiful.ai was fast and never had us waiting for the internet to catch up.

Using Beautiful AI to create a presentation:

  • Click the plus symbol to “Add a Slide” and an array of 75+ preset layout options are available.

  • Preset layouts can be customized with images (from internal app resources or from computer), text and several styling options. As example, the “Variations” icon is available at the bottom right and depending on what is selected on the slide it brings up a list of additional options to choose from, such as bullets, numbered icons, etc.
  • Content is intuitive to add or delete, as are most of the styling options.
  • Entrance animations are preset, and overall everything is elegant and professional.
  • The “Artificial Intelligence” in the Beautiful.ai name shines with layouts that automatically readjust and realign for a professional and balanced arrangement. As example, adjusting a 5-item slide to a 3-item slide everything adjusts and centers on the slide area.
  • Videos are possible with a YouTube import option. We were also informed that the ability to import your own video files is being added.

  • For corporate PowerPoint template projects, one of our stand adds is a preset CONTACT layout. Beautiful.ai has a preset “CONTACT INFO” layout, and it has some nifty options such as add your address and it verifies the address from Google Maps and adds a Google Map to the slide. Plus you have the control of the map style and zoom level.

While this is one of the better web-based presentation design apps I have tested, there were points where I think the app became overwhelmed and it went into a never-ending spin mode (ie. it froze vs. being painfully slow to work with). There are also several limitations worth being aware of:

  • Limited fonts available (okay, you use what it picks and no other choices are offered)
  • No option to export editable files (PDF and PowerPoint deck made up of static images)
  • No presenter view (to see presenter notes, a timer, etc.)
  • And some styling limitations, such as on a timeline there is no control over the text wrapping. The layout is balanced between content, but often longer timeline elements need to be “off balance” from the rest of the content to create an overall balanced slide layout. Beautiful.ai follows some great rules for aesthetics, but does not have customization options for things that are outside its rules.

All in all, there’s a lot of pretty cool functions in Beautiful.ai. It is also valuable to take existing slides and content and see new design options presented by Beautiful.ai. My big takeaway is for the corporate user, I would still recommend using PowerPoint, but for one-off and the non-designer looking for a polished and professional visual styled presentation, Beautiful.ai should be an option to remember.

 

Troy @ TLC

By |2019-10-28T09:55:24-07:00March 5th, 2018|Software/Add-Ins|

Microsoft Remix3D for 3D Models

Microsoft is making a big push into 3D and is supporting all users with some new tools. Remix 3D is a Microsoft offering, and uniquely the site has minimal Microsoft branding, and can be used by anyone.

Remix3D has a wide variety of 3D models (and by “wide variety” I mean cheesy cartoon quality to more professional subject matter). Everything on Remix3D is FREE and completely royalty free!

PowerPoint has very recently added the ability to add real 3D models to slides. Here at TLC Creative we feel having support for 3D models in presentations is going to add a great layer of visual styling options! Previously adding a 3D model meant exporting a .png image or movie file of the model. Now we can add the real 3D model, maintaining its 3D attributes.

To use any of the Remix3D.com models in PowerPoint (or Word, or Excel) you can either go direct to the website, login (a Microsoft account is needed, not necessarily your Office365 email), download and insert onto a slide. As example, searching for “Globe” there is a good selection of models to choose from.

 

The other option is to search and insert directly in PowerPoint. Remix3D works seamlessly with all Office apps (PowerPoint, Word, Excel), including the new Microsoft Paint 3D application. The integration is impressive. Using Office 365 PowerPoint go to INSERT > 3D MODELS > FROM ONLINE SOURCES.

The dialog that opens is a view of Remix3D’s library. Search and find a 3D model and click insert. Here is a search for “Globe” in the PowerPoint direct dialog. All the same models. Find the 3D model you want and click INSERT.

Two notes: 

  1. The background behind the 3D model is not going to be inserted, just the model over the slide background.
  2. When searching through the website, you can interact with the 3D models to rotated on all axis’ to view. But the PowerPoint direct dialog is only a static image of the 3D model.

 

The selected 3D model is placed on the current slide, centered on the slide. 3D models are vector act, so they can be scaled to any size with no quality loss. In addition, 3D models has a new center activation icon that allows it to rotate, zoom and pan the model to the desired view for the presentation. 

Throughout this month we are highlighting using 3D models in presentations with the TLC Creative design team’s PowerPoint demos that integrate 3D models.

Troy @ TLC

By |2018-01-06T23:30:23-08:00January 4th, 2018|Software/Add-Ins|

Adobe Experts Productivity Tips

Lori and I  were featured in a great PowerPoint Productivity Tips list (Lori tip #16, Troy tip #18) a few months ago, which is something definitely worth reading (see blog post with link to full article here). Recently, Paul at Acuity Training in the UK sent me a link to an Adobe Experts Productivity Tips article they posted, and it has some great power user tips and hacks, definitely worth bookmarking. Full article here.

Adobe Experts Productivity Tips

Troy @ TLC 

By |2017-12-14T12:37:14-08:00December 14th, 2017|Resource/Misc, Software/Add-Ins|

WeCompress – NXPowerlite’s Online Version

The guys at Neuxpower recently invited us to beta test a new online compression tool called WeCompress. We found using this online tool is simple, easy and provides impressive results on par with the desktop version of NXPowerlite (review of NXPowerlite here). And the good news is, wecompress is now publicly available for use!

Overall we found WeCompress an impressive online tool – and it is FREE to use! While our tests below show it is not as robust as the NXPowerlite desktop app, it provides a great option for everyone trapped in a corporate world of “we do not allow add-ins or utility apps to be installed.” 

Our first test was optimizing this high-res .jpg image. WeCompress reduced the file size by 4MB and maintained image quality (for use on a 1920×1080 monitor).

To use, go to WeCompress and just drag and drop your file to get started.

The upload and download time is dependent on your internet connection, but the actual compression/processing time was on par with the desktop NXPowerlite processing (eg. fast).

WeCompress has a clean online app design and it’s easy to use. But it does lack a few things in comparison to the desktop NXPowerlite app. The biggest difference is the ability to customize settings. For example, TLC Creative’s standard compression is custom settings optimized for 1920×1080 HD display. Other areas custom compression settings are important to us are when working on 4-6-8K output files (although the desktop version is currently limited to a 3480x2160px resolution base).

For comparison, here is our 10 slide sample deck which we optimized with WeCompress, NXPowerlite’s default compression setting, and our “TLC” custom NXPowerlite compression settings.

The original file, with purposefully oversize images, is 14.9 MB.

Running the file through WeCompress adjusted the file to a helpful 642 KB (and maintained good image quality, but a bit lower than we really want).

NXPowerlite (Windows v7.1.5) using its default PRINT compression gave us a 4.68 MB file (and image quality we approved of).

Optimizing with our “TLC” custom compression setting (1920×1080, JPG quality 9) gave us a 3.39 MB file (and image quality we approved of).

We then tested with another test file. We optimized a 10 slide PowerPoint file with close up, detailed high res images. Using NXPowerlite with our TLC HD compression settings, the file went from 16.8MB to 3.76MB, with image detail quality that met our standards.  

Uploading the same file to WeCompress reduced the file a lot – down to 674 KB! But image quality was below our standards (Note: compressing same file with NXPowerlite’s SCREEN default was comparable, creating a 1.15 MB file – a default setting we never use).

Aside from WeCompress’ limitations, the two tools have similar compression speeds and results. But WeCompress is FREE and does not require any install permissions. Neuxpower’s NXPowerlite has been the TLC Creative Services go-to compression solution for several years and we definitely recommend booking their new WeCompress online option to add to your toolbox.

Troy @ TLC

By |2017-10-13T11:46:21-07:00October 26th, 2017|Software/Add-Ins|
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