Tutorial

Every custom color scheme has a name. But when the CREATE NEW THEME COLORS dialog is opened, the color scheme name is a generic “custom 1” name. It is not intuitive on finding the color scheme name, so here is a tutorial on how to see the color scheme name currently being used by a file.

— Note: I am reposting what I put online back on April 29, 2016 —

Every template has a Custom Color Scheme. And every color scheme has a custom name. For example: Here is a custom PowerPoint template I am working on, and I named the template color scheme “The Future Is Now” which is the theme name of the event where it will be used.

And when I look at the color schemes available on my computer, this theme is listed – because it was created on this computer:

But on any other computer, with the template open, if I look at the color schemes, The Future Is Now is not listed:

To find the Custom Color Scheme name, do this:

• Go to VIEW > SLIDE MASTER > BACKGROUND > mouse over (do not click) COLORS

• The pop up dialog shows the current template color scheme name
  

Now you can edit the existing color scheme and know what name to give it.

-Troy @ TLC

To create this animated .gif we created a small slide size PowerPoint deck. The page size is 1.25″ x 1.5″

From an image from Adobe Stock (TLC Creative has a Teams account to Adobe Stock for project art), we cropped and added the image sequence to 19 slides. No PowerPoint animation and even slide transitions – just multiple slides and a fast auto advance timing.

Troy @ TLC

Exporting slides as a self contained animated .gif is easy (see previous post). Here is an example of creating PowerPoint slides to be exported as an animated .gif.

Adjust page size if needed. For this example the goal is an online add ready square and the PowerPoint slides page size is 4″ x 4″.

1 Insert the photos, 1 per slide.

In this example, for the scenic photos, each was sized, positioned and cropped to fit full frame on the square area.

2. Preset the slide transition effects for each slide. Note: do not set the Auto Transition timing, we will set this in the export step.

3. Go to FILE > EXPORT > CREATE AN ANIMATED GIF

4. There are 4 size options:

     Small (240p at 15fps)

     Medium (480p at 15fps)

     Large (720p at 24fps)

     Extra Large (HD quality 1080p at 24fps)

5. Add the delay between each slide in the SECONDS SPEND ON EACH SLIDE dialog

6. Click CREATE GIF

TIP: For this scenic imagery, we can successfully use the lower FPS (frames per second) of 15fps. For animated gifs with more complex animation, the higher 24fps is going to be better, even if you do not need the larger pixel size. With PowerPoint the pixel size and frame rate (fps) are connected and cannot be selected independently.

Troy @ TLC (thanks Jake for creating the sample file!)

An example, and tutorial, of using PowerPoint for text styling. Here is the simple, all caps, text:

I am updating the text to a white fill, on a white background, with a light grey outline 

To create the cut out effect, an inner shadow is applied.

Done. A text styling effect, created in PowerPoint and text remains editable.

– Troy @ TLC

Finalizing our text treatment series, another way to make text more visually interesting is to fill text with a picture. Here is the image used for the next styling effect. Note that the fire and ice are within the same image:

To fill the text with the image, on the ribbon go to SHAPE FORMAT (A), click TEXT FILL (B), select PICTURE (C)

PowerPoints default is to make the image fill the selected text. In this case the image is “squished” to fit. But we want to show only the fire portion of the image on the FIRE text. To adjust the image, work from the FORMAT SHAPE and TEXT OPTIONS pane. Note: We cannot use crop tool to adjust fill image size/position, we must use the legacy fill offset tools.

• Go to the TEXT FILL tab
• Select “Tile picture as texture”

Here is our image fill BEFORE checking “Tile picture as texture”

And here is our image AFTER checking “Tile picture as texture”

Now that the fire flames portion of the image is filling the entirety of the text, we have a few customizing refinements, but for the most part the default settings work:

• Check TILE PICTURE AS TEXTURE
• Set the Offset X & Y to 0 pt (default)
• Set the X & Y SCALE to 100% (default)
• Set the ALIGNMENT to TOP LEFT (default)

Similar adjustments for ICE:

• Check TILE PICTURE AS TEXTURE
• Set the Offset X & Y to 0 pt (default)
• Adjust the X SCALE (width) to 62% which let’s us see some black area of the image for more visual interest
• Set the Y SCALE (height) to 100% (default)
• Set the ALIGNMENT to RIGHT

Text is still editable in PowerPoint. Styling options such as drop shadows and beveling can also be applied – be creative! Download the sample slide Here.

Troy @ TLC