Tutorial

Name the Master Slide

Every Master Slide has a name. The name is helpful in identifying the content/the purpose/the identity of the Master Layouts.

Often (far too often), when reviewing provided PowerPoint slide decks is the Microsoft default Master Slide name is there.

Updating the Master Slide name is very easy:

1. Under the VIEW tab select “Slide Master”

2. Click RENAME and change the name to something more descriptive

3. After changing the name, Click RENAME

4. The Master Slide layouts have now been updated

Troy @ TLC

By |2018-11-11T13:04:09-08:00November 30th, 2018|PowerPoint, Tutorial|

Make it ALL CAPS

“How Did They Do That? When I type into the title text placeholder, all of the text is automatically ALL CAPS.”

When developing a template or custom layout, this is a great way to help everyone using the template with consistent formatting.

Go to the Master Slide or specific Master Layout and select the title text placeholder.


On the HOME tab, in the FONT section, click the FONT DIALOG icon.

From the FONT dialog, check the ALL CAPS option, and OK.

That’s all the programming needed. That text placeholder will now be ALL CAPS text as it is added.

-Troy @ TLC

By |2018-11-11T13:52:54-08:00November 14th, 2018|Tutorial|

Placeholder Prompt Text – Make it Helpful

Every new slide, with text placeholders, have some informational prompt text to let users know it is available.

But the prompt text does not need to be the Microsoft supplied text! The prompt text can be updated to personalize to the audience, topic, or content needs.

-Troy @ TLC

By |2018-11-12T05:57:11-08:00November 12th, 2018|Tutorial|

Things Get Corrupted – Fix it with a Fresh Layout

Funny things can happen to PowerPoint Master Layouts; we have found layouts susceptible mystery bullets being added to text placeholders, layouts jumbled, fonts not working and many other annoying format problems. The mystery can be unravelled by delving into the file XML files – or, we can hack the process by replacing the corrupt layout with a new version.

The really is no fixing a master layout that has gone bad. For this example we are saying the TITLE AND CONTENT Master Layout has become corrupt.

Our solution is deleting the bad layout and replacing with a fresh layout of the same name from another file, such as an earlier version of the same template, or from the Microsoft Default template.

First, we need to delete the Master Layout, so all slides that are assigned to it need to be deleted or assigned to another Master Layout.

Then Open the Master Slide view and delete the corrupt layout (which means the layout that has mystery formatting issues that cannot be resolved – it is XML corrupt).

Now the hack, insert a new Slide Master by right clicking and selecting “INSERT SLIDE MASTER”. 

From the new Microsoft default Master Slide, find its TITLE AND CONTENT layout.

Drag the fresh layout TITLE AND CONTENT layout from the new master to the original Master Slide to replace the corrupt layout deleted earlier.

Note: the new master layout will pick up the Master Slide attributes, but it may need customization to match the template layout needs. The good news it has a fresh XML coding behind it and what was bad is now gone!

Troy @ TLC

By |2018-11-03T21:16:51-07:00November 5th, 2018|Tutorial|

Image Transparency!

Until recently, pictures in PowerPoint didn’t have a transparency setting for photo/raster images. Transparency could be adjusted on shapes, and for creative presentation designers, a shape fill could be set to be a photo, which would then let the transparency to be adjusted (lots of work, but a hack solution!).

As of late October 2018, image transparency is a real thing in PowerPoint Office 365 version!

When an image is selected, there is a new TRANSPARENCY tool on the ribbon.

  1. Format tab
  2. Transparency in the Adjust section
  3. Preset transparency options, or click “Picture Transparency Options”

On the format pane, the Transparency options allow the amount of transparency to be adjusted. Go to Format Picture > Picture > Picture Transparency.

Here is an image  on a blue background slide. First it is the default opaque (0% transparency) and then  semi-transparent (30% transparency).

Troy @ TLC

By |2019-01-31T14:32:56-08:00November 2nd, 2018|Tutorial|

Windows 10 Mobile Hot Spot

The ability to turn a Windows 10 computers into a WiFi hotspot by sharing its internet connection, either wired or wireless!, is an amazingly useful feature. It requires some advance setup, then it is always available.

Go to WINDOWS & SETTINGS

Select NETWORK & INTERNET

On the left select MOBILE HOTSPOT

TURN ON, confirm Wi-Fi (not Bluetooth) is selected, and click EDIT

In the Network Info and add a NETWORK NAME (anything you want; Troys WiFi, Secret WiFi Do Not Connect, etc.) and a PASSWORD (something unique, you may share it with others)

Now the computer is ready to share its internet connection! Click the NOTIFICATIONS icon in the lower right and select MOBILE HOTSPOT

Now on any device (Windows, Mac, phone, tablet, etc.) look for you WiFi SSD and connect!

Troy @ TLC

 

By |2019-01-31T14:33:44-08:00August 24th, 2018|Resource/Misc, Tutorial|

Change Shape of a Video

Earlier this month, was how to use PowerPoint’s Change Shape tool. Using the same tool, videos are not limited to rectangles! Essentially the Change Shape for videos crops any video to a new shape.  

First, insert your video and select it.

Change Shape on Video 1

Go to Video Tools > Format Tab, click Video Shape > Oval (or other desired shape).

Change Shape on Video 2

The video is now cropped to an Oval.

Change Shape on Video 3

The same crop tool functionality used on images works on videos. By default, the Video Shape tool crops to the existing rectangle aspect ratio. To make the video playback a perfect circle, use the crop tool to manually change the aspect ratio to 1:1. 

Note: adjust the viewable area of the video by repositioning the video in the cropped area while the crop tool is selected.

Change Shape on Video 4

The video is now a circle, or a star, a heart, or any other shape in the Video Shape library!

Change Shape on Video 5

Whichever shape you select, the video will export and play in that format.

Troy @ TLC

By |2018-06-10T07:51:05-07:00June 29th, 2018|Tutorial|

Lock Aspect Ratio

When it comes to design, there are few things worse than seeing distorted shapes, pictures, and text. In presentations, we often see distorted headshots, picture place holders, callout shapes and more. Powerpoint’s “Lock Aspect Ratio” feature helps ease the task of resizing any shape, photo, or placeholder.

  • Right click on the object you wish to resize and select “format shape.” This will open the right format shape panel, select the size & properties tab.

  Lock Aspect 1 LockAspect2

 

Under the size dropdown, check the Lock aspect ratio box. You now can grab any of the four corners of the bounding box and resize without any distortion. Previously, this was only achievable by holding down alt.

Lock Aspect 3 Lock Aspect 4

 

  • Now, drag and resize your shape to your desired size.

Lock Aspect 5

 

This trick comes in handy in many situations, but for us, its most effective when it comes to images and placeholders. For example, we see a lot of org charts or presentations that have speaker slides with images, where you want your image size and proportions to be consistent. Selecting the “Lock Aspect Ratio” box in the master for these placeholders, allows us to add an image that will be cropped to this size. (You can easily change how the image is cropped in the Format tab > Crop)

Lock Aspect 6  Lock Aspect 7Lock Aspect 8

Troy @ TLC

By |2018-03-23T09:28:24-07:00June 27th, 2018|Tutorial|

Making Text Align to the Edge of the Text Box

Text boxes in PowerPoint are like mini-word documents. Each one has its own margins, tabs and formatting.

The text box formatting options (margins, tabs, line spacing, etc.) for each text box can be modified in the Format Shape dialog. Select a text box > FORMAT > open the FORMAT SHAPE pane > TEXT OPTIONS > TEXT BOX. Or right-click any text box and select FORMAT TEXT EFFECTS > TEXT BOX.

Just one example of where modifying a text boxes internal margins can help the visual layout is when a design needs the text to flush align with other objects, vertically and/or horizontally, the text box margins interfere with the results.

For this example, it is making the 3 objects, 2 boxes and 1 text box, all with the ALIGN LEFT tool, vs. manually adjusting the position of the text box so the text inside it is visually aligned with the objects above it. 

The left edge of all three align, but visually the text is indented, but they are actually aligned to the left edge.

Instead of manually moving the text box left to visually align the text with the two boxes, adjust the text box margins – set the left margin to zero.

To illustrate, here is are two text boxes. They have identical formatting, but the lower one has a solid fill to show the text margin. The top text box has a zero left margin. The bottom text box has the default .1″ inset margin pushing the text away from the true left edge.

To make the text align to the left edge, go to the Format Tab and click on the small arrow under the text portion for the FORMAT SHAPE menu.

Select TEXT BOX in the left column and on the right in the INTERNAL MARGIN section change the LEFT to “O”.

The text now aligns flush to the left edge.

At TLC Creative we are constantly working with text box internal margin settings to create visual layouts. It is easier if each text box is visualized as a mini-Word document with it’s own settings.

Troy @ TLC

 

 

By |2018-06-25T08:06:11-07:00June 25th, 2018|Tutorial|

What is the Tab Selection Order on a Slide?

Many times, in PowerPoint, you may find yourself with layered content that makes it difficult to format, adjust animations, etc. A great tip is to know about the TAB key. Select any object on the slide, then click the TAB key to rotate through selecting every visible object on the slide. Bonus tip: use SHIFT + TAB to reverse the selection order.

So, how is the selection order of tabbing chosen? Look to the SELECTION PANE. The Selection Pane is the order that the TAB key follows. It not only shows every element on a slide, but has the functionality to change the name of each element, and enables turning on/off the visibility of any element on a slide.

To turn on your selection pane, go to HOME > SELECT > SELECTION PANE from the drop down. Or for all of TLC Creative we have the Selection Pane on our custom QAT.

Selection Order 1

With the Selection Pane open, use the TAB key and the selected objects go down (or up with SHIFT + TAB) the object list. Or click on any element in the Selection Pane to select any object on the slide.

Selection Order 2

[KGVID]https://thepowerpointblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/unnamed-file-1.mp4[/KGVID]

Use the TAB key to move through the layers of objects on the slide. The tabbing order follows the Selection Pane order, also referred to as the z-order, or the stack order.

Troy @ TLC

By |2019-10-30T05:53:46-07:00June 21st, 2018|Tutorial|
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