Tutorial Archives - Page 18 of 57

How to Prevent Resize Slide From Erasing Formatting (part 3)

The solution we use at TLC Creative Services is to remove the variant. The simple answer is to save the presentation as a PowerPoint template (.potx) which creates a file with no variants. Here is a quick step-by-step process:

1. Go to File>> Save As >> POTX from drop down list

Save to the desktop (this is a temporary file you will delete)
Use a file name that is applicable to the template
Note 1: The file name will be seen in the file properties
Note 2: A .potx is a PowerPoint template and it cannot contain slides, so doing this is going to DELETE all slides (which will be added back in a few steps)

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2. Open the new .potx file and look at the file properties

Creating a .POTX removes the Default Theme ID
The TEMPLATE property will now list the .POTX file name
Note: When you open a .potx, it automatically creates a .pptx presentation file.

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3. Go to FILE > SAVE AS > POWERPOINT PRESENTATION (.pptx) from the drop down list

Opening a .potx automatically creates a .pptx presentation file
Open file is most likely named “Presentation1.pptx”
Save presentation with a new file name – Best Practice: Name same as original file name + version # (eg. _v2)

4. Go to DESIGN tab > VARIANTS section

The presentation now has no VARIANTS

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7. Add slides from original presentation to the new, no variant, presentation and save file

8. Delete the temporary .potx and the original presentation

9. Use the Resize option without losing template formatting!

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-08-10T09:00:17-07:00August 19th, 2015|Tutorial|

Why Resize Slide Erases All Formatting (part 2)

The previous post showed how template formatting is often stripped out of a presentation when it is resized.

SlideResize-1 SlideResize-9

So here is my simple, non-tech description of what is happening inside PowerPoint (Note: If you really want details on templates and themes, I highly recommend Echo Swinford and Julie Terberg’s excellent book: Building PowerPoint Templates Step by Step with the Experts).

The resize “bug by design” will only happen with presentations and templates developed in PowerPoint 2013 and above. Files created in PPT 2007 and 2010, even if edited in 2013, do not have the resize issue because those versions of PowerPoint do not have the troublemaking feature. With PowerPoint 2013, a new option for templates was added, VARIANTS. Variants will eventually be a great feature, but currently they are not really used and the “Super Theme Templates” they open the door to create are so difficult to develop, I only know a few designers in the world who really understand them and are willing to tackle them (and I am not one of them).

Variants, which you see in the Ribbon on the Design Tab, are basically template styling options.

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When resizing slides, PowerPoint needs to use a variant. If there is not a custom variant already there from a Theme, PowerPoint reapplies the Microsoft Default Theme. The default theme, called “Office Theme,” is what you get when opening a new blank presentation (boring, white, no stylized formatting).

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When the default theme, and its variants, are applied, all formatting to the master slide and layouts are replaced with this “default” setup. What this means is nicely designed slides lose their existing template styling attributes. See the previous post for a downloadable sample slide you can test and see formatting stripped.

Here are 2 ways I do a quick check to see if a provided file is going to have an issue if it needs to be resized:

1. Go to FILE > PROPERTIES > expand to see all properties > TEMPLATE

– If the TEMPLATE property is BLANK or has “OFFICE THEME,” I know it is almost 100% certain to have formatting issues if resized

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2. Or I look at the DESGIN tab >> VARIANTS section and see what variants are available (Note: If there are no variant thumbnails, that is covered in part 3, and it is okay)

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The next post, part 3, is a step-by-step solution to avoid PowerPoint adversely affecting slides when resized.

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-06-16T14:07:02-07:00August 17th, 2015|Tutorial|

Resize Slide Erases All Formatting! (part 1)

Here is the scenario: you have a 16×9 presentation that needs to be changed to 4×3. Easy! PowerPoint has a great feature to change the aspect ratio (via Page Setup) and it keeps everything proportional (eg. circles stay round) and adjusts the position of everything to fit the new slide layout – but things don’t go as smoothly as planned.

1. Here is your 16×9 slide (download this PowerPoint 2013 Resize Test Slide):

SlideResize-1

2. Go to DESIGN > SLIDE SIZE > STANDARD 4×3

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3. Here is the disaster you get when converting to 4×3

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Note: This problem is not the size selected (4×3), it happens when going from any size to another size. And this is not a bug, but by design (I really like how Echo Swinford describes this as “a bug by design”). What you end up with is:

– Correct page size – yay!

– Custom background – gone

– Custom fonts – gone

– Custom color scheme – gone

– Any template customization – gone

Part 2 and 3 of this series detail what is happening behind the scenes in PowerPoint and a (fairly) simple step-by-step solution.

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-06-16T14:09:24-07:00August 14th, 2015|Tutorial|

Oh the many ways to advance a slide

Everyone knows a few ways to advance to the next slide. Everyone seems to use different options (none are wrong). Here is a quick list of the 7 most common slide advance options.

Option1_RightArrow

Option2_PageDown

Option3_SpaceBar

Option4_EnterKey

Option5_DownArrow

Option6_MouseClick

Option7_RemoteAdvancer

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-08-10T09:01:22-07:00August 3rd, 2015|Tutorial|

Find and Replace Double Spaces in a Presentation

[text]Presentations are the creation of many people copy/pasting content into a single slide deck. One of the common content edits is double spaces in sentences. Here is a quick and easy method for removing them.[/text]
[text]1. On the Home ribbon, select “Replace” on the far right.[/text]

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[text]2. Under “Find what:” Hit the space bar 2x. Then, under “Replace with:” Hit the space bar 1x. Click “Replace all.”[/text]

replace double spaces 2

[text]3. PPT will find all instances of double spaces and replace with a single space with 1 click! It searches the Notes section as well as slides, but it’s certainly very helpful in catching the ones hiding in slide content.[/text]

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[text]4. If you wanted to see exactly where the erroneous double spaces are, you can opt to click “Find Next” and PPT will take you slide by slide highlighting where the spaces are. You can then choose which ones to change by clicking “Replace” rather than “Replace all.”[/text]

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By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-08-10T09:02:39-07:00July 22nd, 2015|Tutorial|

Set An Angle In PowerPoint

As everyone that has worked in PowerPoint knows, matching rotated items to the same angle can be a challenge. This is especially true when using the rotation handle (the click and drag method). To take the frustration out of this task, let us walk you through manually setting the angle and easily getting multiple items exactly aligned with the same rotation!

Here is our sample slide being created. It has a green rectangle (not a triangle, so we can know the exact angle), and a text box matched to the same rotation as the green rectangle.

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1. First add a rectangle.

Set Angle 1

2. Next, bring up the Format Options Dialogue Box either by going to Format tab on the tool bar or by right clicking the shape.

– Select SIZE AND POSITION from the right-click pop up menu.

– The Format Shape pane opens to Size and Properties tab.

Set Angle 1a

3. In the SIZE section is the ROTATION box.
4. Enter any angle needed (this has a live update, so you can see the angle applied to selected item). For this sample, we used -26 degrees.

Set Angle 2
5. Add a text box and type (we added TLC CREATIVE SERVICES).

Set Angle 3

6. With the text selected, we followed the same steps above to rotate the text. Using the Format tab on the tool bar, or by right clicking the text, bring up the Format Options Dialogue Box.

– Select SIZE AND POSITION from the right-click pop up menu.

– In the ROTATION box, enter the angle as the rectangle (-26 degrees in our sample).

Set Angle 3a

7. Position the angled text box above the rectangle.

Set Angle 4

8. Select both the rectangle and text box and move to the lower right of the slide for a great visual layout using perfectly aligned and angled elements for your design!

Set Angle 5

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-08-10T09:08:31-07:00February 27th, 2015|Tutorial|

Design Idea – Image Fill Text (Part 2)

As a continuation of the previous post, we are looking at some of the advanced image sizing and placement options for Image Fill Text. Thanks to TLC staff designer, Christie, for this step-by-step tutorial and examples.

We are working from the same sample text.

Image Fill Text 1

1. Select the text to add an image fill too.

2. Open the FORMAT SHAPE pane to the text options.

– How to…

3. Select TEXTURE OR PICTURE FILL.

4. Click FILE.

5. Select an image. For this example, I am using a nice flower image that has lots of vibrant colors.

Image Fill Text 0

6. The auto fill position and size do not really do much for the overall visual.

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7. Select TILE PICTURE AS TEXTURE. This will allow access to additional formatting options.

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8. Adjust the OFFSET (X and Y), SCALE (X and Y) and ALIGNMENT options to size and position the image for the best visual.

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8. Now the image fill adds a lot of the pink tones and a bit of the green on the edges.

Image Fill Text 5

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-08-10T09:09:17-07:00February 20th, 2015|Resource/Misc, Tutorial|

Design Idea – Image Fill Text (Part 1)

The previous post walked through how to “knock out” text from a shape. One negative to that technique is the text is no longer editable. In this post, we are adding a visual styling to text AND keeping it editable. All text can have a color fill, gradient fill, texture fill or PHOTO/IMAGE fill.

Here is my sample text slide, one a black background to help the fill options display.

Image Fill Text 1

1. Select the text to fill (*Tip: It does not have to be all of the text in a text box, select just the text you want – this can be a great solution for adding accent focus on specific text).

2. Go to FORMAT >> WORDART STYLES section >> FORMAT TEXT EFFECTS to open the FORMAT SHAPE pane to the text formatting tab.

Image Fill Text6

3a. Select PICTURE OR TEXTURE FILL.

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3b. This defaults to filling text with the first texture in the Microsoft library.

Image Fill Text 2

4. Click FILE.

5. Select an image to use as the fill – I am using an abstract image.

Image Fill Text 12

And here is the stylized text, which is editable (change the font, size, text, etc.) and can have any PowerPoint styling options applied (drop shadow, bevel, glow, etc.).

Image Fill Text 3

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-08-10T09:09:38-07:00February 18th, 2015|Resource/Misc, Tutorial|

Slide Design Idea – Negative Space Text

A very nice design strategy used in print design is creating callouts and bold graphics with text created from the negative space.

Negative Space Text-7

This same style is easily created within PowerPoint for slide design. The above example image was created in PowerPoint 2013 – here is how (thanks to Michelle on the TLC Creative design team for this tutorial).

By using PowerPoint Combine Shapes tools (Combine, Intersect, Fragment, Subtract), the process is pretty easy.

1. Add a shape of your choice – I am using a tall vertical bar.

Negative Space Text-1

2. Add a separate text box with the text of your choice and format as desired – I am using “TLC Creative” in a typography styled stacked layout.

Negative Space Text-2

3. Select both objects – Note: Select the RECTANGLE first.

4. With both objects selected, go to FORMAT >> Merge Shapes >> Combine

Negative Space Text-3

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5. The text is “cut out” of the rectangle. Note: The text is no longer editable as it has been converted to a custom vector shape.

Negativce Space Text-5

6. The shape is editable, like any other shape. All shaping styling options are available: fill color, gradient fill, transparency, bevel, drop shadow and more.

To really see the effects, place an image behind the new shape. A few examples:

Negative Space Text-11 Negative Space Text-9 NegSpaceText-8

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-08-10T09:09:57-07:00February 16th, 2015|Resource/Misc, Tutorial|

Create Puzzle Pieces in PowerPoint

PowerPoint 2010 introduced the Merge Shapes toolset (trust me, it was hidden, but there). In PowerPoint 2013, the Merge Shapes toolset is much more accessible and refined. Here is an example we developed creating a much requested graphic element – puzzle pieces (download link below).

Here are the 4 puzzle pieces.

puzzle pieces-1