Tutorial

Creating Quote Mark Graphics in Adobe Illustrator for PowerPoint

The previous post showed our visually stylized quote marks on slides with color backgrounds. For us, the process for creating the quote mark graphics is with Adobe Illustrator.

1. First, find a great font for the quote marks. Designer Amber selected Spirax Regular, which you can download here.

2. Select the text and create outlines, which converts from editable text to vector images.

3. The spacing for the quotes was a bit to far apart. Now that they are graphic elements they are easy to select and move a bit closer together.

4. Now we want to export the graphics from Adobe Illustrator in a PowerPoint friendly vector format. Go to FILE >> EXPORT

5. Select ENHANCED METAFILE >> EXPORT

Now with the quote graphics on our computer, we are ready to add them to any slide. See the previous post (here) for details on how to format the graphics in Powerpoint.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T09:48:37-07:00March 12th, 2014|Personal, Tutorial|

Dynamic Quotes with Background Fill!

Here is one of our favorite visual tricks at TLC Creative Services for making slides with a key quote stand out. Background fill!

I am doing this as a 3-post series: this one shows the end result (see above) and PowerPoint formatting, the next post will detail our development process in Adobe Illustrator, and the third will show a PowerPoint only development process for the graphics. Thanks to Amber, a TLC staff designer, for creating the sample images for this series.

Using the quote mark .emf graphics, they are not very impressive without some styling applied and a special option for their fill color. Insert the .emf graphic (download here).
1. Right click on a quote mark and select FORMAT SHAPE.

2. Go to FILL and select SLIDE BACKGROUND FILL

3. The Quote marks will disappear on the slide because they are set to be the same background color as the slide.

4. Add a shadow effect, bevel, outline, glow or other styling effects to your quote marks. For ours, we have added a subtle drop shadow.

5. Still not super dynamic, but the quote marks are looking more styled.

6. But when placed on a colorful image background – dynamic! Move the quote mark graphics to any part of the slide and their fill updates.

Note: The slide background needs to be set with the Background Fill, not an image on the slide for this effect to work.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T09:48:55-07:00March 10th, 2014|PowerPoint, Templates/Assets, Tutorial|

Force Office 2013 CTR to Update

If you have the CTR (Click-to-Run) Office 2013 install, it is supposed to automatically update when you are online. Last week, 3 days after the SP1 release Office had still not updated. I forced Office to check for updates and SP1 was installed.

Go to FILE >> ACCOUNT >> right pane.

Click the UPDATE OPTIONS drop down menu.

Select DISABLE UPDATES and yes to the warning dialog that will pop up.

Then click the UPDATE OPTIONS drop down menu again and select ENABLE UPDATES.

This forces Office to go online and check for new updates.

After clicking Enable within 2 seconds I had an update notice and SP1 was installed!

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T09:49:51-07:00March 5th, 2014|Tutorial|

Office 2013 SP1 Released

Last Wednesday, Microsoft released the first Service Pack (SP) for Office 2013. The list of updates to PowerPoint is fairly short and deals only with stability issues – no new features or refinement of current features. If you want the details, here is the Microsoft KB article on Office 2013 SP1.

The world of MS Office is now split into two types of installs: MSO (installed from an actual installer app) and CTR (click-to-run which is a cloud based install). How you get SP1 depends on what type of install you have.

Unfortunately, there are not labels on the About Screens that tell if an install is MSO or CTR. Here is one way of identifying the install type:
Go to FILE >> ACCOUNT >> look at the info in right pane.

If there is only 1 box “About PowerPoint” – it is an MSO install.

If there are 2 boxes “About PowerPoint” and “Office Updates” – it is a CTR install.

If you have MSO (traditional installer), the update should be available through Windows Update. Or, you can go direct to Microsoft and download the SP1 installer.
32-bit Office = https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42017
64-bit Office = https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42006

If you have CTR, SP1 will automatically install when you are online.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T09:50:12-07:00March 3rd, 2014|PowerPoint, Resource/Misc, Tutorial|

Cut off part of a video in PowerPoint using Trim

PowerPoint has made the trips over to video editing software less and less with the new tools. One of the tedious items was changing the in/out point of videos. That is where the video starts and ends. This can now be easily set in PowerPoint.

1. Here is my sample video. For an easy visual, it is a countdown from 10 to 0. But I need a video that counts down from 5 to 0.

2. Select the video, and in the Video Tools/Playback tab, click TRIM VIDEO.

3. The Trim Video dialog box opens, showing the selected video AND the start and stop points.

4. Sliding the green start point marker to the right adjusts where the video will begin playing from. I just slide until I see the number 5 on the video.

5. Now the slide shows the start of the video at the needed location and the presentation is set to go (all without opening a video editing application!).

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T10:07:45-07:00November 18th, 2013|Tutorial|

PowerPoint As a Video Editor – Combine Video Clips

PowerPoint has some very good video features, such as the ability to play multiple video formats, embed videos into the slide deck file, visually stylize the video and export video from the PowerPoint.

It is the export video feature that is being used for this tutorial.
Here are three videos that are inserted into PowerPoint 2013.

Each video is set to auto play, one after the other.

Then, go to FILE.

EXPORT >> CREATE A VIDEO >> CREATE VIDEO

The result is a single video file that was previously 3 separate videos.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T10:08:02-07:00November 16th, 2013|Tutorial|

Watermark Images Direct in PowerPoint

Watermarking an image is common in several scenarios. Identifying who owns the image and copyright and indicating it is a low resolution “proof” image are the two most common watermarking scenarios I see.

TLC Creative Services has a large library of royalty free images and subscribes to image sites which make developing visual presentations much easier. In both cases, our designers can download the low res, watermarked version of the image(s) they want to use in the presentation. Then, when the client approves the images, they can download the high resolution version of each image and replace the watermark images throughout the presentation. Of course, this routine takes a lot design time and it displays the company watermark vs. a generic watermark.

Note: “FPO” is an design industry standard phrase, “For Placement Only.”

TLC Creative Services creates all our watermark images directly in PowerPoint.

1. Here is our slide layout with high res (optimized for use in PowerPoint) image. But we do not release the slides with usable images until it has been approved.

Watermark images 1

2. Here is our PowerPoint stylize “FPO” text box.

Watermark images 2

3. We paste the “FPO” text box onto each slide and position over the image.

Watermark images 3

4. We then select the image and FPO text box and copy them.

5. Next we delete the image and FPO text box.

6. We then PASTE SPECIAL as a .png (this assures quality and eliminates issues if the text box extended paste the image).

Watermark images 4
Watermark images 5

7. This adds a new image to the slide that is watermarked.

Watermark images 6

8. We position the new watermarked image on the slide.

Watermark images 7

9. Last, we do a SAVE AS so the “real” presentation with the high res images is not lost.

By |2016-08-10T10:08:26-07:00November 14th, 2013|Tutorial|

SnagIt OneClick – How to Disable

As a designer, SnagIt is one of my most valued go-to apps. But even the best software sometimes creates problems. In the latest version of SnagIt, a new feature, “OneClick,” (at least this is the first version I have noticed it) just gets in the way. The concept is to have an onscreen button to activate SnagIt vs. a keyboard command.

OneClick puts a small red button at the top of your screen.

Click the red button and a small menu drops down, allowing easy access to many of the SnagIt tools and settings.

The dilemma is that the button is ever present, sitting on top of everything: windows, apps, slide shows! This is not good and something that took a bit of investigating to figure out how to turn off. Half the effort is knowing the name of this unwelcome feature – OneClick.

To turn off, open SnagIt, click the VIEW menu and click SNAGIT ONECLICK. This is an on/off toggle, so it should now be removed from your screen. You may also see a TURN OFF ONECLICK option in the Quick Launch dialog in the left action pane.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T10:12:50-07:00October 9th, 2013|Personal, Software/Add-Ins, Tutorial|

Does PowerPoint Know I Need a Font?

There are dozens, actually 1,000s, of ways to display your ABC’s. Font styles are created to display each letter in unique ways. Microsoft supplies a set of fonts with Office. Adobe supplies many fonts with the Creative Suite (now Creative Cloud) software packages. And there are many ways to download and add custom fonts to your computer.

If you use a custom font in a presentation, and that custom font is not installed on the computer that is viewing the presentation, a font default – or substitution – is used. We cannot control which font is used as the default and we cannot guarantee what the slide will look like with the default font in use.

PowerPoint has a few tools to help with this situation. The tools are not extensive, and definitely do not do enough to aid us users in identifying font issues and resolving font issues.

The first step is to identify if PowerPoint is using fonts on the computer or substituting fonts. The tool is very simple, and simplistic. Select a text box, then on the home tab click the font selection drop down. In this menu, each font has 1 of 3 icon options to the left of the font name.

1. The Open Type icon is a large stylized “O.”
2. The True Type icon is two letter “T”s overlapping.
3. NO ICON, just blank space, lets you know PowerPoint recognizes a font is needed, but it is not installed on this computer. When there is no icon, PowerPoint is substituting that font with a default font (of its choice).

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T10:28:04-07:00July 22nd, 2013|Resource/Misc, Tutorial|

Help – Cannot Move/Delete/Rename/etc. PowerPoint File!

Have you encountered this error dialog:

In this case, I was moving a project folder. I had just finished editing a presentation, closed the file and PowerPoint. But I was unable to move the entire folder. Frustration!

Often, PowerPoint is still open as a background application even though it has been closed. Why – I do not know, but it definitely causes lots of user frustration.

Solution:
1. Right-click on the bottom task bar and select TASK MANAGER

2. Scroll down, past the active Apps into the BACKGROUND PROCESSES and look for MICROSOFT POWERPOINT (it will be the same name with all versions of PPT).

3. Select it and click END TASK.

4. Now click TRY AGAIN on the error dialog and all should do as you wanted (move, delete, rename, etc.).

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-10T10:29:42-07:00July 15th, 2013|Tutorial|
Copyright TLC Creative Services, Inc | All Rights Reserved
Go to Top