Tutorial

Microsoft Security Update Causes Fonts Not to Display in PowerPoint

I was contacted by another presentation designer yesterday about a really bad presentation issue he experienced after installing Microsoft updates (thanks Don!). Then, a number of other users started posting their issues on MS Answers.com. This is a big deal for many presentation designers!

ISSUE: After installing Microsoft Security Update KB2753842, PowerPoint is unable to display certain fonts.

FONTS AFFECTED: OTF, Open Type Fonts. Microsoft ships TT (True Type) fonts, so all standard Microsoft fonts are unaffected.

WHAT HAPPENS: PowerPoint behaves normal and in edit view, all fonts display fine. When run as a slide show, all Open Type Fonts (OTF) do not display.

FIX:
– Remove Microsoft Security Update KB2753842
– To Remove: Start >> Control Panel >> Unistall a Program >> View Installed Updates(link on left) >> scroll to Microsoft Windows section >> search for “Security Update for Microsoft Windows (KB2753842)” >> right click >> select Uninstall >> say “Yes” to confirmation >> restart computer

Update 12/20/12: MS has confirmed “An updated security patch has been released at 10:00am today, fully tested this week by Office teams.” So PPT is once again safe to use.

Update 12/17/12: Earlier note that the update has been pulled is not completely accurate. The update has been ‘pulled’ from the auto install status, but still shows up in the optional installs. If you see it in the optional installs, see note below on how to hide update.

Update 12/16/12: This issue is much larger than only affecting OTF fonts. In PowerPoint and Word (2010), several TTF fonts (you can test with Myriad Pro) will also disappear is any formatting (shadow, outline, bevel, etc.) is applied. This text will actually disappear in the edit view, as well as in slide show. Plus the KB update creates similiar issues in several other applications (Flash, Corel Draw, etc.).

Update 12/15/12: Microsoft has a KB information article on the issues caused by installing KB2753842 here.

Update 12/14/12: Microsoft has confirmed that it has pulled the update and working on a fix. So if you have not installed, it should not show up. If you uninstall, it will not be an option to install again. And if you are in an enterprise environment with automatic group policy updates, it will not reinstall again the next day.

Update 12/14/12:  If the update KB2753842 has not installed, but is pending (ie. downloaded automatically, but not automatically installed), it will not show up in the above Uninstall a Program instructions. Launch WINDOWS UPDATE >> view available updates >> if KB2753842 is listed >> Right-click >> select HIDE UPDATE.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T08:54:26-07:00December 13th, 2012|Tutorial|

Web Fonts in Presentations

Web Fonts have been a big topic recently and several companies are offering them. TLC staff designer, Amber, spent some time researching them for us and put together a good overview and example of their use with the Google Web Fonts.

– Troy @ TLC

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Web Fonts are a font format with a specific license that permits web designers to use real typography online without losing the benefits of live text (dynamic, searchable, and accessible content). Until recently, type on the web was very limited. Most sites could only display the small selection of system fonts installed on user’s computers. Designers who wanted to integrate individuality to their pages would need to create jpeg images (which don’t get read for Google search results) or use Flash or JavaScript to render their fonts, even though not all end-users had started using that software.

Now, there is a CSS declaration called @font-face that web designers can use to specify a font. The font file will either be saved on your server like images are, or it can be hosted by a third party.
The issue that is still being debated is achieving an approximate consensus on how the producers of fonts could continue to control and therefore profit from their work.

Click here for a list of commercial font foundries which allow @font-face embedding.

Cick here for a list of fonts available for embedding.

Google offers a library of web fonts with no restrictions here.
Plus, all of the Google Web Fonts are offered under the Open Font License which means you can use them even in commercial projects without having to worry about licensing issues.

You can utilize Google’s Web Fonts in your PowerPoint presentations too. Although I am not using it as a true “web” font, but really adding it to my computer as a custom font, here are the steps for use:

1. In the Google Web Font library, select the font you would like to use in your presentation, and select “Add to Collection.”

2. Once you’re done adding fonts to your collection, click the “Download your Collection” link at the top right of the page.

3. A window will pop up letting you know that you don’t need to download the font to use on the web – however, we do need to download to use in PowerPoint, so click the link to download the font collection as a zip file.

4. Once you’ve downloaded and extracted the font file from the zipped folder, you can install the Web Font on your system and use in your PowerPoint presentation. (Note: If you are planning on sharing your presentation, you will need to also provide the font or risk having the font default to a generic font when PowerPoint can’t find the file installed on others’ computers).

By |2016-08-16T08:55:32-07:00December 5th, 2012|Tutorial|

Sample Video of 4×3 and 16×9 Aspect Ratios

“What is the aspect ratio?” It has become one of the first questions for presentation and video projects. It is still a very confusing concept for many people. We use a simple video of each aspect ratio for clients to see the difference. It is the same video footage, which makes it easier to see the 4×3 aspect ratio is taller and the 16×9 aspect ratio is wider.

4×3 aspect ratio
[youtube src=”https://youtube.com/embed/gQaXbSPQoDQ?rel=0″]

16×9 aspect ratio
[youtube src=”https://youtube.com/embed/NTRV8ISqE1A?rel=0″]

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T08:55:56-07:00December 3rd, 2012|Resource/Misc, Tutorial|

QR Codes For Your Presentation

A “QR” Code is a “Quick Response” Code. Think of them as UPC, or SKU, codes on steroids.

The QR code is a great way to allow an audience to quickly capture your contact information, website, or your department’s page on the company intranet. And, using a QR code is free! Plus, virtually every online capable smartphone has free QR code reading applications. To use, just launch the app, take a picture of the QR code and it will automatically open a webpage.

At TLC Creative Services’ PowerPoint training programs, I open the session with a list of resources, one being a QR code to this blog. At the end of the training, my “Thank you” slide includes a QR code that goes to the TLCCreative.com contact page. Both are much quicker and easier than everyone scrambling for a pen to write down the info (and everyone has their phone out reading email, texting and probably checking the score of the game already).

There are many websites that let you create your own QR code for free. For this tutorial, I am using BeQRious.

What sets this site apart from many other free QR code generators is the numerous types of QR codes you can generate, but also the tracking and managing of your QR codes and data. Plus, generating a code is simple.

1. Select the type of code you want to generate: choose from web URL, email, phone, text, vCard, SMS, YouTube video, Facebook profile, Twitter profile, map, or graphical. Enter the information into the text box.

2. Customize the color of the code (QR codes do not need to be black and white, just high contrast).

3. Download the QR code as a JPG, PNG, GIF, or PDF. And this site lets you choose how large you want your file size to be. The PDF option is great because you get your code as a fully scale-able vector image that can be made as large or small as you’d like, without losing any quality. At TLC Creative Services, we open the PDF in Adobe Illustrator and export as a .emf to have a vector (ie. scalable) graphic for PowerPoint. Or export as a .png is another good option for use on PowerPoint slides.

4. You can then insert your new QR code into your presentations to make it easy for your audience to connect with you.

5. Within PowerPoint (using 2007 and above), use the Picture Color feature to change the QR Code to any of the template colors. As long as there is contrast between the QR code and the background, it will work.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T09:01:22-07:00October 26th, 2012|Tutorial|

PowerPoint’s Image Reset Tool

How do you remove styling (drop shadow, bevel, shape, cropping, etc.) that has been applied to an image? – IMAGE REST.

1. Insert image on slide.

2. Resize image to fit slide, format and crop.

3. With the image selected, under the Format tab on the ribbon, there is the Reset Picture button with 2 options: Reset Picture or Reset Picture and Size.

4. Reset picture will remove all formatting done to the image – but the size and cropping will be left.

5. Reset Picture and Size will remove all formatting, cropping, and sizing and revert the image back to the original.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T09:01:38-07:00October 24th, 2012|Tutorial|

Insert YouTube Video Into PowerPoint

PowerPoint 2010 added a new insert video feature that allows online YouTube videos to be added to presentations. I have not recommended this feature because it has the downside of needing to be online and also a high bandwidth connection to play the video. There are several easy ways to download and embed YouTube videos, which I would recommend to minimize playback issues.

But, the request comes up often enough on how to use it, so here is a step-by-step tutorial.

1. Find video you want to insert onto slide.

2. Click the “Share” button under the playback bar.

3. Check the “Use old embed code” box. (Uncheck the “Show suggested videos when video finishes” if you want just a black screen when playback is done.) Copy the code.

4. In PPT, go to the Insert tab, and under Media, click the carrot down on the Video button.

5. Select the “Video from Web Site” option.

6. Paste the code into the text box. Hit Insert.

7. You now have the YouTube video on your slide.

Note: As mentioned above, the computer must be connected to the internet for the video to play.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T09:03:02-07:00October 15th, 2012|Tutorial|

YouTube Downloader HD – also for audio files!

Videos are great in presentations (when used properly). Audio is also a great element to add to presentations (again, when used properly). YouTube is a great resource for audio as well as video – for example, search “applause sound effect” or “applause sfx” and there are hundreds of audio files that could be used in a presentation.

YouTube Downloader HD is free software that also allows any YouTube video to be downloaded as an MP3 audio.

Downloading audio files is easy. Go to the video on YouTube. Copy the URL address of the video.

Open the YouTube to MP3 software, and paste the video’s address into the Video URL field.

In the audio settings dropdown, select the quality of the sound.

Click download.

Now insert the downloaded .mp3 into PowerPoint and set the animation as needed (Note: PPT 2010 and above can embed .mp3 format).

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T09:04:55-07:00October 5th, 2012|Tutorial|

Videos Not Pure White or Pure Black?

You watch a video in Windows Media Player or Quicktime Player or any other player and it looks great. On the same computer, the video is inserted whites and blacks look grey. Don’t blame PPT, but the Graphics Card (GPU).

If running an nVidia card, look at the DYNAMIC RANGE setting, because it is most likely set to limit the color range of videos (no idea why, but I see this on everyone of the TLC show computers I setup).

Dynamic range describes the ratio between the maximum and minimum white and black.
With the nVidia graphics card, you can adjust the settings for the display. By default, many nVidia cards are set to use the settings which are limited to 16-235 (whites won’t be white, blacks won’t be black).

Open the nVidia Control Panel >> on the left in the “Select a Task” column go to ADJUST VIDEO COLOR SETTINGS >> look at the settings in “2. How do you make color adjustments.” Click on the “ADVANCED” tab. If the DYNAMIC RANGE setting is (16-235), go to the next step.

Select the WITH THE NVIDIA SETTINGS radio button. On the ADVANCED tab, change the DYNAMIC RANGE to FULL (0-255). This lets videos use the full color range from pure white to pure black.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T09:05:25-07:00October 2nd, 2012|Resource/Misc, Tutorial|

PowerPoint vs. Photoshop Opacity Settings

PowerPoint and Photoshop each have their own way of changing the opacity of an element. The most confusing aspect is that each app defines 0% transparency different.

In PowerPoint, 0% Transparency means the shape is fully opaque/solid.

In PowerPoint, 100% Transparency means the shape is fully transparent/invisible.

On the other hand, Photoshop does the exact opposite.

In PhotoShop with 0% Transparency the shape is fully transparent/invisible.

In PhotoShop, 100% with Transparency the shape is fully opaque/solid.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T09:06:52-07:00September 24th, 2012|Tutorial|

Help – This Shape is Stuck in the Chart

There is a good reason for this feature, but for most it seems to be bug. Which is it, depends on your preference.

Here is the scenario. A chart is on a slide:

With the chart selected, you decide to add a callout box to highlight the important data in the chart.

The new shape is inserted, editable and look like what you wanted. But the shape is actually within the chart boundaries. In this case you select the new shape, and the chart is also still. Select the chart, and the shape is also part of the selection.

The dilemma is the new callout shape can be edited and moved – but it can only move within the chart boundaries. It is also connected to the chart for animation.

What PowerPoint has done, which is actually by design, is inserted the shape as part of the chart element, because the chart was selected while the shape was inserted. If the chart is moved, the shape moves. If the chart is deleted, the shape is deleted. But the shape does not directly interact with the chart. As example the chart styling options do not change the shape styling. Chart animations do not animate the new shape(but animations can be added and controlled for the shape, they are part of the chart element animation).

For some, this is a feature – the ability to tie new shapes to a chart. For others, it is a bug –  they did not want the shape tied to the chart.

SOLUTION: If you want the shape outside of the chart, the easiest fix is to select the shape (select the chart, then select the shape within the chart) >> copy >> delete >> unselect the chart >> paste. Now the slide has a chart element and a separate shape element.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2025-03-16T10:53:19-07:00September 19th, 2012|PowerPoint, Tutorial|
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