In PPT 2003 and 2007, I made lots of animation effects with the “Ascend” and “Descend” entrance animations.
In PPT 2010, it was a near panic when these popular animations were not found. But, nothing to fear, the same animations effect have been renamed “Float Up” or “Float Down.”
– Troy @ TLC
PPT 2003 and 2007 gave us the “compress” entrance animation, which I have used lots. In PPT 2010, it is mysteriously missing from the animation options. But is it really gone?
To get it back, here is one solution:
Create a single slide presentation in PPT 2003 or 2007 that has a single shape with the Compress animation (or download one below). Here is mine from PPT 2003:
Open the slide in PPT 2010:
Interestingly, when you select the animated shape and go to the Animation tab, it shows the Compress animation!
Use the Animation Painter to pickup the Compress animation from the sample shape and apply to any element in your presentation.
Download Compress animation slide here.
– Troy @ TLC
Motion path animations are a great feature, but using them beyond the basic can be confusing. For example, here is the slide from yesterday’s timeline sample:
The animation effect was great and the design of it relied on a lot of motion paths. This is a quick step-by-step example of moving an object to two positions with motion paths.
1. The blue box is the object to move. First to area “1” and then to area “2.”
2. Moving to area “1” is easy. Select the box and add a Motion Path to the left.
3. To move to area “2” is a bit more involved. First, add a Motion Path up. Note: It is added to the existing position. During slide show the box will move to the left, then jump back to the original location and move up – not the seamless effect wanted.
4. Select the “up” motion path. Note: You must be in the Animation tab to view motion paths and select them. Then, click and drag it over so it’s green start is exactly aligned with the first motion paths red end.
5. Done. Now, the box will seamlessly move to area “1” and then up to area “2.”
Download presentation with this sample animation (17K). Note: if your browser changes downloaded file to”.zip” rename to “.pptx”.
– Troy @ TLC
If you need a custom super-script registration mark, or special text layout, using the OFFSET option can be the solution. Select text to adjust, open font dialog, and customize the Offset box.
Here is the standard super-scripted registration mark and a customized registration:
Another use of the text offset can be custom layouts such as this:
Note: I am not saying this is a good layout idea, just that it is possible all within one text box.
– Troy @ TLC
When a super-script or sub-script is applied, there is actually an automated adjustment to PowerPoint’s OFFSET function. To access, highlight text and click the arrow on the bottom right of the FONT group to launch the FONT DIALOG BOX.
Super-script text is a 30% baseline shift/offset and sub-script text is a -30% baseline shift/offset.
– Troy @ TLC
Baseline shift = “To move a selected character up or down relative to the baseline/level of the surrounding text.“
Baseline shift is an essential typography fine tuning function. The most common use of it in PowerPoint is when a super-script or sub-script is applied to text. For example, here is my sample text:
After applying the super-script function, the number 1 is raised up higher than the text next to it – the baseline has been shifted.
– Troy @ TLC
Sometimes having a bigger work area makes designing slides easier. A larger monitor or higher resolution monitor is an option, or just temporarily removing the ribbon is an easier option.
Standard ribbon (taking up screen realestate)
Collapsed ribbon (with more screen realestate for the design work)
– Troy @ TLC
PowerPoint MVP Ric Bretschneider added a great tutorial to his personal blog this week called “The PowerPoint Blur Trick”.
The image effects are done by combining the Background removal tool, duplicate images, and the Blur tool – all really good ways to achieve ‘Photoshop’ images direct in PowerPoint.
Check out the full tutorial here.
– Troy @ TLC
Using the panoramic image from the previous post, here is a sample animation. Actually the audience sees a continuous animation, but from the designer view is a series of slides that use Slide Transitions for the animation effect.
1. Insert panoramic image (it is almost 5Xs the width of a slide)
2. Position it by using the Align tools. (1) Align left. (2) Align Middle.
3.Duplicate the slide. Right-click the image >> Format Picture >> Position (left pane) >> set Horizontal to -10.5″ (right pane)
4. Duplicate the slide and repeat process to set horizontal another 10.5″ to the left (-21″)
5. Duplicate the slide and repeat process to set horizontal another 10.5″ to the left (-31.5″)
6. Because the image is not exactly another 10.5″ wide, go to HOME tab >> ARANGE >> ALIGN >> ALIGN RIGHT
7. Select all 5 slides and set the slide transition to WIPE
8. With all 5 slides still selected adjust the slide transition – TRANSITIONS tab >> EFFECT OPTIONS >> FROM RIGHT, so the slide transitions visually act as the on-click animations.
The result is a slide show that lets you pan through image from left to right. Download this presntation here.
– Troy @ TLC
Sometimes presentations need specialty images that are beyond the capabilities of PowerPoint. Here is my process for creating panoramic images:
1. Take a series of photos, aligning as close as possible. Here are my sample images – 4 photos taken from the 11,000′ elevation peak at BrianHead ski resort in Utah.
2. Open PhotoShop and import all images as separate layers. Be sure the layers are in order of what will be the side-by-side order.
3. With all 4 layers selected go to EDIT >> AUTO-ALIGN LAYERS.
4. In the Auto-Align Layers dialog there are a number of options, for this one I am going to use AUTO.
5. The result is (1) a super wide image, that is (2) made up of the layers, each repositioned side-by-side.
6. Then use the cropping tool to remove excess areas and create a clean rectangle.
7. Because my images have slightly different exposures, the individual images can still be seen. First I quickly apply an AUTO TONE, AUTO CONTRAST, AUTO COLOR to each layer. Then I use the eraser tool to blend the edges – which is easy because the AUTO ALIGN tool overlaps the images.
8. Now with the edges blended I have a super wide panoramic image ready to be saved as a .jpg and inserted into a presentation.
– Troy @ TLC