Tutorial

Morph Bullet List to Number List

This month we are focusing on typography and how small design choices like text animations can make a big impact in PowerPoint. One tool to explore with text in mind is the Morph animation…err transition…we mean the Morph Effect! Morph is the easiest way in PowerPoint to create smooth, visually engaging movement between slides without needing complex animations. For example, let’s start with 2 slides. Slide 1 is a typical, left-aligned bullet list. Slide 2 is the same list, but center aligned with different colors, font sizing, and bolding applied.  

No animations have been added to either slide, just a Morph transition has been added to slide 2. FYI, applying a Morph transition to slide 1 does nothing – the transition to slide 1 looks like a Fade transition (tip: the Morph transition is applied to the “end result” slide).

Morph transitions have 3 variations: Objects, Words, Characters. 

Let’s demonstrate each variation using text only slides. The above example is the Morph transition set to its default “Object” option. The Object mode moves and animates everything as single entities.   

What makes Morph especially useful is its flexibility. Beyond the default “Object” option, it offers more granular options for the transition effects. You can choose to animate “by word” or even “by character,” giving you more control and variety over how the content appears and animates.  

By updating Morph to use the “Words” option, the text is moved by each word, not as a single block or object. So, our three words on slide one move independent of each other, on their own path to the slide 2 end position.

And the final option, “Characters,” can create complex and interesting motion effects. Every letter is now morphed independently to the slide 2 end position. Any letters on the first slide not on the second slide fade out (no motion), and letters on the second slide not on the first slide fade in (again, no motion). One of the interesting frustrations is that the association of letters from one slide to the next cannot be controlled. As example, the first letter in “One” on the first slide, connects to the first letter of “Once” on the second slide. Looks great, which is good, because there is no option to tell Morph we want the letter “O” on the first slide to associate with the “o” in “upon” or “options”.  

Note that it can take some tinkering to get the desired effect, but with some clever thinking and experimentation, you can create some visually stunning effects with text in PowerPoint! 

-The TLC Creative Design Team 

By |2025-06-29T15:38:27-07:00July 7th, 2025|Tutorial|

A Look Back to Animating a Panoramic Photo in PowerPoint from January 2011

Back in 2011, we had a great post here on The PowerPoint Blog with a very cool trick: animate a super-wide panoramic image across a regular slide to create a smooth, cinematic movement. Fast-forward to today, and it’s still a great effect to add energy to your slides—especially with so many widescreen displays and virtual presentations in play.

What makes it timeless? It’s simple, visual, and super effective. No fancy software needed—just PowerPoint and a smart animation. The PowerPoint features have improved over the years, but this technique still delivers a modern, professional feel.

Read through the January 11, 2011 post for  great example and tutorial of animating a super wide panoramic image with a combination of slide transitions and motion paths. The same thing can accomplished in PowerPoint today! But today, we would create this animation a bit different, and a bit faster. Let’s show how we can do this as only 2 slides with image cropping (not available in 20111), and a morph transition (also not available in 2011) to accomplish the same visual. Here’s how:

1. Here is our panoramic image for this tutorial

2. Add image to slide #1 and align to left of slide

3. Crop to slide size

4. Duplicate slide and adjust crop by moving image so right edge is now displayed

5. Add Morph transition


6. Adjust duration (we are going to make it 10 seconds because our image is extra wide)

7. Done!

This is from our Look Back series rediscovering previous blog posts with relevant PowerPoint Tips, Tricks and Examples. The original January 11, 2011 blog post can be found here.

By |2025-05-21T07:27:30-07:00June 20th, 2025|PowerPoint, Tutorial|

How to Have Multiple Presenters Run Slides in a Teams Meeting

During a Teams meeting, multiple presenters can run and share control of the same PowerPoint presentation! This can be a very handy feature especially when multiple people are presenting the same deck. There are some guidelines to be aware of, so let’s get started. 

There are three ways to open a PowerPoint presentation from Teams: Open in Teams, Open in Browser, and Open in Desktop App. For this post, we’re focusing solely on using the “Open in Teams” option (this also works in “Open in Desktop” but controlling the presentation could be tricky).

Opening the presentation in Teams keeps the presentation within the Teams app, making it easier to manage control when multiple presenters are involved and is the best choice when different team members are presenting different sections of a PowerPoint deck. One person runs the slides, and each presenter can take control when it’s their turn to speak, ensuring a smoother flow without having to share and unshare.  

Here’s how to do it: 

1. Schedule the Meeting: Go to your Teams calendar and create a new meeting (either by clicking the day/time you want within the calendar or simply clicking the new event button in the upper right-hand corner of your calendar tab) and invite all participants. Note: you can also do this through your Outlook calendar, but for our demonstration here we’re going to stay within the Teams environment. 

2. Add Co-Organizers: 

  • Open the meeting options in Teams 
  • Click on Meeting Options > Roles 
  • Add co-organizers using the dropdown menu 
  • Note: You cannot add a participant as a co-organizer until after they have accepted the meeting invite 

3. Choose who can present: 

  • Go to Meeting Options > Roles 
  • Choose who can present – options include Everyone, People in my org and guests, Specific people, and Only organizers and co-organizers 
  • If selecting Specific People, add the names of the presenters 
  • Note: during our testing, we ran into some snags when selecting and trying to add Specific People. We found “Only organizers and co-organizers” worked well consistently. 

4. Allow Control Sharing: 

  • Expand Meetings and select Meeting Policies. 

  • In most cases, click Global (Org-wide default), and scroll down to Content Sharing, then toggle Participants can give or request control to On.  

During the Meeting: 

1. Share your Screen with the presentation open in show mode.
Note: the “Present in Teams” option for sharing does not allow you to pass control of a presentation during a meeting (hoping Microsoft will add this feature). 

2. Make Someone a Presenter: 

  • Open the participant list by selecting People in the meeting controls. 
  • Hover over a participant’s name and click More Options > Make a Presenter. 

 

3. Share or Request Control: 

  • When a presenter is already sharing, they can click Give Control to pass control to another participant. 

  • Attendees can also click Request Control to ask for control of the presentation.  

Once attendees (or co-organizers) have control of the presentation, everyone will see a small bubble with the presenter’s Teams profile photo or initials next to the cursor. 

To advance the slides (or go back) the presenter simply needs to click on the right or left side of the slide in their Teams meeting window or use the right and left arrow keys or space bar. 

Important Notes: 

  • In recurring meetings, changes to Meeting Options will apply to all future occurrences. 
  • Updates made to roles during a meeting only apply to that specific meeting instance. 
  • If a participant exits and rejoins, they will retain their assigned role unless it’s changed. 
  • By default, meeting participants can give control of their shared screen to another participant. 

We believe the setup outlined here will help ensure your presentation runs smoothly, whether you’re the only one presenting or sharing control with others. Following these steps makes it easy to manage multiple presenters and maintain flow throughout the meeting. Have a great meeting! 

-The TLC Creative team 

By |2025-06-26T07:45:31-07:00June 16th, 2025|PowerPoint, Tutorial|

The “Waterfall” Animation Technique

At TLC Creative, we use a technique we call the ‘waterfall’ to make animations feel smooth, connected, and dynamic. It’s all about overlapping animations—not stacking them, but letting each start just before the last begins.

Let’s build our waterfall using five simple shapes. You’ll see how just a few clicks can create a professional-looking sequence! 

For starters, a typical animation has every element set to “Click” on the slide: 

Or “After Previous” is set for every element: 

Let’s create an animation “waterfall” which is an effect only available in PowerPoint (not Google Slides, Keynote, or Canva).  

1. Remove all animations (if needed) and then Apply a “Fade” Animation to all elements: 

  • Select all of the shape elements 
  • Go to the Animations tab 
  • Choose “Fade” from the animation gallery 

2. Open the Animation Pane 

This will give you more detailed control. You’ll now see an animation entry for each box shape. 

3. Change the animation Start to “With Previous” as this is key to the waterfall effect: 

  • Select each animation (you can select them together) 
  • Change the animation Start from “On Click” to “With Previous”  

Why? This makes each shape element animate with one another, not waiting for a click or full completion. 

4. Adjust the Delay for Each Animation

Now the magic happens!

  • Select the second box and set a Delay of 0.30 seconds. 

  • Set the delay for the third box to 0.60 seconds 
  • Set the delay for the fourth box to 0.90 seconds 
  • Set the delay for the fifth box to 1.10 minute 

Each shape element now starts with the previous one but is delayed just a bit — producing a staggered, overlapping fade-in. 

This process can be a bit tedious – but the PowerPoint animation effect is worth the effort! However, the design team here at TLC Creative kinda cheats. We use the ToolsToo PowerPoint add-in to automate the animation settings process to make overlapping (aka waterfall) animations! 

Let’s continue the tutorial! Using ToolsToo, here’s what we do: 

  • Set the last shape element to the time you would like the animation to end 

  • Select the shapes in the order they will animate in, clicking on the final box last 

  • Navigate to the ToolsToo tab 
  • Ensure the “Stagger Animation” is selected 
  • With all shapes still selected, click “Animation Resequence”   

Now all of the shape animations are spaced out evenly in an animated sequence! (So much faster this way, right?) 

Animating slides is my happy place, so… happy animating waterfall animations! 

-Christie and the TLC Creative Design Team 

By |2025-06-26T07:47:18-07:00June 11th, 2025|Software/Add-Ins, Tutorial|

PowerPoint Video in a Custom Shape!

Want to make your PowerPoint videos stand out and grab some extra attention? Videos do not need to be limited to the standard rectangle. Imagine a video playing inside a circle, a star, a speech bubble, or even a custom shape! It really adds a creative touch that feels way more immersive.  

Typically, all videos are inserted onto a slide as a rectangle.

Videos can be cropped, resized, and positioned anywhere on the slide – all using native PowerPoint features. Videos can also have styling effects applied; drop shadow, outline, recolored, etc. – also all using native PowerPoint features. 

Change the Shape 

Now for the fun part. Change the rectangle into something else. Native to PowerPoint is the ability to change to any of the shapes in the Shape Library; circle, triangle, parallelogram, 3D cube – pick whatever you like! Select the video > go to Video Format > open the Video Shape selection > pick a shape!  

All of the PowerPoint shapes work flawlessly, automatically masking a video to that shape. So don’t hold back! Video shapes, just like the rectangle, can be customized with a border or effect. How about an oval video? 

Or how about a thought bubble (using PowerPoint’s preset thought bubble shape)? 

TIP: use the CROP tool to resize and reposition the video within the new shape. 

Add a Video to a Custom Shape 

The basic PowerPoint shapes are nice, but what about a complex shape with multiple parts or a logo? With the use of the Merge Shapes tool and a vector graphic as the custom shape, virtually anything is possible. For example, let’s make a video play inside this shape. 

  • First, add the video to the slide (Insert > Video) 
  • Add then add the custom vector art to the slide.
    • NOTE: This must be a vector art file (eg. .SVG)
    • TIP: If the Merge Shapes step below does not work, select the shape(s), copy, delete (yes, it’s okay to delete), then “Paste Special” and select “SVG”
  • Resize and move both the shape and the video to the desired placement. Keep the vector art on top of the video.

  • Select the video first, then hold Shift and select the shape (the order you select the shapes is critical to this working). 
  • Go to Merge Shapes > Intersect. 

Now your video takes the shape of whatever you picked. Use the Crop tool to adjust the size and position of the video as needed. 

 

And that’s it! It’s a great effect, all done within PowerPoint, and can definitely level up your slide and impress the audience! 

-Mike, and the TLC Creative design team 

By |2025-06-26T07:48:09-07:00June 9th, 2025|PowerPoint, Tutorial|

Edit a Teams Based PowerPoint File – It’s Easy!

Opening a PowerPoint file from Teams in the desktop app is a common task, but we’ve had some questions about the exact steps involved. Let’s clarify the process with a straightforward walkthrough, along with some helpful tips. First, it’s important to understand that a file in Teams is actually a SharePoint file. Teams serves as an interface to SharePoint, making it easier to access files without navigating to the SharePoint site directly. However, the files are still stored in SharePoint, and the process for opening them remains the same.

Teams gives you 3 (yes 3!) ways to open a PowerPoint file:

  • Open in teams – Opens the file directly within the Teams interface
  • Open in browser – Pops the file open in your default browser in PowerPoint for web
  • Open in desktop app – This is the option we’re looking for, as the desktop app allows you to use the full features of PowerPoint AND any add-ons that you’ve enabled

Here’s how to open a PowerPoint file with the full features and power of the desktop app:

  1. Go to the file in Teams and select it
  2. Click the three-dot menu (“More Options”)
  3. From the dropdown menu, choose Open in Desktop (or it may say Open in App)

TIP: Update the Teams open default by clicking  “Change default” in the drop-down menu and selecting Desktop and hitting save. Now whenever you click a PowerPoint file in Teams it (should) open in the desktop app automatically.

That’s it. The presentation is now stored on Teams, ready for collaboration editing, AND open in the PowerPoint Desktop App!

-The TLC Creative Design Team

By |2025-05-27T07:56:21-07:00May 28th, 2025|Resource/Misc, Tutorial|

TLC Creative’s Teams External Guest Invite How-to

TLC Creative was an early adopter of Microsoft Teams, and we remain a fan today. We love the collaboration it brings to the table, allowing us to work more efficiently and gain feedback more effectively, whether collaborating with our internal team or co-authoring a presentation with clients.

And while Teams is excellently proficient in many areas (file collaboration, chats, meetings, and @mentions…to mention a few), when it comes to inviting clients into your bubble (tenant) or vice versa, this is where things often go awry.

Being positive, Microsoft is continuously improving Teams. In the future, we hope things will “just work” – but it is not at that level of functionality yet (but we are looking ahead to the “Hero Link” process!). Because things do not always work smoothly today, we invested internal TLC time to work through many of the issues and then created a how-to guide to help overcome this “outside tenant” frustration.

We are sharing our internal Teams tutorial to (hopefully) help your clients connect with and collaborate better with you. Full disclosure, we are mostly PC-based when using Teams, so the nuances of Mac Teams are not captured in these steps.

This guide is written under the assumption that you have a Microsoft Teams account and have already created a “New Team” – which is set up as a “Private” Team. Here are our steps to connect an external person to your Teams project, from the perspective of your client:

1. Once the private Team is created, click “Add Member” to generate the email that is sent to each person added to the Team.

2. Instruct your client to use the “Open Microsoft Teams” button in the email they received (Note: the email will come from an automated address: noreply@email.teams.Microsoft.com.).

3. We recommend using the Teams desktop app. The invite email has a button to download and install if needed.

If the Microsoft Teams app is already installed, this pop-up dialog will appear to open with the invite credentials. Click the “Open Microsoft Teams” button.

4. Once Microsoft Teams is open, a pop-up dialog to sign in with an email address is required next. This email address must be the same address that the Teams invite was sent to.

5. Enter the email address (this is the email address of the person being invited to the Team) and click the “Next” button.

6. There may be an additional pop-up asking permission to use Teams. Click “Yes” or “Agree” (after you’ve read and truly do agree, of course).

7. The external person has now been added to the project team!

8. This is the key step! To access the project team, your client needs to change Teams to your company (in this example, it is changing Teams to the TLC Creative connection).

    • In the upper right, click your “Account” button (the circle with your initials inside).

    • From the list of available accounts, select the company that invited you…for example, if you were to receive a Teams invite from TLC Creative Services, you would click on “TLC” in the menu.

    • Then on the left, go to “Teams”
    • Locate the project Team name and click to expand
    • Click “General”
    • Click “Files” at the top of the right side, or “Posts”, and from that dropdown menu select “Files”

9. Your client should now have access to all project files, to open and edit files, upload new files, etc.

10. TIP: To open a PowerPoint presentation (or a Word or Excel doc), Teams has 3 options: PowerPoint for Teams, PowerPoint for Web, and Desktop PowerPoint. Our team uses the full power of the Desktop version. See our earlier blog post on how to open presentations from Teams in the Desktop app: MS Teams – Open in App – The PowerPoint Blog.

Hopefully, this how-to reference minimizes some of the frustrations we encountered with a Microsoft Teams workflow. Wishing you productive collaboration with your clients and excellent results with your presentations!

-Lori @ TLC Creative Services

By |2025-05-22T08:26:28-07:00May 26th, 2025|Software/Add-Ins, Tutorial|

Different Desktop Background Images… for Windows 11

Maintaining a polished and professional appearance is crucial for PowerPoint presentations and other presentations – especially when using multiple monitors. One good practice is to set up your desktop backgrounds so they align with your meeting or event theme.

However, you might want the themed desktop visible only on the external monitor where slides or visuals are displayed, leaving your primary screen more neutral for your daily work.

Fortunately, Windows 11 simplifies setting different desktop backgrounds for each monitor, enhancing your presentation experience (BTW, this has been a Mac OS feature for many years – it’s great that Windows finally added this!).

How to Set Desktop Backgrounds Individually for Each Monitor in Windows 11

1. Open Personalization Settings:

  • Right-click your desktop and select Personalize, or navigate through Settings > Personalization.

2. Access Background Options:

  • In the Personalization menu, click on Background.

3. Choose Individual Backgrounds for Each Monitor:

  • Under “Choose Your Picture” or the “Recent images” section, right-click the desired image.
  • Select “Set for Monitor 1,” “Set for Monitor 2,” or the specific monitor you intend to use for your presentation visuals.

This simple and efficient method allows each monitor to have distinct backgrounds. Your audience will see a well-branded and thematic display on the external screen, while your main monitor remains optimized for your workflow.

Implementing individual desktop backgrounds keeps your presentation visually coherent, professional, and perfectly aligned with the meeting theme.

-The TLC Creative team

By |2025-05-17T09:28:12-07:00May 19th, 2025|Resource/Misc, Tutorial|

Many Charts, 1 Legend To Rule Them All!

Presentations are meant to communicate ideas clearly and effectively, but too often, slides are cluttered with redundant elements that distract and hide the information to be conveyed. And as we look at charts this month, we find that they are often full of unneeded visual distraction. But this is a specialty scenario where the slide content with multiple charts creates opportunity to simplify the visual elements.

Three Charts: Three Legends

In this presentation, many slides had multiple charts, and each one included its own legend. At first glance, this might seem harmless—after all, each chart needs a legend, right? But in reality, this redundancy forces your audience to process the same information multiple times, making it harder to focus on what actually matters: the data trends and insights.

Our design goal is to remove adds unnecessary visual clutter and enable to audience to process the slide and quickly identify the message. The layout is good. All the charts visually align, accurately display the same Y axis metric, have the same color coding ̶ and have the same legend.

Three Charts: A Unified Legend

Because the legend is identical, instead of repeating it three times, we streamlined the slide by using just one legend beneath all three charts. This simple adjustment immediately reduces the visual clutter and makes it easier for the audience to focus on the data.

We are happy with this “1 Legend To Rule Them All” update. Which was similarly done on many other slides in this presentation. The cognitive load is reduced, and the message comes across quicker and clearer.

Why This Works

  • Improves Readability – A cleaner layout allows the audience to process information faster.
  • Reduces Redundancy – Eliminates unnecessary repetition, keeping attention on the data.
  • Enhances Aesthetics – A well-organized slide looks more professional and engaging.
  • Guides the Audience – With less distraction, viewers can focus on what’s important.
  • Small Tweaks, Big Impact
  • Great slide design isn’t about adding more—it’s about removing what doesn’t serve the message. By centralizing your legend, you create a more effective and visually appealing slide that helps your audience focus on what truly matters: the insights behind your data.

The TLC Creative presentation design team always takes a step back and asks: Are there unnecessary repeating elements? A little decluttering can go a long way in making a slideshow presentation more impactful.

– Christie on the TLC Creative design team

By |2025-06-26T07:55:25-07:00April 30th, 2025|PowerPoint, Tutorial|

Pies or Bars?

If you’ve ever built a PowerPoint presentation, you’ve probably faced the classic dilemma: Should I use a pie chart or a bar chart? Both have strengths, but they serve different purposes. So, let’s break it down.

Which is Which – The Bar Chart

A bar chart is a simple way to compare numbers across different categories. One axis lists the categories, and each category has a bar next to it. The length of the bar shows the value for that category—the longer the bar, the bigger the number. In the example below, the bar chart shows how an app’s users are spread across different device types. You can also flip a bar chart so the bars run horizontally instead of vertically.

Which is Which – The Pie Chart

A pie chart is a way to show how a whole is split into different parts. It looks like a circle (kind of like a pie) that’s divided into slices. Each slice represents a category, and its size shows how big that category’s share is compared to the total. The chart below shows the same data as before, just in pie chart form.

Pros: Why Use a Pie Chart

A pie chart is a classic choice when you need to show proportions. If you’re comparing parts of a whole—like how your monthly budget is distributed or the market share of different companies—it’s a solid option. Here’s why:

  • Visually Appealing: People love circles. Pie charts are easy on the eyes and make data feel approachable.

  • Great for Simple Comparisons: If you have just a few categories (ideally under five), a pie chart makes it clear how they relate.
  • Emphasizes the Big Picture: Want to show that one category dominates the others? A pie chart makes it obvious.

Cons: Why Avoid a Pie Chart

  • Difficult to Compare Small Differences: If one slice is 26% and another is 24%, it’s hard to tell them apart without looking at the numbers.

  • Messy with Too Many Categories: The more slices you have, the harder it is to read. A pie chart with 10 categories looks like a rainbow explosion.
  • Not Good for Trend Analysis: Pie charts show a snapshot in time, but they won’t help you see patterns over time.

Pros: Why Use a Bar Chart

Bar charts are the Swiss Army knives of data visualization. Whether you’re comparing values, showing trends, or displaying rankings, they get the job done. Here’s why they’re a go-to choice:

  • Easy to Compare Values: The length of each bar makes differences easy and clear.

  • Works Well for Many Categories: bar charts work in almost every situation, and are able to handle a lot of data without turning into chaos.
  • Good for Trends: If you’re showing changes over time, a bar chart (especially a horizontal one) is a much better choice.
  • More Precise: Since people are better at judging length than area, bar charts tend to be more accurate for data comparison.

Cons: Why You Should Avoid a Bar Chart

  • Not as Visually Engaging: Let’s be honest—bar charts aren’t as “fun” as pie charts. They can look boring if not designed well.

  • Can Get Cluttered: If you have too many bars or categories, your chart might end up looking like a barcode.
  • Might Not Highlight Proportions as Clearly: If you’re trying to emphasize how different pieces make up a whole, a pie chart does this better.

So, Which Should You Use?

  • Use a pie chart when you’re comparing parts of a whole and have five or fewer categories. Example: How your budget is divided between rent, food, transportation, savings, and entertainment.
  • Use a bar chart when comparing values, showing trends, or handling many categories. Example: Yearly revenue growth across multiple product lines.

Ultimately, your choice should be based on what will best visually communicate the data you’re presenting. As a point, the TLC Creative presentation team tends to utilize bar charts far more often. No matter which chart you choose, keep it simple. Your audience will thank you!

By |2025-06-26T07:57:18-07:00April 28th, 2025|Tutorial|
Copyright TLC Creative Services, Inc | All Rights Reserved
Go to Top