With Vista Microsoft released some new font, each designed to replace an existing font. The new fonts are designed for onscreen legibility and scaling. Here is what they are and what they replace:
Cambria = Georga and Times New Roman
Calibri = Arial
Candara = Trebuchet MS and Helvetica
Consolas = Lucidia Console and Courier New
Constantia = Georga and Palatino
Corbel = Verdana
– Troy @ TLC
A great thing about all of the wonderful visual effects of PPT 2007 is that they respect the transparency/alpha area of a .png image. As example here is a quick sample image. In photoshop I dropped out the background around the little computer guy and saved out the image as .png with transparency.
For this example I added the background image behind part of the computer guy to show the transpency area.
Then I selected the computer guy image and applied a nice PPT 2007drop shadow.
Note the drop shadow contours to the computer guy image, not the rectangle shape of the placed image!
– Troy @ TLC
If you find the Ribbon taking up to much space, space that would be better used viewing your slides as you edit, there is a great option. Here is the standard Ribbon view.
Right-click to the right of the tabs along the top and there is a “Minimize Ribbon” option.
The result is the ribbon disappears and frees up a lot of editing area.
When you click on any of tabs the ribbon appears. Click away and it disappears again!
– Troy @ TLC
Most people have a handful of presentations that they access routinely. PowerPoint has had the ‘Recent Documents’ feature to make it easier to reopen those presentations – and it is a helpful tool many times. But PowerPoint 2007 has made that feature even more powerful and usable.
Here is the PPT 2007 Start Menu and mine shows 1 Recent Document (okay the list was full, but I cleared it for this tutorial).
The important addition to PPT 2007 is the small thumbtack icon on the right. It is the same icon that has existed since PPT XP on the Master Slides to preserve masters. The one on the Recent Documents does the exact same thing – it preserves that presentation to always be in the Recent Documents list!
By clicking the thumbtack it goes from grey to green – and now you can always open that presentation with ease! (note: works as long as the presentation stays in its original location)
– Troy @ TLC
Because many templates I develop have additional master slides, I let the end user know what they are by adding a slide that explains and shows each additional master slide.
As example, here is a slide I added to the end of the template sample slides that explains 2 of the additional master slides. It also shows a thumbnail of each and has a quick “how-to”.
– Troy @ TLC
PPT 2007 has some great visual effects. For a recent project I was developing the PowerPoint presentations for speaker support. I was asked by the video production company that was creating videos for the same meeting if I could create a number of graphics that would have a coordinated look with the presentations. Among the graphics I developed these two piecharts (client data removed):
Each was saved out of PowerPoint as a .png which preserved the transparency and allowed the video editor to place the graphic over the motion background. They also animated from 1 piechart to the other showing growth. Pretty cool stuff!
– Troy @ TLC
One of the nice elements of PPT 2007 ribbon is the way it previews master slide options. Here is a recent presentation with 4 master slides:
This really shows the slates mentioned in the previous post. For this presentation I only have one background for the speaker content (#1 – Purple) and 3 slates. Of note: I color code the speaker slates so I know what type of information it contains before reading it (especially when viewing slides in slide sorter view). Here the breakdown of each:
1. Content background and the 5 layout options developed for it
2. Video slate: hidden slide that tells me what video is to run at that point of the presentation
3. Speaker slate: hidden slide that tells me which speaker will be on stage (this presentation has numerous presenters)
4. Misc. slate: hidden slide that is used to tell me everything else, from web demo to break
– Troy @ TLC
Everyone is familiar with a movie scene slate:
It is used during filming to allow the editors to identify everything. It is not intended for the audience to see, just the behind the scenes people. Well I use similiar idea when developing presenattions. These are hidden slides that are not designed for the audience.
These are used for speakers, videos, or anything special such as sound effects, stage direction, etc.
– Troy @ TLC
As follow up to the previous post. If you have several master slides that do not have the thumbnail icon such as this:
You can select them all, right click any of the selected, choose ‘Preserve Master’:
All of the selected master slides have the thumbtack icon applied simulataneously:
– Troy @ TLC
Multiple master slides are fantastic! But every now and then you have a presentation with multiple masters and go to use one that you know is a part of the file and it’s not to be found – ahhh! Well you can prevent this from happening by first assuring that all master slides are set to be preserved – which is another way of saying ‘do not delete, even if not used’.
Here is my sample presentation with 3 master slides:
Notice that master slides 1 and 3 have a little thumbtack icon:
This indicates the master slide is preserved and will not be deleted unless you specifically remove it (that is good!). There are 2 easy ways you can preserve a master slide and add the thumbtack icon to it.
1. Use the ‘Preserve Master’button on the master slide toolbar:
2. Right click the master slide and from the pop up menu choose ‘Preserve Master’.
– Troy @ TLC