Tutorial

Perhaps you have some custom picture bullets that you use ongoing. Never fear, there is a fairly easy way to organize your own collection.

(1) Either create your own folder to contain the bullet images or use the Office default folder (see item #1 on 5-8-06 post).

(2) Copy picture bullet images into folder

(3) Open the Clip Organizer (see item 3 on the 5-6-06 post) and go to FILE >> NEW COLLECTION.

(4) Name the collection and click okay.

(5) Select the new collection in the COLLECTION LIST column. Go to FILE >> CLIPS TO ORGANIZER >> ON MY OWN.

(6) Repeat for all images in your personalized collection. Note: You can use the >> CLIPS TO ORGANIZER >> AUTOMATICALLY to search the computer, then select the specific folder to add all new images at one time.

(7) Now when you add Custom Picture Bullets to any presentation, your collection of bullets is available!

-Troy @ TLC

So, maybe like me you find some of the default picture bullets one you will not use… So here is where to go and find the hidden files to remove them.

(1) The first step is to open Windows Explorer and navigate to the folder that contains the images. Go to C: >> PROGRAM FILES >> MICROSOFT 2003 (or current installed version) >> MEDIA >> OFFICE 11 >> BULLETS (I said the files were hidden).

(2) Now we need to go to the Clip Art Organizer (see May 6 post). In the Clip Organizer go to OFFICE COLLECTIONS >> WEB ELEMENTS >> BULLETS. You will note that any of the default bullets you deleted in step #1 has the yellow, no link, “x”.

(3) You can remove the non-linked icons as described in the May 6 post.

– Troy @ TLC

For virtually every PowerPoint template I design, it includes a custom set of picture bullets. Up until recently I was frustrated with having the old icons still sitting in the Custom Picture Bullets dialog when they no longer existed on my computer. But there is a solution – although it is a bit hidden. Here is how to clean up your PICTURE BULLETS dialog and remove the old and unused!!!

(1) Let’s review how we insert a custom picture bullet. With bulleted text selected, go to FORMAT >> BULLETS AND NUMBERING. On the BULLETED tab click the PICTURE button.

(2) Here you can see a small portion of the custom bullets that were used for previous presentations. The problem is, the source files for these are in the archives, not on the computer. They are completely useless here. Of course the little yellow X seems to be a way to delete them… but it is not. The yellow X tells you there is no item linked to this icon (which is why we want to delete it 🙂 )

(3) To remove these icons go to the Clip Art task pane; INSERT >> PICTURE >> CLIP ART. Click the ORGANIZE CLIPS link at the bottom.

(4) Inside the Microsoft Clip Organizer you need to:
1. Click COLLECTION LIST to view the pane
2. Open MY COLLECTIONS and UNCLASSIFIED CLIPS
3. Click on the unwanted icon
4. Select DELETE from the menu
5. Done! (repeat for as many as needed)

– Troy @ TLC

This is the first in at least a 4 part mini-series. Custom picture bullets were introduced with PowerPoint XP and they make a great addition to any presentation! I use custom picture bullets in many ways, always with the idea of how can they coordinate with the overall presentation. My custom bullets have ranged from simple color coordinated stylized shapes, to miniatures of the company logo, to small object icons that relate to the subject.

The first step is developing the artwork for the custom bullet. Note: I am using PhotoShop CS for this tutorial, but the process can be applied to virtually any image editing application.

(1) Create a new document. Note the file size is very small and we ALWAYS use RGB for PowerPoint images.

(2) Create your bullet artwork, sized to stay within the 50x50px area. I am creating a simple 3D sphere with a drop shadow.

(3) Go to IMAGE >> CANVAS SIZE. Here we are going to increase the canvas size so the final image will have our bullet artwork horizontally on the far left and centered vertically.

1. This is our original file size
2. Use this setting to force the new canvas area to keep the artwork on the far left, but allow it to be vertically centered.
3. Increase the width to 90px, this will provide a space between our bullet and the PowerPoint text.
4. Increase the height to 70px, this will vertically center our bullet on the PowerPoint text.

(4) The final step is to save the image as a .png with transparency (see “The Power of Ping” tutorial here for details).

– Troy @ TLC