Animated Timelines Using Morph
This is a demo of using the Morph transition to achieve a great visually animated style. This is also a real client project, with all details cleansed for public viewing. We used 2 different Morph transition options to achieve different visual effects so we could show the same timeline twice during the meeting with different animation styles (Full disclosure: Each Morph option needed different slide layouts for the effect to work, which is detailed below). The key to these animated timelines is there are NO animations used anywhere on the slides, all motion is achieved solely with PowerPoint’s Morph transition effect.
Option 1: Morph by Character
[KGVID]https://thepowerpointblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/unnamed-file.mp4[/KGVID]
The slide deck is 9 slides (slide #1 being the info/title slate).
To achieve the motion effects, the transition for each slide is Morph > By Character and 1 element off-slide (that animates into place on the next slide)
Option 2: Morph by Object
[KGVID]https://thepowerpointblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/unnamed-file-1.mp4[/KGVID]
The slide deck is also 9 slides (slide #1 being the info/title slate).
But the off-slide content (that animates into place on the next slide) planning and layout is more extensive for this visual effect.
Troy @ TLC
Informational Slides – 2 Timeline Layout Options
For this project, we developed wonderful, stylized, information slides – over 150 in the final Sales Deck. For this blog post, I am pulling one example of 2 timeline layout options where our design team provided slides showing different ways to layout the provided content.
In this case, we did not completely understand the intent of the slide so developed the timeline with two different layout styles, each supporting a different visual message. Our client provided input on the intent, we modified one option and moved on to the next layout question.
Troy @ TLC
The Presentation Podcast Episode #41 Released Today!
A new episode of The Presentation Podcast with Troy, Nolan, and Sandy is available today! Check out the latest episode, #41 -“Presenter Notes.”
Presenter Notes: what are they, are they needed, what is the best way to create them, where is the best place to create them? So many questions for such a useful presentation tool. Yes, there are less helpful ways of creating, formatting and using Presenter Notes. No, there is no perfect way to create, format or use Presenter Notes. Troy, Nolan and Sandy share their notes about using Presenter Notes.
Logitech Spotlight Presentation Remote
The Logitech Spotlight remote is more than the standard presentation remote. It has a sleek, minimalist design, and has an app that offers a lot of other useful tools to the presenter.
The remote comes with a charging cable and the quick charge feature works in 1 minute, giving the remote enough power for 3 hours of use. A full charge takes as little as 60 minutes, and can last up to 3 months. Installing the software is a breeze and I got it up and running in less than 5 minutes.
After install, the app will guide you through how to use the remote, but it’s pretty intuitive on its own. The standard back and forth buttons can be configured to do much more, like fast forward, blank out the screen, scroll, adjust the volume, or a even custom keystroke.
We set up the remote to control the computer volume when holding down the next button. Like a smartphone, it uses the up/down motion to change the volume level – which could be great during a presentation that has embedded video or music.
The top button on the remote is where almost all of the software features are triggered.
During a presentation, click and hold the top button, then move the remote to “point” where a very nifty Zoom bubble is on the screen. This allows a presenter to zoom in and highlight anything on the slide. The app also offers customization for the zoom, like making the highlight area bigger or smaller, adding a color circle, or even adjusting the fade out around the circle.
Among the other software tools is a timer function that the presenter can set and the remote will vibrate at certain markers, like when only 5 minutes remain on the clock. There are several other fun tools and features and definitely a remote any presenter should consider as part of their setup.
It is just over $100 and more details on the Logitech site here.
Troy @ TLC
A 3-Scene PowerPoint Halloween Movie
Wanda on the TLC Creative design team created this amazing PowerPoint Halloween Movie. Just like a movie plot, it has 3 scenes. Each is a slide, and each seamlessly transitions from one to another (watch the video, there is no clear distinction of when the action transitions from one slide to another!).
If you are at the office, caution – fun Halloween themed soundtrack accompanies the animation fun!
[youtube src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/fxV-LajWQlw”]
Each slide has a very long animation pane. This is the top part of the slide 1 animation:
Troy @ TLC
Free Halloween Theme PowerPoint Template
Christie on the TLC Creative design team put together this fun Halloween themed PowerPoint template. Everyone is welcome to download and use – FREE!
Have a great time this Halloween! Download template HERE.
Troy @ TLC
WeCompress – NXPowerlite’s Online Version
The guys at Neuxpower recently invited us to beta test a new online compression tool called WeCompress. We found using this online tool is simple, easy and provides impressive results on par with the desktop version of NXPowerlite (review of NXPowerlite here). And the good news is, wecompress is now publicly available for use!
Overall we found WeCompress an impressive online tool – and it is FREE to use! While our tests below show it is not as robust as the NXPowerlite desktop app, it provides a great option for everyone trapped in a corporate world of “we do not allow add-ins or utility apps to be installed.”
Our first test was optimizing this high-res .jpg image. WeCompress reduced the file size by 4MB and maintained image quality (for use on a 1920×1080 monitor).
To use, go to WeCompress and just drag and drop your file to get started.
The upload and download time is dependent on your internet connection, but the actual compression/processing time was on par with the desktop NXPowerlite processing (eg. fast).
WeCompress has a clean online app design and it’s easy to use. But it does lack a few things in comparison to the desktop NXPowerlite app. The biggest difference is the ability to customize settings. For example, TLC Creative’s standard compression is custom settings optimized for 1920×1080 HD display. Other areas custom compression settings are important to us are when working on 4-6-8K output files (although the desktop version is currently limited to a 3480x2160px resolution base).
For comparison, here is our 10 slide sample deck which we optimized with WeCompress, NXPowerlite’s default compression setting, and our “TLC” custom NXPowerlite compression settings.
The original file, with purposefully oversize images, is 14.9 MB.
Running the file through WeCompress adjusted the file to a helpful 642 KB (and maintained good image quality, but a bit lower than we really want).
NXPowerlite (Windows v7.1.5) using its default PRINT compression gave us a 4.68 MB file (and image quality we approved of).
Optimizing with our “TLC” custom compression setting (1920×1080, JPG quality 9) gave us a 3.39 MB file (and image quality we approved of).
We then tested with another test file. We optimized a 10 slide PowerPoint file with close up, detailed high res images. Using NXPowerlite with our TLC HD compression settings, the file went from 16.8MB to 3.76MB, with image detail quality that met our standards.
Uploading the same file to WeCompress reduced the file a lot – down to 674 KB! But image quality was below our standards (Note: compressing same file with NXPowerlite’s SCREEN default was comparable, creating a 1.15 MB file – a default setting we never use).
Aside from WeCompress’ limitations, the two tools have similar compression speeds and results. But WeCompress is FREE and does not require any install permissions. Neuxpower’s NXPowerlite has been the TLC Creative Services go-to compression solution for several years and we definitely recommend booking their new WeCompress online option to add to your toolbox.
Troy @ TLC