Blog2021-05-06T12:54:43-07:00

Hanging Out with the Green Lantern

This June is the release of The Green Lantern movie. For a recent meeting, I did have the opportunity to hang out with real Green Lantern – the lantern used in the movie, not the actor. Still very cool. (The small one, not the super-sized promo version).

– Troy @ TLC

By |February 26th, 2011|Personal|

Developing the Perfect Template

On this template project, we worked out the technical needs (PPT 2007, color scheme, logo, etc.) but there was no input on design direction. So the project evolved with an initial design blitz of layout and design styles. Based on continuous input, the design was narrowed and refined to the perfect set and then finalized with all PowerPoint presets and delivered as a distribution ready .potx.

– Troy @ TLC

By |February 24th, 2011|Templates/Assets|

Manage Multiple Time Zones with Windows 7

Last week, when working on the East Coast, a different time zone than home, I was asked how I managed to keep track of things in the different time zones. Windows 7 has a great little feature to add multiple time zones to the clock.

1. Click the time in the lower right on the task bar and click “CHANGE DATE AND TIME SETTINGS”

2. In the DATE AND TIME dialog, go to the ADDITIONAL CLOCKS tab and setup 1 or 2 additional time zones and name them

3. Now the taskbar shows both (or all three) time zones

4. If you click on the time in the task bar, you now see clocks for both time zones active there as well

– Troy @ TLC

By |February 22nd, 2011|Personal, Resource/Misc|

Hmmm, SlideRocket’s latest promo seems off track to me

Last week, SlideRocket, which I like a lot, announced their “It’s ‘Say No To PowerPoint’ Week” promo. But the tagline really got me wondering how they define a presentation.

“SlideRocket is celebrating national “Say No to PowerPoint Week” by challenging people to say “yes” to stunning presentations. It’s time to say rest in peace to presentations 1.0 and embrace a new way of presenting that engages the mind and senses. To help drive a stake through the heart of “Death by PowerPoint,”…”

In the now famous Edward Tufte statement about “Death By PowerPoint,” a huge generalization was made – that all PowerPoint created presentations are bad. Definitely not a true statement, as presentations developed by applications other than PowerPoint can be bad too. The reality is, not all presentations are bad – not all presentation good. Not all presenters are bad, and not all presenters are good.

The SlideRocket promotion bothers me in that it also wants to generalize that all PowerPoint created presentations are bad (wrong) and that all SlideRocket created presentations are good (wrong).

– Troy @ TLC

By |February 20th, 2011|Personal, Resource/Misc|

Ascend or Float Up?

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

By |February 16th, 2011|Tutorial|

Is the “Compress” Animation Gone in PPT 2010?

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

By |February 14th, 2011|Tutorial|
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