Microsoft PowerPoint templates are amazing. Among all the presentation software options, the PowerPoint template has the most options to preset and pre-configure slide content.

THE PROBLEM

There is one template customization that baffles us at TLC Creative when we see it – and we see it several times every year. Let’s set the stage. PowerPoint’s custom color scheme implementation is not perfect. But when set up correctly, it is a valuable tool in making slide design and edits faster. A custom color scheme assists in keeping slide content consistent and on-brand, quick and easy.

For example, default PowerPoint files start with the Microsoft provided default color scheme.

THE REAL PROBLEM

The ability to customize the color scheme for slide templates is wonderful. But for this “behind-the-scenes issue” I am going to focus on the left 4 colors. Let’s call them Light 1-2 and Dark 1-2.

For this behind-the-scenes issue, we are really focused on the White and Black colors in the Light and Dark preset values. Here is the deal, if there is NOT a true white and true black defined in these preset values, the formatting headaches are immense.

Unbeknownst to anyone who uses the Light/Dark for other colors, many of the features that make a PowerPoint template amazing become a huge issue when formatting slides if the template does not contain true white and true black.

WHERE WOULD THIS BE A PROBLEM?

• The Light and Dark preset colors are used in charts.

• The Light and Dark preset colors are used for the inserted text color.

• The Light and Dark preset colors directly impact the behind-the-scenes PowerPoint “Background Style” (most people are not familiar with this but change it, and suddenly slide colors do not work!).

• The Background Style determines the overall master template background color. This is because it simultaneously adjusts the font colors to either white on a dark background or black on a white background. If white and black are removed from the color scheme this will cause an issue in master font contrast legibility.

• Because the background style uses the Light/Dark colors, it is easy – and frustrating – to create a template that does not have enough contrast between the background and the text.

• Charts in Microsoft PowerPoint use the Light/Dark colors for axis labels, grid lines, legends and chart title text. There is no option to program PowerPoint to use other colors. Without black and white in the template preset colors, inserted charts are generally barely legible, and require lots of customization to make them work.

THE SOLUTION

This problem is not a problem if every Microsoft PowerPoint template keeps a true black and true white in the custom color scheme (in the Light/Dark presets). The solution is: don’t create a problem by removing what is already there. (Please note that all of the slide examples above are poor examples!)

CONCLUSION

Creating a PowerPoint template that does not have a true white and a true black in the Light/Dark color scheme colors definitely creates a behind-the-scenes formatting issue. This is the final post in this series on “Behind-the-Scenes PowerPoint Issues.” Everyone on the TLC Creative presentation design team hopes these 10 posts are helpful, educational, and ultimately let us see fewer of these issues and formatting frustrations.

~ Thanks to Christie on TLC Creative design team for highlighting this behind-the-scenes issue

Question: looking at this slide, does it look okay?

How does the slide look when all of the objects on it are selected?

Let’s zoom in and focus on just one of the description text boxes. Argh!

What we are looking at are text boxes stacked on top of shapes. And when you format a slide like this, everyone remembers the best practice is for text to always be INSIDE the shape. Everyone, please repeat this at least 3 times, “I will place text inside PowerPoint shapes and not stack a text box on top of the shape.”

BAD
What are some of the reasons the TLC Creative presentation designers say it’s bad to stack a text box on top of another shape?

• Alignment is more difficult
• Animation is more difficult
• Keeping text inside the shape is more difficult
• Working in the Selection Pane is more difficult
• Moving content on the slide, or to other slides, is more difficult

To be direct, the “shortcut” of adding a text box on top of a shape ultimately creates more steps when formatting the slide in the long run – don’t be part of the Microsoft PowerPoint ongoing formatting problem!

As example, let’s demonstrate a few of the formatting issues encountered with the stacked text scenario. Even if the shape and text are grouped, when scaling the 2 grouped together the text doesn’t wrap and will bleed outside the shape.

BEST PRACTICE

The best practice is simple – stop stacking text on top of shapes. Click the shape and add the text directly as part of the shape.

• Formatting is easier and more time-efficient.
• When scaling the shape text now wraps inside the box without any issues.
• When the text alignment, top-middle-bottom is updated, it aligns to the shape automatically.
• When animating, there is not double the number of shapes to manage because the shape and text are 1 object.
  

FORMAT SHAPE, TEXT OPTIONS
Of course, saying what to do is easy, but only if you know how PowerPoint formats text inside a shape. Virtually every visual styling need can be achieved with text as part of a shape – virtually every animation effect can also be achieved, but that will be another post. For visual styling, we need to get into the Format Shape dialog and the Text Options section.

Vertical text alignment determines the position of text up and down within the defined space. The adjustment can either be determined as solo or text or text within a shape. There are a few places to access the vertical alignment settings, in this case we’re working through the ribbon: Ribbon Home tab > Paragraph group or Format Shape > Text Options > Text Box settings (example we are using).

PowerPoint has 3 text auto fit options:

• Do Not Autofit does what it says; the text in the shape is not automatically updated for any reason – it leaves the font size and formatting to you.
• Shrink text on overflow means if the shape is made smaller, the text automatically gets smaller. If the shape is made larger, the text automatically gets larger.
• Resize shape to fit text means you set the font size and the shape automatically resizes to fit the text (+ the interior margin settings).
• Overall, the TLC Creative design team opts for the Do Not Autofit option.

Every shape is like a mini-Word document with its own interior margins, and every shape added to a slide applies the default interior margins. However, the margins can be modified to be larger, smaller, or completely removed as shown above. Experiment with different values. Overall, the TLC Creative design team opts for 0-0-0-0.

TIP: The Brightslide PowerPoint add-in has a shortcut to apply zero margins to a shape in 2 clicks!

TIP: “Wrap text in shape” can be turned OFF on circles and triangles to allow text to fit easier. You will need to manually add line breaks so the text “fits” inside these shapes.

As example, here is a circle shape and triangle shape, both with the text as part of the shape. With “Wrap text in shape” turned off, things do not look correct.

By manually adding the line breaks (using shift + enter to maintain the paragraph line spacing), everything fits!

The theme of this post series is Behind-the-Scenes PowerPoint Issues. Stacking a text box on top of a shape may look good when presenting but is a true formatting issue when editing the slide. Let’s all work together to eliminate this bad formatting shortcut.

~Thanks to Christie on the TLC Creative design team for assisting with the content for this post.

How would you animate this slide if the request was “Make the left and center images disappear on click.”? 

BAD 

Here is one solution, the one I see a lot – but not the way I recommend accomplishing the request. The goal is to have the left and right images disappear. A common solution I see is adding a white box added that has a “Fade In” animation.  

This does accomplish the request, make images disappear. The disadvantage is what the presenter reviewing the slides in slide sort or a PDF sees. 

It is difficult to know the slide content, know content is missing from the printout, and prepare for the talk. Using the “cover it with a white box” option also makes formatting the slide much harder (move the white box, use Selection Pane to turn off the white box, send to back, etc. just to adjust the images you can’t see). 

BEST 

So, what is the “better” way to accomplish the request? Let me propose the best way would be to build this as 2 slides: 

In a printout, or slide review in slide sorter, it is 100% obvious what the audience will see. This helps enable the presenter to plan their talk. Using a Fade transition would accomplish the exact same visual as the white box that animates on. 

EFFICIENT 

To stay with 1 slide, a more efficient and better way to do this is to animate the left and center images*. Easy, select the left image, shift+click to select the center image and add a Fade Out animation. Note, this is the “EXIT” animation, Fade Out. This means that the images will be removed from the slide during the slideshow “on click”.  

This sets up exactly the same visual as the above options. But within the slide sorter review or printout, the deck looks like this: 

Yes, it is not completely clear that the left and center images will disappear when reviewing the slide deck. But the presenter does see what the content is on the slide vs. being surprised there is more to the slide than they saw in the printout! 

-Troy @ TLC