powerpoint

PPT 2013 – Motion Paths

The Motion Path tool has the same features – ie. no changes to the type of motion paths or how they are executed. But there is a big change in the editing functionality.

Here is my slide with a Motion Path applied to the car image.

Selecting the object (the car image in this demo) is all the same functionality.

But when the actual Motion Path line is selected (ie. the dotted line), a ghosted (semi-transparent) image in the end position is seen!

This is a great function addition to this tool.

Note: If you work with Motion Paths, in any version of PPT, I highly recommend the free Motion Path Tools add-in here.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T09:14:23-07:00August 17th, 2012|PowerPoint|

PPT 2013 – Equidistant with the New Smart Guides

Smart Guides were introduced in PowerPoint 2010 and are a great feature. PowerPoint 2013 has made the good tool even more usable. Smart Guides can now visually show when shapes are equally spaced apart from one another.

This feature is easier to see than explain, so here is a demo showing 6 boxes being aligned and equally spaced (and another great selection of background music).
[youtube src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/vZmppYSsuhI?rel=0″]

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T09:14:48-07:00August 15th, 2012|PowerPoint|

PPT 2013 – The Eye Dropper is Here!

The Eye Dropper tool is common in virtually all image and graphics programs – but not PowerPoint. An Eye Dropper tool lets you select a color from anything on your screen, without entering a color value (RGB, CMYK, Hex, etc.). It is just a point-click-select-done tool. For many years, I have made great use of the PPTXtreme Color Picker add-in to add the Eye Dropper tool to PowerPoint and it has been invaluable.

PowerPoint 2013 introduces a new Eye Dropper tool!

Here is the Eye Dropper in use (and the music is kind of catchy…).
[youtube src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/14jC_a3jtdk?rel=0″]

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T09:15:06-07:00August 13th, 2012|PowerPoint|

PPT 2013 – New Page Curl Transition!

PPT 2013 has lots of subtle updates and additions. One great addition is a new slide transition – Page Curl.

The transition does exactly what its name implies, it visually mimics a book page being turned.
[youtube src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/TAH85_q8R-U?rel=0″]

There are 4 options: 2 mimic a single large page turning and 2 mimic an open book and one half turning over the other half.

In the Public Beta of PowerPoint 2013, one additional transition is in the options – Random. This transition option disappeared in PPT 2007, so it is not really new.

I am guessing (hoping) more exciting options will be in the full release (time will tell).

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T09:15:43-07:00August 10th, 2012|PowerPoint|

PPT 2013 – New Format Picure Dialog

Here is the familiar Format Picture dialog from PPT 2010:

In PPT 2013, the tools options and features remain the same, but the dialog gets a remake. The Format Picture ribbon shows the Metro icons:

Opening the Format Picture dialog opens a new pane on the right:

This new single pane is where all of the formatting options are accessed:

Select a tool and the dialog box extends to show the formatting options.

Select another tool and the box continues to extend and reveal those formatting options.

In addition, the Format Dialog pane can be detached from the UI and become a free floating dialog box. When floating, the same expanding list and organization of tools is seen. The floating dialog is not bound to the application window and can be positioned on a second monitor.

Using the icons across the top of the Format Dialog brings up the options for:
– Fill and line
– Effects
– Size and properties
– Picture

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T09:16:02-07:00August 8th, 2012|PowerPoint|

PPT 2013 – Updated Ribbon “Metro” UI

When you first launch PowerPoint 2013, it looks similar and different at the same time.

If you look at the ribbon, everything is in the now familiar locations and order.

When viewed more closely, you can see all of the aesthetics are new – in the “Metro” style. The Metro style was developed by Microsoft for the Windows Phone 7 interface. It is a success and has now become the basis for the Windows 8 UI and the Office 2013 UI, plus the MS website and many other interfaces.

Ironically, one of the original design reasons for Metro was “a key design principle of Metro is better focus on the content of applications, relying more on typography and less on graphics.” But, PowerPoint’s interface is definitely icon oriented and where typography is used, it has mixed reviews (ie. all caps for the ribbon tabs).

Also new is the logged in user option (for my Beta install the user is “TLC”). There is a lot of new features around the user account, which are overviewed in upcoming posts.

The happy face icon on the far right is a standard feature of Microsoft beta software. Clicking it brings up a dialog box to submit feedback, bug reports, etc. you discover while using the application. The smiley will not be a part of the retail version.

While the new aesthetics are not going to be everyone’s favorite, they are what is coming to a computer near you.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T09:17:33-07:00August 3rd, 2012|Tutorial|

Turning Point on Computer with Multiple PPT Installs

Last week was a corporate meeting that integrated Turning Point ARS (audience response system) for a series of audience interaction questions throughout the meeting. I have used lots of ARS options, but find Turning Point the most full featured and best PowerPoint integrated package.

All of TLC Creative’s show computers have two versions of PowerPoint installed, currently all have PPT 2003 and PPT 2010. When installing the Turning Point app, I always run into the issue of it being recognized in the PPT version needed for that meeting. So here is a quick tutorial on setting up Turning Point to open and function in a specific version.

OPTION A:
1. Open TurningPoint in 2003 – Select Tools on the Turning Point toolbar

2. Go to Settings

3. Under Misc >> Add in always loaded – Change to “TRUE”

OPTION B:
Launch the TurningPoint before starting (any version) of PPT, which will open 2010 as default
1. Control Panel > Programs

2. Click Programs & Features

3. Scroll down to Microsoft Office 2010 > Select Change

4. Repair

5. Wait for the repair to finish, it will ask you to restart. Once restarted when launching TurningPoint 2008 PowerPoint 2010 will be the default. TurningPoint will default to launching the last modified version of Office – so when you repair Office 2010, it prompts TurningPoint to choose 2010 as default.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T09:19:03-07:00July 27th, 2012|Tutorial|

Creating the “Open Again” Image in PPT

Yesterday’s post used a fun image that was downloaded from Fotolia.com and completely customized in PowerPoint. Here is what I did:

1. Research and download image from Fotolia.com (where TLC Creative Services has a subscription plan), then insert on slide.

2. Frame the right and bottom of the image with gradient lines.

3. Add a white box (white to match the slide background color).

4. Size and position the white box to cover the existing text.

5. Add PPT text with the new message using a custom font, same fill color as the marker in the image and positioned right over the marker.

6. Done – no Photoshop needed.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T09:23:07-07:00July 2nd, 2012|Tutorial|

Add Slides to a Presentation and Keep Their Original Look

Adding slides from one presentation into another and hoping for a button that will automatically format the slides the way needed is just not a feature in PowerPoint. But, the almost magical “Destination vs. Source Formatting” button does exist. For this tutorial, we are going to add slides from the “Blue” presentation (Presentation #1) to the “Purple” presentation (Presentation #2) and keep the blue slides blue (ie. opposite of the last tutorial where the slides updated to the purple template).

Here is our “Blue” presentation (#1):

And here is our “Purple” presentation (#2):

Select the slides from Presentation #1 and copy. Then paste them into Presentation #2. To paste in the new slides, right-click and in the pop-up menu in the “Paste Options” sections, select “KEEP SOURCE FORMATTING:”

With the KEEP SOURCE FORMATTING option the template for the new slides keeps the template that was used in Presentation #1. So the blue slides stay blue.

Behind the scenes what happens is a new Master Slide set is added to the presentation. So if you look in the slide layouts (HOME >> SLIDES section >> LAYOUTS) there are two master slide sets to choose from (Presentation #1 and Presentation #2).

NOTE: If you paste in more slides from the Blue presentation in a new location and select KEEP SOURCE FORMATTING another blue master slide set will be added (which is not optimal).

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T09:25:02-07:00April 8th, 2012|Tutorial|

Add Slides to a Presentation That Fit In

Adding slides from one presentation into another and hoping for a button that will automatically format the slides the way needed is just not a feature in PowerPoint. But, the almost magical “Destination vs. Source Formatting” button does exist. For this tutorial, we are going to add slides from the “Blue” presentation (Presentation #1) to the “Purple” presentation (Presentation #2) and make all of the slides the same, so they are all purple.

Here is our “blue” presentation (#1):

And here is our “purple” presentation (#2):

Select the slides from Presentation #1 and copy. The paste them into Presentation #2. To paste in the new slides, right-click and in the pop-up menu in the “Paste Options” sections select “Use Destination Theme:”

With the USE DESTINATION THEME option, the template for the new slides is assigned to the template used on the slide in front of the insert point. So now all of the blue slides are changed to the purple template.

*Note: There is no “magic” button and with this example the text boxes, background, colors used, etc. were all setup correctly using the template formatting (which also means it is a real template). When updating to the new (purple) template all of the master slide formatting carries over just fine. But there are lots of times when things are not based on template formatting and need to be manually updated (ie. no magic format button).

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-16T09:25:27-07:00April 6th, 2012|Tutorial|
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