powerpoint Archives - Page 50 of 54

Should I use Hardware Acceleration?

If your computer has dedicated graphics memory – yes.
If the computer has a shared memory graphics processor – no.

To check what you have, go to:
(1) START >> CONTROL PANEL >> DISPLAY >> SETTINGS tab
(2) Select “Monitor 1”
(3) Click the ADVANCED button

(4) Go to the ADAPTOR tab. Here you can see the manufacturer, model and amount of memory of the graphics card.

TIP: if the computer uses an Intel graphics processor, it is shared memory. ATI and NVidia manufacture both shared memory and dedicated memory cards.

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-11-17T15:05:58-07:00November 27th, 2006|Tutorial|

Smoother Animation with Hardware Acceleration

If you notice some of your animations are not playing smooth, check to assure you are using all of your graphic processor’s power. Go to SLIDE SHOW >> SETUP SHOW >> check the USE COMPUTER HARDWARE ACCELERATION.

Now run the presentation and things should be running much smoother.

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-11-17T15:05:01-07:00November 25th, 2006|Tutorial|

Pick the Exact Color – Fast and Easy

A perfect compliment to any version of PowerPoint is PPTXtreme’s Color Picker. The great thing about this sample slide is the text and box fills are the exact same color and colors pulled from the logo. No guessing, just point and click to select the exact color!

When one of the Color Picker tools is selected a small information window opens and wherever your cursor is, the color is displayed. Click on anything on your monitor and that color is selected.

Color Picker can select the color for Text:

For Autoshape Fills:

For Lines:

It also works with selecting dropshadows. At $20 this is an invaluable tool to add to PowerPoint.

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-11-17T14:57:33-07:00November 15th, 2006|Software/Add-Ins|

3 Slides for a Template

PowerPoint by virtue of providing a Content Master and a Title Master has conditioned the world that presentations only need two looks. When I design a template it generally includes 3 to 4 master slides that go beyond the standard two slide system. Here is a recent example:

(1) Theme Graphic
This slide is used for pre/post-meeting (walk-in/walk-out) or during extended Q&A. Usually with a strong branding image.

(2) Title Slide
Used for introducing major topics, speakers, etc.

(3) Content Slide
Used for all of the content…

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-11-17T14:47:23-07:00November 9th, 2006|Portfolio|

Create a Glow with PPTXtreme SoftShadow

With creative use of PPTXtreme’s SoftShadow add-in instanst “Soft-Glows” can be created. If you have not checked out this very useful add-in go here.

(1) Select text, autoshape or image. Here are my setting for adding a white drop-shadow.

(2) Select the object again and apply a second softshadow. Note the negative (-5 and -5) X and Y positions, so the 2nd softshadow is positioned in the upper left. Here are my settings for this second softshadow.

(3) The result is a photoshop quality glow.

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-11-17T14:47:06-07:00November 7th, 2006|Software/Add-Ins, Tutorial|

PowerPoint Timers

Countdown timers can be created fairly easy in PowerPoint. There are lots of needs for timers and I recently had a client call me from there event (that was already underway) asking for a countdown timer to run for the breaks.

Microsoft has some good resources available on its website. I simply emailed a link to the Microsoft Online where they have a few dozen ready-made countdown timers. My client found one they liked, added their logo to the master slide and was ready to go in less than 15 minutes.

To check out the countdown timer presentations Microsoft has available (for free), click here.

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-11-17T14:37:15-07:00November 3rd, 2006|Software/Add-Ins|

Fix Links Pro Fixes A Hidden Problem

Sometimes you don’t want to give away to much information. And when an Excel chart or movie is inserted you are giving away information about your network/file structure.

As example, right click on a movie that is inserted into PowerPoint and choose EDIT.

The movie information includes the path where it came from.

To eliminate this information I use the Fix Links Pro add-in (website is here).

(1) Open Fix Links Pro and choose REPAIR

(2) It generates a report about all multimedia and embedded files in the presentation. The key is where the report says “now path-free”.

(3) Now right click the movie, choose EDIT and see that the path information has been removed

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-11-17T14:32:26-07:00October 25th, 2006|Software/Add-Ins|

Extended And Smoother Animations

I personally do not use the Presenter View, but I do run many presentations in a similiar format – with slideshow on the secondary monitor/projector and PowerPoint in edit mode on the primary monitor.

Just like Presenter View, animations can be problematic. Each slide redraws in the edit mode and while it is updates processing power for animations is reduced. But there are some steps to take to minimize the animation lag.

There is a lot of processing power used with each slide transition if you have:
– Slide preview at 100%
– Both left and right action panes open
– PowerPoint running full frame

I have found better results when PowerPoint runs like this:
– Close the right action pane
– Reduce size of thumbnails in left action pane, or close all together
– Make slide preview 25% (active slide in center)
– Reduce the actual application window to run in a small vertical area

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-11-17T14:26:01-07:00October 9th, 2006|Tutorial|

Send Presentation to Second Monitor/Projector

With the computer set for Extended Desktop mode (see October 1 post), next is to setup PowerPoint to make use of the second monitor.

In PowerPoint go to: SLIDE SHOW >> SETUP SHOW

In the Multiple Monitors section click the drop down menu and select “Monitor 2 Default Monitor.”

Now the slide show will be on the second monitor (usually a projector) and your monitor will remain in Slide Design Mode.

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-11-17T14:25:04-07:00October 3rd, 2006|Tutorial|

Check For, and Turn on, Extended Desktop

If you want to use PowerPoint’s Presenter View, or display the presentation through a projector while having slide design view or slide sorter view on your monitor, the computer must support Extended Desktop.

To see if your computer supports extended desktop go to: START >> CONTROL PANEL >> DISPLAYS >> SETTINGS tab. If you have two monitor icons, you should be good to go.

Click on monitor 2 and then activate the “extend my windows desktop onto this monitor.”

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-11-17T14:24:43-07:00October 1st, 2006|Tutorial|