The PowerPoint® Blog

I work with PowerPoint on a daily basis and I am very honored to be a Microsoft PowerPoint MVP. We have a talented team of presentation designers at TLC Creative Services and ThePowerPointBlog is our area to highlight PowerPoint tips, tricks, examples and tutorials. Enjoy! Troy Chollar

Even Easier -How Do You Know If SP2 Is Installed?

This is a follow-up to Monday’s post, which is one of the comments submitted to that post (thanks Adam!). We can eliminate 1 step and get the answer to what Service Pack is installed even faster!

1. Office Button >> PowerPoint Options

2. Resources >> About

I overlooked it, but the answer is right here in the About window – even easier!

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T10:14:30-07:00June 3rd, 2009|Tutorial|

Bing!

Microsoft unvieled it’s new search engine that has received some high praise within the industry. And yesterday it was released to the world early!

Bing has a lot of new features and technology for a search engine. Two of my favorites are type in a company name and it gives all the standard results, but also a customer service phone number. The other is great thing is ThePowerPointBlog remaining #1 when searching “powerpoint blog”! (actually 1st result is an ad for MS Office, it is MS’s search engine…)

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T10:15:48-07:00June 2nd, 2009|Resource/Misc|

How Do You Know If SP2 Is Installed?

Service Pack 2 (SP2) was released for MS Office just a short while ago. For PowerPoint it definitely fixes a number of design annoyances. But I am getting the question how to know if it is installed. Here is the process:

1. Office Button >> PowerPoint Options

2. Resources >> About

3. Top line, near end

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T10:16:12-07:00June 1st, 2009|Tutorial|

Category Upgrades to ThePowerPointBlog

You may have noticed the search options have been updated with new categories. With over 3 years of PowerPoint related posts even I was finding it difficult to find things – and I wrote them all. Now searches can either be done by key word(s) in the Search bar, or with the expanded category list.

All posts, all the way back to January 2006 have been tagged with the new categories. Hopefully this will make ThePowerPointBlog a better resource for you. Try doing a category search for templates to find downloadable TEMPLATES and get ideas, or search for TUTORIALS to see all the tips and tricks in one long list of posts.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T10:16:54-07:00May 31st, 2009|Resource/Misc|

Any Ideas on Creating a Quiz Like This in PowerPoint?

So this is a bit different – I figure with 3-5k views a day I am asking you for advice. A recent project seemed simple enough, develop a kiosk quiz with 4 questions and showed the results, then reset for the next person. No need to capture data or integrate with a data base. I figured easy, I will just develop a set of slides and use one of the conversion apps. Turns out the simple quiz is quite difficult – but if I want to capture data, integrate with a LMS, etc. all is a part of the pre-packaged solutions.

Well I spent a few days researching options and finally coded the project in Flash. Client was happy, end result looked and functioned great, I was just a bit surprised I could not find a PowerPoint solution.

So here is the storyboard of what was needed (created in PPT 2007). Anyone have suggestions on software (add-in or stand alone) that could accomplish this?

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T10:17:48-07:00May 29th, 2009|PowerPoint|

And I Don’t Even Speak the Language

Received a call from a past client with request to help update a series of presentations. Project was great and super to reconnect with clients I consider friends. Of course working on presentations in a language you are not familiar with has its challenges…

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T10:18:21-07:00May 27th, 2009|Portfolio|

PowerPoint Contest (by SlideBoom)

SlideBoom, the online presentation sharing site, has announced a new PowerPoint competition!

Here’s what they say:
This contest is a unique opportunity to reveal your creative potential and experience in creating PowerPoint presentation on Business,Education, Career or other interesting subject.

The top three winners will be awarded valuable prizes like SlideBoom Presentation Contest 2009 Winner Cup, a lifetime subscription for PRO account, advanced iSpring Presenter software and Gold Award badge.

Applicants are welcome to submit their works from 18 May to 21 June inclusive. Winners will be announced on 30 June 2009.

Learn more at the official contest page.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T10:18:55-07:00May 25th, 2009|PowerPoint, Resource/Misc|

Creativity Boost with MoodStream

Here is a nifty online tool for those days creativity is just not there (or if you have some time to stare at the computer and be entertained). Getty Images has MoodStream.

Pulling from its vast image and video libraries you can have a full screen never ending stream of images and video based on your parameters. Adjust the sliders or use a preset, click ‘Refresh Stream’ and watch.

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T10:19:57-07:00May 21st, 2009|Software/Add-Ins|

Office 2010 The Movie

Two things:
1. Microsoft is definitely showing they know how to have fun. Check out the movie trailer for the upcoming release of Office 2010 here.

2. Microsoft has officially announced a Technical Preview (aka ‘Beta’) of Office 2010 – so we are getting closer to the release date! It is a limited invitation program…

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T10:20:46-07:00May 19th, 2009|PowerPoint, Resource/Misc|
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