Resource/Misc

Tomorrow starts the best value on the internet for PowerPoint training. PowerPoint MVP Ellen Finkelstein has setup an 8 part PowerPoint Webinar series entitled “Outstanding Presentations Workshop 2012.”

Each week is a different presentation expert and included with the registration is the ability to watch the recorded sessions over the next 2 months. Oh, and registration is $7 – not per session, but $7 for all 8 sessions!

9/18 Real-World Makeovers
– By: Rick Altman, Host of The Presentation Summit

9/25 Create Amazing Custom Graphics
– By: Sandy Johnson, PowerPoint MVP

10/2 Dynamic PowerPoint for Games, Tutorials and More
– By: Glenna, PowerPoint MVP

10/9 – NO SESSION (Hope everyone is at The Presentation Summit!)

10/16 10 Evil Little Secrets about PowerPoint
– By: Ric Bretschneider, PowerPoint MVP

10/23 Create Slides that Look Handmade
– By: Geetesh Bajaj, PowerPoint MVP

10/30 Create Charts That Don’t Make Their Eyes Bleed
– By: Echo Swinford, PowerPoint MVP

11/6 A Theme Runs Through It (Slide Masters and Themes)
– By: Julie Terberg, PowerPoint MVP

11/13 Make a Lasting Impression by Visualizing Business
– By: Ellen Finkelstein, PowerPoint MVP

To get more information and register, go here.

– Troy @ TLC

With The Presentation Summit just a month away, I am now focused on getting my PowerPoint 2013 session ready to present! If you have not been at one of the past Presentation Summits (formerly “PPTLive”) and you use PowerPoint – this is definitely one event to be at. It has the highest concentration of PowerPoint MVPs and a large group from the Microsoft Office and PowerPoint team all in one place just hanging out for several days talking with everyone. Plus, this year is at a great property in Scottsdale, Arizona, the Fire and Ice Resort – which I have been at for a few executive events in the past (nice place!). Details are at the Summit website here.

After this past month of PowerPoint 2013 blog posts, which did not cover a number of my favorite new features, I am excited about this year’s Presentation Summit and my session. I had some fun with a video intro to my session, which was put together before the Public Beta was released:
[youtube src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/H2hieSSw8Hg?rel=0″]

The schedule has great presenters and topics one after another every day. Echo Swinford and I were elected to have sessions on the upcoming PowerPoint 2013. We have some overlapping topics as Echo talks from the designer perspective and I cover what’s new from the presenter perspective. Check out the Seminar Schedule here.

Hope to meet you in Arizona.
– Troy @ TLC

Every version of Office has its own variation of the application icons. Here is a quick history:

Office 2003 used square “chiclet” icons:

Office 2007 used alpha transparency for unique, non-square, icons and added gradients throughout:

Office 2010 used the solid square of 2003, filled with the icons and gradients of 2007, and added uniform identifying letters for each app (despite the full application suite had 3 “P” icons):

Office 2013 has both a solid square version and a alpha transparency version. The icons are developed direct from the Microsoft Metro style guide, which is simplified icons, but retaining the identifying letters (and yes, still 3 P’s):

When PowerPoint 2013 is launched, one of the immediate reactions is the orange bars and accents in the UI. One of the constants for Office is each application has an identifying color. Looking through the generations of icons, PowerPoint is orange, Word is blue, Excel is green, OneNote is purple, etc. So by the luck of history, the most visual application, PowerPoint, has one of the most offending/conflicting/glaring colors associated with it… I can say, based on the early builds of PowerPoint I looked at, the UI could have been much more distracting.

– Troy @ TLC

This FREE tool is a must for every designer, tech, and creative using a PC – the Instant Eyedropper tool is the easiest way I’ve found to quickly identify and use colors on screen.

Instant Eyedropper is accessed through the system tray and is easy to use. Click the icon to launch, hover around the display until you get to the color that needs identification, and click to copy the HEX code right to the clipboard.