Tutorial

Yes, We Can Copy PowerPoint SECTIONS!

PowerPoint’s Sections are not new (introduced with PowerPoint 2010), but they are very unutilized. Just this past month, the updates to PowerPoint (for Office 365 subscription version) included the ability to copy sections to another presentation, or different location in the same presentation. While there are more improvements needed to help PowerPoint Sections become a truly easy to use and helpful organization resource, this is a great improvement (and it lets us know the Microsoft Dev Teams are looking at Sections and making progress on improving them!).

As an example, if there are sections in the deck, copying the entire section is easy.

  • Find the Section name either in Slide Sorter View or the left thumbnail Panel
  • Click the section, which highlights all the slides in the selected section
  • CTRL + C to copy the section
  • Go to other presentation (or other location in same presentation) and CTRL + V to paste in the section name and all of its slides!

Here is my sample presentation with sections. I am going to copy the RED FLOWERS section into a new presentation.

PowerPoint Sections

PowerPoint Sections

Notes:

  • Right-click dialog on a section name does not have copy or paste commands, so must use keyboard shortcuts. But you can right-click the insert location and use the standard PASTE OPTIONS in the right-click dialog.
  • Drag-and-drop copying does not work (yet)
  • Currently only able to select one section at a time
  • If pasting into a presentation that does not have sections added, the pasted in section – and its name – are added to presentation and all slides above go into an automatically created section. But all slides after the insert point are added to the new (pasted in Section)

Troy @ TLC

By |2016-12-12T15:56:55-07:00December 12th, 2016|Tutorial|

PowerPoint Change Shape

All PPT shapes are vector (meaning they can be resized with no quality loss and are very small in file size). One great feature of PowerPoint (that has been in many versions but hasn’t been discovered by everyone), is the ability to change shape to any other shape – AND maintain all format styling and animation!

Here is an example, a rectangle with gradient fill, text styling and cast shadow.

1. Select any shape on a slide.

Change Shape 1

2. Go to the FORMAT TAB.

Change Shape 9

3. Click the EDIT SHAPE drop down menu.

Change Shape 8

4. Select the CHANGE SHAPE menu

Change Shape 7

5. From this PPT shape gallery, select the new desired shape – for this example, we are choosing the heart shape.

Change Shape 11

6. The rectangle changes to a heart shape – and the color file, drop shadow, gradient, text font-color-styling and animation are all still there!

Change Shape 2

-Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-20T09:50:40-07:00November 18th, 2016|PowerPoint, Tutorial|

Office 365: Change to First Release Channel

The big, and confusing question, is how to change from CURRENT CHANNEL version of Office 365 to FIRST RELEASE version. This is accomplished in the Office 365 Admin Console – so you will most likely need to be an administrator on the account to access these options. One of the confusion points is Office 365 Admin Console itself. If you search the web for tutorials on where to find the settings, the older tutorials often reference an older build of Office 365, which shows how quickly Microsoft is changing and updating things. I have been using Office 365 to run TLC Creative Services since its release in 2011 and the Admin area has had many overhauls during that time, which makes things difficult to keep things running smooth when the entire interface changes.

Based on the 2016 Office 365, Business Premium account admin console, here are the steps to change which Office Channel you have:

  1. Log into your Office 365 account
  2. Click the “checker board” selection button in the upper left
    First Release Channel 3
  3. Find and click the ADMIN button
    First Release Channel 4
  4. In the Admin Center > HOME > OFFICE SOFTWARE > click SOFTWARE DOWNLOAD SETTINGS
    First Release Channel 5
  5. The SOFTWARE DOWNLOAD SETTINGS dialog will open. In the SOFTWARE FOR PC section, confirm 2016 VERSION is on, and the “How often do you want users to get feature updates for Office apps” is set to EVERY MONTH (CURRENT CHANNEL)
    First Release Channel 6
  6.  Click SAVE
  7. Someone with Admin Rights to the Office 365 needs to complete these next 3 steps
    1. Log into the Office 365 Account
    2. Go to SETTINGS > ORGANIZATION PROFILE
      First Release Channel 11
    3. In the RELEASE PREFERENCES section, click EDIT
      First Release Channel 12
    4. Select a RELEASE TRACK (a “track” is going to be the “channel” option) and go through the settings process
      First Release Channel 13
  8. When the above items are complete, go to this web page: https://portal.office.com/OLS/MySoftware.aspx
  9. Log into your Office 365 account
  10. If the above steps were completed, you will see this message that your Office 365 account can be changed to the FIRST RELEASE CHANNEL
    insider_7
  11. Note: if you already have Office 2016 installed (which I am guessing most everyone will), this next step is installing the First Release version, but it will not (at least from my testing and use) affect your current install – it automatically upgrades the current install and keeps all settings, files and data
  12. Close all Office apps (PowerPoint, Outlook, etc.)
  13. Click INSTALL
    First Release Channel 8
  14. The Office installer will run
    First Release Channel 9
  15. Open PowerPoint, go to FILE > ACCOUNT > OFFICE UPDATE and it should now list FIRST RELEASE
    First Release Channel 10

-Troy @ TLC

By |2016-11-07T15:34:57-07:00November 7th, 2016|Resource/Misc, Tutorial|

PowerPoint’s “What’s New” Dialog

The Office 365 version of Office Apps, including PowerPoint, is on a continuous update cycle. Often, it is difficult to know what is new. Well, there is a newer dialog option within all office apps to give you a summary of “What’s New.”

To see what the new features are in PPT, simply go to the file tab, scroll down to account, and click on the What’s New Dialog below the “Office Updates” box.

Once clicked, a window will pop up either asking the user to update PPT or simply show what new features have been added.

 

What's New Dialog 1

 

What's New Dialog 2

Click the LEARN MORE link to open a web browser and get the full details and history of all feature updates.

What's New Dialog 3

 

-Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-20T09:28:11-07:00September 30th, 2016|Resource/Misc, Tutorial|

Vector Editing Inside PowerPoint for Text Boxes

In the previous portfolio sample of a recent PowerPoint template for HCV Treatment Research, the Section Divider layout had some customized formatting.

Vector Editing inside PowerPoint 1

One of the TLC Creative Design Team objectives is to do as much formatting within PowerPoint to preserve future editing options (vs. doing all design in external programs like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator and importing  a series of uneditable images). The Section Divider in this template is a great example of our process of future proofing templates.

Vector Editing inside PowerPoint 2

  1. Photoshop developed background image
  2. PowerPoint color block
  3. PowerPoint shapes, with custom semi-transparent gradient fill, thick outline, and drop shadow effect
  4. Duplicate of #3, resized
  5. PowerPoint text box with semi-transparent fill, text formatting preset
  6. PowerPoint text box with semi-transparent fill, text formatting preset

The Hexagon accent title boxes actually have a lot of customized PowerPoint formatting in putting them together.

  • Add 2 PowerPoint text boxes, with semi-transparent fills and text formatting options preset (including a custom left margin to move text away from left edge).

Vector Editing inside PowerPoint 3 width=

  • Add PowerPoint hexagon shapes with semi-transparent gradient fill, thick outline, shadowing and other styling applied. The position and size was determined by the text boxes. Each was sized to have the outline within the text box shape.

Vector Editing inside PowerPoint 4

  • The dilemma is, even with the text boxes sent to back, the semi-transparent gradient fills of the hexagons show the text box edge.

Vector Editing inside PowerPoint 5

  • Using PowerPoint’s Vector Shape Editing capabilities, we can customize the text boxes further in order to meet the visual needs of the template. Step 1 is selecting a text box and EDIT the vector POINTS.

Vector Editing inside PowerPoint 6

  • The text boxes are simple rectangles with 4 points, these two are the ones we are customizing.

Vector Editing inside PowerPoint 7

  • Right-click the red shape outline and ADD 2 additional vector points to the vertical left of the rectangle (location is arbitrary).

Vector Editing inside PowerPoint 8

  • The thick (4.5 pt) shape outline was a nice styling accent, but it also makes this vector customization much easier by providing lots of area to “hide” the text box shape under. We moved the 2 new vector anchor point to sit in the middle of the hexagon outline and making the text box shape, when sent to back under the hexagon, hidden from view.

Vector Editing inside PowerPoint 9

  • Temporarily removing the hexagon shapes, here are the customized text box shapes with their new left edge.

Vector Editing inside PowerPoint 10

  • The end results, Title and Subtitle custom text boxes for the Section Divider layout, are all developed within PowerPoint and maintains template color scheme colors and editability.

Vector Editing inside PowerPoint 11

-Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-19T15:09:09-07:00September 26th, 2016|Tutorial|

PowerPoint Layer Order Explained

How do you describe what is on top or bottom for slide content?

Z-ORDER_5

Let’s look at a simple explanation of 2D design. With presentation design, this is very easy to visualize by looking at a chart. A standard bar chart has two axes: left-right (X) and up-down (Y).

Z-ORDER_7

To expand on things, here is a simple explanation of 3D design. In 3D design, there are 3 axes; left-right (X), up-down (Y) and front-back (Z).

Z-ORDER_6

Similarly, PowerPoint slides can have 3 axes for content. Slide content is 2D, which is left-right and up-down. But, it can also be layered on top of each other, which is the Z-axis. So, content that is layered on top of each other is referred to as the “Z Order.” Here is an exploded view of a slide. The Z-order has the text on top, so no other slide content is going to block it – but the text may overlap other content.

Z-Order 02

Z-order is adjusted with PowerPoint’s ARRANGE > ORDER OBJECTS tools. These are the “bring to front” and “send to back” buttons. The SELECTION PANE shows all slide objects in their Z-order with items at the top of the list on top and items lower on the list having the other items on top of them.

Note: PowerPoint cannot have objects on the same layer, so as soon as there is 1 object on a slide, something is always layered on top.

Z-Order 4

-Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-31T10:09:54-07:00September 8th, 2016|PowerPoint, Tutorial|

Section Zoom Photo Collage

One last Zoom demo to wrap up the month of August. Many thanks to Wanda, on the TLC design team, for taking my idea and turning it into a great presentation. Section Zoom 02

The concept is to create a Section Zoom, then stylize the each thumbnail into a photo collage layout.

Section Zoom 04

Here is the slide deck with sections for each photo gallery. It would be very easy to add photos to sections over time, or by multiple people.

Section Zoom 01

The presentation becomes an interactive digital photo album, and the same concept can easily be applied to touch enabled digital signage! Of course, when you see the layered thumbnail layout in action, it is (painfully) obvious there are some modifications needed to Zoom to make this great option actually usable…

-Troy @ TLC

 

By |2016-08-29T09:59:12-07:00August 31st, 2016|PowerPoint, Tutorial|

Inception Effect with Zoom

Impractical – yes. A cool thing you can do in PowerPoint – yes!

Using the Zoom tool, you can create a slide that zooms into itself endlessly – an Inception effect. Here is my single slide presentation. First, I use the Zoom > Insert > Slide Zoom, and then I use the Drag-and-Drop way to make a slide a linked Zoom image (the music is what I hear when I think of an endless Inception loop).

-Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-29T09:07:01-07:00August 29th, 2016|PowerPoint, Tutorial|

Zoom Thumbnail Formatting Tips & Tricks

Microsoft released Zoom with a lot of great formatting options and features for linked thumbnails. Here is a list of several tips & tricks we learned working with the Zoom thumbnails.

When creating a Slide Zoom (link to a specific slide, not a section), you can drag and drop a slide from the left navigation pane onto any slide!

Zoom thumbnail 01

Thumbnails have dynamic live content. For example:

  1. Create a Summary Zoom
  2. Update one of the link slides (in this case, add a giant pink circle)
  3. Navigation slide thumbnail is instantly updated with the new slide content (amazing!)

Zoom thumbnail 02

 

Any Zoom thumbnail can use a different image. Much like a video Poster Frame image, a Zoom thumbnail can be set to any external image.

  1. Select a thumbnail
  2. Either right-click thumbnail and select CHANGE IMAGE > CHANGE IMAGE or go to FORMAT > ZOOM OPTIONS > CHANGE IMAGE > CHANGE IMAGE
  3. In the pop up dialog, select any external image and OK to change thumbnail image

Zoom thumbnail 03

 

If the custom image is not wanted, it is easy to return the thumbnail to using the slide image. Just right click Zoom thumbnail and select CHANGE IMAGE > RESET IMAGE or go to FORMAT > ZOOM OPTIONS > CHANGE IMAGE > RESET IMAGE.

Zoom thumbnail 04

Also, any image styling options, such as drop shadows, outline, bevel, rotate, 3D perspective, etc., can be applied to a thumbnail. Note: 3D perspective is an example of a formatting option that can be applied, but does not always provide a nice transition effect.

Zoom thumbnail 05

Remove Background of thumbnails. This is a great design feature! Using the FORMAT > ZOOM OPTIONS section > ZOOM BACKGROUND and only the content on the slide will remain a part of the thumbnail. All slide master content (background image, logos, etc.) are removed from the thumbnail.

As example, here I have added a .png image of flower pots on the slide (and the flower background is set as the background image).

 

Zoom_Post3_10 

Next I added a SUMMARY ZOOM, which adds a new navigation slide with thumbnail navigation images of each slide selected.

Zoom_Post3_11

Selecting the right thumbnail and going to FORMAT > ZOOM OPTIONS section > ZOOM BACKGROUND to do an image ‘remove background’ effect.

Zoom_Post3_12

All content that is on the master layout and/or set background image are removed from the thumbnail and what is left on the navigation slide is a .png with transparent background that has only the content actually on the slide (this is great!!).

Zoom_Post3_13

 There are a lot of styling options and “hidden” features. Enjoy finding creative ways to develop non-linear presentations using Zoom!

-Troy @ TLC

 

 

 

By |2016-08-25T08:23:16-07:00August 26th, 2016|Portfolio, Tutorial|

Hide the PowerPoint Ribbon

The PowerPoint Ribbon is super helpful in being in the same place on all installs of PowerPoint. Sometimes, it uses valuable screen real estate. Luckily, it is easy to hide the Ribbon, just click the small upper arrow on the right.

PowerPoint Ribbon 1

When the Ribbon is turned off, PowerPoint frees up all that space just by displaying the menu bar (and on my install, the QAT that is below the menu bar).

PowerPoint Ribbon 2

Any time a menu item is clicked, the Ribbon temporarily displays.

To make the Ribbon stay visible, click any menu item, then click the small thumbtack icon on the right.

PowerPoint Ribbon 3

-Troy @ TLC

By |2016-08-12T10:51:19-07:00August 17th, 2016|Tutorial|
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