“New” Shape Styles Presets

So why the quotes around “new” for this post’s title? Well, this is not really a new feature in PowerPoint, but it has come up on conversations enough recently for me to realize this addition to shape styling that has been in PowerPoint since January of this year (maybe earlier), has not been noticed by everyone.

PowerPoint Format Presets
Shape styles are preset formatting options for PPT vector shapes. Color options are based on the template color scheme, accents 1-6 and either the light or dark background style. When content is moved to a new presentation, the colors auto update to that presentation color scheme. In the latest roll out of updates, Microsoft expanded to include a new level of these styles called “presets.”

New Shape Styles Presets 1

New Shape Styles Presets 2

New Shape Styles Presets 3

These new shape styles presets include five styles: transparent, transparent with colored outline, semi-transparent with no outline, colored fill with no outline, and lastly, gradient fill with no outline. These styles can quickly be applied to any shape with a click of a button. Happy stylizing!

-Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2019-12-08T08:41:17-07:00December 12th, 2019|PowerPoint|

What is the Template Color Scheme Name?

Every template has a Custom Color Scheme. And every color scheme has a custom name. For example: Here is a custom PowerPoint template I am working on, and I named the template color scheme “The Future Is Now” which is the theme name of the event where it will be used.

Template Color Scheme -1

And when I look at the color schemes available on my computer, this theme is listed – because it was created on this computer:

Template Color Scheme -5

But on any other computer, with the template open, if I look at the color schemes, The Future Is Now is not listed:

Template Color Scheme -2

To find the Custom Color Scheme name, do this:

Go to VIEW > SLIDE MASTER > BACKGROUND > mouse over (do not click) COLORS
The pop up dialog shows the current template color scheme name

Now you can edit the existing color scheme and know what name to give it.

-Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-08-10T08:18:29-07:00April 29th, 2016|Tutorial|

PowerPoint 2016 User Interface Color Options

How to change your User Interface Colors in Powerpoint

PowerPoint 2016 User Interface Color Options allow you to modify your interface by choosing up to 3 preset color schemes: Colorful (Orange), Dark Grey, White. You can change the ribbon, border and canvas area outside the slide.

Ideally, we, the users, could modify the color scheme to meet our needs – but that’s not something available. All three options are available and can be changed at any time. (Note: This is an Office wide update, so all other Office apps such as Outlook, Word, Excel, etc. will also get the same User Interface color scheme.)

Here’s how to Personalize your PowerPoint 2016 User Interface Color Options

To adjust, go to FILE > OPTIONS > GENERAL tab. Then, go to OFFICE THEME drop down menu.

PowerPoint 2016 User Interface Color Options 1

Colorful (Orange on light grey):

PowerPoint 2016 User Interface Color Options 2

Dark Grey (Only option with no orange):

PowerPoint 2016 User Interface Color Options 3

White (Less Orange on White):

PowerPoint 2016 User Interface Color Options 4

-Troy@TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-08-10T08:38:46-07:00February 15th, 2016|PowerPoint|

2014 Color of the Year

Funny thing happened this weekend while at the local Home Improvement store – I learned the official 2014 Color of the Year! Not what you would expect to learn while looking for light fixtures, lumber and nails. But there it was, right up front near the check out registers, 4′ high in the paint department.

Each year, the Pantone Color Institute chooses a color of the year, and that selection has a big impact on design, art and fashion. 2014 is the year of “Radiant Orchid” – guess I better start working that into some template designs!

Radiant Orchid is “an invitation to innovation, Radiant Orchid encourages expanded creativity and originality, which is increasingly valued in today’s society.” It is “an enchanting harmony of fuchsia, purple and pink undertones… (that) inspires confidence and emanates great joy, love and health.” Leatrice Eiseman, Pantone Color Institute director.

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-08-10T09:56:40-07:00December 30th, 2013|Personal, Resource/Misc|

Color (RGB-CMYK-Pantone-Hex-etc.) Defined!

What is RGB – CMYK – Hex – and all the other names for colors. Aren’t colors, just colors?

Through the course of print design, web and flash design, and of course PowerPoint design, we have used all of these, and a few more. Here is a quick summary of each of the main color formats/models:

1. RGB – An additive color model in which red, green, and blue light are added together to reproduce colors. RGB Color is the color model used for all electronically displayed documents. RGB is a device dependent color model: different devices detect or reproduce a given RGB value differently.

2. CMYK – A subtractive color model used in color printing. CMYK refers to the four inks used in color printing: cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black). The CMYK model works by partially or entirely masking colors on a lighter, usually white, background. The ink reduces the light that would otherwise be reflective. Such a model is called subtractive because inks “subtract” brightness from white.

3. Pantone and Spot – The Pantone Color Matching System is largely a standardized color reproduction system. By standardizing the colors, different manufacturers in different locations can all refer to the Pantone system to make sure colors match without direct contact with one another. There is a special subset of Pantone colors that can be reproduced using CMYK. Those that are possible to simulate through the CMYK process are labeled as such within the company’s guides.

However, most of the Pantone system’s 1,114 spot colors cannot be simulated with CMYK but with 13 base pigments (15 including white and black) mixed in specified amounts. The Pantone system also allows for many special colors to be produced, such as metallics and fluorescents.

4. Hex – A hex triplet is a six-digit, three-byte hexadecimal number used in HTML, CSS, and other computing applications, to represent colors. The bytes represent the red, green and blue components of the color. One byte represents a number in the range 00 to FF (in hexadecimal notation), or 0 to 255 in decimal notation. This represents the least (0) to the most (255) intensity of each of the color components. Thus, web colors specify colors in the Truecolor (24-bit RGB) color scheme. The hex triplet is formed by concatenating three bytes in hexadecimal notation, in the following order:
• Byte 1: red value (color type red)
• Byte 2: green value (color type green)
• Byte 3: blue value (color type blue)

5. HSV and HSL – Recognizing that the geometry of the RGB model is poorly aligned with the color-making attributes recognized by human vision, computer graphics researchers developed two alternate representations of RGB, HSV and HSL (hue, saturation, value and hue, saturation, lightness). HSV and HSL improve on the color cube representation of RGB by arranging colors of each hue in a radial slice, around a central axis of neutral colors which ranges from black at the bottom to white at the top. The fully saturated colors of each hue then lie in a circle, a color wheel.

HSV models itself on paint mixture, with its saturation and value dimensions resembling mixtures of a brightly colored paint with, respectively, white and black. HSL places the fully saturated colors in a circle of lightness ½, so that lightness 1 always implies white, and lightness 0 always implies black.

HSV and HSL are both widely used in computer graphics, particularly as color pickers in image editing software.

Note: All definitions sourced from Wikipedia.com.
– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-08-16T09:02:46-07:00October 17th, 2012|Resource/Misc|

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 TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-08-16T09:15:06-07:00August 13th, 2012|PowerPoint|

Using Color in a PPT Template

The goal of this template was to use bright and energizing colors and a horizon. Here is the client approved template.

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-08-16T10:14:24-07:00May 20th, 2011|Portfolio, Templates/Assets|

Flow Diagram – Before & After Slide #22

These slides come from a recent project. The original had a Visio (?) flow diagram. Aside from being an uneditable .jpg image, it was full of colors that were inconsistent with the rest of the deck and could use a bit of professional polish.

The recreated diagram used a subtler color scheme, separate elements to show the sections, and everything recreated in PPT to allow animations and section-by-section edits as needed.

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-08-16T10:45:28-07:00November 24th, 2010|Portfolio|

Recolor .png Images in PPT

I am continously reflecting on how much more I can do inside PPT 2010 vs. going out to an external application such as Photoshop when developing slides. Here is an example from a recent project that was done in PPT in a matter of seconds vs. opening image in Photoshop, adjusting, saving, importing new version of image.

Here is my highly stylized trend line (used on a slide to show the economy is making progress, without showing any detailed numbers or facts). It is a .png image I prepared in Photoshop and inserted into the presentation.

Here is the same image, now full screen and on the presentation template backgound – it does not have enough contrast against the background.

By selecting the image and then going to FORMAT >> CORRECTIONS I used the presets (all based on the template color scheme) to recolor the trendline image to a color with more contrast.

Done. Move on to next slide.

– Troy @ TLC

By TLC Creative Services, Inc.|2016-08-16T10:51:13-07:00November 3rd, 2010|Tutorial|

Customize an Image With Recolor

The recolor feature (FORMAT >> RECOLOR) can customize an image, saving a trip to Photoshop. For this presentation I needed to use the same content in 3 color coded sections. Once the funnel image was optimized and saved from Photoshop as a .png with no background I was able to do the rest in PowerPoint. Here is my original, simple greyscale funnel.