New Year’s Template
2017 is almost over, here is a 2018 New Year’s Template (free!) to get things started for the new year!
Download free 16×9 PowerPoint template HERE.
Troy @ TLC
Free Halloween Theme PowerPoint Template
Christie on the TLC Creative design team put together this fun Halloween themed PowerPoint template. Everyone is welcome to download and use – FREE!
Have a great time this Halloween! Download template HERE.
Troy @ TLC
Unsplash – Free Images (that are great!)
In a recent podcast, my co-host, Nolan, made a comment about a project where the client wanted to release a presentation project to the general public. Nolan’s point was that the presentation could not use standard royalty-free image resources but needed Creative Commons images. Just this week, Christie, a member of our design team, sent me a link to an image site she found. Her notes were: free, high-quality, easy search, lots of options. After looking at the Unsplash.com site, I agree, the images are high-quality, creative and the site has a good search option (often a limitation of many free image sites). And to Nolan’s point, all images are under Creative Commons licensing and would work great for a presentation design project where the ability to freely distribute the file is needed.
What makes unsplash different from other image sites is that it does not actually own the images. Unsplash is a community with photographers submitting images, all of which must meet the Unsplash criteria (quality, licensing, file size, free). It was founded in 2013, based in Montreal, Canada. I am surprised that I have not run across it sooner.
On the quality side, one of the requirements is that photos are at least 3MB and 2048 by 1536 pixels in size – which is great for presentation use! The licensing is near perfect. This is just the first paragraph of the Unsplash License: “All photos published on Unsplash can be used for free. You can use them for commercial and noncommercial purposes. You do not need to ask permission from or provide credit to the photographer or Unsplash, although it is appreciated when possible.”
I will not be giving up our subscription to Adobe Stock or Getty, but, for certain projects, we have added Unsplash to our list of resources. In looking at images on the site, I found the “Black” and “Photos for Parent Bloggers” collections to be great, curated images within a theme.
Tip: After selecting a collection or doing a search, click the small grid layout icon to see images in a more friendly grid layout.
To download:
- Search for an image
- Click on the image
- Use the save options in the upper right (or save to collection if you have signed up with a free membership) or the download icon if viewing as a thumbnail grid
- Use image in project!
Troy @ TLC
Happy New Year PowerPoint Animation
This is the final day in the studio for us before 2017 begins! Many thanks to Wanda on the TLC Creative design team for creating this fun Happy New Year PowerPoint animation!
[KGVID]https://thepowerpointblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/unnamed-file-1.mp4[/KGVID]
The presentation is a single slide with many layers of custom images, music and SFX embedded, and lots of PowerPoint animation.
Editable PowerPoint slide can be downloaded here.
– Troy @ TLC
Happy Holidays PowerPoint Template (Free!)
Many thanks to Amber on the TLC Creative design team for developing this festive Christmas Holiday themed PowerPoint template! Enjoy!
Download the full template HERE.
Note: this template uses a custom font, slide 3 has instructions on how to install and a link to download the free font.
Troy @ TLC
Halloween PowerPoint Template
Thanks to Amber on the TLC design team for developing this FREE, full-featured Halloween PowerPoint template developed in PowerPoint 2016, we can all embrace the Halloween spirit!
[KGVID]https://thepowerpointblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/unnamed-file-2.mp4[/KGVID]
Everyone at TLC hopes you have a fa-boo-lous Halloween!
This template is sure to put a spell on you!
Download here.
PPTools – Starter Set
The PPTools Starter Set add-in should be installed on every PowerPoint user’s computer. This venerable add-in (which has remained in use by me since PowerPoint 2003!) has lots of time saving options.
The real power of the PPTools Starter Set is not that it adds new capabilities to PowerPoint, but that it uncovers, or adds, alternate options to built in PowerPoint tools. Here are a few of my favorite options:
Memorize an Objects Position and Place Objects Exactly: This combination of tools is invaluable. Similar tools are available in other add-ins, but this a great solution. For example, you have a logo that needs to be in the same position on a number of slides – Position where you want it on the first slide, select the logo and click the MEMORIZE tool. Now, go to any other slide, select anything and click the PLACE tool (aka: the hammer – to nail it in place) and it is positioned exactly the same as the first one!
Enlarge and Shrink Text: Yes, PowerPoint has the exact same little A and big A icons and they do the same thing – make text larger or smaller. But, the difference is the native PowerPoint buttons jump the text size based on the preset Office text sizing (18-20-24-28-32-etc.). The PPTools resize text adjusts the text size by 1 pt at a time (19-19-20-21-22-23-etc.), which is exactly what is needed for fine tuning a layout!
Layer Manager: This tool is mostly outdated, but I like to use it as an example of how independent developers are often more in tune with real designer tool needs than the Microsoft Dev team. This amazing tool opens a small dialog and it is basically PowerPoint’s Selection Pane, allowing objects to be arranged in Z order and hidden – but it has been available since PowerPoint 2003!
That is a summary of just 3 of the 15+ tools included with the add-in. There is a FREE version and a paid version with additional tools. Find it on the web here.
-Troy @ TLC
US Letter Size PowerPoint Template (Free!)
As promised in Episode 6 of The Presentation Podcast , Print Only Presentations (which actually releases tomorrow), here is the PowerPoint template setup in US Letter 8.5 x 11″ Portrait size. All layouts have been customized to fit the letter size page plus a few additional layouts using multi-column text boxes!
To download the template, click here (330K).
-Troy @ TLC
Happy Easter 2016 Powerpoint Template
Happy Easter 2016 from TLC Creative!
In the spirit of Easter week, here’s an awesome Easter 2016 PowerPoint Template, put together by Designer Amber, that you can download for free and use it for personal or commercial use.
Have a safe and festive Easter 2016.
Download Your Easter 2016 Powerpoint Template
[KGVID]https://thepowerpointblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/unnamed-file-5.mp4[/KGVID]
-Troy TLC
FREE Valentine’s Day PowerPoint Template
Everyone at TLC Creative Services wants you to have a wonderful Valentine’s Day this weekend! For your valentine (class, office announcements, etc.), here is a professional, full featured PowerPoint template to download and use – for Free!
Download with this link: Valentines_2016 (1.8MB)