powerpoint

“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 |2019-12-08T08:41:17-07:00December 12th, 2019|PowerPoint|

PowerPoint’s Arrange All

PowerPoint has an almost hidden feature, that has been there for quite awhile, and can be very useful when there are several presentations open – Arrange All.

When working with multiple presentations in PowerPoint, there are times where you will have to switch back in forth between them. PowerPoint can make this easier and instantly layout all the presentations across the monitors like this:

Go to the VIEW tab and the WINDOW section. There are a few options:

  • Arrange All
  • Cascade,
  • Move Split
  • Switch Windows

First, we will take a look at Switch Windows.

The SWITCH WINDOWS drop down menu shows a list of all currently open presentations. Select a presentation file name to bring that one to front.

 

CASCADE resizes and repositions all currently open presentations onto a single montior, slightly offset so you can see their separate windows.

ARRANGE ALL is one of our favorite features. This will evening divide all currently open presentations across the screen. This is particularly helpful when working on one presentation while referencing the other(s).

Here are 3 presentations instantly positioned on 1 screen. 

When working on multiple presentations simultaneously, things can get a bit hectic. This particular feature in PowerPoint makes life a little easier by making it simple to cycle to each presentation or by quickly displaying all presentations on screen.

 

Jake @ TLC

By |2019-10-06T10:41:07-07:00October 11th, 2019|Tutorial|

Sketched Outlines (Part 2)

I wanted to create a Part 2 to the PowerPoint Sketched Outline tool and share a more advanced shape consideration with using the Sketched outline styling. In this case, what happens when you use the Merge Shapes tools to create a new shape – and those shapes already have the Sketched outline styling applied?

 

1. For this demo, I am inserting two 2 PowerPoint shapes

2. Apply a Sketch Styling to both shapes

3. Then combine them by using the PowerPoint MERGE SHAEPES “Union”

4. The new shape, which looks great, does have the Sketched outline permanently applied. Selecting the straight line optioncannot be selected to revert it back to smooth/straight lines.

5. The way to avoid this permanent styling is to pre-plan. Before merging the two shapes together change the outline to the smooth/straight outline.  Then re-apply the sketched outline styling to the new (merged) shape.

Troy @ TLC

By |2019-09-27T22:00:20-07:00October 7th, 2019|PowerPoint, Tutorial|

PowerPoint “Sketched” Shapes

Outline Sketched is one of the newest design features in PowerPoint O365 version (on Windows, Mac, but on Online version yet). It applies a hand drawn, or “sketched” styling to shapes. As example:

The 1st step is to create any shape or insert a ppt object (read below for details)

Select the object(s) and go to Shape Format > Shapes Styles tab > Shape Outline

In the Shape Outline drop down menu go to the new SKETCHED option that offers serveral preset “sketched” styles

Notes:
There are several ways to access the Shape Outline menu (at TLC Creative we have it on our QAT).
Also, the Sketched settings are available in the “Format Shape” pane

 

Applying a Sketched outline to the example objects does this:

  • The PowerPoint shapes remain completed editable!
  • Objects can be filled and with the ability to still apply a sketch outline.
  • Inserted .SVG graphics
    • The only way to apply this outline to an inserted .svg art is to ungroup the svg file within ppt. However, this will ultimately change the svg into an emf shape and might change the look of the svg, i.e. if the svg is inserted with a gradient style and the object is ungrouped the object might become distorted in color etc.
  • Inserted PowerPoint icons
    • The native icons are basically an internal library of .svg graphics. The sketched styling can be applied the same way it can be applied to .svg graphics described above
    • Ungroup the icon > click yes at the warning pop up, click yes > apply sketched outline styling
  • Outlines can vary in weight (thickness). Test different weights to find the one that best works with the graphic. As example, our sample PowerPoint icon looks very different with a a thin 1pt outline and a thick 20pt outline
    •  
  • Sketched outlines can have all PowerPoint styling options applied; color, shadow, or  gradients
    •  

Troy @ TLC

By |2019-09-27T22:00:41-07:00October 3rd, 2019|PowerPoint, Tutorial|

The Magic Of F4

While doing some production design on a presentation, the client – who is very PowerPoint savvy – leaned over with wide eyes and said “how are you doing that!?”

What I was doing was making the very tedious process of applying custom paragraph spacing to various text boxes throughout a presentation. How, the power of the F4 key. F4 – first introduced to me I believe by the late (and very great and very much the queen of the color red accessories) Sonia Coleman. 

F4 is “repeat last command’. It is not new, but it is one of those small gems for production work that is not widely used.

In my case I had set a paragraph of text to have a custom SPACE BEFORE of 18 pt. The key was adding space before just the primary paragraphs, not the sub-bullet paragraphs. This means the setting cannot be applied to the entire text box, and the current Paragraph Styles functionality is not modal, so must be applied to each paragraph separately.

The tedious process of applying this even just  few paragraphs is a minute. Applying this setting to paragraphs throughout a presentation can be 5-10-30 minutes of many extra mouse clicks selecting the paragraph – opening the Paragraph Styles dialog – updating settings and repeating for every paragraph. BUT, do this to 1 paragraph, select the next paragraph and click F4. The last command is repeated, in this case, applying a custom paragraph style. Fly through the slides, selecting paragraphs and clicking F4 and be done with the formatting in a few minutes!

before and after example of where the above custom paragraph spacing was applied to specific paragraphs.

Troy @ TLC

By |2019-08-22T16:34:54-07:00August 23rd, 2019|Tutorial|

No Video Playback, Try These Nvidia Settings

Out of the box we found that our new fleet of show computers did not play .MP4 videos in slide show. We checked PowerPoint was up to date (Offie 365, 64-bit). We confirmed Windows 10 Pro was up to date. We confirmed we had the most current Nvidia drivers. To make things more confusing, videos would play in slide edit view, but not in slide show. A very frustrating situation!

Fortunately for our IT manager, I have already encountered Nvidia and PowerPoint issues. After a few setting updates in the Nvidia control panel, everything works great. Let me share the settings we use on our Nvidia graphics card laptops.

Right click desktop and select “Nvidia control panel”

 

Go to MANAGE 3D SETTINGS and set these PowerPoint specific settings:

  • Go to PROGRAM SETTINGS tab
  • Select MICROSOFT POWERPOINT from program drop-down list
  • Change Preferred Graphics Processor to HIGH PERFORMANCE NVIDIA PROCESSOR
  • Change POWER MANAGEMENT MODE to PREFER MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE

 

Go to MANAGE 3D SETTINGS and update these global settings:

  • Power Management Mode = Prefer Maximum Performance
  • Texture Filtering – Quality = High Performance
  • Threaded Optimization = On

 

This final Nvidia setting is not a factor in videos actually playing, but it can affect the video quality. The issue is the default color space is not actually pure white and pure black. So if you have seen a video with a white background that does not match the slide white background, this may be the reason.

Go to ADJUST VIDEO COLOR SETTINGS

  • Select WITH THE NVIDIA SETTINGS
  • Go to the ADVANCED tab
  • Dynamic Range = FULL (0-255)
  • Click APPLY

Hopefully you have not encountered videos not playing issues, but if you have, and you have an Nvidia graphics chip, these options solve things for you!

Troy @ TLC

 

By |2019-08-08T13:44:01-07:00August 12th, 2019|Resource/Misc|

The PowerPoint Podcast – Episode 75 is now live!

A new episode of The Presentation Podcast with Troy, Nolan, Sandy and a dozen Microsoft MVPs for PowerPoint is available today! Episode, #75 – Live From The 2019 Microsoft MVP Summit!

Listen in on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Spotify and Soundcloud – just search for “The Presentation Podcast” – or go direct to the episode page here: https://thepresentationpodcast.com/podcast/75

By |2019-04-02T15:28:45-07:00April 2nd, 2019|Resource/Misc|

The Presentation Podcast Episode #74 Released Today!

A new episode of The Presentation Podcast with Troy, Nolan, and Sandy is available today! Episode #74 – Embed or Link: Choose Wisely.

Should you embed or link media in PowerPoint presentations? Excel data, videos, audio and images are all options to embed within the presentation file, or link to external files. Troy, Sandy and Nolan discuss the merits of each option, cover many of the technical considerations and provide some great tips on whether to link or embed content.

By |2019-03-17T08:10:14-07:00March 19th, 2019|Resource/Misc|

The Presentation Podcast Episode #71 Released Today!

A new episode of The Presentation Podcast with Troy, Nolan, and Sandy is available today! Check out the latest episode, #71 – Revisions and File Versioning – How Many?

Join Troy, Nolan and Sandy as they talk about revisions for a project. Are they included in the project scope, are revisions billable beyond the project scope, what is a revision, how many revisions are included in a project agreement, is there a point of too many revisions and how do revisions impact the project invoice.

By |2019-03-20T10:09:18-07:00February 5th, 2019|Resource/Misc|
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