My preference when it comes to a browser Home Page is to have the browser open with nothing (zip, nada, white space). It takes time to load a page, which is usually not the one I want to see. Here is how to setup Internet Explorer:
(1) Go to TOOLS >> INTERNET OPTIONS
(2) On the General tab, click USE BLANK button.
-Troy @ TLC
Thanks to Brad Hagen, owner of Video Resources, for showing me this nifty shortcut! On a recent project I was responsible for setting up an event’s internet cafe. Set up a wireless network, configure the dozen computers and set up with custom wallpaper, set the browser homepage, etc.
Here is how to set the browser homepage in three easy steps:
(1) Browse to URL you want to be the home page
(2) Click-and-drag the webpage icon in the address bar
and drag on top of the “Home” icon
(3) Click “Yes” to the dialog. Done!
-Troy @ TLC
Here is our sample text.
To help visually cluster the information by the primary bullets we position the cursor on the second bullet and add additional spacing BEFORE PARAGRAPH of 0.5
Now to do the same for the third bullet we can either position the cursor on the third bullet line, open the Line Spacing dialog and enter the new distance OR we position the cursor on the third bullet line and click the F4 button!
F4 is a keyboard shortcut in PowerPoint that repeats whatever the last action was. In this case it automatically changes the BEFORE PARAGRAPH line spacing from 0.2 to 0.5, matching the bullet above!
-Troy @ TLC
With your cursor positioned at the line to be adjusted, or with the entire text box selected (will globally change all lines in text box), go to FORMAT LINE SPACING.
This brings up the Line Spacing Dialog which has three settings that can be adjusted.
(1) Adjusts the distance between the lines of a paragraph.
(2) Adjusts the distance between the start of this paragraph and the one above it (separated by a hard return).
(3) Adjusts the distance between the last line of this paragraph and the one below it (separated by a hard return).
-Troy @ TLC
You are trying to remove the background from an image in Photoshop but when you hit the delete key it fills the selection with a solid color. This is an easy oversight, and even easier to correct. Most likely your image is set to a single merged/flattened layer. In Photoshop:
○ Open the layers palette by going to WINDOWS >> LAYER
○ Look at your image layer. It will either say BACKGROUND, LAYER 0 or another name. We are only concerned if it says “background.”
○ Either double-click the layer or go to LAYER >> NEW >> LAYER FROM BACKGROUND
○ Optionally name the layer in the New Layer dialog, click OKAY
○ Now in the layers palette the “background” has been replaced with “Layer 0” or the name you set. Make a selection, hit delete and the transparency checker board will be all that remains.
Troy @ TLC
When creating or editing an image in PhotoShop – be sure it is set to RGB. I recently encountered a situation with a clients files that was perplexing (aka: extremely frustrating). They were scanning photos at a print resolution (300 dpi and very large) and also as CMYK images. I figured out their problem, corrected the images in the current presentation and gave them a scanning tutorial so future efforts will work better.
For any images you will be using in a PowerPoint presentation, make sure your images being edited in Photoshop, or any image editor, are set to RGB. In Photoshop:
○ Check the top information bar of your image to see what color mode it is currently set to. Common mode are RGB, CMYK and INDEX
○ To change your image to RGB go to IMAGE >> MODE >> RGB
Done.
You now know your image is compatible with PowerPoint and one potential conflict/problem has been eliminated!
Troy @ TLC
Working on presentations is always rewarding when the client or an audience member comments on the presentation. Sometimes I am caught off-guard by what is being praised, something I view as simple but they view as great. Here an example from a recent show.
Part of the project involved using a series of photos of the company product in use to create a walk-in looping presentation. I was given the photos, was to use black background and add some animation and slide transitions – GREAT freedom to have fun! One of the animation techniques I used in various ways was to duplicate the image a number of times, crop each duplicate, position and apply a streaming animation to add a little movement. Here is the one of those slides:
Here is what was done:
○ Duplicate the image four times (to have 5 images)
○ Crop four images down to just the person
○ Resize each cropped image to they became progressively smaller
○ Position in an arch
○ Apply a FADE IN and FADE OUT animation to each
○ Adjust the timing of the animations in the advanced timeline
○ Position the original, full image, and apply a FADE IN animation
The result is a simple slideshow on a single slide that moves the snowboarder across the slide finally resolving to the full shot. After 7 seconds the show auto advanced to the next slide.
The nifty thing is all of the work was done inside PowerPoint using the crop, resize tools and animations tools. Download the presentation here
(note: this is a widescreen 16:9 presentation)
Troy @ TLC
If you have multiple version of PowerPoint installed on your computer, you most likely just experienced this issue (or you are about to). The latest round of updates & patches for Office reset the registry entry for Office, so it reverts to Office 2000 (if installed). What this means is that the quick-launch, when you double click an icon, opens the document in Office 2000. Kind of frustrating, but here is the fairly quick and easy solution:
(1) Close PowerPoint.
(2) Go to START >> RUN >> BROWSE
(3) Go to MY COMPUTER >> C: >> MY PROGRAMS and open the most current version of Office (the one you want quick launches to open)
(4) Inside the Office Folder locate the PowerPoint .exe file (careful NOT to select the PowerPoint Viewer) and click okay.
(5) The Run menu has automatically added the path to PowerPoint, at the end of this information (outside the quote mark) add /REGSERVER
(6) You will get an INSTALL, then a CONFIGURE dialog. When it is done, you are back to the quick launch doing what you expect 🙂
– Troy @ TLC
This is a continuation of the Part I post on May 22. In this tutorial PowerPoint presentation I make a photo shrink and then grow back to its 100%, without any resolution loss. Okay, so it is a tutorial on how to use animation to fake it, but the results are great and it is a technique I use on many projects.
Click here to download the PowerPoint file (900k). The entire animation sequence is broken down into individual steps over 10 slides.
And there is a forthcoming part three, which is another technique for making an image grow, without resolution loss.
– Troy @ TLC
There are some great animation effects that can be achieved using the “Emphasis” animations. One of the more frustrating is the Grow/Shrink emphasis. I have a developed a two part tutorial to go into details on how best to use this animation effect. Download Part I here (1 MB PPT file).
Troy @ TLC