Can't have too many

BTW: here's a new Blog:
Brainy Betty PowerPoint Tips and Tricks

Also see:
Sonia Coleman:
Free PowerPoint Templates



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powerpoint

Labels: Templates

Which side are you on?

"Boxes and Arrows is the definitive source for the complex task of bringing architecture and design to the digital landscape. There are various titles and professions associated with this undertaking — information architecture, information design, interaction design, interface design"

• Seth Godin writing a self-published how-to article called "Really Bad PowerPoint"?
  
• Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems banning its use?
  
• Peter Norvig parodying PowerPoint with the Gettysburg Address (or is it vice versa)?
  
• The New Yorker profiling a working mother who uses PowerPoint to "pitch" cleanliness to her two kids?
  
• Fortune Magazine calling it an "epidemic that threatens the cerebrums of business more than bovine spongiform encephalopathy"?
  
• Visualization guru Edward Tufte practically having fits?
  
• Leslie Harpold and Michael Sippey duking it out to create attractive presentations?

Labels: General

Animation problem

"The text in a graph may appear jagged and less defined if you apply a custom animation to a Microsoft Graph chart object in a Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 slide show. The affected text includes the axis text, the legend text, and other text labels.

This problem occurs because PowerPoint 2003 converts the various graph elements to screen-resolution bitmaps. Therefore, PowerPoint 2003 can independently animate the graph elements during a slide show. If the graph elements are converted without a background color applied to them, the text appears jagged."

• Apply a background color to the chart area
  
• Apply a background color to the graph elements
  
• Change the color of the graph font to white

Knowledge Base article 891826

Also see:
Ungroup and Animate



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powerpoint

Labels: Troubleshoot

Choose your own images

1. Open the PowerPoint presentation. If you want to save a specific slide, select it in Normal view.
   
2. On the File menu, click Save As.
   
3. Select an empty folder or create a new empty folder in which to save your presentation or slide.
   
4. In the Save as type box, click Device Independent Bitmap, and then click Save. You can keep the original presentation file name or create a new name.
   
5. Click Every Slide or Current Slide Only, and then click OK.
   
6. Your presentation or slide is saved to the folder that you selected. After you close your PowerPoint presentation, you will use Windows XP to open the presentation or slide as a screen saver.
   (Animations that you may have added to the original presentation will not play when you create the screen saver. )
   
7. Close your presentation.

1. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Display, or right-click an empty part of the desktop and choose Properties.
   
2. On the Screen Saver tab, click My Pictures Slideshow (Photos in Vista).
   
3. Under Screen saver, click Settings.
   
4. Under How often should pictures change?, set the slider at the interval you want between pictures, or, if you are making a single slide a screen saver, move the slider to Less (three minutes) to avoid a distracting flicker on the screen during the transitions.
   
5. Under Use pictures in this folder, browse to the folder in which you saved the presentation or slide.
   
6. If you saved a single slide, clear the Use transition effects between pictures and Allow scrolling through pictures with the keyboard check boxes.
   (screen saver transition effects in this screen saver option are predesigned and do not include the transitions that you set when you created the presentation.)
   
7. Click OK.

To preview your new screen saver, on the Screen Saver tab, click Preview

Create a screen saver from slides



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powerpoint

Labels: General, Instructional, Other uses, Tips

Eavesdrop on the pros

"A group weblog dedicated to sharing resources that can help anyone involved in any aspect of the presentation process achieve better results."

VisualBeing.com

One of the recent topics explores the possibility of converting a PowerPoint show in a form that can then be used in a podcast:

Podcasting PowerPoint

I believe that the Lee Potts, is also the force behind:

The Eyes Have It

"A weblog devoted (mainly) to visual communications in the pharmaceutical, biotech and healthcare sectors."

Labels: Performance, Presentation

Tweak charts

Also see:

Jan's Illustrated Computer Literacy 101:
Advanced PowerPoint: Animate Data

EllenFinkelstein.com:
Animate Tables

Andrew May:
Animating Shapes in PowerPoint

and:
Animation Schemes

Ungroup Charts in PowerPoint 2007

Group or ungroup shapes, pictures, or other objects in PowerPoint 2007



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powerpoint

Labels: Animation, Graphics, Instructional

"Attachers"

Microsoft Office Online tutorial:
Org charts A to Z

"Use the Microsoft Office diagramming tool to create an organization chart in Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003. Build and lay out a chart, style it effectively, and get editing tips that'll help you adapt it."

(Length: 40–50 minutes)

Also:
Draw flowcharts with Word and PowerPoint
Connector information

PPTWorkbench.com:
(Glen Millar Communications)
Connectors and custom anchor points

"Connectors are very important tools in PowerPoint drawing. They attach themselves to PowerPoint shapes, and will move with that shape as it is moved around the slide. This tutorial will show many things:
How to add custom anchor points by:

1. drawing them,
   
2. pasting them as an enhanced metafile,
   
3. using a hidden autoshape."

Labels: Graphics, Instructional

Use local Help

1. Bring up the Help Task Pane (The F1 key will do this.)
   
   
2. At the bottom of the "See also" box there is a hyperlink: "Office Online Settings"
   
   
3. Click this link; you will get the Service Options dialog box
   
   
4. Uncheck the option: "Search online content when connected"

Office will now use the help files on the local hard drive. It is much faster!
(Editing will affect all Office applications)

In office 2007, left click on the "Connected to Office Online" and choose local



If you need to disable its use through a Group Policy, or in the Registry, see:

Microsoft Support:
How to disable Microsoft Office Online featured links in Office

Be aware that if you do turn it off, you might miss some of the Office online feature, like tutorials and downloads.

Office Online: Get More Out of the Microsoft Office System



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powerpoint

Labels: General

Animation example

"PowerPoint . with facilities such as smooth fades, multiple custom paths for each object and a fully editable timeline (definable down to 1/10th second), brings exciting new opportunities for exciting event and meeting openers and animated segments.

The possibility of doing away with expensive video sequences becomes almost a certainty."

Labels: Animation

Real world fonts

"I honestly believe typeface selection is one of the most transparent ways of detecting good - and bad - design. You can tell plenty about a designer merely by the typefaces he/she chooses. So you'd be wise to start with trusted faces, and you'd be even wiser to know something about the history of each typeface."

Labels: Fonts

Powerful tool

Masterviews International:

Edit Images And Photos Within PowerPoint: Picture Toolbar

"In PowerPoint you can control images using the Picture toolbar which automatically appears whenever you insert a picture in a slide. In case you do not see this toolbar, you can right-click on the image you have just inserted and choose 'Show Picture Toolbar'."

• Change the image to grayscale, black-and-white or watermark, thanks to the Color Control feature.
  
  
• Change the picture's contrast, with the More Contrast and Less Contrast controls.
  
  
• Change the picture's brightness with the More Brightness and Less Brightness controls.
  
  
• Cut off part of the picture with the Crop control.
  
  
• Recolor vector images (not applicable to bitmap images such as JPEG) with the Recolor Picture function.
  
  
• Format the picture with the Format Picture control.
  
  
• Select a color in the image and make it transparent, with the Set Transparent Color function.
  (For 2007 this is under "Recolor" > Adjust . Set Transparent color)
  
  
• Undo all operations that you have applied to the selected images with the Reset Picture control.

Labels: Graphics

Tutorial about Cool PowerPoint Animations

"This tutorial is more of a demonstration of what cool custom animation effects can be achieved just by using the standard PowerPoint 2002 / XP / 2003 / 2007 wipes."

• Exhibition stand graphics to attract visitors
  
• Conference openers (especially good with music)
  
• Conference breakout screens
  
• Divider or section headers in presentations
  
• General presentation ideas
  

And many more.

PowerPoint Animation A to Z

This is a new version. If you tried the earlier one you owe it to yourself to look at the new one.

(One hint, open the PPS file in PowerPoint. When you see an interesting trick, hit the Esc button. View the Custom animation pane to see how it was done.)

From AwesomeBackgrounds.com

Labels: Animation

A Bit Better

"A Bit Better Corporation is a small consulting firm helping companies communicate and create products with maximum impact. Partners Cathleen Belleville and Dennis Austin bring over 46 years of high-technology experience.

A Bit Better Corporation is also the creator and publisher of Screen Beans clip art collections"

(Cathleen Belleville managed product planning for the Graphics unit at Microsoft.
Dennis Austin designed the original PowerPoint 1.0 at Forethought, Inc. before Microsoft bought it.)

BitBetter.com:
PowerPoint FAQ
Here are a few of the questions answered:

• Is there a limit to the number of guides you can have?
  
• How do I create additional pre-set color fills?
  
• Can the WMF format be converted to GIF?
  
• What resolution should I scan an image at in order for it to present well in PowerPoint?
  
• Any way to run two different slide shows at once on two different monitors?
  
• Any way to make Right Mouse go backwards in slide show?
  
• Any way to print a catalog of slides with titles and file names?
  
• Any tools for recovering corrupt .PPT files?
  
• Why is my file still big, even after deleting things?

Labels: Addin, Graphics, Tips

Security levels

High:

A computer user can open without a prompt a digitally signed project from a trusted publisher. Otherwise, the application blocks opening signed projects from untrusted publishers as well as unsigned projects.

Medium:

A computer user can open without a prompt a digitally signed project from a trusted publisher. In addition, you can also designate the publisher of a signed project as trusted so their projects will open without a prompt in the future. Unsigned projects are always prompted with a reminder that the file may contain potentially harmful code, but users can elect to open them anyway.

Low:

A computer user can open an unsigned project without a prompt. When users make a Low security setting, they're reminded that they aren't protected from potentially unsafe macros.

"If you've used Access 2003, you've probably seen several security warning messages - Access 2003 cares about your security. An important part of Access 2003 security is digitally signing your code. As Rick Dobson shows, you can do it, but preparing for digital signing is critical.

A digital signature acts like shrink-wrap on your project: Clients know that they're getting a copy directly from you that no one else modified. Clients will also know that they're working with "your" code and not any version of it modified by a third party. As computing moves forward into a "security conscious" era, learning how to acquire and use a digital certificate is also important for interfacing with organizations that adopt policies of only running digitally signed Access 2003 projects: Your users may refuse to accept software from you that isn't shrink-wrapped."

Also:
Signing Access 2003 Projects

Other links:

How to make sure that your Office document has a valid digital signature in 2007 Office products and in Office 2003

Also:
HAL-PC MS Office & Excel SIG in Houston, Texas:
Digital Certificates and Trusted Sources for running Excel Macros under High Macro Security



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powerpoint

Labels: Macro, VBA

Shows on the Internet

"There are many different ways you can deliver a presentation. You can make an on-screen presentation using a laptop or desktop computers and a multimedia projector, you can use an overhead with transparencies, you can generate paper printouts and use a flip chart, or even present using 35mm slides.

But, with the amazing growth of the World Wide Web, more and more people are opting to copy their presentations to the Internet. PowerPoint has built in facilities that allow you to convert your PowerPoint presentations to a series of web pages that can be published to the Internet or an Intranet then viewed by anyone with a Web browser!"

Labels: Addin, Presentation

How to create the effect

"It is relatively simple and can be done quickly. The only part that slows you down is setting the colors. The Fade in technique is explained below. You can apply the same and reverse the color scheme to attain the Fade out effect."

Labels: Animation, Tips

Where's the doggy?

Here's a Flash tutorial by Sonia Coleman.
(It opens in a pop up window, so you may have to tweak your Google/MSN anti-popper toolbar)
Selecting Objects

Here's a static version:
Selecting Objects



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powerpoint

Labels: Graphics, Instructional, Tips

Templates, Graphics and more

"Very simply, you can download anything on this site for personal or business or educational use. You can share these downloads with others as long as you give it to them and not "sell" it to them.

Tell others where you got the downloads.

Brainy Betty

What you can expect to find on this site:

• Hundreds of free PowerPoint templates
  
• Certificate templates
  
• Free Flash PowerPoint Slides
  
• 3D Graphics
  
• Dingbats
  
• Buttons and lines
  
• An awesome icon collection
  
• Free Flash and Swish
  
• Sound clips
  

Labels: Graphics, Templates, Tips

Think backwards

"From the back end forward

Pretend you have all your content in front of you. Anyone can arrange the points in order of importance or chronologically. But I recommend starting with this question: What does your presentation need to accomplish? Most answers will fit into one of these categories:

• Awareness — introducing or educating an audience on a topic.
  
• Attitude — promoting a change or reinforcing your subject.
  
• Action — persuading an audience to act.

With an objective in mind, you can decide what content to include and what information to leave out. By working backward — from the big picture to the small details — you'll save time and produce a more powerful presentation."

Labels: Presentation

Keep a record

"Frequently there is a need to capture information in a PowerPoint presentation. For example, when making a presentation before an audience, there might be a need to capture comments and questions as the presentation proceeds. You might also have a need to capture answers to a quiz or survey, or to record game responses.

You can download a small (12KB) presentation by clicking on notetaker.zip that demonstrates the method. Unzip the file (notetaker.pps) and click on it to see it in Slide Show mode.

Please note that this method requires the use of an Active-X control and therefore only works when run from PowerPoint. It will not work in the Viewer."

It does work in 2007.

See more tutorials and PowerPoint downloads at Sonia Coleman's web site, Digital Studio.



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powerpoint

Labels: Addin, General, Notes, Presentation

Start on time

Labels: Presentation, Tips

A contrary opinion

"Particularly disturbing is the adoption of the PowerPoint cognitive style in our schools. Rather than learning to write a report using sentences, children are being taught how to formulate client pitches and infomercials.

Elementary school PowerPoint exercises (as seen in teacher guides and in student work posted on the Internet) typically consist of 10 to 20 words and a piece of clip art on each slide in a presentation of three to six slides -a total of perhaps 80 words (15 seconds of silent reading) for a week of work.

Students would be better off if the schools simply closed down on those days and everyone went to the Exploratorium or wrote an illustrated essay explaining something. "

Labels: General, Instructional

You don't need to show everything!

Labels: Presentation, Tips, VBA

Stick it in Word

Arrange the windows so that both applications can be seen.
(Right-click an empty area of the Task bar and choose "Tile Windows Vertically."

Type your introductory text in the Word document.

Switch to PowerPoint and open the PowerPoint file.

In Slide Sorter View, hold down the Ctrl key and select the slides you want to include.

Drag the selected group of slides onto the Word document.

You will only see the first slide in the document, but if you double-click on the image, the PowerPoint show will run.

It will also work in Excel.

(This, of course assumes that the target machine has PowerPoint or PowerPoint Viewer installed)



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powerpoint

Labels: General, Presentation, Tips

PowerPoint in Access

"Create a PowerPoint slide presentation from scratch using Access data. In addition, display and control a slide show from within an Access form. Walk through the solution and explore ways to extend the sample for your own applications.

This article looks at two ways of interaction between Access and PowerPoint.

The first sample illustrates how to create a PowerPoint presentation from the data in an Access table using Automation.

The second sample shows how to display and manipulate an existing PowerPoint presentation inside of an Access form, also using Automation."

Here is an MSDN article:
Working with PowerPoint Presentations from Access Using Automation

If you have some knowledge of VBA, you can probably figure it out from the code on the Access Form.



Office 2003 Sample:
Working with PowerPoint 2003 Presentations from Access 2003 Using Automation



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powerpoint

Labels: Customize, Instructional, Tips

Make it so

"Here's a Power User column for teachers. Want to involve your students more in a presentation? Set up "triggers" for them to click as they go through the show. Triggers (related to animations) let you add surprise to your slides while inviting your viewer to take part and have fun."

Indezine.com:
Trigger Animations

All 'Bout Computers:
Trigger Happy Animations in PowerPoint



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powerpoint

Labels: Animation, General, Presentation, Tips

Free Holiday templates

Template Ready:
Christmas FREE PowerPoint Template

Microsoft office:
Holiday templates

Presenters University:
(Free login)
Holiday templates

Brainy Betty:
Christmas and Holiday Themed Templates

Sonia Coleman:
Free PowerPoint Templates
[Edited entry from 12/15/2004]




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powerpoint

Labels: Templates

We're all in this together

PowerPoint Newsgroup:
Discussions in PowerPoint General Questions

WOPR.com:
Lounge - PowerPoint board

TechRepublic.com
Office Questions

TheOfficeExperts.com:
Office Experts - PowerPoint

RDPSlides.com:
How do I join the PowerPoint newsgroup?

Presentation Helper



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powerpoint

Labels: General, Tips

Suggestions

• Writing Skills
  
• Research and Documentation St yles
  
• Grammar and Mechanics
  
• Business/ Professional Writing
  
• Agricultural Economics/Cooperative Extension

Cross-referencing: Using MLA Format

This presentation teaches your students the purposes of MLA documentation, as well as methods for using parenthetical citations and a Works Cited page. This presentation is an important addition for the beginning of a research unit in a humanities course or any assignment that requires MLA documentation. (Writer and Designer: Jennifer Liethen Kunka)

Documenting Sources: Using APA Format

This presentation reviews the purposes of APA documentation, as well as methods for effectively using parenthetical citations and a reference page. This presentation is ideal for the begin ning of a research unit in a science course or any assignment that requires APA documentation. (Writer and Designer: Jennifer Liethen Kunka).

Labels: Instructional, Presentation

Choose your own location

Word

you can change the default location by going to Tools>Options. On the "File Locations" tab you can modify the storage location.

Excel

Tools>Options. On the "General" tab change the default location.

PowerPoint

uses Tools>Options and the "Save" tab.

Access

Tools>Options and the "General" tab for Databases and Projects

Publisher

Tools>Options "General".

Outlook

will make you take an underground tour into the Registry to change the location to save e-mail attachments.

FrontPage/Expression Web

appears to require the same sort of spelunking.

Labels: Customize, General

By Cliff Atkinson

About the Author
Cliff Atkinson is a leading authority on how to improve communications across organizations using Microsoft PowerPoint. He is a popular keynote speaker, a writer, and an independent management consultant whose clients include companies ranking in the top five of the Fortune 500. He is president of Sociable Media in Los Angeles.

Cliff teaches at UCLA Extension, is a senior contributor for the MarketingProfs newsletter, and writes the Beyond Bullets weblog, at BeyondBullets.com.
Also see SociableMedia.com

Book Description
PowerPoint owns the presentation world. We've been cocooned by a blue gradient screen with six or more bullet points feeding information.
Or so we've been lulled to believe.
(see Edward Tufte's dissection of the Columbia PowerPoint disaster)

Cliff Atkinson takes a well researched, but almost heretical stand that a presentation is a story and that too much data plastered on the screen, dulls the audience's soul and actually reduces comprehension and retention.

Beyond Bullets walks the reader through the story process and provides tools to structure presentations to have the maximum impact.

The "PowerPoint" part of the process is easy to follow, even for a novice. The story telling sections will help improve the most experienced speaker's show.

Quote

"But what might not be evident in the simplicity of this slide is what happens when the audience experiences it along with your verbal explanation. Because the slide design is simple, the audience can quickly scan the headline and visual and understand the idea. Then their attention turns to the place you want it. — to you, the words you're saying, and the way the information relates to them. Instead of making everything explicit and obvious on the slides, you can leave the slides open to interpretation so the audience is dependent on you, and you on them.

What (the experts are) saying, basically, is that slides filled with bullet points create obstacles between presenters and audiences. You might want to be natural and relaxed when you present, but people say that bullet points make the atmosphere formal and stiff. You might aim to be clear and concise, but people often walk away from these presentations feeling confused and unclear. And you might intend to display the best of your critical thinking on a screen, but people say that bullet points "dumb down" the important discourse that needs to happen for our society to function well.

Somewhere in our collective presentation experience, we're not connecting the dots between presenters and audiences by using the conventional bullet points approach. This issue is of rising concern not only to individuals and audiences - even the major players of large organizations are taking notice of the problem. It seems that in every location where people meet, from small meeting rooms to board rooms to conference halls, people want a change."

Labels: Instructional, Presentation, Tips