Unique designs

Labels: Formats, Templates, Tips

Easy tip

Labels: Animation, Instructional, Presentation, Tips, Tutorials

A covey of notions

"PowerPoint Heaven is a PowerPoint entertainment portal for PowerPoint animations, games, artworks, showcases, animation templates and tutorials. The focus of this site is to maximize the use of Microsoft PowerPoint and go beyond its capability. Our goal is to show users that PowerPoint is not simply a presentation tool, but is also capable on leveraging into other areas such as creating games, artworks and animations."

Labels: General, Tips

A few tips

Labels: General, Instructional, Performance, Presentation, Tips

Start with the end in mind

"Before you even open up PowerPoint, sit down and really think about the day of your presentation. What is the real purpose of your talk? Why is it that you were ask to speak? What does the audience expect? In your opinion, what are the most important parts of your topic for the audience to take away from your, say, 50-minute presentation?


Remember, even if you've been asked to share information, rarely is the mere transfer of information a satisfactory objective from the point of view of the audience. After all, the audience could always just read your book (or article, handout, etc.) if information transfer were the only purpose of the meeting, seminar, or formal presentation."

Labels: General, Instructional, Performance, Presentation, Tips, Tutorials

Finger it out

After completing this course you will be able to:
Accomplish tasks by using sequential shortcut keys, known as Key Tips, shown on the Ribbon.
Navigate around the Ribbon using the TAB key and arrow keys.
Accomplish tasks by using key combinations — keys you press at the same time - exactly as you've done in previous versions of Office.

Labels: Shortcuts, Tips

Import it all

"This macro outline allows the user to use Word's "Send To PowerPoint" feature, then run this macro to get notes from MS Word to PowerPoint as notes. The macro allows you to set the text level you want to become the notes.

Labels: General, Notes, Tips, VBA

Quick graphic reinforcement

Labels: Customize, Fonts, Graphics, Tips

Unencrypted

"Word, Excel, and PowerPoint have been able to password protect documents for several versions by setting the 'password to open'. What we felt could be improved was the ability to enforce password strength rules, similar to what may be required when logging into your computer at work."

Labels: Reference, Tips

Reduce the size of your presentation files

Save the file under a new name

PowerPoint remembers all your actions in a session so that you can undo them. Saving under another name discards this information. For some reason, this works better than closing and opening the same file.

Convert the image file type

The image file type makes a huge difference. In my tests of a photo, JPEG files were the smallest by far. (GIF files are also small, but are not suitable for most photographs because they don't support enough colors.) I took an image and Microsoft Office Picture Manager to convert it.

Labels: Tips, Troubleshoot

No special glasses required

"Many options in PowerPoint are often unseen, until a particular need arises.

The first tutorial shows how to use some of the 3d options in PowerPoint to roll images over into layers.
Roll Images

In the second tutorial, I show how a shape that is drawn as a Bezier curve can be turned into a 3d object.
3d Bezier curves

This effectively means you can draw any sort of shape you like and turn it into a 3d object right within PowerPoint.

The first tutorial will make you clever. The second tutorial may make you famous!"
More 3-D and other effects at Awesome PresentationPictures.com

Labels: Graphics, Tips

How to make it work

To insert a movie into a PowerPoint presentation, use the Movie from File option on the Insert menu. If the presentation is located anywhere in the file path at which the movie file is located, PowerPoint stores the movie file as a relative path in the presentation. If the presentation is not located at the path at which the movie file is stored, PowerPoint stores the movie file as an absolute path in the presentation

When you insert a movie as an object, PowerPoint is not involved in the process. The process occurs in Microsoft Windows Media Player. Windows Media Player has a set of APIs that PowerPoint 2003 uses primarily for movie playback. Windows Media Player keeps its own set of codecs. And, it uses the Windows registry file types to determine which format and codec to use. Windows Media Player looks for a codec signature in the file and then matches the codec that it finds. If Windows Media Player cannot find an appropriate codec, it searches the Web for a valid codec.

By default, when you use the Wmp.ppa add-in to insert a movie file into a PowerPoint presentation, PowerPoint stores the movie file as an absolute path in the presentation. If the movie file is not in the absolute path, the movie does not play. The add-in also contains an option that you can use to copy the movie file into the same folder as the presentation. When you use this option, PowerPoint stores the movie file as a relative path in the presentation. When you play the movie file in the presentation, PowerPoint looks for the presentation in the folder that is defined when the presentation is created. If the movie file is not in that folder, the movie will not play.

We do not recommend that you use this add-in if you are using PowerPoint 2003. PowerPoint 2003 uses Windows Media Player to play most movies.

You can insert a movie file as a package in a PowerPoint presentation. To do this, follow these steps:

1. On the Insert menu, click Object.
2. Click Create new, and then click Package under Object type.

When you insert a movie as a package in a PowerPoint presentation, the movie file is kept inside a package that is embedded in the presentation. If you move the presentation to another location, the package is also moved to this location.

Labels: Instructional, Presentation, Tips, Tutorials

Tutorials and downloads

• The Power Of "Ping"
  
  
• Let The Good Times Roll
  
  
• 4 Picture Animations
  
  
• Master Linking Presentation
  
  
• Formatting Best-Practices
  
  
• Stars Wars Style Credits
  
  
• Animation Sample
  
  
• Scrolling Credits
  
  
• Movie Across Slides
  
  
• "PPTLive" Animation Tutorial
  
  
• Motion Paths

Labels: Tips, Tutorials

Scary trick

Labels: General, Templates, Tips

Design suggestions

Julie Terberg is a contributing editor for Presentations Magazine.
There are a number of PDF copies of her columns, plus PowerPoint shows that can be downloaded at Terbergdesign.com

Some topics discussed include PNG format, exploring print options, animation tools, and bringing a company logo to life.




See all Topics

powerpoint

Labels: Presentation, Tips, Tutorials

Some samples

The Power Of "Ping":

Create and use professional graphic images that have transparency

Let The Good Times Roll:

Learn how to make a round object literally roll onto the slide

4 Picture Animations:

Learn 4 unique animation techniques that think 'outside the box'

Master Linking Presentation:

Visual tutorial on one way to seamlessly link from one presentation to another

Formatting Best-Practices:

A sampling of the Best Practices employed here at TLC Creative Services for working efficiently and creating the highest level presentations.

Movie Across Slides:

Insert a movie and have it continue to play across multiple slides as the presentation continues. Visual step-by-step tutorial

Labels: Animation, Tips, Tutorials

Go round the circle

Labels: General, Presentation, Tips, Tutorials

Different Shows, Different Folks

"Custom shows is all about creating a presentation within a presentation. Instead of creating multiple PowerPoint files, nearly identical presentations for different audiences, you can group together and name the slides that differ and then jump to these slides during your presentation. The slides in the show can be re-ordered to appear in a customized sequence.

For example - you might want to give a presentation to two groups that work at two different locations. The slide show includes slides 1 through 15, which are identical for both groups, and two custom shows, each specific to one of the locations. You can show the first 15 slides to both groups and then jump to a custom show named 'location 1' for the first group and to a custom show named 'location 2' for the second group."

Labels: General, Presentation, Tips

Good collection

Writing & Organizing

Using Hyperlinks

Expanding One Slide into Two

Organizing Content

Designing & Graphics

Choosing the Most Readable Font

Backgrounds: Using Mid-Range Colors

Designing Chart Titles

Animating Charts

Using Web Page Backgrounds in PowerPoint

Creating a Grid for Perfect Layout

Delivering

Rotation tips

Synchronize animation with music

Text animation techniques

Choose fonts and colors for legibility

Rehearsing with Narration

Making Great Handouts

Create a Slide List

Labels: Instructional, Tips

Are you the only one awake?

"I sat in the back of the classroom, observing and taking careful notes as usual. The class had started at one o'clock. The student sitting in front of me took copious notes until 1:20. Then he just nodded off. The student sat motionless, with eyes shut for about a minute and a half, pen still poised. Then he awoke, and continued his rapid note-taking as if he hadn't missed a beat."

"Adult learners can keep tuned in to a lecture for no more than 15 to 20 minutes at a time, and this at the beginning of the class. . .
As the lecture proceeded attention spans became shorter and often fell to three or four minutes towards the end of a standard lecture."

Both of these studies note the severe lapse of attention 15 to 20 minutes into a lecture. Given that students have an attention span of around 15 to 20 minutes and that university classes are scheduled for around 50 or 75 minutes, instructors must do something to control their students' attention. We recommend building a "change-up" into your class to restart the attention clock.

Labels: Presentation, Tips

Line it up straight

Labels: General, Tips

Office 2003 redo

1. 1. Start any Office 2003 program.
   
2. On Help menu, click Detect and Repair.
   
   
   
   
3. Click to select the Discard my customized settings and restore default settings check box, and then click Start.
   
4. Quit the application, and then click Ignore.
   
5. Click OK when you receive the following message:
   Reset of setting to default succeed.

Labels: Tips, Troubleshoot

In brevity is success

If "thirty points," is too dogmatic, the I offer you an algorithm: find out the age of the oldest person in your audience and divide it by two. That's your optimal font size.

Labels: Formats, General, Presentation, Tips

I'd Like to Make It Clear

• squinted your eyes trying to see the numbers in a PowerPoint presentation?
  
  
• scratched your head at a charity leaflet with an indecipherable pie chart titled 'Where your donation goes' ... and set it aside?
  
  
• missed discussion at a meeting because you were busy trying to figure out the figures?
  
  
• put aside a graph or table, thinking "I'm not good with numbers."?

• what to include: when unsure what numbers are important, people frequently display them all, overpowering the reader with irrelevance.
  
  
• which format to use: the choice between text and table, table and chart, bar and pie.
  
  
• how to use the technology effectively: computer software generates graphs easily, but the results hide your point behind incomprehensible chartjunk.
  
  
• how to explain the information: selecting the right words for titles, columns and captions.

Labels: General, Tips

Break up or Blow up

"Have you ever wanted to have a picture appear on your screen as one thing and then blow apart to separate elements? It is a great technique for explaining parts of a process, photo, or structure in detail.
We are going to step through blowing apart pictures, but this same idea can be used for expanding organization charts, process diagrams, and all kinds of other elements."

Labels: Animation, Tips

Make it easy for everyone

"People who use screen readers will need to have the slides in HTML format in order to access them. This is the only format that can be considered reliably accessible to the various brands of screen readers on the market. Some screen readers can read PowerPoint slides on the Web to some degree, but not well enough to be considered truly accessible.

As for the other disability categories, those who are deaf will be able to access the slides without any problems, unless there is embedded multimedia. In such cases, captions and/or transcripts will be necessary. Those with motor disabilities will have no special difficulties. Even those who cannot use a mouse will be fine, since the slides are keyboard-accessible. Those with cognitive disabilities will not have any particular difficulties, although text-only presentations may be difficult in some cases. "

Labels: Presentation, Tips

Diet tips

The size of a Word document may be 20 to 50 times larger than a PowerPoint presentation when you send the presentation to Word.

1. Start PowerPoint.
   
   
2. On the File menu, point to Send To, and then click Microsoft Office Word.
   
   
3. Click Paste link, and then click OK.
   
   
4. In the resulting Word document, click Links on the Edit menu.
   
   
5. Select all the links that are listed, and then click Break Link.
   
   
6. Click Yes when you are prompted.
   
   
7. Save the Word document.

When you eliminate the OLE overhead, you can reduce the size of the Word document by 90 percent

Labels: Tips, Troubleshoot

Choose a topic

• Would you do business with your own company?
  
  
• When Should You Use PowerPoint?
  
  
• PowerPoint Does Not Make You a Speaker
  
  
• How many slides is too many?
  
  
• How to Get Better Images on Slides or Web Sites
  
  
• How to Select and Use Fonts on Presentation Slides
  
  
• How to Write Powerful Bullet Points
  
  
• Using Graphs and Tables on Presentation Slides

Labels: Instructional, Tips

Avoid wasting time and resources

"If we assume some relatively conservative meeting parameters of four people per presentation, a half-hour presentation on average and the wasted time due to a poor presentation is one-quarter of the presentation time, we arrive at a waste of 15 million person hours per day. At an average salary of $35,000 per year for those attending the meeting, the cost of that wasted time is a staggering $252 million and change each day."

Labels: Presentation, Tips

Not a walk in the park

• Showing presentations without the need for a computer
  
• Distributing your slideshows to friends and colleagues
  
• Unattended exhibition presentations, that automatically repeat/rewind
  
• Giving your presentations more of a TV feel
  

Labels: General, Presentation, Tips

What the other guy says has weight

"In my presentations, I may have several slides which feature a quote from a famous (sometimes not so famous) individual in the field. The quote may be a springboard into the topic or serve as support or reinforcement for the particular point I'm making. A typical Tom Peters presentation at one of his seminars, for example, may include dozens of slides with quotes. "I say that my conclusions are much more credible when I back them up with great sources," Tom says."

"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
Pablo Picasso"

Labels: Tips

How to make truly horrendous PowerPoint Slides

"Of course, there comes a time when the PowerPoint amateur discovers two very dangerous tools indeed. Custom animations and slide transitions have recently been classified by the UN as 'weapons of mass destruction' and cited at the War Crimes tribunal in The Hague on more than one occasion. As far as both of these tools are concerned, my advice is the same: pick a style and stick to it.

Potentially there is boredom if every slide element skates in from the right or fades in from the background. It might be tiring for each slide to segue into the next using a diagonal wipe. But if the alternative is a dizzying combination of mismatched zooms, shrinks, checkerboard wipes and pirouettes then boredom is a very small price to pay."

Labels: Presentation, Tips

Fit any need

What is in a Custom Template?

• Slide background
  
• Slide Layout- which placeholders appear and their positions
  
• Color Scheme
  
• Formatting of placeholders
  
• Formatting of text and bullets
  
• Slide transition
  
• Placeholder animations

Labels: Templates, Tips

Embed directly

Labels: Addin, Graphics, Tips

Colorize without Adobe

" Have you ever wanted to fill a picture with a gradient - or another picture in PowerPoint? Have you wanted to blend two pictures in PowerPoint to create a montage?

Labels: Color, Formats, Graphics, Tips

Move it!

"Need to make content appear, change or disappear out of order? Need to control the order that things appear while in front of your audience? Playing games? You need to play with PowerPoint's Triggers option for custom animations."

Trigger Happy Animations in PowerPoint
By Kathryn Jacobs.
(Kathryn has been a PowerPoint trainer and consultant for over 10 years. She is a Microsoft MVP for PowerPoint.)

Also:
Office.Microsoft.com:
Use triggers to create an interactive slide show in PowerPoint

"Let's get past the term, first: A trigger is nothing more than an item on your PowerPoint slide-- it could be a picture, a shape, a button, or even a paragraph or text box-- that sets off an action when you click it. The action might be a sound, a movie, or an animation, such as text becoming visible on the slide."

Combine animation techniques to create stunning PowerPoint slides
By Ellen Finkelstein

"Indeed, with the addition of motion paths, new trigger effects and the ability to add two animation behaviors to one object, PowerPoint has become capable of creating sophisticated animations that rival complex animation software."

Labels: Animation, Instructional, Tips

Labels: Formats, General, Tips

Make data more moving

"You can add some animation to your chart for dramatic effect. You can animate the chart as a whole or animate elements of the chart."

1. In normal view, display the slide that has the chart you want, and then select the chart.
   
   
2. On the Slide Show menu, click Custom Animation to open the Custom Animation task pane.
   
   
3. In the Custom Animation task pane, click the Add Effect down arrow, point to Entrance, and then click an effect.
   
   
4. In the Custom Animation task pane, select the animation you applied to the chart, click the down arrow, and then click Effect Options.
   
   
5. On the Chart Animation tab, in the Group Chart list, click By element in series.
   
   
6. Click OK.
   
   
7. Now, if you click Slide Show and click through the presentation, you’ll see the animation in real time.

Labels: Animation, Graphics, Tips

Dual Masters and more schemes

Labels: Formats, Tips

From another point of view

"Holding the honorary title of "Microsoft Regional Director" for Chennai over the last 6 years, I have delivered hundreds of presentations and lectures. Doing this, I have learned that doing successful presentations is an Art, which can be acquired only over time and by practice."

There are 3 basic ways to learn this art:

1. Listen to great speakers: Attend as many programs of great speakers as possible. Subject spoken is immaterial here, what you are learning is the "Master's" way of doing it.
   
   
2. Read about doing presentations: There are now plenty of books on doing effective presentations and Internet has numerous pages on this. Read them.
   
   
3. Keep Doing it: Get on stage as many times as you can and just do it. As they say, your mistakes teach you more than anyone. So as you keep doing more and more presentations, you will learn on your mistakes and improve.

• General Tips:
  
• Health/Life Style Tips:
  
• Doing Technical Presentations:
  
• Authoring Power Point Slide-Decks:
  
• Laptops, Audio-Video & Systems:
  
• Sharing the stage:
  
• Answering Questions — Q & A:

Labels: Presentation, Tips

Get to the point

"Every session at Learning 2005 will be limited to ONE PAGE (a slide, a poster, a mind-map, a single question or even just one word!)

Each facilitator of a case study, discussion, conversation or Radar Screen session will be asked to create a GREAT "1 Pager". It might be a single question such as,

"What is the impact of increased Compliance on Quality and Budget for Training?"

Or, it might be a mindmap of several concepts. Or, a graphic. Or, a simple list of Do's or Don'ts. But, it will just be a "1 Pager"!

Labels: Presentation, Tips

Make it an Internet show

Labels: Instructional, Presentation, Tips

Did Lincoln read Edward Tufte?

Here's Peter Norvig's background rational for its creation and what followed after its release:

"Why I did it

"Doesn't he realize this presentation is a waste of time? Why doesn't he just tell us what matters and get it over with?"

How many times have you heard (or muttered) that? How many of us have been frustrated at seeing too many presentations where PowerPoint or other visual aids obscure rather than enhance the point? After one too many bad presentations at a meeting in January 2000, I decided to see if I could do something about it."

The Making or the Gettysburg.PPT

And:
Beyond Bullets



See all Topics

powerpoint

Labels: Presentation, Tips

From one presentation to another

Colgate University:
Inserting Slides from Another PowerPoint Presentation

For 2007, see the bottom of the "New Slide" menu on the Home tab:





See all Topics

powerpoint

Labels: General, Shortcuts, Tips

More data than the pie will hold

"Chris Weber provides you with a generic method to control the data for pie charts that are actually readable."

Labels: Formats, Tips

High caliber

Shauna Kelly:

How to control bullets in Microsoft Word

Ins and outs of bullets and numbering in Word

Dubbo College :
(an easy five hours drive from Sydney, four hours from Newcastle and a ten hour drive from Melbourne and Brisbane.)



Paragraph Bullets

Troubleshooting Bullets and numbering

Also see:
Beyond Bullets.com

Beyond Bullet Points, the book



See all Topics

powerpoint

Labels: Fonts, Tips

Tutorials and downloads

PowerPak for PowerPoint Demo

the shareware version of PowerPak, an innovative collection of PowerPoint lesson and game templates.

PowerPak for PowerPoint Sampler

a larger file, but includes a fun custom show as well as the shareware.

Control the Heat Mouse Over Template (ppt file)

a PowerPoint template with a thermometer which can raise the temperature by moving the mouse over it.

Time Machine Mouse Over Template

ia PowerPoint template with a clock that can be moved forward and backward in time by moving the mouse over it.

Shadow Techniques

shows some fun techniques with shadows in PowerPoint.

Origins of PowerPoint

the illustrated version of Austin Meyer's irreverent story.

Mouse Over Magic

shows stupid mouse tricks.

Abracadabra.mid

music to go with the stupid mouse tricks.

Labels: General, Graphics, Templates, Tips

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

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

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

Start on time

Labels: Presentation, Tips

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

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

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

Repair PowerPoint 2003 charts

"Consider the following scenario:

• You apply a design theme to a presentation in Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007.
  
• You insert an embedded Microsoft Office Excel chart object into a slide in the presentation.
  
• You save the presentation in the PowerPoint 97-2003 Presentation (*.ppt) format.

In this scenario, when you open the presentation in Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 and then edit the chart, the theme information that is applied to the chart is lost. Instead, the default Microsoft Office color theme is applied to the embedded Excel chart object. Additionally, the text in the chart changes, and the chart shrinks.

Note This problem also occurs if you create a .doc file by using Microsoft Office Word 2007. Then, when you edit the chart object in Microsoft Office Word 2003, you experience these symptoms."

"To work around this problem, use one of the following methods:

• Do not edit the chart in PowerPoint 2003.
  
• If you edit the chart in PowerPoint 2003, remove the chart. Then, use PowerPoint 2007 to reinsert the chart."

Labels: General, Tips

How big should you go?

"For example, if you're using a 60 inch screen and have 32 point text on your slides, the furthest someone should be is 57 feet from the screen."

Labels: Fonts, Presentation, Tips

Hearing and vision enhanced

With PowerPoint presentations becoming more of a standard way to communicate information of all types, we need to keep in mind that our first responsibility is to our audience. We need to use the ideas above to make sure that we make our presentation accessible for everyone.

Labels: General, Presentation, Tips

Connect with other PowerPoint users

Labels: General, Instructional, Tips

Imbedded videos

"Use this to insert YouTube videos into a PowerPoint slide. All you need to do is to provide the YouTube video URL that appears in the browser address bar, the rest is taken care of by the YTV Wizard.

Note: YouTube videos are streamed so a live internet connection is required to playback the video during the slideshow. Use the free FlashBack add-in to play/rewind the YouTube video automatically."

Labels: Addin, Animation, Instructional, Tips

Bigger and better (?)

"In this release, we have increased that maximum to 75x75 within the UI.

We were able to do this because we made the decision to move away from the metaphor of a table simply being a group of shapes, as it was in previous versions.
This has been one of the largest enabling factors in our performance gains, and as a result, tables are workable at sizes much greater than that of 25x25.

A tradeoff made in order to obtain these gains in performance was the ability to "ungroup" a table.

While this tradeoff means that there are a set of scenarios no longer present, specifically the ability to ungroup a table to animate individual pieces, we feel that the performance gains (not to mention all the other aspects talked about in this section of the blog) along with the ability to use multiple tables and/or shapes in these scenarios will benefit users in a much greater way."

PowerPoint Tables

It can still be done:

Workaround for animating a table:

1. Right-click the table, choose Save as Picture
   
   
2. Save as EMF (choose EMF from the "save as type dropdown list)
   
   
3. InsertPicture, insert the EMF
   
   
4. Ungroup the EMF twice
   
   
5. Now regroup the parts you need to animate -- rows, columns, or whatever

Labels: Formats, Graphics, Tips

Send outline to PowerPoint

For Microsoft Office 2007

Word 2007 doesn't allow you to publish to PowerPoint 2007 by default.
Here's the solution:

After you are done in Word 2007, save it as a Word document.

Now open PowerPoint 2007.

Click on the Office Button at the top left hand corner.

Click Open.

Under Files of type, select All Outlines.

Now select the Word document and click Open.

Alternately,

In Word 2007, right click on the ribbon.

Select Customize Quick Access Toolbar.

Under "Choose commands from:", select Commands not in the ribbon.

Look for "Send to Microsoft Office PowerPoint".

Click OK.

The command will then be added onto the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT).

Labels: General, Share, Tips

It's mouse and keyboard quick!

"At the bottom left hand corner of PowerPoint (bottom right for PowerPoint 2007), you will see 3 mini buttons. They are: Normal View, Slide Sorter View, and Slide Show. Now here's a quick trick:

When you hover over these 3 mini buttons, hold down the Shift key. The mini buttons will now become Slide Master view, Handout Master view, and Set Up Show respectively."

The Setup Show is on the Slide Show tab in the Setup group. The Shift key is a cooler way to bring it up quickly.



The Art of PowerPoint-ing

Thanks to Lucy, an MOS Master Instructor from Australia; aneasiertomorrow.com.au.



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Labels: Formats, General, Shortcuts, Tips

How to disable hyperlink warning messages in 2007 Office programs

Opening "path/filename".
Hyperlinks can be harmful to your computer and data. To protect your computer, click only those hyperlinks from trusted sources.
Do you want to continue?

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
   
   
2. In the Open dialog box, type regedit, and then click OK.
   
   
3. In Registry Editor, locate one of the following registry subkeys:
   

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common 

   
   

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common

   
   Note You only have to modify one of these registry subkeys. You do not have to modify both of them.
   
   
4. Click the registry subkey, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click Key.
   
   
5. Type Security, and then press ENTER to name the key.
   
   
6. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
   
   
7. Type DisableHyperlinkWarning, and then press ENTER to name the entry.
   
   
8. In the right pane, right-click DisableHyperlinkWarning, and then click Modify.
   
   
9. In the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, click Decimal, and then type 1 under Value data.
   
   Note A value of 0 enables the hyperlink warning message. A value of 1 disables the hyperlink warning message.
   
   
10. Click OK.
    
    
11. Exit Registry Editor.

How to disable hyperlink warning messages

Security warning message



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Labels: 2007, General, Tips

Get a close up

"Often when doing a presentation, you may want to enlarge an image using Emphasis: Grow.

You probably want to show a clearer view of a photograph. But enlarging with the Grow effect often ends up getting the image blurry/jagged.

Now it looks ugly, you wouldn't want to show others an enlarged but poor quality picture, do you?

Labels: Graphics, Tips

Stop the breakout

A User can exit out of a show accidentally/intentionally by pressing the ESC key. This add-in disables the functionality of the ESC key.

Note: If the show is set to run in Kiosk mode, disabling the ESC key will provide no way of getting out of a slide show, hence please ensure that you have provided an escape route (e.g an invisible shape set to End show) to exit the show.

Labels: Addin, Presentation, Tips

Examples and ideas

"PowerPoint Heaven is a website providing PowerPoint showcase, artworks, PowerPoint games, animation templates, PowerPoint animations and tutorials on animating Microsoft PowerPoint."

Labels: Animation, Graphics, Instructional, Tips

3-2-1

Tushar-Mehta.com offers a free download:
PowerPoint Timer add-in
The add-in provides a variety of capabilities missing from PowerPoint itself. During a slideshow, it can:

• Show the current time
  
• Show the elapsed time of the presentation
  
• Count down the time remaining for the presentation.
  
• Optionally, it includes the ability to terminate the presentation at the end of a separately configurable grace period!

Also a tutorial on auto scheduling a PowerPoint show

Countdown with sound



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Labels: Animation, General, Instructional, Presentation, Tips