Unofficial PowerPoint Stuff

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2010-03-13T14:03:00.001-08:00

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Layout Control

2010-03-04T03:57:00.000-08:00

Unique designs

How a slide is laid out can be captured as a custom template.
You are not restricted to the schems that come out of the box.

Custom Layout

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One-Slide Timer

2010-02-24T03:36:00.000-08:00

Easy tip

You can use this before a show, or when you take a break.

PowerPoint: A Codeless One-Slide Timer

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Custom QAT

2010-02-18T03:30:00.000-08:00

Access additions

Applications put most of the most-used commands on the Home tab's Ribbon, not everything is there. You may want to add Close, Close All, or Print commands, for example.

In the upper Left corner is the Quick Access Tool bar.

To update the QAT:
Click the down-pointing arrow to the right of the QAT.
Choose any common commands (New, Close, Print, etc.) by checking the option.

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Performance and Exhibition

2010-02-15T03:26:00.000-08:00

Techniques

PowerPoint can be one element, but there are other considerations when delivering information.

Presentation
Creation
Delivery
Venue
Technology
Products

Presentations.com

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Home for PPT Ideas

2010-02-06T03:47:00.000-08:00

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."

PPTHeaven

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Command Reference

2010-02-04T03:12:00.000-08:00

2003-2007-2010

Those of you that are just now making the switch to the Ribbon world, will find this valuable.

ComputerWorld.com

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Office Training

2010-02-02T03:56:00.000-08:00

Suggestions

TechRepublic lists a number of areas that you might explore when training is needed for a new Office version.

Here are a few:

LINKS TO TIP SHEETS AND ARTICLES
"Instead of telling your users to go out to Microsoft.com and do a search, put hyperlinks to the printer-friendly version of tip sheets and articles on your company’s main portal page. Providing links to information you know they need will help you cover the training bases. And presenting the links on an internal web site they already use will show your users that it’s okay to go outside of their four firewalls to learn something new. Include your favorite hyperlink in your signature line so it goes out in every e-mail you send."
ONLINE TRAINING
E-LEARNING
WEBCASTS
VIRTUAL TRAINING
MULTILINGUAL SCREENTIPS AND TRANSLATIONS
COMMAND REFERENCE GUIDES
OFFICE ONLINE AT WORK

10 ways to train your users on Office 2007 for free

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Classroom PP

2010-01-30T03:47:00.000-08:00

A few tips

Here is a tutorial on ways to use PowerPoint in the classroom.
They also talk about how to use the 2007-2010 ribbon.

Actden.com

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Where's the Template

2010-01-26T03:47:00.000-08:00

Find and/change storage spots

Describes the different template categories and the locations of templates in 2007 Office programs. Also describes the registry settings that control where to find your custom templates.

Support.Microsoft.com

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Presentation Help

2010-01-23T03:50:00.000-08:00

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."

Garr Reynolds has more tips on presentations, delivery, and slide design:

GarrReynolds.com

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Slideshow Flash

2010-01-16T03:32:00.000-08:00

PPT to SWF

"ANVSOFT Flash Slide Show Maker is a Flash album creator that will help you build animated photo slideshows with SWF file as the output format."

DailyFreeware.net
Photoaxe.com

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Scroll Text

2010-01-12T03:51:00.000-08:00

Automated GIF

WigFilp.com

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PPT 2010

2010-01-08T03:03:00.000-08:00

PowerPoint 2-10

Here's a preview of what PPT2010 can do with animation and presentation.

MSDN PowerPoint Blog

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Keyboard and Key Tips

2010-01-03T03:57:00.000-08:00

Finger it out

2007 apps look different because of the ribbon, but the keyboard can still be used to speed up tasks.
Microsoft has an online course that may help

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.

Office.Microsoft.com/Training

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Notes from Word

2009-12-19T03:26:00.000-08:00

Import it all

One technique that can be used when preparing a PowerPoint show, is to import material from an existing Word Outline.

If the Word document is formatted with Heading styles, Heading 1 will become a new slide and the subsequent headings, 1 through 6 will become bullet points on the slide.

It may be desirable to prepare notes for each slide while developing the Word outline. Notes don't appear on the slide, they are placed on a separate page that can be printed out for the speaker or handed out to the audience.

Bill Dilworth has written a macro that moves information that has been formatted, say at Heading 6, and places it on the notes page:

"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.

Word Outline to Notes Page in PowerPoint

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Sparklines

2009-12-09T03:28:00.000-08:00

Quick graphic reinforcement

A graph or chart can give the reader a visual representation of a great deal of data. Concepts or results can be more easily grasped by a well formatted graphic.

Charts, usually, take up more space in a document than is absolutely required.

Edward Tufte has come up with the concept of Sparklines (Sparklines:Intense, Word-sized Graphics)
.
These are small graphs about the same height and width as common words. They are not out of place in the text of a document.

Sparklines give the reader a snapshot of the data that quickly supports the material being discussed.

See:
Bisantz Sparklines

The Sparkmaker can create Sparklines for Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. They can also be produced in HTML.

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Answer Before the Show

2009-12-05T03:59:00.000-08:00

As helpful as No-Doz (almost)

Here are some question to answer before that presentation.
Your audience, probably, does want to be informed not put to sleep.

Is this slide for me or for my audience?
Will it really help them better understand my message or just serve as a distraction?
How can I remember what I'm going to say without putting the entire text on the slide?
What can I do to simplify the slide so that only essential information is displayed?
What do I really need to do at this point in the presentation to engage the audience and enhance my message?
Is a visual the best way to convey the information or could a story do a better job?
Using ideas like this, your talk will be much stronger and your audience will be engaged and awake.

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Password Background

2009-12-04T03:54:00.000-08:00

Unencrypted

Alan Myrvold has written a background article on how Office handles passwords and what password strength means.

"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."

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PP Diet

2009-12-02T03:31:00.000-08:00

Reduce the size of your presentation files

Ellen Finkelstein has some suggestions to make your PowerPoint files more manageable.

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.

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3-D Breakout

2009-11-28T03:07:00.000-08:00

No special glasses required

You are not limited to a flat PowerPoint slide.
You can add a 3-D look to your shows.

Bart Jones at OnPPT.com provides some basic suggestions.

Also see this series by Glen Millar.

"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

Also:
PPTMagic.com
3D Transitions

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More Free Templates

2009-11-22T03:43:00.000-08:00

Three dozen more

Sometimes it takes someone else's example of a PowerPoint show to stir your own imagination.

Graphicsland is offering a collection of 36 templates for PowerPoint. The templates are saved as .pot files & are compatible with all versions of PowerPoint. The collection is free of charge & is available now for downloading.
To see a printable preview & to go to the download area:

Free Templates

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Color News

2009-11-15T03:07:00.000-08:00

A multidiscipline subject

Here is a study about how color effects a reader's choice of concentration.

It was intended for newspaper publishers, but the same knowledge can be used in Web design, PowerPoint, or any other reporting application. Word and Excel will also benefit.

Color, Contrast, and Dimension in News Design

ColorProject

The Poynter Institute is a school for journalists, future journalists, and teachers of journalists.
Poynter.org

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Movie Mechanics

2009-11-10T03:14:00.000-08:00

How to make it work

Here are four ways to do it:

Method 1:

Insert a movie from a file

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

Method 2:

Insert a movie file as an object

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.

Method 3:

Use the Wmp.ppa add-in

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.

Method 4:

Insert the movie as a package

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.

You'll find all the details at:

Support.microsoft.com
Insert a Movie in PowerPoint

PP 2007+

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Change Code to Comments

2009-11-05T03:44:00.000-08:00

Fast solution

When you're testing procedures, you can temporarily convert a block of VBA code to comments that will be ignored during a trial run.

Doing so manually by inserting an apostrophe before each line of code can be a real chore.

To simplify this task,

Open any module in the Visual Basic Editor (VBE)
Choose View >Toolbars>Edit from the menu bar to display the Edit toolbar.
Select the lines of code that you want to turn into comments.
Click the Comment Block button on the Edit toolbar (it's the sixth button in from the right end of the toolbar).

Each line of the selected code is now preceded with an apostrophe. To convert the comments back to executable code, select the appropriate lines and click the Uncomment Block button, which is immediately to the right of the Comment Block button.

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