PowerPoint Notes

Add Circular Text to Target Diagrams (any Shape) in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — 2012-02-14T21:50:00-08:00

Received a question from an Indezine reader: Can you help me? I have built a target diagram using your tutorial (Thank You for this). However, I now am trying to write text within each of the target rings. Is it possible to shape the text to circular text?

Sure you can! Follow these steps:

Select the circle for which you want to add circular text. Type some text -- by default the text is inserted right at the middle of the circle as shown in the Figure below.
With the circle still selected, access the Drawing Tools Format tab of the Ribbon. In the WordArt Styles group, locate the Text Effects button and click it to bring up a drop-down gallery. In this gallery, choose the Transform option, as shown in the Figure below.

This opens a sub-gallery -- within the Follow Path category, choose the top left option, as shown in the Figure above.
Your text will not be in a circular style just below the top edge of your circle, as shown in the Figure below.

Data Assistant Warning in PowerPoint 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — 2010-12-05T00:16:00-08:00

If you get a Data Assistant warning when you run PowerPoint 2007, here's what may be actually happening.

Data Assistant was something Microsoft provided for PowerPoint 2003 users so that they could insert and manage graphical data objects such as Visio drawings, and Excel charts and named ranges into PowerPoint presentations. They stopped providing the Data Assistant, and I'm guessing this has not been updated for PowerPoint 2007 -- you'll need to disable it.

In PowerPoint 2007, choose Office Button | PowerPoint Options, to bring up a dialog box of the same name. Click the Add-ins tab in the list on the left, and you'll find the Manage Add-ins dropdown box right at the bottom. Select both Add-ins and COM Add-ins, and disable any entries that look like Data Assistant.

You can also remove Data Assistant altogether from your computer:

Click the Start button in Windows, choose Control Panel, and then select the Add or Remove Programs option.
In the list of currently installed programs, click Microsoft Data Assistant 1.0, and then click Remove.
Follow the instructions to remove Microsoft Data Assistant 1.0 altogether.

Select Multiple Objects in PowerPoint 2003

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — 2010-11-28T20:19:00-08:00

I'll tell you an easy way to get frustrated, and an easier way to overcome it!

Get hold of a PowerPoint slides that has many animated slide objects that overlay each other. Now select the object stacked right at the bottom of the other objects. Does this have to be so difficult?

To select objects that are not too easy to access, you should use the Select Multiple Objects tool (if you use PowerPoint 2007, this does not apply to you). If you haven't heard of this animal, I won't blame you because it's not visible by default. First you need to customize your Drawing toolbar to see this option:

If the Drawing toolbar is not visible, choose View | Toolbars | Drawing.
Then choose View | Toolbars | Customize. This will summon the Customize dialog box that you can see in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Customize
Now select the Drawing category in the left pane, and the Select Multiple Objects option in the right pane. Drag this option to the Drawing toolbar, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Drag the icon to the toolbar
Click Close to exit the Customize dialog box.
Now when you have too many objects on a slide, just click the Select Multiple Objects option, and you'll see the dialog box that you can see in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Select Multiple Objects
You can now select one or more objects on the slide -- and you can also select any object on the slide!

Note: PowerPoint MVP Shyam Pillai creates the Shape Console add-in that adds a miniature floating window inside PowerPoint -- this displays the current selected shape on the slide. Shape Console is a free download.

PowerPoint: Sounds from the Clip Art pane do not play!

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — 2010-11-09T20:42:00-08:00

I received this question a while ago from someone using PowerPoint 2003:

I inserted a sound from the Clip Art task pane onto the slide and the sound icon shows up but it won't play the sound when I am on that slide while playing the whole presentation. Please help!

OK -- the answer for this question works not only for PowerPoint 2003 but also for most other versions:

Right click the inserted sound, and choose Custom Animation from the resultant menu. This will bring up the Custom Animation task pane.
With the sound clip still selected, click the Add Effect | Object Actions | Play -- this will add a play animation for the selected sound clip within the Custom Animation task pane -- select the animation within the task pane.
Now change the Start event to After Previous.
Save your presentation.

Now your sound will play automatically when you get to that particular slide within your presentation!

Outlines from TextEdit on Mac OS X Don't Import in PowerPoint?

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — 2010-10-01T01:32:00-07:00

I recently tweeted about my new article that showed how you can import an outline you create in TextEdit on Mac OS X straight into PowerPoint to create your slides quickly and easily -- soon I received a tweet response from Joel Heffner who could not make this happen. To cut a long story short, we found that this happened because PowerPoint cannot work with outlines that are encoded as Unicode (UTF-16).

What you need to do is choose TextEdit | Preferences -- and then select the Open and Save tab shown in Figure 1, shown below.

.
Figure 1: TextEdit Preferences

Make sure you choose Unicode (UTF-8) or Western (Mac OS Roman) -- and then create your outline using this link: Creating PowerPoint Outlines in TextEdit -- Mac. Other encoding options may also work -- but Unicode (UTF-16) does not!

Slide Numbers: Make Slide #1 Start on the Third, Fourth, or Another Slide

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — 2010-08-25T02:46:00-07:00

Typically you can start your slide numbering with any number -- so yes, your first slide can be numbered fourth. But what if you want the opposite -- maybe you want your fourth slide to be numbered first! This question was asked on Microsoft Answers, and Chirag Dalal of OfficeOne had an awesome answer, excerpted here with his permission:

Place your actual first 3 slides at the end of the presentation and start your presentation from your 4th slide. PowerPoint would number your slides from 1 and that would be the correct number for your 4th slide.
Remove the slide numbers from the last 3 slides (which are your actual first 3 slides).
Create a Custom Show so that your last 3 slides are placed as the first 3 slides in the Custom Show and the remaining slides follow those 3 slides. To create a Custom Show, use the Slide Show | Custom Shows menu item (or the Slide Show tab of the Ribbon | Custom Shows).
Next, tell PowerPoint to display the Custom Show when you start the slide show. To do this, choose Slide Show | Set Up Show menu item (or the Slide Show tab of the Ribbon | Set Up Slide Show). Select your Custom Show in the Show Slides section, and click OK.

Now when you start the slide show, PowerPoint will show your actual first 3 slides without slide numbers and slide 1 from your actual slide 4 onwards.

Thanks Chirag!

Open PPTX in PowerPoint 2004 for Mac

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — 2010-01-14T20:25:00-08:00

Here's a question that I was asked recently:

Geetesh, I hope it is OK if I ask you a question about PowerPoint. You seem like the expert that can help me. I have a Mac with PowerPoint 2004 installed on it. My daughter created a PowerPoint at school on a 2007 version and can't make it work on our 2004. Should we buy the new 2008 version of Microsoft Office for the Mac. If we do, is that compatible with the the 2007 version. I want her to be able to take her work from school and be able to work on it at home. What do you think? Thanks for your time.

I am guessing your daughter created a PowerPoint presentation in the new PPTX file format that is native to both PowerPoint 2007 for Windows and PowerPoint 2008 for the Mac. So, yes upgrading to PowerPoint 2008 on the Mac will allow you to open and save PPTX files that will let your daughter take her work from school to home, and back.

Alternatively, you can get the free Open XML File Format Converter for Mac that will let you open and save these PPTX files from within your existing PowerPoint 2004. This is a great solution if you just need to view the PPTX files in PowerPoint 2004. On the other hand if she needs to work on those files at home, and move them often between home and school, then I suggest you upgrade to PowerPoint 2008. Since she is a student, you can get the three-license version of the Microsoft Office 2008 Home & Student version for around $100.

Register the Default Version of PowerPoint

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — 2009-11-30T01:15:00-08:00

If you have multiple versions of PowerPoint installed, you might find that when you double-click on a PPT or PPTX file, it opens in a version of PowerPoint that's different from the one you want it to open!

Now you can reinstall all your versions of PowerPoint (and Microsoft Office) again in the sequence you want -- and that might take a few hours, or you might do a few registry tweaks -- and that's not for the faint of heart, or even if you are scared of the registry!

So it was a great thing that one of our readers decided to share this DOS batch file with us that makes the whole process painless. Having said that, do this at your own risk -- and if you are comfortable!

Damian McDonald is the founder of Visual Newmedia which has over 15 years’ experience in developing communication solutions for a number of leading global brands.

Here is the code you need to paste in your batch file -- just replace this line:

set PathStart=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE

to reflect the name of the partition where your copy of Microsoft Office is installed -- for example, if you installed to the D drive, the above line would change to:

set PathStart=D:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE

OK -- here is the batch file:

REM **********************************************

REM Version 1.1 Date: 29/11/09
REM By Damian McDonald
REM www.visualpresenter.com.au
REM Registers the required Version of PowerPoint if it exists.

set PathStart=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE
set PathEnd=\powerpnt.exe
set DirNum=11
set Version=2003
@echo Off

:Start
CLS
ECHO. Select the Version of PowerPoint to register.
ECHO.
ECHO 1. PowerPoint2003
ECHO 2. PowerPoint2007
ECHO 3. PowerPoint2010
ECHO.

set choice=
set /p choice=Enter your selection or Q to Quit.
if not '%choice%'=='' set choice=%choice:~0,1%
if '%choice%'=='1' goto 1
if '%choice%'=='2' goto 2
if '%choice%'=='3' goto 3
if '%choice%'=='q' goto end
ECHO "%choice%" is not valid please try again
pause
Goto Start

:1
CLS
ECHO.
set DirNum=11
set Version=2003
IF NOT EXIST "%PathStart%%DirNum%%PathEnd%" ECHO PowerPoint %Version% does not appear to be loaded.
IF NOT EXIST "%PathStart%%DirNum%%PathEnd%" pause
IF EXIST "%PathStart%%DirNum%%PathEnd%" ECHO Registering PowerPoint %Version%.
IF EXIST "%PathStart%%DirNum%%PathEnd%" "%PathStart%%DirNum%%PathEnd%" /regserver
Goto End

:2
CLS
ECHO.
set DirNum=12
set Version=2007
IF NOT EXIST "%PathStart%%DirNum%%PathEnd%" ECHO PowerPoint %Version% does not appear to be loaded.
IF NOT EXIST "%PathStart%%DirNum%%PathEnd%" pause
IF EXIST "%PathStart%%DirNum%%PathEnd%" ECHO Registering PowerPoint %Version%.
IF EXIST "%PathStart%%DirNum%%PathEnd%" "%PathStart%%DirNum%%PathEnd%" /regserver
Goto End

:3
CLS
ECHO.
set DirNum=14
set Version=2010
IF NOT EXIST "%PathStart%%DirNum%%PathEnd%" ECHO PowerPoint %Version% does not appear to be loaded.
IF NOT EXIST "%PathStart%%DirNum%%PathEnd%" pause
IF EXIST "%PathStart%%DirNum%%PathEnd%" ECHO Registering PowerPoint %Version%.
IF EXIST "%PathStart%%DirNum%%PathEnd%" "%PathStart%%DirNum%%PathEnd%" /regserver
Goto End

:End
@echo on

REM **********************************************

Thanks Damian!

Multiple Versions of PowerPoint on the Same Machine?

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — 2009-11-26T18:30:00-08:00

This questions has been asked often, and with PowerPoint 2010 coming up, it's been asked more frequently. The question is about having multiple versions of PowerPoint installed on the same machine, and if that can cause any problems?

The answer is that generally you should see no problems as long as you follow some guidelines:

If you want to install an older version of PowerPoint, and you have newer versions installed -- then you first need to uninstall the newer versions first. Always reboot after each install or uninstall.

Make sure you have the install media for all your PowerPoint (and Microsoft Office) versions -- and the serial numbers too!
Now install the oldest version you want -- for example, the oldest to newest sequence would be:

PowerPoint 97
PowerPoint 2000
PowerPoint 2002 (XP)
PowerPoint 2003
PowerPoint 2007
PowerPoint 2010

After installing each version, reboot your system and install all available updates and service packs before proceeding to install the next successive version. Yes, you need to reboot after installing updates and service packs too!

And if your version of PowerPoint needs online activation (as all versions after PowerPoint 2002 do), then activate before installing the successive version.

By default, the newest versions will take over the associations for the PowerPoint file format but if you need to open a particular file in an older version, you can always use the File | Open options in that version to open that file.

Also, on one of my Windows Vista machines I have no problem having PowerPoint 2003 and PowerPoint 2007 open at the same time -- don't know if this works everywhere though -- do try how it works for you!

See Also: Microsoft Support - Information about using 2007 Office suites and programs on a computer that is running another version of Office

There's also a very interesting discussion on this subject on Indezine's LinkedIn group.

Prevent Mouse-clicks from Advancing Slides

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — 2009-06-19T04:19:00-07:00

I got this question from someone who works in a institution that has students with disabilities: How can I set up PowerPoints so that when the mouse is held down, the slides do not trip through whole presentation. I work with students with disabilities who sometimes find this difficult.

The answer is to change the mode in which PowerPoint plays the presentation. You can access the settings to make these changes through the Set Up Slide Show dialog box, accessed differently depending upon the version of PowerPoint you use:

PowerPoint 2007 and later users can select the Slide Show tab of the Ribbon, and click the Set Up Slide Show button.
PowerPoint 2003 and previous versions' users can choose the Slide Show | Set Up Show option.

Either way, you end up bringing up the Set Up Show dialog box that you can see in Figure 1, below.

Figure 1: Set Up Show

At the top right of this dialog, you'll need to select the Browsed by an individual (window) option -- and you can also decide whether you want the Show scrollbar option checked. Click OK when done, and save your presentation.

Here are some thoughts, caveats, and observations to be aware of:

Choosing this option means you don't get to play your PowerPoints in absolute full screen show mode -- there will be a title bar visible.
You can still use the keyboard to navigate to the next and previous slides. In fact, all keyboard commands will work.
The settings to enable this play mode, as explained above work only with the active presentation, and is saved within the presentation. You'll have to enable these settings for each presentation you want to not advance with mouse-clicks.

One Click To Close

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — 2008-10-23T02:24:00-07:00

A friend sent me this question: I want to make one slide .PPS file. On click, or on pressing any key the .PPS file should exit or close. Can this be done?

Yes, it can -- it's easier to do this on click rather than by pressing any key. Follow these steps:

With your one slide presentation ready, open it in PowerPoint.
PowerPoint 2007 users can then select the rectangle shape from the Home tab | Drawing | Shapes gallery. Users of earlier versions will find the rectangle shape option in the Drawing toolbar located below the PowerPoint interface.
Draw a rectangle that covers the entire slide. You'll have to drag the corners of the rectangle to resize.
With the rectangle selected, PowerPoint 2007 users can choose the Insert tab | Links | Action to bring up the Action Settings dialog box that you see in Figure 1. Users of earlier PowerPoint versions can access the same dialog box by right-clicking the rectangle, and choosing Action Settings from the resultant menu.

Figure 1: Action Settings
Click the Hyperlink to radio button, and from the text dropdown box, choose the End Show option (see Figure 1 above) . Click OK to exit the dialog box.
PowerPoint 2007 users can now select the rectangle, so that the Drawing Tools Format tab is visible in the Ribbon -- activate this tab, and then select the Shape Fill option to reveal a flyout menu. Choose the More Fill Colors option to bring up the Colors dialog box -- change the Transparency to 99%, and click OK. With the rectangle still selected, choose the Drawing Tools Format tab | Shape Styles | Shape Outline | No Outline option.

Users of previous PowerPoint versions can double click the rectangle to summon the Format AutoShape dialog box. In this multi-tabbed dialog box, select the Colors and Lines tab, then under the Color dropdown list, drag the Transparency slider to 99%. In the Line Color dropdown list, choose the No Line option. Click OK to get back to the slide.
Now when you play this presentation, just click anywhere to end the show!

Stop Font Sizes from Changing

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — 2008-02-08T02:10:00-08:00

Question: The problem I am having is that the Arial font size that I save as 32 for visibility, changes to 24 the next time I pull the presentation up. I have looked at the save options and nothing has helped. Do you have any suggestions?

Answer: This might help:

Choose Tools | AutoCorrect Options -- this brings up the AutoCorrect dialog box that you can see in Figure 1. Select the AutoFormat As You Type tab.

Figure 1: Tweak AutoCorrect options
Uncheck these options:

- AutoFit title text to placeholder
- AutoFit body text to placeholder
- Automatic layout for inserted objects
Click OK.

3D Lists in PowerPoint 2007 with Perspector 4.0

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — 2007-11-21T00:59:00-08:00

This quick tutorial was provided with George McCaskill of Visual Exemplars, a UK based company that creates Perspector, a 3D add-in for PowerPoint.

Starting with a normal slide with around three bullet points:

one
two
three

On the Perspector panel, select "Convert PowerPoint bullet list to a 3D list". Choose the "Simple Flow Across" image to end up with what you can see in Figure 1.

Figure 1: A Perspector 3D list.
Now do some simple Perspector editing like adjusting the angle of the flow in 3D, change font size and color (select all first), and save the Perspector image. As a final flourish, add a PowerPoint 2007 image reflection to the saved Perspector image (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: A Perspector list with PowerPoint 2007 effects.

Use Macros and Scripts in PowerPoint

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — 2007-11-08T00:57:00-08:00

This article is not about creating your own macros or scripts to automate PowerPoint. However, if you just want to run any macros or scripts that a friend shares, or you just got it from a book or newsgroup, then you are on the right page.

Follow these steps to get started:

Make sure you have a script ready -- you can download some scripts here...
Open an existing presentation, or create a new one in PowerPoint. Then press Alt+F11 to access the Microsoft Visual Basic interface that you can see in Figure 1.

Figure 1: The Visual Basic interface
Choose Insert | Module, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Insert a module
This open a new module window on the right side of the interface, copy your script here, and paste it (see Figure 3).

Figure 3: The pasted script
Now you need to run this script as a macro from within PowerPoint. To do that, first exit the Visual Basic interface by choosing File | Close and Return to PowerPoint.
Now the steps you take differ depending upon which version of PowerPoint you are using.

PowerPoint 2007 users will need to enable the Developer tab on the Ribbon if it is not already visible. To do that, choose Office Button | PowerPoint Options, and select the Popular tab on the left. Then check the option that says Show Developer tab in the Ribbon.

Once you have done that, select the Developer tab of the Ribbon, and click Macro to bring up the Macro dialog box that you can see in Figure 4. Select the script you want to run, and click the Run button.

Figure 4: The Macro dialog box

Versions before PowerPoint 2007: Choose Tools | Macros | Macro to bring up the same dialog box that you saw in Figure 4. Then select the script you want to run, and click the Run button.

Remember, some scripts may do nothing at all unless you have something selected on the slide before you run them!

Tip from Steve Rindsberg: You can store many, many macros/scripts/routines in a single PowerPoint file and as long as you have it open along with any other files, you can access the macros as described.

See Also: Create an Add-in with toolbars that run macros (PPT FAQ by Steve Rindsberg)

Paste in Place in PowerPoint

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — 2007-11-05T18:39:00-08:00

Sometimes, it can be frustrating trying to do the simple things in PowerPoint such as duplicating an object right above the original. PowerPoint insists on placing the duplicated (or copy/pasted) object at an offset and there's no way to fine tune that setting. Maybe there's a registry tweak or something that I'm not aware of?

So why would anyone want to place a duplicated object right above the original? There are many scenarios that require such a placement:

You want to animate one object after the the other.
You want to rotate objects.
You want to make some changes to the duplicated object and then do a trigger animation.
You might want to do something else!

Meanwhile, here are some ideas and observations on how you can work around this limitation:

If you copy and paste a slide object on the same slide, it is placed at an offset. Sometimes, you can press the up arrow key twice, and then press the left arrow key twice to place the copied/duplicated object right above the slide, but even that does not work all the time. That setting only works if the Snap to Grid option is turned on.
If you copy a slide object (anything on a slide) and paste it on another empty slide, it is placed in the exact location as the original.
If some part of the original slide object exceeds the area off the edge of the slide, then the duplicated/pasted object will be pasted within the slide area as far as possible. Of course that only works if the object is not larger than the slide area.
The quickest way to place a duplicated object right above its original is to use a third-party add-in called Toolbox from Shyam Pillai. This includes a menu option called Toolbox | Shapes | Clone Shape(s).
Another way you can place pasted/duplicated objects right on top of the original is to use the Align tools. This works best if you have several duplicated objects. Select them all, and choose Align | Align Left, and Align | Align Top.

If you have found new ways to work around these issues, do add your comments to this post.

Change Case Cycles: How They Work?

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — 2007-08-19T03:06:00-07:00

Echo Swinford, PowerPoint MVP resolves the mystery of the algorithm behind the changing cases in PowerPoint!

Do you use Shift+F3 to toggle through the change case options on selected text in PowerPoint, and wonder why sometimes only the first word gets a capital letter, but at other times all the words get capitalized?

Here's a more detailed example -- suppose I double-click to select all the words in a text box on the slide: fetal and neonatal disease. I hit Shift+F3. I expected to get Fetal And Neonatal Disease and then, if I hit Shift+F3 again, FETAL AND NEONATAL DISEASE.

Instead, the first time I hit Shift+F3, I get Fetal and neonatal disease. The second time, I get all caps, and the third time I'm back to all lower case as expected. But how do I know when to expect sentence case (e.g., Fetal and neonatal disease) and when to expect title case* (e.g., Fetal And Neonatal Disease)?

*And yes, I know it's not a true title case -- in fact, you'll notice that in 2007 this is now called "Capitalize Every Word," not "Title Case."

I think this has to do with punctuation, or, rather, an invisible paragraph marker at the end of text.

Here's what Beth Melton, Word MVP (thanks, Beth!) and I figured out:

If you select text in a Title Placeholder and Shift+F3, you'll get title case.

If you select text in a manual textbox, which you get depends on what you've selected and also HOW you've selected it. In the case of selecting all text in a textbox, for example, "fetal and neonatal studies"...

If you triple-click the text to select all text in the textbox, Shift+F3 gives you sentence case. (Fetal will begin with a capital letter.)
If you select all the text by dragging the mouse over the text from left to right, Shift+F3 gives you sentence case. (Fetal will begin with a capital letter.)
If you select all the text by dragging them mouse over the text from *right* to *left*, Shift+F3 gives you title case. (All Words Begin With A Capital Letter.)
It's as though triple-clicking or selecting from left to right also selects an invisible marker*, which indicates the text should be a "sentence."
Selecting from right to left does not select that last invisible marker, which indicates the text should act as a title.
If you're selecting just part of the text in a text box, e.g., selecting only "and neonatal," then it doesn't seem to matter if you use left-right or right-left -- you get title case with all words capped. Of course, if the last word of the "paragraph" is included in that partial selection, e.g., "and neonatal disease," you'll need to use a right-to-left selection to avoid that final invisible marker.

Personally, this all seems overly complicated to me. Sure wish we could see the non-printing characters; I probably would have figured this out years ago....

*I'm assuming an invisible paragraph marker because if you try the three ways to select text and then paste the text into a new empty textbox, the first two ways give you an empty "paragraph" below, while the third way (right-to-left) doesn't.

Echo Swinford runs EchosVoice, a site containing many PowerPoint tips. She is also author of Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances and PowerPoint 2007 Complete Makeover Kit.

PowerPoint Viewers

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — 2007-08-15T21:57:00-07:00

Self Closing PowerPoint Presentations

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — 2007-05-23T02:26:00-07:00

Question: I need a PowerPoint presentation that closes itself soon after the last slide has been shown. How do I make such a presentation?

Answer: Follow these steps (works for PowerPoint 2002 and 2003):

Choose Tools | Options to bring up the Options dialog box. Select the View tab and uncheck the option that reads End with black slide. Remember, this is a machine specific setting -- not a presentation specific one.
Choose Slide Show | Set Up Show, and uncheck Loop continuously until 'Esc' if it is selected.
Get to the last slide of the presentation, and choose Slide Show | Slide Transition to bring up the Slide Transition task pane. Select the Automatically after option, and enter a time value (any time value).
Choose File | Save As..., and change the Save as type to PowerPoint Show (*.pps).

You're done.

Add Multiple Guides

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — 2007-05-17T00:06:00-07:00

Question: How do I add multiple horizontal and vertical guides to my PowerPoint slides.

Answer: Follow these steps:

Make your guides visible if they are not already visible.
Select one of the guides, and press Ctrl as you drag the guide. You'll see the guide coordinates as you Ctrl-drag them to create new guides if your Ruler is visible (View | Ruler).
You can add up to 8 horizontal and 8 vertical guides using this process.

If you need more guides, follow this process to create a mock guide-map:

You can create guide lines with PowerPoint's line tool -- and then add a dash style to those lines.
Create variations of thick and thin lines to create major and minor guides.
These lines can then be grouped -- and cut, copied, and pasted over any slide you want to use the same "guide-map" for.
You can also copy the guide-map between presentations -- delete this guide-map when done.

Ungroup Charts in PowerPoint 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — 2007-02-19T02:30:00-08:00

Here's a question that I received from someone who once sent me an animated Christmas game! He's probably got a lot of other animated stuff that might get you either mad or mesmerized (or both!) -- but for now, here's his question: I'll spare you the details but can you now no longer ungroup charts in PowerPoint 2007?

The answer is yes, you can -- but the route to ungroup nirvana might be new -- but fear not, let me get you there:

First of all, create your chart -- and just to be on the safe side, duplicate the slide that contains the chart. That's because once you ungroup your chart, you can no longer edit the values within the chart.
Make sure you do not double-click the chart -- just select it, right-click the edge of the chart, and choose the Save as Picture option.
This brings up a dialog box of the same name -- now choose EMF within the Save as type dropdown box, provide a name and location, and save the chart as an EMF graphic.
Insert a new slide within the presentation, and then insert a graphic by first selecting the Insert tab of the Ribbon, and then clicking the Picture button.
In the resulting Insert Picture dialog box, navigate and choose the EMF graphic you saved previously, and click Insert to get back to your slide with the graphic inserted.
Next, select the graphic on the slide, right-click and choose Group | Ungroup. PowerPoint might warn you that this is an inserted picture, not a group. Disregard this warning and click Yes. Right-click the graphic again, and choose Group | Ungroup.
This should ungroup all the elements of the chart so that you can recolor them, add effects, or animate them individually of each other.

Ribbon

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — 2006-12-02T18:43:00-08:00

Did you know you can hold your mouse over the ribbon and use the scroll
wheel to rotate between views?

--

Regards,

Glen Millar

Cannot Insert Flash EXE Files

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — 2006-10-12T00:19:00-07:00

Question: I am looking for help inserting a Flash movie into my PowerPoint slide. My client sent me a movie with an EXE file extention and I have followed your directions correctly but I can not get it to play. Is there any way you can help me with this or point me in the right direction?

Answer: You need to ask your client to send you a SWF file -- SWF files are actual Flash animation movies -- the EXE file you received is most probably a Flash Projector file that includes the Flash runtime to run the movie and is essentially used for CD distribution. The original creator of the Flash movie can most certainly create a SWF output and send it to you so that you can insert it within a PowerPoint slide.

Categories: powerpoint, powerpoint_flash

FlashPaper Documents in PowerPoint

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — 2006-09-03T23:08:00-07:00

Question: I have these Acrobat PDFs, Word documents, and Excel spreadsheets that I need to be part of my PowerPoint presentation with all their formatting. But to do that I need to embed or link to those files -- and most of the time I get the irritating security warning when I access them from within a PowerPoint show! Any better options or ideas?

Answer: That can be so irritating -- and I do have an easy solution although it's not free.

Look at Adobe's FlashPaper program that allows you to print anything to a Flash SWF file -- then insert those Flash SWFs inside PowerPoint slides. Since these are embedded within the slide, there are no warning dialog boxes -- and you can even scroll, zoom, and pan these documents!

Tim Wilson sent me a couple of gotchas for this tip:

Set up the printing properties for FlashPaper to use a custom paper size. In Windows, you do this through Control Panel > Printers and Faxes. Make the paper size slightly larger than your image. If you don't do this, FlashPaper will chop your image up into separate pages!
Leave space on your PowerPoint slide for users to click, to advance the slide show away from your Flashpaper slide. Perhaps include a 'Continue' label people can click on. If your FlashPaper object covers the whole slide, your users won't be able to navigate away from the slide.

If you need to know how you can insert Flash SWFs in PowerPoint, look here...
Categories: powerpoint, powerpoint_flash, pdf, tutorials

Graphic Elements for PowerPoint

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — 2006-06-20T21:05:00-07:00

Question: Can you suggest any good software to create a stunning graphic element for my PowerPoint. I would like to try using 3D shapes instead of PowerPoint shapes.

Answer: Look at PowerPoint's 3D engine -- it is surprisingly powerful although not in the class of a 3D program. Another option is to download the public beta of Office 2007 -- the graphic engine is stunning.

Alternatively, do what professional presentation designers do all the time -- use Photoshop as a companion to PowerPoint!

Output Notes from PowerPoint

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — 2006-04-08T00:38:00-07:00

I'm looking for a way to output my PowerPoint notes alone, or a presentation without the metafile overhead. I need the slides plus the notes - or even a way to get the notes without anything else.

You'll need to have Microsoft Word installed on your system in addition to Microsoft PowerPoint for this trick to work:

Open your presentation and choose File Send to Microsoft (Office) Word.
Select the Notes next to slides option, and click OK.
Microsoft Word creates a table with slide thumbnails and notes. Delete the unnecessary column in the resulting Word table that includes the thumbnails - to do that, select the entire column, right-click and choose Delete Columns.
Choose Table Convert Table to Text... Choose your text separator (or choose a custom separator).