The PowerPoint® Blog

One of the great things about PowerPoint is there is almost always more than one way to do things. And almost always the multiple ways of doing things are found in different areas of the program. But one that can be confusing is the 'Header/Footer' and 'Slide Number' buttons.

I guess the confusion is that they open the exact same dialog box. They are located on the same tab. And located on the same section.

It does not matter which you use. As example, it's okay to click the 'Header/Footer' button and turn on the page numbering. I believe it is just another example of statistics leading the development process. Statistics probably showed a lot of users (tested or observed) where unaware of how to setup page numbers. The obvious answer was to add an easy to identify button labeled 'Page Number' - problem solved.

- Troy @ TLC

At last years PPTLive conference I spent some time talking with the Anoto people about their new product and how it could be used for presenters. Well the product has launched and I look forward to talking more with them about presentation solutions.

Anoto makes an ink pen that captures the writing and wirelessly (bluetooth) can make it show up onscreen.

For presentations, think of this as the 'ink' features on steriods. The idea is to print out your slides, then for each slide draw any notations on your printout and they show up onscreen - all without having to have a computer in front of you. You could be sitting with the audience with only a clipboard and your pen - as long as you are within range of the receiver.

The Boston Globe recently did a story on Anoto which has more information.

- Troy @ TLC

Had a great ride the other day and I faithfully followed by Garmin Edge 305 GPS (allows you to download trail maps so you don't get completely lost) and about 8 miles into my ride I come across this sign:

I think it means I was on a really really great trail!

- Troy @ TLC

A faster way to accomplish the same thing shown in the previous post is to select text. Then CTRL + SPACE BAR. Wordart styles have all been reset!

- Troy @ TLC

So you are working in PPT 2007 and enjoying the great design tools like the ability to stylize any text (because all text is WordArt now).

I start with this:

Then we stylize it to look like this:

But later we decide we want it back to standard text - like this:

How do you do that....

Select the text >> go to the Draw-Format tab >> click the drop down to show the full menu of the preset styles >> at the very bottom is the 'clear wordart' option (remember, ALL text is now wordart)

Done!

-Troy @ TLC

Last week between events I was able to stop by the Microsoft Mountain View campus for a few hours and have lunch with Ric Bretschneider. It was one of the first summer sunny days in the area and we enjoyed a great alfresco meal at Michael's on Shoreline.

- Troy @ TLC

Multimedia projects are wonderful because they are so visual. But what do you do when the presentation is to be distributed on a CDROM - burn file(s) to CDROM and distribute?

Here is an example from a recent project where I developed a simple UI (user interface) application that launches when the CDROM is inserted.

- The background is the PowerPoint Title slide layout for a coordinated look.
- The Play button opens the presentation from the CDROM
- The Install button runs a custom scripted installer that creates a folder on computer, copies files to folder, adds shortcuts to the presentation on the desktop and start menu, and finally includes an uninstaller that deletes all the files.
- The Exit button closes the UI.

Overall, a pretty basic project. But it adds a professional initial look to your distributed presentation.

- Troy @ TLC

This is from a recent project that was specifically for legal proceedings in the State of Texas. Because Texas was the core message I developed the template using the Texas State Flag, some overlay boxes in Photoshop and a great image of a 'Texas' branding iron.

- Troy @ TLC

It is difficult to explain the creative process that goes into designing slides. Much is visual, subjective, and just design experience. But one thing that is easy to explain, or show, is the communication process. As example:

Here is what was faxed over (and this is enhanced in Photoshop to make it more legible!), plus a 5 minute call.

And here is what resulted.

This slide also animated in 3 clicks to setup the communication story and build the complexity of the situation.

- Troy @ TLC

Sometimes work is just fun! Who could have a bad day when surrounded by Woody, Buzz, and the whole gang from Toy Story. Animated properties are great projects because they come with great visual assets that are all high quality and professionally developed. For this marketing presentation I developed the backgrounds from assets (Hint: the clouds are Andy's wallpaper in his bedroom) and then had lots of fun playing with all the toys making them fit without hindering the content area.

The full template was developed with 4 master slides:
1. Theme graphic
2. Title slide
3. Content slide
4. Full Frame slide

- Troy @ TLC