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PowerPoint Tips

View an alphabetical listing of PowerPoint Tech Tips

Guides in PowerPoint In PowerPoint you can use guides to position shapes and objects on slides. To display guides in PowerPoint 2007: Press Alt + F9 To display additional guides, hold down the Control key and drag a guide   Create Duplicate Slides in PowerPoint 2007 Here's how to create duplicate slides in PowerPoint 2007: In Normal view or Slide Sorter view make sure the slides you want to duplicate are selected From the Home tab on the Ribbon in the Slides group click the small arrow beside New Slide From the drop-down menu select Duplicate Selected Slides The new slides are inserted after the current slide.  If you use Slide Sorter view you can select and duplicate more than one slide at a time.   Recording Narrations in PowerPoint 2007 Did you know you could easily record narrations for your PowerPoint slides? Here’s how: Click the Slide show tab on the Ribbon In the Set Up group click the Record Narration icon In the Record Narration dialog box you can set microphone level and change recording quality Click OK and choose to start from the current slide or from the first slide When you are finished you will be asked if you want to save the timings for each slide For more information on recording narration for your PowerPoint slides, go to office.microsoft.com   Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 Online Tutorials If you’re trying to learn Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 there are excellent online resources available. I recommend checking these out: Microsoft Office Online offers more than twenty PowerPoint 2007 Courses PowerPoint 2007 Tutorial developed by Florida Gulf Coast University   PowerPoint Training Games Here’s a great resource for PowerPoint users. This site provides “Training games designed to present your training material in a fun and interactive game that will increase retention, excitement, and participation.”  You can even download a free Ice Breaker game.  Games are an excellent way to make your training and presentations more interesting and effective. Go to www.training-games.com   Nudging Objects on PowerPoint 2007 Slides Have you ever tried to move an object on a slide just a little? Try this: Select the object Press Ctrl + an arrow key This tip also works in earlier versions.   Learning PowerPoint 2007 If you’re trying to get a handle on learning PowerPoint 2007, these articles may help: Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 new interface What's New in PowerPoint 2007   Turning Photos into PowerPoint 2007 Slide Shows To turn your digital pictures into PowerPoint 2007 slide shows: Click the Insert tab on the Ribbon In the Illustrations group, click Photo Album On the Photo Album dialog box, click the File/Disk button to Insert pictures Click the Create button Click here if you're using an earlier version of PowerPoint   Create a Duplicate Slide in PowerPoint If you just spent a long time creating a PowerPoint slide and need a new slide which is similar, just create a duplicate: In Normal view make sure the slide you want to duplicate is selected Choose Insert from the pull-down menu Choose Duplicate slide The new slide is inserted after the current slide.    Improve Your PowerPoint Presentations The Microsoft Web site has great articles to help you use all of their software.  In Five Easy Ways to Improve Your Presentations with Microsoft PowerPoint the author “…presents five simple yet powerful features in Microsoft PowerPoint that can help you communicate more effectively.”  In the section entitled “Avoid Awkward Moments”, we learn to change the way the right mouse button pops up a menu, rather than displaying the previous slide.  “This can result in an awkward moment in the presentation when the presenter truly wants to slip back to the previous slide.” To stop this from happening, do this: Select Tools from the pull-down menu Choose Options Click the View tab In the Options dialog box, clear the Popup menu on right mouse click box Now the left mouse button simply goes to the previous page. You can still bring up the Menu if you need to by clicking the icon in the lower left corner: Change Text Case in PowerPoint To change the case of text in PowerPoint, try this: Select text Press Shift + F3 until it changes to the desired case style Pressing Shift + F3 toggles the text case between all caps, lower case, and initial cap styles. Be sure to hold down the Shift WHILE you press F3.  You can also try this in Word.   Save Video from the Internet Have you ever wanted to use a video clip found on the Internet in a PowerPoint presentation? Unfortunately, it isn't as easy as saving a picture from the Internet which often involves simply right clicking the picture and choosing Save Picture As from the menu.  A recent article posted on CNET.com.au lists three ways to capture and save video from the Internet. Tip 1: Capture with Web sites Tip 2: Capture with a Firefox extension Tip 3: Capture with commercial programs Check it out! Go to www.cnet.com.au    Keep Text Concise in PowerPoint When creating PowerPoint slides, it’s important to keep the amount of information in bullet points concise.  To help keep your slides crisp, remember the “six by six” guideline: Slides should have no more than six bullet points Bullet points should have no more than six words   Playing Sounds Across Slides in PowerPoint One of the most frequently asked questions in my PowerPoint workshops is how to play sounds across slides. Sounds stop playing when you move to the next slide. If you want them to play across multiple slides or even for the entire presentation, try this: Go to the slide where you want the sound to begin playing Choose Insert, Movies and Sounds, Click Sound from Clip Organizer (or Sound from File) to insert the sound. If you don't want the sound icon to appear in the slide show, drag it just off the slide. Click yes when asked if you want the sound to play automatically. If you are not asked this, don't worry, the next steps will let you set that (or double-check the settings if you were asked and said yes.) Right-click the sound's icon and pick Custom Animation from the popup menu. The Custom Animation pane will open and your sound file should be listed. Click the arrow directly to the right of the sound icon to pull down the various options. Select Effect Options, and on the Effects tab, click the radio button beside Stop Playing after XXX slides. Put 999 in the box so the track will play throughout all your slides, even if you go back and forth among slides. PowerPoint considers each transition a "slide," so you want to put a large number in there. Check the settings in the Timing tab. To play automatically, the timing should be set to Start After Previous with a 0-second delay.Click OK to close the dialog box.   Reduce File Size of PowerPoint Presentation If you're working on a PowerPoint presentation and notice that the file seems to expand for no apparent reason, you may be able to reduce the file size up to 50% by using the File Save As command: Choose File from the pull-down menu Select Save As Enter a new name for the file Click Save

Creating Templates in PowerPoint

Create a slide background that contains the colors, fonts, graphics or logos, and design you wish to use for your presentation. Then save it as a template:

	Select File from the pull-down menu.
	Choose Save As.
	Click the Save as type down-arrow, then choose Presentation Template or Design Template.
	Notice that the location has changed to Templates. If this has not occurred, locate the Templates folder residing within the Office folder and double click on the Presentations Designs folder to open it.
	Now click in the File Name list box and type a name for your template file.
	Click Save.

Continuous-play PowerPoint Slide Shows

To play a PowerPoint slide show in a continuous loop:

	Select Slide Show from the pull-down menu
	Select Set up show
	Check Loop continuously until 'Esc'

To set display time for each slide:

	Select Slide Show from the pull-down menu
	Select Slide Transitions
	Under Advance slide, check Automatically after and specify number of seconds (00:02 = 2 seconds)
	Click the Apply to All Slides button.

PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts (Complete List)

Last year we published a short list of PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts you can use while running your slideshow.  But did you know there were literally dozens of shortcuts that you can use in PowerPoint?  And many of them also work in Word, Excel, Access and other Windows programs.  One of my favorite keyboard shortcuts is Nudge objects in PowerPoint. 

The tip I use the most is Ctrl + ] and Ctrl + [ to increase or decrease the font size of selected text.  This trick also works in Word. Click here to download a list of PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts as a .pdf file.
 

Rehearse Timing of Slides in PowerPoint

1. Select Slide Show from the pull-down menu.

2. Click Rehearse Timings to start the show in rehearsal mode.

3. Click the arrow to advance when you're ready to go to the next slide.

4. When you reach the end of the slide show, click Yes to accept the timings or No to start over.
    

Add Movies or Sounds to PowerPoint Slides

1. Display the slide you wish to add a movie or sound to
2. Choose Insert from the pull-down menu
3. Select Movies and Sounds
4. Make your selection from the menu
    

Using the Slide Master in PowerPoint

Using Slide Summary in PowerPoint

To introduce or close a slide show presentation, you can create a slide that includes the titles of selected slides in your presentation.

1. In slide sorter view, select the slides whose titles you want to use. To select multiple slides, hold down CTRL and click the slides you want. 
2. On the Slide Sorter toolbar, click the summary slide button  
    

Creating Soft Shadows in PowerPoint

You can create "soft" shadows for square or round objects that sit on a solid color background. Make a copy of the object, then change its fill to be shaded from black to the background color, with the shading set with black going from the center out to the background color at the edges. Make this object about 150% bigger than the original object, and put it behind the object. This will give you the effect of "soft" shadows.

1. Insert menu, AutoText

2. Choose Header/Footer

3. Choose FileName and path
    

Writing Bullet Points in PowerPoint

When using bullet points on a presentation slide, remember:

	Bullet Points Are Not Sentences Do not write an entire sentence as a bullet point. A bullet point should convey the key point only.
	Reveal the Key Idea Only Bullet points are short summations of the key points of the presentation.
	Use a Consistent Style Start bullet points with a verb or a noun – a verb is more action oriented and is usually preferred.
	Be sure to use verbs of the same tense The present tense is most common and the past tense is next most common.
	Use the same capitalization in all bullet points Usually the first letter of the first word is capitalized and the rest of the words are in lower case.
	Use the same punctuation in all bullet points Usually there is not need to use a period at the end but if you choose to, be consistent.
	Remember the 6 by 6 Guideline Keep bullet points concise with the “six by six guideline”. Have no more than six bullet points and no more than six words per bullet point. Not a strict rule, but a good guideline to help keep slides concise.

Convert PowerPoint to Word

Have you ever wanted to include PowerPoint slides, notes, or outlines in a Word document?  Here is a simple solution:

	Open the PowerPoint presentation you wish to convert to Word
	Select File from the pull-down menu
	Choose Send to
	Choose Word to open the Send to Microsoft Word dialog box

	Select the page layout for your Word document
	Paste link your slides if you want to continue to change them in PowerPoint and have the changes displayed in Word

AutoFit Text in PowerPoint

In PowerPoint AutoFit intentionally shrinks the size of  text as large amounts are added to a slide.  The top complaint about PowerPoint slide presentations is text that is too small.  PowerPoint Design templates were originally created to force good design by setting font size automatically.  The AutoFit feature defeats this purpose and actually encourages too much text on slides by shrinking it as you type, allowing people to use fonts too small to be seen. 

 To turn AutoFit off:

	Choose Tools from the pull-down menu
	AutoCorrect Options
	Click the tab for AutoFormat As You Type
	Uncheck the 2 options under the Apply as you type section: AutoFit title text to placeholder AutoFit body text to placeholder.
	Click OK.  The change applies to active and future PowerPoint presentations, old presentations are not affected.

Using Hyperlinks in PowerPoint

When adding a hyperlink to a presentation, be careful that the target of the hyperlink is available. If you are giving the presentation offsite using a laptop, all the targets need to be on the laptop as well, unless your laptop is actively connected to the Internet. A good alternative is to copy Web site documents you think you will need to your laptop and hyperlink to those documents. The advantage is that you don't have to depend on getting a good connection to the Internet at your offsite location.
 

Changing Clip Art Colors in PowerPoint

	Right click on the clip art image
	Click the Picture tab
	Click the Recolor button
	Select new colors from the Recolor dialog box
	Click OK

Microsoft PowerPoint Online Tutorial

If you’re trying to learn to use Microsoft PowerPoint, try this online tutorial developed by Florida Gulf Coast University:

Turning Photos into PowerPoint Slide Shows

To turn your digital pictures into PowerPoint slide shows:

	Select Insert from the pull-down menu
	Click on the Picture menu option
	Click on New Photo Album
	Select pictures from the Photo Album dialog box
	Click the Create button

Preview Transitions in PowerPoint

This tip comes to us from nerdybooks.com.  Check it out!
 

Replace Fonts Globally in PowerPoint

You can quickly perform a global replace of any font used in a Microsoft PowerPoint® presentation using the Replace Font dialog box:

1.      On the Format menu, click Replace Fonts.

2.      In the Replace Font dialog box, click the font you want to replace in the Replace list.

3.      In the With list, click the font you want to apply.

4.      Click Replace and review the font change. If you like what you see, click Close. If not, you can continue making choices in the Replace Font dialog box until you find what you want.

This tip comes to us from www.microsoft.com, courtesy of Tom Johnson, Tacoma, Washington
 

Animation in PowerPoint 2002

Animation schemes are a new feature of PowerPoint 2002, so if you're upgrading from an earlier PowerPoint version, you'll appreciate how much animation schemes simplify the task of setting up animations.

An animation scheme is simply a predefined slide transition and a collection of animation effects applied to slide objects. One of the most basic animation schemes is called Appear, which sets up the body paragraphs so that they appear out of thin air one at a time. More complex animation schemes cause text to fly in, do back flips and somersaults, and spin around until it gets dizzy.

To apply an animation scheme to your slides, follow these steps:

1. Move to the slide you want to apply the animation scheme to. If you want to apply the animation scheme to all your slides, you can skip this step, because it doesn't matter which slide you start from.

2. Choose the Slide Show-->Animation Schemes command.

3. Click the animation scheme you want to use.
   
   PowerPoint gives you a preview of what the animation looks like by animating the current slide. If you want to see the preview again, just click the animation scheme again.
   
   The animation schemes are organized into three categories: Subtle, Moderate, and Exciting. At the very beginning of the list of animation schemes, you find the five schemes you've most recently used. In addition, you find a category called "No Animation" with just one entry, "No Animation,"  which removes all animation from the slide.
   
   Clicking the animation scheme doesn't just preview the animation on the current slide, but actually assigns that scheme to the current slide. If you choose to retain the animation you had before, just press Ctrl+Z or choose Edit-->Undo.
    

4. If you want to apply the animation to the entire presentation, click Apply to All Slides.
    

5. Preview the entire show to make sure the animation works.
   
   You can start the slide show by clicking the Slide Show button in the Animation Scheme Task Pane, or by choosing Slide Show-->View Show or pressing F5.
   
   This information was summarized from an article on www.dummies.com.
    

Scanned Images for PowerPoint Slides

If you are including scanned images in your on-screen presentations, be sure to scan your images at the appropriate resolution.

For example: if your presentation will only ever be shown on a PC at 800x600 resolution, don’t scan at higher than 800x600 pixels.  If you scan at a higher resolution your slides will be slow to load and take up additional disk space.

To save more disk space and make your presentations run even faster, try changing the number of colors in the pictures to 256.  
 

Nudging Objects on PowerPoint Slides

Have you ever tried to move an object on a slide just a little? Objects snap to a grid, but it can still be difficult to move them a small amount. Try one of these methods:

	Press Ctrl + an arrow key to move a selected object in increments of .02 inches
	On the Drawing toolbar, select Draw and Nudge, then choose Up, Down, Left or Right to move the selected object one grid unit
	Press Alt while you drag an object to disable the grid and allow more control

Bad PowerPoint Presentations

The top things that audiences find annoying about bad PowerPoint presentations:

	The speaker read the slides
	Text too small to read
	Slides contain full sentences instead of bullet points
	Slides hard to see because of color choice
	Moving/flying text or graphics
	Annoying use of sounds
	Overly complex diagrams or charts

“Survey Shows How to Stop Annoying Audiences With Bad PowerPoint" by Dave Paradi, September 20, 2003.
 

PowerPoint Shortcut Keys