The PowerPoint® Blog

In the original slide there was a nice graphic and the layout was clean and balanced. It did not have bullet points for the text, a small graphic or many other common layout issues.

For the presentation makeover as series of colored and slightly beveled shapes were used throughout. Keeping consistency the text was highlighted on the circle, the demographic image on a rounded corner rectangle and the two connected with the gradient (triangle).

- Troy @ TLC

The recolor feature (FORMAT >> RECOLOR) can customize an image, saving a trip to Photoshop. For this presentation I needed to use the same content in 3 color coded sections. Once the funnel image was optimized and saved from Photoshop as a .png with no background I was able to do the rest in PowerPoint. Here is my original, simple greyscale funnel.

And here the funnel on 3 slides - no grey.

The funnel image used the custom color recolor:

The bars use a 2 color gradient fill with just color 1 adjusted (color 2 = white and 100% transparent).

Download the sample presentation to see the recolor tool in use (129K). Note: if your browser changes downloaded file to".zip" rename to ".pptx".

- Troy @ TLC

If you develop PowerPoint templates, this new add-in from OfficeTips (PowerPoint MVP Shyam Pillai) is a MUST HAVE. Adding a custom color scheme is a tedious process that is now super easy, just fill in the swatches with the colors needed for the template, click apply, done!

Install the free 'Color Swatch' add-in (PPT 2007, 2010) and it adds these 2 options to the ribbon:

Click 'Create Swatch Slide' and this slide is added to the presentation:

Simply change the fill color to all boxes as needed for the template custom color scheme. Here I have created a blue/green color pallette (leaving the first 4 boxes the same):

With the colors set click 'Apply Swatches to Color Theme' and give the color scheme a name (which will show up in DESIGN >> COLORS):

When applied the RGB value for each color swatch is updated automatically!

But wait, there's more!

Here is a standard color pallette. It shows theme colors, MS standard colors, and additional options:

Maybe you have seen a corporate template another section called 'Custom Colors'. PPT can pin additional colors to a theme, but up until now it involved xml coding with no visual interface to get these often needed colors into the template. Now it is as easy as applying a fill color to some boxes!

Here I have updated the Swatch slide with 3 custom colors. I have also named them (Yellow, Red, Moss).

Now when I look at the color pallette I have a new row of colors. And the Custom Color row travels with the presentation:

And the tooltip shows the color names assigned:

WOW!! This is a really, really incredible (and if you don't develop templates, trust me, this is incredible!). Here is the info and download page.

- Troy @ TLC

PowerPoint is a great tool for creating and manipulating mock-ups. And PPT 2007's drawing and style tools make it possible to complete entire projects without needing outside resources. As example, this application interface mockup was done completely with PowerPoint (eg. no photoshop, illustrator, or other external application).

The full project walked through several usage scenarios and was setup with trigger animations to allow the presenter to interact with the application to demonstrate the information flow.

- Troy @ TLC

At my meeting last week I was fortunate enough to have Guy Kawasaki as the guest and run his presentation.

Really great speaker, super presentation, cool website (alltop.com) and nice enough to pose for a photo.

- Troy @ TLC

A few asked about the event at Microsoft. It is a fantastic privelege to spend a few days on the Microsoft's Redmond campus for the MVP summit. There were over 1,500 Microsoft MVPs attending. There are 34 PowerPoint MVPs globally and 13 of us were able to accept an invitation from Microsoft to meet and talk about the future versions of PowerPoint.

Here is the press release:

1,300 of the world's top leaders from the technical community will spend four days at the Microsoft Corporate headquarters in Redmond, Washington this week for the 2010 Most Valuable Professionals (MVP) Global Summit.

Microsoft’s MVP Award Program is in its 17th year, with MVPs representing 96 countries, speaking 37 different languages and spanning 94 Microsoft technology areas.

The Summit gives Microsoft's product groups an extraordinary opportunity to listen to their MVPs during more than 700 sessions throughout the week.

Summit brings together some of the top leaders within global technical communities,” said Toby Richards, general manager, Community and Online Support for Microsoft. “I always look forward to this week and am extremely excited to engage with technology’s best and brightest and discuss what’s on their minds.”

- Troy @ TLC

Had a great time at Microsoft last week. I went directly from the Microsoft campus to a show in Los Angeles and am just now getting the opportunity to look at photos and reflect on the great things discussed.

I did take the opportunity to jump up on the main stage (after the sessions) - which is pretty unusual as I am usually behind the staging running the show.

And if you have wondered what a hotel lobby would look like with hundreds of Microsofts MVPs it would look like this - everyone using the wifi! And that empty chair was mine...

- Troy @ TLC

This great tip is from MS PPT MVP Sandy Johnson at The Presentation Wiz. In talking about developing presentation templates Sandy mentioned a disclaimer type slide she includes at the beginning of all templates to help the user understand there are some challenges in using PPT 2003 templates in PPT 2007 and vice-versa.

Here is the slide included in her templates:

This template has been created in PowerPoint 2003 and is designed to utilize 2003 design features. While presentations created using this template can be viewed in PowerPoint 2007, note that if our presentations are edited in 2007, some of your Slide Master features will be lost.
To that point, we strongly encourage the PowerPoint template best practice of always starting new presentations with a “fresh” Slide MASTER template (vs. reusing an old presentation).
Thank you.

This is a great idea and service to everyone that uses the template. Look for a various to be included in all of my PowerPoint templates from now on.

- Troy @ TLC

Fellow PPT MVP Echo Swinford has the most comprehensive list of new features (and a few now missing) at her site, echosvoice.com.

This is the most comprehensive compilation list I have seen with 60+ features listed. If you have been using PPT 2007 for a while, or recently moved it it, this has lots of good information on features you may be overlooking. Here is the link.

- Troy @ TLC

Flying up to Seattle for the week. Will be attending the Microsoft MVP Summit and having time with the PowerPoint development team and other PPT MVPs.

- Troy @ TLC