How to PowerPoint

Someone asked how I animated the office people in the Security Demo that I posted a while back.  So here’s a quick tutorial to show you three ways to do that type of animation.

 The basic techniques are here:

• Create a single motion path
• Create a series of motion paths
• Use the Flash once animation and duplicate the object

PowerPoint Animation Tutorial

Click here to view the PowerPoint animation tutorial.

Most people use the mouse and cursor to navigate the PowerPoint features.  However, there’s a faster way.  And that’s by using keyboard shortcuts.

Common Keyboard Shortcuts

There are some keyboard shortcuts that I use all the time.  They are:

CTRL+D =  duplicate slides or objects

CTRL+M = create a new slide

CTRL+X = cut the object off the screen and place on the clipboard

CTRL+C = copy object and place on clipboard for pasting

CTRL+V = paste object from clipboard

While those are the ones I use most of the time, there are all sort of shortcuts available via the keyboard.  And once you know what they are and how to use them, it can really speed up your production.

Using the CTRL key and it works is the same across PowerPoint versions.  With the introduction of the ribbon toolbar in PowerPoint 2007, how you use the ALT key is a little different.

Below are two quick video tutorials that explain how to use keyboard shortcuts in the different versions.

Using Keyboard Shortcuts in PowerPoint 2003

Here’s an earlier post that describes the PowerPoint 2003 tutorial in more detail.

Click here to view the PowerPoint 2003 tutorial.

Using Keyboard Shortcuts in PowerPoint 2007

Here’s an earlier post that describes the PowerPoint 2007 tutorial in more detail.

Click here to view the PowerPoint 2007 tutorial.

In Hollywood, when they make movies that require special effects they’ll use the infamous blue screen (although many times it’s a green screen).  What they do is shoot the scene and then later replace the colored screen with a different image or video.

They choose a color screen that can easily be selected and replaced.  Today, you’ll learn to do something similar in PowerPoint. 

Let’s say you have a PowerPoint shape and you want to put a hole in it.  In the example below, we’re going to create a piece of paper that looks like a 3-ring binder page.  What we want to do is have the holes in the page be transparent.

• Create the piece of paper in PowerPoint using the rectangle tool.
• Then add three circles.
• Fill the circles with a lime green (or any other color).
• Get rid of the outline color.
• Select the object and cut it from the screen (or CTRL+X).  This places it on the clipboard.
• Select Paste Special and paste it as a .PNG file.  By pasting as a PNG file, you’ll maintain the image quality and retain any transparency.

• Select the Set Transparent Color feature and click on the green color.  That will make the green color transparent and you should end up with a see through hole.

That’s basically it.  The transparent tool in PowerPoint 2007 and lower can only work on one color, that’s why you want the fill to be solid and to be a color that is no where else in the image.  PowerPoint 2010 has a more sophisticated transparent tool feature.

Once you master this technique you’ll find all sorts of uses for it, like getting rid of backgrounds.  Here’s a tutorial that shows it in action.

PowerPoint Tutorial

Click here to view the PowerPoint tutorial.

Save to PDF

Paste Special is one of those commands that doesn’t get used a lot in PowerPoint, yet it offers a lot of extra functionality.  Let’s look at some of what you can do with the Paste Special command.

Below I added a bunch of information from the Microsoft site with a link.  If you are inclined to learn everything about Paste Special, have at it.  For those looking for the nuts and bolts, here it is.

You can copy Excel data and charts from Excel and paste that into your PowerPoint slide.  I’ll cover that in a future tutorial.  For today, we’ll focus on objects and graphics.

When you copy an object it gets placed on the clipboard.  This allows you to paste the object copied.  However, by selecting Paste Special, you can paste the object and apply some other features.

One of the reasons I use Paste Special is to create a graphic in PowerPoint and then copy and paste it as an image so that I can use the object as an image rather than as a PowerPoint object. 

A good example of this might be when I want to use the picture effects with something I created in PowerPoint.  By copying and Paste Special I can convert the PowerPoint object to an image file on the fly.  This is a big time saver.

To learn more about Paste Special, check out the quick tutorial.

PowerPoint Tutorial

Click here to view the PowerPoint tutorial.

Microsoft Office Help

Here’s some detailed information from the Microsoft site.  It explains Paste Special in detail.

You can specify formatting when you paste slides, pictures, objects, and text from other presentations, programs, or the Web into your presentation.

For example, like pictures and other objects, text in a presentation has its own formatting — such as typeface, color, and font size. When you copy text that has different formatting into your presentation, PowerPoint automatically reformats that text to match the text in your presentation. However, you can use Paste Special to maintain the original formatting.

Note   If you want to display Microsoft Office Excel data, charts, or graphs in your PowerPoint slides, see the articles, Copy Excel data or charts to PowerPoint and Use charts and graphs in your presentation.

1. Cut or copy the slide, picture, text, or object (object: A table, chart, graphic, equation, or other form of information. Objects created in one application, for example spreadsheets, and linked or embedded in another application are OLE objects.) that you want to paste.
2. On the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, click the arrow under Paste, click Paste Special, and then do one of the following:
   • To specify the format that you want to paste the slide, text, or object as, click Paste, and then use the table below to select a format from the Use this format list.

   • To add a hyperlink to a separate document or presentation, click Paste Link.

     Note   The Paste Link option is unavailable if you cut or copied content from a document that does not support the Paste Link option, or if the document that you are attempting to link to has not been saved.

To paste the content as an Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) (OLE: A program-integration technology that you can use to share information between programs. All Office programs support OLE, so you can share information through linked and embedded objects.) PowerPoint application icon (rather than pasting the actual content), select the Display as icon check box. You can click the icon to open the application, and then view the content.

Note   The Display as icon check box is only available if you use Paste Link or if you paste the content as an OLE object. You can then can change the icon for the content that you pasted.

There are a number of ways to start working on your PowerPoint slides.  Some people like to start with a template or choose a theme.  I usually like to get my content outlined and kind of right before I work on the look and feel of the presentation.

In today’s post I am going to show how to use the outline view when starting your PowerPoint presentation.

How to Use Outline View

• Create a new presentation.  You can use a template if you want, but I just start with a blank slide.

• When you get to the slide, click on the Outline tab. Then add your slide titles.  When you hit Enter, you stay on the same level and can enter another slide title.

• If you want to add a subtitle (or bullet point), press on the Tab key.  That takes you down one level.
• To go back up a level, press Shift + Tab.  It’s as easy as that.

I like to quickly outline my thoughts using the Enter, Tab, and Shift Tab keys.  Once I have my basic content outlined, I’ll start working on the slides.

PowerPoint Tutorial

Here’s a video tutorial that walks you through the steps above in more detail.

Click here to view the PowerPoint tutorial.

In an earlier post, we covered keyboard shortcuts for PowerPoint 2003.  Today, we’ll look at the differences in PowerPoint 2007.

CTRL Key

Just like PowerPoint 2003, you can use the CTRL key for quick access to features. 

ALT Key

The big difference between PowerPoint 2003 and 2007 is the ALT key feature.  When you click on the ALT key in PowerPoint 2007, you get visual cue for all of the available shortcuts.  This makes sense since this version of PowerPoint uses the ribbon toolbar and not a dropdown menu.

To activate a feature, select ALT and then the letter or number associated with the feature.

PowerPoint 2007 Tutorial

Here’s a quick tutorial that shows how to use the keyboard shortcuts in PowerPoint 2007.

Click here to view the tutorial.

One of my favorite features in the newer versions of PowerPoint is the design theme.  They’re nice quality and professional looking visual themes to make your presentations look more polished.

PowerPoint comes with some built-in themes.  And you can always go to the Microsoft Office Online to find and select additional themes.

In today’s post, I’d like to share two ways to select your design themes.

1) Start with a Theme 

• Create a new file.
• Select Installed Themes.
• Select your theme.
• Click on Create.

2) Inside an Open PowerPoint File

• Click the Design tab.
• Roll your mouse over the thumbnails to preview the themes.
• Select your theme by clicking on it.

Below is a tutorial, to see the how to select a design theme in PowerPoint.

PowerPoint Tutorial

Click here to view the PowerPoint tutorial.

Keyboard shortcuts are a fast way to work with your slides and objects in PowerPoint 2003.  The key is to learn the shortcuts for your most common tasks.

The CTRL Key

Most of the features in the drop down menu offer a keyboard shortcut.  You’ll see them next to the feature.

If the shortcut is active and available to use, it will be in black.  If it’s inactive and not available, it’s grayed out.

The ALT Key

When you look at the top of the toolbar, you’ll notice that some letters are underscored.  For example, the file menu read as, File.  When you press the ALT key, that will highlight the menu.

Then select the underscored letter and it will active the menu item.  From there, just keep pressing the underscored letter of the feature you want to use.

In the example below, we want to insert a new comment.

• So we press ALT+I since Insert is underscored.  That opens the insert menu.
• Then we select M for comment and it will create a new comment.

It takes a little getting used to, but once you got it, you’ll find that it does make working in PowerPoint much easier and faster.

PowerPoint 2003 Tutorial

Here’s a quick tutorial that shows how to use keyboard shortcuts in PowerPoint 2003.

Click here to view the PowerPoint tutorial.

One of my favorite features in PowerPoint 2007 and beyond is that I can right click and swap out images.  This is really helpful if you have effects or animations applied to your images.

In the older versions of PowerPoint, you had to delete the image and replace it with another.  Then you’d have to reapply the effects and animations.  That’s not the case anymore.

All you do now is right click on the image, and select Change Picture.  From there you select a new image. And voila! You have a new image with all of the animations and effects intact.

Here’s tutorial that gives you some more detail so you can see it in action.

PowerPoint Tutorial

Click here to view the tutorial.

So you can see, it’s pretty easy and a big time saver, especially if you pre-build animations to be reused.  It definitely comes in handy if you build rapid elearning courses.

Do you have any simple time saving tips?

The problem with most PowerPoint slides is that they look like PowerPoint slides.  There’s usually not a lot of creativity or visual design applied to look and feel of the presentation.

Well, here’s a simple tutorial that shows you how to use the gradient fills in PowerPoint to create slides that are visually rich and very dynamic.

Essentially, you’re going to create a rectangle shape in PowerPoint.  Apply a gradient fill with some transparency, and lay that on top of the main image.

Check out the tutorial below for all of the details.

PowerPoint Tutorial

Click here to view tutorial.

As you can see, it’s a simple technique that produces great results.