Here are a series of tutorials that offer some nice techniques on creating picture frames in PowerPoint.
Picture Frame Example
Bruno De Pace of Evolve Training & Consulting has a couple of good examples of picture frames created in PowerPoint. You can see it by itself or on a desk in a scene.
I was watching Tracy Hamilton’s tutorial on nudging objects and it made me think about a few ways to create the picture frame look she desired. So here’s my simple picture frame tutorial.
I build elearning courses with PowerPoint and publish with Articulate Presenter. This is typically called rapid elearning. I write about it on my work blog, The Rapid E-Learning Blog.
Traditionally, elearning courses are built in Flash or other applications. Because of this, when people hear that courses are built in PowerPoint they’ll immediately think that it’s boring bullet point slides. And I can understand why because there’s so much of it out there.
To show you that PowerPoint is an effective tool for building elearning courses, I recreated a course that was originally built in Flash. For my demo, I built all of the graphics and assembled it in PowerPoint alone. Then I published it with Articulate Presenter.
I like to use PowerPoint for most of my basic graphic design work. First, I don’t need to leave the application and open something else. Second, PowerPoint’s a pretty decent program for some simple graphic design.
I needed to create a stack of papers for a project recently, so I built this quick tutorial to show you what I did. As you can see, it’s pretty easy to do.
Once you have the graphics built, just right click and save them as image files.
The only way you’re going to improve your PowerPoint skills is through practice. There’s really no substitute. If you want to be a PowerPoint superstar, you’ve got to take it up a notch and create something that makes people go, “Wow!”
The only way you’ll become a superstar is by learning to really use PowerPoint. Here are some tutorials featured on the Rapid E-Learning Blog recently that help you learn more about PowerPoint.
David Anderson offers some really good tips on how to get rid of your bullet points. First he offers a two part series on get ridding of text and replacing it with the right visual elements.
By progressively revealing information you can sync your graphics and text with your narration. Using timed animations also means you can get rid of that standard PowerPoint bullet point look.
By following David’s ideas you can make your slides less text-heavy and more visually interesting. You also dump that typical bullet point look that so many complain about.
Not sure I mentioned this or not, but I pulled some of the PowerPoint tutorials together that I’ve written for the Rapid E-Learning Blog. Here’s a link to the resources.
Here’s a quick tutorial that I did for a friend who wanted to know how to customize clip art characters.
Basically steps
Select the character
Ungroup the clip art
Customize it
Select all and group to make a single image
If you like, save the character as a distinct graphic file. EMF = keeps it vector so you can scale. If you’re using gradient colors, you might want to save as a .PNG.
In the tutorial he covers how to save the assets you create and use in your PowerPoint slides. One of the benefits of creating your graphics in PowerPoint is that you can easily share the development files.
He also discusses three image formats and how they work in the slides.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Use this format
When:
Formatted Text
You want the text to retain the formatting of the text from the other presentation, program, or Web page.
Note When you copy text from another presentation, the Web, or a different program (that has different formatting) into to your presentation, by default, that text is automatically reformatted to match the text in your presentation.
Unformatted Text
You want the text to take on the formatting of the presentation you are pasting to.
The GIF file format is limited to 256 colors, and is therefore most effective for scanned images, such as illustrations, and less effective for color photographs. GIF is also a good file format for line drawings, black and white images, small text that is only a few pixels high, and animation.
The PNG file format is similar to GIF but it provides better color support. It compresses solid areas of color while preserving sharp detail, such as the detail in line art, logos, or illustrations with text.
You can save, restore, and resave a PNG image without degrading its quality. Unlike GIF files, PNG does not support animation, and some older Web browsers and applications do not support PNG.
You can save a picture as a 16-bit graphic (for use with Windows 3.x and later).
Picture (Enhanced Metafile)
You want the contents of the Clipboard to appear as an Enhanced Metafile (EMF) format.
You can save a picture as a 32-bit graphic, which supports more sophisticated graphics functions.
Device Independent Bitmap
You want the contents of the Clipboard to appear as a Device Independent Bitmap (DIB), such as a slide acting as a graphic for use on Web pages.
A DIB is a representation (that consists of rows and columns of dots) of a graphics image in computer memory. The value of each dot (filled in or not) is stored in one or more bits of data.
The Microsoft Windows BMP format can display millions of colors. Because it is supported by several programs, it is an extremely practical file format to use when you are providing an image to someone who may not have the program in which you created the image.
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.
David Anderson of Articulate shows how to create an interactive scenario in PowerPoint. While the tutorial is focused a bit on rapid elearning, once you learn the techniques, you could use it in many contexts.
It’s also an interesting way to create a 2.5D animation in PowerPoint.
What you’ll learn:
In the tutorial you’ll learn to add motion paths to images. By varying the timing and length of the motion path, you can create a look that simulates more of a 3D type motion.
The tutorial below is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to using PowerPoint for animation. In fact learning basic animation techniques and concepts is a good way to go if you want to get the most out of PowerPoint.
provides a lot of the basics and foundational concepts for animation.
