This is the print version of this page. All content is copyright Indezine.com 2000-2023.
Page 092 of PowerPoint tutorials, presentation essentials, personality interviews, and PowerPoint news.
Previous Archive Page | Next Archive Page
Author: Geetesh Bajaj
Product/Version: PowerPoint
January 26, 2012
By default, no transitions are applied to any slide. However, once you apply transitions to your slides, you can tweak them aplenty. You can adjust the duration and timing of any transition, and even add a sound that will play while the slide transition happens. Further, each transition effect may or may not provide Effect Options. Effect Options enable you to have more control over the transition style applied to the slide -- follow these steps to explore Effect Options for slide transitions in PowerPoint 2010.
Explore slide transition Effect Options in PowerPoint 2010.
January 25, 2012
Podium is a PowerPoint add-in which enables you to do quite a bit with your slide content. You can manage your PowerPoint presentations, and you can use provided tools to enhance your presentations. You can also create a new presentation from scratch. Podium provides a huge library of media elements such as images, vector drawings, ready-to-use backgrounds, 3D clip art and shapes, embellishments, etc. All these elements are royalty free, and most of these can also be individually customized to match the look of your slides. Once installed, Podium creates a new tab on PowerPoint's Ribbon.
Learn about Podium, a PowerPoint add-in that lets you customize and enhance your slides.
January 25, 2012
You have already learned how to use three of the four line drawing tools in PowerPoint 2011: Line, Curve, and Freeform. In this tutorial, we show you how you can use the last of these line tools: the Scribble Line tool. Drawing with the Scribble line is almost the same as drawing with the Freeform line -- but there are two differences. First, you don't need to double click to establish the end point of your drawing when you are using Scribble tool. Just like you draw with a pencil on a piece of paper, your line stops the minute you stop drawing it. Second, the Scribble tool does not allow you to draw straight lines. Having said that, you still need to practice to make your scribble lines perfect.
Learn how to draw with the Scribble line tool in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.
January 24, 2012
Sound effects are one of those small touches that PowerPoint allows you to add to a slide transition. However, you need to tread with caution here since a sound playing with every slide transition can not only sound cheesy, but it can also unnecessarily distract your audience. Having said that, there are occasions where a sound effect can be wisely applied to PowerPoint slide transitions -- maybe a chime sound for just one slide? Whatever you decide, let us now show you how you can add a slide transition sound.
Learn how to add slide transition sounds in PowerPoint 2010.
January 24, 2012
Consider the typical bucketload of slides that most business presentations contain. What if the presenter retrieved the few important slides from that bucketload and concentrated on this important content -- and then he or she practiced these slides, researched possible questions and answers, and made as many improvements as possible all the while. I think this approach would work! So that's the thought of this week -- do ponder and share your feedback with me.
January 23, 2012
MapPrez is a PowerPoint add-in that enables you to insert maps, and add place locations as labels directly on inserted maps. All these actions can be done through a dedicated MapPrez tab in PowerPoint's Ribbon. All maps are sourced from Google -- and you can thus insert brilliant satellite and cartographic imagery with a click or two. In addition, MapPrez lets you superimpose vector maps on top of the inserted maps.
January 23, 2012
PowerPoint provides four line drawing tools: line, curve, freeform, and scribble. You have already explored the Line and Curve tools, and in this tutorial you will learn how you can use the Freeform tool to create lines that can be drawn with more creative freedom -- in fact the Freeform tool lets you draw just like using a pencil on a piece of paper. In addition, you can create straight lines as well. Although the Freeform tool takes a while getting used to, practice will make your attempts perfect.
Learn how to draw with the Freeform line tool in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.
January 21, 2012
Hundreds of stars twinkle, some more stars revolve and the hearts move along, in all their splendor! Amazing that everything can be animated to such precision using nothing other than shapes found within PowerPoint. Of course, we made sure that all shapes were filled with the perfect gradients that were color coordinated to the Theme of the presentation. And while this entire animated slide was created in PowerPoint 2010, it should work just fine in PowerPoint 2007 for Windows and PowerPoint 2008/2011 for Mac. All animations are set to repeat indefinitely so that the stars and the hearts keep twinkling and moving until you navigate to the next slide.
Download and use this slide in your presentation.
January 20, 2012
Two slides that contain text boxes – each character has a different text box associated and animated with it – and all the text is Theme aware so that it changes to the text colors that go well with the active Theme of your presentation. To add more text characters, just copy and paste existing text boxes. The animation and formatting of the text boxes will be copied as they are duplicated. We used PowerPoint 2010 to create this presentation, and it works best in either that version or in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac – although it does seem to work well even in older versions.
Download and use this slide for your own presentations.
January 20, 2012
In a previous tutorial you learned how to add transitions to your slides and edit the transition duration (speed). In this tutorial we'll show you how to edit transition timings. Remember that transition duration and transition timings are not the same. Transition time is the actual time that the slide stays active during a slide show before moving on to the next slide. Transition duration is the amount of time it takes to move between slides -- in previous versions of PowerPoint, duration was called speed. Normally, during a slide show, you can advance to the next slide by clicking your mouse (or pressing the Enter key on your keyboard). Using transition timings on the other hand, you can set your slides to advance on their own instead, and display each slide for a specific amount of time that you decide.
Learn how to set transition timings for the slides in PowerPoint 2010.
January 19, 2012
It's so simple to draw a straight, point to point line in PowerPoint. Now, in this tutorial we'll move on to show you how you can draw a curved line in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac. Within the Home tab of the Ribbon, click the Shape button to view the Shape gallery. Select the Lines and Connectors option within this gallery, and from the resultant sub-menu, select the Curve shape.
Learn how to draw a curved line in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.
January 18, 2012
PowerMockup is a PowerPoint add-in that lets you create mockups of anything you want to design - maybe a web site, even a Visual Basic program, a Flash movie, or any idea that you want to sketch or storyboard. It works entirely within the PowerPoint program interface, as you can see in Figure 1. PowerMockup adds a rich set of user interface elements (buttons, text boxes, navigation bars, etc.) which makes prototyping new concepts very easy - all within PowerPoint. Using PowerPoint as a mockup tool has many advantages because almost everyone knows how to use it.
Read the Indezine review of PowerMockup.
January 18, 2012
Every transition you add to a slide within PowerPoint 2010 has a fixed, default duration. Some transitions such as Cut happen sooner than you can imagine (just 0.10 seconds). Some others like Reveal can take 3.40 seconds to be done with. But you really do not need to be happy with the default transition durations as you can make them to happen for as long, or as soon as you want. Before we show you how you can change the duration, do remember that transition duration and transition time are not the same. While transition duration is what we are exploring in this tutorial, transition time is the actual time that the slide stays during a slide show before moving to the next slide. Transition timings are purely optional, since you can choose to let any slide show as long as you want and only move to the next slide with a mouse click. Transition duration though is not optional -- even if you do not change the duration, there still is a default duration for each transition effect.
Learn how to change the slide transition duration in PowerPoint 2010.
January 17, 2012
The power of simplicity pervades everywhere -- and is the key to conceptualizing, creating, and delivering any type of presentation. The need to weed out the unrequired, the aim to keep things as uncomplicated as we can, and to clearly understand what the audience wants -- these are all objectives that any presenter will associate with. And the best way to attain these objectives is with simplicity.
Read more in this week's newsletter.
January 17, 2012
PowerPoint is also a great drawing program with a feature set that rivals top end graphic programs. Yes, you have learned how you can use readymade shapes in PowerPoint to place rectangles, circles, and hundreds of other shapes. In addition, we have explored how you can create new shapes by combining one or more shapes. If these are not capable enough for you, PowerPoint includes the ability to create your own shapes from scratch by drawing them. These drawing tools are essentially the Line shapes that can be found within the Shape gallery.
Learn how to draw a line in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.
January 16, 2012
Irwin Hipsman is the director of customer community at Brainshark, Inc. Brainshark's cloud-based software lets users create online and mobile video presentations -– using simple business tools like PowerPoint and the telephone –- and then share and track their content. Thousands of companies use Brainshark to improve the reach and results of their business communications, while dramatically reducing costs. In this conversation, Irwin discusses Brainshark’s annual Sharkie Awards, which are now open for submissions.
You May Also Like: Learn PowerPoint 2011 for Mac: Edit Points for Shapes | AKVIS Refocus 1.5 Photoshop Plug-in Review
Microsoft and the Office logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
