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Page 129 of PowerPoint tutorials, presentation essentials, personality interviews, and PowerPoint news.
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Author: Geetesh Bajaj
Product/Version: PowerPoint
February 16, 2013
These Five Petals Circle graphics are part of our Petal Circles series that add stylized tips to your circle shapes. These two tip styles: Rounded and Pointed make your circles look different from conventional segmented circle graphics. They also break the monotony of text heavy slides, and help you explain concepts better to your audiences. Using these circle shapes also convinces your audiences that you care enough about them to make the slides look appealing and comprehensible. What's more, these shapes are also so much fun to use!
Buy and download these slides now.
February 15, 2013
If you have a bunch of commands that you use frequently, you may want to keep them more accessible within PowerPoint 2013 by customizing your Quick Access Toolbar -- you populate the QAT with commands you use often. Over a period of time, these customizations may become a valuable asset you want to save or share -- let us explore these scenarios.
Learn how to reset, export, and import QAT customization in PowerPoint 2013.
February 14, 2013
When you place a chart on your slide that contains a Z-axis, you will notice that unlike conventional 2D charts, these charts have distinct walls and a floor. Also by default, these walls and floor show no fill or even a border -- the lines you see within the walls are gridlines, and not borders. If your slide background is a solid color like white or black, these defaults could work best for you. However, you may want to play a bit with changing the fill or line attributes for the wall and floor elements. Do remember though that you should leave these elements in their default state unless you have a compelling reason to change them!
Learn how to format the walls and floor of a 3D chart in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.
February 13, 2013
Insert an audio file within your PowerPoint slide, and you can play it either with a click, or set it to play automatically. Whichever option you choose, some files can sound loud and unexpected! Have you not experienced the sudden scare or shock when a shrill voice interrupts an almost silent environment? Rather than shake the soul of your audiences, you can use PowerPoint's fade options to add a gradual increase to the volume of your audio files. PowerPoint provides both Fade In and Fade Out effects that you can add to the beginning and end of your audio clips. These fade options make your audio clips sound smoother and more subtle.
Learn how to fade in or fade out your audio clips in PowerPoint 2010.
February 12, 2013
When your 3D chart comprises columns of various heights, chances are that some of the columns hide other columns placed behind them. This is especially true with 3D charts that have a Z axis. One of the ways to make the columns placed behind visible is to make the taller columns transparent. The other way to solve this issue is to rotate the 3D chart so that you end up with a view in which the shorter columns become clearly visible.
Learn how to rotate 3D charts in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.
February 12, 2013
Do you frown at 3D charts, or do you love them? Either way, the Z-axis should be your friend -- let us introduce you to him in this newsletter issue! Also in this issue you will discover the 4 petal circle shape that can certainly add some pizzazz to make your everyday circles look better and more distinguished. We continue showing you how much customization PowerPoint 2013 offers -- you can do some incredible stuff with your Ribbon tabs. And if you love animation, then this amazingly simple Twin Trigger animation will make you blink stuff of your slides -- literally! We have two awesome interviews with Sam Thatte and Peter Zvirinsky, and an amazing guest column by Jerry Weissman. PowerPoint for Mac users can continue learning about charts -- explore crossed axes and adding transparency to 3D columns this time. All put together, this is an amazingly packed issue -- see you again next week.
Read all this and more in Indezine News.
February 11, 2013
You may have heard that 30 million PowerPoint presentations are created each day. Anyone and everyone seems to be quoting that figure! And the amazing part is not that 30 million is a big number. What I find more interesting is the fact that this figure was suggested 12 years ago. Frankly, this 30 million figure brings forth more questions than answers.
February 11, 2013
PowerPoint 2013 allows you to customize the Ribbon in a number of ways -- you can add Ribbon tabs, add Groups, and populate these with commands. And if you think you made a mess and were better off with the defaults, then you can always get back to square one. On another front, you can share your customizations with friends and colleagues -- or also your other computers. And you can export your customizations to a file saved as a backup for a rainy day!
Learn how to reset, export, and import Ribbon customization in PowerPoint 2013.
February 11, 2013
SlideBoom is a web site where you can upload and share your PowerPoint presentations -- at the back-end, a PowerPoint to HTML5 or Flash converting engine makes online movies of all your PowerPoint slides. Each uploaded presentation on SlideBoom is provided a unique page URL that you can share with friends and others who want to see your presentation.
Learn about SlideBoom -- a web site where you can upload and share your PowerPoint presentations.
February 9, 2013
These Four Petals Circle graphics are part of our Petal Circles series that add stylized tips to your circle shapes. These two tip styles: Rounded and Pointed make your circles look different from conventional segmented circle graphics. They also break the monotony of text heavy slides, and help you explain concepts better to your audiences. Using these circle shapes also convinces your audiences that you care enough about them to make the slides look appealing and comprehensible. What's more, these shapes are also so much fun to use!
Buy and download these slides now.
February 8, 2013
Sam Thatte is a presentation consultant and trainer specializing in helping businesses create content and visuals that are engaging and memorable. Along with presentation design and content development, Sam also conducts workshops and classes to teach presentation skills to businesses as well as individuals. Learn more at his website and blog. In this discussion, Sam discusses his free report on presentation titles called Vital Title - The How and Why of Presentation Titles.
February 8, 2013
OK -- you read the title right! We reiterate that you should still not use 3D charts unless you must have a Z-axis. Having said that, we are talking about making your 3D columns in a chart transparent. Yes, there's a reason to do so especially when you find that some of the columns in your 3D chart may be hiding behind one or more of the other columns, just because they are not tall enough.
Learn how to make 3D columns transparent for charts in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.
February 7, 2013
In my constant effort as a coach to persuade business people to remember that a picture is worth a thousand words and to avoid the dreaded " Presentation-as-Document Syndrome," presenters often protest, "But I’m not an artist!" Cast adrift from their familiar text slides, presenters are reluctant to try alternatives. However, you don't have to go out and buy a painter's smock and beret to break the mold of an endless parade of boring bullet slides. Begin with overarching concept that the primary -- and sole-purpose of your PowerPoint is to illustrate your narrative. Remember my often-repeated (because it still hasn't taken hold) recommendation that your business slideshow should follow the example of television news broadcasts: the anchorperson tells the story and the graphics serve as a headline that captures the essence of the story.
February 7, 2013
PowerPoint 2013's user interface has changes galore -- as soon as the application is launched you see the new Presentation Gallery. Then when you create a new presentation, you'll notice that all the slides are now set by default to widescreen 16:9 aspect ratios. Another very obvious change that does not make too many people happy is the new bright orange interface. Fortunately, this can be changed to a more subtle grey. Optionally you can get tattooed interfaces by applying Office Backgrounds. If these cosmetic changes were not enough, have you noticed that the tab names on the Ribbon are all in CAPs. It's almost as if PowerPoint is shouting! Learn how to change the Ribbon Labels from CAPs to Title Case in PowerPoint 2013.
Learn how to change the Ribbon Labels from CAPs to Title Case in PowerPoint 2013.
February 6, 2013
The Z axis is the Depth axis that some 3D charts contain -- sometimes this is also called the Series axis. Let us be clear about the fact that not all 3D charts contain a Z axis -- in fact some 3D chart variants use the third dimension even if they do not need a Z axis! They do so just because some people wrongly believe that 3D is so cool. Truth be said, 3D charts come with their own share of problems. You really must not create 3D charts if a Z axis is not required for your data. As Nancy Duarte says in her HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations book: "If you don't have a Z axis in your data, omit 3D effects -- the depth can make your numbers look larger than they are.
Learn about Z axis for Charts in PowerPoint.
February 5, 2013
We have a new look newsletter starting this week! There's a 3 petal variation of our circle graphic available now. PowerPoint 2010 users will learn more Slide Master techniques, PowerPoint 2013 users can explore options to customize the Ribbon and its tabs, and PowerPoint 2011 for Mac users are encouraged to learn more about Chart Axes. There are some Valentine Day goodies and 4 amazing guest posts or interviews by Sandra Schrift, Shawn Toh, Jim Confalone, and Dan Davenport. We hope you enjoy this newsletter!
Read all this and more in Indezine News.
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