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Page 166 of PowerPoint tutorials, presentation essentials, personality interviews, and PowerPoint news.
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Author: Geetesh Bajaj
Product/Version: PowerPoint
April 23, 2014
Unlike the Windows versions of PowerPoint which shows the active Theme name on the Status bar, the Mac version does not show the active Theme name anywhere on its interface. If you need to know the active Theme's name for any open presentation, how do you find this information? You can find the name of the Theme applied to the presentation following the steps explained here.
Learn how to identify the active Theme name in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.
April 22, 2014
We start with an exclusive conversation with Sam Haddad who discusses PowerPointWriter, a solution that lets you create PowerPoint files with code. PowerPoint 2013 for Windows users can learn about manually embedding YouTube video, Smart Connectors, changing the default Theme or template -- and also about Table Style options. PowerPoint 2011 for Mac users can learn that there are ways in which you can make your chart Plot Area look different with texture and pattern fills. We also explore how you can alter Chart Gap Width. And if you are using PowerPoint 2010, learn how you can repair your Office installation. PowerPoint 2003 users will learn about editing, creating, and renaming Slide Masters. And finally, do not miss the new discussions and templates of this week!
Read Indezine's PowerPoint and Presenting News.
April 22, 2014
Microsoft has reinstated the support for YouTube videos in both PowerPoint 2010 and 2013 for Windows. You may recall that the option to insert online YouTube videos was removed a while ago due to code discrepancies in the syntax that Google started to use for YouTube embeds. During the time that this option was no longer available in PowerPoint, users had to opt for a longer process or even do this entire task manually. Now that automatic insertion is again possible, this will go a long way in making this task easy to accomplish.
Learn about support for YouTube videos now reinstated in PowerPoint 2010 and 2013 for Windows.
April 22, 2014
If you want to use a line that links two shapes together, you may then want that line to be always linked, even if move the original shapes. This sort of linking is called connecting shapes. And to keep these shapes connected, you most certainly will start by drawing a connector instead of a normal line. A connector looks like a line, but it stays connected to the shapes you attach it to. There are three types of connector lines: Straight, Elbow (angled), and Curved.
Learn about different connector types in PowerPoint 2013.
April 22, 2014
When you launch PowerPoint 2003, it opens an empty presentation of just one slide. Typically this one slide has a title placeholder and another placeholder for a subtitle -- typing any text within these placeholders shows black text over a white slide background. This is the default template PowerPoint 2003 provides -- but you don't have to live with these defaults. You change this blank presentation so that you get a slide that's part of your custom PowerPoint template. Or even any of the other templates built within PowerPoint.
Learn how to change the default template in PowerPoint 2003.
April 21, 2014
The default fill and border (line) that PowerPoint applies to chart elements are perfectly adequate. If you want something different, play with various Chart Styles available. While this works great most of the time, there will be occasions when you may want to use a particular color for any of your data series that's not part of the Theme palette in your presentation. In times like these, you can change the fill and border of chart elements manually using the techniques explained on this page.
Learn how to change the fill and the border of selected chart elements in PowerPoint 2013.
April 21, 2014
Applying a Theme to an existing presentation is easy -- and you'll find that plenty of Themes are already contained inside Office 2013. In PowerPoint 2013, these Themes can be found in Design tab of Ribbon. The same Themes that you apply in PowerPoint can also be applied in Word and Excel -- in both of these programs, the way of accessing Themes gallery is different from that of PowerPoint.
Learn how to apply Themes in PowerPoint, Word, and Excel 2013.
April 18, 2014
The Gap width within a chart is the space between two series points -- this by default is set to 150% of the width of individual Data Series (columns). Usually the gap width is automatically calculated based on the chart data and the Plot Area. The space between two series' points will be very narrow if there are many data series, or very wide when there are few data series. Even then, there is scope for some change in the gap width -- you can quickly increase or decrease this width.
Learn how to adjust the gap width within charts in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.
April 18, 2014
Slide Masters govern the several default attributes for your slides such as the slide background, font choices, colors, and even the positioning of the placeholders. In many ways thus, the Slide Masters are the backend workers of your presentation. And even though the Slide Masters in PowerPoint 2003 only include limited functionality, you can still use this functionality to either edit existing Slide Masters or even create your own Slide Master.
Learn how to create and rename Slide Masters in PowerPoint 2003.
April 17, 2014
When you create a new table in PowerPoint, you'll see some sort of default formatting applied to it. Most probably, you'll find that the table already has Banded rows and the Header row highlighted. While PowerPoint decides to turn on some of these Table Style Options, there are some that you can manually enable. All put together, you can play with 6 distinct Table Style Options that let you control the way through which table rows and/or columns can be made to stand apart.
Learn about Table Style Options in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows.
April 17, 2014
To make far reaching changes to your slides within PowerPoint 2003, you should always consider making these changes within the Slide Master rather than within individual slides – not only will this save you a load of time, but it will also make your slides look more consistent and professional.
Learn how to edit Slide Masters in PowerPoint 2003.
April 16, 2014
Patterns in PowerPoint are two-color designs that include lines, dots, dashes and checks. PowerPoint includes 48 such patterns with names such as 5%, plaid, weaves, shingle, and zigzag. Pattern fills can be particularly pleasing as a fill, especially if you use a simple pattern that comprises two subtle colors. You apply a pattern fill to the Plot Area of a chart in the same way as you would apply a solid color, a gradient, a picture, or a texture fill. Follow these steps to learn more.
Learn how to apply pattern fills to the Plot Area of a chart in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.
April 16, 2014
Microsoft Office 2010 was released on June 15, 2010. It is the successor of the previous version, Office 2007 and among the most used programs across the globe. However, after using the Office 2010 programs such as PowerPoint, Word, and Excel repeatedly -- there may be times when these Office 2010 applications face some serious issues such as crashes, corrupted files, etc. And in some scenarios you may not be able to run any Office 2010 application. At this state of time you may wish to perform some magical process that will resolve the issue.
Learn how to repair PowerPoint and Office 2010 for Windows.
April 15, 2014
Many times one diagram can form the basis of another one! A distance cartogram can double as a target diagram -- or in case of what we explain in this issue -- it can function well as a hot-and-cold diagram! Over to our next topic for this issue -- we discuss Office Themes. Over a hundred of these have shipped as part of Microsoft Office installations but there seems to always be a different collection with each release -- find out which Themes shipped with which version in our exhaustive listing. We then show you how PCB files are useful for storing and removing PowerPoint interface customizations. We also have an exclusive conversation with Noah Menikoff who discusses FlightDeck, a solution that lets you catalog and create PowerPoint slides. PowerPoint 2013 for Windows users can learn about points, lines, and Themes. PowerPoint 2011 for Mac users can learn that there are ways in which you can make your chart Plot Area look different. And PowerPoint 2003 users will learn about PCB files. And if you are using PowerPoint 2010, learn how you can set any template or Theme as the default for new presentations. And finally, do not miss the new discussions and templates of this week!
Read Indezine's PowerPoint and Presenting News.
April 15, 2014
Connectors are essentially some of the shapes found within the Lines category of the Shapes gallery in PowerPoint 2013. To understand why only some of these lines can work as connectors, we first need to understand what a connector is. A connector is a line that creates a link that joins two shapes or any other slide objects to create a relationship. These connectors are linked to the slide objects they are connected -- this means that they move automatically when the linked objects are moved. That's the reason why they are called "Smart connectors" -- you'll learn more about all the other smart things these connectors do in subsequent tutorials of this series.
April 15, 2014
When PowerPoint 2013 is launched, do you see an empty presentation with just one slide? This template influences the default look that PowerPoint provides -- the first slide typically has placeholders for the slide's title and subtitle. The text typed within these placeholders shows up in black over a white slide background. Although this default look works most of the time, you don't have to stick with these defaults. You can easily change the default look to something else -- for example, use your custom PowerPoint template or Theme as the default? Or even any of the other templates / Themes built within PowerPoint.
Learn how to change the default template or Theme in PowerPoint 2013.
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