Snap to It!
So, if you took a look at yesterday’s tip, you probably noticed the “Snap to” section at the top of the Grids and Guides window. (Ctrl + G or View menu, Grid and Guides choice).
Some of you may have been wondering what that was all about and I’d have to say that it’s a very good question. In response, I thought today might be a… Continue reading
Creating Custom PowerPoint Handouts in MS Word
Have you ever found yourself trying to create handouts to a PowerPoint presentation and wish you had a way to add questions or extra information next to the slide picture?
Maybe it’s a presentation for a seminar or a class you’re teaching and the handout with the complete slide pictures is great, but you still need a place to ask the important questions… Continue reading
Picture Perfect Lists
Do you use bulleted lists frequently? Ever find that you wish you had a little something new to spice up your list? I mean, those same old plain Jane bullets can get a little boring.
May I suggest that we take the bulleted list into our control and give them a face lift?
Yeah, I like the idea too, so let’s get right to business.
If the… Continue reading
Custom Shortcut Menus
What’s a shortcut menu, you ask? Not sure if you use them?
I’d bet that you use them all the time. You know when you’re working and you do that quick little right click? What happens?
Yep, that’s right. A small menu will open listing a few of the more useful options that are available. This is your shortcut menu.
So, now that you know you’re using… Continue reading
Slides From Files
Ever create a PowerPoint presentation and get a feeling of déjà vu? Sometimes you’re just positive you have created that slide before.
If you use MS PowerPoint frequently, I’d bet that you’re right. I’d even bet that you find yourself duplicating previous efforts by creating slides that are either identical or very similar to slides you already have in other files.
At the moment you feel the… Continue reading
Linked vs. Embedded Sound
Do you use a lot of music in your PowerPoint presentations? Do you then use these presentations on a different computer?
Ever had a problem with the music? Maybe the music you’ve used isn’t on the new computer and you didn’t know that you had to copy that file too. Oh no, what do you do now?
Well, you could always train yourself to copy sound… Continue reading
Just Give it a Nudge
When working in MS PowerPoint, are you frequently frustrated when you try to move objects just a teensy little bit?
I mean, you’re only trying to nudge the text box or graphic up the smallest amount, but every time you try to drag and drop with the mouse, it’s just too far.
A solution for that predicament certainly would come in handy!
Fortunately I’ve got… Continue reading
The Click-Less Presentation
Do you give presentations using MS PowerPoint?
Is it the mouse click you hear over and over again as you advance through your presentation? Or are you constantly reaching to hit a button on the keyboard?
And, let’s talk about moving backward through that presentation. If you’re only trying to move a slide or two back, it’s either to the keyboard you must go or through the… Continue reading
Change It Up
Do you use MS PowerPoint’s design templates? You know – the cool backgrounds that PowerPoint offers ready-made that can really help brighten up a presentation.
If you’re like me, you tend to have a hard time deciding which one to use and often change your mind several times while working on the presentation. During all the mind changing, do you ever wish for a quick and easy… Continue reading
Do you use Word’s built-in styles for quick and easy text formatting? You know, using the drop down list to the left of the font name?
Works great—not too difficult.
But… for everyone who likes the headings but hates using the mouse here are a few keyboard shortcuts to help you apply the most common styles.
Change It Up
Do you use MS PowerPoint’s design templates? You know – the cool backgrounds that PowerPoint offers ready-made that can really help brighten up a presentation.
If you’re like me, you tend to have a hard time deciding which one to use and often change your mind several times while working on the presentation. During all the mind changing, do you ever wish for a quick and easy… Continue reading
Leave My Addresses Alone!
Tired of the way your program (Excel, Word or PowerPoint) keeps changing all your web or email addresses into hyperlinks automatically?
Looking for a way to get these programs to stop it and behave themselves?
If you’ve been answering with yes responses then here’s just the thing for you.
What you have happening is the AutoCorrect feature of the program(s) is taking over each time it… Continue reading
3D Extreme
On Monday we had a little fun with our files and went over the 3D button located on the Drawing Toolbar.
Well, that was the basics—ready for the rest?
Was that a “Yes” I heard?
Good.
Then lets get back to the fun of 3D objects.
When you selected your object and clicked on the 3D button did you notice the option of 3D Settings at the bottom?… Continue reading
The Power of T
When you’re working in MS PowerPoint do you make multiple changes to the text font… such as font type, size, color, style, shadow effect, etc?
Do you prefer to make these changes in a “one-stop” place where all the selections are together instead of spread out among several different buttons, color palettes and lists?
If this suits your preferences then you’ve probably discovered PowerPoint’s Font dialogue… Continue reading
Fast Save = Bigger File Size?
Did you know that MS PowerPoint comes with a Fast Save option? In fact, PowerPoint has probably been using a Fast Save setting the whole time – so what exactly is it doing for you?
PowerPoint’s Fast Save “speeds up saving by recording only the changes in a presentation”. The good news is that your saves have been as fast as PowerPoint could offer… Continue reading
Use a lot of bulleted lists in MS PowerPoint? How about MS Word? Looking for quick ways to move items in your bulleted list without a cut / paste?
Or… maybe you’d like a way to promote and/or demote items in the list without all the extra work with the increase and decrease indent buttons.
Whatever your particular need, you’re sure to find something here that works for you!
First… Continue reading
There are many ways to navigate through an MS PowerPoint presentation but here’s a few quick key strokes that can save you some wasted mouse-to-keyboard time.
In the Normal View…
Here’s the situation: you have a really great MS PowerPoint presentation—it covers “everything”. It’s a masterpiece, if you do say so yourself.
Now you need a slightly different presentation—this one should cover only part of the “masterpiece” mentioned above.
What do you do?
You could simply skip through the unneeded slides while giving the presentation. Not a very slick or wonderful way to do it—distracting for the audience—definitely not your… Continue reading
Agenda Slides In MS PowerPoint
Have you ever found yourself creating an agenda slide for a presentation you’ve just completed?
You know—a slide at or near the beginning that lets the audience know what you plan to cover.
What did you do?
Did you simply put together a new slide containing the titles used on the other slides?
Yes?
Yeah, me too.
Want to save a lot of time?
What… Continue reading
Double Click on a MS PowerPoint Slide
Did you know that when you’re working in MS PowerPoint’s Slide Sorter you can double click on any slide to be taken back to the Slide or Normal View (depends on the version of PowerPoint) to edit your slide.
No more looking for the correct button in the bottom left of the window, no more View menu, no more searching… Continue reading
Did you know that in MS PowerPoint Ctrl + Enter does something really cool?
For my keyboard people here’s a little item I ran into today while doing some good old PowerPoint work.
While working, I found that Ctrl + Enter will move you from text box to text box within your slide.
Very cool—this one can save you some mouse-to-keyboard time.
But, there’s a catch.
(Of course—isn’t there… Continue reading
Setting Slide Transitions Quickly in MS PowerPoint
If you’re a PowerPoint user then you probably have, at one time or another, done some work with slide transitions.
As I’ve worked with people I’ve noticed that they go through the routine of viewing a slide in the slide view (one slide at a time), use the Slide Show menu / Slide Transitions choice to set the transition effect, then move to… Continue reading
Select Several Objects At Once
In MS PowerPoint, you can select several objects with one click and drag of the mouse.
Replacing the old “Shift + mouse click (repeated over and over on each individual object) routine” we have the lovely and wonderful one click and drag option.
Most people are aware of this neat little trick on the desktop. Where you click on the desktop, hold down the left… Continue reading
More Watermarks Please
As a follow up to last week’s tip on watermarks in MS Word, let’s take a look at watermarks in PowerPoint.
Since we discussed the “Why” questions related to watermarks in the last issue, let’s get right down to business.
For a watermark on a single slide:
The first step is to either navigate to a pre-existing slide or create a blank slide.
Now insert the “perfect”… Continue reading
Spiffy PowerPoint Handouts
Have you ever given a presentation in MS PowerPoint and found yourself wishing that you had an easy way to put together a handout for your audience to follow?
If you’ve been to training sessions where the presenter uses PowerPoint then you may know what I’m talking about.
Those wonderful pages that have all the slides (which means you get all the content without frantically scribbling every… Continue reading
PowerPoint Key Combinations
For all my keyboard enthusiasts I thought I’d include a short list of key combinations that are for MS PowerPoint.
Editing Shortcuts (In addition to the regular shortcuts for copy, paste, bold, Italics, etc…):
Comments Anyone?
Instead of several emails with ideas, you’re looking to get back the presentation with everyone’s comments right on the slides. So, you email it to one person and as they finish their ideas it goes to the next person then eventually lands back in your mailbox.
Makes sense, but where are the ideas?
Well, in the file, of course.
Now all you need is the “know how” for… Continue reading
