I spend a lot of time in PowerPoint. Over the gazillion hours I have invested in trying to get this somewhat frustrating program to behave I have discovered some tricks and techniques that help me get to where I need to go. Some are techniques that most people are not aware of, some are workarounds for things the brilliant minds at Microsoft seem to have forgotten. Here are the first four of my favorite eight.
1. Setup slides for screen size, audio and video. Before your audience ever walks in, you should test everything. These 3 slides will help you head off some nasty and embarrassing snafus especially if you are using a different computer than the one your deck was created on.
- The first is simply a slide with a black rectangle filling the entire slide. There is a medium thick white border around the rectangle. Add 2 similar white lines to make an “X” in the center of the slide to help you focus. This is my first slide. It helps me focus and frame the projector and screen if it is a portable setup.
- The second setup slide is simple a copy of any slide that has an audio embedded in it. I want to check the sound hookups and levels to make sure my audience will be able to hear it clearly without it being too soft or loud.
- The third setup slide is a copy of any slide that has a video embedded in it. If there is more than one video make a copy of each slide and test each one. Many systems do not have all the necessary video drivers. Best to know that before you start.
- While you are running through these setup slides before your big performance why not go through the entire presentation and look for strange formatting and font substitutions.
2. Avoid reformatted slides from another slide deck or computer. One of PowerPoint’s most frustrating problems is that when you are copying slides from one deck to another it reformats your slides to conform with the new theme. You can head this off by using the PASTE > KEEP SOURCE FORMATTING command. You can access it with a right mouse click as you paste or HOME > PASTE > down arrow > KEEP SOURCE FORMATTING.
3. Avoid font substitutions – use “paste as graphic.” PowerPoint does not play nice with fonts. If you transfer your deck to another computer your non-standard or decorative fonts will not go along for the ride. There are two solutions. 1) Go to FILE > OPTIONS > SAVE. Scroll to the bottom and select EMBEDDED FONTS IN FILE. This will embed your TrueType fonts and they will be available on other PCs. They will not be available on Macs.
Another solution is to copy the shape your decorative text is in to the clipboard and then right click > PASTE as PICTURE. The text will now be a graphic and will copy to any other computer. NOTE: You will not be able to edit the text once you have converted it so be sure of what you want. (You can also keep a copy of the live text in the margins on the original computer in case you have to go back and change something.)
4. Use glow to separate text from background. I love to use full screen images and photographs for their powerful effect. When I want to overlay type on that image it can be hard to read. One solution is to put the type in a rectangle or other shape with a suitable fill color. Another very attractive technique is to create a glow effect behind the type (you can do the same thing with a graphic). Select the shape the type is in and then FORMAT > TEXT EFFECTS > GLOW. Scroll to the bottom of the pop up and select GLOW OPTION. Then play with the various options and colors to see the best effect. I usually default to a white glow.
There you have it — the insider scoop. Now, hopefully you will still have some hair on your head after wrestling with PowerPoint. It is too late for me.
