PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

Picture Slides Lab: Conversation with Xie Kai

  Xie Kai is the project lead of the PowerPointLabs project which is a free PowerPoint add-in containing many productivity features, including the Picture Slides Lab feature.

In this interview, Xie talks about the Picture Slides Lab component of the PowerPointLabs PowerPoint add-in.

Geetesh: Xie, can you tell us about the new Picture Slides Lab feature in your PowerPoint Labs add-in—what motivated you to create these picture/text layouts?

Xie: Picture Slides Lab (PSL) helps users create better picture slides (slides with a big picture and a bit of text) with much less effort. Given below are some examples of picture slides created using PSL.

Although a picture slide looks simple, it takes many steps to create one: search for a suitable picture, copy-paste on the slide, resize, crop, send the picture behind the text, tweak text style, and so on. With PSL, we can create picture slides with just a few clicks. The reason for this increased productivity is because PSL allows users to design slides using a compare-and-choose approach instead of the usual trial-and-error approach: For example, normally we have to try putting the text on different locations on the slides to find the most suitable location for it. In contrast, PSL allows us to do a side-by-side comparison of text positions and choose the one that looks best in one step, as shown in the screenshot below.

Geetesh: Can you share some ideas about how and where such slides can be used? Also what is the feedback you have received from existing users?

Xie: Picture slides work great when you want to use slides with one dominating picture and a little bit of text on it. You can see the picture slides format being used a lot in TED talks. If designed well, picture slides can maintain audiences’ attention and provide the context to the speaker’s delivery. Modern day slide design gurus such as Nancy Duarte (author of Slide:lology) and Garr Reynolds (author of the Presentation Zen series) have very good advice on how to design slides in this format.

As for user feedback, I’m happy to report the initial user feedback for Picture Slides Lab has been very positive so far. We want every PowerPoint user to use PSL to create great looking picture slides, and that’s why we have made it available for free.

You May Also Like: PowerPointLabs: Conversation with Damith Rajapakse

The views and opinions expressed in this blog post or content are those of the authors or the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company.

Filed Under: Interviews
Tagged as: Add-in, Interviews, Pictures, PowerPoint, PowerPointLabs

Rotate Shapes in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

When you insert any shape into your PowerPoint slide, more often than not you will want to make some changes to the default shape that you end up with. Mainly, you may want to resize and rotate the shape. This is something we do a lot in our everyday life, like rearranging our work desks, or even changing the position of our favorite chair so that we feel more comfortable. Similarly, all objects on your slide need to be arranged in a way that feels appropriate, rotation is one way of making this change happen.

Learn how to rotate shapes approximately and accurately in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2016
Tagged as: Microsoft Windows, Office 2016, PowerPoint 2016, Rotate, Shapes, Tutorials

Duplicate Shapes Using Ctrl+D in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

It’s easy to duplicate shapes by dragging, but while that’s a nice way to duplicate five or ten shapes, it’s not the best way to create ten, twenty, or more copies. We all know that you can press Ctrl + C to copy any shape in PowerPoint to the clipboard, and a resulting Ctrl + V always pastes a copy from the clipboard to the slide — what many people don’t realize is PowerPoint has this almost supernatural keyboard shortcut called Ctrl + D (yes, the D stands for duplicate), and this Ctrl + D shortcut does more than just duplicate; in fact it creates a pattern of evenly-spaced and symmetrical shapes!

Learn how to duplicate shapes using the Ctrl+D command in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2016
Tagged as: Duplicate, Microsoft Windows, Office 2016, PowerPoint 2016, Shapes, Tutorials

5 Presentation Hacks to Enhance Your Slides (Infographic)

By Adam Noar

Do you ever find yourself yearning for some clever PowerPoint hacks to spice up your presentations?

If the answer is YES then you’re in luck because today we are going to be sharing some clever presentation tips and tricks that will help get your slide design off to a great start!

From knowing where to find awesome images to creating beautiful graphics, this visual guide of presentation design tips by PresentationPanda has got you covered!

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed Under: Thoughts
Tagged as: Adam Noar, Guest Post, Ideas, PowerPoint, Presentation Ideas, PresentationPanda, Tips

PowerPoint and Presenting News: May 31, 2016

Just when you found a few ways to overcome visual clichés, would you want to find another way by overdoing the cliché itself? We look at an example! In our Timelines that are Different series, we explore a timeline from PoweredTemplate. Joel Harband talks about Speech-Over’s options to add interactive narration in e-Learning. We then bring you a review of Tanida’s Demo Builder 11 product. And finally, Nova Fisher of Xara talks about the new Xara Web Designer 365 product.

PowerPoint 2016 for Windows users can learn about the amazing Slide Background Fill option, as well as the option to remove all fills with No Fill. We also explore Transparency options in the various fill types. Sway users will love to explore Tweet Cards and the Play options. Finally, do not miss the new templates of this week!

Read Indezine’s PowerPoint and Presenting News.

Filed Under: Ezine
Tagged as: Ezine, Indezine, News, PowerPoint