PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

Text Box Autofit Options in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

Have you seen that PowerPoint automatically reduces the size of your text when you type in too much text? Or does the Text Box itself increase in size when you type in a sentence or two more than what can fit into the Text Box? Does this automatic hand-holding by PowerPoint drive you crazy and want to hit your head on the wall? Well, you really don’t have to worry because you can make PowerPoint behave itself — and bend it to your will.

Learn about Text Box autofit options in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2016
Tagged as: Microsoft Windows, Office 2016, PowerPoint 2016, Text, Text Boxes, Tutorials

Presentation Summit 2016: Conversation with Rick Altman

    Rick Altman is a California-based presentation consultant who has been helping organizations communicate better in public since before Microsoft developed PowerPoint. He has been hosting end-user conferences since 1989 and is the host of the annual Presentation Summit, now in its 14th season.

In this conversation, Rick discusses the upcoming edition of his Presentation Summit conference, to be held in October 2016 in Las Vegas.

Geetesh: Rick, tell us more about the upcoming Presentation Summit in Las Vegas this October. Also, why did you choose Las Vegas?

Rick: I feel like a teenager having asked the homecoming queen to go to the prom with me. And she said yes: Nancy Duarte will be our Monday morning keynote speaker. And she’s not just blowing in and out — she will participate in a roundtable Sunday evening, a QA session after the keynote on Monday, and probably stay into the evening.

She has spoken at the conference before. However, the demands on her time are so high, all of the planets have to align for it to happen. We inquire regularly but I know the chances are usually slim. This year, everything worked out and we could not be more excited about that.

Why did we choose Las Vegas? Las Vegas has a lot of positives and a few negatives, and for years, the negatives were too much to bear. The Las Vegas Strip is gigantic, impersonal, loud, and a bit unkempt. All of the things that we are not! But over the years, the neighboring areas have really matured and they are different. In the town of Henderson, which is about five miles from both the airport and the south end of the Strip, we found a wonderful resort—relatively small, spacious ballrooms, gorgeous pool area, avoidable casino. So very un-Striplike.

But people can still visit the Strip. It’s a free 10-minute shuttle ride, so we can take in all of the great shows and restaurants and those who want to be part of that whole scene certainly can.

Geetesh: Last year, you also had smaller 30-minute sessions. Are they going to be back this year too?

Rick: Yes, we think that experiment was a big success. I don’t care what age you are, your attention span is just not the same in the afternoon as it is first thing in the morning, especially when we are stuffing you with so much information. Our so-called Tapas sessions were our response to that, and everyone appreciated the quicker pace after lunch.

The other benefit is that it allows us to cover topics that would otherwise be difficult. You don’t need an hour to show someone how to, say, customize their Quick Access Toolbar, so we never held a seminar about it. But in 20 minutes, we can show people what the QAT is and share with them how the experts use it.

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: Events
Tagged as: Events, Interviews, Presentation Summit, Rick Altman

Move Text Boxes on a Slide in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

This tutorial is about moving text boxes rather than text placeholders. Typically text placeholders for regular text content or even slide titles are located in the same position on successive slides – so if you really do need to move a text placeholder, do it within the Slide Master so that this change of position happens on all slides, providing a consistent look to your presentation. This will also prevent you from repeatedly moving the placeholders on each and every slide on your presentation.

Learn how to move text boxes on a slide in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2016
Tagged as: Microsoft Windows, Office 2016, PowerPoint 2016, Text, Text Boxes, Tutorials

Resize Text Boxes on a Slide in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

Text Boxes in PowerPoint need to be moved and resized within different areas of the slide. While you may think that selecting and resizing is all that is to be done, that’s not the entire truth because there’s so much more you can do even with mere resizing — if you know that these options exist! In a previous tutorial, you learnt how to move text boxes on a slide. As emphasized within that tutorial, you should only resize Text Boxes, and not Text Placeholders most of the time since the size of the latter in best controlled by the Slide Master.

Learn how to resize Text Boxes on a slide in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2016
Tagged as: Microsoft Windows, Office 2016, PowerPoint 2016, Text, Text Boxes, Text Placeholders, Tutorials

Working with Multiple Proofing Languages in PowerPoint: Conversation with Chantal Bossé

    Chantal Bossé got hooked on PowerPoint while doing instructional design in the mid-90s. Convinced there was a better way to present, she started CHABOS in 2004 and became a presentations & visual communications expert. She helps entrepreneurs, speakers, and trainers improve their presentations’ impact by having a clear message, great visuals, and a memorable delivery, whether in French or English. Chantal has been a speaker at various business events and a few international webinars, she is a presentation coach for the TEDxQuebec event.

In this conversation, Chantal discusses her tricks on working with multiple proofing languages within PowerPoint.

Geetesh: Chantal, you work with both English and French PowerPoint slides. What are the frustrations you face with multiple proofing languages, and how do you cope up with and overcome these issues?

Chantal: My operating system and Office installations are in French, but I regularly need to work in English too, and it can sometimes be a challenge. There are many variables at stake, like the language the file was created in, and a mysterious mix of your operating system and Office user interface language, and your keyboard language. I say “mysterious” because many times I have seen the proofing language switched in my file without doing changes myself. For a while, I just thought that I had to be lucky to set all language parameters the right way, and that was really frustrating.

Besides the fact that this language mess was making me less productive, the most important element was that I did not want my clients wondering why they had so many red-underlined words in their file. Knowing regular users will not always look for complicated solutions, I tried to find what could be done within Windows & Office. I first tried using Microsoft’s Language Interface Pack – LIP – for Office, but it became a nightmare because I would need to save all my user customization before I changed the interface language. And that still meant battling with my default keyboard language.

Then I stumbled on the feature allowing us to change the default input language in Windows. With my LIP installed that meant I could simply configure Office so it would display in the same language than Windows. What a relief! I stopped losing my customizations and my work became more effective when working on English files.

As long as we respect the order of the two-step process, it works like a charm. But you are still required to switch back and forth every time you are changing project language, which is still a waste of time if you need to do it often in a day. But it is way better than trying to manually fix the language on all slide objects one by one!

Readers should read these two Support articles from the Microsoft site to help them determine how to proceed, according to their Windows and Office versions.

1. Details on various Accessory or Interface packs, pricing and download can be found here
2. Change the default language for Office programs

Geetesh: How has your experience been using Steve Rindsberg’s Language Selector add-in for PowerPoint? Also, are there any other products that help you working with multiple proofing languages?

Chantal: When Steve contacted me to help him test his add-in, I definitely wanted to pitch in! Changing Windows’ default input language and Office’s display language is simple, but it still requires downloading additional language packs if they are not present on our computer. And it requires swapping the UI language every time I change from one language to the other.

With the Language Selector, I don’t need to do that anymore. Whatever the language the file was created with, I can simply go to my Review tab, and choose Set Language. I would say that I like this solution far more than having to fiddle in my Windows settings every time I need to work in a different language.

I have been using the Language Selector for a few years now, and it works so well that I have not searched the web for any other tool. In just a few seconds, it changes the language setting of most editable objects on slides AND in the notes pane. If I would have to describe it in two words, I would say Fast and Efficient.

View this feature in French on Chantal’s site.

You May Also Like: Chantal Bossé on Indezine | Language Selector: Conversation with Steve Rindsberg | What is Your Body Language Saying About You?: by Sandra Schrift

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: Chantal Bossé, Interviews, Language Selector, PowerPoint, Proofing