Powerpoint hints and tips   
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Hints and Tips

The following hints & tips are for all versions of powerpoint

• The best tip you can have about powerpoint is to use the "Slide Master" page to design the style of your pages BEFORE you start designing your presentation. This is the place to put your company logo, instead of placing it on every single slide put it on the slide master. This is also the place to set up all your fonts, size, and "slide colour scheme". This will save you hours of extra work formatting every single slide

• Upgrade to powerpoint 2000. Or at least upgrade to powerpoint 97. If you are still using powerpoint 4 upgrade!. If you are using powerpoint 95 upgrade!. Just the smaller file sizes and faster loading and saving make it worthwhile. Other vast improvements are they ability to animate any object and fine tune build-up slides. Also the ability to add a hyperlink to any object is also very handy

• Think twice about upgrading to powerpoint XP. Why?, because if you sending your presentation to anyone who does not have powerpoint, the current powerpoint viewer does not support any of the new features of XP. So think twice.

• Keep backups of your work (common sense really!)
  Try to think of how long it would take to replace your work...
  instead of thinking about how long it would take to do the backup!

• Keep saving versions of your presentation
  eg. AwesomePresentation-V01.ppt
  eg. AwesomePresentation-V02.ppt
  This way if anything horrendous happens (such as the power going off half way through saving the presentation that took you weeks to design) you can go back to the previous version.

• Use the right quality. If you are including scans in your on-screen presentations, only scan your images at the appropriate resolution. For example - If your presentation will only ever be shown on a PC at SVGA (800x600) resolution. Then why bother scanning anything higher than 800x600 pixels? Also try changing the number of colours in the pictures to 256 colours (indexed colour). This saves time, disk space and your presentations will run a lot faster and smoother. You might even be able to email them to people now that they are a lot smaller!.
  (Click Here to a Full and In-Depth Tutorial)

• To speed up your slideshows... Turn off "Render 24-bit bitmaps at highest quality" from the Tools - Options - Advanced menu

The following are for powerpoint97 & 2000 only:

• Turn off "Fast Saves" once your presentation is complete. This will make your actual .ppt files smaller. This is especially useful when trying the fit them on a floppy disk or to email them

• An extra tip to squeeze your powerpoint file even smaller.... Choose "File", "Properties" and turn off the "save preview image". This also speeds up saving the file, as powerpoint does not have to make up the little image preview

• To get the best possible black & while hardcopy from powerpoint. From the "view" menu choose "black & white". This will show you what your hardcopy will look like. To alter the way any object will print, simply right click on that object, and then choose the appropriate option. ie. "Black with White Fill". No more saving two versions of a presentation (one for black & white, one for colour). Now there is no excuse for those dreadful solid black background hardcopies!

• To copy an object on your page quickly and easily instead of using cut & paste, try this instead. Select the object you want to copy by clicking on it. Hold down the "CTRL" key on the keyboard. Click (with the left mouse button) and drag the object to the new position. Simple & quick. Now try it again but press the "Shift" key at the same time as the CTRL key, this will keep the objects aligned. Great for making diagrams etc.

• Quick Zoom. If you are lucky enough to be the proud owner of a "wheel mouse" (wow!), then the following tips is just for you. While you are editing your lovely presentation (in slide view mode) simply wheel the mouse forward while pressing the CTRL key. Instant zoom! To zoom into a particular object, then select that object beforehand.

• If you type in a lot of presentations containing all those weird characters, you know the ones, the sub-scripts and superscripts, the ± © ® ™ ½ ÷ and all those other symbol that are just not on the average keyboard.....well today is your lucky day....here's what you do in PowerPoint...Tools menu, Customize,  Commands, Scroll down the list on the left, Click on "Insert", scroll down the list on the right until you see a lovely Omega symbol (like an upside down horseshoe), Click and drag this symbol into any toolbar you like. Click "Close". Then next time you want a symbol just click it, then if you don't see the character you require just change to one of the other popular symbol fonts, such as: (one word of warning, if you are giving out your presentation to other people stick to these common fonts as they will be installed on most modern PCs)

  • Symbol

  • Wingdings

  • Webdings

  • Common Bullets
    

• Still on a similar theme to the above tip... why not make your own toolbar, particularly if your a "power" user. It will save you a lot of time, particularly if you use the "Draw" menu a lot. To do this do the following: Tools menu, Customize, New, Enter a name e.g. My ToolBar, Then it's just a case of clicking on the Commands tab, and selecting each button and dragging it to the "My Toolbar". You can also rename certain options, and also change the icons, experiment, have fun!
  Here's ours . . . . . . . . . . . .
  Note:
  LS=Line Spacing, IO=Insert Object, Cc=Change Case, and the Omega symbol is for inserting all those characters that are not on the keyboard!
  

• Get those original bitmaps. OK, you've been sent a presentation with some scans/bitmaps in. Maybe screen grabs of a piece of software or something similar. You want the original bitmaps but you don't have them. All you have is the powerpoint file. You want those bitmaps badly. You want them out of powerpoint and into your image editor. But the crucial thing is you want them in their original resolution. You've tried copying them to the clipboard and pasting them into PhotoShop / PaintShop Pro and you get the bitmaps but it just isn't the same resolution as the original bitmaps. There either too big or too small, you've tried setting the size of the images in powerpoint to display best at 640x480 or whatever, and your getting nowhere fast!. Here's what you do.
  1) Select the image
  2) Copy it to the clipboard
  3) Load up MicroSoft Photo Editor
  (You may have to install it from the original powerpoint CD)
  4) Edit menu, Paste.
  5) Save it.
  6) That's it!
  Why the other image editors can't do this I don't know. I just know Photo Editor works a treat for this.

• To compare two presentation for any changes...do the following:
  (I'm not sure if this trick works in ppt 2000 but it certainly works in ppt 97.)
  
  1) Load both presentations into powerpoint
  2) Make sure you're on slideview (edit mode)
  3) And both presentations are at page one.
  4) Set the page zoom to "Fit"
  5) Here's the clever bit
  6) Hold down the CTRL key
  7) Press the "Tab" key - (that's the one next to the "Q" key OK!)
  8) Press it repeatly or even hold it on
  9) Any changes between the two presentations will stand out like a pink piglet flying across the sky.
  10) Repeat for all pages
  
  

Workaround bugs & limitations

• If you find yourself losing your speaker note text then upgrade to Service Release 1 (SR-1). Available for download from the microsoft web site. Also never save the presentation while in "notes view". Better to use "slide view"

• You've pasted an Excel spreadsheet and the right hand side is being clipped off....
  1) go back to Excel and select the spreadsheet again but this time slightly less
  2) re-paste it
  3) go back to Excel and select the rest of the spreadsheet
  continue until you have all the parts pasted into PowerPoint
  4) group the parts together in PowerPoint.
  5) Re-size them as necessary
  6) Un-group them and position them correctly

• If you open a presentation and start seeing a "Big Red X" then try some of these options. . .
  1) certainly don't save the presentation
  2) upgrade to Service Release (SR-1)
  3) upgrade to Service Release (SR-2)
  4) if you have the original bitmap save it as a .BMP file and not a .PNG or .TIF or .JPG,
      then try re-inserting it
  5) try shrinking the offending image until it will display properly...then press and hold
      the "Alt Gr" key, and then press the "PrtScn" key. Then choose "Edit", "Paste-special",
      "picture", "OK"
  6) if you still see the "Big Red X" . . . take a break!

Tutorials

• Awesome PowerPoint Tutorials - More Powerpoint Tutorials
  
  Awesome PowerPoint Tutorials
  - Our powerpoint tutorials are no longer updated on this site, click the link to view our most up to date tutorials, including, powerpoint menu, powerpoint transparency, powerpoint to video and powerpoint to dvd conversion
  

• Tutorial 01 - Linking Presentations Together
  
  Linking presentations together seamlessly
  - Complete with FREE downloadable files
  

• Tutorial 02 - Looping a Presentation
  
  Looping presentations together - but not all of them
  - Complete with FREE downloadable files
  

• Tutorial 03 - PowerPoint Graphics
  
  Graphics, Bitmaps, Scanning & Digital Cameras
  for On-Screen presentations - Or how to make your
  Graphics just the right size and color quality
  - Complete with FREE downloadable files

• Tutorial 04 - Text FX Using PowerPoint
  
  Text FX, animation effects with text - Or how to get people
  to say "that was not done in powerpoint!"
  - Complete with FREE downloadable files

• DVD Tutorial - PowerPoint to DVD
  
  PPT to DVD, convert powerpoint to play on a home DVD player - Play your presentation without a computer
  - Complete with FREE downloadable powerpoint files

Powerpoint Links on the World Wide Web

Search 7 key power point websites from one search box!
With thanks to Atomz and Geetesh of Indezine

The following links you may find useful:

The Official Microsoft PowerPoint Web Site
http://www.microsoft.com/office/powerpoint

Microsoft PowerPoint OfficeUpdate for Service Releases
http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/

Steve Rindsberg's RDP Slides - The Ultimate PowerPoint FAQ (10 out of 10!)
If you visit just one link...make it this one!
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/

The excellent, sonia coleman, step-by-step guide to putting powerpoint presentations onto a CD.
If you need to put a powerpoint presentation onto a CD, this is the place to visit.
http://www.soniacoleman.com/Tutorials/PowerPoint/acdpc_instructions.htm

Looking for answers? Kathy Jacobs provides solutions, links and resources for all Power Point users.
http://www.powerpointanswers.com

You just can't get enough about powerpoint, particularly XP, XP, XP, XP, The newsgroups very own Echo, Includes tutorial on AutoRun CDs for powerpoint
http://www.echosvoice.com

PowerPoint Newsgroup: Real people's questions - answered by real people...mostly!
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.powerpoint

Indezine - This page is fast becoming THE Links to all things powerpoint
http://www.indezine.com/products/powerpoint/index.html

Creativity unblocker - Stuck for ideas and inspiration? - by Geetesh Bajaj - Go visit.
http://www.indezine.com/ideas/creativity.html

Aladat - The home of PresGuard Pro™ - For password protecting powerpoint presentations
http://www.aladat.com

A good starting point when looking for sound effects of background music.
http://www.sound-ideas.com

Elizabeth's World PowerPoint Resource: More Links
http://www.csc.calpoly.edu/~ebrunner/PowerPointResources.htm

From the author of PowerPoint 2000 Professional Results book (more powerpoint tips)
http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/powerpoint.html

Ten Tips to Improve Your Presentations with PowerPoint (A good guide to the basics)
http://www.denniskennedy.com/pptips.htm

Presentations Magazine (for all things connected with presentations!)
http://www.presentations.com

For information on hardware to connect your PC computer to a TV or Video recorder.
Product Name CorioScan Connect
http://www.videoguys.com/tvone.htm

Info on powerpoint, hints & tips and presenting effectively
http://www.powerpointers.com

A good guide on how to design neat looking presentations
http://www.designsense-cd.com/

Those clever yet simple "screen bean" clip-art are from
http://www.bitbetter.com

Yahoo & Google Search engines (Just type in what your looking for)

http://www.yahoo.com

http://www.google.com

What's New?

• We have moved to our new home at
  http://www.awesomebackgrounds.com
  

  We've create a new powerpoint graphics and pictures site
  http://www.presentationpictures.com
  

• Volume Eight - 10 sets of new backgrounds  (Added September 2004)
  The themes are finalized as:
  Holidays, Technology 3, Blue 3, Industry, Graduation & Careers, Animated US Flag, Powerpoint Game Dice, Entertainment, PowerPoint Jigsaw Game, White Light, Decades and Years, Editable powerpoint maps FL, CA, TX, Animated Slide Explosion

• New PowerPoint Tutorial - Text FX - Put the wow factor into powerpoint with these text animation effect - All by using the standard powerpoint wipes
  

• More PowerPoint tutorials - Our powerpoint tutorials are no longer updated on this site, please click the link to view our most up to date tutorials, including, powerpoint menu, powerpoint transparency, and powerpoint to dvd conversion
  

• You can now order on-line either:
  - one set of backgrounds (you choose the set)
  - eight sets of backgrounds (you choose the sets)
  - Everything we make on CD-ROM

• The Latest Free powerpoint template samples are themed "White Rainbow Drops and July 4th"

• We are constantly adding new links to other great powerpoint & presentations related web sites

Available Now

• Download a FREE sample background and join our e-mailing list at the same time

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