Have you watched the movie Inception? Well, if you had (or even if you hadn't), here's a Christmas gift in the form of PowerPoint! In this PowerPoint, a presentation is embedded within a presentation which is embedded in yet another presentation and it goes on. Don't get it? Well, open up the presentation and go deeper into the presentation by clicking on the center of the slideshow till you reach the final state! You will see then see snow, greetings and.. Merry Christmas! Press 'Esc' to kick yourself out of each presentation. Have fun :)
For PowerPoint 2010: Download now
For PowerPoint 2007 and below: Download now
If you need to perform a countdown or break timer during your presentation, PowerPoint does the job. In fact, there are many ready-made PowerPoint timers out on the web that you can easily access to and the methods of executing them range from the use of PowerPoint animations to VBA. Here's another neat way you can try out if you are new to PowerPoint and want a quick and easy way to create a timer in PowerPoint.
In traditional timer using animations, editing the numbers manually can be cumbersome. Imagine you are going to do a 1 minute counter or break timer and you want to have the timer increment every second. You will eventually have to edit the number 59 times manually. So why not let PowerPoint does the job instead? To achieve this, you can use the Slide Number and Slide Transition.
1. First, enter the Slide Master (View > Slide Master).
2. Enlarge the slide number on the main master itself.
3. Set it to a font size of approximately 90-100, then align it to center of the slide.
4. Next, click on the Design > Page Setup and set to number slides from 0.
5. Now, close Slide Master. Change your first slide to a Title and Content Layout. (Right click > Layout > Title and Content)
6. Then click Insert > Slide Number. Check the Slide Number and click Apply to All.
7. Go to the Transition tab (Animation tab for PowerPoint 2007), set it to Advance Slide Automatically After 1 second, which will be 00:01:00.
8. Then simply duplicate the slides using Ctrl-D to increment the numbers automatically.
9. You can also add a minute counter that keeps track of the time after every 60 seconds/slides.
10. Once you are done, go back to the first slide and uncheck Advance Slide Automatically After if you do not want it to start immediately.
Here's an example of the PowerPoint Timer: Download Now
For all Hong Kong movie lovers out there, remember Golden Harvest, the production company that produced martial arts films starring actors such as Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan? Well, you might not remember the company name, but you will definitely recognize its prominent opening animation!
Here's a tribute of the Golden Harvest intro animation dedicated to all the HK movie lovers out there, done entirely using PowerPoint. Download the Golden Harvest animation now! Note that there might be slight animation issue if you are using PowerPoint 2010. In this case, you can view the animation on YouTube instead:
Few years back, I have provided a sample for Bevel and Shadow effects on balls using PowerPoint 2003. The sample includes Ball Effects variations (5 variations, 4 colors each) accompanied by 6 examples on how you can make use them. If you haven't seen it yet, here's the link: http://msmvps.com/blogs/tohlz/archive/2006/06/13/100958.aspx
Today, with the newer versions of PowerPoint (from 2007 and onwards), you can create these effects more easily and realistically without the need of multiple layering. Manipulating the properties under 3-D Format, you can now create spheres that looks much better than the default ones provided by Shape Styles. But by saying easy, it doesn't mean you can create a sphere with just a few clicks, especially since modifying the size of the shape will mess up your creation of the sphere. Thus, it is important to decide on the size that you are looking for before you start going on testing out with the settings and variables. As with the ball effect sample I have created previously, here's a completely new Ball Effects sample done using PowerPoint 2010. The sample comes with 9 variations and 4 colors each, accompanied with an example of image inserted into the sphere (For other examples, you can check out my original version on the link above).
Download the Ball Effects 2010 here.
We have come to the last image. The fifth one is slightly complicated. The concept is to do a moon-like curve that cover about 3/4 of the background while leaving 1/4 of the top, the left and bottom, and 1/4 of the right as the background. It uses Basic Shapes > Tear Drop. Now you may ask, why not simply use an oval shape to do it? The reason for not doing so is due to the top right corner, which cannot be covered completely if you use an oval shape. Likewise, increase the size may not get the result of your preference and covering it with additional shape may not look neat. The Tear drop shape does just the job in this case. Next, add a simple glow to the tear drop as an outline for the content panel.
For the banner of the content slide, you will need a random abstract image cropped and then added with Picture Effects > Soft Edges > 5 Point. Then, place a rectangle on top of the banner, add a black outline and set the transparency to 50%. As for the background, I gave it a light blue recolor and an Artistic Effect > Texturizer (which is only available in PowerPoint 2010).
Through these articles, you can see that it is not as hard as it seems to create a PowerPoint template of your liking, with the help of a background image. Play around with the various shapes provided in PowerPoint and you should be able to create your own customized PowerPoint template. You can also download the actual PowerPoint Template Demo that has been shown so far.
Occasionally, pre-made PowerPoint templates design may not be what you are looking for or there simply isn't any available that fits a specific theme/topic. In this case, you may want to create one yourself. So what we have previously are couple of sample template slides created in PowerPoint (apart from the background, which can also be created using Freeform if you have the time to do so).
The first image shown below is a sample title slide. For the background, there are many royalty free or stock images (for a small sum of fee) that you can find on internet. The curved banner is created using Insert > Shapes > Stars and Banners > Wave. You can also apply some shape effects to make it looks more realistic. First, add an Accent Color 3, 8 pt glow. This applies a glow effect which makes it looks distinct from the background. Next, add a Shadow > Outer > Offset Center to darken the glow.
The second image uses the same wave shape, but with a few tweaks. You need to skew the image using the bottom yellow handle on the wave, lengthen the width and shorten the height, then rotate the shape. Sound complicated? Second image on the right is a full view of how it is done. Next, give it a green glow as stated on the first image, then an Inner > Inside Center Shadow. This makes the banner sink into the background.
The third image is a content slide, with the content panel done using an oval shape (slightly longer height) and the ring made using Insert Shapes > Basic Shapes > Block Arc. Then, give both the shapes an outline a dark green outline (or an outline color that is similar and slightly darker to the background). Next, right click on the shapes, select Format Shape and set Fill > Transparency to 20%.
The fourth image is a wave shape. Increase the height so that the wave does not look overly curved. Then add an appropriate outline color, and an additional rectangle to cover the remaining background.
Last image will be revealed in the next article. See if you can figure out how it works!
Professionals tend to make use of graphical editing tool such as Photoshop to create their templates. However, if you are not familiar with these software, PowerPoint comes with many great features, and some of them include ready made shapes and shape styles that are really useful in creating your own templates. Below are some sample screenshots. Can you figure out how these are done? Find out more in the upcoming article.
Many people will agree that it is good to have an agenda or table of contents in a presentation. Reasons can include laying out clearly by telling your audience what topics are being covered and knowing what you are going to unfold next, length of the presentation and acting as a guidance for your audience.
But are they really necessary? Probably not in all situations. Here's a couple of thoughts:
1. True that without an agenda, audience may sit through a presentation lost in a maze and not knowing when it will end. However, it is also true that in most presentations, a time period or limit is always given or known by the audience beforehand. An agenda in this case, is not a solution for presenters who knowingly exceed the time limit. Instead, one should be well prepared by rehearsing your presentation thoroughly. If you have only 10 minutes to present a case, audience will start wondering when you are going to end if you exceed the time limit. And if you are only given a short amount of time for your presentation, an agenda may not be something you want to include on a slide.
2. A good presentation is akin to storytelling or movie. You start the presentation strong, capture the attention of your audience and bring them from one chapter to the next, gradually unveiling the mystery. In some cases, agenda may act as an intermission between an introduction and the rest of your slides, much like a commercial break, which may not flow well with your story, or a spoiler that spells out everything clearly and spoils the surprise.
3. When presenting for instance, a business idea to your superior or client, a handout of your slides may be required to be submitted to them before your presentation. In this case, an agenda is not necessary since they would have skimmed through your handout and briefly know the topics you are going to cover.
4. With agenda, audience can follow your presentation like a navigation guide, yet being a good presenter, you can become a driver and lead the passengers to the destination smoothly. The passengers do not necessarily need to know how to get to the destination, they just need to get there comfortably. Likewise, a bumpy ride will not give a good experience even if informed of the path that will be taken.
5. Instead of an agenda, one can use a progress bar similar to a website's shopping cart checkout process (example 1, example 2) which lists out the main topics and highlights the current ones you are presenting. By doing so, audience can know what you are going to cover without hurting the flow or time of the presentation.
If you are working on a filming project or any other works that require the heavy use of video editing software, Windows Movie Maker may not be the best software out there due to the light features it has. However, for quick and easy editing, you should give it a try. That's what I have been experimenting on recently. First thing I have come upon is a video import issue, and this is definitely a tough one if you have not been a geek with tons of video editing and converting software. To talk about it briefly, you might encounter two situations. One is problem handling a file format that Windows Movie Maker does not support (e.g. avi is probably one of them), and two is you might end up waiting indefinitely after importing (probably due to some error when recording the video).
In my case, it was the latter issue. We had many videos, all with short takes of less than 10 seconds. All videos work except one, which seems to have sort of corrupted during the recording. Viewing its file properties show that the total time was 2 hours long instead of original time of less than 10 seconds. So be it format support or import issue, you wouldn't want to start installing countless of software just to convert the file or re-film the scene. Online conversion might work, but then again, looking for a good site might take some time due to the large number of video extensions that exist today.
Here's a quick tip to resolve this. Why not let YouTube do the work? If you have a YouTube account, uploading the video shouldn't take long. Next, fire up your search engine and look for an online converter that convert youtube to HD or youtube to wmv. Furthermore, if you have recorded an audio using your video cam, you can't simply import only the audio and remove the video on movie maker. In this case, there's a couple of sites that allow you to convert youtube video to mp3.
And there you go, hassle free. :)
In this article, I would like to briefly talk about Neodymium Sphere Magnets. For those who are not sure what this is all about, basically, one makes use of small (but strong) Neodymium magnets (usually consists of 216 magnets, in the size of 5mm in diameter) to make limitless shapes ranging from abstract to geometry and flat to 3D. It is marketed under several brand names such as NeoCube, Nanodots, Zen Magnets, CyberCube, and Buckyballs to name a few. Like any magnets, each sphere has its north and south pole and thus do not simply attract in any direction of your choice.
Of course, these magnets are completely unrelated to PowerPoint. However, what i'm trying to show you in this article, is a simple illustration, done using PowerPoint, showing how sphere magnets couple and link with one another, and how a basic hexagon consisting of 6 magnetic spheres can be used to form different designs through coupling and linking these magnetic spheres. With the help of PowerPoint 2010, it is also very easy to create this illustration digitally. An example would be the alignment preview which allows you to perfectly align every magnetic sphere, and also the good old Total Animation Count trick, which enables you to count the number of spheres.
Do check out the Neodymium Sphere Magnets PowerPoint Illustration here: Download
If you are familiar with the picture styles on PowerPoint 2007, you will know that styles such as Simple Frame and Beveled Matte which allow you to style up your pictures will also soften them at the same time, causing the pictures to look blur. In PowerPoint 2010, you will still get the same effect. However, you can enhance it using the new Picture Corrections tool which allows you to bring your picture back to its sharp and crisp look. To do so, simply double click on the picture to bring out the Picture Tools ribbon. Under Adjust section, click on Corrections > Sharpen and Soften > Sharpen 50%. Alternately, you can right click on the picture and select Format Picture > Picture Corrections, which will give you even more control up to Sharpen 100%, though I wouldn't recommend going beyond the 70% mark. Below is an example showing you the original picture, after picture style added and the Sharpen enhancement.
If you happen to watch anime frequently, during your childhood, or at least chanced upon a few anime series, you would have seen those familiar running scenes (See Anime Run Around on youtube for a rough idea), where anime characters run around very quickly. In this article, we will talk about the concept on how you can create/ mimic the running animation using PowerPoint. To start off, think of anime as a flipbook, where every movement is a new frame (in this case, slide) by itself. Thus, instead of using animation effects available on PowerPoint, you link the movements together through tons of slides (Advanced PowerPointers may use Flash Once effect as a substitute for easier addition of other animations occurring in the background, though it has much more complex implementation for starters). Sounds difficult? Yes, but it's really easy once you have a grasp of the concept (Note: The slide by slide animation, has also been achieved by several PowerPoint animators (notably Blastoons on PowerPoint Heaven)). However, what we are going to cover is the running animation concept, rather than slide by slide animation as a whole.
The basic running animation is extremely easy and can be achieved in as little as two slides, while the advanced version requires roughly 6-10 slides depending on the details of your animated character. To achieve the basic running animation, all you will need to do is to link the leg movements. First, we will start off by drawing a simple character similar to the popular Newground's madness series. Now, instead of having two circular legs, we create four with equal spacing apart. Duplicate the slide so that we have two similar slides. On the second slide, reposition the legs so that they are now 'in between' the ones from the previous slide. Next, select the Transition tab. Under Timing section, put a checkmark on the After option. Leave it as 00:00.00. Click Apply to All slides. This will allow it to advance to the next slide automatically. Then, go to Slide Show tab and select Set Up Slide Show. Put a checkmark on Loop Continuously until 'Esc' so that the two slides will loop infinitely. Run the slide show and we are done!
Download Running Demonstration at: http://pptheaven.mvps.org/experimental.html
The basic running animation concept above can be used in scenes where a character is being chased after or running in panic. If you are going for the more advanced running animation, you will also need the hand movements. It will not be as simple as the previous ones, though the same concept applies. We will need roughly eight slides this time round, with the two slides duplicated another three times. When done correctly, you should see alternate leg movements throughout. Next, will be the hand movements. What we need to do here is to create a swinging illusion. Start off by using three slides to adjust the lower hand down to the back evenly. Then, using the next three slides to adjust the upper hand down to the back, while the lower hand now goes back to its original position. Take note that for the upper hand, you will need to do a right click then select Send to Back so as to show that the upper hand is on the other side of the body. For the remaining two slides, bring the upper hand back to somewhere close to the initial position, but not quite as it will be looped back to the first slide, which is has the initial position. Now, run the slide show and we are done!
Download Running Demonstration Advance at: http://pptheaven.mvps.org/experimental.html
If you have done masking effect in PowerPoint 2003, or have seen the blog post on Mask with PowerPoint (See Figure 1 and 3), then you should take a look at the blur effects offered by PowerPoint 2007 and 2010. The introduction of blur effects allow you...
I have been trying out with some Android Apps recently as I have just got my hands on HTC Desire Z, running on Android 2.2, Froyo (a happy consumer indeed). Some applications that I have tried out include presenters for android, which come handy for those who are unwilling to buy a presenter which can be costly depending on the brand you are looking at. With the right keywords, you should be able to find many presenter applications out on the Android Market. Several are not free and may be tagged with a price not exceeding $10. However, we are going for free apps and I will be recommending you one great presenter for your android phone - Gmote 2.0.
So what is Gmote? Gmote is basically an application that allows you to turn your android phone into a remote control for your computer. It is simple to setup and serve as a reliable tool for your presentation. To get Gmote 2.0 working, you will first need to enter the Android market from your phone and search for Gmote. Install the Gmote client application and once you are done, head over to your computer or laptop. Go to Gmote's official site and download Gmote Server installer (works for Windows 7 even though it is not listed there). Install the server application on your computer or laptop, and then set the password of your preference.
Now, to link your Android to your computer or laptop, you will need to have both of these device connected to the same (wireless) network. This is also how most of the presenter applications work. Thus if you are not in a wireless workspace, using your Android phone may not be possible. To do so, launch Gmote from your Android and bring up the menu options. Go to Find Server and select your computer or laptop. Once you get them connected, go to the menu options again. This time, bring up Gmote Touch by selecting Touchpad. Moving around the empty space on your screen will allow you to your cursor while tapping will serve as a left click command.
To use it as a presenter, simply open up your presentation and start the slide show. As mentioned earlier, the basic advance key would be to tap on your Android screen. If you are looking for more functions, bring up the virtual keyboard by selecting the keyboard icon on the top left of Gmote Touch. You can then tap on the backspace key to go back to your previous slide, or enter a number followed by enter key to proceed to a specific slide. In short, all the PowerPoint slide show navigation shortcuts should work as they are supposed to.
The only downside is the lack of timer if you are interested to keep track of your time. Understand though, that this is a multipurpose remote control rather than a designated presenter for Android which in fact, works a lot better (and of course, free) than many of the presenters for Android on the market. If you are interested, do give Gmote a try. Happy tapping!
It is always important to know who you are presenting to. Your audience can be a group of students, professionals, managers, entrepreneurs and etc, but sometimes, knowing just that is not enough. Demographics information such as gender and race are equally essential to you, especially for preparing your presentation slides. Now, imagine that you are going to create a presentation on family values. If your audience is a group of Asian executives, slides showing Asian families will bring them deeper into your presentation. They will also feel more familiar to what you are showing them and helps relate it to their lives. Likewise, if you are showing images of non-Asian families to them, it creates a gap between you and your audience, making them feel distant to your presentation.
The three slides below are provided to help you better visualize the differences. On the first slide, it shows a happy Western family, while the second shows a happy Asian family. And if you are presenting to a group of students or teenagers, the third slide should suit them well. Take a look at these three slides and decide which image helps you better familiarize and connect yourself to the content.
Another good reason to upgrade to PowerPoint 2010. When it comes to software, you would normally want to have absolute control over settings, especially the minor details. Just a few months back, I came to realize that PowerPoint 2007 does not offer diagonal wipe transition, instead, it has diagonal strips transitions where the edge is checkered instead of straight. What's the fuss, you may ask? Firstly, the position where I have placed my title and the template I am using, a diagonal wipe is the perfect transition to use. Secondly, I have to port it over to a seminar room with only PowerPoint 2007 installed. Now, if you are working with PowerPoint 2010, you may not realize this because the wipe transitions are available for all directions and that they all have blurred edges. The downside is that if you port it over to a PC with PowerPoint 2007, it will automatically use the diagonal strips transition - which uses a checkered edge. This is something very different and may not be what you are looking for. There's no direct workaround as far as I know, except to replace it with a fade effect, or perhaps, use PowerPoint Viewer 2010 instead.
Lesson for the day: Always remember to test your presentation on different versions of PowerPoint if you have them. Otherwise, do a test run on the system that you are presenting on before doing the actual presentation. The best solution however, is to bring your own laptop so that you can reduce any issues that may possibly arise.
If you have been following through the growth of PowerPoint, you will notice the introduction of several Picture Effects such as soft shadows, reflections, bevel and many other effects in PowerPoint 2007. However, you are limited to the presets given to you and therefore are not allowed to adjust these effects in anyway you like. PowerPoint 2010 fixes this issue and opens up lots of new editing options. In this article, we will explore the Reflection Options and various ways you can play with the new feature.
There are two ways to bring up the Reflection option, either by right clicking and select Format Picture | Reflection, or double click on the picture, select Picture Effects | Reflection | Reflection Options. You will now see 4 editing options available to you right after the Reflection Presets:
1. The transparency setting is similar to our usual fill transparency. Setting it to 0% does not bring the reflection to complete opaque though, instead you will still see a slight translucency in it. Setting it to 100% will bring it to a transparent state.
2. The size setting controls the height of the picture's reflection. Setting it to 0% will thus show no reflection, while 100% will show an almost full reflection.
3. The distance setting controls the distance between your picture and reflection. Max setting is 100 point.
4. The blur setting is something totally new, which gives you the option to blur your picture's reflection.
There are 2 tricks you can try out with these new options:
1. The Picture Reflection-Transparency trick - If you are a regular user of PowerPoint, you will realize that it does not offer a direct way to set transparency for pictures. The most common workaround, and probably an authentic solution would be to use the Emphasis | Transparency animation to control the picture's transparency. The downside is you will probably have trouble navigating back and forth in the presentation when you press backspace (which the picture will turn back to normal). The second workaround is to use picture fill from shapes. Insert a rectangle and go to Format Shape | Picture or texture fill. Select your picture and set the transparency you prefer. The downside of course, is that you are filling your picture into the shape, and there will be high chance where your picture will look over-stretched either in the width or height.
With PowerPoint 2010, there's a new way through the reflection option. Still cumbersome process, but eliminates the time you have to spend to adjust the width and height. First, open up the Reflection Options, then set the transparency of your choice. Set the size to 100% so that it shows a complete picture. Distance can be around 10 point while blur should be set to 0 point. Now, flip the picture vertically. Do a Ctrl-X to cut out the picture and paste special | Picture (png). Crop out the actual picture and we are done. Downside still exists though, remember this is a reflection, setting to 100% size won't give you a full reflection, thus a small portion at the bottom of the picture will fade out.
2. Alternate Blur - The Blur under Artistic Effect allows you to do a blur effect on your picture. The blur effect however, only caters for inner blur, that is to say, your edge will not be affected. If you are looking for complete blurring of your picture, including the edges, try out the Picture Reflection-Transparency trick again, but instead, make use the blur setting this time round.
Most of you may have seen anaglyph images showing stereoscopic 3D effect when viewed with 2 color glasses (red and cyan). This is not what we are trying to achieve in this article though. Instead, we are going to leverage on this term to create an anaglyph-styled animation. This form of animation is nothing new and has been widely used in anime or horror movies. One example is the ending song of an anime, K-On!!. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKaLm-30-Ss
To achieve this effect in PowerPoint, you will need two duplicates of the original image, then using the recolor feature, set the first duplicate to red, while the other to green. If you have PowerPoint 2010, you can also make use of Artistic Effect > Blur to soften the effect. As for the animation part, you will need to tone down the background and original image by using transparency effect, then play around with the appear and disappear animation. A ppt demonstration has been provided below. The first slide is done using PowerPoint 2007 (without the blur effect), while the second one is done using PowerPoint 2010 (with the Artistic Effect > Blur). Feel free to dissect the animation through PowerPoint's animation pane. The image used is drawn by Jeremiah Lee, so all the credits for this fantastic artwork goes to him.
Download: http://pptheaven.mvps.org/experimental/3DGlassAnaglyphEffect.zip
In the earlier PowerPoint versions, when you set your presentation to run in kiosk mode (Slide show > Set up Show > Kiosk mode), your slide show will automatically reset and goes back to the first slide after a period of inactivity (approx. 5 mins). This feature however, vanishes in the later versions. If you need a kiosk mode reset, you will have to do it manually. But how?
Since you have set your presentation to run as a kiosk mode, ensure that you have already created navigation buttons in the slide master to advance back and forth the slides. Now, go to View > Master > Slide Master. We can put
invisible linking technique into good use.
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First, draw a rectangle that covers the entire slide master.
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Double click on the rectangle, set fill color to 99%. Line color to no line.
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Click Ok.
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Right click on the invisible autoshape, select Action Settings.
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Select Mouse Over tab, set it Hyperlink to the Slide 1.
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To make the mouse over work, Click Add Effect > Entrance > Appear.
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Set the Start from "On Click" to "After Previous".
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Double click on the added effect.
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Select Timing tab, set the delay to lets say 60 seconds (equiv to 1 min) or a time of your preference.
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Click Ok.
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Close Master view once you are done. Now, the invisible linking (kiosk reset) will apply to the entire presentation.
A user posted an interesting question on the Microsoft Office Online Discussion Group, asking whether it's possible to insert hyperlinks in Notes page.
There's no function for you to do that in PowerPoint.
Now, here's a tricky workaround create hyperlink to play with.
To create the hyperlink, first go into normal view and type your link or
email on a textbox. Once you get the hyperlink, highlight the link and click Edit > Copy.
You can either go into View > Notes page, or click on the "Click to add
notes".
Then, click Edit > Paste Special > HTML Format or Formatted Text (formatted
text only works in View > Notes page) and viola, you can now have hyperlinks in the notes page!
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