The Art of PowerPoint-ing : PowerPoint

Reset kiosk mode on inactivity

tohlz — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 15:12:00 GMT

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.

First, draw a rectangle that covers the entire slide master.
Double click on the rectangle, set fill color to 99%. Line color to no line.
Click Ok.
Right click on the invisible autoshape, select Action Settings.
Select Mouse Over tab, set it Hyperlink to the Slide 1.
To make the mouse over work, Click Add Effect > Entrance > Appear.
Set the Start from "On Click" to "After Previous".
Double click on the added effect.
Select Timing tab, set the delay to lets say 60 seconds (equiv to 1 min) or a time of your preference.
Click Ok.
Close Master view once you are done. Now, the invisible linking (kiosk reset) will apply to the entire presentation.

Insert hyperlink in Notes page

tohlz — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:29:00 GMT

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!

What is Death by PowerPoint?

tohlz — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 17:14:00 GMT

Here is a survey by Ellen Finkelstein. If you have any Death by PowerPoint experience, why not share it with us on this survey? By taking up this survey, you will also get a free copy of Ellen's e-booklet, 7 Steps to Great Images.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=8btaxwZWsjzcfZf2i5Qjog_3d_3d

Note: The link to get the free e-booklet is in small print at the end of the survey.

Pausing your animations with VBA

tohlz — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 12:32:00 GMT

Lets say if you are running a slide that has multiple animations on it. Halfway through the presentation, you may want to pause the animations to explain something. A simple way to do this is to press the "b" key which will black out the screen. Then, press "b" key again to resume the presentation. The downside is that you won't be able to see the content on the screen.

To resolve this, you can make use of VBA. To do so, click Tools > Macro > Visual Basic Editor. Copy the code as shown below:

Sub pauseshow()
ActivePresentation.SlideShowWindow.View.State = ppSlideShowPaused
End Sub

Sub runshow()
ActivePresentation.SlideShowWindow.View.State = ppSlideShowRunning
End Sub

Close the editor once you are done.

Now, create two autoshapes.
Right click on the first one and select Action Settings. Select Run Macro > pauseshow. Click Ok.
Right click on the second one and select Action Settings. Select Run Macro > runshow. Click Ok.
Clicking on Shape 1 will now pause the presentation, while clicking on Shape 2 will resume the presentation.

Embedding PowerPoint in a PowerPoint

tohlz — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 02:51:00 GMT

There are several ways to link presentations from one to another. The downside of linking however, is the fear of link breaking when moving the files from one location to another. A solution to resolve this is to make use of embedding.

To embed a PowerPoint in a PowerPoint, click Insert > Object. Select Create from file, then click on Browse. Look for the ppt file you want to embed. Then click Ok twice. The file will then be embedded with the first slide shown as a thumbnail. There are two ways to open the embedded presentation during slide show view. The first one is to click on the thumbnail, which will open up the embedded presentation.

If you prefer to have it open automatically, click Slide Show > Custom Animation. Select the thumbnail, click Add Effect > Object Actions > Show. Lastly, set the Start from "On Click" to "After Previous".

Put your presentation into TVnima!

tohlz — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 14:09:00 GMT

I have chanced upon this interesting application while surfing through the web. TVanima, currently in its alpha stage, is an online 3D application that allows you to create a TV news program by inserting media such as photographs, images, narrations and videos. There will be a news presenter who will do the talk for you. You can then publish you finished work onto the web. If you have a PowerPoint presentation that you want to put on web, try TVanima.

Insert flv video into PowerPoint

tohlz — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 18:30:00 GMT

What is a flv video?
Flash Video, also known as flv, is a file format that is used to deliver video over the Internet. It uses the .flv file extension. Video sharing sites such as YouTube and MySpace make use of Flash Video format.

Inserting flv video into PowerPoint
There are several programs which allow you to view Flash Video. One example is VLC Media Player, which is free and can be downloaded at http://www.videolan.org.

To insert flv video into PowerPoint, one way is to make use of the VLC Media Player.
First, install the VLC Media Player.
Once done, create a folder.
Move the presentation and flv video to the folder.
Now, open the presentation.
Go to the slide which you want to have the Flash Video inserted.
You will need the control toolbox to be displayed.
Click View > Toolbars > Control Toolbox.
On the toolbar, click on the last icon which should be "More Controls". (For PowerPoint 2007, Click Developer tab. Under Controls, click on the icon "More Controls".)
Scroll right to the bottom and look for VideoLAN VLC ActiveX Plugin (both v1 and v2 is fine).
Click Ok.
Now, right click on the control that has been added, select Properties.
This will bring up the properties dialog box.
Under MRL, enter the filename (e.g. abc.flv).
Once done, close the dialog box.

Play multiple sounds simultaneously

tohlz — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 20:35:00 GMT

During a presentation, you might want to have a music playing in the background, then have additional sound effects. The problem is, when the sound effect starts to play, your background music stops. What we want is to have multiple sounds playing at the same time in PowerPoint. Unfortunately, when one starts, the other stops. Here's why:

When you have multiple sounds embedded, PowerPoint will only allow one sound to be played at a time. On the other hand, if you have the sounds linked, it will be able to play simultaneously. Thus, if you have two sounds, the solution is to have one of them linked instead of embedded.

For instance, you can have either both the background music and sound effect linked, OR, have the background music embedded while the sound effect linked.

Microsoft has addressed the issue here, including detailed steps on how to go about doing it:
"Background sound stops playing in a presentation when the presentation reaches a slide that uses built-in custom animation with sound effects in PowerPoint"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/894266

Rediscovering PowerPoint Workshop @ NTU

tohlz — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 21:37:00 GMT

Completed the Rediscovering PowerPoint Workshop at Nanyang Technological University few days ago (Wed, 17 Oct). Thanks to the Hindri, Stephanie, Adeline, Kee, Teddy, Darren and Johnny who have been helping me out! A total of 25 participants. It actually shot up to around 53 participants signing up in the first few hours of registration! But due to the limit of the computer lab, only 25 could be accepted.

Here's a few photographs taken by them. Just to share with you guys!

Figure 1: Poster created by the organizing committee

Figure 2: Rediscovering PowerPoint Workshop @ NTU 1

Figure 3: Rediscovering PowerPoint Workshop @ NTU 2

Figure 4 - Rediscovering PowerPoint Workshop @ NTU 3

Figure 5 - Rediscovering PowerPoint Workshop @ NTU 4