Undocumented Tips for the PowerPoint Designer

Anyone who has acted as an inhouse PowerPoint designer already know that the program is a very powerful tool that can bring life to an otherwise mediocre presentation.However, there are few of the tools in PowerPoint that can be used for other purposes. While really advanced presentations might be better handled by PowerPoint Studio, here are a couple of examples that may be helpful for routine activities.

Pictures: Inserting pictures into a PowerPoint slide is easy. Inserting pictures, especially multiple pictures into other programs can be difficult. PowerPoint makes its easy with its grouping and saves as picture tools. With these two tools, a number of pictures, pieces of clip art, text boxes or any combination can be grouped into one unit. Right there, some gain has been achieved because the object can be moved around the PowerPoint slide or moved to another slide.However, assume you want to include the group of pictures in a Word document. Simply click on the group objects so that the box around the group is visible. Next place the cursor on one of the objects in the group, right click and select the “Save as picture” command. Then the traditional window used for saving documents opens. There you can name the grouped object and select the format you want to use for saving.The options include png, gif, jpg and others. Hit the save button the group of pictures or other objects are now one and can be inserted as a picture into any other program that accepts the format you selected.

There is a word of caution. Sometimes, if any typewritten copy is part of the group, it can come out a little blurry if moved to another program. This is mostly true with smaller font sizes. This seems to be an issue associated with the configuration of the computer being used. The type copy will remain clean as long as it stays in a PowerPoint presentation. If the object is going to be used in Word, it can be inserted in a text box, and the desired copy added. The main advantage of this shortcut is to be able to group objects together so that can be moved as a single unit.An example of how this would be useful in PowerPoint would be the case where a booklet is being designed, and one page includes pictures of nine individuals, or any number, and under each picture is a name line. Once the picture is aligned with the name line, the two parts can be grouped into one object. Thus, any rearrangements will be much easier. The grouping tool has many uses and when combined with the “Save as picture” command, opens the door to moving objects from PowerPoint into other programs.

Speaker Notes: The second function that many already know, but many do not, is a way to combine a picture of the slide, and the speaker notes on one page. This is very simple.  After your presentation is completed, make sure the original is saved, and that you have a backup copy.Then save the original presentation a second time and give it a different name. Open new copy and insert a blank slide after each of the other slides. Next type any notes, bullet points or prompts that may be needed or desired by the person making the presentation. Once that task is completed and saved, it will be time to print slides. Select the two slide per page option. When everything is printed, the speaker will have a copy of the presentation with a half-size picture of the slide at the top of the page, and the needed text to accompany that slide at the bottom.

These are not secret tricks, but they are not documented. Thus like most computer programs, such as PowerPoint, the user needs to experiment. The shortcuts and applications that are discovered may prove to be very useful.