Jun 20 2011

PowerPoint 2010 Paste Options – Love at First Sight

Paste options . . . it was love at first sight. (c) Thinkstock

Whether you’re building a PowerPoint presentation from a few other slide decks or creating charts in Excel to add into your slides, you’re constantly copying and pasting things into PowerPoint. One of the most frustrating things is when you copy something – a slide, chart, or table – and paste it into PowerPoint 2007, all of the formatting changes. Grrrrr. More work that you didn’t need. One of my more popular blog posts is actually how to retain the formatting of a slide when it is inserted into another presentation in PowerPoint 2007.

You'll see other options depending on what you're pasting.

In PowerPoint 2010, Microsoft has combined the Paste Special dialog box with Office Paste Recovery feature so you have easier access to different paste options. Continue reading “PowerPoint 2010 Paste Options – Love at First Sight”

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Apr 25 2009

Keep the Formatting of an Inserted Slide in PowerPoint

Insert a slide from one presentation into another.

How do you keep the formatting of a slide you're inserting?

When you’re building PowerPoint presentations, you may need to copy slides from one PowerPoint slide deck and insert them into another. Sometimes these slides may have different templates, themes, or other formatting options. Whenever you insert slides from another presentation template, the inserted slides will default to the new presentation’s template and formatting options. In most cases, you’ll want to modify the inserted slides to the new presentation’s formatting in order to keep your slides consistent. Continue reading “Keep the Formatting of an Inserted Slide in PowerPoint”

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Mar 24 2009

Create a Cut-Out Effect in PowerPoint

The shape on the right leverages the slide background fill effect to simulate a cut-out effect in the wall.

The shape on the right leverages the slide background fill effect to simulate a cut-out effect in the wall.

If you’ve ever needed to cut out a portion of an object, there’s really no easy way to do it in PowerPoint. You basically have to place another object on top of the object in question and fill it with the same color as the background. When the background is a solid color such as white or black, it isn’t a problem.

However, when your background has some kind of design or gradient, it can be hard to make a good match with the background. Many people may not realize that they have the option to fill a shape with the slide background, which can be used to create a simple cut-out effect. Continue reading “Create a Cut-Out Effect in PowerPoint”

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Nov 26 2008

Line Spacing Tips for PowerPoint 2007

How to access the line spacing options in PowerPoint 2007.

How to access the line spacing options in PowerPoint 2007.

If you used PowerPoint 2003 and recently upgraded to PowerPoint 2007, you probably noticed a significant change in how PowerPoint 2007 handles the line spacing of text within your slides. Line spacing in PowerPoint 2007 and Word 2007 are now almost exactly the same. Microsoft obviously wanted to create a unified approach to line spacing across its Microsoft Office suite. However, the simple and straightforward approach in previous versions of PowerPoint is now a little more tricky. Continue reading “Line Spacing Tips for PowerPoint 2007”

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Nov 01 2008

PowerPoint Design Principle #1: Consistency

Are your slides consistent like clockwork? (c)iStockphoto/Sabrina Dei Nobili

Too frequently business presentations resemble a rough mishmash of different colors, fonts, and formats. If these slides were a meal, the variety of options on your plate would leave you with some level of indigestion. If you want to enhance the professional look and feel of your slides, you should ensure they are consistent. Continue reading “PowerPoint Design Principle #1: Consistency”

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