PowerPoint Articles

Article / Updated 04-17-2023

The Artistic Effects command in PowerPoint 2013 applies one of several special filters to your picture in an effort to make the picture look like it was created by an artist rather than photographed with a $60 digital camera. Depending on the nature of the original picture, the results may or may not be convincing; the only way to find out is to try. Here is a list of the artistic effects that are available on the Artistic Effects button: Marker Pencil Grayscale Pencil Sketch Line Drawing Chalk Sketch Paint Strokes Paint Brush Glow Diffused Blur Light Screen Watercolor Sponge Film Grain Mosaic Bubbles Glass Cement Texturizer Crisscross Etching Pastels Smooth Plastic Wrap Cutout Photocopy Glow Edges To apply one of these effects, simply double-click the picture, click the Artistic Effects button on the Picture Tools Format tab, and choose the effect you want from the gallery. To give you an idea of what these effects can accomplish, this figure shows how a photograph appears with the Pencil Sketch, Watercolor Sponge, and Plastic Wrap filters applied.

Step by Step / Updated 09-15-2022

In PowerPoint 2016, a hyperlink is simply a bit of text or a graphic image that you can click when viewing a slide to summon another slide, another presentation, or perhaps some other type of document, such as a Word document or an Excel spreadsheet. The hyperlink may also lead to a page on the web. Adding a hyperlink to a presentation is easy. Just follow these steps:

Article / Updated 09-14-2022

Previous versions of PowerPoint included a feature called WordArt that let you insert special objects that could incorporate fancy text effects, such as gradient fills or curved paths. For PowerPoint 2016, Microsoft has integrated WordArt into PowerPoint, so that you can apply WordArt formatting to any bit of text in your presentation just by highlighting the text and applying the WordArt formats. The figure shows an example of what you can do with WordArt in just a couple of minutes. You, too, can create fancy text effects like this using WordArt. Follow these steps to transform mundane text into something worth looking at: Select the text you want to apply WordArt formatting to. The text can be anywhere in your presentation. For example, you can apply WordArt formatting to a slide title or body text. Click the Drawing Tools Format tab. The Drawing Tools Format tab includes a WordArt Styles group, shown here. As you can see, this Ribbon group includes several pre-configured WordArt styles as well as buttons that let you control the text fill, outline style, and text effects such as shadows and glowing. The WordArt Styles group on the Drawing Tools Format tab. Click the More button found at the bottom of the scroll bar to the right of the predefined WordArt styles. The WordArt Quick Styles gallery appears, as shown here. The WordArt Quick Styles gallery. Select the WordArt style that most closely resembles the formatting you want to apply. Don't worry if none of the gallery choices exactly match the effect you want; you can tweak the text's appearance later. Fool around with other WordArt controls in the WordArt Styles group of the Drawing Tools Format tab. Buttons on the WordArt Drawing Tools Format tab Following are the other controls in the WordArt Styles group. Experiment with these controls as much as you want until you get the text to look just right. Text Fill: Sets the fill color. The fill can be a simple color, a gradient (which blends two or more colors), a picture, a pattern, or a texture. Text Outline: Sets the properties of the text outline. You can select a color, a pattern, and a thickness. Text Effects: Lets you apply fancy text effects such as shadows, reflections, glowing text, beveled text, 3-D rotations, and transforms. The Text Effects button is the key to creating fancy logos, such as text that wraps around circles or text that has a three-dimensional look. When you click this button, a menu with various text formatting options appears: Shadow: Adds a shadow to the text. The shadow can be directly behind the text, or it can appear beneath the text, which creates the impression that the text is floating above an invisible surface. Reflection: Creates a faint reflection on an invisible surface beneath the text. Glow: Adds a glowing effect to the text. Bevel: Adds a beveled effect to the text, which creates the impression that the text has been chiseled from a solid object. 3-D Rotation: Rotates the text around three dimensions. Transform: Transforms the overall shape of the text.

Step by Step / Updated 09-14-2022

Previous versions of PowerPoint included a feature called WordArt that let you insert special objects that could incorporate fancy text effects, such as gradient fills or curved paths. For PowerPoint 2013, Microsoft has integrated WordArt into PowerPoint, so that you can apply WordArt formatting to any bit of text in your presentation just by highlighting the text and applying the WordArt formats. Follow these steps to transform mundane text into something worth looking at:

Step by Step / Updated 08-10-2022

In PowerPoint 2013, a hyperlink is simply a bit of text or a graphic image that you can click when viewing a slide to summon another slide, another presentation, or perhaps some other type of document, such as a Word document or an Excel spreadsheet. The hyperlink may also lead to a page on the World Wide Web. Adding a hyperlink to a presentation is easy. Just follow these steps:

Cheat Sheet / Updated 04-05-2022

PowerPoint 2019 is the most powerful presentation software available to create and edit slide show presentations for work, home, or school. PowerPoint 2019 offers a number of helpful keyboard shortcuts for performing tasks quickly. Here are some shortcuts for common PowerPoint formatting, editing, and file and document tasks. Additionally, after you’ve created your masterpiece, you can use a number of shortcuts when running your slide show.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 02-17-2022

PowerPoint 2021 is the most powerful presentation software available to create and edit slideshow presentations for work, home, or school. PowerPoint offers a number of helpful keyboard shortcuts for performing tasks quickly. Take a glance at some of those shortcuts below for common formatting, editing, and file and document tasks. Additionally, after you’ve created your masterpiece, you can use a number of shortcuts when running your slideshow.

Article / Updated 11-16-2018

Microsoft PowerPoint 2019 provides a bit of picture editing wizardry in the capability to remove the background from a picture. For example, the following image shows a picture of my dog Lucy with the background removed. (Background removal works best with picture that have a clear high-contrast distinction between the picture’s subject and the background.) To accomplish this bit of photo-editing magic, follow these steps: 1. Select the picture whose background you want to remove. 2. On the Picture Tools → Format tab, click the Remove Background button (found in the Adjust group). When you do, PowerPoint attempts to determine which part of your picture is the subject of the picture and which part is the background. PowerPoint creates a bounding rectangle that contains what it believes to be the subject of the picture. Then it analyzes the colors in the picture to determine what it believes to be the background portions of the picture. The background is then displayed in purple. In addition, a special Background Removal tab appears on the Ribbon. This figure shows PowerPoint’s initial attempt at removing the background from the picture of Lucy. As you can see, PowerPoint has found most of Lucy’s head but managed to cut off the top of her head, her nose, and her right eye. The result is a little disconcerting. 3. If necessary, resize the bounding rectangle to properly enclose the subject. This figure shows the results after I resized the bounding rectangle to include all of Lucy’s head. 4. If necessary, use the Mark Areas to Keep and Mark Areas to Remove buttons to refine the location of the picture’s background. For example, if an area that’s part of the subject is shown as background, click the Mark Areas to Keep button. Then, either click in the area you want included or click and drag a line across a large portion of the area to be included. PowerPoint will attempt to discern which part of the picture you marked and include that area in the picture’s subject. Note that you don’t have to circle the area you want to include, nor do you have to be too precise. PowerPoint will do its best to figure out which portions of the image to include based on your mark. Similarly, if PowerPoint has mistaken part of the background for the subject, click the Mark Areas to Remove button and click or draw a line within the area that should be removed. If PowerPoint misinterprets your mark, press Ctrl+Z to undo your action. Or, click the Delete Mark button and then click the mark you want to delete. 5. Repeat Step 4 until you’ve successfully removed the picture’s background. 6. Click the Keep Changes button. The slide returns to normal, with the background of your picture removed.

Article / Updated 11-16-2018

In Microsoft PowerPoint 2019, you can control several important aspects of how an audio file is played by selecting the file to reveal the Audio Tools contextual tab on the Ribbon and then opening the Playback tab, shown here. As you can see, this tab contains several controls that let you edit the way the sound file is played. Control when a sound is played By default, sounds are not played until you click the sound icon that appears on the slide. If you want a sound to play automatically when the slide is displayed, change the option in the Start drop-down list (found in the Audio Options group on the Audio Tools Playback tab) from On Click to Automatically. If you select On Click or Automatically, the sound automatically stops when you move to the next slide. To allow the sound to continue over several slides, select the Play Across Slides option from the Start drop-down list. Loop a sound If the sound file isn’t long enough, you can loop it so that it plays over and over again. This feature is most useful when you have a subtle sound effect, such as the sound of waves crashing, that you want to continue for as long as you leave the slide visible. To loop an audio clip, just select the Loop Until Stopped check box found in the Audio Options group. Hide the sound icon By default, the icon representing an audio clip is visible on the slide during your slide show. Assuming that you have set the sound to play automatically, you probably don’t want the icon visible. The Audio Options group includes a check box titled Hide While Not Playing, but it hides the icon only when the sound is not playing; the icon is visible when the sound is playing. The easiest way to get the icon off of your slides altogether is to simply drag the icon off the edge of the slide that contains it. The sound will still be a part of the slide, so it will play automatically when the slide is displayed. But because the icon is off the edge of the slide, it won’t be visible to your audience. Fade the sound in and out The Fade In and Fade Out controls let you gradually fade your audio clip in and out. By default, these controls are both set to 0, so the audio clip begins and ends at full volume. By changing either or both of these controls to a value such as 2 or 3 seconds, you can smoothly fade the sound in or out for a more subtle effect. Trim an audio clip Clicking the Trim Audio button brings up the Trim Audio dialog box, shown here. This dialog box enables you to select just a portion of the audio clip to play in your presentation by letting you choose start and end times. You can choose the start and end times by dragging the green start pointer or the red end pointer over the image of the audio file’s waveform. (You can often tell where to stop or end the audio clip by looking at the waveform that’s displayed in the Trim Audio dialog box.) You can also enter the time (in seconds) in the Start Time and End Time boxes. (Ideally, you should select the start and end trim points during silent portions of the audio file, to avoid abrupt starts and ends.)

Article / Updated 11-16-2018

You can easily share a PowerPoint 2019 presentation with a friend or colleague by sending an invitation via email. The invitation email will include a link that will open the presentation in a web-based version of PowerPoint called the PowerPoint Web App. From the PowerPoint Web App, the user can view the presentation. If the user has PowerPoint installed on his or her computer, the user can also open the presentation in PowerPoint, edit the presentation, add comments, and save the edited presentation in the original OneDrive location. Here are the steps to send an invitation: 1. Save your presentation to OneDrive. 2. Choose File → Share. You are returned to the presentation with the Share task pane open, as shown here. The Share with People page appears, as shown. From this page, you can craft an email message that will be sent to the people with whom you’d like to share the presentation. 3. Type one or more email addresses in the Invite People text box. If you have more than one email address, just separate the addresses with commas or semicolons. You can click the Address Book icon to the right of the text box to bring up your address book. Then, you can select names from your address book rather than type the email addresses manually. 4. Choose the sharing permission you want to grant. The two options are Can Edit and Can View. Use the drop-down list below the Invite People text box to select the permission. 5. If you want, type a message in the Include a Message [Optional] with the Invitation text box. The message is included in the email that is sent to the recipients. 6. Click Share. A confirmation message appears, indicating that the emails have been sent. The figure shows a typical invitation email. To open a shared presentation in PowerPoint Web App, simply click the link in the invitation. The following figure shows a presentation opened in Web App. You can view the entire presentation in Web App, or you can open the presentation in PowerPoint by clicking the Open in PowerPoint button. (Note that to open the presentation in PowerPoint, you must have a copy of PowerPoint installed on your computer.) If you want to manually send your own email with a link that allows users to view or edit your presentation, you can choose File → Share → Get a Sharing Link. This displays a page that allows you to create a View Link or an Edit Link, which you can then copy and paste as needed.