Category: PowerPoint

Adding SmartArt is simple… all you need to do is click the SmartArt command on the Insert Ribbon. While adding animation to the SmartArt is just as simple, some of the features are a bit hidden.

To add animation to SmartArt:

1. Ensure the SmartArt graphic is selected (has a thick border around the entire thing).
2. Choose Animations > Add Animation and then choose any animation you would like.

Simple enough, but what if you want the individual elements of the graphics to animate separately?

1. If the Animation Pane is not already visible, choose Animations > Animation Pane.

   The effect you added should be listed on the Animation Pane.

2. Click the arrow next to the animation to display the drop-down menu and choose Effect Options.
3. Select the SmartArt Animation tab.
4. From the Group graphic drop-down menu, choose how you would like the image to be grouped for the animation.

   

   Notice that for all options except As One Object you are able to reverse the order of the animation. While you can have the elements appear in order, or in reverse order, you can not apply animation effects out of order.

What if you want elements of your SmartArt animation to appear out of order? Or what if you want to apply animations that are grayed out (unavailable) for SmartArt? In these cases, you will need to convert the SmartArt graphic elements to shapes and apply the animations separately.

1. Ensure the SmartArt graphic is selected.
2. Without clicking on any of the individual elements of the graphic, right-click and choose Convert to Shapes.
3. With the graphic selected, right-click on any of the individual elements and select Group > Ungroup (or select Drawing Tools > Format > Group > Ungroup from the ribbon).

With the graphic converted to shapes and then ungrouped you should now be able to apply any animation effect you like and have the individual pieces of the graphic animate in any order.

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About the author: AJ George is IconLogic's lead Technical Communicator and author of both "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials."

 

I was recently asked if it was possible to change the measurement system in PowerPoint from inches to pixels. The answer is no… at least not from within PowerPoint. (More on that later.) Simply put, you are stuck with PowerPoint's default measurement system, which is inches. 

 

I started to think about why someone would want to change PowerPoint's measurement system. As I said, PowerPoint's default system is inches, which makes sense. PowerPoint is designed to build presentations that will be shown on myriad display types and sizes. Since the size of the display isn't always known to the person running the presentation, it doesn't make sense to preset the PowerPoint presentation to a specific number of pixels.

 

While many people think that inches, points and pixels are interchangeable measurement systems, they aren't. A pixel is actually the smallest visual element on a video display screen.  

 

I frequently use PowerPoint to design graphics. My clients often work in pixels rather than inches. When the client asks for my images to be delivered in a specific pixel size, I use online pixel-to-inch converters to convert the PowerPoint graphics from inches to pixels. While converting pixels to inches isn't always an exact science, I can usually get things sized to meet the client's needs.

 

Working in pixels may not be possible in PowerPoint, but working in centimeters is another story, and it's a fairly easy task to accomplish. However, the process of changing the measurement system from inches to centimeters has nothing to do with PowerPoint and everything to do with your computer's settings.

 

Note: The steps for changing your computer to display in centimeters varies slightly between Windows 7, Vista, and XP. However, the same general principles apply.

1. Ensure all applications are closed.
2. Click the Start button and open the Control Panel.
3. Select Clock, Language, and Region (Date, Time, Language, and Regional Options if you are using XP).
4. Select Region and Language in Windows 7. (In Vista you will click Region and Language Options and skip to step 6. In XP you will click Change the date, time, or number format from the Regional and Language Options area and skip to step 7.)
5. From the Region and Language dialog box, ensure the Formats tab is selected, click the Additional Settings button and then skip to step 8.
6. From the Regional and Language Options dialog box, ensure the Formats tab is selected, click the Customize this format button and then skip to step 8.
7. From the Regional and Language Options dialog box, ensure the Regional Options tab is selected and click the Customize button.
8. From the Customize Regional Options dialog box, ensure the Numbers tab is selected and, from the Measurement system drop down menu, select Metric.
9. Click OK.

The next time you start PowerPoint, your units of measurement should now be in centimeters. If this is for a one-off project, it may be a good idea to go back into your settings when you're done and change them back to US measurements before you forget. 

 

About the author: AJ George is IconLogic's lead Technical Communicator and author of both "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials."

Have you ever been frustrated by an inability to trim audio in PowerPoint? Let's say you followed my instructions on how to play two songs sequentially in your PowerPoint presentation. The first track was 2 minutes long, but you trimmed it down to 15 seconds and set it to play across slides.

Perhaps your plan was to play the first track when the presentation started, move to the second slide, let the track end and then have the second track start.

You probably set the second track on the second slide to start right after the first track ended, which is the correct process. However, even though you trimmed the first audio file down to 15 seconds, it kept playing, running into the second track.

Or maybe you've experienced this: You trim an audio track so that it starts 15 seconds into the track and then set it to play across the slides. When you view your presentation, however, you notice that rather than cutting the first 15 seconds from the track, only the first 15 seconds play.

What gives?!

Well, get excited because I'm about to save you a lot of frustration. All you have to do is this:

1. In PowerPoint 2010, select File > Info.
2. From the Media Size and Performance area, click the Compress Media button.
3. Choose one of the three settings to compress the media (I chose Presentation Quality and it worked fine…if yours still doesn't work, choose a lesser quality).

   Unfortunately, I have not found a suitable explanation as to why the trim function in PowerPoint doesn't always work, or why compressing the media helps, but it is nice to know that it is easily remedied. 

 

About the author: AJ George is IconLogic's lead Technical Writer and author of both "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials."

Last week I covered how to play multiple audio tracks at the same time. That wasn't so hard, but what can get a bit complicated is playing multiple audio tracks sequentially. There are two ways to do this.

If you know that the first audio file ends after 1:35 and you'll be on your third slide then, then you would put the second audio file on the third slide and set it to play after 1:35. 

1. Insert the audio file on the slide on which you would like the audio to begin (Insert > Audio).
2. Select the Audio Tools Playback tab. 
3. In the Audio Options group, choose Play across slides from the drop-down menu.
4. Insert the second audio file on the slide where you will be when the first audio file ends. 
5. Select Audio Tools Playback > Play across slides.

    

6. Choose Animations > Animation Pane to view the Animation Pane.  
7. On the Animation Pane, click the down arrow next to the sound file and choose Timing (remember, we are working on the slide with the second sound file) 
8. From the Timing tab, change the Delay to whatever the length of the first audio clip was, minus however long you will spend on the slides you have run through so far. 

 

For example: If the first audio clip is 1:35 long and will end 20 seconds after you bring up your third slide, at which point you would like the second audio file to start, then you would put the second audio file on the third slide and set it to a 20 second Delay. 

Keep in mind that the time is in seconds (it can be confusing because the audio clip is measured in minutes), so if you wanted a minute long delay, you would enter 60 instead of 1. 

While the process is not particularly hard, it can get a bit confusing. The second option for playing audio tracks one right after the other would be to import the files into another program like Windows Movie Maker. If you are using a PC with PowerPoint, there is a good chance your system came pre-loaded with the WMM software. All you would need to do in this case is drop the audio files onto the timeline, one right after the other, and save it as one audio file. Then just insert the audio into the PowerPoint presentation as one file. 

About the author: AJ George is IconLogic's lead Technical Writer and author of both "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials."

A couple of weeks ago I discussed some points for working with Audio in PowerPoint; today, a bit of elaboration. What if you want to play two audio files automatically at the same time (say, for example, you want a song to play but you also want a recorded narration to play simultaneously)?

1. Insert both audio clips onto the desired slide (Insert > Audio). 
2. Hold down [Ctrl] and select both sound icons. 
3. From Audio Tools > Playback locate the Audio Options area and select Automatically from the drop-down menu. 

   One might think that was all it took, but your work is not done. 
   

    
   

4. Choose Animations > Animation Pane. 
5. From the Animation Pane, select the down arrow next to each audio file and choose Start With Previous. 

 

 

Both sounds will now play automatically, and at the same time. 

Note: If there are additional animations on the slide, be wary about the order of the sounds on the animation pane and selecting Start With Previous. You want the sounds to be the first things listed on the animation pane, unless, of course you would like the sounds to begin after other animations. 

 

About the author: AJ George is IconLogic's lead Technical Writer and author of both "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials."

Adding audio to a PowerPoint 2010 slide is simple. All you need to do is choose Insert > Audio and then open the audio clip. However, when it comes to adjusting the audio, the option you might be looking for can be difficult to find. 

 

In a perfect world, you would be able to make adjustments to an audio clip by either right-clicking a slide's sound icon, or by using the Audio Tools. And for some things, these techniques work. For instance, if you need to trim the audio, select the audio clip on the slide and choose Audio Tools Playback > Trim Audio. 

 

But what if you wanted to stop the audio after three slides? What if you wanted the audio to play across all of the slides, but you don't want the audio to start until you click? You won't find these options among the Audio Tools or by right-clicking the audio icon. For these tasks, you'll need to use the Animations tab. Even then, the options are buried. 

 

How to Specify When Music Playing Across Multiple Slides Will Stop

1. Select the icon for the sound file on your slide.
2. From the Animations tab, ensure Play is selected.
   

3. Still on the Animations tab, locate the Effect Options button and click the More Arrow below it to Show Additional Effect Options. (Note: the button itself will be grayed out, but you will still be able to select the More Arrow below it.)

   

   The Play Audio dialog box will appear.

    

4. Ensure the Effect tab is selected, and from the Stop playing section, select After and then use the up and down arrows in the slides field to indicate for how many slides the audio should play. 

How to Start Music that Plays Across All Slides On-Click

1. Follow steps 1 and 2 above.
2. Select the Timing tab. 
3. From the Start drop-down menu select On Click.
4. From here you have two options. If you would like the sound to play by clicking anywhere on the screen, say after a title appears, then select Animate as part of click sequence. Just be sure if you select this option, that you properly arrange the sound on the Custom Animation pane so that it begins in the desired order. If you do not want the sound to start at a specific time, but rather by clicking a specific object, select Start effect on click of and then choose the object that will trigger the sound from the drop-down menu.

   Note: If you would like to be able to click the sound icon on your slide during the presentation to start the audio, select the Audio Settings tab and ensure that Hide audio icon during slide show is not selected. It will, after all, be difficult to click the sound icon if you can't see it. 😉

 

About the author: AJ George is IconLogic's lead Technical Writer and author of both "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials."

by AJ George

Trying to decide on a typeface but wish you could see what all the letters of the alphabet in that type face look like at the same time? Here's a trick: Type =RAND() into the text box and press [Enter]. Voila! "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" appears across your slide. From here you can scroll through the font list with this text selected and choose the perfect fit. The font will automatically change as you scroll through.

 

About the author: AJ George is IconLogic's lead Technical Writer and author of both "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials."

I have written a few articles on how to get online videos (like YouTube) into PowerPoint presentations (links below).  

PowerPoint 2007 (with internet)

  

PowerPoint 2007 (without internet)

 

PowerPoint 2008 for the Mac

 

PowerPoint 2010

I have previously recommended using www.mediaconverter.org for video conversion. While I didn't have any trouble with that service, it was limited in that you could only do five conversions for free. The service was also very basic. For example, I am often asked if only specific parts of YouTube videos can be downloaded, and I never had an easy answer.

I have since been introduced to another free media converter (http://www.clipconverter.cc/) which I full-heartedly recommend.

ClipConverter conversions are free. And there is the added benefit of adjustable settings that you typically don't see with free video converters. Not only can you convert a wide variety of online video content to MP3, AAC, WMA, M4A, OGG, MP4, 3GP, AVI, MPG, WMV and FLV, but you can also adjust the audio volume and bitrate as well as the video aspect ratio. The best part: you can specify what part of the video you want the conversion to start and end with–so if you just want 15 seconds of the clip right in the middle, no problem. 

 

About the author: AJ George is IconLogic's lead Technical Writer and author of both "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials."

 

You will be redirected to a Microsoft website that will scan your computer and recommend updates as necessary. 

About the author: AJ George is IconLogic's lead Technical Writer and author of both "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials."