Tag: powerpoint

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Microsoft PowerPoint 365: How to Edit Icons Like a Pro

Let’s say you wanted to insert a checkmark graphic into your PowerPoint deck. You might do so from the Icons tool (Insert > Icons) by typing “checkmark” into the search field.

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But, maybe, you have quite discerning tastes when it comes to your checkmark imagery. Perhaps you prefer a more bold and stocky variety of checkmark. You may even notice that the checkmark you desire exists within another icon, locked away just out of reach.

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As it exists in its Graphic format, you cannot remove the individual checkmarks from the checklist icon. You can only edit the whole thing as one cohesive image. There is, however, a way to extrapolate that checkmark of your dreams, and I’m here to share it with you.

  1. From that same dialog box, click on the icon with the checkmark-ed list and click the Insert button to place it on your slide.
  2. With the image selected, head to the Graphics Format tab on the Ribbon.
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  3. On the far left, from the Change area, click the Convert to Shape

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Your Icon, previously a Graphic, is now a Shape, which means it can be pulled apart and its individual elements harvested. You’ll know it’s a Shape because the Shape Format tab will appear in place of the Graphic Format tab on the Ribbon.

  1. With the Shape selected on your slide, press [Ctrl][Shift][G] on your keyboard (or right-click the shape and select Ungroup from the drop-down menu) to Ungroup the shape.

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    You are now able to pull apart and edit the individual pieces of your formerly cohesive graphic.

Sayonara skinny checkmark!

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ISPRING SUITE 10: Now with Text to Speech

iSpring continues to improve its eLearning development suite of tools. The latest improvement is Text to Speech and it works really well.

To use the Text to Speech feature, first, add the voiceover script to the slide notes. (You'll be able to use this script along with the Text to Speech feature. No retyping, no extra work.)

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Select the iSpring Suite 10 tab on the PowerPoint ribbon and click Manage Narration.

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Click the Audio drop-down menu and choose Text to Speech.

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From the lower left of the dialog box, click the Insert text from notes button.

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The script you added to the slide notes earlier appears in the main area of the window.

Select the language and voice from the menus as appropriate. If you'd like, preview the voice by clicking the Preview voice button.

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Click the Insert button, select the slide you'd like to receive the audio, and then click the Insert button again.

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The audio appears on the Timeline. You can edit the audio clip as you would any other audio file. And you can preview the finished audio here as well.

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If satisfied with the results, click Save & Close to return to the project.

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If you'd like to learn more about iSpring Suite 10, check out our step-by-step workbook: iSpring Suite 10: The Essentials.

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MICROSOFT POWERPOINT: Convert Text to Shapes Using the Fragment Tool

Let’s say you’re creating icons for some eLearning and you’d like some letter icons. You might approach this by drawing a circle and layering a text box over the top of it or by typing the letters directly onto the shapes. For some applications, this approach might be perfectly fine, but there are a few instances where you may find this approach has shortcomings.
 
 
Shortcoming 1: You want the letter to be cut out of the icon’s shape so that you can see the background through the icon. (For example, maybe you have a gradient background and you want to see that through the icon.)
 
 
Shortcoming 2: You want to resize the icon, without saving it as a picture, and have the letter resize proportionately. Here’s what it looks like if you resize this icon with standard text on it: 
 
 
Shortcoming 3: You want to fine-tune edit how the letters look, perhaps down to the point level. Maybe you like your font but you wish the characters were a bit shorter and wider. Maybe, like in this example, you also want to edit one of the characters to have a long “tail” to match the diagonal design element elsewhere on the slide. 
 
 
The best way to accomplish any of the above is to convert your text to shapes using PowerPoint's Fragment tool. Here’s how.
 
First, insert your shape.
 
Insert your text box with text. For this task, you’ll want to use a text box vs typing directly onto the shape. 
 
 
Select your first icon’s shape, hold down the control key, and then also select the text box. From the Format Shape tab of the ribbon, find the Insert Shapes area and choose Merge Shapes > Fragment.
 
 
Each item will become its own separate shape. In the case of this example, you’ll have three pieces. 
 
 
 
Now you can resize the icon as one shape and even edit the points of your letter to customize to your heart’s content.
 
Have any PowerPoint PainPoints (see what I did there?) for which you’ve been dying to find a solution? Shoot them over to me and I’ll see if I can help and share them in a future newsletter article!
 
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AJ Walther, COTP, is IconLogic's Chief Creative Officer (CCO), a seasoned online trainer, eLearning graphic designer, and author of both "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials." AJ made her own interdisciplinary studies major, focusing on writing and art.
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ISPRING SUITE 9: Video Demos with Annotations Equals Awesomeness!

If you have content in Microsoft PowerPoint and need to use it for eLearning, you'll be happy to know that the top eLearning tools (Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, and TechSmith Camtasia) allow you to import PowerPoint content and then output HTML5 or videos. In the case of Storyline, the imported PowerPoint content can even be edited from within Storyline post-import.
 
But what if you wanted your PowerPoint content to stay in PowerPoint and still be able to add eLearning-type features such as a quiz and interactive objects? Unfortunately, while PowerPoint excels at visually stunning presentations, it's not an eLearning development tool. Fortunately, tools like Adobe Presenter, Articulate Presenter, and iSpring Suite allow you to add eLearning capabilities to any PowerPoint presentation.
 
I've spent a significant amount of time over the past few months using iSpring Suite, a PowerPoint-based authoring toolkit that allows developers to create mobile-friendly eLearning courses complete with slides, quizzes, dialog simulations, software video demonstrations, selfie-videos, and other interactive learning content. The finished course can quickly be published as HTML5 or as a video and uploaded to a web server, Learning Management System, or to video services like YouTube or Vimeo.
 
In the next few articles, I'm going to delve into some of my favorite iSpring Suite 9 features. I'm also rolling out an iSpring Suite book ("iSpring Suite 9: The Essentials") and an iSpring Suite 9 instructor-led class!
 
This week I tested iSpring's ability to create a video demo similar to what you can do in Captivate, Storyline, and Camtasia. During my testing, I was happy to see that iSpring even adds Annotations to the recording (automatic text captions).
 
To begin, I visited the iSpring tab on the PowerPoint Ribbon, Insert group, and then clicked Screen Recording to open iSpring Cam Pro.
 
 
I clicked New Recording which opened a recording area with controls similar to the other top eLearning development tools.
 
 
I clicked the red record button and within seconds had an awesome video demo.
 
 
When the recording was complete, I expected a standard video just like the other tools. However, the resulting Recording Complete screen offered a nice surprise–the check box Add annotations to the screen recording (shown circled below).
 
 
Of course, I selected the Add annotations option clicked the Continue button. I was surprised by how awesome the resulting text was (almost no editing needed).
 
 
I was also happy to see that, like the other competitors in the eLearning development tools space, there's a Timeline allowing me to quickly change when the annotations appear onscreen, and for how long.
 
 
I was able to edit the annotations and change the way they looked via the Formatting toolbar. All-in-all, this is awesome!
 
 
Next time: Dialog simulations.
 

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Kevin Siegel is the founder and president of IconLogic, Inc. He has written hundreds of step-by-step computer training books on applications such as Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, Adobe RoboHelp, Adobe Presenter, and TechSmith Camtasia. Kevin spent five years in the U.S. Coast Guard as an award-winning photojournalist and has three decades’ experience as a trainer, publisher, technical writer, and eLearning developer. Kevin is a Certified Master Trainer (CMT), Certified Technical Trainer (CTT+), Certified Online Professional Trainer (COTP), and a frequent speaker at trade shows and conventions.