Shapes & text boxes

Creating beautiful process diagrams with a teardrop shape

February 28, 2025 by Ellen Finkelstein Leave a Comment

Process diagrams are very useful for depicting (obviously) processes. Processes are a common topic in presentations and describing them with just words doesn’t work very well.

In this post, I’ll explain 2 ways to create a process diagram:

Using SmartArt
Creating it from scratch, to give you more variations and possibilities.

Let’s start with this slide, “4 pieces to the online marketing puzzle.” The 4 pieces are website, email, products, and events. But because I’m suggesting that this is a process, that is, you start by creating a website, then build an email list, and so on, it’s a process. You do one after the other.

A quick way would be to turn it into SmartArt, following these steps:

[Read more…]

Using abstract images to create unique backgrounds for slides and shapes

January 30, 2025 by Ellen Finkelstein 2 Comments

You can use abstract images to create interesting, textured backgrounds for slides or shapes. Just as important, they will be unique. You’ll see why as you read further…

Here’s an example, using abstract images as a fill for the shapes of a diagram.

First, you have to find an abstract image. That’s fairly easy. For example, go to pixabay.com or your favorite stock images site and enter abstract in the search box. Find some images and download them. Here are 3 that I downloaded from pixabay.com:

Another easy technique is to take your own abstract photos! Any object with a texture that is mostly one color works well. Here are some ideas:

A close-up of a piece of fabric or carpet
A close-up of the hair of a pet
A piece of wood or furniture

Here’s a photo of a gravel pathway that I took>>>

Modify the texture image

You can make many modifications to the texture image. Select the image, and choose the Picture Format tab. For example, you can do the following:

In the Adjust section of the ribbon, choose Corrections to soften or sharpen the image, as well as change the brightness and contrast. For more precise changes, choose Picture Corrections Options at the bottom.
Choose Color to change the saturation or tone, or to recolor the image.
Choose Artistic Effects to choose one of the preset effects.

Here, I took the abstract image on the left, then blurred it, colored it, and reduced the contrast to create the one on the right.

Use the image as a fill for a shape

To use an image as a fill for a shape, follow these steps:

Click the shape to display the Picture Format tab and click the tab.
Choose Shape Fill> Picture> From File, navigate to the picture you saved, and double-click the picture file you want to use. (See an alternative method below.)
If you want to remove the outline (I often do), choose Shape Outline> No Outline.

If you have already inserted the abstract image you want to use on a slide — since you may have created and modified it there — follow these steps:

Copy the abstract image to the clipboard.
Right-click the shape and choose Format Shape to open the Format Shape task pane.
On the Fill & Line tab, expand the Fill section and choose Picture or Texture Fill. (PowerPoint automatically fills the shape with the default texture and changes the name of the task pane to Format Picture.)
Choose Clipboard
If you want to remove the outline, choose Shape Outline> No Outline from the ribbon or from the Line section of the Format Picture task pane.

Use an abstract image as a slide background

To use an image as a slide background, display either the slide or the slide master. If you want to apply the background to all layouts, click the top, larger layout in the left pane of the slide master.

Right-click an empty area of the slide or slide master and choose Format Background.
In the Format Background dialog box, for the Fill category, choose Picture or Texture Fill.
Choose Clipboard if you have the image on the clipboard or choose Insert> From a File, navigate to the file, and double-click the picture file that you want to use.

These options give you unlimited possibilities!

How do you use abstract images?

Leave a comment or question and please share this post using the Share buttons below.

3 techniques for putting less text on your slides

October 18, 2021 by Ellen Finkelstein 1 Comment

You probably know that creating slides with lots of text on them is a sure sign of “Death by PowerPoint.”

Even if your content is valuable and interesting, the text makes it LOOK boring.

Also, research has shown that images attract more attention.

So the solution is almost always to replace text with images and not put everything you say on the slide.

How do you present without the text?

Presenting without the text on the slides can get some people nervous. Presenting without the text means you have to do one or more of the following:

Use Presenter view to see your notes (put what you’ll say in the Notes pane in PowerPoint)
Use written notes or cards
Practice so you know what you’ll say without seeing the text on the slide

Here are 3 ways you can get most of that text off the slide… [Read more…]

Making text stand out with text formatting techniques

August 22, 2021 by Ellen Finkelstein Leave a Comment

A presentation style that’s sometimes called the Takahashi or Lessig method, involves putting just a word or two on a slide, usually with very large text. The text is used as a prompt, but also as a graphic. I wrote about it in a short post from 2004,

You can create stunning slides using large text and formatting the text in interesting ways — for example, with an outline or with no fill. Changing the slide background color is another technique that will attract attention.

So let’s look at some techniques for formatting striking text. [Read more…]

Use contrast to make your text and colors pop!

May 6, 2021 by Ellen Finkelstein 1 Comment

I’ve been working on some training about presentations that are accessible to people with sight and hearing challenges and have learned some techniques that I believe everyone can use.

One has to do with increasing contrast between the background (of the slide or a shape) and the text. When you do this, your colors become richer and your text is much more clear. This helps your viewers to focus on your content.

PowerPoint 365 now gives you hexadecimal stats for colors. Hexadecimal is the system used for websites. It’s similar to the RGB (red-green-blue) system that PowerPoint has used for years. I say this because the service that you can use to measure contrast uses hexadecimal notation.

How to check for color contrast

[Read more…]