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Import text from Word or Notepad

February 8, 2016 by Ellen Finkelstein 8 Comments

I recommend writing what you will say in Word first, because it’s easier to focus on your message. In another post, “Organize content with an outline,” I provide some more details.

Get text into PowerPoint. Share on X

Importing an outline

You can import then text from Word or even Notepad (or any text editor) to create a new presentation. This is called importing an outline. Follow these steps to create the outline:

Open a Word or Notepad document.
Type the content if you haven’t already done so, following the guidelines below.
Make sure each line, whether for a slide title or bulleted text, is on its own line. There should be no blank lines, because these come in as blank slides!
For each slide title, format the line as Heading 1 in Word or just type in Notepad.
For each line of bulleted text, format the text as Heading 2 in Word or insert a tab in Notepad
For each line of indented bulleted text, format the text as Heading 3 in Word or insert 2 tabs in Notepad
Save the file as a .docx or .txt file.

Here’s an example done in Notepad. Notepad is the free text editor that comes with Windows.

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Slide design rules for effective presentations

November 24, 2013 by Ellen Finkelstein 7 Comments

Slide design can be very subjective but there are some rules that are objective. These rules ensure that your slide is easy to understand and remember. When you use these rules, you can create clear slides that no one will struggle to comprehend. You’ll find that these rules are general enough to allow for lots of creativity and flexibility in your design.

I’ve broken up the rules into a few categories.

Background

Rule 1: The background shouldn’t be so busy that it attracts attention to itself and away from the slide’s content. This includes logos, footers, etc.

Rule 2: The background should leave enough space for your content.

Rule 3: The background color should contrast highly with the text color.

Text

Rule 1: The text color should contrast highly with the background color — or the color of anything else the text is on, such as shapes, images, charts, or text.

Rule 2: The text should be big enough to be read by a person with mediocre eyesight at the back of the room. Even chart labels should be readable and main text should be even larger.

Rule 3: In most cases, text should be sans-serif (such as Arial, Verdana, or Tahoma) because it’s easier to read on-screen.

Rule 4: There should not be so much text on a slide so that your audience is reading while you’re talking.

Images

Rule 1: Images should be of high-quality; use photos unless you’re creating an iconic look (such as the image for this post).

Rule 2: Images should be as big as possible without overwhelming text; they usually look best when they reach to the edges of the slide.

Rule 3: Images should help the audience understand and remember the point — and be persuasive, if that’s your goal. They shouldn’t be merely decorative.

Layout

Rule 1: Put one point or idea on a slide.

Rule 2: The audience should quickly know where to put their attention.

Rule 3: Objects on a slide should be orderly — no misaligned objects, for example.

Charts

Rule 1: All the text on a chart should be legible, even the axes.

Rule 2: Only include the data that is necessary to make the point.

Rule 3: A chart should be as simple as possible in its design, without losing clarity.

Tables

Rule 1: Only include the data or text that is necessary to make the point.

Rule 2: All the text in a table should be legible.

Free downloadable checklist!

Do you agree with these rules? Do you have others that you follow? Would following a list of rules like this help you design more effective slides? Leave a comment!

Create a looping ending for your PowerPoint presentation

March 19, 2012 by Ellen Finkelstein 7 Comments

A reader asked me how to create a looping ending. In another post, I explain how to create a looping introduction. Although the technique that I came up with is different from the one for a looping introduction, it’s quite easy.

Create your ending slides in a new presentation and save the presentation. If you already have saved your main presentation, be sure to save this presentation in the same folder!
Choose Slide Show> Set Up Slide Show (or Set Up Show). In the Set Up Show dialog box, choose Loop Continuously Until ‘Esc’ and click OK.
Set up automatic timing for your looping ending. Select all the slides in the Slides pane (click the first, press and hold Shift, and click the last). In PowerPoint 2003, choose Slide Show> Slide Transition. In PowerPoint 2007, click the Animations tab. In PowerPoint 2010, click the Transitions tab. In 2003, in the Advance Slide section of the Slide Transition task pane, check Automatically After and enter a number of seconds. In PowerPoint 2007, do this on the Animations tab. In 2010, do this on the Transitions tab. I found that 3 seconds worked well for simple slides. Uncheck On Mouse Click.
Save this presentation. You can close it, but you don’t need to.
Now go back to your main presentation and insert a shape on the last slide. If you want it to be invisible, see the instructions in the post on creating a looping introduction–the link is at the top of this post. (If you do make it invisible, be sure you know where it is! I recommend placing the shape at a corner of the slide.)
Choose Insert (tab)> Hyperlink.
In the Insert Hyperlink dialog box (shown below), choose Existing File or Web Page on the left. Then navigate to your the presentation containing your looping ending slides and click OK.
Save your main presentation.
Go into Slide Show view and display the last slide. Click your hyperlink. You should immediately see your looping ending, which will loop the slides you created.

Caution: If you move either presentation, the hyperlink won’t work. If you saved both presentations in the same folder, you can move both of them to another computer and the hyperlink will work as long as the two presentations are still in the same folder.

Please leave a comment! I’d like to know how you use this technique — and why.

“101 Tips Every PowerPoint User Should Know” is for everyone who never took a course or read a book about PowerPoint! These tips will fill in the gaps, speed up your work, make presentations easier, and help you get better results. Now updated through PowerPoint 2016 and Office 365. Learn more at http://ellenfinkelstein.com/pptblog/101-tips/

slideboxx: Slide management software

May 4, 2010 by Ellen Finkelstein 1 Comment

slideboxx (by Zinali) helps you find slides from PowerPoint presentations using keyword search. Charles Wolfus of Zinali sent me a free copy (that’s my disclosure statement!) and I’ve been using it ever since. It runs with PowerPoint 2000 through 2007

slideboxx opens and works in your browser. It automatically indexes your presentations—which can take some time, depending on how many you have, and I probably have more than most people. (slideboxx tells me I have 12966 slides from 852 files!) You can click the Settings button to specify which folders (directories) you want slideboxx to search or exclude.

Then, you simply use keywords to search. Here you see the result when I search for “color.” You can sort by relevance (the default), name, or date.

Find your slides by searching for keywords

You drag the slides you want to the panel on the right, as you see here. Then you add them to the current presentation you have open or create a new presentation. It’s that easy.

They have a trial version. You can watch a demo. And during May, slideboxx is only $99. If you download the trial, let me know what you think.

Dissolve One Image into Another

January 17, 2009 by Ellen Finkelstein 20 Comments

Dissolves are commonly used in video, but you can create them in PowerPoint, too, using the Fade animation. Some people use the Dissolve slide transition, but the results don’t look very good and you can’t control the timing. Here’s a sample slide:

Dissolve slide transition

This technique shows how to dissolve the first image into a second one that shows a presenter interacting more with the audience

Dissolve the first image into a second one

First insert the second image by choosing Insert> Pictures> From File. (In PowerPoint 2007, choose Insert tab> Illustrations group> Picture.) Then insert the first image on top of the second. Move the first image slightly, so you can easily select the second image on the bottom.

Choose Slide Show> Custom Animation. (In PowerPoint 2007, go to Animations tab> Custom Animation.) Select the first image, and choose Add Effect> Exit> Fade. Set the Start to After Previous. Set the Speed to Medium, or whatever speed gives you the result you like. To specify how long the image will be on the screen before it starts to face, select its item in the Custom Animation task pane, click the down arrow on the right, and choose Timing. Then add a value in the Delay text box, such as 1 second.

Select the second image and choose Add Effect> Entrance> Face. Set the Start to With Previous and the Speed to Medium.

Finally, place the first image exactly on top of the second image.

The result is an animation that shows the first image, then fades it out while the second image fades in. Note that if the two images are exactly the same size, you don’t need to add entrance animation to the second image; you can simply fade out the first image to reveal the second image.

Watch the video (the effect is smoother in PowerPoint)

Don’t the interacting people looking like they’re having more fun?

Learn easy principles and techniques that designers use. “Slide Design for Non-Designers” shows you, step-by-step, how to easily get the results you want. Plus bonus theme, template, sample slides, and 5 short video tutorials to make implementing the principles easy.Updated for PowerPoint 2016/365. Learn more at http://ellenfinkelstein.com/pptblog/slide-design-for-non-designers/