Nov 10 2010

Drawing in PowerPoint 101

Sometimes you need to draw in PowerPoint. (c) Thinkstock

In PowerPoint, you may have discovered that you have the ability to draw objects. Although not as powerful as Adobe’s Illustrator software, PowerPoint 2007 does give you a basic set of drawing options for adding custom objects to your PowerPoint slides. I view drawing in PowerPoint as a last resort when you can’t find an appropriate photo or clip art graphic. If I can customize an existing clip art image, I’m going to go that route before I embark down the path of drawing something in PowerPoint for a couple of reasons. Continue reading “Drawing in PowerPoint 101”

Tags: clip art, Drawing, Freeform, Freeform drawing, Graphics, Illustrator, Scribble

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Apr 16 2009

Free Ninja Clip Art for Your PowerPoint Slides

I didn’t comment on another key deficiency in PowerPoint 2007 in my recent “Missing-in-Upgrade” article, but there are only two clip art images that are ninja-related in PowerPoint 2007 (below) — and they’re lame. As the PowerPoint Ninja, I wanted to make sure that this problem is rectified.

Is the ninja on the left wearing a hooded Snuggie and a man purse? Maybe someone spilled his bowl of Cheetos while he was lounging on the couch in front of the TV and now he's out for blood...or he's just a nerd-ninja.

Continue reading “Free Ninja Clip Art for Your PowerPoint Slides”

Tags: clip art, Graphics, images, ninja, pictures, PowerPoint 2007, vector, WMF

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Apr 13 2009

PowerPoint and the Elusive Color Picker / Eye Dropper

An eye dropper tool should be baked into PowerPoint

If you’ve used drawing or photo editing applications such as Illustrator or Photoshop, you will be familiar with their color picker or eye dropper tools, which enable you to extract a color from an image so the same color can be added to other objects. I wish PowerPoint offered this same functionality, but alas it doesn’t. Luckily, there are many outside color picker apps that can be leveraged in conjunction with PowerPoint. Continue reading “PowerPoint and the Elusive Color Picker / Eye Dropper”

Tags: clip art, color, color picker, colors, Design Tips, eye dropper, Graphics, objects, rgb, Toolbox

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Apr 09 2009

Tip for Resizing Objects with Text in PowerPoint

Resize the object and the text doesnt adjust with the object

Resize the object and the text doesn't adjust -- how annoying!

When you design icons or graphics in PowerPoint, you may need to incorporate text into them. What happens when you need to resize the object? If you’ve run into this problem before you know that text boxes don’t scale with the object as it is resized, even if the text box is grouped with other objects. You have to fiddle with the font size and positioning, which can be painful if you’re dealing with several objects. Continue reading “Tip for Resizing Objects with Text in PowerPoint”

Tags: clip art, Fonts, Graphics, icons, images, text, text boxes

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Mar 10 2009

PowerPoint and the Quest for the “Big Bang” Image

That's strong toilet paper...

I was reading a recent post by Jan Schultink on finding that “one image or visual concept that really nails down the idea in one big bang.” Jan shared an example of a great advertising ad for Scottex toilet paper, which was highlighted on the advertising blog, adgoodness.

If you’ve read any of the popular presentation design books such as Presentation Zen or Slide:ology, you’ll be familiar with the visual presentation style that they promote. As you thumb through the pages of these books, you see several beautiful slides that demonstrate how well-chosen stock photos can emphasize a key point.

However, just looking at the finished product hides the time-consuming process that can go into finding a single “big bang” image. Sometimes it can be challenging to even find one good image for a particular slide let alone a “big bang” image. Continue reading “PowerPoint and the Quest for the “Big Bang” Image”

Tags: clip art, Graphics, images, photos, PhotoShop, stock photos, ungroup

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