PowerPoint Tips Blog

Tell a story, or where’s the point in all this?

By Claudyne Wilder, Owner/Manager of Wilder Presentations

Claudyne Wilder is an acclaimed speaker, coach, author of several books on presenting, and co-creator of a CD on visual design, She is a recognized authority on the art of presentations. Claudyne coaches executives and professionals to help them develop, design, and deliver presentations that get [...]

Reduce the size of your presentation files

I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen someone work hard on an ambitious presentation, test it all out, copy it to a laptop, and then have it fail when presenting. The reason is usually that the the presentation has become huge and the laptop isn’t fast enough or doesn’t have enough [...]

Create an instant background from a photo

Would you like a quick way to create a background from any photo? You don’t need to use expensive software like Photoshop — whether because you don’t have it or find it hard to use. Instead, use a simple PowerPoint tool for instant results.

Follow these steps:

Display the slide or the slide master. [...]

Rotation tips

If you need to rotate objects or images, you can easily do so and get just the look you want.

Select and drag using the green rotation handle.

rotating a picture by dragging

Hold down the Shift key as you drag, to rotate in 15-degree increments.

Hold down the Ctrl key as you [...]

Layer two fill effects

Geetesh Bajaj let me know about a great technique that he calls, “Transparent Montages in PowerPoint.”

This technique combines an image file with another fill, for example a photo and a gradient, to create a Photoshop-like, layering effect.

I encourage you to read Geetesh’s thorough article, but here is the technique in brief:

Insert [...]

Create cutouts

I learned a technique in Adobe Flash that involves cutting a hole in an object. A similar concept is called masks, which creates a transparent area in an object. Then you place something behind the hole and animate the object with the hole (or transparent area), to reveal what’s behind it.

Here’s an example [...]

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You'll find free tips, techniques, articles, and tutorials here, all designed to help you succeed when you present. This blog gives you knowledge. I'm passionate about turning Death by PowerPoint into Life by PowerPoint. Discover books and courses to help you become an outstanding presenter. Find out more about training, consulting, webinars and coaching on presentation skills and PowerPoint.

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