Top PowerPoint Tips

PowerPoint is probably the single best multimedia application available because of its versatility. You can create presentations, rapid elearning courses, illustrations, videos, mobile learning and even books for publishing.

PowerPoint also offers ease of entry. That means someone with no experience can open the application and get started. And the person with lots of experience is given all sorts of capability.

The main challenge with PowerPoint is that many people don’t fully understand the features and usually do very basic work with PowerPoint. And of course a lot of the negativity surrounding PowerPoint comes not from the tool, but instead from sitting through tedious PowerPoint-driven lectures and presentations.

I was asked recently about my favorite PowerPoint tips and tricks. I have a lot that I like, but here are a few of the ones I use quite a bit and find the most valuable.

Templates are good, especially for new developers and those who want to save time. However, your project should guide the template and not the opposite. Unfortunately most people tend to start with the default PowerPoint templates and layouts. So everything has a distinct PowerPoint look.

My advice? Put the bullet points down and step away from the template. Start with a blank screen and be intentional about what you build. If you do build a template, build it specific to your project’s needs.

The selection pane displays the objects on the slide. Here is what you can do with the selection pane:

Name objects Change the stacking order Show and hide objects

Starting with PowerPoint 2010 you can combine shapes to create custom shapes. Most of the time I use this feature to create custom callouts. I also use it to punch out parts of a shape I don’t need. Combine that with the edit points feature and you can create any shape you want.

We can stack objects in PowerPoint and control them with the selection pane. We can also make objects transparent. That means we can stack transparent objects to create custom images. Group the objects, right click, and save as an image file. I usually save as .png to retain transparency.

I have a ton of posts on this, which you can find below. Essentially most clip art in PowerPoint is .wmf or .emf. That means they are comprised of grouped vector shapes which can be ungrouped and modified and then regrouped.

Unfortunately, Microsoft is dumping the Office.com and clip art site. So I’m not sure how much longer you’ll have to work with these types of files without buying your own. But in the meantime, take advantage of the free resources and create your own graphics.

The format painter is an underutilized feature in PowerPoint. Essentially any object’s formatting can be applied to another. I use it create quick styles for the objects in my courses. Then I can apply that to the other objects on the slide.

This comes in handy when you get one of those junky PowerPoint files from a subject matter expert where there’s no rhyme or reason to the visual design. Create a quick style guide and then use the format painter to apply it.

The animation painter is very similar to the format painter. The only difference is that instead of applying an object’s format you apply the object’s animations. This comes in really handy if you have an object with multiple animations and need to duplicate those animations to other objects. In the past, you had the tedious process of rebuilding the animations onto each object. Today, that can be done in seconds using the animation painter.

Here’s a quick video that shows how it works.

Click here to view the YouTube video.

This is one of my favorite features because anything you build in PowerPoint with animations, narration, and multiple slides can be saved as a single video file.

Here’s a PowerPoint presentation that was saved as an .mp4 video and then inserted into the Storyline player. Try to create something similar with a video editing application. Trust me, it’s not that easy (especially without more advanced skills). But it’s really easy to do in PowerPoint.

Click here to play video.

In PowerPoint 2010 files are saved as .wmv and need to be converted to .mp4. I like to use Handbrake because they have pre-determined settings. In PowerPoint 2013 you can save as .mp4 so that saves a few steps.

The videos you create can be combined with your other elearning development. Here’s a good example where the sidebar video was created in PowerPoint and then inserted into a rapid elearning course.

Click here to view the PowerPoint video demo.

One of the most common reasons elearning developers use image editors like Paint.net and Photoshop Elements is to remove backgrounds from stock images. And they work fine for that. But you can do the same thing in PowerPoint starting with PowerPoint 2010.

It’s real easy to do. Double-click on your image and select remove background. Then determine what you want to keep and what you want to remove. Easy as that.

PowerPoint is a tool most people have and as you can see, is a very capable application. Combine that with Articulate Studio and you have a very easy way to create interactive elearning.

What you build in PowerPoint is converted to Flash or HTML5 to meet your elearning needs. While applications like Storyline add more interactive capabilities, PowerPoint is still an easy entry point for the person just getting started with elearning design.

Here are some simple examples of PowerPoint-based interactions:

There are literally hundreds of PowerPoint tips and tutorials in the blog. Here are some links from previous posts:

So those are some of my favorite PowerPoint tips. If you could add one tip, what would it be?

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Free E-Learning & PowerPoint Template

A few weeks ago I shared an elearning example I created for an elearning workshop. Many of you requested a template based on the example so here it is. There’s a PowerPoint version and one for Articulate Storyline 2 that offers a lot more interactivity.

Click here to view the elearning example.

One of the challenges when using a pre-defined template is that it tends to look good with real content. And then when you get the blank template it doesn’t seem to feel the same. That’s OK. Just add your own content. And don’t be afraid to move things around to make them work for your needs.

You’ll also notice that there’s a big difference between a PowerPoint-based template and one created in Articulate Storyline. PowerPoint is generally a linear presentation product. You can add hyperlinks to create some interactions but you do a hit a ceiling with what you can create.

For example, generally there are three types of interactions: click, hover, and drag. In PowerPoint you’re mostly limited to click interactions. You can still create a lot of interactive content, but you do have that constraint. And each interactive element potentially increases your file size significantly.

In Storyline, I can create one slide with hovers for each module. In PowerPoint to create a similar effect would require a slide for each module. As I add more interactive slides, the slide content increases dramatically in PowerPoint. However in Storyline, I’m still able to use the same slide.

In the Storyline version of the template, I can leverage variables to track what the user does. That lets me mark courses complete and modify where the learner goes after all courses are complete. That’s something not possible in PowerPoint.

Here’s an example of the free PowerPoint template. I added some placeholder content.

Click here to view the elearning example.

In this template, I created a master slide for each module; and each module contains seven layouts. The reason I created seven different masters is so that each layout would have the selected state for the particular module.

You need to go into the master layouts and create hyperlinks to the appropriate slides.

Switching layouts is pretty simple. Just select a new layout. Also, for the quick knowledge check slides, you’ll need to add hyperlinks at the slide level.

Here’s an example of the free elearning template created in Articulate Storyline. This one was created in Storyline 2.

Click here to view the example.

The Storyline template only uses three layouts. As you can see that’s a big difference compared to PowerPoint. It also gets to leverage the slide layers and I used variables to track the learner’s progress and navigation. This lets me mark modules complete and also change the button to represent the appropriate module being visited. That’s why I don’t need to create all of the same layouts that I need in PowerPoint.

Download the free elearning templates here:

If you have any questions about using them let me know. In an upcoming post, I’ll do a couple of quick tutorials to show how to get the templates working.

Vancouver & Toronto Workshops: We’re planning a couple of workshops in Toronto & Vancouver. If you’re interested, let us know. Click here for more details. March 25-27 (Orlando, FL). Learning Solutions. Swing by the Articulate booth to say “Hello.” April 15 & 16 (Chicago, IL). Updated! Register for one or both days. 
Day 1: How to Build Interactive E-Learning 
Day 2: Use Articulate Storyline to Build Interactive E-Learning May 17-20 (Orlando, FL). ATD International Conference & Expo. Swing by the Articulate booth to say “Hello.” June 3 & 4 (San Francisco, CA). Registration info coming soon. 
Day 1: Learn to Create Your Own E-Learning Assets
Day 2: Use Storyline to Build Interactive E-Learning Other locations include: Philadelphia, Memphis, Atlanta, Vancouver, and Toronto.

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