Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances: How to Fix the Most Annoying Things about Your Favorite Presentation Program
3.1. TEMPLATES AND MASTERS
3.1.1. Locate Your Templates
THE ANNOYANCE: I made a design template, but it doesn't show up in the template list when I select File THE FIX: To see where PowerPoint stores these templates, select File Figure 3-1. To see where PowerPoint stores your templates, choose Design Template (*.pot) from the "Save as type" drop-down menu, and then check the path to the folder in the "Save in" menu.
When you install PowerPoint 2002 or 2003, the program stores its templates in a folder on your hard drive; for example, C:\Program Files\MicrosoftOffice\Templates\Presentation Designs. You can usually see these templates by clicking the "From design template" link in the New Presentation task pane (see Figure 3-2). To see your own design templates, you may need to click the "Browse" link at the very bottom of the Slide Design task pane. Figure 3-2. In PowerPoint 2002 and 2003, select File |
| "Pickling the Master" |
A user in the Microsoft PowerPoint newsgroup posted a question about master slides. She mentioned that she'd make the master look the way she wanted, pickle it, and close out of Master view. It took me a little while to figure out what she meant by "pickling the master," but once I did, it was so obvious! To pickle is to preserve, so pickling the master is the same as preserving the master. Perfect! |
3.1.13. Add Placeholders to the Masters
THE ANNOYANCE: I need to have a title placeholder, a subtitle placeholder, and three text placeholders on every slide. How can I add placeholders to the masters?
THE FIX: Unfortunately, you can't add placeholders, either on slides or on masters.
It's not an ideal workaround, but you might consider creating some slides with text boxes and dummy text in the appropriate spots, and then copying those "model slides" and replacing the dummy text as necessary. One drawback of this workaround, however, is that the text you type in the manual text boxes (as opposed to the text placeholders) will not show up in the presentation outline.
You might also want to look into RnR ShapeStyles (http://www.rdpslides.com/pptools/shapestyles/index.html), a $99.95 add-in developed by Microsoft PowerPoint MVPs Steve Rindsberg and Brian Reilly. This add-in lets you specify "styles" based on existing objects and apply those styles to other objects with one mouse click.
3.1.14. Add a Color Scheme to a Template
THE ANNOYANCE: I tried to add a color scheme to my design template, but nothing happenedmy new color scheme doesn't show up on the list. What's the deal?
THE FIX: It's not a very widely known fact, but there's a limit of 16 color schemes per design template. When you apply a new color scheme to a slide, PowerPoint automatically adds the scheme to the list of standard color schemes (see Figure 3-8). You may not have noticed the "Add As Standard Scheme" button on the Edit Color Scheme dialog box (see Figure 3-9), but it is actually grayed out once you reach your color scheme limit.
After that, even if you apply a color scheme to a slide, it's not added to the list of color schemes available with the design template. If you want the scheme to be available on the list, you'll have to delete some of the existing color schemes. To do so, use the Delete Scheme button on the Standard tab of the Edit Color Schemes dialog box.
Figure 3-8. Click the Color Schemes link on the Slide Design task pane to see the various color schemes available for a given template. Edit or add to the color schemes by clicking the Edit Color Schemes link at the very bottom of the task pane.
Figure 3-9. To edit color scheme colors, select a color swatch and click the Change Color button. Choose the new color, and back in the dialog box, either apply the new color scheme to the selected slide or slide master, or opt to save the color scheme by choosing Add As Standard Scheme.
The available color schemes you see in the Slide Design task pane depend on which slides you have selected in the slide thumbnail pane on the left of your screen and what templates have been applied to them. Choosing one of these color schemes will apply the new color scheme to the selected slides, but it won't change the actual design template of the selected slides. That means all font sizes, placeholder positions, images, etc., will remain on the slides, although the colors may change.
3.1.15. Add Color Schemes Without Applying Color Schemes
THE ANNOYANCE: Can I add a color scheme to a template without actually applying it to my slides?
THE FIX: Yes. Just create a new slide master and apply the color scheme to the master.
To do so, select View
3.1.16. Apply Multiple Masters in a Presentation
THE ANNOYANCE: I copied a bunch of slides from one presentation into another, but the formatting all changed. I don't want the formatting to change! I'm screwed!
THE FIX: How you deal with this depends on which version of PowerPoint you're using.
In PowerPoint 2002 and 2003, look for the Smart Paste Options tag that appears immediately after you paste (see Figure 3-10). Click it and choose "Keep Source Formatting." If the Smart Paste Options tag doesn't show up when you paste, select Tools
You can also select Insert
Figure 3-10. Use the Smart Paste Options tag to maintain the formatting of slides you paste into a presentation based on a different template.
Figure 3-11. The Slide Finder dialog box has an option to "Keep source formatting" in PowerPoint 2002 and 2003.
If you decide you want to use a different slide master on a slide already in a presentation, simply select the slide in the slide thumbnail pane on the left and choose a different master in the "Apply a design template" area of the Slide Design task pane on the right.
PowerPoint 2000 and 97 do not have a multiple masters feature, so there is no option to "Keep source formatting" when you insert or paste slides into an existing presentation. And by default, slides will take on the template attributes of the presentation they're being pasted into.
One workaround is to paste an embedded slide object into the target presentation. This sounds really complicated, but it's really not. Just follow these steps:
Open the target presentation (the file you're copying to) and the source presentation (the file you're copying from) and select Window
Arrange All so you can see both presentations side by side. Insert a new slide into the target presentation and give it a blank slide layout. Select Insert
New Slide and choose the Blank AutoLayout (see Figure 3-12). Figure 3-12. To insert a new slide in PowerPoint 2000 or 97, choose Insert
New Slide and select an appropriate layout in the New Slide dialog box. For this particular purpose, use the blank slide layout. Put the source presentation into Slide Sorter view (View
Slide Sorter). Select one of the source presentation slides in Slide Sorter view, and press Ctrl+C to copy it.
Click the slide in the target presentation to activate that window, select View
Normal to make sure the target presentation is in Normal view, and press Ctrl+V to paste the source slide onto the slide in the target presentation. This creates an embedded PowerPoint slide object in the target presentation. Drag the embedded slide object by the corners until it covers the entire target presentation slide.
Double-click the embedded PowerPoint slide object if you need to edit it. This will change only the copy inside the target presentation; it will not affect the original slide.
You can actually use this same technique in PowerPoint 2002 and 2003, but instead of a "regular" paste, you must select Edit
If you apply multiple masters in PowerPoint 2002 or 2003, they might not show up if you view the presentation in PowerPoint 97. They probably will show up in PowerPoint 2000. Also see the sidebar, "What Happens to Multiple Masters in Earlier Versions?". For additional information and workarounds, see http://www.echosvoice.com/multipletemplates.htm.
| What Happens to Multiple Masters in Earlier Versions? |
If you use multiple masters in a presentation you're building in PowerPoint 2003, what happens when your client opens the presentation in PowerPoint 2000? Will the multiple masters work? Well, "work" is a relative term. Microsoft built some multiple masters features into PowerPoint years before they were actually implemented. This means that most of the time, the multiple masters will show up just fine when you open the presentations in earlier versions of PowerPoint. However, you (or, in this case, your client) won't be able to actually get to the additional masters or edit them. Be sure to test any multiple masters in the previous version to be on the safe side. If you don't have PowerPoint 2000 or 97 handy, download and install the free PowerPoint 97 Viewer to see if your multiple masters will look the way they should (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7c404e8e-5513-46c4-aa4f-058a84a37df1&DisplayLang=en). |
3.1.17. Determine Which Master Will Apply
THE ANNOYANCE: When I paste slides in PowerPoint 2003, I never know which template the pasted slides will take on by default. It seems so random.
THE FIX: It might seem random, but when you paste slides into another presentation in PowerPoint 2002 or 2003, your slides at first take on the template of the slide just before them. Of course, if you then opt to use the Smart Paste Options tag to "Keep source formatting," it's a moot point.
3.1.18. Can't See Text When You Type
THE ANNOYANCE: Aaaarrrrggghhh! When I type in a placeholder, I can't see the text. This is making me crazy!
THE FIX: You need to change your slide color scheme so the background color contrasts with the text color. In PowerPoint 97 and 2000, select Format
If you place a picture as a background on the slide master and adjust the font color to work with the picture, make sure you remember to change the background color to contrast with the new text color. Otherwise, you end up with an unworkable color combination, such as white text on a white background.
Fortunately, Microsoft fixed this annoyance in PowerPoint 2002 and 2003. In those versions, the program automatically adjusts to a contrasting background while you're typing.
3.1.19. The Automatic Contrast Is Ugly
THE ANNOYANCE: I can always see what I'm typing in PowerPoint 2002, but sometimes those contrast colors look really nasty. Can I change them?
THE FIX: No, PowerPoint creates these temporary colors automatically so you can see text against the slide background as you're typing. They're just for contrast, and you only have to put up with them for as long as you're typing.
3.1.20. Set a New Default Template
THE ANNOYANCE: I'd like for all new presentations to open up with my corporate template already applied. Is there an easy way to make this happen?
THE FIX: In PowerPoint 2003, simply choose "Use for All New Presentations" from the drop-down menu when you hover your mouse over your corporate template in the Slide Design task pane (see Figure 3-13).
Figure 3-13. PowerPoint 2003 makes it a breeze to specify a new default template.
In PowerPoint 97, 2000, and 2002, you need to modify or overwrite PowerPoint's existing blank template. Open your corporate template, select File
If you mess up, simply close PowerPoint and delete Blank.pot or Blank Presentation.pot. PowerPoint will automatically recreate its old blank template the next time you open PowerPoint.
3.1.21. Set a New Default Master Slide
THE ANNOYANCE: I use the slide layout with two bulleted text placeholders more often than I use the slide layout with one bulleted text placeholder. It's extremely tedious to have to change the slide layout every time I insert a new slide. Can I just make the one I want the default slide layout?
THE FIX: Download Microsoft PowerPoint MVP Shyam Pillai's free Set Default Layout add-in to your desktop (http://skp.mvps.org/setlayout.htm). Open the zip file and extract the layout.ppa file to a folder on your hard drive (for example, C:\layout_addin).
In PowerPoint, select Tools
Next, select Tools
After installing the Set Default Layout add-in, you should see a new tool on your Standard toolbar (see Figure 3-14). Simply click the drop-down box and choose your default layout.
Figure 3-14. The Set Default Layout add-in lets you choose the default slide layout from a simple drop-down list.
| How Does PowerPoint Arrange Templates? |
In PowerPoint 2003, the Slide Design task pane sorts templates by color and saturation. Graphic artists at Microsoft developed the palette with he goal of making the template list seem less random. In early versions of PowerPoint, the templates are sorted alphabetically. And if you have templates from more than one version of PowerPoint on your system, you'll see the 2003 templates sorted by color, and you'll see the older templates sorted alphabetically at the end. Older versions of PowerPoint simply sort the templates alphabetically. |
| Understanding Color Schemes |
Most users know very little about color schemes, one of the most powerful features in PowerPoint. Why? One reason is that color schemes are fairly complicated. Another, and perhaps more likely, reason is that Microsoft hid color schemes deep within the PowerPoint interface and provided inadequate documentation. Every design template from Microsoft comes with a variety of color schemes. After you apply a design template to your presentation, select Format To change a color, simply select a swatch, click the Change Color button, choose a new color, and click the Apply button. The changes will be applied to your slides, and the new color scheme based on these changes will appear in the list of available color schemes. The swatches in the Edit Color Schemes box are labeled according to their default behaviors. For example, the first swatch is labeled "Background," and the second swatch is labeled "Text and lines." You can see which color applies to what objects by default if you look closely at the miniature slide graphic on the right of the dialog box (see Figure 3-15). However, you can use the colors to change more than the default object. For example, if you changed the Shadows color (swatch three) and the Accent color (swatch six) in Figure 3-15, you will also affect the slide background (see Figure 3-16). Why? The background for the slide master uses a gradient based on the colors typically assigned to the Background (swatch one) and Shadows (swatch three). Figure 3-15. Click the Edit Color Schemes link at the bottom of the Slide Design task pane to display the Edit Color Scheme dialog box in PowerPoint 2002 and 2003. This is the same as the Color Scheme box in PowerPoint 97 and 2000. Click a text box and then click the Font Color icon on the Drawing toolbar. Do those eight color swatches look familiar? They shouldthey're the eight colors from your color scheme (see Figure 3-17). Now most people don't know the next part of the story. Objects that use these colors follow the slide color scheme. If you change the slide color schemewhich almost always happens if you apply a new design templatethe objects will change colors to follow the new color scheme. This is an extremely efficient way to work for most presentations, as it allows you to make global changes by modifying just one color swatch. Or, if you combine presentations, the slides will automatically update to the new template and color scheme, saving you a lot of tedious, manual editing. What if you don't want an object to update colors based on a new color scheme? For example, maybe your product should always be green, your competitor's product should always be yellow, and your vendors' products should always be blue. In this case, click the Fill Color icon on the Drawing toolbar and choose More Fill Colors. In the Colors dialog box, choose green, yellow, or blue and click OK. Figure 3-16. By default, the eight color swatches come directly from the slide color scheme. Figure 3-17. Selecting colors from the More Fill (or Line or Text) Colors forces the color to always stay the same when a new template or color scheme is applied to the slide. Selecting from the eight color swatches at the top of this pop-up box forces the object to follow the slide color scheme. |
3.1.22. Set Default Graphs and Org Charts
THE ANNOYANCE: I'm setting up a corporate template. I've tried everything to set up a default graph and organization chart, but I'm starting to believe it can't be done.
THE FIX: Unfortunately, you can't really set up a default organization chart. However, organization charts in PowerPoint 2002 and 2003 will pick up whatever default text attributes you've set for manual text boxes (see "Set Default Text Box and AutoShape Settings," later in this chapter).
The same goes for graphsyou can't set up a default graph that travels with a template. (Although you can set up user-defined graphs, but these are machine-specific settings and don't stay with a template.)
Your best bet is to create one slide with a sample graph and another with a sample organization chart, and teach your users how to copy the slides and adjust the data as necessary for new graphs and organization charts.
3.1.23. Determine Default Colors for Charts
THE ANNOYANCE: Where in the world do the colors in graphs and org charts come from? I can change the colors, but when I create a new chart, it uses the same ol' boring colors.
THE FIX: Colors for graphs and diagrams are tied to your slide color scheme. Org Chart fills are assigned to the Fills color (swatch five) in your slide color scheme (see "Understanding Color Schemes"). Graph colors pull from swatches five through eight of your slide color scheme, and then swatches three and four. The last two "Microsoft blues" are default Microsoft-specified colors (see Figure 3-18).
Figure 3-18. Graph colors are tied directly to your slide color scheme. The last two colors on the top row always default to these two blues, and the bottom eight colors (labeled Chart lines, for some reason) always default to the "Microsoft brights."
If necessary, you can add a slide master with a different color scheme and teach users to apply that slide master to their graph and org chart slides.
3.1.24. Add Filename to Every Slide
THE ANNOYANCE: How do I put the filename and path into the footer of a slide? In Word, it takes two seconds.
THE FIX: I don't know why this is so easy in Word. In PowerPoint, you have to create a macro.
Select Tools
Figure 3-19. Select Tools
To run the macro, select Tools
Figure 3-20. This macro adds the name of your file and its path to the footer area on your slide.
If this macro doesn't work, you may have deleted the footer placeholder from your slide master (see "Masters and Headers and Footers," later in this chapter, for more information).
3.1.25. Number Slides XX of YY
THE ANNOYANCE: How do I number my slides XX of YY? I went to File
THE FIX: Until recently, the only way to number slides XX of YY (e.g., Slide 5 of 18) was to type in the total number of slides in the slide number area of the slide master (see Figure 3-21). This is still a useful workaround.
Figure 3-21. You can type in the total number of slides on the slide master to create "Slide XX of YY" numbering.
You can also download a free add-in from Microsoft PowerPoint MVP Bill Dilworth (http://billdilworth.mvps.org/PageXXofYY.htm). Unzip the file to a folder on your hard drive and extract the SaveSelection.ppa and SaveSelection.txt files.
As always, when installing macros, set your macro security to Medium (Tools
This handy add-in also gives you one-click options to save selected slides as a new presentation file and create summary slides with text hyperlinks back to the original slides.
Figure 3-22. Click the Slide #ing button to add Slide XX of YY to the footer area of your slides.
| Masters and Headers and Footers |
You can add header and footer information to slides, handouts, and notes pages in quite a few different places. In fact, the sheer number of possibilities can make it difficult to pinpoint problems in header and footer text. The following information will help you solve common knotty problems. A slide must have the appropriate placeholders on the master in order for header and footer information to show up. Select View Figure 3-23. Add missing placeholders, such as slide number and footer, to the slide master. Remember to add placeholders to both your slide master and your title master. If you skip this step, it can cause you a lot of frustration. If you want, you can type text directly into these placeholders on the masters. Again, you need to type your text in the placeholders on both the slide and title masters if you want the text to show up even on title slides. And if your presentation uses more than one master, you must type the text into the placeholders on each master on which you want the text to appear. Even if you don't type text directly in these placeholders, you can still format the font attributes and fill and line colors. You can also move the placeholders on the slide. For example, you might want your slide numbers located in the upper-left corner of the slide. In this case, change the alignment of the placeholder text to the left, and drag it to the upper-left corner of the slide and title masters. Of course, you can't really type in text to represent a slide number on a slide master and expect PowerPoint to know you want to add the actual slide number on each slide. That's why, if you look closely at the date/time, footer, and slide number placeholders, you'll see <> bracketing the text. The information included inside those brackets (in this case, the slide number) is linked to your selections in the Header and Footer dialog box and will update accordingly. If you need to include information that will update, add it in the Header and Footer dialog box. Any text you type into the placeholders on the master slides will show up on the slides exactly as you typed it. To open the Header and Footer dialog box, select View Figure 3-24. Here you can add slide numbers, dates and times, and other text to your slides, handouts, and notes pages. It's not unusual for people to add information in both the placeholders on the masters themselves as well as in the Header and Footer dialog box. This behavior seems especially prevalent on the handouts and notes masters. For example, many of my clients type the presenter's name on the notes master itself for internal tracking, but they add the date and time and the page numbers, and sometimes even the presenter's name again, in the Header and Footer dialog box (see Figure 3-25). The moral of the story? Make sure you check for text in the individual slide, handout, and notes masters as well as the Header and Footer dialog box. Figure 3-25. Be careful about adding text directly on the slide, handout, or notes master and again on the Header and Footer dialog box. |
3.1.26. Numbers Still Show on Title Slide
THE ANNOYANCE: I'm unable to remove page numbering from the title slide, even though I checked the "Don't Show on Title Slide" box on the Slide tab of the Header and Footer dialog box. Should it really be this hard to add or remove numbering?
THE FIX: Are you sure that the slide in question is in fact a title slide? Try inserting a new title slide and see if it ignores your numbering.
You know, you're right, it should be easier. Part of the problem is that you can set slide numbering in so many places. For instructions on how to troubleshoot this problem, see "Masters and Headers and Footers."
3.1.27. Add Slide Numbers
THE ANNOYANCE: I'm having hard time adding a slide number in my presentation. I tried to add it to the slide master and then as a footer without success. Any suggestions?
THE FIX: Click View
If the slide number still does not show up, choose View
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