Tutorials
Date Created:
Last Updated: February 6th 2010
02/06/2012 08:20 PM
Learn PowerPoint 2010: Setting Proofing Language for Text
Do you have a presentation that contains text that needs to be spell-checked in more than one language? Or do you and your client or colleague work with different localized versions of Microsoft PowerPoint? It may be that you use English (US) and color is a perfectly valid spelling -- but someone else in another part of the world uses English (UK) and their spell checker suggest that the word color be changed to colour. Or if they use the French version of PowerPoint, then both spellings of color/colour would be flagged as incorrect -- they use the term couleur. You first need to have the proofing tools installed for all or any of the languages that you need to work within PowerPoint.
02/05/2012 09:15 PM
Learn PowerPoint 2011 for Mac: Open and Close Paths with Edit Points
The Shape gallery in PowerPoint contains an assortment of shapes, both open and closed. Most of the shapes in this gallery are closed shapes (rectangle, ellipse, and triangle are some of the closed shapes). There are also a few open shapes such as the straight point to point line. Line drawing tools let you create your own shapes -- these can be both open and closed. These line drawing tools are Freeform Line, Curve, and Scribble. In addition, you can convert any closed shape to an open shape and vice versa, as you will learn in this tutorial.
02/02/2012 09:59 PM
Learn PowerPoint 2010: Language Options on the Status Bar
Typically when you select any text container such as a text placeholder, shape, or text box -- then you may (or may not) see which language is specified for the text container on the Status Bar within PowerPoint 2010. It is quite possible that you may not be seeing any language specified on the Status Bar -- and this can happen for one of two reasons.
02/01/2012 11:28 PM
Learn PowerPoint 2011 for Mac: Types of Points (Vertexes)
Any given shape in PowerPoint is essentially an electronic drawing that is composed of both segments and points (vertexes). Think of a “connect-the-dots” drawing and the dots would be points, and the lines you draw between the dots would be segments. Both segments and vertexes are only visible as distinctly different drawing elements only in Edit Points mode. We discuss more about segments in a subsequent tutorial but for now, let us help you explore the different types of vertexes (points) in PowerPoint 2011. Essentially, these are of three types: Smooth, Straight, and Corner.
01/31/2012 09:57 PM
Learn PowerPoint 2010: Add and Remove Proofing Dictionaries for Foreign Languages
Microsoft Office programs such as PowerPoint include proofing tools (spelling dictionaries, thesauri, and grammar rules) for more than one language. To proof text in a foreign language, you need to install and enable proofing tools for the language you require. When these tools are installed, you can tell PowerPoint if a particular text placeholder or text box needs to be proofed as a foreign language -- we will cover the actual process of proofing in a foreign language later in a subsequent tutorial. First, you need to learn how you can ascertain which proofing tools are installed on your computer, and how you can add proofing tools for languages besides English within PowerPoint.
01/30/2012 11:15 PM
Learn PowerPoint 2011 for Mac: Add or Delete Points (Vertexes)
In a previous tutorial, you have learned how you can edit points (vertexes) of a selected shape to alter its structure. These vertexes let you control how a shape looks -- but sometimes you might find it difficult to edit a certain segment in a shape because there are no vertexes (points) available to manipulate -- or maybe there are far too many points! PowerPoint provides a simple solution for this problem -- you can add and delete vertexes from a shape. In PowerPoint terminology, the terms vertex and point are often used interchangeably.
01/30/2012 11:16 PM
Learn PowerPoint 2010: Dynamic Content Transitions
Dynamic Content transitions are new transition effects in PowerPoint 2010 (these also work in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac). When these transitions are applied to your slide, the actual transition occurs on all areas of the slide except the backgrounds. This makes your content move independently on and off the screen. PowerPoint 2010 provides seven different transition effects within the Dynamic Content category -- do experiment with these options for direction and timing to create some great looking presentations.
01/25/2012 08:28 PM
Learn PowerPoint 2010: Slide Transition Effect Options
By default, no transitions are applied to any slide. However, once you apply transitions to your slides, you can tweak them aplenty. You can adjust the duration and timing of any transition, and even add a sound that will play while the slide transition happens. Further, each transition effect may or may not provide Effect Options. Effect Options enable you to have more control over the transition style applied to the slide -- follow these steps to explore Effect Options for slide transitions in PowerPoint 2010.
01/24/2012 09:03 PM
Learn PowerPoint 2011 for Mac: Drawing Scribble Lines
You have already learned how to use three of the four line drawing tools in PowerPoint 2011: Line, Curve, and Freeform. In this tutorial, we show you how you can use the last of these line tools: the Scribble Line tool. Drawing with the Scribble line is almost the same as drawing with the Freeform line -- but there are two differences. First, you don't need to double click to establish the end point of your drawing when you are using Scribble tool. Just like you draw with a pencil on a piece of paper, your line stops the minute you stop drawing it. Second, the Scribble tool does not allow you to draw straight lines. Having said that, you still need to practice to make your scribble lines perfect.
01/23/2012 09:42 PM
Learn PowerPoint 2010: Slide Transition Sounds
Sound effects are one of those small touches that PowerPoint allows you to add to a slide transition. However, you need to tread with caution here since a sound playing with every slide transition can not only sound cheesy, but it can also unnecessarily distract your audience. Having said that, there are occasions where a sound effect can be wisely applied to PowerPoint slide transitions -- maybe a chime sound for just one slide? Whatever you decide, let us now show you how you can add a slide transition sound.