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I got this question from someone who works in a institution that has students with disabilities: How can I set up PowerPoints so that when the mouse is held down, the slides do not trip through whole presentation. I work with students with disabilities who sometimes find this difficult.

The answer is to change the mode in which PowerPoint plays the presentation. You can access the settings to make these changes through the Set Up Slide Show dialog box, accessed differently depending upon the version of PowerPoint you use:

• PowerPoint 2007 and later users can select the Slide Show tab of the Ribbon, and click the Set Up Slide Show button.
• PowerPoint 2003 and previous versions' users can choose the Slide Show | Set Up Show option.

Either way, you end up bringing up the Set Up Show dialog box that you can see in Figure 1, below.


Figure 1: Set Up Show

At the top right of this dialog, you'll need to select the Browsed by an individual (window) option -- and you can also decide whether you want the Show scrollbar option checked. Click OK when done, and save your presentation.

Here are some thoughts, caveats, and observations to be aware of:

1. Choosing this option means you don't get to play your PowerPoints in absolute full screen show mode -- there will be a title bar visible.
2. You can still use the keyboard to navigate to the next and previous slides. In fact, all keyboard commands will work.
3. The settings to enable this play mode, as explained above work only with the active presentation, and is saved within the presentation. You'll have to enable these settings for each presentation you want to not advance with mouse-clicks.

Labels: basics, edit, powerpoint, show

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A friend sent me this question: I want to make one slide .PPS file. On click, or on pressing any key the .PPS file should exit or close. Can this be done?

Yes, it can -- it's easier to do this on click rather than by pressing any key. Follow these steps:

1. With your one slide presentation ready, open it in PowerPoint.
   
   
2. PowerPoint 2007 users can then select the rectangle shape from the Home tab | Drawing | Shapes gallery. Users of earlier versions will find the rectangle shape option in the Drawing toolbar located below the PowerPoint interface.
   
   
3. Draw a rectangle that covers the entire slide. You'll have to drag the corners of the rectangle to resize.
   
   
4. With the rectangle selected, PowerPoint 2007 users can choose the Insert tab | Links | Action to bring up the Action Settings dialog box that you see in Figure 1. Users of earlier PowerPoint versions can access the same dialog box by right-clicking the rectangle, and choosing Action Settings from the resultant menu.
   
   
   Figure 1: Action Settings
   
   
5. Click the Hyperlink to radio button, and from the text dropdown box, choose the End Show option (see Figure 1 above) . Click OK to exit the dialog box.
   
   
6. PowerPoint 2007 users can now select the rectangle, so that the Drawing Tools Format tab is visible in the Ribbon -- activate this tab, and then select the Shape Fill option to reveal a flyout menu. Choose the More Fill Colors option to bring up the Colors dialog box -- change the Transparency to 99%, and click OK. With the rectangle still selected, choose the Drawing Tools Format tab | Shape Styles | Shape Outline | No Outline option.
   
   Users of previous PowerPoint versions can double click the rectangle to summon the Format AutoShape dialog box. In this multi-tabbed dialog box, select the Colors and Lines tab, then under the Color dropdown list, drag the Transparency slider to 99%. In the Line Color dropdown list, choose the No Line option. Click OK to get back to the slide.
   
   
7. Now when you play this presentation, just click anywhere to end the show!
   

Labels: end, powerpoint, show

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Question: The problem I am having is that the Arial font size that I save as 32 for visibility, changes to 24 the next time I pull the presentation up. I have looked at the save options and nothing has helped. Do you have any suggestions?

Answer: This might help:

1. Choose Tools | AutoCorrect Options -- this brings up the AutoCorrect dialog box that you can see in Figure 1. Select the AutoFormat As You Type tab.
   
   
   Figure 1: Tweak AutoCorrect options
   
   
2. Uncheck these options:
   
   - AutoFit title text to placeholder
   - AutoFit body text to placeholder
   - Automatic layout for inserted objects
   
   
3. Click OK.
   

Labels: options, powerpoint

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This quick tutorial was provided with George McCaskill of Visual Exemplars, a UK based company that creates Perspector, a 3D add-in for PowerPoint.

1. Starting with a normal slide with around three bullet points:
   
   
• one
• two
• three
  
  
2. On the Perspector panel, select "Convert PowerPoint bullet list to a 3D list". Choose the "Simple Flow Across" image to end up with what you can see in Figure 1.
   
   
   Figure 1: A Perspector 3D list.
   
   
3. Now do some simple Perspector editing like adjusting the angle of the flow in 3D, change font size and color (select all first), and save the Perspector image. As a final flourish, add a PowerPoint 2007 image reflection to the saved Perspector image (see Figure 2).
   
   
   Figure 2: A Perspector list with PowerPoint 2007 effects.
   

Labels: perspector, powerpoint_2007

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This article is not about creating your own macros or scripts to automate PowerPoint. However, if you just want to run any macros or scripts that a friend shares, or you just got it from a book or newsgroup, then you are on the right page.

Follow these steps to get started:

1. Make sure you have a script ready -- you can download some scripts here...
   
   
2. Open an existing presentation, or create a new one in PowerPoint. Then press Alt+F11 to access the Microsoft Visual Basic interface that you can see in Figure 1.
   
   
   Figure 1: The Visual Basic interface
   
   
3. Choose Insert | Module, as shown in Figure 2.
   
   
   Figure 2: Insert a module
   
   
4. This open a new module window on the right side of the interface, copy your script here, and paste it (see Figure 3).
   
   
   Figure 3: The pasted script
   
   
5. Now you need to run this script as a macro from within PowerPoint. To do that, first exit the Visual Basic interface by choosing File | Close and Return to PowerPoint.
   
   
6. Now the steps you take differ depending upon which version of PowerPoint you are using.
   
   PowerPoint 2007 users will need to enable the Developer tab on the Ribbon if it is not already visible. To do that, choose Office Button | PowerPoint Options, and select the Popular tab on the left. Then check the option that says Show Developer tab in the Ribbon.
   
   Once you have done that, select the Developer tab of the Ribbon, and click Macro to bring up the Macro dialog box that you can see in Figure 4. Select the script you want to run, and click the Run button.
   
   
   Figure 4: The Macro dialog box
   
   Versions before PowerPoint 2007: Choose Tools | Macros | Macro to bring up the same dialog box that you saw in Figure 4. Then select the script you want to run, and click the Run button.

Remember, some scripts may do nothing at all unless you have something selected on the slide before you run them!

Tip from Steve Rindsberg: You can store many, many macros/scripts/routines in a single PowerPoint file and as long as you have it open along with any other files, you can access the macros as described.

See Also: Create an Add-in with toolbars that run macros (PPT FAQ by Steve Rindsberg)

Labels: macro, powerpoint, programming, vba

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