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Add-ins
PPTools Starter Set
by Geetesh Bajaj,
March 25th 2001,
Updated March 10th 2004
An Introduction
The Starter Kit
Installation
Master Bar
RnR Edit
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An Introduction
PPTools comes from an entity called RnR - a useful two person
partnership dedicated to the cause of making lives of PowerPoint
users simpler. For the uninitiated - RnR stands for Rindsberg n
Reilly or Reilly n Rindsberg - whichever you prefer. Their full
names are Steve Rindsberg and Brian Reilly and they are both Microsoft
PowerPoint MVPs (Most Valuable Professionals) - here's a brief
outline about both of them:
 Steve
Rindsberg has been associated with PowerPoint since the product
originated - his site is a treasure trove of PowerPoint information
in the form of the celebrated PowerPoint FAQ. When he's not updating
his site, he's creating new add-ins that expand possibilities.
Steve's also into a lot of print technology related stuff.
Visit
Steve's Site
 Brian
Reilly has also been long associated with PowerPoint. He
is an authority on using VBA with PowerPoint and also the author
of the book - Create PowerPoint Presentations In A Weekend. He
often creates customized solutions for clients that involve taking
PowerPoint and other Microsoft Office applications to the limit.
Visit
Brian's Site
Back
The Starter set
The creators visualise the PPTools range as a diverse and useful
set of add-ins to extend and simplify the use of PowerPoint. This
review discusses the free Starter Set available for download from:
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptools/
The PPTools Starter Set adds capabilities to PowerPoint that can
make your work flow easier and more productive. The Starter Set
is free for use - all other PPTools are available for download
and purchase from the PPTools site. In addition, RnR also provides
an upgrade route for Starter Set users in the form of PPTools Starter
Set Plus - we'll discuss that later in the review.
Back
Installation
Once you've downloaded the Starter Set (under 800 kb) - you're
ready to install the add-in. Follow the simple instructions included
within the product and you should be up and running in no time.
The installation takes care of initialising the add-in into PowerPoint
- as it did on my system with three versions of PowerPoint installed
(97, 2000 and 2002) - and the first time you load PowerPoint thereafter,
you are presented with one, two.....no wait, let me count - actually
four new toolbars (see screenshot above). Each of these toolbars
performs a set of functions - some of these are important additions
to PowerPoint - others are more convenient ways to access routines
hidden within the PowerPoint interface.
Let's examine all the buttons on all the toolbars!
Back
Master Bar
The Master Bar, as the name suggests is the headquarters of your
PPTools collection - the first of the two icons opens the PPTools
Help window.
The second icon is used for 'Preferences' - giving options to
decide which of the PPTools load automatically when you launch
PowerPoint.
Back
RnR Edit
The RnR Edit bar comprises 10 buttons - the first two take care
of zooming in and out in true-blue Photoshop fashion. The third
magnifying tool zooms to fit the slide to the current window. Naturally,
all these functions are already available within PowerPoint - just
that a one-click procedure makes things so much simpler.
The next two tools on the Edit bar are a great addition to PowerPoint
- conventional copying and pasting objects between slides may not
place them in the exact coordinates of the original. Here's where
the 'Memorize Object Position' and 'Place Object' tools help. In
effect, this means that you can place objects to the centre of
a slide (or any other align mode if you Ctrl-Click the button to
view options). Some of these tools have additional options, details
of which can be found at the PPTools site.
The next four tools on the Edit bar are Cycle Case, Small Caps,
Reduce Font Size and Increase Font Size. All these options are
available in PowerPoint through the use of shortcut keys - but
many users will welcome the one-click availability of these options
through the RnR Edit bar.
Steve adds to that:
It might be worth mentioning that the Font Size buttons change
font size in smaller increments than PowerPoint's font size button
- that's the main reason we created them. And the user can edit
the PPTools.INI file to change the increment.
The final button is the help button - this opens a text file that
explains all RnR Edit functions in detail.
Back
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