PowerPoint and Presentation News - Issue 051

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First Things First

Welcome to this new issue of the PowerPoint Ezine.

The winners of the last ezine issue's Camtasia sweepstakes are Cathy Doran and Ute Simon - congratulations to both of you.

This time, I'm glad to offer four copies of my PowerPoint Template Collection - Amazing Skies. All you need to do is fill in this form to enter the sweepstakes. Mention "Amazing Skies" in the Comments field - the sweepstakes ends on January 31st, 2005.

Here are some new articles:

Learn to create photo organization charts in the new SmartDraw 7 - and then use them in PowerPoint.

On the Take-off site, there's a new case study on how DataPoint integrates PowerPoint and databases to update real estate kiosks in Florida.

Bill Abbott - Cartoons for PowerPoint

We feature Bill Abbot this time, who talks about his cartoons, and how you can use cartoons in your PowerPoint presentations. Read Bill’s interview here.

Fills & Lines - Part IV

Part I of this series can be found within issue 48 of the PowerPoint Ezine.

Part II of this series can be found within issue 49 of the PowerPoint Ezine.

Part III of this series can be found within issue 50 of the PowerPoint Ezine.

Texture Fills

In PowerPoint parlance, textures tile across to form a fill. It goes without saying that such textures need to be seamless. Seamless textures wrap around each other to create an uninterrupted pattern when tiled.

PowerPoint includes 24 seamless textures and you can import more using the Other Texture button.

If your texture is not seamless, or if you don’t want to use it tiled, you can always use Picture Fills.

Pattern Fills

Patterns are two color designs that comprise lines, dots, dashes and checks. In all, PowerPoint includes 48 patterns. Each pattern has a unique name like Plaid, Weave, Shingle, Zig zag, etc.

Picture Fills

Pictures make great fills. You can source pictures from digital cameras, scans, online photo galleries or CD-ROM clipart collections. Many pictures are included within Clip Organizer, a media cataloging program that’s part of Microsoft Office.

You might want to edit or crop your pictures in an image editing application before you use it as a fill. An image editing application allows you to optimize and transform your pictures. In addition, many image editors include special effects filters. Adobe Photoshop is the best known of these editors.

We'll continue this series in the next issue of this ezine.

End Note

More PowerPoint related info on the PowerPoint Blog and PowerPoint Notes. And free PowerPoint templates for all of you.

Until next time - have a nice day. And keep the feedback coming.