Friedbeef’s Tech

Here are 7 little known tips which will help you save time, and make the most of out of PowerPoint!

1. How to turn embedded files into images

Put any chart or table inside a PowerPoint file and you may have a lot more information embedded, than what you actually display on the slide.  That would be fine if you want your users to double click on the embedded object and edit it themselves, but what if you wanted the embedded information truly hidden?

All you need to do is select an area around the object, then select Grouping–> Ungroup –> Group.  This will instantly convert any objects in your selection into images so you don’t have to worry about your users double clicking on an embedded object and digging around.

2. How to save images from a PowerPoint deck

To extract pictures from a PowerPoint file, just export it as a HTML web page. (Click File –> Save As –> then Select .html from the File Format drop down menu).  All the images will neatly be stored in a directory for you.

Of course, if you only need a few images from the deck, just right click the image and select Save As Picture

3. How to master keyboard shortcuts for PowerPoint

Like all MS-Office programs, PowerPoint comes with it’s own set of keyboard shortcuts as well.  I’ve summarized 15 of my favourite ones which will shave off time from your presentation preparation.

4. How to save space with PowerPoint decks that have large images

To make your presentations more lightweight you should consider compressing images by slightly lowering the resolution or removing cropped areas which you’re never going to see anyway.  To do that, try the following:

• Step 1: Right click on any image to bring up the menu and choose Format Picture
• Step 2: Click on the Picture tab, then Click the Compress button
• Step 3: Select All pictures in document, Print, Compress pictures, and Delete cropped areas of pictures.

5. How to align objects better in a slide

PowerPoint has a very useful option called ‘Snap to Grid’ which allows all objects to be easily aligned on a slide, but snapping it onto a virtual grid on your slide.  To enable this:

• On the Drawing toolbar, point to Draw, and then click Grid and Guides
• Under Snap to, check it the Snap objects to grid check box is selected

Now drag a few objects around in a slide, and you’ll note that it’s much easier to align them properly.

6. How to move an object one pixel when your grid is turned on

Rather than turning the grid on and off every time you want to do some finer alignment, (e.g. moving an image one pixel to the left or right), all you need to do is hold the ‘Alt’ button and move the object with your mouse.  Holding down the ‘Alt’ button will override the grid settings.

7. How to easily change from CAPS to lower case (or vice versa)

If you have text that is in the wrong case, select the text, and then click Shift+F3 until it changes to the case style that you like. Clicking Shift+F3 toggles the text case between ALL CAPS, lower case, and Initial Capital styles.

Bonus tip #1: Change the default slide layout in PPT

Bonus tip #2: Summarize PPT slides efficiently

Bonus tip #3: You can also share PowerPoint presentations online with Slideshare

What other Powerpoint tips do you have?  Tell us in the comments! 

[tags] powerpoint [/tags]

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Have too many things open in your Windows taskbar and want to rearrange them?  Now you can. 

Taskix is a free program which does just that.  Keep your eye on the highlighted item below.  You can get from here:

To here…

… just by dragging and dropping any of your taskbar items, as it gets sorted on the spot.

It’s that simple!

Organizing your taskbar items into logical groups cuts through the clutter, and helps with productivity.  So much so that it kind of makes you wonder why Microsoft never built this into their system in the first place.

Bonus tip:  If you want an alternative which is arguably more powerful as it allows system tray sorting as well, you can try Taskbar Shuffle. 

The reason why I’m recommending Taskix is because of it’s incredibly small and lightweight memory footprint in comparison to Taskbar Shuffle (plus I rarely ever need to reshuffle the system tray anyway). 

What other interesting Windows tweaks do you use?  Tell us in the comments!

[tags] windows [/tags]

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I’m happy to announce that this blog has recently penned 2 new deals with TechCzar and Tradepub respectively!

TradePub Deal : What does this mean for you my readers?

Our deal with Tradepub - means you get to receive FREE magazine subscriptions!  They have some big name publications listed like PCWorld, and the Economist, and a whole host of other big name magazines which you can get for free.

Even if mainstream magazines are not for you, not to worry - Tradepub also has a selection of free magazines on every topic you can possibly think of from Marketing to Engineering, or even agriculture!

You can find links to the Tradepub site here, and also on the right sidebar of this website.  I should also add that every free magazine subscription you sign up for also helps out this site.

TechCzar Deal : What does this mean for you my readers?

Our deal with TechCzar means you get to start reading this blog in NINE other different languages!  In this last month alone, this blog has been visited by people coming from 181 countries.  We’ve had visitors from the USA, Greenland, Uzbekistan and just about every country I can think of. 

I am well aware that English is NOT the language many people feel most comfortable with, so with TechCzar’s help you can read new articles on the site in your mother tongue by clicking on any of the flags which run across the top of the website.  All of the articles have been translated by hand, and not parsed through an auto-translator so you should get a good reading experience.

You also get access to original content from the TechCzar network, aimed at IT professionals, so do check that out as well.

Here’s hoping that a good number of you benefit from these deals, and thank you my readers for supporting this blog so far.  None of this would been possible without your help in the first place!

[tags] partnerships [/tags]

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