Category: PowerPoint

Classroom, PowerPoint

Introduction to PowerPoint 2016 online class

Kathy

Picture of laptop with PowerPoint themes on the screen

Introduction to Microsoft PowerPoint 2016

Take your PowerPoint presentations from ordinary to extraordinary! In these lessons, you’ll learn how to use Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 (now available through Office 365) to create professional-quality slide presentations that grab and hold your audience’s attention from start to finish. You’ll start by learning how to plan and create dazzling slide presentations using a variety of slide and layout masters that make global changes to your presentation in a snap. You’ll also see how to embellish your slides with pictures, shapes, WordArt, and SmartArt, as well as multimedia effects such as animations, slide transitions, audio, video, and text and object hyperlinks. And that’s just the start! You’ll explore the options on the PowerPoint Ribbon, including the new Tell Me feature (an enhanced Help feature) and Smart Lookup, which allows you to look up definitions of a word or phrase. You’ll explore the File menu options and Backstage View, and learn how to print slides, handouts, and even an outline. And you’ll discover the best view for creating and editing your slides and running your presentations, including how to use Reading View to proof your work. You’ll have fun creating a PowerPoint photo album with your digital pictures, and become acquainted with OneDrive and PowerPoint Online to save, edit, and share your presentations online. Finally, you’ll add versatility to your PowerPoint skills as you learn how to use the Share and Export commands to save presentations as PDF files, videos, and more. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced user, these lessons will teach you how to turn simple slides into a polished and exciting presentation that will make your message memorable. If you want to take your PowerPoint skills to a higher level, this is the course for you!

Enroll today: Introduction to Microsoft PowerPoint 2016

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Mac, PC, PowerPoint

WordArt Commands on the PowerPoint Ribbon

Kathy

Having trouble finding the Text Fill, Text Outline, or Text Effects commands on the PowerPoint Ribbon? It could be because the look of the commands on the WordArt Styles group differ depending on the the size and resolution of your monitor. Here is an example of the full view of the WordArt Styles group on the PowerPoint 2007 and 2010 Ribbon:

WordArtSyles Group - Full View

This view shows three WordArt styles (or Quick Styles), the Previous, Next, and More buttons, and the Text Fill, Text Outline, and Text Effects commands, and the WordArt Styles dialog box launcher.

If you’re using a laptop or have resized your screen, your WordArt Styles group could look like one of the two examples below. In the first example, notice that the Text Fill, Text Outline, and Text Effects commands are displayed on the WordArt Styles group, but they are not labeled. In the other example, the WordArt styles, or Quick Styles, have been reduced to one icon instead of three and the Text Fill, Text Outline, and Text Effects commands are unlabeled.

WordArt Styles group with unlabeled Text Fill, Outline, and Effects commands WordArt Styles groups with unlabeled commands

When you move your mouse to a command button on the Ribbon when you are editing or creating a WordArt object in PowerPoint, you’ll see a ScreenTip for the command you are pointing to. Here’s what the ScreenTip for the Text Fill command looks like:

TextFill ScreenTip

The WordArt Styles group on the Drawing Tools Format contextual tab displays at the end of the Ribbon when you are creating or editing a piece of WordArt. When you click off the WordArt, the Drawing Tools tab closes. Contextual tabs always display at the end of the Ribbon. Here’s an example of the Drawing Tools contextual tab and its Format tab at the end of the PowerPoint 2010 Ribbon.

Drawing Tools Format tab on PowerPoint Ribbon

If you’re using Office 2011 for the Mac or PowerPoint 2011, you’ll find the WordArt commands on the Text Styles group on the PowerPoint 2011 Ribbon. The Text Styles group looks like one of the examples below depending on the size or resolution of your monitor.

Text Styles group on PowerPoint 2011 Ribbon            Text Fill and Text Outline not labeled in the Text Styles group

So, even through you may not see all the commands labeled with text on the WordArt Styles group or the Text Styles group, all the commands are available. If you’re not sure what the unlabeled commands are, point to them with your mouse when the WordArt Styles group (PC) or Text Styles group (Mac) is active on the Ribbon.

I hope you learned something from this post and would love to answer any comments or questions you have about these WordArt commands!

Kathy

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Microsoft Excel, Online Class, PowerPoint

Formatting Numbers with the General Format in Excel

Kathy

 

Have you ever typed a number in a cell, and the number appeared as a date? To Excel, dates are numbers. Luckily, it’s easy to fix by selecting the desired cells and choosing the correct format from the Home tab on the Ribbon or from the Format Cells dialog box.

Notice in the example below that cells cells B2 through F2 are formatted as dates. You can verify the formatting of a cell by clicking the cell and looking at the Number Format box in the Number group on the Home tab in Excel. In the example, find the word Date in the Number Format box.

Cells B2 through F2 formatted with the Date format in Excel

To change the format of the numbers (yes, dates are numbers to Excel), select cells B2 through F2; click the down arrow in the Number Format box and choose the desired format. To choose a number without any special formatting (no dollar sign or decimal places, for example), choose General as shown in the example below.

Choosing General Number Format in Excel

After formatting the numbers with the General format, your numbers will look like this:

Numbers formatted with the General format in Excel

Notice that the newly formatted numbers in cells B2 through F2 are right-aligned in each cell. Right alignment is the default format for numbers. Numbers formatted with the General format have no decimal places, commas, or dollar sign.

Have an MS Office question? Post it at my 2educateyou website or Facebook page. And I have a PowerPoint Facebook page devoted just to PowerPoint!

From Formatting Numbers with the General Format in Excel page.

Applies to Excel/PowerPoint 2007 and 2010

Kathy

 

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Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, Online Class, PowerPoint, Windows, Windows 7

Remove files from the Recent List in Office 2010 Applications

Kathy

 

One enhancement Microsoft made in Office 2010 is the ability to remove individual files from the Recent Presentations list on the File menu. To remove a file from the list:

  1. Click the File tab then click Recent from the menu.
  2. Right-click the file you’d like to remove from the list and choose Remove from List as shown in the example below:
Remove File from Recent List - PowerPoint 2010
Remove File from Recent List - PowerPoint 2010

It’s as easy as that! Removing a file from the list deletes the pointer to the file, not the actual file.

Unfortunately, this option is not available in Office 2007. You can, however, remove all the files from the list in Office 2007 (and 2010) applications. Here’s how to do it in PowerPoint 2007/2010:

  1. Click the PowerPoint 2007 Office button or PowerPoint 2010 File tab.
  2. Click the PowerPoint Options button (PP 2007) or the Option button (PP 2010)
  3. Click the Advanced link and scroll to the Displaysection.

    Changing the number of Recent Documents - PowerPoint 2010
  4. Use the Show this number of Recent Documents spin arrows (up and down arrows) to change the value. The default value for PP 2007 is 17 documents, and 25 documents for PP 2010.
  5. Click OK when you’re done.

If you have questions, please leave me a comment. I’d love to hear from you!

Kathy
Computer Applications Instructor
PowerPoint 2010 online class
PowerPoint 2007 online class
PowerPoint 2010 one-day workshop
Office 2011 for the Mac

 

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Instructional Videos, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, Online Class, PowerPoint

Create a SmartArt Graphic in PowerPoint 2010 or 2007

Kathy

SmartArt Graphics

This feature allows you to use shape, color, pictures, and text to make a point visually in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2010 (and 2007).

One way to work with this feature is to use the SmartArt button on the Insert tab. Another way is to use the Insert SmartArt Graphics button on a Title and Content slide layout in PowerPoint.

If you have existing text that you’d like to convert to SmartArt, select the text, and then click the Convert to SmartArt button in the Paragraph group on the Home tab.

There are over 80 SmartArt graphics to choose from in the SmartArt Gallery! The categories include List, Process, Cycle, Hierarchy, Relationship, Matrix, Pyramid, Picture, and Office.com.

Here’s a short video I created showing you two ways to create a SmartArt graphic in PowerPoint 2010:

Please post your questions or comments below.

Thanks!

Kathy
PowerPoint 2010
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PowerPoint 2007
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