APC Australia - September 2019

superguide » 60 Office tips

PowerPoint and Impress

PHOTOGRAPHIC BACKGROUNDS

You can embed a photo into a slide’s

background in PowerPoint by clicking

Format Background on the Design tab.

Select ‘Picture or texture fill’ then

choose to insert a picture from a file, the

clipboard or online. Once done, you can

adjust its transparency, type (tiled or

stretched) and position on-screen. Like

what you see? Click ‘Apply to All’ to

apply the background to all your slides.

Impress users should simply select

Slide > Set Background Image to select

a suitable image – it’ll be stretched to

fit by default. Another way to add the

image is by right-clicking on a slide’s

existing background and choosing

Properties. Select ‘Bitmap’, click ‘Add/

Import’ to import your image, then use

the controls to tweak its position and

size – choose ‘Custom position/size’

and tick Scale to correct overstretch.

SPLIT INTO SECTIONS

One handy navigation aid for presenters

on large PowerPoint slideshows is to

split them into distinct sections. This

doesn’t simply mean creating section

slides, but also inserting section

dividers: click between two slides to

bring up a red dividing line, then

right-click and choose Add Section. Give

your section a name and you’re done.

Repeat throughout your presentation

• you can collapse section headers,
  plus use them to quickly rearrange the
  running order of your presentation
  via drag and drop.

INSERT SUMMARY SLIDES

Summary slides enable you to display

multiple slides on a single slide as a

summary, plus make them interactive

so clicking a specific thumbnail will

take you to the slide in question. In

PowerPoint, click Zoom on the Insert tab

to create one – these can be a summary

of the entire presentation, a specified

section or a group of one or more selected

slides from your presentation. Just make

your choice and the slide will be created.

In Impress, select the first slide you

wish to appear in your summary, then

choose Slide > Summary Slide. This

creates a new (non-interactive, sadly)

slide at the end of the presentation

where all the titles from your selected

slide to the last one in the deck are

written as bullet points as a summary.

If the option is greyed out, it’s because

your slides have no titles on them.

UNDO CROP

Cropping images is a great way of

making them fit the available space

without having to edit them outside

your presentation tool. You’ll find the

option when you select a picture in

PowerPoint on the Picture Format tab;

In Impress, you simply need to right-

click the image in question and choose

Crop. Use the drag handles to select the

part of the image you wish to keep. Your

edits are non-destructive (but note our

‘Shrink File Size’ tip on the page

opposite), which means if you do want to

undo your crop, click Crop again, but

this time expand the drag handles to

restore the missing parts of the image.

IMPORT SLIDES

Copy a slide from another presentation

by choosing the Insert > ‘Slides from

Files’ > Find Presentation tab and open

the source presentation. Select the slide

to copy and click Insert. Or simply drag

and drop across – note: the slide will

retain its original formatting but will

adhere to whichever aspect ratio you

have set up in the new presentation. Use

an existing layout to convert it to the

look and feel of your new slideshow.

SMART PASTING

When pasting text, PowerPoint retains

the formatting by default. To paste the

text and use the destination formatting

you need to expand the Paste button on

the Home tab and choose Keep Text

Only. Or, to speed things up, add the

command to the Quick Access toolbar

above the Ribbon – click the expand

button to its right and choose More

Commands – you’ll find ‘Paste and Keep

Text’ only under ‘Commands not in the

Ribbon’. In Impress, you can simply

make use of the Ctrl-Alt-Shift-V

shortcut to achieve the same; you can’t

assign custom keyboard shortcuts in

PowerPoint, sadly.

CREATING TEMPLATES

If you frequently create slideshows of a

certain type, save time by creating your

own template. Head to the View tab on

the Ribbon and click Slide Master to

create the various layouts you’ll use. At

the top is your basic master – anything

placed here will appear on all your

layouts, so use this as a starting point to

define fonts, colours, background styles

and so on. Once done, move on to create

the different layouts you need.

In Impress, you access the master slide

via the main sidebar: expand Slide and

click Master View. You’re stuck with the

pre-defined layouts – instead create

separate Masters for all the different

layouts you need. Once done, select File >

Templates > Save As Template.

AUTOFIT OPTIONS

Typed too much text into a slide? Both

PowerPoint and Impress will attempt to

cram the text into the available space

by automatically shrinking its font size.

Switch this behaviour off in PowerPoint

under the File > Options > Proofing >

AutoCorrect Options > AutoFormat As

You Type tab or apply it on a case-by-

case basis using the AutoFit Options

button that appears. Look out for

options to split the text over two slides

or convert the text box into two

columns if it’s massively overwritten.

AutoFit is less elegant in Impress –

you right-click a text box, choose Text

and tick ‘Fit to frame’ on a case-by-case

basis. However, you can also define this

at the Master Slide level to make it the

default behaviour for any slides based

on that Master.

REPLACE FONTS

Don’t like a font you’ve used? The

quickest way to get rid in PowerPoint is

to choose Replace > Replace Fonts on

the Ribbon’s Home tab in the Editing

Cropping images is a

great way of making them

fit the available space