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If you get a Data Assistant warning when you run PowerPoint 2007, here's what may be actually happening.

Data Assistant was something Microsoft provided for PowerPoint 2003 users so that they could insert and manage graphical data objects such as Visio drawings, and Excel charts and named ranges into PowerPoint presentations. They stopped providing the Data Assistant, and I'm guessing this has not been updated for PowerPoint 2007 -- you'll need to disable it.

You can also remove Data Assistant altogether from your computer:

1. Click the Start button in Windows, choose Control Panel, and then select the Add or Remove Programs option.
   
   
2. In the list of currently installed programs, click Microsoft Data Assistant 1.0, and then click Remove.
   
   
3. Follow the instructions to remove Microsoft Data Assistant 1.0 altogether.

Labels: add-in, powerpoint_2007

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I'll tell you an easy way to get frustrated, and an easier way to overcome it!

Get hold of a PowerPoint slides that has many animated slide objects that overlay each other. Now select the object stacked right at the bottom of the other objects. Does this have to be so difficult?

To select objects that are not too easy to access, you should use the Select Multiple Objects tool (if you use PowerPoint 2007, this does not apply to you). If you haven't heard of this animal, I won't blame you because it's not visible by default. First you need to customize your Drawing toolbar to see this option:

1. If the Drawing toolbar is not visible, choose View | Toolbars | Drawing.
   
   
2. Then choose View | Toolbars | Customize. This will summon the Customize dialog box that you can see in Figure 1.
   
   
   Figure 1: Customize
   
   
3. Now select the Drawing category in the left pane, and the Select Multiple Objects option in the right pane. Drag this option to the Drawing toolbar, as shown in Figure 2.
   
   
   Figure 2: Drag the icon to the toolbar
   
   
4. Click Close to exit the Customize dialog box.
   
   
5. Now when you have too many objects on a slide, just click the Select Multiple Objects option, and you'll see the dialog box that you can see in Figure 3.
   
   
   Figure 3: Select Multiple Objects
   
   
6. You can now select one or more objects on the slide -- and you can also select any object on the slide!
   

Note: PowerPoint MVP Shyam Pillai creates the Shape Console add-in that adds a miniature floating window inside PowerPoint -- this displays the current selected shape on the slide. Shape Console is a free download.

Labels: powerpoint_2003, shapes, tutorials

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I received this question a while ago from someone using PowerPoint 2003:

I inserted a sound from the Clip Art task pane onto the slide and the sound icon shows up but it won't play the sound when I am on that slide while playing the whole presentation. Please help!

OK -- the answer for this question works not only for PowerPoint 2003 but also for most other versions:

1. Right click the inserted sound, and choose Custom Animation from the resultant menu. This will bring up the Custom Animation task pane.
   
   
2. With the sound clip still selected, click the Add Effect | Object Actions | Play -- this will add a play animation for the selected sound clip within the Custom Animation task pane -- select the animation within the task pane.
   
   
3. Now change the Start event to After Previous.
   
   
4. Save your presentation.

Now your sound will play automatically when you get to that particular slide within your presentation!

Labels: clip_art, play, powerpoint, powerpoint_2003, sound

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I recently tweeted about my new article that showed how you can import an outline you create in TextEdit on Mac OS X straight into PowerPoint to create your slides quickly and easily -- soon I received a tweet response from Joel Heffner who could not make this happen. To cut a long story short, we found that this happened because PowerPoint cannot work with outlines that are encoded as Unicode (UTF-16).

What you need to do is choose TextEdit | Preferences -- and then select the Open and Save tab shown in Figure 1, shown below.

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Figure 1: TextEdit Preferences

Make sure you choose Unicode (UTF-8) or Western (Mac OS Roman) -- and then create your outline using this link: Creating PowerPoint Outlines in TextEdit -- Mac. Other encoding options may also work -- but Unicode (UTF-16) does not!

Labels: outlines, powerpoint_mac, textedit

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Typically you can start your slide numbering with any number -- so yes, your first slide can be numbered fourth. But what if you want the opposite -- maybe you want your fourth slide to be numbered first! This question was asked on Microsoft Answers, and Chirag Dalal of OfficeOne had an awesome answer, excerpted here with his permission:

1. Place your actual first 3 slides at the end of the presentation and start your presentation from your 4th slide. PowerPoint would number your slides from 1 and that would be the correct number for your 4th slide.
   
   
2. Remove the slide numbers from the last 3 slides (which are your actual first 3 slides).
   
   
3. Create a Custom Show so that your last 3 slides are placed as the first 3 slides in the Custom Show and the remaining slides follow those 3 slides. To create a Custom Show, use the Slide Show | Custom Shows menu item (or the Slide Show tab of the Ribbon | Custom Shows).
   
   
4. Next, tell PowerPoint to display the Custom Show when you start the slide show. To do this, choose Slide Show | Set Up Show menu item (or the Slide Show tab of the Ribbon | Set Up Slide Show). Select your Custom Show in the Show Slides section, and click OK.

Now when you start the slide show, PowerPoint will show your actual first 3 slides without slide numbers and slide 1 from your actual slide 4 onwards.

Thanks Chirag!

Labels: custom_shows, powerpoint, slide_numbers

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