PowerPoint Notes

Prezi Notes for PowerPoint Users 01: Change Fonts

OK, for all PowerPoint users, Prezi is not so easy to understand. That’s not because Prezi is a difficult tool to use. Rather, that’s because we all have been so used to doing tasks in a certain way and expect the same workflows in Prezi, and that does not always happen! Clearly, some unlearning is required.

The one task that had us stumped initially was trying to change the font (yes, typeface for the purists) within one of the text placeholders. That’s a simple task in PowerPoint: you can select any text you want and then change the font to anything you want. In fact, you can take a seven-character word like “seasons,” and have a separate font for each character! OK, don’t do so unless you have a compelling reason! However, it looks like this task is not doable in Prezi?

So as of now, looks like there’s no way to even use a different font for an entire text placeholder. There are three font choices for any text you create:

1. Title
2. Subtitle
3. Body

Figure 1, below shows Prezi’s font choices toolbar.

Figure 1: Prezi’s font choices

Each of these choices (styles) has a font allotted to itself. And all these three choices are part of a Prezi theme. Now Prezi themes are similar to PowerPoint themes that also have font choices set up. Unlike Prezi, PowerPoint has two font choices within the theme:

1. Headings (equivalent to Prezi’s Title)
2. Body (same as Prezi)

Figure 2, below shows PowerPoint’s Font gallery.

Figure 2: PowerPoint’s font choices

Now beyond these similarities, there’s a difference. While PowerPoint does recommend that you use theme fonts, it does not prevent you from using any other font. That definitely is a plus factor. But Prezi’s approach of not allowing a non-theme font assures that your text looks consistent — and that’s a plus too for some folks.

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Filed Under: Techniques
Tagged as: Fonts, PowerPoint, Prezi

Turn Off Animation Preview

By default, all versions of PowerPoint show you a preview when you add an animation to any slide object. While this is a great option for those who are new to PowerPoint animation, you will certainly not like this automatic preview feature if you are an advanced user. Yes, these previews can be irritating, especially if you add timed animations of longer duration — may be a 20-second animation. You will then have to wait until PowerPoint shows you the preview you did not ask for. Make a small change and you get another 20-second preview. If you are creating a slide with ten animations, the wait for each preview to happen can become quite frustrating!!

Fortunately, it is easy to turn off these previews in PowerPoint 2010 and 2013 for Windows. Just access the Animations tab of the Ribbon, and find the Preview button located towards the extreme left, as shown in Figure 1, below. Click the downward-pointing arrow on the bottom half of this button to bring up a small menu. Within this menu, make sure that the AutoPreview option has no checkmark. You can click once to remove the checkmark.

Figure 1: Turn off Animation Preview

Now your animations will not preview automatically!

In PowerPoint 2007, there’s no equivalent way to turn off these animation previews within the Ribbon. If you discover a way, please share your thoughts by adding a comment to this page.

Filed Under: Techniques
Tagged as: Animation, PowerPoint 2010, PowerPoint 2013

Keyboard Shortcuts for PowerPoint Views

A reader asked if there were any shortcut keys in PowerPoint that could let her go from Normal view to Slide Sorter view? The answer is both no and yes, no because there’s no real shortcut to do that and yes because there is such an easy workaround.

What you need to do is quickly press the Alt + V keyboard shortcut to bring the View tab of the Ribbon in focus, and then press the D key immediately thereafter. So you would use the Alt + V > D sequence to get to Slide Sorter view.

Fortunately, you can quickly access all PowerPoint views with similar keyboard sequences:

Normal View: Alt + V > N

Slide Sorter View: Alt + V > D

Slide Show View: Alt + V > W (also F5)

Notes Page View: Alt + V > P

Additionally, you can use the Alt + V > Z sequence to bring up the Zoom dialog box. This keyboard sequence works in most views but will not work in Slide Show view.

Tip: To go from Slide Show view to Normal view, press the Esc key.

Do note that all these keyboard sequences work in Windows versions of PowerPoint.

So why did Microsoft not create proper keyboard shortcuts for these views, and why do they have these sequences instead?

I don’t know the answer for the first part of the question, but yes there is an answer for the second part: these keyboard sequences were essentially for using the menu options in older versions of PowerPoint that had no Ribbon interface. And they continue to work in the newer versions of PowerPoint.