by Geetesh Bajaj, April 23rd 2013

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Stop Underlining Your Descenders!

Most applications underline everything you select -- the process is simple: you select a word, a sentence, or even an entire paragraph -- and then press a keyboard shortcut or choose an option so that all the selected text is underlined. PowerPoint behaves the same way -- but there's a difference -- not in the resultant text, but in how the text appears. Let us not forget that PowerPoint is a large format -- more akin to a billboard than a business card -- and text is often projected at large sizes.

Learn how you can selectively remove underlines from descender characters

Is This Picture on Flickr an Original?

Flickr does happen to be among the best resources for Creative Commons pictures. Yet how do you know that the Creative Commons licensed picture that you have found on Flickr is indeed an original picture? Even outside of Flickr, there are so many copied pictures serenading as originals -- including some you find on Google's Image Search. There are indeed millions of genuine Creative Commons pictures on Flickr -- and with a little housekeeping, you can certainly filter out the counterfeit stuff from the real. It also pays to be proactive by doing some research.

Read more here

Pitch It!: Conversation with Jan Schultink

After a career of 10 years as management consultant with McKinsey & Company in Amsterdam and London, Jan Schultink now is the Founder and CEO of Idea Transplant, a presentation design firm that creates sales, conference, and investor presentations. He is based in Tel Aviv but serves clients all over the globe. In this conversation, Jan discusses his new e-book, Pitch It!

Read the conversation here

Handmade Slides: Pushpins for PowerPoint -- 07

Pushpins can be used to pin a picture, or a note, or a letter to a surface, a notice-board, or a wall. Using our ready-made pushpin graphics, you can create a similar look on your slides that makes a picture, shape, or anything else appear as if it has been pinned! Here's another set of pushpin graphics that look like real pushpins on your slides! These ready-made pushpin graphics are contained within the presentation you will download. You'll see them in five colors. Just copy them and paste them on the edges of pictures in your presentation.

This product is priced at $5+.

Download and use these pushpins in your slides

Learn PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

Poster Frames for Videos
When you insert a video in your presentation, you might see that the placed video clip displays a blank or black rectangle on the slide. If your video clip does not show a black rectangle, then of course there is no issue concerned. However, if it does show this black rectangle, your viewers may not find this appealing at all. With PowerPoint 2011's Poster Frame feature, you can easily overcome this limitation, and change the black rectangle to an image by selecting a frame from the video itself, or even a picture from a different source.

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Movie Correction Adjustments
Once you insert a movie clip on your slide in PowerPoint 2011, you may find out that the clip is too dark or light in terms of appearance. This is similar to what you may see on your television, especially a new television where you have to make a few adjustments to get the picture just right. Similar corrections can be made in any of the movie clips you insert within your PowerPoint slides. It's very important to understand that such adjustments may not only be necessary for the appearance of the movie clips on your computer, but also for how they show when projected onto a screen or even on a connected TV. Projectors are typically not as bright as computer screens, and some adjustments may help.

Learn PowerPoint 2013 for Windows

Locate PowerPoint
You cannot locate PowerPoint 2013 on your computer? Or you are not sure if there are any other versions of PowerPoint on your computer -- maybe an older version? Yes, we know that this can happen, although it does sound a little strange. You may be unable to locate PowerPoint, mainly in scenarios such as these.

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Snap to Grid Settings
Once you make Gridlines visible on your slide in PowerPoint 2013, you may wonder if there's really any benefit using the Gridlines other than the obvious benefit of possessing a visual grid that lets you place slide objects. The answer is both Yes and No -- Yes because that's all you may believe happens on the surface -- and No because you should know about how the Snap to Grid option works -- this option is not active by default! The Snap to Grid option helps to get the proper position of the slide objects. Other than making this option active, you can change the grid settings -- such as changing the spacing in between the gridlines.

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Working with Snap to Grid
Making gridlines visible on your slides in PowerPoint 2013 is only a good idea if you use the Grid feature to attain some results. If you are serious about using Grids to position slide objects with more precision, you must first visit the options available for changing Grid settings. Once you have played around with the grid settings, you are better equipped and prepared to explore how the Snap to Grid feature can help you accurately position and move slide objects such as pictures, shapes, or anything else you can select and move on a slide!

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