3-D Rotation Options
PowerPoint 2013's 3-D options that allow you to rotate or bevel shapes are surprisingly powerful. In fact, some of these
options are good enough to be compared to a basic 3-D program! While you can always apply a 3-D Rotation preset effect to
a shape, you can actually rotate your shape in 3-D space on your own by altering the X, Y, and Z position coordinates.
This tutorial explains these extra 3-D Rotation options.
Apply 3-D Depth to Shapes
Depth in PowerPoint 2013 plays a very important role when you are working with 3-D objects. Depth is the distance from the
top or surface of something to its bottom. For example, even though you can rotate any shape that has a Depth of zero, you
really cannot see any Depth within a flat object. Thus although you can first rotate your object, you must thereafter add
Depth -- and that's what we will explore within this tutorial.
3-D Format Options
3-D Options in PowerPoint 2013 enable you to format the bevel style of a shape with many more options than those available in
the conventional Bevel gallery. And when we say more, we actually mean a whole lot more! You can customize 3-D options such as
contour, contour color, depth, depth color, materials, and lighting -- almost like a full blown 3-D program. In this detailed
tutorial, you will explore every option within the 3-D Options gamut.
Shape Styles
PowerPoint's fill, line, and effect attributes enable you to customize the look of shapes and other slide objects in your
presentation. However, it may take ages to get that perfect color coordination and even after spending time the final look
may not match the Theme of the presentation. So as an awesome alternative to end up with a coordinated color combination
for the slide objects in your presentation, you can use Shape Styles. Shape Styles are a collection of prebuilt styles
housed within a gallery of the same name. These styles are all Theme-specific, so if the presentation Theme is changed
- you'll end up with new Shape Styles.
Change the Default Shape Attributes
When you insert a new shape on a slide in PowerPoint 2013 (or in any previous version), by default it is filled with a
solid color and an outline (or something else depending on the Theme your presentation is based on). For example in a
new blank presentation that we created, the shape is by default filled with a blue solid fill and has a thin dark blue
outline. Whenever we insert another new shape on a slide, it will possess these same default shape attributes ( fill, outline,
and effect).
Dr. Carmen Simon's presentations and workshops are unique because she applies a
scientific methodology to her coaching. Unlike other approaches, Dr. Simon's guidelines for outstanding presentations are
rooted in cognitive psychology and neuroscience. In this conversation, Carmen discusses the larger issue of how you can make
sure that your audiences remember your slides.
Steve Hards plays with PowerPoint all the time, and creates add-ins.
He was involved with Perspector, a 3D add-in for PowerPoint that enables users to manipulate shapes in 3D inside
PowerPoint and to create all sorts of interesting effects. Until very recently the top of the three editions
(Lists, Standard and Professional) sold for $299. Surprisingly, the Pro version is now freely available to everyone.
In this conversation, Steve, who managed sales for Visual Exemplars, the company that produced Perspector explains
what's behind the move.
