Wednesday, October 20, 2010

A few tools go a long way

New post by Jan Schultink is a great reminder of how few tools good Powerpoint pros actually use to create good PP files. (I’m not confusing good PP files with good presentations, but building the PP files is often a part of developing a good presentation.)

Of all the features available in Powerpoint (or in almost any design-related program), there are only a few that get used regularly by most pros. Not exclusively, but used enough that it’s worth customizing the toolbar to save a few clicks. Jan’s are typical: align (x5), distribute (x2), flip (x2), rotate, send to back. As a typophile, I add type-related buttons: text alignment (x3), font color, sub- and superscript, and change case.

I think there are two messages here:

1) Customizing the toolbar in PP by adding your most-used commands (and removing the ones that you don’t use) is a great time-saver.

2) Focusing on the basics often means using a few tools very well, not using every tool available all the time.

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