When Microsoft introduced PowerPoint 2007, we found a whole new look and feel.  The new menu bar was virtually unrecognizable. Though not as drastic a change from 2007, PowerPoint 2010 nevertheless has a new look. That combined with added functionality delivers both positive and negative results.

The positives:

• PowerPoint files created in PowerPoint 2010 may easily be opened in 2007. Microsoft has a compatibility pack that allows you to open, edit and save PowerPoint 2010 in versions of PowerPoint earlier than 2007.
• An enhanced ribbon toolbar gives you the ability to create custom tabs on your ribbon. Name the tab, add frequently used actions and it will become part of your PowerPoint interface.
• You can now convert your PowerPoint presentation to video.
• Many new and exciting transitions between slides are available, similar to transition effects in Apple Keynote.
• You may now organize your presentations into sections (previously available only in Microsoft Word). The Sections button is located on the Ribbon toolbar.
• You may now embed videos, including web videos if you have internet access, thus eliminating constant need for zipped files and instruction as to video placement.
• PowerPoint 2010 now includes built-in video editing features. You can trim videos, and add various effects similar to those available for shapes and images. In addition to .wmv videos, PowerPoint 2010 supports QuickTime videos in .mov and .mp4 formats and flash videos (.swf files) if you have QuickTime and Adobe Flash players installed on your computer.
• New in PowerPoint version 2010 are sound editing tools that allow you to trim the start and end position and add fade in and fade out to any sound.
• With PowerPoint 2010, you can apply different artistic effects to your pictures to make them look more like a sketch, drawing, or painting so that they blend well with the theme of your presentation. Some of the new effects include Pencil Sketch, Line Drawing, Chalk Sketch, Watercolor Sponge, Glass, Cement, Plastic Wrap, Glow Edges, Photocopy, and Paint Strokes, as well as increased control of duotones and other effects.
• The new co-authoring function allows users to simultaneously edit the same presentation from different locations or computers.
• Microsoft has added many new Smart Art options giving you access to frequently used visual elements.
• PowerPoint 2010 contains new security features. “Mark as Final” prevents further changes to the presentation. You may assign permissions that prevent other users from copying, printing, or editing the presentation by selecting the access level specific to their requirements.

As with any transition in Microsoft product versions there are compatibility issues between 2003, 2007 and 2010.  Perhaps even more problems are inherent in the newest version, issues that are virtually undetectable.

The negatives:

• Since PowerPoint 2007 and 2010 both use the .pptx extension, it is virtually impossible to tell which of the two versions the presentation was created in. Microsoft has not incorporated the ability to find the application version anywhere in the program.
• That being said, PowerPoint 2007 interprets transitions, animations and other 2010 specific actions and applies what it considers the closest match. Since it is impossible to tell which version of PowerPoint the presentation has been created in, the original creator’s effects may be lost.
• A video embedded in PPT 2010 will show up as a stationary image rather than a video when the file is opened in PPT 2007, similar to the effect when one views a presentation from a Mac with a .mov file. If you have the native file in the folder (.wmv), the video will play but effects applied in PowerPoint 2010 (such as crop, 3-D effects, layer shapes, or duotones) though visible when the slide first appears will revert to the original format of the video.
• PowerPoint 2010 does not support the 64-bit versions of QuickTime and Flash which are available on Windows 7. If using Windows 7 in conjunction with PowerPoint 2010, be sure to install 32 bit versions of the programs.
• If you add effects to sound in PPT 2010, such as rim or fade, the sound won’t play AT ALL in any other PPT versions. No message, no warning — just no sound. Adding effects negates everything about the sound file.
• If the presentation’s creator is using a downloaded trial version of PowerPoint 2010, many of the functions disappear when saved. This is especially true of any media used in the presentation. When another presenter using the full version of PowerPoint 2010 opens the presentation, any embedded media will become an image only and will not play.
• In Office PowerPoint 2007, new security features had been introduced to help ensure that a presentation was safely managed after it left the user’s hands. In PowerPoint 2010, security features still exist and include added encryption. These enhanced security features can make it virtually impossible for another user to edit the presentation in all versions of PPT. Security features are important for obvious reasons, but can vastly interfere with the ability to revise when necessary.
• As with 2007 the ribbon bar may take some getting used to. Though similar to that in 2007, functions have been juggled about, creating a slight learning curve.

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The Selection and Visibility Pane is an extremely useful feature in PowerPoint 2007/2010. So useful, in fact, that you may wonder how you ever worked without it.

The Selection Pane keeps track of everything on the slide in a task pane on the right side of the desktop.

View the Selection Pane: On the Home Tab, choose Select > Selection Pane. You’ll see a list of everything on the slide: text, titles, objects, images, slide numbers, placeholders, etc. Any slide components that are grouped together on the slide show up as a group in the Selection Pane.

Easily select slide components: The Selection Pane lists all items on the slide by their stacking order. If a slide has many overlapping objects, it can be very tricky to select them. With the Selection Pane, simply click on an item in the list to select it on the slide. To select more than one item in the Selection Pane, hold the Control key down while you click on them.

Re-order slide components: The Re-order arrows in the Selection Pane move slide objects up and down in the stacking order. This may not be a particularly fast method if you have a lot of content on the slide (unfortunately, you cannot simply click and drag an item to a new location). However, you can select multiple items and re-order them at the same time.

Rename items in the Selection Pane: Double click on an item in the Selection pane and type a new name. Grouped items can also be renamed. In general, you probaby won’t need to bother renaming slide objects. But giving them unique names can be helpful when you’re creating custom animations. Instead of trying to differentiate between (for example) Picture 1, Picture 2 and Picture 3 in the Custom Animation task pane, give those pictures unique names in the Selection Pane. The new names will show up in the Custom Animation task pane, making it easier to keep track of your animations.

Turn visibility on or off: Click on the tiny eye icon next to an item in the Selection Pane to toggle visibility settings. Clicking the eye “off” makes the item invisible on the slide. The item still exists—it just can’t be seen, selected on the slide, printed or animated. Turning visibility temporarily off on selected slide objects also helps when you are developing complex animations and don’t want to sit through every animation just to view the one you are testing.

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We are occasionally asked to turn presentation graphics into printed posters, white papers, newsletters, and so on. If you think you’ll need high-quality print output from slides, it’s best to let us know in advance. Here’s why:

Presentation graphics do not need to have anywhere near the same resolution as high-end print graphics—they only need to match the resolution of the display device (monitors, laptops, video projectors). Display device resolutions are measured in pixels per inch (ppi). How an image looks on screen is determined by the display device resolution—the number of pixels it can display in a given area.

For an image to fill the entire slide, the size of the image in pixels should be at least equal to the display device resolution. For example, if display device resolution is 1024×768 (a common setting for monitors, laptops and video projectors), then full-frame slide graphics should be 1024 pixels wide by 768 pixels high. In practice, Bluewave generally creates presentation graphics at somewhat higher resolutions that this—densely detailed images may project better if they’re created at slightly higher pixel dimensions (1280×960 ppi, for example) and then scaled down slightly to fit the slide frame. A bit of experimenting will determine the best resolution.

However, super high resolution images (way higher than needed by the display device) won’t look any better when projected. And the file size can be huge, resulting in slow-to-load images and sputtering slide shows. The key is to produce presentation graphics at just the right resolution—not too high, not too low—that project beautifully and run flawlessly.

High-quality print graphics are usually created at 300 dots per inch (dpi)—the industry standard and a far higher resolution than needed for presentation graphics. Dpi refers to the density of ink dots printed on paper—not the same animal as ppi, although the two are somewhat similar and often confused.

Slide graphics will look just fine printed on most desktop printers. But for high-end printing, lower resolution graphics that look great on the screen will likely appear fuzzy or jagged when printed because there is not enough pixel information in the image.

Unfortunately, simply adding more pixels to lower resolution graphics via a photo-editing program doesn’t do much; the image won’t look more refined or detailed and in fact may look worse in some circumstances. And it certainly won’t result in high-end prints. Basically, the graphic needs to be recreated from scratch, at a higher resolution. Obviously, this takes time and can seriously bloat the budget.

Thus, if you anticipate needing high-quality prints of any slide graphics, let us know ahead of time. We’ll create specific graphics at 300 dpi for printing and save lower resolution images for placing on slides.

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Flash is a great multimedia tool. Here are some of the advantages:

• Fairly easy to create
• Files are small
• Great for the Web
• Can be used in PowerPoint (walk-in, intro, breaks, closing)
• Can be used on a laptop (as a product demo, ROI calculator, a full presentation, to name a few)
• Far cheaper than video
• More powerful, natural animation than presentation software can provide

A few disadvantages:

• Not easily revised, unlike PowerPoint
• Flash .exe files can’t be easily emailed. All firewalls strip .exe file from the email since they’re one of the top ways to spread viruses.
• Heavily photographic pieces can be problematic
• Can’t be created by a non-pro
• Much longer timeline due to multiple steps – script, theme, photos, music, voice over, storyboard, first draft, approvals, final drafts and revisions
• Can be expensive

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Before starting any Flash project, here are some of the questions we’ll ask:

• What will it be used for? Web, event, trade show, kiosk, flat panel display?
• Display dimensions: What are the pixel dimensions of the display device (1366 x 768, 1024 x 768, 852 x 480, 600 x 800, and so on). Ideally, the Flash piece should match the display device aspect ratio so that the display area is completely filled with no gaps or black areas on the top, bottom and sides. Determining the best pixel dimensions can be a fairly complicated issue. To be very clear, discuss with your event vendor or project designer.
• Web broadcast: What size/pixel dimensions? Smaller is faster and bigger is more legible, so it’s a trade-off.
• Inserted in PowerPoint or Keynote: What size/pixel dimensions? Does the Flash piece needs to display full screen? If so, what is the presentation aspect ratio, widescreen (16:9) or standard (4:3)? File size will be a consideration. If it does not needs to display full screen, we still need to pin down the size.
• What is the first deliverable due date?
• What is the final due date?
• What date does the speaker go on stage?
• Can you provide a style guide, color palette, high res logo?
• Any special graphics for the project?
• Anything else we need to know?
• What is the contact info for everyone involved?
• How soon can we start?

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Bluewave is all about visual storytelling. We design professional presentation media that help our clients deliver clear, compelling and visually impactful communications for corporate events, keynote executive speeches, product launches, sales meetings and road shows.

These are often big-stakes situations, where high pressure, precision and state-of-the-art multimedia predominate. But sometimes the most effective selling tool is the simplest. Here’s an example:

One of our clients was marketing a new type of mobile card-swipe terminals to the fast food industry. We helped the sales team design a high-level sales presentation to help convince a somewhat skeptical executive—the CFO of a nationwide pizza chain—of the benefits of the client’s card-swipe device.

We had been working for several months developing an Flash-based interactive ROI calculator with the primary goal of creating a passive lead generation tool on the web. The sales team asked us to incorporate the ROI tool into their presentation, specifically tailored for the pizza chain.

What actually won the day? After the show, the CFO was allowed to play with the ROI calculator that we embedded in the last slide of the presentation.

He was infinitely familiar with the analytics and began entering the numbers and graphing different scenarios on the presentation laptop. The meeting had been scheduled for 30 minutes, but quickly ran far over as a cluster of executives focused around the laptop, totally engaged in evaluating the different scenarios. By a remarkable coincidence, the scenarios all reinforced our client’s product, demonstrating how their mobile device could increase pizza sales under certain market conditions.

A deal was made quickly, but not just because anyone was sold on the product. Rather, the client was persuasively (and happily) allowed to “buy” into the solution. And he was helped along by an effective selling tool—the very visual ROI calculator.

Sometimes you just need to get in and see for yourself.

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PowerPoint 2007-10 offers many new graphic features, including SmartArt (preformatted shapes in various configurations with editable text) and sophisticated special effects that can be applied to shapes and text. The special effects include reflections, shadows, glows, bevels and soft edges that previously only could be done with Photoshop or other photo-editing software.

Here’s what happens when a file containing PowerPoint 2007-10′s special shapes or effects is opened in PowerPoint 97-2003:

• SmartArt shapes will be converted to .png images, and any text embedded in the original SmartArt shape will no longer be editable. A .png file is simply a picture with a transparent background. For more information on .pngs, see blog post “What’s the difference between GIF, JPEG and PNG formats?”
• Almost all special effects will be converted to .pngs. In most cases, embedded text will still be editable; it will be grouped with the .png shape as a separate text block.
• Shapes with soft shadows become shapes with editable harder-edged shadows in PowerPoint 2003. However, if the original shape contained a shadow and another special effect, then it simply becomes an uneditable .png.
• PowerPoint 2007-10 WordArt becomes uneditable .png images, even though PowerPoint 2003 also has a WordArt feature.

The solution: There really is none—a .png file cannot be converted into an editable PowerPoint shape. The good news: If the file is reopened in PowerPoint 2007-10, the .pngs will revert to their original, editable shapes.

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Like many of you, we’ve run across a number of problems when moving files back and forth between PowerPoint 97-2003 and PowerPoint 2007-10. One of the most obvious issues concerns changes to the templates and master slides. Here, we’ll take a look at what kind of changes to expect and how to deal with them.

First, a quick review of how master slides are set up.

• PowerPoint 97-2003 .ppt templates typically contain two linked master slides—one for bullet slides and one for titles. It’s probably safe to say that most .ppt templates contain just two master slides. More advanced .ppt users may opt to add additional master slides. This could be a single extra master with special formatting for agenda or section slides, for example, or one or more sets of extra bullet/title masters. Multiple masters can provide layout flexibility and save time but working with them takes some experience.

• PowerPoint 2007-10 .pptx templates use an entirely different structure. The default template consists of one master slide with 11 linked layout variations (title, section, text columns, charts, pictures, etc.). Formatting changes made to the master slide ripple through all the linked layouts, but each layout can also be given unique graphics and formatting. You can delete layouts or add new ones. You can also insert one or more additional master sets (meaning another unique master slide with 11 layouts).

The problem: Working on a PowerPoint 97-2003 file in PowerPoint 2007-10 results in changes to the master slides. There seems to be no way around this, and the changes occur even if you’re working in compatibility mode (see blog post on “Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for PowerPoint 2007-10”).

When you reopen the file in PowerPoint 97-2003, the master slides will no longer be linked. Unlinked masters means the template has lost some of its functionality, making it more difficult to apply slide layouts—particularly title slides, which may revert to default text formatting. Also, any custom slide layouts created in PowerPoint 2007 (for example, slides with unique backgrounds or special slide transitions) will result in additional master slides added to the PowerPoint 2003 template.

The PowerPoint 2003 template is now corrupted. If the .ppt file is then passed onto others, the corrupted template gets into circulation causing problems for everyone down the road.

The Solution: The best solution is simply to avoid working on PowerPoint 2007 files in 2003, or vice versa, but we know this is unrealistic. If you must work with both versions of PowerPoint, then plan ahead and have on hand two identical templates, one created in PowerPoint 2007 and one in PowerPoint 2003. To fix the template in PowerPoint 2003, you would then reapply the correct template and delete any extra master slides. Unfortunately, the next time the file is opened in 2007, the same template changes will take place.

To reapply the correct template in PowerPoint 2003:

• Select Format > Slide Design. In the right task pane, click on Browse (at the bottom of the task pane). Microsoft’s default template folder appears. If your template was saved correctly, it should appear in the list. Select the template and click Apply.
• If you can’t find your template in this list and do not know where it is located, navigate to a presentation that you are confident has the correct template with uncorrupted master slides. Select the file and click Apply.

Now you need to delete any extra master slides. The goal is to end up with just the master slides from the template (review the template if you are not sure what the correct master slides look like):

• Select View > Master > Slide Master. The correct master slides will appear at the very bottom of the list in the left task pane.
• To get rid of the extra master slides, right click on each one and select Delete Master.
• To return to the slide, select View > Normal. You may need to reapply slide layouts on some of the slides in your presentation, especially the title slides.

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A number of PowerPoint users have moved on to PowerPoint 2007 (or 2010 Beta), but many still work with PowerPoint 97-2003 or move files back and forth between versions.

If you plan to work with both versions, you should install the free Office Compatibility Pack at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads. The Compatibility Pack enforces compatibility between Office 2003 and 2007 by suppressing some of the features in the new Open XML file formats that could cause problems in earlier versions. You may need to install certain high-priority Office 2003 updates first before downloading the Compatibility Pack.

• Once the Compatibility Pack is installed, you will be able to open, edit and save PowerPoint 2003 .ppt files in PowerPoint 2007 without converting them to .pptx format.
• When you open a PowerPoint 2003 file in PowerPoint 2007, you’re automatically in compatibility mode—you don’t need to take any extra steps. You will see [Compatibility Mode] in the top bar after the file name. The presentation saves automatically in .ppt format unless you intentionally save it in .pptx format.
• Some of the new features in PowerPoint 2007 will be unavailable when you work in compatibility mode.
• You can open .pptx files in PowerPoint 2003 after installing the Compatibility pack, but you may not able to edit some of the items that were created with the new features in PowerPoint 2007.
• If you work in PowerPoint 2007 and exchange files with someone who works in PowerPoint 97-2003, it can help to save the file in .ppt format first. Click the Office Button, hover on Save As, then select PowerPoint 97-2003 Presentation. PowerPoint then automatically runs a compatibility check before saving to identify any issues. You’ll be warned of any slide content that may be incompatible in PowerPoint 97-2003.
• You should only remain in compatibility mode if you plan to work on presentations in both PowerPoint versions, or if you exchange files with others who do so. Otherwise save the .ppt file in .pptx format to take advantage of the many new features. Click the Office Button, then click on Convert.

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Here’s what we need to nail down before beginning a project:

• Do you have an existing color palette? If not, we can create one. For color palettes that we develop, we’ll discuss general color directions with you.
• Any special graphics you want us to use? Your event may feature a unique theme, logo, illustrations, photos, posters, etc. If you’d like us to leverage event graphics in presentations, we will need access ASAP and in high resolution.
• Which PowerPoint version do you use: 2000, 2002, 2003 or 2007? Critical issue! The determining factor may be which PowerPoint version most of your presenters use right now. PowerPoint 2007 is not backward compatible without some major “gotcha” issues that can lead to embarrassment.
• Which platform? PC or Mac?
• What is the aspect ratio of your presentation — standard (4:3) or widescreen (16:9 or 16:10)? The aspect ratio is mostly determined by the projector or display method you’ll use. The correct aspect ratio can be a pain to pin down, but it’s vital that we have this information up front because changing aspect ratios when production is already underway can be costly. We can help resolve this issue. For more information, see our blog post “Slide aspect ratios: what you need to know.”
• Will the presentations be printed? If so, will the printing method be digital or offset? The printing method determines the resolution of the graphics and photos we use.

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