New version of Merge available

There’s a new version of PPTools Merge available at:

http://www.pptools.com/downloads.htm

 

No new features, but it fixes a couple of annoying little bugs:

 

FIXED:

In Presentations mode, you could Browse for an output folder but the folder you chose wouldn’t replace whatever was previously in the output text box.

It now works properly.

 

FIXED:

In Presentations mode, if you used @filename and specified full paths to your output files, the paths weren’t respected.

Merge now creates the files as specified.

 

 

Use PowerPoint to make Facebook home page images

Getting the image size JUST RIGHT for your Facebook home page can be a trial.  Or more accurately, a trial and error, trial and error, trial and error until you finally get it right.

How about a way of nailing it in one shot, right from PowerPoint?  Interested?  We got you covered.

Facebook wants an image of exactly 720 pixels wide by 267 pixels high.

Set the page size (Design | Page Setup) first, before you add any shapes, text or graphics to the slide. If you change the page size afterward, you'll distort the graphics.

In most cases, PowerPoint exports images at 96 pixels to the inch, meaning if you set your page size to exactly 7.5" wide by 2.781" high you'll get an image of exactly the right size, or close enough for Facebook work, when choose File | Save As and pick PNG as the file type to save as.

Of course, if you have our Image Export add-in for PowerPoint, it's even simpler.  Set the page size to anything that's proportional to the final size Facebook wants: 7.2" wide by 2.67" high, for example. Then create your graphics, and finally, use Image Export to export the slide at 720x267 pixels.

There’s a free demo of Image Export at http://www.pptools.com/imageexport/

Old tricks sometimes have sharp teeth

There’s an old trick for getting higher resolution images out of PowerPoint.  You add a special key to the registry here:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\PowerPoint\Options

For other PowerPoint versions, you'd substitute the appropriate number for 14.0 above ... 15.0 for PPT 2013, 12.0 for PPT 2007, 11.0 for 2003 and so on.  Yep. There's no version 13.0.  And we hear they don't allow black cats on the MS campus either.  Sheesh.

Anyhow ...

The key is a DWORD named ExportBitmapResolution with its value set to the resolution in pixels that you want PowerPoint to produce when you save a presentation as JPG/PNG/etc.   For example, if you set ExportBitmapResolution to 3000, you’ll get images 3000 pixels across instead of the default 960 pixel images when you save your slides as images.

So far, so good.

But it turns out that if you use VBA code or an add-in that exports images and you set the ExportBitmapResolution to a lower value than the code/add-in calls for, you get useless results:  you get a chopped off image of part of the slide in the upper left corner of your image.  The rest of the image is filled with gray or black.  

You get this:

When you should be getting this:

The fix is to delete the registry entry.  Let the code do the work, not the registry.  

There's more about it here, including pictures.

http://www.pptools.com/imageexport/FAQ00038.htm

Change the icon or description of an embedded object

When you insert an object, you have the option to display it as an icon. PowerPoint
supplies the descriptive text that appears under the icon.

But what if you decide later that you want a different icon? Or different text
beneath the icon?

Easy.

Rightclick the object

Point to [Whatever] Object

Click Convert

Click Change Icon

In the resulting dialog box, you can change the icon and also the text that appears
under the icon.

Bingo.

--
Steve Rindsberg
http://www.pptools.com
http://www.pptfaq.com

Read this. Then BURN it !

Finally, a legitimate excuse for Papyrus. Impact. Haettenschweiler (German for "Kill it before it breeds")

Read more:
http://www.salon.com/books/laura_miller/2011/01/18/hideous_fonts

Now that you've read it, burn this message. We don't want this getting out.

--
Steve Rindsberg
http://www.pptools.com/
http://www.pptfaq.com/

Opera Widgets

Opera may be the neatest browser on the planet. Think "Vista widgets" and then backspace over that and mentaltype "Duh. Opera's had widgets for a couple years now. More of them. Useful ones."

AAMOF I'm posting this to the blog using a little HTML editor/previewer widget that also knows how to post stuff here.

Couldnt' be simpler. http://www.opera.com

Opera. Life is good.

PowerPoint 2007

We're trying to keep up with new announcements about PowerPoint 2007
as they roll out of Redmond.

Visit "Office 2007 / PowerPoint 2007 (aka Office 12 / PowerPoint 12)"
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00723.htm

for more info.