How to Get PowerPoint to Look Like it's NOT PowerPoint

Online Events Archive

Online Forums 2013 - December 12, 2013

Adam Weisblatt

Learning Systems Strategist
Blank Page Learning

It seems that everyone loves to hate Microsoft PowerPoint, but PowerPoint and its brethren are still the easiest tools for getting graphic elements onto a screen. PowerPoint makes it easy for you to replicate its much-maligned style, but you don’t need to fall into that trap. Creating engaging eLearning under a tight budget requires clear and interesting graphics, so when you use PowerPoint, you need a way to circumvent the standard look and feel and create something fresh and exciting.

Participants in this session will learn a variety of “tricks” for bypassing PowerPoint’s standard look and feel to create slides that are more visually rich, including seamless transitions between slides so it doesn’t even seem you are “turning pages.” An artist and longtime user of PowerPoint and other graphic-design programs will show you how to transform PowerPoint into an artist’s tool.

In this session, you will learn:

How to work with a blank template and blank slide layout and still have a consistent look and feel
How to use text as a graphic element without the need for bullet points
How to use advanced features of images, transparencies, and gradients to avoid the cutout look of PowerPoint graphics
How to use repeating objects and subtle slide transitions to blur the experience of viewing multiple slides

Handout(s)

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Recording

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