PowerPoint

How Does PowerPoint Automation Work? The Basics

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Have you ever wondered how some apps can manipulate PowerPoint files or even create slides automatically? For example, financial services organizations generate slides with updated numbers in an automated manner every month. At TeamSlide, we can automatically update out-of-date slides or even specific objects on a slide. To understand this, we first need to dive into how PowerPoint files work.

Your slide deck is actually a zip file in disguise that contains a collection of XML files. By simply renaming the file from .pptx to .zip, you can find interesting data, mostly in XML format.

What is XML?

“XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language. It is a markup language much like HTML, except it was designed to store and transport data” – w3schools

Using .XML with PowerPoint Files

Warning: Prior to making manual edits, create a backup copy of your PowerPoint file. Manual edits may corrupt the files.

Changing .pptz to .zip

After renaming the file from .pptx to .zip, double click it. You’ll see a variety of folder names and XML files.

Powerpoint .zip contents

By clicking into the ‘Media’ folder, you can view all of the image files that are in your presentation.

PowerPoint images

You can even view individual slides from your PowerPoint presentation. Double-click on the ‘Slides’ folder and select a slide file you want to view/edit.

PowerPoint slides

This will show you the XML code, which you can then edit. If you’re an investment banker, you may want to add slides through the XML code. In marketing, you may use this to edit the copy of slides or save quality images from the presentation onto your computer.

XML

Get to know your new .zip file structure

A .pptx file starts with the file_rels/.rels and then expands to:

  • ppt/presentation.xml
    from which the masters, notes masters and slides are linked

And then expands to:

  • docProps/core.xml
     Metadata including presentation title, editor name, last modified date
  • docProps/thumbnail.jpeg
    A small preview of the first slide – this is where most applications get the preview from including Windows Explorer when showing icons. (This is why PowerPoint’s reuse slides feature only displays the first slide of the presentation. Unlike TeamSlide, it doesn’t generate previews or thumbnails for other slides)
  • ppt/slides/slide1.xml
    (text) content of the first slide

  • ppt/media/*
    Access image files

Useful ways to take advantage of PowerPoint automation:

  • Analyze unexpectedly large file sizes
    • You may find that your PowerPoint file is unexpectedly large when it only has, say, two text-only slides. Investigate the file size issue by unzipping your .pptx file, and you’ll find your answer. In some cases, there may be layout pages and some images taking up space.
  • Create slides automatically (creating XML file) based on data in another form (e.g. Excel)
  • Access all images used in a deck
    • If you unzip your PowerPoint file, you’ll notice a folder called media that contains all of the images in your presentation. You can make changes to images as long as the size doesn’t change. E.g. convert all images to grayscale. If changing the size, consider how it affects the layout in PowerPoint.
  • Read the content of each slide object (parse the XML file) to build search indexes.

  • Edit slide text and create objects like charts
    • Viewing the slide .xml file allows you to edit the content of each slide.
  • Read metadata from files docProps/app.xml and core.xml. Such as:
    • Last editor
    • Last modification date (unlike file system date also available for presentations received via email or downloaded)
    • Number of words in the presentation
  • Read comments
    • View text from ppt/comments/commentX.xml

How TeamSlide uses PowerPoint automation

TeamSlide searches your slide repository and matches your search terms with specific slides. On the backend, this is achieved by indexing individual slides and taking a picture of each one. When you run a search in the TeamSlide pane, TeamSlide then uses the index to search all objects (text, images, videos) within your slides, returning thumbnails of the most relevant slides.  Click on a thumbnail, and with PowerPoint automation, TeamSlide inserts the slide into your presentation. The search and insert capability helps teams maximize efficiency and can even assist with version control.

Feature, Resources

Slide Library Analytics in TeamSlide

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TeamSlide’s analytics capabilities provide valuable insights into your slide management process.  From measuring user adoption, examining common search terms, or determining your most used slides, our reporting feature creates transparency for your slide library.  Use this feature to maximize the value TeamSlide creates and focus your PowerPoint content strategy.

Using TeamSlide Analytics

  1. Log into the TeamSlide portal (www.teamslide.io)

2. In the Main Menu, click ‘Analytics.’

Analytics menu in TeamSlide

3. In the top section, you can view a visual representation of TeamSlide usage. The Reports section will allow you to run reports based on specific parameters.

Analytics overview in TeamSlide

4. In the Reports section, click the drop-down menu to filter your report by either User activity, searches, or downloads.

reports in TeamSlide

5. Further filter your results by choosing a predefined ‘Time period’ or adding custom dates. Click ‘Download data’ to import your report.

Double click the download file to open it in Excel.

Reports Overview

User activity report: In the TeamSlide user activity report, you’ll find each user’s name, email, number of downloads, searches, and logins. This report is useful to assure adoption. If users aren’t active in TeamSlide, they may need additional help getting set up.

Slide library user activity report in TeamSlide

Searches Report: In the TeamSlide searches report, you’ll find a list of users, user emails, dates and times of searches performed, terms searched, and total results. This report will help you understand slides, images, and videos your users are looking for.  For example, you might find users often search for specific terms that receive few results, highlighting a gap in your content.

Slide library search report in TeamSlide

Downloads Report: In the TeamSlide downloads report, you’ll notice many more columns than in the other report types. This report details each username, email, time of download, object description (typically title), file name, slide number, search terms, and position in results. The downloads report will communicate which content is most relevant to your team.

Slide library downloads report in TeamSlide

If you have customized metadata fields, they can also be included in the downloads report. This, for example, gives you an understanding of the most used slides by each field.

Feel free to contact us if you have custom reporting needs. 

For those with an on-premise implementation of TeamSlide, slide library usage records are continuously added to your SQL Server database. You can connect your favorite business intelligence tool like Tableau or Microsoft’s PowerBI to build custom dashboards.

Taking a data-driven approach by using TeamSlide to measure your slide library analytics highlights opportunities to optimize your presentation management process.

Related Articles:

Getting Started with Users, User Groups, and Libraries

Inserting Images and Videos

Effectively use Slide Titles to Engage your Audience

Resources

Getting Started with Users, User Groups, and Libraries

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TeamSlide, a PowerPoint slide manager, enables you to control access to your slide library. In this walk-through, you’ll learn how to add users, establish user groups, and configure library permissions in the TeamSlide portal. After logging in, you’ll notice the three tabs, ‘Users,’ ‘User Groups,’ and ‘Libraries’ grouped (see below). These are the tabs we will be working in. Note that you’ll need the appropriate global permissions to see these tabs.

TeamSlide slide management interface

Adding a User

1. Click the ‘User’ tab on the Main Menu panel.

2. Observe two tabs at the top where you can either ‘Manage existing users’ or ‘Add new user.’ Select ‘Add new user.’

3. Fill out the following fields:

  • Display name – Name displayed to other users.
  • Email – The email address you want to be tied to this TeamSlide account.
  • Login name – A unique ID used for logging in. We recommend using the email address for this.
Add a new user to access the slide library

There are optional checkbox options below ‘Login name.’ Ensure the ‘Send welcome message’ box is checked to send the user an email, enabling them to set their password and download the PowerPoint add-in.

Optional user settings:
  • Must change password: Forces users to reset their password on the next login. This is only used when you configure a password for the user.
  • Password never expires: When enabled, TeamSlide will never prompt you to change your password.
  • Send welcome message: Sends an email to a new user with installation instructions and a link to set their password. This is automatically selected when you add a new user.  Unselect this option if you want to set a specific password for the user.
  • Technical account: An account that is typically not tied to a user and is often used for content replication.
  • Disable account: You can disable a user by enabling this setting.
  • Create library for new user: Creates a new library with read/write permissions only for this user.
  • Disable approval notifications: If checked, the user will not receive notifications about new content submissions or approval decisions.
  • Don’t update time zone: TeamSlide automatically updates your current time zone upon using the PowerPoint add-in. Check this box if you don’t want your time zone automatically updated.
  • Member of groups: Add a user to an available user group

4. Click ‘Save.’ View all users and edit current users under the ‘Manage existing users’ tab.

Creating a User Group

User groups help organize TeamSlide users, typically by role and the content they use. By organizing users into groups, you can quickly adjust permissions for many users at one time.

  1. Under the Main Menu panel, click ‘User groups.’ Note two options at the top: ‘Manage existing groups’ and ‘Add new group.’
Set user groups for easy access control to your PowerPoint slides

2. Click ‘Add new group.’

3. Enter ‘Group name’ (e.g., Sales team, Marketing, Graphic designers, etc.)

Set your group name

4. You can also search for a particular user that you’d like to add to the group within the search bar. You can always add users to groups at a later time.

search for users in TeamSlide

5. Click ‘Save.’ You can view all existing groups under the ‘Manage existing groups’ tab.

Note: With single sign-on, you can automatically assign users to groups based on claims supplied by your authentication system (e.g., role, location)

Creating a Library

What are TeamSlide libraries?
A library is a container for content (slides, images, videos) that primarily defines its access rights. Additionally, a library can be used in TeamSlide to filter search results and modify search relevancy.

  1. Click the ‘Libraries’ tab on the Main Menu panel.

2. There are two tabs at the top where you can either ‘Manage existing libraries’ or ‘Add new library.’ Select ‘Add new library.’

add a new library for slides, images, and videos

3. Fill out the ‘Name.’ Other optional settings:

  • Display position: To order our libraries numerically, change the ‘Display position’ (e.g., 1,2,3) for each library.
    Pro Tip: keep a gap between numbers (e.g., 5, 10, 15) so that later you can easily add a new library between existing ones
  • Search relevance: To increase search relevance of a library, increase the value to be higher than zero. For example, you may want to do this for content that you know is “client-ready” and make libraries that are not “client-ready” less relevant.

  • Add read/write permissions for me: Here, you can give yourself permission for this library.

Adjusting Library Permissions

TeamSlide allows you to set permissions within libraries on a user or group level.

1. Click the ‘Libraries’ tab on the Main Menu panel.

2. You’ll notice two tabs at the top where you can either ‘Manage existing libraries’ or ‘Add new library.’ Select ‘Manage existing libraries’

manage libraries in TeamSlide

3. Identify the library that you want to adjust and select ‘Edit permissions’

edit PowerPoint library access permissions in TeamSlide

4. Within the permissions view of the specific library you selected, you’ll notice a few rows of users/groups. Each section of rows has permission options. Here, you can add or hide users.

edit library permissions and search for users/groups in TeamSlide

A search bar at the bottom allows you to look up users or groups to add to the list.

search for users in TeamSlide

5. After adding users and groups that you want to manage, adjust permissions for each.

Permissions options:
  • None: Users/groups cannot see the library

  • Read: User/group can only view and download the library contents but cannot make changes.

  • Add/edit own: Users/groups can only add slides and edit the content they own (Only for content that is uploaded through PowerPoint or through Batch Upload. This does not apply when connected to a CMS which is a read-only interface.)
  • Add/edit all: Edit anyone’s content (Only for content that is uploaded through PowerPoint or Batch Upload. This does not apply when connected to a CMS. This does not work when connected to a CMS which is a read-only interface.)
  • Admin: Read/write access for all content, allow changes in permissions, take ownership of content, and access deleted content from the history.
  • Edit custom: Custom options allow you to adjust permissions on a more granular level and mix and match options.

6. To customize permissions further, click ‘Edit Custom.’ In the pop-up window, adjust the settings, then click ‘Ok.’

custom slide library permissions in TeamSlide

7. If you have some users with ‘Read’ access, consider checking ‘Enable submitting updates for approval.’ This setting allows those users to submit new and updated content for approval in the library selected. Only for content that is uploaded through PowerPoint or Batch Upload. When connected to a CMS, users can suggest updates through an email that TeamSlide facilitates.)

8. Click ‘Save changes.’

Have more questions? Please send us a message at support@teamsli.de

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End Version Control Anxiety

Feature, Investment Management

End Slide Version Control Anxiety with PowerPoint Automation

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In any industry, keeping slides up to date is essential. In financial services, it is especially critical to maintain SEC compliance, which can be tedious when you have multiple people creating presentations and working on PowerPoint decks. TeamSlide recognizes this compliance struggle and offers a solution: automated PowerPoint version control. Updating performance numbers and managing version control doesn’t have to be a headache.

PowerPoint automation: How TeamSlide solves version control concerns

We know how vital version control is, so we’ve made it easy for you. When you open a PowerPoint presentation, TeamSlide checks your slides against the slide repository for changes.

TeamSlide will automatically alert you if it finds that a newer version of the slide is available.

If your slide does need to be updated, simply choose from a handful of options.

version control update options
  • Update: With a click, your slide will be updated to the latest version
  • Insert copy: If you’re skeptical over the changes made and want to compare slides, insert a copy
  • Remove TeamSlide link: Disassociates the slide with the library; you will no longer receive notifications about updates
  • Mark as updated: Let’s you skip the current version; you won’t get a notice until a newer version is available

TeamSlide will also alert you if you’ve edited a slide that is not updated to the latest version

You can then insert a copy and determine if any local edits you made need to be carried over. For example, if you add a client name to the slide, you will want to ensure the name is also added in the updated version.

If you have any questions about how TeamSlide’s automated PowerPoint version control feature works, send us a message at support@teamsli.de!

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Find Images and Videos Faster

Build Compelling, On-Brand Presentations

4 Tips to Effectively Use Images in your Presentation

Feature

New Feature Updates: Find Images and Videos Faster

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We added a fantastic new feature to TeamSlide: videos. Now, in addition to PowerPoint slides and images, you can easily add videos to your presentation.  While we typically call TeamSlide a slide management tool, we have extended our content to reach well beyond.  With this new capability, you can search, preview, and insert a video from your CMS (e.g., SharePoint, Box, Google Drive) into your PowerPoint presentation with a click.

We love using videos in PowerPoint for these reasons:

  • Brings your story to life: storytelling doesn’t only have to utilize words and images. By using videos, you can break up the text and keep your audience’s attention.
  • Says more with fewer bullets: there is a limit to how much text is practical on slides. Videos help your audience quickly understand complex concepts and messages.
  • Evokes emotion: the best, most engaging presentations evoke emotion in the audience. Videos can establish the tone of your message, whether that be serious, inspirational, or comical.

Let’s dive in and see what our developers have rolled out:

  • Insert videos: preview and insert videos into your presentation… without leaving PowerPoint.
  • Search your CMS: seamlessly search videos in your content system (e.g. SharePoint, Box, Google Drive, Dropbox)

Here’s how to bring your videos (and images) into TeamSlide from your CMS:

  1. Log into your TeamSlide portal in your web browser (www.teamslide.io)

2. Click ‘Content Replication’ on the bottom of the menu

content replication

3. Select the ‘Replication tasks’ tab

4. Under this tab, you will see the tasks that pull content from specific folders in your content management system. Under ‘Action’, select ‘Edit’

edit replication task

5. Click to check the ‘Image files’ and ‘Video files’ options. Make sure to click ‘Save’.

images and videos

6. TeamSlide will sync with your connected folders to make your images and videos searchable.

If you need help connecting your CMS to TeamSlide, check out this video:

Pro Tip: If you don’t have a content management system (CMS), you can use our batch upload feature to upload/add videos directly into TeamSlide.

If you need any help getting started with this feature, please send us a message at support@teamsli.de. Otherwise, enjoy the new capabilities and the extra productivity!

Marketing and Sales, PowerPoint, Slides that sell

Focus your PowerPoint Slides on Benefits, not Features

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When considering a purchase, buyers want to know how a product or service is going to benefit them.  Marketers have been selling benefits on websites for years. However, your pitch decks and other PowerPoint presentations can mirror these concepts of benefit selling.

Before you try benefit selling, take time to understand the difference between a feature vs. benefit to be able to differentiate them in your communications, and effectively captivate your audience. In this article, we will identify the differences between features and benefits and provide 3 actionable steps to make sure your slides are showcasing benefits.

Features vs. Benefits

Let’s explore the difference between features and benefits:

What is a feature?
Features are generic elements that anyone can gain from a product/service. It is something that your product has or is, and eventually, are the details that attract prospects.

What is a benefit?
A benefit is a personalized perk of using a product/service, usually applying to a subset of customers. They are the results that users will experience, and ultimately, persuade people to buy.

Examples of features vs. benefits

Let’s walk through a few website examples of benefits and features that translate to slides as well.  

How to describe the features and benefits of a service

Example 1

Zoom, a video conferencing and communications company, highlights a benefit that their customers highly value – security.

The features:

Features vs. Benefits of Zoom

The benefit:

features vs. benefits of Zoom

Example 2

An online app and website blocker, Freedom, highlights the benefit of being in a distraction-free environment to increase your productivity.

The features:

Features vs benefits of Freedom

The benefit:

Benefit of Freedom
How to describe the features and benefits of a product:

Example 1

Beautycounter, a safer beauty brand, emphasizes that their sunscreen will not only protect your skin but is also created with safer ingredients.

The features:

features of Beautycounter

The benefit:

Beautycounter benefits

Example 2

Apple’s AirPods market the benefits of how you’ll look and sound without having to worry about battery life.

The features:

Apple Airpod features

The benefit:

Apple Airpod benefits

3 actionable steps to make sure your slides are effectively showcasing benefits

1. Focus on the customer

The potential customer does not care about your product, only how the product will benefit them. By keeping your slides focused on the client’s needs and desires, you can effectively capture their attention.

focus on the customer
2.Convert features to benefits by asking, “so what?”

Verify that you’ve presented benefits by asking yourself, “so what” or “what’s in it for them?”. Be sure to leave out benefits that aren’t relevant to your buyer. By creating quality benefits, you can then use features as “proof” of the claims. You can even turn features into quality benefits by simply asking yourself, “Which means?”.

Convert features into benefits
3. Cut your adjectives and adverbs in half

Keep your slides simple and uncluttered by cutting your adjectives in half. Most of the time, adjectives and adverbs don’t contribute valuable information. Instead, they take up space and can clutter your message. By communicating only essential components of your product/service, you get your point across directly.

cut adjectives and adverbs in half
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PowerPoint, Slides that sell

How to Effectively use PowerPoint Slide Titles to Engage Your Audience

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Although they are the largest words on a PowerPoint slide, slide titles are often overlooked.  Learning how to title a PowerPoint slide is a critical skill to build impactful presentations that engage audiences.  When worded and formatted properly, slide titles can help with storytelling and quickly convey your key message.  Audiences want to clearly know what you’re trying to say. Use PowerPoint slide titles to make your message stand out and help them understand the value you bring. In this article, we detail 5 tips to help you create better slide titles.

Top 5 Tips to Create Better PowerPoint Slide Titles

#1: Use action titles to convey the key message of your slide

Most PowerPoint slide titles tend to describe the contents of the slide rather than the takeaway message.  As a result, they do not engage the audience and fail to convey your message. Slide titles are most effective written as an action title, which spells out the ‘so what’ of the slide rather than a written description of the content.

Action title meaning

An action title is a slide title that’s worded to reflect the key takeaway or ‘so what’ of the slide.  If written effectively, the audience should only need to read the action title, and not the rest of the slide, to understand the primary message.

By quickly conveying your message, you can create an engaging and creative PowerPoint presentation that your audience will appreciate. Action titles are critical to creating slides that sell. Your audience’s attention is highest when they are reading the first item of your slides.

For example,

PowerPoint action titles

#2: Create a storyline for your presentation

Before you begin using PowerPoint, write out an outline for the story you’re telling. Setting up a story framework prior to creating slides will give your presentation more organization. One way to check if your PowerPoint slides have effective action titles is to stack your slide titles and see if they make a story. Is there a clear message here surrounding the story you are selling?

PowerPoint storyline

#3: Make sure title alignment is consistent

Make sure that all of your titles are aligned the same way slide-to-slide. You don’t want to distract the audience and reduce the professionalism of your PowerPoint presentation by having the title to “jump” when you change to the next slide. An easy way to do this for your whole presentation is to go into your slide master [link to our article on master slides] and format the title text boxes using placeholders.

PowerPoint place holders

#4: Keep text size the same

Maintaining a consistent font size can also help keep your PowerPoint presentation polished. Once you’ve captured the audience’s attention through storytelling with action titles, make sure the text size is the same from slide-to-slide in both the title and the body text. Manually change this or consider using the slide master again to format the presentation. The consistency of text sizes will add professionalism and uniformity to your presentation.

Powerpoint font size

#5: Stay away from hanging words

Avoid having just one word on the second line of the title as it creates a visual interruption and draws unintended attention to the single word.  You can add a manual break to force two or more words on the second line or add more words to the title. Additionally, consider giving your team examples of how to format titles that go on one line or two lines of text the correct way. This can also be easily formatted within the slide master view. When you create the slide master, make sure to format the title text size and color appropriately.

PowerPoint title hanging words

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Other

9 Tools to Use While Working from Home

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From health concerns to long commutes, there is an increasing number of reasons for employers to enable their staff to work from home.  Working from home can be exciting. However, working from home can also be a little intimidating if you don’t have the right tools and processes to help create a successful and productive environment. If you are part of a team, you’ll most likely need more than just email to stay connected and on the same page with projects and deadlines. However, flying solo at home does take an adjustment. Social media and household chores can certainly be tempting distractions. By putting some boundaries around your day, you will easily be productive and efficient – without the commute!

At TeamSlide, we’ve had staff working remotely for five years. We understand the challenges you’re going to face but we also have a toolkit to share. There are many productivity solutions out there, so we have identified our favorite 9 to help you do your best work remotely.

9 Tools for Working From Home

Concentration

Staying focused while you’re surrounded by things that need to be done around the house, your pets, and even kids can create a distracting environment. Find a place in your home that you can dedicate to getting your work done in. This could be a guest room, the kitchen table, or almost any desk you may have in your house. Clear it of possible distractions, like clutter, and get to work. Here are some tools you can utilize to help you stay concentrated:

Music
Freedom
  • Freedom is an all-in-one distraction blocker. If you know that you may be more tempted to get distracted while working at home, whether it’s by social media, the news, or online games, you’ll want to have a tool in place to help you stay focused. Freedom allows you to block websites, apps or even the whole internet and you can sync these settings across all of your devices. Why Use Freedom?
  • Details: Freedom offers a FREE trial that includes 7 distraction-free blocking sessions. Their Premium plan is offered monthly for $7, yearly for $2.42/month (paid at once), or forever for a one-time rate of $64.50.

Bonus: If you sign up for Freedom Premium, get 3 months FREE Todoist Premium and many other perks too! 

Time Management

Since you’re now working in a completely different environment, one that’s typically centered around household needs and personal time, it’s important to have some time management solutions on hand so that you can stay focused. Luckily, there are numerous great time management and productivity tools available. We’ve narrowed down some of the best ones for you to take advantage of:

Toggl
  • Toggl is a subscription-based time tracking software. With just a click of a button, you can easily start timing a task or project. The Toggl Desktop App reminds you when you’re not tracking, or it detects idle time, keeping you accountable. They have over 100 app integrations that put the Toggl button inside your favorite online apps in order to help you keep track of your time or you can opt to manually enter your time at the end of the day or week.
  • Details: They offer a free 30-day trial with full access to all of the features. They offer a starter plan for $9/month per user and a premium plan for $18/month per user, all billed yearly. Bonus: Toggl integrates with Todoist (read about this in the next section)
Todoist
  • If you’re in need of the ultimate task manager that can organize it all, you’re in the right spot. This task list manager is especially helpful for creatives, developers, students, small businesses, and freelancers. Todoist creates tasks with due dates (even recurring due dates), organizes tasks into projects, delegates tasks, syncs to devices, and furthermore provides productivity visualizations. It even connects to Google calendar, Dropbox, and more.
  • Details: Todoist isn’t expensive, with packages ranging from $0/month up to $5/month per user.
Boomerang
  • Have you ever been overwhelmed by the emails bombarding your inbox? So you really only have time to respond to the urgent ones? Boomerang allows you to schedule emails to send at the perfect time, set up snooze messages, add a smart calendar assistant to schedule meetings, and get read receipts. Boomerang is available for Gmail, Outlook, and Mobile.
  • Details: They offer a free 14-day trial of Boomerang Professional. They do have a FREE basic plan with limited access to features as well as a few other plans ranging from $5/month to $15/month.
Communication

If your whole team is working from home, you’ll undoubtedly need a communication or knowledge sharing tool. Communication solutions today have a vast array of helpful features such as messaging, video calling, file sharing and much more to help you stay connected. Here are some of the most helpful communication platforms:

Basecamp
  • This platform offers one organized place for projects, teams, and communication. Basecamp eliminates messy email chains that let attachments consequently fall through the cracks. It allows you to create “Projects” and within each project. You have a lot of features to get work done productively: Message boards, to-dos, schedules, documents, files, group chat, and auto check-in questions. A pretty neat feature is the ability to minimize interruptions by adjusting notification settings to only receive notifications during specific times of the day. That’s a great work-life balance feature! Basecamp also has dozens of app integrations, such as Toggl.
  • Details: You can try Basecamp for FREE with a 30-day trial. They offer 2 plans – Basecamp Personal and Business. The Personal plan is free but only allows for up to 3 projects to be created. The Business plan is $99 per month and includes unlimited users, projects and clients. Learn more
Asana
  • Asana helps you build projects, coordinate tasks, and hit deadlines with your team. It features a Gantt chart timeline, portfolios, workload, forms and automation. Asana helps you visualize your work using boards that are organized into stages, lists, timelines, and calendars. Even more, you are able to assign tasks and even group tasks into sections to match workflows. Asana also provides powerful reports to help you to understand what’s happening in your business. Many well known, large businesses take advantage of Asana.
  • Details: You can try Asana for free and then decide if you want to commit to the Basic (Free with limited functionality), Premium ($11/mo), Business ($25/mo) or Enterprise version. Learn More
Krisp
  • One component of remote work that you may not have considered is background noise. Krisp removes the background noise going from you to other call participants and coming from the call participants to you, allowing everyone to have a productive call. Krisp uses the best innovative noise cancellation technology that adds an additional layer between your physical microphone and conferencing apps.
  • Details: Krisp offers four different plans. The FREE plan is great for professionals who occasionally work remotely. You can purchase the Pro plan for $5/month and Teams plan for $5/user/month. Krisp’s Enterprise plan is great for call centers and enterprises.
Microsoft Teams
  • Microsoft Teams allows you to chat, have meetings, call and collaborate with your team. It’s a great solution for remote work that you can have on all of your devices. Even more, it’s an effective way to host a demo for your potential client as you can easily share your screen over a web conference.
  • Details: Teams has a FREE plan (limited functionality) and is $5/user/month with Office 365 Business Essentials, $12.50/user/month with Office 365 Business Premium, and $20/user/month with Office 365 E3.

Working remotely can propel you into increased productivity and efficiency but it can also hinder you if you aren’t prepared to be in a completely new environment. Using tools for time management, concentration, and communication are essential to your success remotely or at home. We hope you can take advantage of some these fantastic tools to boost your productivity when working remotely.

Content Management, PowerPoint

PowerPoint Reuse Slides: How to Use, Pros and Cons

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If you create presentation slides or even manage presentations for your company, you’ve likely wanted to find a slide or graphic in an old presentation that you or a colleague has created. Reusing slides versus creating new ones helps drive productivity, promotes knowledge sharing, and aligns communication across your team. 

However, scanning through dozens of files in a variety of locations (e.g Box, email attachments, SharePoint) to finally find the slide you want to use only to copy-and-paste it into your new PowerPoint presentation is extremely frustrating. Depending on the number of presentations you have and how sharp your memory is (like you could remember the exact location of the Gantt chart you created 3 years ago), this process could waste a significant amount of time.

Thankfully, it’s no longer necessary to copy-and-paste slides from a previous presentation into the new one you’re working on. PowerPoint offers a “Reuse Slides” feature to appease this issue. 

In this article, we will evaluate the pros and cons of PowerPoint’s Reuse Slides tool, show you how to use it, and highlight a few other Microsoft features. 

PowerPoint Presentation Template

Benefits of Reusing Slides in General

It’s no secret that it’s a waste of time and energy to duplicate efforts. There are a few benefits of reusing the PowerPoint slides that you’ve already created.

Don’t Waste Your Time – Work Smarter not Harder

Reusing slides that you already took the time to create is a no-brainer. Don’t duplicate efforts. 

Align Communication Across Your Team

By using SharePoint and OneDrive you can make sure your whole team is able to access presentation slides and PowerPoint templates easily in one place. Sharing slides helps ensure your team is using a consistent voice when communicating internally and externally.

How to Use PowerPoint’s Reuse Slides Feature

  1. In PowerPoint, open the presentation you want to work on. 

2. Whatever slide you want to insert will be inserted after the slide that is selected. Click on the appropriate slide.

PowerPoint Slide selected
Since the 1st slide is selected in this example, the new slide inserted will be placed after the first slide.

3. Under the ‘Home’ tab, click the ‘New Slide’ dropdown menu

4. At the very bottom of the menu, click ‘Reuse Slides’. A new pane will open on the right-hand side

Reuse Slides button in PowerPoint

5. PowerPoint offers a basic version of Reuse Slides and an enterprise version. The basic version will only allow you to choose a file. The enterprise version will allow you to actually search for the slide you are looking for.

For the basic version,

Click ‘Browse’ and choose if you want to ‘Browse Slide Library’ or a file. If you use SharePoint and have a slide library set up, then this may be the best option to select. If you don’t use SharePoint, then you can browse the PowerPoint presentation files on your computer 

Select the PowerPoint presentation file that you want to search and click ‘Open’

Browse using Reuse Slides in PowerPoint

For the enterprise version,

Resuse Slides - Enterprise search

Search for any slide on your PC, OneDrive, or SharePoint. The Reuse Slides pane will show you a preview of the first slide in the presentation that has slides that match your search. Select the title slide for the file you want to explore further.

Note: Reuse doesn’t surface the exact slides that match your search. It only provides the first slide in the file/presentation. You have to follow the steps below to manually find the slide

6. The file that you selected will be opened within the Reuse Slides pane and will be displayed as slide previews. Click on the slide you want to insert.

Note: If you want to keep the source formatting of the slide you are inserting, check the box at the bottom that says ‘Keep Source Formatting’. Otherwise, the inserted slide will take on the formatting of your current presentation. 

7. Right-click on a slide to see more options

Ta-da! You have now utilized PowerPoint’s Reuse Slides feature and have saved a bit of time. Now Let’s take a look at the Pros and Cons of Reuse Slides. Was it really worth your time?

What are the Pros of PowerPoint Reuse Slides?

There are certainly some obvious pros of using Reuse Slides but let’s spell them out:

Search & Save Time
The enterprise version of Reuse Slides allows you to search for slides and presentations, which is much more helpful than the basic version where you have to manually browse and open a presentation.

Slide Search Connections
Reuse Slides can connect to SharePoint & One Drive so you don’t necessarily have to have the file on your computer. 

What are the Cons of PowerPoint Reuse Slides?

Not a Slide-level Search Tool
When you search for a term, let’s say “sales”, Reuse Slides will show you the title slide of the presentation file that matches the search term NOT the actual slide in the Reuse Slides pane. So you have to actually click into that file to see the slide previews and determine if it contains the “sales” slide that you were looking for. 

No Filters
You are very limited in your search by only being able to search for a term. There are no filters for date, SharePoint columns, or other metadata (e.g. author). 

It Doesn’t Always Work
Sometimes the “Browse” option on Reuse Slides will completely go away, most commonly after updates. A common search on Google is “PowerPoint reuse slides not working” – red flag alert! Microsoft moderators state that the reason people can’t select files or browse files is that you have to have Office 365 for the enterprise version of Office. A workaround “solution” is to run PowerPoint in Safe Mode.

It Only Connects to Microsoft solutions
The enterprise version of Reuse Slides only connects to solutions created by Microsoft – so that leaves you with SharePoint and OneDrive. If you don’t use either of those solutions and use Box, Egnyte, Dropbox, etc. you are out of luck if you want to use PowerPoint’s Reuse Slides.

Access Rights
On the enterprise level, Reuse Slides does not take into consideration who has access to different files which can cause difficulties in finding the slides you’re looking for.

Images
You are unable to search for images in Reuse Slides, only PowerPoint presentation slides. 

Changes to Microsoft Products

No More Slide Libraries

In 2013, Microsoft discontinued slide libraries in SharePoint due to a “Design limitation in SharePoint Server”. As a workaround to this inconvenience, Windows suggests that PowerPoint users insert slides from PowerPoint files using their Reuse Slides feature. 

Microsoft Tap feature

In 2016, Microsoft rolled out a new feature for Microsoft Word and Outlook called Tap. Tap lets users quickly select documents, presentations, and spreadsheets that are frequently used by you or your coworkers so you don’t have to leave Word or Outlook to find them. This feature is not yet available to use in PowerPoint. 

The bottom line is this: If you don’t have a ton of PowerPoint presentations on your computer or in a drive, reuse slides could be a helpful solution if you have the enterprise version. The basic version is not really a helpful tool. But in the case of large marketing and sales teams that have thousands of presentation slides, this feature may be more of a pain than it’s worth. Especially since there are other, better slide management solutions out there. 

Marketing and Sales, PowerPoint

How to update your PowerPoint master slides

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Are your corporate PowerPoint templates out-dated or just messy? Do your teams waste time formatting presentations to spruce them up before client meetings? Updating your presentations using PowerPoint’s Slide Master tool will not only ease your frustrations and save you a lot of time, but aligns your team in the process. A concise, up-to-date template also helps create uniform messaging and a common identity. In this post, we’ll explain how to update your master slides and layouts using PowerPoint’s Slide Master.

What is a Slide Master?

Microsoft describes a Slide Master as “The top slide in a hierarchy of slides that stores information about the theme and slide layouts of a presentation, including the background, color, fonts, effects, placeholder sizes, and positioning”

How to update your master slides in PowerPoint

  1. Open PowerPoint and choose the presentation you need to update

2. In the View tab, click “Slide Master”

View slide master

In this view, you’ll see the master slide at the top, with the layout slides beneath it

Slide master

3. To make changes to all layout slides, edit your master slide. For example, you can change the background, logo, fonts, and place holders

TIP: Now that your presentation is updated, make sure that it is easily accessible.

What is a slide layout?

Microsoft describes a slide layout as containing the “formatting, positioning, and placeholder boxes for all of the content that appears on a slide. Slide layouts also contain the colors, fonts, effects, and the background (collectively known as the theme) of a slide.”

Deleting & Renaming Layouts

1. To remove any layouts that you don’t need in this presentation, simply right-click the slide and select “Delete Layout”

delete layout

2. Where possible, try and maintain a layout naming convention across your masters. As layouts are shared across masters (or used with newer and older masters), if PowerPoint cannot match the layout name, a specific layout in one master will be replaced with a generic layout in another – this may not be ideal.

To name or rename a layout slide, right-click on the layout and click “Rename Layout”

rename layout

For example, you could rename your layout “Table of Contents” instead of a generic term like “Layout 1”.

Rename layout

Edit Placeholders

1. To edit the placeholders on a layout slide, click the layout you want to edit.

In the Slide Master view, click the “Insert Placeholder” dropdown arrow

Insert placeholder

You will see a variety of different placeholder types to choose from. Select the placeholder you’d like to add to your layout

placeholder options

2. Drag the mouse in the area of your slide that you want the placeholder to be. You can insert placeholder text in the box to clearly communicate what the placeholder should be used for

3. To apply the layout updates to a presentation that you are currently editing, click “Close Master View” to go back to the normal view

close master view

4. Select the slide in your presentation that needs an updated layout

5. Under the “Home” tab, click “Insert Layout” and select the layout that should be used

insert layout

The layout should be selected from the “Master” section

master layout

Once you choose the layout you want to use, click it. The slide in your presentation will be updated accordingly

By keeping your master and layout slides up-to-date, your team is more likely to abide by visual identity standards and preserve your brand’s integrity.

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