In every one of my trainings, I ask the attendees to let me know if there is anything they find themselves doing in PowerPoint that they feel takes too long or is harder than they feel it should be. I implore them—even if they’ve been doing something for years—to ask me if there is a better way, because I will either a) show them a hidden feature or shortcut or b) reassure them that they’re not missing anything that others know. More often than not, I am able to save them time by pointing out that you can double-click the format painter to “load it up” or change an entire pageful of circles to squares with one click by using “change shapes.”
Many of these time-saving tricks are simply little-known features or workflows within PowerPoint, but there are times that Microsoft does not simply does not step up to the plate. Enter the world of PowerPoint add-ins.
Many don’t know that PowerPoint supports 3rd party add-ins and tools that in some cases can dramatically improve functionality and efficiency. These range from single-purpose add-ins distributed for free to complex sets of macros and tools created for corporate client environments.
One of the most robust commercial add-ins is pptXTREME which recently received an update for PowerPoint 2016. I have used pptXtreme over the years in my workflows, although haven’t been able to take full advantage of it as I spend most of my time on the Mac these days. (Currently, it is offered only for the PC platform.) But I spent some time with new version recently and can report that in the right situations, it is still an incredible time-saver.
pptXTREME is actually a suite of six different add-ins with each one further having multiple distinct features. You can purchase the add-ins individually or in various bundles and for varying numbers of users. For a single user, prices range from $20 all the way up to close to $400 for a premium package. It can get expensive as the entire Office 365 Suite itself can be had for under $100 (for a 1-year subscription.) But as with any software add-in, if it saves you 20 hours a month, do the math and decide what the cost of your time is.
So, let’s look at each add-in that I tested in Windows 8.1 on a Parallels install on my iMac:
INSTALLATION
After downloading the installer for your particular add-in or bundle, pptXTREME will walk you through a mostly painless installation process which will ultimately leave you with a new PowerPoint tab containing all the add-ins clearly separated. You’ll also get an additional Quick Access Toolbar-like version so each add-in will be available at all times.
PHOTOSHOP IMPORT
This the wonkiest of the add-ins, but if you are a designer that has a workflow of designing slide elements in Photoshop and inserting those into PowerPoint, this one is for you. It allows you import layers from Photoshop to individual spaces in PowerPoint and similarly export shapes and slides back out to a layered Photoshop file. You can tell the add-in to insert images at a specified DPI as well, so you can maintain hi-res Photoshop masters. The pitfall here is that PowerPoint needs to literally connect with Photoshop, and so you will need a compatible Photoshop install on your computer. Unfortunately for me, my Photoshop work is done on my Mac; lacking a PC Photoshop install, I was unable to test this particular add-in.
IMPORT/EXPORT
Consisting of about 11 features, this one picks up some of PowerPoint’s slack when it comes to importing and exporting images. Although I don’t generally recommend it, if you regularly insert images as full-slide backgrounds, you can now do so with a single click with BKG Picture. Import Pictures picks up where PowerPoint’s “Insert: Photo Album” leaves off. Not only can you turn a folder of hundreds of images into a full-bleed slideshow, but you can also specify those images to be placed into master placeholders with fitting options. The most important option that Export Slides gives you over PowerPoints Save as Images feature is the ability to set specific resolution of the images. This used to be possible in older versions of PowerPoint, but has unfortunately been removed. Update Selected Picture(s) and Replace Selected Pictures(s) are souped up versions of PowerPoint’s Change Picture feature that allow you to update and swap non-linked images while retaining proportions and fitting, although I wasn’t able to get the Update feature to work, possibly owing to a Parallels path issue.
COLORPICKER
PPT 2013 finally brought a color eye dropper option tool the program (after many years of requests), but ColorPicker is a quick tool for selecting a shape or text box and applying any sampled color to the fill, outline, shadow or text color. You can also quickly set the background color of a slide in the same way. One nice extra with this is the you can sample a color from a different slide via the thumbnail pane, while PowerPoint’s eye dropper limits you to current slide content. ColorPicker also gives you RGB and web values as you hover around. What ColorPicker doesn’t do for you—which would be oh so nice—is to set theme color palettes based on sampling. Oh, well, can’t have everything.
EFFECTS LIBRARY
As I’ve gotten older, I have found myself using animation less and less in presentations, but there is still a place for effective and involved animation in PowerPoint. Those who are heavy animators know the power of layered animations to create unique effects. For example, instead of just flying in an object in, one can add a fade and a grow simultaneously to create a more dynamic effect. PowerPoint’s animation painter makes it easy to paste these bespoke animations from one item to another, but EffectsLibrary allows you to now save and apply custom layered animation in a library. But this new side panel also gives you some ready-to-wear layered animations to get you started such as “Zoom Out Slightly + Dissolve” and “Bulge In.” The Library comes with pre-defined categories, but you can create your own, add and delete all effects. You can even export and import animation libraries so you can share between computers and archive your animation work.
EDIT
These two separate add-ins are a collection of assorted tools—some decidedly more helpful than others. Perhaps the most useful (and the one I used most often back in the day) is Size/Position which allows you to pick up the dimensions and placement on a slide of any element and then apply to another element. For example, let’s say you have a rogue (non-mastered) call out text box on a number on 20 of your 50-slide text. In the course of editing, these text boxes have gotten moved all over and now you want all to be precisely the same size and in the same place so they don’t jump around in slideshow mode. Instead of painstakingly setting x-y coordinates or setting guidelines to snap to, just pick up the position from one box and apply it to all others slide by slide. I used to use this all the time to “reset” headers and master elements to their proper positions when I didn’t want to reset the entire slide layout. Size/Position/Formatting does the same thing, but adds object formatting as well. Pickup Animation is an animation eyedropper that works similarly to PowerPoint’s Animation Painter, but allows you to keep an animation on the clipboard until you need it. Character Spacing and Line Spacing do what you think they do, but with a much subtler and easier hand. Full Frame instantly sets a selected image or shape to fill the slide—either proportionally or not. PowerPoint’s Grayscale view is one of those little-known features hardly anyone uses, but if you do a lot of grayscale printing, it’s an incredibly powerful tool for setting just how PowerPoint will translate specific color items into grayscale when you hit “print.” Grayscale Editor amps these options up providing a great deal more control over individual and overall file settings.
MORE EDIT
This is a collection of a half dozen small and more esoteric features that will save out selected slides into a new file, set a rogue text box as the header, apply a watermark to hidden slides, insert a text box note or incrementally change an object’s transparency. The only one I could see myself using regularly is the Match Sizes (either width or height) of selected objects. This add-in should probably have gotten rolled into an updated EDIT package.
