PresenterMedia Blog

Some PowerPoint 2007  users may be having a problem playing videos embedded using PowerPoint 2010.  This can affect our animated PowerPoint templates used with PowerPoint 2007.

Our animated templates require that you have an updated installation of Office 2007.  Periodically Microsoft has released updates and patches for Office 2007.  These updates are free from Microsoft and can be accessed through “Windows Update”  on your computer.

Use Windows Update to Update PowerPoint 2007

We recommend that you install all updates suggested for Microsoft Office 2007 by using Windows Update.  But specifically, a PowerPoint 2007 user needs to make sure they have installed “The 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 2.”   This service pack can be downloaded here: 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 2

Update PowerPoint 2007 to play PowerPoint 2010 video

Installing this Office 2007 update brings your version of PowerPoint 2007 up to speed and allows it to play the embedded video that is contained in our animated templates.

View all our animated templates for PowerPoint here.

Problems with Video Playback in PowerPoint 2007

It has also been brought to our attention that if you do not have the most recent version of Windows Media Player, you may experience poor video playback in PowerPoint 2007.  This typically looks like green streaks running through the video animation in our templates.

Since our animated templates are created in PowerPoint 2010 and then made backward compatible with PowerPoint 2007, the newest version of Windows Media Player is required.  This is Media Player 11 for Windows XP and Media Player 12 for Vista and Windows 7 users.

If you are experiencing this problem, simply run Windows Media Player and then check for updates from the help menu.

This is Part 1 of a series about building PowerPoint Templates.

Creating a Custom Color Theme in PowerPoint

A great template for PowerPoint can make building a presentation so much easier and quicker.  I thought I would explain the steps I go through in building templates for PresenterMedia.   In this tutorial I will explain the method for creating a custom color theme in PowerPoint.  I am going to be using the newest version of PowerPoint 2010, but the steps are virtually the same for PowerPoint 2007.

While creating a color theme or palette is easy, choosing good colors to use can be difficult.   So I am going to start with explaining how I choose colors to use in my templates.  If I’m working for a client I typically try to start with a color in the the clients logo or other reference material the customer provided.

Lets take this sample logo for example.

Sample logo to use in a PowerPoint Template

I am going to build a color palette around the bright blue rings.  In choosing colors for a presentation I like to choose a variety of neighboring and complementary colors to the main color I have chosen.  I have a couple of favorite sites I use to generate complementary colors for my templates.  A great tool is the Color Scheme Chooser at Websitetips.com.

I opened the logo in PhotoShop and determined the RGB value of the rings was 0 112 255.  Using the online color generator I was given these complementary colors related to main color.

Screen Shot of on-line Color Chooser

Now that I have a good selection of colors to choose from, I go to PowerPoint and create a custom color theme.  Under the “Design” tab on the ribbon, choose “Colors > Create New Theme Colors”

Create a Custom Color Theme

This opens up the various customizable colors the presentation will use for everything from your text to background colors to the colors used in your charts and graphs.  From the list of colors I generated, I will choose the colors to use as my accent colors and as my Text/Background – Light/Dark 2.  I typically leave the first two settings alone as you almost always want a black and white setting.

Custom Color Panel in PowerPoint

Once you have filled in the color values for the various accent colors, give your new theme a name and click save.

There you have it, you’ve created a custom color theme that you can use for your template or any other presentation you may make.  This is especially helpful if you have a set of corporate colors you need to use for business communications.  Once you’ve created the color theme for your company you can use it over and over again.

Here is a sample of the color theme I created:

Sample slide using custom colors.

I will continue this series of tutorials on building PowerPoint templates by discussing how to set up your slide master and page layouts.

Good Presenting!

Art Holden
Check out the templates for PowerPoint I’ve created here.