Section 13.2. Customizing How PowerPoint Behaves

13.2. Customizing How PowerPoint Behaves

PowerPoint makes a lot of basic assumptions about the way you work: how often you want to save a back-up copy of your presentation (in case your computer crashes), which security measures you want to put in place with regard to the macros and add-ins it runs, how picky you want it to be on a spell-check, and so on. You can live with PowerPoint's assumptions (most folks do). But you can work more efficiently by telling PowerPoint how you want it to do things.

13.2.1. Open All Documents in a Certain View

Normally, when you open a file in PowerPoint 2007, the document appears in Normal view with thumbnails showing in the Slides pane at left, the selected slide in the slide editing area, and the notes pane below that.

If that's not how you prefer to work with your presentations, though, you can tell PowerPoint to open all of your documents automatically in another view. For example, if you never use PowerPoint's speaker notes feature, you can tell PowerPoint not to show the Notes pane (and so buy yourself a little extra screen real estate). Or, if you know you always want to work with your presentations first as a collection of sortable thumbnails, you can tell PowerPoint to open all of your documents in Slide Sorter view.

To tell PowerPoint which view you want to open your documents in:

Choose Office button PowerPoint Options Advanced.

The PowerPoint Options dialog box displays advanced options you can set.
Scroll down to the Display section of the page.
From the "Open all documents using this view" drop-down menu, choose a view option. (See Figure 13-15 for a complete list.)

Figure 13-15. In Normal view, PowerPoint includes the slide editing area, since folks normally spend most of their time there.

13.2.2. Saving Files: How, Where, and How Often

You can tell PowerPoint which file format and folder location you want it to assume you save your documents in. For example, you can tell it to assume you want to save all of your files as presentation files that can play macros (.ppmx) in a folder named C:\Acme\Marketing\2006_regional_presentations .

When you save a presentation, PowerPoint fills in this basic information for you in the Save As dialog box. When you save, you can always override either of these settings and choose a different file type or location.

To tell PowerPoint which file type and location you want it to fill in for you:

Choose Office button PowerPoint Options Save.

The file-saving and collaboration options shown in Figure 13-16 appear.
In the "Save presentations" section of the page, go to the "Save files in this format" drop-down menu and choose the file type you want.

Your choices include PowerPoint Presentation, PowerPoint Macro-Enabled Presentation, and PowerPoint Presentation 972003.
In the "Default save location" box, type the full file path of the folder you want PowerPoint to surf to automatically when you go to save a file.

For example, C:\Acme\Marketing\2006_regional_presentations .
When you finish, click OK.

You can also tell PowerPoint how often to save a fallback or autorecover copy of the file you're working on. Doing so can save your hide if, for example, the power in your building tends to go out a lot. On the other hand, don't be tempted to tell PowerPoint to save an autorecover copy of your file every two seconds, since saving slows down PowerPoint for those few seconds during the save. For most folks, saving every 5 or 10 minutes is a good balance between paranoia and recklessness.

Warning: The autorecover copy PowerPoint creates for you isn't the same thing as a traditional backup file. If something happens to your computeran electricity spike or a kicked-out cord that turns off your computer unexpectedly, for examplePowerPoint uses the autorecover copy to try to reconstruct your file the next time you run the program. Autorecover copies are extremely useful, but they're not a substitute for diligently backing up your files.

Here's how to set it up:

Choose Office button PowerPoint Options.

The PowerPoint Options dialog box appears.

Click the Save category.

The file-saving and collaboration settings shown in Figure 13-16 appear.

Figure 13-16. Although most of the settings you see here have to do with collaboration (using Microsoft's SharePoint Server), two really useful settings affect how often PowerPoint backs up your files, and whether it embeds font information or links to it (see page 405).

Make sure the "Save AutoRecover Information Every _ _ Minutes" checkbox is turned on.

If it's not, turn it on and then fill in the box to tell PowerPoint how often you want it to save an autorecover copy of the files you currently have open.
When you finish, click OK.

13.2.3. Printing

If you often print your presentations, you can save a bundle of time by associating a laundry list of your favorite printing options with a handful of files. For example, you may prefer to print in color rather than black-and-white, print hidden slides (page 269) rather than leave them out, print little borders each slide, and so on.

After you set PowerPoint print options, when it comes time to print your presentations, you find your favorite options pre-filled in the Print dialog box for you. Simply click Print and wait for your printer to fire up. You can always adjust these print options on a presentation-by-presentation basis in the Print dialog box. To set printing options, choose Office button PowerPoint Options Advanced and scroll down to the Print section (Figure 13-17).

Figure 13-17. PowerPoint lets you specify different print settings for different documents. To do so, head to the "When printing this document" drop-down menu and choose a document. Then, turn on the "Use the following print settings" radio button and set the "Print what," "Color/grayscale," "Print hidden slides," "Scale to fit paper," and "Frame slides" options. (Chapter 8 covers all of these in detail.)

13.2.4. Optimizing PowerPoint Files

Optimization, or keeping PowerPoint file size as low as possible, is important if you intend to deliver your presentation over the Web. Two options that help you optimize PowerPoint files involve fonts and sounds. To keep file size down, you can link to them as external files, rather than storing them in the PowerPoint file itself.

13.2.4.1. Embedding as few fonts (and characters ) as possible

Embedding fonts ensures that your presentation looks the same on the presenter's computer as it does on yoursregardless of the fonts that happen to be installed on the presenter's computer. Embedding all of the characters of any given font ensures that, no matter what computer you move your PowerPoint file to, you can edit presentation text. But if you're finished with your presentation, choosing to embed only those characters that actually appear in your presentation cuts down on file size.

To embed only those characters used in the presentation, choose Office button PowerPoint Options Save (Figure 13-18). In the PowerPoint Options dialog box, turn on the "Embed fonts in the file checkbox, and then turn on the radio button next to the newly activated "Embed only the characters used in the presentation (best for reducing file size)." When you finish, click OK.

Warning: Embedded fonts can be a problem for presentations running on Macs.

13.2.4.2. Linking to sounds (as opposed to embedding them)

Because embedding sound files bloats presentation file size, consider linking to any sound files you've added to your slides. Just make sure to keep the sound files with your presentation file when you move the presentation to another computer or upload it to a Web server, the way you do with any linked files.

Note: PowerPoint only embeds .wav sound files. It automatically links to all other sound file types. So unless you're working with .wav sound files (or aren't sure what type of sound files you added to your slides), you can safely skip this section.

To tell PowerPoint to link to sound files, go to Office button PowerPoint Options Advanced and head down to the Save section (Figure 13-18). In the "Link sounds with file size greater than _ _ KB box, enter a number for the maximum file size you want to come along for the ride. For example, a file size of 1 KB tells PowerPoint to link virtually all sound files, which is a good strategy if you're trying to keep your presentation file size as low as possible.

Figure 13-18. In the Advanced settings, PowerPoint lets you customize a ton of options. But if you're like most folks, the only ones you care about are the ones that affect printing (page 404) and file size. Check out Web Settings if you plan to deliver your presentation over the Web.

13.2.5. Security

Some PowerPoint files contain non-Microsoft-created programs like add-ins, macros, and ActiveX components . Because some of these programs may contain viruses that could potentially wipe your hard drive (or otherwise cause grief ), all Microsoft Office programs, including PowerPoint, let you specify whether you want to run programs from trusted publishers or programs from trusted locations , among other options. In most cases, you tell PowerPoint which publishers and locations to trust by accepting or rejecting the digital certificate that appears when PowerPoint encounters a macro, add-in, or ActiveX component.

Still, if you're more conservative than most, or if you want to fine-tune security regarding a certain type of program you expect to run into often (if you're one of those folks who always have the latest-and-greatest PowerPoint add-in) you'll want to fine-tune the security settings Office offers.

Note: Judge trusted publishers and locations the same way you judge the stores you do business with. If the company (program publisher) doesn't have a good reputation, has no reputation, or if you've had bad luck with it in the past, you probably can't trust it.

To set security options for all your Office programs, choose Office button PowerPoint Options Trust Center Trust Center Settings and then, from the left side of the Trust Center dialog box, choose a category. You see the categories youre most likely to want to tweakTrusted Locations, Add-ins, and ActiveX Settingsin Figures 13-19, 13-20, and 13-21.

Figure 13-19. Most of the time, you won't need to mess with these settings. Instead, when PowerPoint opens a file containing a program, it'll pop up a message asking if you want to proceed, and you can tell it yes or no depending on the program- related information it gives you. If you're a developer-type, though, you can use these settings to add a trusted location if, for example, you'll be running a lot of programs you placed in a single folder somewhere on the network.

Figure 13-20. If you're serious about security (and if you intend to install and download any add-ins), this dialog box offers a setting you definitely want to turn on: "Require Application Add-ins to be Signed by Trusted Publisher." (Find out more about add-ins on page 414.)

Figure 13-21. Out of the box, Office programs (including PowerPoint) assign a reasonably safe setting for ActiveX components (programs that can potentially damage your Windows operating system). If you'd rather err on the side of being too conservative, turn on the "Disable all controls without notification" checkbox (These programs are coming from untrusted locations, after all.)

13.2.6. Editing and Proofing

As you saw back in Chapter 2, PowerPoint can help you edit, spell check, and proofread the text on your slides. But to get the most out of PowerPoint's editing and proofing help, you need to set a few options.

See Figures 13-22 and 13-23 for details.

Figure 13-22. This dialog box, which you display by choosing Office button PowerPoint Options Advanced, lets you control the way PowerPoint lets you select, drag-and-drop, and paste text. It also lets you tell PowerPoint how many changes youd like to be able to undo.

Figure 13-23. Top: Choose Office button PowerPoint Options Proofing to set the spelling options shown here. (See page 60 for the skinny on spelling options.)
Bottom: Clicking AutoCorrect Options pops up the AutoCorrect dialog box. Here you can tell PowerPoint how you want it to fix capitalization and spelling goofs, and choose the punctuation and formatting that PowerPoint applies as you type.

13.2.7. Displaying the Clipboard

All Microsoft Office programs, including PowerPoint, use the Office Clipboard to store cut and copied information (for later pasting). You can tell PowerPoint when and if you want to see the Clipboard pane. Go to Home Clipboard and click the dialog box launcher. When the Clipboard pane appears, click Options and choose one of the settings described in Figure 13-24.

Figure 13-24. Selecting one of the top two options tells PowerPoint when you want the Clipboard to show its face: after every cut-and-paste operation, or only when you summon it. Technically, the taskbar isn't part of PowerPoint at all. It's the skinny strip of Windows real estate just below PowerPoint's window.

13.2.8. Choosing a Standard Chart Type

If you consistently create a certain type of charta pie chart, for exampleyou can save a couple of mouse clicks by setting it as your standard chart type. Doing so doesn't mean you can't create other types of charts , just that PowerPoint assumes you want a pie chart (page 174) until you tell it different.

To set a standard chart type, choose Insert Illustrations Chart. When the Create Chart dialog box appears, select the chart you want to set as a standard chart. Thenand this is the important stepclick "Set as Default Chart." When you finish, click OK.