Design Corner: Using a Macro to Insert a Title

As you've seen from this chapter, macro automation can simplify repetitive tasks and help you become more productive and efficient. To find good macro targets for your presentations, think of the tasks you repeat again and again. For example, if you create a variety of presentations that include your company logo, you could create a macro that automatically enters this logo in the location you specify. In this example, Figure 20.10 shows a blank slide with the Insert Title toolbar macro available, and Figure 20.11 shows the results of running this macro. If you create a number of macros to help you automate your presentation creation, you could create a Macros menu (or toolbar) and place all your macros in one easy-to-access location.

Figure 20.10.

Figure 20.11.

To create the macro that inserts a company logo and the text "Client List" in a slide title and makes the macro available from the toolbar, follow these steps:

1. Position the cursor in the title text box of a slide in your presentation.

2. Choose Tools, Macro, Record New Macro to open the Record New Macro dialog box.

3. Enter the name and other details about your macro and click OK to start the recording process.

4. Choose Insert, Picture, From File and choose the logo. Place it over the title placeholder, and size it to fit if needed.

5. Type Client List in the title placeholder and size the placeholder so that it starts where the logo ends.

6. Choose Tools, Macro, Stop Recording.

7. Choose Tools, Customize to open the Customize dialog box; select the Commands tab.

8. Scroll down the Categories list, choose Macros, and then select the macro you want to place on the toolbar from the Commands list.

9. Drag the macro name from the Customize dialog box to the specific location on the toolbar where you want to place its associated toolbar button.

10. Click Close to exit the Customize dialog box.

Before

After