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Learn the power of Special ‘Ctrl + V’ or Paste option and get PowerPoint Tips on the 5 ways it can solve your every day issues with the software.
PowerPoint Pain area 1: Copying a table from Excel to PowerPoint slide
When you copy and paste an excel table to a PowerPoint slide, the usual result is this:
As you can see, the font sizes are very small. When you enlarge the table, the fonts don’t expand. So, you get an awkward looking table like the one you see here. You have no other choice than to manually increase the font size every time. If you use multiple tables in your presentation, this problem can really test your patience.
Solution to pasting table with proper text size:
After you copy the table from Excel, use Paste special -> paste as Enhanced Metafile or WMF as shown here:
This will ensure that the table and the fonts grow proportionately when you enlarge them, like this:
If you want to edit the numbers, you just need to right click and ‘Ungroup’ the table. You can read more on how to copy paste and animate a table in this article.
PowerPoint Pain area 2: Resizing a 3D shape
If you want to reduce the size of 3D by dragging the corners you’ll face the following issue:
The depth of the shape is retained, and doesn’t reduce or increase proportionately which makes the shape look awkward.
Solution to resizing 3D shape correctly:
Cut the shape (Select and Ctrl X) and use the Paste Special option and paste the PowerPoint shape as PNG.
Now when you resize, the shape gets resized proportionately. The same issue holds for increasing the size as well. Additionally, this ensures that when you open the file in PowerPoint 2003 or lower versions, there is no issue with 3D shapes.
PowerPoint Pain area 3: Using special fonts in file
If you use an uncommon font on your slide for effect, the impact is lost if those who read your presentation don’t have the font installed on their computer. If you use ‘embed fonts’ option, the file size increases. Sometimes it also causes issues in opening and editing the file due to ‘restricted’ fonts error.
Solution to using special fonts:
Just cut the text and paste it special as a PNG image. Now, you can be sure that your presentation will look the way you want it.
PowerPoint Pain area 4: Cropping an image
When you crop an image, sometimes certain unwanted segments remain because of the way they are positioned. See the example here:
Solution to cropping an image cleanly:
Draw a rectangle that covers the unwanted portion, fill it with white (or the same color as the image background), and remove the outline. Now, select the shape and the picture and Cut by clicking Ctrl + X. Paste it special as PNG image. The unwanted portion vanishes.
If you just group the image and the rectangle are chances that the rectangle will appear awkward when your resize the image or open it in a computer with different resolution.
Pain area 5: Large file size of images
Sometimes the images you use in the slide may be really large because of their high resolution. This really bloats the file size and makes it difficult to email.
Solution to reduce file size of images:
After you resize the photo, ‘cut’ it and paste it back as a special PNG or JPEG image. This drastically reduces the file size of your presentation without compromising the quality of your picture.
Conclusion about Special Paste Options in PowerPoint:
Many times presenters don’t realize the value of this wonderful tool called ‘Paste Special’. We hope that the above 5 PowerPoint tips help you make your business presentations more effective.
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