Random PowerPoint Timesavers: Part 2

Earlier this year, I polled a group of five professional women about their use of PowerPoint. A scientist, a college professor, and a corporate trainer were just a few of their vastly different professions. Each of them used PowerPoint for a slightly different reason but they all shared a similar struggle.

“I don’t have time to learn about PowerPoint. I only use it when I have to because it takes too long to figure things out.”

I like to call this a classic catch-22.

This seems to be the case for many PowerPoint users, though. Time is in short supply and trying to Google how to do something that saves you time is kind of a pointless game. So here I am sharing another installment of Random PowerPoint Timesavers with 3 completely unrelated tips that just might get you off to lunch a few minutes earlier.

Take Advantage of Autocorrect Options

Ever notice how PowerPoint will automatically fix common spelling errors like leaving the apostrophe out of “wouldn’t” or spelling “Wednesday” without the “d”? These handy little fixes are thanks to the built-in autocorrect library in PowerPoint. Well, it’s time to put that library to work with your own personal phrases. Repeated phrases, department titles, and even full names can be added to your library so that all you have to do is type an acronym of your choosing and PowerPoint will take care of the rest!

You’ll find the option to edit your autocorrect library under File, Options, and Proofing. Simply click Autocorrect Options and type in your new time-saving phrases!

Quickly Align Slide Contents

After years of using PowerPoint, I was tired of straining my eyes to see those tiny red guidelines that tell you if the items on your slide are lined up properly. Have you ever repositioned an image on a slide only to realize later that it is centered over some arbitrary point (like a text box) but not centered on the slide itself? Talk about frustrating!

Now, you can use the Align tool to let PowerPoint take care of aligning your slide contents so that it’s right every time. Simply select the item (or items) you want to align and click on the Align option in the toolbar. You can choose to align your items on the slide itself or in relation to other selected items. Check Align Selected Objects and Align Middle to line up a group of items according to their center points. Then, use Align to Slide and Distribute Horizontally to align your items across the center of the slide.

You might also like: How to Add Notes to PowerPoint & Increase Efficiency

Save Your Chart Settings as a Template

Customizing charts is a great way to highlight important data and create a custom aesthetic but can be a major time-sucker if you have to do this for multiple tables in one presentation. Saving your chart settings as a template means that you can easily apply those same settings to other charts whether they already exist in your presentation or you create a new one.

Check out these timesavers in action!

Conclusion

I hope you found these random PowerPoint timesavers to be useful and, perhaps, unexpected. Have questions on how to implement these or other features? Feel free to send me a message! Find me @whitneydwalter on all social platforms.

Looking for the first installment of this series? Check it out here: Random PowerPoint Timesavers: Part 1

You might also like: Boost Your Efficiency: How to Track Changes in PowerPoint

 

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