Using PowerPoint Third-Party Add-Ins

By now, you probably realize that PowerPoint has become a very powerful creative application. It has functions and tools that will fit most creators’ needs, but if your use of PowerPoint becomes intensive, you might find that some workflows could be improved to make your days more efficient. This is when you can consider using third-party add-ins. If you are part of a larger organization, make sure to check whether you can install any add-ins with your IT department. Some IT settings will block third-party installations.

There are a lot of PowerPoint add-ins available on the market – some of them are free and others need to be purchased. When I was reflecting on which add-ins I should include in this chapter, I decided to use trust and security as my criteria. If I was going to suggest some add-ins, I wanted to make sure I know the developers and that their add-ins are safe for your computers.

Therefore, all the add-ins suggested...

Technical requirements

The add-ins featured in this chapter are known to be compatible with many desktop versions of PowerPoint on Windows and macOS. I suggest that you visit the developers’ websites for more details on compatibility (see Further reading). Be aware that since the subscription version of PowerPoint is updated on an ongoing basis, it is possible that the screenshots shown in this chapter will differ from your version of the application.

BrightCarbon

BrightCarbon is a presentation and e-learning agency that was founded in the United Kingdom, with offices in Manchester, Bristol, and London in the UK, and Boston in the US. I have met Richard Goring, its director, and Jamie Garroch, its principal technical consultant, at The Presentation Summit many times – we are all trying to make a difference in our community as Microsoft MVPs specializing in PowerPoint and other M365 applications.

They have two products that help individuals, teams, and companies, which will be discussed in the following sections:

• BrightSlide is a free add-in that helps you be more productive
• BrandIn is a paid add-in that helps organizations create brand-compliant content

Using BrightSlide (for free)

This add-in was first created to help BrightCarbon designers make their design workflow more efficient, adding shortcuts and functionality users needed but that were not available in PowerPoint. With their first core value...

Neuxpower

The Neuxpower team has been building software for over 20 years now – and I have had the pleasure of knowing Mike Power, the owner, for over 16 years! His passion and specialty are helping small business owners use technology to support and enable their growth. Neuxpower has amazingly efficient file compression applications and a PowerPoint productivity add-in that we will introduce in the following sections.

Using Neuxpower’s compression tools

I remember when the biggest struggle I had with presentations, or any other Microsoft Office file for that matter, was the huge file size. The first time I used Neuxpower’s compression tool, probably 16 years ago, I was blown away by how efficient it was at reducing the file size while making sure images remained high quality enough that the audience could not see the difference.

Since then, the product has evolved into five distinct products, which you can see on the products page on their website (see...

Billion Dollar Graphics

Billion Dollar Graphics was founded by Mike Parkinson, a very talented visual communicator I have known for many years. Leveraging his 25 years of expertise, he has created how-to books, training workshops, and an amazingly useful add-in called Build-a-Graphic. It allows users to build their content using any of the thousands of graphics available within the add-in or use prebuilt graphics to speed up the process.

Using Build-a-Graphic (paid)

Build-a-Graphic is an add-in with a yearly subscription model – it also offers a PowerPoint Asset Library yearly subscription for bigger organizations. Since my target readers for this book are smaller organizations or individuals within organizations that don’t have a creative team to help them, I will focus on the add-in, but you can find all the information at the Build-a-Graphic website listed in Further reading.

You can use the Build-a-Graphic add-in in two ways:

1. Starting with your own...

PPTools

Why come back to productivity tools after discussing a design add-in? Simply because the man behind PPTools is highly respected in our industry. Steve Rindsberg has been creating PowerPoint add-ins and help articles since 1997! I made a great friend when I first met him in 2005 during a conference.

His add-in site (see Further reading for the link) has many add-ins that have been created over the years to help users with specific needs that remain unmet by the native PowerPoint features. Instead of trying to figure out which ones to include in this chapter myself, I simply asked Steve to tell me his two most popular add-ins, one free and one paid. We’ll cover the free one first in the next section.

Using THOR (free)

The THOR add-in has one simple focus: memorize the size and position of an object on a slide so you can apply it – or hammer it, as Steve would say – to one or multiple selected objects elsewhere in your presentation. As for the name...

Summary

This chapter focused on PowerPoint add-ins that can boost your efficiency either by helping you be more efficient during your content creation phase, cleaning up your presentation file and reducing its size, creating beautiful graphics in a fraction of the time, or adding valuable functions to your PowerPoint application.

If you have struggled with repetitive tasks or ever thought that you were spending way too much time on content creation, it is probably time to take a closer look at the add-ins that can help you boost your PowerPoint efficiency. I only covered a few add-ins from people I know well and a sample of their features, but there are many more add-ins available on the market for you to discover. Search for your specific needs and make sure you inquire about other users’ experiences with any new add-in or tool you might be considering.

If you would like to connect with others and discuss anything and everything about presentation design, PowerPoint,...

Further reading

• BrightCarbon add-ins: https://www.brightcarbon.com/products/
• Neuxpower add-ins: https://neuxpower.com/products
• Billion Dollar Graphics (Build-a-Graphic): https://billiondollargraphics.com/build-a-graphic/
• PPTools add-ins: http://www.pptools.com/products.htm
• The PowerPoint FAQ: https://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/
• Catharine Richardson: http://mytechgenie.ca/
• The Presentation Guild: https://presentationguild.org/