Mark Trickett, Archaeology Field Director at James Madison’s Montpelier, had a nice tip to ensure your formatting is preserved in your PowerPoint presentations:
Have you ever prepared presentations only to find that the careful formatting goes to hell and back when you plug in your Flash drive and fire up PowerPoint? Things can get quickly ugly, and that can bring across the wrong message or even ruin a presentation. There is, however, light at the end of the tunnel. If you knew this already then you have my apologies. If you didn’t, then you’re going to love. . . embedding fonts in the presentation.
In PowerPoint 2007
- Click the Office button (that round icon in the upper left of the screen).
- Click the PowerPoint options button.
- Click Save in the options list.
- Check the box for Embed Fonts in a File and select one of the options:
- Embed only the characters used in the presentation (smaller file size); or
- Embed all characters (for editing by others; large file size).
Remember for maximum flexibility, save in compatibility mode with 97-2003 (.ppt rather than .pptx) and you’re nigh on armoured against things going wrong since all of your template information is also saved in the file (in case you’re using the standard templates in PowerPoint). For multiple presentations, just make check to make sure that the fonts are embedded and you’re saving in the .ppt/compatibility extension.
In PowerPoint 2003
- Choose File > Save As…
- From the Tools menu at the top of the Save As dialogue box, choose Save Options and check the box to Embed True Type Fonts.
- Leave the default option to Embed all characters (best for editing by others) unless you have little room left on your computer (or Flash drive).
In PowerPoint 2000
- Choose File > Save As
- From the Tools menu at the top of the Save As dialogue box, chose Embed True Type Fonts.
Remember, this works only for a single presentation. You have to make sure that the options are changed for each presentation prepared in this fashion.
