pptXTREME Add-ins for PowerPoint: Conversation with Keith Tromer

Keith Tromer is the Founder and President of Corporate Imaging, Inc. since 1989. Mr. Tromer's strategic vision for Corporate Imaging, Inc. focuses on three fundamental aspects: generating the best creative content possible; fostering innovation; and utilizing the latest technologies.

In this interview, Keith discusses PowerPoint add-ins from pptXTREME.

Geetesh: Can you tell us about the pptXTREME suite of PowerPoint add-ins, how these add-ins provide extra abilities to PowerPoint users?

Keith: The pptXTREME Suite of Add-ins for PowerPoint are created by graphic design professionals for graphic design professionals. The suite's ease of use and time-saving features are unmatched in the industry. From many simple 'click-saver' functions in pptXTREME Edit and moreEdit to full round trip importing and exporting between PowerPoint and Adobe Photoshop.

The pptXTREME Suite consists of 6 separate products that are packaged together in a single easy-to-use installer. The products are Photoshop Import, Effects Library, Import/Export, moreEdit, Edit, and ColorPicker. All products are compatible with the latest software, Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2016, Windows 10 and Photoshop CC2015 and are compatible with both 32 and 64 bit.

Geetesh: If you had to compare your products, that could a difficult proposition. Could you share some users' perspectives, and explain your point of view?

Keith: For me, I would easily start with Photoshop Import. As a designer, I do a lot of my design work in Photoshop. The ability to import layered elements from Photoshop in an automated fashion, very quickly and then animate in PowerPoint is indispensable. It means that I am able to use Photoshop more often, as the time it takes to create, integrate, and make changes is actually faster than if I try to create the same elements in PowerPoint natively. The addition of the toPhotoshop commands have equally sped up our productivity. Now, in addition to imported layers from Photoshop, with one click I can send a slide or all of my selected shapes directly to Photoshop layers. Now I can edit and replace those elements, or just use them as a template to create new elements that match.

See a quick demo of Photoshop Import here:

Watch the Photoshop Import Full Tutorial here:

Now what if I could only have one toolset from Edit and moreEdit -- then which would it be?

That's a more difficult question. There are a lot of timesaving features in there. Depending on the type of project I am working on, the answer would change. For example, makeHeader and makeBody in moreEdit. These tools take clients' slides that were created without a template and automate a process that takes a long time… making all the text follow a master placeholder and automatically removing extra lines and spaces. But, I don't need this on every job. It's not that often when I get handed a deck that is like this – but when I do – it literally saves days, not hours!

I would have to say the toolsets I use most often are a combination of Edit and moreEdit. I use the alignment tools: Pickup, Apply Size, Position, and Format in Edit. While also using matchHeight and matchWidth in moreEdit. They don't really allow me to create anything I wouldn’t be able to do otherwise, but it really makes it easy to match and align formats for a more consistently designed presentation. Honestly, as I answer this I want to talk about all the tools in there. I feel like I would be a very unhappy designer if you took any of them away from me.

Another question I am asked often relates to PowerPoint now having a built-in ColorPicker. I'm asked to explain why I did not remove the ColorPicker product from our 2015 releases?

After polling a handful of users, I have found that users prefer to use pptXTREME ColorPicker rather than the eyedropper built-in. There were three common reasons to all responses.

1. The ability to pick a color from anywhere on your desktop, including other slides in the sorter pane.
2. The fact that pptXTREME ColorPicker puts the Hex value in my clipboard – allowing easily pasting into other graphics applications.
3. The tools residing on the pptX Shortcut bar is more convenient.

Finally, I always have a hard time choosing which specific features of our products to talk about. They all add so much and mentioning one (or some) does not even hint to other tools and their benefits. Please visit our website to see all the products and benefits at www.pptXTREME.com. View all demos and tutorials at www.vimeo.com/pptXTREME.

See Also: pptXTREME Import/Export and Edit

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