PowerPoint has a lot of functionality, but sometimes you need a tool that isn’t there. That’s when add-ins come into play. An add-in is a program that runs in PowerPoint. Often, an add-in will provide a completely new service, such as a photo library or a multiple-choice quiz. The add-in I want to tell you about provides over 85 productivity tools that are so useful you’ll wonder how you ever created slides without it!
Introducing ToolsToo
ToolsToo is an amazing add-in from developer Gil Segal. ToolsToo automates a number of mundane tasks while adding new functionality to PowerPoint that you never knew you needed. At the present time, this add-in is available only for the PC version of PowerPoint (Sorry, Mac users!).
There are three settings, based on how many tools you want to see at once, Beginner, Intermediate and Expert. (Apologies to people viewing this on mobile devices; these screen shots are wide.)
Beginner
Intermediate
Expert
Personally, I prefer to leave it on the Expert setting so I can see all of the available tools. Once you figure out which tools you go to all the time, it’s pretty easy to pick them out of the lineup. And having all of the tools visible encourages me to learn more about what ToolsToo can do.
Reference Shapes: A basic premise in ToolsToo
Something that takes a little getting used to is the concept of reference shapes. For example, if you select four objects then want to align them, you need to tell ToolsToo what you want everything to be aligned to. There are four choices:
- First Shape: The first object you select
- Picked Up Shape: An object you designate as the reference shape
- Presentation Space: Based on a setting you make in the Master
- Slide
The comprehensive User Guide goes into greater detail on how reference shapes are used in ToolsToo, but it’s important to note that you need to be aware of which shape ToolsToo is using as a reference every time you apply a command. With practice, it becomes very easy to switch among the four kinds of reference shapes.
Some of my favorite tools
Extract Notes
With a single click, this tool copies all of your Speaker Notes and puts them into a Word file. The notes from each slide appear on a separate page, but you can quickly consolidate these by removing the page breaks. Imagine how long it would take to extract all of the Speaker Notes by cutting and pasting them one slide at a time! No thanks.
Align Center and Middle
Align objects center and middle to the Reference Shape with one click. Boom.
Set Pick Up Reference Shape
Making sure that objects are in the same position and are the same size across slides is a real drag. Rather than painstakingly nudging things up against guides and ensuring that the measurements are all the same, you just click this tool to select the reference shape, then go to each slide and make your one-click adjustments using ToolsToo.
Add to Group
Have you ever animated a group of objects only to find out you need to add one more object to the group? What a pain it is to learn that when you ungroup the object, the animations go away. Not anymore! Just select the group and the new object, then click Add to Group. The object is added to the group and the animation is unharmed.
Shut up and take my money!
At a paltry $19.99, even if you only use a couple of the tools it’s a bargain at twice the price. You can try it out for free for 30 days if you not ready to put cash on the barrel head right away. The support is top-notch and Mr. Segal issues updates regularly to keep ToolsToo compatible with the latest PowerPoint updates. Give ToolsToo a try; you won’t be disappointed!