» Creating Web 2.0 Style Objects in Excel and PowerPoint 2003Jumbabox

After playing around with Excel and PowerPoint 2007, I was very impressed at the way you can format your objects to look very Web 2.0ish, but as I use 2003 at work a lot I wanted to see if I could replicate this.

Here is a quick tutorial on how to change your objects in an Excel 2003 worksheet or PowerPoint 2003 presentation into Web 2.0 style objects.

The Basics

Before I move onto the tips I want to show the main area within PowerPoint or Excel which allows us to do the ‘advanced’ techniques to produce a Web 2.0 presentation.

This post only looks at using PowerPoint you are able to replicate all these methods within Excel as well!

This area is known as the Format AutoShape area, you can get to this area by right clicking on any object and selecting the Format AutoShape… option or double clicking your object.

Under the Format AutoShape dialog box I only use two areas: Fill and Line.

Under the Fill area I use the Fill Effects… option.

Under the Fill Effects… dialog box I only use the Gradient tab.

The other option I find handy is the More Colors… option (Under the More Colors… option your choose to either use preset colors or custom colors).

I also use the handy Transparency slide bar.

For the Line area I only use the Color, Dashed, Style and Weight options.

Now you know how to get to the main options to transform a worksheet or presentation into a Web 2.0 presentation - lets get designing!

Excel and PowerPoint objects into Web 2.0 marvels

There are a couple things I notice the most with Web 2.0 objects, I will apply these ’standards’ to objects available in PowerPoint:

The Gradient
Thick Outlines
Bright Colors

Example - Creating a Web 2.0 Header Bar

In this example I’m going to create a standard header bar for my PowerPoint presentation. To get started click on the AutoShape option found on the Drawing toolbar, then click the Basic Shapes > Rounded Rectangle option.

Create a rounded rectangle at the top of your blank slide.

Now, open up the Format AutoShape menu by either right clicking on the rounded rectangle or double clicking on it.

Within the Format Autoshape menu click on the color drop down box and select the More Colors… option.

From the Colors dialog box, I selected the Custom tab and then selected a deep blue color for the background of my header bar.

After closing done the Colors dialog box I then selected the Fill Effects… option.

I then setup my Fill Effects menu with the following options:

Colors
- One Color
- Moved the slide bar towards the light area
Shading styles : Diagonal up
Variants : Light to Dark (Left hand corner to right hand corner)

After clicking the OK button from the Fill Effects menu I’m brought back to the Format AutoShape dialog box, from here I set the Transparency to 64%.

To finish off the header I will change the color of the Line to a silver/light grey color and set the weight to 4 pt.

After clicking OK you can now see your ugly PowerPoint header is now Web 2.0 grade!

Lets have one more look at them side by side.

The great thing about this method is that you can apply it to all objects available in PowerPoint or Excel. By no means do you have to follow the above method exactly, play around with the transparency, gradient colors and variants to get your desired look.

Jumbabox