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When you use a unique font that is not a standard Windows or Office font, you risk suffering with the possible effects of font substitution occurring when your file is opened on another system.  When font substitution takes place, the look of your presentation can change considerably.  Parts of the text can become misaligned, text wrapping points may change, and special characters can turn into meaningless rectangles.  To prevent font substitution from happening, you can try embedding the fonts to make sure the document looks the same on other computers.  As a result, you minimize the risk of the fonts, layout, and styling of the presentation changing.   Without using the embed feature, you may feel your only choice is to rely on sharing your file in only in pdf format because pdfs allow you lock down the look of the document.   But pdfs suffer from the disadvantage of not allowing full editing rights and not being able to play your animations.

How do I embed a font in PowerPoint?

To turn on embedding you need to activate that option.  Keep in mind that the file size will increase typically by several megabytes for each font embedded.

1. Click on File tab and then select Options.
2. Select the Save category on the left hand side.
3. At the very bottom of the list of options on the right pane and under the heading Preserve fidelity when sharing this presentation, check the box labeled Embed fonts in the file.
4. Then click OK.

Are all fonts embeddable in PowerPoint?

No, please be aware of 2 very important features of a font that can limit your ability to embed it.

1. The font should be a TrueType (.TTF). Many Postscript/Type 1 and OpenType fonts do not support embedding.
2. Your licensing of the font must allow it to be embedded.

Font designers often will restrict the ability of a font to be embedded. This prevents unlicensed use of the font.  Generally, if the font is purchased at a higher price point, the ability to have PowerPoint embeddability is unlocked.

Fonts can be purchased with 1 of 4 levels of embeddability:

• Non-embeddable
• Preview/Print
• Editable
• Installable

The levels of Editable and Installable allow the font characters to be embedded in PowerPoint.

To check what rights you have to a font: go to Control Panel in Windows and click Fonts. Clicking on the font shows the Font embeddability.

In the picture above, the Mickey Ears Regular font is  shown as being Installable   Therefore, this font can be embedded in PowerPoint and Word.

For more information, check out Microsoft’s Font Redistribution FAQ document.

How do I check if embedding the font truly worked?

Unfortunately, you cannot tell directly from within PowerPoint.  Be aware that just looking at the font named in the Font box does not help, because it will always show the name of the original font even if the system has no access to that font. The only way to way to investigate if the embedding truly worked is to use a workaround.

The only way to way to investigate if the embedding truly worked is by using a workaround through exporting the presentation as a pdf. For the workaround, you should launch your PowerPoint presentation from a computer that does not have the font(s) installed and save it as a pdf.  Then compare the fonts listed in the pdf by Adobe Acrobat Reader or Adobe Acrobat to those listed in PowerPoint.

The complete steps to do the workaround are:

1. Save your PowerPoint at a pdf by:
   • Click on the File tab nd then select the Export category on the left hand side.
   • Click on Create PDF/XPS.
   • Give a file name for your presentation, then click Publish in the lower right corner.
2. Check the listing of the fonts in the pdf file by:
   • Open the pdf in Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat program.
   • Press Control + D together to open the Document Properties window.
   • Select the Font tab and you will see the list of fonts.
3. Check the listing of fonts in PowerPoint through the Replace Fonts window by:

   

   • On the Home tab, going to the editing group and selecting the drop down next to Replace.
   • Click on Replace Fonts.

Below is an example showing the two listing of fonts side by side. .  By comparing the lists, you can see the Proxima Nova font is substituted in PowerPoint since it is not listed in the Adobe pdf list of fonts.

If I do not have rights to embed a font, how can I control the font substitution that occurs when I open my presentation on another computer where the custom font is not installed?

Unfortunately, with PowerPoint, you cannot control the font substitution.   The algorithm that PowerPoint uses in selecting fonts to substitute is not completely known.   Even with two systems that are completely identical and with both not possessing the original font, PowerPoint will not necessarily choose the same font on the two different systems.

How can I permanently convert a font to one that is commonly installed?

On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click on the drop down menu for Replace and select Replace Fonts.

In the Replace Font window, work with each font listed in the Replace box one at a time.  If the font needs to be replaced with a more common font, select the replacement font in the With box and click on Replace.

The conversion will replace the fonts on:

• Slides
• Slide Masters and Layouts
• Notes pages
• Some embedded objects like pasted spreadsheets and graphs

Where can I find a list of Common fonts that would be safe to use with PowerPoint?

Safe fonts are those that are generally installed with either the Operating System or with the install of Microsoft Office.

These resource pages at Indezine.com  and at Ampsoft.net list the fonts installed with the various versions of Microsoft Office.  If you utilize one of the fonts that is predominantly used across the various versions of Office, you can be relatively sure that your presentation will not suffer any unintended consequences of font substitution taking place on other computers.

Does embedding in Word work the same way?

No, there are some important differences.  Please read my other post on Word font embedding FAQs to discover how there are more direct tools to figure out Font Substitution in Word.

The post How to Embed Fonts in PowerPoint FAQs appeared first on Donna's Technology Resources.

To avoid distortion when resizing an image always use the CORNER handles.  Avoid using the ones midway on the outer edges.

By default, some images you have in your projects will be proportionally locked and some won’t be.  But you do not even need to worry about making sure they are proportionally locked if you always use keys like SHIFT and/or CTRL when you drag from a corner handle:

• To maintain proportions, press and hold SHIFT while you drag the corner sizing handle.
• To keep the center in the same place, press and hold CTRL while you drag the sizing handle.
• To both maintain the proportions and keep the center in the same place, press and hold both CTRL and SHIFT while you drag the sizing handle.

How to lock the Aspect ratio or to check if it is locked:

If the lock aspect ratio is checked, an image cannot be distorted if you resize using a corner resize handle So if it is on, you are less likely to distort an image.  However keep in mind that even with the lock aspect ratio on, an image can be distorted if you resize using a resize handle midway on the outer edges.  Hence, the advise given in the previous section:

1. Go to the Picture Tools tab.
2. Click the dialog box launcher in the bottom right corner of the Size group (see Figure 2 pt. A).

   

3. In the Layout pane that appears, check the Lock aspect ratio check box (see Figure 3 pt. B).

How to resize an image to an exact height and width:

Often you know about how big you want an image to be.  If this is the case, then you can enter the exact size desired:

1. Go to the Picture Tools  tab.
2. In the Size group on the far right side, enter the new measurements into the Height and Width boxes (see Figure 2 pt. C).

How to reset a picture back to its original size and format use Reset Picture button:

If you have inadvertently distorted a picture, Reset Picture & Size can help you get that picture back to its original length to width ratio.

1. Go to the Picture Tools tab.
2. In the Adjust group,select the drop-down menu with Reset Picture (see Figure 2 pt. D) and choose one of the following:

• Reset Picture discards all the formatting changes made to the picture.
• Reset Picture & Size discards all the formatting changes and the image is restored to its original dimensions.

Good luck keeping with keeping your images the way you need them to look.

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