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Dec 4, 2024
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Brenda Smyth, Supervisor of Content Creation
Have you ever attended a webinar and wondered, “How’d They Do That?”
Often, the “trick” is a matter of simple building blocks.
In this example we’ll combine Cropping and Morphing — two basic skills that together create the PowerPoint magnifying glass effect!
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Show Your Audience What to Focus On!
Let’s say you have an image — a diagram, a screenshot, a photo, a map — and you need to “spotlight” important parts of it.
To do this, I want to show you how to use the “Magnifying Glass Technique” in PowerPoint.
In short, you have a “base image” and a circle appearing to move over the top of the base image. The circle is filled with a duplicate copy of the image.
Here are the steps!
Let’s Break Down the Steps for Using PowerPoint’s Magnifying Trick
- Take a slide-sized image and duplicate it
- Select the duplicate and click Crop
- On the Crop menu, select the Square 1:1 option
- Convert the square to a circle
- Format the “magnifier” with a standard style: Beveled Oval, Black
- Duplicate the base slide a few times and, on each slide, position the magnifying glass over the part of the base image and click crop.
- Now you can resize the image within the circle to make it larger!
Do this on the remaining slides and apply the “Morph” transition to all of them!
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How to Include the PowerPoint Magnifier in a GIF
Do you want to post your work online and have the magnifier part of a SharePoint or Teams conversation?
To export your slide deck as a “Animated Gif,” click File > Export > Create an Animated GIF
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Register now and learn more about making your presentations stand out: PowerPoint Presentations: 60 Minutes to Mastery.
The Result of the magnifying glass PowerPoint effect
Whether it’s a slide deck or an animated GIF, this is something that will focus everybody’s attention and magnify your stature among your peers!
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Ready to learn more? Check out some of SkillPath’s live virtual training programs, on-demand video training or get it all with our unlimited eLearning platform.
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Brenda Smyth
Supervisor of Content Creation
Brenda Smyth is supervisor of content creation at SkillPath. Drawing from 20-plus years of business and management experience, her writings have appeared on Forbes.com, Entrepreneur.com and Training Industry Magazine.
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