Mrs. Jones Teaches: Merging Shapes Trick #TPTForward2021

Well, I learned a new trick today, that I thought I'd pass on to you.

Today, I watched a couple of sessions from the TeachersPayTeachers conference on using PowerPoint.

I often feel pretty fluent in PowerPoint. Do I know everything there is to know. Well, of course not. I would say that I'm more knowledgeable than the average person, though. I'm always glad to give my colleagues tips when they're creating something.

Even though these sessions were very similar, I appreciated them for different reasons. Jillian's session talked about taking a cut-and-paste resource you make in PowerPoint as a PDF and making that same resource available as a Google slide product with moveable pieces. AND taking that same product to turn it into a TPT Easel product with moveable pieces.

So great!

And she made it look so easy.

She made me want to make some simple cut-and-paste endings page to DO ALL THE THINGS.

Chandra's session focused more on actually using PowerPoint. Not so much on the basics of it, but some more advanced tips and tricks.

She reminded me that I need to create a product template. You know, so it has a page for the product to begin and a ready-made credit/TOU page. Let me tell you, it's annoying to have to open up another product to cut and paste the credit/TOU information so everything is worded the same.

CREATE. 👏 A. 👏 TEMPLATE. 👏 I could create a portrait version and a landscape version.

I also need to create a template for my SQUARE covers. Because they will all be square from now on, I am proclaiming.

So...

Both Jillian and Chandra shared this little tip, that I thought was amazing. It possibly could've saved me a lot of time trying to create a line or solid space to cover up an overlap from time to time.

Basically, the gist is, that you can insert 2 shapes, overlap them however you want, and merge them in interesting ways.

The merge option allows you to Union (join 2 more shapes together and deleting the overlapped parts)... This is a great way to make puzzle pieces!

Combine (which is just your basic merging 2 shapes together)... This would be a great tool for making Venn diagrams. Fragment (cuts it into pieces based on where the overlaps were)... This would also make fun puzzle pieces for kids to put back together. Intersect (takes away everything but what was overlapping)...