Daily Archives: May 27, 2018

how to make a jigsaw puzzle in powerpoint

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I wanted to have an image of Duke (the Java mascot) as a jigsaw puzzle image for a presentation. First I googled and couldn’t find an existing one.  I found one on a blog, but it doesn’t look good from the distance. Also, it isn’t labeled for reuse.

So rather than work on content for my presentation, I decided to learn how to make a jigsaw puzzle image. It wasn’t hard.

Step 1 – get an image

I decided to use this image of Duke as a stuffed animal that I found online. I was thinking about using a picture of me and Duke but the lighting was too dark to come out well on a slide.

Step 2 – get a jigsaw puzzle template

I found this template online.

Step 3 – combine

  1. Open the template in PowerPoint.
  2. Import/paste the image on the slide you want to use. for me, this was slide 5 – the blank template for a photo.
  3. Resize the photo/image to be the same size as the puzzle and overlay it.
  4. Right click your photo/image and choose “Arrange -> Send to Back”
  5. Select all 12 puzzle pieces (I had to do this manually rather than with command A)
  6. Right click -> format object
  7. Choose fill and select 100% for the transparency
  8. Choose line and select black
  9. Select all and choose arrange > group

Now you have a single image that you can use in your own deck.

The result

duke jigsaw

pathways – giving a basic speech evaluation

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There’s lot so f information out there on how to give a speech evaluation. I notice that many new members are afraid to do so. And sometimes, the volume of information out there makes it even more overwhelming.

Now that giving a speech evaluation is part of level 1 in Pathways, members should be doing a speech evaluation earlier. I find two things to help with this.

First, give a fill in the blanks speech evaluation. The most basic speech evaluation is:

  1. Thank the speaker
  2. Say something you liked about the speech
  3. Say something you think could be improved. If the speaker was really good and you can’t think of anything, say that.
  4. Wish the speaker well or say you are looking forward to the next speech

If this template is still too much, practice. In a SpeechCraft session, i wanted participants doing speech evaluations in week 2 and 3. To get them there, I “taught” the four point template. Then we did it as a group: “Sally, can you thank the speaker.”