How to Use the "Randomizer" Group of the Time Savers Add-in for PowerPoint

Please note: Some changes may have been made to the Time Savers Add-in for PowerPoint since the making of this video.

The “Randomizer” group is part of the “TS Content” tab (previously part of the “TS Design” tab, formerly called “Time Savers 1”) of the Time Savers Add-in for PowerPoint.

The tools in this part of the Time Savers Add-in make it possible for you to:

Quickly and easily add randomized content to shapes and tables in your presentation in the form of text or pictures/shapes.
- Add randomized or shuffled content (text or pictures/shapes) to all selected shapes, including all cells in selected tables.
- Add randomized or shuffled content (text or pictures/shapes) to every shape, on every slide, that matches the shapes you have selected.
- Quickly and easily add your desired content (text or pictures/shapes) to your chosen shapes, without randomizing.
This tool is great for making BINGO cards for bingo games!

List separator:

Fill in the character you would like to use as a list separator.
The default is a comma (,)
Changing the list separator to a different character allows you to have content that includes commas if needed.

Range indicator:

Fill in the character you would like to use to indicate a range.
The default is a hyphen (-)
Changing the range indicator to a different character allows you to have content that includes hyphens (or minus signs) if needed.

Shape sizing:

Retain: shapes do not change size.
Stretch: shapes are resized to fill their new positions without maintaining aspect ratio. Text is scaled based on the change in the shape’s width.
Resize: shapes are resized to best fit their new locations, while maintaining aspect ratio. Text is scaled appropriately.
Resize 95% – 50%: shapes will be resized to a percentage of the size of the new location, leaving padding around the shapes. The lower the resize percentage, the more padding there will be around the shapes.

All slides:

Add randomized content (text or pictures/shapes) to matching shapes on all slides.
When this option is selected, if any other slides contain shapes matching those you have selected, then randomized content will be added to all matching shapes.
Matching shapes are shapes that have the same size and position.

Replace:

This option only applies when your content is text.
Replace existing text.
When this option is selected, if any of the shapes to which randomized content is being added already contains text, then the existing text will be replaced by the randomized content.
If this option is not selected, the randomized content will be added to the shape after any existing text.

Space:

This option only applies when your content is text.
Add space before text.
When this option is selected, a space will automatically be inserted before the randomized content.

Direction:

Choose what direction you want the content to be added to the table first.

Horizontally first – content will be added horizontally (left to right) across the rows, from the top to the bottom of the table.

Vertically first – content will be added vertically (top to bottom) down the columns, from the left to the right of the table.

Add text content

Content can be added directly to the ‘Content’ field available.
- Ideal for quickly adding a small amount of content.
Content in tables or shapes can be added by clicking the text ‘Add’ button. The text in your selected shape(s) will be added for the randomizer to use.
- Text can be added to cells in a table, or as listed items in shapes.
- If only one shape is selected, the paragraphs will be used as individual items.
- If multiple shapes are selected, the text in each shape will be used as individual items.
- If a table is selected, the contents of each cell will be used as individual items.
- Ideal for adding more extensive content.

Add shape content

Tag the shapes you wish to be used by the randomizer.

All shapes you have selected will be tagged, in the order in which they were selected, for use by the randomizer.
Shapes can be
- shapes/textboxes
- pictures
- groups
When you use the randomizer to add content to your selected shapes, the shapes you have tagged will be used.
If you tagged shapes previously, those tags will be removed before the currently selected shapes are tagged.

Add content to your selected shapes:

The content you have added (either text in the ‘Content’ field or shapes you have tagged) will be added to your selected shapes.
If you have SHAPES selected, then the content will be placed in those shapes.
If you have TABLES selected, then the content will be placed in each cell in those tables.
If you have CELLS in a table selected, then the content will be placed in each of the selected cells.
If you have TEXT selected, then the selected text will be replaced with the content.
- Note: If the cursor is active in the text of a shape, then it counts as having text selected.
- This option will only work when you have added text content.

Add randomized content to your selected shapes.
- Content added is completely random, like when rolling a dice.
- There may be duplicates close to each other.

Add shuffled content to your selected shapes.
- Content added is in a shuffled order, like when shuffling a deck of cards.
- The content is all shuffled, then used one by one until all are used up, and then reshuffled to start again.
- There should not be duplicates close to each other, except when the content runs out and is reshuffled to start again.

Add content to your selected shapes without randomizing.
- Content added is in the order in which you added it to the randomizer.
- When the content runs out, it starts again at the beginning.