Add a Squirrel Project to PowerPoint

Adding a Squirrel project to a PowerPoint presentation can transform a static presentation into a visually pleasing, easily understood and dynamic experience.

Step-by-step:

Inside Squirrel

1. Publish your Squirrel project to the cloud (see the Publishing to Cloud tutorial for more info).
2. Ensure that the status of the project is set to Live:
   • Click on the ellipses alongside the project to open the More Options menu and click the Move to live option (see the Using the Project Manager tutorial for more info).

3. Open the More Options menu once again and click Share.
4. Make sure that the PowerPoint sharing option is active and then click the Copy PPTX ID button.

Inside PowerPoint

5. Open PowerPoint and create a new blank slide.
6. Click on the Insert menu and in the Add-ins section, click Get Add-ins.

7. In the Search field, type Squirrel and press Enter.
8. When the Squirrel365 Add-in appears, click the Add button.

9. Read the license terms and privacy policy and then click the Continue button.
10. The Add-in will be placed in the slide.
11. Paste the PPTX ID (that you copied in step 4) into the field in the centre and click Confirm.

12. The Squirrel project will appear in the PowerPoint slide.
13. You can reposition the project by selecting it and dragging it to a different position with your mouse.
14. You can resize the project by grabbing the selection handles and moving those. The project will resize but it will maintain its aspect ratio, so it won’t be stretched in either direction.

That’s the end of this guide to adding a Squirrel project into a PowerPoint presentation. Take a look at the other tutorials and topics in the Learn section to learn more about using and sharing Squirrel.

Using the Project Manager

The project manager can be used to curate your published content, whether published to the cloud or to a local drive. Inside the project manager you can change a project’s status, share or stop sharing projects, view project information and much more. Watch the following video guide to using the project manager, or alternatively read through the description beneath the video if you prefer:

Accessing the Project Manager

After publishing a project, whether to the cloud or to a local drive, the project manager will automatically open. In here is where you will find the project that has just been published, as well as any previously published projects.

The project manager can be accessed at any time in DESIGN mode by selecting it from within the FILE menu:

Configuring the Project Manager

In the left hand panel, select from All, Live or Drafts to show files by status.

Click on the Search option to look for a specific file by name.

In the top right are the view options for how you want to organize the projects, choose to arrange the files as a grid or as a list.

The bottom status bar provides important information about your Squirrel cloud allowances:

• The information on the left shows the amount of cloud storage being used by any projects that have been published to the cloud.
• The information on the right shows how many of your projects (both published locally and in the cloud) currently have a live status.

File Details

Underneath each file is its name, when it was last published, and a more options menu (accessed by clicking the three ellipses). If a cloud icon is shown, this indicates that the project has been published to the cloud, absence of this icon means that the project has been published to a local drive.

More Options

Clicking on the more options ellipses underneath each file will reveal a menu, the contents of which will vary according to how the project has been published and also its status. Check the table below to see which options are available and when:

Project Status

Each project is given a status:

• Projects published to the cloud have a default status of live.
• Projects published to a local drive have a default status of draft.

Only live projects can be shared and used outside of Squirrel, draft projects cannot.

A Live project can be easily identified by this blue icon:

Toggle between live and draft status using the first option in the more options menu. It will either say ‘Move to live’ or ‘Move to drafts’ depending on the project’s current status.

Your Squirrel plan gives you an allowance of live projects, if you max out this allowance you will need to do one of the following:

• Upgrade your Squirrel plan to include more live projects.
• Toggle the status of one of your live projects to draft status to free up a live slot.
• Delete a live project from the project manager to free up a live slot.

Manage Versions

Projects that have been published to the cloud will have version history available, meaning that you can restore a previously published version if you need to.

View the project

Live projects published to the cloud can be opened in the browser. The link shown in the address bar of the browser is the Live link that you can use to share the project with other people.

Draft projects published to the cloud can be previewed in the browser, but these cannot be shared or used outside of Squirrel.

Information and Statistics

This option is available for all of the projects in the Project Manager. Select to see:

• Published date and time
• Status
• Number of versions
• Project size
• Number of views
• Last viewed date and time

Share

The share option is only available for live projects that are published to the cloud. There are three share options which are all checked by default:

• PowerPoint
• Web
• Embed

PowerPoint: Click the Copy PPTX ID button. The ID will be copied to your clipboard. You’ll need a specific addon for PowerPoint that you can paste the ID into in order to display the project within a PowerPoint presentation. For full instructions visit the Add a Squirrel Project to PowerPoint page.

Web: Click the Copy web link button next to the field that contains the URL for the project. You can use this link to share the project with other users, use it in a hyperlink or just paste it into a browser address bar. It can also be pasted into the URL property field of a Web View component so that the project can be shown within another Squirrel project (see this Web View description for more information).

Embed: Click the Get embed code button, then click the Copy button. Paste into the HTML code of a web page to show the Squirrel project within the content of a web page.

Rename and Delete

These two options are self-explanatory. They are available for all projects no matter the location or status.

That’s the end of this guide on using the Project Manager. If you’d like more information about sharing your projects for use outside of Squirrel, do look at our other guides and tutorials. If you’d like to discuss the allowances on your current Squirrel plan, please get in touch.

Publishing Locally

Once a project is completed, it needs to be published so that it can be shared and used outside of Squirrel. Not all Squirrel users have the option to publish locally, but for those that do, this guide will describe the process.

Watch the following video to see how to publish your project locally, or alternatively follow the step-by-step guide beneath the video if you prefer.

Step-by-step:

1. Save your .sqrl development file and then switch to PREVIEW mode.
2. Click the PUBLISH button in the top right hand corner of the interface and select Local.
3. A dialogue box is shown, giving options for publishing to a local drive:

4. The first thing is to specify a location to publish your Squirrel project to on your local drive. A default location is already in the Location field, click on the folder icon to select a different location if you wish.
5. In the Name field, add a suitable name for your project. 

6. The next option is the Background property. Change the colour to tie-in with a theme or your brand guidelines. A background may be shown around your project depending on the dimensions of the project and size of the viewer that it’s situated in.
7. The Project Position is by default set to a position at the top, middle of the viewer in which it is shown; this can be changed to top left if preferred.
8. The final set of publishing properties give you some control over granting access to your published project:
   • Adding an expiry date will terminate access to a published project wherever or however it has been shared from that date onwards.
   • Check the Password Protect property to add a password. This will need to be entered for a user to gain access to the published project.

• • The Fullscreen scaling option causes the published project to fill as much of the available space in the viewer as possible – it will retain its aspect ratio meaning that it won’t be stretched either way.

9. A loading indicator is added by default to a project. This is useful if say, a large project with lots of data takes a little while to load in a browser window, adding this indicator lets you or other users know that it is currently loading. Set to Off if it is not required or necessary.
   • Change the colour of the indicator to tie in with a theme or brand guidelines.
10. Click the Export button.
11. The Project Manager will open and you will see your published project added there.

That’s the end of this guide to publishing locally. For more tutorials on publishing, using the Project Manager and sharing your projects, visit the Publishing & Sharing page.

Publishing to Squirrel Cloud

Once a project is completed, it needs to be published so that it can be shared and used outside of Squirrel. With the introduction of Squirrel cloud, your projects can be published directly to the cloud and stored there. From there they can easily be shared in a web viewer, embedded in a web page, or added to a PowerPoint presentation. (See the Project Manager tutorial for more information about sharing your projects.) Watch the following video to see how to publish your project to the cloud, or alternatively follow the step-by-step guide beneath the video if you prefer.

Step-by-step:

1. Save your .sqrl development file and then switch to PREVIEW mode.
2. Click the PUBLISH button in the top right hand corner of the interface and select Cloud.

3. A dialogue box is shown, giving options for publishing to the Squirrel cloud:

4. The first option is to choose to publish as a new project or to overwrite a previously published project:
   • • When choosing the latter, the dropdown list will show a list of projects that have previously been published to the cloud, select one to overwrite. The name of that file will be added to the Name field.
     • If you choose to publish as a new project, ensure that option is selected and then type the name of the project in the Name field.
5. The next option is the background colour, which you can change to tie in with a theme or your brand guidelines. A background may be shown around your project depending on the dimensions of the project and the relative viewer size.
6.  A loading indicator is added by default to a project. This is useful if say, a large project with lots of data takes a little while to load in a browser window, adding this indicator lets you or other users know that it is currently loading. Set to Off if it is not required or necessary.
   • • Change the colour of the indicator to tie in with a theme or brand guidelines.
7. The final set of publishing properties give you some control over granting access to your published project:
   • • Adding an expiry date will terminate access to a published project wherever or however it has been shared from that date onwards.
     • Check the Password Protect property to add a password. This will need to be entered for a user to gain access to the published project.

8. Click the Publish button.
9. The Project Manager will open and you will see your newly published project added there.

That’s the end of this guide to publishing to Squirrel cloud. For more information on using Squirrel, the project manager and sharing your projects, take a look at our other tutorials and videos.