About Ellen Finkelstein

Ellen Finkelstein is a recognized expert, speaker, and best-selling author on AutoCAD, PowerPoint, and presenting effectively. Her articles have appeared in numerous magazines, newsletters, and blogs. She is a PowerPoint MVP (Microsoft Valuable Professional).

Her Web site offers a huge assortment of tips, techniques, tutorials, and articles on these topics.

As a best-selling author, her books have sold over 300,000 copies and been translated into over 14 languages. Her most current books are:

101 Advanced Techniques Every PowerPoint User Should Know
101 Tips Every PowerPoint User Should Know
7 Steps to Great Images
AutoCAD 2011 and AutoCAD LT 2011 Bible
How to Do Everything with PowerPoint 2007
PowerPoint For Teachers: Dynamic Presentations and Interactive Classroom Projects (with Pavel Samsonov)
Flash CS5 for Dummies (with Gurdy Leete)

Her courses are:

PowerPoint 2007: Make the Upgrade Easy (video course)
Create an Outstanding Presentation! (self-study course)

Ellen's articles on AutoCAD have appeared on Autodesk's Web site, in Inside AutoCAD, a monthly newsletter, and others. Her articles on PowerPoint have appeared in Presentations magazine, Presentation Xpert, Computer Companion, and slideshare.net, among others.

Training, coaching, and consulting

Ellen conducts training, in the form of workshops and webinars, that help people present more effectively. She also offers coaching and consulting. Read more about training, coaching, and consulting.

Speaking topics

Using PowerPoint for Best Educational Outcomes (see video of excerpts below)
Effective Presenting in the 21st Century
How to Prevent Death by PowerPoint
Workshop: Transform Your Presentations from Boring Bullets to Powerful Persuasion
Quick Makeovers with the Tell 'n' Show^SM Method of Slide Design
Presenting to Persuade and Motivate
Presenting to Teach and Inform
Stop Boring Your Audience!
PowerPoint for Low-Cost Training
Workshop: PowerPoint for Kiosk and Web-Based Presentations
Workshop: Add Pizzazz to Presentations with Advanced Animation and Graphic Techniques
Cater to Your Audience with Audience-Centered Presentations
Presenting Scientific and Numerical Data
Workshop: Getting the Most out of PowerPoint 2007

"Ellen Finkelstein used Power Point slides to enhance a presentation on the most effective use of PowerPoint slides in making academic presentations: as such, she 'walked the talk,' beautifully illustrating her practical suggestions. These included tips on how the speaker can retain maximum audience attention while using slides and how the slides can increase retention of the material presented. She's a lively, confident speaker who freely shared her substantial experience." -Samuel Boothby, PhD

"Ellen's tips on how to give an effective sales presentation incorporating PowerPoint was very lucid and valuable for our women professionals monthly meeting. Ellen has clearly thought through the mechanics of selling and buying and offered practical advice which I know our members will be incorporating in their presentations." - Helen Foster-Grimmett, Founder and VP, Enlightened Communications Int'l.

"I appreciated your presentation so much last week! You took a subject you were passionate about and gave us mini-lessons to empower us. I'm not working on a presentation at the moment, but I'll definitely bookmark your website and keep your contact info. It's good to know of an intuitive, organized thinker who offers professional consultations." - Deb Jansen

"Ellen Finkelstein presented to our faculty the latest, well-researched principles of teaching with Microsoft PowerPoint and other presentation software. Comments from numerous faculty indicated that her presentation was one of the two or three most useful presentations given. Several faculty said it changed entirely their approach to using presentation software in the classroom." -Chris Jones, PhD, Chair, Department of Education, M.U.M.

Excerpts from "Using PowerPoint for Best Educational Outcomes" given to university faculty during Faculty Development sessions at M.U.M. in Fairfield, IA (reduced from about 30 minutes to 7 minutes)

What People Say About Ellen Finkelstein

"When Ms Finkelstein made her presentation at our Faculty Development Seminar she was head and shoulders above the other presenters. Even though the others had useful things to say and had PhDs, their presentation and depth of communication could not match hers. She was well prepared and lively and right on target with very useful advice." -Anne Dow Chairperson, Department of Mathematics, Maharishi University of Management

"Recently, when we were putting together a presentation on our homes for sale, we ... called Ellen Finkelstein and asked for her help. She zeroed in on exactly what knowledge we needed to easily create a professional-looking presentation. She knew the best way to add a voice-over, helped us download the program, and offered great tips that made the whole process easy for us. Miraculously, she did all this in a short, one-hour consultation. Consulting with Ellen made all the difference for us." -Nancy Walker and Martin Brett, Owners Vastu Design & Construction, Inc. Fairfield, Iowa

"How to Do Everything With Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 is yet another winner by Ellen Finkelstein. ….wonderful real world examples on how to use ordinary features in interesting ways to give your presentations some pizzazz.” - Wendy Russell, About.com: Presentation Software

"Your articles and training information are great." - Paul S.

"Your PowerPoint newsletter is extremely informative and helpful!" - D. Terencio

"Saved me! Thank you!!! Your tip on how to extract ALL text from powerpoint saved me!I have a tendency to start actually writing my work in Powerpoint, then have to go back and so on... the tip to extract text from PDF was fabulous." - S.I.

"I enjoyed your article and used many of your suggestions for my second speech at my Toastmaster's club. Prior to reading your article, I had designed a text-heavy slide show that included a colorful background. Based on your advice I changed my entire PowerPoint presentation so that there were only 7 simple slides with powerful graphics. The slides worked! The audience wasn't distracted by the slides and I felt in control of the presentation instead of the PowerPoint slides controlling my speech." -Melissa Kew

Contact us by e-mail

Phone: 641-472-1832

Ellen Finkelstein, Inc.
2010 Coral Lane
Fairfield, IA 52556

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