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PowerPoint Tips Blog

April 27, 2008

April, 2008 Background of the Month

Charismatic is a template (.pot file, zipped) with a sunburst on the title slide and a sky-blue gradient for the slide master. You can use it in PowerPoint 2002/2003 as well as PowerPoint 2007. Excellent for inspirational topics.

April 27, 2008

April, 2008 Resource of the Month - Echo's Voice

Echo's Voice- Echo is a PowerPoint MVP and her Web site contains a series of in-depth articles and tutorials that everyone will find useful. Look for her excellent PowerPoint 2007 tutorials.

April 27, 2008

Best practices for PowerPoint presentations in Second Life

Based on my experience with the grand opening of Virtualis (see my review), the conference center in Second Life, I’ve put together what I believe to be the first set of guidelines for creating and delivering PowerPoint presentations in Second Life. I’ll add to this as I get more experience.

1. Use a plain, white background
In real life, a slide projected onto a screen has its own light coming from the projector. In Second Life, everything is pixels on your computer screen. As a result, resolution and contrast aren’t as high. Light text on a dark background “bleeds,” making it hard to read.

Forego your usual background and stick to the default white. If you need some decoration, make it bold. Fine lines and detail won’t show up. Decoration should not take up very much space, because of point #2.

Here you see an example of two types of slides. It’s obvious that the white background works best.

Light text on a dark background

Dark text on a white background

2. Use very large text
Your text needs to be larger than usual. Screen resolution isn’t very high; therefore, text isn’t as clear as in real life. Also, the audience may not be directly in front of the screen and therefore be viewing it from an angle. You can see this effect in the above images. To give yourself more room for text, reduce space relegated to the background to a minimum.

3. Make text and images plain and clear
Use a simple sans-serif font, such as Arial or Verdana. Don’t apply a shadow, because it will reduce legibility. Images should be simple and bold, rather than detailed.

4. Wait until the image is clear
In Second Life, your PowerPoint presentation won’t actually be PowerPoint; instead it will probably be JPG images of your slides. As each slide appears, it takes a few seconds to resolve into clarity. Wait until the slide “reses” before speaking about it. It’s frustrating when you speak about something that the audience can’t see. You can use this time to introduce the topic, as long as what you say doesn’t require any visual context.

5. Test your venue
This advice applies to real life as well, but may not be as obvious in Second Life. Go through a test run, and try sitting in the back where some of your audience may be. Can you read the text? Can you make out the images? If not, make the text and images bigger.

Also, if you plan to stand at a podium, can you see both the podium and the screen at the same time? Remember, in real life, it’s easy for people to turn their head; in Second Life, they have to press keyboard buttons, or click onscreen navigation to change their viewpoint. Looking back and forth is much harder, so make sure people don’t have to do it. Perhaps you can move the podium, or simply stand near the screen and give up the podium altogether. (That’s a good technique in real life, too.) I encourage you to walk out into the audience as you speak; this will engage them just as it does in real life.

6. Ask for a larger screen
If your venue test doesn’t work out very well, perhaps your hosts can make the screen bigger. It’s just a matter of programming!

7. Ask if everyone can see the screen
When you deliver your presentation, ask if people can see the screen. They may need instructions for adjusting their view. If so, take the time to explain how to do so. Most people are still new at Second Life.

You can find technical instructions for creating a PowerPoint presentation in Second Life here.

Second Life offers a great new possibility for presenting in virtual reality. However, the same principles of presenting apply. Consider your audience and make sure that your slides are meaningful and clear.

April 27, 2008

Amazing! Grand opening of Virtualis conference center in Second Life

On April 23 and 24, 2008, I attended the grand opening of Virtualis, an amazing new conference center in Second Life. I was new to Second Life until about 3 weeks ago, so there was that amazement to get past. If you don't know, Second Life is a 3D virtual world that lets you build practically anything, script objects (using Second Life Script, or SLS), interact with others using an avatar (your persona in Second Life), by text or speech, and even conduct business! You can purchase virtual land and create your own world, keeping it private or making it public, as you choose.

In fact, many businesses have locations in Second Life. Here's a short list:

Autodesk	ING
Best Buy	MTV
Calvin Klein	SONY
Dell	Toyota
Harvard Law School	Warner Bros. Music
IBM

You can find a more complete list at New Business Horizons. I've also read that many universities teach classes in Second Life.

The people of Virtualis

Virtualis is the dream-come-true of Dan Parks, its owner. Dan is President / Creative Director of Corporate Planners Unlimited, Inc. and a member of MPI (Meeting Professionals International) and several other meeting/ conference/ travel-related organizations. Working closely with Dan is Gloria Nelson, CSEP (Certified Special Events Professional), who has her own event design and meeting management company, Gloria Nelson Event Design, LLC. Several other people are involved as well, but I can't list them all.

Over the last couple of years, the team has designed, built, and programmed the most incredible conference center, one that can hold many types of events. They've created both traditional (as traditional as something can be in Second Life) and outrageously creative meeting places. The facility can be used for conferences, meetings, parties -- practically any type of get together you can think of. They've already done a priviate birthday party, with live music, dancing, and virtual food!

What you could do with Virtualis

Do you arrange meetings or conferences? Imagine the possibilities! People who can't travel can attend via the Virtualis conference center. They can see live streaming video of the live conference. You can even do the opposite -- stream a video of the Virtualis group into your live conference. People from around the world can meet there for smaller meetings. They even have a yacht! Virtualis can set up an exhibition hall, highlighting speakers, with working links to their Web sites. After the meeting, attendees can enjoy entertainment such as music, dancing, even fireworks!

If you have a chance to present in Virtualis, or any place in Second Life, first read my tip on best practices for presenting in Second Life.

The grand opening

The grand opening included presentations throughout the two-day period. Here's a partial list of the speakers:

Joan Eisenstodt, Chief Strategist with Eisenstodt Associates, LLC
Jim Carroll, futurist
James Hogg
B. Joseph Pine II
John Foster
Barbara Dunn

Look at the gallery of screenshots I took, and be amazed. I was!

That's me in the foreground (my avatar, actually), watching a slide in the ballroom.

Me again, but now you're looking the other way, so you can see the rest of the ballroom. Each avatar's name floats above his or her head.

The ballroom again, from a different angle. The speaker is at the podium and a slide is on another screen.

A special breakout room with the theme of creativity. On the ladder is Joan Eisenstodt, the speaker. I'm sitting on a palette, listening. The screen is to the left.

Here's another view of the creativity meeting room.

Joan Eisenstodt on the ladder, speaking on the topic "Is PowerPoint Evil? I had to include that one!

Gloria Nelson speaking from the floor. A flower arrangement is in the foreground.

Here I am "reading a book" outside the conference center, under a tree.

Here we're watching live, streamed video on the screen.

Time for some entertainment! I changed the world setting to midnight to show you the fireworks.

Partying on the outdoor dance floor. The lights swirl continuously. The music can be recorded or live. By clicking a scripted ball, you can make your avatar dance!

Here's a movie (4 sec.) of Jodiah Jensen, a programmer, showing on the spot how he can rotate a cube in the air.

Here's another movie (13 sec.) showing the dance party. Note that the movie is"laggy" because of the process of capturing it. When I viewed it at the time, the motion was smooth and up to speed.

If you're interested in using Virtualis for a conference, meeting, or party, contact Dan Parks.

April 22, 2008

Review of PowerPoint 2007 Complete Makeover Kit

A new book by Geetesh Bajaj and Echo Swinford, PowerPoint 2007 Complete Makeover Kit, is both unique and uniquely useful. PowerPoint 2007's interface, the ribbon, is so different from what we're used to, that running through a tutorial like this one will make the difference between tearing your hair out while staying up until midnight and smoothly, efficiently getting the job done on time.

Both authors are PowerPoint MVP's (Microsoft Valuable Professionals) and experts in their field. If I could distinguish the two, I'd say that Echo is the technical expert and Geetesh is the design expert. The individual talents that each author brings to the book is part of what makes it so valuable. Each makeover combines both workflow magic and design artistry so that you'll learn much more than you expect.

Warning: Don't try to read this book on your morning commute! I tried reading the book on its own and it wasn't very satisfying: the authors don't always show you before and after for each and every step. This book is a tutorial and you need to put the excellent CD in your CD drive and do the exercises. It's in the actual execution of the makeovers that you see the results on your screen. Meanwhile, you get a feel for the fastest way to correct major problems in a presentation and how to make it look much better.

The book has an easy humor which I found appealing. Here's a quote from p. 87:

"Every company has folks who are either too busy or too lazy. They don't want to do anything until the last minute, and the third presenter in our group presentation—Dan Klipkoos—is one of them! His slides look like a hurried, five-minute job. His reasoning is that he'll add the content after the presentation has been through the makeover that the design agency is doing!

"So, yes, you could fret and insist that Dan send the content now, but that won't help. Therefore, in this section, we'll show you how you can work with incomplete slides."

The CD includes all of the presentations that you'll work on. The authors have done something pretty amazing: they've saved each presentation at every step of every chapter so you can start at any point. This means that you don't need to go through an entire chapter if you don't want to. But I encourage you to do so, because the transformation that you'll see is very satisfying.

The CD also includes images, music tracks, templates, and themes.

If you go through this book, not only will you know PowerPoint 2007 a whole lot better, but you'll never look at a presentation in the same way again. You'll learn to apply a broad viewpoint that will enable you to vastly improve all of the presentations that you deal with.

Another plus is that the book is in full color! I'm very jealous, as none of my publishers has let me create a book in color. At least not yet. But for PowerPoint, the result is stunning. You really can see the difference between that blue and that gray.

If you've recently upgraded to PowerPoint 2007 and want to not only learn how to use it well but to improve your presentations, I highly recommend this book.

April 21, 2008

Turn off pop-ups when presenting

In a given day, or week, or month, how many messages pop up on your computer to:

Update Java, RealPlayer, or Windows?
Connect to a wireless network?
Remind you of an upcoming meeting or birthday?
Keep you up to date on your subscribed RSS feeds?

Warning: Some of these pop-ups may appear while you're presenting in slide show view! Not a pretty picture!

After a few minutes of inactivity (let's say you're answering questions), does your screen saver kick in, or does your computer go into hibernation mode?

Before you get into such a situation, right now, start making a list of the pop-ups that you see, and research how to turn them off. It's not always easy to find the answer, because the software companies want you to see those pop-ups!

One possible solution may be to disconnect from the Internet, or disable your wireless connection, if you don't need it during the presentation. Remember that many meeting venues have wireless networks, so your computer may try to connect during your presentation. And disconnecting may disable many other pop-ups. The method depends on your operating system.

In Windows XP, you would probably choose Start> Control Panel> Network Connections. In Windows Vista, try Start> Control Panel> Network and Sharing Center.

You can configure Windows updates by choosing Start> Control Panel> System and clicking the Automatic Updates tab. In Windows Vista, choose Start> Control Panel> Security or Security Center> Windows Update. If you turn them off during your presentation, remember to turn them back on afterwards!

However, some pop-ups don't depend on an Internet connection or may still pop up a message asking you to connect! For example, Outlook reminders may use your computer's internal clock. Therefore, you should try disconnecting from the Internet and see whether or not you still get some pop-ups. Of course, you can't do that for several times just to make sure -- that would probably be going too far! But the more planning and testing you do, the less likely that embarrassing pop-up will show its ugly face during your presentation!

April 12, 2008

Tell 'n' show slide design

A number of communication experts have recommended slide design as follows:

A slide title that makes a complete statement (often suggested to be a complete grammatical sentence)
An image that provides evidence of the statement

In an article, "Rethinking the Design of Presentation Slides," the Pennsylvania State College of Engineering discusses the concept of assertion-evidence design. This means that the slide title is an assertion, a statement, and the body of the slide provides some evidence for that assertion. The article's context is technical presentations and includes a study showing that students did better on an exam when the presentations were done using assertion-evidence design.

Actually, most teaching follows this scheme. For example, I just made a assertion that assertion-evidence led to better student exam results, and then showed you the slides as evidence.

I call this tell 'n' show. It's the opposite of the show 'n' tell that you may remember from 6th grade, because first you tell (in the slide title and by speaking out the statement), and then you show (by using a visual, and explaining it).

The visual can be a graph, a photo, or a diagram.

Here's a before and after slide from the article:

Before:

After:

The topic may be too technical for you (it is for me), but when you look at both slides, two conclusions are clear:

Making an actual statement in the title is very helpful for understanding the point of the slide
Images are helpful for making concepts clear

The tell 'n' show principle applies to business use, not only teaching technical topics. In a business environment, you want your audience to clearly understand what you're saying. Whether you're giving a persuasive presentation or not, audience comprehension should always be your first goal.

Here's a slide that I sometimes use when discussing how to create effective presentations, shown in 2 versions. Which is more effective?

Do you see how the statement at the top is clearer in the second example? And how the 3 components catch your attention much more when they're in a diagram? (Note: You can create this type of diagram very easily with PowerPoint 2007's SmartArt feature.)

This slide comparison brings out a third point, namely that bullets can't show relationships By turning the bulleted text into a diagram, I'm making clear that you a presentation involves starting with your content, then designing the slides, and finally delivering.

I'm not a purist when it comes to full sentences in the title. I could have said, "A presentation's 3 components" and it would also be clear. I think that "Annual sales up 7%" is as clear as "Annual sales were up 7%." The difference is only a matter of adding a verb, or not. The important point is that the title should say something, not be just a heading. So, "Annual sales" would not be a good title.

Try doing a makeover of an existing presentation that has lots of bullets. For each slide, use the slide title to tell your main point, and then use the body of the slide to show it visually. You'll be amazed at the results!

Special Offer!

If you send me a before and after presentation ( no more than 3 - 5 slides please!) by May 10th, I'll pick the 3 best examples and send you each a free copy of my new e-booklet, "7 Steps to Great Images." Click here to send the e-mail.

April 5, 2008

Create a drop-down menu

In the PowerPoint discussion group, in response to a request, Shyam Pillai shared a presentation that has a drop-down menu. Shyam is one of the best PowerPoint programmers around and his "proof of concept" is very elegant.

However, you can create a drop-down menu using animation. It will be less elegant, but doesn't require programming. The main menu button is used as a trigger, so that when you click it, the animation starts. If you want the dropped-down menu to disappear for the next use, the method is a little more complex.

Look at a drop-down menu in PowerPoint 2003 or other program. You'll notice that the drop-down menu just appears under the menu name. If there's some animation involved, it's too fast for me to see. However, I liked the effect of a wipe down animation, so that's what I used. You can use the Appear animation instead.

Insert an AutoShape/Shape. Add some appropriate text, such as Main Menu.
Then create your submenu items on AutoShapes/Shapes, just below the Main Menu button. Add text for the topics that you want to cover.
Select all of the submenu buttons and group them, by choosing Draw on the Drawing toolbar>Group. (In 2007, press Ctrl+G to group the selected buttons.) You do this so that all of the buttons drop down at the same time.

Choose Slide Show>Custom Animation. (In 2007, choose Animations tab>Animations group>Custom Animation.)
Select the grouped submenu buttons, and choose Add Effect> Entrance> Wipe. Set the Direction to From Top. Set the Speed to Very Fast.
You want the menu to wipe down when you click the Main Menu. In the Custom Animation task pane, click the submenu's drop-down arrow and choose Timing.
Click Triggers, then choose Start Effect on Click Of. From the drop-down list, choose the Main Menu object. Click OK.
It's nice if the submenu buttons disappear so that the next time you display the menu slide, you again have to click the Main Menu button to drop them down. This takes some finagling. (If you don't want the submenu buttons to disappear the next time you display the menu slide, skip to Step 11 and hyperlink to your Main Menu slide.) Select the grouped submenu buttons, and choose Add Effect> Exit> Disappear in the Custom Animation task pane. The new animation should appear above the trigger; if not, drag it up.

Note: If you now create links on the other slides to go back to this slide, you'll find that the submenu doesn't disappear. It may disappear once, but try again, and the Disappear animation won't work any more! that's because PowerPoint disables certain features when a slide is displayed more than once.

To make sure that the submenu disappears each time, click the Main Menu Slide in the left Slides pane and press Ctrl+D to duplicate that slide. Then select the first of the two identical slides. On that first slide, delete the submenu so that only the Main Menu button remains.
With that first slide still selected, choose Slide Show> Slide Transition. (In 2007, choose the Animations tab.) Uncheck the On Mouse Click check box and check the Automatically After check box, which should say 00:00.
Select the topmost of the submenu AutoShapes. Because the submenus are grouped, this selects all of them. Now click the edge of the top submenu. Choose Insert> Hyperlink. (In 2007, choose Insert tab> Links group> Hyperlink.) In the Hyperlink dialog box, choose Place in this Document, and choose the slide that the topmost submenu should link to. Do the same for the other submenu AutoShapes.
Display the first slide that your first submenu button links to. Add an AutoShape and choose Insert> Hyperlink. (In 2007, choose Insert tab> Links group> Hyperlink.) In the Hyperlink dialog box, choose Place in this Document, and choose the first of the two duplicate slides. This will ensure that the Disappear animation always works. No one will notice that you're going to a "dummy" first slide because the slide timing moves you immediately to the next slide -- which is your real menu slide. (If you don't want the submenu to disappear, just link to the menu slide.)
Copy your hyperlinked button onto the other slides that you're linking to. These buttons get you back to the Main Menu.

Here's how the presentation looks:

Watch a movie of the drop-down menu.

Download the presentation.

March 26, 2008

Top 3 tips for February, 2008

My site has so many tips on it now, that I'm aware of the fact that they can be hard to find. Don't forget that the Tips menu has a Search box where you can search for tips that meet your needs. Another way to discover new tips is to find out what other people are looking at. Here are the top 3 tips from February, 2008:

Putting Flash animation in PowerPoint - This tip shows you how to add Flash movies (SWF files) to a PowerPoint presentation. I recently gave a webinar on this topic. Watch for an update to this tip!
Create a timer - This tip shows you how to create a timer for breaks from 1 minute to 1 hour and anything in between. There are a lot of steps, but the whole process will take about 5 minutes.
Easily create a quiz in PowerPoint using Visual Basic for Applications - There are many ways to create quizzes in PowerPoint (and I gave a webinar on this topic a few months ago), but this tip shows how non-programmers can use some easy VBA to create quizzes.

March 25, 2008

New e-booklet! "7 Steps to Great Images"

My newest work is a 22-page e-booklet that describes 7 steps, or techniques, that you can use to banish unprofessional images in your presentations and replace them with images that really pack a punch! The e-booklet is based on content from my webinars and on principles I've developed over the years. At only $6.95, you can buy one for yourself and another for that colleague who really, really needs it.

E-books make great take-homes for conferences and meetings. Recently, a conference organizer bought 40 copies of my 101 Tips Every PowerPoint User Should Know, to give each attendee one on a flash drive. What a great idea! And more useful than the tee shirt you usually get.

Prezvision: An interview with Wataru Sugawara, CEO of SoftAdvance

Prezvision (actually, prezvision, with a lower-case "p") is an exciting new 3D animation program that starts with PowerPoint content and creates an amazing transformation. Because you start with PowerPoint, you can easily create 3D animation that would otherwise involve very expensive software and a huge learning curve.

Wataru Sugawara, CEO of SoftAdvance, the company that created Prezvision, and Ron Radcliff, VP of Business Development, showed off the software's capabilities at PowerPoint Live in New Orleans, in October, 2007.

Wataru Sugawara agreed to be interviewed by e-mail.

EF: What gave you the idea to create prezvision?
WS: The motivation to develop 3D presentation software was for my use first. I had been selling my products, including system integrations professional services. I could not well explain what I wanted to say with 2D drawings, because 2D is not natural as our physical world. We need 3D with motion and with multimedia including video, audio and picture to explain well whatever new idea, plan, vision, product, etc. we have. I always imagine everything with 3D and the time dimension. There was no software in the world that provided what I needed.

EF: Give us a brief overview of the features of prezvision.
WS: It is 3D multimedia presentation software. It helps you to present your plan, idea, product, etc. visually instead of with text. Here's a list of the major functions that you can do with prezvision software:

Create 3D animation: You can easily develop 3D animation without learning or using Adobe Flash.
Incorporate Motion: You can demonstrate movement & state of change, like a door opening / closing.
Add special effects with "Zooming" features: You can incorporate a zooming effect which includes depth and motion (small-to-big, deep-to-front or hide-to-appearing) in order to keep your audience focused and engaged.
Customizable 3D Slide Designs: You can design 3D images, with varied shapes, sizes, directions and depth on a slide canvas.
Develop creative picture shows: You can develop an unique album with 3D pictures & special effects.
Build Multimedia presentations: You can incorporate pictures, videos, sound and other input sources into your presentations. You can export your presentations as Quicktime Movies, SnapShots, Image sequences & PDF.

Here are two other important features:

Offers Microsoft PowerPoint compatibility: You can import data from PowerPoint (today) and in the future you'll be able to export data into PowerPoint presentations.
Utilizes a user friendly, defacto, graphical user interface: You will find prezvision's GUI is based upon an industry defacto standard. The user friendliness makes it easy to create and manage the prezvision 3D multimedia presentation software.

EF: How is Prezvision unique?

WS: Prezvision is unique in several ways:

It's easy to create animations, 3D and multimedia presentations. The moving slide-show like telop used in TV news shows can be created with the same result and working time in PowerPoint. [Editor's note: "telop" is a projection device that projects and superimposed images or text over the TV image.]
Prezvision automatically recognizes any difference in two consecutive slides and creates a motion transition as animation. This function is called 'Seamless transition." There are a lot of functions that make this type of animation easy to create. For instance, all shapes on a slide are named by ID. The shape of the same name on two slides is changed. The user can freely rename a shape to control the animation. We are applying for an international patent for this feature.
Meaningful animation: The essence of animation of prezvision is different from the animation of PowerPoint. It is not eye-Candy. It makes an animation of your product, result, plan, idea, etc. All animations created by prezvision are meaningful.

EF: How do you envision people using Prezvision? By that I mean, for what purpose?

WS: We are targeting all types of people who must impart to others a clear visual message in a short time. For instance, you can imagine the following people:

A teacher at an elementary school who wants to develop original teaching material with 3D and seamless transitions. This can help the kids' imagination. Instead,a teachers now show pictures in 2D and reduce the kids' creativity because they translate from the natural 3D world to artificial 2D pictures.
A marketing expert who must communicate with the media to introduce a new product without misunderstanding.
A CEO who must communicate his plan, target, vision, schedule of the future with visualization to the stockholders or market.
Officers or managers who wants to explain a new business model to concerned parties.
The salesperson who wants to propose a new service to a customer.
Postgraduate students or professors who wants to rouse the audience's attention at an academic conference.

EF: What are your future plans for the software?
WS: First of all, prezvision must be used by users in U.S. After we achieve this, I want to achieve the following.

Improved of power of expression: Power of expression can be improved more if we use latest technology of real-time 3D. The critical point is to balance the power of 3D acceleration of mobile PCs.
Improved convenience: Especially, I want to improve cooperation with office software.
Strengthening of network functioning : I want to enable prezvision to operate, and to refer to the created file, in a Web browser. However, I must wait for a standard and efficient 3D rendering platform to appear.
Correspondence to business solution: It will be important that prezvision be equipped the interfaces with solution packages as a front end of visualization of business applications. This story might exceed the frame of prezvision.
Internationalization: Action on the world-wide market. Language localization itself is not a big problem. I want to make software that corresponds to the difference of culture in each country.

EF: Do you have some samples on your Web site?
WS: The latest information is at the following URL. http://www.prezvision.com/en/. In addition, you can see it on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAfLj5uqb90.

EF: What background do you have and what previous work have you done?
WS: I am a software designer, system integrator, and professional IT consultant who leads the IT strategy from management strategy. My boast is that I was the lead programmer of a system integration project using NeXT-computers. Perhaps it was the first case in Japan. It was exciting every day as the lead programmer.

Note: Version 1 is available now from www.prezvision.com/en. Version 2, which has more features like Graph from Excel, CAD import and so on, is due out in April.

February 29, 2008

Use an audience-centered structure

In my webinar, "Create audience-centered presentations," I covered many ways to organize, design, and deliver a presentation around the needs of the audience, and in turn, get better results.

If you missed it, I can share one of the concepts in the area of organization.

First, why create a presentation around the needs of the audience? You'll be able to keep your audience on the same page as you, resulting in better understanding, more retention of the material, and greater motivation to act. Remember that if you present what you want to say instead of what the audience wants to hear, you may miss the mark completely.

Most people start and end the wrong way, especially in a sales-type presentation. They start by telling the audience about themselves, perhaps with a history of the company and a list of other clients. Then they start to talk about their product or service. Finally, they mention the problems that it solves.

But the audience cares first and foremost about a solution to their problem. They want to know how you can solve the issues that keep them up at night. So, that's where you should start -- with the problem.

Researching your audience's situation in advance is very helpful for knowing what the problem is. It may not be obvious. You may think that the quality of your product and its excellent price are important. Your potential client might be more concerned about service.

Here is a better order for structuring your presentation:

Explain the problem. Review the difficulties of the current situation.
Explain how your product or service can solve the problem.
Validate your solution. Here's where you can talk about yourself and your company, and explain why you are the best person to solve the problem.
State a call to action, if appropriate.

By considering your audience first, you've turned the presentation upside down. The next time you prepare a presentation, think about this order. Your audience will thank you for it.

February 29, 2008

Recolor graphics in PowerPoint 2007

PowerPoint 2007 introduced the ability to recolor and adjust bitmap graphics. Bitmap files types include GIF, JPG, and PNG. You can recolor both inserted images and background images. These are exciting, new capabilities. Previously, you had to use third-party software to accomplish this task.

To insert a picture from a file, choose Insert>Picture and choose the picture file. To insert a picture from the clip art collection, choose Insert>Clip Art In the Clip Art task pane, enter keywords. Be sure to specify the type of clip art that you want from the Results Should Be drop-down list; you can specify photos only, for example.

You can make minor adjustments to brightness and contrast, or completely recolor an image.

The subject in this image is a little dark, because the sun was so bright. To make it brighter, double-click the image to display the Format tab. In the Adjust group, click Brightness to open the Brightness gallery.

Choose one of the positive values. You can see the difference in your photo immediately.

To increase contrast, click the Contrast button and do the same thing.

Of course, you can decrease brightness and contrast as well. Make your choice depending on the requirements of the image.

You can make more exact changes by choosing Picture Correction Options at the bottom of the Brightness or Contrast gallery to open the Format Picture dialog box, with the Picture category displayed.

Here, instead of choosing from 10% increments, you can enter any value you want for Brightness or Contrast. You can also reset the picture to its original settings.

You can recolor a photo, too. Recolored photos display one color predominantly and they're great for creating backgrounds, because text shows up well against them.

Here's a slide using a clip art photo (use sunrise as a keyword to find this one).

Let's say that you want to cover the entire slide with this photo. The problem would be that text wouldn't show up very well in front of it.

Here, I've reset the photo (I had cropped it to fit it on the right side of the slide), then recropped it to fit the entire slide. I've changed the text to white. It isn't terrible, but the clouds are pretty busy behind the text.

Reducing the contrast helps, but you don't want to dampen the drama of the photo too much. Instead, you could infuse the photo with a color. To do so, double-click the photo to display the Format tab. In the Adjust group, choose Recolor to display the Recolor gallery.

Hover the cursor over a color to see the results immediately. Continue to do this until you find a color you like and click. Or choose More Variations to see the theme colors, where you can choose More Colors to choose any color you like. Here I chose orange.

Here's a photo from clip art that I use a lot because of its presentation theme.

Here it is again, recolored in a teal color, and reduce the contrast by 10%

Usually, I blur it a little too. Then it makes a great background. But that's another tip!

A wonderful new capability is being able to make the same brightness, contrast and coloring changes to a background.

To insert a photo as a background to an individual slide or the slide master, right-click any slide or the slide master, and choose Format Background. In the Format Background dialog box, choose Picture or Texture Fill, and then click the Picture button to choose the file you want to use.

Then, click the Picture category on the left, to display the exact same controls you have for the Picture category of the Format Picture dialog box (shown earlier in this tip). You can now change the brightness, contrast, and coloring of the background!

Don't forget that you can right-click any image that you've inserted, let's say from clip art, and choose Save as Picture to save it. Then you can insert it as a background.

February 28, 2008

Use advanced animation to show growth & motion

You can create the illusion of growth and motion using the technique of frame animation. Frame animation duplicates the same object in slightly different positions or sizes and then quickly displays one after the other. This is how old-fashioned movie animation was done. Remember, though, that this process was very labor-intensive. Good animation is usually 15-30 frames per second, meaning that you need to create at least 15 images for each second of animation!

You can create a simpler version in PowerPoint fairly easily. You can use this process for anything that moves or grows and that you can draw in PowerPoint using AutoShapes. Here's the basic process that I use:

Create the first shape.
Duplicate the shape and move it to the side.
Make the desired changes. The examples I created were a tulip blossoming and a bird flying, so I moved the petals and the wings in those images, respectively.
Continue until you have one full set of animation. You can repeat the set later, creating a loop. I did this with the bird flying. The bottom-most bird is the same as the second one (both show the wings at mid-point) and the next step would return to the first position; thus I can repeat the 4 birds over and over.

Choose Slide Show>Custom Animation. (In PowerPoint 2007, choose Animations>Custom Animation.)
Select the first step of the animation. If you want it to appear, choose Add Effect>Entrance>Fade. Set the Start type, either On Click if you want to control the timing, or With Previous if you want it to start on its own. Set the Speed. For the tulip, I left the default Medium. For the birds, I started with Very Fast. If you want this object to be on the slide when you start, omit this step.

Tip: Very Fast, the fastest option in the Speed drop-down list, is .5 seconds, or 2 frames per second. This may work for you but is slow for a real animation effect. You can't make it faster in the Speed box in the Custom Animation task pane, but after you create the animation, you can make it faster. Select the animation item that appears in the task pane's list, click the drop-down arrow, and choose Timing. In the Speed text box, type a new speed. You can set the speed to a precision of 2 decimal places. For example, .07 seconds would be approximately 1/15 of a second. Click OK.

With the object still selected, choose Add Effect>Exit>Fade. Set the Start to After Previous and set the speed that you want.
Select the next object in the process, choose Add Effect>Entrance>Fade. Set the Start to With Previous and set the same speed as before. The With Previous start is very important, because then the second object fades in at the same time as the first object is fading out.
With the second object still selected, choose Add Effect>Exit>Fade. Set the Start to After Previous and set the speed that you want.
Repeat Steps 8 & 9 for all of the objects.
Usually, you don't want the last object to disappear, so don't add an exit animation to the last object.
Move the objects to the desired position. While animating, it helps to have them far enough apart for easy selection, but afterwards you may want to move them closer, or even on top of each other. The tulip is an example of putting all of the objects on top of each other. However, I wanted the bird to move forward as well as flap its wings, so I staggered the birds.
If you want to create a loop, select all of the objects and duplicate them. The duplicates retain the animation!
Add a pretty background and you're done!
Test your animation. You may find adjustments that you want to make, such as fading in fast but fading out more slowly.

Here's the tulip animation, which uses medium and slow speeds. After all, tulips don't open that quickly.

Here's the bird animation, which uses a speed of .3 seconds, or 3 frames per second.

You can download the presentation here.

February 28, 2008

Results of poll on PowerPoint versions

With 97 people voting, here are the results of the poll on which version of PowerPoint you're using:

Version	% Using
2002/2003	60%
2007	34%
97/2000	3%
Mac (all versions)	3%

The percent of people using PowerPoint 2007 is steadily rising. Some people are upgrading, but others are buying new computers that come with Microsoft Office 2007 and thus upgrade by default. I've been including instructions for PowerPoint 2007 for months, but now I'll start including an occasional tip that applies specifically to 2007.

January 31, 2008

I have 3 great webinars coming up:

Wed., February 13th: Use PowerPoint to Bring the Audience into Your World with an Audience-Centered Presentation. Learn how to design an audience-centered presentation from the ground up and discover a simple formula to determine what content comes first, second, and so on. Find out how to incorporate audience input and convey ideas visually. And much more! Your 10% discount code is 10%offppt.
Wed., March 19th: Add Pizzazz to your PowerPoint Presentations with Flash Animation. Learn why Flash animation is so powerful and how to add it to your presentations. Discover where to find Flash animations and how to control them in PowerPoint. Find out how to convert an entire presentation to Flash animation format. Your 10% discount code is 10%offppt.
Wed., April 9th: Stop Force-Feeding Your Audience: Create Interactive and Flexible PowerPoint Presentations. This webinar will show you how to create a non-linear presentation that meets the unique needs of your audience. You'll learn how to create a menu as the front end for a presentation or to jump-start questions at the end. Your 10% discount code is 10%offppt.

January 31, 2008

I've created 2 polls that will help me serve you better. If you haven't already done so, please complete both. One takes a few seconds, the other less than 5 minutes. Click the links below to enter. Thank you!

What version of PowerPoint are you using?

What do you want to know about PowerPoint and presenting?

January 31, 2008

January, 2008 Resource of the Month - Six Minutes: A Public Speaking and Presentations Blog
Six Minutes is a Andrew Dlugan's blog on public speaking and presenting. He writes often and is truly informed about all that is going on in the field.

January 31, 2008

Free Background of the Month - Fireworks! Great for any celebration or to generate excitement about a project.

January 27, 2008

Add flexibility with custom shows

You may need the flexibility to vary your presentation, depending on the audience, last minute decisions, or the amount of time you have available. Building this flexibility into your presentation can avoid embarrassing time overruns, last minute corrections, or not having the information an audience member asks for.

There are several ways to create options that allow your presentation to change at the last minute. For example, you can include hyperlinks to other presentations that you can use if necessary. But one of the most useful and powerful techniques is custom shows.

A custom show is a set of slides within your presentation that you name. For example, you might have 2 slides that you call Details. These slides can provide additional information that you can go to if appropriate. A custom show can have 2 purposes:

To add some additional slides in the event of a question on a certain topic or if you have more time than you expected and need extra content
As an alternative ending, in case you have less time than expected, or there's a possibility that a last-minute decision might change your presentation at the last minute

You can create any number of custom shows.

When you use the custom show, you can do so in 2 ways:

Scenario 1: Jump to the first slide of the custom show, display the slides in the custom show, and return to the slide where you left off. Use this method when you want the option to add additional slides to your presentation.
Scenario 2: Jump to the first slide of the custom show, display the slides in the custom show, and end the presentation. Use this method when you want an alternative ending, either to shorten a presentation, or to allow for last-minute changes.

First, figure out how you'll use the custom show, that is, whether you'll want to return to your original slide, or end with the custom show. Then, create the slides for the custom show. While they don't have to be consecutive, you'll find it easier to keep your navigation straight in your mind if they are consecutive. Also, it's easiest if you put them at the end of the main set of slides that you're sure you'll show.

Then define the custom show:

Choose Slide Show> Custom Shows. (In PowerPoint 2007, choose Slide Show tab> Start Slide Show group> Custom Slide Show> Custom Shows.)
Click New.
In the Define Custom Show dialog box, select the slides that will be in the custom show on the left, and click Add.
Click OK.
Click Close.

So, your presentation might look like this:

Slide 1
Slide 2
Slide 3
Slide 4
Custom Show Slide 1
Custom Show Slide 2

You link to a custom show; it's really a hyperlink. By specifying whether you want to return to the original slide, you control how the custom show works in the framework of the rest of the presentation.

Note: Slides in your custom show display if you just click through to the end, without using the link to the custom show. Therefore, if you decide not to use the custom show, you need to be careful to stop at the last slide before the custom show, which would be Slide 4 in the example above. I suggest putting some visual sign on the last slide (Slide 4), to remind you not to continue. A neat workaround is to hide the custom show slides. Select them in the Outline pane and choose Slide Show> Hide Slide. Now, the slides won't show unless you click a link to them.

I've discussed 2 scenarios Using the above slide structure, here's what you might do for each:

Scenario 1: Let's say that you want to have the option to display the custom show slides after Slide 3, then continue on to Slide 4. Follow these steps:

On Slide 3, insert an AutoShape or Action Shape. If you want, you can add some helpful text. On the other hand, you can remove the fill and the line to make it invisible. (But remember where it is!)
With the AutoShape selected, choose Insert> Hyperlink. (In PowerPoint 2007, choose Insert tab> Links group> Hyperlink.)
On the left, choose Places in This Document.
In the Select a Place in This Document box, scroll down to the Custom Shows item and choose your custom show.

Because you want to continue on with your presentation, check the Show and Return check box.
Click OK.

Here's what will happen.

You'll show slides 1-3.
On Slide 3, you'll click the custom show button and go to the first slide of the custom show.
You'll continue through the custom show.
Then you'll return to slide 3.
You'll continue through the main presentation until the end (Slide 4 in the above example).

Scenario 2: Let's say that you want to have the option to show the custom show instead of Slide 4. Follow the same steps as previously, but don't check the Show and Return check box. Here's what will happen:

You'll show slides 1-3.
On Slide 3, you'll click the custom show button and go to the first slide of the custom show.
You'll continue through the custom show. At the end of the custom show, the presentation will end.

As you can see, custom shows give you flexibility when you present, and allow you to create non-linear presentations. They are a powerful tool.

January 14, 2008

Try design variations

Designers have an excellent sense of color, but even they try out variations to see which looks best. Those of us who are not designers absolutely need to create variations of colors before making a final decision.

Color has a major impact on the effect of a presentation, but on a subtle level. By changing a presentation's colors, you can make it more upbeat or more low key.

Colors are well known for their emotional effects, although different people react differently to the same color, and different cultures apply different implications to colors. So rather than go by a set list of effects, you can try out variations and see what you like most. You can also ask others how they feel about the variations. Finally, you may be able to get some feedback from your audience about the colors. Of course, this is not always possible.

Here are 3 slides that are identical except for the color of the text at the bottom of the slide.

How do these slides differ in their effect? Your feeling might differ, but my impression is the following:

The blue seems conservative and calm
The red seems intense, perhaps exciting
The green seems smooth and enabling, perhaps evocative of money

No color is necessarily right or wrong, but one color might be more appropriate than another.

Here are 3 more colors:

Again, you might feel differently, but here are my observations:

The yellow is lively and synchronizes with the word "golden" in the slide's (and company's) title. It would be more legible in bold and a bigger size.
The white looks fresh and clean
The brown looks muddy and is somewhat hard to read -- not enough contrast with the background

In some cases, especially depending on the background, several colors may work well. In other situations, few colors will work well, and you'll have to try many variations, including many shades of one color (should the red be bluish or orangey?), before you'll find the right one.

Once you decide on the appropriate colors, you should create a color scheme (called theme colors in PowerPoint 2007). You need to come up with title text color, body text color, major fill color, and supplemental fill colors. Follow these steps:

Click Edit Color Schemes at the bottom of the Slide Design task pane. The Edit Color Scheme dialog box shows the colors of the current color scheme. (in 2007, choose Design tab> Themes group> Colors> Create New Theme Colors.)
To change a color, choose it and click Change Color. (In 2007, choose a color, and choose from the current theme colors, or click More Colors.)
Choose the Standard tab to choose a color, or the Custom tab to enter RGB (red-green-blue) specifications. Click OK.
Click Apply to return to your presentation.

Creating a custom color scheme (theme colors in 2007) is an excellent first step when you create a new presentation from scratch.

December 23, 2007

Congratulations to Bob Mathews and Alan Taylor for winning a copy of "7 Steps to Great Images!" They both sent in excellent slides using the "False Background" technique in response to my offer for the free e-booklet.

December 22, 2007

December 2007 background

The Earth and Water background is a soft, yet crisp title bar with a teal-colored Earth at the left and the texture of water throughout.

December 22, 2007

December, 2007 Resource of the Month - Presentation Magic
Presentation Magic is Glenna Shaw's excellent site. Glenna is a PowerPoint MVP. Her site includes some excellent tutorials and articles that are well worth the visit.

December 16, 2007

The importance of design

Do you design PowerPoint presentations? Do you have difficulty getting your company -- or your clients -- to realize the importance of good design?

Perhaps you can provide some information about the relationship between design and profits. Here's a point to make:

Peer Insight, a research firm, did a 3-year study of the performance of more than 40 Fortune 500 companies from 2000 to 2005 and found that those that focused on customer-experience design outperformed the S&P 500 stock index by a 10 to 1 margin.

Recently, Fast Company magazine, wrote an entire issue called, "Masters of Design." naming several masters. One of them is Yves Béhar. Béhar's work has become so well known, that one of his design's, the Leaf LED lamp for Herman Miller is shown in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. And the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art honored him with a solo exhibition this past fall. He is perhaps best known for the $100 laptop, which he designed for Nicholas Negroponte and MIT Media Lab's One Laptop per Child project.

Béhar notes that only a few companies, including Apple, Target, Procter & Gamble, and Nike, have the type of "full-throttle engagement" in design, making sure that design is important in everything the customer sees and feels. This includes not only the product, but the packaging.

Archetype Associates, a consulting firm, examined the backgrounds of 368 board members of the 30 companies in the Dow Jones Industrials Average and found that only one, Steve Jobs at Disney, with a design background. This means that companies don't feel that design is an expertise worth having on their boards. Those few design people who do get support, have it from the very top.

According to Béhar, a company that makes an emotional connection to users will gain long-lasting customer loyalty. He's talking about products, of course, not PowerPoint presentations.

But design-driven companies incorporate good design into all that they do. You see it not only in their products and packaging but on their Web site and in their brochures. You see it in their Annual Report.

Tell the powers that be that if they use professional designers for their Web site and printed materials, they should do the same for their PowerPoint presentations. Consider yourself, whether or not you have formal training, a design professional. (If you don't have training, petition to have the company pay for you to get some.) And make sure that the company knows the importance of good design.

December 8, 2007

Undim bulleted text

Bulleted text elicits a lot of animated, opinionated discussion. I've covered the pros and cons of bulleted text and provided some tips for working with, or without, them:

Sometimes, you can't think of a way to avoid bullets. So, how do you format them?

Some people like to animate (build) the bullets so that they come in one-by-one. I recently heard a Web seminar by an experienced presenter in the CAD (computer aided design) field say, "I hate it when people bring all the bullets in at once. I can't figure out which item the presenter is talking about. Please, make it easy on me."

And just before that, I heard another experienced presenter say, "Building bullets is like spoon-feeding the audience. I hate it when presenters do that!"

So, is there a middle ground? Yes! This technique brings in all the bullets at once, dimmed, but readable. Then you undim them as you discuss them. People who like to see all the bullets at once are happy, and those who like a clue as to the current item you're discussing are fulfilled as well.

PowerPoint doesn't have an undimming feature, so you need to change the font color, using animation. Here's are the steps:

Format the bullets in a medium color, such as gray. Make sure that the color you choose is visible against your background.
Choose Slide Show>Custom Animation. (In PowerPoint 2007, choose the Animations tab> Custom Animation.
Select the text placeholder with the bullets by clicking anywhere inside it.
Choose Add Effect> Emphasis> Change Font Color. (You may have to click More Effects to find the Change Font Color animation.)
Set the Font Color to the default font color. Set the speed to Fast; there's no reason to make audiences wait while the font changes color. Keep the default On Click in the Start box, so that you can undim each line as you get to it.

Try this technique the next time you create a bulleted slide and see if the audience is happier!

December 2, 2007

The Magic of False Backgrounds

Glen Millar, of Glen Millar Communications, introduced this animation/graphics technique at the PowerPoint Live conference. He called it the False Background. It isn't really a false background, but uses the technique of giving an AutoShape (shape, in 2007) the same background as the slide. You can then animate the AutoShape/shape, or layer it, for some stunning results. Follow these steps to set up this technique:

Start with a blank layout on an empty slide.
To specify a background image, right-click the slide and choose Background. (In PowerPoint 2007, choose Format Background.)
Click the drop-down arrow and choose Fill Effect. Click the Picture tab. (In 2007, click the Picture or Texture Fill option.)
Click Select Picture, and specify an image for the background. (In 2007, click the File button to specify an image.)
Click Apply. (In 2007, click Close.)
On the Drawing toolbar, click AutoShapes and insert one of the AutoShapes. (In 2007, click the Insert tab, click Shapes, and insert one of the shapes.)
Right-click the AutoShape (shape, in 2007), and choose Format AutoShape (Format Shape in 2007).
In the Line section, click the Color drop-down list and choose No Line, to remove the outline. (In 2007, click the Line Color item on the left, and choose No Line.)
In the Fill section, click the Color drop-down list and choose Background. (In 2007, click the Fill item on the cleft and choose Slide Background Fill.) This sets the fill of the AutoShape (shape) to the background of the slide. This is the very essence of this technique.
Click OK. (In 2007, click Close.) The AutoShape all but disappears, except that it's still selected, so that you can see the handles. Look at the lower-left side of the left slide below for the handles. (In 2007, shown on the right, the shape is clearer, because you also see a bounding box.)

Now, you need to animate the AutoShape (shape) to create the result that you want. Or you can layer it without animation. Here are some ideas. You can probably come up with others.

Technique 1: Zoom In

In this technique, you use the Zoom In emphasis animation to zoom in to a section of the image.

In Step 6 above, insert a circle or ellipse and center it over the area of the image that you want to emphasize.
Continue with the rest of the steps above.
After Step 10 above, with the AutoShape/shape still selected, choose Slide Show> Custom Animation. (In 2007, click the Animations tab and choose Custom Animation.)
Choose Add Effect> Emphasis> Grow/Shrink. Leave the default of 150% or choose another option.

Play the animation! You'll see a section zoom in and magnify the image.

See the animation. (Note that capturing the video makes it jerky. It looks a lot smoother in PowerPoint.)

Technique 2: Crop an Object

By layering AutoShapes (shapes), you can create a cropping effect. This effect can be static or animated. This is one of the effects that Glen showed at PowerPoint Live.

Before Step 6 above, insert a rectangle that covers the entire slide. It can be opaque, or partially transparent. Remove the outline and choose an appropriate fill color.
In Step 6 above, insert the shape that you want to use for the cropping. I used a rounded rectangle. Center it over the area of the image that you want to display. By doing these steps in this order, you'll ensure that the smaller shape is on top of the larger one.
If you want, you can animate an entrance for the larger shape covering the entire slide. Here, I used a Fade entrance animation.
Continue the rest of the steps to fill the top shape with the background.

See the animation. (Again, in PowerPoint, it looks much smoother.)

Technique 3: Mix Grayscale with Color

Like the previous technique, this one layers shapes. The outside area is grayscale, and the area inside the shape is in color. Glen showed this technique, too. I've left it unanimated.

Before Step 6 above, choose Insert> Picture> From File and insert the same image you used for the background. (In 2007, click the Insert tab, and choose Picture.) If necessary, resize it to cover the entire slide.
If the Picture toolbar isn't displayed, right-click any toolbar and choose Picture. Click the Color button and choose Grayscale. (In 2007, click the Format tab that appears. In the Adjust group, click Recolor and choose Grayscale in the Color Modes section.)
In Step 6 above, insert the shape that you want to use for the cropping. I used a rounded rectangle. Center it over the area of the image that you want to display. By doing these steps in this order, you'll ensure that the smaller shape is on top of the larger image.
Continue the rest of the steps to fill the top shape with the background.

Technique 4: Fly In the Image

Glen showed this animation as well. The image is broken up into 4 pieces which fly in and build the image, like a jigsaw puzzle. You can vary the animation effect in any way that you want. You can also add thick outlines around the 4 shapes.

For Step 6 above, insert 4 rectangles that together completely cover the slide. Here you see the rectangles with thick outlines to help you see their borders. I then removed the outlines.

Continue through the rest of the steps above for each of the 4 rectangles.
Select each rectangle in turn and add the following animation.

Top-Left rectangle: Fly In from Bottom-Right, On Click. I used the Medium speed.
Top-Right rectangle: Fly In from Bottom-Left, With Previous, same speed as before
Bottom-Left rectangle: Fly In from Top-Right, With Previous, same speed
Bottom-Right rectangle: Fly In from Top-Left, With Previous, same speed

See the animation. Remember that it looks better in PowerPoint. You might expect the rectangles to always display the part of the image that they cover, but they remember their "final home" location, and display that.

Click here to send me a 1-slide presentation using this technique and I'll send you a free e-booklet, "7 Steps to Great Images," from one of my seminars.

(The above offer has now expired.)

November 30, 2007

November 2007 Resource of the Month - VectorMagic is a free service from Stanford University Artificial Intelligence Laboratory that vectorizes bitmap images. In other words, it takes JPG, GIF, TIF, or PNG files that are made up of dots and translates them into lines and equations. You can resize vector files without losing sharpness, which is the main reason to use this service. It works especially well with pixilated logos.

November 24, 2007

PowerPoint Live 2007 Report

I've just returned from PowerPoint Live 2007 in New Orleans. This is my second year, and each time I've felt that I learned so much! This time I'd say that the underlying theme was creating audience-centered presentations. (That's my term; I didn't hear it at the conference.)

Rick Altman

PowerPoint Live offers 3 sessions at a time, for 3 days, and I couldn't attend all of them, of course. The 3 tracks are:

Tools and Techniques
Design and Deliver
Beyond PowerPoint

You'll be seeing some tips, techniques, and articles come out over the next few months that are based on what I learned. For now, I'll review some of the highlights of the sessions I attended.

Jim Endicott of Distinction Communication, Inc., gave the keynote address on Monday morning, "We've Come a Long Way: The Coming of Age for the Presentation Professional." An important point was that we need to switch from focusing on "giving" presentations to focusing on audiences "getting" them. He made the point that companies spend $100,000's on printed materials and their Web site, but often don't do the same for PowerPoint presentations, even though those presentations are just as crucial to the company. He said that companies are just starting to realize how much is lost with bad presentations.

Julie Terberg of Terberg Design spoke about developing PowerPoint templates for larger corporations. However, the points she made were useful for anyone who creates many presentations that have shared features. She explained how to create sets of slides for various situations and concepts that can then be used over and over. One point that she made that I heard several times was the importance of not putting too much content on a slide. This is because people simply can't grasp so much at one time. The solution is to split up the content into multiple slides.

Julie Terberg and Nancy Duarte

Sandy Johnson of Presentation Wiz did a session called, "Living with Bullets: When you must use bullets in your slides." The title says it all: bullets are not the ideal format for slides. However, she went through some pointers that can help make bullets a little more palatable, including:

Reducing the number of bulleted items on a slide (she recommends 5 maximum of 5 words each)
Putting sub-bullets into Speaker Notes, not on the slides
Highlighting important words or phrases (see my tip on this subject)
Being sure not to read the slides (this point was repeated many times during the entire conference)

For designers who are told that they must use bullets, she recommended an excellent technique; return to the person with a bulleted slide and an optional graphics slide (containing the same content). He or she will almost always choose the graphics slide.

Julie Terberg of Terberg Design also gave a fascinating demonstration of some of her animation work, slides that were done in PowerPoint but looked like they were done in Adobe® Flash®. She works in a precise way, using a grid and guides to precisely position objects, and then adding multiple animation effects to the objects. She plans these complex animations on paper first, and some take many hours to complete. You had to witness these creations to appreciate just what PowerPoint can do.

Jim Endicott of Distinction Communication, Inc., also gave a second session, "The Mother of All Makeovers: Using images, not words, to tell a story." Jim talks a lot about telling stories and about the fundamentals of persuasion. To make the point that slides shouldn't be overloaded with content, he related a 2000 study at Columbia University. Here's an article, "Too many choices?" about that study. When people had a choice of a table with 24 jars of jam and another with 6 jars of jam, more people went over to the table with more jars of jam, but they bought less jam from that table! The table with fewer jars of jam had fewer visitors, but sold more. Jim spoke about the importance of finding out what the audience wants, and knowing what you want the audience to do after the presentation. Buy something? Call for a consultation? He covered his "Seven-Step Persuasive Message Model," which shows a presenter how to organize an effective message.

Each year the participants meet with representatives from Microsoft and get to ask lots and lots of questions. This is very fulfilling! (Haven't you wanted to tell Microsoft what you think about PowerPoint?) Not only did we get answers, but we learned a lot about how the PowerPoint team thinks and why some requests are hard to fulfill.

The Microsoft PowerPoint Team

Nancy Duarte, of Duarte Design, gave the second keynote presentation, called "Shift Happens: New changes in global technology will impact presentations." Some of the talk was inspired by her recent visit to India. Nancy worked on Al Gore's famous presentation, "An Inconvenient Truth." She spoke about several trends that are affecting presentation design today, including the global economy, the proliferation of electronic devices, and social networking. She also mentioned an interesting study showing that companies that consider design important ("design-driven companies") do better financially than those who don't emphasize it. This is the importance of branding and presentations are a part of it.

George McCaskill, CTO of Perspector, a 3D add-in for PowerPoint, gave a fascinating talk called, "Lessons from the Rocket Scientists: Building presentations that take off." It looked at presentations from a systems point of view, including:

Thinking about the problem before the solution
Focusing on the presentation as well as the slides
Understanding the role of modeling

He discussed Requirements Management, which involves collecting the requirements, or needs, for the presentation and managing the process to meet those needs. It uses processes like project management to ensure a higher rate of success.

Glen Millar, of PowerPoint Workbench, introduced a fantastic, new animation technique, which I'll reveal later on, perhaps next month! Keep an eye out for it. He calls it the false background.

Rick Altman, of R. Altman & Associates, also the organizer of PowerPoint Live, and Sandy Johnson produced a "play" to show how a PowerPoint expert in a company could respond to poorly-made slides that come from presenters. Topics included:

How to convince them to reduce the amount of text on a slide (pity the poor audience!) - highlighting main concepts, changing bullets to headings, using animation, and splitting content into several slides.
Creating charts that are comprehensible, including formatting, animating ,and ungrouping them
Transforming text into "infographics," which use graphics and animation to develop a model and tell a story
Animating tables to introduce the concepts first and then bring in the data.
A tip on converting a presentation to a text file when there's text in text boxes and AutoShapes. You'll see that as a new tip on my site, soon! This is helpful when a presentation is so awful that you want to

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Amazing! Grand opening of Virtualis conference center in Second Life

Prezvision: An interview with Wataru Sugawara, CEO of SoftAdvance