My goal is to help you succeed when you present by giving you knowledge. I'm passionate about turning Death by PowerPoint into Life by PowerPoint. You'll find free tips, techniques, articles, and tutorials here. At the E-store find books and courses to aid you in becoming a great presenter. On my About page, learn more about consulting, workshops, training, webinars, and coaching on presentation skills and PowerPoint.
If you missed it, we had a great webinar last week on Animation and Video in PowerPoint—Advanced Techniques. It was jam packed with 10 techniques and attendees also got a 14-page handout with detailed instructions and the presentation itself, containing all the techniques!
You can now purchase the recording for $24.95, or buy all 5 webinars for the price of 4 for only $98. If you buy all 5, you’ll get the recording (plus the instructions and presentation) and access to the rest of the training webinars live.
Read more about the webinar. Scroll down to the bottom to find the Buy Now button for the 5 for the price of 4 option.
There’s a great discussion going on at The Official Toastmasters International Members Group on LinkedIn. Because you can’t access the group unless you join, I thought I’d summarize the opinions and see what you think. Here’s the question the sparked the discussion:
“In my home [Toastmaster] club, it has been generally accepted that the speaker does not thank the audience at the conclusion because it diminishes the impact of the ending and it is somewhat trite. The belief exists that the audience should be thanking the speaker for taking the time to prepare and share their thoughts.
Recently, one of our members has pulled me aside and indicated how rude he thinks it is for the speaker to assume that the captive audience should appreciate being held hostage without a thank you. We have another member who feels similarly.”
Do you say "thank you" at the end of a presentation?
Opinions that you shouldn’t say “thank you” at the end
Official TM stand on thanking the audience after the speech: “Don’t end by saying “Thank you.” The audience should thank you for the information you’ve shared. Instead, just close with your prepared ending, nod at the Toastmaster of the meeting, and say, ‘Mr. [or Madam] Toastmaster’ – then enjoy the applause.’”
I find “Thank You” a weak ending especially when a speech deals with emotions/persuasion. I prefer to pause for a few seconds (2-3) after a power-ending before handing over the control to the Toastmaster.
The audience remembers the last sentence best, so what do you want them to remember— the point you are making, the thing you want them to do, or thank you?
If it’s just a regular speech, closing with “thank you” just sounds like “thanks for not walking out.”
This concept has become so ingrained in me that I don’t think I could close that way if I tried. If you go back and watch videos of excellent speeches, I don’t believe you’ll find many (if any) that close with ‘thank you.’
Opinions that you should (or can) say “Thank you”
It is speaker’s preference. I usually do say thank you because I believe it is the polite thing to do.
Outside of TM world, “Thank you” is fine as part of the close. You’re not thanking them for sitting and hanging on your every word, rather for inviting you, organizing the event, contributing questions, etc. It MUST be sincere and not a throw-away line.
At conferences I attend, it is usual and courteous to thank the audience at the end. The two best conference speakers I’ve heard (who get invited all over the world to speak) not only say “Thank you” at the end of every speech, but even end with a “Thank-you” slide. There’s nothing wrong with that — you’re thanking the audience for being attentive, asking good questions, laughing in the right places…. Then they thank you back, by applauding.
I usually try to put a thank you in the transition leading to the conclusion – that way I make my personal thanks known (and signal the audience that the end is near) without muddying the conclusion.
Opinions that it depends on the circumstances
For TM speeches, and especially for contests, I would not say “Thank You.” For speeches outside TM, I agree that saying “Thank You” is OK, especially if you have been giving a long seminar. However, a good alternative would be to (sincerely) wish the audience well with whatever the topic of your speech has been. That is a clear signal that the speech is over and should leave them with a favorable impression.
When speaking at TM, you generally do not thank the audience. If I were giving a seminar, or other training, I would ALWAYS thank the audience. At Rotary, at a professional venue, or any public presentation, I would ALWAYS thank the audience.
If you NEED to thank the audience, (for going out of their way to hear you, or for them giving you an opportunity to speak), you can do it towards the end, but it shouldn’t be the last words.
What I think
I almost always thank the audience, but I don’t think I did so when I was in Toastmasters. The situation was different:
The audience wasn’t paying to hear me speak
The audience didn’t choose to come and hear just me (they came as part of the meeting and for their own learning experience)
Toastmasters is a very formal atmosphere. Yes, you end with Mr. (Madam) Toastmaster and a handshake at the end. Who does anything equivalent in the business world?
I do like the idea of not making “thank you” your last words, though, and leaving the audience with a final, uplifting point. For example, I might say, “Thanks for your attention and remember that you CAN present complex data clearly!”
If you’re giving a sales presentation, you would always thank the audience. Why should they thank you when you’re trying to sell them something? If your CEO gave you some of his precious time to hear a pet proposal of yours, of course you should thank him or her.
The Freesound Project is a web site that collects sounds and sound effects (not music) that are available under Creative Commons licensing, and therefore free and legal for anyone to use. It’s also a community; you can register and upload your own sounds for sharing.
At the top right, enter a term in the Search box. For example, try entering thunder or bell, and you’ll find lots of options.
In my blog post, “Add drama with PowerPoint 2007’s shadows,” I had a contest for the best 3 entries. I got permission to show you the entry of the 1st place winner, John Sanders, so here it is.
John says, “In the Education Department of WA Performance Management process we suggest that the staff member commence the process by reflecting on their work and where they are at prior to planning a course of action with their manager for the next planning period. I have used this picture while explaining the concept. The original picture came from the clip art collection of Microsoft Office.”
In my “Create an Outstanding Presentation” workshops and self-study course, I teach four layouts that always look good. I taught them again recently in a presentation skills class for college students.
I find that many presenters who create their own slides struggle with slide design. Not being artists, their efforts are clunky. They usually know this, but don’t know what to do about it.
But until then, I thought I’d give you two layouts that always look good. They’re easy to create, too.
Many people use this layout, which I call “everything centered on top of everything else.” The default template seems to encourage centering everything. It’s certainly not horrible, but I think you’ll see that it can be improved.
Here’s an alternative. The heading is on the left, which I recommend for a couple of reasons. (See the Related Tips section below.) The image covers the slide from left to right. Part of the reason this slide looks better is that the image is larger. But it’s more than that; there’s a more pleasing balance. Your eye starts at the upper left and travels diagonally.
Garr Reynolds calls this an “asymmetrical design” in his book Presentationzen. He says, “symmetrical designs are more static than asymmetrical designs and evoke feelings of formality or stability.” If you have his book, look on p. 149 for an example of both types of designs.
A second look is what I call the vertical split. If you have Photoshop skills, you could make the transition more gradual with a transparency gradient, but this isn’t necessary.
Usually, I make the split even, but here the image takes up about 60% of the slide’s width.
Dr. Atherton also did research comparing slides with significant bulleted text and those with little text. Students were tested on the material. In multiple-choice tests, there was no difference, but in short essay tests, students who saw what she calls “sparse slides” did twice as well.
A couple of months ago, many of you responded to my survey asking what type of resources you wanted. It was clear from the answers that certain topics were most valuable to you, so I’ve created 5 webinars on those topics.
Moreover, you can get all 5 for the price of 4, which is $98. To get this rate, look for the Buy Now button next to “All 5 webinars for the price of 4 ($98)!” at the bottom of each page below.
Here are the links for the individual webinars. Each webinar is $24.50. They’ll all be recorded, so you can get the recording even if you can’t make the webinar. Each webinar includes a bonus, too!
Geetesh Bajaj of Indezine, the most visited PowerPoint site in the world (maybe excepting for Microsoft), has posted a conversation he had with me here about the Campaign Against Death by PowerPoint.
In the conversation, Geetesh asked me how the campaign got started and what I hope to achieve, as well as how the Invitation works.
The authors are both Microsoft MVPs (Most Valuable Professionals) and experts in their field. Geetesh Bajaj, who wrote the PowerPoint section is the owner of Indezine.com, the most visited PowerPoint site on the planet. I’ve worked with him on several books and he has written several books of his own or with other authors. For that reason, I feel comfortable highly recommending this book.
PowerPoint 2007’s shadows are so much better than 2003’s. In this video lesson, I show you how to use all the settings.
And it’s a contest with free prizes! Listen to the video!
Do you prefer video lessons to text lessons? Sometimes, one if more appropriate than the other because of the content, but in general, which do you prefer?
My goal is to help you succeed when you present by giving you knowledge. I'm passionate about turning Death by PowerPoint into Life by PowerPoint. You'll find free tips, techniques, articles, and tutorials here. At the 
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