PowerPoint Tips Blog

Create a looping introduction

It’s often helpful to have some animation showing when an audience files into the room, just to elicit some interest. When you’re ready, you can stop it and start the main part of your presentation.

I’m going to tell you about one technique to accomplish this.

This technique uses a looped presentation in which [...]

Use materials and lighting for interesting fills

You can fine tune the fills of your AutoShapes (Shapes, in 2007) by applying a variety of surface materials and lighting treatments. The differences are subtle but can impart a more professional result and create a realistic 3D look. PowerPoint 2007 has added many additional material and lighting settings. I’ve covered PowerPoint 2007 [...]

Create text reflections

One of PowerPoint 2007′s new features is reflections. You can create reflected text in earlier versions, too, using WordArt.

Click the WordArt button on the Formatting toolbar. In the WordArt gallery, choose a simple option (nothing wavy), and click OK.

Enter the text you want in the Edit WordArt Text dialog box. If you [...]

Use feedback to complete the communication cycle

Your presentation will be more successful if you understand and utilize basic concepts of communication. If you leave out any aspect of the process, your communication may fail.

Several theories of communication exist, but here’s my way of looking at it. (This type of diagram is easy to create with PowerPoint 2007′s SmartArt.)

[...]

Text animation techniques

A subscriber asked me to write up some text animation techniques, so here are two that you might like to use. These work best when the text plays center screen and your slide doesn’t contain too much else. You wouldn’t use these techniques a lot, or with too much text.

Fade in variations [...]

Create a timer

To get your audience to settle down before you start or for breaks, you can create a timer slide that counts down the seconds or minutes before you begin. You can use this timer to time 60 seconds or 60 minutes (for lunch, perhaps). In fact, you can set it up for less or [...]

Create a custom layout

Layouts help you lay out the components of your slide and PowerPoint comes with many of them. Here’s a sample.

slide components

Unfortunately, PowerPoint versions before 2007 and 2010 don’t have a feature to let you create custom layouts that appear in the Layout taskpane. However, you can work around this limitation [...]

Align objects perfectly

While several of my other tips mention the use of the Align feature in PowerPoint, I’ve never covered it by itself. If you insert objects on a slide and want them to be aligned, you need to know about this feature — and many people don’t; they’re still using the arrow keys.

First [...]

Link to other presentations and return to the original presentation

For greater flexibility when you present, you can create a main presentation that contains a menu and link the items in the menu to other presentations. When you decide to cover a topic, you click on its menu item to go to the presentation on that topic.

When you’re done covering that topic, [...]

Create invisible buttons

In a discussion with Dr. Pavel Samsonov, a professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, the topic of invisible buttons came up. I had encountered them before, so I thought I would explain.

Invisible buttons are AutoShapes with no fill and no line that have a hyperlink attached to them. You use [...]

And get e-mail notification when I post new tips, tutorials, techniques, & articles. Plus 5 free bonus tips!

You'll find free tips, techniques, articles, and tutorials here, all designed to help you succeed when you present. This blog gives you knowledge. I'm passionate about turning Death by PowerPoint into Life by PowerPoint. Discover books and courses to help you become an outstanding presenter. Find out more about training, consulting, webinars and coaching on presentation skills and PowerPoint.

Don't see the information you need? Go to the list of over 250 tips, tutorials, techniques, & articles!

"I just want to say your Blog is the BEST!!! It is a God-send to me!! I love it and it's my new favorite place to spend online =)" - Joleen Bateman

PowerPoint Tips Blog

Create a looping introduction

Use materials and lighting for interesting fills

Create text reflections

Use feedback to complete the communication cycle

Text animation techniques

Create a timer

Create a custom layout

Align objects perfectly

Link to other presentations and return to the original presentation

Create invisible buttons

Free white paper: From Death by PowerPoint to Life by PowerPoint

Outstanding presentations!

Social Media Connection Panel

Recent Posts

Join the Campaign Against Death by PowerPoint!

Featured in Alltop

Speaking Pro Central

Blogroll