PowerPoint 2010 lets you specify which parts of [...]]]> One of the new features of PowerPoint 2010 is the ability to remove the background of an image. This is different from making one color in the background transparent, which you can do in earlier versions. (I describe that process in a tip, “Cool contour shadows.”)

PowerPoint 2010 lets you specify which parts of the image you want to keep or discard. It doesn’t always work perfectly, but for the right image — usually one with clear outlines — it’s a great tool.

Watch how it works.

This past weekend I went to a conference. I heard some great content, but a lot of it was either over my head or irrelevant to my needs. From what the audience said (a number were beginners), [...]]]> I’ve written on this topic before (see the links below), but it’s important enough to cover again.

This past weekend I went to a conference. I heard some great content, but a lot of it was either over my head or irrelevant to my needs. From what the audience said (a number were beginners), I think this was true for others.

Recently, I tasted a delicious candy that a friend of mine made and she gave me the recipe. I made it for a benefit concert’s bake sale and people raved about it. My son heard about it and asked me for the recipe.

I started typing it in an e-mail to him, but then I realized that, although he does a fair amount of cooking (and likes it), he’s still a beginner.

Here’s the recipe as I would have given it to a seasoned cook:

Ginger Chocolate Bonbons

• 1 8-oz pkg cream cheese, softened
• 1 c. sifted powdered sugar
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 5 oz. chocolate chips, melted and cooled
• 1 c. roasted ground almonds, sprinkles, cocoa powder or coconut

Place cream cheese in a large mixing bowl. With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat cream cheese for 30 seconds. Slowly add sugar and ginger and beat until smooth. Add melted chocolate chips and beat until combined. Chill about 1 hour or until easy to handle.

Shape chilled mixture into 1-1/2 inch balls. Roll in the chosen covering. Chill. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Makes about 24 balls.

Ginger Chocolate Bonbons for Beginners

Here’s the way I wrote it in the e-mail:

• 1 8-oz pkg (or container) cream cheese, softened (left out of the refrigerator for a while)
• 1 cup sifted powdered sugar (I didn’t sift it, but it would be best to). You know the difference between powdered and granulated sugar? Also called confectioner’s sugar. It’s pure white and very fine.
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 5 oz. chocolate chips, melted and cooled (you generally melt them in a double boiler. That’s what I did. Cooled just means so they’re not hot. If you put them in the refrigerator, they get hard again) Ask me if you don’t know what a double boiler is.
• 1 cup toasted finely chopped or ground almonds, chocolate sprinkles, cocoa powder or grated coconut (I used ½ c. cocoa and ½ c. coconut and made half of the balls with each)-for rolling

Place cream cheese in a large mixing bowl. With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat cream cheese for 30 seconds. Slowly add sugar and ginger and beat until smooth. Add melted chocolate chips and beat until combined. Chill about 1 hour or until easy to handle.

Shape chilled mixture into 1-1/2 inch balls. Roll in the chosen covering. Chill. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. If you can keep them that long, congratulations. I think they’ll be eaten in a few minutes! Makes about 24 balls.

See the difference? Let me know if you like them!

Related Tips

• Choose words for your audience
• Base content on your audience

Many products and services are sold via presentations. Your success [...]]]> Do you give sales presentations? Perhaps you travel to prospective clients‘ offices and pitch a product or service. You may give webinars online to sell your wares. Another scenario: You invite people to your office and give them a presentation on what you offer.

Many products and services are sold via presentations. Your success depends on the effectiveness of your presentation. Sure, you also need to set up the presentation in advance and follow up afterwards, but the presentation is the pitch.

Here are some of my thoughts about what makes a successful sales presentation:

You have a solution that the potential customer needs

You can give the most stunning presentation ever, but if you don’t have a solution to a problem of the potential customer, you probably won’t make the sale. If you do, you’ve cheated him/her into thinking you do, and that isn’t ethical.

You explain how your solution will solve your potential customer’s problem

On the other hand, you may have a solution, but not explain it clearly and this is where presentation preparation comes in. As you prepare what you will say, check to make sure that your content is clear and organized.

Explicitly state the problem, based on prior discussions or on answers to your questions during the presentation. Then show how your product or service will solve the problem.

You provide supporting data to back up your solution

You may have a great solution, but how do you get people to believe you? This is the art of persuasion. (See my e-book, The Art of Persuasion.)

Lost Art of Persuasion

High Impact Slide Design for Non-Designers

Ellen Finkelstein can train you or the presenters in your organization to create high-impact, engaging, professional presentations [...]]]> Here’s an excellent example of a talk without PowerPoint, from the TED.com series. This is Simon Sinek speaking on “How great leaders inspire action.” He uses a flip chart and draws on it as he talks.

You’ve probably seen websites with [...]]]> A subscriber recently asked me, “I am currently trying to figure out if it is possible to hover over text and have an image pop up when I hover over the text, like you do on most websites these days.  Do you know if this is possible in PowerPoint?”

You’ve probably seen websites with pop-up menus. You hover the cursor over a button and a sub-menu opens. Here’s an example from Amazon.com’s website:

Can you do that in PowerPoint? Not exactly, at least not without some programming. But you can hover the mouse over an object on a slide and make three things happen:

• You can hyperlink to another location
• You can open another program
• You can play a WAV sound

You can fake the menu-flyout-on-hover effect using the first option, a hyperlink to another slide. First, watch how it looks.

To create this effect, follow these steps:

Create a slide by inserting the objects you want to hover over. Here’s the first slide.

In this case, I inserted two objects. Each object will hyperlink to its own slide when you hover the cursor over it, so this project needs two additional slides.

Duplicate the first slide as many times as you need for your situation. Each slide then has the original shapes in the same location. This is important for the seamless look of the menu; the fact that you’re going to another slide won’t be obvious.

These slides need the pop-up object on them. As you can see, I’ve added another shape, with the answer to the questions. I also added a Return shape which will hyperlink to the first slide with the questions. These are slides 2 and 3.

Return to the first slide and select the shape that you want to hover over. Go to Insert tab> Links group> Action. (In PowerPoint 2003, go to Slide Show> Action Settings) In the Action Settings dialog box, click the Mouse Over tab.

Select the Hyperlink To option. Then choose the appropriate slide from the drop-down list. For the first shape, I chose Next Slide as you see above. Click OK to create the hyperlink. For the second shape, I chose Slide, which opened a list of slides; there I chose the 3rd slide. Make sure you’re on the Mouse Over tab for each hyperlink you add, because it isn’t the default tab.

For the Return shape on Slide 2, I chose Last Slide Viewed. Then I copied and pasted that to Slide 3.

To create the effect of the second shape sliding down from the first, you use animation. Go to the second slide and select the shape you added. Go to Animations tab> Custom Animation to open the Animation task pane. (In PowerPoint 2003, choose Slide Show> Custom Animation. In PowerPoint 2010, you’ll work on the ribbon.) In the Custom Animation task pane, choose Add Effect> Entrance> More Effects (if Peek In isn’t on the list)> Peek In. Click OK if you opened the Add Entrance Effect dialog box. In PowerPoint 2010, click the Add Animation button to find these options.

From the Start drop-down list, choose With Previous. This makes the sliding down effect happen automatically when you display the slide using the hyperlink. Set the Direction to From Top. (In PowerPoint 2010, you’ll find this setting by clicking the Effect Options button on the ribbon.) Here are the settings:

Save and go into Slide Show View. Hover the mouse over the shape on Slide 1. You’ll go to Slide 2, but because it’s the same as Slide 1 except for the Peek In animation, it seems as if the second shape slides down on the original slide. Hover your cursor over the Return button. This returns you to Slide 1. Test any other shapes and effects that you created.

Like it? Download the presentation.

But when you try that in PowerPoint, it doesn’t work. The entire application window moves. So how to you see [...]]]> Have you ever wanted to compare two PowerPoint files side-by-side? You’ve probably done it in Microsoft Word many times. You just open the two Word documents and drag one of them to the side.

But when you try that in PowerPoint, it doesn’t work. The entire application window moves. So how to you see both presentations at the same time?

Instead, go to View tab> Window group> Arrange All. (You can also choose Cascade and then move and resize the windows as you want.) In PowerPoint 2003, choose Window> Arrange All.

PowerPoint-view two presentations side by side

Here’s the result:

Result: view 2 presentations side by side

In PowerPoint 2010, you can drag the two (or more) presentation windows, like you can in Word.

PowerPoint visual summary slide

Several [...]]]> When I do my webinars, I end with a summary slide to help the audience members remember what I’ve said. A slide with a list of bullet points won’t work very well, because text doesn’t jog the memory. So I use a visual summary slide. Here’s an example.

PowerPoint visual summary slide

Several people have asked me how to create this type of summary slide. Here are the steps:

Choose a slide that presents each of your main points. You probably shouldn’t have more than 5 or 6.

Take a screen shot of the slide that covers a square area. This means you’ll have to omit the edges of the slide. The reason for this is that PowerPoint will stretch or shrink the image to fit the circle; if you include the entire slide, the image will be distorted. You can press the Print Screen button, use Snip in Vista, or use a screen capture program like TechSmith’s SnagIt.

Save the screen capture as a JPG or PNG file in the same location as your presentation. If you use the Print Screen key, open Paint, which comes with Windows, paste, and then save.

Create your shapes. For this diagram, I used PowerPoint 2007′s SmartArt feature. I chose Insert tab> Illustrations group> Smart Art. In the Cycle category, I chose Radial Cycle.

PowerPoint visual summary slide with SmartArt

If you need to add a circle on the circumference, click an outside circle and go to SmartArt Tools Design tab> Create Graphic group> Add Shape. To delete a shape, select it and press the Delete key.

Drag the corner handle and enlarge the diagram to cover the entire slide.

Choose a style from the SmartArt Styles group.

PowerPoint visual summary slide using SmartArt

The diagram is meant for text, not images. (Some SmartArt types do take images.) To add flexibility, right-click the selected diagram and choose Group>Ungroup twice. That’s right, you need to do it twice.

PowerPoint visual summary slide, ungrouping SmartArt

Double-click the top circle to select it and display the Format tab. In the Shape Styles group, choose Shape Fill> Picture.

Navigate to your image and double-click it.

PowerPoint visual summary slide-filling a circle with an image

Continue with the rest of your circles until you’re done!