The purpose of your presentation is to create change. Maybe you want your audience to take some action or at least think differently about your topic. A prerequisite is that they understand and remember what you say. There’s quite a bit of research about how to present information to maximize understanding and retention, but I’ll mention […]
Create a soft look with semi-transparent images in PowerPoint
You can’t make an image itself transparent in PowerPoint, but there’s a workaround. Why would you want to make an image transparent? For a soft look To overlap images To let text show through You might have other reasons — if so leave a comment! It’s a matter of choice Normally, I would create a […]
4 secrets to choose the best images for your slides
You use images in a presentation for 3 reasons: To help your audience understand what you are saying To help them remember what you are saying To persuade them to change their mind and take action How do you choose the best images for your presentation? A common question people ask me is how I […]
Don’t use placeholders for images, unless…
I was working on a client’s presentation and she used content placeholders for all of her pictures. She would click the Picture icon in the content placeholder to insert the image. Then she would resize and move the placeholder to get the result she wanted because the placeholder was never the right size. But whenever […]
Office Clip Art gallery is going away
According to the Microsoft Office blog, the Office Clip Art gallery is going away. I’m very upset by this, because I use its photos daily. While much commentary (include a funny riff by Conan on TV) focus on the line art, the text of the blog post makes it clear that photos will also disappear. […]