|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
June 30, 2009 For a professional image: Say good-bye to filler words and hello to eye contact Do you strive to look, sound, and perform your best when you present? Say good-by to filler words When you're at an event where several people speak, you'll notice that some people sprinkle their talk with filler words, especially "uh." By contrast, those who speak without filler words sound polished and eloquent. I've noticed that educators seem to think that they don't do public speaking, but they do! Perhaps they think public speaking is commercial, but it doesn't have to be. Even people who do internal presentations should banish uh's and um's.Social psychologists say that one way to be viewed as a leader in a group is simply to speak up, speak well and offer lots of ideas. Notice the middle item, "speak well." Besides filler words like "uh" and "um," people use others words that are unnecessary and therefore sound sloppy. I hear this on the radio often, when a person who is not a professional speaker is being interviewed. Here's my list:
Perhaps you've heard others. Some people are naturally good speakers. Even without practice, their speech comes out smoothly from their thoughts, no filler words needed. Others, like me, are not so lucky. Our brains get stuck and we don't know what to say next. So we get in the habit of using filler words. Here's the technique that has worked for me:
I find that it takes only 3 tries to banish filler words from my talk. Does that mean they're gone forever, even from my daily conversation? Uh, no. But when I speak, they are almost completely absent, because I've practiced and focused on this issue. Try it. Let me know the results! Do you have another technique? Say hello to eye contact One problem some speakers have is lack of eye contact. They speak to the air over the audience's head. I tend to do this. My attention is so internal, trying to remember what I have to say, that I'm not focused on the audience. I'd be perfectly happy speaking with my eyes closed! However, the audience responds better if you speak to them, not over them. To do this, you establish eye contact with one person at a time, for a sentence or two (or a complete thought). Then go on to the other. I practice this, too. Here's my technique: I place some animals on the back of an armchair, stand up, and talk to them. I look them in the eye, one after another. When I spoke, this exercise helped me to remember to focus on members of the audience. Try it. Let me know the results! Do you have another technique?
June 29, 2009 July 2009 Resource of the Month - Speaking Pro Central June 20, 2009 Put a YouTube video in PowerPoint You can embed a YouTube video into a PowerPoint presentation. For example, your company may have videos on YouTube that you would like to show. If you're sure that you'll have a live Internet connection when you present, you can use this method.
Note: On repeated playing, the movie sometimes starts itself or plays at a quick speed. Just click the Pause button, drag the slider to the left, and click Play.
Watch Laura Bergells' YouTube video on the subject (for PowerPoint 2007 only). Related tips:
June 14, 2009 Lost Art of Persuasion - new e-book This e-book is about persuasive presentations, and how to succeed. If you need to sell or persuade others, this book will give you a blueprint for creating your presentations. Discover the 3 mistakes most presenters make in their persuasive presentations. If you're a sales rep, or a business manager recommending proposals, you'll find this e-book an invaluable tool. June 14, 2009 Create a better PowerPoint template PowerPoint's default blank template is annoying! It really needs work. And with more and more people using white backgrounds, you're probably using the blank template more often. Here's what to do to make a better template. Here are the steps:
Here you see the reformatted slide master.
When this is done, save the result as a template so that you won’t have to make these changes again. Here’s how:
Note: I want to thank Julie Terberg of Terberg Design for many of these ideas. May 26, 2009 Workshop: Create an outstanding presentation! Coming June 15-17! You'll gain the ability to:
Find out more! Only 6 places left! Read more about this unique opportunity. May 26, 2009 May 22, 2009 Use presentations for high-impact, low-cost marketing
Tell ‘n’ ShowSM covers the 3 areas of a presentation: content, design, and delivery. Increase the impact of your slides Text-heavy, bulleted slides are deadening. Audiences immediately think, “It’s boring,” and they tune out. You can lose your audience’s attention in the first few seconds this way. People are essentially visual and remember visual images better than text. There are a number of good sources for free images; I link to another tip that lists them below. So, get rid of bullets on your slides. You should not, I repeat, should not, put everything you say on your slides. Yet, many presenters do just that. A slide should not be a teleprompter. It’s meant to be a visual aide, and nothing more. If you don’t have anything to show, don’t show it. Research shows that the brain doesn’t multitask very well, and specifically doesn’t deal with visual and audio inputs at the same time. If you have your text on the slide, people naturally read it. But if you’re speaking it out loud, they aren’t listening to you. Really. You might as well stand silent and go click, click, click and just let them read. Instead, remember that you are the presentation. Your slides are not the presentation. The Tell ‘n’ ShowSM concept Before you start your presentation, write down your goal, research your audience, figure out 2-3 points you want to make, and how you’ll show those points. Will you have a theme? For example, the theme of this tip is “high-impact, low cost” – it runs through everything I write. You write all this down before ever opening up PowerPoint. There’s more to organizing your content of course – thinking about how to persuade an audience, keeping their interest, getting them to act, and so on. It’s strange, but true, that although companies use a professional designer for their Web site and printed brochures, they often do their presentation design in-house. Yet the presentation is often the last and most direct means of marketing to a potential customer, just before the sale. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Nevertheless, budgets are limited, and I teach people how they can get professional-looking results even though they may be artistically challenged. I also teach people how to deliver in a way that connects to the audience, for maximum impact. After all, the presentation should be about your audience, not about you. Expanding the reach of your presentations You can see that by using some simple principles you can increase the impact of your presentations at little or no cost. But you can do more. You can take a presentation you give in person (or create a new one) and make a self-running presentation. Viewers can control it, or it can run automatically with set timings. Often it loops over and over. You can use a self-running presentation at a trade show, in the lobby of your offices, and so on. Moreover, you can convert it to a video format and put it on your Web site. In this case, you would probably convert it to Flash movie format, an SWF file. iSpring Free is a good, free product that does this. You can create a presentation for use as a self-running presentation, and put it on a computer where people will see it, or on your web site. By doing this, you’re getting more impact at no extra cost. More impact, because more people are seeing your presentation. What else can you do to get your presentation in front of more people, to increase its impact? You can post presentations to presentation-sharing sites, such as: Posting is free and on these sites, millions of people can find your presentation. You can add keywords so people can find it when they search, you can include your URL, and you can then embed the presentation on your site. Perhaps others will pick it up and embed it for you. You can even narrate it. A slidecast is a presentation that includes narration. Listen to my slidecast on SlideShare, less than 2 minutes, as an example. You can turn your presentation into video format and post it on YouTube and other video sharing sites. You have the same options for using keywords, your URL, and embedding. You can use SWF format that I already mentioned, or another video format. I use a program called Camtasia, which isn’t free, to convert presentations to video formats. At , See a short video lesson that I created on You Tube. Another way to expand your reach and therefore your impact is to give webinars, that is, web seminars. Most sales webinars are free to the participants and you usually have to pay for the service, although there are some free options. In this case, people hear what you’re saying through their phone or directly through their computer’s speakers and they see presentation slides that you control as you speak. A commonly used, low-cost solution is GoToMeeting. Another one is Glance . The free option is DimDim, but be prepared for slower response times in certain cases. Are you making the most of presentations for your marketing? Presentations are an important part of the marketing process. When you create clear, visual slides, your presentations will have more impact. When you repurpose them for a self-running show, your Web site, webinars, and sharing sites, you vastly expand their impact. All this at little or no cost. Related tips: Design guidelines for web conferences May 18, 2009 Convert PowerPoint to video (SWF - Flash movie format) Looking to expand the reach of your presentations? When you convert a PowerPoint file to video format, you can do a lot of things with it:
There are several types of video formats. In this tip, I focus on Adobe's SWF format. It's easy to post on a Web site and most computer systems have the viewer. (If not, it's a free download from Adobe.com. Look for the "Get Adobe Flash Player button.) YouTube may complain if you use an SWF format that embeds a player button and other controls, but for other uses, the controls are great. To see the video, click here How do you convert PowerPoint to SWF? Numerous programs can do this for you. For a long list, go to Robin Good's Mini-Guide of PowerPoint to Flash Conversion Tools. As far as I know, the best free tool is iSpring Free. I used it for the movie you see here. When you install iSpring Free, you get a new tab in PowerPoint 2007 with the conversion tools.
The Quick Publish button converts your presentation to SWF format in one click. Of course, you may need to set up your presentation appropriately first. In the case of the above movie, I added automatic timings for all the slides to match the length of the sound files that contain my narration. (I recorded the sound in Audacity.) The result is just 3 files:
If you want to put the SWF file on its own web page and link to it, you can just rename the HTML file, upload everything, and you're set. But that's not usually what you want to do. Instead, you probably want to place the SWF file on an existing page. My HTML code, after editing, looks like this: <table width="360" height="320" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" bgcolor="#d3daed"> <object id="presentation" width="360" height="288" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash <embed src="images/Slide 1.swf" quality="high" bgcolor="#ffffff" width="360" height="288" name="presentation" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer" allowFullScreen="true" /> </object> </div></td> </tr> </table> <script type="text/javascript" src="scripts/fixprompt.js"/> Here's what you need to do :
Here are some other changes that you may want to make:
May 7, 2009 Insert video in PowerPoint Video files come in several formats. The formats that work well in PowerPoint are:
Before you start, you must put the video file in the same folder as the PowerPoint presentation. The reason for this is that if you ever move your presentation to another computer, you video probably won't play. Not following this advice is probably the #1 reason videos don't play in PowerPoint. Then, choose Insert> Movies and Sounds> Movie from File. (In PowerPoint 2007, go to Insert tab> Media Clips Group> Movie.) From the dialog box, find and double-click the video file. (Note that "video" and "movie" mean the same thing.) You see a message asking you if you want the video to play automatically or when clicked. Choose whichever you want. You can change the option later. The first frame of the video appears on your slide.
Change how the video plays in PowerPoint You have some control over how the video plays in PowerPoint. Right-click the video on the slide, and choose Edit Movie Object to open the Movie Options dialog box. (In PowerPoint 2007, select the video, and click the Movie Tools Options tab. Most of the options are on the tab, but not all. For more options, click the dialog box launcher arrow at the right side of the group's title bar to open the Movie Options dialog box.)
Here's what you can do:
If you want to change whether the video plays automatically or only when clicked, choose Slide Show> Custom Animation (in PowerPoint 2007, Animations tab> Custom Animation) to open the Custom Animation task pane:
You can size the video so that it's appropriate for the resolution of your screen or projector. This is useful if you switch to a computer or projector with a different resolution than the original computer where you created the presentation. Follow these steps:
Troubleshooting video in PowerPoint Sometimes, videos in PowerPoint don't play. There can be a number of reasons for this:
For more information on troubleshooting video, go to Echo Swinford's excellent article, Troubleshooting Multimedia in PowerPoint. This article doesn't discuss inserting Adobe Flash movies (SWF files) into PowerPoint. See the links below for more information. Related tips
April 30, 2009 Workshop: Create an outstanding presentation! Coming June 15-17! You'll gain the ability to:
Find out more! $100 off the price if you register by May 15! Only 8 places available! Read more about this unique opportunity.
April 29, 2009 May, 2009 PowerPoint 2007 Theme - dun-aqua
To find out where to save it, open PowerPoint 2007, click the Design tab, and click the More button at the right of the row of themes from the Themes gallery. At the bottom, choose Save Current Theme, and PowerPoint automatically places you in the right folder. You should be able to see the path to the folder, which you might want to write down. Click Cancel to close the dialog box. Now, save the THMX file in that folder. You'll now have access to this theme from the Themes gallery. April 29, 2009 May, 2009 Resource of the Month - PowerPoint Ninja April 29, 2009 Winner of Animation for Entertainment contest Congratulations to Barry Whetstine for his winning submission for the Animation for Entertainment contest. He says, "I teach a workshop that provides tools for people seeking career direction. They may have been laid off, under-employed or looking for a career change but have no idea how to determine what they want to become, thus the slide attached. As you will see the slide utilizes animation, music, Shapes, and Power Clip Art from Animation Factory.I have been a fan of yours since discovering you in Presentation Magazine." Barry received a free copy of my e-book, 101 Tips Every PowerPoint User Should Know. April 25, 2009 Slideboxx (slide management system) review and special offer I've started using a slide-management program called Slideboxx. It lets you search for slides based on file name and content; you can then copy the results to the Clipboard (to paste into an existing presentation) or use them to create a new PowerPoint presentation. With over 10,000 slides on my computer, I need some help! Slideboxx works in your browser, which is unusual; it's actually a Flash application. It features a Search box where you enter keywords to find the slides you need. You can click an icon on any resulting slide to view all the slides in that presentation. Read more, see a screenshot, and find out how to get $10 off the price April 18, 2009 Find colors for your PowerPoint color scheme (theme colors) with Adobe kuler An important first step in creating a new presentation, one not based on any previous presentation, is to decide on your colors. In PowerPoint 2003, these are called the color scheme. In PowerPoint 2007, these are called the theme colors. See the related tips below for some ideas on how to choose colors. But even when you have an idea of which colors you want, it can be hard to put together a set of colors that look good together and that you think will have the desired effect. Enter Adobe kuler, a site devoted to color schemes.
Kuler is an Adobe-supported collection of color themes. People upload color themes they've created, visitors rate them, and anyone can access them. On the left, you can view color themes by Newest, Most Popular, Highest Rated, and Random. Click the small left and right arrows at the bottom of the list of color themes to scroll to the next group. When you register, you can view the color stats, add comments, and create and upload your own color themes. Adobe has its own color theme file format, but PowerPoint can't use it. Instead, click the Make Changes to This Theme and View Color Values button.
This button takes you to a page where you can adjust the colors on a color wheel by dragging the circles for each color. You can also see the stats in several formats. For PowerPoint, write down the RGB stats for each color.
The first related tip below provides instructions on creating a color theme in PowerPoint 2003 and theme colors in PowerPoint 2007. You'll use your RGB color stats in this process. Richard Garber reminded me that it's good to check your color themes to make sure that colorblind people can distinguish the colors. You can put them in several objects on a slide, select the objects, right-click, and choose Save as Picture. Then, upload the picture to Vischeck, a site that lets you see how the colors will look to someone with three kinds of colorblindness. Related tips
April 14, 2009 Convert iTunes M4P (and other) sounds to MP3 A subscriber recently asked me how to insert songs that he bought from iTunes into a PowerPoint presentation. He wanted to use them for a presentation to a Rotary Club conference. Before I start, let me say that I'm not a lawyer. If you have questions, get legal advice. That said, here's my understanding. (Correct me if I'm wrong.) In most cases, you need permission to use copyrighted music in a presentation to someone else. One exception is when a teacher uses it in a classroom, as part of a lesson. Students should also be able to use copyrighted music for a student class project. However, if you want to use the music for a non-profit organization, you may be able to get permission to do so. Contact either the publisher named in the credits (you may be able to find the publisher in the iTunes description), or one of several music industry organizations (ASCAP, BMI, or SOCAN for Canada). There are sources for copyright-free music that you can use. This article, "How to Get Free Music for PowerPoint Presentations," offers some ideas. You can also purchase royalty-free music, but even then may need to give credit in your presentation if you're using it for a commercial purpose. If you believe you have a legal use for music that you downloaded from iTunes in the M4P format (a protected format), you can convert it to MP3, which you can play on any audio player or insert into PowerPoint. An easy way to do this is to use Audacity, a free, open-source sound recording and editing program. You'll also need the LAME MP3 encoder, which you can get at the same location (after choosing your computer platform). Follow the instructions to download and install both. Start playing your iTunes music on your computer and immediately click the Record button in Audacity. Audacity will record directly from your sound card. The result may be softer than the original. If necessary, choose Edit> Preferences in Audacity and try various options in the Recording section of the Audio I/O tab. You sound card needs to allow direct recording, but most do. This is sometimes called recording "what is heard." After recording, choose File> Export as MP3. The first time, you need to specify the location of the LAME MP3 encoder file that you downloaded. Then you can save the recording as an MP3 file. Audacity lets you easily cut unwanted silence at the beginning and end. Just select a portion of the timeline and click the Cut button. Related tips:
April 6, 2009 Create a video effect The technique is time consuming, because you need to get the timing just right, but it's not difficult, and it's a lot cheaper than making a video. It's excellent for sales presentations. The key is animation and timing. In essence, you create a presentation that could be on one slide, but you use several slides for ease of animation. Then you add timing to the slides to move the presentation to the end automatically. Usually, you add narration as well. You can use many techniques; here are the steps to create a fairly simple video-effect presentation:
View the animation: Related tips
March 29, 2009 April, 2009 background - Turquoise border This subtle border adds a hint of color without being obtrusive. You can use it on the title and last slides, or on all slides. Insert the PNG file onto the slide or slide master, right-click, and send it to the back (Order> Send to Back, or just Send to Back). March 25, 2009 April, 2009 Resource of the Month - PPTAlchemy John Wilson's site, PPTAlchemy, offers lots of tips and tutorials, useful add-ins, and more. John is a PowerPoint MVP. March 22, 2009 Support your statements In the Tell 'n' ShowSM method of creating effective presentations, you tell you point, then you show it. So, each point requires some validation, some evidence. Which validation you choose may depend on your audience. Some people want hard data, others want to know what the competition is doing, and still others may want the advice of an expert. A story that conveys a poignant situation may be effective. Sometimes, all you need is an image to show what you're telling. If you say that the copier you sell fits on a small table, a photograph will suffice. Here are the types of evidence you can use: Images A photo is often a great way to show a point. You can use a photo in three ways:
Diagrams A diagram can show a process, hierarchy, or other relationships. You can use AutoShapes and arrows, the flowchart shapes with connectors (in the Lines category in PowerPoint 2007; otherwise in the Connectors category), or the SmartArt feature of 2007.
Charts/Graphs Charts (also known as graphs) visually display data, especially data showing a trend. Use only the data that supports your point, not all the data in the Excel spreadsheet where you got the data. If the data is too complex, it won't be comprehensible on a slide. What to do? Print it out and give it to the audience as a handout.
Tables When your data doesn't clearly show a trend, use a table. You may have this data in Excel, and can even link to the Excel file.
Quotations Quotes are very powerful when they come from authorities or well-known individuals. In a persuasive presentation, you can use testimonials from other customers, for example.
Stories Stories are powerful when they support your message. They can be personal, related to current events, examples from other customers, and so on. They can be full-blown situations, or simple examples. Collect stories as you hear them and keep them in a file for use later. Related tips: Tell 'n' ShowSM slide design March 21, 2009 The PowerPoint Live Template Contest: American Idol Meets Slide Design Brilliant artistry, crazed contestants, and famous judges all on display in annual competition to create conference template. For the fifth consecutive year, the PowerPoint Live User Conference is holding its Design-a-Template contest, with a free trip to the fall event being awarded to the person whose work is chosen to serve as the conference template. The conference has received over 300 entries across the last four and a half years, spanning all software versions and many design motifs. The contest’s legacy includes brilliant work by exceptionally talented people, as well as a bit of comic relief by those who just wanted to be part of the experience...not unlike those who audition for American Idol. “The challenge to this contest,” says Altman, “is the requirement that our slide design serve as the backdrop for all of the great ideas and visuals put forth by our presenters. In order to be a contender, a design needs to wear well for eight hours a day across three days. Contest participants want to be noticed, we get that, but their designs need to succeed in staying subtle and playing the supporting role. That's not so easy.” Deadline for entries is Friday, June 5 and the contest is open to anyone. Contest rules:http://www.pptlive.com/contest.htm Gallery of past winners and entrants: http://snipurl.com/ppt_contest Conference website: http://www.pptlive.com March 14, 2009 Occasionally, you may want to use PowerPoint animation for its entertainment value. An introduction that loops as the audience arrives is one good use. Another is to build excitement at the launch of a new product. I usually recommend restraint when using animation, but when the purpose is entertainment, you have a lot more leeway. Insert an image and try out all the animation effects, one after another, just to see what they do. It's fun! Then choose one that you like. Here, I explain one way to use the Rise Up animation, which introduces an object by raising it up from the bottom, and ends with a little bounce. To make the transition from image to image seamless, I put three on one slide and added a delay. The result is a slide show effect, as you see here. I used photos of winter scenes, but you could use product photos instead.
Here are the steps:
Note: For a shortcut to adding the animation one by one, see the link below to my tip, "Duplicate animation." For information on shadows, see the link below to my tip, "Create soft shadows."
Contest! Send in your own animation for entertainment example! Anything goes! The deadline is Friday, April 3, 2009. I'll choose the 2 best entries. You'll get your choice of 101 Tips Every PowerPoint User Should Know (for 2002, 2003 & 2007) or my upcoming e-book, The Lost Art of Persuasion, about persuasive presentations. Click here to open an e-mail and attach the presentation. Please indicate your prize choice. Related tips:
March 11, 2007 It's common to create a nice PowerPoint animation and then want to copy the animation to a different object. Unfortunately, PowerPoint doesn't have that capability. While you can copy an existing animated object and get a duplicate, along with its animation, you can't independently copy an animation to another existing object. Here are some options:
Related tips:
February 25, 2009 March 2009 Resource of the Month - The You BlogJohn Windsor's blog on presentations, persuasion, selling, and communications. It has provocative opinions and long, well-written essays. February 23, 2009 Don't Let Data Errors Ruin Your Reputation - Use Excel Information in PowerPoint It's a scary title, but it just means that I'll cover all the ways to get Excel data, in both spreadsheet and chart form, into PowerPoint in a way that's accurate, readable, and easy to edit. In researching this topic, I've come up with several secrets and lots of best practices. So, if you need to share data between Excel and PowerPoint and the process needs to be quick and accurate, check out this webinar! February 23, 2009 More "Death by PowerPoint" survey responses Here's the third installment of responses from the survey. I must say how impressed I've been with the eloquence of the responders. But I feel their pain. The white paper will include a campaign to turn rid the world of "Death by PowerPoint." You'll find out more about it soon! "It was a cliche-induced, text-laden, "ya know"-laden presentation that made me shift in my seat and want to just give the presenter the "move on to the next slide" gesture. It was painful. It made me anxious and uncomfortable. I learned nothing except for how not to present." CU, Wall, NJ "He could not get the connection between computer and [projector] to work and could not function. After traveling to our city, buying us lunch, he could not present his usual canned presentation, so he simply apologized, told us he would send us slides, loaded up, and left." "Laziness. Selfishness. Lack of concern for the audience. Lack of concern for outcomes. Monkey see, monkey do - management clearly aren't making effective presentation a priority and they clearly aren't setting a good example. The vast majority of presenters are using PPT as an AutoCue rather than as a tool to enhance their message. It's last-minute, zero-rehearsal stuff where the presenter bangs down a few thoughts and then gets up and presents that first draft. They HAVE to read out the presentation - they are so unfamiliar with the material. Way too many unnecessary, self-indulgent presentations that should be circulated as a Word document instead." RM, Dublin, Ireland February 21, 2009 Tutorial on animation and best practices A while ago, I asked my subscribers what they want from this site, and the responses were contradictory. Some of you wanted basics and others wanted advanced techniques. In this tutorial, I'll provide a basic tutorial of animation along with best practices that even advanced users should find valuable. Happily, animation in PowerPoint 2007 is the same as in 2002 and 2003, so the instructions apply to all of these versions. You can follow along with this tutorial in your version of PowerPoint. Why use animation? Animation is valuable for these purposes:
You should never use animation just because you can. It's annoying to the audience and distracts from you message. Decide why you need animation Decide which of the above reasons requires you to use animation. Knowing this will help you choose the animation effect that's appropriate for your situation. Focus the audience's attention on a specific section of the slide Placing a circle around a section of the slide calls attention to it. This works better than using a laser pointer; a laser pointer is hard to control and requires you to look at the slide while you're talking -- instead of at the audience.
It's easy to make circles appear using animation.
When you present, you can start discussing the chart and click when you get the point point where you want to emphasize the encircled section. Create animation to show a process or change Let's say that you want to show the process of a seed sprouting. All you have is a series of images of different stages, so you can't show a continual change. In this situation, fading from one image to another will give the impression of continuous growth. This technique is fairly advanced.
A Fade transition from slide to slide exists but it isn't very subtle and you can't control the timing. Therefore, you should create this animation all on one slide.
It's hard to animate many objects when they're on top of each other, so we'll animate them as is and place them on top of each other at the end. The result will be like a stop-motion movie. As each stage fades out, the next will fade in.
Here's the result.
We'll discuss using animation for its entertainment value in a future tip. Releated tips Dissolve one image into another Create soft shadows Shadows create the illusion that an object is hovering above the slide. They can make shapes look more realistic. In PowerPoint 2007, it's easy to create soft shadows, but in PowerPoint 2003, you need to use a trick. Here are instructions for both. PowerPoint 2003 Inssert an AutoShape by choosing AutoShapes from the Drawing toolbar and then choosing the one that you want. I chose a heart. Format it as desired.
Duplicate the AutoShape byselecting it, and pressing Ctrl + D or copying and pasting. You now have one in front of the other. We'll turn the copy, which is on top, into the shadow, and place it behind the original at the end. Tip: The shadow looks more realistic on shapes without sharp edges. For rectangles, create the copy, select the copy, and choose Change AutoShape from the Draw button of the Drawing toolbar. Then choose Basic Shapes> Rounded Rectangle. Double-click the copy to open the Format AutoShape dialog box. On the Colors and Lines tab, in the Fill section, click the Color drop-down list and choose Fill Effects. The Gradient tab should be on top. Click the Two Colors option. For Color 1, choose black. For Color 2, choose your background's color. Tip: If your background is not solid, choose the nearest color. Then, in the Transparency section, set the To value to 100%. In the Shading Styles section, choose the From Center option. In the Variants section, choose the option that shows black in the center. Click OK. Back in the Format AutoShape dialog box, in the Line section, click the Color drop-down list, and choose No Line. Click OK to return to your slide. Drag the bottom-right handle to make your shadow larger, about 1-1/2 times the size of the original.
Select the copy, right-click, and choose Order> Send to Back. Adjust the shadow's size and position for the most realistic look.
Compare this to the standard shadow, which you create by choosing from the Shadow Style button on the Drawing toolbar.
PowerPoint 2007 In PowerPoint 2007, soft shadows are easier. Double-click the shapde to display the Drawing Tools Format tab. Click Shape Effects> Shadow> Shadow Options. Change the following settings:
Related tips Create a timeline/agenda in PresentationZen style February 9, 2009 Choose colors based on desired results With Valentine's Day coming up, I thought it would be appropriate to review new research that specifically dealt with the effect of the color red. And blue. In an article in the New York Times, "Reinvent Wheel? Blue Room. Defusing a Bomb? Red Room.," journalist Pam Belluck describes a new study that showed that red can make people's work more accurate, while blue encourages creativity. The study was published in the journal Science. (You can read a short abstract here, but to read the full study you need to pay, or have a subscription.)
The study, done by Ravi Mehta and Rui (Julia) Zhu at the Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, studied 600 people to see if there was an effect on cognitive performance when people performed tasks with red, blue, or white backgrounds on a computer screen. The results?
The article discussed some previous studies as well:
Why does color affect us? Why does color elicit these strong effects? Researchers have the following suggestions: Norbert Schwarz, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan, suggests that colors affect mood, which affects performance. The concept is that the color red is connected to problematic things, so you're "more likely to pay attention to detail, which helps you with processing tasks but interferes with creative types of things." But blue has more positive associations, so "people in a happy mood are more creative and less analytic." John A. Bargh, a psychology professor at Yale University notes that red has associations to stop, fire, alarm, and warning. He also says, "Blue seems a weaker effect than red, but blue skies, blue water are calm and positive."
Dr. Eliot noted that blue's positive emotional associations are considered less consistent than red's negative ones. Another study showed that students taking tests did better on blue paper than on red, but Dr. Schwarz said that the study used depressing blue and upbeat red. Other studies have shown no effect, but some used mostly pastels or less distinctive tasks. In the University of British Columbia study, most subjects said that red represented caution, danger, or mistakes to them. They said that blue represented peace and openness. Being done at a business school, the study also tested responses to advertising. Ads listing product details or emphasizing avoidance (like cavity prevention) were more appealing on red backgrounds. Ads using creative designs or emphasizing positive actions (like tooth whitening) were more appealing on blue backgrounds. Research results Here are the results of the test for word recall: Here are the results of the test for creativity:
The article mentioned that the study did not involve other cultures, like China, where red symbolized prosperity and luck. Nothing in the article mentioned the generally positive association of red with Valentine's Day or Christmas. How about other colors? In my book, How to Do Everything with PowerPoint 2007, I include a sidebar called, "The Effect of Color." There, I give the following color guidelines:
If you’re making a presentation to an international audience, remember that colors have differing connotations in different countries, so do some research. While background colors help set the emotional tone for your presentation, the colors you use for text, tables, charts, and other graphic elements have a bearing on how well the audience understands and remembers your message. Research has shown that the effective use of selective contrast, known as the von Restorff effect (or isolation effect), makes audiences remember the outstanding item—and even your entire message—better. An example of this technique is to make certain text larger or brighter than most text or to put it in a shape. Most experts agree that your theme colors should include one or two bright colors for emphasis—but to preserve the power of these colors, use them with restraint." How does this research apply to my presentations? No one is saying that you should use blue hearts for a Valentine's Day presentation. That just doesn't make sense. But you should be wary of using too much red for a general business presentation. Selectively used, red stands out, and it can help your audience remember facts and figures. That's good.
But for a bad-news presentation, red would probably increase anxiety. In that situation, you would want to go for calming blue or green. Blue has become a standard color for business presentations; it's considered conservative. But in situations where you want your audience to pay attention, it may be too laid-back. It would be excellent for brainstorming sessions. Remember that your goal may not be to have your audience recall words or come up with creative uses for bricks. But putting attention on color will enhance your results. Do your own research If you give the same presentation to many audiences, try changing the main color on your slides and see if you can find any difference in your results. If you're selling, you have an easy way to test results. If not, you could try a questionnaire that attendees fill out afterwards. If you do this, I'd be interested in hearing the results. Related tips Choose fonts and colors for legibility January 24, 2009 February 2009 Resource of the Month - Speaking about Presenting January 22, 2009 "Webinar: Don't Let Data Errors Ruin Your Reputation - Use Excel Information in PowerPoint" If you present data in PowerPoint, especially data that changes often, you'll get great value out of this web seminar. Topics include:
Here are the details:
January 21, 2009 Book review: Point, Click & Wow! by Claudyne Wilder
The book focuses on the business presenters who need to create and deliver successful presentations for their work. The subtitle is "The techniques and habits of successful presenters" but it's more than that. Rather, it's a blueprint and even a workbook that takes you through the process of developing a successful presentation. I'll go out on a limb and say that I think that this is one of the best books I've ever read on presenting. Here are my reasons for saying that:
Here's a summary of the chapters:
If you're looking for a structured book on successful business presenting, I suggest that you buy this book. January 17, 2009 Create a timeline/agenda in PresentationZen style Olivia Mitchell, who writes the Speaking about Presenting recently wrote a blog entry, "How to do an agenda slide like Garr Reynolds." Note: There's a special offer at the end of this tutorial, so read on! Here's the presentation, which is posted on slideshare.net. The timeline/agenda is on slides 7 through 12. One of the comments on the Olivia's blog was, "“It’s easy to make an agenda slide like this.” Hmm…not so easy if you’re not a powerpoint expert. Is this available in Powerpoint, and if so, can you provide a step-by-step on how to make a slide like this? So, Olivia asked me to write out the steps. Because this presentation was on slideshare.net, which doesn't show animation, each step is a separate slide. You could put the entire timeline on one slide and add each component with an Appear animation. To do so, choose Slide Show> Custom Animation. (In 2007, choose the Animations tab> Custom Animation.) Select the object that you want to animate. In the task pane on the right, choose Add Effect> Entrance> Appear. (If the Appear animation is not on the list, click More Effects and you'll find it there.) Garr Reynolds, who writes the PresentationZen blog and wrote the book, PresentationZen, is a famous PowerPoint designer. I'm not a famous designer, although I love to design slides. Reproducing his timeline was a great exercise and I recommend copying the work of great designers, just as art students sit in a museum and copy the great masters. You'll learn a lot about design: about the colors they use and especially about the attention they give to detail. Here are the 6 slides in my version of the timeline.
Garr Reynolds has several design trademarks:
I did this presentation in PowerPoint 2007, because two of its new features made the process easier. One is the background; this type of radial gradient background is a feature of 2007. However, Garr's original is even more subtle than the 2007 default. The second feature is greater flexibility with shadows. I'll also provide instructions for 2003. I slavishly copied Garr's colors, using an eyedropper program. An eyedropper gives you the stats of any color that you point to on your screen. I used a program called Colourificator, but other free eyedroppers are available on the Web. The colors A good practice is to set up your theme colors (color scheme in 2003 and earlier) before you start. I have instructions in my "Try design variations" tip. This makes formatting PowerPoint objects very easy as you work. You'll get more consistent results with less effort. My colors' red-green-blue stats were:
You only have 4 color options in PowerPoint 2003. The background Start a new PowerPoint file using the default blank template. In 2007, click the Design tab> Backgrounds group> Background Styles drop-down list, and choose one of the options from the bottom row. These options are based on your theme colors, so one should be just what you want. However, you can choose Format Background and choose another color from the Color drop-down list. The Format Background dialog box is already set with a radial background with two gradient stops and the From Center option. Slides that you add will also have this background. In 2003, you don't have a true radial gradient, so you need to use a trick:
The timeline The timeline is just a horizontal white line plus two perpendicular lines. Notice that the horizontal line is a little above the middle of the slide, which gives it the feeling of being supported by the space below To draw the lines, do the following:
The Start/End text The Start and End text make it clear that this is a timeline for the presentation. The orange color is a Garr Reynolds trademark. So is the use of the interesting font, in this case, a funky typewriter text. I just used Courier New, but you can find a free font called Carbontype on the Internet that's closer. Look at slide 5 of his presentation on SlideShare and you'll see just how funky it is! It looks as if it was typed on an old, very dirty Royal manual typewriter. I'm old enough to remember cleaning the ink from the letters of a manual typewriter, but I digress... Click the first slide in the Slides pane on the left and press Ctrl + D to create a new slide (Slide 2). Insert a text box near the left side of the timeline. In 2007, go to Insert tab> Text group> Text Box. (In 2003, choose Text Box from the Drawing toolbar.) Type Start. To format the text, select it (the text, not just the text box). In 2007, the Mini toolbar appears at the cursor. There you can use the Font drop-down list to change the font (I used Courier New), the Font Color drop-down list to change the color (orange), and the Font Size drop-down list (I set the size to 20 points). Click the Bold button to make the text bold. In 2003, select the text and use the Font, Font Size, and Font Color drop-down lists and the Bold button, all on the Formatting toolbar, to format the text. Click the border of the text box and use the green rotation handle to rotate the text counterclockwise slightly. Then press Ctrl + D to duplicate the text box and drag it to the right side of the timeline. Select the text and type End. Adjust the placement as desired. The first agenda item Duplicate Slide 2 to create Slide 3. In 2007, choose Home tab> Drawing group> Shapes and choose the Rectangle tool. In 2003, click the Rectangle tool on the Drawing toolbar. Hold down the Shift key and drag a square on top of the left side of the timeline. Use the Up and Down arrow keys until the left-middle handle is on the timeline to ensure that the square is vertically centered on the timeline. Use the Left and Right arrow keys to place the left side of the square on top of the left vertical white line. In 2007, double-click the square to display the Drawing Tools Format tab. Type 1 (the number). Use the Shape Fill drop-down list to set the color (dun). Use the Shape Outline drop-down list to set the outline (white). Select the text. I set the color to white, the size to 72, and the font to Aharoni. Choose Shape Effects> Shadow> Shadow Options to display the Shadow category of the Format Shape dialog box. In 2007, you have many more shadow options than before. I set the Transparency to 62%, the Blur to 9 pt, the Angle to 45°, and the Distance to 5 pt. Then select the text and click the dialog box launcher arrow on the right side of the WordArt Styles group to open the Format Text Effects dialog box. Click Shadow and use the same shadow settings for the text as for the square. Click Close. You have fewer options in 2003. Select the square and click the Shadow Style button on the Drawing toolbar. Shadow Style 6 works OK. If you want, you can click Shadow Settings to open the Shadow Settings toolbar and move the shadow a little. You can also change its color to give it a softer look. To add the caption use the Line tool to draw a short vertical line from the top-center of the square. Select the square to check where its top-center handle is and adjust the location of the vertical line to meet it. In 2007, double-click the line to display the Drawing Tools Format tab. Choose Shape Outline> Weight and choose the narrowest weight, 1/4 pt. The line should be white, or perhaps a light tint of the green color. In 2003, double-click the line and use the Format AutoShape dialog box to set the color to white (or a faint green). Interestingly, in 2003, you have a 0 pt width option, which creates a hairline width. Draw a horizontal line that starts at the left side of the square and touches the top of the vertical line. Format it like the vertical line. You can use the Format Painter to do this. In 2007, click the vertical line, choose Home tab> Clipboard group> Format Painter, and then click the horizontal line. In 2003, click the vertical line, click the Format Painter button on the Standard toolbar, and then click the horizontal line. Insert a text box and type Introduction. I used the default font (Calibri in 2007 and Arial in 2003), 20 pt size, and white color. Use the arrow keys to align the text box with the left endpoint of the horizontal line and to place it just above the line. The second agenda item Duplicate Slide 3 to create Slide 4. Copy the first square and place the copy to the right. Change the text to 2. Add lines and a caption, Presentation Zen Approach. Place the caption so that it extends more to the right of the vertical line than to the left. The third agenda item Create a fifth slide and duplicate the second square. Place it to the right and drag its right handle to stretch it until it leaves a small space at the end. Double-click it and change its fill to ruby red. Add the caption lines and the caption, How design thinking can help. Place the text so that it extends more to the right of the vertical line than to the left. The last agenda item Create a sixth slide and duplicate the first square. Move it to the right side of the timeline and resize its width until it fits in the space that's left. Move it as necessary. Change its color to the dark dun color. PowerPoint 2007 offers not only the theme colors but tints of those colors, giving you more flexibility. Add the caption lines and the caption, Q & A. Here, you have to extend the horizontal line a little further to the left than to the right. Customize for your own presentations Of course, you're not giving Garr's presentation, so now that you've learned something about graphics and design in PowerPoint, make a copy of the presentation and adjust the timeline for your own agenda. Related tips: Try design variations January 14, 2009 Are you still creating PowerPoint slides with lots of bullets and text? This 4-min. video will revolutionize how you create presentations. You'll see a makeover, step-by-step, that gets rid of a distracting background and turns a boring, bulleted slide into a clear, image-rich presentation. January 13, 2009 Jeopardy-like quiz game available Keep the attention of your audience or students with this lively, fun quiz game that you can customize with your own questions. Whether for work or play, quiz games are fun! Click here to read more about it and watch how it works! January 10, 2009 Are you a presentation professional? Compare yourself with your peers in InfoComm International’s annual Presentation Professional survey. This year it’s shorter, easier and faster to complete. Whether you’re one of many in a corporate setting, or a one-person shop wearing all the hats, see how you compare in the skills you have and the challenges you face. To thank you for sharing your opinions and experiences, you will receive a free survey report by e-mail. Click here to take the survey. Contact marketresearch@infocomm.org if you have any questions. January 10, 2009 Change a picture in PowerPoint 2007
This feature is ideal for creating product brochures and facilitates customizing presentations for multiple customers. Here you see a custom layout, including custom prompts.
Here's a slide that uses this layout.
To create another slide using this layout, click the slide in the Slide pane and press Ctrl + D to duplicate the slide. Then double-click the photo in the central pane to select it and display the Picture Tools Format tab. In the Adjust group, click change Picture. In the Insert Picture dialog box, navigate to the new image and double-click it to insert it in the place of the original image.
This technique works best when all the images are preformatted to fit well within the layout's picture placeholder. The combination of custom layouts and the Change Picture command offers great flexibility for individuals customizing presentations and for companies who want to control how a presentation looks while allowing presenters to make changes. Related tips Create a custom layout January 6, 2009 What I'd like to see in PowerPoint design in 2009Olivia Mitchell, who writes the Speaking about Presenting blog, has organized a group blogging event on what we'd like to see in PowerPoint design in 2009. (And "design" rhymes with "2009!") Her inspiration was a blog post by Laura Bergells, called "PowerPoint, Propaganda, and You," in which Laura talked about what she'd like to see in 2009, and challenged the current PowerPoint design fashion vogue as being "overly simplistic." I've been writing about effective presenting for quite a while but the chance to talk about what I'd like to see in 2009 is too tempting to pass up. So, without further ado, here's my list...
January 6, 2009 Ask the audience questions
Some of these benefits you obtain by taking questions from the audience -- if they ask the questions they have. But you'd be surprised how many people never ask questions. Other benefits are unique to the technique of asking the audience questions. You start a conversation. Try to build flexibility into your presentation so you can respond to the answers you obtain. For example, some audiences want you to get straight to the point and others want lots of backup details. You may not know in advance which type of audience you'll have, although it's good to do some early research, if possible. You can have slides with the details available and show them only if your audience says they want to see them. You can do this using the custom show feature or by linking to a separate presentation. When you ask questions, you need to plan out the questions you'll ask and plan for possible answers. Try asking your audience questions at your next presentation and see if you get better results compared to just speaking yourself straight through. Related tips: Have a conversation with your audience December 17, 2008 New slidecast, "Tell 'n' show (SM), on slideshare.net I've posted a slidecast on the Tell 'n' show (SM) principle on slideshare.net. A slidecast is a narrated presentation. The slidecast explains how to avoid bullets and instead create slides that clearly make a point and then show it. It's less than 2 minutes, so click to watch and listen! December 17, 2008 Great new collection of PowerPoint 2007 effects and animations Julie Terberg is a Microsoft PowerPoint MVP (Most Valuable Professional) and one of the top presentation designers around. She is well-known for her incredible animations and special effects, which look as if they were done in Adobe Flash or a high-end animation program. They're all done in PowerPoint. She has created a stunning set of slides for PowerPoint 2007, which are now on Microsoft's Web site. See some samples of this great collection. December 13, 2008 Use copywriting principles for your presentations If you create presentations to sell or to persuade, deciding what you want to say, and in what order, is obviously extremely important. And what better place to turn to for guidance than copywriting. Copywriting is usually defined as the art and science of writing to sell. Experience (it's an old discipline) and modern research have provided many guidelines for getting the desired results. Read more... Related tips: A good introduction/opener December 7, 2008 Put one point on a slide The benefits? audiences can integrate one point at a time more easily than three. They remember it better, too. The slide is simpler, so it has more impact. Your audience listens to you rather than reading the slide ahead of you and then tuning out. Read more... Makeover an existing slide today! You'll be amazed at the difference! Banish bullet-heavy slides from your life! Watch a free video of this tip on YouTube! Related tips: Tell 'n' show (SM) slide designHow many bullets should I put on a slide? Cliff Atkinson's Beyond Bullet Points Get rid of a template Create effective graphs/charts November 23, 2008 Here are some more replies from the "What is Death by PowerPoint?" survey. "These presentations use too much text with NO graphics at all. They are always BORING! Generally, there are way too many slides that all look the same except some have even more type than the others in a small, unreadable font. Death would be welcomed by most participants." NB, Atlanta, GA. "Presenters lose the audience right from the start with difficult to read slidse, small fonts, lousy contrast and turn around to read the slides, toally unaware that they are slowly killing the audience who has to ensure the duration of such a presentation." TG, Singapore "The Accounting content of this regularly-scheduled meeting is full of charts with so many trend lines and dsecriptions that by the end of the 3 hours, no one knows for sure what was just stated." November 23, 2008 December 2008 Resource of the Month - Presentations Roundtable Read the inside story from the father of PowerPoint at Microsoft, Ric Breitschneider. November 15, 2008 Circle an objectA great way to emphasize and draw attention to an object on a slide is to circle it. Read more... Related tips: November 8, 2008 Successfully print presentations Presentations are printed more often than we realize, but we rarely design for printing in mind. Although, I've had two clients who created presentations only for print: one was creating a brochure for sales reps and the other was presenting to potential investors at a meeting around a table. Even if you don't plan to print the presentation, you may send it to others who will print it. You certainly want to make sure that the results will be satisfactory. Read more... Repurpose a presentation for a kiosk or the Web Print in black & white or grayscale Create a background for printed handouts November 3, 2008 Create a fast-moving presentation In another tip, Presentation styles, I discuss a kind of of presentation that's fast moving, with lots of simple slides. Here I expand on that concept, with an example. Once you know what you want to say, enter the words in the Notes pane, with about 1 sentence per slide. You can use less, a phrase or as little as 1 word. Of course sometimes, you'll need to say more about a slide, especially when you're presenting data. But this style works best when you keep your comments brief. Read more... October 29, 2008 New video course! PowerPoint 2007: Make the Upgrade Easy Are you getting the most for your money?
This video course teaches you just what you need to know! This video course is easy to follow. You own it so you can watch it again and again.
PowerPoint 2007: Make the Upgrade Easy
Read more and watch a short excerpt!
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Home | AutoCAD | PowerPoint | E-Store | About | Links | Contact Us | Site Map | ||
| Copyright Ellen Finkelstein, Inc. Microsoft product screen shots reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation. |
||