Helping you with presenting, PowerPoint, and speaking
Microsoft is actively working to make the user interface and features of PowerPoint easier to use. This is good news!
One new feature is the Edit Picture dialog box.
With a selected image, you get to it by clicking the Picture Format tab and then choosing the Edit Picture icon.
However, two of the features in the Edit Picture dialog box have their own icons: Remove Background and Erase.
Here is the full Edit Picture dialog box…
[Read more…]
This is a guest post by Mike Parkinson. Mike is an internationally recognized visual communication and presentation expert, trainer, and award-winning author. Over the last 22 years, he created thousands of presentations that results in improved success rates for his clients. He owns a creative services firm, 24 Hour Company, authored a successful visual communication book (Do-It-Yourself Billion Dollar Graphics), and launched Get My Graphic that helps consultants, organizations and agencies achieve their training, education and sales goals with visual communication and proven communication techniques. Contact Mike at mi**@****co.com.
Change is inevitable. Over the last decade, the presentations we produce, the tools and processes we use, and the industry have evolved. Specifically, presentation graphics and methods for making them are changing. As with all change, some will stay with us (the Internet) and others are merely a fad (pet rocks). The following are current presentation design trends:
Let’s determine if they are here to stay.
Graphic courtesy of 24 Hour Company (www.24hrco.com)
The ubiquity of infographics has spilled into the presentation industry. It is important to note that the strictest definition of an infographic is any graphic that clarifies or explains. Recently, the term infographic has become synonymous with a specific style of graphic (and not a definition), rendered as an aesthetically simple and flat image using quantitative data to educate and persuade.
A successful infographic requires its content and messages to be clear and concise so the final graphic is simple and easy to follow. Unfortunately, many presentation infographics I have seen are cluttered and confusing. The message is unclear and text has been replaced with a smattering of ambiguous icons and symbols.
Verdict
Use infographics sparingly in your presentations. Do them well or don’t do them at all. Start with a simple message. All content must support this message. Use icons your audience will recognize. Images should complement and highlight your content and not distract or muddle your idea. Infographics work best when quantitative evidence tells a clear, compelling story. The push to get to the point and provide (quantitative and qualitative) proof is here to stay. However, the current infographic style is a trend. As with all aesthetic trends, it will evolve over time.
Flat design is seen as the modern graphic style due to the popularity of small electronic devices. To improve content legibility on hand-held devices, artistic embellishments such as highlights, depth, and shadows were eliminated.
The opposite of flat design is realism (skeuomorphism).
Graphic courtesy of Get My Graphic (http://www.getmygraphic.com)
Both styles have pros and cons. For example, flat graphics are associated with newer design; therefore, applying this style subconsciously conveys the message that your company and solution are modern and innovative. Because of its plainness, flat design is often less expensive and time-consuming to produce. On the other hand, flat design can oversimplify or under explain critical pieces of information. Flat graphics limit aesthetic choices, making it difficult to highlight important or subtle concepts. Skeuomorphism can communicate the authenticity of your solution. Because realistic visuals are often considered more labor intensive and superior than simple designs, using this style can improve the perceived quality of your company and solution as well as demonstrate your commitment to the project.
Verdict
There is a time and a place for both flat and realistic graphics. With a skilled designer, you can mix both into one template to reap the benefits of each style. For example, you could use flat icons with realistic graphics within your slide deck. Be sure that your decision to choose flat and/or realistic graphics is driven by objective goals (e.g., legibility, customer perception/preference, messaging, or brand standards).
It is common to see a slide with a single photograph and minimal—if any—text. Using a single image to reinforce or replace content places more emphasis on emotional factors. Less textual content (e.g., bullets, sentences, paragraphs) also forces audiences to turn their attention to the presenter.
Slide courtesy of Fotolia (Fotolia.com)
Verdict
Dominant photographs are here to stay for three reasons:
The style of the photographs, placement and cropping will evolve with stylistic trends of the time. (Because this aesthetic approach does not work well for technical information, expect related slides to be text and graphic-based.)
Using a visual metaphor, simile or analogy helps the audience understand complex information. For example, explaining a transition plan to an audience unfamiliar with the concept can be challenging. A visual metaphor, such as a bridge, improves understanding because it is a familiar concept that shares characteristics with a transition plan (see graphic below). Explaining a complex idea through a visual will improve retention and adoption rates.
Slide courtesy of Get My Graphic (http://www.getmygraphic.com)
Verdict
Popular books like Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point and Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational help presenters apply behavioral psychology and learning theory to evolve best practices in our industry. We will see more sophisticated visual metaphors, similes and analogies as presentation design matures.
Because they are stylistic trends, expect the popularity of infographics and flat design to wane over time. However, these graphic styles will continue to influence future presentation trends.
Presenters will continue to use sophisticated photographs, images, icons, and graphics. Sites like Get My Graphic (http://www.getmygraphic.com), Fotolia (http://fotolia.com) and iStockPhoto (http://www.istockphoto.com) make it easier to add professional clear, compelling graphics and photographs to slides. The more these approaches are proven effective, the more presenters will employ them to create successful presentations.
What presentation design trends are you seeing these days? In your opinion, which will stay and which will pass?
I recently received this question.
“I have a power point presentation (created in 2007 and recently moved into 2010) that I want to change the master slide with a new one my designer gave me. It was given to me as a regular slide and I want to make it a master slide so all the slides will change using this new background.”
What do you receive from a designer?The basic question is how to apply a slide master to an existing presentation.
When you receive a “regular slide” from a designer, you need to figure out where the design is.
If the design is actually on the slide itself, you need to make some changes — and your designer doesn’t know very much about PowerPoint. That’s because in order for you to easily apply the design to other presentations, the design should be on the slide master.
It’s easy to check. Follow these steps:
If the design is on the Slide Master, you’re in good shape. If not, you need to find some way to transfer the design from the slide itself to the slide master. Often all you need to do is to select all of the objects on the slide, cut to the Clipboard, and paste on the first, larger thumbnail (the “Master”) in Slide Master view. Then save the presentation.
You should keep the presentation you received unchanged, so save a copy to use as a basis. Then open both the designed copy and your original presentation — the one that you want to apply the design to.
In the original presentation, select all of the slides. You can click the first slide, press and hold the Shift key, and click the last slide. You can do this in the left-hand pane or in Slide Sorter view. Then copy them to the Clipboard.
Display the designed copy, click in the left-hand pane, and paste. By default, the slides will take on the destination design.
Ideally, you should create a theme file. This makes applying your design easy and you don’t have to worry about copying over your original presentation. Here are the steps:
To use your theme to an existing presentation, this is all you have to do:
Do you have any questions about applying a design to a presentation? Leave a comment!
“101 Tips Every PowerPoint User Should Know” is for everyone who never took a course or read a book about PowerPoint! These tips will fill in the gaps, speed up your work, make presentations easier, and help you get better results. Now updated through PowerPoint 2016 and Office 365. Learn more at http://ellenfinkelstein.com/pptblog/101-tips/
Slide design can be very subjective but there are some rules that are objective. These rules ensure that your slide is easy to understand and remember. When you use these rules, you can create clear slides that no one will struggle to comprehend. You’ll find that these rules are general enough to allow for lots of creativity and flexibility in your design.
I’ve broken up the rules into a few categories.
BackgroundRule 1: The background shouldn’t be so busy that it attracts attention to itself and away from the slide’s content. This includes logos, footers, etc.
Rule 2: The background should leave enough space for your content.
Rule 3: The background color should contrast highly with the text color.
Rule 1: The text color should contrast highly with the background color — or the color of anything else the text is on, such as shapes, images, charts, or text.
Rule 2: The text should be big enough to be read by a person with mediocre eyesight at the back of the room. Even chart labels should be readable and main text should be even larger.
Rule 3: In most cases, text should be sans-serif (such as Arial, Verdana, or Tahoma) because it’s easier to read on-screen.
Rule 4: There should not be so much text on a slide so that your audience is reading while you’re talking.
Rule 1: Images should be of high-quality; use photos unless you’re creating an iconic look (such as the image for this post).
Rule 2: Images should be as big as possible without overwhelming text; they usually look best when they reach to the edges of the slide.
Rule 3: Images should help the audience understand and remember the point — and be persuasive, if that’s your goal. They shouldn’t be merely decorative.
Rule 1: Put one point or idea on a slide.
Rule 2: The audience should quickly know where to put their attention.
Rule 3: Objects on a slide should be orderly — no misaligned objects, for example.
Rule 1: All the text on a chart should be legible, even the axes.
Rule 2: Only include the data that is necessary to make the point.
Rule 3: A chart should be as simple as possible in its design, without losing clarity.
Rule 1: Only include the data or text that is necessary to make the point.
Rule 2: All the text in a table should be legible.
Do you agree with these rules? Do you have others that you follow? Would following a list of rules like this help you design more effective slides? Leave a comment!
A subscriber turned me on to a unique technique for creating stunning images with a “stickout” look. They were created in a high-end graphics program, so I decided to figure out how to get the same result in PowerPoint. Here’s the look we’re aiming for.
How can you create cool stickout photos in PowerPoint? Here are the steps:
1. Insert a photo that is appropriate for this technique. You need a strong object in the foreground, because you’ll remove its background. You also need an object that has a component that you want to “stick out.” I used a photo of a jet.
