PPT - Powerful Presentation Techniques

Intranet Resource Listing

PowerPoint is by nature a communications tool.   We hear about the thousands to millions of daily PowerPoint presentations that take place in the corporate world.  Many of them continue to be less then effective in achieving their objectives or disseminating their desired message(s). 

As I think about PPT in the workplace, I often wonder about the archives and knowledge management systems that are being used to house these "valuable" communications assets.  This curiosity and my own prior corporate experience running an Intranet site, has led me down the path of finding resouces related to Intranets.  One resoruce listing that I've come across that you might find useful is a listing of Intranet related blogs.  For those of you with internal communications responsibilities, I encourage you to explore these resources.

Shortcuts around the Blogosphere

• The Art of PowerPointing Blog had a link to a listing of PowerPoint keyboard shortcuts.
• Laura over at Maniactive has a posting on making rounded corners on your PPT slides.

Simplify Excel Charts in PowerPoint

Charts created using Excel can be a great way to tell your story in a PowerPoint presentation.  The caveat to Excel charts is that in their rawest form they were created primarily for print and not for effective visual presentation to a large audience.  This requires presenters to tweak the format of the chart before inserting it into PowerPoint to make it visually more attractive and even more importantly to communicate the message they are trying to get across. 

The main questions I like to ask when creating a chart are the following:

1. What am I trying to communicate - trends, comparisons, an anomaly, etc.
2. How can I simplify the chart and increase the impact of the message

I won't spend as much time on the first of these questions in this posting, but rather would like to focus on the second one, especially as it relates to bar, line or column charts in Excel.  The guidelines below apply to all of these:

• Drop the gridlines
  How: Right click on the grid lines, clear
• Clear the plot area
  How: Right click plot area, clear
• Drop the axis value
  How: Right click on the numeric axis, clear
• Use the item value
  How: right click on bar, format data series, value
• Get rid of the border on your legends and consider if legends are needed
  How: Select format legend, border none
• Consider an image or photograph for your fill on a bar chart when appropriate
  How: select the bar, format data series, patterns, fill effects, picture and browse to the image you want to use
• Resize your point size to increase legibility
  How: format data labels, font, select font size, italic/bold

A sample bar chart is available for your reference: Download excel_chart_example.xls (Excel Chart:311KB)

Buzz...visualizing your story and presentation...

irradiance
Originally uploaded by MattClark.

I'm in Peoria to give a couple of presentations to the Peoria Ad Club. One of the presentations is called "Buzz Networks" where I talk about consumer generated media like blogs, podcasts, word of mouth marketing campaigns, vlogs, etc.

(See my other blog - the Web Chef's e-Bytes for information on this topic.)

In thinking about a presentation topic I like to come up with visual imagery that I can use to link into the story I'm weaving into the presentation. For this one on Buzz Networks - the honey bee, both alone, like shown in this picture and as a tribal member in their hive, like others in my presentation, serves this purpose well.

Choose striking photography to tell your story.

PowerPoint Live Sept 17 - 20

PowerPoint Live, a multi-day conference for PowerPoint users has been scheduled for Sept 17 - 20th in San Diego, CA.  You can view a nice promotional video on the program and sign up for the event.

While I haven't attended the event yet, I've heard good things about it and hope to go to a conference at some point in the future.

Himmelsstiege / Ladder to the sky

Himmelsstiege / Ladder to the sky
Originally uploaded by Cilest.

Great photo with lots of patterns repeating themselves and interesting colors. One of the shots on Flickr.

PPT Tip - Multiple Slide Masters

PowerPoint allows you to insert multiple slide masters in a given presentation.  This can be useful for creating hierarchies of information in your presentation with signals through the visual cues of alternative slide masters.  To add another slide master to your presentation, do the following:

1. Select View Master
2. Select Insert New Master
3. Select Slide Design from your Task Pane if you want to follow an existing Template
4. Click on the design you want for the new master
5. In the slide design task pane, Select the arrow on the side and click on Add Design

To apply that design to a given slide, go into slide sorter view

1. Select the slide(s) that you want and use the drop down arrow in the slide design view to select "Apply to selected slides"

This process is really easier then the steps indicated above would make it appear.

In addition to signalling hierarchy of information, I have found this useful for creating subsections of a presentation with a visual cue indicating that I'm moving on to a new module of content. 

Good luck!

My Photos - Rapid City SD Neon Sign

Rapid City SD
Originally uploaded by theWebChef.

2nd in a periodic series of photos that I've taken. I like neon and other signs. They are a real part of Americana, so it is nice to see them being restored and new ones being added. This sign is in Rapid City, SD.

Book Report II - Cutting Edge PowerPoint

Thumbs up on Cutting Edge PowerPoint for Dummies.  Your happy dummy, the Web Chef, a.k.a. the PPT Chef :) was able to insert a Flash .SWF movie into a presentation I've been working on.  The book lays out a clear description that worked.

1. Open PPT Presentation
2. Select Slide you want to insert SWF file into
3. Select View
4. Select Toolbars
5. Select Control Toolbox
6. Select Bottom Right Icon - hammer and nail (More controls)
7. Select Shockwave Flash Object
8. Drag a rectangle within your slide using your mouse, release
9. Right click the rectangle
10. Select Properties from the drop down menu
11. Select Custom (on the top of the listings)
12. Click the ellipsis button on the right of custom to open a Property Page
13. Type in the name of your Flash .SWF file in the Movie URL box, hit OK
    Note: be sure to include the file extension .swf and keep the path simple by moving the file) to the same folder.
14. Play the slide and the Flash movie should work

See page 290 - 292 of Cutting Edge PowerPoint.

Looking for just the right picture?

There have been various blog postings recently about where to get free or low cost images for your PowerPoint presentations.  Among a few that I've come across recently are the following:

• Design Education
• Photoshop Tutorial Blog
• Presentation Zen - Where Can You find Good Images
• Projectified: High Resolution Images

As the old saying goes a "picture is worth a thousand words".  Presenters including yours truly, the Web Chef, need to remember this as they develop their presentations.  Take a look at the Stock Photography Resources that I have on the ConnectingDots website.

I'm putting together a resource listing to share with my MBA students at Marquette University this fall. Once the listing is put together I'll be sure to share it with you.I'll be teaching another mini-course called Powerful Presentation Techniques.  This is the 4th year I've done this.  It is always a fun class since most of the students are working and bring in sample presentations for us to review. 

This image is from Shutterstock.