PPT - Powerful Presentation Techniques

Off Topic - Wisconsin Flooding

Some of my regular readers may know that I live in Madison, Wisconsin.  Madison is the beautiful capital city of Wisconsin.  This year we've faced unprecedented weather conditions that have led to severe flooding in the Southwest corner of the state and rivers and lakes that are at all time highs.  I happen to live on a lake overlooking downtown Madison and our classic state capital.  Needless to say all the rain has led to lake levels almost 2 feet above normal, standing water in the basement and a sump pump working non-stop.  I thought you might enjoy seeing the results of this rainfall in the underwater piers of two of the neighbors on our street.  Given that we don't have a pier this aspect of the overfull lakes hasn't impacted us. 

Quotes worth Sharing

"Education is the ability to listen to anything without losing your temper or your self confidence."
Robert Frost

Quotes worth Sharing

Mark Twain Street
Originally uploaded by optically active.

"It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare an impromptu speech."

Mark Twain

YouTube Video Embed in PPT

My fellow blogger and Power Point expert Laura Bergells at Maniactive has a great posting summarizing and linking to 4 video tutorials on embedding YouTube video into PPT presentations using either PPT 2007 or 2003 with the videos linked and inserted in PowerPoint when you are offline or online.  I know that this is a hot topic judging by traffic to my blog on prior postings I've made on this topic linking to a step-by-step instructions at tiara.org.

I've taken the liberty of embedding one of the video clip instructions that Laura references on how to add a YouTube video to PowerPoint when you are planning to be online when you make your presentation.

I also experimented with the conversion directions in the YouTube video for offline insertions of presentation of YouTube videos using Video Downloader and ErightSoft's Super and found that it worked fairly well. 

Kudos to reponzo01, a 24 year old YouTuber for his simple and well done instructional videos.

How Not To Use PowerPoint

I got a real kick out of this comedian demonstrating "how NOT to use PowerPoint".  Take a look at the YouTube Presentation, I suspect you'll gain some tips from a deadpan presenter.

PPT in Cartoons - Doonesbury

Doonesbury had a cartoon this week that shows how PowerPoint has even invaded cartoon strips.  I'm always intrigued to see PowerPoint in cartoons and have clipped several over the years including cartoons in The New Yorker, Foxtrot, Dilbert, Bizarro, Working it Out, Break Time and Six Chix.  Interestingly enough the cartoons rarely paint the software in a favorable light with most of them focusing on the deadly aspect of the software.

Turn Off the PPT and Talk (New Article on PPT)

Presentations Magazine has published a new article "PowerPoint: Boon or Bane?" that provides a nice review of some of the beliefs pro and con about PowerPoint.  In the article, author Abhay Padgaonkar references highlights including the 20th anniversary of PowerPoint, Tuftes article on the corrupting influence of PowerPoint and how IBM and Sun eliminated their internal use of PowerPoint.  The interesting tips and conclusions that the author provides are the following:

• Ten Commandments - PPT is not one of them.  Evaluate whether you need to even use it
• What's Your Story? - Similar to the Beyond Bullet Points framework, he suggests that you frame your presentation as a story
• Vertical Logic - Don't go too deep in your levels of bullets.  .Make sure the listener can interpret your point easily.
• Graphic Violence - Cut the clutter and be sure you can explain the graphs
• Data Dump - Avoid overcommunicating everything you know to your audiences

I'd rate this an article well worth reading.  For other articles and resources, see my Resource Guide "PPT - Powerful Presentation Techniques Resource Listing (Rev 4)".  I'm in the process of updating this resource listing, so if you have additions or revisions please let me know.

Paul Gibler
ConnectingDots

New Column in Wisconsin Technology Network - 583 reasons to wonder is e-mail dead or alive?

I've written a new article for Wisconsin Technology Network "583 reasons to wonder is e-mail dead or alive?" that discusses where e-mail is at as a communications and marketing medium. 

The article is one in an ongoing series that I've written called Buzz Networks on some of the latest trends effecting e-business and marketing.

Paul Gibler
the Web Chef

On the Radio - On the Air with In Business

I've been asked to return for an interview on the popular radio show "On the Air with In Business" on Madison's WTDY 1670.  Jody Glynn Patrick, the publisher of In Business Magazine and Joan Gillman from Executive Education at UW Madison keep the show hopping with a lively interview technique.  I was on the show last October with an interview that is proving to be their most popular podcast as measured by downloads among the over 200 shows they've recorded for this popular daily business show. 

The show was recorded and released on August 15th.  You can listen to a podcast of the interview by visiting WTDY.

Paul Gibler
the Web Chef

Useful Presentation Software Utility - ZoomIt

Hat-Tip to Lifehacker for introducing me to ZoomIt a free software utility from Microsoft that allows you to zoom in on your screen using a hot key (the default is Ctrl 1), then to use your right mouse key to enter into drawing mode with options of changing the line color by using your keyboard ("r" - red, "y" - yellow, "g" - green, "b" - blue or "o" - orange).  You can also use "t" as a hot key to type onto the screen.  If you want to create a sketch pad you can use "w" for white or "k" for black when you are in zoom mode. 

The other interesting option that it has for presenters is a timer with a default setting of 10 minutes that can be increased or decreased.  You can access the clock from the ZoomIT icon in your system tray.

I've tried it with PowerPoint and found that it worked extremely well.  I also tested it with other Microsoft software (Word, Outlook, IE) and it worked with them too.  The tool is free and is compatible with with Windows XP or Vista.