Slide Makeover - Helping Audiences Understand a Complex Diagram

Just a quick note to let you know that a new Slide Makeover Video Podcast based on the ideas in "The Visual Slide Revolution" is available for your viewing through the iTunes Store, online or through my YouTube channel. Seth Godin and PC World describe this slide as one of the worst PowerPoint slides ever. The complex diagram makes it impossible to understand what the message is. This makeover shows a better way to present complex diagrams so the audience understands the ideas.

This slide was submitted by a subscriber to the newsletter- someone just like you who is looking for a way to make their presentations more effective. If you want to submit some of your slides to be considered for a future slide makeover, e-mail them to me at Dave@ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com.

If you have already subscribed through iTunes or another podcatcher, the new podcast should be automatically downloaded when you next run the program.
To subscribe via the iTunes Store, click here.
To view online or get the RSS file for other podcatchers, click here.
You can also watch all the podcasts on my YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/ThinkOutsideTheSlide

If you have subscribed via iTunes or YouTube, please provide your positive feedback on the videos in the Comments and Ratings areas of the service so others know the value you get from the videos.



To get your own copy of "The Visual Slide Revolution", click here.
To access quick "how-to" videos for only $1.99 each, click here.

PowerPoint Tip: Different uses for the tool

PowerPoint is used as a tool to create many different outputs: projected slides, flipbook presentations, reports and even memos. Last week during a session in Los Angeles, I suggested that although there are different outputs from the same tool, there are a number of things that are common when using PowerPoint to create clear communication.

No matter what output you will be creating, it needs to be structured so that it makes sense for the audience. Before you start using PowerPoint, determine what your presentation goal is, where the audience is now, and what points you need to make in order to move them from where they are to where you want them to be by the end of the presentation.

The second common aspect is clear design. Your slides need to use colors that have enough contrast so that the audience can easily see them, the font you use needs to be big enough to be easily read, the slides need to be uncluttered and the focus of the design should be in presenting the content, not filling a significant amount of the space with branding or logos.

The final commonality is the opportunity to use visuals to communicate more powerfully than just slides full of text. The KWICK method outlined in my book “The Visual Slide Revolution” helps presenters transform the “wall of text” slides into persuasive visuals. Research shows that visuals plus text communicate more effectively than just text.

Are there differences between some of these output formats? Yes. The biggest one being that a printed format can tolerate more text if done properly. If you are including more text in a flipbook presentation, format the slide so that the key point is twice as big as the additional detail you are including for the audience to refer to later. This will help the audience focus on the key points as they skim the document while you speak. If you are using PowerPoint to produce a report or memo, the difference in text size doesn’t need to be quite as large, but make sure the key points stand out.

Whatever output format you create using PowerPoint, keep these ideas in mind when creating your next set of slides.

Reminder to check before you present

Last week I got reminded of how important it is to check every slide before you present. Unfortunately, I got reminded in the middle of my own presentation. I had used a special character on one of the slides. This was a Greek character that was important to the point I was making. I selected it from the Symbol list in PowerPoint and thought everything would be fine. But I presented from a computer that had a different version of the operating system (Vista vs. Windows XP) even though it had the same version of PowerPoint. And my Greek character turned into a symbol of a pair of scissors! Didn’t make the point at all. But I explained what it was supposed to show and everyone understood my point in the end.

My takeaway lesson from this experience: Double check all special symbols that you are using in your presentation on the setup that you will be using. Sometimes this means checking in the room right before your presentation, so make sure you arrive early and you know which slides you have to change if the setup has a different font configuration. I had not realized that changing the operating system could change the font definitions, but now you can learn from the lesson I was taught. Another approach you could use is to save the symbol character as a graphic and use the graphic instead, since font definitions don’t affect graphics. I have done this in the past and it works quite well.

Glad that I can continue to enlighten you as I learn lessons in public!

Slide Makeover Video Podcast on Long lists of information

Just a quick note to let you know that a new Slide Makeover Video Podcast based on the ideas in "The Visual Slide Revolution" is available for your viewing through the iTunes Store, online or through my YouTube channel. Any time you need to use a second slide as a (continued) slide for a list of information, it is time to rethink the way you are presenting the list. This makeover shows a list spanning four slides transformed so that the audience has context and can better understand the information.

This slide was submitted by a subscriber to the newsletter- someone just like you who is looking for a way to make their presentations more effective. If you want to submit some of your slides to be considered for a future slide makeover, e-mail them to me at Dave@ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com.If you have already subscribed through iTunes or another podcatcher, the new podcast should be automatically downloaded when you next run the program.

To subscribe via the iTunes Store, click here.
To view online or get the RSS file for other podcatchers, click here.
You can also watch all the podcasts on my YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/ThinkOutsideTheSlide
If you have subscribed via iTunes or YouTube, please provide your positive feedback on the videos in the Comments and Ratings areas of the service so others know the value you get from the videos.



To get your own copy of "The Visual Slide Revolution", click here.
To access quick "how-to" videos for only $1.99 each, click here.

PowerPoint Tip: Handling Mistakes on Slides

Last week I made a mistake on a slide and someone noticed during the session. I had typed the 13th of the month instead of the 10th in a visual. How did they know I was wrong? Because the explanatory text on the slide and what I said were not consistent with what my visual showed. This happens to all presenters, no matter how careful we are. The key is how you respond when someone points out the mistake.

Unfortunately, this seems to rattle some presenters. If you are a little nervous, this could throw a big wrench in your wheels. But don’t worry. It is actually a good sign when people are asking questions like this because it shows they are interested and have a desire to better understand your point.

So what should you do? First, pause a moment to determine whether what they are saying is correct. You may even want to ask them to explain what they see as incorrect because you may not be able to see the error. This can get other audience members involved and it can provide additional insight that everyone can benefit from.

If indeed your slide is incorrect, admit the mistake, using humour if possible. In the situation last week, I immediately recognized my mistake and handled it by saying: “I did that just to see if you were paying attention!” People laughed and I apologized for the mistake. If you are not sure if the information is a mistake, be honest and say that you are not sure about it and you will investigate more and get back to them. The final step is to correct the mistake, making sure the audience knows the correct information, and move on to your next point.

Don’t dwell on the mistake and don’t beat yourself up over it. We all make mistakes from time to time and your audience understands that. They are just glad it didn’t happen to them that day :)

New use for the PowerPoint Picture Compression feature

A recent workshop participant asked a question that helped us discover a new use for the resampling feature in PowerPoint. The resampling feature is properly known as the picture compression feature. It allows you to compress high resolution photos so that your PowerPoint file does not get so large. It removes the pixels you aren't using, so the picture still looks the same but the file is easier to e-mail.

The question that was asked related to another aspect of this feature. In order to save even more space, the compression feature will also delete the parts of the photo that you have cropped out. The idea is that if you aren't showing that part of the photo, you don't need to be taking up file space with those areas.

The participant asked if this deletion of cropped areas would help secure a photo when you cropped a section out and don't want others to be able to uncrop the photo to see what else was in the original photo. One reason to want to do this is when you have a photo of a scene and you don't want to show someone who was in the scene because it would be detrimental if anyone were to know that they were there. It turns out that the deleting of cropped areas feature is exactly what she was looking for. We tested it in the workshop and after the compression was done, we could not go back and see what had been in the photo when we uncropped it.

Even if you don't want to compress all photos or don't need to because they are not high resolution, you can use this technique in the following way. Right-click on the photo and select to format the picture as you usually do. Select the compress feature as you normally would. But when setting the options, select to only delete the cropped areas and only for this photo, not the other photos in your presentation. This way, you secure the photo you want without affecting any of the other photos in your file.

This may not be a technique you will use in many of your presentations, but it is handy to know when you run in to a situation that involves a sensitive photo.

March 3/09 Slide Makeover Video Podcast now available

Just a quick note to let you know that a new Slide Makeover Video Podcast based on the ideas in "The Visual Slide Revolution" is available for your viewing through the iTunes Store, online or through my YouTube channel. Analogies are a good way to help the audience understand your point. But if the analogy is unclear, it hinders instead of helps. This makeover shows a more visual way to use an analogy to make the point more effectively.

This slide was submitted by a subscriber to the newsletter- someone just like you who is looking for a way to make their presentations more effective. If you want to submit some of your slides to be considered for a future slide makeover, e-mail them to me at Dave@ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com.

If you have already subscribed through iTunes or another podcatcher, the new podcast should be automatically downloaded when you next run the program.

To subscribe via the iTunes Store, click here.
To view online or get the RSS file for other podcatchers, click here.
You can also watch all the podcasts on my YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/ThinkOutsideTheSlide

If you have subscribed via iTunes or YouTube, please provide your positive feedback on the videos in the Comments and Ratings areas of the service so others know the value you get from the videos.



To get your own copy of "The Visual Slide Revolution", click here.
To access quick "how-to" videos for only $1.99 each, click here.