tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-257150772024-03-14T14:48:51.544-04:00Dave Paradi's PowerPoint BlogThe ideas I share on this blog will help presenters communicate more effectively using persuasive PowerPoint presentations. Visit my web site at www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com for more information on my training, consulting and resources.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09656189576576407056noreply@blogger.comBlogger488125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25715077.post-57396318734543983712014-04-02T14:27:00.000-04:002014-04-02T14:27:17.584-04:00All new articles will only be on my website starting April 1, 2014<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As of April 1, 2014, all new articles and information will only be located on my website at <a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/">www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com</a> and items will not also be posted here. This blog started when there were only a few options available to those who wanted to distribute their content, and Blogger was a good option back then. Today, there are better options.<br /><br />The content on my site will allow you to still comment by using Google+, which cuts down on the spam comments that I have to manually moderate. If you subscribe to this blog via RSS, here is the new URL to subscribe to so you continue to get updated information on how to create effective PowerPoint presentations:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/category/home-page/feed/">http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/category/home-page/feed/</a><br /><br />I do not plan to maintain this site in the future, so some of the links may end up being broken over time.<br /><br />Thank you for following me here and I look forward to seeing you on my website at <a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/">www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com</a>.<br /><br /> <br /><br />Dave</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09656189576576407056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25715077.post-344263369691422212014-03-20T14:19:00.000-04:002014-03-20T14:19:27.357-04:00April 10 workshop in Toronto on turning Excel data into visuals for executive presentations<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Professionals who present financial or operational data</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> say there are two key roadblocks to them using effective visuals instead of the spreadsheets, tables, and complex graphs they are currently using. First, they need to know what visuals work for the different messages they deliver. Second, they need to know how to create these visuals in PowerPoint.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />My workshop on April 10 in downtown Toronto will show you how to overcome these roadblocks. You will see many different visuals from real presentations, and you will be hands-on in PowerPoint practicing the techniques that are used to create the visuals. The full details of all you will learn are on my website at <a href="http://www.makenumbersvisual.com/">www.MakeNumbersVisual.com</a>.<br /><br />Who should attend this workshop? Anyone who: 1) has to present financial or operational data in their presentations, 2) knows that there must be a better way than using spreadsheets on slides, and 3) is willing to learn new visuals that are more effective.</span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you are in the Toronto area, plan to attend. You will walk away will skills that will make your next presentation more effective.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not in the Toronto area? <a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/using-excel-data-in-a-powerpoint-presentation/" target="_blank">Click here for a curated list of resources on using Excel data in a PowerPoint presentation</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here are some of the visuals you will learn how to create:</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09656189576576407056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25715077.post-40579948916583286462014-03-18T11:39:00.003-04:002014-03-18T11:39:36.399-04:00Presentation Insight: Numbers only measure a story<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why do presenters use so many spreadsheets and tables of numbers in their presentations? The answer I get from participants in my workshops is that the numbers and analysis are important. The audience needs to see all the numbers. In this article I want to explain why I think that the numbers are not as important as presenters think they are.<br /><br />What are the numbers really? They are measurements of something going on in the organization. It could be sales, inventory, shipments, headcount, square footage, or any of the literally thousands of things that get measured in every organization today. And by themselves, they don't mean much.<br /><br />What we do is we compare the measured values to some desired state, such as last year's number, a budget amount, a projection, an industry average, or other relevant number. Why do we do the comparison? Because we want to get a sense of whether the measured value indicates good or poor performance. So are these the numbers that are important? Not yet.<br /><br />Here is the key I want you to understand. Numbers, whether measured or derived from analysis, only measure an underlying story of what is going on in your organization. Your audience wants to know that story, not the numbers. This is a fundamental shift in thinking for many professionals who present financial and operational data. Only include numbers when they are used as support for the story you are sharing. Don't think that the numbers are the story, because they aren't.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/NumbersTranslatedToVisual.png"><img height="259" src="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/NumbersTranslatedToVisual-1024x415.png" width="640" /></a><br /><br />In a workshop last year I observed that the slides the participants were using each week to report to management contained lists of the breakdown of sales into categories and whether those were favorable or not compared to the budget. The numbers weren't even in tables, they were incorporated in bullet points of text so that the executives had to hunt to find them. Not effective at all.<br /><br />Here is the question I asked that group to consider when deciding whether to include a number on a slide: "Is the situation these numbers describe important enough that action is necessary?" If not, don't include the number. The executives don't care about the number. They care about whether it indicates a situation they need to make a decision on. If it doesn't require a decision, leave it out of the presentation.<br /><br />When you take the perspective that the numbers are not as important as the story they are telling, you actually end up changing the analysis you do. You become more focused on creating a message supported by the analysis. And when you want to tell that story visually, you can create effective visuals from the numbers. That's why I launched the <a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/what-visual-to-use-membership-information/">What Visual To Use site</a> to help you select the best visual for the message your numbers are telling. If you want to join me in Toronto or Denver to learn how to create visuals that work for financial data, <a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/presenting-financial-information-visually-in-powerpoint/">register for my hands-on workshop</a>.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09656189576576407056noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25715077.post-31055738944577005332014-03-04T11:07:00.000-05:002014-03-04T11:07:42.915-05:003 Big Mistakes professionals make when presenting financial or operational data to executivesDo you present financial or operational data to executives? Make sure you aren't making these three mistakes.<br />
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<a href="http://www.slideshare.net/thinkoutsidetheslide/3-big-mistakes-professionals-make-when-presenting-financial-or-operational-data-to-executives" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-471l-of4X1M/UxX51kxfQCI/AAAAAAAAAHI/skesIR3DKRc/s1600/3BigMistakesSlideshare.png" height="521" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09656189576576407056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25715077.post-37651303653356815532014-02-18T09:39:00.003-05:002014-02-18T09:39:42.543-05:00Presentation Insight: Are your slides Re-Tweetable?<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What does Twitter have to do with effective slides in your PowerPoint presentation? A lot more than you think. This occurred to me last week as I was helping a client prepare a presentation for an upcoming investor conference. Twitter gives us an interesting way to measure how much of an impact a message makes when someone reads it. If they understand and like the message, they retweet it and mark it as a favorite.<br /><br />So why should this matter to presenters? Because we want the key messages in our presentation to have an immediate impact on our audiences. We want the audience to understand the messages, see how the messages impact their life or business, and act on those messages. Not that much different from what a good tweet does.<br /><br />So which tweets have the most impact? Those that have effective images attached. <a href="http://blog.bufferapp.com/the-power-of-twitters-new-expanded-images-and-how-to-make-the-most-of-it">This research</a> from Buffer shows that tweets with images received 89% more favorites and were retweeted 150% more than tweets without images. The most retweeted tweet of 2013 (Lea Michelle thanking fans for their support after the death of Cory Monteith), and the most retweeted tweet of all time (US President Barak Obama's re-election in 2012) both contained images. In our presentations, if all we are using is text, we are missing a great opportunity to be memorable. By using visuals, we can increase the impact of our presentation.<br /><br />But it is not just adding any old image and assuming just the presence of the image will make the presentation better. A random image attached to a poorly structured tweet won't get much attention. There are two parts of effective tweets that presenters can adapt: the well written text tweet, and the interesting, meaningful visual.<br /><br />On a slide, the equivalent to the text tweet is the slide headline. An effective tweet usually isn't just a topic statement. It explains the key message in 140 characters or less. You can write quite a lot in 140 characters. Don't be afraid to write a longer headline that summarizes the key point you want the audience to understand from your slide. And limit yourself to one key message. Just like on Twitter, if you have another point, you send another tweet. If you have two points to make, use two slides, each with its own headline. The message in the headline should be so important that the viewer wants to see and hear more from you about this point.<br /><br />The equivalent to the Twitter picture is a visual on your slide that illustrates the message in the headline. If you are comparing numbers or values, use a graph, proportional object collection, grouped item comparison diagram, or other visual that shows the difference in values. If you are talking about the relationship of events over a time period, use a timeline, Gantt chart, or calendar diagram. There are many other visuals for other types of situations or messages you are communicating. The visual helps solidify the message in the mind of the viewer.<br /><br />Here is an example of a slide with a clear message in the headline, and a visual that illustrates the point.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/LineGraph5.png"><img height="480" src="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/LineGraph5.png" width="640" /></a><br /><br />With a clear headline and a meaningful visual, your slide becomes something your audience wants to share with others. Even if you are not on Twitter, if you make your slides Re-Tweetable, you will improve the effectiveness of your presentation.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09656189576576407056noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25715077.post-65814295698613996342014-02-04T11:33:00.001-05:002014-02-04T11:41:37.195-05:00Presentation Insight: 3 Tips for making column graphs even clearer<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In my workshops, I always recommend creating graphs in PowerPoint rather than copying them from Excel, because they are easier to edit and it avoids some of the problems of the entire spreadsheet being embedded into the PowerPoint file. Unfortunately, when you create a graph in PowerPoint, the default graph contains many distracting elements. In the workshop I show people what to clean up and <a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/clean-up-default-graph/" target="_blank">this video</a> shows you how to do the cleanup in PowerPoint.<br /><br />In this article I want to take the cleaning up of column graphs further by sharing three ideas based on information fellow PowerPoint MVP Nolan Haims of <a href="http://www.presentyourstory.com/">PresentYourStory.com</a> shared at the Presentation Summit last September.<br /><br /><b>"Fewer Distracting Pixels"</b><br /><br />A phrase Nolan used struck me as a guideline for further cleaning up of graphs. He said we should aim to have "fewer distracting pixels" on our slides. He applied the idea by suggesting we remove the tick marks on the horizontal axis for column graphs. The column already shows the audience what label is associated with which data. I would suggest that in many cases we can also remove the axis line, since it often does not add any meaning to the graph. Here is an example of a before and after slide applying this approach. The change isn't much, but it removes pixels that distract the audience from the point of the slide.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Slide4.png"><img src="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Slide4.png" height="300" width="400" /></a><br /><br /><b>Two colors work better than one color for column graphs</b><br /><br />The default graph in PowerPoint assigns the same color for each column in a column graph. I do teach how you can set the color of one column differently than the other columns. The additional nuance I picked up is to apply this more frequently using shades of the same color. Use a muted color for all of the columns except the one or two you want to emphasize. Make those columns a bolder version of that color. By using related colors, the audience knows the data is related, but they also see the difference and will focus more on the columns in the bolder color. Here is an example based on a recent workshop makeover.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Slide5.png"><img src="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Slide5.png" height="300" width="400" /></a><br /><br /><b>Use labels more effectively</b><br /><br />Text labels in the graph allow the audience to quickly understand the point you are making. In my workshops I show how you can add text labels to your graphs if the default data labels won't work for the point you are trying to make. I would now add that you can use labels to better tie the explanatory text to the data by using colors for the text. Here is the example from above with a larger, colored text label placed over the default x-axis label. See how the bold text draws your eye even more to the column you want to emphasize.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Slide6.png"><img src="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Slide6.png" height="300" width="400" /></a><br /><br />While I have explained these ideas in relation to column graphs, you can also apply these concepts to other types of graphs, such as bar charts, pie charts, and line graphs. When presenting numeric information visually, it is important that we make the graphs as clean as possible, to focus as much of the audience's attention on the data that supports our point.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09656189576576407056noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25715077.post-64186701921791018702014-01-21T08:12:00.000-05:002014-01-21T08:12:04.162-05:00Presentation Insight: Using Amazon Storybuilder to outline a presentation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Late last year Amazon Studios introduced a tool that will be helpful for presenters. Amazon Studios is a movie studio that helps produce films for film makers. How would their tools relate to presentations? Like the stories that film makers tell, our presentations should tell a story. In this article I want to share how I think the new Amazon Storybuilder can help you outline the content for your story.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />In my workshops I always share my six step RAPIDS approach for planning your message. The P in the RAPIDS acronym stands for Presentation Outline. I show the participants how outlining your message with hierarchically arranged sticky notes is a great way to see the entire message at once. You may also have seen this in the seven day e-course that I offer new newsletter registrants. Here is the example I use in my workshops and the e-course:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/PresentationOutline.png"><img src="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/PresentationOutline.png" /></a><br /><br />Up to now, there has been no easy online way to create these types of outlines. The Amazon Storybuilder tool (at <a href="http://studios.amazon.com/storybuilder">http://studios.amazon.com/storybuilder</a>) may be a great answer to this challenge. It is an entirely web-based tool that is accessible from any platform and any browser. I have used it on my laptop and my iPad quite easily. All you need is a free Amazon account (you can use the one you are already using to buy books if you want).<br /><br />The concept is that you create a corkboard and pin cards to it, similar to sticking sticky notes to a wall or whiteboard. You create a new corkboard for each presentation. The topics you want to cover in your presentation are the highest level of your presentation outline. In Storybuilder, the top level of the story are referred to as Groups, so you would add each topic as a Group at the top of the corkboard.<br /><br />Under each Group, add a Card for each point you will make when discussing that topic. The Card has a title, which you can use to describe the point. In the description for the Card, add what supporting information or visual you will use to illustrate this point, such as a graph, photo, etc. You can even add an image to each Card if you want to sketch out the visual. I did this recently in an airport lounge. I drew a graph on a napkin and took a photo on my iPad when adding an image to the Card. You access the image feature by double clicking on the card to make it larger and show the additional options.<br /><br />Just like cards on a corkboard or sticky notes on a wall, you can use your mouse to rearrange the cards on your corkboard, making it easy to move points between different topics if needed. You also see the whole corkboard on your screen, which allows you to see the whole presentation at the same time, so you can make sure you have included everything you wanted to say.<br /><br />The tool will also allow you to invite collaborators to help work on the outline. They only need a free Amazon account to view and add comments to your corkboard. You can also output the corkboard to a PDF that can be sent to others.<br /><br />The tool allows you to put cards in a virtual drawer at the top of the board. You can use the drawer to store cards that you know you will need later, but don’t know exactly where yet. You can also use the drawer to hold cards that you remove from the corkboard but don’t want to permanently delete because you may need them later.<br /><br />Here is the example above done in the Amazon Storybuilder corkboard:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/StoryboardScreenCapture.png"><img height="424" src="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/StoryboardScreenCapture.png" width="640" /></a><br /><br />If you have been looking for a visual tool to organize the content for your presentation, one that allows collaboration and visuals to be included, check out the Amazon Storybuilder tool at <a href="http://studios.amazon.com/storybuilder">http://studios.amazon.com/storybuilder</a>. To show you how easy it is to use this tool, I created a 7 minute video that walks you through using it to create a presentation outline. Watch it below:</span><div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09656189576576407056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25715077.post-66276506063812547552014-01-07T08:19:00.002-05:002014-01-07T08:19:36.013-05:003 Steps to Lead Presentation Change in 2014<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I am delivering my workshops, a common concern is raised by the participants. They think that the ideas I share are great, they really like the slide makeovers I show them, but they are concerned that the new visuals they create won’t meet with management approval. So they don’t act on the information as much as their management would like them to. This article shares three steps you can use to lead the change in your own organization to create more effective presentations in less time.<br /><br /><b>Step 1: Remind yourself and others of the financial impact of poor presentations</b><br /><br />No problem gets solved unless it is a big enough problem. So the first step is to remind yourself and others of the real cost of poor presentations. In a recent Chicago workshop, I showed the participants how the time wasted by the current way presentations are created is costing them millions of dollars each year. Any issue worth that much is one that management and others will be interested in addressing. Without putting a dollar figure to the cost of the current approach, the change won’t have priority. To calculate the cost in your organization, <a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/what-is-the-real-cost-of-poor-presentations/">use this calculator</a>.<br /><br /><b>Step 2: Start small</b><br /><br />Don’t start changing every slide in a key presentation all at once. It won’t work very well. It will take too long and the drastic change may alienate some key members of the audience. Instead, select one key message that is currently shown as a wall of text or a spreadsheet on the slide and create a more effective visual for that one slide. It won’t take too long to do, and the change is less risky because it is only one point in the overall presentation.<br /><br /><b>Step 3: Listen to feedback to build support for the changes</b><br /><br />After you have delivered the new slide, ask a few key people if the new visual helped them understand the message better. Listen to what they liked and what they felt was missing. Improve the slide and check for additional feedback. By focusing on making the message clearer, you position yourself as someone who is looking for opportunities to improve the quality of presentations. This leads to better decisions, improves the results for your organization, and boosts your career.<br /><br />After a short time, the new visual becomes the standard. Then move on to the next key message that can be improved with a new visual. Repeat the process over time and the entire presentation ends up being transformed.<br /><br />You can lead the change to more effective presentations in 2014 if you start small, build support, and always focus on the bottom-line benefit to your organization.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09656189576576407056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25715077.post-8850391312868689962013-12-10T16:45:00.000-05:002013-12-10T16:45:05.742-05:00Presentation Tip: Proportional Object Collection Calculator<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Earlier this year I created an online tool to calculate the sizes of two shapes based on values that you input. This allows you to create a diagram with two proportional shapes. I wrote about this calculator in the <a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/issue-288-june-11-2013/">June 11 issue of the newsletter</a> and gave examples of the background and other links about this type of diagram. At the Presentation Summit in September, fellow PowerPoint MVP Glenna Shaw of <a href="http://www.visualology.net/">visualology.net</a> suggested that what I had created was good, but needed to go further.<br /><br />Glenna had written about the online tool in blog posts for Microsoft (see the June 11 newsletter for links), but she wanted it to do more. She wanted the tool to calculate the sizes of more than two shapes. This would allow it to be used when you have more than two values to compare visually. She also wanted it to be more generic, so the sizes could apply to any shape or image, not just squares, rectangles, and circles.<br /><br />Of course her ideas made perfect sense. So I went to work in my hotel room that day and created a new tool, the <a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/proportional-object-collection-calculator/">Proportional Object Collection Calculator</a>. It allows you to create slides like this:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/ProportionalOneOffSlide.png"><img height="480" src="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/ProportionalOneOffSlide.png" width="640" /></a><br /><br />This example of a proportional object collection shows one of the shapes only partially on the slide. When one of the values is much larger than the rest of the values, this approach can work well because it allows the shapes for the smaller values to be more easily seen on the slide. The audience still understands the magnitude of the large shape because more than half of it is on the slide.<br /><br />To use the calculator, enter the height and width of the largest object you want to create (in inches or centimetres). Then you enter the values you want to represent with proportional objects. Enter the values in order from largest to smallest. In the Results section, you will see exact measurements for each object. Use the entry fields in the Size group for the object to enter the height and width shown in the Results table.<br /><br />I have found it easiest to copy the results table of object sizes onto my slide so it is easy to see when entering the sizes for each shape or image. You can make the table smaller if it is taking up too much room, and move it to one of the top corners of the slide so it is out of the way of where you are placing the objects. When you are done, you can delete the table or move it to the Notes section of the slide if you need to keep the dimensions of the objects.<br /><br />Instead of a column or bar graph, consider using a proportional object collection in your next presentation. It tells the story of the numbers visually in a way the audience will understand and remember.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09656189576576407056noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25715077.post-31312566575469362682013-11-26T11:48:00.001-05:002013-11-26T11:48:25.857-05:00Celebrating 300 newsletter issues<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today I am celebrating the 300th issue of my newsletter. I have been writing this newsletter every two weeks for almost 11 years. I would not be able to keep writing if it was not for the support and encouragement that my loyal readers have shown. If you are not on the list yet, <a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/newsletter/">click here to sign up</a>. To thank my subscribers and those who read my articles on my blog or website, I am offering a sale on my Kindle ebooks and reminding you of some of the free resources I offer you and all presenters on my website.<br /><br />In the US, this Thursday is Thanksgiving. A tradition started years ago is the Black Friday sale at many retailers the day after the holiday. That tradition expanded to Cyber Monday where online retailers get into the sale mode a couple of days later. So I decided to have an Issue #300/Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale on my Kindle ebooks. As a thank you to my loyal readers, I am cutting the price of my Kindle ebook series in half until Tuesday December 3. Instead of $2.99, the ebooks are only $1.49 on Amazon. The ebooks include 20 Tips for Financial Presentations, Sales Presentations, Project Status Presentations, and, the latest one in the series, 20 Tips for Students. Here are the links directly to Amazon to take advantage of the sale:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CDZPGEA/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00CDZPGEA&linkCode=as2&tag=thinkoutsidet-20">20 Tips for Effective Financial Presentations with PowerPoint</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CJ9NS0Y/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00CJ9NS0Y&linkCode=as2&tag=thinkoutsidet-20">20 Tips for Effective Sales Presentations with PowerPoint</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00E6WWA7O/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00E6WWA7O&linkCode=as2&tag=thinkoutsidet-20">20 Tips for Effective Project Status Presentations with PowerPoint</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GSSBWH8/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00GSSBWH8&linkCode=as2&tag=thinkoutsidet-20">20 Tips to Help Students Ace Their Next PowerPoint Presentation</a><br /><br />I have always been known for giving many free resources on my website that help presenters improve their presentations. If you haven’t visited my website lately, you may have forgotten about some of these resources. Two of the resources I get a lot of comments on are the PowerPoint tutorial videos and the slide makeovers. I offer over 30 videos that show you how to use PowerPoint to create graphs, diagrams, handouts, and more. These aren’t feature focused, they are specific to the tasks you have to get done. All of the videos are short, usually in the 3-8 minute range, so you can learn the task and get back to work. They are organized by category <a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/powerpoint-tutorials/">on this page</a>. My slide makeovers are also organized so it is easy for you to find one that is relevant to the type of slide or industry you are in. These slide makeover videos show you a “before” slide, how I revised it into a better “after” slide, and lessons presenters can learn from the makeover. If you are looking for a new way to show information on a slide, check out these videos <a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/slide-makeover-videos/">on this page</a>.<br /><br />I also offer two tools that help presenters design slides that are visually appealing and easy to understand. The first is the Color Contrast Calculator. This tool allows you to enter the RGB values of two colors and know if the audience will be able to easily read the text on the background, or distinguish between adjacent shapes in a graph or diagram. Full instructions on how to use the calculator are included on <a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/color-contrast-calculator/">the Color Contrast Calculator page</a>. The second most annoying thing presenters do, according to audiences in <a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/free-resources/latest-annoying-powerpoint-survey-results/">my latest survey</a>, is use a font that is too small to easily read. How big of a font should you use? The only true answer is “It depends.” You need to take into account the size of the screen and the size of the room. I use visual acuity standards and road sign guidelines to create two charts that you can use to determine the right font size for your presentation. The charts for standard 4x3 projectors and widescreen TVs are <a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/selecting-the-correct-font-size/">on this page in English and French</a>. If you need to create a full template for your organization, there is no better book than one written by my fellow PowerPoint MVPs Julie Terberg and Echo Swinford. If you have been tasked with creating the PowerPoint template for your organization, <a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/building-powerpoint-templates-step-by-step-with-the-experts/">get their book today</a>.<br /><br />Thank you again for your loyal support and kind comments over the years. I look forward to serving you for many years to come. For those of you gathering with family and friends this week to celebrate Thanksgiving, travel safely and celebrate the blessings you have been given.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09656189576576407056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25715077.post-90892646432796308452013-11-12T15:52:00.005-05:002013-11-12T15:52:47.571-05:00Presentation Tip: Treemap Diagrams<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><br />At the Presentation Summit in September, <a href="http://www.presentyourstory.com/">Nolan Haims</a> showed a diagram I had seen before, but did not know the proper name for: a treemap. A treemap is a type of visual that allows you to visually compare the size of different measured values using proportionally shaped rectangles that are arranged into an overall rectangle. Here is <a href="http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/b-eye/treemaps.pdf">a link to an article</a> that contains more on the background of this type of visual. Here is an example of a treemap.<br /> <br /> <img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/treemap.png" width="640" /><br /><br />The challenge with this visual, like many other diagrams that use proportional shapes, is that you need to do somewhat complex calculations in order to get the shapes exactly the right size. Nolan shared that there are some online tools that can create these types of diagrams, but the tools produce an image that you can’t edit in PowerPoint. I knew that there must be a way that presenters everywhere could quickly and easily create these diagrams without having to figure out the calculations themselves. <br /><br />After a few hours of work, I created a calculator that allows you to input your values, and the calculations are done for you. The calculator is on my site at <a href="http://www.simpletreemapcalculator.com/">www.SimpleTreemapCalculator.com</a>. You enter the height and width of the overall area of your slide that you want the treemap to occupy (in inches or centimetres). Then you enter the values you want to represent within the treemap. You need to enter at least four values in order from largest to smallest. In the Results section of the calculator, you will see exact measurements for each rectangle that makes up the treemap. You can then use the entry fields in the Size group for the object to enter the height and width of each rectangle shown in the Results table. <br /><br />To make the calculator work, I had to make some assumptions about how the rectangles would be arranged. In the treemap created by the calculator, the rectangles are always arranged starting with the largest rectangle on the left side of the area for the treemap. The next rectangles then fill in the remaining area from the top to the bottom. The final two rectangles split the last space left in the overall area used for the treemap. You can see this pattern in the example above. <br /><br />When would you use a treemap diagram? I think it is a good option to replace a pie chart where one of the wedges is about 50% or more. Instead of the typical pie chart of wedges, you can input the values into the Simple Treemap Calculator and create a treemap diagram. Since each rectangle is a separate shape, it is easy to build each rectangle one by one with animation as you speak to that value. <br /><br />Now that the calculations are easier, you can start to use treemap diagrams in your presentations. </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09656189576576407056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25715077.post-84689637061284335122013-10-30T05:43:00.003-04:002013-10-30T05:43:27.426-04:00Presentation Tip: Show steps in a process<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When you need to explain a process, whether it is a manufacturing process, process for handling expense claims, or process for installing a new system, there are steps you want to walk the audience through. The default template in PowerPoint leads many presenters to use a numbered list of steps: step one through to the final step. In today’s tip I want to show you some examples of visuals that can show a process better than a numbered list. <br /><br /><b><i>Linear process with same type of activity</i></b><br /> The first example is for a linear process where each step is the same type of activity. Here is an example.<br /> <br /> <img height="138" src="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Issue298example1.png" width="640" /><br /> Each step in this example is handled by the same department and in the same location. When the audience sees the same shape used for each step, they draw a conclusion that each step is the same type of activity. Use this type of diagram when you have a simple process that does not include different types of activities. <br /><br /><b><i>Linear process with different types of activities</i></b><br /> When it is important for the audience to immediately see that there are different types of activities in the process, use a diagram like this example.<br /> <img height="171" src="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Issue298example2.png" width="640" /><br /> The different shapes indicate the three types of activities: design, coding, and testing. When you create these types of process diagrams, you can see how adding an icon that represents the type of activity makes it even easier for the audience to understand the diagram. <br /><br /><b><i>Continuous processes</i></b><br /> Not all processes are linear. Continuous improvement processes are one of the most common types of processes that do not really ever end. Once the cycle is complete, it starts again. Here is an example.<br /> <img height="505" src="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Issue298example3.png" width="640" /><br /> Creating a circular diagram in PowerPoint is easiest if you use the drawing tools instead of the built-in SmartArt diagram tool. I find the SmartArt circular process diagram hard to work with, hard to customize and difficult to get looking exactly the way you want. The type of circular diagram above is easier to create and allows you to include as many steps as you need. <br /><br /> Your audience will appreciate you using diagrams instead of a list of steps when explaining processes. You do not need any fancy software to create these diagrams. The examples above were created in PowerPoint using the drawing tools that everyone has in the software. You may need to brush up on the use of these tools, but you can soon be creating your own process diagrams for your presentations. </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09656189576576407056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25715077.post-68530469750721571892013-10-15T13:12:00.002-04:002013-10-15T13:12:26.736-04:00Presentation Tip: Ideas from the 2013 Presentation Summit<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Every year when I speak at and attend the Presentation Summit conference I come back with great ideas from other presentation experts that I can adapt or use in my own presentations. Last month the conference was in Ft. Lauderdale, FL and in this article I want to share three ideas I picked up at the conference. <br /><br />The first idea came from Nolan Haims (<a href="http://presentyourstory.com/">www.PresentYourStory.com</a>). He showed us a bullet graph, a type of graph created by noted visual expert Stephen Few. This is what a bullet graph looks like. <img border="0" height="480" src="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/BulletGraph.png" width="640" /><br /> What I liked about this type of graph is that it is a good substitute for a two series column graph when you want to compare values that are related. The example above is a good illustration of this as the projected value and actual value are related information. Instead of two columns side by side where the audience has to work to determine the difference, the bullet graph shows the comparison on top of each other. This makes it easier for the audience to instantly understand whether the actual value is greater than or less than the projected value. While this is not a built-in graph type in PowerPoint, it is possible to create this graph in PowerPoint by placing the second series on a second axis and making each column a different width. <br /><br />The second idea came from an Entrepreneur’s roundtable session that I moderated. One of the big issues for people trying to make a change to the presentation culture in an organization is the phrase, “It’s good enough.” Change doesn’t happen unless someone recognizes the value of that change. If the decision makers don’t see the problem as big enough, they won’t pay for a solution. When it comes to presentations, we need to look at the cost of presentations in organizations. There are costs of people spending more time creating presentations than they should because they haven’t been given the training they need. There is the cost of poor presentations that result in rework to get a decision made. I created an <a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/what-is-the-real-cost-of-poor-presentations/">online calculator as part of this article</a> that will quantify the dollar cost of presentations that require rework. And there are the hidden costs of sales not made or productivity gains not realized because the audience was confused or not convinced to take action. When totalled, these costs can easily run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you want to change the presentation culture in your organization, quantify these costs and present that large dollar figure to your boss. Now they may be willing to solve the problem with the type of customized training and other resources I provide to my clients. <br /><br />The third idea came from the now annual Pecha Kucha session hosted by Ric Bretschneider. Two of the participants giving example presentations used slides that were full screen images. One participant had a headline on each slide, and one did not. What I found fascinating while watching the two presentations, is how the slides without headlines kept me more intrigued as to what the presenter was going to talk about. I advocate using a headline for your slides, but this observation got me thinking in a new direction. I still think that having headlines is important in corporate presentations, especially those that will be distributed later via e-mail. I am now thinking that in certain cases where you really need to grab attention with a full screen image, consider revealing the headline after you have explained the key point. You continue to talk about the point after the headline appears on the slide, but you have taken advantage of the intrigue the audience feels before you r eveal the key point. This isn’t something that you will use in every presentation, but it is another tool to put in your presentation toolbox. <br /><br /> I so appreciate those of you who attended the Presentation Summit and came up to me with kind words about this newsletter and the work that I do. If you want to learn more about the conference and join us next year in San Diego, check out <a href="http://www.presentationsummit.com/">www.PresentationSummit.com</a>. </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09656189576576407056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25715077.post-61374082604004476012013-10-01T09:05:00.000-04:002013-10-01T09:05:30.030-04:00Insights from Audiences: Results of the 2013 Annoying PowerPoint survey<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I recently wrapped up my latest survey of audience members on what annoys them about PowerPoint presentations. A total of 682 responses came in and the message for presenters is clear: A lot of you don’t understand how to create and deliver an effective presentation, and audiences are getting more fed up about it. In this article I will give you the highlights of the results and where you can find the detailed analysis and results on my website. <br /><br />The first key insight from the survey is that presentations are becoming a more common form of communication. In the survey, 25.5% of respondents said that they see, on average, one or more PowerPoint presentations each day. This number has increased from 13.4% in 2007, to 14.2% in 2009, to 19.7% in 2011, and now 25.5%. This is an almost doubling in the number of people seeing at least one presentation per day in the last 6 years, an average growth rate of 15% per year over that time. <br /><br />Many of my clients are telling me that almost every meeting has a PowerPoint presentation and reports and memos are being replaced by presentations. Does it make sense that so much of communication in organizations is shifting towards presentations? Not necessarily. As the write-in comments showed, more people are recognizing that their time is being wasted with presentations that really should have been written documents e-mailed for everyone to read. <br /><br />In the survey I give people a choice of twelve things that can annoy an audience member about a PowerPoint presentation and ask them to select the top three. The number one annoyance, and the top three annoyances have not changed since the last survey. Here are the top three, with what percentage of respondents included them in their top choices. <br /><br />The speaker read the slides to us 72.0%<br /> Text so small I couldn’t read it 50.6%<br /> Full sentences instead of bullet points 48.4% <br /><br />The percentages did not change much from the last survey two years ago. Reading the slides to the audience is still the most annoying thing a presenter can do, by a wide margin. The next two answers switched spots from the last survey. In second place, using text that is too small to comfortably read was cited by over half the respondents. It continues to amaze me what font size some presenters use on their slides. One of my clients has set the record for me in terms of smallest font I have seen used on a slide – 4 point! As I explain in my workshops, “if you ever hear yourself say, “I know you can’t read this,” just turn off the projector”. As the survey clearly indicates, you are annoying the audience by using text they can’t read. In third place was using full sentences instead of bullet points for text. Full sentences encourage reading, which leads to the most annoying thing a presenter can do. <br /><br />In this survey, I asked respondents to write in three words or phrases (positive or negative) they commonly hear in their organization about PowerPoint presentations. I took all the words and phrases, excluded some common nouns, and created a word cloud to show the most common descriptive words the respondents used. <br /></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><img id="_x0000_i1025" src="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/WordCloudv2.png" width="500" /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><br />Boring stands out far above any other word. Why are audiences bored? Because they don’t understand the message and feel they are wasting their time. I don’t think that boring refers to the presenter not having content that the audience wants or needs to hear. The audience wants to hear the information, but it is so poorly organized and presented, that the audience gives up trying to figure it out and decides that this was a waste of their time. Often it is because the presenter didn’t take time to decide what the core information was, and just does a “data dump” presentation. <br /><br />The issue of information overload is reinforced with the prominence of words such as long, much, and many. Too much information is being included in presentations, information that is not helpful to the audience understanding the message. In my workshops and my latest book, <a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/present-it-so-they-get-it/">Present It So They Get It</a>, I share five strategies for reducing information overload. This is always one of the most commented on sections of my workshops. Presenters need to learn how to pare down the information they have and create a focused message for the audience. <br /><br />I have many more thoughts and insights from the survey, and you can <a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/free-resources/latest-annoying-powerpoint-survey-results/">read the full report on my website here</a>. <br /><br /> So what is the overall message presenters, whether they are analysts, professionals, managers, or executives, should take from the responses to this survey? It is clear that presentations are becoming more popular as a vehicle for communicating ideas. With this increased emphasis, the expectations of the audience have increased. They are no longer satisfied with mediocre slides and poor delivery. Presenters need to improve their skills in planning their message, creating slides that support that message, and delivering those slides effectively. The result will be improved sales, increased efficiency, and faster decisions.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09656189576576407056noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25715077.post-41349269901532736752013-09-17T10:59:00.004-04:002013-09-17T10:59:44.150-04:00Presentation Tip: Donut Graphs<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For the last year or two I have noticed newspapers and magazines using donut graphs more often to show proportional data results. Donut graphs may look like they are hard to create, but they are actually built into PowerPoint, so any presenter can use them. Here is an example that shows how a donut graph can be used.<br /> <img height="480" src="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Issue295example.png" width="640" /><br /><br />In this article I want to talk about when you may want to use this type of graph and how to use it effectively. <br /><br />A donut graph is closely related to a pie graph. In fact, some people say a donut graph is just a pie graph with the center cut out. Both pie graphs and donut graphs show the proportional relationship of data. These types of graphs can show market share, responses to a question, proportional spending in a budget, or any data set where you want to show how much of the total each item represents. So a donut graph is a good substitute for a pie graph when you want visual variety in a presentation where there are many pie graphs. <br /><br />I also think that a donut graph is a good graph to use when showing a comparison, like the example above. It allows the identification of the two graphs to be placed in the center of the graph instead of a caption on each graph that can sometimes get lost. <br /><br />When creating donut graphs, I have some suggestions to keep them clean and clear. First, a donut graph works best with very few wedges, usually three or less. More than three wedges gets a little harder to understand. Two wedges in a donut graph can work well when you are showing a comparison at two points in time and there is a dramatic change in the size of the two wedges. <br /><br />Second, labelling a donut graph is much harder than a pie graph, Donut graph data labels don’t give you the option to automatically place them outside the segments the way a pie graph does. You will have to manually drag each label from inside the wedge to outside. Sometimes it is best to just leave the data labels off and add your own using text boxes. That way you can format and position them exactly the way you want to (as I did in the example above). You will also add a text box to indicate what each donut graph represents when you are using them in a comparison slide. There is no center title option for donut graphs in PowerPoint. <br /><br />Third, I find it easier to understand a donut graph if the hole in the center is a little smaller than the default size. The default is to make the hole 50% of the diameter of the graph. By using the option to format the data series, you can reduce this value to around 35%, which looks better in my opinion because it makes each wedge bigger on the slide. Finally, you do have the option to animate the pieces of the donut using the regular animation feature. If you only have two wedges in the donut, animation is unnecessary. <br /><br /> If you use pie graphs in your presentations, why not consider a donut graph instead for some of the slides. It gives visual variety and works well for comparison slides. </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09656189576576407056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25715077.post-51358255962935562712013-09-06T06:29:00.002-04:002013-09-06T06:29:50.235-04:00Please complete the 2013 Annoying PowerPoint Survey<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Recently I launched my biennial survey of audience members and what annoys them about bad PowerPoint presentations. This is the sixth survey, and the results are reported in newspapers, articles, and used by book authors to help presenters understand what to avoid in PowerPoint presentations.<b><i> I need your input to make this meaningful to the presentation community</i></b>. <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFZaSTJvRzdYQ0JMRkpvLWRld1kyeWc6MA">Click here to take the short survey</a> (it will take less than two minutes to complete). This year I have added a question on the top three comments (good or bad) you hear in your organization about PowerPoint presentations. The survey will be open until September 19, but <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFZaSTJvRzdYQ0JMRkpvLWRld1kyeWc6MA">click here now to complete the survey today</a>. <br /><br />Soon after the survey closes, I will be releasing the results so all presenters can avoid the behaviors that annoy audiences.<br /><br />Please forward this link to colleagues, friends, and family so they can contribute their views as well. Feel free to post it on the social media services you are a part of. The more responses I get, the better the results will be at accurately reflecting the views of a diverse set of audience members. <br /><br />Thanks to the almost 400 people who have completed the survey so far. If you have not completed the survey yet, please <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFZaSTJvRzdYQ0JMRkpvLWRld1kyeWc6MA">click here</a> to do so today.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thanks</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><br />Dave</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09656189576576407056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25715077.post-68599030165482835162013-09-03T08:03:00.002-04:002013-09-03T08:03:25.121-04:00Presentation Tip: Three uses for a black slide<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In a workshop last week in the Boston area a participant noticed that I effectively used black slides during the workshop and wanted to know more about how and when to use them. It is a topic I cover in the workshop, and in this article I will share with you what I told the group in Boston about using black slides. <br /><br />The basic premise of a black slide is that there is nothing on the screen for the audience to look at. In the absence of a visual, where does the audience naturally look? At the presenter. Now, as the presenter, you have 100% of the audience’s attention. Nothing is distracting them from what you are about to say. That is quite powerful. So when should you use a black slide? <br /><br />The first use follows from the focus that the audience will have just on you. Use a black slide when you want to tell a powerful story that illustrates your point. In my workshops, I demonstrate this use when I black the screen and tell a story about how the idea I have just shared with the participants helped in a real presentation situation. The audience is paying full attention to you when you tell the story. <br /><br />In this first use of a black slide, you know exactly when the story will be told and you can create a black slide in your PowerPoint file. The easiest way to create a black slide is to add a new slide and draw a black rectangle to cover up the entire slide. This method is much easier than trying to change the background of the slide to black. It also will work when you copy this slide to another place in your presentation or even another presentation. <br /><br />The second use for a black slide is not something you can plan for in advance. When someone asks a question during the presentation, should you leave the slide up or go to a black slide? The answer depends on whether the visual on the screen is relevant to the answer you are giving. If the visual is not related to the answer, go to a black slide. That way, the audience will focus only on the answer you are giving and not be distracted or confused by the visual that does not relate to the answer. How can you go to a black slide at any time during your presentation? Simply press the period key (.) in Slide Show mode. This acts as a toggle between the current slide and a black slide. <br /><br />The third use for a black slide could be planned or could be spontaneous. Any time you want to move in the room and will walk through the beam of the projector, go to a black slide before you move. One of the most annoying things you can do is walk through the projected image or stand blocking part of it. If you want to move from one side of the room to the other, just go to a black slide, move across the room, then go back to the slide you want to speak about. If this is planned as part of your presentation, you can create a black slide at that spot in the presentation using the technique described above. If it is spontaneous, black out the slide using the period key described above. <br /><br /> There is no rule saying you always have to have a slide on the screen. When you want to focus the audience and not distract them with an image on the screen, use a planned or spontaneous black slide. Your presentation will be more effective when you do.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09656189576576407056noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25715077.post-86493492887450899772013-08-20T08:46:00.003-04:002013-08-20T08:46:18.840-04:00Presentation Tip: The grammar of text on slides<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Despite what some commentators say, I don’t believe that we should eliminate all text from every slide. In my workshops I explain that text on slides is necessary and helps the audience in many ways. In this article, I want to talk about the grammar of text on slides. I regularly get questions on this topic, and I have summarized my advice in this article. <br /><br />Before I start with my thoughts, let me address why this is an important topic. Why should we care about how the text is written? Does it really matter whether some text is sentence case and other is Title Case? Does it matter whether there are periods or not? I believe it does. Because the audience infers meaning from how the text is formatted, and they interpret our words differently depending on how we write them on the slide. As a presenter, we want our message to be as clear as possible, which includes making the words on a slide mean exactly what we want the audience to understand. <br /><br />I will start with the headline at the top of the slide. Many people refer to this as the title since PowerPoint uses a Title placeholder for this text. I think defining the text at the top of the slide as a headline that summarizes the point you want the audience to understand is key to how we format this text. As a headline statement, it is more like a sentence, so I think we should write it using sentence case, with only the first word and proper nouns being capitalized, instead of Title Case, where every word is capitalized. The headline is not a full sentence, so there should not be a period at the end. A well written headline helps the audience quickly understand the point of the slide and it helps the presenter know the single point they need to make to the audience on this slide. One of my clients in the financial services industry recently commented that by using headlines instead of titles, their presentation was clearer for the audience and easier to deliver. <br /><br />I probably get more questions about how to format bullet points than I do about any other text on a slide. I want to start by addressing whether text points on a slide need a bullet point or not. A bullet point indicates a hierarchical relationship, with each level of bullet points breaking down the higher level point above it. In many slides I see, there is no hierarchical relationship in the list of points. In this case, I suggest you remove the bullet point character and use a simple list of text points. Use extra line spacing after each point to make the points properly separated on the slide. If you are using bullet points, use a filled bullet character that has enough presence to be seen and will indicate to the audience where each point starts. <br /><br />When formatting points on a slide, make sure the indentation is correct. For bullet points, the bullet character should sit to the left of the text with the lines of text starting at the same spot on each line. Using the default bullet point content placeholder sets this up for you automatically. If you are creating bullet points in a text box, set the hanging indent properly in the ruler. If you are not using bullet points, each text point should be left aligned and start in the same spot on each line. If you have removed the bullet formatting from the default content placeholder, you will need to correct the hanging indent in the ruler to properly align the text points. I show you how to <a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/formatting-text/">format text in PowerPoint in this video</a>. <br /><br />The final tip about text or bullet points on a slide is to remember that they are supposed to be brief points to give the audience context for what you are about to say. Text or bullet points are not supposed to be a transcript of what you will say, so they should not be formatted like the sentences in a report. There should be no period at the end of a text or bullet point because it is not a proper sentence. The points should be written using sentence case instead of Title Case because they are not titles. <br /><br />The last type of text I want to address is a quotation. When you are quoting an expert, historical figure, or other person, make sure you use quotation marks around the entire quote. This indicates to the audience what the person said and separates it from any other text on the slide. When using a quote, include the entire text of what they said or wrote, even if it is long. Audiences no longer accept shortening a quote by using the three dots (…) to indicate that you have removed some of the quote. Audiences have seen too many quotes twisted by the media to mean something totally different than what the speaker or writer actually said. If there are a few words that you want the audience to focus on in the quote, <a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/text-emphasis/">use the text highlighting technique I show in this video</a> to make those words stand out. <br /><br />As I said at the start of this article, I think text plays an important role in our slides. Use the tips I have provided here to help format the text so it is easy for the audience to interpret your message correctly. <br /></span> <br /> <div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09656189576576407056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25715077.post-37294380154482129112013-08-06T10:09:00.003-04:002013-08-06T10:09:56.323-04:00Presentation Tip: Should you switch to 16:9 slides?<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the big changes in the latest version of PowerPoint is that the default aspect ratio (ratio of width to height) for slides is 16:9. In all previous versions, the default aspect ratio was 4:3. Why the change? Because widescreen formats are becoming more popular for projectors and TVs used in presentations. So should you change your slides to this new format? In this article I want to suggest how to know when to make the change. <br /><br />This topic was prompted by a question from a fellow professional speaker and marketing expert <a href="http://www.steveslaunwhite.com/">Steve Slaunwhite</a>. He was preparing for a set of upcoming presentations and asked me what aspect ratio he should use for his slides. His question made me think about what the best approach would be. After some thought, here’s what I suggested to him. <br /><br />First, ask the organizer of the event or the venue you will be speaking in what aspect ratio the projector or screen will be using. At the upcoming <a href="http://www.presentationsummit.com/">Presentation Summit conference</a>, the organizer, Rick Altman, has already let us know that all the screens will be using the 16:9 aspect ratio. In those cases, the decision is quite easy: Use the aspect ratio that matches the projector or screen. <br /><br />What if the organizer doesn’t know or you don’t know what projector the room will have? This happens quite often if you are doing presentations at client sites or even in different rooms/buildings in your own organization. As many facilities switch over to the newer 16:9 standard, we are in a period where we will have both ratios in use in many facilities. I have run into this at client sites where one projector is in 4:3 ratio and another is a 16:9 projector and it depends on which one the facilities team puts in your room that day. What do I suggest in that case? <br /><br />My suggestion is to stick with the 4:3 ratio until you have over 50% of your presentations being done on 16:9 projectors or screens. Why do I make this suggestion? Because it will be easier for the audience. Let me explain. <br /><br />When a 4:3 ratio slide is shown on a 16:9 projector, there are black bars on each side of the slide because the slide does not fill the entire width of the screen. While this is not ideal, the slide is still full height and the text on it is the tallest it can be. When a 16:9 ratio slide is shown on a 4:3 projector, there are black bars on the top and bottom of the slide because the slide does not fill the entire height of the screen. This makes the text on the slide smaller than planned. <br /><br />I think that having a more readable slide is better, so my suggestion is to use a 4:3 ratio slide so that, even if the slide is shown on a 16:9 projector, the text on the slide is as readable as it can be and the graphics are as large as they can be (for a research based approach to determining how big a font you should use on your slides, <a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/selecting-the-correct-font-size/">use these tables</a>). When the majority of your presentation rooms and equipment are in the 16:9 format, make the switch in your slides. By the way, when you do make the switch between ratios of your slides, use the latest version of PowerPoint to do so. The previous versions horribly distort the graphics and text, leaving you with hours of re-formatting. <br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What am I using? I still use 4:3 ratio slides for the reason I stated above. It is still quite rare, outside of conferences, for me to run into a 16:9 projector in a presentation, especially in corporate meeting rooms. As older equipment gets replaced, this will change, but for now, I am sticking with the 4:3 ratio. Use the ideas in this article to help you decide when you need to make the switch.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09656189576576407056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25715077.post-75809191908859268482013-07-23T10:23:00.002-04:002013-07-23T10:23:54.363-04:00Presentation Tip: Updating the three "Tell Them" statements<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is a classic piece of advice that many presenters have heard when thinking about how to structure their presentation. The advice is to: "Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them." I think this advice is outdated and in this article I’d like to propose a new version of the three "Tell Them" statements that I think will serve presenters, and their audiences, much better. <br /><br />Why doesn’t the classic advice work anymore? Because audiences expect better. If you simply repeat your message three times, it ends up coming off as confusing if the audience thinks that there are actually three different points. If the audience recognizes the three points as the same ones, this approach comes off as condescending because the audience thinks that you consider them not intelligent enough to understand it the first time. Neither of these audience reactions will get you to your goal of having the audience understand and act on your message. <br /><br />So what should you do instead? Here is my updated version of the advice: Tell them the conclusion, Tell them how you justify the conclusion, and Tell them what you want them to do with the conclusion. <br /><br />Let’s look at each of these three "Tell Them" statements to see why the revised versions are a better approach. First, I suggest you start your presentation with the conclusion that you want the audience to remember. Let them know where you are going in your presentation. They need to know the destination so that they can evaluate the information you present in context. <br /><br />Second, show the audience how you got to the conclusion. This may involve some details and it may involve the audience asking some questions. This is the heart of the presentation and is where most of the time is spent. Because they already know the conclusion you reached, this conversation with the audience is more productive as they convince themselves of the same conclusion you reached. <br /><br />Finally, tell them at the end of the presentation what you want them to do with the conclusion. Far too many presentations don’t have a "call to action" that asks the audience to take a specific action. It could be as simple as agreeing to use some new knowledge in their role, or as complex as approving millions of dollars of new investment in an initiative. Don’t assume the audience knows what you want them to do. Make it clear at the end of the presentation. <br /><br />Let’s look at how this approach would be applied in a project update presentation. You would start by stating the conclusion that the project is on schedule but a little over budget and you are asking for their support to continue with the work as planned. You can then go through the details of the project tasks, explain what is done, what is next, and why you believe the budget issue is only a timing issue. You finish by asking for the group’s continued support and you look for their agreement with the direction and decisions you are making. This is a much more productive presentation than one where the same details are repeated three times. <br /><br /> Whenever you hear the same advice that has been given for decades, take a step back and put yourself in the audience’s shoes. Does the advice serve the audience best? If not, update it so that your presentation helps the audience act on the message you are delivering. </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09656189576576407056noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25715077.post-40144253112844535302013-07-09T09:25:00.002-04:002013-07-09T09:25:22.725-04:00Presentation Tip: Don’t put yourself in a cage of text<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When audience members tell me in my Annoying PowerPoint survey that the speaker reading the slides is the most annoying thing about bad PowerPoint slides, some of the blame must be put on the “wall of text” slides that presenters use. Today I want to talk about how all this text puts the presenter in a cage and how you can get out of the cage. <br /><br />When a slide full of text appears on the screen, the focus of the audience goes to the screen and they start to read all the text on the slide. While they are reading, they can’t be listening to you. When they do return their focus to you, they have an expectation that you will cover everything on the slide in exactly the same order and to the same level of detail as they just read. As a presenter, you feel this expectation and you feel trapped in a cage created by all the text that the audience just read. You end up doing the only thing that will satisfy the audience’s expectation – you read the slide. <br /><br />If all you are doing is reading the slide, what you have is a report, not a presentation. It should just be e-mailed to everyone since people can read about twice as fast as we can speak. One good way to identify a report on the slide is that the points have periods at the end, indicating that this is really a series of sentences or paragraphs instead of key points a presenter will expand on. So what should you do instead? <br /><br />Use the 3R’s approach from my book <a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/present-it-so-they-get-it/">Present It So They Get It</a> to reduce the text and allow the presenter to explain the points to the audience one by one. Here is a brief summary of how you can apply the 3R’s to an overloaded text slide. The first R stands for Rank. Rank the words or phrases in the text by importance to the audience. There are usually a few words or phrases that capture the essence of the point. Second, Reduce the text down to just the most important words or phrases, dramatically reducing the length of each point. Finally, Rephrase the selected words and phrases so that they make sense to the audience. Reducing the amount of text also allows you to increase the font size, making the text easier to read. <br /><br />By having shorter, more meaningful points on the slide, you make it easier for the audience to understand the key point and then listen to you as you expand on it. They are doing less reading of the slide and paying more attention to you. It is also easier as a presenter because you can expand as much or as little as you want on each point, depending on the timing and the reaction of the prospect. <br /><br />When I helped a client of mine, Ruth, use this technique on a presentation, she was surprised at the freedom it gave her. She was presenting at a symposium where there were a number of related presentations being delivered before she spoke. As the other presenters spoke, she decided to change about 30% of what she had planned to say. Because she was not restricted by a cage of text on her slides, she could expand on each point in new ways without having to change any slides. It gave her the freedom to present, instead of simply being forced to read the slides. <br /><br />In my e-book <a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/20-tips-for-effective-sales-presentations-with-powerpoint/">20 Tips for Effective Sales Presentation With PowerPoint</a>, I illustrate the 3 R’s approach with the following example. The “before” slide is a typical slide with text that looks like it was taken from a marketing brochure.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">
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<img border="0" id="_x0000_i1025" src="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/issue290before.jpg" width="470" /><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By applying the 3 R’s to the text, the slide becomes a focused set of points that the presenter can use to guide the discussion in different directions depending on the audience and their reaction.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br />
<img border="0" id="_x0000_i1026" src="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/issue290after.jpg" width="470" /><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next time you are creating slides, don’t put yourself in a text cage with a slide overloaded with long sentences. Apply the 3 R’s to reduce the text and give yourself the freedom to actually present the information instead of being forced to read it. </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09656189576576407056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25715077.post-52596051866220076802013-06-25T08:51:00.003-04:002013-06-25T08:51:47.787-04:00Presentation Tip: Eliminate 75% of the numbers<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Information overload is the single biggest issue in presentations today according to audience members I have surveyed. In my book, <a href="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/present-it-so-they-get-it/">Present It So They Get It</a>, I devote a chapter to five strategies for laser focusing your information to avoid the overload problem. One of those strategies is to eliminate data that is not relevant to the message. When I introduce this strategy in my workshops, I suggest that I believe in most cases, 75% of the numbers on a slide can be eliminated. This is met with skeptical looks, especially from financial professionals. How is this possible?<br /><br />First, I’d like to address how this overload of numbers occurs that leads us to having to eliminate 75% of the numbers. There is a lot of analysis that is done in Excel, and we want to include it in our presentations. Excel is the best tool to do the analysis. The problem comes when we go to put that information into a presentation. It is too easy to simply copy the cells from Excel onto a slide. And that is where we end up including more numbers than are needed to communicate the conclusion of our analysis.<br /><br />Typically, analysis includes comparing current results to some standard in order to arrive at a conclusion about the performance of a product, group, or territory. It could be comparing current sales to planned sales, current operational productivity to the company goals, or last month’s expenditures to the budget that was approved. Our Excel spreadsheet usually has four columns for each item: the current measured results, the standard we are comparing to, the absolute difference between the results and the standard, and the relative difference expressed as a percentage. When we do a simple copy and paste of these cells, we include numbers that are not relevant to the true message of our analysis.<br /><br />In almost all cases, the audience is most concerned about the performance relative to the standard, the fourth column of our analysis spreadsheet. How did we do compared to what was expected? Were we ahead or behind, and by how much percentage wise? The absolute difference isn’t as helpful because magnitude has to be taken into account. So I suggest that we can eliminate the first three columns, or 75% of the numbers, since they don’t end up helping the audience understand the message.<br /><br />I also suggest that we can make the percentage difference column more meaningful by adding visual indicators of whether the percentage is above or below the standard and whether that is a positive or negative result (since above standard is not always a good result, especially when it relates to expenditures above budget). I find using the arrow symbols in the Webdings font a good way to add an up or down arrow to a text box or table. You can make the font of the arrow green or red to indicate a good or poor result. And by using a text symbol, it makes it easier to animate the text box.<br /><br />Here is an example of a slide that had a spreadsheet copied on to it and what the slide looks like when we eliminate 75% of the numbers. Notice how the message is much clearer with less numbers and arrow symbols.<br /><br />Original slide<br /><img height="480" src="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/issue289before.PNG" width="640" /><br />Slide with 75% less numbers<br /><img height="480" src="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/issue289after.PNG" width="640" /><br />In the above example, some might argue that the split of sales between each of the products is lost when you eliminate the three columns. If you want to make two points from the spreadsheet, I suggest you use two slides. Showing proportions of the total sales between the three products is best done using a pie graph as this example shows.<br /><img height="480" src="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/issue289pie.PNG" width="640" /><br /><br />The next time you want to copy a spreadsheet on to a slide, pause and consider whether you can use these ideas to eliminate 75% of the numbers and make your message clearer for your audience.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09656189576576407056noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25715077.post-47363639845875871392013-06-11T08:19:00.002-04:002013-06-11T08:19:13.403-04:00Presentation Tip: Proportional Shape Comparison Diagrams<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In February I launched a tool on my website that allows you to create diagrams like this: <img height="480" src="http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Slide1.png" width="640" /><br /><br />I refer to this type of diagram as a proportional shape comparison diagram because the size of the shapes allows the viewer to instantly compare the numbers each shape represents. These types of diagrams are popular in print media and are becoming popular in presentations. David McCandless uses a number of them effectively in his TED talk you can watch <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/david_mccandless_the_beauty_of_data_visualization.html">here</a>. <br /><br />I think these diagrams work better than a table of numbers because the numbers make the audience do the math to compare the amounts, which is especially hard when the numbers are different by an order of magnitude or more. These diagrams also work better than pie or column graphs because the smaller number almost disappears on the graph due to the graph being limited to measurement in only one dimension. A proportional shape comparison diagram gives you two dimensions to work with and allows smaller numbers to be more easily compared to larger numbers. <br /><br />The challenge in creating these diagrams has been in doing the calculations. This type of diagram is not built into the PowerPoint graphing function, so you have to do the calculations by hand. To make it easier for you, I created an online tool that does the calculations for you. You simply input the large and small numbers you want the shapes to represent, and the tool will tell you the dimensions of the shapes. The tool calculates dimensions for side-by-side squares, overlapping rectangles (as shown above), and circles that can be side-by-side or overlapping that will fit in most corporate templates. You can also set the maximum dimensions to scale the shapes to fit your template. <br /><br />Use of the tool is free on my website at <a href="http://www.proportionalcomparisontool.com/">www.ProportionalComparisonTool.com</a>. There are examples of the type of diagrams you can create and detailed instructions on how to use the tool. Once you use the tool, you will find it quite easy to include this type of diagram in your own presentations. In the past few months I have used it to show comparisons of customer service contact methods, market penetration in a geographic area, components of the change in financial projections, the reduction in weight of glass containers, the narrowing of investment choices from the full market to those stocks selected for a portfolio, and the results of an e-mail marketing campaign. You can see by the breadth of these applications that this type of diagram can be used effectively in many presentations. <br /><br />In February I had the opportunity to present this tool to the graphics developers at Microsoft and my fellow PowerPoint MVPs. Everyone thought it was very useful and my fellow MVP Glenna Shaw included it in two articles she wrote for the Microsoft Office Blog. You can see the first of the articles <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mvpawardprogram/archive/2013/05/06/powerpoint-2013-visualizations.aspx">here</a>. People realized that this type of diagram, which used to be only possible with many hand calculations, is now available to all presenters because the tool removes the barrier of the calculations. <br /><br />Whenever you have to compare numbers that are at least an order of magnitude different, consider using my <a href="http://www.proportionalcomparisontool.com/">Proportional Comparison Tool</a> to do the calculations that allow you to create a proportional shape comparison diagram. And pass this newsletter on to others who could improve their presentations by using this type of visual. </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09656189576576407056noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25715077.post-40533274535722116112013-05-28T08:58:00.003-04:002013-05-28T08:58:25.180-04:00Presentation Tip: Be prepared: VGA is going away<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For many years presenters have walked into a room and connected their laptop to the projector using a VGA cable. All that will change in the next two years. The VGA port is being phased out by computer manufacturers. In this article I want to suggest what presenters can do now to prepare for this change.<br /><br />Why are computer manufacturers making this change? It was announced in December 2010, so it is not breaking news. VGA is an analog technology which was good in its time, but better technology is now available. Digital technology provides a better quality image and supports higher resolutions. If you have a flat screen TV, you are likely using an HDMI cable to attach your devices. HDMI is a digital format and it is the primary way that video is transferred between devices and TVs today. <br /><br />I started to notice the changes that presenters need to be aware of more in the last six months. One of my clients in the media business only has flat screen TVs in their meeting rooms. There are no projectors around. The TVs have HDMI inputs as well as VGA. When I used the VGA connection in one room in San Francisco, it reset the input every two minutes, causing a momentary blackout of the screen. This was very annoying to the audience. When I switched to the HDMI input (my computer has both), the image was higher resolution and rock solid. The first lesson for presenters is that the native digital connection for flat screen TVs will usually work better than the VGA connection which has to be converted by the TV. With more and more organizations moving away from projectors to TVs in meeting rooms, presenters will want to make sure they can connect using a digital connection. <br /><br />When organizations still use projectors, the new ones they are installing are set up to use HDMI connections. I have had this happen twice in the last six months. One client installed a new boardroom projector, and the primary connection is HDMI. Another client has a portable projector that gives a higher resolution image when connected via HDMI. So even if your room has a projector, chances are that when the old one is replaced, the new one will expect digital connections to give the best image and performance. <br /><br />So what do presenters need to do? Be prepared to move from a VGA connection to a digital connection. Look at your laptop. Does it have an HDMI or Mini DisplayPort connection? If so, you can output a digital signal that connects to the HDMI input on a TV or projector. If you don’t have a full sized HDMI port, you will likely need an adapter to convert from a mini or micro HDMI to full sized HDMI or an adapter that converts from Mini DisplayPort to HDMI. I have found reliable adapters for a good price at <a href="http://www.monoprice.com/">www.monoprice.com</a>. The Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter that I bought works very well. Get the correct adapters now and make room in your laptop bag to carry them so you have them when needed. For those using Mac laptops who have been using the Mini DisplayPort adapter to connect to VGA cables, it is time to get the adapter to connect to HDMI cables. The Monoprice adapter I got for my MacBook Air works perfectly and it cost one-third of the price of the adapter Apple sells. <br /><br />If you don’t have one of these digital ports on your laptop, you will want to start looking at a future laptop that does. While there are USB to HDMI adapters, the USB speed will likely make any videos in your presentation not run smoothly. Any time you convert from analog to digital or digital to analog you will reduce the quality of the signal due to the processing that must be done on the fly. A much better solution is to plan now for a laptop that has a digital connection built in. <br /><br />Once you do have a newer laptop, how can you connect to an older projector if the laptop no longer has a VGA port? You will need an adapter to convert from Mini DisplayPort to VGA to bridge the years that projectors will still be using VGA connections. <br /><br /> The transition from VGA to HDMI connections will take place over the next few years. Presenters need to start preparing now to be able to connect to both during the transition. Get your adapters or cables now so you don’t run into any connection problems in your next presentation. </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09656189576576407056noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25715077.post-61637665278788852082013-05-14T08:59:00.001-04:002013-05-14T08:59:32.966-04:00Presentation Tip: Stop judging a presentation by the number of slides in the file<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When you open a PowerPoint file that has been sent to you, where do you look first? If you are like most people I speak to in my workshops, the first place you look is the lower left corner to see how many slides are in the file. Why do most people do this? Because they think that the number of slides will indicate how effective the content of the presentation is. Nothing could be further from the truth. In this article I want to explain why you need to break this habit. <br /><br />When you open a PowerPoint file and immediately look at the number of slides, you have some number in mind that you think indicates a good vs. bad presentation. Everyone seems to have their own number, and many have different numbers based on what type of presentation it is. A project status presentation will have a different number than a sales presentation, which will have a different number than a financial results presentation. <br /><br />Whatever your number is, you will immediately judge the value of the content before you have ever even looked at the content. If the number of slides in the file is larger than what you think it should be, you immediately think it is a poor presentation, before you have even looked to see what the presenter has included. This seems crazy to me. Why do people do this? Because their past experience is with overloaded slides that are really pages from a report instead of slides intended to quickly communicate important messages. <br /><br />The number of slides is no indication of the effectiveness of the message the presenter will deliver. Next month I will present my webinar on <a href="http://www.on-the-right-track.com/event/using-your-ipad-for-business/">Using an iPad in Business</a>. I will speak for about 50-55 minutes. How many slides should I use? I bet almost none of you said over 90. That’s right, I use 92 slides and last time I did the webinar we had comments that it was the best webinar people had ever seen. How is this possible? Because of the way the slides are designed. <br /><br />When you design a slide that has a headline that summarizes the one point you want to make and a visual that illustrates that point, you won’t spend a long time on the slide. The slide only has one message, and once you have delivered it to the audience, they expect you to move on to the next point, which is on the next slide. There may be more slides, but the message is more effective. It is not about the number of slides, it is about how effectively you communicate. <br /><br />When the slide file is sent by email, it is also easy for the viewer to look at the slides because they understand the message of each slide and can move quickly on to the next slide. I would suggest that it is actually quicker to review a larger number of slides that have been prepared effectively than it is to review a smaller number of cluttered, confusing slides. Isn’t clarity of communication more important than number of slides? I hope so. <br /><br />It will take time to break the habit that many people have fallen into of always judging a PowerPoint file by the number of slides it contains. When you do, you will find yourself open to judging the content of the presentation and how clearly it communicates the important message the presenter intended. When you design slides so they are easy to understand, you may create more slides, but your message will be more effective. I hope we can get to the day when we judge presentations not by the number of slides, but by the content of the message. Start the change today in your organization. </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09656189576576407056noreply@blogger.com0