******************************************************************* Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Tip Issue #124 December 12, 2006 Published & Copyright by Dave Paradi of ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com Circulation 8,495 *******************************************************************
Please forward this newsletter to anyone you know who needs to improve their PowerPoint presentations to sell more, make a bigger impact with their boss or teach others. If this newsletter has been sent to you by a friend, sign up to get your own copy at http://www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com/newsletter.htm .
******************************************************************* In this issue: New Transforming Text Slides into Visual Slides ebook Holiday Break - Next Issue January 9, 2007 New Template E-book coming PowerPoint Tip: The most likely cause of video failure Best of the Blog - Office 2007 Ribbon Observations Dave's Travel Schedule *******************************************************************
New Transforming Text Slides into Visual Slides ebook
Many people have moved from sentences to bullet points on their slides, but are looking for ways to make their slides more visual. In this ebook, I apply dual-coding theory ideas to the design of PowerPoint slides. I have taken 15 common business topics and I show how you can use a visual slide instead of a text slide. There are 39 slide examples in all. And I also share what the best practices are in designing each of the visuals. Get your copy at http://www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com/transformtext.htm
------------------------------------------------------------------- Holiday Break - Next Issue January 9, 2007
With the holidays soon upon us, I am taking some time off with my family, so the next issue will be sent to you on January 9, 2007. I wish all of you the best during this time.
------------------------------------------------------------------- New Template E-book coming
I am almost finished a new e-book on Creating Your Own Slide Template, based on what I shared in my web tutorial from a few months ago. I'll be sending a special launch notice later this month to let you know when it is available.
------------------------------------------------------------------- PowerPoint Tip - The most likely cause of video failure
Last week when I was speaking at the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers Convention in Vancouver, one of the trends I talked about was the increasingly common expectation of audiences to see multimedia incorporated into presentations. On the Oprah Winfrey show last week viewers saw Al Gore go through some of his slides on global warming and one of the reasons his presentation is so effective is that he integrates visual media so well into his story.
While incorporating video seems straightforward, there is one problem that comes up more often than any other. You create the presentation on your computer and then send it or move it to another computer that you will present from. You go to show the video or play an audio track and it doesn't work. In most cases it is because the link is an absolute link instead of a relative link.
Let me explain. When you insert an audio or video clip it actually doesn't insert the media file, it links to where the media file is located on your computer. If the file is located in the same folder as your PowerPoint file, it creates a relative link, remembering only the file name and not the entire path to the file since both files are located together in the same folder. When the file is in a different directory, PowerPoint creates an absolute link, which includes the whole path of directories to the media file.
The problem is that when you move the PowerPoint and media files to another computer, the absolute links are looking for the media file in the same directory structure as your own computer. And it is very unlikely that someone else's computer will have that same set of directories. So when PowerPoint goes to play the media file, it can't find the file since the directory structure is different.
The solution is to always place media files in the same folder as your PowerPoint file and insert them from there. That way, the links are always relative links and they will work when moved to another machine as long as you move the PowerPoint and media files to a single folder on the other computer.
Locating all the files in the same folder also helps solve a related problem - forgetting the media files. This happened to someone I know recently. Because the audio files were in a different folder, they forgot to copy them to the travelling computer and couldn't play the songs that they had worked so hard to integrate. I saw it happen to another presenter where their technical people had loaded all the files correctly onto a memory stick, but the presenter figured they didn't need the movie file since it was already inserted and deleted it from the memory stick - oops!
So, the best practice when inserting movie clips or any media file is to first copy the media file to the same folder as the PowerPoint file. Then, insert the media file so it creates a relative link instead of an absolute link.
Locating all media files together with your PowerPoint file is one of the secrets I share in my video tutorial "Incorporating Video into Your PowerPoint Presentations". I also share a technique that ensures all the files go together no matter where you e-mail them or copy them, along with many other techniques for creating your own video clips and editing them like a pro with software you already own. You can get your copy of the video tutorial at http://www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com/vtvideo.htm .
------------------------------------------------------------------- Best of the Blog - Office 2007 Ribbon Observations
Last week Microsoft officially introduced the new version of Office, Office 2007, which includes a new version of PowerPoint. One of the major differences in the new version is the user interface. The familiar menus and selections have been replaced by a new ribbon interface which makes more options visible in a graphical ribbon across the top of the screen. I showed it to a buddy of mine and he made an observation that was very interesting. When he saw the ribbon, he immediately thought of the extra time people would spend creating presentations because now they would play with so many more settings than before, simply because they could now see that they could play with the settings. This was a very insightful observation and one I had not considered yet. While making more of the options visible to the user, Microsoft may have negatively impacted productivity by giving people too much to "play" with in terms of changing colors, fonts, layouts and art objects. I fear that we will end up with awful looking slides that people think are visually "cool" but are in reality annoying. Remember that even though you see that you can change so many more options, stick to good clean design practices that will make your slides clear and easy to understand for your audience.
I agree that moving from text based slides to more visual slides will improve your presentations, but think first about what visual will support the point you are making. I list fifteen common topics that you may be addressing in your presentation and how to create a visual slide for them in my e-book "Transforming Text Slides Into Visual Slides". Get your copy at http://www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com/transformtext.htm .
Other recent blog posts at http://pptideas.blogspot.com : Presentation on today's Oprah show "I'm OK because I use bullet points" Prepare your business for Office 2007
------------------------------------------------------------------- Dave's Travel Schedule
You can save money by booking me to speak to your organization or conference when I am close to your area for other clients. Here's where I will be in the next few months:
December 13 Toronto, ON January 15, 2007 Toronto, ON January 29-30, 2007 Cincinnati, OH January 31, 2007 Lexington, KY (tentative) February 19-23 St. John's, NF March 30, 2007 Toronto, ON April 10, 2007 Toronto, ON April 19, 2007 Toronto, ON May 25-26, 2007 London, ON July 6-12, 2007 San Diego, CA July 13-16, 2007 San Francisco, CA E-mail me at Dave@ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com to discuss your upcoming event.
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