******************************************************************* Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Tip Issue #127 February 6, 2007 Published & Copyright by Dave Paradi of ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com Circulation 8,574 *******************************************************************
Please forward this newsletter to anyone you know who wants to strategically use PowerPoint visuals to enhance their presentations. 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: Learn about web presentations Create Your Own PowerPoint Template ebook PowerPoint Tip: Taking Pictures for use in PowerPoint Best of the Blog - Testing for color blindness Dave's Travel Schedule *******************************************************************
Learn about Web Presentations Next Tuesday, February 13th, I'll be doing a webinar for SpeakerNetNews on how speakers can use webinars in their business. If you have been thinking of using web presentations, you will want to consider attending to learn how to select a webinar provider, how to prepare for a web presentation and the tricks of delivering your presentation over the web. Register at http://www.SpeakerNetNews.com .
------------------------------------------------------------------- Create Your Own PowerPoint Template ebook
Why spend hours searching for a background template for your slides just to find out others are using it and you won't be unique? Why not create your own custom template? Think you need a degree in design and expensive software? No way! All you need is my new e- book with expert advice on what colors, fonts and design work best along with the detailed step-by-step instructions on how you can create your own custom PowerPoint background template. Get your copy today at http://www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com/customtemplate.htm
------------------------------------------------------------------- PowerPoint Tip - Taking Pictures for use in PowerPoint Photographs are becoming more and more common in presentations and for good reason. Photos can cut to the emotion of a point far better than text or clip art ever can. And with the popularity of digital cameras, it is now easier than ever to use our own photos as part of our presentations. When you are taking photos, keep these ideas in mind.
1. Frame the photo Most photos have the subject of the photo, whether it is a person or an object, in the direct center of the frame. It is often more interesting to have the subject off center in one of four spots in the frame. Imagine the frame of the photo is divided by four lines into nine boxes like a tic-tac-toe board. Try to have your subject at one of the spots where the lines of the grid intersect. This will make for a more interesting shot and put the subject in context with the background.
2. Make sure the subject is in focus With our photos projected on to large screens, any blurriness is magnified and what looked OK on our monitor may look too fuzzy on the screen. Make sure you use the focus lock feature of your camera to lock the focus on the subject before you snap the photo. This is especially true when using the framing technique described above.
3. Watch for lighting The single biggest issue I see with photos taken by most people is that the lighting is poor. Don't be afraid to use the flash on your camera to add light to a picture, even outdoors. In many cases a flash will take care of the shadows created by the natural light and make the fine features even more prominent. Many cameras have the ability to force the flash or use a fill flash mode to do this.
If you want more tips on taking great photos, contact a local camera store or college to see what classes they offer. Once you have those great photos, you can learn more on how to use them effectively in your presentation, including the way to make sure those multi-megapixel photos don't balloon your PowerPoint file and make it slow to run and impossible to email to others. It's all in my "Using Digital Photographs in PowerPoint Presentations" web tutorial recording available at http://www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com/wtphotos.htm .
------------------------------------------------------------------- Best of the blog - Testing for color blindness
A topic that I discuss in almost every workshop I do is how you need to be careful when using red and green because a certain percentage of the population has some degree of red-green color blindness. The medical studies suggest it is about 9-11% of Caucasian males and much lower in females and non-Caucasian males (I don't know why and I am not sure the doctors know either).
There is a site I ran across recently that will help you see what someone with color blindness will see when they look at your slides. It is at http://www.vischeck.com/vischeck/vischeckImage.php . It allows you to upload a JPG or PNG graphic file and it will show you what people with the most common types of color blindness will see when they view your slide. To use it with PowerPoint, you must first save your slide or slides into the PNG or JPG format. To do so, click on File - Save As. In the Save as type drop down box at the bottom of the dialog box, scroll down until you find the PNG or JPG format. Then click the Save button and decide whether you want to save one slide or all slides if it asks you (usually one slide should be sufficient for this test).
Then you can upload the saved image file and use the tool to see what your slide will look like. It does show you what someone with yellow/blue color blindness will see but my research indicates that this type is so rare that I would not worry about it too much. Use this tool when you know someone with color blindness will be in your audience or when speaking to a large group where the chances are at least some of the people will be affected.
Other recent blog posts at http://pptideas.blogspot.com : When is changing a graph axis OK?
------------------------------------------------------------------- Dave's Travel Schedule
If you have been sitting through too many presentations that did not relay the key information needed to make critical decisions, you should schedule an in-house or web based seminar or workshop. 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:
February 13 Webinar for http://www.speakernetnews.com February 19-23 St. John's, NF February 24-25 Nashville, TN February 27-28 Lexington, KY March 22 Toronto & Mississauga, ON March 29 Huntsville, ON March 30 Toronto, ON April 10 Toronto, ON April 16 Toronto, ON April 19 Toronto, ON April 20 Toronto, ON (1 day Think Outside The Slide(tm) workshop that you can register for at http://www.iapa.com/conference ) May 26 London, ON July 6-12 San Diego, CA July 13-16 Los Angeles, CA September 7-9 Winnipeg, MB E-mail me at Dave@ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com to discuss how my Think Outside The Slide(tm) sessions can help your organization be more productive and improve communication throughout the organization.
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