Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Tip Newsletter - Issue #189, July 14, 2009
Published & Copyright by Dave Paradi of ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com.  Circulation over 8,100
In this issue
Latest Slide Makeover
Creating Visuals Training Videos
Time savers when editing slides
Book Dave for a workshop
From the blog
The Visual Slide Revolution book at www.VisualSlideRevolution.com
One of the Top 10 Business Books of 2008
Click on the cover to learn more
Book Dave to do a live program for your group:
1) Transforming Text Slides into Persuasive Visuals
2) Hands-on Creating Persuasive PowerPoint Visuals
3) Cutting Presentation Preparation Time by Using Content Templates and Creating a Slide Library
4) Creating and Delivering Effective Web Presentations
Click here to learn more and book Dave.
Dave's Travel Schedule
July 22 - Washington, DC (Educators)
July 23 - Toronto, ON (Sales team)
August 21 - Toronto, ON (MBA Students)
September 21 - Toronto, ON (Purchasing Managers)
October 13-14 - Atlanta, GA (PowerPoint Live conference)
October 17 - Edmonton, AB (CAPS Chapter)
October/November - Orangeville, ON (Utility company trainers)
November 25 - Toronto, ON (CSAE National Convention workshop)
December 6-9 - Calgary, AB (CAPS Convention)
 Latest Slide Makeover Video
Sometimes you are restricted in the number of slides you can use and may need to put more than one idea on a slide.  This makeover shows how to put two related ideas on a slide using persuasive visuals.  Click on the video below to play it in your browser via YouTube (or click here to watch it on my web site in QuickTime format at www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com/podcasts).

Slide Makeover Video at www.YouTube.com/thinkoutsidetheslide
Training Videos on Creating Visuals

Improve the effectiveness of your slides with step-by-step training on how to:
  • create calendar visuals that visually show date based information clearly
  • work with screen capture images to show the audience exactly what they need to look for and where they need to click
  • break up a single graphic you have been supplied with so you can build it on your slide piece by piece
  • find great photos in the PowerPoint library or on stock photography sites like istockphoto
  • integrate content from Word, Excel, PDF files or the Web seamlessly into your presentation
Click here to learn more at www.CreatingVisuals.com

PowerPoint Tip: Time savers when editing slides

We all want to be as efficient as possible, so today’s tip shows you three ways I use to save time when creating and editing my workshop and conference PowerPoint slides.  They might be new ways to use features that you already know or features you didn’t know PowerPoint had.  Read, enjoy and use them to create your next presentation in less time.

Format Painter - This tool allows you to format a series of objects, whether they are text boxes or shapes, using the same attributes such as font face, font size, fill color and a number of other attributes.  Here’s how it works.  Format one of the objects exactly how you want it to look.  Select this object.  Click on the Format Painter toolbar button that looks like a paintbrush.  It is on the default Standard toolbar in PowerPoint 2003 and on the Home ribbon in PowerPoint 2007.  Then, to apply this format to another object, click on that object, even if it is on another slide.  If you have a lot of items to reformat, double-click on the Format Painter toolbar button after selecting the properly formatted item and then you can click on each object to apply the formatting; press Esc to exit format painter mode.  When you have to format a series of shapes or text boxes with the same attributes, this saves a lot of time.

Copy objects and their animation - This is a tip that Julie Terberg shared at PowerPoint Live last year (P.S. If you are thinking of attending the only conference for PowerPoint users in the world, check out their great “bring a colleague” special running over the summer at www.pptlive.com).   Julie showed us that a quick way to animate similar shapes or text on a slide is to first draw and animate the first shape.  Then, copy and paste that shape.  The shape will not only have the same colors and other attributes, but it will have the same animation as well.  If you are building a diagram with many similar shapes that you want to build one-by-one when presenting, this tip can save you a lot of time.

Re-use instead of Re-creating - If you have created a similar slide in the past to one you want to use in this presentation, just copy and paste it from the previous presentation.  This tip is taken to the next level when you plan the re-use in advance by creating a slide library.  A slide library is a single PowerPoint file that has the common slides that make up usually 70-80% of the slides in most of your presentations.  When you want to build a new presentation, you start by copying the slides you need from your library file and then all you need to do is add in those slides specific to this presentation.  I create all of my workshop and conference presentation files this way and it has saved me countless hours over the years.  A slide library also allows the key messages to be presented consistently, especially when multiple presenters are using the same library.

We are all asked to do more with less these days, so every efficiency we can use helps.  If you are looking for just-in-time training on some key PowerPoint techniques, check out my short how-to videos at www.PPtHowToVideos.com or my longer training videos at www.CreatingVisuals.com.  These videos are an efficient way to learn because you can download them when you need to know that skill, each video is focused on only one area, and you can watch them again as a refresher.

Book Dave for a workshop and your staff will have comments like these recent attendees

"I have now learned ways to keep information concise and use visual aids to keep the audience engaged which will help me in particular when presenting to the Executive Team."
"Great value for learning how to use visuals more effectively."
"The zoom-in technique is a great technique for my role.  I have learned a lot of new techniques that I look forward to using immediately."
"Very good ideas on how to present complex/abstract ideas/concepts using persuasive visuals."
Click here to learn about how I customize every workshop to deliver exactly what your group needs.

From the Blog at PPtIdeas.blogspot.com: PowerPoint in the Pentagon      
A recent article in the Armed Forces Journal (full article at http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2009/07/4061641) lists many problems with the way PowerPoint is used in the US Armed Forces. They cite issues such as too much text on the slides, too much time spent creating the slides and their position that PowerPoint is not a good decision support tool in briefings. I’ve never sat through a Pentagon briefing presentation, but I’ve helped many presenters who have to help executives or customers make decisions after a presentation. Here are some thoughts on making these types of presentations better with PowerPoint.

If you need a lot of text as reference material after the meeting, create a separate handout in Word or use the hidden slide technique to create a PowerPoint file that contains all the text but doesn’t have you presenting a “wall of text”. This allows one file to remain the single vehicle for communication without boring the audience with text slides.

If you need to record thoughts or decisions during a meeting, hyperlink out to a Word document where the group can record their discussion in a document that is agreed to in a group and easily distributed after the meeting. I think many organizations could cut down on the length of meeting minutes or flip charts if they adopted this technique.

Increase your visual inventory by seeing what visuals are being used to communicate different ideas. You can view thirty slide makeover videos for free on my YouTube channel at www.YouTube.com/ThinkOutsideTheSlide and there are over twenty specific visuals explained in my book The Visual Slide Revolution. Look outside your own field to see how others are using visuals to communicate ideas.

I don’t agree with the conclusion that the writer makes that PowerPoint is only useful for informative presentations. I think it can be a good tool to support decisions, if used in the right way. Maybe some of the people creating the briefs just need a little training on how to make their slides and presentations more effective and things would improve.

See all blog posts and add your comments at http://pptideas.blogspot.com
Contact Dave: Dave@ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com or call 905-510-4911
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