******************************************************************* Dave Paradi's PowerPoint Tip     Issue #164 July 22, 2008 Published & Copyright by Dave Paradi of ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com Circulation over 8,400 ******************************************************************* Please forward this newsletter to executives and professionals who want to create PowerPoint presentations that sell their ideas, products or services more effectively.  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: Reminder: New Slide Makeover Video Podcast available Will you join The Visual Slide Revolution? PowerPoint Tip - Align & Distribute for consistency Best of the Blog - Worst & Best in Legal Presentations  Dave's Travel Schedule ******************************************************************* Reminder: New Slide Makeover Video Podcast available A new Slide Makeover Video Podcast based on the ideas in "The Visual Slide Revolution" is available for your viewing through the iTunes Store or online. This video podcast shows the transformation of the typical "About Us" slide used in many presentations. The "after" slides show benefits to the audience and tell them why these facts are important to them.  If you have already subscribed through iTunes or another podcatcher, the new podcast should be automatically downloaded when you next run the program. To subscribe via the iTunes Store or watch online, go to http://www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com/podcasts/index.htm .  Forward the link to others who could benefit by seeing this slide makeover. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Will you join The Visual Slide Revolution? Are you a presenter who wants to transform the overloaded text slides you are using into persuasive visuals?  Don't know how to start?  The solution you have been waiting for is here.  I've just released my latest book, The Visual Slide Revolution, and it explains my five-step KWICK method that I use to create persuasive presentations for my clients.  Read chapter 2 and order your copy at http://www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com/vsr.htm . ------------------------------------------------------------------- PowerPoint Tip: Align & Distribute for consistency On one of the makeover slides I created for a workshop I am giving tomorrow, I created a Gantt chart to show the implementation timeline for the service that was being sold.  When you are creating a timeline by hand, it is important to space out the time periods evenly or else the visual does not look correct to the audience.  To make it easier, I used a feature that is one of the subjects of today's tip - the distribute feature. Aligning, having multiple objects lined up at the top, bottom or along one side, and distributing, having multiple objects evenly placed either horizontally or vertically are two important tasks that are hard to do by hand.  If you have ever tried to arrange multiple pictures on a wall lining up the right edges or the tops, you know what I am talking about.  This has always proven stressful for me as my wife expects me to be able to measure, nail the hook in and everything to be perfect.  But few of us are that good. When you have multiple photos on a slide or other objects, including text boxes, you may struggle as I do in lining them up perfectly by hand.  Isn't it OK if they are "close enough"?  Unfortunately, no. People infer importance by position and what may be a small difference on your screen becomes a large difference when projected and the audience may interpret someone as the head of the team if their picture is slightly higher in a row than the other team members. When positioning objects on a slide, people interpret objects that are closer together to be somehow related.  So if you don't want to suggest a relationship that is not correct, you need to evenly position the objects across the slide vertically or horizontally. Again, doing this by hand is very difficult and too often does not work out the way you planned. Fortunately for all of us, PowerPoint has two features, the align and distribute features that automatically do this for us.  I often use them to make life simpler as I did to distribute a timeline when preparing the Gantt chart slide for tomorrow.  When using these features, here's a trick I have learned.  If I want a group of objects to be aligned with their right edges in the same spot, I will position one object exactly where I want the right edges to be. Then I position the other objects left of that one.  When I use the right align feature, it lines up the right edges according to the object that is positioned farthest to the right, so I get everything lined up with the one object I placed in position. When distributing objects, pay attention to whether you are distributing them within the space they already occupy (as I did for my timeline) or whether you want to distribute them across the entire slide (as you would for a group of pictures of team members possibly). For my Gantt chart timeline, I used both of these features.  First, I added text boxes with each of the time points, in my case 0, 2, 4, 6, etc. weeks up to 18 weeks.  I placed the 0 and the 18 week text boxes at each end of the timeline.  I used the align feature to first align all the text boxes so their tops lined up.  Then I used the distribute feature to evenly distribute them along the timeline. Hope that helps gives you an idea of how these features can be useful in your presentations. If you use these features, you know what a great time saver they are.  If you haven't explored these features, you can learn how to use each of them in less than five minutes with the short "how to" videos at http://www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com/ppthowtovideos.htm . You'll be glad you learned how to make your slides look better and save time doing so with these features. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Best of the Blog - Worst & Best in Legal Presentations  Recently the Legal Technology section of Law.com asked some prominent attorneys and law association professionals what the worst mistakes are using PowerPoint and about the best use they have seen. The full article is at http://www.law.com/jsp/legaltechnology/pubArticleLT.jsp?id=1202422808552 Observations from the comments: 1. Connecting the laptop to the projector is still an issue, especially in situations where the projector is not your own and you don't know what resolution it may be. Always best to run your slide show in a standard resolution, like 1024 x 768, to help reduce these problems. 2. The mis-use of animation continues to be a problem. I don't advocate eliminating animation, in fact I suggest careful use of it in my book "The Visual Slide Revolution". But the gratuitous use of wild effects does nothing but annoy. Interesting to hear that audiences actually are starting to laugh out loud at some of the antics. 3. Not taking time to check your slides before you present and having information from a previous client presentation show up seems to plague some people. I know we are all pressed for time, but that doesn't mean we should ignore some of the basics of communication. Use a slide library of generic slides to create each presentation instead of copying slides from a previous deck and you can avoid these sorts of issues. I'll have more on using a slide library in the next few weeks. Other recent blog posts at http://pptideas.blogspot.com : ------------------------------------------------------------------- Dave's Travel Schedule I work with business presenters who want to transform their overloaded text slides into persuasive presentations that effectively sell ideas, products and services to decision-makers. My research based PowerPoint Presentation Effectiveness System helps my clients achieve greater productivity and deliver presentations that close more sales.  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: July 23 - Toronto, ON July 24 - London, ON July 28 - August 5 - New York, NY (NSA Convention Aug 2-5) open to the public, register at http://www.mynsa.org/newyork August 12 - Toronto, ON August 22 - Toronto, ON September 5-6 - Kansas City, MO September 15-16 - Edmonton, AB (tentative) September 17-18 - Vancouver, BC (tentative) September 19 - San Diego, CA (tentative) September 21-24 - San Diego, CA for PowerPoint Live, register at http://www.powerpointlive.com September 26 - Cincinnati, OH February 21-23, 2009 - Chicago, IL April 23, 2009 - Toronto, ON IAPA post-conference workshop open to the public, details coming in the fall May 8-9, 2009 - Chicago, IL 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. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Privacy Policy: I will never sell or distribute your e-mail or information to anyone. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Need articles for your newsletter?  Check out my many articles at: http://www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Check out the books, e-books and other learning tools at: http://www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com/resources.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you want to read back issues of this newsletter, click on the following link to go to the Archives: http://www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com/archives.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------- Microsoft, PowerPoint, Windows and other terms are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.  Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation.  All books, products and seminars are independent publications and are not affiliated with, nor have they been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Microsoft Corporation.