Dave Paradi's
PowerPoint Tip Newsletter - Issue #187, June 16, 2009
Published & Copyright
by
Dave Paradi of ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com. Circulation over
8,100
In this issue
Latest Slide Makeover
See Dave at SHRM in NOLA
Reformatting
a presentation
Book Dave for a workshop
From the blog
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
June 22
- Washington, DC (Government staff)
June
28-30 - New Orleans, LA (SHRM Conference)
July 21
- Washington, DC (Educators)
August 21
- Toronto, ON (MBA Students)
September 15
- Orangeville, ON (Utility company trainers)
September 21
- Toronto, ON (Purchasing Managers)
October 13-14
- Atlanta, GA (PowerPoint Live conference)
October 17
- Edmonton, AB (CAPS Chapter)
November 25
- Toronto, ON (CSAE National Convention workshop)
December 6-9
- Calgary, AB (CAPS Convention)
|
|
Latest Slide Makeover Video
Often
presentations need to include statistics. When those
statistics are about people, consider showing pictures of people
instead of just quoting the text and numbers. It helps the
audience connect with what the statistic means to them. 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).
See Dave at SHRM in New Orleans
In less than two weeks, almost 10,000 HR professionals will
gather in New Orleans for the SHRM annual conference. If you,
or
someone from your organization, is attending SHRM, come to my
session on Monday June 29th from 10:45 am to noon. I'll also
be
signing copies of my book at the SHRM Bookstore right after the
session. You will discover why other organizations are asking
me
to come and deliver customized training programs to improve the
effectiveness of their PowerPoint presentations.
PowerPoint
Tip: Reformatting a presentation
Often
in my workshops, someone shares how they struggle when trying to merge
slides from different presenters into one presentation or when they
have to reformat a presentation using a new slide design.
What
should be easy turns into a nightmare with content moving all over the
place and hours spent reformatting each slide by hand. In
today’s
newsletter I want to share a few tips that can help when you find
yourself in this situation.
The first thing I suggest you do is
check the Slide Layout of the existing slides. This is the
one
area that causes more problems than almost any other area.
Unfortunately, most presenters don’t know that they should select the
appropriate layout when they create a slide. They just use
the
default bullet point layout and delete or move items until they get the
slide they want. The problem is that once you apply a new
design
to a slide, it wants to use the underlying layout and it moves things
back to where they are supposed to be. So, before you
reformat or
insert any slides, review the layouts and apply or reapply the correct
layout to each slide. You may also need to move text from
randomly placed textboxes into the correct placeholders so it will
format properly when inserted into a new design.
The second area
you need to check before merging or reformatting is the new Slide
Master. Too often Slide Masters are poorly
constructed.
Look for and fix the following: background graphics should be on the
Slide Master and not on each individual slide; title and body text
placeholders should have the correct font, size, alignment and color
set on the Slide Master and not individually on each slide; and footers
and slide number placeholders should be properly formatted and set to
display if desired. By fixing the Slide Master before
inserting
any slides, you will save yourself a lot of time.
Finally, you
are ready to assemble the new presentation. I suggest you
open a
new presentation and apply the design from the Slide Master you fixed
in the previous step. Next, open the existing presentation
and
copy the slides into the newly formatted presentation, allowing the new
design to be applied automatically. This will correct most
problems, but some will still exist (it seems to be inconsistent
sometimes). So the final step is to check each slide and
reapply
the layout if needed. You may also need to make some final
fixes
to the position of elements due to background graphics that may be in a
different position in the new design.
Initially, it sounds like
the pre-work will take some time, and indeed it will. But my
experience is that it takes much more time to correct all the problems
manually if you don’t set yourself up by fixing the source files
first. Try it out the next time you have to merge slides or
apply
a new design and let me know how it works for you.
Book
Dave for a workshop and your staff will have
comments like these recent attendees
"It was great! Not only did I learn useful shortcuts, how to
think beyond text slides and how to get my point across with graphs and
pictures instead of text, but I was engaged the whole time.
Proving that Dave’s process really works. Fantastic workshop!"
"I’ll
never look at my PP screen the same again.
Ideas will allow me to produce a far
more convincing, interesting and
worthwhile presentation. Thank
you very
much, fantastic day."
"I’m shocked – way above my expectations which were already high."
"Very
informative ….Great real world examples delivered with intelligence."
Click
here to learn about how I customize every workshop to deliver
exactly what your group needs.
From
the Blog at PPtIdeas.blogspot.com: The importance of structure
first
Last week I was consulting with a client who was developing a
presentation that will be put online to attract potential employees to
their organization. Originally, they had asked me to help
with
the design and construction of the slides. But as we started
to
talk, it was obvious that they did not have a clear structure to their
message, and this was inhibiting our ability to move forward with the
slides.
So I took out a pad of paper and we stepped back and
talked about what the call to action was and what reasons led to the
conclusion that someone should take this action. Once we were
clear on the structure, we could move forward with the slides.
My
client commented that it was so refreshing to find someone who
understood what they were trying to do in their business and could help
think through the process instead of just focus on the graphics.
In my consulting work, I often pass on requests for simply making a set
of slides look better to other
designers .
It's not that I can't do it, but my expertise is in crafting
the
right message and creating slides that work to support that message.
If a potential client does not have the time or desire to
look at
the message, I am happy to refer them to others. And, as
happened
twice in the last two weeks, the potential client thanks me for the
referral and says that when they do have the time for my services, they
will be calling me.
|
|
Contact
Dave:
Dave@ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com
or call 905-510-4911
To learn more about Dave's workshops, click
here. To get Dave's books or videos, click
here.
For past newsletter issues, click
here and for free articles, click
here. Sign up for this newsletter by clicking
here.
Privacy Policy: I will never sell or distribute your
e-mail or
information to anyone.
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.
|
|
|
|