Dave Paradi's
PowerPoint Tip Newsletter - Issue #180, March 10, 2009
Published & Copyright
by
Dave Paradi of ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com. Circulation over
8,200
In this issue
Latest Slide Makeover
Public workshops in March & April
Handling mistakes on slides
"How-to" videos
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
March
16-18 - Los Angeles, CA (Association seminar open to the
public, for details click
here)
March
23-25 - St. John's, NL (Utility)
April
8 - Ottawa, ON public half-day workshop, details here
April
18 - Calgary, AB (CAPS Chapter)
April
21 - Toronto, ON (Association conference)
April
22 - Toronto, ON IAPA post-conference workshop open to
the public, for details click
here
April 24-26
- Mississauga, ON (Participating in Speaker Boot Camp, e-mail me for
details)
May
8-9 - Chicago, IL (MBA students)
May 11
- Toronto, ON (CAPS Chapter)
May 12-13
- Winnipeg, MB (Association Conference)
June
28-30 - New Orleans, LA (SHRM Conference)
August 21
- Toronto, ON (MBA Students)
|
|
Latest Slide Makeover Video
Analogies
are a good way to help the audience understand your
point. But if the analogy is unclear, it hinders instead of
helps. This makeover shows a more visual way to use an
analogy to
make the point more effectively. 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).
Public workshops coming up in
March & April
March
17, Los Angeles/Santa Monica, CA: half-day workshop
On
March 17th in Santa Monica, I'll be delivering a half-day workshop that
you can register for at a discounted rate. Get details and
register at
http://www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com/powerpointseminar.htm
.
April 8,
2009, Ottawa, ON: half-day workshop sponsored by CAPS
Ottawa
In the afternoon, come and learn the five-step KWICK method for
transforming overloaded PowerPoint slides into persuasive visuals.
Details on registration coming soon.
April
22, Toronto, ON: full day workshop sponsored by IAPA
On
the last day of the IAPA Conference in Toronto, I'll be delivering a
full day of ideas on how to transform your overloaded text slides into
persuasive visuals. You can register for this workshop as
course
PD300 at
http://www.iapa.ca/Main/Micro/conference_2009/registrate.asp
(Click on the Register Now button and follow the registration process)
PowerPoint
Tip: Handling mistakes on slides Last
week I made a mistake on a slide and someone noticed during the
session. I had typed the 13th of the month instead of the 10th in
a visual. How did they know I was wrong? Because the
explanatory text on the slide and what I said were not consistent with
what my visual showed. This happens to all presenters, no matter
how careful we are. The key is how you respond when someone
points out the mistake.
Unfortunately, this seems to rattle some
presenters. If you are a little nervous, this could throw a big
wrench in your wheels. But don’t worry. It is actually a
good sign when people are asking questions like this because it shows
they are interested and have a desire to better understand your point.
So
what should you do? First, pause a moment to determine whether
what they are saying is correct. You may even want to ask them to
explain what they see as incorrect because you may not be able to see
the error. This can get other audience members involved and it
can provide additional insight that everyone can benefit from.
If
indeed your slide is incorrect, admit the mistake, using humour if
possible. In the situation last week, I immediately recognized my
mistake and handled it by saying: “I did that just to see if you were
paying attention!” People laughed and I apologized for the
mistake. If you are not sure if the information is a mistake, be
honest and say that you are not sure about it and you will investigate
more and get back to them. The final step is to correct the
mistake, making sure the audience knows the correct information, and
move on to your next point.
Don’t dwell on the mistake and don’t
beat yourself up over it. We all make mistakes from time to time
and your audience understands that. They are just glad it didn’t
happen to them that day :)
"How-to"
videos that teach you in minutes what you've struggled to discover in
hours
Want to know how to fill the slices of a pie chart with pictures
to make the chart even more meaningful? How about aligning or
distributing objects so that diagram is perfectly lined up? Or
animating the elements of the slide so you can discuss each point and
not have the audience distracted by the rest of the slide? These
topics and more are covered in the short "how-to" videos at www.PPtHowToVideos.com. Get the ones you need and start using your new skills in minutes.
From
the Blog at PPtIdeas.blogspot.com: New use for the PowerPoint
Picture Compression feature
A recent workshop participant asked a question that helped us discover
a new use for the resampling feature in PowerPoint. The resampling
feature is properly known as the picture compression feature. It allows
you to compress high resolution photos so that your PowerPoint file
does not get so large. It removes the pixels you aren't using, so the
picture still looks the same but the file is easier to e-mail.
The question that was asked related to another aspect of this feature.
In order to save even more space, the compression feature will also
delete the parts of the photo that you have cropped out. The idea is
that if you aren't showing that part of the photo, you don't need to be
taking up file space with those areas.
The participant asked if this deletion of cropped areas would help
secure a photo when you cropped a section out and don't want others to
be able to uncrop the photo to see what else was in the original photo.
One reason to want to do this is when you have a photo of a scene and
you don't want to show someone who was in the scene because it would be
detrimental if anyone were to know that they were there. It turns out
that the deleting of cropped areas feature is exactly what she was
looking for. We tested it in the workshop and after the compression was
done, we could not go back and see what had been in the photo when we
uncropped it.
Even if you don't want to compress all photos or don't need to because
they are not high resolution, you can use this technique in the
following way. Right-click on the photo and select to format the
picture as you usually do. Select the compress feature as you normally
would. But when setting the options, select to only delete the cropped
areas and only for this photo, not the other photos in your
presentation. This way, you secure the photo you want without affecting
any of the other photos in your file.
This may not be a technique you will use in many of your presentations,
but it is handy to know when you run in to a situation that involves a
sensitive photo.
Comments on the new look of the newsletter? Click here
to e-mail 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.
|
|
|
|