Dave Paradi's
PowerPoint Tip Newsletter - Issue #181, March 24, 2009
Published & Copyright
by
Dave Paradi of ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com. Circulation over
8,200
In this issue
Latest Slide Makeover
Public workshops in April
Different uses for the tool
29 Minutes With Dave web training
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
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)
June
28-30 - New Orleans, LA (SHRM Conference)
August 21
- Toronto, ON (MBA Students)
October 13-14 - Atlanta, GA (PowerPoint Live conference)
October 17 - Edmonton, AB (CAPS Chapter)
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Latest Slide Makeover Video
Any time you need to use a second slide as a
(continued) slide for a list of information, it is time to rethink the
way you are presenting the list. This makeover shows a list
spanning four slides transformed so that the audience has context and
can better understand the information. 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).
Calling Presenters in Healthcare
If
you are a presenter who works in the healthcare field (physician,
nurse, administrator, therapist, health educator, etc.), I'd like to
ask you a few questions for an idea I have. If you'd be willing
to answer a few questions, please reply to this e-mail and I'll get in
touch. Thanks.
Public workshops coming up in April
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. Register at http://www.capsottawa.ca.
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: Different uses for the tool PowerPoint
is used as a tool to create many different outputs: projected slides,
flipbook presentations, reports and even memos. Last week during
a session in Los Angeles, I suggested that although there are different
outputs from the same tool, there are a number of things that are
common when using PowerPoint to create clear communication.
No
matter what output you will be creating, it needs to be structured so
that it makes sense for the audience. Before you start using
PowerPoint, determine what your presentation goal is, where the
audience is now, and what points you need to make in order to move them
from where they are to where you want them to be by the end of the
presentation.
The second common aspect is clear design.
Your slides need to use colors that have enough contrast so that the
audience can easily see them, the font you use needs to be big enough
to be easily read, the slides need to be uncluttered and the focus of
the design should be in presenting the content, not filling a
significant amount of the space with branding or logos.
The
final commonality is the opportunity to use visuals to communicate more
powerfully than just slides full of text. The KWICK method
outlined in my book “The Visual Slide Revolution” helps presenters
transform the “wall of text” slides into persuasive visuals.
Research shows that visuals plus text communicate more effectively than
just text.
Are there differences between some of these output
formats? Yes. The biggest one being that a printed format
can tolerate more text if done properly. If you are including
more text in a flipbook presentation, format the slide so that the key
point is twice as big as the additional detail you are including for
the audience to refer to later. This will help the audience focus
on the key points as they skim the document while you speak. If
you are using PowerPoint to produce a report or memo, the difference in
text size doesn’t need to be quite as large, but make sure the key
points stand out.
Whatever output format you create using PowerPoint, keep these ideas in mind when creating your next set of slides.
Learn how to create Calendar Visuals in 29 minutes
You’ve been watching the Slide Makeover videos or you’ve seen me
present slide makeovers in a live session and you’d like to know how I
did that in PowerPoint. I’ve listened to your feedback and I am
introducing a new, quick way to learn the skills I use in creating
makeovers that leave you amazed at what can be done in
PowerPoint. Introducing the 29 Minutes With Dave web-based
training series. The first session is on April 23rd and is on how
to create Calendar Visuals instead of listing dates. Get all the
details at www.29MinutesWithDave.com.
From
the Blog at PPtIdeas.blogspot.com: Reminder to check before you present
Last
week I got reminded of how important it is to check every slide before
you present. Unfortunately, I got reminded in the middle of my
own presentation. I had used a special character on one of the
slides. This was a Greek character that was important to the
point I was making. I selected it from the Symbol list in
PowerPoint and thought everything would be fine. But I presented
from a computer that had a different version of the operating system
(Vista vs. Windows XP) even though it had the same version of
PowerPoint. And my Greek character turned into a symbol of a pair
of scissors! Didn’t make the point at all. But I explained
what it was supposed to show and everyone understood my point in the
end.
My takeaway lesson from this experience: Double check all
special symbols that you are using in your presentation on the setup
that you will be using. Sometimes this means checking in the room
right before your presentation, so make sure you arrive early and you
know which slides you have to change if the setup has a different font
configuration. I had not realized that changing the operating
system could change the font definitions, but now you can learn from
the lesson I was taught. Another approach you could use is to
save the symbol character as a graphic and use the graphic instead,
since font definitions don’t affect graphics. I have done this in
the past and it works quite well.
Glad that I can continue to enlighten you as I learn lessons in public!
Comments on the new look of the newsletter? Click here
to e-mail me.
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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.
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