Author: Dave Paradi

PowerPoint Tip – Use Gantt chart for Timelines In a number of presentations that I have worked on for clients they want to show a timeline of events as a background for their comments. It may be developments in the industry, evolution of a competitive landscape or as simple as external world events that influence…

PowerPoint Tip – Beyond Templates Many of you will be familiar with the idea of using a template to give your slides a common look. A Master Slide sets the background color, text colors and fonts and any branding on the slide. This way, every slide has a consistent look and the audience is not…

PowerPoint Tip – Finish Strong, Not Long You have heard it said many times that the most important parts of your presentation are the start and the end. Presenters spend time thinking about how to introduce their topic and engage the audience. Certainly important to do. But too many times presenters end their presentation weakly,…

PowerPoint Tip – Color Contrast Calculator One of the most common audience complaints about PowerPoint slides is that the presenter picked colors that don’t have enough contrast. This means that text, lines, shapes or graphs can’t be seen well on the slide and the message is negatively affected. If you don’t have a background in…

PowerPoint Tip – Ideas for More Visuals I have been talking recently to more and more clients about how to get away from text or number filled presentation slides and move towards using visuals to represent the ideas we are sharing. This ranges from sales staff to finance professionals to admin assistants. Today’s tip is…

PowerPoint Tip – What The Audience Really Needs Too many times presenters assume they know what their audience needs. And too many times they are wrong. I remember a presentation I did a couple of years ago where I made this mistake. I had a conversation with the person who had booked me and I…

PowerPoint Tip: Protecting Your Slides from Changes You have spent a long time getting your slides just right – everything is in place, colors work, animation builds to emphasize the key points and visuals speak louder than text. Now you have to send it to a colleague or distribute it to others. The risk is…

PowerPoint Tip – Taking Pictures for use in PowerPoint Photographs are becoming more and more common in presentations and for good reason. Photos can cut to the emotion of a point far better than text or clip art ever can. And with the popularity of digital cameras, it is now easier than ever to use…

PowerPoint Tip – Using Hyper-links One of the topics I discussed in a presentation on future trends in presentations last month was the use of hyper-links to create non- linear presentations and include other content in our presentations. The ability of PowerPoint to link to content within or outside the current set of slides allows…