Latest posts

Below are the most recent articles or resources I’ve published. If you are looking for help on a specific topics, it would best to look at the topics in my Articles archive as I have grouped my recent and best articles by topic there.

  • Sway is not replacing PowerPoint: The real story

    There has been a lot of misinformation about the Sway service from Microsoft being a replacement for PowerPoint. This is simply not true. After spending time with the lead of the Sway team at the recent Microsoft MVP Summit, I came away with a much clearer understanding of how Sway differs from PowerPoint and when…… Continue reading

  • A presenter’s most important resource; Issue #324 November 11, 2014

    What is the most important resource for a presenter? Some may say it is time. Time to prepare and the time spent delivering the presentation. Some may say it is knowledge. The knowledge of the topic and knowing how to communicate that message. And others would have different answers. I would say there is one…… Continue reading

  • Shifting breakdown of segments totalling 100%; Slide Makeover #80

    Use a diverging stacked bar chart to make the changes in two groups of segments easier for the audience to understand Continue reading

  • Best of the Presentation Summit 2014; Issue #323 October 28, 2014

    Two weeks ago I attended and presented two sessions at the Presentation Summit, the annual presentation design conference hosted by Rick Altman. As I usually do the first newsletter after the conference, here are a few of the best ideas from the conference. My first session was on creating visuals for financial presentations instead of…… Continue reading

  • Confusing the message with supporting information; Issue #322 October 14, 2014

    A recent consulting assignment was a good demonstration of the problem presenters run into when they confuse their message with the supporting information. My client was presenting to executives to suggest what they should do about a situation in one of their divisions. The problem was that she had structured the presentation so it listed…… Continue reading

  • Have a backup story ready; Issue #321 September 30, 2014

    While I was working with an executive earlier this year on an important presentation she was delivering at a conference, I realized how important it is to have a backup story ready. If you are relying on a story to illustrate a key point in your presentation, this may be advice you will want to…… Continue reading

  • Discernment; Issue #320 September 16, 2014

    Discernment is defined as making wise decisions or judging well. In order to make wise decisions as a presenter, you have to ask the right questions. Too often, presenters don’t ask key questions that help them determine the content and approach that will be most successful. Why don’t presenters ask the right questions? Often it…… Continue reading

  • Jargon and Acronyms; Issue #319 September 2, 2014

    For a number of years I have been advising participants in my workshops to minimize the use of jargon or acronyms in their presentations to audiences that will likely not know what those terms mean. I didn’t fully realize how problematic these were until the results of my recent survey on the state of financial…… Continue reading

  • Top 5 PowerPoint Tips for Student Presentations in School

    Recently a friend, Beverly, asked if I could please give some advice that elementary school kids could use when preparing PowerPoint presentations for class. For those of you who don’t have kids or grandkids in elementary school, teachers are now requiring many projects to be presented using PowerPoint (our kids started using PowerPoint in third…… Continue reading

  • Paperless handouts; Issue #318 August 9, 2014

    The proliferation of smartphones, tablets, and hybrid laptop/tablet devices in organizations has given presenters opportunities to move towards paperless handouts. A recent client experience had me re-examine methods that can work today. The attendees at this particular workshop are all regularly travelling and this has necessitated them moving to an almost totally paperless environment. They…… Continue reading