How do most business professionals start creating their PowerPoint slides? They open a previous presentation and copy a few slides into a new file, making sure to click the Keep Source Formatting option so the template from the previous file gets applied. This is a big mistake. You may get an old version of the…
Category: Slide Creation & Editing
Free training videos; Issue #447 September 3 2019
In our neighborhood the kids are heading back to school today. This often makes the rest of us think about upgrading our skills so today I want to highlight some free playlist s of videos I have on my YouTube channel that can help you make your presentations more effective. To get notified of new…
How to add the Draw ribbon to PowerPoint so you can use Inking features
PowerPoint contains inking features that can be very useful to many presenters when creating slides. The challenge is that the way the default settings work, you might think you can’t use these features unless you have a touchscreen device. But you can use the inking features even if you don’t have a touchscreen. Here’s how…
Speed slide creation and enjoy the summer; Issue #442 June 25 2019
It is officially summer here in North America and the promise of warmer weather makes us want to get our work done quickly so we can go outside and enjoy the sun. In this article I want to share some tips and resources for speeding up the creation of PowerPoint slides so you can get…
Making presentations more accessible; Issue #429 December 11 2018
Last week I was working with an organization who has a library of graphics that they encourage their staff to use. This gives a consistency to the look of their presentations. Each graphic represents a specific role, service, or element of their business. When I was reviewing the graphics, I noticed that the graphics did…
Getting Designer ideas without Office 365 at work; Issue #422 September 4 2018
Software and services are always looking for ways to improve our work, and PowerPoint is no different. About two years ago PowerPoint introduced a feature called Designer. This feature interprets the content on your slide as you create it and suggests different layouts to improve the look of the slide. Designer suggests a more visual…
Four places to find headlines in your slides; Issue #421 August 21 2018
In my customized workshops one of the key takeaways from the section on creating effective visuals slides is to start by writing a headline for each slide. A headline summarizes the key message you want the audience to understand. Think of the headline for your slide like the headline of a news story or article.…
Capitalization of Headlines; Issue #413 May 1, 2018
After my customized workshops, one of the key take-aways people say they will implement is to write headlines for their slides instead of titles. A headline is a summary of the key message you want the audience to understand from this slide. It forces you to be clear on that message and restricts you to…
Using your organization’s template; Issue #410 March 20, 2018
Almost every organization has a PowerPoint template that is used to ensure consistency with branding standards such as colors, fonts, etc. Presenters are expected to use this template for every presentation. Most presenters are not given any guidance on how to use this template so they end up using one of two approaches. They may…
6 ways to save time creating a presentation; Issue #403 November 28, 2017
As my latest survey indicated, professionals are creating and delivering more presentations each year. In a recent survey of incoming MBA students at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, two-thirds of the respondents said they presented on a daily or weekly basis. If professionals don’t figure out how to create effective presentations more efficiently, they will…