A couple of articles I read in the last two weeks have advocated removing data and text from slides in favor of pictures. The author says that research shows that pictures are more effective at communicating your message, so just use pictures. This advice is consistent with other articles I have seen in the past…
Tag: 2015
Limiting the # of slides doesn’t work; Issue #342 July 21, 2015
In almost every workshop I deliver, we have to discuss the request from executives to limit the number of slides their staff uses to present. The executives commonly ask that no more than five slides be used when presenting to the management team. In this article I want to explore why this request is made,…
Dealing with requests for spreadsheet slides; Issue #341 July 7, 2015
Often in the corporate presentations I analyze for my workshops, I encounter spreadsheets copied onto the slide. It usually results in far too many numbers being on the slide, and leads to the audience being overwhelmed by detail. It is not uncommon when I suggest alternative visuals, I get the response…
Making text look better; Issue #340 June 23, 2015
Three options for grouping text in shapes instead of bullets and sub-bullets
New book: Select Effective Visuals; Issue #339 June 9, 2015
In this issue I let my subscribers know about my latest book, Select Effective Visuals: The Business Professional’s Guide to Selecting & Creating Effective Presentation Visuals. Learn more about the book and get your copy here.
The cost of executives redoing presentations; Issue #338 May 26, 2015
In the last 12-18 months, I have been hearing a similar story from those who contact me inquiring about my customized workshops. Often the inquiry is driven by a request from an executive. Do they want fancier slides? No. They want to stop spending so much time redoing the slides that their staff create. Executives…
Visibility of slide elements; Issue #337 May 12, 2015
Fellow PowerPoint MVP Steve Rindsberg recently explained in a discussion how the visibility setting on slide elements is persistent after being set. That may sound technical, but it is actually very useful in a couple of situations. Let me start by explaining what the visibility setting is and how you can use it. In PowerPoint…
Alt Text on images; Issue #336 April 28, 2015
Too many presenters think that if they grab an image off a website, it is OK. They may be aware that it is violating the copyright of the image owner, but they figure that there is no way they will get caught. How will anyone ever find out? I recently discovered something that should make…
What to do with text on your slides; Issue #335 April 14, 2015
Recently, presentation designer Johanna Rehnvall wrote an article about ten ways you can avoid death by bullet points (full article here). She shows ten ways you can apply design to a bullet list of text to make it more visually appealing. I know and respect Johanna and the good work she does designing presentations. I always…
Lessons from TED talks; Issue #334 March 31, 2015
Recently the TED organization released new videos on their website at TED.com from the recent TED Conference. As a corporate presenter, why should you care? Because they set the bar for all presentations. In this article I want to discuss three areas you can improve based on what you see in TED talks. Are the…