PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

Zinali slideboxx 2.0: The Indezine Review

If you create presentations, it doesn’t matter if you have few or many slides, or even if you end up with ten or more variations of the same slide over a period of time. What matters at that point of time is whether you can locate the exact slide you want or not, and what do you do with the exact slide you found. These sorts of capabilities are somewhat beyond the scope of PowerPoint’s native capabilities. So, we are looking at a third-party product called slideboxx (yes, the folks who create this product insist on all small letters and italics!) that claims to help you become more organized with your slides.

Read the Indezine review of Slideboxx 2.0.

Filed Under: Reviews
Tagged as: Add-in, Digital Asset Management, PowerPoint, Review, Slide Management

Change Major and Minor Units of Value Axis in PowerPoint 2003 and 2002 for Windows

Working with charts in PowerPoint involves a deep knowledge because hidden beneath the surface are umpteen options that many PowerPoint users are simply not aware of. Through these series of chart tutorials, we have already taught you how you can change chart types or change fills and outlines for chart data series. You also learned how you can play with fonts and other text options of charts, and yet, these ideas are just the tip of the iceberg. One of my pet peeves is how PowerPoint adds so many major units to the Y axis by default.

Change major and minor units of the value axis in PowerPoint 2003 and 2002 for Windows.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2003
Tagged as: Charting, PowerPoint 2003, Tutorials

Presentation Summit Template Contest 2010: Conversation with Rick Altman

Rick Altman, a presentation consultant based out of Pleasanton, CA, USA, is well-known as the host of the annual Presentation Summit and has a strong sense of the needs of the presentation community. He has also authored books on PowerPoint.

In this conversation, Rick discusses the Template Contest for the upcoming Presentation Summit being held in San Diego this October.

Geetesh: For how many years have you been holding a template contest for the Presentation Summit (or PowerPoint Live)?

Rick: We have been doing this since 2005, and every year we have had a totally unique design. We are blessed to have incredibly creative people participating in the contest.

Geetesh: What does the winner receive?

Rick: The winner receives a full conference passport, providing total access to all parts of the Summit, from Oct 18-20. We waive the $995 conference fee in its entirety.

Geetesh: Do you know what you are looking for, or are you open to surprises?

Rick: I have no clue, and I love that type of ignorance. It has become impossible to anticipate or even make wild guesses. The year that we were in New Orleans, Liane Fuji from San Francisco created wonderful sketches of typical French Quarter scenes. Previous entries for years when we were in San Diego have incorporated beach scenes, animals from the San Diego Zoo, and Shamu the whale at Sea World.

Geetesh: Is it required that there be a local angle?

Rick: No, we do not require it, but we appreciate it when contestants think creatively, and that is often the result of creative thinking. Above all, we look for a good, clean design that will wear well across four days of heavy use.

Geetesh: I see that entries can be in any version of PowerPoint. Do you expect them to work with PowerPoint 2007 and 2010 themes?

Rick: We do not require that they show expertise with the software, but I’d be lying if I said that it hasn’t had an impact on the judges in the past. Again, what we seek first is a great design; we’ll take care of all of the software plumbing to ensure that the template functions properly. If there were two designs that were both fantastic, and one of them showed expert use of a Version 2007 theme and the other just included elements on a slide, perhaps the first one might resonate better with the judges, perhaps even on a subconscious level.

Geetesh: Who are the judges?

Rick: We will go with the usual cast of characters — Nancy Duarte, Julie Terberg, Garr Reynolds, Echo Swinford, somebody from India named Geetesh, and Ric Bretschneider of Microsoft.

You May Also Like: PowerPoint Live Template Contest 2009: Conversation with Rick Altman | PowerPoint Live Template Contest 2008: Conversation with Rick Altman | PowerPoint Live Template Contest 2008: Entries

The views and opinions expressed in this blog post or content are those of the authors or the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company.

Filed Under: Events
Tagged as: Interviews, PowerPoint, PowerPoint Live, Presentation Summit

Changing Fonts and Other Text Options for Charts in PowerPoint 2003 and 2002 for Windows

You can create the most amazing charts without any text since the main purpose of any chart is to show a trend. Having said that, text plays a very important role in charting, and although we do recommend you keep text at a minimum, you’ll end up with some text in the form of the legend, some data labels, axis titles, etc. Having said so, nothing looks as bad as text that is too small or too huge on a chart, and balance plays a key role in the aesthetics of text in a chart. Yet many people don’t know how you can format text in a chart.

Learn about formatting fonts within charts in PowerPoint 2003 and 2002 for Windows.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2003
Tagged as: Charting, Fonts, PowerPoint 2002, PowerPoint 2003, Text, Tutorials

ARIS Express: Conversation with Sebastian Stein

Sebastian Stein is the community manager of ARIS BPM Community, an online portal on business process improvements and management. He focuses on spreading the word about how pictures can help solving complex business problems without turning companies into bureaucratic monsters. Sebastian is an active blogger and writer. He holds a PhD in computer science.

In this conversation, Sebastian discusses the ARIS Express product, and how it can be used to create visual content for PowerPoint slides.

Geetesh: What exactly is ARIS Express, and why did you decide to give it away free?

Sebastian: Well, ARIS Express is a free modelling tool targeting entry users, who never thought about using models to improve their business. There is a big pile of theory behind this business process management (BPM) topic, but in the end, it boils down to the fact that a picture is worth a thousand words. So, instead of writing several pages about the deficiencies e.g., of your hiring process, you just create a single picture using ARIS Express. Take this picture to discuss it with the involved people to find out why this process is e.g., running slow.

You can apply this idea of using pictures to analyze business problems in many situations. For example, with ARIS Express you can create organizational charts to clarify the power hierarchy, or you can use a network diagram to visualize your local IT infrastructure.

So, why do we provide ARIS Express as freeware? Well, we at IDS Scheer are convinced that using pictures to solve business problems actually works. But we also know from our daily work with Fortune 500 companies that so far, it is a technique mostly applied by large corporations. Tools are too expensive and too much knowledge is required to get started, preventing small companies to pick it up. We want to spread the word about BPM and bring it to smaller companies by providing a free tool plus free sample models. In the long run, we as a company will also benefit from more people adopting BPM.

Geetesh: How can PowerPoint users leverage the capabilities of ARIS Express in their slides – can you provide some examples?

Sebastian: We all have a story or two of really bad PowerPoint presentations. People tend to put up a lot of slides with a lot of bullet points. On the other hand, presentation experts tell us that we should focus on less. We should use pictures to illustrate our points instead of creating nested bullet point lists. Here, ARIS Express can be of great help. For example, you discuss how to use an external provider in your accounting process. Instead of describing the integration, create a process model showing the interaction between both parties. Or, use a data model while proposing which data to gather in your next mailing campaign. Again, a diagram with a fresh look will animate workshop participants to think instead of falling asleep. That’s the important point here, because you don’t get many chances to present your point.

Creating such diagrams is fairly easy if you combine PowerPoint and ARIS Express. Just quickly sketch the process in ARIS Express, copy the diagram to the clipboard, and paste it in your PowerPoint slide. You can also export a diagram as Microsoft EMF file and add it to your PowerPoint slide or Microsoft Office document later on.

The views and opinions expressed in this blog post or content are those of the authors or the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company.

Filed Under: Interviews
Tagged as: Graphics, Interviews, PowerPoint