PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

Stage Fright

By Jerry Weissman

A Close Cousin of Writer’s Block

In the prior blog, you read about how the hero of the Hollywood film, Limitless, cures his writer’s block with a new drug that stimulates his creative capabilities. Concurrent with the film’s opening, a related article about creative paralysis appeared in the New Yorker magazine. Staff writer Dana Goodyear profiled Barry Michels, a real-life therapist who treats blocked Hollywood screenwriters with his own unique methodology derived from the concepts of Jungian psychology.

Mr. Michels, whose starting rate is $365 an hour, also treats the stage fright that movie colony writers and other creative people face when they have to pitch their ideas—a subject near and dear to the solar plexus of every presenter. The presentation equivalent of stage fright is the pervasive fear of public speaking. Although Hollywood pitch meetings are anything but public; and Los Angeles is 3000 miles and a galaxy away from Wall Street, the angst is just as real and just as pervasive.

Image: Pixabay

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Filed Under: Guest Posts
Tagged as: Guest Post, Jerry Weissman, Opinion

Format Task Panes in PowerPoint 2016 for Mac

PowerPoint works with the concept of selection, and then action. And the action typically is to edit whatever you may have selected! For such editing, the Format Task pane in PowerPoint 2016 for Mac can be indispensable. The Format Task pane aligns neatly within the interface in PowerPoint 2016 for Mac, and you can now immediately see how your choices affect selected slide objects.

Learn about Format Task Panes in PowerPoint 2016 for Mac.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2016
Tagged as: Mac, Office 2016, Office for Mac, PowerPoint 2016, PowerPoint for Mac, Task Pane, Tutorials

Change Slide Layout in PowerPoint for the Web

Each PowerPoint presentation contains several slides. Let’s compare each slide to a blank canvas or an empty sheet of paper! You can thereafter add content to the slides in much the same way as you use brushes to create strokes of paint, or a pen to write. For example, do you want some text? Then you must add a text box. Want a picture? Just insert a picture and place it anywhere on your slide! Wait, this is not really the proper way to work in PowerPoint! Unlike a new canvas or a blank sheet of paper, PowerPoint does not like to provide you so unstructured freedom, and this can be good in many ways. Primarily, PowerPoint structures each slide you create into one of its prescribed layouts.

Learn how to change slide layouts in PowerPoint for the Web.

Filed Under: PowerPoint for the Web
Tagged as: PowerPoint for the Web, Slide Layouts, Tutorials

Task Pane in PowerPoint 2016 for Mac

The Task Pane is a docked area within the PowerPoint 2016 for Mac interface that provides more options than dialog boxes. Also, unlike most dialog boxes which cover the Slide Area, you can view both the active slide(s) and the Task Pane at the same time. The Task Pane, therefore, provides a more streamlined experience. In fact, all the options within the Format dialog boxes from older versions of PowerPoint are now available within the new Format Task Panes in PowerPoint 2016 for Mac.

Learn about the Task Pane in PowerPoint 2016 for Mac.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2016
Tagged as: Mac, Office 2016, Office for Mac, PowerPoint 2016, PowerPoint for Mac, Task Pane, Tutorials

Task Pane in PowerPoint for the Web

The Task Pane option is not as widely available in PowerPoint for the Web as you can find within desktop versions, but some features do have Task Panes. Since PowerPoint for the Web is an evolving web application, you may possibly see more Task Panes in the future.

Learn about the Task Pane in PowerPoint for the Web.

Filed Under: PowerPoint for the Web
Tagged as: PowerPoint for the Web, Task Pane, Tutorials