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Thoughts and impressions of happenings in the world of PowerPoint and presentations, continuously updated since 2003.
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Kurt Dupont is a solution provider who would go out of his way just to ensure he brings out the best when it comes to issues that has to deal with data-driven presentations, data visualization, and digital signage software. He started by working at airports worldwide to set up airport databases and flight information screens. This evolved to became the basis for PresentationPoint.
In this conversation, Kurt talks about the use of PowerPoint-based dashboards.
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Interviews
Tagged as: Add-in, Dashboards, Data, DataPoint, Interviews, Kurt Dupont, PowerPoint, Presenting Data
If none of the preset Motion Paths effects suit your needs, or if you cannot easily edit them to the way you want, you can easily create your own motion paths. In this tutorial, you will learn how to use PowerPoint’s Custom Path option to create your own motion path.
Learn to draw a custom path for Motion Path animations in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows.
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Filed Under:
PowerPoint 2016
Tagged as: Animation, Drawing, Microsoft Windows, Motion Path, Office 2016, PowerPoint 2016, Tutorials
Motion Path animations in PowerPoint enable you to make any slide object move within or outside the slide, and also make it move anywhere within the slide in a particular path! PowerPoint provides dozens of Motion Path presets, in every shape that you can imagine. To add a Motion Path animation to any object on a PowerPoint slide, follow these steps.
Learn to apply Motion Path animations in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows.
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PowerPoint 2016
Tagged as: Animation, Microsoft Windows, Motion Path, Office 2016, PowerPoint 2016, Tutorials
A PowerPoint presentation comprises a bunch of slides and we like to think of these slides as akin to a blank canvas. You add content to the slides in almost the same way as you use brushes to create strokes of paint to color a canvas. However unlike a canvas, in PowerPoint, you don’t have a non-structured freedom, and this can be good in many ways. Primarily, PowerPoint categorizes each slide type into one of its prescribed layouts.
Learn how to change slide layouts in PowerPoint 2016 for Mac.
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PowerPoint 2016
Tagged as: Mac, Office 2016, Office for Mac, PowerPoint 2016, PowerPoint for Mac, Slide Layouts, Tutorials
Love him or hate him, I think we can all agree that President Obama served an unforgettable term as the leader of the free world. Let’s not get carried away though, this isn’t about politics. This is about how President Obama gave the most inspirational speeches of our time.
Obama has a way to tie society’s influences with the messages he tends to communicate. The way he crafts his messages is impeccable, and I’m kind of surprised that no public speaking experts caught on to his techniques (at least, not enough to talk about them).
Here’s the thing, Obama didn’t just stick to the facts. He knew that he had to practice empathy to get his message out there. Furthermore, he knew he had to find a way to connect with the American people.
Image: Pixabay
So, how did he do it?
Simple.
He tapped into the American public’s emotions.
By tying the emotional needs of the public to his formal addresses, Obama set the grounds to make his audience relate to him on a personal level. Keep in mind, I said “personal” and not “presidential.” When he took the stage, he didn’t want the American people to look at him like he was above all else. He wanted to establish equal ground between him and the person he’s addressing his message to.
By making himself appear as an equal, he enabled the American public not just to listen to what he has to say, but to convince themselves that what he is saying is agreeable, in every sense of the word.
The late American poet Maya Angelou said it best:
“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
On June 15, 2008, President Obama dropped a stellar quote that showed just how inspirational his speeches are.
“Life doesn’t count for much unless you’re willing to do your small part to leave our children – all of our children – a better world. Even if it’s difficult. Even if the work seems great. Even if we don’t get very far in our lifetime.”
The first thing to notice here is how the topic concerns children. Yet, he never talked about his children. He talked about “our” children. He constantly used pronouns like “your” and “our”, and never said “my” once. He took the focus of attention away from him and shined it on his audience.
He then discussed the greater responsibility of parenthood; how life is only as good as how our children see it:
He kept hitting those raw emotional triggers repeatedly, just to remind the American people to look at their children like they’re the most valuable beings in the world (which, of course, they are).
A good speaker will focus on coherence and clarity to get the message across. A great speaker will take those factors to the next level and stir them into the emotional melting pot. By following Obama’s techniques, you have a good chance to rock your next presentation, speech, or even public address (if you’re running for office one day). So get to it.
Yousef “Yoyo” Abu Ghaidah is a PowerPoint ninja who founded Slide Cow, a learning platform for all things PowerPoint, presentations, and public speaking.
When he’s not designing slides or giving presentations, he’s on another coffee run.
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The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer, or company.
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Guest Posts
Tagged as: Guest Post, Presentations, Presenting, Yousef Abu Ghaidah
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