PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

The Ultimate Presentation Checklist (Infographic)

By Adam Chapman

No one can deny that presentations are extremely important in the corporate world. Today, having a great idea or creating an amazing product is not enough—you need to know how to sell it if you want to be acknowledged as a leader. Walkerstone recently put together this infographic that covers everything you need to do to give a truly effective presentation. Use this as your final checklist before your next presentation and watch the compliments flow.

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Filed Under: Guest Posts
Tagged as: Adam Chapman, Checklist, Guest Post, Presentation Skills

Embed Fonts in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

Have you ever been in a situation where your presentation looked so awesome with some amazing typography, but when you opened the same presentation on another computer, the text looked positively terrible! This behavior may happen if the font you used is not available on the other computer. The best solution to this problem is to use safe fonts that are available on most computers, or you may also explore the option to embed fonts in your PowerPoint presentation.

Learn how to embed fonts in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2016
Tagged as: Embed Fonts, Fonts, Microsoft Windows, Office 2016, PowerPoint 2016, Tutorials

Add and Remove Proofing Dictionaries for Foreign Languages in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

PowerPoint includes proofing tools (spelling dictionaries, thesauri, and grammar rules) for more than one language. For example, if you use English as your main language, then Spanish and French dictionaries may already be installed. This enables you to spell check Spanish and French words.

Learn how to add and remove proofing dictionaries for foreign languages in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2016
Tagged as: Dictionaries, Microsoft Windows, Office 2016, PowerPoint 2016, Proofing, Spelling, Tutorials

Formulate A Winning Presentation: Conversation with Margy Schaller

Margy Schaller is a presentation coach, designer, speaker, and author. After obtaining her Instructional Design certification and working with speakers for 15 years, she launched her firm, Laser Pointer. As of December 2016, she has worked with clients from not only the dental and medical space but also legal, financial, high tech, real estate and renewable energy. Laser Pointer is growing rapidly and has as its primary mission: To help each speaker become the best version of themselves.

In this conversation, Margy discusses her new book, Formulate A Winning Presentation.

Geetesh: Margy, tell us what motivated you to write Formulate A Winning Presentation, a book geared towards the dental and healthcare industry?

Margy: I wrote this book to help the modern presenter focus on the why and the how of engaging, informing and inspiring their audience using a simple to follow a 9-step process. While the content is relevant to every marketplace, I have chosen to use the dental and healthcare field as a backdrop for the stories and examples. During my 15 years working in this arena, I have had the privilege of meeting the smartest and most passionate dentists, doctors and affiliated professionals. These speakers teach their peers how to improve the quality of care for their patients. However, content development and slide design is not their area of expertise, and as a result, their message is not always as clear and results-oriented as they want.

Formulate A Winning Presentation starts by guiding the reader through the process of developing content. I believe that the most impactful talks stand on a platform of three main elements: the key takeaway, the speaker’s “why” and their primary Speaker StyleSM. With those in hand, the formula walks through a step-by-step process to drive clarity. It also includes over 50 real-life before and after slides to demonstrate design elements that will captivate the audience. It incorporates personal stories, tips and lessons from industry-leading dental speakers and consultants as a way to bring content to life.

Geetesh: What are the challenges that dental and healthcare slides provide, which are not so common in slides from other sectors?

Margy: When I think about business slides, they generally fall into two buckets; sales and training. The sales deck (whether external or internal) has at its goal to drive home features and benefits while engaging people with the brand. The corporate training deck (again for external or internal customers) is teaching some new process with the ultimate goal of achieving more sales. As a result, slide design must be focused on differentiating the company from their competition and building loyalty.

In contrast, dental and healthcare slides are required to be non-commercial and educational in nature. In order to better serve this group, I started looking at what made these speakers successful. I realized that the really good speakers delivered absolute clarity and the audience knew what to do with the information. Based on this, I created a construct I have named Speaker StylesSM that helps the healthcare speaker (and I believe every speaker) to deliver on the ultimate “aha.”

1. The Recruiter has a product or service they believe will help their audience succeed. Their talk to a healthcare audience will focus on a need and provide a fair and balanced review of the available options, one of which is their product or service.
2. The Inspirer is at the top of their field. They know the audience will not be able to achieve their level of expertise. However, their goal is to show the audience what is possible and to move the industry forward.
3. The Teacher has the goal of helping the audience achieve mastery in some aspect of the field. Typically these speakers had great mentors, and they want to pay it forward to their peers.
4. The Informer has some data, law or new Gold Standard that they believe people need to be successful. Their goal is to equip the audience with the best manner to incorporate this information.

Once this has been determined, the slide design must be focused delivering on this goal. While the Recruiter will compare and contrast various products or services, the Teacher shows how to use something in a step-by-step fashion. The Informer might be focused on what is changing while the Inspirer is highlighting what is possible. From there, I use adult learning theory, the Assertion-Evidence Model and the other skills all presentation designers employ to drive comprehension and retention for the audience.

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: Books, Interviews, Medicine, Presentation Skills

PowerPoint and Presenting News: March 28, 2017

Word clouds may be controversial, but they are still difficult to create in PowerPoint. We explore an online program called Wordle that can help. We also review the amazing PDF Editor Pro for Mac. And speaking of fonts, why do so many people hate Algerian? Is it because it is overused, or is it because many people use a display font for normal text?

In the Tutorials section, PowerPoint 2016 users can explore deleting shapes from SmartArt graphics, and changing between SmartArt graphic layouts. We also explore AutoCorrect, options to use AutoCorrect, and editing custom dictionaries. Finally, do not miss the press releases and templates of this week.

Stay informed about updated tutorials and happenings.

Filed Under: Ezine
Tagged as: Ezine, Indezine, News, PowerPoint