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Thoughts and impressions of happenings in the world of PowerPoint and presentations, continuously updated since 2003.
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PowerPoint and Presenting Notes
PowerPoint and Presenting Glossary
If you are working with PowerPoint on a Mac, then you are working within an environment that’s designed to closely work with Apple’s product ecosystem, including cloud storage locations such as Apple’s iCloud. Unlike OneDrive and Dropbox, where you can Add a Place to access and save files in PowerPoint for iPad, Apple’s iCloud does not work the same way. To access and save files on your iCloud Drive, you will have to work a little differently, as explained in this tutorial.
Learn how to work with files stored on your iCloud in PowerPoint 365 for Mac.
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PowerPoint 365
Tagged as: iCloud, Interface, Mac, Microsoft 365, Office 365, Office for Mac, PowerPoint 365, PowerPoint for Mac, Tutorials
Sir Winston Churchill, the great British Prime Minister, prolific author, and distinguished orator who addressed some of the most august assemblies in the world, once delivered a speech to the boys at Harrow School in Britain:
Never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.
Sir Winston spoke those words in 1941 and they have reverberated down through the decades as a model of an inspirational speech. But the Prime Minister was using negativity to inspire; he was telling his audience what not to do.
Image: Yay Images
Negativity is difficult form of communication. It has become the campaign method of choice in politics. While it often proves effective—as we saw in Mitt Romney’s victorious primary campaign to become the 2012 Republican candidate for President—it leaves a hostile residue and a divided electorate.
In business, negativity fails to provide information. How often have you heard this statement in a presentation?
What we’re not is…
Huh? Well then, what are you? Tell your audiences what you are, not what you are not. Moreover, negative statements sound defensive.
One of history’s most famous negative statements was President Richard Nixon’s infamous defense of himself in the Watergate scandal, I am not a crook.
Had he framed his statement positively as I am an honest man, history might have remembered him more forgivingly.
Does this mean that you should never say “never” unless, like Sir Winston, you are exhorting your audience? Mardy Grothe, the author of Neverisms, a collection of quotations that begin with the ultimatum “Never,” defines Sir Winston’s technique as “dehortations,” or statements intended to advise against a particular action.
By all means, when you want to inspire, dehort to your heart’s content; you will be in good company. In an article about Mr. Grothe’s book, Erin McKean, the founder of the online dictionary Wordnik, extracted some famous dehortations:
Never send a boy to do a man’s job.
Never speak ill of the dead.
Never judge a book by its cover.
Never count your chickens before they’re hatched.
Never make the same mistake twice.
My personal favorite dehortation was coined by Leroy “Satchel” Paige who, after a lengthy career in the Negro Leagues, became the oldest rookie—at 42— in Major League Baseball after Jackie Robinson had broken the color barrier. When asked about how he was able to stay youthful and competitive, Mr. Paige said,
Don’t look back, something may be gaining on you.
However, in business, negativity for negativity’s sake brings problems to the forefront and can lead a presentation into a black hole—the Houston, we’ve got a problem! problem.
Instead, focus on the upbeat, the potential, the road ahead, the actions you are taking, the vision that propels you.
This is not to say that you should sweep problems under the rug or ignore the elephant in the room; you must always be accountable and tell your full story. Just be sure that, if you bring up the negative, you balance it with the positive.
As the old World War II song advised, Accentuate the positive.
This chapter is from my book, Winning Strategies for Power Presentations, published by Pearson. It is one of 75 lessons from the world’s best presenters, and available from Amazon.
You May Also Like: Winning Strategies for Power Presentations: Conversation with Jerry Weissman
Jerry Weissman is the founder and president of Suasive, Inc., formerly Power Presentations, Ltd. Jerry founded Suasive in 1988 and quickly established himself as the coach for Silicon Valley CEOs delivering critical presentations for their IPO roadshows. He taught them to tell their company stories through the eyes of their investors, and in so doing, significantly increased the valuations of their companies. He amassed an elite client list and soon widened his focus to helping public and privately held companies develop and deliver all types of business presentations.
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.
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Guest Posts
Tagged as: Guest Post, Jerry Weissman, Opinion
Tom Robinson is the developer of the LegUpTools PDF to editable InDesign conversion app. Previously he has been owner/manager of a printing company, and partner in a company that developed a web-to-print template editing application. He specializes in projects that automate graphic design production and publishing, in both digital and print formats.
In this conversation, Tom talks about his LegUpTools PDF to InDesign converter.
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Interviews
Tagged as: InDesign, Interviews, PDF, PowerPoint
Don’t get me wrong; I never thought that PowerPoint was not cool. I never bought into the idea that you could kill a presentation, just by using PowerPoint. It is just a tool—its success depends on the user. But that hasn’t stopped the death by PowerPoint crowd.
Janay Kingsberry’s new Washington Post article suggests the media might finally think PowerPoint is getting cool. She says, As O’Neill spoke, slides of a PowerPoint presentation flashed across the screens of mounted TVs around the room, visualizing his arguments with graphs and short bullet points.
Of course, many such articles have taken aim at these same bullet points before. It’s heartening to see this shift in thinking and show readers the amazing possibilities that PowerPoint and similar tools can offer.
Read this amazing article that’s now available on the Yahoo site.
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Thoughts
Tagged as: Death by PowerPoint, Opinion, PowerPoint
We begin with a post by Carol Mae Whittick of Toastmasters International, where she explores authenticity. She says, “It seems to me that the strong need to understand and experience authenticity is a collective response to the increasingly artificial world we find ourselves in.”
Last week we looked at waterfall charts, and this week, we move to stacked waterfall charts and their benefits. Recognizing that it’s not easy to create stacked waterfall charts in PowerPoint alone, we look how the think-cell add-in can help you create stacked waterfall charts in PowerPoint. We also bring you quotes, press releases, and templates from the last few days.
Stay informed about updated tutorials and happenings related to PowerPoint and presenting.
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Ezine
Tagged as: Ezine, Indezine, News, PowerPoint
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