PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

Fills for Shapes in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

When you insert shapes within a PowerPoint slide, you will notice that all shapes you insert contain the same fill. Most of the time, the shapes may contain a solid color fill. Similarly, you may insert hundreds of shapes and they all have this same default fill — have you ever wanted to change this fill to something else? Before we explore changing fills, it is important to understand that the default fill you see for new, inserted shapes is influenced by the Theme applied to your presentation — all new presentations have a simple Theme applied to them — this Theme decides the default color or style for the new shape.

Learn about different fill types for shapes in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2016
Tagged as: Fills, Office 2016, PowerPoint 2016, Shapes, Tutorials

Designing Story Slides in PowerPoint: Learning from Ethos3

Designing slides for stories is different than designing a business-report presentation that you need to send to your boss. You may hear from purists who say that all slides must have stories, and to a large extent, I agree with them, Already distinctions between different slide types are getting blurred. To provide an example, it is entirely possible that a chart slide that shows sales figures for the last 25 years also has a story to tell. Yet, the story in the chart slide has an existence that is underlying and abstract. In story slides, the same existence is vibrant and alive. So for this feature, a story slide is something akin to illustrations you see in a children’s picture book!

Now look at this embed from SlideShare.

The slides were created by Nashville-based Ethos3, a presentation design firm. The client was Isobel Cox, who came up with the concept of The Blame Cleanse as a motivational, personal-growth piece. Isobel was very clear about what she wanted—her goal was to spread this message and help others, and perhaps use this as a speaking career in the future.

Here’s a small interview with Ethos3’s Sunday Mancini.

Geetesh: How was Isobel different as a client? Moreover, what motivated you to create this simple, informational deck that’s distinct to look at, but still has a fun element ingrained within itself?

Here’s Sunday’s answer: Isobel’s work is all about helping people in their daily lives, with their daily struggles. This gave us a unique opportunity to tell a story that could resonate with people and make them say, “I definitely feel this way!” Once we’ve hooked them with that story, then her solution takes center stage. The design is a huge part of that, because it’s so fresh and keeps people clicking, almost like a picture book. What made Isobel such a stand-out client was the fact that she encouraged our creativity throughout the entire process, which made the final product so fun.

Sunday Mancini is the Content Strategist at Ethos3, working closely with clients to craft their message and create a fantastic presentation. She’s worked with companies like Amazon and Google during her time at Ethos3, and has a passion for brand storytelling. Visit the Ethos3 site to learn more about her work, or even start a project for yourself.

See Also: Ethos3 on Indezine

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: Case Studies
Tagged as: Case Studies, Design, Ethos3, PowerPoint, Sunday Mancini

Texture Fills for Slide Backgrounds in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

Textures are the “in” thing even in a world that looks so much at the new flat design concept — and the reason is not difficult to understand. The right texture can add interest, and make your slide content look crafted.

Learn how to use Texture fills for Slide Backgrounds in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2016
Tagged as: Background, Fills, Microsoft Windows, Office 2016, PowerPoint 2016, Textures, Tutorials

3 Techniques for Highlighting Important Words

By Ellen Finkelstein

When your audience sees a slide that is a sea of words, they will remember almost nothing. This type of slide overloads short-term memory and as they say these days, it’s TMI (too much information).

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed Under: Guest Posts
Tagged as: Ellen Finkelstein, Guest Post, PowerPoint, Techniques

Presentation Guild Survey: Conversation with Sandra Johnson

    Sandra Johnson has owned her presentation design business since 2001. As a certified Woman-owned Business Enterprise, she works with individuals and corporations across the globe to ensure that they PowerPoint. Responsibly. Sandra first earned the Microsoft PowerPoint MVP Award in 2008 and is currently among around 40 people around the globe with that distinction. Sandra is a founding member and Vice President of The Presentation Guild.

In this conversation, Sandra talks about the ongoing Presentation Guild Survey (link no longer exists).

Geetesh: Tell us more about the Presentation Guild, and what do you expect to achieve from this survey?

Sandra: This is just the first in many surveys we hope to conduct with potential Guild members. We are in the early stages of forming a trade association whose mission is to promote the presentation design and production industry as a profession, recognize the skills and expertise of presentation creation specialists, and provide opportunities for members to expand their knowledge and abilities. To that end, it is important to us that we learn more about what presentation professionals face when it comes to presentations so we can create an organization that meets their needs.

So, whether respondents work in an administrative role, create presentations for presenting at work, design presentations for others for a living, work backstage in an AV environment, or rely on others to create presentations for them to deliver, we’re asking presentationists to take 5 minutes to tell us a little about that role.

Geetesh: How will you use the responses in the survey to make the Presentation Guild more representative and relevant to its members?

Sandra: We will listen to every suggestion to make the Presentation Guild relevant to today’s presentationists. From presentation designers to the profession’s leading practitioners, we hope to draw members from all backgrounds, all fields, and all levels of experience—from all around the world. That’s why the results of this survey are so important – it will allow presentationists everywhere to influence an organization built just for them.

Disclosure: Geetesh Bajaj of Indezine is a founding member of The Presentation Guild.

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: Interviews, Presentation Guild, Sandra Johnson, Survey