PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

Standing Out in a Sea of Voices: Conversation with Jim Endicott

Jim Endicott is an internationally-recognized consultant, designer, speaker specializing in professional presentation messaging, design and delivery. Jim has been a Jesse H. Neal award-winning columnist for Presentations magazine with his contributions to the magazine’s Creative Techniques column. Jim has also contributed presentation-related content in magazines like Business Week, Consulting and Selling Power, as well as a, being a paid contributor to a number of industry-related websites.

In this conversation, Jim discusses his Standing Out in a Sea of Voices ebook.

Geetesh: Jim, can you tell us about your ebook, Standing Out in a Sea of Voices? What is contained in this book, and what motivated you to create it?

Jim: My business started out in 1998 as a small presentation design company.

At the time, the professional design community was focused on the world of print and avoided like the plague anything having to do with creating a presentation. Since I had managed a stable of designers in a computer graphic service bureau, it seemed like a good place to explore being an entrepreneur after getting laid off from a high-tech company in Portland, OR.

To be honest, the bar for presentation visuals was set really low then (not much better in some places now). So I was able to make a good living at it for many years. But our clients still struggled with how to shape a clear message so we added messaging services in 2000 and that segment of the business grew quickly. It didn’t take long, however, to sense something in the ‘success equation’ was still missing and I had to ask the most important questions….

• Did they actually close the deal?
• Persuade an audience?
• Influence an important change?
• Effectively align a company towards a future goal?

At that point, it was clear we had to work with the presenters themselves to help them be a more effective conduit for delivering the presentation. Over the last 10 years, that part of the business has eclipsed everything we do.

So this small mini-book, Standing Out in a Sea of Voices, is really a chronicle of all the lessons learned throughout this amazing 18 year journey. A well-designed PowerPoint all by itself can’t make a presenter successful. Neither can just a good message. And as many of us have observed, just being a polished communicator can create a momentary ‘flash in the pan’ of enthusiasm, but often without real substance and change.

Being heard these days and creating meaningful change is about helping presenters be their best in all these areas and guiding them through the journey we went on. That’s why I put together this resource.

Geetesh: How can one get a copy of Standing Out in a Sea of Voices?

Jim: You can download a free copy of the book from our site.

See Also: Making the Complex Simple: by Jim Endicott

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, Jim Endicott, Opinion, Presentation Skills

Slide Background Styles in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

When you create a new presentation in PowerPoint 2016, you may typically see a single slide with a white background. Alternatively, if you open any of your existing presentations, the background of the slides may be in a different color or fill depending upon the Theme that the presentation is based upon. You can always change this slide background to a picture, a solid color, a pattern, or even a gradient. However, even without exploring all those options, there are twelve Background Styles that PowerPoint offers for every presentation by default. These styles are all coordinated and also designed to work well as a set of complementary backgrounds.

Learn about different Background Styles available for slides in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2016
Tagged as: Background, Microsoft Windows, Office 2016, PowerPoint 2016, Templates, Themes, Tutorials

Your Escape Plan for Networking

By Fred Miller

Your escape plan for networking must be in place!

If you’re a regular networker, I’ll bet this has happened to you. The seminar is scheduled to begin at 8:30, and the event notice suggested to: “Arrive early and Network!”

“Great!” was your initial reaction. That’s one of the reasons you attend events.

Picture Courtesy: Pixabay

You have developed and practiced your elevator speech. You’ve tweaked it enough times that you’re comfortable with it and excited about the opportunity to use it with the goal of finding many prospects for your products and services.

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed Under: Guest Posts
Tagged as: Fred Miller, Guest Post, Opinion, Presentation Skills

PowerPoint and Presenting News: April 26, 2016

We start with an exclusive interview with Rick Altman, who talks about this year’s Presentation Summit being held in Las Vegas. We then have PowerPoint MVP Chantal Bossé featured, and she shares some amazing information for those who need to work with presentations created in multiple languages within PowerPoint. We then feature TJ Walker again, who answers a few questions from Indezine readers: How much practice is good enough for delivering a presentation or speech? Alternatively, to put the same question in different words, is there something called practicing too much? Can you recommend any books, websites and other resources that will help me become a better presenter? Being acutely conscious of yourself is something that represents most speakers. Is it good? Alternatively, if it is not, how does one stop being aware of ourselves?

PowerPoint 2016 for Windows users can learn more about Picture Slide Layouts. You can also explore resizing and moving Text Boxes, and also Text Box Autofit options. PowerPoint 2011 for Mac users can learn about exporting PNGs and other Graphic File Formats (JPG, GIF, TIFF, BMP). Finally, do not miss the new discussions and templates of this week!

Read Indezine’s PowerPoint and Presenting News.

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

Reposition Text Boxes Accurately on a Slide in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

Sometimes you want your Text Box to be placed in an exact position on your slide. Yes, you can select a Text Box and move it around by dragging it with your mouse, and then let it go wherever you want it placed. However, for all practical reasons this process is just visual and not accurate enough. Thankfully, PowerPoint provides a way to accurately position any Text Box just where you want it located — having said that, do not move your text boxes until they contain all the text content you need within them, or you may find that your Text Boxes resize when you add text to them! Of course, you can control this behavior using the Autofit option we explained to you in a separate tutorial.

Learn how to reposition your Text Boxes accurately on a slide in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2016
Tagged as: Microsoft Windows, Office 2016, PowerPoint 2016, Text, Text Boxes, Text Placeholders, Tutorials