PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

Nigel Holmes at the Presentation Summit 2015

After delivering an amazing keynote session during the Presentation Summit 2011 in Austin, Nigel Holmes returned to this conference to present the first keynote of the conference in New Orleans in September 2015.

Nigel began by asking everyone to place a card that had a printed smiling lip over their lips. He then clicked a picture of the audience with the superimposed lips!

He then shared a humorous video about cheese and how cheese brings up romantic feelings!

Yes, that was humorous. Speaking of humor, Nigel talked about humor, good humor, good feelings, and feelings, and then emotions.

Nigel then shared a quote:

Your intellect may be confused, but your emotions never lie to you.
– Robert Ebert

Nigel shared some thoughts:

The best way to connect with people is to make them smile — not really laugh but just smile.

Humor has a close connection to human emotion.

Nigel then explained how you can save yourself from being eaten by an alligator. He certainly used a visual to explain this concept.

Now, making fun about how you can save yourself from an alligator while you are within the alligator? That may not appear to be too funny to some people! As Nigel added:

But — and it’s a big, heavy “but”, this is not trivializing information as some purists may fear.

He also added:

Here’s the dilemma. Just because it is serious, does it make it authoritative? Just because it is lighthearted, does it make it not authoritative?

Sometimes, these situations may lead to unexpected results. A particular scientist was upset when his research was being presented as a cartoonish visual. He was offended that humor was being used with his work. He complained, “You are making fun, you are making fun of my life’s work!” But then, after the visual was published, he had a different opinion. He said, “Now my colleagues can see and understand better what I have been doing all these years!” And yes, the scientist said, “thank you!”

Nigel clarified his thought process further:

Humor is not convincing others to be funny, but to be approachable.

He then quoted Confucius:

Tell me and I will forget;
Show me and I may remember;
Involve me and I will understand.
– Confucius, 450 BC

Nigel then asked everyone to do the paralysis test.

1. With your ring finger extended, rest your hand on a flat surface.
2. Press your hand down firmly.
3. Now try to lift your ring finger.
4. That’s what it feels like to be paralyzed.

He showed a hand poster from the New York Times.

He asked the audience to notice that the size of the hand on that page was essentially many times larger than an actual human hand. Why was it larger? To explain this reasoning better, Nigel asked 6 attendees to come forward and participate in a small exercise.

He showed them three pictures:

First, they were shown a picture of the facade of the hotel in New Orleans.

He then also showed a picture of the Lascaux caves in France, from around 16,000 years ago.

Finally, he showed a picture of the Chauvet caves in France, from around 32,000 years ago.

Nigel then remarked that paintings were not too different 16,000 and 32,000 years ago. So that must have been one long art movement!

Why did Nigel talk about something that was millions of years old? That was because he wanted to explore differences between a million, a billion, and a trillion — especially between a million, a billion, and a trillion seconds.

Nigel used exercises for the participants to make these differences obvious.

He also explained differences between a byte and zettabyte.

So, why this talk about millions, billions, and trillions, or even a discussion about bytes and zettabytes? That’s because everything relates to context. This context explains and makes one understand better. Context also lets you visualize.

Getting back to context, and this talk about millions and billions, Nigel opened up bundles of dollar notes. He actually had a million dollars! Were they real? Let’s leave that to your imagination and get to the context part now! So, a million dollars, when stacked above each other in wads would go up a little higher than 3 feet. A billion dollars would be twice the height of the Empire State Building. And a trillion dollars may take us somewhere in space?

Nigel then showed a visual of the moon. He compared the size of the moon to the size of USA or Australia. Nigel also showed a context-based graphic that wondered how large other planets in the solar system would be if the earth was the size of a cherry tomato?

Nigel shared some more thoughts:

Context helps bring out the sizes of things and their relations.

You understand something better when it is compared to something you know.

Leave space; the eye can fill in space.

Space creates a method to show something that’s important and directs the eye.

The key to a great information graphic is editing. Editing is not the same as simplifying. In fact, the word clarify is better than simplify.

Simplification means eliminating the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.
– Hans Hofmann

We cram in too much stuff into the spaces we are given.

It’s just not graphics, toothbrushes are complicated too!

Pie charts may be a no-no now, but here’s a pie chart of a pyramid.

Looking at seemingly different images relaxes the mind. When we see different things, we relax. May be that’s why guitarists make those strange faces?

Nigel then spoke about a rainbow pencil that was made with paper of different colors. Sharpen the pencil and you will end up with lovely shavings as a result.

Nigel then showed a gift from his grandson, a carrot sharpener. He then actually used the sharpener to create shavings from the carrot. He gifted me one!

    Born in England, Nigel Holmes moved to America in 1978 to work for Time Magazine. He became graphics director and stayed there for 16 years. Despite academic criticism, he remains committed to the power of pictures and humor to help people understand otherwise abstract numbers and difficult scientific concepts, whether in print or in 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.

Filed Under: Events
Tagged as: Nigel Holmes, PowerPoint, Presentation Summit, Synopsis

Ribbon and Tabs in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

The Ribbon is the long strip comprising tabs with buttons across the top of the main window within the PowerPoint interface. Since PowerPoint 2007, the Ribbon has replaced all the menus and toolbars that were found in PowerPoint 2003 and older versions. The Ribbon contains almost all the commands you need to work with your slides, and is designed in a way that helps you quickly find the commands that you need to complete a task. You no longer have to search commands endlessly through many menus and sub-menus.

Learn about the Ribbon and Tabs in the PowerPoint 2016 interface.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2016
Tagged as: Interface, Office 2016, PowerPoint 2016, Tutorials

PowerPoint and Presenting News: September 29, 2015

We first present an interview with Taylor Croonquist, who discusses his then-upcoming webinar as part of the Outstanding Presentations series. We also bring you interviews with celebrated speakers who will be part of the Presentation Summit in New Orleans later this month. This week we feature Echo Swinford, Alan Hoffler, and Alexander Hanauer.

We begin a tutorial series for the new PowerPoint 2016 for Windows — we explore the Interface and the Presentation Gallery. We then continue with three tutorials that will help you work better within Microsoft Sway. Finally, don’t 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

Presentation Summit 2015: Conversation with Jon Schwabish

        Jonathan Schwabish is an economist, writer, teacher, and creator of policy-relevant data visualizations. He is considered a leading voice for clarity and accessibility in how researchers communicate their findings. He is currently writing a book with Columbia University Press on presentation design and techniques. Jon tweets on @JSchwabish.

In this conversation, Jon discusses his session at the Presentation Summit 2015 series.

Geetesh: Jon, you are doing a session this year at the Presentation Summit called Give a Nerd a Number: Improve how you visualize your data. Can you tell us more about this session, and what takeaways can the audience expect?

Jon: The data visualization field combines data analysis, graphic design, journalism, and statistics in a way that can help analysts in a variety of fields provide their audience with greater insights into their research and their products.

In my presentation at this year’s Presentation Summit, I am going to lay the groundwork for how presenters can use data visualization to more effectively communicate to their audience. I will demonstrate the different types of visualizations and their uses, as well as how to avoid creating graphics that result in ineffective and inaccurate perceptions of data. The basic guidelines I will lay out will help presenters create clearer, more accurate, and more visually appealing graphics. I’ll also have a few freebies for a lucky few in attendance.

Geetesh: Can you tell us more about yourself – and how do you approach good design for slides, especially when there are many numbers involved?

Jon: My background is in economics—I have a PhD from Syracuse University—and spent the first 10 years or so of my professional career conducting research on Social Security, Disability Insurance, food stamps, and immigration for the U.S. Congress. I became interested in data visualization and more effective presentation techniques a few years ago when I realized that many of our reports and analyses did not seem to have an impact we desired. I think one way in which researchers and analysts can get their work to have more impact is to more effectively visualize their research and think about how the reader or audience will receive the information.

When it comes to presenting research and analysis, I try to follow 4 primary principles:

1. Visualize the information. Bullet points and dense tables only serve to make your audience lose focus and not buy into your content. By visualizing data and information, your audience will be more likely to recognize and recall that information.
2. Unify your presentation, in how you speak, how your slides look, and how you present your work and conclusions. Unifying design and content is not about “dumbing down” the presentation or sacrificing content in the name of making things “pop” or “look pretty.” Better design is about supporting the speaker with slides that help the audience better understand your work. Without consistent-looking slides and consistency in how you speak, your audience will be lost in the randomness and be less likely to embrace your content.
3. Integrate what you say and what you show. Your presentation slides are there to support you, not to supplant you. The aesthetic of your slides—colors, fonts, and layout—should be used to help reinforce your content. Whether you are presenting your research about global climate change or drugs and crime in cities, the images and colors you use should reflect those topics and not be drawn randomly from the internet. Each should be chosen strategically to help you convey your message.
4. Focus your audience’s attention on your specific argument and visuals to support your argument. As a presenter, you can control what your audience sees and when they see it. Many presenters pack their slides with as much information as possible and this ultimately leads to a lower transfer of information. Your audience’s attention should be where you want it to be. Highlight the important message and important numbers; reduce the numbers on the slide and the columns in the chart and highlight the most important pieces of information.

These themes drive the book on presentation skills and design I am currently writing with Columbia University Press. I’m focusing on researchers and analysts who too often seem to think that the work ends when the research report is written and submitted to the academic journal or published on the website. But I think researchers can really improve their presentation skills by thinking first about the needs of the audience and not about their needs as the speaker. One of the core messages of the book is that a presentation is a fundamentally different form of communication than a written report. Treating them as the same thing—moving text into bullets and copying and pasting tables and figures from the paper to the slides—misses this important distinction.

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: Events
Tagged as: Interviews, Jon Schwabish, Presentation Summit

Quick Access Toolbar in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

Soon after a power user installs a new application, he or she wants to customize their menus and toolbars so that their most often used features are accessible with fewer clicks — or even custom keyboard shortcuts. And even if you are not a power user, you should explore a very useful option that we explain in this tutorial — this will make your tasks easier, and quicker. While PowerPoint’s recent versions on Windows have almost no menus and toolbars, they do have a single toolbar called the Quick Access Toolbar. Almost everyone who uses this toolbar just calls it the QAT, and that’s the name we will use for the rest of this tutorial.

Learn about the Quick Access Toolbar in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2016
Tagged as: Interface, Office 2016, PowerPoint 2016, Tutorials