PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

Outstanding Presentations 2015: Conversation with Taylor Croonquist

    Taylor Croonquist is the co-founder of Nuts & Bolts Speed Training, a website delivering actionable PowerPoint training and speed strategies, helping professionals cut their build time in a third. Prior to Nuts & Bolts, Taylor lived and worked in China for 10 years in finance and consulting. You can find him traveling and scuba diving when he’s not busy crafting PowerPoint training.

In this conversation, Taylor discusses his upcoming webinar tomorrow, which he will present as part of the Outstanding Presentations 2015 series.

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Filed Under: Events
Tagged as: Interviews, Outstanding Presentations Workshop, PowerPoint, Taylor Croonquist, Webinar

Sections in Sway

We already explored that the Title card in Sway cannot be deleted. That’s because the Title Card represents the entire Sway. Now let us look at another such relationship in Sway – but even before we get there, let us understand the concept of Sections. Sections in Sway are much like Sections in PowerPoint – while a Section in the latter is a bunch of consecutive slides, a Section in Sway is a bunch of consecutive Cards.

Explore how you can get started using Sections in Sway.

Filed Under: Sway
Tagged as: PowerPoint for the Web, Sections, Sway, Tutorials

Presentation Summit 2015: Conversation with Mike Parkinson

      Mike Parkinson is an internationally recognized visual communication and presentation guru, solution and strategy expert, award-winning author, and trainer. He is a key contributor to multi-billion dollar projects and helps Fortune 500 companies improve their success rates. Mike shares his expertise through books like Billion Dollar Graphics, articles, and online tools. He is also partner at 24 Hour Company, a premier creative services firm.

In this conversation, Mike discusses his sessions at the upcoming Presentation Summit 2015 series.

Geetesh: Mike, you are doing two sessions this year at the Presentation Summit. One is called Presentation Tips from the Masters: Learn from the Best of the Best. The other is Pitch Perfect: Secrets to Successful Sales Presentations. Can you tell us more about both these sessions, and what takeaways can the audience expect from them?

Mike: In Presentation Tips from the Masters, as a group we analyze exceptional moments from a diverse group of presentation masters like Steve Jobs, Dr. Martin Luther King, and Tony Robbins. Based on this real-time analysis, we uncover what all have in common and use those techniques in an exercise to see what works for us and what does not. When the class is complete attendees will know how master presenters work their magic and how to do it themselves.

Picture Courtesy: Rikk Flohr

Pitch Perfect shares the secrets to making successful sales presentations. We learn the three reasons why people buy and how best to craft a slide deck that improves sales using the latest behavioral psychology and neuromarketing techniques. We get the recipe for persuasive presentations.

Geetesh: You’ve been part of the Presentation Summit for several years. Can you share your thoughts about how this event benefits new attendees, and also how it helps repeat visitors?

Mike: Both new and returning attendees get the latest tips, tricks, and tools to do their jobs faster, better, and cheaper. We have a unique opportunity to “geek out” with our fellow presentation specialists. All facets of the industry are represented—from design to delivery. Every time I attend Presentation Summit I learn new and incredibly valuable solutions to my biggest challenges, make many professional connections, make new friends, and have a LOT of fun doing it. It is a playground that produces (and supports) presentation experts. Beginners to veterans walk away better than they entered.

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, Mike Parkinson, PowerPoint, Presentation Summit

Remove Background from Pictures in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

The Remove Background option is among PowerPoint’s newest and most wonderful abilities. It lets you remove the background from an inserted picture — this can be a great feature if you want to remove a sky, a wall, any backdrop, or something else in a photograph so that the slide background shows through as transparent within the removed parts of the picture.

Learn how to remove parts of your picture to reveal a transparent background in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2011
Tagged as: Background, Design, Graphics, Office for Mac, PowerPoint 2011, Tutorials

Focus Point for Pictures within Sway

You can insert a picture within your Sway as a background for a Title Card or a Heading Card, or even as a picture placed in a Picture Card. There may be times when you want to pan and zoom the picture between two or more important focus areas — almost like a Ken Burns effect. You can do so within Sway using the Focus Points option.

Explore the Focus Point option for pictures within Sway.

Filed Under: Sway
Tagged as: Focus Points, Pictures, PowerPoint for the Web, Sway, Tutorials