PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

Advanced Background Removal Options for Pictures in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

We already showed you how to remove the background from an inserted picture in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac — this process works great for simple pictures that have fairly distinct foreground and background areas. However, if the picture is little crowded or does not have clearly demarcated areas, you need to manually select the areas to be retained or removed in the picture using some fairly advanced background removal options.

Learn about advanced background removal options in PowerPoint 2011 using markers.

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

2015 Annoying PowerPoint Survey: Conversation with Dave Paradi

    Dave Paradi has been recognized by the media and his clients as a presentation expert. He has authored eight books and four Kindle e-books on effective PowerPoint presentations. He consults on high-stakes presentations including one used to brief one of President Obama’s cabinet ministers. Dave is one of only fourteen people in North America to be recognized by Microsoft with the PowerPoint Most Valuable Professional Award for his contributions to the PowerPoint presentation community. His ideas have appeared in publications around the world.

In this conversation, Dave discusses his new 2015 Annoying PowerPoint Survey.

Geetesh: Dave, you have been carrying out your acknowledged surveys on what annoys audiences every 2 years now. How long have you been doing these surveys, and how do these results help us create and deliver better presentations?

Dave: I started the surveys in 2003, so this is the seventh survey I have done. The reason I keep doing the surveys is that they show important trends that all presenters need to be aware of. Some of the things that audiences find annoying haven’t changed in the past surveys. For example, according to the past surveys, presenters can stand out by simply not reading their slides and not putting unreadable small text on slides. These aren’t hard to do, but the surveys indicate that these are still issues in so many presentations. The surveys have also shown how much more reliant organizations have become on communicating through presentations and how audience’s expectations have changed over the past ten years.

Presentations are becoming the key way that professionals communicate in organizations, so getting better is important to one’s career. With the latest survey, we will see how the trends have changed and what that suggests for presenters. Readers can complete this year’s survey (it only takes a few minutes). This year’s survey will close at midnight on Thursday, September 24 and the results will be published about a week after that. I’ll be providing the results to Indezine so you can share them with your readers.

Geetesh: How many people responded to the survey two years ago and why is it important that people fill out this year’s survey?

Dave: Over 680 people responded to the survey in 2013 and I am hoping that we can reach that many responses this time as well. The reason it is important to have many people complete the survey is that it is one of the only ways that presenters can hear what audiences are truly thinking. After a presentation, it would be rare to have someone give you honest feedback that you might not take well. They don’t want to hurt your feelings by telling you what they really thought. You may never get the feedback that will truly change your habits and make you a great presenter. This survey allows audience members to anonymously tell me what they really think. I get many strongly worded comments on the survey — ones that people would not be comfortable saying out loud. This means that as presenters, we get that brutally honest feedback that helps us improve. By seeing the true thoughts of the audience and seeing the trends over time, we can develop improvement plans for our presentations so that we can become the best presenter we can be. Let your colleagues, friends, and social media contacts know about the survey and ask them to complete it so all presenters can improve.

Take part in this survey now.

See Also: What Annoys You About Bad PowerPoint Presentations?: Conversation with Dave Paradi | 2013 Annoying PowerPoint Survey Results: Conversation with Dave Paradi

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: Uncategorized
Tagged as: Dave Paradi, Interviews, PowerPoint, Presentation Skills, Survey

Remove Background from Pictures in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows

Among PowerPoint 2010’s newest and most magical abilities is the Remove Background option that 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 within the removed parts of the picture.

Learn how to remove a part of your picture to make a transparent background in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2010
Tagged as: Background, Design, Graphics, Office 2010, Pictures, PowerPoint 2010, Tutorials

PowerPoint and Presenting News: September 8, 2015

We first explore alternatives to a clichéd visual concept — the concept we look at is targets and darts. We then have exclusive interviews with speakers of the upcoming Presentation Summit 2015 — we talk with Nigel Holmes, Ric Bretschneider, and Sandra Johnson.

We begin a new tutorial series on Sway, Microsoft’s digital storytelling presentation program. 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

Remove Services from Microsoft Account

In a previous tutorial, we showed you how you can connect a service to your Microsoft Account. However, there may be occasions when you want to remove any such connected service. Why? You may have privacy issues or may have changed your designation or job. In that case, you’ll not want any such services connected to your Microsoft Account.

Learn how to remove various connected services from your Microsoft account.

Filed Under: PowerPoint for the Web
Tagged as: Microsoft Account, PowerPoint for the Web, Tutorials