PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

Color Models: Saturation in HSL

Color is a fascinating subject; a subject that evokes enough creativity and pickles the minds of many. If we were to pause looking at color as a creative subject for just a brief amount of time, we would be able to explore it from a different perspective, the perspective of science! This color science will open new avenues for us to understand why colors behave in certain ways. For example, why do some colors look more vibrant than others? What is this quality that makes them shout? And why are some colors so muted? what makes them so understated and well-behaved? Well, the quality of color that makes all this shouting and mellowing happen is called Saturation, and believe it or not, it has everything to do with the color grey. We will learn more about what grey does to colors in this tutorial.

Explore how Saturation works within the HSL color model.

Filed Under: Color
Tagged as: Color, HSL, PowerPoint, Saturation, Tutorials

PowerPoint Infographics: Fortune Teller Origami, Matrix Diagram

You’ve all seen matrix diagrams – and these make it possible for you to explain related and dependent concepts. However, we decided to look at the matrix diagram from another perspective and found something similar in a fortune teller origami!

Download and use these Matrix slides.

Filed Under: Charts and Diagrams
Tagged as: Design, Diagrams, Graphics, PowerPoint

Color: Luminosity in HSL

We explored the HSL color model broadly previously. Now, we will look at Luminosity, one of its three properties. So what is Luminosity? Luminosity is the value that spans from pure black (darkest) to pure white (lightest). Now how does Luminosity influence any color? If we change the Luminosity values to 0 (zero) for a given color, it does not matter what Hue or Saturation values they have; they will all be black! This reasoning is easy to explain using an analogy. In a very dark room, if you switch off the light you will be left with pitch darkness, and any object of any color will appear black. That’s precisely what’s happening here too!

Explore how Luminosity works within the HSL color model.

Filed Under: Color
Tagged as: Color, HSL, Hue, PowerPoint, Tutorials

Color Models: HSL

We learned about the RGB Color model in a previous tutorial. And while computers can easily understand the fact that you mix red and green to end up with yellow, that’s some strange logic to us humans which we shall never comprehend! For most of us, we understand that mixing yellow and blue makes green. So how can we stay within the RGB color model, which computers understand, and mix colors more creatively to use a method which we humans can understand? This need for a more creative model gave birth to the HSL (Hue, Saturation, and Luminosity) color model.

Learn about Hue, Saturation and Luminosity, and how you can use these properties to mix colors.

Filed Under: Color
Tagged as: Color, HSL, PowerPoint, Tutorials

How do Spreadsheets End Up on Slides, and What You Can do Differently

By Dave Paradi

I often hear about leaders asking staff members to put a spreadsheet on a slide. I see this in the work I do reviewing slides from participants before my customized corporate workshops. These huge tables of numbers are overwhelming. In my workshops, I prepare makeovers of slides and show the participants how the key message of the spreadsheet could be communicated as a visual instead. It is not uncommon that the participant who prepared the slide says that the visual is clearer, but they have to put the whole spreadsheet on the slide because the boss requires it.

The first question you should ask when your boss requests the full spreadsheet on the slide is why they want to see the full spreadsheet. They are clearly looking for something, and it will save you a lot of time if you know what they are looking for. If they really only need to see the bottom line, just show them a clean visual or small table with the key figures. This is almost never the case unfortunately, so why else might they want to see so many numbers.

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed Under: Guest Posts
Tagged as: Dave Paradi, Excel, Guest Post, Opinion, PowerPoint