PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

Indezine News: Problems and Solutions

You can give it a name — call it a maze? Or call it a puzzle, a riddle, or even something as broad-defined as a question? What’s common between all these words? They all have an answer or a solution. Would we be interested in questions or mazes that had no answers or solutions? Probably not — and all audiences that attend your presentations will have the same answer. The thought for this week is to never highlight a problem that you do not have a solution for.

Read the newsletter here.

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

Learn PowerPoint 2011 for Mac: Getting Started with Motion Path Animations

The main difference between Motion Path animations and other animations in PowerPoint (Entrance, Emphasis, and Exit animations) is that Motion Path animations allow you to cause any slide object to move along a path you choose. PowerPoint provides dozens of preset motion paths — and you can also create your own paths as required. To add a Motion Path animation to any object on a PowerPoint slide, follow these steps.

Learn how to add Motion Path animations to slide objects in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2011
Tagged as: Animation, Office for Mac, PowerPoint 2011, Tutorials

Learn PowerPoint 2010 for Windows: Fade Effect for Video Clips

When you insert a video clip in PowerPoint, you may find that the inserted video starts playing instantly causing a jarring interruption to the flow of your slides. Not only can the sudden movement within the video clip area disrupt the flow, but the sudden sound from the video clip may take the audience unaware. This sort of disruption can be worse if you have trimmed your video clip. Clearly this is not a very professional or acceptable state of affairs. Fortunately, this is avoidable if you opt to add a Fade In or Fade Out effect to the beginning and end of your video clip. This option, which is new in PowerPoint 2010 not only edits your video clips to make them appear and finish smoothly, but also provides a more enhanced look.

Learn how to fade in or fade out your video clip in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2010
Tagged as: PowerPoint 2010, Tutorials, Video

Twitter for Presenters: Conversation with Kelly Vandever

Kelly Vandever works with organizations who want to take their strategic business presentations from Lame to Fame! An award winning speaker herself, Kelly helps organizations crank up their content to connect and interact with their audiences using old school and hi-tech techniques all while annihilating bullet points and making this world a better place for business audiences everywhere.

You can contact Kelly at her Speaking Practically site or @KellyVandever.

We already featured Kelly in a very popular interview, where she discussed how presenters can use Twitter. In this conversation, Kelly builds upon her earlier conversation to discuss tools that make Twitter easier to use for presenters.

Geetesh: We discussed using Twitter in presentation scenarios in an earlier conversation – can you tell us about your favourite Twitter tools?

Kelly: Rather than trying to work tweeting into my day, when I’ve got something that I want to get attention for, like your article and an upcoming open enrollment training class, I will schedule tweets using a couple of tools:

HootSuite: If I want to be very specific and strategic in scheduling a group of tweets, I use HootSuite. It’s a free site that allows you to schedule tweets in advance. So if I have an event coming up, and I care about what time of day the event gets tweeted for best chance at exposure, I go to HootSuite and just start putting the posts into the appropriate fields pushing the little button that looks like a calendar and scheduling them. In addition to scheduling tweets, you can also schedule Facebook and LinkedIn posts too. HootSuite has the ability to do bulk uploads at an additional fee. I’ve used it in the past but found it cumbersome. You have to create a .CSV file and get the formatting exactly right. Then sometimes, it still didn’t import into the tool as I was expecting. So for as often as I need it, I just find it easier to schedule the time manually through the tool.

I also often use HootSuite to reply or retweet when someone mentions me in a post and I’m near my computer. I’ve set up a specific column for mentions with my Twitter name and I find it easier to find, reply, RT or modify a RT so that I can add my comments than trying to do the same tweets within Twitter.com.

Timely: I also use a free site called Timely. I use Timely when I want to schedule a group of tweets but I’m not as concerned with when they go out. I’ll create a list of tweets, then copy and paste them into the field and push the button. Timely automatically picks the time of day to send the tweets. You set the number of tweets per day you want to send and it does the tedious part about scheduling the day and times for you.

Echofon: I use Echofon for tweeting from my phone when I’m away from my desk or tweeting at an event. I just find it easier to use than some of the other Twitter apps I’ve tried. I use Echofon for tweeting, replying to a mention or a RT but not for scheduling tweets.

Geetesh: What other benefits does Twitter bring – does it help in SEO? Also do you have any resources to recommend that will help presenters use Twitter better?

Kelly: I’ve been active on Twitter for a couple of years now, and it’s hard to say if it really drives SEO or not. I know I’ve gotten some exposure through Twitter and it gives me more web presence. I guess from a marketing perspectives, since I’ve yet to find one thing that works perfectly all the time, I’m trying multiple ways to get my name out there.

For presenters, I do recommend taking a look at a free ebook by Olivia Mitchell on Twitter for Presenters. I think it’s great. It’s what got me started in using Twitter in earnest. Here’s the link. I also recommend Cliff Atkinson’s book The Backchannel.

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: Interviews, PowerPoint, Presentation Skills, Twitter

Businesspeople Silhouettes for PowerPoint – 02

This sample presentation that you will download contains some businesspeople silhouettes ready to use within your PowerPoint slides. You will find these silhouettes in both black and white colors, contained within two separate slides. To help you to start with, we have also included one more slide that contains some variations of these businesspeople silhouettes, that are pre-applied with some PowePoint fills, lines, and effects. Try applying some other fills, styles and effects to these businesspeople silhouettes and see which one works best for you.

Download and use these silhouettes in your slides.

Filed Under: Presentation Bank
Tagged as: Graphics, PowerPoint, Presentation Samples