PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

Learn PowerPoint 2010: Slide Background Styles

Whenever you launch PowerPoint, you may typically see a single slide with a white background. Or if you open any of your existing presentations, the background of your slides may be in a different color depending upon the Theme that the presentation is based upon. You can always change this slide background to a picture, a solid color, a pattern, or even a gradient. However, before you think of all those options, do explore the twelve background styles that PowerPoint offers for every presentation by default. These styles are all coordinated and also designed to work well as a set of complementary backgrounds.

Learn about different slide background styles available in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows.

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

Learn PowerPoint 2011 for Mac: Reset SmartArt Graphics

The fact that the SmartArt allows so much customization in PowerPoint 2011 by applying new colors or styles means that your SmartArt graphic may be not quite the same as PowerPoint’s default offering — in addition, you may have resized or moved individual shapes within the SmartArt graphic, and there’s no real undo for any of these options once you save and close your presentation file. If you do have the need to undo all of the customizations, you can do so by restoring the default layout and colors of the entire SmartArt graphic using the Reset option, and get rid of any customizations.

Learn how to reset a customized SmartArt graphic back to its original, default state in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2011
Tagged as: Graphics, PowerPoint 2011, SmartArt, Tutorials

At the Presentation Summit: Conversation with Joy Miller

Joy Miller, a technical writer for more than 16 years (12 at Microsoft), lives in the Seattle area of the state of Washington. She writes help documentation and produces how-to videos for Microsoft Office PowerPoint. You can find her industry-related posts on a regular basis at the PowerPoint Blog.

In this conversation, Joy discusses the just concluded Presentation Summit.

Geetesh: Tell us about the Presentation Summit that you attended in Austin last month – what was your experience?

Joy: This was my second year at the Presentation Summit. As an employee of Microsoft, my objectives for the summit were to engage with people who use PowerPoint to find out how they use it. Also, to learn how industry experts are advising our customers how to best use PowerPoint.

I create help content for PowerPoint – including writing articles and producing how-to videos that can help people accomplish their goals using PowerPoint. That said, I am always up for learning valuable tips on how to better design, build, and deliver a presentation. The basis behind my using and documenting how to use PowerPoint is: ‘Less is more. Inspire with visuals. Speak with enthusiasm.’

Interactive Session at the Presentation Summit
Picture Courtesy: Joy Miller

Geetesh: What were the key takeaways for you from the Summit?

Joy: I shared my favorite takeaways in a recent blog post I wrote about the Summit, but for the purposes of this interview, I’d like to disclose them here:

• Less on a slide is more.
• For a key slide to stand out, it must have weaker neighbors; less impactful slides before and after.
• Convert slide text and bullet points to SmartArt graphics. They’re so much more visual, and super easy to do.
• Storytelling: Share personal stories to gain attention and empathy from your audience.
• When presenting, use props to help you make an important point.
• The audience will remember absurd visuals, such as a photograph of an old man with blonde hair or someone wearing a grass suit.
• Whenever possible, involve the audience in your presentation. Make it interactive.
• Remember these fundamental skills when presenting to a live audience:
• Use purposeful eye contact to help “pull you around the room”.
• Use hand gestures that are associated with what you are saying. But don’t distract from what you’re saying by overusing hand gestures.
• Pay attention to pace, pause, and vocal variety when speaking.

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 Summit

Learn PowerPoint 2010: Picture Fills for Chart Series

When you insert a new chart in your PowerPoint presentation, you will find that it takes the fills and border types based on the Theme of your presentation. You can change the fills and borders of charts without much effort. But, have you seen charts with picture fills? For example, imagine a chart that shows fruit exports and each column of the chart is filled with pictures of a particular fruit type rather than the conventional solid color fills or geometric patterns? Also, if you wanted to show how the export of grapes has increased over the years, your column chart would have all columns filled with pictures of grapes stacked one over the other?

Learn how to stack or scale a picture as a fill for your chart series in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2010
Tagged as: Charting, PowerPoint 2010, Templates, Tutorials

SlideShark: Conversation with Jay Wilder

  Jay Wilder is director of product marketing at Brainshark, Inc. Brainshark’s cloud-based software lets users create online and mobile video presentations – using simple business tools like PowerPoint and the telephone – and then share and track their content. Thousands of companies use Brainshark to improve the reach and results of their business communications, while dramatically reducing costs.

In this conversation, Jay discusses Brainshark’s SlideShark app, which the company unveiled today.

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Filed Under: Interviews
Tagged as: Brainshark, Interviews, iPad, Jay Wilder, PowerPoint