PowerPoint and Presenting Stuff

Outstanding Presentations Course and Portal: Conversation with Ellen Finkelstein

Ellen Finkelstein is a Microsoft PowerPoint MVP and author of several PowerPoint, Flash, and AutoCAD books. She just concluded her 8-part, free webinar series called the Outstanding Presentations Workshop.

In this conversation, Ellen talks more about the concluded webinar series, and how it evolved to the launch of her Outstanding Presentations Course and Portal.

Geetesh: Ellen, tell us more about Outstanding Presentations Workshop, your just-concluded series of webinars.

Ellen: The Outstanding Presentations Workshop was an amazing success. We were pleased to attract top speakers from the presentation community, and they did an excellent job of explaining the principles of outstanding presentations. The response from participants was wonderful. People said that they now had a completely new way to use PowerPoint in particular and to present in general. They called the speakers “inspiring” and the workshop “a revelation.” Attendees told us they were really thankful for the opportunity to get such high-quality content for free.

Geetesh: There was so much to learn as part of this webinar series. What happens next? Is there something you plan as a natural extension?

Ellen: The 8 webinar sessions couldn’t cover everything. Near the end of the workshop, we did a survey. One of the questions asked what resources people thought would be helpful. We got many answers, but it was clear that systematic training, feedback, and online resources were the most important. So, we’ve announced a new Outstanding Presentations Course and Portal that will meet these needs and more. Anyone can read more about it here. We feel that this course is an ideal way to become an outstanding presenter.

Even better, people can hear the last webinar for free, with no registration required. The topic is Slide Design for Non-Designers and this webinar also covers the upcoming course. Look for the webinar recording at the bottom of the page.

Another free resource is my new video, Never Be Caught Unprepared Again. This video is a sneak preview of a form I’ll introduce during the upcoming course that ensures that you’ll be super organized when preparing for your next presentation.

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, Training

Creating PowerPoint Outlines in Microsoft Word 2011 for Mac

Typically, there are three common ways in which you can create slides in PowerPoint. All these three ways can be combined with each other but it is best to start with creating an outline for your presentation in another program. Mac users can create outlines in TextEdit. Alternatively, you can use Microsoft Word as well. In this tutorial, we’ll show how you can use Word 2011 for Mac to create an outline for a PowerPoint presentation.

Learn how to create outlines for presentations in Microsoft Word 2011 that are formatted for failsafe import into Microsoft PowerPoint on the Mac.

Filed Under: PowerPoint All Versions
Tagged as: Outline, PowerPoint for Mac, Tutorials, Word

Learn PowerPoint 2011 for Mac: Text Placeholders vs. Text Boxes

I have already covered the concept of differences between text placeholders and text boxes using PowerPoint 2008 on Mac. Now we will explore the same within PowerPoint 2011 in Mac. Let us start with these thoughts: Aren’t text boxes and text placeholders the same? Are they really different? And why should I bother even if they are different? All these are valid questions, and the answers to them form one of the most important foundations in learning to create more structured presentations in PowerPoint.

Learn about differences in text placeholders and text boxes in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.

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

Hook Conference: Conversation with Scott Schwertly

    Scott Schwertly calls himself a storyteller. He owns and operates Ethos3, a Nashville, TN-based presentation boutique. Alongside his talented employees, he continues to provide professional presentation design and training for national and international clients ranging from Fortune 100 companies like Google and Pepsi to branded individuals like Guy Kawasaki. He is also the author of How to Be a Presentation God.

In this interview, Scott discusses Hook, a presentation conference that he is organizing in Nashville in March 2011.

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed Under: Interviews
Tagged as: Events, Hook, Interviews, PowerPoint, Scott Schwertly

Learn PowerPoint 2007 for Windows: Change Slide Layout

Slides in a PowerPoint presentation are akin to a blank paper — you add your content to the slides in much the same way as you use your imagination to populate a piece of paper. However unlike a blank piece of paper, PowerPoint categorizes each slide type into one of its prescribed layouts — examples of such layouts include the Title layout, the Title and Content layout, the Title Only layout, the Blank layout, and several more layouts.

Learn how you can change the slide layout in PowerPoint 2007 for Windows.

Filed Under: PowerPoint 2007
Tagged as: PowerPoint 2007, Tutorials