PowerPoint Tips Newsletter

New slidecast, "Tell 'n' show (SM), on slideshare.net

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 14:57:10 -0600

I've posted a slidecast on the Tell 'n' show (SM) principle on slideshare.net. A slidecast is a narrated presentation. The slidecast explains how to avoid bullets and instead create slides that clearly make a point and then show it. It's less than 2 minutes, so click to watch and listen!

Great new collection of PowerPoint 2007 effects and animations

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 14:55:57 -0600

Julie Terberg is a Microsoft PowerPoint MVP (Most Valuable Professional) and one of the top presentation designers around. She is well-known for her incredible animations and special effects, which look as if they were done in Adobe Flash or a high-end animation program. They're all done in PowerPoint. She has created a stunning set of slides for PowerPoint 2007, which are now on Microsoft's Web site. See some samples of this great collection.

Put one point on a slide

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 14:49:29 -0600

To make slides clearer for your audience, put one point on a slide. Take a slide with 3 bullet points, for example, and turn it into 3 slides. Then add an image, diagram, or chart to illustrate the point. The benefits? audiences can integrate one point at a time more easily than three. They remember it better, too. The slide is simpler, so it has more impact. Your audience listens to you rather than reading the slide ahead of you and then tuning out. At the same time, get rid of an overdone, irrelevant template and let the illustration stand on its own. The technique? Easy! Here are steps...

Use copywriting principles for your presentations

ellen@ellenfinkelstein.com — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 14:46:16 -0600

If you create presentations to sell or to persuade, deciding what you want to say, and in what order, is obviously extremely important. And what better place to turn to for guidance than copywriting. Copywriting is usually defined as the art and science of writing to sell. Experience (it's an old discipline) and modern research have provided many guidelines for getting the desired results.

Stop Boring Your Audience:Create Presentations for the Post-Template, Visual Era

ellen@ellenfinkelstein.com — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:45:59 -0600

Attend the webinar where you'll learn how to design presentations that use no backgrounds or bullets! Join me and Laura Bergells (author of the Maniactive blog) for a lively, informative, and important lesson in preventing Death by PowerPoint! Wednesday, 12/3 at 3pm ET, 2pm CT, 1pm MT, 12N PT Even better, you can get $20 off the price by using this code: 20OFFDEC See you there, Ellen

Circle an object

ellen@ellenfinkelstein.com — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 09:58:41 -0600

A great way to emphasize and draw attention to an object on a slide is to circle it. Of course, the easy way is to insert a circle, and use the Appear or Fade entrance animation. Be sure to format the circle with no fill. I like to use a red outline and give it a weight of at least 2 pt. To format the circle...

Successfully print presentations

ellen@ellenfinkelstein.com — Sat, 8 Nov 2008 09:30:49 -0600

Presentations are printed more often than we realize, but we rarely design for printing in mind. Although, I've had two clients who created presentations only for print: one was creating a brochure for sales reps and the other was presenting to potential investors at a meeting around a table. Even if you don't plan to print the presentation, you may send it to others who will print it. You certainly want to make sure that the results will be satisfactory.

Create a fast-moving presentation

ellen@ellenfinkelstein.com — Tue, 4 Nov 2008 04:56:49 -0600

This tip explains how to create a fast-moving presentation. Not only are there few words on each slide (sometimes only one!), but you say very little about each slide. Thus, you move from slide to slide quickly. Read more...

New video course! PowerPoint 2007: Make the Upgrade Easy

ellen@ellenfinkeltein.com — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 06:47:12 -0600

Are you getting the most for your money?

Are you wasting time searching for commands?
Are you using a fraction of PowerPoint 2007's features?

This video course teaches you just what you need to know!

This video course is easy to follow. You own it so you can watch it again and again.

Learn at your own speed
Expert instruction systematically explains and shows you each feature
Stop at any time to try out a feature
Broken up into 11 modules for easy learning
Easily repeat any module you want to review

Survey results: What is Death by PowerPoint?

ellen@ellenfinkeltein.com — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 05:38:21 -0600

I conducted a survey asking people about their experiences of "Death by PowerPoint." I received over 100 responses and have now closed the survey. The answers were very revealing, sometimes sad, and sometimes funny. I'm compiling the answers in a White Paper that will be available to subscribers. The White Paper will not only document the problem, but provide solutions! Here are three comments to give you an idea of what is to come...

Interview with Nancy Duarte, author of slide:ology

ellen@ellenfinkeltein.com — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 05:11:10 -0600

Nancy Duarte is the author of slide:ology The art and science of creating great presentations, published by O'Reilly. First, a little about Nancy. She is considered one of the top presentation designers around, perhaps the top designer. Her company, Duarte Design, does presentations for companies such as Adobe, Cisco, Google, and Hewlett-Packard and worked on Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth." She attends PowerPoint Live, the annual PowerPoint conference, each year, which is where I met her. After reading slide:ology, I asked Nancy a few questions. Here are her answers...

November 2008 Resource of the Month - Luc's PowerPoint Blog

ellen@ellenfinkelstein.com — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 09:41:11 -0600

This site features many useful, creative, and hard-to-find techniques for Powerpoint in both English and Dutch by Luc Sanders, a PowerPoint MVP.

5 Easy PowerPoint Backgrounds updated - for subscribers only

ellen@ellenfinkelstein.com — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 05:55:37 -0600

FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY. I've just updated the e-booklet that subscribers receive when they sign up. It now provides PowerPoint 2007 instructions. Also, some older techniques have been removed. Click the link to download the new version immediately. This booklet explains 5 techniques for creating your own backgrounds. You'll find many uses for it.

Animate a bouncing ball

ellen@ellenfinkelstein.com — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 09:50:21 -0600

As the co-author of Flash For Dummies, I'm always looking for ways to do in PowerPoint the kind of animation that you can do in Flash. Flash has more sophisticated animation tools, but you can often create surprisingly good results in PowerPoint.

Reduce the size of your presentation files - UPDATED

ellen@ellenfinkelstein.com — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 14:59:23 -0600

There are two programs that do an excellent job of compressing PowerPoint presentations: pptMinimizer, by Balesio. This also works with Word and Excel files. Click here to get an offer for 10% off. NXPowerLite. This also works with Word and Excel files.

Match the end of a motion path animation to the beginning of another

ellen@ellenfinkelstein.com — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 14:09:13 -0600

To show movement or a process, you may want to animate an object using a motion path. Sometimes, you can't fit the entire animation on one slide because it has several steps. In this case, you can...

Stay focused with pecha kucha

ellen@ellenfinkelstein.com — Sat, 4 Oct 2008 09:24:50 -0600

Stay focused with what? Pecha kucha is quite the rage in PowerPoint circles. The name comes from a Japanese term meaning "chatter." It's pronounced pech�kchka (with the emphasis on the second syllable), but many people pronounce it as it reads in English, with the emphasis on the first syllable of each word.

September 2008 Background of the Month - Round Bar

ellen@ellenfinkelstein.com — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 09:10:02 -0600

The background for this month features a simple template using rounded rectangles.