Here are some useful posts from January 2009 to 2012. Click on the headers if you wish to read the original post.
Take care of your fonts when sharing a presentation
You have used 'special' fonts in your presentation. Fonts which you have downloaded from internet. You now email this presentation or give it using a USB drive. Will the presentation work exactly as it does on your system?
No.
If the person receiving the PPT does not have the special fonts, the software will replace it with some other font. Entire alignment and font size will go for a toss. A complete disaster! What should you do then?
1. Use only standard fonts which are there on every computer (Arial, Helvetica, etc), or
2. Embed the fonts into your presentation. In MS PowerPoint 2010, go to File -> Options -> Embed fonts in this file. In PowerPoint 2007, go to Powerpoint Options. Under the 'Save' Tab, check 'Embed TrueType fonts'.
Keep the lights on while presenting
Many presenters want to make the slides look good. To ensure that, they switch off all lights and want audiences to have a good view of the screen. Have you come to show us a movie?
Your audience has come to see you. Your slides are only there for support. They are not the main thing. By keeping lights off, two things happen. One, your audience only looks at your slide s and disconnects from you totally. Two, your audience will sleep off. Keep the lights on and present. Always.
No text at the bottom of your slide
What happens when you have a big crowd (say more than 50). Everyone is sitting at the same level. The guys on the back are not sitting on a higher platform. In this case, the people in the front block some part of the view.
Ensure you have no words at the bottom of the slide. Avoid any text in the bottom 25% of the slide. I have personally made this error twice. So now I am clear.
One excellent TED talk. One passionate speaker.
Devdutt Pattanaik gave a very passionate speech in TED. He spoke on a complicated topic, 'mythology'. There are many things to be learnt from his presentation. One, how he started his speech with a story. A story which was integral to understanding his presentation. Two, he did not make 'slides' central to his presentation. We listen to him and see him. We only see the slides once in a while. Three, the passion. See how his passion comes out from his voice and body language. A must watch TED talk. He makes a complicated topic simple and likable.
Showing posts with label Best from the Past. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Best from the Past. Show all posts
Jan 19, 2013
Dec 16, 2012
Best from the Past: December
Today let me share with you some good posts from December 2009, 2010 and 2011.
How to cut short your presentation at the last minute?
You were alloted 30 minutes. Because the conference started late, your time has now been cut short to 15 minutes. What will you do? Panic. What else?
In December 2009 I wrote a post about this and gave three suggestions. One, do not panic. No one succeeded in life by panicking. Two, do not apologise to the audience and sound defensive. Do not say I had prepared for 30 minutes and now I cannot complete everything. The audience will only feel bad and pathetic about it. You might want to give it a passing mention but say that you will share the crux in 15 minutes and the audience can always connect with you after the presentation. Who is stopping you or them to continue the conversation? Third, skip some slides and focus on what is the crux. Do not increase your speed to cover more content. That is stupid. You might also want to cut the basic warm up content at the start.
Extra tip: When you are skipping slides it is better to hide them during slideshow. Do not show a slide and then say "I will not present this and move on." The audience feels they are missing something.
Click here to read the complete post.
Use special fonts in your presentations
If you want to stand out, it is advisable to use a new font in your presentation. Do not use something that's difficult to read. Choose your font carefully. When in doubt stick to Arial or Helvetica. No point wasting your time in search of a new font.
One good resource which I use most often is dafont.com. It has a brilliant collection of free to use fonts. You can click here to read the original post.
Make your own slides: Do not ask your subordinate
If you are a senior manager, you might be getting your slide deck made by your subordinates. That's a common practice and that's a very bad practice. I believe everyone should make his/her own slides.
When you make your slides, you get the meaning right. You know why you used an image. You know why the animation is in a particular order. You are more confident when you make your own slides. You also have a better grip on your time (when you present).
Read this important post here.
How to design a logo in PowerPoint?
This has been one of the most popular posts of my blog since it was first published in December 2009. In this post I have explained the process of making a simple logo in PowerPoint. Click here to read this interesting and innovative post.
I designed the logo of my blog also on PowerPoint.
How to cut short your presentation at the last minute?
You were alloted 30 minutes. Because the conference started late, your time has now been cut short to 15 minutes. What will you do? Panic. What else?
In December 2009 I wrote a post about this and gave three suggestions. One, do not panic. No one succeeded in life by panicking. Two, do not apologise to the audience and sound defensive. Do not say I had prepared for 30 minutes and now I cannot complete everything. The audience will only feel bad and pathetic about it. You might want to give it a passing mention but say that you will share the crux in 15 minutes and the audience can always connect with you after the presentation. Who is stopping you or them to continue the conversation? Third, skip some slides and focus on what is the crux. Do not increase your speed to cover more content. That is stupid. You might also want to cut the basic warm up content at the start.
Extra tip: When you are skipping slides it is better to hide them during slideshow. Do not show a slide and then say "I will not present this and move on." The audience feels they are missing something.
Click here to read the complete post.
Use special fonts in your presentations
If you want to stand out, it is advisable to use a new font in your presentation. Do not use something that's difficult to read. Choose your font carefully. When in doubt stick to Arial or Helvetica. No point wasting your time in search of a new font.
One good resource which I use most often is dafont.com. It has a brilliant collection of free to use fonts. You can click here to read the original post.
Make your own slides: Do not ask your subordinate
If you are a senior manager, you might be getting your slide deck made by your subordinates. That's a common practice and that's a very bad practice. I believe everyone should make his/her own slides.
When you make your slides, you get the meaning right. You know why you used an image. You know why the animation is in a particular order. You are more confident when you make your own slides. You also have a better grip on your time (when you present).
Read this important post here.
How to design a logo in PowerPoint?
This has been one of the most popular posts of my blog since it was first published in December 2009. In this post I have explained the process of making a simple logo in PowerPoint. Click here to read this interesting and innovative post.
I designed the logo of my blog also on PowerPoint.
Nov 30, 2012
Best from the Past: November
I have so far written more than 390 posts on this blog and I have been blogging for 3 years and 11 months. There is a lot of useful stuff in the archives which is worth revisiting. Today we will revisit posts from November of earlier years.
Wordle: Create free tag clouds
In November 2010, I had shared a website where we can get free tag clouds made. We can type in text and create tag clouds. We can also type a URL and it will create a tag cloud for that website. Here is a tag cloud of my blog's home page.
You can see that the word presentation and book are most common on the current home page.
We can use advanced feature and type in words and along side type in numbers. These numbers will indicate the importance assigned to that number. The bigger the number, the bigger the word in the final tag cloud. Click here to read the complete post and click here to visit Wordle.
Why use Wordle?
If you want to showcase a lot of names and bring some into limelight, you can create your own free tag clouds in Wordle.
Comments in MS PowerPoint
In November 2010 I had talked about comments feature in MS PowerPoint. If two or more people are working on the same slide deck, this feature will be of immense help.
Lara makes the first draft. She is not sure about what to say on Slides 10, 11 and 15. So she inserts a comment on those slides. When Steve opens the deck, he does not know where the comments are. So he goes to Review tab on top and chooses Previous and Next under Comments. That's it. He can easily navigate from one comment slide to another and work on the slides.
How to add comments?
In MS PowerPoint 2007 & 2010, under Review tab, click on New Comment.
Click here to read my original post.
Presentation Brief
In Nov 2009 I had created a new tool which I call the Presentation Brief. If you are asked to create a presentation, filling up this brief is a good place to start. The brief has basic questions like who is the audience, what is the size of the audience and the duration of the presentation. What is your objective and what are your key messages? Such basic questions which will keep you on the right track.
Click here to read the original post. Click here or here to download the Presentation Brief directly. It's free. Use it and feel free to share your feedback on this tool.
Wordle: Create free tag clouds
In November 2010, I had shared a website where we can get free tag clouds made. We can type in text and create tag clouds. We can also type a URL and it will create a tag cloud for that website. Here is a tag cloud of my blog's home page.
We can use advanced feature and type in words and along side type in numbers. These numbers will indicate the importance assigned to that number. The bigger the number, the bigger the word in the final tag cloud. Click here to read the complete post and click here to visit Wordle.
Why use Wordle?
If you want to showcase a lot of names and bring some into limelight, you can create your own free tag clouds in Wordle.
Comments in MS PowerPoint
In November 2010 I had talked about comments feature in MS PowerPoint. If two or more people are working on the same slide deck, this feature will be of immense help.
Lara makes the first draft. She is not sure about what to say on Slides 10, 11 and 15. So she inserts a comment on those slides. When Steve opens the deck, he does not know where the comments are. So he goes to Review tab on top and chooses Previous and Next under Comments. That's it. He can easily navigate from one comment slide to another and work on the slides.
How to add comments?
In MS PowerPoint 2007 & 2010, under Review tab, click on New Comment.
Click here to read my original post.
Presentation Brief
In Nov 2009 I had created a new tool which I call the Presentation Brief. If you are asked to create a presentation, filling up this brief is a good place to start. The brief has basic questions like who is the audience, what is the size of the audience and the duration of the presentation. What is your objective and what are your key messages? Such basic questions which will keep you on the right track.
Click here to read the original post. Click here or here to download the Presentation Brief directly. It's free. Use it and feel free to share your feedback on this tool.
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