It doesn't take forever to click on the screen in PowerPoint to execute commands. But what if you didn't have to? How quickly you're able to navigate in PowerPoint can have a lot to do with how many keyboard shortcuts you know. Let's start with the basics: Basic PowerPoint keyboard … [Read more...] about Speed up your work with keyboard shortcuts
Simplicity is hard!
What's the toughest presentation in the world? A short, simple one. It’s easy to talk for a long time about things that interest you. The difficult thing is conveying important information in a limited amount of time. How is it done? You’ve got 5 minutes I’ve been working with a group of … [Read more...] about Simplicity is hard!
How to break four bad speaker habits
I'm sure you've seen some public speakers who really inspired you with their confidence and their messages. I'm equally sure you've seen some cringeworthy performances. Often, it's the speakers' body language and the deliberate way they speak that make all the difference. Bad speaker habit #1: … [Read more...] about How to break four bad speaker habits
Try ditching your title slides!
A woman at my Toastmasters club is a self-avowed PowerPoint and presentation novice. So it came as something of a surprise to me that Elisabet recently taught me something about presentation design that I had never considered before. People often complain about suffering "death by PowerPoint." It … [Read more...] about Try ditching your title slides!
Making your PowerPoint files smaller
We all know that (say it with me) "A picture's worth a thousand words." It's so true that images can instantly convey ideas, elicit emotions and communicate complex information visually. The thing is, using a lot of photos in your presentations can make the file sizes quickly balloon out of control. … [Read more...] about Making your PowerPoint files smaller
I got 99 files & my deck ain’t one!
One great thing about my town's Annual Town Meeting is that it demonstrates democracy in action. And one lousy thing about my town's Annual Town Meeting is that it demonstrates democracy in action. In a forum where even the most unprepared have a say in important matters, things can … [Read more...] about I got 99 files & my deck ain’t one!
How to embed custom fonts into your PPT
There's nothing inherently wrong with Calibri, the humanist sans-serif typeface so familiar to users of Microsoft Office. But everybody's using it, so if you are too then your presentations might look the same as everyone else's. Here's how to stand out from the crowd. Calibri, you've overstayed … [Read more...] about How to embed custom fonts into your PPT
Do you show the forest or the trees?
Last night, my husband Mike and I had a wonderful time at a painting party. Although we hadn't received the unwritten memo about BYOB (or in this case BYOW), we managed to have fun following along with the instructor while he re-created a landscape painting of a beach. About halfway through, … [Read more...] about Do you show the forest or the trees?