This month's slide comes from Design Dispatch subscriber Bob Carpenter of BidRx. His company wants to become the eBay or the Priceline of the pharmaceutical business. By logging on to BidRx, people will be able to get competitive pricing on their prescription medicine and save a bundle in the … [Read more...] about March Slide Makeover of the Month
Are you a PowerPoint Ranger? Be proud!
Poor PowerPoint. This stalwart workhorse has been around for over two decades, supporting business presentations and facilitating communication for millions of people. But are they grateful? No, quite the contrary! You have people all over Twitter complaining about Death by PowerPoint and a snarky … [Read more...] about Are you a PowerPoint Ranger? Be proud!
February Slide Makeover of the Month
With February comes Valentine's Day so I thought I'd draw inspiration from William Shakespeare to address a common problem in slide layout: How do you format a quotation? Before Snore. Apart from the pleasant background color and graphics, this quotation is about as florid as a wet dishrag. This … [Read more...] about February Slide Makeover of the Month
How do you show bad news in PowerPoint?
Sometimes it's necessary to tell your audience something that's not so great. Most presenters really don't want to be the Bad Guy, but it's important that their audiences have all the facts about what's going on, whether it's an underperforming fund, a bad quarter, negative ratings, or flagging … [Read more...] about How do you show bad news in PowerPoint?
January Slide Makeover of the Month
This month's slide was adapted from a real presentation I worked on in December. So as not to reveal proprietary information, the data have been changed but the slide layout is essentially the same. Before This slide took me a little while to figure out. I can tell that the four data points are … [Read more...] about January Slide Makeover of the Month
PowerPoint vs. Prezi: Which is better?
Throughout history, there have been many great rivalries: Red Sox vs. Yankees, Coke vs. Pepsi, Mac vs. PC. In the battle for the hearts and minds of the presentation community, perhaps there is no greater clash than PowerPoint vs. Prezi. Up-and-comer Prezi brings its A-game to the fight. It's … [Read more...] about PowerPoint vs. Prezi: Which is better?
Ready, Fire, Aim! The wrong way to design a PowerPoint deck
I once got a call from a woman who wanted some PowerPoint advice. She said something along the lines of, "Well, I've finished all the slides, now I need to work on my script." "You fool!" I wanted to shout. "You've done it backwards! Throw it away and start all over again!" Then I pictured myself … [Read more...] about Ready, Fire, Aim! The wrong way to design a PowerPoint deck
December Slide Makeover of the Month
This month's slide comes from a real presentation that a colleague of mine sat through. The image and text have been changed to protect the identity of the presenter, but it's essentially the same slide from the deck. Before Wow. This slide has it all: a tiny title, densely packed text, … [Read more...] about December Slide Makeover of the Month