After presenting my Cheating Death by PowerPoint workshop, I often ask people how they liked the animation. They usually answer "What animation?" Rather than feel discouraged that all that work I put into my deck went unnoticed, I'm overjoyed that the animation was so seamlessly integrated into the … [Read more...] about Animation in PowerPoint: too cool or too much?
You don’t need to number your PowerPoint slides. Discuss.
People often ask me to work with PowerPoint templates that include slide numbers. I can't imagine why slide numbers would be important. Maybe it makes presenters feel like they're accomplishing something if they glance at the screen and see that they're on slide 92, I don't know. But putting slide … [Read more...] about You don’t need to number your PowerPoint slides. Discuss.
November Slide Makeover of the Month
November's slide comes from a company that specializes in indoor environmental quality. The message of the slide was that they could make some definite improvements on the level of service they were providing to their customers. Before This slide has a lot of information on it; too much to absorb … [Read more...] about November Slide Makeover of the Month
October Slide Makeover of the Month
October's slide makeover is from a deck I found on SlideShare. There's a lot to do on this bad boy, so let's get started. Before Ever hear of the "Adkins" Diet? Neither had I. The person who created this slide misspelled "Atkins" four times! If your audience is focusing on your typos and not your … [Read more...] about October Slide Makeover of the Month
Clever image a real distraction during Webinar
Take a look at this image. It's part of a series run in WIRED magazine called "Artifacts from the Future." Every month they feature an imagined everyday object from the future that solves some sort of problem we're having today. It's the first thing I look at every time I get that magazine in the … [Read more...] about Clever image a real distraction during Webinar
September Slide Makeover of the Month
This month's slide makeover is from a deck I redesigned for Ellen Wingard of Ellen Wingard and Associates. She was leading a daylong workshop at the Harvard Business School and her presentation combined her own approach to management training with that of Linda Hill, a respected HBS … [Read more...] about September Slide Makeover of the Month
August Slide Makeover of the Month
This month's slide makeover comes courtesy of the US Army. In this pair of slides, they list the main Strategic Issues that are impeding the smooth management of the Army Materiel Command. Before While this information is important, there's too much text. You'd go into this amount of detail in a … [Read more...] about August Slide Makeover of the Month
The Principals of Copyright
You may have noticed a potential misuse of the word "principal" in the headline of this blog. But it was no accident: the subject of this blog is the new principal of my sons' school. She gave a PowerPoint presentation that violated one of the main principles of the use of copyrighted images: you … [Read more...] about The Principals of Copyright