When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, the company was unfocused and sliding into bankruptcy. It had close to 300 products, none of which was doing exceptionally well in the marketplace. You could pick up Apple shares for about $22 back then. Jobs streamlined Apple's product offerings to just … [Read more...] about How to steal from Steve Jobs and make millions of dollars
What is a PowerPoint presentation?
According to Kurt DelBene, president of the Microsoft Office Division, as of July 2012 1 billion people worldwide use Microsoft Office (which, of course, includes PowerPoint). With such market penetration, it is no wonder that PowerPoint has become the lingua franca of business communication. But … [Read more...] about What is a PowerPoint presentation?
Do you need header and footer blocks on PowerPoint slides? No.
We see it all the time—a slide that has a large, colored bar along the top for the title and another one along the bottom for a logo, page number, and various other footer items. Why has this become the norm? It's true that many of the templates that come standard with PowerPoint use this … [Read more...] about Do you need header and footer blocks on PowerPoint slides? No.
Why you should never send your PowerPoint decks to people who ask for them
How many times have people asked you to send them your deck, either after or (worse) instead of your presentation? On the surface it seems like an OK idea. It requires minimal effort and we don't want to appear rude by saying no. And it's a common enough request, so why not, right? Don't do it. The … [Read more...] about Why you should never send your PowerPoint decks to people who ask for them
March Slide Makeover of the Month
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
Six reasons you should pay for PowerPoint design
I make a lot of prospecting calls to tell people about my presentation design services and to ask for their business, so I hear many variations on “We don't want any,” such as, “We already have a template,” “We do all of our PowerPoint in house,” and “My admin takes care of that.” Maybe you are … [Read more...] about Six reasons you should pay for PowerPoint design
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
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