PPT Disclaimer – I am not an expert! Just functionally somewhat up-to-date for the moment, but with still much more to learn!
Kudos to Microsoft for making the ribbons largely consistent across it office products software! We’ll just take a drive-by tour of the Home, Design, Slide Show, Review, & View ribbons. I’m going to escape out of slideshow mode & we’ll look at the ribbons as I talk.
The Insert Ribbon is where you’ll find a number of bells & whistles to add. Essentially, if you want to insert anything besides words into your ppt, this is where you go. I’m sure you’re familiar with inserting pictures (jpg, or bmp, etc.) and Clip Art. The shapes insert are really functional and look under SmartArt – no more attempting to do this by drawing free-hand! The charts insert are also here. A note on SmartArt from the Home Ribbon – if you use the Convert to SmartArt, you can actually preview the text you’ve already typed in in the various designs. Back to the Insert Ribbon – let’s actually link a webpage url to the Web Pages text. And you can link & open files too! Let’s say you want to import a Excel table from a file you’re updating frequently – you can link the two files. Then, right-click on the link & tell it to “Update link” – no more re-cutting & pasting the table – it will update the numbers. The action buttons can be used for a number of things – adding sound and/or taking you to other points in your presentation. The home button I’ve put in here takes me the first slide of this presentation. To get back to this slide from the first slide, right click and select “Last viewed” or select the slide you want to go to. I’ve also put some “applause” sound on the picture, so that each time I drag my mouse over it, I get applause.
Regarding the Ribbon, some basic animations are presented across the top & you can preview how it looks. Note the transition sound & speed in the upper right side. Let’s look at Custom Animation. This is familiar from earlier versions of PowerPoint – with some expanded options of course. Just be careful – animations can REALLY get annoying!
This approach won’t work if you haven’t brought the embedded file with you!
So you can find cartoons to insert for “free” but be sure to read their terms. Unlike photo places where you pay a fee & it’s basically yours to present, the cartoon banks have regulations on how large the audience, how many times you can present, how long it’s free, etc. They seem to think we really think these things out. I don’t have time to read all these terms nor predict how many people & times I’ll present, so I’m a bit hesitant to use them, even ones I’d like to pay for, except for purely internal or one-time-only reasons. I have a feeling the cartoons banks will soon figure out they’ll get more $$ if they stop all this nonsense & charge us like the photo banks – but for now, be careful and read like a lawyer! Quotes are also straightforward – You can find them all over, & the Dr. Seuss quotes are really great for all occasions. Just Google it and you’ll find the pages. Just be sure to cite, cite, cite!
Who in the back row can read this? Who in the front row?
Is it a top? A cyclone? A pen? No labels. And who “centers” a bar chart like this – unless Phase 7 is occurring in the middle of Phase 1? And how about that color selection?
Colors - sales for a baby’s product store perhaps? Lines need to be thicker and solid.
How much stuff can I pack onto a slide?
Arrows all over the place – it makes my head spin!
This is what I see!
So this is what I recommend!
The Lighthouse picture does much to convey the beauty of upper MI. The next picture conveys a similar feel, but add a child to the mix, and you attach a certain emotion to it. Now as for the third picture, again, more natural beauty, but a very different emotion or “personality” than the previous picture.
The Lighthouse picture does much to convey the beauty of upper MI. The next picture conveys a similar feel, but add a child to the mix, and you attach a certain emotion to it. Now as for the third picture, again, more natural beauty, but a very different emotion or “personality” than the previous picture.
The Lighthouse picture does much to convey the beauty of upper MI. The next picture conveys a similar feel, but add a child to the mix, and you attach a certain emotion to it. Now as for the third picture, again, more natural beauty, but a very different emotion or “personality” than the previous picture.
You kind of get it right off the bat, don’t ya? The warehouse was full in July, & by mid-September, it was empty.
And while you may say, our presentations are often all about our company, I’d disagree! Your presentations about your company should be all about what your company has done for it’s customers – how they’ve benefitted - and what we can do for you. Always remember – WIIFM (What’s In It For Me) – answer that for the audience & you’ll be fine.
Webinar audiences are the perfect democracy – you bore them or disrespect their interests, they vote by departing. After all, while live, it’s sometime difficult to make your way to the door to escape a bad presentation, it’s quite simple during webinars to hit the “x” and get out without notice!
SlideShare – share your presentations – just be sure to tagged them appropriately so they can be found. This is a great way to get your content out there for consumption by people who are actually interested in it! Also, investigate the Creative Commons license. The one I use says to go ahead & use my stuff, just cite me. If you don’t want people copying & citing your stuff, then best not to post it!
The CD player graphic indicates that when you are on this slide, the music will play. Of course, you need to bring the CD with you!