Tag Archives: slides

PowerPoint, Slides, Technique

Microsoft PowerPoint – Secrets

Especially Powerful Microsoft Powerpoint
Use Microsoft PowerPoint Correctly for Personal Competitive Advantage

Microsoft PowerPoint multimedia software has gotten a bum rap, and this unfair reputation springs from the thousands of ugly presentations given every day from folks who don’t know how to use it.

And yet, Microsoft PowerPoint is a brilliant tool.

But just as any tool – say, a hammer or saw – can contribute to the construction of a masterpiece . . . or a monstrosity, PowerPoint can contribute to the creation of an especially powerful presentation.

Or it becomes the weapon of choice to inflict yet another heinous public-speaking crime on a numbed audience.

Microsoft PowerPoint is not the Problem

PowerPoint isn’t the problem.

Clueless presenters are the problem.  And many of them have no idea that there is a problem.  But that’s not their fault.  They just don’t know.

Let’s fix this now.  Or let’s get a start on it . . .

So just how do you use PowerPoint?

How do you craft slides and then work with them to show ownership, to invest your visuals with power and surprise?

This short video reviews several of my own techniques that provide basic guidance on sound Microsoft PowerPoint use that can yield for you significant Personal Competitive Advantage.

Have a look-see . . .

General, Slides, Technique

Especially Powerful Presentation Visuals

Microsoft’s PowerPoint software has gotten a bum rap as insufficient for your presentation visuals.Powerpoint logo

This unfair reputation springs from the thousands of ugly presentations given every day from folks who don’t know how to use it.

And yet, PowerPoint is a brilliant tool.

But any tool – say, a hammer or saw – can contribute to the construction of a masterpiece . . . or of a monstrosity.

PowerPoint either contributes to the creation of an especially powerful presentation, or it becomes the weapon of choice to inflict yet another heinous public-speaking crime on a numbed audience.

Presentation Visuals to Rivet the Audience

PowerPoint isn’t the problem.  Clueless presenters are the problem.

So just how do you use PowerPoint  as the  basis for your presentation visuals?

This short video reviews several of my own techniques that provide basic guidance on sound PowerPoint use.  It’s just a few minutes, but what might you learn to turn your presentation frown upside down!

Have a look-see . . .

 

And consult the Complete Guide to Business School Presentations for more great guidance.

Slides, Technique

“PowerPoint Superiority” isn’t Enough

Especially Powerful PowerPoint can boost your presentations . . . but you still must adopt good habits

One of the country’s finest presentation coaches, Carmine Gallo, offers this interesting contribution to what we know about effective presentations . . . let’s call it PowerPoint Superiority.

The upshot of his Forbes column is that “PowerPoint superiority” by way of pictures is a “new” style of presenting.

I’m delighted that Carmine urges the corporate community away from the heinous habit of cluttered and wordy PowerPoint slide presentations.  But he misses the mark on why this is an effective mode of presenting . . . and why it needs considerably more effort than merely posting happy snaps on the screen as a backdrop.

Here’s why . . .

PowerPoint Transformation . . .

Carmine makes an important observation, but he leaves out the utterly crucial point that it is the presenter who must change for the slide change technique to work at all, much less result in an especially powerful business presentation.

Without a significant shift in mindset and activity of the presenter, just altering what’s on the slides is nothing more than cosmetic.

You must dedicate yourself to change and the generation of positive energy.  Not submit to the easy lure of “making great slides,” which won’t help you at all if you continue to engage in bad habits.

How a speaker sounds, moves, gestures, stands, and expresses herself or himself is absolutely the most important congeries of techniques that makes or breaks a presentation.

When a presenter moves from cluttered bullet-point slides to high-impact visuals, the technique of the presenter must change as well.

Many posts on this blog address the aspects of voice, expression, gesture, appearance, stance, passion, and movement.  I address all of these and much more in my new book The Complete Guide to Business School Presenting available from Anthem Press, Amazon.com, and bookstores everywhere.

Take to heart Carmine’s advice, but also pledge to transform yourself accordingly so that his advice on PowerPoint Superiority makes sense.