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
Free Photo Resources for PowerPoint
We all know by now that pictures can often help you to communicate better than words. And that people hate, hate, HATE text-heavy PowerPoint slides. So armed with that knowledge, you set out to transform your boring deck into a beautiful gallery of effective photography. But where do you go for … [Read more...] about Free Photo Resources for PowerPoint
A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words
One of the chief gripes about PowerPoint presentations is "too much text on a slide." Great presenters use PowerPoint slides as a backdrop to their presentations, not the entire script. So they often include photos in their decks to illustrate major points. It's easy to see why. Here's a slide from … [Read more...] about A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words
Are you presenting for yourself or your audience?
Mary Nell McCorquodale is a management consultant with decades of experience presenting to savvy audiences, from C-level professionals to top brass in the US Military. As a young presenter, she learned very quickly that if you stick to your own agenda without finding out what your audience wants … [Read more...] about Are you presenting for yourself or your audience?
You Can’t Taste PowerPoint
Some people are so hung up on PowerPoint for giving presentations that they forget that in the olden days before thumb drives, projectors, and laptops there was such a thing as an engaging public speaker. I often reference the PowerPoint Gettysburg Address as a shining example of how PowerPoint can … [Read more...] about You Can’t Taste PowerPoint
Great PowerPoint presentations start with the words
I recently got a call from a woman—let's call her Sally—who sought my help to create a PowerPoint presentation as part of her senior thesis. Sally's biggest stumbling block was finding images to represent the topic of her presentation, the challenges of teaching English to non-native speakers … [Read more...] about Great PowerPoint presentations start with the words