Kathy Jacobs on PowerPoint

Unlease the Power of PowerPoint

Kathy Jacobs

• Publisher: Holy Macro! Books
• Year: 2004
• ISBN:
  9781615473205
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Computer Graphics
• Index: Computer Science

A recognized expert in teaching Microsoft PowerPoint skills demonstrates how to design presentations to meet the needs of every audience. The peskiest PowerPoint problems are investigated—saving to removable media, how to back save, fast saves and other presentation corruptors, the AutoFormat feature, video drivers, hardware acceleration, and missing slide content. Also detailed is how to use PowerPoint for informational kiosks, games, and web sites. Tips for creating reports and graphical essays and for using PowerPoint with other products in the Microsoft Office suite are provided.

1. What Can I Use PPT For?

Why PowerPoint?

I started using PowerPoint in the early 1990’s as a trainer developing training materials. I needed an easy way to ensure the materials I taught were consistent from session to session and were easy to follow. Because I was training in the use of computer software, I needed to use a tool that allowed multiple computer programs to be run at the same time on a single machine. PowerPoint allowed me to not only run multiple programs, but also to swap between my presentation and the programs.

I also found myself using PowerPoint to create presentations of many other kinds, including:

• Status reports on the training classes
• Publicity presentations for classes
• Professional presentations
• Student evaluation summaries

As my familiarity with PowerPoint grew, so did my skills. I became known as a presentation expert, especially skilled at enhancing presentations.

As I consulted with other organizations, I learned of the many different ways people used PowerPoint to communicate information. The most common problems encountered by my clients are addressed in this book. In each chapter, you will find an example of how a client used PowerPoint to communicate with an audience and how using the tool helped get the message across in a more efficient manner.

Before we get to how people use PowerPoint, I want to introduce three terms I will be using throughout this book.

Presentation Types

This book will use three terms to categorize the presentations created:

• Speaker-led presentations
• Self-running presentations
• Kiosk presentations

Speaker-Led Presentations

Speaker-led presentations are usually what most people think of when they think of PowerPoint. The presentation is designed with the intent that there will always be a speaker sharing the information in the slides. The information in the slides is not complete − it is expected the majority of the information comes from the presenter. The slides should not be the focus of the audience’s attention, the content should be. And if the speaker is not familiar with the mechanics of PowerPoint, the mechanics can easily become the focus.

This type of presentation still makes up the bulk of the PowerPoint work in today’s business world. However, as you will see later in this chapter, people have taken the speaker-led approach and expanded it to create stand-alone presentations of all types.

Content slides, such as bulleted lists, graphs, pictures or multimedia slides, provide the bulk of the presentation material for a speaker-led presentation. Each content slide is expected to contain enough information to provide a summary of what the speaker is currently discussing or to add spice and interest to the material.

Tip 1: Slide Content Suggestions	Keep textual slide content to a minimum when developing speaker-led presentations. You don’t want your audience to spend all of their time reading the slides and not listening to what you have to say.
	Everything on a speaker-led presentation should be in a font large enough for the whole room to see it.

Speaker-led presentations should be balanced. As a presenter, be careful to keep the audience interested in the content and avoid overdoing the extras, such as animations. Too many extras can cause some of the audience to stop listening to the speaker and start anticipating the next trick.

Speaker-led presentation navigation is usually via simple mouse clicks and keyboard actions. The order in which information is presented is determined by the speaker, with some influence from the audience. While there may be links to hidden slides, FAQ slides and other presentations for additional information, the path through the presentation tends to be linear.

Self-Running Presentations

Self-running presentations present enough information that the presentation can be viewed by itself without a speaker to support it. They are linear in nature, with no human intervention while the presentations are running. Movement through the presentation is automated and timed so the presentation flows on its own.

Self-running presentations should contain enough information to prevent confusion by those viewing the presentation. These presentations provide information such as:

• Schedules
• Room information
• Announcements
• Product information
• Mall kiosks
• Museum displays

These presentations are set to run unattended indefinitely. It is recommend that during the development of these presentations extensive testing is done to ensure the material is moving fast enough to keep the viewer’s attention, but not so fast it is impossible for the average viewer to keep up with the changing content.

One special use of a self-running presentation is an introductory loop for other presentations. In this case, a series of slides is set up to provide introductory information. When the main presentation is ready for use, a key press or a mouse click transitions from the introduction loop to the main presentation.

Kiosk Presentations

A kiosk presentation is a non-speaker led presentation in which all movement through the presentation is done via mouse clicks and automation instead of keyboard entry. You can think of these presentations as a middle ground between a speaker-led presentation and a self-running presentation.

Kiosk presentations depend heavily on animation and automation, and are not generally linear in nature. Because the presentation provides information to a user without any outside information, the path through the presentation depends on the user instead of the designer. Each user may take a different path.

A kiosk presentation must have navigation buttons to allow the user to move from slide to slide. While some slides may be linked and have automatic transitions, there still needs to be a way for the user to move around. Since the keyboard is disabled, movement through the presentation is done by right and left mouse clicks and clickable navigation buttons. If there are no navigation buttons, the presentation must be fully automated and is considered a self-running presentation.

This style of presentation is designed to provide detailed information to one viewer at a time. In the corporate world, you might see a product announcement done as a kiosk. The information provided is summarized on the main presentation slides, with links to product detail slides, web information, FAQ slides and other information. This idea can be taken a step further by linking a number of presentations to a main menu to provide a catalog of products and services.

Who Uses PowerPoint?

Presentations can also be categorized by who is creating them and for whom they are being created. Presentation creators and their audiences include:

• Business users, including managers, salespeople and others who need to communicate with clients or other employees
• Trainers, including those creating presentations primarily to help adults learn processes, procedures or other new information
• Teachers, including anyone creating presentations to teach children or adults in a formal education situation
• Students who need to present information for a class project or assignment
• Home users who want to share information with others in a non-business environment

Business Uses

PowerPoint users in the business world need to communicate ideas to people within their company and outside of their company. These users tend to be both the most formal and the most imaginative users of PowerPoint.

A common presentation might document the need for additional resources for a project or to request the creation of a new project. PowerPoint allows users to target the information to the audience. In Chapters 2 and 3, we meet Jane who has been tasked with creating, publicizing and implementing a new project for her non-profit organization. In Chapter 5, we meet George, who needed to inform his corporation’s management of a new business opportunity.

Many companies have created interactive company reports to communicate both internally and externally. Creating a single PowerPoint presentation and distributing it to all employees ensures a consistent message is presented and all employees see and hear the same words. In Chapter 9, we meet Sam, who needs to create a series of presentations to introduce a new benefits package to the members of her company.

Business users who need to share information with clients without a representative in attendance create kiosks of product, store or site information. Creating the kiosks with PowerPoint allows re-use of existing hardware and skills, while still reaching a large audience. Sam will take advantage of these ideas while creating her benefits presentations.

Corporate users create presentations to share sales data with employees and clients. The ease of data exchange between PowerPoint and the other Microsoft Office applications, along with the visuals provided by charts and graphs, can help create powerful presentations that express exactly what you want the audience to hear. In Chapter 10, we meet Lydia and learn how to integrate sales information into your presentations in the best possible manner.

By the same token, creating a single presentation about a new product and distributing it to all clients and potential clients allows for a more timely and consistent preview of the product. In addition, the presentation can be easily adapted for use as a background to a trade show booth or announcement page. In Chapter 11, we meet Bryan, who is creating a mini-CD catalog of his company’s new products for employees at the branch offices. In Chapters 13 and 18, we meet Curt, who runs a consulting company. He needs to create a multi-use presentation to share his consulting services with clients around the world.

PowerPoint’s template creation allows business users to develop a corporate identity that helps clients identify their products and services at a glance. In Chapter 12, we meet Rachel, who needs to integrate a corporate color sc...