ATTENTION, POWERPOINTERS!!
I recently Googled “PowerPoint,” “Presentations,” and “Conference Presentations” to make sure I am not spewing material you could obtain elsewhere. I’m NOT. However, I encourage you to peruse Microsoft’s recommendations and those by other “experts” on communication principles with PowerPoint.
THEIR INTENT is: To present a nice, neat, semi-interesting, professional presentation of important information.
OUR HERO’S INTENT is (Watch out! Are ya ready?): To deliver the same information while connecting, engaging, exciting, entertaining, motivating, and, maybe even, inspiring your audience so that their presentation experience with you is unforgettable and the information memorable. Your audience should be on the edges of their uncomfortable seats, not relaxed and passive in a beach lounger. That’s kinda like teaching, but without the students, although I recommend the same approach in the classroom.
DISCLAIMER:
My suggestions in these blogs will blow the traditional PowerPoint recommendations to smithereens. Will I violate the rules? You bet. They will be shredded, ground into pulp, and smashed into PowerPoint road kill. (Note: I apologize for the violence in this disclaimer. Sometimes I get carried away.) For example, I tried the recommended traditional, one color slide-same font approaches. Guess what? The slides were as boring as the content on them. (Sidebar: As a former freelance photographer, I learned early on that if a picture doesn’t elicit some feeling [positive or negative] by the viewer, then it should be discarded as ineffective.)
NEW RULE FOR POWERPOINT: That rule should apply to our PowerPoint slides. Our audience should be emotionally involved in our presentation. That begins with the slides. A spiritless, unemotional reaction to our slides is totally unacceptable. If my strategy is making you nervous or you already started throwing up in this 1st paragraph, you might want to get a vomit bag or close this blog.
BERK'S GOAL: To arm you with the tools to create break-the-mold presentations, not create a moldy audience as they drift into a coma.
BERK'S AUDIENCE ASSUMPTIONS: I assume every audience to whom I present has better things to do with its valuable time than attend my session. The cynics and know-it-alls are thinking: “Tell me something I DON’T already know.” The students probably have the attention span of goat cheese and mentally operate at “twitch speed.”
THE CHALLENGE: Open the presentation with a bang and sustain that bang or you’ll lose them. It’s opening night on Broadway!
7. SIMPLE VISUALS (Continued)
Now that you have images hanging around your PC/Mac, it’s time to stick them into your presentation. This blog will take you step-by-step through that process, plus a final editing of your images.
INSERT IMAGES INTO SLIDES: Most images are in jpeg or other formats compatible with PowerPoint. Once you have downloaded the images, each image can be inserted into a slide using the following steps:
a. Click Insert at top of PowerPoint page, click Picture from dropdown, then click From File, if you imported the image, or Clip Art, if you are using an image already in the program.
b. Identify the image, click it, then click Image and it will land on your slide.
c. Drag the dots around the image to the top, bottom, and sides to fill the slide with the image.
d. Adjust the size so there is minimal distortion of the image, but try to make the image as large as possible. People’s faces, in particular, can look weird. If they are colleagues or family members and they see those images on the screen, they will hurt you badly. (Note: With multipanel cartoons, insert 1 panel per slide.) The size can significantly affect the impact of the image, particularly if there are also words in a bubble over someone’s head in a cartoon.
e. Click Design and pick a solid color background for the slide that picks up a color in the pic or just use black.
FINAL EDIT OF IMAGES IN PRESENTATION: Once all of the images are inserted, give the presentation a dry run to see how the images fit with the content slides. If any image doesn’t seem to fit or appear forced, cut it as necessary, but retain it for future presentations. Please give credit to the artist or source of the image, either on the image as a signature or verbally.
Are any ideas popping in your noggin right now? I hope your imagination is beginning to fly with images you could use. Your creativity and artistic skills are on the line. Tap them to the max. The next blog will suggest a few complex images to consider.
COPYRIGHT © 2009 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
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