Slidegenius, Inc.
24 HOUR SUPPORT CALL NOW 1.858.217.5144 LIVE CHAT

Month: February 2012

Wait a minute... You found this secret page?! You are a GENIUS!
Now, SLIDE down and you just might find what you were looking for!

A Bigger Office In A Small Briefcase

Posted on by Rick E

Information technology and computer science have become important part of today’s world. Inventions of science like TVs, computers, laptops, mobile phones and internet have brought great revolution. Out of these inventions, Computers and laptops have become an integral part of life. Laptops have made their appropriate position in the industries, factories, institutions and so on. It helps you communicate with the world and helps to organize your notes, documents, assignments into sequential order. It has made the office life so easier that from anywhere you can easily open your files. The laptops have carried the bigger office in a small briefcase.

The laptops have a lot of features like Ms Office that includes MS Word, PowerPoint, MS Access, MS Excel, notepad, internet, audio & video, calculator, printer and so on. You can access more than two programs at the same time without any effort. In other words, while doing your work you can listen to music. Laptops keep you organized and entertained.

The demand of laptops has increased. Even bad credit holders and unemployment people are also desire to have a laptop. Today, online loan facility is available that helps you to get loan for laptop financing. In the market, two kinds of loans namely secured and unsecured loans are available.

If the borrower has valuable asset then he/ she can easily get secured loan. For this loan, borrower has to keep their valuable asset like luxury car, home, land etc. as a security against the loan amount. It is also called collateral type of loan. The lender keeps the rate of interest lower and maximizes the time span for the repayment of loan.

Borrowers who do not have any collateral can acquire unsecured loan. Without keeping any collateral as a guarantee to the lenders you can avail loan instantly. The lenders offer higher interest on the amount of loan. Borrowers can avail loan amount from £1000- £25000 with limited time duration of 3 -5 years.

People who have bad credit history like CCJs, IVAs, defaults, arrears, bankruptcy are also eligible for computer financing. For bad credit loan holders no credit check computer finance is one of the best option. On these loans the rate of interest higher.

Many online companies are offering easier monthly installments for purchasing laptops. These companies are providing the laptops online at very reasonable prices. After comparing the prices, performances and time duration of repayment you can choose the laptop of your choice.

5 Best Practices from Web Design for a PowerPoint Designer

Posted on by Rick E

If you design PowerPoint, here are 5 best practices of web design you can use to enhance your PowerPoint slide design.

Best Design Practices for PowerPoint Designers

As those who frequently design PowerPoint slides, we keep a constant watch on the best design practices from various fields to enhance our slide design.

We covered the 7 essential differences in Print design and PowerPoint slide design in a previous article. In this article, we will show you some useful practices you can adopt from the field of web designing.

1.Build a wire frame before you fill the content

A good web designer would never build the site content before fully visualizing the end result. Every element of the site structure is carefully sketched on paper as ‘wire frames’ before their fingers reach for a keyboard.

 

This practice serves well when you design your PowerPoint presentations too. Never touch your computer till you finalize your presentation outline. Or you may run the risk of creating content that lacks a compelling story and a seamless flow.

2. Make a professional first impression with a header

Web designers spend a lot of time and effort to make a professional impression with the header on the homepage. They realize that the impression made in the first few seconds determines whether a visitor continues browsing the site or ditches it for good. If the header is dull and boring, the visitor tends to assume that the site is boring too.

 

For example, take a look at the Home page of Buyapresentation.com,  a site that sells PowerPoint templates for business presenters.

In the first few seconds the site needs to make an impression on the visitor about the quality of its offering and the wide range of templates. The site uses an interesting header to achieve the objective.

In your PowerPoint presentations, the title slide is like the header of the site. If the first slide that you project on the screen looks lifeless, the audience tends to lose interest in the rest of the content.

So, spend some time and effort to ensure that your opening slide reflects your thinking, your brand and the quality you represent.

Here is an example of a powerful title slide that makes a professional impression.

 

 

3.Show them what to expect through your menu

If you visit a well-designed website, you will know what to expect from the site by looking at the navigation buttons. Web designers organize their site’s content into meaningful clusters and title them appropriately to help you get an understanding of the site content.

 

In a PowerPoint presentation, your agenda slide serves as the navigation bar. Organize your presentation content into logical clusters and give a quick overview of your presentation through well thought out agenda points.

A good agenda slide quickly orients your audience to your point of view.

 

4.Show them where they are – using simple sign posts

A good site design ensures that a visitor is always aware of where he is in the site. This gives a sense of assurance and control to the visitor.

 

The principle applies to PowerPoint presentations too.  Let you audience know the topic they are in at any point of time.

In the following example, the webs-style bars shows that the slide belongs to the fourth point in the agenda. The numbering of slides tells the audience where they stand.

 

Source: PowerPoint Design Elements.

5.Let your title summarize the content of the page

Take a look at the web page in this example. When you read the title, you know that the page is about showing you how to create a glossy ball. There is no clever play of words like you see in the titles of magazine articles.

 

This applies to your PowerPoint slides too. Your title should make a clear assertion and the body of the slide should show the evidence that supports the assertion. The following example shows you how.

 

The title quickly guides the audience attention to the relevant portion of the table. Your point gets made without any confusion.

Conclusion:

The 5 points we discussed are meant to start you off on an exploration of best practices as a PowerPoint Designer.

Take a little time to visit a number of good websites with an intention of learning the principles of effective slide design. You will be amazed at the extent of learning you will get. There are a number of articles in this site that help you fine tune your slide design skills.

One way to create professional presentations quickly and effectively is to use good quality diagram templates. We recommend that you take a look at the 301 Mega PowerPoint diagram templates pack. The article showcased some of the diagrams from the pack.

The Pack has 301 high quality PowerPoint diagrams that you can copy paste to your slides to convey your message effectively. The pack is a must have collection if you are a serious PowerPoint designer.

10 slide design tips for producing powerful and effective presentations

Posted on by Rick E

By Guest Contributor

September 19, 2006, 7:00am PDT

By Garr Reynolds

#1: Keep it simple

 

PowerPoint uses slides with a horizontal, or Landscape, orientation. The software was designed as a convenient way to display graphical information that would support the speaker and supplement the presentation. The slides themselves were never meant to be the star of the show. (The star, of course, is your audience.) People came to hear you and be moved or informed (or both) by you and your message. Don’t let your message and your ability to tell a story get derailed by slides that are unnecessarily complicated, busy, or full of what Edward Tufte calls “chart junk.” Nothing in your slide should be superfluous, ever.

Your slides should have plenty of white space, or negative space. Do not feel compelled to fill empty areas on your slide with your logo or other unnecessary graphics or text boxes that do not contribute to better understanding. The less clutter you have on your slide, the more powerful your visual message will become.

#2 Limit bullet points and text

 

Your presentation is for the benefit of the audience. But boring an audience with bullet point after bullet point is of little benefit to them. Which brings us to the issue of text. The best slides may have no text at all. This may sound insane given the dependency of text slides today, but the best PowerPoint slides will be virtually meaningless without the narration (that is you). Remember, the slides are meant to support the narration of the speaker, not make the speaker superfluous.

Many people often say something like this: “Sorry I missed your presentation. I hear it was great. Can you just send me your PowerPoint slides?” But if they are good slides, they will be of little use without you. Instead of a copy of your PowerPoint slides, it is far better to prepare a written document that highlights your content from the presentation and expands on that content. Audiences are much better served receiving a detailed, written handout as a takeaway from the presentation, rather than a mere copy of your PowerPoint slides. If you have a detailed handout or publication for the audience to be passed out after your talk, you need not feel compelled to fill your PowerPoint slides with a great deal of text.

We’ll talk more about this in the delivery section below, but as long as we are talking about text, please remember to never, ever turn your back on the audience and read text from the slide word for word.

 

This slide is not unusual, but it is not a visual aid, it is more like an eye chart.

 

Try to avoid text-heavy (and sleep inducing) slides like this one.

 

Aim for something like this simple slide above.

 

And this is even better.

#3: Limit transitions and builds (animation)

 

Use object builds and slide transitions judiciously. Object builds (also called animations), such as bullet points, should not be animated on every slide. Some animation is a good thing, but stick to the most subtle and professional (similar to what you might see on the evening TV news broadcast). A simple Wipe Left-to-Right (from the Animations menu) is good for a bullet point, but a Move or Fly, for example, is too tedious and slow (and yet, is used in many presentations today). Listeners will get bored quickly if they are asked to endure slide after slide of animation. For transitions between slides, use no more than two or three types of transition effects and do not place transition effects between all slides.

#4: Use high quality graphics

 

Use high quality graphics, including photographs. You can take your own high quality photographs with your digital camera, purchase professional stock photography, or use the plethora of high quality images available online. (But be cautious of copyright issues.) Never simply stretch a small, low-resolution photo to make it fit your layout–doing so will degrade the resolution even further.

Avoid using PowerPoint Clip Art or other cartoonish line art. Again, if it is included in the software, your audience has seen it a million times before. It may have been interesting in 1993, but today the inclusion of such clip art often undermines the professionalism of the presenter. There are exceptions, of course, and not all PowerPoint art is dreadful, but use it carefully and judiciously.

I often use images of people in my slides, as photography of people tends to help the audience connect with the slide on a more emotional level. If the photographic image is secondary in importance, then I decrease the opacity and add a Gaussian Blur or motion filter in Photoshop. If the photographic image is the primary area I want the audience to notice (such as a picture of a product), then the image can be more pronounced and little (or no) text is needed.

 

Try to avoid cheesy clip art like this.

 

This edited stock photograph is more effective and professional.

 

In this title slide, the image is primary.

 

In this slide from the same presentation, the image is secondary and pushed to the back by editing it first in Photoshop.

#5: Have a visual theme but avoid using PowerPoint templates

 

You clearly need a consistent visual theme throughout your presentation, but most templates included in PowerPoint have been seen by your audience countless times (and besides, the templates are not all that great to begin with). Your audience expects a unique presentation with new (at least to them) content; otherwise, why would they be attending your talk? No audience will be excited about a cookie-cutter presentation, and we must therefore shy away from any supporting visuals, such as the ubiquitous PowerPoint Design Template, that suggests your presentation is formulaic or prepackaged.

You can make your own background templates, which will be more tailored to your needs. You can then save the PowerPoint file as a Design Template (.pot) and the new template will appear among your standard Microsoft templates for your future use. You can also purchase professional templates online.

#6: Use appropriate charts

 

Always be asking yourself, “How much detail do I need?” Presenters are usually guilty of including too much data in their onscreen charts. There are several ways to display your data in graphic form; here are a few things to keep in mind:

Pie charts. Used to show percentages. Limit the slices to 4-6 and contrast the most important slice either with color or by exploding the slice.

 

Vertical bar charts. Used to show changes in quantity over time. Best if you limit the bars to 4-8.

 

Horizontal bar charts. Used to compare quantities. For example, comparing sales figures among the four regions of the company.

 

Line charts. Used to demonstrate trends. For example, here is a simple line chart showing that our sales have gone up every year. The trend is good. The arrow comes in later to underscore the point: Our future looks good!

 

In general, tables are well suited for side-by-side comparisons of quantitative data.

 

However, tables can lack impact on a visceral level. If you want to show how your contributions are significantly higher than two other parties, for example, it would be best to show that in the form of a bar chart (below). But if you’re trying to downplay the fact that your contributions are lower than others, a table will display that information in a less dramatic or emotional way.

 

#7: Use color well

 

Color evokes feelings. Color is emotional. The right color can help persuade and motivate. Studies show that color usage can increase interest and improve learning comprehension and retention.

You do not need to be an expert in color theory, but it’s good for business professionals to know at least a bit on the subject. Colors can be divided into two general categories: cool (such as blue and green) and warm (such as orange and red). Cool colors work best for backgrounds, as they appear to recede away from us into the background. Warm colors generally work best for objects in the foreground (such as text) because they appear to be coming at us. It is no surprise, then, that the most ubiquitous PowerPoint slide color scheme includes a blue background with yellow text. You do not need to feel compelled to use this color scheme, although you may choose to use a variation of those colors.

If you will be presenting in a dark room (such as a large hall), a dark background (dark blue, gray, etc.) with white or light text will work fine. But if you plan to keep most of the lights on (which is highly advisable), a white background with black or dark text works much better. In rooms with a good deal of ambient light, a screen image with a dark background and light text tends to washout, but dark text on a light background will maintain its visual intensity a bit better.

Learn more:

  • PresentationPro.com has some great Flash tutorials, including one on color.
  • Go to the CreativePro.com to learn more about color.
  • Dummies.com has a good short article on how to use the Color Schemes> in PowerPoint.

#8: Choose your fonts well

 

Fonts communicate subtle messages in and of themselves, which is why you should choose fonts deliberately. Use the same font set throughout your entire slide presentation and use no more than two complementary fonts (e.g., Arial and Arial Bold). Make sure you know the difference between a serif font (e.g., Times New Roman) and a sans-serif font (e.g., Helvetica or Arial).

Serif fonts were designed to be used in documents filled with lots of text. They’re said to be easier to read at small point sizes, but for onscreen presentations, the serifs tend to get lost due to the relatively low resolution of projectors. Sans- serif fonts are generally best for PowerPoint presentations, but try to avoid the ubiquitous Helvetica. I often choose to use Gill Sans, as it is somewhere in between a serif and a sans-serif font and is professional yet friendly and “conversational.” Regardless of what font you choose, make sure the text can be read from the back of the room.

 

Times

 

Arial black; Arial

 

#9: Use video or audio

 

Use video and audio when appropriate. Using video clips to show concrete examples promotes active cognitive processing, which is the natural way people learn. You can use video clips within PowerPoint without ever leaving the application or tuning on a VCR. Using a video clip not only will illustrate your point better, it will also serve as a change of pace, thereby increasing the interest of your audience.

You can use audio clips (such as interviews) as well. But avoid using the cheesy sound effects that are included in PowerPoint (such as the sound of a horn or applause when transitioning slides). The use of superfluous sound effects attached to animations is a sure way to lose credibility with your audience.

#10: Spend time in the slider sorter

 

According to the Segmentation Principle of multimedia learning theory, people comprehend better when information is presented in small chunks or segments. By getting out of the Slide view and into the Slide Sorter view, you can see how the logical flow of your presentation is progressing. In this view, you may decide to break up one slide into, say, two or three slides so that your presentation has a more natural and logical flow or process. You’ll also be able to capture more of the gestalt of your entire presentation from the point of view of your audience. You will be able to notice more extraneous pieces of visual data that can be removed to increase visual clarity and improve communication.

 

The Slide Sorter view in PowerPoint

Garr Reynolds is currently Associate Professor of Management at Kansai Gaidai University, where he teaches Marketing, Global Marketing, and Multimedia Presentation Design. Garr is active in the Japanese community and can often be found presenting on subjects concerning design, branding, and effective corporate communications. In addition to his Web site, he maintains a blog, Presentation Zen, which offers insights into professional presentation design.

Avoiding “Death by PowerPoint”

Posted on by Rick E

©2002 Corbin Ball Associates

I was interviewed in the November 2002 issue of PCWorld Magazine regarding the use of technology, and specifically PowerPoint, in presentations. Here is the interview in its unabridged form.

Q.  How do you avoid “death by PowerPoint?”

A.  We have all been there — sitting through computer presentations with endless screens of boring text. As we struggle to keep our eyes open, the phrase “Death by PowerPoint” comes readily to mind. Of course, it is not the program that is the problem but the *poor use* of the program that causes the trouble.

As a professional speaker who speaks more than sixty groups each year, I use computerized presentation programs in nearly every presentation I give. I have given much thought and have learned by trial and error what works and what doesn’t. So, if you ever have to make a presentation or deal with non-professional speakers who use computer presentation programs, here are my tips for good PowerPoint use:

  1. Limit the number of words on each slide:
    Fifteen words should be the maximum on any slide! The presentation should not be a reading report! Only a few words or a phrase to emphasize or reinforce an idea are all that is needed.
  1. Use a bold, simple and large font:
    Veranda and Arial (emboldened) are my favorites due to high screen legibility. Minimum font size should be 18pt but my average font size is 40pt to allow for easy reading in the back of the room. Also, keep the fonts consistent throughout the presentation and use no more than two different font types.
  1. Use transitions wisely:
    You can always tell a new PowerPoint user who has just discovered slide transitions: words are flying in from every direction often with more sound effects than a StarWars movie.  Speakers must keep in mind that they are the show – not what is on the screen. Transitions often distract from the message. I typically use dissolves (the least jarring transition there is). When I change to a major new topic, I will use Uncover Right-up to subtly indicate that it is a new topic. Slide build transitions should be used when indicating direction (i.e. flow chat, graphs, etc.) For example, I will use a wipe right when using a line graph, subtly reinforcing the direction of time helping the audience to read the graph. Judicious use of transitions can help an audience know where you are going, rather than distract them.
  1. Avoid stock templates:
    Stay away from the standard background templates that come with the program. Instead, use a custom template to make your presentation look different right from the start. Many are downloadable for free from the Internet (go towww.google.com and search on the phrase: “free PowerPoint templates” without the quotation marks).
  1. Choose a design template where the words are easily distinguished from the background:
    Avoid busy backgrounds, or ones with hard-to-read fonts, or fonts with equal color density to the background (i.e. the worst case would be bright green letters on bright red field).
  1. Let the audience know where you are going:
    PowerPoint is great to help audiences know where you are in a program. List the agenda (what will be covered), key points, use topic headers at the top of your slides, use thematic clipart for each subject area, use full screen titles to announce major presentation transitions, include a conclusions slide (what was covered). The more you help an audience know where you are going, the more they will stay with you and learn.
  1. Use a wireless advance mechanism:
    Do not be tethered to your computer. I use a very small radio frequency device from L3Sys.com (www.l3sys.com) that has just two buttons (forward and reverse), requires no special software (it can be used with any computer), and has more than a 100’ range. I never have to think about walking over to the computer or have someone else advance the slides – my full concentration is where it should be – on the audience! People often ask me how I advance my slides as the unit is so small and it is attached to my palm with a light rubber band so that I can use both hands for gesturing — they don’t see it at all.
  2. Use pictures and graphs:
    The old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words has never been truer than with computer presentations. Pictures add interest, they can reinforce themes, they can add humor, and they can show in a few seconds what it would take minutes to explain.  I use pictures, screenshots or thematic clipart on nearly every frame.

Q. What about using Web technologies as an alternative to a slide show? Have you done that? How do you use Web sites and Web technologies in your presentations?

A.  I use a wide range of products demonstrating the technologies I am speaking about.  Palm emulators, flash animation, streaming video, avatars, and many others – anything that I can load on my hard drive rather than pull down live from the web. These offer a change of pace and add interest. I almost never go online during my presentations. Instead I use screen shots of the web sites. Aside from significant reliability issues, with screen shot captures one can frame the image, enlarge the text, focus on just one part of the page, use circles or other annotation devices.

A principal challenge of showing Web pages in front of a group is that a monitor and a projection screen are not the same. Most of the time, the font on a web site is way too small and the information too densely packed for group viewing on a screen By pasting screen captures from web sites into the PowerPoint program, carefully cropped and sized, the presenter can make a point about a web page much more strongly, more reliably and much easier than trying to navigate online.  There is nothing worse when doing presentations on technology for the technology not to work. Capturing screenshots of the web sites and pasting into the PowerPoint program usually completely eliminates these issues.

The exception to the above is when I do a presentation on Virtual Meetings where I go online connecting to a remote location to not only talk about, but truly demonstrate this technology.

Q.  What are some of the biggest technological snags presenters encounter at customer sites? How do you overcome them? Have you got any “emergency tools” that you carry?

A. The biggest snag I see, as mentioned above, is trying to go online in front of the audience. It is the kiss of death, especially for technology speakers, to be screwed up by technology. I you must demonstrate a web site and can’t simply use screenshots, save it to your hard disk instead of going online. Also, change your screen properties setting to large fonts, which will enlarging the navigation buttons and image by 20%.

The other snag is not having multiple backups. For every presentation I give, I always carry the PPT presentation (and the other demo programs) on a CD that is *not* in my PC case. I also post the program to a password-protected portion of my web site just in case. I have used both of these options in the past two years avoiding what would have been disaster.  I also carry backup advance mechanisms and laser pointer batteries for the same reason.

Q.  What kinds of images or other digital media “sell” a product or an argument these days?

A.  Streaming video, flash demos, and other multimedia images can be quite powerful if used judiciously – remember, the speaker is the show, not the program.  The real sale comes from your passion in your topic and your ability to convey it.

How to use PowerPoint templates

Posted on by Rick E

The following article is a transcript from a our video product, “Intro to PowerPoint XP.”

You’ve opened PowerPoint and you’re ready to design your first presentation. But how do you begin? There are a couple of approaches you could take, depending upon your temperament and design skills.

  1. You could jump right in and start typing text, adding background colors, and experiment with your font colors and styles. (not recommended)
  2. You could use a pre-configured template.

Unless you have great design skills, I recommend creating your first presentation using a pre-made template. Microsoft has done us a favor … they’ve hired a team of artists and graphic designers, people with experience with color-schemes and typography, to design a large collection of “template” styles. These templates come complete with backgrounds, pictures, and pre-chosen fonts and colors.

The quality of these pre-installed templates is actually pretty good, though some may need a little “tweaking” to look perfect. If you aren’t satisfied with the default templates, you can also find free templates online. There are also many websites out there selling professional-looking templates.

There are a couple of ways to apply a template. When you first open up a blank PowerPoint presentation, go over to the task pane and choose a template. If you can’t find the templates in the Task Pane, go up to the file menu and click
[Format – Slide Design]

 

 

When you click on the template thumbnail, the style is applied to your slide. Actually, the template changes all your slides. If you only want the current slide to change, click the little arrow to the right of the template button and chose [apply to selected slides].

I recommend using a template when designing your first site. In fact, I “always” use templates, as this is the easiest way to make your PowerPoint show look professional. If you change your mind later, it’s always easy to switch to another template!

MacPPT: How to Obtain Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer 98

Posted on by Rick E

Retired KB Content Disclaimer

Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer 98 is a Macintosh-based viewer that you can use to display presentations. It supports files created in the versions of PowerPoint listed at the beginning of this article, earlier versions of Microsoft PowerPoint for the Macintosh, and Microsoft PowerPoint for Windows versions 3.0 and later.

PowerPoint Viewer 98 is not available on floppy disk. It is available as a self-extracting archive from the Microsoft Download Center.

To install the PowerPoint Viewer, download the following file from the Microsoft Download Center and then double-click the Ppt98vw.hqx file to start the Setup program.

The following file is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center:

 

Download Ppt98vw.hqx now (size 6,545 kilobytes), release date: August 5, 1998

For additional information about how to download Microsoft Support files, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

119591  How to Obtain Microsoft Support Files from Online Services

Microsoft scanned this file for viruses. Microsoft used the most current virus-detection software that was available on the date that the file was posted. The file is stored on security-enhanced servers that help to prevent any unauthorized changes to the file.

The Making of the Gettysburg PowerPoint Presentation

Posted on by Rick E

Why I did it

“Doesn’t he realize this presentation is a waste of time? Why doesn’t he just tell us what matters and get it over with?”

How many times have you heard (or muttered) that? How many of of us have been frustrated at seeing too many presentations where PowerPoint or other visual aids obscure rather than enhance the point? After one too many bad presentations at a meeting in January 2000, I decided to see if I could do something about it.

How I did it

Back in my hotel room I imagined what Abe Lincoln might have done if he had used PowerPoint rather than the power of oratory at Gettysburg. (I chose the Gettysburg speech because it was shorter than, say, the Martin Luther King “I have a dream” speech, and because I had an idea for turning “four score and seven years” into a gratuitous graph.) A Google search easily found the text of the Gettysburg address, and several articles echoing my frustration, including USA Today writer Kevin Maney’s PowerPoint obsession takes off, which notes that PowerPoint was banned at Sun, and includes the Lincoln idea: “Put another way, imagine if Abe Lincoln had PowerPoint for the Gettysburg Address. ‘OK, this slide shows our nation four score and seven years ago.’” But as far as I could tell, nobody had actually written and published a Gettysburg PowerPoint presentation. (Note: a reader pointed out that John S. Rigden had an article in the March 1990 issue of Physics Today entitled “The Lost Art of Oratory: Damn the Overhead Projector” that also used the Gettysburg Address concept. David Wittenberg and Susan Hessler were nice enough to send me copies.) I started up PowerPoint and let the “Autocontent Wizard” help me create a new presentation. I selected the “Company Meeting (Online)” template, and figured from there I’d be creative in adding bad design wherever possible. I was surprised that the Autocontent Wizard had anticipated my desires so well that I had to make very few changes. Four of the slide titles were taken directly from the template; I only had to delete a few I didn’t need, and add “Not on the Agenda” after “Agenda”.

I wasn’t a professional designer, so I thought I’d be in for a late night doing some serious research: in color science to find a truely garish color scheme; in typography to find the worst fonts; and in overall design to find a really bad layout. But fortunately for me, the labor-saving Autocontent Wizard took care of all this for me! It suggested a red-on-dark-color choice for the navigation buttons that makes them very hard to see; it chose a serif font for the date that is illegible in low-resolution web mode, and of course Excel outdid itself on the graph, volunteering the 0.1 to 0.9 between the 0 and 1 new nations. All I had to do was take Lincoln’s words and break them into pieces, making sure that I captured the main phrases of the original, while losing all the flow, eloquence, and impact.

I posted the presentation on my web site that night and promptly forgot about it. But some people noticed, and it began to spread by word of mouth (and link, and email), as the following

What is good PowerPoint design?

Posted on by Rick E

Occasionally, I’m asked by colleagues or clients to send samples of “great slides” or “good PowerPoint.” I usually hesitate to send examples of slides since my answer to the question, “what does a great PowerPoint slide look like?” is “…it depends.” In a world which often thinks in terms of absolutes — “this is good, that is bad” — “it depends” is not the most popular answer.

Context matters
However, as far as design is concerned, it is useful not to think (judge) in terms of “right or wrong,” but rather in terms of what is “appropriate or inappropriate.” That is, is it appropriate or inappropriate for a particular context? “Good” and “bad” are indeed terms we use when talking about design — including  PowerPoint slides — but I’m personally cautious of this dualistic thinking, especially when judging a design without its full context available. So much depends on how the visual is placed within the context of the presentation, and the content and objectives of that particular presentation are of paramount concern. Without a good knowledge of the place and circumstance, and the content and context of a presentation, it is impossible to say this is “appropriate” and that is “inappropriate.”

Simple but not simplistic
If there is one important precept worth following, it is the idea of simplicity. The best visuals are often ones designed with an eye toward simplicity. Yet, this says nothing about the specifics of a visual presentation. That will depend on the content and context. For example, even the best visuals used in support of a presentation for one audience on, say, quantum mechanics, may appear complicated and confusing to a different audience.

Simplicity is often used as a means to greater clarity. However, simplicity can also be viewed as a consequence. A consequence, that is, of our careful efforts to craft a story and create supporting visuals that focus on our audience’s needs in a clear and meaningful way. Ok, simplicity is great you say, but how simple? What is the formula for simplicity? If you can’t give me concrete examples, you might say, at least give me a formula for making powerful, simple visuals. But do static formulas for achieving simplicity exist?

In Living Zen, author Robert Linsen (in speaking on the simplification of needs in everyday life) says that a “simplification of existence” is a consequence of an “effective experience of Zen.” In other words, as one discovers their true nature, “needs” such as possessions or status are reduced or seen for what they are: superfluous. This begs the question then: “What are the minimum or maximum needs for an individual?” To this the author responds

“No one can define them or draw up a system around them. That is where we should exercise our judgment….Use depends for each one of us on the place and circumstances. If we were to codify the laws concerning it they might soon become a great bondage for us.”

Here the author is not necessarily speaking of design and presentation visuals, of course, but we can see how we can apply Zen principles to everyday life including design, even the design of slides and other visuals. Simplicity is an important design principle. But simplicity in design is as much art (small “a”) as science. It is, therefore, quite difficult to offer up prescriptions or “rules” for appropriate design. Without full knowledge of the context and circumstances, such rules could become “a great bondage,” so to speak, leading to inappropriate design choices or recommendations.

Visual makeover
Having said all of that, below are a few slides demonstrating different visual treatments in support of a single message. The context is a presentation on gender and labor issues in Japan. The purpose of the slide is to visually support the claim that “72% of the part-time workers in Japan are women.” This statistic is from the Japanese Ministry of Labor. The figure “72%” is something the presenter said she wanted the audience to remember as it is discussed again as the presentation progresses. So how to design a slide that is subtle, simple, memorable, and fits into a theme that is appealing and attractive?

BEFORE. Above (left) is the original slide. The problem with the slide on the left is that the clip-art used does not reinforce the statistic, nor does it even fit the theme of women in the Japanese labor market. The background is a tired, overused PowerPoint template. The text is difficult to read. And as one trainee commented: “it’s ugly.”

The slide on the right (above) was an effort to display the same information in a pie chart. Besides using an overused template, the visual displays the pie chart in a distorted and inelegant fashion. For the sake of clarity, it is usually best to avoid 3-D effects. Also, rather than giving the slide a title, a declarative sentence that states the point directly may be more appropriate.

AFTER: All the slides were redesigned to match the theme above. The slide on the left was the one used for the presentations. But the one on the right could also be used effectively. Notice that either slide (especially the slide without any text) would be virtually meaningless without the presenter’s narration. The handout that followed the presentation expanded on the relevance of the statistic and gave it context. The five-page handout proved to be a good reference for those who attended the presentation and for those who did not.

Using a pie chart is also a good way to represent this simple statistic. Here (left) the large text at the top can be easily seen. The text reads more like a headline — a declarative sentence — rather than just a title or category. The slide on the right is another possible way to support the message. In this case a completely different template was used.

Should you design your slides to look like this?
The design choices are many. The examples above are just a few attempts at improving the look & feel, impact, and effectiveness of the original slides. Should you design your slides to look like this? That’s your call and depends on your specific circumstance. Also, this particular example does not deal with a technical presentation. If your presentation is on a less technical topic such as leadership, HRM, marketing, etc. then simple slides like these may be very effective. If you are giving a very technical presentation to a technical audience hungry for data, then your slides may look quite different. But even for a very technical presentation, embracing simplicity of design and striving for the greatest clarity possible should still be the objective. How you do that will depend on a great many things.

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS11-022 – Important Vulnerabilities in Microsoft PowerPoint Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2489283)

Posted on by Rick E

Published: Tuesday, April 12, 2011 | Updated: Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Version: 1.1

General Information

Executive Summary

This security update resolves three privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft PowerPoint. The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted PowerPoint file. An attacker who successfully exploited any of these vulnerabilities could gain the same user rights as the local user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights. The automated Microsoft Fix it solution for PowerPoint 2010, “Disable Edit in Protected View for PowerPoint 2010,” available in Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 2501584, blocks the attack vectors for exploiting the vulnerabilities described in CVE-2011-0655 and CVE-2011-0656.

This security update is rated Important for all supported releases of Microsoft PowerPoint; Microsoft Office for Mac; Open XML File Format Converter for Mac; Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats; Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer, and Microsoft PowerPoint Web App. For more information, see the subsection, Affected and Non-Affected Software, in this section.

The update addresses the vulnerabilities by modifying the way that PowerPoint validates records when opening PowerPoint files. For more information about the vulnerability, see the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) subsection for the specific vulnerability entry under the next section, Vulnerability Information.

Recommendation. Customers can configure automatic updating to check online for updates from Microsoft Update by using the Microsoft Update service. Customers who have automatic updating enabled and configured to check online for updates from Microsoft Update typically will not need to take any action because this security update will be downloaded and installed automatically. Customers who have not enabled automatic updating need to check for updates from Microsoft Update and install this update manually. For information about specific configuration options in automatic updating in supported editions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 294871. For information about automatic updating in supported editions of Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2, see Understanding Windows automatic updating.

For administrators and enterprise installations, or end users who want to install this security update manually, Microsoft recommends that customers apply the update at the earliest opportunity using update management software, or by checking for updates using the Microsoft Update service.

See also the section, Detection and Deployment Tools and Guidance, later in this bulletin.

Known Issues. Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 2489283 documents the currently known issues that customers may experience when installing this security update. The article also documents recommended solutions for these issues. When currently known issues and recommended solutions pertain only to specific releases of this software, this article provides links to further articles.

Wireframing in PowerPoint? It Works!

Posted on by Rick E

by Andreas Wulf

It’s important for designers to translate the ideas in their heads into a tangible form that stakeholders can relate to. Prior to writing any code, wireframes are a great way to quickly map out the functionality and flow of a website or application. This helps anticipate conflicts (“That’s not what I had in mind”) early in the process, at a point where they are painless to correct.

Dedicated wireframing tools are in abundance, so you might be surprised that my weapon of choice for sketching wireframes is Microsoft PowerPoint. PowerPoint makes it possible for stakeholders and non-techies to participate in the design process. When exchanging PowerPoint slides over email, you can be fairly certain everyone will be able to view and edit them. The software’s widespread availability and low barrier to entry make it an excellent communication tool, able to bridge the gap between developers, designers, and clients.

 

As well, the design capabilities of PowerPoint are far better than the application’s reputation would indicate. In this article I’ll show what PowerPoint 2010 (for Windows) brings to the table when it comes to creating wireframes. Maybe I can convince you that PowerPoint isn’t as evil or dumb as you might have thought.

Arranging and Layering Support

Whatever simplifies is useful. Real-world wireframes can quickly become fairly complex as the number of elements accumulates, but PowerPoint’s grouping capabilities allow some order to be brought to the chaos. Just select two or more shapes on a slide and choose Group > Group from the context menu, or simply press Ctrl + G (or Ctrl + Shift + G to ungroup).

A helpful tool when working with grouped and layered shapes is the Selection Pane, available via Home > Drawing > Arrange > Selection Pane. It gives a hierarchical overview of all the shapes on the current slide and makes it easy to select individual shapes that are part of a group or are hidden by other shapes.

 

PowerPoint’s aligning and distributing features are also essential for wireframing. The menu items found under Home > Drawing > Arrange > Align give several ways to align shapes on the slide or distribute them evenly. A nifty addition in PowerPoint 2010 is the Smart Guides feature. When you move a shape around, indicator lines let you know when the shape lines up with another shape.

Import/Export Facilities

PowerPoint supports quite a few import and export formats. Besides common bitmap formats like JPEG or PNG, it can also work with vector images in EMF, WMF, and EPS format. I personally often draw icons in Inkscape (an open-source vector graphics editor) and export them to an EMF file, which I then use in PowerPoint. A lesser-known feature of PowerPoint 2010 is that it can export slides to PDF documents, or even convert them into a WMV video (File > Save & Send > File Types > Create PDF/XPS Document or Create a Video).

 

Adding Interactivity

Presentation features make PowerPoint an ideal tool for demonstrating an application’s flow as a storyboard. Slide by slide you tell a story, presenting different steps in a user-interaction process.

Such a story can be linear, or dynamic and non-linear using Actions to create buttons that move to specific slides when clicked. To configure an action for a shape, simply select it on the slide and choose Insert > Action from the Ribbon Bar. It’s worth noting that Actions only have an effect when PowerPoint is in presentation mode (press Shift + F5 to see the current slide in presentation mode).

 

You can even create macros in VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) to simulate application behavior—if you’re a bit crazy, that is. Info on how to bring up the Developer tab to start the VBA editor is available here. I would say that writing VBA code requires too much effort, defeating the purpose of rapid, low-fidelity wireframing, but it may suit your needs.

Making Use of Masters

Slide Masters allow you to create reusable templates for your slides. When you make different wireframes that follow the same layout and share the same elements (such as a common header, menu, and footer), this facility is especially useful.

To view the existing masters, select View > Slide Master from the PowerPoint Ribbon. After creating a new layout and closing the master view, you can apply the master to an existing slide by right-clicking the slide and selecting the master from the Layout menu.

Integration with Word and Other Office Applications

Another benefit of using PowerPoint for wireframing is that it’s possible to fully embed slides into a Word document. I use this a lot when writing specifications. Instead of having multiple documents that quickly fall out of sync, I can keep all relevant documentation in one place.

 

The easiest way to embed a PowerPoint slide into a Word document is to drag & drop the slide from PowerPoint’s Slides pane directly into Word. You can then double-click the embedded slide to activate it for editing. It’s also possible to copy a slide from PowerPoint’s Slides pane and insert it into a Word document using Paste > Paste Special… > Microsoft Office PowerPoint Slide Object.

Collaborating and Sharing Designs

Wireframes are usually subject to a lot of discussion and change. To keep up with all the comments, you can use PowerPoint’s review features, available under the Review Ribbon tab. This makes it possible to add user-specific comments, and PowerPoint 2010 can also compare different versions of a file and consolidate the differences.

An easy way to share a PowerPoint slideshow with coworkers and clients is to save it to SkyDrive (you can get 25 GB of storage for free from Microsoft) or SharePoint. Both services allow you to specify who is allowed to view and edit the file, and to keep track of changes through a version history.

Ready-to-Use Wireframe Stencils

My enthusiasm for using PowerPoint for wireframing led me to develop PowerMockup, an add-on that provides ready-to-use wireframe templates for the typical elements of an application: buttons, text boxes, menus, tabs, tables, and many more. It even allows you to create and categorize your own wireframe stencils. Feel free to download the demo version and give the tool a try.

-->