presentation

Over the years, I’ve seen many presenters make common mistakes — from cramming too much information into slides to reading points word for word — that ruin what could have been great presentations. Presenters need to keep several aspects in mind such as the layout and formatting of the slides, the actual content and the [...]

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could view your speaker notes and slides as you delivered a PowerPoint presentation without having to print a copy of them? The Presenter view in PowerPoint lets you do just that. You can maintain your own view of a presentation on one monitor while the audience views the slide [...]

When you think hyperlinks in PowerPoint, you probably think Web pages. However, hyperlinks in PowerPoint can do more than just connect to Web pages. You can create hyperlinks to connect to slides in the same or in different presentations. For example, if an object or text refers to content on another slide, you can easily [...]

There is a right way and wrong way to use speaking notes when delivering a presentation. The wrong way is to read directly from your notes. The right way is to glance at them throughout your presentation to keep it on track.
I prefer to have speaking notes when I deliver presentations. Usually I just jot [...]

I used to have a terrible case of the “Ums.” That is — I had the ability to inject the word “um” into all of my speeches and presentations. When you listen to a person who uses ums, or sometimes ahs, speak, it is actually very distracting, particularly when you start to focus on it. [...]

Humor — when used effectively — is a great way to add a little zest to your presentation. If you are going to use humor though, it is important to know when and how to use it. Otherwise, it can have the reverse effect and alienate your audience.
Here are some tips to help you incorporate [...]

My vote is yes. In fact, I personally find it difficult not to inject one or two jokes into my presentations. Adding a bit of humor to a presentation or speech can really make the experience more pleasant for your audience. Incorporating bits of humor certainly does not mean that you are not serious about [...]

Many people, including myself, still prefer to review hard copies of presentations, as opposed to reading it on the computer. With this in mind, when you are delivering a presentation, you may want to make hard copies available for your audience.
If you decide to make printed copies of your presentation for audiences members, you have [...]

When taking a PowerPoint presentation between different computers, there is always the possibility that the next computer may not have PowerPoint installed.
Fortunately, PowerPoint includes a component called the PowerPoint Viewer that can be used to display your presentation on a computer that does not have the application installed. You can use the Package for CD [...]

If you use a specific application on a regular basis, it is typically helpful to know some of the application’s shortcuts for getting common tasks done. I spend at least two hours per workday in either Word or PowerPoint and over time have started using some of the shortcuts. Now that I’m familiar with a [...]

So far, we have looked at slide transitions and custom animations. The final piece we are going to look at is narration. PowerPoint lets you narrate your slide show. You can record your narration and play it as the presentation runs.
To use this feature, you must have a soundcard in your computer and a microphone [...]

As I mentioned in Part I, one of the benefits of using animation is that you can control the flow of information on your slides. For example, sometimes, in order to get your ideas across on a slide, you need objects in a slide to build. You may need one object appear first then on [...]

In Part I of Using Animation in your PowerPoint Presentations, I introduced you to simple slide transitions. The slide transitions let you control how PowerPoint moves from one slide to another during a presentation. The default is that the next slide appears when you click the mouse.
Transition Timings
Normally you would move from slide to slide [...]

Familiar with Microsoft PowerPoint? Then you probably know that it includes an animation feature that lets you animate text, pictures, movie clips, charts, sounds, any other types of objects.
Not only does animation make a presentation visually appealing to the audience, it also offers the following benefits:

Animation lets you draw attention to specific information on a [...]

Technology offers many different ways for people to communicate. There is e-mail, instant messenger, video conferencing, telephone, and so on. However, sometimes there is no substitute for the traditional face-to-face meeting. Unfortunately though, so many people see this as being an inefficient means of communicating with all the electronic methods that are now available.
From my [...]