PowerPoint Blog
Labels: powerpoint, training
I often do PowerPoint training sessions in India for corporates -- and yes, that information is nowhere on this site! To make amends for that omission, I am going to speak about my training sessions in this and some future posts.
First, let me talk about my two-day training session on PowerPoint 2007. This is my most successful course and it is geared towards an audience that creates PowerPoint presentations in a typical office environment. On each of the days, I do 4 sessions that talk about PowerPoint usage and creation. The entire course comprises of interactive exercises -- and the goal is to help you create better presentations in less time. Along the way, you learn PowerPoint best practices and options that are buried within the PowerPoint interface. For those of you who have just moved to PowerPoint 2007, it's a great way to learn all the new options available in this version of the program.
If you would like to learn more and want details regarding the curriculum and pricing, please feel free to get in touch through the feedback form on this site.
Picture Courtesy: Rikk Flohr -- taken during PowerPoint Live in Atlanta, October 2009
Categories: powerpoint, training
Labels: powerpoint, training
Need to learn how to create outstanding presentations, from start to finish? Ellen Finkelstein is offering a 3-day, intensive workshop that covers content, design, and delivery.
You’ll get personal attention in a small group. If you live in the U.S. or Canada, I suggest that you check it out here...
Categories: powerpoint, training
Labels: powerpoint, training, tutorials
On the surface, PowerPoint looks like an easy program to learn -- in fact, plenty of users have been able to create PowerPoint content within a few minutes of starting using this program -- and most of them then believe that they are now PowerPoint savvy. Nothing can be further from the truth -- unfortunately, most users will never be aware of the fact that behind its simple interface, PowerPoint provides tons of features and options that make creating and delivering everyday presentations so much easier and rewarding. Clearly, there is a need for some well designed and conceptualized PowerPoint training.
This review looks at one such offering from Train Signal's CBT (computer based training) on PowerPoint 2007.
Read the Indezine review here...
Categories: powerpoint, training, tutorials
Labels: articulate, interviews, medicine, online_presentations, powerpoint, training 
Greg Friese, MS, NREMT-P is president of Emergency Preparedness Systems LLC and a paramedic, educator, author, and outdoor enthusiast. To learn more and to receive rapid e-learning design and production tips subscribe to the EPS blog at their site.
Geetesh: Tell us more about yourself, Emergency Preparedness Systems LLC, and the training programs you create.
Greg: I am the founder and president of Emergency Preparedness Systems LLC. EPS does four things:
Our training programs for EMTs and paramedics, generally 25-30 minutes long, are used for continuing or refresher education. Since emergency responders work rotating shifts, it is very difficult for all employees to be in the training room together. Online lessons allow asynchronous delivery of the exact same content across multiple shifts and multiple stations. If users are called out for an emergency they can resume the training program when they return. Each lesson is approved by the Continuing Education Coordinating Board for EMS (CECBEMS) so students know that it will be accepted for local, state, or national recertification requirements. Most EPS content is distributed through CentreLearn.com and RapidCE.com.
Geetesh: Why do you use PowerPoint as the starting point for the creation of these programs? And what else do you use to enhance and distribute these programs.
Greg: We use PowerPoint for several reasons. First of all it is an excellent tool for us to storyboard a lesson. During initial production, each slide is given a working title and the script for the audio narration is written in the notes view. As production and editing progresses, notes for images, objects, and animations are added to the notes view. Once the script is finalized, slide production begins which includes a descriptive slide title and sub-title, insertion of images and objects, and animation formatting.
The final step is to convert the PowerPoint slides to Flash using Articulate Presenter. The audio is inserted and synchronized with the PowerPoint slide animations. The end user watches a narrated Flash movie inside the Articulate Presenter player. They may not even be aware that they are watching a movie that was created with PowerPoint.
We also use another Articulate product called Engage to create and insert custom Flash learning objects into the PowerPoint. The Articulate Engage Interactions publish inside the Articulate Presenter movie.
Categories: articulate, medicine, online_presentations, powerpoint, training
Labels: office_online, powerpoint_2007, training
It's been close to two years since I encountered the Ribbon in Office 2007, and that's probably not counting the beta period. And there must be many of you who moved up to PowerPoint 2007 since then. Most of you love the Ribbon and the tabs -- and the Quick Access Toolbar -- but many of you still want to use menus -- so you might be using one of the free add-ins that bring back the menus as a new tab in the Ribbon! These include the RibbonCustomizer from Patrick Schmid -- and Classic Menu from Addintools.
If you are still struggling with the Ribbon, but don't want the menus back yet, Microsoft has created this cool interactive demo that lets you locate your favorite PowerPoint 2003 commands within the new PowerPoint 2007 interface (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: PowerPoint 2003 to PowerPoint 2007 command reference guide
Now only if they could provide this as a download-able file -- that would be cool. Even more cool -- make this part of the PowerPoint help interface that can work offline as well. And I'm not complaining even if I may sound so! Kudos to the Office Online team for creating something so helpful -- there are similar interactive demos for other Office 2007 products including Word and Excel.
Categories: office_online, powerpoint_2007, training
Labels: books, powerpoint, trainingEllen Finkelstein is author of several PowerPoint, Flash, and AutoCAD books -- she has just released her new ebook called 101 Tips Every PowerPoint User Should Know.
Her company, Ellen Finkelstein, Inc. helps clients create presentations that communicate clearly and achieve their goals. She maintains a web site that offers PowerPoint tips, and a selection of free backgrounds.
Geetesh: Tell us what your new book is all about -- and what inspired you to do this book?
Ellen: 101 Tips Every PowerPoint User Should Know contains tips in 10 areas that are essential for using the program effectively and efficiently. For example, there are tips on text, AutoShapes, photos and clip art, charts, multimedia, delivery, and more. I saw that people who were using PowerPoint, often daily or weekly, had just opened it up and started using it, without ever taking a course or reading a book. As a result, they missed a lot of the efficiency techniques that make creating a presentation ever so much easier. For example, without knowing how to perfectly distribute objects, they would nudge them here and there and eyeball it. The result would be frustration and less than professional results. So I thought that I'd fill in the gaps, for a quick pick-me-up, so to speak. The ebook is about 100 pages, with lots of clear instructions and figures, and it's an easy read.
Even professionals have told me that they learned something from it.
Geetesh: What do you believe is the most important thing that any reader will gain from the book?
Ellen: Because it's a list of 101 tips, there isn't one important thing, but I think that readers will realize that if they're spending a lot of time editing and formatting, there's probably a better way. They'll also learn how to get more professional results by using the tools that PowerPoint provides.
Indezine Exclusive: Get 15% off the price of the book when you enter discount code indezine on this page...
Remember: This offer is valid only until November 3rd, 2008.
Categories: books, powerpoint, training
Labels: interviews, powerpoint, training 
Claudyne Wilder is guest lecturer at conferences, business shows and corporate events. She is the creator of three presentation seminars: "The Winning Presentations Seminar," "The Winning Presentations Sales Seminar;" and "Creating PowerPoint Presentations That Get Your Point Across." She offers "The Winning Presentations Seminar publicly about six times a year. She also licenses this seminar to companies and consultants to teach.
Geetesh: Do you do PowerPoint training classes? What problems do you address in your class?
Claudyne: Well, yes and no. I call my classes Creating PowerPoint Presentations That Get Your Point Across. Showing them PowerPoint hints they don’t know is just one part of the class. This may be only about 2 hours of the whole class. The first exercise has nothing to do with PowerPoint. Participants write up objectives, goals, themes, key messages for the presentation they brought. Then they analyze that presentation based on the goals and objectives. So many times people realize that the presentation they created will not help them achieve their objectives and goals.
For example, a woman’s department had redone the company website and she had created a presentation to encourage people to use it. But the presentation was all about the work they had done, very boring to listen, not to mention slides with words no one understood. She had to redo her whole presentation focused on her objective and the key messages she wanted to get across.
This exercise encourages people to write first their messages and how they want the audience to react. Then they can think about creating slides.
I also show people how to logically organize their content using the formats in my CD Presentations in a Hurry: 26 Formats That Persuade. When people are asked about their experience of most PowerPoint presentations, they will usually say that the presentations are not logically organized. They can’t follow the presenter. They feel the presenter has just written down everything he or she knows on different slides…without considering a structure to organize the content. I teach people that if they are selling, they need to organize information different than if they are presenting a strategy recommendation.
We lay out all the slides on tables and the floor and people look at their organization. I have checklists we go through. Most often, once a person sees on his or her slides on the table, a realization hits that there really is no organization. Maybe opening, background, results and next steps organize the talk, but within that, the content is just one sentence after another. There’s no order.
People get very excited when they begin to see that by re-organizing and/or redoing their content, they can be better presenters. They can emphasize certain words. They can slow down and speed up when mentioning key points. They can include stories as they have cut out the unnecessary content.
Geetesh: What do typical attendees take back with them -- emotionally, learning-wise, and physically.
Claudyne: Many people do not understand how to use the slide master. Once they realize they should not make text boxes all over their slides, they get very excited. They begin to realize they will save hours of time as well as have more professional looking slides.
Also, very few people know about custom shows. A custom show is one of the best features in PowerPoint. A presenter can have many versions of the same presentation in one file. This works very well for people who have a high level talk of only 6 slides and then more details with 12 slides. They can have all this in one talk.
I ask everyone to make a one slide executive summary of his or her talk. I give them slide designs to use. At first, everyone is confused. They just want to keep listing data for slide after slide. I tell them that many executives want a one-slide summary and after that may be more open to listening to details. Sometimes we only make the executive summaries and sometimes people read them out loud. The power of hearing a presentation summarized on one slide is wonderful. People get how impactful it is to really summarize a talk.
And here are some typical comments about the class: “ Thank you for the before and after examples of our company presentations. I can use them. I’m going to save hours of time creating my presentations in the future. I may even have time to practice out loud.”
Categories: interviews, powerpoint, training
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