PowerPoint and Presenting News: May 10, 2016

by Geetesh Bajaj, May 10, 2016 View this as a web page
12 Engaging Presenter Behaviors to Keep Your Audience Awake "I want to engage my audience," is what over half of the presenters I coach tell me. Here's what I tell them. First, many people in your audience are tired-probably at least a third of them just don't get enough sleep. They're sitting there hoping they won't embarrass themselves by nodding off. Part of your job is to help them stay awake, to actually pay attention and consider what you are saying. Next time you practice a presentation, note how many of the following strategies you actually use. Then add a couple more. You don't want your audience to look like this. Claudyne Wilder explains ways to keep your audience awake
Timelines that are Different - 01 PowerPoint makes it easy to create info diagrams, and the SmartArt feature is awesome. Yet, there are times when PowerPoint's offerings need to be supplemented by third-party content. Timelines are a great example, and this is the first in a series that will explore timeline slides. Read more here
Zapps Pro: Conversation with Richard Michaels Richard Michaels is an expert at applying critical thinking to address large-scale business challenges and has been responsible for the implementation of training initiatives for organizations including Bristol-Myers Squibb, IBM, Novartis, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Schering-Plough, Sanofi-Aventis, FDA, U.S. Army Training Command, and the Singapore Institute of Management. In addition to expertise in instructional design, writing and education, Richard is also an expert software developer and a Microsoft Office for the Mac MVP. In this conversation, Richard discusses Zapps Pro, his add-in for Microsoft Word that also integrates with PowerPoint. Read more here
Help Your Audience Remember Your Points With These 3 Techniques for Highlighting Important Words: by Ellen Finkelstein When your audience sees a slide that is a sea of words, they will remember almost nothing. This type of slide overloads short-term memory and as they say these days, it's TMI (too much information). No matter how interesting your topic, when you present a slide full of text, people read it. They can read faster than you can talk, so they read ahead of you. In order to understand what they're reading, they shut out your voice. The best solution is to use fewer words. Here are three techniques you can use to make key words stand out. Read more here
Presentation Guild Survey: Conversation with Sandra Johnson Sandra Johnson has owned her presentation design business since 2001. As a certified Woman-owned Business Enterprise, she works with individuals and corporations across the globe to ensure that they PowerPoint. Responsibly. Sandra first earned the Microsoft PowerPoint MVP Award in 2008 and is currently among around 40 people around the globe with that distinction. Sandra is a founding member and Vice President of The Presentation Guild. In this conversation, Sandra talks about the ongoing Presentation Guild Survey. Read more here
Learn PowerPoint 2016 for Windows Gradient Fills for Slide Backgrounds Gradient fills are typically blended fills between two or more colors that graduate and merge from one color to another -- they are sometimes also called fountain fills or blended fills in other programs. Other than applying gradients as shape fill, you can also apply Gradient fills to your Slide Background. However, make sure that the two or more colors that you use for your Gradient work well with text and other foreground elements on all your slides. No Shape Outline Whenever you insert a new shape into a PowerPoint slide, you can see that it is filled with a solid color and has an outline by default (this may differ depending on the Theme applied to your presentation). You can remove the fill of the shape as well as the outline. In this tutorial, we'll learn how to remove an outline from a shape so that it only includes a fill without any outline. Whatever you do, make sure that you either remove the fill or the outline because if you remove both, then your shape will no longer be visible. Pattern Fills for Slide Backgrounds Patterns in PowerPoint are two-color designs comprising lines, dots, dashes, checks, etc. PowerPoint includes 48 such patterns with names like Plaid, Weaves, Shingle, and Zigzag. This tutorial builds upon what you have already learned in the Format Slide Background tutorial and shows how you can use a Pattern fill for your slide background. Picture Fills for Slide Backgrounds Most presentations contain pictures. A picture in PowerPoint can be used in many ways -- as a picture you insert, as a picture you place within a shape, or even as something that covers the entire slide as a background. In this tutorial, we will look at the last option -- that lets you use a picture as a slide background. Before you begin, you need to put in plenty of thought into whether the picture you are using will work as a slide background or not? So how do you determine if a picture will work as a background or not? Texture Fills for Slide Backgrounds Textures are the "in" thing even in a world that looks so much at the new flat design concept -- and the reason is not difficult to understand. The right texture can add interest, and make your slide content look crafted.
PowerPoint Templates on Indezine Americana \| Textures More PowerPoint templates on Indezine
PowerPoint Templates on MedicinePPT Heart Attack \| Rheumatoid Arthritis More PowerPoint templates on MedicinePPT
PowerPoint Templates on LegalPPT Tax Law \| Online Law More PowerPoint templates on LegalPPT
PowerPoint Templates on FreePPTTemplates Americana More PowerPoint templates on FreePPTTemplates
PowerPoint Templates on ChristianPPT Child Christ (Early Life of Jesus) \| Jesus in the Temple More PowerPoint templates on ChristianPPT

Jeopardy-Like PowerPoint Template (25 Questions)

Want to play a Jeopardy-like game using PowerPoint slides? Yes, this is absolutely doable but making PowerPoint slides with all the interactivity and layouts takes too much work. Fortunately, we have done the work for you. Just download our Jeopardy-like 25 (5x5) question PowerPoint template, replace the placeholders provided for questions, answers, and categories - and you're done! You'll still need a real human being to track scores - and you could soon be playing this amazing game as part of a fun exercise, a training program, or even a quiz show.

This template is entirely Theme aware. Change your Theme colors and fonts - and everything automatically updates. We tested this template in both Windows (2007, 2010, and 2013) and Mac (2008 and 2011) versions of PowerPoint.

Download and play your own Jeopardy-like game.