Steve Jobs & Guy Kawasaki — Powerpoint Best Practices

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by Brian Halligan

I have recently come across some interesting Powerpoint best practices that I thought I would share with you.

Steve Jobs

The first best practice was from watching Steve Jobs’ presentation at MacWorld this year.  What was fascinating about his slides is that they were either just a picture or just a picture with a couple of words in extremely large font.  It turns out that Steve wants the audience to listen to him tell the story, rather than read the slides.

Here’s a picture of one of Steve’s slides:

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25 Awesome Public Speaking Quotes

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Public speaking is the number one fear in America.  Death is number two.

From sweaty palms to cracking voices, speaking publicly can be terrifying, yet it is a crucial skill to have in the business world.  We’d like to alleviate some of this stress by offering up some inspirational, informative quotes.  These quotes are in no particular order, and the speakers range from well-known orators to presentation gurus.  Some are serious, some are classic, and some are short and funny.  Feel free to spread these around, write them in your journals, whatever you want! Enjoy!

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How to Be More Productive When Using PowerPoint to Create E-Learning Courses

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by Tom Kuhlmann
In an operating room, when the surgeon asks for a scalpel, it’s right there.  The same can be said for any vocation.  When you’re doing a job, you tend to be faster and more proficient when you have the tools right by you, rather than spending a lot of time looking for them.

There are some simple things you can do to improve your production process.   A lot of it has to do with organizing your assets, like clip art, images, and other graphics.  In this post, I’ll show you a few techniques that I use to make my production easier.

As you’re working in PowerPoint, you move objects on and off the slide.  You change fonts, align shapes, and experiment with different colors and layouts.  When you make these types of edits on your real slides, you can run into problems.  It’s easy to accidentally mess things up which cause you to spend more time fixing mistakes. That’s why I use the following techniques.

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Are You Reaching Your Audience?

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by Ed Tate

Beyond connecting with your audience, are you:

Stirring them?

Moving them?

Touching them? (Not literally)

Rocking them?

Reaching them?

What is reaching an audience? I know it when I see it, and so do you, as this example from a reality TV talent show on April 11, 2009, illustrates:

Q: “What’s the dream?” A: “To be a professional singer.”

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30 Useful iPad Apps for Business & Presentation

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By Kay Tan.

Apple sold more than 1 million copies of iPads in the first 3 months. This gadget is definitely more than just a larger version of iPhone or iPod touch. With 4x the screen of an iPhone, the iPad’s display is ideal for reading and for presentations.

ipad business & presentation apps

In today’s post, we’d like to highlight some really useful iPad applications that might replace the things you do daily with your laptop or netbook. With a piece of iPad and these applications, you probably don’t need to carry a laptop around. Here are 30 useful iPad applications for Business and Presentation you might find handy on your next project pitch or business trip.

Full list after jump.

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How to Add Music to a PowerPoint With Mac OS X

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by Julius Vandersteen

If you have been working on a slideshow presentation with PowerPoint on a Mac running OS X, you might determine that you need to add some music to the slides. PowerPoint is part of Microsoft’s Office Suite for Mac, which includes applications for word processing and making spreadsheets. You can add music to a PowerPoint slideshow from GarageBand, Apple’s native application for creating songs, or from iTunes, Apple’s native application for ripping CDs, downloading songs from the iTunes Store and playing music. Music can provide atmosphere during your PowerPoint presentation to help increase audience interest while you present information to them.

Step 1 Launch PowerPoint on your Mac and open the slideshow project to which you want to add music.
Step 2 Click the slide in the presentation where you want the music to start playing.
Step 3 Click “Media” under “Insert” on the “Home” tab at the top of the PowerPoint application window.
Step 4Click “Audio From File.” You have the option of clicking a folder on your Mac containing a music file, or clicking “GarageBand” or “iTunes” to select music from one of Mac’s native audio applications.
Step 5Navigate to the music file on your Mac, and then click “Insert.” The icon of a speaker appears on the slide to indicate that it has music.

Presenting with the iPad

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By Joe Kissell,

You can give impressive presentations from your iPad‚ and perhaps even leave your laptop behind‚ if you prepare well and know what to expect. It’s even easier to take to the podium with newer technologies like AirPlay mirroring and the latest version of Keynote for iOS. Here are tips for moving presentations onto your iPad and delivering them live.

Get it together

Apple’s $10 Keynote for iOS  can import presentations made in Microsoft PowerPoint  or in Keynote for OS X , but in both cases you’re likely to lose a great deal during the import process. Say goodbye to some fonts, transitions, and builds that aren’t available on the iPad, plus audio and more. (Presenter notes are supported, however, whether created on the iPad or imported from a PowerPoint or Keynote for Mac presentation.) Therefore, when feasible, create your presentation directly on the iPad.

If you do use Keynote on a Mac, be sure to read Apple’s Best practices for creating a presentation on a Mac for use on an iPad, which guides you in selecting compatible templates, fonts, and other features. Once you’ve created your presentation, you need to move it to your iPad. Although the iOS version of Keynote supports iCloud’s Documents in the Cloud feature, which automatically syncs documents on all your iOS devices with Apple’s servers, the Mac version of Keynote still lacks integrated support for this feature. (OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion will have access to iCloud’s Documents in the Cloud.)

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Keynote for iPad: Best practices for creating a presentation on a Mac for use on an iPad

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When you create a Keynote presentation on your Mac that you intend to share to an iPad, your presentations will look their best if you follow the recommendations below.

  • When you create a new presentation on your Mac, use one of the following themes:
    • Black
    • Blackboard
    • Craft
    • Gradient
    • Harmony
    • Modern Portfolio
    • Moroccan
    • Parchment
    • Showroom
    • White

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