If you have not heard, Microsoft is sponsoring a great PowerPoint Presentation competition called SlideFest! And the contest begins today (closes May 14).
If you have not seen the promo videos , stop your productive work and spend 10 minutes of inspirational fun to view these comedy bits about PowerPoint!
See them here.
– Troy @ TLC
Thanks to Cliff Atkinson for pointing out this truly uninspiring set of images featured on BuzzFeed.
Photos are a great addition to presentations. Of course they need to match the topic, not be distracting, support the message and not be any of the images featured on this BuzzFeed article!
See all 60 here.
– Troy @ TLC
Every tech company has turned its attention to “cloud” computing. This includes cloud computing, cloud services, and cloud applications. And Microsoft is doing a lot with the “cloud” and the new PowerPoint, Excel, Word and OneNote Web Apps and the upcoming Office 365.
Here is one of the best definitions of “Cloud Computing” I have heard:
“Purchasing the amount of bandwidth needed vs. purchasing the full service or application.”
So TLC Creative Services is not looking to purchase servers (to store and access project files) any longer, but looking to use an online accessible server and just pay for the amount of file storage and bandwidth needed. We are also moving to more cloud services and cloud applications for presentation design and presentation.
– Troy @ TLC
If you present with PowerPoint and use Windows 7, you need to be familiar with the PRESENTATION SETTINGS option. To access, open the MOBILITY CENTER (see 03/22/11 post) by clicking the Windows + X keys. Then click projector icon.
In the PRESENTATION SETTINGS dialog in the “WHEN I AM GIVING A PRESENTATION” section be sure:
1. The TURN OFF THE SCREEN SAVER option is active.
2. The SET VOLUME option is active (I set volume to 90%). This option overrides the mute control.
3. I size the event theme graphic to the monitor resolution and set that image as the desktop background when presenting. For that “just in case” situation, so if all fails the audience sees something related to the event (I have seen kids, puppies, girlfriends, vacation pictures, etc. show up on screen – all not good options).
Note: At the top the I AM CURRENTLY GIVING A PRESENTATION option is also turned on and off through the Mobility Center.
– Troy @ TLC
Windows 7 is great – running on virtually every computer here. There are a number of hidden features that are very important to presenters. The WINDOWS MOBILITY CENTER is one of them.
To open the Mobility Center, hold down the Windows key and the X key
I use this as a quick check for:
1. Confirm computer volume
2. Confirm plugged into to power (not on battery)
3. Confirm Maximum Performance power setting (vs. battery saving low power option)
4. Wireless network turned off
5. Computer sees an external display/projector
6. Presentation Settings are active (covered in next post)
Everything seen here can be accessed separately, but this is an easy 1-stop view of them all.
– Troy @ TLC
Last week, when working on the East Coast, a different time zone than home, I was asked how I managed to keep track of things in the different time zones. Windows 7 has a great little feature to add multiple time zones to the clock.
1. Click the time in the lower right on the task bar and click “CHANGE DATE AND TIME SETTINGS”
2. In the DATE AND TIME dialog, go to the ADDITIONAL CLOCKS tab and setup 1 or 2 additional time zones and name them
3. Now the taskbar shows both (or all three) time zones
4. If you click on the time in the task bar, you now see clocks for both time zones active there as well
– Troy @ TLC
Last week, SlideRocket, which I like a lot, announced their “It’s ‘Say No To PowerPoint’ Week” promo. But the tagline really got me wondering how they define a presentation.
“SlideRocket is celebrating national “Say No to PowerPoint Week” by challenging people to say “yes” to stunning presentations. It’s time to say rest in peace to presentations 1.0 and embrace a new way of presenting that engages the mind and senses. To help drive a stake through the heart of “Death by PowerPoint,”…”
In the now famous Edward Tufte statement about “Death By PowerPoint,” a huge generalization was made – that all PowerPoint created presentations are bad. Definitely not a true statement, as presentations developed by applications other than PowerPoint can be bad too. The reality is, not all presentations are bad – not all presentation good. Not all presenters are bad, and not all presenters are good.
The SlideRocket promotion bothers me in that it also wants to generalize that all PowerPoint created presentations are bad (wrong) and that all SlideRocket created presentations are good (wrong).
– Troy @ TLC
Microsoft has featured TLC Creative Services on the MS Office Blog this week for our use of Excel and MS Web Apps in tracking design projects. The irony is that it features our use of Excel – and no one here will admit they are great at working in Excel.
The full post is Here.
– Troy @ TLC
At a recent event I attended, one speaker was dynamic, engaging and a very good speaker. He did not have a PowerPoint presentation and did not need one to hold the audience attention. But it was distracting to have the large blank screen above him.
Distracting black or event theme graphic? A static theme graphic becomes part of the staging, blends in and does not draw attention to a screen that the audience is looking for something on it.
– Troy @ TLC
Some things should be easy to look up, find and reference. Some things are not easily found. Such was the case when I needed to answer a simple question – “Is that font installed with Windows 2000?” Of course, I could not reply with my first thought (“Why are you using Windows 2000!”) as that would most likely not create a good relationship with a new client. And because I no longer have any Windows 2000 computers to check, I did a quick web search. An hour later, I was frustrated with using an hour of my day to answer a simple question, that I should know the answer to.
So, several more hours of research and design and I am confident I can avoid this situation again. Here is my solution, a list of fonts installed with each Windows Operating System since Windows 95 (and yes, Windows Millenium is missing – I purposefully chose to skip over it):
Note: No guarantee that nothing is missing, especially if using a non-English install.
Download the PDF here.
– Troy @ TLC