MasterView

Creating and Managing Effective PowerPoint
Presentations for International Audiences
___________________________________________

MasterView by IKONOS New Media

August 13th, 2001    Issue #3

"IMPROVING THE LOOK OF YOUR PRESENTATION"
...........................................


MasterView is a free monthly newsletter focusing on 
designing and managing effective PowerPoint
presentations for international audiences. Directed to 
communicators, managers, trainers, presenters and 
lecturers, it provides selected solutions, how-to 
techniques and resources on effective
presentation-making.


*******************************************

This issue's theme:

"IMPROVING THE LOOK OF YOUR PRESENTATION"

===========================================

Our third issue of MasterView focuses on improving the 
look of your presentations.

After you have organized the content of your 
presentation, and it has been put into PowerPoint using 
the Outline View mode, it's time to decide what you can 
do in order to make your presentation more effective, 
original, consistent and readable.

Probably most of you already know the power of ready-
made templates, the ones that come installed with 
PowerPoint.

But not all of you are aware of the possibility to 
customize those templates and make them more original, 
by modifying colors, the position of text or the 
elements of the design. We will see in detail how this 
is possible.

On the topic of template customization, I am going to 
share some easy steps to modify and personalize Clip 
Art, to make it look different and unique and fit to 
your specific presentation's needs.

Further on, since we have dedicated this issue to the 
"look" of your presentation, we will see together what 
basic changes can be made to any image you want to 
insert as a background for your slides. Also, how you 
can insert any Web image as a background of
your presentation.

Finally, I am providing you with a review of few 
selected Web sites where you can freely download 
presentation templates.



===========================================

1) * HOW CAN I CUSTOMIZE THE ORIGINAL MICROSOFT 
   POWERPOINT TEMPLATES? *

===========================================

Let's start assuming that you have already created the 
content of your presentation by typing it into 
PowerPoint, preferably using the Outline View mode.

What should your next step be?

Deciding a consistent and effective look to apply to 
all of your slides.

You have usually two ways to do it:

1) You can create your own design, by using the Slide 
Master (View >> Master >> Slide Master): here you can 
apply a background color, use the drawing tools to 
create the layout. Draw boxes, rectangles, lines and 
fill them with the appropriate colors. You can then 
modify the position of all titles and text boxes, and 
format the font style, size and color.

But to do this you need fantasy and some kind of 
"designer disposition", this is why a lot of people 
don't even try to create a look on their own.

2) The second solution, easier but not less effective, 
is to use the templates that you can find both in 
PowerPoint itself or on the Web (see the last article 
further on) and customize them, by adding your 
"personal touch".

Let's see the steps you should follow to achieve
this result:

A) From any View mode you are in, click the icon on the 
top right corner in the Standard toolbar that says: 
"Apply Design" (you can obtain the same by clicking on 
Format >> Apply Design Template).
Microsoft uses two different words (design and 
template) to mean the same concept: a uniform "look" 
that you can apply to all of your slides, a visual 
dress that you can use to give your presentation a 
uniform appearance.

B) In the "Apply Design" dialog box, you will see on 
the left half of the window the different templates you 
can choose, while on the right hand side you see a 
small preview of the selected template.

C) Select one of the proposed templates and click 
"Apply". In a few seconds, all your slides will have 
the same background, the same font style, size and 
color and the same overall layout design.

What information are stored in a template?

The following settings are stored in each template (a 
file with a .pot extension):

- Slide size and orientation

- Color Scheme (including color for default fill, line, 
  shadow, text etc.)

- Text Styles (e.g. Title and Body Text placeholder 
  formatting)

- Defaults for text and AutoShapes objects (Fill and 
  Line color and styles, shadows etc.)

- Printer settings for slides, notes, handouts

- Initial View (Slides, Notes Page, Slide Sorter, etc.)

Actually, I am going to take a minute to share with you 
a problem that happened to my friend Jason in Dublin. 
After he had tried out and applied several templates, 
he decided he did not like them and wanted to go back 
to his original blank presentation, getting rid of all 
the changes he had done.

He realized that he couldn't, so he had to use the 
"Undo" icon and go back a few steps, but he could not 
reach the point where he had not applied any
template yet.

What I suggested him to do, for the future, was: since 
there's no default "blank" template that you can just 
apply in case you want to give up using one of the 
ready-made templates you have already applied, create 
one by doing the following:

1) Open a blank presentation

2) Go to: File >> Save As...

3) Give a name to this file and call it "Blank"

4) Where it says: "Type of files", on the bottom of the 
"Save As..." dialog box, select "Presentation template"

5) Be sure to save it in the right folder (in order to 
find it easily in the future): I suggest to save it in 
C:\Program Files\Microsoft 
Office\Templates\Presentation Designs, so that you can 
find it together with all the other
"official" templates

6) Click "Save" and it's done.

Next time you will apply some templates to test their 
effect on your slides and you want to go back to a 
blank template (that is no template at all), all you 
have to do is click again on the "Apply Design" icon 
(or click on Format >> Apply Design Template), scroll 
down the list and select the "Blank.pot" template that 
you have created before.
In one shot you will get rid of any previously applied 
template and it will be like you first created it.

Now that you know something more about templates and 
how they work, it's easy to see how we can modify them 
to create our personal template.

This is what we need to do, once we have applied the 
template that we would like to modify:

1) Go to View >> Master >> Slide Master until the Slide 
   Master is displayed

2) From here, make all the possible changes you can do:

   - Click on the text boxes, select them and modify
   the font size, style and color
   
   - Move or increase/decrease the space assigned to
   the title or the bulleted list
   
   - Change the background color
   
   - Insert your logo, pictures or Clip Art
   
   - Change the color of the elements used to create
   the design by clicking on them and using the Fill
   Color icon (on the Drawing toolbar).
   
Once you have modified your Slide Master, you can go 
back to the Slide View mode and check the result. In 
case you notice there's something you still need to 
change, go back to the Slide Master and do it.
   
It sounds easy, and actually it is. But there's 
something more you need to know.
   
You may realize that once you are in the Slide Master 
and you try to change some colors to the objects or 
move something, you might not be able to select 
anything. You click, and the only thing that gets 
selected is the entire slide.

What does it mean?

When you see this behavior, it means that the designer 
who created that template by adding different shapes, 
lines, rectangles and colors finally decided to "group" 
together all those elements, so they would have acted 
as a whole, unique object.

The "grouping" function allows you to join two or more 
"objects" (lines, shapes, images, text boxes) so they 
cannot be modified unless you "ungroup" them first. 
This option is useful when you want to resize or move a 
complex object made up by different small elements.

Any time you create a template or a complex image using 
drawing tools, you are strongly advised to select all 
of its elements and group them.

To group objects, follow these two easy steps:

a) Select all the objects you want to group (holding 
   down the Shift key when you click)

b) Go to Draw >> Group. It's done.

Back to your template, what you can do to ungroup any 
template is:

a) Select what can be selected (most of the times the 
   entire slide)

b) Go to Draw >> Ungroup, so all the elements will be 
   separated each other

c) Click first outside the slide to deselect all
   the objects

d) Select the individual object you want to modify

This way you can take advantage of the professional job 
that someone else did before you and customize it 
according to your presentation's needs and your 
personal taste.

But the way of adding our personal touch to a 
"standard" and ready-made presentation does not finish 
here. There's still something we can do by working with 
Clip Art. Clip Art is made up of those nice and 
sometimes fancy images you can insert in any 
presentation to enhance your content, to get the 
audience's attention or to better "visualize" a topic 
you are discussing. Let's see how. 



===========================================

2) * CLIP ART - IS IT POSSIBLE TO CUSTOMIZE CLIP ART? *

===========================================

Have you ever played around with Clip Art?
Clip Art are color images that you can insert into any 
slide to enhance the content of your presentation, to 
visually explain a concept or to add more colors to 
your slides.

Do you have any idea about how many million people in 
the world have been using Clip Art in their 
presentations?
I don't, but I bet they are millions...

Have you noticed that most of the times your colleagues 
use the same typical Clip Art images in their slides?

If you still want to use Clip Art, but you want it to 
be more unique and give it your "personal touch", there 
are two ways you can do it.
Follow these easy steps, and no one will be able to 
recognize your Clip Art!

Method A - If you only want to change the colors of any 
Clip Art image, do the following:

1) Place the desired Clip Art into your slide by 
   clicking Insert >> Picture >> Clip Art...

2) Ensure the Clip Art is selected (if it's not, click 
   on it once)

3) Right-click on the Clip Art image and choose
   "Format Picture..."

4) Go in the "Picture" tab and click on "Recolor"

At this point you have an easy way to modify, one by 
one, all the colors used in the original Clip Art. You 
can put a tick mark on the color you want to modify, 
and choose from a drop-down list under "New" the new 
color you want to apply. As soon as you change the 
colors, you will preview, on the miniature on the 
right, how the Clip Art image will look like.

Do all the necessary changes, then click "OK" on the 
two little windows to close them.

Does your new Clip Art image look different? It does, 
and this way you can change the colors of all the Clip 
Art in the gallery.

Method B - In case changing the colors is not enough to 
personalize a Clip Art, you can even modify its shape, 
remove some elements, add new ones, and mix two or 
three different images together.

Let's see how you can do this:

1) Insert the Clip Art (see previous paragraph)

2) Ensure it is selected otherwise select it by 
   clicking on it

3) Go to Draw >> Ungroup

Your Clip Art will be ungrouped, and you will now be 
able to click outside the slide to deselect all the 
elements, and then select only the ones you want
to modify.

What's the purpose of ungrouping a Clip Art?
What can I do now?

Well, it's up to your fantasy, but there are plenty of 
changes you can now make:

a) You can increase or decrease the size of some 
   elements inside the Clip Art

b) You can modify the single colors

c) You can remove some elements or even add new ones, 
   by making copies of the other elements

d) You can even modify the shape of all the objects,
   by using an advanced drawing feature we will see
   later on (at the end of this paragraph).

Once you have personalized your Clip Art, I recommend 
selecting all the elements and group them again, so you 
will be able to resize and move them as a whole.

*Remember that most Clip Art images have been grouped 
several times, so if you want to be able to access all 
individual elements of an illustration, try to ungroup 
them several times.
I explain: once you have ungrouped it the first time, 
there might still be some elements grouped, so go back 
to Draw >> Ungroup, and try again.

You will know that the "nested" groupings are ended 
when finally the "Ungroup" option will be grayed out.

*Tip: if you find several Clip Art that may fit your 
needs, you can mix them together and then group them 
as a whole.

**Advanced Tip (as promised under point "d"): you can 
modify the shape of some objects that make up a Clip 
Art (useful when correcting maps borders or facial 
expressions) by:

1) Selecting the ungrouped object inside the Clip Art

2) Going to Draw >> Edit Points (you can access this 
manu choice only if you have previously ungrouped all 
the elements of a Clip Art)

3) You will see that the usual little white squares 
    called "control points" become now black
    squared dots

4) Clicking on them and dragging them to modify the 
   shape of the selected object

5) Clicking on the lines and dragging, and this will 
   create a new black dot that you can edit.

This way you can modify any shape that has been created 
under PowerPoint. Once you are done with the editing, 
go back to Draw >> Edit Points and deselect
this feature to turn it off.



===========================================

3) * HOW TO USE AN IMAGE AS A BACKGROUND *

===========================================

Did you ever want to utilize a cool picture that you 
had as a background for you slides? You tried to 
insert it, but then you realized that the strong color 
contrast did not allow you to type any text on top of 
the image, and you did not know what font color to use 
to have it displayed in a readable way.

There is something we can do to have a picture as a 
background and still be able to read the text we place 
on top of it.

Before explaining in detail what you have to do, I'd 
like to remind you a few tricks to insert images into 
your slides.

- If you have your picture on your hard disk, in a 
  floppy or on a network drive, the best way is to:

   1) go to Insert >> Picture >> From File... and then 
   browse your folders to locate and select the picture 
   you want to insert
  
   2) click "Insert" and it's done
  
  
- If you find a nice photo on the Internet and you 
  want to use it for your presentation, you can do
  one the following:

   a) right-click on the image and choose "Save Picture 
   As". This way you are going to store the picture and 
   you can insert it at any time using the classical 
   method seen above
   
   b) right-click and choose "Copy" (option available
   only if you have Internet Explorer). Doing this, you
   can then paste this image on your slide right away,
   just pressing "Ctrl+V" or choosing Edit >> Paste
   
   c) press the "Print Screen" key on the top right of 
   your keyboard and then go back to the slide and
   press "Ctrl+V" to paste the image. This is called
   "screenshot", and it allows you to paste into
   PowerPoint anything that you have displayed on
   your screen.
   
By doing any of the previous steps, you will be able to 
insert a picture on any slide. In case you want the 
image to appear on all the slides, as a background, you 
have to insert it on the Slide Master (View >> Master 
>> Slide Master).
 
Here's the trick to resolve the issue of readability of 
the text on top of a picture.

Once you have pasted your image either on a single 
slide or on the Master Slide, follow these steps:

a) click on the picture to select it

b) go to View >> Toolbars >> Picture, and be sure to 
   display the Picture toolbar

c) here click on the second icon from the left,
   "Image Control"

d) choose the last option in the drop-down menu,
   "Watermark".

Your picture will be set as watermark, that is, you 
will still be able to see the shapes on the image but 
all the colors will be muted and lightened, so you will 
be able to use any dark color (blue, brown, black, 
green) to type text on top of the image.

If you want to obtain a perfect watermarked picture, 
after having applied the "watermark" effect try to 
increase or decrease the Color Contrast and the Color 
Brightness (using the apposite icons on the Picture 
toolbar) until you find the right combination.

In this paragraph we have seen so far how we can use 
images that we find on the Web. What about nice 
backgrounds? When browsing the Web, have you ever found 
a Web site with a nice background? Maybe you have also 
thought that it would have been nice to be able to use 
that exact background in your presentation.

It is definitely possible, and I will explain you the 
proper way to do it.

First of all, let me remind you the difference between 
a picture you can find on a Web page and the background 
itself of the Web page: you can be sure that what you 
are right-clicking on is a picture if you see the 
option "Save Picture As...". Otherwise, if the image is 
a background, as you right-click on it you will see the 
option: "Save Background As..."
The main difference is that an image can be inserted 
into PowerPoint and then manually stretched to cover
the entire slide; a background needs to be inserted
using a different way, since the image used as the
background can be difficulty stretched manually.

Moreover, remember that some images or backgrounds may 
be copyright-protected. In any case, if you want to be 
honest and respectful, find the email of the Webmaster 
-usually at the bottom of the page- and write him/her 
an email asking permission to reproduce the image for 
non-commercial use. Most of the times he/she won't even 
waste his/her time to answer you, but at least you 
won't be liable for anything).

Once you find a Web site whose background you like (I 
can suggest you to try with these ones: 
http://www.usal.es - the Home Page of the University of 
Salamanca, in Spain, and http://www.vatican.va - the 
official Home Page of Vatican State) do the following:

a) right-click on the background (be sure you are not 
   clicking on a single image, you need to right-click 
   exactly on a portion of background)

b) choose "Save Background As..."

c) save it anywhere you like (e.g. in your
   preferred folder)

Now, open your PowerPoint and:

a) select Format >> Background

b) click on the little down arrow in the
   "Background Fill"

c) select "Fill Effects"

d) click on the last tab, "Picture"

e) click where it says: "Select Picture..."

f) browse your folders to locate the background you
   have previously saved

g) once you find it, select it and click "Insert"

h) click "OK" on the Picture tab

i) click "Apply to all" on the Background box and
   it's done.

The nice background you found on the Internet is now 
displayed in all your slides.



===========================================

4) * WHERE CAN I FIND USEFUL AND EFFECTIVE
  PRESENTATION DESIGN RESOURCES ON THE WEB? *
   
===========================================

by Antonella Pastore

The Web is an inexhaustible source of inspiration for 
your presentation designs. But it'll do more, actually: 
there is plenty of Web sites that offer free 
presentation templates for you to download. Some are 
nothing more than backgrounds, but very often you'll 
find fully-fledged templates, with fonts, graphics, 
sounds and chart styles. In any case, you're going to 
find them extremely useful if, for example, you're in a 
rush and still want something nice and new, or if you 
want to add a different touch to your existing 
presentations.

I have put together and reviewed a number of selected 
Web sites offering free templates (even content 
outlines, if you've run short of ideas), pictures and 
images to jazz-up your presentations. I've looked into 
the range of designs, ease of download and format of 
templates, so that you know exactly what to look for 
and where. Some of the sites also offer templates for 
sale, so you've got the option to buy some beautiful 
designs for that special occasion.


*Digital Studio*
http://www.soniacoleman.com/Templates.htm

Professionally designed templates and agreeable range 
of colors and designs. 21 sets of templates are 
available, and each one contains 8 templates, which can 
be downloaded both in bundle and individually, always 
in zipped version. The site is rich in instructions on 
how to download and install the templates, but you'll 
have to browse through all the sets to find the best 
one that suits you, since the templates are not 
classified by theme or else.


*How To Conquer the World - PowerPoint Template Store*
http://www.howtoconquertheworld.com/powerpoi.htm

Scroll down the page patiently, because it's only down 
there that you'll find some free templates to download 
and the links to the next pages. Most templates are on 
sale. Though modest in size, you'll find a good range 
of clean, simple but effective designs. The store 
offers a free newsletter through which you can get to 
know about special free offers.


*Web Site Estates - Free PowerPoint Templates*
http://www.websiteestates.com/ppoint.html

All free and oh-so elegant with their minimalist 
graphical tinge. You can get the templates by email by 
subscribing to their "PowerPoint Templates Delivered to 
Your Inbox!" service. The downloads are free because 
the site is ad-supported. This also means that after 
downloading your favorite template, it will open up in 
your browser to be saved, but you will see an 
advertisement on the first slide. However, save it 
securely, since you'll be able to remove the ad image 
when you open the template in PowerPoint. Files can be 
downloaded individually for free or in bulk by donating 
a $10 contribution to the designer through Amazon
Honor System.


*Graphicsland*
http://www.graphicsland.com/powerpoint-templates.htm
 
Wide choice of simple templates, mostly characterized 
by color rather than pictures or clip arts. Scroll 
down the long page to see the previews of the templates 
and to get to the link from which you can download them 
all in a handy zip file. 


*Microsoft Office Template Gallery*
http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/templategallery/

On the official Microsoft site, you'll find an area 
devoted to free updates to your MS Office that cover 
all sorts of MS Office files (Word, Excel), PowerPoint 
files included. Templates, here, are mostly content 
samples for multiple purposes. The template, beside 
providing the layout and style, offers tips on what you 
want to write in a certain type of document. Document 
samples for download are: resumes, cover letters, sales 
and marketing documents, collection letters, legal 
documents, complaint letters. 

Templates are ordered by category (Marketing, 
Financing, etc.). Click on the one that interests you 
and find there another subset of document types. 
Presentations consist in textual presentation outlines 
with tips on how to structure the content of your 
presentation. Download is no easy job, however, unless 
you've got Office 2000 installed onto your system.


*3M Presentation Corner*
http://www.3m.com/meetingnetwork/presentations/download
able_templates_download.jhtml?_DARGS=%2Fmeetingnetwo
rk%2Fpresentations%2Fdownloadable_templates_register.
jhtml.38

Well... there's only one template for you to download 
here, vaguely inspired to a high-tech theme. Worth 
getting it, however, because the template includes a 
slide template, fonts, sounds, images that you can 
easily recycle for your presentation purposes. 


*FreeFoto*
http://www.freefoto.com

Over 18,000 images with new pictures being added on a 
weekly basis on this extensive and easy-to-navigate Web 
site. Photographs can be used freely just by saving 
them from your browser window. High-resolution images 
and prints can be purchased.

On this fast, extensive site, images are grouped by 
categories that range from Business to Food and Drink. 
The pictures are beautiful and very professionally 
converted to jpg format. This collection will give you 
lots of ideas for your backgrounds and individual 
slides. Read in this very issue (article #3) how you 
put up a picture as a watermarked background for
your slides.


*The Freebie Directory: Free Graphics*
http://www.freebiedirectory.com/Free_Graphics/

An accurate selection of Web sites that offer plenty of 
free graphics and Clip Art. Web sites are rated by 
users, and so you see quickly which one is worth
a visit.


*Presenters' University*
http://www.presentersonline.com/resources/templates/

This site deserves a special mention because it's a 
high-quality resource for presenters: articles on 
presentation techniques, new products, files... Not 
only is it varied but definitely very focused on the 
best for presenters.

Templates are grouped by category, and the designs are 
really elegant and contemporary in style. Each .ppt 
file actually contains 3 sample slides: title, text and 
chart, including font style and color, just ready
to use.


*PowerPointed Free Templates by Indezine.com*
http://www.indezine.com

PowerPointed is a series of templates promoted by 
Indezine, Indian Web designer Geetesh Bajaj's 
presentation resource site with loads of tips and free 
PowerPoint graphics for download. 

Beside the free templates, you may want to have a look 
at the Background Archive at 
http://www.indezine.com/back/index.html
Here you'll find a whole collection of "tiles", small 
squares of graphic patterns, ordered by color, that you 
can tile, i.e. juxtapose in order to fill the whole 
available space of your presentation, desktop or Web 
page background. The designs are impressive and 
complex, so check out the final effect you're going to 
get. You can preview it by clicking on your favorite 
ones: sometimes, they might not be just the best choice 
if you're going to put text on them. However, I am sure 
you can find lots of applications for them, for example 
as background sections of a title or picture, or as 
fancy bullets for your lists.

As far as the PowerPoint templates are concerned check 
the links below. The files are ppt/pot and usually 
contain just one slide with the background. There's a 
whole host to choose from, and the designs are quite 
cool, I'd say. Simple but effective. Just pay attention 
to the font style and color that you will select to go 
with these templates. Fonts are left on their default 
settings, so they might not be just the ideal ones for 
the design you'll choose. 

There are six series of free templates that you can 
find at:

PowerPointed 01
http://powerpointed.freeservers.com/index.html

PowerPointed 02
http://www.angelfire.com/indie/powerpointed/

PowerPointed 03
http://powerpointed.virtualave.net/

PowerPointed 04
http://powerpointed.50megs.com/

PowerPointed 05 
http://powerpointed.20m.com/

PowerPointed 06
http://members.fortunecity.com/powerpointed/


And now a final word of wisdom: although I always kept 
an eye on good design criteria, I got overly excited at 
the fancy graphics and backgrounds I found during my 
Web wanderings. I bet you'll easily get carried away by 
the range of colors, patterns, designs, fonts you're 
going to find (I changed my desktop background a dozen 
times while researching this article!)

The fact is that your focus of attention should always 
be on your audience. To keep your template search on 
track, stick to these three reminders:

a) Always check out that the colors contrast well with 
   your text content
   
b) Choose colors that are not distracting from the 
   ideas you're presenting
   
c) Always test how readable your text is against the 
   beautiful graphics you are using.


Contributed by Antonella Pastore
Chief Information Architect
IKONOS New Media
(antonella.pastore#ikonosnewmedia.com)



==========================================

* THE 12 DESIGN COMMANDMENTS TO A PROFESSIONALLY-
  LOOKING PRESENTATION *

==========================================

by Luigi Canali De Rossi

No matter what you have to communicate, or in which
corner of the world you are going to do it, the way
your presentation looks makes a lasting and influential
impression on your audience.

Across different cultures and continents the basic
rules of good design and high legibility are the same.
Knowing them, and using them consistently finally
brings to the power of your visuals the professional-
looking credibility of your true know-how.


1) Work with pale, muted colors.
While you can have fixed colored sections in blue, red, 
green or other strong colors, you should generally 
place your body content on a pale, muted background. 
The lightest tint of gray will do better than white, 
saving many of your audience contrast-strained eyes. 
Pastel, soft colors, like Siena-tints work wonderfully 
in all situations as they provide with good contrast 
with your text, and a soothing, relaxing feeling on the 
eyes of the viewers.


2) Leave ample margins.
Presentation elements in every slide need sufficient 
margins around them to "breathe". This is a design 
principle that you can see applied to any visual 
communication media. Do not stick your organization 
logo in a corner letting it touch the borders of your 
slide. Do not let titles or text come too close to Clip 
Art elements, photographs or other graphic elements 
present on the slide. Leave always a discrete but 
perceptible amount of margin between any two elements 
(including in this your slide margins).


3) Be consistent.
Invest the extra time and effort required to make your 
presentation look professionally done by making sure 
that everything is very consistent. Titles should all 
be not only in the same font, color and style but also 
in the same position. If you decide to utilize a visual 
transition between slides use always the same one. 
Keep your color theme constant throughout as well as 
the basic layout of all of your presentation slides.


4) Be readable.
Make sure your slides are all highly readable. To test 
this thoroughly without needing to go and rent ahead of 
time your conference room do the following while 
sitting in front of your presentation at the computer:

a) Display the presentation full screen, as if you were 
rehearsing it

b) Move your chair back and away from the monitor about 
half a meter

c) Squeeze your eyes while keeping the minimum aperture 
needed to see what is on your screen and try to read

If you can read comfortably what is on the screen, it 
means that you have selected a good font at an 
appropriate size. If you cannot read properly, or you 
have to strain yourself to read the content of your 
slides you had better go back to your presentation 
editor tool and improve on font size, and 
font/background contrast.


5) Strike only when necessary.
Use animation and slide-transition effects sparingly. 
Although the temptation to use them everywhere is high 
you should resist this strongly. Think of visual 
animated transitions as a visual punctuation language 
of its own. Would you put exclamation marks at every 
word? Strike the audience by effectively using visual 
effects in key areas of your presentation: the opening, 
the key point, the closing.


6) Use color to communicate.
Utilize color to enhance legibility of your content 
items and to signify special circumstances. For example 
it is a good idea to emphasize or surround with 
"strong" colors areas or items that you want your 
audience to pay attention to. Different elements in the 
page can also be colored differently to signal 
different communication purposes in your presentation 
(e.g.: problems may be listed in red, while solution 
may be displayed in blue).


7) Select your fonts scientifically.
Serif fonts like Times New Roman, Garamond, Book 
Antiqua are effective for long stretches of text. Use 
them sparingly in presentation slides, as text content 
should always be short and to the point. Sans-serif 
fonts work very effectively in presentations. For 
example Arial is an optimum font for titling, while 
Verdana is particularly apt at displaying small text as 
captions, callouts and figures even when set at
small sizes.


8) Follow the "rule of seven".
Do not add excessive content to your slides. The 
popular "rule of seven" can also be applied here and it 
suggest you not to have bulleted lists with more than 7 
elements, not to have tables larger than 7 columns by 7 
rows, and not to have lines of texts with more than 
seven words.


9) Provide reference.
Enrich and make more accessible your presentations by 
providing clear reference info on the title of the 
presentation, visible at all times during the 
presentation. If you can add discretely to this, by 
using a small font in the lower horizontal area of your 
slide layout, consider also the provision of your name, 
company/org, date and slide number/total number
of slides.


10)  Use quality images.
The selection of your presentation images is essential 
in giving to viewer an immediate idea of the quality of 
your work. Do not rely on Microsoft or other free Clip 
Art or photo libraries. Too many people use them, and 
the connotation of the images available on those 
catalogs is "cheap". Get access to a professional CD 
library or online service from which you can select 
hundreds of quality images that share at least the same 
style and quality of execution.


11) Open and close in memorable ways.
Like for real movies, the very opening and closing 
parts of your presentation are unique opportunities to 
make a lasting and memorable impression on your 
audience. By adopting the same techniques utilized in 
classical old-time movies and cartoons (opening from 
black with a "box out" or "split horizontal out" 
animation) you can be certain to impress your audience 
while projecting a professional image.


12) Balance your layout.
A good presentation design should take into 
consideration the individual layout of each slide. As a 
general approach it is wise to look at each slide as if 
it were a rectangular tray in equilibrium atop a thin 
pole. By imagining to be looking at the empty slide 
from the top, you can start to "see" graphic and text 
elements as weights you are placing onto the slide 
tray. In this fashion you should gradually develop a 
sense of what it takes not to have the tray fall off 
the pole because there is a large image on one side but 
not a corresponding and counter-balancing "visual" 
weight on the other side.


Contributed by Luigi Canali De Rossi
MasterView Editor-in-Chief


==========================================

Next Issue Theme: 
RUNNING YOUR PRESENTATION LIKE A PRO     


* Problems: *

1) HOW CAN I MAKE MY PRESENTATION RUN BY ITSELF 
   UNATTENDED? 

2) HOW CAN I EASILY CONTROL MY PRESENTATION WITH 
   THE KEYBOARD WHILE RUNNING THE SHOW?

3) WHAT CAN I DO TO CREATE A MEMORABLE OPENING
   AND CLOSING FOR MY PRESENTATION?

4) IS IT POSSIBLE TO LINK MY PRESENTATION SLIDES
   TO OTHER PRESENTATIONS OR TO OTHER APPLICATION
   FILES?
   
5) HOW CAN I MIX WITHIN THE SAME PRESENTATION, 
   SLIDES WITH DIFFERENT PAGE LAYOUTS 
   (PORTRAIT/LANDSCAPE)?

6) WHICH IS THE WAY TO CREATE OPTIONAL SLIDES,
   THAT NEED TO BE SHOWN ONLY IN SPECIAL,
   UNPLANNED SITUATIONS?



* Solutions: *

1) Learn how to record all of your presentation
   settings and timing so that it can be run unattended

2) Find out all of the secret and advanced keyboard
   commands that allow you to do near-magical tasks
   while running your show 

3) Discover the experts approach to open and close your
   presentations in a memorable way. Learn from films
   and theatre how this has been culturally developed
   and why therefore some visual solutions are better
   than others

4) Master in this mini-tutorial how you can link any
   web page, Word document or other application file to
   any slide in your presentation

5) Learn how to get around this fastidious limitation,
   by saving your individual slides to a standard
   file format.

6) Discover the "hidden slide" PowerPoint functionality 
   which can help you take out your magic slide, just
   when you need it

__________________________________________

To read MasterView past issues, go to 
http://masterview.ikonosnewmedia.com
__________________________________________


------------------------------------------------
Send your presentation questions in:
------------------------------------------------

MasterView is an open discussion forum for many of you 
having specific questions about making presentations. 
These can be addressed to:
ask-masterview@yahoogroups.com. I and everybody at
IKONOS New Media will be happy to provide you with best 
advice, tools and resources.

Who am I?

I am the Executive Editor of this electronic 
publication, my name is Simone Luchini and I am a 
presentation specialist and trainer for IKONOS New 
Media (http://www.ikonosnewmedia.com)

We specialize in empowering international 
organizations, grow and prosper online through the 
effective use of new media and ICT (Information & 
Communication Technologies).

Founded in 1988, IKONOS New Media is an electronic 
publishing and distance learning company serving 
education, research and development organizations.

If you would like to know something more about me, come 
and check out my page at: 
http://www.ikonosnewmedia.com/people/simone.htm


Sincerely,


Simone Luchini - Executive Editor
Presentations Specialist, Trainer


IKONOS New Media
Rome | Washington
(Simone.Luchini#ikonosnewmedia.com)


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *   

Feedback

Direct feedback: simone.luchini@ikonosnewmedia.com

IKONOS New Media
Via P. Giannone 10 - 00195 Rome, Italy

.........................................

MasterView Editorial Staff

Luigi Canali De Rossi - Editor-in-chief
luigi.canali#ikonosnewmedia.com

Simone Luchini - Executive Editor
simone.luchini#ikonosnewmedia.com


MasterView Expert Contributors

Antonella Pastore
antonella.pastore#ikonosnewmedia.com

........................................



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