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Category Design

·Design

Godin on presenting: give love / get respect

See his recent blog post, great presenters should have:

  1. Respect (from the audience)
  2. Love (to the audience) The only thing I want to add is that I think a speaker can get respect during a presentation, he/she does not necessarily have to have it beforehand (although it helps).
·3D

How to make a 3D translucent ball in PowerPoint

Here is how you make 3D balls used in these images, or these images. Click on the chart for a larger picture.

You should experiment with the “top height” and “top width” to find a value that best fits the size of the object you are working on.

·Design

Why not zoom those images

Stock image sites are trying to convince you to buy higher resolution (and higher price) versions of the same image, I usually don’t buy it.

  • In case you need to print it on a street sign (not required for me)
  • Because you want the very best looking PPT slide (no real difference + big file size)

There is a reason however that might make me change my mind. The same argument holds when buying digital cameras with ever increasing mega pixel capabilities: your ability to zoom.

Try to experiment with zooming into stock images (don’t be afraid to create a “bleed”). The result might not look good on your computer monitor, but from a distance it can look refreshing. (Do the slide sorter view test).

In the example above, both approaches work. A tiny image on a big white background, or an extreme zoom. The middle ground (as usual) is boring.

·Advertising

PowerPoint lessons from a toilet paper ad

I am learning a lot from print advertising. I am learning a lot from the adgoodness blog.

Especially in fund raising presentations I design for startups that are going to pitch to potential investors, I am spending a lot of time/effort in finding that one image or visual concept that really nails down the idea in one big bang. Almost to the extent that the following slides are not required anymore.

Consumer marketing is all about focus on one single and clear consumer benefit. Here is a(nother) great example. Food for thought when designing your next presentation.

·Design

Exception: some conceptual stock images can be useful

I am not a big fan of conceptual stock images. Compositions you can do yourself. There are exceptions. See the example below.

·3D

3D smoke 'n mirrors - making things disappear from an image in PowerPoint

Stretching part of a picture cannot only be used to create white space, you can also let things disappear pretty much like David Copperfield does:

I used this concept to show how a new technology solution of one of my clients can save a lot of server costs. The zapped servers live on in the reflection in their opposite neighbours though…

·3D

More 3D in PowerPoint - obstacle course!

I am continuing to experiment with 3D effects. Here is an alternative idea to visualize a number of obstacles on the road ahead. The last image (click it for a larger picture) contains some explanations on how I did it. If things are not clear feel free to as in the comments.

Does anyone know how to add a smooth moving animation to this, motion paths and re-sizing of objects do not go together?

(Apologies for the image quality as I converted to JPG instead of PNG to improve load times)

·Design

Chart concept - rip those PowerPoint shapes apart

A concept I often use to visualize things that are torn apart by opposing forces in PowerPoint presentations.

  • Copy a shape (with text)
  • Paste special as PNG (4 times, or even more)
  • Start cropping the copies

·Design

How to strip web text of its formating

Especially for sources in footers I often want to avoid re-typing a complicated title of a document that I found on the web. Copy-paste of the text also copies some of the text formating. Solution: copy the text, paste it into “Note pad” (the standard text editing utility that comes with Windows), select the text again and paste it into a PPT text box. I would be interested if other people have faster solutions for this.

UPDATE: Remy got the solution in the comments: copy any text, then select Edit and “Paste Special” and select unformatted text. Thank you!

UPDATE 2: Glen Turpin recommends PureText (see the comments).Thank you!

·Design

Chart concept - distorting text under a magnifying glass in PowerPoint

For when you want to make the point that it is important to pay attention to the small print, or make sure that you did not skip over important hidden information, you can use this concept.

In PowerPoint 2007:

  • Get a picture of a magnifying glass from any stock photography site
  • Set the font to a Times Roman-like serif font that looks like a book/newspaper
  • Cut the sentence in 3
  • Increase the size and apply a “can up” distortion to the text inside the magnifying glass (select the text, go into format, text effects, transform, in “warp”, 3rd from the left, 4th from the top.

UPDATE: I have added a slide with this concept in the SlideMagic template store, you can download it here.

 A magnifying glass in PowerPoint

A magnifying glass in PowerPoint

Photo by mari lezhava on Unsplash