SlideMagic Blog

Robert Scoble posted a number of videos with previews of the upcoming Microsoft Office 2010 release. Here is the one about PowerPoint 2010 (speaking is Chris Bryant, product manager on the Office 2010 team): Here are the main points covered in this video (which does not mean that these are the major new features in PowerPoint 2010)

1. More “cinematic” transitions. More spectacular slide transitions. I never use any form of slide transition, they distract the audience, or worst case: makes them laugh while you are presenting a very serious subject
2. Animation painter. Copy and paste animation effects from one object to another, not essential
3. Better video integration. I like this, I think that video will be used increasingly in presentations. Today, integrating rich media into your presentation is a high-risk activity that is likely to result in things going wrong (technically) in the middle of your presentation. PowerPoint 2010 allows you edit videos and sync them with animations
4. Backstage view: an elaborate screen to control file protection, compression, etc.

Here is my (partial) wish list of features for a new PowerPoint release. Some of them are probably impossible to implement for the moment…

• A powerful 3D engine to control where to put shapes on a surface, where to put light sources, pretty much like professional design programs like AutoCAD. The third dimension is only used to add some effects to a PowerPoint slide, it could be so much more. It would literally open a whole new design dimension to slide design
• Fully integrated canvas zooming a la PowerPoint plex or Prezi, enabling you to work on one big interactive slide that you can zoom in and out of
• A powerful animation control engine, not more flashy effects, but a clear sequence editor to move objects across a slide to exact locations, including a good solution to deal with and edit layers of overlapping objects.
• Tight cloud integration. Files are getting bigger, collaboration changes. This video about PowerPoint 2010 did not address these “workflow” issues, but I think they are being addressed in the overal Microsoft Office 2010 release.

I came across this template in a meeting yesterday. I am not picking on this specific company that is using this PowerPoint template, it is just a great example of templates that almost all companies in high-tech use. “Business-like” settings, professional models and big logos and graphical elements repeated on every page.

Technically, these templates are well executed (images, composition, colors). Your presentations look professional but they do not really stand out. They could look so much better and more original.

I do realize that creating a standard PowerPoint template for large corporations that have thousands of employees, most of them not skilled in PowerPoint, that have to produce documents that look vaguely consistent in format is a challenge.

Some suggestions:

• Avoid professional models in slides, but especially in templates. They are not real people.
• Get rid of “frames” around slides, the blue line at the bottom is not required
• Avoid heavy graphical elements on the page, especially at the top. It makes the slide too heavy
• I do like using images as separators for different sections in presentations. Instead of using images of models, hire a photographer and use real images: anonymous people in the street of cities your offices are located, images of a delivery truck unloading your product for different stores, cafes that feature your beer brand on their building facade. If you want to use people, take real ones (employees from all over the world that use your software) and include many, many, many images to avoid boredom of seeing the same face

Mark Suster, an entrepreneur-turned VC at GRP Partners, is in the process of creating an excellent outline for a VC pitch presentation. Subscribe to his blog “Both sides of the table” and/or follow his progress on this very useful overview page.

More VC pitch resources here, and my own contributions on the topic are here.

Overheard in the office:

[Person walking into the office] “That’s a nice chart you are making there, what is it for?”

[Me] “A fund raising presentation for a new interesting startup.”

[Person] “Tell me more about it.”

[Me] "OK. It’s not confidential. Here is the deal"[Short and sweet story follows]

[Person] “That sounds like a great investment opportunity”

[Person leaves the office]

[Me thinking] “I need to re-write this presentation from scratch…”

Sometimes the best presentations get created after the work is basically finished. All the pieces of the puzzle fall in one place. There is nothing wrong with opening up a blank screen and re-writing the entire deck in one big burst of creativity. It would not have been possible without the time spent on the first version.

My first post was on 11 July 2008. We are 1 year and around 350 posts later. It has been quite a ride.

I started off with the idea of “documenting” some of my basic approaches to presentation design, but gradually moved away from trying to write these (time consuming) “how-to classics”. Instead, I am picking 1 idea/concept that comes across my desk, strip it of client-specific details and share it with all of you. More interesting, less time consuming, plus an (almost) endless flow of ideas for blog posts.

This sharing has been the most rewarding aspect of my blog. I am getting to know many interesting people from all over the world. Maybe this post is an opportunity from some of the “anonymous readers” to write a brief introduction about yourself in the comments. Who are you? Where are you from? It would be great to meet you.

Here is a new idea. Zen-style presentations with large images and a few words in a big font do not stand very well on their own. Maybe we should apply something from the movies: add subtitles to a PowerPoint slide.

• Crammed in a small black box that blends in with the black frame of the projector
• A small font that can be read when sitting in front of a screen, but blurs away when viewed from a distance (when a presenter is explaining the chart)
• Unlike notes pages, the text appears on the slide itself (in PDF, in SlideShare)

It’s like reading a newspaper page:

1. You read the small print under the images first
2. You read the headlines after that
3. You read the actual text last

An example below, click on an image to get a larger picture.

Interestingly, this concept is very similar to the “lead” in the ancient McKinsey exhibit format.

Another problem that would be solved by this is to make the information captured in a presentation searchable. In particular large knowledge firms (such as management consultants) struggle with archiving the knowledge that is hidden in PowerPoint presentations with little text.

It is hard to find that one image that tells your entire story, especially when writing fund raising presentations for technology startups. This one comes pretty close: “Dont’ lose your contacts when you drop your phone”, and ad by Indian mobile phone operator Airtel for a phone address book backup service.

See how the composition of the image creates an enormous depth of field. Although it might clash with a minimalist approach to design, I would put the message in a big bold title on top of the image if I were to apply something like this in PowerPoint. Over-communicating is better just to make sure that everyone gets the point.

A larger image can be seen here on Ads of the World.

The text balloon is commonly used in cartoons. It is now making its way in PowerPoint presentations as well. There are 2 fundamental ways in which you can use them.

1. A full-length comic story. For presentations that are designed for online viewing (without the explanations of a live presenter) you could create an entire presentation that is in fact a comic book. Create characters, put them in different scenes and write a dialogue that tells the story. Here is an example. They are beautiful, but take a lot of design work to make, need to be very consistent from page to page, and are basically useless as supporting slides for a live presentation.
2. An example of a familiar situation. How to visualize this familiar situation: “We all know the feeling when you show up at the reception desk and it turns out that there was a miscommunication about the time and place of your meeting because you did not get/read an email”. A mini dialogue can do a wonderful job.

If you use mini-dialogues:

• Make sure that text is readable (short, big)
• The point of the dialogue is very easy to understand
• Use a non-cheesy portait image or cartoon character. (Debby would not be good for this type of chart)
• Give the audience a few seconds to digest the slide

While browsing Hugh MacLeod’s “gapingvoid” blog (wonderful cartoons) I stumbled across this online investment pitch for an enterprise software startup that calls itself thingamy.

There are different phases in VC due dilligence. The 60 second look, the first 15 minute meeting, the first hour spend, sitting through a pitch and finally the complete “turn everything upside down” check on the company.

You should read the blog post by VC-ist Brad Feld about “Saying no in 60 seconds”: investors are ploughing through huge deal flows and need to make up their mind quickly to avoid wasting a startup’s time, and wasting their own time that they could have spent on deals they want to do, or working with their portfolio companies. It sounds harsh, but a polite “thank you” after a 60 second analysis is still better than no answer at all.

So I took the 60 second stage of due dilligence (as a VC amateur, but a professional presentation ptich designer). My feedback.

Things I really liked:

• It’s public. The fact that you are looking ofr money, the story behind your company, all available to see for everyone on the Internet. More startups should have the confidence to do this. Spread your story within the boundaries of proprietary IP.

• The headlines and the supporting cartoons on the 30megs site.

• The completely different approach to fund raising gets you a plus as an entrepreneur/team.

Things that can be improved:

• Getting the practical “what do you actually do” out there quickly. In 60 secons it was still not competely clear to me. I am sure that in an hour I will find it out, but people like Brad Feld have made up their mind by then.
• The menu structure on the company site makes it a bit hard to read the text. Maybe a standard piece of text would have been calmer to the eye.

Depth of field is an under-used technique in PowerPoint. Here is an idea for a slide I used for a client that has a powerful solution against spam. Repeating and object many times can give dramatic effects.

More 3D tricks here.