Peeky – 59p

Peeky is essentially a discreet countdown timer for presenters. Rather than constantly check a watch to ensure that he is presenting according to schedule, the presenter can simply set the timer on his device and leave it in his pocket, or on a table. When a specified number of seconds is remaining, the device will flash and/or vibrate a warning, informing the presenter when he should be moving on to the next slide.

The app draws inspiration from the Pecha Kucha and ignite formats, allowing the user to select those formats as defaults for their presentation. The aim of the app is, essentially, to ensure that you do not spend too long speaking on a single slide.

This can be a great help to those who waffle. However, the fact that the user is not able to set a specific time limit for each slide really lets this app down. Very rarely (perhaps only at the events mentioned above) will it prove useful for a presenter to spend exactly the same amount of time on each slide. The app could be greatly improved with this flexibility.

Should I download it?

In short, the app is simple, and does what it promises to do with no extras. At a low price, it could prove useful to presenters who struggle with timing, but doesn’t have much else to offer.

Presenter Pro – £1.19

Presenter Pro contains a wealth of information. With five instructive sections and one ‘rate me’ section, plus a quiz and randomised ‘tips’ that appear if the device is shaken, a presenter could certainly spend a while working through everything. Not only this, but the information is presented in many different formats – depending on the section, the user can watch a video, listen to an audio recording, or select pictures to view the information behind them. If the user finds any point particularly useful, he can save it to a checklist for quick viewing later.

The menu is split into five sections: Structure, Words, Gestures, Visual Aids, and Voice. The rather haphazard organisation results in several overlaps, and it does feel as though the whole application could have been simplified. Message and objectives are underplayed in this layout too – there are a few points in certain sections on the subject, but without its own section, content is not sufficiently emphasised.

The section on words contains what is probably the most useful advice in the application. Presenter Pro advises presenters to use simple, clear language, that won’t confuse the audience, or make things sound more complicated than necessary. Presenters should also use stories to bring a ‘real’ aspect to the presentation – at m62, we encourage presenters to use case studies where possible to outline proof of how the benefits have helped companies in the way they could help the prospect.

The introduction to the ‘Gestures’ section reads: ‘Your gestures proved 55% or more of the impact of your presentation.’ There is no evidence to back this up, and the figure appears to be more than a little exaggerated. Is Presenter Pro really suggesting that an audience will be less influenced by your message and visuals than by the way your hands are clasped?

Gestures are not irrelevant, and using gestures correctly to emphasise your point and react with your slides can prove useful in maximising presentation effectiveness. But presenters should not be focusing all of their attention on their gestures, and certainly should not be spending the majority of preparation time rehearsing them. Spending too much time concentrating on specific gestures can result in the actions looking stilted and fake.

The psychological explanation under ‘Why are visuals more effective?’ (found in Visuals > Facts) is a good explanation, but has not been applied fully. The application of this research that Presenter Pro suggests does not allow for information to be absorbed via the aural and visual channels simultaneously, in the form of animated diagrams and charts. While pictures are better than text on a slide, the psychology can be used further to obtain better results. For more information on this, have a look at our visualisation examples.

In vein of this, the ‘great examples’ found under ‘Think in pictures’ are not the most effective ways of conveying your message to the audience. The visual metaphors used do not emphatically imply the text or message that has been suggested. Forcing your audience to think too much about the way your visual works does not make for an easy assimilation of information. The shot of barbed wire has nothing to do with alienation, and this author instead began thinking about farms and afternoons spent walking the dog in childhood. Visuals can distract as well as aid, and should be clearly relevant to the message – and the message only.

Should I download it?

Essentially, Presenter Pro focuses on what we at m62 refer to as ’soft skills’; body language, tone of voice, and nerve control. While these can be useful to fine-tune your delivery, practising these when delivering a bad presentation will not improve its effectiveness.

This app could be useful if you feel confident that your content and visual aids have been perfected, and you want some specific tips on how to improve your voice or the use of gestures. Perhaps it is not the place for beginners, however: inexperienced speakers may be tempted to focus too much on the finer details, and fail to devote sufficient attention to more integral aspects of presenting, such as messaging and audience engagement.

60 Presentation Tips from Ethos3 – Free

It is immediately clear that this app was made by a design company. The app looks good, and the way you interact with each tip is very neat. The app itself is simply a list of tips, which the user can either read in order, or select from the card-wheel.

The app contains some good tips, such as “make sure you’re using language that everyone in the room will be able to follow” and “pause”, which are great ideas to ensure that your audience remain focused. The advice to “eliminate the weak language from your presentation” is very useful, as is “stand to the left side of the screen”, which many advisors fail to mention. As the Western world reads from left to right, the presenter should stand on the left to ensure no interruption to the audience’s view.

It is odd how little the app focuses on visual aids, considering that it was created by a design agency. Ethos3 quotes that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’. Pictures may be more effective than text in a presentation, but using them in this way is still not true visualisation (as explained above).

Should I download it?

The application contains some good tips, but a lot of common sense. Ethos3 reminds presenters to “smile” and “visit the restroom before you present” – tips that one would hope the presenter would already be aware of! The app reads like an ad for the company, for which it serves quite well, but otherwise it is just a list of tips that could be found anywhere on the internet.

CueMe – 59p

CueMe is an app for presenters to use when making their own notes. The application allows the user to colour code his notes, as well as changing the font and size. CueMe is designed to be simple and easy to use, with the added benefit of a timer to help the presenter stay on schedule.

The structure of the presentation format is not immediately obvious, but once it becomes clear the app is very simple to use. The functions utilise standard keys that an iPhone or iPod touch user would be familiar with, and one touch buttons make it easy to edit notes to make important points stand out.

The application also allows the user to input text directly from his computer. The process is a little awkward, involving visiting a URL on your computer browser, but is a great added piece of functionality that saves the user a lot of time in the long run.

When in presenter mode, there is a timer in the top left corner that flashes red when there are less than thirty seconds remaining on a section. This can be very useful for those who have timing issues, as it stops the presenter waffling. Different times can be set for each section (or each slide) enabling the presenter to have a very exact control over the schedule of his presentation.

Should I download it?

In all, the application is well designed, and should help presenters a great deal. While there is no substitute for rehearsal, organising speaker notes in such a way will enable the presenter to deliver a much smoother performance.

Prepare Any Presentation in 10 Minutes or Less – Free

This application promotes what it refers to as the ‘3-D Outline’ to presenting, which is essentially a table the presenter users to plan his preparation. The app contains notes detailing this technique and a video explaining it, as a phone-in caller is talked through his presentation live.

The issue with the ‘3-D Outline’ structure is that it is not audience focused. No consideration is taken of audience attention span, or of what they might like to hear. While the presentation is rightly focused on ‘objectives’, there is not enough emphasis on selling benefits in the rest of the presentation. Benefits are useful in all presentations – in every presentation the presenter wants the audience to do something at the end of it, and in order for them to do this, you need to tell them the benefits for them of doing so.

Additionally, the ‘How’ section is not fully explored. The approach sees each type of media separately, and doesn’t consider linking them together. The implication is that slides and presenting are not good for the audience. The app fails to realise that slides do not have to be awful, and that other forms of media can be included in the slides, instead of just text.

The worst piece of advice in the app is that on timing. Tony Jeary says, “Sometimes when you’re going through your presentation you think you need thirty minutes, but then you realise that you really need an hour.” He goes on to suggest that the presenter should ask for a longer time slot. This is poor advice for three reasons:

1. Audience attention spans wane after twenty minutes, so the longer your presentation, the more they will struggle to pay attention
2. Presentations should be all about the audience and what they want. If they’ve given you a certain time slot, you should respect that – people are busy!
3. Simplifying your information is the best way to better it. Anyone can present for an hour on a topic he is enthusiastic about; it is harder, but much more rewarding, to cut this down.

If your audience has given you a certain amount of time – stick to it. Even better: Allow time for Q&A, and finish early.

Should I download it?

The claim in the title is a little misleading. The preparation isn’t prepared in ten minutes – the presenter just plans how you’re going to prepare it. This claim is the presentation equivalent of drawing up a revision timetable for exams, and then expecting that table to get you an A.

The 3-D Outline is a reasonable place for the presenter to start when preparing for a presentation, but the process doesn’t really take the user anywhere. For a free download, the table can be useful – but, ultimately, there is far more to preparing for a presentation than that explained in the 3-D Outline approach.

The design features a main body and title slide, with a series of Easter eggs framing the bottom of the slide. The template is coloured in cool blue, and really sets the scene for any Easter-themed presentation.

The Easter PowerPoint template will work with Easter or Spring themed presentation and could be the perfect accompaniment to a Easter egg hunt or Easter bonnet parade. How ever you use the template, we are sure the results will be sunny side up!

Easter PowerPoint Template

The second part of our PowerPoint 2010 review centres around the improvements made in usability. There are two reasons for these improvements to be made: to reduce the stress involved in trying to perfect a presentation by making the process easier; and to save time, by reducing the number of clicks needed to perform a function, or removing the need for plug-ins or other programs.

Our testers noted three distinct areas of improvement in PowerPoint 2010. Here we explain these, and detail examples of each.

Menu Functions

One of the most noticeable things about the move from earlier versions of PowerPoint to 2010 is the shift to more intuitive menus. There has been a real effort to make things simpler and quicker for users, and this has been shown in certain functions in particular. The animation menu is significantly different, with large icons depicting each animation, and a preview of each shown by simply hovering over each option. Motion paths in particular are easier to use from this menu.

The print preview menu displays all options on screen at once, so that it is not necessary to navigate through different folders and tabs. Similarly, users are given different paste options from an automatic menu, creating a much easier option for the user.

More Editing Options

Another great improvement seen in many features of PowerPoint is the inclusion of more editing options. Pie charts are a good example of this; another is gradient fill. 2010 boasts a huge range of preset colour schemes (including everything from Rainbow to Chrome), rather than only offering the choice of two colours.

The introduction of gradient stops is fantastic. These can be added or removed separately, so that the user can include up to 10 different colours or other attributes at his own discretion. This gives a much greater control over any gradient, as colour, transparency and brightness can be changed for each individual gradient stop. The position of each can be adjusted according to percentage, or by dragging across the bar. In short, the user has a much greater control over gradient, and it is possible to get very exact effects.

Far less editing is needed to format pictures correctly after inserting them, and it is now easier and quicker to edit live graphs. The WordArt editing menu in particular is greatly improved. Inserting a WordArt automatically opens up the ‘Drawing Tools’ tab, meaning that it is now much easier to edit these in PowerPoint – a function that in 03 required a plug-in.

Time Saving

The new background removal tool is fantastic when used correctly, and can save a lot of time. Simply insert a picture and the Remove Background icon will appear on the far left of the Picture Tools tab. This feature will automatically remove what it perceives to be the background, and the user can then edit these changes using a few simple buttons, with the background adjusting intelligently.

The best new time saving feature in our opinion is the movie trimming capabilities. A lot of presenters now like to incorporate video in their presentations, and in the past we’ve found ourselves having to resort to using flash to achieve the required effect. With these changes, that is no longer necessary.

Another improvement is that you can now insert a screenshot with only two clicks from the main screen. The process is easy, and eliminates the need to mess around with windows; the user can choose the window he wishes to use from an icon in the drop-down menu.

Any Problems?

Some of our testers reported having trouble with editing shapes they had made. It was reported that it was difficult to find the tools to edit the shape once it was created. The most notable problem became obvious when our testers attempted to fill a shape with a picture: the images distorted to fit the shape making the user either manually resize using the options within the picture format options, or resize using the crop tool, then resaving. This problem was also reported for 2007.

The only real issues our testers found where related to the change in menus. The difference from 07 to 2010 is not too significant, but those who resisted the transition from 03 (as many did, owing to several reported bugs in 07) may struggle to make the transition from toolbars to tabs. That said, the menu change has been made with the user in mind, and once users have adjusted to the new system, it seems likely that they would in fact find it simpler.

Conclusion

PowerPoint 2010 has been designed with the user in mind. Most (if not all) improvements, when used correctly, save time and effort when designing a slide. While it is easy to get distracted by some of the showy new features, using the subtler, more technical, functions to create a more professional presentation should require less clicks. Perhaps most importantly some improvements, particularly in video editing, negate the need to use plug-ins or other software, thus saving the user a lot of time.

In all, PowerPoint 2010 shows a lot of promise, and should make creating effective presentations easier for amateurs and professionals alike.

The video below is an example from the PowerPoint team, showing how easily videos can be produced (and put on YouTube) using PowerPoint 2010. This software can do some very impressive things…

Problem Solving

Consider using mystery, and the common desire to solve problems, to engage your audience. Don’t fall into the trap of assuming that the audience will want to know what you have got to say – attention must be earned. Use twists, questions, and puzzles to leave the audience wanting to hear more. Even a simple multiple-choice question can engage the audience, if the answer is surprising.

Hyperlinks

In their book Selling Visually with PowerPoint, Robert Lane and Andre Vleck make the case for non-linear, interactive sales presentations. ‘The standard way of using PowerPoint – a strictly linear movement from slide to slide from the beginning of a presentation to its bitter end – forces people to be lecturers rather than conversationalists.’ Better, they argue, to allow the audience to share in setting the agenda, using hyperlinks to move seamlessly between slides as required by the audience.

Dialogue

Allow your audience to engage in dialogue. By having the audience ask questions and think about the implications of what you present, a presenter increases audience engagement and helps brings objections to the surface. Advertising guru Jon Steel (of ‘Got Milk? fame) tells of a time when this idea was implemented in a rather extreme way – ‘a client was simply asked to pick which question he was most interested in hearing [Steel’s team] answer… The presentation became a conversation.’ Just remember the need to present a memorable value proposition too – which might be difficult without presenting at least some material in a coherent and pre-planned way.

Attention Span

With this in mind, don’t spend too much time talking with your audience. When audience attention span is taken into consideration, you only have 20-25 minutes to make your point. If a large part of this is spent debating over one small issue, you’ve missed your chance. There are subtle ways to help your audience feel that they’re involved: ask rhetorical questions and allow a three second pause, or refer to audience members by name. Just be careful not to overdo it!

Questions

Inform your audience that they would get a clearer picture of what you do if they let you carry your presentation through to the end, but if a question is asked, don’t ignore it. Instead, make sure you really listen to any question raised. Identify it: is it an objection? Could it be a further selling opportunity? Take your time understanding the query and thinking about your answer. Interactivity is about really engaging with your audience, and building a relationship.

Emotions

In Brain Rules, developmental molecular biologist John Medina explains the rules of attention, allowing us to apply this understanding to sales presentations. His top tips? Use emotions and meaning to get attention – don’t present detail until the audience care. Don’t present text while reading it aloud – the brain can’t multi-task well. And, finally, don’t overload the brain – present less information, and devote time to connecting the dots.

Company Needs

If you really want your audience to take notice, don’t talk about what your company offers – talk about their company and their needs. People are naturally more inclined to listen to things about themselves, and you will be demonstrating how you can help them directly – something that is difficult to ignore.

Credentials

Be careful when creating a credentials presentation. Different audiences have different needs, and different interests. As Jerry Weisman, author of Presenting to Win points out, ‘the same story that excites and inspires your own employees may bore your customers and actually alienate and anger your suppliers, or vice versa’.

This new template contains a main body slide and contrasting title slide. The template is blue in colour. The main body slide has images of a hospital and friendly medical staff faded into the right-hand side.

The PowerPoint template could be used to build a healthcare presentation whether you are in the healthcare service sector or support services.

So why not inject some passion into your next presentation with this new design. It should help (plaster) cast you in the right light, leaving your audience cured of presentation boredom.

medical PowerPoint template

Our creatives have put together a new PowerPoint template with a wedding theme.  The template has a main body slide, and contrasting title slide. The design is champagne coloured and has an image of wedding rings in the bottom left hand corner.

Whether you work in wedding services, retail or are simply planning a wedding this template will help you engage with your audience and make them say ‘I do’ to your proposal.

On bended knee, click the link and download the wedding template now.

PowerPoint wedding template

Listen

As Joey Asher notes in How to Win a Pitch, a successful sales presentation should involve listening, as well as talking. Use active listening techniques to connect with your prospect. Listening isn’t the same as waiting to talk – so be patient, make good eye contact, use body language to demonstrate attention, clarify points where needed, and take notes as necessary.

Projectors

Don’t feel that you always need to use a projector. In a small room, with a small audience, projecting slides can feel overly-formal and impersonal. Sometimes presenting from a laptop screen is the most appropriate option.

Audience Trust

Ensure that you have your audience’s trust. Olivia Mitchell, well known blogger on presentation theory and practice, draws on the work of psychologist Robert Cialdini to explain the importance of social proof in sales presentations. People are strongly persuaded by what people who are similar to them do. So, to persuade an audience using social proof,  ‘find an endorsement from a credible expert that your audience knows and trusts, use testimonials from people similar to your audience, develop case studies of people/organisations that are similar to your audience, [or] use statistics to show how many people are using your product’.

Conversational Presenting

Olivia Mitchell also extols the benefits of what she calls ‘conversational presenting’. Present in a natural conversational style. One way to achieve this is to ‘talk to one person at a time… imagine that you’re having a one-to-one conversation with that person… [and] look for their reaction to what you’re saying before you carry on.’ Presenting in a conversational style actually helps an audience to take-in content better.

Presentation Style

Don’t stray too far from your normal casual conversational style when presenting. But at the same time, don’t make the mistake of thinking that only “natural” presenters can pull this off. As Carmine Gallo notes in The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, hard work is the key – ‘Steve Jobs is an extraordinary presenter because he works at it’. In other words, practice presenting in a relaxed style. Being “natural” is a skill that can be learnt.

Audience Imagination

Conservative campaign expert Frank Luntz knows a thing or two about persuasion (Vader or Skywalker – you decide…). In his book Words that Work, Luntz examines the role of language in persuasion. Sales people should not be afraid to ask their audience to imagine things – ‘the word imagine is perhaps the single most powerful communication tool because it allows individuals to picture whatever personal vision is in their hearts and minds’.

Personalised Communication

Ask rhetorical questions. As Frank Luntz also writes in Words that Work, ‘When you assert … the reaction of the listener depends to some degree on his or her opinion of the speaker. But making the same statement in the form of a rhetorical question makes the reaction personal – and personalised communication is the best communication.’

Audience Suspicion

It’s amazing what those writing presentations can glean from other disciplines, particularly those in related areas such as design, marketing, sales, and psychology. One website with a lot to teach about presentations is copyblogger. In one article ‘12 Tips for “Psychological Selling”‘, Dean Rieck explains why claims in any sales material must be backed up with evidence – ‘People are naturally suspicious. It’s true that there’s a sucker born every minute, but most people are moderately skeptical of any offer. They seek to avoid risk. You can never predict the level of suspicion any particular person has, so it’s usually best to back up all claims with evidence, such as testimonials, survey results, authoritative endorsements, test results, and scientific data.’ Don’t just tell the audience what you’re capable of – prove it.

Answering Difficult Questions

Many a sales presentation comes unstuck when questions are fielded badly. David Kean recommends listing ‘the worst question the client could ask you’, then ‘the second nastiest question clients could ask’, and so on. The group should ‘work out what the answer is and who should answer’. It is far better to assume that the client will ask difficult questions and to prepare strong answers, than to be caught off-guard. We’ve written extensively about successful presentation Q&A on this site.

Weaknesses

Don’t try to ignore possible weaknesses – address them instead. As well-known presentation blogger Jan Schultink points out ‘highlighting weaknesses does not mean shooting yourself in the foot… If you don’t address them, the questions will remain’. Don’t identify obscure weaknesses that your audience would never think of for themselves, but do ‘think what questions any intelligent human being would have when listening to your story’.

Case Studies

Turn case studies into success stories. As Joey Asher writes: ‘Success stories can give your prospect something that is very hard for them to get, a taste of the intangible thing that they’re buying – a satisfactory result.’  So, go beyond lists of client names or logo slides, and bring your successes to life by telling stories; they can be really memorable, particularly if an element of suspense can be introduced.

Ask for the Order

Don’t forget to ask for the order. As presentation coach and author Jerry Weissman explains – ‘if you’re a sales professional, how can your customer reach the point of making a purchase unless you ask for the sale? … Ask for the order! Call your audience to action!’

How to Conduct a Successful Online Presentation

With more and more business being conducted over the internet, many companies are looking to use online presentations for marketing and business development activities. Yet, as a relatively new concept, there are fewer resources available for presenters wishing to improve their online presenting skills. Here we offer some tips on how to go about preparing and delivering an online presentation, from the initial planning stages to delivery.

Software and Technical

There are a lot of technicalities involved in conducting a presentation over the internet, and many decisions to be made regarding these. It is important to make the choices that are right for your particular presentation; and to be aware of the difficulties that could arise in this situation.

1. The first question to be considered when preparing for an online presentation is whether the presentation is to be live, pre-recorded, or to be used for both? This decision affects the way you will conduct your presentation, and which hosting sites or software you will use. Both have their merits, and it depends on your target audience: for example, a presentation that is designed for use as a general marketing tool will need to be pre-recorded as a webcast, for viewers to peruse at their own leisure; whereas a sales presentation directed at a specific company will need to be live, to ensure the best chances of interactivity, and of closing the deal.
2. Choose the right software. We have reviewed various online meeting software applications for hosting a presentation online, and have also conducted a slide sharing websites review.  Consider the overall capabilities of each, but also how suited the software is to your individual purposes. Would it benefit you to use screen sharing software? Or to record the presentation as a PowerPoint file and send it remotely? Each has its benefits and limitations, and they should be taken into account.
3. Is it worth asking your service provider to host and manage the event? For larger webinars, many providers tend to offer this for a fee. It can remove a lot of the stress and difficulties of organising such an event, especially if you are not familiar with the process.
4. Check your animation. Hosting anything over the net tends to produce a small delay, but certain animations can look awful (if they function at all). On top of this, many slide sharing websites and programs do not support several common animations. Incorrectly functioning animation could distract and irritate your audience; which does not bode well for a successful presentation. Similarly, watch out for video – streaming a video live will not work well, especially if you are using screen sharing. Be prepared, and check that everything you are using works remotely beforehand.
5. Remember Murphy’s Law: if it can go wrong, it will. Prepare for connectivity issues, incorrect access codes, and set up a live meeting ten minutes early. Ensure that everyone has the right details, and an alternative method of contacting you if they experience problems.

Message

In any presentation, it is important to ensure that your message is sound. Every presentation has a purpose, and everything that is said should be focused on conveying this message. In a remote presentation, this is even more important. As an example, if you don’t think your prospects would ever agree a deal over the web, the focus in an online sales presentation might be to generate a face-to-face appointment.

1. The first thing to do when beginning to write a presentation is to consider your audience. Even an anonymous audience can be understood in terms of personas. If you are inviting certain people to your presentation, ensure that everything is tailored specifically to them. If your presentation is being pre-recorded for anyone to find, think of the types of people you are hoping to get watching it. Will they appreciate a serious presentation, or a light-hearted one? Do you want your audience to be taught or persuaded (usually both)? There is always a question to be answered, and this should be your first point of call in considering your message.
2. Simplicity is the key. The human brain can only hold a limited amount of information at any one time, and this is significantly reduced if attention spans are waning. In turn, too much information can reduce attention levels: it becomes a vicious circle. When aspects such as body language and eye contact do not come into the play, it can difficult to keep your audience engaged remotely. Audience members feel free to check their email and surf the web, and find it easier to drift off into their own thoughts. Don’t overload your audience: whittle your presentation down to its most important points, and they will find it much easier to pay attention, and to remember.
3. Have a clear structure. Pre-recorded presentations are, by nature, linear; but presentations conducted live have the option of being interactive. Consider providing a (small) live audience with a list of possible topics, and asking them to choose those that they feel most relevant to them. You’ve instantly created respect, as they believe that you truly care about what they want; and you need not bore them with aspects they are not interested in.
4. Use stories. This goes beyond using the familiar anecdote to get a few laughs before you plough into the heavy stuff: use the stories to tie into your material; to explain it; to keep it interesting; and to better enable your audience to remember. A more formal version of this is the corporate case study, but any story appropriate to the audience and relevant to the material can aid retention. A remote audience will struggle to listen to continuous patter: link it all together, and they will find it much easier to follow.

Visual Aids

Without the physical presence of a presenter, it can be even more difficult to retain interest. If an audience has nothing to watch, they become more easily distracted by their surroundings. Not only are visual aids necessary, but they should animate in the correct places to draw the audience’s attention to the focus of the message.

1. Again, the most important rule to follow here is that of simplicity. This is important in any presentation, but especially in one being conducted remotely, as attention is already more difficult to attain. If your slides have too much content, the audience will not know where to direct their attention. Keep them simple and reduce your text significantly. There should be a clear focus to each slide, and visual aids should support your points made, without distracting from them.
2. In a remote presentation, everything needs to move faster to ensure that your audience stay focused. Keep your visuals moving: switch between images and diagrams, and make sure that every point builds. Leaving a static slide up for too long will encourage your audience to look elsewhere.
3. Ensure that your most important points are emphasised. Use animation, such as a growth or colour change, to draw the audience’s attention to specific details. With the presenter unable to direct the audience to the right places with gestures, it is important to do so using effective slide design.

Delivery

The most noticeable drawback in a web presentation is the lack of the presenter’s physical presence. Using eye contact to engage the audience, and being able to see whether they are paying attention, prove invaluable in face-to-face presentations. In a remote presentation it is important to engage your audience by other means, and to devise methods of checking that they are still following you.

1. Ask questions. If you are conducting your presentation live, use polling facilities to gather feedback. If your presentation is pre-recorded, ask hypothetical questions, or pose challenges, designed to make the audience think. This method of including and involving your audience helps to bridge the gap between presenter and audience (however far in miles!).
2. Emphasise important points with your tone of voice. Without body language to show your enthusiasm, it is important to exaggerate this. Similarly, pause for effect: it is a sure way to make your audience pick up their attention.
3. Be careful with your use of humour. This can be risky in a normal presentation, but it can be even more difficult to convey a joke over the internet. Irony especially is less likely to work in this situation.
4. In a live presentation, if your software allows it, the use of a pointer can be extremely useful. Use the meeting software pointer to gesture at parts of the screen when presenting, as this can translate across the internet.

Watch your timing. Don’t go over the attention span limit (20 minutes) unless absolutely necessary. Use soft breaks such as quiz questions, polls, Q&A, and changes of presenter to reset attention levels. In a remote presentation more than any other, this is important. Nobody likes sitting in front of a computer screen for too long, and minds will start to wander. If you do make your presentation that little bit longer, make sure it is really worthwhile.

m62 took a short visual presentation of medium complexity and playtested three software packages that convert presentations into Flash™ animations (that can be integrated into a webpage or blog, or distributed without fear of versioning issues on different machines). Here’s what happened.

Articulate Presenter ‘09 – Compatible with Windows XP, Vista, Windows7, tested with PowerPoint 2003 and PowerPoint 2007

Articulate’s offering markets itself as an e-learning material creation tool. It offers a range of publishing options; Flash presentation for Web, a Word document of slide snapshots and speaker notes, self-running CD, or an audio-only podcast. Since we’re in the visual communications business, we have foregone the podcast and handout functionality here.

Installation is simple, embedding an Articulate submenu right into the PowerPoint window (easier to navigate in PPT 2007 which creates a new ribbon of buttons,  than in 2003 which drops down a list, but it’s still pretty intuitive to see what’s on offer). Before converting you can record narrative onto the slides (in a separate preview window), and then afterwards tweak the timings if you’re not happy with them. If you’ve ever used PowerPoint’s own narrative recorder this new interface takes a bit of getting used to. Narration is recorded a slide at a time, and requires clicking on separate buttons to advance the animations and slides rather than just clicking the mouse or keyboard continuously to proceed, as comes naturally.

Audio/video quality options are not available at this stage and are instead confined to a separate submenu, which makes creating or amending a voiceover quick to get into. More confident users (actually, perhaps that should be ‘less confident’…) can even open up an impressive audio wave editor that allows you to trim out all those pauses, coughs, ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’.

Also available is the ‘Add Annotations’ process that offers the interesting option to draw on your slides ‘telestrator-style’, by adding arrows, boxes, highlights, check marks etc. If you haven’t incorporated this kind of thing into your slides at the design stage, and you don’t mind the preset graphics style, you might find this worth getting to grips with. It does take some practice: the interface runs the pre-timed slides while you choose your shapes and place them, so you have to be quick on the draw.

You can then preview your creation and opt to Publish once you’re happy. This brings up a tabbed menu screen with the various format options described above; we’ll focus on publishing for the Web. Some digging at this stage reveals extensive calibration submenus, including specifications for rendering quality, navigation restrictions, and tweaks to change the appearance of the embedded Player (you can also add a presenter photo, bio and email address). There are only a couple of preset layouts for the player however, so if you want less conspicuous play controls you have to build up the design yourself.

Once you’re done calibrating to your heart’s content, hit Publish. Our modest ten slides took around thirty seconds to convert, and then gave options to view the presentation in a browser, upload it via FTP, or email it to someone. The final option generates a friendly email with instructions on what to do with the files inside the attachment in order to get it to work.

Quality of the output file with the default settings is good, albeit slightly less sharp than the native PowerPoint show, and we noticed very little degradation of animation effects even with complex, multi-layered combinations. Puzzlingly, we couldn’t find any way of publishing the presentation with the clicks preserved – viewers  must use the playback controls if the timings haven’t been set, which could be confusing.

The option to email the presentation with instructions is helpful, mostly because the output folder contains a huge number of flash files and construction files to hunt through. There are no options to save out the presentation in different formats (.exe, .swf etc.), the ‘go’ file is always a .html, which might be more or less useful depending what you plan to do with your package once it’s converted.

There’s probably more fun to be had by way of setting up user interaction (quizzes and games), but that reaches beyond the scope of this review. Even ignoring these features, you’re getting a good performer with a huge amount of functionality, but at what cost? Presenter ’09 standalone is currently on special at $699 (UP: $799).

iSpring Presenter / iSpring Pro- Compatible with Windows XP, Vista, Windows7, tested with PowerPoint 2003 and PowerPoint 2007

iSpring Solutions has three products on the market, iSpring Pro, iSpring Presenter and an SDK. We decided to test Presenter,which is a similar type of product to Articulate’s, and also the lighter iSpring Pro program since we’re not overly concerned in our arena with creating interactive content.

Like Articulate’s product, iSpring Presenter integrates easily and rapidly into the PowerPoint window, either as a toolbar and submenu (PPT03) or ribbon (PPT07).  Recording narration is even simpler than with Articulate’s product, providing the option to record audio continuously (just one button to click as the slides build and advance).  iSpring has a similarly friendly way to record video as well, just plug in your webcam and hit Record Video, and you’re taken to the same click-through interface featuring your talking head on screen. You can also sync the animations with the audio and/or video in the same window, which is a real timesaver if you need a few tries to get it perfect.

Elsewhere, like Articulate iSpring lets you add an existing Flash movie onto a slide, and is quite loud and proud about its YouTube button, which in exchange for a YouTube link will embed a clip and a player onto the slide. This is essentially the same ‘insert from link’ function that Articulate uses, but here there’s also an inbuilt video tutorial to guide novices through the process. Again, there’s a feature to insert a quiz, and again we’re not really interested in it. The in-window menu is clean and straightforward: record narration and/or video, sync the slides, make changes to the ‘presenter and company’ metadata if you want, throw in a YouTube clip, and then hit Publish.

A new, large, tabbed window now pops up containing all the various publishing options. iSpring have really put some effort into keeping this part of the process simple - it’s much easier to deal with these options all in one go rather than tinkering during the preparation process. The output can be saved to CD, to iSpring’s online sharing community SlideBoom, attached to an email or saved to hard disk. For increased flexibility, different output formats can be chosen via simple checkboxes: separate flash files for use with other animation packages, an .EXE file which is a completely self-contained single ‘go’ file, or a single .swf movie with an accompanying .html file.

There are nine preset player styles, ranging from the businesslike (with navigation pane, picture / video, and presenter information) to the inconspicuous (transparent player buttons in one corner), with other styles at various degrees of glossiness and functionality. One player allows viewers to types notes as they watch or scribble on the slides themselves.  Depending on the detail each style affords, the players can be customised with colour options and information or photos. Changes can be previewed in real time with the user’s actual slides, which makes it much easier to see how the final product will behave.

On other tabs, a similarly open interface presents settings for video and audio quality, playback controls (this time you do have the option, among others, to advance the slides on a click), and the pixel size of the output video – very useful if you’re using a CMS to insert your presentation into a blog or webpage. Another tab lets you customise the image, video and audio compression.

On hitting Publish, iSpring Presenter converted our test slides in just under thirty seconds and immediately launched the file in a web browser. Using the default settings, the graphics and audio were crisp and the animation very sharp. Upon examining the output folder, there’s just one file in it – in this case a .swf file which opens by default in a web browser – very portable and easy to upload or share. Even simpler is the .exe format option (automatically zipped for security) which bundles the presentation and player with the latest flash launcher as well, again in a single file.

iSpring Pro works in exactly the same way as iSpring Presenter, but without the options to record video and insert quizzes, so it’s all about getting the slides narrated and self running with minimum hassle. The real attractions to these packages are the intuitive interface and low cost. iSpring Presenter downloads with a business licence at $399, and if you can live without the video recording and quizzes, iSpring Pro is just $249.

FlashPoint Professional –Compatible with XP, Vista, Windows 7, PowerPoint 2003 and PowerPoint 2007. Tested with PowerPoint 2007.

On offer from FlashDemo comes FlashPoint Pro, a straightforward PowerPoint to flash conversion tool. This is the lighter of the three and installs cleanly and easy, embedding a single button into the PowerPoint interface. This immediately launches a Wizard, starting with three options for encoding the final file: a single Flash movie (.swf) with an option to generate an .exe (useful), as separate Flash movies by slide (probably useful), or as a screensaver.

The next stage offers two player options (a row of navigation buttons, or nothing), and sets up some very basic options around the way the slides run and the render quality. An Advanced tab lets you redirect the viewer to a website after the movie has finished playing, which might be a good idea but can be done more easily by adding hyperlinks into the presentation yourself.

The next two stages allow you to import audio files into the presentation, and record a narration for each slide. FlashPoint Pro appears to use PowerPoint’s own Rehearse Timings feature to accurately sync the animations with your voiceover, which is actually a much simpler way than the more sophisticated packages: you get the slides running full screen, and click to advance the builds and slide transitions, rather than working with buttons in a separate window.

Once that’s done, FlashPoint Pro begins the conversion, which takes about the same time as the other two packages. Opening the output file however is disappointing. The converted file is noticeably degraded in image quality, even with the ‘Improved’ image conversion box checked, and many of the PowerPoint shapes that feature gradient fills or transparent fills were not displaying correctly. There were also several graphical artefacts remaining on screen after their objects had disappeared. Several animation effects suffered, with fades building in very slowly and wipes running jerkily, although motion paths and grow/shrink effects were very smooth.

The quality of the voiceover was rather good; FlashPoint provided the same recording quality options as the inbuilt PowerPoint tool, so the narration sounded clear. Unfortunately due to the visual stuttering caused by the conversion of some animation effects, the audio did not always run in sync with the visuals.

Overall, with conversion performance at the bottom-end and a complete lack of customisation, FlashPoint Pro does not live up to its claim of creating “professional-look Flash presentations and e-learning courses”. With a price tag of $59, it’s probably suited only to PowerPoint hobbyists and bullet-pointers. If that’s you, there are much more useful things you could be reading on this website before you start spending on additional software.

Which is best?

Except as an entry level solution for presentations with very basic graphics and low-end animation, FlashPoint Pro is hard to recommend. The last thing you want to do after producing a deck of slides is to then retro-engineer the graphics and animation because of poor conversion quality. It’s very easy to use, has good flexibility in the output options and is inexpensive, but sadly can’t cut it when dealing with graphics and motion of any degree of sophistication. If you’re still working with flat backgrounds and bullet-points, this will probably do what you need, but it’s hard for us to gauge the value of the tool if that’s your desired type of output.

iSpring Presenter and Articulate Presenter ’09 do very similar things in very different ways, the only major gaps in functionality being that iSpring lets you record the video narration, while Articulate gives you the slide annotation feature and audio editor. Each of these features may be more or less useful and would probably balance out the two products (since the rendering times and output quality are pretty much the same). But the big differences are in cost and ease of use.

Articulate Presenter may offer huge flexibility in customising the Player specifications and calibrating the viewer experience, but its extensive menus are not easy to find and navigate. A better range of output formats and settings, and a more thoughtful structure to the submenus would have made for a less bewildering experience. That said, the output quality is first-class, and those looking to produce interactive learning tools or e-brochures will probably find value here once they get up the learning curve and perhaps invest a few hours watching the online tutorials. For publishing a presentation for web or soft/hard copy distribution, we have to wonder whether it’s worth the hefty price tag as well as the effort required to learn where everything is.

iSpring Presenter is far and away more pleasant and intuitive, and a few hundred dollars cheaper. The viewer experience is slightly less customisable than with Articulate’s package, but iSpring delivers flexibility where it’s needed most, and without any hunting around.  Powerful as they are, both iSpring programs feel completely unintimidating at the publishing stage and make it very easy to set up the exact format, size and quality that you need.

As stated, we’re more concerned with presentations than E-learning tools, but in both cases the option to record video narration seems like a more desirable option than the ability to add arrows and boxes (something that really should be thought about at the slide design stage). Even better, if you don’t need the video and quizzes, the lighter iSpring Pro retains all of Presenter’s output quality and flexibility at just $249, so whatever you’re planning to do with your Flash-based presentation, iSpring’s solutions convert to better value all round.

Avoiding Decoration

Don’t confuse decoration with communication. As brothers Chip and Dan Heath say in Made to Stick, ‘We need to end once and for all the cult of clip art, as well as the splinter church of stock photography. “Show, don’t tell” doesn’t mean that you take your slide about “thinking globally” and add a clip-art world map.’ Use graphics that genuinely help the audience to understand, and don’t be afraid to bring props into the room to supplement your slides.

Slides Should Reinforce Your Words

Well known marketer Seth Godin knows as much as most about persuasion, and doing things that aren’t necessarily the norm. ’Bullets’, he says, ‘are for the NRA’. Presenters should create cue cards but ‘put them in your hand’ and not on screen. Then, as the slides don’t need to serve as cue cards they should ‘reinforce your words, not repeat them’.

Attractiveness vs. Effectiveness

Mike Pulsifer, author of the blog Thoughts on Presenting and Design, argues that presenters should really rethink their design. There is a big difference between attractive slides, and effective slides. What is the point of slides that look good, if they don’t convey your message? Take time to rework your presentation, and “change your whole office culture.” We couldn’t agree more.

Number of Slides

Don’t worry about how many slides your sales presentation runs to. As Jan Schultink, author of the well-regarded Sticky Slides blog notes, when people worry about the number of slides they have “they are choosing the wrong metric; number of slides, kilos of printout, presentation file size, it does not matter. Time is the only relevant factor.”

Other Visual Aids

Remember that slides aren’t the only possible visual aids. We think PowerPoint is great when used well, but they aren’t the only visual aid available. Make use of flip charts, boards and posters, paper handouts, your product, video, or other media if it helps to get your message across.

Using Your Surroundings

Own the room. This isn’t going to be possible when presenting for a rushed ten minutes in a prospect’s office, but there are plenty of situations where it is possible to get in to dress a room in advance. For Jon Steel, author of Perfect Pitch, ‘the room in which a pitch is delivered should be a physical manifestation of both the agency and its idea’, and the room ‘has to feel different’. This might mean dressing a room with examples of work, images produced in the research process, or even visual aides to make up the presentation. Dressing a room to relate to the core message of a presentation helps bring the message to life. But remember that the room must support the presentation, not distract from it. Keep things ‘on-topic’.

Hand-Outs

Do more with hand-outs. For many pitching solutions to creative briefs, it is important to remember that the prospect is buying both an idea and somebody to implement that idea. For this reason, leave-behinds should not simply consist of slide print-outs. They shouldn’t simply repeat the material of the presentation, but go further to summarise this idea in a way that helps to ‘demonstrate the relationship between the people who work in the agency and that idea’ (Jon Steel, Perfect Pitch). For Steel’s agencies, this means asking staff to bring in photos, write personal stories, and then binding these collections in glossy print. Pitching to design and build a school? Ask staff to tell stories about the best places they have studied in. Want to leave your slides behind? Record narration, or host slides online.

These slides show how Liverpool Science Park offers facilities, support and other benefits to relocating businesses, with a large network of contacts in the scientific and digital community.

In the second part of our sales presentation series, we bring you advice on the process of creating a presentation. Contributions have been drawn from our own consultants and other experts in sales, marketing and presentations from around the web.

Don’t Act at the Last Minute

In Pitching to Win, David Kean bemoans the amateurism of the new business pitch – ‘we agree who is going to say what, and make last-minute amendments to the presentation on our journey to the client’s offices … Doing everything at the last minute is our disease. It is the work of the amateur’.  The answer? Plan the process, prepare and practice thoroughly, and treat pitch presentations as critical, and not just something to fit in around the day jobs.

Background Knowledge

Prepare by doing your homework – before you get face-to-face to deliver your sales presentation. In How to Win a Pitch, Joey Asher suggests the following line – ‘”to make sure that your presentation shows you just how we can help, we’d like to spend a little time chatting with a few people at your firm before we come. Is that okay?”‘ If you can’t get genuine inside information, make an educated guess, using common sense, and the insights of your friends and colleagues.

Seeking Advice

Don’t be afraid to seek help when pitching for new business. As Lee Bowman writes in the now out-of-print High Impact Presentations – ‘the moment that a company knows it is going to be pitching for a piece of business, it should start planning the presentation, and taking whatever professional advice it feels is necessary… If the right advice is given at the beginning of the process, a great deal of pressure can be taken off the key players, and a lot of time can be saved.’

Start on Paper

One of the biggest mistakes people make when preparing presentations is in “going digital” too early. In other words, many people simply type slide headings and bullet points directly into PowerPoint without ever stepping back to ask important questions about the audience or about their own objectives. Garr Reynolds, author of Presentation Zen recommends “going analogue” to write a presentation; don’t make the mistake of opening PowerPoint and writing a presentation directly onto slides. Instead, use paper and pen, whiteboards, or Post-Its to “brainstorm, explore ideas, make lists, and generally sketch out… ideas”. In this analogue stage, two of the most important questions to have in mind are “What is your core message?” and “Why does this matter?”

Communication Preferences

Although the idea that different individuals have different learning styles might be over-baked, some people do prefer to read, others to listen; and some love detail, while others focus on the big picture. For some sales presentations, it is possible to find out in advance what the communication preferences of the most important audience members are. In this case, suggests Andrew Abela this should be done, and the presentation tweaked accordingly.

Practise

Practise. Lots. Oliver Adria includes in his blog ReThink Presentations a quote from the film Shine, which encourages a student practising piano to learn the notes, so that he can forget all about them.If you practise enough that you know your presentation back to front and inside out, you don’t have to be constantly worrying about what will come next, and you can focus on making sure you present your material well.

Keep Improving

Don’t expect perfection immediately. Tony Ramos demonstrates this in his post, Give Me Something to Hate: Delivering a first draft of a presentation is rarely a good idea. Don’t just use what you have: constantly reconsider to see if you can improve.

Follow-Up

After a pitch presentation has been delivered, David Kean then sees two more phases of work. Follow-up involves answering questions in more detail, getting feedback from supporters and acting on it, generating and sharing additional ideas, and generally just not giving up. Feedback should be sought whether one wins or loses – but after a loss, wait a few weeks, when feedback might be more open, and ‘the first cracks in their new relationship may have begun to show’.

The card illustrates the lifestyle changes to come with elegant animation and images. Be warned though – it may leave some of your colleagues wishing for early retirement!

Download the PowerPoint retirement card file, for free.

The template contains a title slide and a contrasting main body slide. The title slide is blue and shows a double helix. The main body slide is white with the double helix image faded into the background. The main body slide also includes a title bar.

Our new DNA PowerPoint template will help you to unlock the secrets to presentation perfection and break the code for greater audience engagement.

Get downloading, and don’t forget to let us know your experiences with the template (and any others) by commenting below.

DNA PowerPoint Template

The good news is that m62 is here to help. We know sales presentations – after all, we’ve created 1000s of them. Here, we bring you great tips from our own consultants, as well as other sales, marketing, and presentation experts. We’ve reproduced all of these tips for you in a series of articles split into five different aspects: content; planning and process; format and structure; design; delivery and technique.

The first part of our series contains tips on messaging and content.

Concrete Details

Make sure that your presentation brings your points to life, rather than simply presenting abstract concepts. If making a sales presentation, make sure that you offer proof. As Chip and Dan Heath note in their pamphlet ‘Making Presentations that Stick‘ – “The number one mistake we’ve observed in presentations – and there is no close second – is that the message is too abstract. The presenter offers concepts and conclusions but not evidence. He talks at a high level about the big picture, but gives no concrete details that might make the big picture understandable and plausible.”

Focus on Solutions

In a credentials presentation, says author Joey Asher, don’t talk directly about credentials, or too much about your own company. “Instead, your credentials will be apparent as you talk about your solution, and how you’ve implemented similar solutions for other clients. You focus your presentation solely on what the client really cares about – a solution to her business problem.”

Value Proposition for Structure

Less is more. At m62 we advise our clients to structure their sales presentations into five parts or fewer. Use benefit statements to form a value proposition, and use the value proposition for structure. Giving five strong answers to the question ‘Why Us?’ is far more powerful, and memorable, than listing 100s of benefits that nobody can prioritise or remember.

Bring Solution to Life

In Fire Them Up, best-selling author Carmine Gallo suggests focusing on the solution that your service delivers, and recommends bringing to life how this solution will help – “Tell your listeners why you’re excited about your product, share a vivid vision of the future that your product makes possible, and be specific about how your product will help them succeed in business”. He reminds us of the well-known adage that ‘nobody wants a quarter-inch drill; they want a quarter-inch hole’ – that is, in B2B sales, people want solutions, not just products.

Memorable Moments

Duarte Design in California (the folks behind Slide:ology) teach presenters to use ‘S.T.A.R Moments™. S.T.A.R. stands for “Something They’ll Always Remember” and S.T.A.R. Moments refer to the memorable moments in a presentation that stick in the minds of your audience long after the presentation is over.’ We’ve mentioned it before on this website, because we love the clip, but a great example of this is Bill Gates releasing a jar of mosquitoes into a crowded auditorium while talking about Malaria. People remember that kind of stunt, and if it’s connected to your message, they remember your message too.

Benefits not Features

Remember that successful sales presentations can’t simply list product features, but must make the connection to benefits that actually help the audience. As Jerry Weissman writes in Presenting to Win ‘A feature is a fact or quality about you or your company, the products you sell, or the idea you’re advocating. By contrast, a Benefit is how that fact or quality will help your audience. When you seek to persuade, it’s never enough to present the Features of what you’re selling; every Feature must always be translated into a Benefit.’

Stories and Emotion

‘People buy on emotion, and justify with fact’ says Bert Decker, CEO of Decker Communications. Stories are ‘emotionally connecting’, ‘move people’, ‘give third party credibility, and are memorable. Sales people should make use of stories in presentations, because stories help presenters to connect, and ‘connection trumps everything’.

Allude to Competitor Weaknesses

Many companies feel uncomfortable in directly attacking competitors in their sales presentations. The alternative is to use a technique called ghosting. In ghosting, the aim is to allude to the weaknesses of competitors without specifically mentioning them. Explain why a certain feature is important, allude to the risk of not having that feature (without openly mentioning a competitor), and then present your own strengths in that area.

Clear Objectives

Many presentations are prepared and delivered with no clear objectives in mind. Yet, if a presentation isn’t trying to achieve anything in particular, it risks achieving nothing. Andrew Abela, author of Advanced Presentations by Design, suggests creating a table, and listing what the audience think now, and what the presenter wants them to think after the presentation; and what the audience do now, and what the presenter wants them to do after the presentation. This framework ensures that presentations are given for a purpose.

Handouts for Detail

Sales people need to convince emotionally and rationally, and some of the rational sale can be achieved using detailed handouts, as Seth Godin argues – ‘the presentation is to make an emotional sale. The document is the proof that helps the intellectuals in your audience accept the idea that you’ve sold them on emotionally.’

Case Studies for Social Proof

As Chris Atherton, writer of the blog Finite Attention, affirms, sales people really need to use case studies. Show your audience how other clients have benefited from your product or service. This immediately poses the question, “What would this do for me?” This approach is interesting, affirming, and involves your audience.

Understand Prospects

And finally, an audience needs to feel important. As recommend by Sue Hershowitz, whose blog SpeakerSue provides resources for sales skills, you should ‘Love your prospects.’ Take the time to get to know them. Do the research. Most importantly, let them know that you appreciate them. Show them that you understand; that their problems matter to you; and that you offer a solution that is tailored to helping them in the best way possible.

The results we produced were so extensive that we’ve split this review into two parts. This, part one, outlines the improvements and new features PowerPoint 2010 professes over the earlier versions.

What’s New?

Video – In older versions of PowerPoint, videos would have to be linked from PowerPoint to the internet, or to the correct file on your computer. This would cause problems if the internet connection was lost; the file was moved; or when trying to use the PowerPoint file on another computer. It also meant that video could not be edited when in PowerPoint, and when embedded, was in a simple rectangular frame.

2010 has changed the way videos are used in PowerPoint. You can now insert a video file directly into PowerPoint, which, aside from making life a lot easier for the presenter, actually enables the video to be edited within PowerPoint itself. You can adjust the length, brightness, colour, frame… In short, PowerPoint now covers all the basics in video editing, reducing the need for additional software to prepare video for use in presentations.

Animation – I would wager that there are few, if any, presenters who have not at some point experienced a lag in certain animations (unless, that is, the most complicated animations you’ve ever used are ‘Appear’ and ‘Fade Out’). Motion paths have perhaps been the biggest culprit, but there were quite a few animations that had a tendency to jump, and not flow as smoothly as they should with PowerPoint 2003 and PowerPoint 2007.

PowerPoint 2010 has changed all that. Animations now run as they were designed to. Gone is the jumping, gone is the delay, and you are left with animation as it should be.

It’s a Lot Prettier – Those who have customised PowerPoint 2003 will vouch for the fact that if you’ve chosen to make a lot of tools available on the main screen, the view can look a tad messy. 2007, when customised, can also do so. Practical? Perhaps. Pleasing on the eye? No.

PowerPoint 2010 in general just looks better. It’s cleaner than 2007, and much cleaner than 2003. It looks, in fact, like a design tool. Slides themselves are crisper, and were in fact compared by one of our designers to the graphics on an HD advert. In general, the whole program is just nicer to look at.

Share – It’s not that we haven’t had the option to share a PowerPoint file before, it’s just that it had to be done outside of PowerPoint. Send it as an email; upload it to a slide sharing website; convert it to video. All possible, just a little time-consuming.

Now, sharing your presentations has never been easier. You are given the option to ‘share’ right from the ‘backstage’ area. By email, by website… Arguably the best function in this section is the ability to convert a file straight to video with recorded narration. Before, this would have to be done using another piece of software. Now, it can be done with minimal clicks, and minimal fuss.

Stability and Power – PowerPoint 2007, while offering new and improved features on 2003, wasn’t perhaps the most  stable programme. There were bugs, lags, and compatibility issues, that caused many PowerPoint users to revert back to the older PowerPoint 2003.

PowerPoint 2010 has all the features of 2007 (plus extras), with none of the problems (thus far). 2010 has resolved the known bugs, and combined an increased range of options with great constancy in performance. Hyperlinks are more stable, lags have been removed, and the whole experience is a lot less stressful.

Any problems?

With the more obvious, accessible, animations and transitions it might be tempting for amateur designers to go crazy and use every option available. The trouble with this is that most of the new animations in PowerPoint 2010 would serve to distract the audience rather than to direct their attention towards the right things, even to the extent of becoming annoying. Users should think carefully about how they use each function, and why. Probably a challenge for user-education, rather than a problem with the software.

So… How much better is it?

The general opinion of our designers is that PowerPoint 2010 is what 2007 should have been, with the tidy layout, extra features and smooth animations. For functionality, 2010 is the way forward. In the right hands, this software will produce truly beautiful, effective presentations.

In the second half of this review, we will look at usability. How easy is PowerPoint 2010 to use, both for the new user and those experienced in older versions? Our designers judge the ease of use, based on how straightforward a function is to use, and how time-consuming to execute.

SlideShare

Animation – SlideShare was the weakest site in terms of enabling animation. In fact – it doesn’t. Each slide is presented as a static image – presumably it is meant to display the final build of each slide, but it couldn’t even host certain graphics on our test presentation.

Audio – PowerPoint has the easy option of recording narration as you present, saving directly as your PowerPoint file. Unfortunately, SlideShare does not enable this, and thus does not recognise narration, or slide timings. To add audio, the user has to record the narration as a separate sound, save it to an mp3 file (which could involve having to convert the original file), upload it to SlideShare, and then go through the whole presentation and adjust the timing for each slide change, so that the narration corresponds to the visual. The whole process is long, slow and tedious. 

Ease of Use – The site is cluttered, with many advertisements dotted around the page. That said, the site is fairly straightforward to use – except for the hassle in uploading audio. For this reason, for ease of use SlideShare scores two stars. 

Control – There are several different privacy settings to choose from: public; private (enabling those the user follows to see); and private (only the user can see). There is also the option to allow viewers to download, or to send the presentation via email to a recipient of the user’s choosing. 

Suitability – There are some random presentations placed next to our animation test, such as ‘PowerPoint Animals’ and ‘Animal Testing’. Mostly, however, the selection is relevant, with PowerPoint tests displayed in the ‘related presentations’ box.

Overall – SlideShare’s strong points are in the control over privacy options. Unfortunately, its lack of technical capabilities let it down when actually viewing slides. Adding audio is difficult and time consuming, and the lack of animation, combined with substandard graphics, give the effect that the viewer is looking at a series of badly-designed posters. 

authorSTREAM

Animation – authorSTREAM supports more animations than SlideShare, but still misses most – and those that it does enable are largely incorrect. For the basic animations it permits, authorSTREAM is awarded two stars.

Audio – Audio is uploaded automatically with the PowerPoint file, saving a lot of time and effort. Lack of control over audio once uploaded, (and no volume control) means that authorSTREAM scores three stars.

Ease of Use – AuthorSTREAM is a little complicated to use, and seems to lack some of the basic functions; I am still unable to find a ‘replay’ button after a presentation has been watched. With the fact that it is not immediately clear how to edit your presentation either, for ease of use authorSTREAM scores one and a half stars.

Control – authorSTREAM had perhaps the best options for privacy control. The user is given the option to keep the presentation private or public, and to enable download if wished. An email can be sent with a link to those you wish to share it with, and the premium version of the site allows the user to create a pass code for access to the slides. The fact that this pass code is not available for free means that authorSTREAM scores four and a half stars.

Suitability – There were a couple of files in ‘Related Presentations’ that were actually related, but most were random.

Overall – authorSTREAM has potential, but it is let down by its lack of simplicity, and the inadequate nature of its animations. 

SlideBoom

Animation – SlideBoom allows more complicated animation than the two sites reviewed above. The site managed to animate everything except the headlines and the live graphs, and graphics were of a good standard. 

Audio – If a narration of the slides has been made in PowerPoint, this is uploaded with the slides in the file, and automatically plays. Once uploaded however, there is nothing that can be done with the audio. Still, the ease of uploading and the fact that SlideBoom allows volume control score SlideBoom four stars.

Ease of use – SlideBoom is straightforward to use, and features a handy toolbar on the viewing screen enabling the remote audience to do things such as view as full screen, or jump to a particular slide. The options are easily accessible and the page layout is clear and uncluttered.

Control – SlideBoom allows the user to control whether everyone can see the presentation, or whether just the user has access. Sharing via email is allowed. Control over embedding in other websites is also given, as is control over downloads. More detailed control over who has access directly on the site (rather than just everyone or no one) would score SlideBoom higher.

Suitability – SlideBoom doesn’t place the presentation next to a completely unrelated one – but it doesn’t give many relevant options. Even with the tags removed, our ‘PowerPoint Animation Test’ only had one set of slides in ‘Related Presentations’. It was definitely related, but lack of choice means that for suitability SlideBoom scores two stars.

Overall – SlideBoom has all the makings of a quality slide sharing site, with good animation and a pleasant, uncluttered screen layout. Having more control over viewing would score higher, as would enabling more options once the presentation is uploaded, such as the ability to add or edit audio. SlideBoom is a good site for most basic needs, for which it scores four stars.

myBrainshark

Animation – myBrainshark has the potential to be very good at animation, and is better than most. It was the only site reviewed that managed to correctly animate the headlines, although it failed to enable the motion path and live graph, and the colour change was there, but not correct. With these adjustments made myBrainshark would score higher, but for the present animation capabilities the site is awarded three and a half stars.

Audio – myBrainshark was the strongest site in the audio category. As with the other sites that score highly in this section, myBrainshark allowed slide narration to be uploaded easily in the PowerPoint file. However, myBrainshark surpassed this in enabling many options in terms of audio once the file was uploaded. A narration can be recorded directly onto the site via a telephone call; a background audio (such as music) can be uploaded from an mp3 file; and audio can be downloaded by viewers as a podcast. If volume control was included in the viewing window, myBrainshark would score five stars; as it is, the site is awarded four and a half stars.

Ease of use – myBrainshark is simple, ad-free, and straightforward to use. Drop down options on the ‘Edit Presentation’ page enable the user to clearly choose from available functions, and ‘helpful hints’ and ‘stages to follow’ throughout cumulate to award myBrainshark five stars.

Control – All slides are publicly available when active. Content can be made inactive, which means that it cannot be found on the site, but users to whom the slides are sent by the user will still be able to view them. More options to users as to who can interact with the file on the website would score myBrainshark higher, but the present control capabilites award the site three stars.

Suitability – The ‘Related Presentations’ box offers the viewer a large number of slides to view, and the majority are directly related. Those that are not directly related are not far off the mark, and there are no random presentations recommended.

Overall – While improvements could be made on myBrainshark’s animation capabilities, the range of functions offered for uploaded content (particularly audio) and its simple interface score the site well. On top of this, myBrainshark hosts a wide range of extra functions, from detailed viewing reports (including location and percentage watched) to the ability to ask viewers questions.

Disclosure: m62 uses Brainshark’s enterprise-level platform, and recommends it to clients. m62 also makes use of iSpring software, which is the PowerPoint to Flash conversion tool used by SlideBoom.

These slides show how Abilitor Utveckling works with its clients to provide efficiency consultancy and training, leading to a happier and more productive workforce. The slides outline a common problem scenario, and then demonstrate how Abilitor Utveckling can provide a solution.

m62 reworked these slides for our PowerPoint Clinic, showing how visual slides can effectively display complex information.

Is somebody in your organisation leaving? Do you need a PowerPoint leaving card, or retirement card? Well, we’ve produced just the thing.

All good things come to an end. Close colleagues leave. Great people retire. Yet PowerPoint is eternal.

This animated PowerPoint card shows – in a fun way – that sometimes when someone leaves, they are missed. Send your colleague on their way with a clever card, and perhaps they’ll even be able to forget some of the terrible PowerPoint presentations they had to sit through!

To customise this card with your own logo, you need to do about a minute of work with PowerPoint. Download the PowerPoint file, below. On the last slide, right click on the red square (the one that says ‘insert logo’). Select ‘Format Autoshape’, and then in the ‘Color’ drop-down menu, select ‘Fill Effect’. Then select the ‘Picture’ tab at the top, and from there, simply select an image file from your own computer. This will fill the square with your image. Click on the [Insert Logo] text and delete it (as you won’t need it anymore), and then save your work. Any problems, let us know in the comments.

Download our animated PowerPoint Leaving Card, for free. Adieu!

With our new World Cup 2010 PowerPoint template, you’ll be able to put together a match winning presentation and hopefully lift a trophy or two!

Our new template design is a game of two halves. It has a title slide and a contrasting main body slide. The title slide shows a stadium, and the main body has an image of a lion blended into the background.

So take to your pitch and put on a goal scoring performance with your audience. Using m62’s hat-trick of presentation theory you can make your presentation impressive, engaging and memorable!

World Cup 2010 Template