With these fully editable slides you can change the colour of individual countries, and even animate different areas. Use these slides to indicate location of offices, distribution areas, countries your organisation conducts business in… or anything else you can think of!

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Not Europe you’re after? Check out our UK Map, US Map, or World Map slides.

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These tips follow areas presenters should make sure to address in a sales presentation, as they can have a big impact on the way you get across your message and whether or not your audience buys from you. Consider these aspects when presenting, and you are more likely to close the sale.

Avoid Jargon

Language is the single biggest barrier to communication in presentations. And we don’t mean foreign languages or accents: we mean technical language or jargon. Presenters often assume that their audiences have a similar level of knowledge and familiarity with the subject matter to themselves, and thus make the fatal error of using terminology that the audience does not understand. This leads to incomprehension and confusion, which can have the added effect of making audiences tune out – and a confused and disengaged audience is not what you should be aiming for.

Use ‘You’, not ‘We’

It’s easy to accidentally focus a presentation on the presenter, rather than the audience. Even if you’ve cut the company description and focused on how you can deliver benefits to your audience – which is by no means the standard – many presenters unknowingly turn the presentation back to themselves, simply by the language they use. Phrases such as ‘we deliver’ and ‘we can provide’ sound like the obvious choices in a sales presentation, but actually focus on the presenter. Using audience-centred language such as ‘you need’ and ‘you will experience’ draws the audience in, and presenters automatically find themselves expressing benefits, as they focus on what everything means to the audience. Remember: in a sales presentation, you’re not teaching the audience about your company; you’re demonstrating how they would benefit from working with you.

Use positive language: ‘You will’ instead of ‘you should’

Using non-committal language such as ‘you should find’ or ‘your sales should improve’ can subconsciously imply to the audience that you don’t have much confidence on what you can deliver. Using positive, solid language such as ‘you will sell more in a shorter space of time’ helps to instil confidence in your audience and they will find themselves really imagining what your offering could do for them.

Address your audience by name

This is dependent on the size of your audience and your familiarity with them, but can be effective in certain situations. Address members of your audience by name (if you know them and you’re in a setting intimate enough for it to be appropriate) to really grab their attention. Refer to certain situations and details that you have an inside knowledge of to help them imagine working with you. So for example, “Rather than selling 3 cars a month, you would sell 7.”

Remember your message.

Refer everything back to your value proposition, and the key reasons your audience should do business with you. Repeat the important words and phrases (not too much, or it will get annoying!) to really embed these messages in your audience’s minds. This will ensure that they will remember your messages at the key point – when they are making the decision.

Benefits, not features

Not specifically language, but something to think about in your patter. Don’t just describe what you can do, describe how it can benefit your audience.

The way you say things can really have a big impact, so really focus on these techniques in your rehearsal. Do them enough and they should come naturally – so that on the day, your main concern is where it should be: getting your message across.

In any presentation, the rationale for using PowerPoint is to display information, and to help convey information in a simplified way. Too often our PowerPoint presentations appear too complicated and end up giving the audience data overload. Ultimately you want your presentation to be clear, concise, and to look professional. Follow these 7 steps to quickly improve the look and feel of your presentation.

1. Use a PowerPoint template. Download one, create your own, or use one of the pre-designed templates readily available within PowerPoint. Using a template is by far the easiest way to ensure that all your content is part of the same design scheme – a properly programmed template will not only give you a constant, professional background, but will create any new content in the correct font and colour. You can even have your own branded template designed, to ensure that you are always in line with your company branding.
2. Cut back on text – don’t have all of the text on your slides that you’re going to be reading. Remember, your slides are for the audience – not a cue card for the presenter. Absolutely do not use full sentences – it is not a document! If you can’t remove bullet points entirely, at least dramatically reduce the text in each one by cutting each phrase down to a few words. For example, rather than ‘Get the information over to the audience’, you could simply shorten it to ‘Communicate’.
3. Replace text with images. A picture paints a thousand words, and the correct picture can help an audience quickly grasp a concept, whilst listening to you. It allows the audience to interpret the message on the slide quickly and relate it to the point.
4. Keep it simple – all information, whatever format, on a slide should be easily readable and easy to understand. Otherwise the audience will have a data dump of information and not be able to process what the presenter is saying and the information on the slide it correlates to. Cut out anything that is not absolutely necessary on screen – remember, you can deliver any extra information in your patter when you present. The details do not have to – and in fact should not – be present on the slide.
5. Use colours to differentiate between different concepts. Different pieces of information should be displayed using different colours, making it easier for the audience to interpret the data. This is a really simple way of taking a step towards visualisation on a complicated slide. Use one colour to represent e.g. senior members of staff, and another to represent the less senior team. If you continue to use these colours in the same way throughout your presentation, it will really help your audience grasp your content.
6. Add some basic animation to help you present your content in a way that makes it easier on the audience. Help to tell the story in a linear way via the use of a simple fade animation, by having content on your slide appear at the appropriate point in your narrative. This can hold back key points of your story, helping build it along to keep your audience engaged as it progresses. This also reduces the cognitive load on the audience, meaning that they don’t have to attempt to process all the information on the slide at once.
7. Standardise. If you have different fonts, different colours but no scheme, and different types of images throughout your presentation, it will look unprofessional. Try to make everything look like it belongs together, and you will ultimately look much more professional.

Following these basic steps should ensure that your presentation looks more professional, and that you make a better impression. Of course, these are only the first steps to making your presentation more effective. If you find that you have a little more time before your presentation, consider m62 impress – we take your slides and make them look more impressive and professional, with our quick and simple entry service. But to make your presentations more effective by ensuring that your presentations really pay attention to your presentation and remember your key messages, you might find that m62 recall could really benefit you.

Plantronics .Audio 326 – Amazon price $13.03

One of the lowest-priced stereo headsets available, this is a surprisingly competent piece of kit that delivers clear and well-balanced audio through the ‘phones and decent pickup via an adjustable boom microphone. The snug fit and soft on-ear pads means it’s suitable for extended periods of use, but the somewhat flimsy frame makes for somewhat loose contact with the ears, which means the bass has little impact. The microphone performs well, but no pop-shield and a rather long boom extension means you’ll have to fiddle quite a lot with the positioning to avoid distortion and still pick up a decent voice profile.

The good: Economically-priced, clear sound and comfortable fit, with convenient in-line controls.

The bad: Lack of bass is unsatisfying, microphone placement makes it difficult to calibrate voice levels.

Buy it if: You make occasional Skype/VOIP conversations and are too busy to listen to music.

Sennheiser PC 131 – Amazon price $30.50

Sennheiser’s ‘phones are well-known in the upper-ranges of the audiophile price range, so it’s pleasing to see a budget headset like this deliver such great performance. The frame is well-designed – comfortable and clamping down with good pressure on the ears, which in turn means that the rich sound profile can be properly delivered. To complement this, the microphone performs fantastically well – even better than many sets that cost twice as much. Even without the pop shield, voice clarity is excellent and the sensitive but noise-reducing microphone picks up everything you want and almost nothing you don’t. What’s disappointing is the build quality – the plastic used in the frame is brittle, and incredibly the earpads are not fastened to the cups, so expect lots of hunting around for them before you decide to get out the duct-tape. The set also comes with an outlandishly long cable which, unless you have three-metre long arms, is likely to cause annoying snarl-ups under the desk.

The good: Great sound for the price, and a fantastic microphone. Useful volume and muting in-line controls.

The bad: Some disappointing oversights with the build – treat this set with care.

Buy it if: You do a lot of Skype/VOIP and voice recording, and you’re either very tidy or don’t mind taping things up so they stay in place…

Philips SHM6100/37 – Amazon price $31.18

An unusual set exhibiting some of the innovation you’d expect to find in a Philips product, with mixed results. The ‘behind the head’ frame and larger than usual on-ear pads, combined with Philips’ three-duct bass amplification chamber mean the sound packs a punch – the bass is meaty and the sound quality in general is very good, provided you have the right-shaped head. Wearing the set for a long time can prove frustrating – it’s very lightweight, but the lack of a good clamping grip around the top of the head means the ‘neckband’ has a tendency to slip. The microphone performs well and features a flexible boom and pop-shield, making it easy to configure the optimum position for recording voice. However it’s difficult to achieve the exact same fit twice, making levels unpredictable for re-recordings, and if the set slips halfway through, it’s time to start over.

The good: Great sound, very comfortable and a very ‘flexible’ microphone to work with.

The bad: Some wearers will find the new-fangled frame design irritating and requiring constant adjustment, and the foam earpads on our set disintegrated after about 8 months of use.

Buy it if: You want something trendier than the Sennheisers above, and have an opportunity to try it on first.

Sony DR-350 – Amazon Price $49.71

Sony get it right in performance and design, and this set is no exception. The headset of choice for those among us who spend hours recording voiceovers and conducting online reviews, it’s a great all-rounder. The design is comfortable and sturdy – you’d have to signal a very energetic “no” to have this slip from the optimum position – and yet, contact with the ears is feather soft. The sound is rich and well-rounded, with powerful bass and a sparkling mid-range, although the upper ranges are not as defined as you’d find in their similarly-priced dedicated stereo headphones. The microphone performs exceptionally well, although there is an odd design issue. Instead of being mounted on a fixed boom, the mic is built into the left earpiece, with a ‘voice-tube’ piece of plastic that can be snapped onto the earpiece to better capture the sound. Without the tube in place the pickup quality is still fine for VOIP conversations, but recording quality is superb when it’s fitted – the only issue is, how long until you lose it?

The good: Superb all-round performance and quality build, and a useful USB adaptor with in-line controls.

The bad: That pesky detachable voice-tube. Now where could I have dropped it?

Buy it if: You need high-quality voice-recording, comfort, durability, and superb sound. Oh, it looks nice too.

Creative Labs WP-350 – Amazon Price $99.99

Say goodbye to wires forever! Well, two of them at least. Creative Labs’ latest foray into the burgeoning Bluetooth headset arena succeeds on many levels. Obviously, the main draw is wireless connectivity –  you can use this set in partnership with your Bluetooth-enabled laptop, PC, Mac, or phone. The fit is snug and firm, with cushioned earpads that fit just right on the ears and deliver truly fantastic sound quality thanks to CL’s proprietary apt-x audio codec. The hidden microphone also performs very well, although it does lack the expansive sound that can be achieved with a boom mic, and when using the set in areas with wireless networks or other Bluetooth connections there can be a trace of background hiss. The earpieces themselves also contain volume controls and ‘play/pause’, ‘next’ and ‘back’, and ‘call answer’ controls. Well, it’s not all ‘work-work-work’, is it?

The good: No wires, but no loss in performance either. Superb design, great sound and a very respectable microphone.

The bad: A traditional mic might have allowed for richer-sounding voice recordings, and no option to ‘go wired’ means your more delicate recordings are at the mercy of interference. An expensive option if you’re just looking for a PC-bound headset.

Buy it if: You do a lot of VOIP, a fair amount of recording, and can justify spending a bit of extra cash for the ability to unlock all the music you’ve got stored on all your Bluetooth-enabled gadgets.

The United Kingdom Map slides are useful for indicating your company location and areas covered by your services, or for class projects. Download for free for use in your own presentations.

Download UK Map PowerPoint Slides

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The US Map slides could be used to indicate the locations of your offices, or to show distribution levels across different states. Download for free and use at work, school, or any other place you wish!

Download US Map PowerPoint Slides

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Download the Blood Cell Template for free, for use in your own presentations.

Download Blood Cell Template

All our PowerPoint templates are free. If you use one, please say thanks by sharing via Google+1, Twitter, or Facebook. Thank you!

Highlight different countries, or use the ready-made pushpins to indicate locations. The slides are fully editable, including all colours, so you can really take these slides and make them your own.

Download World Map PowerPoint Slides

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by Carmine Gallo

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs by Carmine Gallo aims to capture the traits and techniques of the former Apple CEO that made him an engaging – and often mesmerizing – public speaker, and distil them into a guide that is interesting, informative and applicable. The text walks the narrow path between admiring biography and insightful presentation guide and occasionally loses its focus – straying too far either side of this line. However, for the most part, it provides a well-balanced mix of the two, moving fluidly between anecdote and application, offering genuine, instructive guidance for those looking to capture some of Jobs’ keynote magic.

Gallo paints the picture of Steve Jobs’ success as a presenter very differently from how it is perceived by many. While the world saw Jobs as a naturally-gifted showman, something of a one-off with charm, charisma and flair that others could not hope to match, Gallo takes a more practical, analytical view. In his view, Jobs’ skills were formidable, but they were learnt, practised, refined and repeatable. It is this premise from which the book springs. Gallo uses each of the book’s 18 chapters to explore a different facet of Steve Jobs’ style – looking in detail at each element, providing examples of its use, why it worked so well and how it can be replicated.

The Rule of Three

The book is divided into three ‘acts’, which each contain half a dozen or so ‘scenes’. The acts guide you through the creation of a presentation chronologically, while the scenes contain key insights and pointers to help you along the way. The first act deals with ‘creating the story’ – looking at how Jobs crafted his message so that it was emotive, easy to understand and easy to remember. The second looks at ‘delivering the experience’ – creating slides, moments of drama, and looking at ‘soft skills’ involved in effective delivery. The final section: ‘refine and rehearse’ walks you through the benefits and necessity of rehearsing, and provides techniques for doing so effectively.

Together, the chapters work as a tonal guide rather than a step-by-step walkthrough. Gallo suggests rather than instructs but this is not necessarily a bad thing. The text is focused on altering your attitude and approach to presentations; encouraging you to create presentations as Steve Jobs would, rather than to create one of Steve Jobs’ presentations.

We begin by ‘creating the story’, pulling together the right information, in the right way, for the right audience. This section is the most interesting and useful of the book’s three acts. While the showmanship and obsessive rehearsing (discussed in later sections) may be beyond the reach (or out of the comfort zone) of many readers, there is much in the analysis of Jobs’ messages that can be easily and beneficially transplanted.

Gallo recognises Jobs’ power as a storyteller. We are accordingly implored to identify the hero and villains of our message – to outline the current problem or challenge (the villain) for our audience and introduce our offering as the valiant hero that will save the day, leading us to a better world. Along the way, we should make it easy for our audience to follow, guiding them to see things how we see them (and how we want them to see them). Creating short, snappy headlines, answering the question that means most to them, and providing a route as to where we are going are all part of making the story as easy as possible for them to follow, to understand and to share.

Gallo has collected together ideas common to much of Jobs’ work. He presents them in anecdotal form, then moves on to discuss how the idea can be applied, and how he has successfully done so in his own work. The formula works well, and makes for an interesting and informative read with the right balance of analysis and advice. Gallo’s tone is motivational and uplifting – as you would expect from this kind of guide – and he strikes the right note in terms of the subject matter: enough depth for Apple fans, and enough background for newcomers.

The middle act of the book focusses on delivery. It is here that we are walked through specific examples of Steve Jobs’ stagecraft – how he presents information in such a way that transforms ‘prospects into customers, and customers into evangelists’. Chapters centre around simplifying information, contextualising figures, using dynamic language, and introducing guests and props. Where this chapter could have slid into an ‘ode to Steve Jobs’, Gallo is careful, keeping the text grounded and relevant to the audience and their expectations. That being said, there are occasions where the author’s adoration for Jobs overtakes the guidance, and we are occasionally left wondering what the point of this is – or how we’re supposed to apply this to our world. However, these are few and far between, and for the most part Gallo is practical, writing to his readers’ expectations.

To anyone who has paid any interest to Apple over the past few years, the traits that Gallo picks up on will not be surprising. Much of what Jobs was renowned for – his simple straightforward language, his energy and enthusiasm, his elegant slide designs and dramatic reveals are all represented and discussed in detail. What is particularly interesting however, is how Gallo has managed to distil these down into applicable direction that is specific yet general enough to work for any reader. As a package, Steve Jobs’ approach to presentations is unachievable, and many would be put off trying to reach his level. However, by breaking his technique down into manageable chucks, Gallo offers hope and a real solution to those wanting to improve their skills.

The final section reveals the work and dedication that is needed to pull off a presentation with Steve Jobs’ level of finesse. Presenting without notes, dressing correctly and knowing material inside out is not new advice, but it is relevant and important.

Well-crafted but limited

It would have been easy for this book to become a fanboy’s list of everything that was great about Steve Jobs. Likewise, it would have been just as easy to write another guide on how to make your presentations better. Neither would have added much to the crowded marketplace. Instead, Gallo takes the best elements of both and weaves them together into a unique and inspiring title.

As a whole, Gallo’s text is excellent at what it does. The formula of taking an iconic figure and breaking down traits of his success for everyone to use works really well. However, as a guide to creating more effective presentations, it falls short on detail. Because Gallo is limited by the source material available – essentially, media-focused high end product launches – there is not enough information for readers in more common (possibly) mundane situations.

More guidance on the best way to structure different types of presentation would have been useful, as would advice on how to tailor these techniques to different environments. Furthermore, while Gallo expresses the importance of using pictures instead of words, and few words if they must be used, he talks little about how graphics and diagrams can further strengthen a message, if they are used correctly. Having said that, the book is advertised as a guide to the presentation style of Steve Jobs, and does not claim to do more. As such, these omissions are more a missed opportunity to be more thorough than a flaw of the book per se.

The effectiveness of the text will really come down to whether the techniques employed in media-focused, high profile product launch keynotes will have any traction in lower-key, everyday business environments. Presentations around the world deal with matters that are more complex, more involved and generally less sexy than a revolutionary mobile phone launch. Does this book work for them?

Beneath the flair, the drama and ceremony, Gallo (and Jobs’) key messages – to simplify, polish and enthuse – resonate with all readers. Much beyond that however, will be lost and is simply too far removed from many business situations. That being said, if readers only take away these three central lessons, the improvement in their presentations will be dramatic. The book is worth reading simply to be walked through these three points, and to learn how to apply them effectively in your own work.

In Conclusion

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs by Carmine Gallo captures the things that were great about Jobs, that made him an engaging and mesmerising presenter, and presents them in a way that is not only interesting but applicable to the everyday business environment. Gallo’s advice is not revolutionary – in fact a lot stems from common sense – but this kind of advice has rarely been packaged in this way: with genuinely inspirational source material that readers can so easily relate and aspire to.

For fans of Apple, the book provides an insight into their hero’s work ethic, unpicking the individual elements that made him great at what he did. For newcomers, it is a well-written and informative guide to presenting, if not the most thorough or exhaustive guide on the shelves.

Give credit where it is due, Gever’s Tinkering School for Kids is fantastic and is a great vehicle for children to learn by tinkering with all sorts of things. And the photographs show that he loves what he does. His delivery would have been far more effective though, had he removed certain barriers and distractions. The biggest barrier of all was the lectern. It restricted his movement and prevented him from looking at half of the audience. It also became something to lean upon. It would have been so much better had he simply stood in front of it, or away from it. He is clearly good with his hands but was prevented from using them because he didn’t have a remote clicker. Using the keypad is a big mistake. When a presenter is rooted to the spot and juggling with notes, it sends a negative signal to the audience. They may be thinking, “Hmmmm, he doesn’t know his presentation and hasn’t rehearsed how to present it.” In a sales pitch, buyers will disengage and discount your offering.

Most presenters get nervous when presenting to a large audience, and rehearsing with feedback from observers is critical to help build greater confidence. Gever’s ‘tick’, or habit, is that he punches one hand into the palm of the other. And the resulting noise of it is a distraction. If you don’t know if you have a ‘tick’, then record a video of yourself presenting during a rehearsal and then watch and listen. The insight may prove to be a bit of a painful experience, but you can take immediate action to remedy any distracting mannerisms or repetition of words such as, ‘…you know’, ‘…OK’, or the dreaded, ‘er…’.

It usually takes three or four rehearsals to start to become confidently familiar with a new presentation. Presenters need to know their pitch well enough to be able to confidently deliver it without referring to notes. And they should certainly know when it has reached the last slide. Gever was almost caught by surprise; “I think that’s it…” was not the most positive note to finish on! To be fair to him, presenting is not his daily area of expertise; it is teaching kids how to learn by tinkering. And this leads to a frequent dilemma when you have to take a team to a sales pitch. Having a team attend is usually due to the differing areas of expertise that they bring to the table. The dilemma is often caused by thinking that each team member should present because they are in the room. When coaching clients on high value pitches, our recommendation is that yes, you do need the expertise in the room, and that you should have your best presenter deliver the pitch. The expert team members add more value in the Q&A, not by tinkering with the presentation delivery. Switching presenters is a distraction and breaks the audience’s attention. As with Gever’s pitch, it’s all about safety, and the simple things. So keep your presentation delivery safe by having your best presenter deliver it. It is as simple as that.

A not-so-inside joke among graphic designers is if you say something was “designed by committee”, you’re disavowing any responsibility for the look of it. There were likely so many hands in the pot, the end result either looks bland and lifeless or like a rainbow run through a meat grinder.

At the same time, designers can’t live in a vacuum. We do our best work when inspired by something or someone else. We need to bounce ideas around with others and work from unexpected tangents. I’ve recently come to the realization that the perfect number of people for collaborating on nicely inspired and effective design work is three. Get three people in a room, no more and no less, and the idea flow and problem-solving seems to be smoothest. The brainstorming doesn’t have the chaos of four or more, and you don’t have the empty stares and mind searching with just two. With three, everyone’s a participant. Nobody can space out in silence.

Wait…[Googling]…there’s actually evidence for this?! Studies show that groups of three to five are ideal at problem solving and outperform individuals or groups of two.

So put into practice; let’s say, as your company’s design diva, you’re handed a project from someone who has some idea of what they want to accomplish, but little idea what the end result should look like. You could just run with it and create what you think is a fantastic design, but it may not convey the message coherently. Before expending the time and energy on a design that may be tossed aside, pull a third party into the discussion, even if they aren’t associated with the project.

On the other side, if you’re color-blind and have tube socks where your right brain should be, but you know your goal, don’t just rely on the designer’s intuition to execute it. Bring in someone else to round out the perspective. And if you don’t have a designer to help, it’s common knowledge that three non-designers equal one decent designer. Well, maybe that will be common knowledge after this blog article?

This ‘rule of threes’ almost guarantees you’ll approach a problem from all angles and craft a more effective solution. Having three people feeding each other helps break the creative barrier. The bonus of this rule is you’ll have buy-in from three voices, not just one or two, when more hands want to grind the rainbow, so to speak.

Give it a try the next time you’re stuck for creative inspiration or need to solve a problem. Drag two others in a room, hash it out, and let us know how it went in the comments below.

Struggling to design a presentation? Presentations should be effective, not just pretty – see how m62 approach presentation design.

Their rules for an effective pitch are simple. Rehearse, keep your nerve, don’t offend your audience, be enthusiastic, sell yourself, be clear and concise, and give straight answers. All very much common sense and logical, and probably each contestant believed they had done all this in their planning for the pitch. Yet the panel were amazed that some contestants appeared to be presenting their pitch for the very first time. They said some looked like buffoons, and that some believed that a technical pitch is the ‘be all and end all’. However, some nailed it and won. Their presentations were so well rehearsed that they looked completely polished. They made an excellent impression, they were passionate and they answered every question skillfully. To enable our clients to achieve this, we spend the two days prior to their pitch rehearsing. How many times can you think of when a team has worked until late in the night on the eve of a pitch still working on the slides? And then having little to no time rehearsing in front of each other?

Presentation rehearsal avoidance can sometimes be caused by ‘Johnny-come-lately’. This is when a team member arrives after the presentation has been locked down and they challenge the content. They have good intentions, but we call them ‘friendly assassins’. My advice is to have every member of the pitch in agreement of the presentation content at least two days ahead of the pitch. Then rehearse, rehearse, and rehearse. You need to know your presentation so well that your focus is on the panel, not wondering what is going to appear on the slide when it builds. Your narrative needs to be precise. A misplaced word will be immediately picked up by an audience and will influence their decision making. Having a complete awareness of your presentation and pitch will also have a hugely positive impact on your confidence.

The preparation is not complete until you have rigorously rehearsed your answers to the questions you will have fired at you. Practice how you would handle really difficult questions and also how you would handle a question, a curve ball, that comes completely out of the blue; who in your team would take ownership of such a question and deal with it in a calm and professional manner? It could be a deal-breaker and has to be answered with aplomb.

Business is tough out there, probably tougher than it ever has been. Everybody is looking for an edge; and sometimes it is a razor’s edge. Investing time and effort in your pitch can be that edge. Plan time for rehearsals, work to that plan, and then have a plan B because something unexpected easily happens.

Robert Burns’ poem To a Mouse, 1786

But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane [you aren't alone]
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft a-gley, [often go awry]
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promised joy.

Download the fireworks PowerPoint template for use in presentations on Guy Fawkes, to plan an event, or simply to get in the mood – the choice is yours! If you wish to send someone a Bonfire Night greeting, why not use our PowerPoint Fireworks Card?

Download PowerPoint 2003 Fireworks Template
Download PowerPoint 2010 Fireworks Template

Who should present?

It can be tempting, when you have so many subject matter experts, but you really want to keep it down to as few presenters as possible. This minimises disruptions and ensures that the presentation will flow seamlessly. The choice of who to select comes down to seniority, relationship, and expertise, as well as presenting ability. Who has an established relationship with the audience, and so has inherent credibility? Who is the most senior? Who would deliver that section with the most authority?

That said, it can be useful to have extra people in the room who aren’t presenting. A lot of teams feature a few subject matter experts alongside the presenters, such as the engineer of a product. These people should not present and may not even speak at all, but they are there in case a question is asked that only they can answer.

Introductions

It is important to briefly introduce everyone in your team before your presentation begins, so that the audience are not distracted by wondering who everyone is. The person with the best relationship with the audience should do this, and fundamentally explain why everyone is there. This includes those who aren’t presenting.

Credibility

The most important thing when delivering as a team of presenters is to establish credibility. Audiences need to know that the presenter is a credible source, or will see no reason to believe or listen to him. So how can you ensure members of the team display this credibility?

It’s very difficult for a presenter to establish his own credibility, as it can sound arrogant, but other methods can feel contrived. So at m62, we recommend presenters follow an Olympic relay team of credibility.

The Relay Team

Using this method, one presenter begins the presentation and sets up the credibility for the others. The first presenter has to be the one with the most innate credibility (the most senior or most well-known with the audience). As he finishes his section, he hands this credibility onto the next presenter, who then passes it on to the presenter following him. As the initial presenter is respected, his recommendation of the presenter following will be trusted.

Passing the baton

Leaving presenters to introduce themselves at the start of their section is not the best way to establish credibility. Presenters will not be able to do this themselves: saying “I am the absolute best person at this” is embarrassing and sounds arrogant.

Instead, each presenter should introduce the next, so that others can say the things they wouldn’t say about themselves. We ask each presenter to write down the one sentence that they would be too embarrassed to say about themselves, and give that to their colleague to use when passing on to the next section of the presentation. So, as presenters move on to the next section, they will each say something like: “So for this I’ll pass you on to Sarah, who knows more about this topic than anyone I’ve ever met.”

This does need to be practised so that it doesn’t sound fake or cheesy. But once it has been rehearsed a few times, the handover should sound natural and credible – ensuring that your audience listen to every single member of your team.

There are many free PowerPoint templates available to download online, and you even have a choice of standard Microsoft designs from within PowerPoint 2007 or 2010 itself. But if none of these take your fancy, or if you want to use specific company colours, you may wish to create your own bespoke template.

What do you need for a bespoke template?

There are two basic components of a template: title slide and main body slide. The title slide usually contains the name of your company, the name of the presentation, and the name of the presenter. The main body slide should have a contrasting title bar area, which will help differentiate titles from the background information.

The Master Template

Templates are created using a master template. To access the slide master, select View > Slide Master.

When you’re in the master area, PowerPoint provides you with default automated template options. Slide 1 is the master slide. Anything you do on this slide is replicated on all of the slides underneath it. So, while it may seem logical to use slide 1 for your title slide, it should in fact be used for your normal background, for use on all of your main body slides.

Layouts

Beneath the master slide (slide 1) are the layout slides. These slides take design features from the master, but can be edited individually. Some of the layouts are unnecessary, so rather than complicate things, it’s best practice to delete the ones you’re not going to use. At m62, we delete nearly all of them, as we believe that they can hinder creativity and encourage the misuse of PowerPoint.

To build your own layout, select ‘Insert Layout’ from the Slide Master tab. You can edit the design, and add placeholders via ‘Insert Placeholder’ for objects such as images and charts. These placeholders will hold onto the template design features, and so can be useful for e.g. creating graphs quickly. You can rename layouts by right clicking the layout, and selecting ‘Rename Layout’.

From normal view, selecting Home > New Slide will bring up the list of slide layouts available. Designers can select the most relevant layout for the slide they wish to create.

Colours

Selecting the right colour palette is usually the first thing presenters and presentation designers address when designing their template. When in the Master area, select Create New Theme Colours – you’ll be given 8 choices. PowerPoint uses RGB colours; these can be taken from your company branding colours, or you can create your own.

It’s important to select colours that will go well together. A good website to help you select a new colour scheme is kuler.adobe.com. And whether you have an existing colour scheme or not, make sure you pick some opposing colours to help differentiate fonts and certain design elements. We’d normally pick six colours for a palette: three strong colours, and three derivatives. If you don’t have enough colours in mind to fill the 8 possible colour slots, you should fill them by duplicating the colours you have chosen. This ensures that you won’t end up with rogue colours in your scheme.

One great feature of PowerPoint 2007/2010 is that if you select a colour from normal view, the menu automatically gives you different gradients of each of your chosen colours. This gives you lots of options for your contrasting colours.

Set your main body slide background

Set your main body slide design features from Master view. Change the background colour of your slide by right clicking on the thumbnail of the slide and then selecting Format Background. Change the background itself to gradient fill or normal fill, depending on your preferences, and select the chosen colour from your palette. To add a picture to the background, use the same process from the same menu, where you can select picture or textured fill. Remember though that your audience must be able to clearly see content on top of your background image. And be warned: if the image you are using is large, you could end up with a huge file size for your presentation. Make sure you compress your pictures first!

It’s also a good idea to add a title bar to your main body slide by creating a shape at the top of your slide, and adding a text box. This is also the perfect time to add a logo to your slides.

Within the Format Background menu of a layout slide, you can toggle off ‘normal background graphics’ to get rid of the title bar and other additional features, if you don’t want them displayed on that slide.

To create a title slide background

The first slide below the master slide should be the title slide. Change the background colour using the same method as detailed above. The background colour should be a different colour to your main body slides, to get your audience’s attention when the presentation starts.

Selecting fonts

Some companies also require presenters to use particular fonts. In Office 2007 and 2010, the default font is Calibri. To set a default font for your slide deck, select the ‘Fonts’ button, which is below the ‘Colours’ one. PowerPoint provides default setups for headings and text. We would recommend Arial, as it’s a font every computer has and it’s easy for audiences to read. If you want to add your own particular font, select Fonts > Create New Theme Font. We strongly recommend using the same font throughout all text in your presentation for unity.

Animation

If you’re going to add animation to your template, it’s best not to do so on the master. Master-embedded animations won’t work in PowerPoint 2003, or on Internet-based software. Best practice is to create two layout slides for title bars: one that animates, and one that doesn’t. These should cover both needs without any problem.

That said, something important you should also do on the Master is make sure that transitions are set to ‘Fade’, not ‘Appear’ – click ‘Apply to All’. This will keep your presentation flowing smoothly.

Using your template

Now you have this fantastic template, how do you use it?

First you need to save your template as a template, and not as a PowerPoint presentation. Template files are in a .potx (or .pot for PowerPoint 2003) format. To save yours in the correct format, go to Home > Save As… and select the .potx file format from the dropdown options. Voila! You’ve created a template.

And to use your template, simply open it up and get started!

ActivePrez is designed to make navigating around PowerPoint presentations instinctive and easy. The software installs as a plug-in for PowerPoint, then integrates seamlessly with the programme, accessible from a custom ribbon (in PowerPoint 2007/10) or menu (PowerPoint 2003) within the PowerPoint window. Once opened, you are invited to ‘Create a Menu Bar’, and are taken through a simple step-by-step process to link your slides with headings as you wish them to appear.

The menu bars operate on a tiered structure, whereby the lower menus dynamically change depending on how selections above are made. Clicking ‘Corporate Overview’ on tier one for example, displays the sections under this header below, and so on. The menu bars can be up to three levels deep, which will allow for easy navigation of even the most complex of presentations. What is more, this complexity is neatly hidden as the menu is navigated – only showing those slides or subfolders pertinent to the current selection.

Clicking between slides is straightforward and works as you would expect. Functionality is limited to selection with a mouse (as opposed to a clicker), but this is what you would expect and in the vast majority of cases, will not hamper ActivePrez’s utility. Navigation bars appear either at the top or bottom of the slide on all the slides that are actively linked to. The menu does not appear on a slide if that slide has not been linked with one of the tabs. Although there is the ability to show/hide the menu with a button, it might have been nice for this to happen automatically, by hovering the cursor in the right area. (Ed – this would require macro-code, because there is no native support for mouse-overs in PowerPoint.) Nevertheless, the interface is clean, functional and – on the whole – unobtrusive.

The menu bars are completely customisable, both in terms of content and style. ActivePrez presents default options, which can be tweaked as much as necessary, offering options for shading, highlights, placement and others. One nice feature is that ActivePrez defaults to the colour palette from your PowerPoint template (if you are working from one), which ensures your navigation menu looks integral in your design from the outset. While the navigation menu designs follow a standard layout and form factor, there are enough variables to achieve a look consistent with your presentation’s style. In terms of execution, GMARK have gone for function above form, which is no terrible thing.

One potential shortcoming in the software relates to the extent you are able to link slides with the menu tabs. While the tiered structure is useful for organising your content, only the lowermost tabs (i.e. those that do not contain subfolders) can be linked with slides. This proves problematic if you use the higher menus as section headings and the lower menus as content. In this instance, you can only navigate to the content itself, but not to the start of each section.

In the diagram below, only the tabs illustrated as green boxes would link to slides. The section overviews for ‘Who We Are’ and ‘Financial Forecasts’ would not link to slides, but would open the menus below with their associated content:

As a workaround, it would be necessary to duplicate the blue tabs on the row below (as shown) so that when one was clicked, the section heading slide would be opened and not the first (content) slide in that section. This approach works perfectly well, but isn’t as streamlined as you might like:

This is the sort of problem that will be a big issue for some users, and will not affect others in the slightest. (Ed - apparently this will be addressed in a forthcoming release.)

Although navigation is the key element of ActivePrez, there are also a host of accompanying tools that offer enhanced functionality over the standard PowerPoint offerings, all tailored towards offering the presenter more control over how they present and distribute their material.

The Co-Brand wizard offers a fast and easy way to individually brand presentations for multiple organisations. The feature is relatively easy to use, and delivers excellent results, provided there is a level of consistency between the different logos you hope to use. To work best, logos should be of a similar size and proportion, and should have either a white or transparent background (but not a mix of both). Essentially the feature creates a copy of the presentation with the logo inserted wherever you choose. Although this is something that can be done manually, it is a useful time-saving extension.

Amongst the additional features that ActivePrez includes is a tool for creating customised slide sub-decks to distribute collections of only the slides you have presented on that day. There is a tool for including a clock while presenting – although not a countdown timer – and a useful direct print feature that allows you to print a slide without leaving it. Again, these tools do not allow you to do anything completely new, but help you to access features more quickly, circumventing some of PowerPoint’s more clunky steps.

From my initial experimenting with ActivePrez, I can see how it would be a useful addition to PowerPoint. Some of the features included which I have not touched upon – contextual menus and slide confidentiality – have the potential to broaden its appeal even further. ActivePresentation’s utility will ultimately depend on how you use PowerPoint, and the complexity of presentations you frequently create. The add-in does not expand PowerPoint’s out-of-the-box functionality per se, but certainly speeds up implementation and operation of some of the program’s more complex commands. It does so in a stylish, well-constructed and unobtrusive package. If you have been looking for a way to quickly navigate your presentations, and will not be limited by the shortcomings mentioned above, I would have no hesitations in recommending it.

There is an inherent beauty in diagrams that has been recognised by many people in the history of human existence. One of the key functions of diagrams is that they enable people to more easily understand new concepts and communicate these concepts with others.

Modern humans are thought to have developed only 50,000 to 70,000 years ago, in terms of both their anatomy and behaviour. Part of the key distinction between modern humans and earlier forms, is the ability to communicate and express cultural creativity, which is directly linked to the development of language. Language was a key part of this change and was expressed in many forms, including vocal expression and storytelling, visual art and diagrams, games, jokes and personal decoration. While there is thought to have been older forms of communication used by human ancestors before this time, it is likely to have been far more primitive and potentially similar to the communication used today by other members of the great ape species (chimpanzees, gorillas and orang-utans).

It is not clear precisely how the first modern human language developed. Some believe that it was based on learned vocalisations, while others believe that it was a form of sign language based on gesticulation. Although the precise origin of this language will almost certainly never by fully agreed, what is interesting is the fact that something visual-based was probably amongst the earliest forms of communication and is one that has evolved with humans as we have developed. Another point to support this is the fact that 20% of the human brain is dedicated to processing vision – far more than any other sensory modality, again demonstrating the power that visuals have within humans.

Some of the earliest examples of the use of diagrams comes from Australian Aboriginal rock art featuring local animals such as kangaroos, dingoes and emus, with examples from the Pilbara region dating back over 40,000 years. 35,000 years ago, the Aurignacians were drawing diagrams of reindeer in cave paintings in Chauvet, France, and are found extensively across both France and Spain. This was developed over the generations into the next stage of the evolution of visual language to petroglyphs (carvings in rocks), to pictograms (symbols that use illustration to represent objects, activities or events) and then ideograms (graphical symbols that convey an idea). As humans became more adept at using visuals to communicate with over thousands of years, the visuals themselves became more complex and allowed more information to be conveyed more quickly.

Contrast this to written language. Writing or text was established far more recently (relatively speaking) and is thought to have been created about 6,000 years ago. The Chinese, Sumerians and Egyptians were amongst the first to develop a written language, all of which was done well after the near full development of modern humans. In fact, biologically speaking, there is really nothing to separate these ancient peoples from those of today, whereas those pre-historic peoples that first started to develop a language that relied more on visual imagery were still developing (albeit in very fine detail) into modern humans.

The fact that visual-based communication has been with humans for as long as there have been humans speaks volumes (example of a visual metaphor) about the way in which we have evolved to process information. In the far more recent past and even today, visual communication is one of the most powerful ways of communicating information. In today’s modern world, it can also be the most efficient and effective, which drives all sorts of benefits, for both the communicator (i.e. presenter) and the recipient (i.e. audience).

Nicolaus Copernicus' Diagram Of The Solar System From Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium - A Diagram That Changed The World

For example, Nicolaus Copernicus is famous for two things. One was spending over 30 years making careful observations and taking accurate readings to produce 404 hand written pages of text and 101 pages of hand written data tables, all of which conveyed a huge amount of information. The other was to produce one simple diagram that would help billions of people to understand the other 500 pages in his book, De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, and change the way that science viewed space and the Earth’s place in it. He gave us a diagram that literally changed the world and clearly demonstrates the power that a diagram can have to convey any message and any amount of information, no matter how in depth or complex. His diagram of the solar system, with the planets orbiting the Sun is something that even those with very little knowledge or understanding of astrophysics can understand. Critically, many of those people could also use the diagram to explain to others how the solar system is laid out and how it works. Rather than needing advanced knowledge, this simple diagram enables a huge number of people to understand the environment in which they live.

Next time you are tempted to use bullet points in your presentation, think about whether your audience are more likely to engage well with a visual representation of your message, or whether text heavy content is the best way forward. The beauty of a diagram is its power to communicate.

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For an international organisation with offices all over the world, training can be a problem as different courses are needed to cater for different languages and geographies. This makes training an expensive process to deliver that may not yield consistent results all areas.

With online training solutions, you can develop a single training course based on best practice and create multiple language options within it. As a result, you can implement consistently high quality training across a global base, more easily and more cost effectively, while being confident in it having a positive impact across your organisation.

Want to learn more about how online training can help your business? Watch our Brainshark for Training presentation, or visit www.m62.net/brainshark.

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