Enhancing the Quality of Your Visual Presentations with PowerPoint 2007

Are you a user of PowerPoint? Ever thought of designing and delivering more professionally looking presentations with PowerPoint?

Going around, in my quiet moments, I’ve been observing presentations and instances for learning and sharing with you. And the theme for September shall be dedicated to helping you enhance the quality of the design for your visual slides – most notably those made using PowerPoint.

For starters, I’m already in the midst of preparing a post on the principles of visual aid-designs for your benefit, but in the mean time, for those of you who wish to learn more about the functions of PowerPoint 2007 and things to bear in mind when designing your slides, I thought here are a couple of links that you might find helpful:

– Using Shadows Effects on PowerPoint 2007

– Image Fading Technique in PowerPoint

– How Colors Can Make Your PowerPoint Charts More Digestible

What I love about these posts is that the author has taken the pains to actually detail the process by providing step by step instructions about how you can use those functions to enhance your design and presentation.

Furthermore (if you’ve the time), you could actually look through the blog and to find out more about the design and visual-design principles to adhere to.

For all you busy people out there (I know you are one of them!), I’ve taken the liberty the three links is just a start.

Watch this space for more tips you can use to enhance your visual-presentations!

Remember, you saw it first here

Your Friend,

Gary G

The Biggest Lesson You’ll Ever Learn About Stage Fright to Become A Better Speaker

So the stage is set – you’re going to stand before an audience and you’re going to have to “say a few words”. Whether it’s for the big presentation before business associates, or deliver a speech at a seminar, or play a bit-part as an emcee, you cannot escape the fact that you’re going so speak before a group of people – people who have the will and ability mock, ridicule and criticize you should anything go wrong…

Your head begins to swirl with thoughts of what may come…

… “What if I forget my lines?’
… “What if I’m boring?”
… “I don’t know what to say!”
… “What will I do if I flunk?”
… “What if others laugh at me?”
… “What if others don’t laugh at me?”

The list goes on…

Isn’t that just wonderful how creative we can get when it comes to finding possible problems of failure… yet we can’t seem to find a way forward to help us succeed on stage?

Well, if it’s any consolation, you’re not alone when it comes to stage fright.

Millions of people face a similar problem when they’re asked to take the stage too. Many freeze and faint. Others choose to take flight – avoiding public speaking like the plague, while a minority choose to fight for a chance to win in spite of the fear.

But guess what, I’m here to tell you today that it’s not all doom and gloom. In fact, it’s not public speaking that you’re afraid of but Public Embarrassment.

Let’s face it, we’re all afraid of making a fool of ourselves, of jeopardizing our careers, or just plain getting ridiculed and humiliated before other people… especially those you know and those who matter.

Good news though, that’s where the bad news end. Since you’re not really afraid of public speaking, you don’t have to run away from it.

In fact, it’s going to make it much easier to confront the issue and work your way up on it! After all, if you’re afraid of looking bad by doing a bad job of speaking, then focus on working on your skills so that you do a good job and stand out!

So here’s the most important lesson you’ll have to learn about Stage Fright – You’re not afraid of Public Speaking, but Public Embarrassment.

And the answer to your your problem – You can tackle “Stage Fright” by becoming a better and more skillful speaker – because then you know you can call on various skills to do well on stage.

How do I know? Because I’ve done it myself. Want to know how I overcome my intense shyness and innate introversion? The following is a recommendation and summary of a six-step process you can follow to start working on to boost your confidence and ability.

5 Essential Principles You Must Know For Success on Stage

Courtesy of Flikr and "the monk"

I was coaching a friend on public speaking a couple of weeks back when we were addressing about her public speaking anxiety. In her own words, her mind would go blank, she’d freeze and get paralyzed, and she’d suffer from panic attacks thinking about her impending doom… erm… I mean presentation *winks* for weeks to come.

Sounds familiar?

Anyway, we were talking and analyzing her anxiety attacks when it dawned upon me that she held several misconceptions and “displaced faith” towards public speaking.

Now let me clarify, she’s an educated, insightful intelligent and hardworking individual who knows what she wants and what she’s doing. The only problem is that she’s been so active at avoiding speaking up for so long now that she’s forgotten how speak!

In fact, I even remarked (to her) that she has been doing a great job at whatever she’s been doing for the past couple of years! Just think about it – She’s been so successful hiding, she’s successfully taught herself to run away from speaking!

Still, more importantly, the insights and concerns she shared with me about her fear, however, helped me crystallize some of the major lessons I’ve learned about public speaking and the concept of fear! And I thought it would be great to share them with you too!

So here it goes:

PowerPoint Revolution!

Ditch PowerPoint?

The patience of audiences around the world are thinning rapidly. The number of PPT (PowerPoint Terrorists) sympathisers in the world are declining drastically too.

No longer content to sit back and be the subject of abuse, audiences from all over the world are beginning to make their voices heard – some say PowerPoint are more a of barrier than aid to learning. Others are calling for it to be ditched completely.

But should it?

Well, I’m no fan of boring presentations (who is!?) – and I’m definitely not for PPTs (I’ll send them a virus – not anthrax – if I have to keep them from speaking). But as a Trainer and Presenter (yep, I’m one of the good guys!), I recognise the immense value and potential PowerPoint can really give. So it doesn’t really make sense to ditch it now.

But all’s not lost. Led by our “Spiritual Leader” and fellow blogger, Olivia Mitchell, a team of bloggers have banded together to come up with ideas on “What I’d like to see in PowerPoint slide design in 2009”. That’s right – we’re starting a PowerPoint Revolution for you – and we’ll be sharing our views real soon. In the meantime, here’s what I would like to see in PowerPoint Slide Design in 2009: