Nice Power Point Tips

Love ot or loathe it, Power Point is for many of us an essential tool of the trade. When it's used effectively it can certainly be an awesome asset to enhance your public speaking presentation.

Two Essential PowerPoint Slideshow Tips

January 14th, 2007 at 8:55 am (Effective Communication)

‘B’ for Blank Screen, ‘W’ for White Screen
During a presentation, when you are running a slideshow in PowerPoint, you may want to divert the attention of your audience away from the contents of your PowerPoint slide. When you are answering a question on a topic unrelated to a current slide, you may not want the audience to focus on the illustrations or graphs on your slide. Instead, you may want to be the focus of their attention.

*If you press the ‘B’ key or the ‘.’ key during your PowerPoint slideshow, the screen will go blank. This will enable you to redirect your audience’s attention to yourself and your talk. When you are ready to continue, press the ‘B’ key or the ‘.’ key to resume the slideshow.
*Alternately, press the ‘W’ key or the ‘,’ key to display a white screen. Press the ‘W’ key or the ‘,’ key a second time to resume the slideshow.

In general, it is always a good idea to have a blank screen to help get your audience to focus on you when beginning or concluding your presentation, introducing yourself or answering questions. The later versions of Microsoft PowerPoint end with a blank “End of slideshow, click to exit” screen by default.

[Number] + Enter to Transit to a Particular Slide

As with all communication processes, your PowerPoint slides and verbal presentation should consist of a logical flow of ideas and supporting material. Unfortunately, presenters often overlook this necessity.

Presenters habitually transit to a prior slide to show a graph or some data— “As I said in slide four…let me go to slide number four…here it is… .” Alternately, they sometimes transit to a further slide or to a slide in the appendix— “Edward, I am glad you brought that up…in fact, I included a chart in the last slide…let me show it to you now… .”

Moving to a prior slide or a further slide (by using the ‘Page Up’ or ‘Page Down’ keys) can distract the audience. If you must transit to a particular slide, hit the slide number and press ‘Enter.’ Note down the current slide number to use when you want to resume the slideshow. Refer to your handouts or a printout of your slideshow for slide numbers.

Public Speaking Tips For A Better Presentation

Life Coach, Beth Tabak talks about facing the fear of public speaking head on based on her own experiences:

Face Your Fear of Public Speaking- Pave the Way from Paralyzed to Powerful
January 12th, 2007 Category: Self Help

Are you allowing your fear of public speaking to hold you back from what you really want? Don’t allow fear to control you. Learn from my experience of facing fear head on.

In 2002 I made the decision to overcome my fear of public speaking. As an adventurous person, I was sick and tired of this one fear holding me back. I could go caving…crawling into dark trenches, parasail in the Bahamas, sail around and explore uninhabited islands, or ski at great speed down a mountain. But the thought of standing in front of a group and having to speak with all attention on me was petrifying. If you would have told me a few years ago that I would be speaking in public in the near future, I would have told you there was no way and that you have lost your mind.

However, the day came when I could see that fear was holding me back from what I really wanted in my life and it was time to take it on. I realized that fear is really in the future. You see fear is about what might happen, and usually doesn?t. I realized that fear was controlling me, and I was ready to take back control. If you are ready to take on your fear of public speaking dig
down, grab some courage, and read the following tips.

1- Make the decision to face your fear head on with courage and grace. Taking on your fear by itself is beautiful, admirable, and will make you feel good about you.

2- Set a time period to focus on this challenge. This is not a one time try it and see if you like it. It is a process. I chose one year. Is my fear gone? Not completely, and I made so much progress that I am excited about where this will lead. Setting the time period will focus you on the process and not one particular event. During the process you will gain experience, knowledge, and confidence.

3- Get support. Join a group such as Toastmasters (www.toastmasters.com) or develop your own support group of friends, associates, and family to back you. Set it up the way it makes you feel comfortable. Some may want a group of friends at an event to support them. I preferred just having one. You may want to practice on someone. These people will support you to help you gain confidence.

4- Go into it with no expectations. Simply having the guts to try is an honor in itself. When there are no expectations you are setting the stage for success. You have nothing to worry about. You do not have to be brilliant. For the first year my goal for each talk was to have one person walk away with something that would add value to their life. This year it will be two…even though the feedback shows I have reached many more than that. No expectations reduces your stress level.

5- Keep it simple. Choose a topic that you are very comfortable with. Keeping the amount of time in mind choose only one to three key points that you believe will add value to your audience. The audience will consist of people who have different learning styles…visual, auditory, or kinesthetic. It is helpful to keep all three in mind while preparing. A handout or vivid story may benefit the visual learner while an interactive exercise may intrigue the kinesthetic learner. Using stories and interactive exercises gets the audience involved and keeps it easy on you. They are not looking for or expecting perfection. They simply want something of value to take home with them…a good feeling, a helpful tip, the inspiration to do something new, or just to be able to say they had a great evening out.

6- Prepare, prepare, prepare. When I really looked into my fear I found that in the past I had never taken the time to be well prepared. I do not mean memorize. Prepare to a point where you feel ready.

7- Choose a montra such as ?I will grow from this experience and love myself no matter what.? Just a reminder that no event can be so big as to destroy you. If you mess up…big deal! What if a toddler after his first fall said ?that?s it…I?m never going to walk.? What do we tell frustrated kids when they are learning to read and say ?I?ll never be able to read!?? We tell them ?Yes you will…keep practicing…you?ll get it.? They do. We can learn a lot from watching kids face their fears one after another and succeed.

8- Maintain a positive attitude and stifle your inner critic. When you notice your inner critic taking over shift your attitude to something positive. Visualize yourself succeeding. Confidently tell yourself you can do it…even if you have doubt. Focus on how awesome you will feel when it is over and you have faced your fear. If you are a spiritual person prayer works wonders. Do whatever it takes to encourage and coach yourself to success.

9- Meet the audience. They really want to support you. Plan to get to the event a little bit early (not too early) in order to get a feel for where you will be and the events leading up to your talk. I like to go around and meet the audience. You quickly realize that they are not big ogres… just real people.

10- Breathe. Whenever the butterflies are getting the best of you remember to breathe. Take slow deep breathes in through the nose from the diaphragm and out through your mouth. Relax into it.

11- Use your nervous energy. When you are introduced use your nervous energy to get you started. Walk up with excitement, stand tall, and speak out with confidence.

12- Be yourself. Don?t try to mimic someone else. Be human. For those of you who remember Johnny Carson?s monologues, he was the best at using a bad joke to his advantage. Many of the comedians today follow his lead. Oprah?s tremendous success has been in part to her ability to relate to the audience by showing her humanness and putting her own challenges and struggles out there. How many people would feel comfortable having a multi-millionaire as influential as Oprah come to their home? Yet I get the impression that most of Oprah?s audience would feel right at home having Oprah over for tea.

13- Focus on the task at hand and not the reaction of the audience. Follow your plan. Do it your way and not as a reaction to others. As you gain experience you can become more flexible. In the beginning, stick to your plan and learn from the experience. Keep in mind that the one person that you think dislikes you the most may be the one listening most intensely and gaining the most from your talk.

14- Distribute comment cards and collect them right away. Ask for honest feedback on the comment cards and accept them with an open mind. This is a great way to have people sign up for your newsletter or to receive more information from you. When you make it a safe place for them to share their information you will receive more cards. You can have a drawing for a free gift to encourage more to participate. In any event, the comment cards are a wonderful tool for you and the positive comments increase your confidence.

15- Celebrate! Celebrate that you faced your fear with grace and courage. Honor yourself for that.

If you have read this far than you are ready to face your fear, otherwise I am lucky and totally grateful to have held your attention this long. Get out of paralysis by taking the first step. As you gain experience you will improve and gain confidence. You can do it! Pave your way one step at a time and you will gain the power to take back control of your life and to achieve all that you want to be.

Please send your comments and tell me what you want to read. l would love to hear from you! Copyright 2003, Beth A. Tabak, All rights reserved.

About the Author

Beth Tabak is a Professional Life Coach and owner of Starting Now. She coaches business professionals and those who want to make big changes to upgrade their business while upgrading their life. Prioritize, systemize, stay focused, and take action. Working with a coach adds support and accountability for greater success. E-mail to set up a free ?Try It Out? session and have your questions answered. To learn more visit www.cvreferral.com/2/101475.html or e-mail startingnow@houston.rr.com.

This is certainly sound advice for those who are ready to take these steps and if followed they'll certainly help you become more adept at public speaking. Those who are phobic may need more than advice to get to this point though.

Keep It Simple

Here's a great article with some simple tips to making better presentations and more being more effective in your public speaking...

Better Public Speaking & Presentation- Ensure Your Words Are Always Understood

Think of the last really memorable talk or presentation that you attended. Now, was that easy to do, or did you really have to rack your brains to remember one?Sadly, too many presentations are easy to forget. And that's a big problem because the only reason the presenter gave the talk was to communicate something to you!

However, there are three basic things that you can do to ensure that your verbal messages are understood - and remembered - time and time again.

Although somewhat obvious and deceptively simple, these are:

*Understand the purpose of the presentation
*Keep the message clear and concise
*Be prepared
*Be vivid when delivering the message
*Understand what you want to achieve:
*Before you start working on your talk or presentation, it's vital that you really understand what you want to say, who you want to tell and why they might want to hear it. To do this, ask yourself: Who? What? How? When? Where? Why?

Who are you speaking to? What are their interests, presuppositions and values? What do they share in common with others; how are they unique?

What do you wish to communicate? One way of answering this question is to ask yourself about the ‘success criteria’. How do you know if and when you have successfully communicated what you have in mind?

How can you best convey your message? Language is important here, as are the nonverbal cues discussed earlier. Choose your words and your nonverbal cues with your audience in mind. Plan a beginning, middle and end. If time and place allow, consider and prepare audio-visual aids.

When? Timing is important here. Develop a sense of timing, so that your contributions are seen and heard as relevant to the issue or matter at hand. There is a time to speak and a time to be silent. ‘It’s better to be silent than sing a bad tune.’

Where? What is the physical context of the communication in mind? You may have time to visit the room, for example, and rearrange the furniture. Check for availability and visibility if you are using audio or visual aids.

Why? In order to convert hearers into listeners, you need to know why they should listen to you – and tell them if necessary. What disposes them to listen? That implies that you know yourself why you are seeking to communicate – the value or worth or interest of what you are going to say.

Keep it Simple:
When it comes to wording your message, less is more. You're giving your audience headlines. They don't need to and are usually not expecting to become experts on the subject as a result of hearing your talk.

If you're using slides, limit the content of each one to a few bullet points, or one statement or a very simple diagram.

Be Prepared:
Preparation is underrated. In fact, it is one of the most important factors in determining your communication successes. When possible, set meeting times and speaking and presentation times well in advance, thus allowing yourself the time you need to prepare your communications, mindful of the entire communication process (sender, message, channel, receiver, feedback and context). By paying close attention to each of these stages and preparing accordingly, you ensure your communications will be more effective and better understood.

Of course, not all communications can be scheduled. In this case, preparation may mean having a good, thorough understanding of the office going-ons, enabling you to communicate with the knowledge you need to be effective, both through verbal and written communications.

Unforgettable Delivery:
Your delivery of your speech or presentation will make or break it, no matter how well you've prepared and crafted your clear, concise message. Some useful tips for keeping your presentation vivid include:
Use examples to bring your points to life
Keep your body language up-beat - don't stay stuck behind a rostrum
Don't talk to fast. Less is more here too. Pauses are effective.
Use a variety of tones of voice
Use visual aids.

http://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/PublicSpeaking.htm

Summary:

Be prepared! According to Mark Twain "It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech."

Understand the role and makeup of each of the following elements:

Who? - Audience
What? -Message
How? - Context
When? - Timing
Where? - Setting
Why? - Purpose