Level 2—Internal Navigation and Design

Level 2 teaches the fundamental components and strategies underlying all forms of visually interactive presentation. Here you learn the alphabet and vocabulary of what we call visual dialogue, where a speaker connects what is SHOWN with what is SAID, on-the-fly. Simple navigation and visual representations provide powerful mechanisms for this dynamic expression of ideas.

Level 2 delves into six critical areas that typically receive very little, if any, coverage in regular PowerPoint courses:

Session 2-1

AutoShapes: These wonderfully useful devices are part of PowerPoint's normal functionality, and yet are virtually unknown to most presenters. To relational presenters, AutoShapes are as essential as bread and water. They make possible navigation elements, slide decoration, optical illusions, content organization, highlighting and shadows, and a host of other functions. With AutoShapes used to their full capacity, your presentation activities will change dramatically. Level 2 examines all aspects of AutoShape application in a Relational Presentation context.

Session 2-2

Pictures/Graphics: Pictures and graphical elements likewise are underutilized by most speakers. Dynamic and interactive use of imagery offers enormous potential for expression of ideas and tailored display of products. Pictures also can be downsized to serve as thumbnails for navigation. When this happens, the thumbnails provide visual clues that help presenters quickly find information or preview what topics are available for display. Level 2 provides an in depth guide to the many roles images can play in a presentation network.

Session 2-3

Hyperlinks: Hyperlinks in PowerPoint, as in a Web environment, allow users to jump around between different pieces of content. The importance of doing so in a presentation context cannot be overemphasized. Navigation-based delivery opens up a rich world of possibilities for customized use of media. Most people new to relational methods are amazed at how much flexibility hyperlinks can add to a performance. These simple devices transform canned, rigid messages into adjustable mini-messages that can be added, dropped, or modified instantly and continually along the way, throughout a performance.

Navigation Elements and Styles: The true potential of visually interactive presentation comes into view as one explores navigation and its implications. Level 2 focuses on what is known as Internal navigation, moving around within a single slide show. There is a temptation to think of this process as nothing more than hyperlinking from one slide to another. In a technical sense this is true, yet there is a great deal of strategy that goes into how navigation is designed, as well as when and how it should be used. Here we explain Showcase and In-line navigation in detail, and also preview Zone, Invisible, Nested, and Animated navigation styles.

Section 2-4

Custom Shows: Custom Shows are like a slide show within a slide show. They are a part of PowerPoint's normal functionality as well. We don't use these devices a lot in a Relational Presentation context but they do occasionally come in handy. Level 2 discusses pros and cons of their use. Overall, they are important tools to know about and integrate.

Introduction to Design: Design considerations are (or should be) a major part of creating content and building presentation networks. Because of the number of such issues, we cover some aspects of design in Level 2 and more in Level 3. Level 2 design considerations revolve mostly around aesthetics, use of colors, lighting effects, and content/navigation placement.

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