Relational Presentation Blog – Flexible PowerPoint

by Robert Lane      www.aspirecommunications.com

Figure 1 is an example of Topical-style navigation. Navigation buttons and thumbnails appear along the slide’s left side and the audience sees all these navigation elements. New relational presenters often observe this fact and ask, “Hey, is there a way I can hide those navigation components so that my viewers don’t see them?”

 

Yes you can, depending on which styles of navigation you choose. The question, though, is whether you really want to hide navigation. As a general rule, our opinion is no, you do not want to hide navigation. Here’s why.

Most people believe that a large column of navigation on the slide surely distracts audience members and therefore should be eliminated if possible. Actually, it doesn’t. People hardly notice navigation components after awhile. That’s because what attracts our brain’s attention is change and motion. Because the navigation elements change very little while the presenter moves around between slides, viewers notice the changing content at right (as they should) but quickly learn to ignore the left navigation panel. They see it, but don’t really see it at all.

Another argument for hiding navigation goes something like this, “Yeah, but those buttons take up a lot of space on the slide that I might need for content.” You know what? That’s a good thing. Giving yourself less space on the slide pane encourages simple design. By placing only one idea on each slide, in a limited space (our recommendation), you reduce unnecessary complexity and help people better understand your messages. You’ll find, in fact, that the reduced content area is still plenty large enough for almost anything you might want to show. And if you really do need the entire slide pane for a particular topic, all you have to do is jump out to an external show and then return again to the main platform when finished.

Consider, too, that being able to see navigation choices while presenting is extremely helpful to you as a speaker. Those navigation buttons give you subtle reminders about content options, as though glancing at a cheat sheet while taking a test. Audience members sometimes find navigation helpful as well and may use your own navigation buttons to request more information about a subject of interest. Some presenters even encourage such activity by making navigation elements on slides very large and easily readable.

Filed under: Design of Platforms, Design of Slides, Interactive, PowerPoint on October 30th, 2009 | No Comments »

By Robert Lane      www.aspirecommunications.com 

You really like the idea of visually interactive PowerPoint presentation. One day you decide it’s time to take the plunge. Parking yourself at a big conference table with packages of index cards in hand, you begin planning a relational platform’s organization structure, all the individual ideas that might be needed while explaining points to audiences and answering their questions. Pretty soon you realize … geesh … the number of slides needed will be massive, maybe hundreds and hundreds. How in the world will you have time to get all that content in place?

The short answer is you won’t—not this week or this month, anyway. Large interactive platforms sometimes require years to complete. That’s not a big deal, really, because you don’t have to have all that content in place right away. In fact, you can save money, time, and sanity by following a simple principle called the Illusion of Completion instead.

Make the content look like it’s really there, even though only a fraction of it actually exists initially. Doing so is easy. Simply build switchboards that represent all the future content branches in your platform. You might even go a step further to link navigation elements on those switchboards to placeholder slides so links really work when clicked. In other words, build an empty shell that functions like a completed platform, without detail on slides.

Once that shell in place, decide priorities. Which slides do you need most for upcoming performances? Get those components in place right away and leave the rest of the platform empty for now.

Look at the switchboard shown above, for example. It appears to represent a massive amount of content but how much of that material is truly there? Maybe all these links are active, or perhaps only ten, or just one. You as the viewer have no way of knowing. The switchboard, nevertheless, creates an illusion that everything is waiting and ready. Audience members naturally assume your presentation materials are complete even if 99% of them are nothing but air.

Some years back, we proposed this approach to a group of presentation professionals and they responded with self-righteous indignation. “You can’t do that! That’s deception. That’s trickery.” No, guys, on the contrary it’s called practical reality. The biggest reason why people fail to become interactive speakers is because they reach a point of overwhelm. They discover how many slides their interactive portfolio should contain and then freak out.  No one has that much time or resources right away. They throw up the white flag and surrender.

Giving materials the illusion of completion, on the other hand, and gradually filling in empty spaces over time as opportunities allow, is much more practical. It’s what smart interactive presenters do and is a key to your success.

Filed under: Design of Platforms, Design of Slides, PowerPoint on August 22nd, 2009 | 1 Comment »

By Robert Lane

www.aspirecommunications.com

Over the years, many people have asked: “What is the best way of using PDF documents in a visually interactive presentation?” The answer is two-fold.

Getting a PDF document onto a PowerPoint slide is easy enough. All you have to do is insert it as an object. On the Insert tab, click the Object button on the right side of the Ribbon.

Then toggle the Create from file option.

Browse to find your PDF file and then click OK. The PDF file then appears on the slide.

That’s all well and good, but now what? What do you do with such an embedded object? The problem with merely inserting a PDF document and stopping there is that the document will be completely inert (that is, useless) while running the slide show. It’s true that while in PowerPoint’s edit mode, you can double click the inserted object to open it via Adobe’s Acrobat Reader, but if you try clicking or double clicking the object while running the slide show, all you end up doing is advancing to the next slide, as through slide doesn’t contain active content at all. Having the exit the slide show to open the document is simply unacceptable,

To use PDF documents effectively in an interactive presentation context, you need a few extra steps to build what is known as a PDF switchboard. We’ve put together a new video tutorial that walks you through that process. See how it works here or sign up for the tutorial here.

The idea is that you can have thumbnails for many different PDF documents on a single slide and then open and close any document, in any order, all without leaving PowerPoint’s slide show mode. Once the documents are open, of course, you can zoom in on detail, pan to different areas of the display, access links and media, and utilize all other PDF features.

A PDF switchboard allows you to create a kind of database of available files, giving dynamic access during normal PowerPoint performances. It’s a simple, seamless, convenient way of displaying such information to audiences and you don’t have to exit the slide show to go searching for components using Windows Explorer.

Filed under: PowerPoint, Products, Training on July 31st, 2009 | No Comments »

By Susan Guggenheim

When I bought Bob Lane’s book Relational Presentation in early April, I knew two things about PowerPoint—I didn’t like using it for presentations and everyone expects you to have a PowerPoint. Every meeting, demo, and training I have attended in the last 10 years featured content delivered via PowerPoint—all linear shows with bulleted slides. When the lights went down, so did our eyelids.

I started reading Bob’s book, tried out the exercises, and decided to build a relational presentation from scratch.

In my small business, www.susanguggenheim-is.com, I train lots of different groups in basic and advanced computing skills—from older adults, to teens, to the newly unemployed—and I needed a way of delivering diverse topics at any time, often spontaneously. I thought relational presentation fit my bill exactly.

I spent a couple of weeks putting together a main, branded switchboard, several resource switchboards (videos, online/offline training applications, and one just for seniors), and a core group of four basic training modules.

 

I used Bob’s templates, added my graphics, and went for a Nested presentation. After editing and testing, I felt ready to use the new training show.

Soon enough, an activities director for a senior residence called and we made an appointment for a 1-hour presentation. Upon arrival, I set up, kicked off my entry slide, and waited for folks to arrive in the activities room. First shock: the seniors were all over 85 and one was 92—not my usual 65-year-old crowd. And no one in the audience had ever used a computer! There went my presentation on basic desktop and mouse skills, two shows in my new relational deck. I had to punt, and this was a tough, hypercritical crowd. Who knew little old ladies could be so … well … unladylike!

I went for the resource slides, fired up Web page after Web page, and gave them “a tour of the Internet” presentation. They didn’t understand much of what I showed them, but they really liked my resource slides, saying they were “very nice”. They also loved my main, branded slide, “Look how pretty that is, with her name up there”, and said it was “magical” when I moved from slide-to-slide and back again.

The slides themselves were so visually appealing (and that’s all due to Bob because I did not create much of my own stuff), it helped lower their fear of computers, which allowed them to not worry about what they were supposed to learn. Best of all, it gave me confidence that I could get out of there alive. I can’t wait to take my interactive show before an audience it was developed for, but I’m also very excited to know that even with an unsuitable audience, I can still adjust to the circumstances and capture a group’s attention.

Filed under: Presenter Stories on June 18th, 2009 | No Comments »