How do I get visual slide content if I'm not a graphic designer? Even if you do nothing more than add meaningful pictures to your slides (preferably full-screen), the visual impact on audiences can be enormous. Pictures are readily available from so many places these days. It's amazing, too, how many presenters never think to use their own digital cameras to produce visual content. Pictures in presentations don't always have to be super professional, they just need to communicate.

Then the question becomes, "Well, but what if I don't know how to work with digital images once I have them?" We recommend a marvelous and inexpensive piece of software called SnagIt by Techsmith for novice relational designers who want to easily add more visual interest to their presentation materials. SnagIt is known (and used) mostly for its screen capture capabilities—which are great. What is lesser known is that the software has reasonably good, and user-friendly, graphics editing capabilities as well. It provides a convenient way to reduce the file size of images going into slide shows, if nothing else.

Serious designers should invest in and learn Adobe Photoshop or Photoshop Elements (a stripped down, less expensive version that still is quite powerful). Professional graphics are an important part of high-quality, reusable networks. It's a worthy investment of time to learn at least some basic graphic editing skills. Back to Top

What if I give specific presentations only once? Is this worth it? Whenever we hear this question, our response usually is something to the effect of, "Are you really sure you only give presentations once?" "Well, of course I'm sure," is the response, but then we go on to explain the question. You may not give the exact same presentation again, but is it possible pieces will be usable in the future, perhaps introductory slides, conclusion slides, pictures, comics, video clips, and so forth? If you are a teacher addressing a group of parents, or other teachers, or a church group, or a club, might a few slides from your classroom lessons come in handy on different occasions? During this week's class periods, is it possible you will need to spontaneously review a couple of slides from last week's lessons, as part of interactions?

In a Relational Presentation context, slides are like words. They are pulled from a reservoir of expressive potential to provide relevant meaning. You never know when a particular slide will be needed to express a given idea properly. In fact, relational presenters tend not to design unique shows for specific audiences. Instead, they plan performances around slides that already exist in their networks, with occasional new slides added along the way.

In this sense, slides often are designed to be reusable and reasonably permanent, so as to be available for future performances. Building such potential definitely is worth it to help you express meaning better—potentially over and over again. Back to Top

Is there more going on here than hyperlinks? Certainly. Navigation within a relational network is hyperlink-based, but far more is happening than meets the eye. For PowerPoint to provide the full flexibility required by relational presenters, we sometimes have to push the software beyond its normal bounds and typical uses.

Relational methods frequently rely on optical illusions and other visual tricks that cause PowerPoint to seemingly do something it cannot do, or hide what it really is doing. That is to say, what a viewer thinks is going on may not be what really is happening at all.

For example, we might set up a slide to have two invisible zones, with each zone linking to a different slide. The presenter can then choose one path or the other depending on perceived need. The only thing the audience sees is the next slide that appears, and they have no idea the presenter just made a spontaneous choice, right before their eyes. Back to Top

What if our content changes frequently? When using a presentation network, you probably will be surprised at how many components DON'T change. Your company or organization likely has numerous core concepts that remain stable, even while others change. These stable components make up the base, core network structure.

For the areas of a network that do change frequently, we recommend strategies similar to those used by designers building Web sites or databases (i.e., check-in, check-out procedures). You may want to keep a master copy of the main network in a particular location, with someone distributing updates to presenters on a regular basis. Changes can be e-mailed or transferred via FTP and links remain valid. Dynamically updating complicated presentation networks, even at at distance, is relatively easy, so long as your update procedures are well-organized. Back to Top

How can I make my bullet point slides more interactive? The full course textbook and workshop sessions highlight eight alternatives to traditional bullet lists. These alternatives turn bullet lists into flexible, interactive displays that are completely controlled, in any order, by the presenter. One of the central ideas is to have only one idea (bullet point) per slide. Then navigation can be set up that allows choosing any point, in any order. Setting up bullets this way makes possible several interesting delivery techniques.

A variation of the above method is to keep all of the bullets on one slide but use custom animations to highlight items or bring them into view by random selection. This process involves animating shapes—a methodology slightly different from animating text.

A third option is to have traditional bullet points but set up a show-and-return mechanism. This trick allows the orator to jump out of the bullets at any time, show other slides, and then go back to the bullets right where he or she left off. Back to Top