PowerPoint Paradigm Shift: The Power of Going Dark

Do you ever get into the rut of doing what you’ve always done because it’s comfortable – or because it’s the way it’s always been done?

I’m talking about presentations – specifically the ones where you use PowerPoint. We were reminded of this when a client recently shared that he led a talk to 1,000 brand managers at Procter & Gamble with no slides. He was strangely terrified of the idea initially, yet he loved the outcome when it was done.

Slides can be effective for speakers when they highlight key points. Nothing tells a trend story like a graph, and nothing illustrates the analogy you want to make like a picture. When we use slides correctly, we are more effective.

But we’re not using them correctly most of the time, or at least we can do better – it’s hard to argue with that. This article is not to remind you that we use too much information on a single slide  – too many bullet points or even words – and that pictures are better. I have no doubt that you already know that.

This article is about actually having the boldness to go dark.

Specifically, use black slides.

A black slide simply has a black background with no master template, and you insert it between your slides – or where it makes sense.

Adding black slides will do three things:

1. Clear the screen. Once you’re done with the picture, graph or supporting information, you want to remove distraction and go to a black slide so you can amplify, tell a story, or make an additional point. Audience minds will wander if you allow it to happen.

2. Bring the focus to you. It’s amazing to see the eyeballs go from the screen to you when you put up a black slide. It’s actually invigorating, and it helps connect you with your audience and so much more! It also opens up the room and allows you to go in front of the projector and not be stuck in one place (although we’re seeing less projectors, more TVs and large monitors).

3. Totally change your mindset. Create your message first, then add support. (Of course, I recommend using the Decker Grid™.) When you are delivering your key points, the background should be black so that people can hear what you are saying.

Slides should be used to accent and add support – think graphs, pictures, video clips and other SHARPs to bring memorability and power to your Point Of View.

Try it in a low risk opportunity, and you’ll love how it helps the experience.

About the Author:

Ben Decker is the CEO of Decker Communications, a presentation skills coaching firm that coaches senior executives and managers to transform business communications. For more information about the company, visit www.decker.com

 

 

How to Play Vimeo and YouTube Videos from PowerPoint Slides

When considering use of videos on YouTube or Vimeo.com in your PowerPoint presentations, they can be used if the owner permits use for presentations and public viewing. Some vimeo.com videos have a download link that allows you to download the video as a file to your computer; YouTube videos don’t have a dedicated download link.

The method I describe here creates a hyperlink from an image on your PowerPoint slide that starts playing the video in a full browser window on top of the presentation. When the browser is closed after the video finishes, the PowerPoint presentation continues.

Advantages of this method:

  • Does not require a video file to be downloaded or captured
  • Allows video to be at as high a resolution as the owner uploaded it (some people only download at lower resolutions)
  • Easy for even inexperienced presenters to use
  • Smaller file size since no embedded video
  • Don’t need to worry about broken video file links
  • Doesn’t rely on specific codecs of video files; if it plays in a browser, it will play during the presentation
  • Works when you send the PowerPoint file to others since the video is not a linked file
  • Works on both Windows and Mac platforms
  • Works on all versions of PowerPoint

Disadvantages of this method:

  • Requires an internet connection during the presentation fast enough to stream video from viemo.com or youtube.com
  • Viewers see browser toolbars & other parts of the browser
  • Viewers see the operating system task bar
  • May see ads on videos if the service allows them on that video
  • May see suggested videos after your video finishes playing
  • May take a few seconds for the video to start playing as the service buffers the video
  • Video may pause if the network is overloaded or the Internet is slow

Here are the steps to link to the video from a PowerPoint slide and have it play when the link is activated.

Step 1: Go to the web page on vimeo.com or youtube.com with the video you want to insert

VimeoPage

Step 2: Take a screen capture of the video page (use PrtScrn in Windows or Cmd+Shift+3 in Mac). Insert the screen capture on your slide. Crop the screen capture so just the video frame is shown. Make the image as large as you want on the slide. Add text to give credit to the owner of the video.

ImageOnSlide

Step 3: Select the image and add a hyperlink to the image.

For videos on vimeo.com: The hyperlink web address is http://player.vimeo.com/video/<vidnum>?autoplay=1 (where <vidnum> is the video number on vimeo.) You can find this number by clicking on the Share button on the vimeo video page. It is after the “vimeo.com/”.

This link, when activated, will open a browser window and start playing the video in the full browser window.

VimeoNumber

VimeoHyperlink

For videos on youtube.com: The hyperlink web address is http://www.youtube.com/embed/<vidcode>?autoplay=1 (where <vidcode> is the video code on youtube.) You can find this code by clicking on the “Share this video” link on the youtube video page. It is after the “youtu.be/”. This link, when activated, will open a browser window and start playing the video in the full browser window.

YouTubeCode

YouTubeHyperlink

Step 4: Playing the video in the presentation

Before starting the presentation, open your default browser and make it full screen. Test that you can access a website so you know the Internet connection is working. Close your browser so it will open full screen when opened with the hyperlink.

In Slide Show mode, to play the video, activate the hyperlink on the image by clicking on it with your mouse or by pressing Tab, then Enter. The browser will open on top of the presentation and the video will start playing full sized in the browser. (If you double-click on the image, you may start the video playing behind the PowerPoint presentation. If this happens, use Alt+Tab in Windows to switch the active application to the browser window with the video.)

If you want to remove the browser scroll bars and toolbars, you can press F11 in Internet Explorer or Chrome. The only way to remove the task bar at the bottom of the screen is to set it to automatically hide itself in the operating system.

When the video has finished playing, close the browser using the red X or using Alt+F4 in Windows. You will return to the slide that started the video. You are now back in the presentation.

Note: This method uses the embed code provided by vimeo.com and youtube.com at the time this article was written in February 2014. The sites may change these codes at any time, which may break this method. This method may work in other presentation software, but has only been tested in PowerPoint.

For those who don’t mind getting a little more technical with PowerPoint, John Wilson has this tutorial on how to embed a video from Vimeo or YouTube into a slide as a Flash object.

Editor’s Note:  Join Dave Paradi for a focused, hands-on workshop about turning financial and operational data from Excel into effective visuals for your presentations. Dates for these upcoming workshops are April 10 in Toronto, Ontario and May 7 in Denver, CO. For details and registration visit www.MakeNumbersVisual.com.

About the Author:

Dave Paradi runs the Think Outside the Slide website, is a consultant on high-stakes presentations, the author of seven books and a PowerPoint Most Valuable Professional (MVP.) For more information, visit www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com

Aspect Ratios: Should You Switch to 16:9 Slides?

One of the big changes in the latest version of PowerPoint is that the default aspect ratio (ratio of width to height) for slides is 16:9. In all previous versions, the default aspect ratio was 4:3. Why the change? Because widescreen formats are becoming more popular for projectors and TVs used in presentations.

So should you change your slides to this new format? Here are some tips for knowing when to make the change.

This topic was prompted by a question from a fellow professional speaker and marketing expert Steve Slaunwhite. He was preparing for a set of upcoming presentations and asked me what aspect ratio he should use for his slides. His question made me think about what the best approach would be. After some thought, here’s what I suggested to him.

First, ask the organizer of the event or the venue you will be speaking in what aspect ratio the projector or screen will be using. At the upcoming Presentation Summit conference, the organizer, Rick Altman, has already let us know that all the screens will be using the 16:9 aspect ratio. In those cases, the decision is easy: Use the aspect ratio that matches the projector or screen.

What if the organizer doesn’t know or you don’t know what projector the room will have? This happens quite often if you are doing presentations at client sites or even in different rooms/buildings in your own organization. As many facilities switch over to the newer 16:9 standard, we’re in a period where we will have both ratios in use in many facilities.

I have run into this at client sites where one projector is in 4:3 ratio and another is a 16:9 projector and it depends on which one the facilities team puts in your room that day. What do I suggest in that case?

My suggestion is to stick with the 4:3 ratio until you have over 50% of your presentations being done on 16:9 projectors or screens. Why do I say this? Because it will be easier for the audience. Let me explain.

When a 4:3 ratio slide is shown on a 16:9 projector, there are black bars on each side of the slide because the slide does not fill the entire width of the screen. While this is not ideal, the slide is still full height and the text on it is the tallest it can be. When a 16:9 ratio slide is shown on a 4:3 projector, there are black bars on the top and bottom of the slide because the slide does not fill the entire height of the screen. This makes the text on the slide smaller than planned.

I think that having a more readable slide is better, so my suggestion is to use a 4:3 ratio slide so that, even if the slide is shown on a 16:9 projector, the text on the slide is as readable as it can be and the graphics are as large as they can be (for a research based approach to determining how big a font you should use on your slides, use these tables).

When the majority of your presentation rooms and equipment are in the 16:9 format, make the switch in your slides. By the way, when you do make the switch between ratios of your slides, use the latest version of PowerPoint to do so. The previous versions horribly distort the graphics and text, leaving you with hours of re-formatting.

What am I using? I still use 4:3 ratio slides for the reason I stated above. It is still quite rare, outside of conferences, for me to run into a 16:9 projector in a presentation, especially in corporate meeting rooms. As older equipment gets replaced, this will change, but for now, I am sticking with the 4:3 ratio.

About the Author:

Dave Paradi runs the Think Outside the Slide website, is a consultant on high-stakes presentations, the author of seven books and a PowerPoint Most Valuable Professional (MVP.) For more information, visit www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com

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