Archive for April, 2008

As a speaker or presenter, how do you really reach an audience? I’ve seen many different approaches in my years as a Toastmaster, but I had the chance last night to sit in on an amazing presentation. One that reached almost everyone in the audience in an informed and engaged manner for over 90 minutes.

The presenter was Sheryl Roush, one of only four women in the world that has reached the coveted Accredited Speaker designation by Toastmasters International. Sheryl was speaking to a diverse audience of educators, toastmasters, and professional business people at the school district where I work.

Sheryl’s presentation was entitled “Sparkling Secrets Of Speaking Success,” and was directed to those who want to connect better with their audience. Her  approach was centered around the theory of Multiple Intelligences put forth by Howard Gardner. This theory includes 7 different personal styles that include…

1. Linguistic: People that like to work with words and stories
2. Mathematical-Logical: People that like numbers, systems and statistics
3. Visual-Spatial: Visual people that like pictures, charts, graphs and video
4. Musical: People that enjoy music and can remember tunes and lyrics
5. Kinesthetic-Physical: People that learn by doing, a hands-on approach
6. Inter-personal: Interaction with other people, team activities.
7. Intra-personal: The need for quiet working atmosphere and introspection

Right from the start, Sheryl’s presentation was focused on individual members of the audience. When you walked into the room before the presentation you noticed upbeat music playing in the background. If you were a musical person you instantly had focus. And if you were a linguistic person, her “sparkling” title on the screen was sure to engage you.

As you walked in you were handed a multi-page handout with an interesting cover font and graphics. The kinesthetic’s had something in their hands to work on, while the visual people had an interesting font and graphics. The Math-logicals were sure to notice the numbered test on page two.

As Sheryl was introduced, her Mac based Keynote presentation started slide by slide in the background, reinforcing what the person introducing her was saying. The music faded out and all eyes were on her.

Sheryl engaged the audience and let everyone know that we would be working individually on projects included in the handout and then we would share our results as a group. This let the intra-personal people know that they would have a quiet work space for a few minutes and also engaged the inter-personal folks with a group activity.

The first activity was a Multiple intelligence test. We all turned to page two on the handout and she led us question by question through a numbered list of 28 items segregated into 7 columns. As we finished up she had us add up the columns and find out what our highest scores were. I scored highest in the linguistic, kinesthetic, and visual categories.

This was a lot of fun and as we finished up the test she went around the room and had different people share their different styles. Everyone was engaged at this point. Over the course of the next hour she led us through a mind-map activity and a very engaging keynote (Powerpoint style) presentation.

Her keynote slides all had an engaging title for the linguistics, pictures for the visuals and had numbered points for the math people. She also included very animated transitions between slides which added additional visual interest.

As she went along she used amazing vocal variety and even sang a few bars of a song to bring in the musical types. This was a hands-on, visual and audio masterpiece.

When she finished up after 90 minutes, I felt like it had only been a half hour or so. The crowd reaction was amazing and she took questions and answers to finish up the night.

Overall I was struck by how effective her presentation was. She engaged everyone in the room and definitely reached out to all of the intelligences. I learned SO much by just watching the interaction of the event that this list of 7 styles will definitely become a CHECKLIST for my next presentation.

Sheryl is also a published author of numerous books that inspire and motivate. One of her newest is entitled Heart of a Mother, a heart warming and engaging book that is the perfect gift for mothers day.

Heart of a Mother by Sheryl L. Roush Read more about this book…

As a speaker I’ve always had a fascination with Powerpoint, flipcharts, overheads and other visual media. As a kinesthetic-visual learner I always do better with a subject if I can SEE what is going on. Show me a picture, and I will learn better and remember more of what you said.

While I like visual media, I have struggled with it greatly. As a speaker, using any one of the mediums tends to distract me and draw my attention away from the audience and focus it instead on the visual media source. I have found that it takes a lot of practice to present well and communicate with the media smoothly.

I have had some blundering failures with visual media and also some amazing successes. Here are five things I’ve learned by trial and ERROR that have helped me move further into the success column and stay out of Powerpoint Hell!.

1. Be Prepared: If it can go wrong… it will… when presenting. I have made a new rule for myself and that is to arrive an hour early for any visual presentation in unfamiliar surroundings. Having an hour will give you the time needed to overcome the worst technical problems. Here are some of the common things I’ve run into…

• The projector doesn’t work
• My laptop won’t sync with the projector
• A cable is not available to connect the laptop to the projector
• The overhead projector’s bulb is burned out
• There is no electricity to hook up the projector or overhead
• A flipchart is NOT available
• There is no adapter available to hook up my Mac laptop

These are just a few of the things I’ve run into that can be show stoppers. The audience does not want to see you fiddling with a projector or cables. Giving yourself an hour of prep time will help immensely in overcoming them. The other thing that will help is to …

2. Develop A Presenters Toolbox: This is a collection of gadgets, wires and other items that will save the day. Mine has morphed over the years as technology has changed but here are a few of the common items that are now priceless.

• Memory Stick to carry a copy of your presentation on
• Presenters handheld slide changer/laser pointer for Powerpoint
• A long and short extension cord and duct tape to secure it to the floor
• A VGA cable to connect a laptop to a projector
• Batteries of all types: AAA, AA, and 9 volt are a must
• A burned CD of your presentation in case the computer doesn’t have a USB port available (this one has saved me multiple times)
• A copy of the free Powerpoint 2007 viewer program (saved on CD)
• If you use a Mac laptop, there are two common VGA adapters that are priceless. Make sure you have both types. (Apple doesn’t ship them with the laptop)
• A portable flip chart easel that you can store in your trunk

3. Keep It Simple: While many things can be visually presented, your overwhelming amount of data should be put in a handout… not on your slides. If possible, limit your slides to one point and one graphic per slide.

Lots of bullet points will distract your viewer and have them reading the screen. Remember… you are the focus of your presentation… not your slides. The slides should reinforce and enhance what you are saying. They should not be a reading script.

Using the notes feature of Powerpoint will help you keep your slides simple but quickly be able to see your notes by printing them out or using the presenter’s view in Powerpoint.

4. Practice, Practice, Practice: Get familiar with the media source (laptop, overhead etc) before you give your presentation. Go through the entire presentation at least once to make sure there are no glitches or technology problems and that the presentation flows properly.

Arriving early will give you a chance to use the equipment provided and make sure that everything works together. It will also give you a chance to visually check the room for blind spots and distractions.

One of the big things is to test any wireless devices (microphones-pointers etc) and make sure they work consistently at the distance you will be presenting. If your audience can’t hear you, they will let you know!

Use the slide sorter in Powerpoint to re-order and fine tune your presentation for maximum impact. Make sure you have enough handouts for your expected audience and that you have printed your slides in handout view (6 or 9 per page) so you can refer to them throughout the presentation without looking at the screen.

5. Set Up The Room: If you have a meeting room that is configurable, you can enhance your presentation by following a few simple steps. For Powerpoint, set the projector and screen to your right (as you face the audience) and put the laptop or other computer source on a table facing you.

This will allow you to use Presenter’s mode in Powerpoint where you can preview your slides and see any notes as you face the audience. This will prompt your memory slide by slide and help keep your attention on your viewers. It will also keep you from turning your back to the audience and reading the screen.

Putting the screen to your right (audiences left) will help place your slides in your viewer’s Visual Remembered Mode. Researchers have found that people tend to look up and to their left when recalling things from memory. If you place your screen or flipchart in this position (upper left as the audience sees it), they will remember more of your presentation. It also puts you center stage where you are the primary focus of attention.

It’s also a good idea to have someone sit in the back row and listen to you. Can they hear you without a microphone? Try raising your voice slightly a few times until you reach a comfortable range for your listener. As you are presenting, focus from time to on time someone sitting in the back row and direct your voice to them. This will help you remember to keep you voice at a proper level for everyone to hear you.

Wrap Up: These are just a few of the things I’ve encountered when using Visual Media. A great place to practice in front of a live audience is Toastmasters. Many Toastmaster clubs have visual media tools available, where you can practice your Powerpoint or Flipchart presentations in front of a supportive audience.

Further Reading: There are some great books that will help you create and fine tune an amazing Powerpoint presentation… here are three of the best…enjoy!

Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft® Office PowerPoint® 2007 to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and Inspire by Cliff Atkinson Read more about this book…

Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Voices That Matter) by Garr Reynolds Read more about this book…

Presenting Magically: Transforming Your Stage Presence with NLP by Tad James, David Shephard Read more about this book…

When you first get started with Powerpoint, you’ll learn a lot of new commands and keystrokes. As you work through the interface you’ll find buttons that you constantly use to make things happen.

One of the first little toolbars that you’ll discover is down in the status bar area in most versions of Powerpoint and contains three buttons.

The first button is called the normal view button. This will quickly bring you back to the normal or default view. The second button will lay out a photo album style view of all your slides. This makes it quick and easy to move slides around and sort them the way you want. The third button starts your slide show (the F5 key is the shortcut). You’ll use this button all the time to test and present your shows.

Once you are in your show you may find that the N key or Right Arrow key becomes your best friend. This key will advance your show one slide at a time. If you find that you need to go back a slide, The P key or Left Arrow key will be useful

As important as all of these are for a great presentation, they don’t compare to the most important button. in fact they don’t even come close.

You see, the most important button is the B key. When you press this during a slide-show the screen turns black. If you press it again your screen returns.

The reason this is the most important is it returns the focus to you, the presenter! You are the most important part of the show.

You are the center of attention.

Your slides should enhance your presentation, but not be the center focus.

Press this button and all eyes return to you!

Are you ready?

The new 2007 Office Suite from Microsoft offers a lot of new functionality for the user. If you have installed one of the popular versions you have undoubtedly noticed the new ribbon interface in Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. While this can be intimidating at first, you’ll soon find that it will start to make sense and actually speed things up once you get used to it.

In this short tutorial I want to take you through some more advanced features of Word and show you how to tie it in with formatted table elements.

Let’s get started. Use the document picture below as a reference. You can also download the Finished Real Estate Flyer to make it easier to follow along.

One of the more popular uses of MS Word is to create flyers for business use. In this example we’ll create a flyer that can be used by real estate agents to highlight their properties. We’ll include a place for a large picture, we’ll offer a payment calculator that is easily updated, and include a convenient place for property and agent information.

Step 1. Creating the Page Layout

The first thing we need to do is layout our page in Word with lots of space to work. By default, Word comes with pretty restrictive page margins. For a flyer we want to maximize these. This is real easy in the 2007 version.

1. Open Word with a blank document
2. Click on the Page Layout tab
3. Click on the Margins button
4. Select Narrow from the pull-down list (Figure 1)

Now you have a page that is maximized with a 1/2 inch margin all around that works with most printers and will give you lots of space for graphics and text.

Step 2. Adding a Table for Structure

If you have ever worked in a word processor before you’ll know that page layout with graphics and text can be a real challenge. Everything is setup to flow around the page text. With the basic page setup in Word you have limited options to make your page look right.

This is where tables come in handy. Tables give you structure and keep things aligned properly. Let’s add a table that will give us a place for our property picture, our payment calculator, and a couple of boxes for property and agent information (Figure 2).

1. Click on the insert tab in the ribbon interface
2. Select table from the list (Figure 2)
3. Bring your mouse down as in figure two
4. Select a 2 column by five row table
5. Click your mouse to create the table

Now we need to format our table for our page elements. Since we want our graphic and home description line to span the entire page we need to merge the top two cells from two columns to one.

1. Put your mouse in the top row of the table (Figure 3)
2. Hold down the shift key and click in both top cells to select them
3. Right click on the mouse and select merge cells
4. You now have a row that spans the entire document
5. Repeat step one and two on the second row

Step 3: Adding Text & Graphics To Our Table

Let’s add a clip-art placeholder for our house picture, add our picture caption, and center both cells in the table.

1. Click on the insert tab and select clip art from the menu (figure 4)
2. Do a search for “House” in the clip art search menu
3. Find a simple “WMF” type graphic (resizable) as our picture placeholder
4. Make sure your cursor is in the top table cell
5. Double click the desired graphic to add it to the table

1. Your graphic has now been added to the top cell in the table
2. Click the graphic to select it and use the handles to resize it larger
3. Click elsewhere in the top cell, right click, and select centered formatting
4. Your graphic is now centered
5. Add placeholder text for your address in the second row of the table
6. Select the text, right click, and select centered formatting

Step 4: Fill In The Rest Of Our Cells

Let’s fill in the rest of our table. We need to add a property description box, informational headings, and our property and agent info.

1. In row three we want our property description text.
2. Merge both cells in row three as we did above
3. Add a few lines of property description text
4. Leave the formatting as left justified.
5. In row four we want to include 2 information box titles
6. Add the words Property Information to the left cell, center formatting
7. Add the words Agent Information to the right cell, center formatting
8. In row 8 put property info in the left box and agent info in the right
9. Your basic flyer is about done

Step 6: Add A Payment Calculator

Lets add three more rows for some additional features.

1. Put your cursor in one of the current bottom cells of your table
2. Right click and select Insert / Insert Rows Below
3. Repeat this three times to add three additional rows to the bottom

1. Use the diagram above as a reference (Figure
2. In the first row you added add Payment Calculator & Office Information Text
3. Center and Bold as shown above
4. Add a 2×4 nested table to the left cell in the new second row (Put your cursor in the cell and select 2 columns by 4 rows in the table dialog. Figure 2 shows the table creation procedure)
5. Fill in the 2 x 4 table with Text as shown (Leave the calculated cell blank)
6. In the right cell in the new second row add office information
7. Merge the third row and add disclaimer text

Add a calculated cell to sum up the totals

1. Click in the bottom right of your payment calculator nested table (figure
2. Click on the formula icon on the layout tab in Word
3. Make sure the calculated fields look like figure 9
4. This will insert a calculated field and add up the total payment numbers
5. The calculated field should now show 1800

Step 7: Agent Picture

Add your agent’s picture to the agent information area

1. Right click in the agent information cell and click split cells
2. Your cell is now divided in two
3. Place your cursor in the new right cell
4. Add a small clip art person as a place holder in the cell
5. Move the vertical cell line as necessary (Figure 10)

Step 8: Finish Up

Now your document should look like the picture above. You can add text, change line spacing, or change the text size to fill up your page. This flyer can be used for multiple projects. Just change the pictures and the text. Digital photos work well for the house and agent pictures.

You can recolor the main table to a light gray to minimize the lines and use different fonts and colors for emphasis. Have fun!

When you first open Word 2007 for the first time, you’ll probably be surprised by the changes that Microsoft made to the user interface. Instead of the usual icons and menu selections, you are presented with their new fluent interface, called The Ribbon. This is a totally new way to get things done in the Office 2007 suite of programs. Unfortunately this new interface can be intimidating.

The Ribbon is segregated into groups of commands called tabs, with each tab having it’s own sections and mini toolbars. Once you get used to the tabs, they become logical places to find similar commands.

After working with this new interface for some time, I found myself going back and forth constantly between the tabs to get things done. I wanted to find an easy way to modify the ribbon to create a tab that had all of my commonly used commands in one place.

Unfortunately Microsoft has not made this easy. You either have to be a Visual Basic programmer or know how to modify a large XML document, both of which are outside the scope of this article. In my research, I did find some workarounds that make Word 2007 more user friendly. Here are 5 time savers that you can implement in just a few minutes.

1. Create New and Open Icons

In figure one above you’ll notice that the commonly used icons New and Open do not appear on the ribbon interface. To get to them you have to click on the Office button and find them in the pull-down menu. When you do find the new button and click on it it opens a dialog box which requires you to choose a blank document. This is at least three clicks just to open a new document.

To easily re-create these icons like they appeared in earlier versions of Word, you just need to add them to the Quick Access Toolbar. Figure 2 shows you how easy this is.

1. Click on the pull-down menu at the right of the Quick Access Toolbar
2. Select the checkboxes next to Open and also next to New
3. You’ll now have these handy icons available on this toolbar

Now you’ll have one click access to open a new or saved document.

2. Adding Additional Icons To The Quick Access Toolbar

To add additional icons to the Quick Access Toolbar, just open the pull-down menu and click on the More Commands Link (see Figure 2). This will open the customization dialog box (Figure 4).

1. Choose the popular or all in the pull-down menu
2. Highlight the icons you want to add
3. Click on the add button to move them to the toolbar
4. Click the OK dialog box when you are done

You can add many of the hard to find icons that are missing from the ribbon interface and put them in one convenient place.

3. Using Paste Special

If you routinely cut and paste from different documents, web sites, or PDF files into Word you might notice that when you paste the copied text it will bring along the formatting of the previous document. These may include..

1. Different fonts, text sizes, or colors
2. Hyperlinks, tables, or graphics
3. Strange punctuation and line breaks

The best way to get rid of this extraneousness stuff is to use the Paste Special command. You can easily add it the the Quick Access Toolbar using the procedure used in Adding Additional Icons above (Figure 4).

Once you copy your text from the document source using the copy command or Control-C on the keyboard, use the paste special command to paste unformatted text into Word (Figure 5).

This can save you an enormous amount of time trying to reformat items. This also works well as a way to take text into other applications that do not have this command. Just paste special into Word and then cut and paste the resulting unformatted text into your other application.

4. Minimize The Ribbon

If you have a new wide-screen laptop or other wide-screen monitor, you may notice that the vertical space in Word 2007 is compromised by the wide ribbon interface.

You can easily minimize the ribbon by using the CONTROL-F1 command from the keyboard (CTRL key & F1 Key). This instantly minimizes the ribbon to just tab headings, but leaves your Quick Access Toolbar in view. This will save you at least an inch of vertical space which is really nice when typing longer documents. This command toggles, so hitting Control-F1 another time instantly brings back the ribbon.

5. I Still Can’t Find It!

With all the changes to the Word 2007 interface it’s a good chance you may not be able to find your favorite commands anymore. If you’re like me you’ll spend a lot of time clicking through the tabs hunting for familiar commands or icons.

There is a better way. Microsoft has published a Flash based Quick Reference Guide that features a Word 2003 interface that is clickable. You click on the old command and the program tells you where the command is in Word 2007. Cool!

Reference Materials:

While these five tips may save you some time, if you are faced with learning Word 2007 for your job or business, I would recommend that you pick up a quick-start guide. I have used these for years to get up to speed quickly when a new version comes out.

Word 2007: Step By Step

Word 2007: Plain & Simple

The step by step book is my favorite because you work through real world examples. In just a few hours you’ll be up to speed with the most popular commands and options. The Plain and Simple book is a feature packed reference guide that will help you implement the new Word 2007 features quickly and easily.

Amazing Deal From Microsoft:

If you are a college student at an accredited university you can get the Microsoft Office Ultimate Bundle (Regular price $459) for just $59.95 for a limited time. Here is the link from Microsoft for more information. Don’t miss this one…

Take A Few Minutes…

And modify Word 2007 the way you like it. You’ll find that many of these tips work in Excel, Powerpoint and other Office 2007 applications. A few quick keystrokes and you’ll be more productive.

You are out to lunch with your co-workers to plan out the new Thornton project. This is a very important task and the representatives from the Thornton company have related the importance of the short timeline for the assignment. You relate to your co-workers that the first draft is due by the end of next week.

You can tell they are anxious, but you tell them not to worry and pull a small stack of cards from your pocket. As you pass around the cards, the waiter brings your lunch. As you start to enjoy the wonderful salad, you realize you also need to get business done. You grab a business card sized project list card and a pen.

As you start to brainstorm the project, you write down the major items on your project list one by one on the cards. You then lay the cards out on the table in front of you. This is where it gets fun. You and your co-workers arrange the cards in order of completion, make notes, and write down who will be doing what.

You bring out a second stack of cards. This stack includes a …

1. Resource List
2. Department list
3. Document List
4. Crew List
5. Cost estimate
6. Three different timeline cards

As you continue to brainstorm, you make notes on the appropriate cards. Pretty soon you have a good list going. The little cards are great memory joggers and they are easy to pass around the table. You have your HR person fill out the department and crew lists, while your business services person makes a note of all the required documents and fill out the resources that will be needed.

As lunch is winding down you grab a 5 day timeline card and put one word in each box. You ask Sally to grab some highlighters out of her purse and you mark the important days with different colors. The colors help you organize the project by milestones that will need to be met.

Soon the waiter brings you the check, but in your short lunch period you were able to get a lot done. You have each one of your co-workers grab a to-do card and make a quick note of their tasks for the next week. This will give them an easy to use take away so they wont forget what they need to do.

You gather up the project and resource cards and clip them together with a mini clip. It won’t take you long when you get back to your desk, to transfer the information and get the project started. With the cards at hand the e-mails start flying and the appropriate people are able to get started on their individual projects.

The cards you used were part of a free download and the three 8.5 x 11 sheets easily printed out on Avery Blank Business Cards on your laser printer. A few minutes breaking them apart and you had a project planning kit that was small enough to fit in your pocket.

Here is how you can create a set for yourself…

• Download the Instant Project Planner for MS Word
• Open the template(s) and modify the text as necessary
• Print out on Avery business card stock (10 Card)
• Break cards apart
• Use the project list cards to outline your project tasks
• Arrange as necessary on your desk to set the proper order
• Use the resource project cards to fill in all the necessary resources that will be needed for the project
• Use the appropriate timeline card to set priorities
• Fill in the to-do cards for task management
• For portability stack cards in order and clip together with mini clip
• Transport easily in pocket or purse

Make your next project more enjoyable, download a set today. 

Other Project Planning Tools you may enjoy…

Five Minute Flowchart
Five Minute Organizer
Five Minute Motivators