Comments for Better Presenting

Comment on Why I will not hire another “social media expert” by Kate

Kate — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:37:11 +0000

I loved your post because as a ‘social media’ person myself, I totally agree that the development of marketing campaigns, research and planning is a very separate skill set. I am in process now of enjoying a Master of Science program in Internet Marketing just to fill in the areas of true marketing development that goes along with using technology as a part of an overall strategy. I’ve had clients who have asked me for certain areas of the marketing landscape and I’ve had to give them a polite ‘no. Not yet.’ That’s not quite in my repertoire – but will be. Rather than trying to be all things – knowing limitations is crucial in hiring someone to help. It is a vast landscape of tools – but ever so delicate in terms of content.

Comment on My PowerPoint Wish List by Lee Featherby

Lee Featherby — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:51:52 +0000

This is a great post Rick. One of my issues is the ability to be able to designate a common vanishing point on the presentation for 3D objects. At the moment, creating a slide with multiple 3D elelments is just a nightmare. Also, how about 3D animations? Why cant we animate a 3D cube to roll toward the screen, getting larger as it approaches?

With GenY making a bigger share of the audience we need to up the ante to engage them visually, not just produce a series of slides.

Comment on My PowerPoint Wish List by Rick Altman

Rick Altman — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:41:05 +0000

Agreed, Jennifer! For that, we would need more than just an iPad version of PowerPoint — we would also need a viable way to advance slides remotely. Still waiting on that one…

Comment on My PowerPoint Wish List by Rick Altman

Rick Altman — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:39:55 +0000

Good one, Francine! I share your frustration and have resorted to including hidden title placeholders off the slide just to be able to identify it.

Comment on My PowerPoint Wish List by Francine

Francine — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:31:33 +0000

Would also appreciate being able to change the name of a slide in the custom show slide list. If i don’ t use the title box, it simply numbers it, not very helpful. If i have the same title for 3 slides in a row, not helpful either as I can’t differentiate content.
Thanks for the list, I agree totally,
Francine

Comment on My PowerPoint Wish List by Jennifer Parkinson

Jennifer Parkinson — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:16:14 +0000

Great post, Rick! Thanks for getting this discussion rolling. Would love to see more interplay with the iPad and similar devices. It would be nice to open my 2007 (or higher) PowerPoint presentations on my iPad and be able to edit text or delete slides on the fly. It would be nice not to always rely on my laptop when I’m traveling for presentations.

Comment on The 53 Weeks of 2011 by kitty

kitty — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:46:06 +0000

sweet n charming. music goes so well!

Comment on My PowerPoint Wish List by Geetesh Bajaj

Geetesh Bajaj — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:50:47 +0000

Thanks Rick — that’s a great list — if any on you have anything else to add to this list, that will be great to hear! Here are some of my wishes for the list (I did not add anything Rick already mentioned):

1. Transparency for pictures — we can add transparency to a picture fill, but not to a picture yet.

2. Locking slide objects — Lock and unlock options so objects cannot be moved.

3. Better support for looping audio in Create a Video.

4. HTML 5 Export

Will certainly have many more wishes to add — these are something that I could think of at this moment!

Comment on My PowerPoint Wish List by Todd Dennison

Todd Dennison — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:41:06 +0000

Nicely done! As I read through it I kept saying, yes, yes…

Comment on My PowerPoint Wish List by Jamie Garroch

Jamie Garroch — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:24:50 +0000

Great list, Rick. You mention tabbing in the animation pane. I’d love to be able to use Shift+Click to select a range of objects in the Selection Pane. Selecting hundreds of objects (in a World map for example) with the limited Ctrl+Click is T-E-D-I-O-U-S to say the least. Dragging to change the order would be great (changing the layer) and object name search and sort functions would also be useful. Others points…

(a) Animation: For a long time, I’ve harped on about adding the mouse-over event to the list of triggers for animations. With an increasing number of clients wanting to move from ‘closed’ Flash to ‘open source’ PowerPoint presentations, we need this to replicate interactive behaviour.

(b)Video: Eliminate the discrepancy between slide show timings and the timings experienced when converted to WMV.

(c) Groups: Add ability to add/drag and object into/out of an existing group without ungrouping and loss of names/animation

(d) Images: add ability to use the clipboard in the Change Picture feature

(e) Objects: add ability to lock the position of objects (so that they cannot be selected/moved accidentally)

(f) Objects: add ability to hide objects (in the Select pane) so that they are not initially seen in slide show (without having to use animation)

(g) Pictures: add ability to set alpha transparency of an image

(h) Shape Adjustment : add a numerical reference that appears when dragging the adjustment handles of shapes such as rounded rectangle so that it’s easier to get the same curve for different sizes of the same shape