To “PowerPoint” is a verb in both corporate and education circles, which speaks to the dominance of Microsoft PowerPoint in the presentation industry – and that is not a bad thing as Microsoft continues to evolve the software. But there are other options in use, all with high points and advantages. Troy, Sandy and Nolan spend this episode reviewing the ones they know are out there and use for projects.
First, Nolan makes a big announcement! Then, Troy, Sandy and Nolan discuss “Frustration: [fra’-str-ay-shun], the feeling of being upset or annoyed, especially because of inability to change or achieve something.” That is the official definition of Frustration, and it definitely describes the feelings presentation designers experience, often on a daily basis, when working in PowerPoint. Yes, even our favorite presentation software frustrates us, and this afternoon Troy, Nolan and Sandy are just venting a little.
Being a good client to your designer has many benefits. Because design projects are not all about the client. They are also not all about the designer. Design projects to be successful require both client and designer interaction to create the final deliverable. A successful project requires both the client and designer to create the final deliverable. Today’s conversation is about an often unspoken topic that hopefully designers, and design clients, find valuable.
PowerPoint templates are a real thing, not a collection of slides. A real template is an aide to everyone by establishing styling options, consistency parameters, and presets to make design time faster. Troy, Nolan, Sandy have an in-depth conversation about what makes a template a template, with plenty of tips and best practices, and why a real template has tremendous value.
Microsoft has just started releasing its next update to the Windows Operating System, called “The Creators Update”. Looking at the details available, the new aesthetic styling system, labelled “The Fluent Design System” has some exciting ideas that will hopefully carry over into the presentation design world. It is called the “Microsoft” Fluent Design System, which implies it will not be limited to the Operating System, but the new styling and aesthetics will carry over into every app and feature.
For print design, if a client says they need a letter size piece or a client in Europe says the project needs to be A1, we know exactly the dimensions. With PowerPoint, the page size is not always clear or consistent. Part of the issue is that aspect ratio does not equate to a physical dimension and another part is that PowerPoint has updated page sizes and has confusing options. In today’s episode, Troy, Nolan, and Sandy talk in-depth about page size options for presentation projects.
A client from 1, 2, or 8 years ago asks for a few revisions to that incredible presentation you developed for them years ago. But they no longer have the files – do you? Troy, Nolan and Sandy talk about their studio processes for archiving project files, what they let clients know are done with project files, and some of their project archiving best practices.
Typography principles are half of the design equation, and should apply to developing slides, but often does not. This time Troy, Sandy and Nolan weigh in on many geeky typography and text topics. Typography, as defined on Wikipedia, is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable, and appealing when displayed – a great description for how should be treated when added to slides!
PowerPoint has lots of great features for adding motion to static content through animations and transitions. Overall PowerPoint presentations are known for animation, and knowing that animation is used by everyone from elementary age students to professional designers says a lot about the functional design of PowerPoint as an animation application. Troy, Nolan and Sandy talk about good use of animation, some favorite animation effects, and what they see for the future of PowerPoint’s animation capabilities.
First was words, then images, now video. Presentation design has changed and today our hosts Troy, Nolan, and Sandy talk about using video in PowerPoint – tips and tricks for video in PowerPoint – using PowerPoint as the video creation app – from technical to design, this is a great conversation covering a lot of topics all about video and PowerPoint.
Today Troy, Nolan and Sandy talk about the big topic of Data Visualization, or Data Viz, which has countless ways of displaying data on slides. Every presentation designer is using Data Viz techniques, without necessarily knowing it, or calling it that. Although all three approach Data Viz in different ways, they all have the same goal, to clearly communicate number information in presentations.