Thanks for your interest in the Office SmartArt graphics. You’ve reached an expired content page. Please visit the below links on Office.com for more on how to create and use SmartArt in Office 2013: Create a SmartArt graphic Animate your SmartArt graphic Change the color of a shape, style, shape border, or entire SmartArt graphic Choose a SmartArt graphic Keyboard shortcuts for SmartArt graphics Video: Animate charts and SmartArt

Back in the days of the dinosaurs, I spent tons of time on the slide design phase of my PowerPoint presentations. Now, there's nothing wrong with investing in design, but it was taking me too long to design each slide.

The Layout button makes the process much faster. It's on the Home tab in the Slides group. Now I make my slide with the layout I think will work best, and use the Layout button to quickly look at different layouts.

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Thanks for your interest in the Office SmartArt graphics. You've reached an expired content page. Please visit the below links on Office.com for more on how to create and use SmartArt in Office 2013: Create a SmartArt graphic Animate your SmartArt graphic Change the color of a shape, style, shape border, or entire SmartArt graphic Choose a SmartArt graphic Keyboard shortcuts for SmartArt graphics Video: Animate charts and SmartArt

Here's a thought - how would PowerPoint 2010 have enhanced the Wright Brothers' story? Well, for starters, it doesn't require a telegraph to disseminate the news!

In this video, we thought it would be fun to imagine how The Wright Brothers might have used PowerPoint to chronicle the first flight. Watch the video for a chance to win a trip to the National Air & Space Museum in Washington DC (or one of many weekly drawings for an Xbox 360 with Kinect). It's just that simple - watch and get a chance to win.* (Sweepstakes ends 8/17)

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PowerPoint Elevator Pitch: Make your presentation look professional without taking forever to design it. See how, in the span of one elevator trip.

 

 

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Thanks for your interest in the Office SmartArt graphics. You've reached an expired content page. Please visit the below links on Office.com for more on how to create and use SmartArt in Office 2013: Create a SmartArt graphic Animate your SmartArt graphic Change the color of a shape, style, shape border, or entire SmartArt graphic Choose a SmartArt graphic Keyboard shortcuts for SmartArt graphics Video: Animate charts and SmartArt

Keeping a consistent look and feel throughout your presentation helps your audience trust you, and trust is especially important for a nonprofit organization seeking support. Nonprofits raising awareness -- and funds -- can apply many of the tips from my previous blog post, such as creating a template before you begin assembling your slides.

Here are three more hints for presenting that apply to both small and large nonprofits.

This is the third in a series of occasional posts by Mike Parkinson discussing how you can use PowerPoint in different industries and for diverse audiences. Mike is an internationally recognized visual communication expert, multi-published author, and partner at 24 Hour Company, a premier proposal and presentation graphics firm. Take a look at his other posts 2 steps to change the world with PowerPoint and 3 tips for making powerful presentations to the government.

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The quasi-notorious outlaw known as Clippy is back, in a fun new game designed to help you learn PowerPoint (and also Excel, Word, and OneNote). It's free, it's called Ribbon Hero 2, and you can download it today.

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Here's a great article from Wired  that you don't want to miss. It talks about Microsoft's Dave Karle, an Army veteran whose latest mission is to get people in the Army, and eventually elsewhere, to use PowerPoint correctly, or at the very least to stop using it incorrectly.

Or not use PowerPoint at all, depending on what the presenter is presenting. “Use Word sometimes instead of PowerPoint. Use a whiteboard sometimes,” Karle says. “It’s all about fixing the tool behind the tool.” He pauses. “I love that phrase.”

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If you're ever after a U.S. government contract worth millions or even billions of dollars, odds are you'll need to give a persuasive PowerPoint presentation. Here are three expert tips on presenting to government agencies.

This is the second in a series of occasional posts by Mike Parkinson discussing how you can use PowerPoint in different industries and for diverse audiences. Mike is an internationally recognized visual communication expert, multi-published author, and a partner at 24 Hour Company, a premier proposal and presentation graphics firm. His first post for the PowerPoint blog was titled 2 steps to change the world with PowerPoint. 

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