Slideshare is the Youtube of powerpoint slides sharing. I used this site many times to share ideas, greeting cards and project presentations.

Garr Reynolds is an expert on presentation design – his article last week, along with his blog Presentation Zen and book of the same name, prove it. In the following slideshow, you will see how Reynolds uses design to drive home ideas. To put it all in context, here’s how to prepare for a powerful presentation:

1. Create the message: one that is listener-based, focused and with action.
2. Develop the slides that best support the message – but don’t become the message.
3. Deliver it powerfully, remembering that YOU are the presentation. 

[slideshare id=295996&doc=sample-slides-by-garr-reynolds-1204852162670051-5&w=425]

Check out his blog and his guest article on Slideshare’s blog.

“Lots of people are killing each other with Bad Presentations - NOW,” a statement which I can’t help but agree. This is one of the finest slideshows on poor visual presentations on powerpoint. No wonder it garners 270512 views, 104 comments, 874 favorites, 28639 downloads and 1052 embeds (as at 13.o3.08). People are passionate about great design!

This 61 short slides includes great tips on how to deliver great presentations and slides design. Check it out!

” The VisualCV is an Internet-based resume that allows professionals to build and manage an online career portfolio that comes alive with informational keyword pop-ups, video, pictures, and social networking. “  VisualCV

VisualCV.com is yet another example of a web-start-up that appeals to the web 2.0 world. The US venture is backed by some of the best known venture-capitalists in the country. For the job-seekers, VisualCV offers a competitive edge in the electronic resumes world.

What this website offers is the rich  and dynamic media you can use to enhance your CV. In the Facebook and Youtube era, your normal Word or PDF is simply inadequate. VisualCV allows you to put videos of your self-introduction, charts of your previous sales performance and pictures of your community involvement to sell yourself to your potential employers.

Of course, VisualCV must complete with the current online CV services like Linkedin which is already gaining much popularity with many high profile users. But the website packs a punch with it’s differentiating rich media of presenting the individual.

I couldn’t wait to test this potentially advantagous media.

Here’s a screenshot of my VisualCV!

These occasionally used,power-consuming tools constantly require batteries to operate and are costly to replace.

With a little adaptation you can have a total control of your presentations without spending a bomb on these gadgets.

The revelation came upon me while I was playing the features in my W660i Sony Ericsson. The little Bluetooth wireless presenter function intrigued me. Curious, I wanted to see if the presentor mode actually works like the wireless presentor I see my professors use.

Unfortunately, my Fujitsu Tablet PC does not have the Bluetooth hardware, but with a USD10.00 investment on IVT’s Bluesoleil, I managed to power up my laptop to receive Bluetooth signal.

What I did with my Bluetooth enabled Sony Ericsson W660i:

  1. Turn on the Bluetooth function on the  phone

  Go to Menu -> My Shortcuts  -> Turn on Bluetooth -> My Devices

2. Check for "my devices"

3. You should be able to detect the bluetooth enabled laptop.

4. On the laptop screen, click on the mouse icon.

5. Press "allow" on your mobile phone and click presenter. You should see the screen like this above.

 Quite simply:

Take note of the following when using the Bluetooth toggle device:

1. Incoming calls/messages during presentation. Rejecting the call or cancel the messages to continue using the remote control feature may cause the the remote control feature to lag for a few seconds (not to mention the trouble with repeated incoming calls)

Solution: Rejecting the call and letting the phone take 3-4 seconds to return to the presentor function is fine if you do not need to change slides too often. Otherwise, consider using a defunct SIM card.

2. Battery life. As with all Bluetooth devices, such controls are energy consuming. Remember to charge your mobile phone fully to prepare for the action!

Other cheap alternatives for wireless presentation:

1. Bluetooth Mouse -

• Pros: Ease of use - Works similiar as the phone for control. The roller scroll at the center of the mouse is extremely useful to go to previous/next slide
• Cons: Requires expensive battery replacement for regular use. The mouse has to be small so that it does not become a distraction during your presentation. Watch out for the light coming beneath most of these optical mouse, you wouldn’t want to blind your audiences!

2. The Uxcell Presentor -

• Pros: The Uxcell Presentor works pretty much like the   specialized tool for presentation - less the hefty price (approx. AU 7.99) and it comes with a laster pointer. A very good alternative for those who do not have a compatible handphone for the bluetooth function.

• Cons: Why pay for a hardware when you can get the same effect with your handphone set?

3. Human Assistant: Your trusty friend/co-presentor/assistant -

• Pros: Experienced/ Friendly colleagues who knows exactly when to click on the next slide. This is by far the best for keynote addresses and product launches. The rehearsed presentation makes you look prepared, passionate and professional. Extremely reliable with the right people.
• Cons:Some chemistry is required to make this work. This technique is not adviseable for those who are not feeling the right team dynamics/synergy in the group. Better to have control over your own portion of the slides in these soituations.

Rather than the usual image intensive presentations my team mates are accustomed to when doing projects with me, we decided to go “professional” this time:

The template you see in the picture is the actual corporate template of HP that is used throughout its operating centers around the world.

This specially professional-looking template has been designed to create an uniform feel for all HP’s executives’ presentations. The concept was to make sure the company have a sense of congruence of its identity in all its presentations internally and externally. Read further down see some of the flexibilities embedded in the template.

Interesting? YOU can do the same thing. The secret lies within the friend of all college students:

The Google Search tool!

But simply typing “HP powerpoint template” won’t get you anywhere close to what you are looking for.

Get the right template on your powerpoint program in 5 simple steps:

1. At Google, type HP (or the name of the company you are researching on) and click on “Advance Search”

2. Under File Format, select Microsoft Powerpoint (ppt.)

What this does is it filters search results, leaving you only websites that hosts ppt. format files.

You can jump step by typing ” [ the company you are searching on] filetype: ppt’” on Google’s main page. E.g “HP Merger filetype:ppt” (without the quotation marks, of course)

3. Find the most authoritative looking link within the first two pages of the search results. A weblink starting with “www7.hp.com” definitely looks more promising than a site that begins with www.iabc.com”

4. Right click on the link and Save As. Open the file on your Microsoft Powerpoint and whola! - an all ready professional template for your presentation!

5. With a little bit of clever, I managed to uncover more gems having clicked on the “Design” tab (for MS Powerpoint 2007):

So that’s how you can get professional ppt templates in 5 minutes.

That’s not all - you can pull down the menu to save the “current theme” for your own reference in future.

That’s it!

Here’s a snapshot from the slide sorter view of our final presentation of our business case:

Impressed? My classmates certainly were.

–

The HP logo®, powerpoint template and MS Powerpoint 2007® presentation graphics program are trademarks of HP and Microsoft respectively. Please refer to the terms of use for each site and do not violate the terms of use.