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In this month's free e-news from Wilder Presentations, I'd like to discuss two ideas for presenters and one for designers. Look for the monthly challenge at the end.

MORE POINT, CLICK & WOW! BOOK QUESTIONS

Jennifer Rotondo and I are revising my book Point, Click & Wow! We are looking for single "slide" examples that show:

   1. How you personalize the talk for your audience.
   2. Questions you put on the slides to find out more about your audience.
   3. Making technical information understandable.
   4. Some creative slide ideas you think others would like to see.

Just send me the slide, explaining it. Please don't send me a whole presentation, just the example slide. If we use it, you'll get credit in the book.

FOR PRESENTERS:
Step 5: ENERGIZE YOURSELF

For the next several months we'll discuss ways to energize yourself when you present. Right now I'm sitting in my office with no voice. Yesterday I totally lost my voice when giving a class.

Very funny how everyone else began to whisper along with me! I realized how hard it was to energize myself without a voice.

Here are some habits to follow to avoid a no-voice situation.

Drink at least eight glasses of water a day. Then, if you have room left, you can drink some beverages. This is especially import if you present in low-humidity areas like hotel conference rooms. Limit your consumption of caffeine and alcohol. Avoid milk products, which may cause congestion. Don't eat late at night. But what if you do end up, like me, with no voice. Drink water and more water. Slow down your speaking rate. Use lozenges to keep the saliva flowing. And finally, go to bed as soon as possible.

FOR PRESENTERS:
TRY THIS VISUAL TECHNIQUE

There is such a tendency for presenters to talk to the screen, rather than the audience. Try this technique from Fernando Celis, who teaches my Winning Presentations Seminar in Latin America:

• First, look at your slide and see its main point.
• Second, look at your audience and connect with a pair of eyes.
• Third, start talking.

Fernando says when you do this, you'll stop talking to the screen and you are more likely to not say "uh" between your sentences.

FOR DESIGNERS:
A TIP FOR WORKING WITH CHARTS

Here's an easy way to edit bar charts in PowerPoint:

Open a chart and select the bars in one series by clicking once on a bar. Then right click and choose Format Data Series. Patterns tab: use the Fill Effects to choose a color. Shapes tab: make the bar triangular or a cone shape. Data Labels tab: choose to show value, percent or both. Options tab: make the bars wider. Why? Your numbers may fit in the bars. If you want to select only one bar, click twice. Do this same exercise with all the different chart types to see how you can manipulate the charts.

SWITCHING BETWEEN OPEN PRESENTATIONS

When you have several different PowerPoint files open at one time, press Ctrl-Tab to move from file to file.

MONTHLY CHALLENGE:

PRESENTERS

Drink at least five glasses of water a day.

DESIGNERS

Discover the other options you have when creating and editing charts.

MY NEW WEB SITE

At www.wilderpresentations.com, go to the Ten Steps for Success and read about Energize Yourself.

Presentation Points, written by Claudyne Wilder, usually comes out the first business week of each month. For more information, call 617-524-7172, e-mail claudyne@quik.com, or visit my Web site, www.wilderpresentations.com.

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Copyright 2001, Claudyne Wilder. All rights reserved.