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How to Reduce PowerPoint File Size: 3 Quick Tips To Help You Out

June 10, 2022 by Muhammad Noer

Do you cringe when your clients ask to share your presentation? We all know that big, bulky files are a nightmare for anyone trying to collaborate on a project. You’ll want to make sure the size of your PowerPoint file is relatively small so that it’s a breeze for others to email or transfer. Reducing file size in PowerPoint is essential if you want your presentation to be as easy as possible for everyone to work with. If you find yourself struggling with an over-sized file and its collaborative potential, this article is for you! In this blog post, we will walk you through three quick tips that will help reduce your file size in PowerPoint. Read on and see how much smaller those presentations can be!

Reduce Video Resolution

This should go without saying, but you can significantly reduce the file size of your PowerPoint by lowering the resolution of your video clips. It’s important to note that reducing resolution will affect the quality of your video, so keep this in mind when making your edits. If you want to keep the quality at the same level, try using a smaller frame rate instead. You may also want to cut down on the duration of each video clip. You may want to think about using shorter videos because shorter videos will result in a smaller file size than longer videos.

Use Smaller Images

You can also reduce the file size of your PowerPoint presentation by using smaller images. This means that you’ll want to replace your high-resolution images with smaller images that have a lower resolution. Many people often have the misconception that you need large resolution images for your presentation to look good. While this may be true to a certain extent, you need to remember that PowerPoint presentations are usually shown online. This means that your images will be reduced in size anyway. You’ll want to make sure that your images are around 100 pixels wide and 100 pixels tall. This will ensure that they look great while having a smaller file size.

Avoid Animations and Transitions

Finally, you can easily reduce the file size of your PowerPoint presentation by cutting animations and transitions out of your presentation altogether. While animations and transitions have their place in presentations, they can also significantly increase the file size of your presentation. You may want to avoid adding animations or transitions that zoom in and out, appear and disappear, or have other movements in them. Instead, you may want to stick to a simple fade-in and fade-out between slides. You can also go with a simple “click” to advance to the next slide.

Conclusion

These are just three quick tips that will help reduce your file size in PowerPoint. No matter what you’re presenting, it’s always important to make sure you’re keeping your file size as small as possible. This will help ease the struggle that comes with collaborating with others. Unfortunately, there’s no magic button that you can press to instantly make your PowerPoint file size ridiculously small. However, by following these tips, you’ll be able to significantly reduce the file size of your presentation and make collaborating a whole lot easier!

Want Your Audience Keep Listening to You? Check This Out!

October 21, 2020 by Muhammad Noer

The main purpose of presentation is to get an approval from the audience. Moreover, the audience do the action that the presenter wanted them to do. So, it is very important to make the audience keep listening to you during your presentation. It’s your job to make them interesting for what you say.

That’s why, you have to know who your audience are. If you know them well, then you can prepare. You can arrange your presentation, so it can fit to them. Like, you can prepare yourself, how to talk to them. Which words do you have to say to deliver a message to them. With the right words, then you will be able to get their attention for the whole presentation.

Well, it’s never easy to keep everybody on the track the whole time. But, as good presenter, then you have to give your best. Some excellent presenter can amaze their audience with their non-boring presentation.

The boring audience is the one you should avoid. They won’t get bored if you coukd deliver the interesting presentation. In fact, you also can amaze your audience.

Do you want to know how? Here some tips:

1. Start off with something surprising

It means, you have to start off your presentation with something that beyond you audience could think of. Something that could make them think instantly, like oh, is that so, really, etc. Make them curious, so they will keep more attention to you.

Avoid something so general for the opening. You have to go directly to their mind and emotion. For example, you could tell them about something inspirational. Or, you could tell them about the surprising data or facts. This will be an eye-opening for your audience.

2. Tell a story

Human tends to like a story. If you start your presentation with a story, the audience will keep the attention.

If you have some data or facts that you feel that you have to tell them at the beginning of your presentation, then create it like a story. It will be more interesting instead of the scientific style.

With the storytelling style, the audience will be more interesting and keep their focus to the whole story. Who doesn’t like a complete story anyway?

3. Get rid of the notes

You may have the cue cards, but keep your eyes away from it. Don’t stare at the cue cards the whole presentation. Keep the relationship with your audience with the eye contact.

Deliver your message like you’re having a chit-chat with them. They will like to listen to you more. They will feel more comfortable with that style.

Instead of cue cards, you can use your slide as it. Your slide could be the support tools, to help the audience to even more understand about your message. But you also can use it as your cue cards.

So, be creative with your slide, please!

4. Watch the tones

Do you remember when your kindergarten teacher tell a story in front of the class? They will change their tones when they’re speak, if they have to. So, why don’t you use this technique?

If there some parts of your presentation message that is more important than the others, say it louder. Or, if there’s something that you feel the audience should remember, reduce your speed.

Think that the message as a story. You will feel when it’s time to speak louder, a little bit fast or slow. Use your emotion.

5. Talk directly to your audience

Your audience could be hundreds. It’s no way that you could know them personally, every each of them. But, you have to know them generally.

To make them keep their attention to you, sometimes you have to talk to some of them, directly.

Maybe they use a name tag, so you could read their names. If it necessary, you could as their opinion, or ask about something. Call out their name before you do that. If they’re not wearing a name tag, you could ask before you chit-chat with some of them.

This could make you closer to them. Not only with the one that you talk with, but with every single of them.

6. Make them laugh

Even though you’re talking about something serious, don’t be that serious. Sometimes you have to tell some jokes. It’s crucial, because if you make your audience laugh, it’s a sign that you want to be closer to them. It will make them want to keep their attention to you even more.

7. Don’t be so detail

Data and facts are important in a presentation. But when you have to deliver it to your audience, it’s no need to be so detailed. Especially, when it comes about numbers.

You could say many or most of the, or something else. The audience just need to hear about it. You could give them the exact number on your slides.

Well, have you try those tricks on your presentation? If you want to keep the audience’s attention, perhaps you should try it sometimes.

Just prepare yourself, the best you could, before you deliver your presentation. A well preparation is the key to attract and keep the attention of your audience. (*)

Start Your Presentation with Villain

September 16, 2020 by Erick Saputra

In a movie, we know that there are hero, victim and villain. And sometimes, a presentation uses a story, like a film, to get attention from the audience.

As we know, a story is one of the attract tools for an interesting presentation. Some presenters used a heroic story or maybe from the side of the victim to earn a sympathy. But, why don’t we use a villain?

Villain is not always about bad guys or horrible stories. Villain can be something from the dark side, like unpleasant or uncomfortable situation.

Villain for the Opening

Villain can be used for a better presentation and will make it more interesting. We can use villain as the opening of our presentation. You know, villain things could touch the audience’s heart that will make them more interesting with the whole presentation. Surely, this kind of thing would make them curious to listen up the presentation till the end.

When many presenters choose to deliver their opening with heroic stuff or the victim stories, we can try something different. For example, we heard a lot of stories about a successful person. After we know about their golden story, then sometimes the presenter tell us about their past, about their rough live.

So, why don’t we start with it? We can start the presentation with the dark side first. We don’t need to mention his or her name, but we only talk about their problems. When the audience looks enthusiastic about this dark side, then we could mention their names.

We also can use this technique to present our new product. As the opening, tell about the problems that needed to be fixed. Then, we can draw their attention that the answer of that problem is the new product that will going to be presented. This should attract their attention. Of course, don’t forget to choose carefully about the dark side story. Choose the one that really connect with the product.

A father of micro credit from Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus used this technique once. When he had to talk in front of bankers, he started with the story about poverty in his land. He told his audience that people from a small village in Bangladesh were so poor, that they couldn’t even buy anything. So, the loan shark lend them some money to buy bamboo and tools, so they could make a bamboo stall. The loan shark then buy their craft with very small price, but resell it at a high price. They got big profit, but the villagers have to stay poor because they only have money to buy food. Nothing else.

Yunus then studied that one villager only need $27 to make a bamboo stall. So, he lent that sum to the poor villagers, so they can make something and sell it with a good price. They don’t have to rely on the loan shark anymore and earn more money.

This is how Yunus started to help people in Bangladesh. He gave them micro credit to solve their own problem.

With this kind of presentation, Yunus convinced the bankers that the poor people can also be a bank customer. He convinced them that bank not only have the big money as a credit. They can also give a little money to help someone and let them try to return it with their own effort. This is how the micro credit got its name.

Because of his presentation, people around the world begin to aware about micro credit. With the dark side as his opening, now many governments try to do this concept to help the poor at their own country.

Sometimes, the dark side can touch people’s heart. It can cause curiosity among others. With the right words, it can bring sympathy.

Yet, it will needed some creativities to do that. That’s why practice makes perfect. As a presenter, we not only have to practice our speech and communication technique. But we also need to practice to hone a skill to make a wonderful presentation materials.

How to Use Storytelling in Presentations

June 30, 2020 by Erick Saputra

Have you ever listened to a presenter who subtly inserted a story or narration into his presentation, so that you barely realize that he was actually trying to make the audiences more ease to understand his ideas or absorb the information he was conveying?

Storytelling is the most effective way of presentation. It is an old and powerful form of communication to translate ideas and move people to action.

Humans are designed for storytelling. It is confirmed by a research conducted by a neurologists from Princeton University, New Jersey, United States, Uri Hasson. Hasson investigated the effects of storytelling on the brain using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Together with his team, he scanned the brain activities of his research participants as they listened to a storyteller. The brain activity of the listeners and the storyteller is synchronized and Hasson finds this activity was in harmony.

In presentations, this harmony is certainly beneficial because the audience will more easily understand your presentation material when there is synchronization. Furthermore, you can incorporate your ideas and move the audience to make decisions or do things based on those ideas.

The human brain has needs for stories or narratives, like schemes, scripts, cognitive maps, mental models, or metaphors. So, take advantage of these things in the presentation. In many ways, we use stories as a way to think and understand the world around us.

Choosing to right story

It may sounds easy, but using stories in presentations has several rules.

1. Touch your audience emotions

The main purpose of using stories in presentations is to provide an emotional experience to the audience. Great communicators say the most effective and efficient way to provide this experience is through the use of metaphors or analogies.

Humans see and remember things based on how they correspond to something else. Metaphors help the brain in this activity. Through metaphors, presenters can explain difficult concepts through association with something that more familiar. Metaphorical thinking can also be used to help solve problems.

2. Put stories in context

When you decide to use story in a presentation, make sure the story fits the context of it. Be careful in choosing a story because a forced story will have the opposite effect.

The wrong story will cut your relationship off with the audience and make it difficult for them to understand your direction or purpose in the presentation.

3. Relevance

Your stories must be able to connect with audiences’ experience and interest. Every story must have at least one point that they want to hear and can be understood. You want to use stories to put information into perspective, not to replace it.

One other thing to be considered is you also have to keep your story short and leave unnecessary details. This step is important to make your story relevant and clear in order to support the information in the presentation.

4. Visualizing

Act as if you are drawing a picture of your idea to make you easier to think of a story. Make one that is easily visualized: where something happens in a certain time and place, played by characters who are likely to have relevance to your audience, and so on.

5. Keep it simple

No need to overdo or use too many stories (remember the importance of keeping the story short and leaving the unnecessary details as mentioned above) in your presentation. Also, make sure you will feel comfortable telling the story. If you think you won’t get comfy with it, your audience can sense it and this will have a negative impact on them.

6. Personal story

If possible, put your own story in presentation. Stories that have a personal touch will be naturally embedded in the minds of the audience and last long enough. Your audience will also be more easily connected to you.

Personal stories also make it easier for you to interweave stories. You will more easily choose how you tell the story, which details you will tell, or decide which elements will most strongly touch the audience’s emotions.

Steve Jobs’ storytelling structure

World’s leading speakers use storytelling in their presentations, like Steve Jobs, for instance. The founder of Apple Computer is always able to sweep and amaze his audience in every presentation of Apple’s product launches. Not only because of the product sophistication, but also because of the strength of his story.

Jobs also includes elements or personal experiences in his stories, such as when he developed and launched an iPod product.

You can use Steve Jobs’ presentation structure as your reference because it is very simple. Jobs did not use complex structures to create excitement. Almost all of Jobs presentations follow a structure like this:

1. Here is what I am going to tell you

2. Here is what I promised to tell you

3. Here is what I just told you

4. And because I am a nice guy, here one more thing

The first three parts of the structure use “ad nauseam” or repeatedly until the audience memorizes that sequence. The last part is different. Though the audience knows Jobs always has “one more thing” to add to the end of the presentation, they never knew what this “one more thing” would be like.

This kind of structure give tension like suspense movies. If we look closely, the way the power of storytelling works in presentation is indeed the same as what your favorite films or books do.

Stories trigger chemical, physical, and emotional responses to the audience. The brain releases oxytocin which motivates cooperation by increasing empathy. That’s why stories will make it easier for the audience to accept and apply new ideas and move based on those ideas.

Storytelling skills in presentations are something you must have. Storytelling is still the most powerful way to get and hold audience attention, to the point of changing their belief in an idea. (*)

5 Things to Remember Before Doing Online Presentation

April 29, 2020 by Muhammad Noer

The coronavirus outbreak means many workers have to work from home. Not only must daily be done at home, but even presentations must be done from home too.

Thankfully, many applications can be used to help us make presentations online. In addition to technical support, your ability as a presenter must also be considered.

Although it looks a bit easier to present online, =a presentation is still a presentation. We have to convey it well. If this online presentation will be witnessed by the bosses, a.k.a. our superiors in the office, maybe it won’t be that easy. Of course, the presentation must be prepared as well as possible, just like in a normal presentation.

The important things to note are:

1. Make sure that the connection is good

For online presentations to work properly, they must be supported by an adequate quality internet connection (if you are not sure of your connection, check centurylink plans). So, we must ensure that the quality of our internet connection is good, to help us deliver the presentation.

We can check it with other friends, before with the bosses. In addition to a good internet connection, also make sure the equipment on your computer is sufficient to make the online presentation.

Check the speaker and the microphone. Make sure that we can deliver the presentation clearly and also hear the questions or feedback given by the audience.

2. Master the apps

Currently, there are many applications that can be used to make presentations online. Before running work from home, of course we have discussed with everyone in the office about the apps that will be used to do the conference call. Many use Skype, but many now also use Teams and Zoom. You can Visit Blog to determine which might be best for you.

If the application has been determined, we certainly have to learn it in order to use it properly, including for online presentations.

3. Convey clearly

It’s not just the presentation material that has to be clear, so that your audience in the office can understand it well. But, the delivery method must also be considered. That is, your speech and voice must also clear.

Practicing is the only way you can speak clearly. Adam Zukor, one of the directors at Microsoft said that practicing by speaking alone in front of a mirror before a presentation, is very important. Although the audience is your own reflection, but it can make you understand, whether your way of speaking is good or not.

If your own imagination already feels that your way of speaking is incomprehensible, what about the real audience?

4. Focus on the main keys

When making presentation material, think carefully about the points you want to convey. Adjust to the presentation time given, so that you can really convey the really important points.

Make sure that the points to be conveyed are the important things that your audience must know. Say it directly to the points. Just like the general presentation, the audience at work will only remember key words that they think are important.

Moreover, many applications that limit the time of use. It means, maybe our time to make an online presentation can be limited. So, think carefully about the things that will be conveyed. Make sure that these are the things that the audience really wants to hear.

4. Control your nervousness

It’s okay if you are nervous, because your audience is the bosses. Although this time we are not ‘face to face’ with them, but still, they will listen to our presentation.

Nervousness can be controlled if we have confidence. That confidence will arise if we feel confident that we can deliver a good presentation. So, even if the presentation is done online, careful preparation of the material must also be done.

In addition, even if you make a presentation from home, still prepare physically as well as possible. Take a shower and use the clothes you normally wear when you have to make a presentation at the office.

5. Watch out for distractions

When making presentations, we must ensure that we are in a place that is safe from distractions. Maybe we’ve heard that there are children or pets that ‘interrupt’ when they are doing the online meeting. Do not let it happen during an online presentation that we do.

Maybe for a moment, we can lock the room. Tell everybody in the house that we have an important meeting with superiors and cannot be disturbed for a while.

Apart from those five things, we also still have to do important things that must be done during the presentation. For example, make eye contact, pay attention to the volume and tone of our voice, have a proper background and if you don’t have one, you might want to invest in a removable wallpaper, and lastly, prepare presentation materials as well as possible.

If we do those things, then our online presentation can work well.