Personal Experiences of a PowerPoint Presenter Living in London

By:Rich Talbot

Having worked in London for the last five years, I have had the opportunity to both present and attend PowerPoint presentations on numerous occasions. As a self-taught user of this software my journey has been composed of a few highs but mostly lows. I still remember the days of preparing presentations on acetates and using a range of coloured pens to add interest. When working in a group, the task of preparing the slides always seemed to fall to the person with the neatest handwriting. However, those days are long behind us now and we must deal with numerous technical intricacies such as selecting the most appropriate slide design to reflect our message and incorporating multimedia into our presentations. I would like to share with you a few personal experiences resulting from my lack of PowerPoint training.

Always using the same format?
I must confess I tended to rely on the same trusted format each time I made a new PowerPoint presentation. "Dad's Tie" was an old favourite of both myself and my colleagues. This did mean that there was a limited variety of presentations on offer at our weekly meetings. Although the content was varied and interesting we were not perhaps conveying it in the best possible way.

Reading off your slides?
As a shy and retiring individual, I tended to perceive opportunities for public speaking in a less than favourable light. Hence, my PowerPoint slides became my safety net. Everything I wanted to say was written on those slides even if it meant using the smallest possible font. Needless to say, this was not a recipe for success. It meant that I was not maintaining eye contact with my audience because I was always referring to my slides to remind me what to say.

Problems in setting up?
Due to my lack of technical know how, I often encountered problems when setting up my presentation. Using a slide projector was always a risky business because unless it was set up ready for me, I would come to a grinding halt. Transportation of my presentations proved interesting on occasions. I can still remember the horror I felt when I realized my presentation was too large to transport on a disc. Emailing was not an option and apparently I was to use a memory stick. A memory stick? Fortunately those days are behind me now but it is the minor details which can make all the difference.

As a London resident, I had failed to make the most of the opportunities available to improve this facet of my presentation skills. Looking around, I can honestly say that I am not the only one. My new recipe for success involves identifying a weakness and tackling it with the most appropriate means available. PowerPoint courses in London are widely available and, if you have in any way identified with my experiences, perhaps may be worth considering.

Digg del.icio.us Blink Stumble Spurl Reddit Netscape Furl

Article keywords: powerpoint courses london

Article Source: http://www.articles2k.com

Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information on PowerPoint courses London, please visit http://www.microsofttraining.net

Top Software Articles
1). Track Your MySpace Profile Visitors By : PaulG I know that everyone who is on MySpace has had the same burning questions that I’ve had. How can I see who has viewed my MySpace profile? Where can I find a MySpace Tracker? Since MySpace has become so popular, so have the MySpace profile stalkers. Could be your friends, neighbors, ex-boyfriends or ex-girlfriends, or even someone you don’t even know.
2). 13 Comparisons of Vista vs Tiger By : paul wilson1 Competitive and fast are two terms that are applicable to the world of computers. Constantly changing and evolving computer systems bring many advantages to the users and techies alike. The race for supremacy between the yet to be launched Vista (scheduled for 2006) and Mac OSX Tiger began in 2003 with Microsoft’s announcements of plans for an integrated desktop search functionality in Windows Vista.
3). Using professional icons for a better communication between user and application interface By : Iconshock Professional Icons Today's applications - either for the Web or standalone - are starting to focus more and more on the user interface. The time when you had to write lines and lines of commands or go through several menus to execute a certain task has passed. Developers have now implemented simple wizards, with on-screen help near each important element of the application, which will make even the most complicated task look like a walk in the park.
4). The Top Five Spyware Issues Dealing With Internet Security By : Greg Lietz One of the main ways to compromise internet security on your PC is via a program called a Trojan Horse. A Trojan Horse is a program that quietly runs in the background, inviting the user to run it, while spreading its malicious code. This code can do any number of things. It can start right away or it may simply install a program that won't start for sometime.
5). The Benefits of Open Source By : Matthew C. Keegan If you are a building a website or a forum, chances are you are using a web editor or paying for message board services. The costs of using these "out of the box" products can add up, especially if you are trying to grow your business. Let's look at some good "open source" options for you to consider. You may be surprised at how much money open source can save you.
6). Virus Strains By : J Square Humboldt What we need is the Dewey Decimal System to go digital ... Specifically, someone needs to coax their keepers into putting some logical order into how computer viruses are sorted. Recently, warnings abounded about the Kama Sutra virus quickly proliferating cyberspace, joining the Grew.A and Nyxem.E as serious threats to computer file security. However, only those who took a closer look at these strains were able to discover that they all had something in common.
7). How To Install And Setup Noah's Classifieds By : Bedrich Omacka In this article I will explain the basic Noah's Classifieds features, show you how to install this script and how to setup it to run properly. First of all let's mention that Noah's Classifieds script is written in PHP can be used for free. Noah's Classifieds is one of the most popular classified ads tool on the Internet. Using this great script you can create unlimited categories and subcategories, upload images for the categories and the advertisements, define variable fields for the advertisements per categories etc.
8). Trojan Horse Delivered In Automatic Update By : Darren Miller Trojan Horse - One Mans “Worse Case Scenario” Prediction ---------------------------- This is a fictional article about a Trojan Horse Virus, or you could say it is one mans prediction of a “worse case scenario”. Because of the field I’m in, I maintain a personal list of my top 10 “worse case scenarios”. Every time I perform a security assessment I run into something new or identify a situation that is ripe for a potential vulnerability.
9). New to gaming, all you need to know about Flash gaming sites By : paul wilson1 Whew! According to Computer Gaming World, there are 80 gazillion free Flash games sites in the cyber world. Popular sites are: • www.games.yahoo.com -- this has card games, word games, arcade games, as well as puzzles. The number of violent games is limited so the site appeals to the “old-young” –those who are young at heart. • www.shockwave.com -- a popular site with original games as well as PopCap ones.
10). Improve PC Performance - 6 Tips You Must Know By : Michael Braid Are you frustrated with your PC? Is it feeling sluggish or crawling at a snail's pace? Are programs running slower than they used to? Are you just plain fed up with frequent slowdowns, freezes or crashes? Then it's time to stop what you're doing and optimize your system to improve PC performance! Follow these 6 simple sure-fire tips to help improve PC performance and you'll be surprised by the results! Each comes with an indication of how often you should do it.

New Software Articles
1). Lock Down the Personal Information on Your Computer By : Buzz Scott Securing and hiding personal information is more important now than ever. With identity theft on the rise and hacking technology improving you need to be safe.
2). Are Your Employees As Productive As They Would Have You Believe? By : Buzz Scott Productive employees can start with a good computer monitoring program.
3). Business Intelligence guide By : mansi gupta Business intelligence can be defined as a set of business processes designed to garner and analyze business information. It is a vast category of application of programs that includes providing access to data to help an entrepreneur in his business decisions, task of query and reporting, online analytical processing (OLAP), statistical analysis, forecasting and data mining.
4). PsP Software Downloads – Review of Software Sites By : pjs1965 PsP handhelds are one of the newest and most fun ways to play games, watch movies and listen to music. PsP software downloads are just some things that you can do to improve your psp. PsP software downloads are fun and easy. There are many places on the net were one can find psp software downloads. Some sites have you pay per download and sometimes charge up to a couple dollars for each download.
5). PsP Software – Review of Software Download Sites By : pjs1965 PsP handhelds are one of the newest and most fun ways to play games, watch movies and listen to music. PsP software downloads are just some things that you can do to improve your psp. PsP software downloads are fun and easy. There are many places on the net were one can find psp software downloads. Some sites have you pay per download and sometimes charge up to a couple dollars for each download.
6). Microsoft Has Stunted Innovation By : Chris Young Creativity is what spurred the growth of the computer industry and technology. Challenges were met and new frontiers conquered through sharp-edged innovations and competition. Sadly, over the years small companies like Microsoft grew into giants and then lost their thirst for adventure. They deliberately hid their proprietary source code and this stunted innovation.
7). Download Music, Movies and Games for Free - A Hot Issue By : Harry Rackers The Internet is used by a lot of people to download music, movies, games and various other soft wares for free. The legality of this practise is, and will be for a long time, a hot issue. Some countries want to totally stop the downloading of copy wright protected materials, like the U.S.A. Other countries, like France, want to allow this type of downloading, but only for personal use.
8). Expressing Love With Ecards - Is It Effective? By : CD Mohatta Can love be effectively expressed with ecards? With many mediums available today, which medium should be our medium of choice in expressing our feelings. We have choice of sending a voice mail, sending an email, a printed card, and ecards. Of course the first choice always remains - our own talk. How are ecards better than other mediums to express love? Let us look at that.
9). Learn Management With Desktop Wallpapers By : CD Mohatta Learning over the ages has undergone many changes. In recent years many rapid changes have taken place, from classroom teaching to online education. Could you ever think that management could be taught with the help of Desktop wallpapers? Here is how it is being done now days. Learning - Let us look at learning. How do we learn? By reading, reflecting and thinking and then remembering what we have been taught.
10). Adware is a Pain but you Can Deal with Fast By : Carol Hansonly Adware is one of those things that many people simply do not worry about until the ghastly stuff actually does some damage. Yes it can cause damage and sometimes this is too late to fix. The plain facts are that adware or spyware can number one effect your computers functionality and two this can lead to system failure and ultimately data loss. Now without putting the fear of god into you the data loss scenario is certainly a possibility but in the most extreme of cases.