Slidebay Image Search is now Zotero-Ready
Slidebay.com image search already offers an easy interface to look for interesting pictures to insert in your presentations. These images are all licensed under a Creative Commons agreement and are selected especially to be ‘interesting’ and ’safe’, meaning that you will like most of the pictures without scrolling through endless snapshots.
Today Slidebay.com launches a new facility: all images found in its searches are tagged in such a way that they will be detected by Zotero allowing you to collect a basket of image references for easy insertion into your presentations and then for easy insertion of the picture credit list.
If you want to really simplify your picture research for presentations, you should immediately
- install Zotero on your Firefox (you do use Firefox, don’t you?)
- watch the tutorial demo
- then head straight to Slidebay Image Search and start picture harvesting!
10 Uses for a Presenter’s USB Drive
A USB drive hangs from a lanyard around every good presenter’s neck. These high-capacity devices can become the presenter’s survival kit, a suite of applications that make it easy to replicate most of the functions one can perform on the home desktop or on the laptop. I have a set of favorite applications that I carry on my USB drive and every presenter, I am sure, has their own and will strongly champion their choice.
In this post, rather than focus on the applications themselves (more on that later), I will focus on the functions. What are the tasks that I want to accomplish, armed only with the software and files on my USB? I will describe the software suite around these functions in later posts, and look forward to your suggestions in the comments. For the time being, here are the spells that I want loaded onto the USB wand:
- Keep My Files Secure: I want software to encrypt the whole stick so that I can afford to lose the drive without losing my mind. I want to keep a record of my passwords securely so that one password would open the door on all others. I want to be able to recover files deleted by accident on a host computer. I want to be able to erase all trace of any file I have copied temporarily onto a host computer. I want to use a host computer and leave no trace of my presence.
- Manage My Files Easily: I want a gallery to hold all my images, sounds, and videos. I want tools to help me move files around with ease between the USB stick and the host. I want to be able to locate files easily. I want to collect batches of files (for example, from a camera) and rename them consistently and easily.
- Retouch, Remix, Edit my Audiovisual Files: I want to be able to run edits on my photos – crop, retouch, apply simple effects to graphics. I want to be able to edit and remix sounds. I want to play and view sounds and videos, and to convert them across formats for different players.
- Project Presentations Independent of Software on the Host Computer: I want to not have to worry what software is running on the host computer, unwilling to discover while on the podium that there is an older version of PowerPoint running, or they have the wrong fonts installed.
- Prepare Presentations Impromptu: I want to have independent design capacity to be able to create a set of new slides, or modify the set I brought with me, or recombine slides from the library I carry around without having to worry about whether they have PowerPoint installed or the version.
- Create Diagrams and Illustrations: I want to have easy diagramming tools that can create visuals neatly for inclusion into my presentations. I want to be able to design flowcharts, process diagrams, Venn diagrams and other illustrations relatively free of the limitations of the standard functions of most presentation software.
- Prepare Standard Versions of Slidesets for Distribution: I like to distribute slidesets to the audience in the native file so they can read them and use them themselves – remixing my own presentations with theirs. But sometimes I want them to have my presentation in exactly one form, for the record. I want therefore to be able to produce PDF versions, to be able to annotate and edit PDF files, and to be able to combine images and voiceover into standard flash or video-like slideshows.
- Capture Brainstorms Interactively: I want to be in a position to keep notes when others are speaking or to base my presentations on concepts laid out in a mindmap. I want to be able to work interactively and capture textual and tree-like forms of a discussion or brainstorm as it happens and integrate that into my presentation at will.
- Manage My Internet Connection Securely: I want to be able to connect to the Internet directly, securely, and tracelessly. I want to be able to upload and download fairly large files securely and swiftly. I want to be able to search resources and collect references conveniently. I want to be able to use web applications as easily as the local applications.
- Keep my Host Running: Too often have I had problems with the host computer connected to the projector. I want to be able to troubleshoot the host computer and its network and find simple workarounds wherever possible. This way, ideally, I don’t end up ‘apologising for the technology’ that has let me down at the last minute as I am about to start presenting
And, what is more, I want to do this all on a standard 2GB USB drive.
Watch this space for a growing list of programs for the portable presenter. Meantime please feel free to add to the wishlist in the comments below…
Images of Power
At some point you will be needing to show one of the senses of ‘power’ in a presentation. Using the WordNet list of meanings of power for inspiration, I looked up a selection of Creative Commons licensed images on Flickr.com that you might want to consider. And here is the resulting gallery:
I hope you like them — and that you will put links to your favorites or suggestions in the comments below.
Picture credits and links to full size pictures — with our thanks to the generous creators. :
- Photo Id 87431231 by zachstern (2004) entitled “the difference engine“.
- Photo Id 235805526 by ms4jah (2006) entitled “Weather Factory“.
- Photo Id 113218540 by Ian David Blüm (2005) entitled “Powerful Purple“.
- Photo Id 447061508 by Guillermo Ruiz de Loizaga (2007) entitled “On“.
- Photo Id 1129937817 by eir@si (2007) entitled “Aldeyjarfoss“.
- Photo Id 165130233 by yewenyi (2005) entitled “Making Clouds“.
- Photo Id 1470336775 by Mark Payton (2007) entitled “27,000 lbs of Thrust“.
- Photo Id 1553703053 by Pierre Guezennec (2007) entitled “The Power of the Light“.
- Photo Id 984731291 by Juju T (2007) entitled “Telegraph Pole“.
- Photo Id 105288359 by jimfrazier (2006) entitled “Union Pacific 3090 in La Fox, Illnois“.
Convert YouTube Videos For PowerPoint
The Challenge
You want to insert a video into your presentation. Why do you need to do this?
- Maybe you want to play some music while the audience is entering the room and settling in.
- Or you want to insert a moment of humour mid-presentation.
- You might want to demonstrate a short procedure directly in the presentation.
- You might even want to leave the audience with a surprising ‘thank you’ slide.
Whatever your reason, it is entirely possible that in the YouTube collection, there is a video that suits your purpose. The problem: you can’t just download the video to your hard disk and insert into PowerPoint. The native download format from YouTube will not work in PowerPoint.
The Solution
The solution: use YouConvertIt.com for free and painless conversion to Windows media format. Read more
Thanking the Audience
At some point in your career you are going to present to an audience that collectively deserves your gratitude. But where to start? What is the right balance? How will you do it?
We usually end presentations with a Thank-You-for-Your-Attention slide. Yet often their attention is not the only reason we have to thank them. Maybe they are a management group who have given your project the green light. Maybe they are are a foundation board who have approved your grant.
In the midst of our presentation, without being obsequious, we want to show our appreciation for their support. In a cynical mode, we want to give positive feedback to those who have supported us, hoping to encourage them to reward us again. In a more honest sense, it is simply courteous and correct to express thanks.
Leslie Harpold has some simple pointers to writing a personalised Thank You note, that we might want to translate into advice for a few slides that we could insert in the presentation. Her advice:
- Greet the Giver. Go beyond ‘Ladies and Gentlemen’. Address the audience personally. Identify those among them who have been influential in the support decision while making sure that the whole group gets credit for the collective decision.
- Express your Gratitude. Just say the words: Thank You. In my own line of work, non-profit, health-related, support decisions are taken for idealistic reasons but there is a more business-like element too. Funders want a return for their investment. Thus express thanks, but not emotionally, simply acknowledging the fact that they have been selective and their decision has given you the privilege of delivering on their ideals.
- Discuss Use. What are you going to do with their support? How are you going to use their investment? What are the steps to realize the project? This may be the main reason behind your presentation and may turn out to the longest part of your talk.
- Mention the Past, Allude to the Future. Use at least one slide to establish the relationship with your group. Identify the history you have with them, and the similarities between your circumstances and theirs. Specify the next steps in this relationship, not simply in the reporting milestones but in the way this new collaboration will build on your commonalities.
- Sign off with Grace and Express your Regards. Don’t be stingy. Towards the end, say thanks again, professionally and with good humor. Your audience are business people and hopefully you have convinced them of your own worth, now you can simply pass on the credit to those who made your work possible.
What techniques do you use for saying Thank You in your presentations? Add your experience to the comments below.
Picture credit: Photo Id 409405305 by J. Star (2007) entitled “Thank you everyone!”. Published under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.
A Slideshow to end Death by PowerPoint
I have just discovered this:
- Alexei Kapterev made it
- Over 100,000 people viewed it on Slideshare
- Michael Byatt blogged about it
- Lifehacker.com passed it on
- I devoured it and am spreading the meme.
Here it is, the single must-see presentation-about-making-presentations. Sixty-one slides, four key points, one essential manual. Click the next button and you will be a better presenter within five minutes.
Zen and the Art of the Slideshow
The best blog on presentations on my regular reading list is Garr Reynolds’ Presentation Zen. He combines design, technology, and skills in delivery in a series of short articles that are always practical and full of insight.
He is currently finishing his book, aptly entitled Presentation Zen, so his posts are nowadays rather infrequent and filled with the angst of the closing weeks of authorship. I will take the liberty of reflecting on his lessons in this blog but I will limit myself here to just one of them: his discussion of the place of the slideshow inside a presentation. He uses this personal slideshow to illustrate his point:
It is a simple, but very attractive idea, to use a slideshow, mid-presentation, to break the flow and to summarise a point in pictures. I will seek an opportunity to include a slideshow at the first major presentation I make. I can think of at least three reasons why I could use it:
- as a break from my continuous speech,
- as a way of making a point across cultures for audiences who may not have English as a first language, and
- as a means of appealing to the emotion in the audience without resort to a more contrived rhetorics.
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