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The most common Microsoft’s products, like Word or PowerPoint, are useful not only for business needs but also for personal tasks

We are familiar to the online versions of these software systems. However, Office 365 is also one of those robust software programs for file collaboration, email, conferencing and many more. With cloud-based Office 365, you can access the app from your Smartphone, tab or computer.

What do you get from Office 365?

The web-based edition of Office 365 provides several services, which allow you to get the advantage of cloud platform, reduce the dependency level and decrease the overall costs. However, you may find challenges with the growth or development of your own business. This situation may also change your needs. You need to think of choosing the better subscription option and customize the settings of Office 365. All these tasks may not be simple to you, and that’s why you need MS Office 365 support in Rutherford, NJ. This assistance will help you to

 

 

Web-based subscription plans of Office 365 are the best option to meet all the needs of your business. These options are intended to become most compatible with newer Office versions, like 2011 and 2013. The old versions, including 2007 and 2010, can also smoothly function with your MS Office 365.|

All the plans of Office 365 are, however, based on yearly or monthly paid subscription. You may look for consultants, who offer the best MS Office 365 support in Rutherford, NJ. These professionals assist you in various ways-

Making a schedule- The consultants review your present environment by recognizing all the goals of your business. They design the right solution that suits only your own business.

Thus, choose the certified consultants to have Professional Computer IT Support in NJ and to get comprehensive Office 365 solutions. The consultants have an understanding all the elements, related to Office 365. They manage real-time messaging process and email. Moreover, they may also recommend you how you have to deal with Office 365 features. They know everything about technical setup, which is essential to your business. You can also get the best value from MS Office 365.

Give a business
person the task of making a presentation of any kind and they almost invariably
turn to PowerPoint or a similar presentation software program. Why? Two reasons
– one good and one bad. And the second reason cancels out the wisdom of the
first reason.

Give a business
person the task of making a presentation of any kind and they almost invariably
turn to PowerPoint or a similar presentation software program. It has become
reflex in the business world.

 

The question is,
why?

 

Two reasons – one
good and one bad. And the second reason cancels out the wisdom and
effectiveness of the first reason.

 

Reason
one: PowerPoint allows information to be presented in a manner that
accords with the learning styles of a large percentage of your audience. This
is a good thing, though it’s usually an unconscious factor in the presenter’s
decision. But even unconscious and subliminal decision-making counts in a
person’s favor.

 

Reason
two: Most people are uncomfortable with public speaking (if not
terrified by it) and they use PowerPoint as a means for defraying the intensity
of an audience’s gaze. In fact, I’ve seen PowerPoint presenters who spent most
of their time with their back to the audience staring at the screen. This is a
bad reason for choosing PowerPoint because it means the advantages offered by the
program are largely nullified by the instinct to hide behind the slides.

 

Let’s dig a little
more deeply into these two factors and find out a bit more about their pros and
cons.

 

Some people are
auditory learners while others are visual learners. In other words, some people
learn best when being told something, while others have to be shown what a
teacher or presenter is trying to convey. Still others are tactile/experiential
learners, people who need to touch and do things to learn most effectively.
PowerPoint, when properly used, conveys information in a format that is easily
absorbed and retained by auditory and visual learners. It allows you to show as
well as tell. (Add some interactive objects or other handouts to your
presentation and you can engage the tactile/experiential learners as well.)

 

For these reasons,
using PowerPoint for your presentations makes very good sense, despite its
ubiquity.

 

Unfortunately, far
too many people use PowerPoint for the latter reason, to defray the stage
fright that often comes with public speaking. The natural inclination in this
circumstance is to direct as much of the audience’s attention as possible to
the slides. This throws the presentation out of balance by placing too much
emphasis on the visual (whether written or visual images appear on the slides)
and too little on the auditory, the presenter’s narrative. The presenter sometimes
becomes a secondary player in this scenario.

 

PowerPoint becomes
a crutch that dominates the presentation, rather than a tool that assists a
presenter who is fully in command of the proceedings. Presenters should never
play a subordinate role to their PowerPoint deck. Doing so diminishes the
effectiveness of the presenter, as well as the effectiveness of the PowerPoint
slides. It also ensures that you’ll never be regarded a commanding presence and
dynamic presenter. That can hurt your career.

 

So step out front.
Play a leading role. Let your slides do little more than cue the audience with
strong visuals while you provide a compelling narrative. It will build a
stronger connection with your audience and enhance your prestige and authority.

 

 

It’s not surprising Powerpoint© slideshows have become the norm for visuals in most business presentations. They are quick to produce, easy to update and effective to inject visual interest into the presentation. However, they can also spell disaster even for experienced presenters. The key to success is to make certain your slide show is a visual aid and not a visual distraction. For the best results, avoid these common “seven deadly sins” of Powerpoint© presentations.

1. Slide Transitions And Sound Effects.
They become the focus of attention, which in turn distracts the audience. Worse yet, when a presentation containing several effects and transitions runs on a computer much slower than the one it was created on, the result is a sluggish, almost comical playback. Such gimmicks rarely enhance the message you’re trying to communicate. Unless you are presenting at a science fiction convention, leave out the laser-guided text!

Leave the fade-ins, fade-outs, wipes, blinds, dissolves, checkerboards, cuts, covers and splits to Hollywood filmmakers. Even “builds” (lines of text appearing each time you click the mouse) can be distracting. Focus on your message, not the technology.

2. Standard Clipart.
Death to screen beans! Powerpoint© is now so widely used the clipart included with it has become a “visual cliché.” It shows a lack of creativity and a tired adherence to a standard form. First, make certain that you need graphics to enhance your message. If you do, use your own scanned photographs or better-quality graphics from companies such as PhotoDisc (http://www.photodisc.com) or Hemera’s Photo Objects (http://www.hemera.com). Screen captures can add realism when presenting information about a Website or computer program. Two popular screen capture programs are Snagit (http://www.techsmith.com) for Windows and Snapz Pro (http://www.ambrosiasw.com) for Macintosh. Both are available as shareware.

3. Presentation Templates.
Another visual cliché. Templates force you to fit your original ideas into someone else’s pre-packaged mold. The templates often contain distracting backgrounds and poor color combinations. Pick up a good book on Web graphics and apply the same principles to your slides. Create your own distinctive look or use your company logo in a corner of the screen.

4. Text-Heavy Slides.
Projected slides are a good medium for depicting an idea graphically or providing an overview. They are a poor medium for detail and reading. Avoid paragraphs, quotations and even complete sentences. Limit your slides to five lines of text and use words and phrases to make your points. The audience will be able to digest and retain key points more easily. Don’t use your slides as speaker’s notes or to simply project an outline of your presentation.

5. The “Me” Paradigm.
Presenters often scan a table or graphic directly from their existing print corporate material and include it in their slide show presentations. The results are almost always sub-optimal. Print visuals are usually meant to be seen from 8-12 inches rather than viewed from several feet. Typically, they are too small, too detailed and too textual for an effective visual presentation. The same is true for font size; 12 point font is adequate when the text is in front of you. In a slideshow, aim for a minimum of 40 point font. Remember the audience and move the circle from “me” to “we.” Make certain all elements of any particular slide are large enough to be easily seen. Size really does matter.

6. Reading.
An oral presentation should focus on interactive speaking and listening, not reading by the speaker or the audience. The demands of spoken and written language differ significantly. Spoken language is shorter, less formal and more direct. Reading text ruins a presentation. A related point has to do with handouts for the audience. One of your goals as a presenter is to capture and hold the audience’s attention. If you distribute materials before your presentation, your audience will be reading the handouts rather than listening to you. Often, parts of an effective presentation depend on creating suspense to engage the audience. If the audience can read everything you’re going to say, that element is lost.

7. Faith in Technology.
You never know when an equipment malfunction or incompatible interfaces will force you to give your presentation on another computer. Be prepared by having a back-up of your presentation on a CD-ROM. Better yet is a compact-flash memory card with an adapter for the PCMCIA slot in your notebook. With it, you can still make last-minute changes. It’s also a good idea to prepare a few color transparencies of your key slides. In the worst-case scenario, none of the technology works and you have no visuals to present. You should still be able to give an excellent presentation if you focus on the message. Always familiarize yourself with the presentation, practice it and be ready to engage the audience regardless of the technology that is available. It’s almost a lost art.

Most of the people who are running business are constantly hunting for some handsets that would suit their business requirements. The market is flooded with ample handsets but there are very few brands that are focusing towards the business requirements of the users.  The brand HTC is one such company that takes cares of the entire user necessities. The recent launch of HTC trophy is a great challenge to the other business mobiles.

 The v HTC trophy is one among those gadgets that is fully designed to assist the business necessities and is worth buying. The features and applications of this handset are setting up a new benchmarking experience for others.

Some of the world class business features of HTC trophy are:

What most of the business class users expect from their mobile is the ease of maintaining the contact list. This handset is allowing such people to store countless entries and one can even customize his or her contacts by storing some additional information like the email address, residential and work contacts and so on.

 It has been observed the business class people needs a lot of conversation and especially by keeping in touch with mails and messages. So to ease the process of typing this handset is designed with the QWERTY type key pad and so it is very convenient to type mails. To assist and easy navigation the tack ball navigation is also present.

The other feature that most business phones are expected to have the connectivity features. The HTC trophy is among those models of business class that would never let the individual down due to connectivity errors. It has all sorts of applications.

The GPRS & EDGE technology is allowing an easy access to internet and one can stay connected and updated round the clock. To facilitate browsing on net the HTML and XHTML browser is adding a grace.To make calls free of cost and that too with a wireless connection is also possible as this has been equipped with the WLAN Wi-Fi feature. With this handset one can easily make calls to other Wi-Fi users free of cost.

1.     Don’t put your entire speech on your slides. Not only is this boring, but your audience will be able to see what you’re going to say…

1.    Don’t put your entire speech on your slides.  

Not only is this boring, but your audience will be able to see what you’re going to say. Instead, “bullet” or outline your high points. Remember, mystery creates interest.

2.    Don’t read your slides word for word.

Your audience can read faster than you can speak. Paraphrasing instead will free you to connect to your audience.

3.    Don’t use too much text. 

Use no more that six bullets per slide and no more than six words per bullet. Use phrases, not sentences; otherwise, your audience will be reading and not listening to you.

4.    Don’t be small. 

Make it BIG! Your text cannot be too large! A good rule of thumb is to stand about 5 feet from your computer monitor. If you can’t read your presentation easily from there, your point size is too small. The quickest way to lose an audience is to make them strain to see a presentation. A good starting point is 35 points or larger for titles and 25 points or larger for text.

5.    Don’t use red and green color combinations. 

It may look pretty on your computer monitor, but it will not make a good transition to large-screen projection. This combination is difficult to read, especially for color-blind individuals. Use other contrasting colors that are easier on the eyes for background and text.

6.    Don’t use fancy scrolled and scripted fonts. 

In most cases, they’re difficult to read. Choose fonts that are easy to read such as Verdana or Times New Roman.

7.    Don’t present in the dark. 

Insist on having the lights on during your presentation or a spotlight on you. If your audience can’t see you, you won’t connect with them. Without eye contact, it is extremely difficult to hold your audience’s attention.

 

Remember, PowerPoint is a tool to help you demonstrate your points visually. It’s NOT your presentation, YOU are!  Don’t let it upstage you.       

For more tips and articles, visit http://www.instantprospeaker.com/.

PowerPoint is very popular in certain circles. In fact in some organizations a presentation can’t be given without it. But I invite you here to take a second look at the use of PowerPoint because:

·It’s overused
·It can be confusing
·It can be a crutch for insecurity
·It can be a mask for poor content
·It can be an overload on your audience
·It can put your audience automatically to sleep

Edward Tuft, who’s written several books on displaying information visually, is an advocate against PowerPoint. He believes those who rely on the PP cognitive style are “simply serving up PowerPointPhluff to mask their lousy content.”

Lousy content … or insecurity. When I first started presenting I used it because it’s a crutch to rely on, and a mask to hide behind. It’s like memorizing a speech, or reading it from notes. It gives complete control because there’s no space for those disconcerting questions you can’t answer when you’re new.

Tufte writes about Lou Gerstner, on his first day as president of IBM. At a meeting, he switched off the projector and said to the presenter, “Let’s just talk about your business.”

If you use PowerPoint as a crutch … would this not be alarming?

Suddenly you’d be called upon to know your subject well enough to just chat about it. I’m reminded of my grad school professor who said, “If you can’t explain this stuff to your next-door neighbor, you don’t know it.”
I do use PowerPoint, and effectively, and I’ve seen effective use of PowerPoint, but let’s first talk about why it isn’t good to use.

·It’s overused, and expected, so we tune out.
·It’s a sensual sleepdown – the whir of the machine, the progressing of the slides … the hum of the voice as it reads something … zzz …
·I have never seen anyone give a fully read PowerPoint or slide presentation who wasn’t tied to their umbilical cord. When it came time for discussion, they didn’t know their subject matter.
What is it good for?
·Outstanding for graphs and financial data.
·Excellent for emotion – photographs and art. A picture is worth a thousand words for emotional appeal.
·Good for a change of pace to wake your audience up suddenly.
·You can use it interactively – put questions up there that need answering.
·Variety.
·Words in another language.
·Geography.

HOW IS IT BEST PROJECTED?

We’ve ruled out rote use of PP – just reading a laundry list. Here is how to use the PowerPoint if you’re going to.

GRAPHS AND DATA

When you do use it for graphs or data, put up your data and give them time to look at it for a moment before you slowly talk through the figures. Some people know how to read a spreadsheet quickly. Others do not.

On the other hand, if you want to push something over on your Board, as I’ve seen done, blitz through it, because a spreadsheet on a screen is not easy to “grasp” quickly. Beware the rapid flipper of slides where data is concerned.

EMOTIONAL APPEAL

I could not have raised funds for the homeless without the emotional appeal of photographs. Most of us would rather not see suffering. Words are easily tuned out, and numbers are only numbers.

For emotional appeal, make your point and then put your photograph up there. You can talk about “homelessless” or you can show a homeless child on the streets. Point taken?

If you use this, give it time. Allow the photograph up there much longer than your busy planning left-brain would like. The reason you’re using it is because it has impact. Therefore LET IT HAVE IMPACT.

BEFORE AND AFTER

PP can be used effectively for “befores” and “afters”. If you’re proposing a new greenspace for your complex, perhaps a habitat (which can save your corporation lots of money, BTW), consider photographs.

It works emotionally in the other direction as well. The Russians will never forget what the Germans did to St. Petersburg and there are plenty of “before” and “after” photos in the museums to remind the tourists. Did I mention EMOTIONAL IMPACT?

CONCEPT

Photographs and metaphoric graphics (money falling from the skies, women leaping over obstacles, the scales of justice) are excellent for illustrating concepts. If you use photographs, use the best. Sites such as www.comstock.com offer excellent royalty-free photographs.

If you are talking about team work, put a picture up there of a crisp photo of a team that appears to be organized, getting along, and positive in attitude. You could call it “suggestive” or “subliminal”.

I give a presentation on innate Strengths, a la StrengthsFinder® profile from Buckingham and Clifton. They have names such as Focus, Activator, Analytic, Strategic, Relator, and Connectedness. I’ve found photographs of people who illustrate these concepts that are pure Eye Candy. They have been well-received. I talk the concept, but I let them stare at the photograph.

What gets into the right brain stays there (see The EQ Foundation Course on my website.) www.gettyimages.com is a great source for images.

If you use graphics, use excellent ones. It’s worth paying for them. If you only have 3rd generation graphics, blurred and cheap-looking, you’re better off not using any at all. They make exactly the wrong impression, whatever impression you’re trying to make.

GIVE SOME RELIEF

In any presentation it’s good to change style because it wakes your audience up. You can count of many different learning styles in your audience, and it’s good to give each group something. There are different categorizations of learning styles, but consider listening, reading, moving around and touching things, interacting, and creating something.

TWO REASONS WHY IT DOESN’T WORK

When Baby Boomers were in school, they listened to a teacher/lecturer and either looked at him or her, or took notes. For this group, PowerPoint can be “overstimulating.”

Another large group in today’s work place grew up with Sesame Street and treat instructors like a television set, much less PowerPoint. As Ask the Expert for ActiveProNews, I’ve received more than one letter from college professors who say the students talk, eat, relax and socialize while they try to lecture, as if they were stretched out at home in front of the television set. For this group, PowerPoint is way “understimulating.” They don’t give it any respect.

IN SUM, don’t use PowerPoint just because everyone always does. Have a reason.

If you use it, use it judiciously, and well, and use first-class art. Visual images can be as effective as stories, in their impact, and are an emotionally intelligent way to present.

Try varying your presentation and make absolutely sure you could give your whole presentation without the PowerPoint. Otherwise you’re faking it, and your audience will know it.

Lastly, here’s a word from someone who’s been in the trenches. Another good reason not to automatically rely on PowerPoint is that at least once in your lifetime you’ll show up and the equipment you need won’t be there or won’t work.