Sacred Cow #4: Using {feature} Or {plugin} Will Make Me Look Savvy.
This sacred cow is such a no-brainer that it begs the question of whether it is in fact a sacred cow or that it's just poor amateurish judgement. It's one of the reasons why many people hate slideware. The answer to this isn't so clear-cut. In many cases it is the latter. In those, it's just someone who merely didn't know any better and could easily be talked down from the ledge.
In some cases, though, it's dogma. It's the manager who wants "cool." It's these people that see it as gospel that to wow your audience, you need to wow them with your mad PowerPoint skills. It's these people who are more concerned with you having slides that "look good" rather than slides that get the message across effectively.
You'll also find that people who hold onto these sacred cows get excited about new transitions and animations in the latest version of PowerPoint (or Keynote). Walls of flame, sparkles, anything that glows, glitters, flies, slides, or makes noise is considered progress and essential to that next great presentation.
This sacred cow is even represented by unbridled excitement for upcoming tools like pptPlex and Prezi. While they do have that "wow" factor and they could in fact be used to make highly effective visuals, they'll more often than not be used inappropriately. Not too long from now, we'll see these tools used with the frequency and in a manner such that the daily stream of cursing of PowerPoint that I see in Twitter will also be directed at these tools.
I'm no luddite. I truly believe that these features and tools, if used with restraint and the effectiveness of the message as the prime consideration, can be very powerful tools in our tool box. However, it's those believers in this fourth sacred cow who take it as a given that flash and shock and awe are the keys to great presentations. What these people need to learn is that the secret to this sacred cow is that pig with lipstick is still a pig.
Image credit: emilylt, used under a Creative Commons license.
Sacred Cow #3: My Slides Need To Function As Handouts
I've discussed this particular sacred cow before, but it bears repeating. All too often, meeting organizers distribute copies of the slides ahead of time. Many even consider slides an official record of what was discussed. The former competes with your presentation and the latter is just ludicrous. In either case, this is a sacred cow in need of slaying.
By handing out your slides to your audience ahead of time, you're letting them get ahead of you. During your talk, they'll know where you're going, what points your going to hit, and because they've seen and read your slides, they'll be waiting on you to catch up throughout your presentation. It can even discourage them from paying attention to you because, well, they've already read your material. If they do that, they miss out on the content that's not on the slides at all.
If your slides could stand on their own as your presentation (they can't), then there's no need for you to get up and speak to them. Since your slides aren't your presentation, providing your slides as handouts, even after your presentation, does not truly benefit the audience. You can't possibly fit all of your content on slides. However, you can all too easily put too much on them. With that said, they do need something to take away with them, right? Maybe. If they do need handouts, providing them with a document after your presentation formatted specifically for reading. You can put the necessary amount of content on this document and if you hand them out after your presentation, you can avoid competing for attention with your handouts.
Image credit: libraryman, used under a Creative Commons license.
Flowchart To Oblivion
Those who know me well know I despise rigid, inflexible thinking and the rigid, inflexible processes that it spawns. I've had discussions where time is wasted on a needless and futile attempt to fit every possibility into a well-defined process because, well, we need processes. Today, I had two great examples of how this leads to disaster.
The KVM Switch
Today, I asked someone to request the help desk start the certification process for a KVM (Keyboard-Video-Mouse) switch. For those who don't know what it is, it allows you to use one keyboard, mouse, and monitor with two or more computers. This model requires no interaction with the user. Simple keystrokes allow the user to move from one computer to another.
The request was rejected because it lacked a Section 508 (accessibility requirements for those with disabilities) certification from the vendor. This was insane. A help desk rep followed their process flowchart to a seemingly logical conclusion yet the conclusion was anything but logical.
As I mentioned before, there's no user interaction with the KVM switch itself. I asked the help desk rep if this also meant that if I wanted to get a USB cable certified, it too would need this Section 508 certification, he said, "yes."
Amazing. I mean, WOW.
I'm sorry, I don't do DLLs.
Get this at pcweenies.com
So, I get home and I'm on the phone with Comcast trying to work out an issue where I'm unable to access the bank web site or Mazda's. I tell the help desk rep early on that I'm on a Mac. She asks me to verify my security settings in Internet Explorer.
*blink*
I tell her, "I don't have IE. I'm on a Mac."
Not long after that, she asks me if I've done anything to protect myself from "flicker."
*blink*
"You mean Conficker? I don't have to worry about that. I don't run Windows."
Later on, she's suggesting that I go to "Run" and go to system32 and do something with a DLL.
*blink*
I tell her, "I don't do DLLs. I'm on a Mac."
We need to stop our slavish devotion to processes and their demon spawn flowcharts and scripts. We pay these people, directly or indirectly, to think. Let's allow for it. Let's encourage it. Let's expect it.
Flowchart image credit: eprhodes, used under a Creative Commons license.
Comic Copyright 2007 Krishna M. Sadasivam. Please click the thumbnail and see the comic in all its true glory at its real home.
Sacred Cow #2: It’s OK If I Sit Over There…
Public speaking can be terrifying. Many fear standing up and speaking before an audience more frightening than even death itself. Many people in my neck of the woods, and I'm sure yours too, make the conscious decision to speak sitting at the conference table as a way of coping with that fear. Sure, it could be out of laziness, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume it's the former. In many circles, sitting while delivering a presentation is accepted practice. In some, it's the standard. The belief that this is perfectly fine is one of those pesky sacred cows and the 2nd on my list to be sent to the slaughter house.
The thing is, our presentation is what we're saying. At that point in the meeting schedule, what we're saying is the focus. If you're not using slides, then you're giving the audience the impression that what you've got to say isn't all that important. Standing in front of your audience suggests that you and/or what you're saying is important enough for people to pay attention to you. When you were young, how much authority did teachers who lectured from their desk appear to have? Contrast that with teachers who stood before the class where they had a good view of every student.
If you are using slides, then not standing up in front with your slides shortchanges your presentation, your visuals (the slides), or both. If you are physically separated from your slides, then you're forcing the audience to split their attention between you and your visuals. Your audience will likely take the path of least resistance and either focus on you or your slides. The few that bounce back and forth will find themselves missing out on information along the way as they are constantly changing the focus of their attention.
If it's fear that is making it difficult for you to stand in front of your audience and by your slides (if you're using them), be sure to get plenty of practice before showtime. You might want to consider joining your local Toastmasters club.
Image credit: Amy Kearns, used under a Creative Commons license.
Get the A1. It’s Time To Kill Some Sacred Cows!
Lately, I've been having a blast reading Death To All Sacred Cows
Well, it's time to get the steak sauce out and have ourselves a feast, because we're taking the cows to the slaughter house. It's kind of a gruesome way to put it, but it has to be done. This is going to be the first of many sacred cows that we will send to their timely demise. First up:
Presentations Need PowerPoint Slides
How many times have you been told by a superior, "Put together a PowerPoint presentation for that meeting next week!" What was the reason for the requirement for PowerPoint slides? Chances are, that boss of yours is riding a sacred cow. You don't have the heart to tell him it's not that Harley he's been fantasizing about, but someone's got to take Bessie from him and put her out of her (and our) misery.
When presenting, your slides aren't your presentation. It's you and what you've got to say. Your audience is there to listen to you (You hope. We'll get to that at a later date.), not watch a bunch of slides. If all they wanted or needed were the slides, then there's no need for the meeting. So, where does that leave your slides? They're visual aides; not for you, but for them. If simple visual aids won't help you convey your message, or if your message doesn't translate well to simple visuals, then don't use slides at all! Your business isn't going to fall apart just because you didn't use slides. Heck, you just might yourself more effective delivering your message and/or call to action.
What if it does make sense to use slides? Well, another way to approach this sacred cow (and peacefully end its existence) is this: Why use PowerPoint? If you have control over the technology, use what makes sense. That could mean Keynote, SlideRocket, 280 Slides, OpenOffice, or Google Docs. There is no holy scripture that commands use of Microsoft's slideware.
One Down...
Well, that's one sacred cow. I've got a bunch more lined up ready to be carted off and turned into juicy steaks, one at a time.
Image credit: Jennifer Buehrer, used under a Creative Commons license.
Recording Your Keynote-based Presentation
Sometimes, we may find ourselves in a situation where we want to make our presentation (at least the audio part) and slides available for viewing at a later date. Fortunately, Keynote allows you to do this, by recording your presentation with the appropriately named option in the "Play" menu. Unfortunately, Keynote will only take one recording. You can't piece multiple recordings together. If you're like me and you feel more comfortable in front of an audience than recording your talk, this can be a problem. If I want to be sure of a clean, error-free recording, then the only reasonable option for me is to record it section by section.
With this limitation of Keynote, I sought to find a solution. The answer I came up with was to use iMovie to put the piecs together.
For the example below, I took the "charts" section of the slide deck I used for a brown bag presentation I gave a few weeks ago. I then broke that section into two: 1) bar charts and 2) pie and line charts. As I mentioned earlier, I'm not as comfortable recording my talk as I am in front of an audience. As such, I'm much more error-prone and required six or more takes for each of the two individual recordings. Neither is as good as I'd hope, but it should be good enough for you to see what I did. As soon as I got a recording that I was willing to live with, I went to the "Share" menu and chose "Export." From there, I exported my recording to a QuickTime movie. I then cleared my existing recording and followed the same steps for the second recording.
iMovie with 2 clips
Now that I have two QuickTime movies I need to piece them together. iMovie makes this very easy. I started by importing the two clips. Once I did that, I dragged the two clips to the project window. If I needed to, I could have done some editing: cutting off dead space, edited the audio, etc. For this simple example, I merely had one immediately follow the other. Once done with any editing that you intend to do, export or upload your video to any one of the options in iMovie's "Share" menu.
iMovie surely gives you a great deal of creative and editing options. However, it surely would be great if the more basic capability to piece together partial recordings were in Keynote itself. With that said, if you have Keynote, you are guaranteed to have iMovie (hopefully, the more powerful iMovie '09) and thus have the ability to record your presentation with the quality you expect.
A Tale Of Two Brown Bags
At the place where I earn my living, we'll sometimes have someone in the office give a "brown bag" presentation during the lunch hour. The idea is that any meetings during this hour are completely optional for all of those who are invited, which is everyone in the division. They're informational or educational in nature, where someone in the office is choosing to share what they know, what they've learned, or the product of their R&D project.
Last week, a friend & co-worker of mine and I both held our own brown bags. He presented on pivot tables in Excel and I gave a high-level presentation on basic steps one can take to make more effective use of PowerPoints. Both were lessons in the often overlooked preparation step: the dry run.
"Joe"
I'll just call him Joe for the purpose of this post in order to protect the innocent . Joe gave a good presentation on what pivot tables are and how to use them. I walked out of there with a good understanding of what they are, how they can be used, and how to use them. Not only did I comprehend his message, but I also retained it. Score one for Joe! His presentation didn't use even one PowerPoint slide at all. He didn't need them. In fact, slides would have done more harm than good. It was a great example of when not to use them.
One slip-up that left him confused at times during the presentation was when faced with giving his presentation on a different operating system. When starting his demo, he asked aloud, "now where is it on the Mac?" Right there, that told us he wasn't in control of his demo. When he did find what he was looking for, exactly where it would be found on Windows, he did find the dialogs a little different. That's to be expected, since the user interface conventions are different. However, when using this unfamiliar dialog, he often had people offering suggestions on where to click rather than him showing us.
One thing we can't count on when giving a presentation, especially nowadays, is that the host computer is using the same operating system as what we're used to. Mac users need to accept that they may find themselves stuck with a Windows machine and Windows users need to accept that they may find themselves on a Mac. What this requires, then, is a little planning and preparation. Get to the site of your presentation even earlier than you would if you knew for certain that you would be using your own laptop. If the environment is different than what you expect, do a dry run. If things are different, note the differences so that when you do give your demo, you can do it so smoothly and your audience will think you're a natural...a real pro. If you have access to a computer using the other software before you even arrive on site, do your dry run then so that you're even more prepared even sooner. I do this with all of my slides that are in PowerPoint format. If they're developed on a Mac, any slides I present at work are also run through on a Windows machine. Any anomalies are caught early and adjustments are made.
Me
My presentation, including all of the questions and comments during the talk too exactly as long as I thought it would. Practicing it about 10 times made that part pretty predictable. Of course, there could always be something to throw it off, but I planned well, at least in that regard. One thing I didn't do that hit me out of nowhere was consider the less than optimal quality of the projector. When I got to my example of a good corporate template, the template's and the projector's shortcomings became quite clear. The light gray background image was washed-out to the point where you couldn't see it. If I was using a big plasma or LCD screen, it would have been fine. However, this projector has been notoriously difficult to calibrate and I should have remembered that.
Testing the slides on this projector is something I should have considered and planned for. Instead of a situation where I said, "what you should have been able to see is...," I would rather have been able to say, "what you see here is..."
The lesson in both of these presentations: when presenting, if you're using any sort of technology whatsoever, do not take anything for granted. Murphy's Law is not an exception. Plan for it and take a little extra time ahead of your presentation to do a dry run. This will hopefully allow you to make any adjustments you need to before it's show time.
Keynote ’09: Share – The Somewhat Hidden Functionality
On Apple's Keynote page, they do make quick mention of the new Share menu and how you can quickly share a slide deck with others by email. What they don't mention and what didn't seem to get any press is another feature in the Share menu: "Send to [insert iLife app here]." In this submenu, you can also send your slides to YouTube.
When creating a Pages document for my presentation's handout, I needed copies of individual slides to paste into the document. Using this menu option, I was able to save copies of my slides as images and have them automatically added to my iPhoto library. This made it far easier to add them later as needed. This new capability didn't come at the expense of the traditional export. You can still export your slides as images the old fashioned way if you so desire. However, with iPhoto's export options for flickr and Facebook, you're just a couple clicks away from other places to put your individual slides.
Granted, with the iPhoto export, you are limited to still images. If you added narration and timed transitions, you can export your presentation to YouTube as a movie. Yeah, it does seem kind of odd to choose YouTube given that SlideShare is the place people go for content like this, however, it's better than nothing. With that said I sure would like to see an option in the next version for "Send To SlideShare." That may depend on Apple and the SlideShare folks either working together since SlideShare's API is available free for "non-commercial use" and it's not maintained by Slideshare itself.
I've recently upgraded to iWork '09 and I'll be sure to share hidden gems as I find them.
Make Your Data Pop
Think what you will of him or his opinions, but Glenn Beck was the stereotypical presenter sharing data in tabular format on slides.
Some slides were more effective than others and some highlighted the perils of adding bullets after bullets or even rows after rows. You're forced to shrink the text and the message gets lost in the delivery.
Now, no matter what your data is, even if it has little economic, political, or scientific importance, it's critical to never manipulate the data. What you can and should do is format the data so that not only is it as truthful as it is in its rawest form, but that the underlying message is brought out more clearly.
With that said, let's look at a recreation of one of the slides he showed:
Within the wall of text, there's a message in there somewhere. OK, 13% believe that if you earn between $151,000 and $250,000, you're rich. Fine. Does that mean those same people think that if you earn outside that range, say $269,000, you're not rich? Of course not. That's a given, logically. Being "rich" is a state of positive wealth. You're not less rich if you're more wealthy. It's just impossible. It's a conclusion that couldn't be honestly debated even by the most semantically-obsessed individuals. Here's the key: If you're going to draw conclusions from the raw data, make sure you're on solid ground. If the data and conclusions were presented in a meeting or conference, provide the raw data in the handouts. Not only does it free the presentation from slides that make the audience work too hard to decipher, but it gives you a certain amount of transparency that shows you didn't monkey with the data to force it into the conclusion that you desired.
So, our first step is to get the data out of the table and into a chart. Since we're dealing with percentages, a pie chart is the way to go.
The pie chart using the data from the table really doesn't tell us anything that the table doesn't already tell us. It just gives the numbers a visual sense of scale. However, watching the video clip (starting at 4:41), Glenn makes his point that 20% of those polled thought those making $251,000 or more are rich. Well, based on the logic we observed above, that's not true. What we have here is not only a poorly designed slide, but an inability to read a data table.
If you apply the logic that anyone who thinks that someone making anywhere less than $251,000 is rich would also think that someone making $501,000 or more is rich, then you can create the following chart:
If you speak to Glenn's statement regarding the number of people who thought you're rich if you make more than $251,000, then you'd have the following chart:
That's a different percentage than he gave, isn't it? Well, as I said, he apparently has trouble reading data tables. What we have here as well is a slide that makes the point he was trying to make much more clearly and with more impact. Applying the same logic to the other poll answers yields:
If you want to make your data really pop and help you drive your message home, consider and focus on your message. Display the data in a way that reinforces your message, yet maintains the integrity and fidelity of the data.
Safari 4 Beta: A Review
The news that has the tech and Mac communities all abuzz this week is Apple's release of the public beta of Safari 4. I'm not one to run beta software on my machine, especially software so critical as a web browser. However, since I'm looking at replacing this computer real soon, I figured it wouldn't hurt to go ahead and give it a try.
Well, I surely was not disappointed. First, let's see what's new:
Updated Webkit core. Webkit, Safari's engine has seen itself emerge as the first engine to get score a 100/100 in the Web Standards Project's Acid 3 test. In comparison, Firefox 3.0.6 scores a 71/100, Opera 9.51 scores an 84/100, and Microsoft's Internet Explorer fails badly at 12/100.
Faster HTML rendering. Apple claims Safari 4 is 3 times as fast as Firefox on the Mac, 3.25 times as fast as IE7, and 4.71 times as fast as IE8 beta. Though I have no means to do accurate timing, my impressions are that it is indeed faster on this Dual G5.
Faster JavaScript rendering. Using the i-Bench scoring, Apple claims speeds of almost 2 times as fast as Google's Chrome (which also uses Webkit, though an earlier build), 5 times as fast as Firefox 3.0, 5 times faster than IE8 beta, and almost 11 times as fast as IE7. Apple makes similar claims using the SunSpider benchmark, with the exception that IE7 is humiliated even more than in i-Bench. Again, I don't have a means to measure this objectively, but my impressions are that the performance truly is better.
Top Sites. Like Opera, Safari 4 now offers an opening page (accessible at any time) with your most visited sites displayed as a bank of screenshots. The difference between the two, however, is that Safari's pageis arrayed like a bank of screens. Those with stars in the corner have changed since your last visit. Click on one and it will zoom in to fill the window and then automatically be replaced by the live web page. It's a very slick implementation.
History in Cover Flow. Apple gets panned from time to time about their love for Cover Flow, but seriously, it makes perfect sense here. Instead of browsing through a bunch of page titles that may be the same, but represent different web pages (happens a lot), you can flip through your history and choose the page by the screenshot. This makes the browser's history function far more useful than any of its competitors.
Fully History Search (+ Cover Flow). This is another function where Apple added Cover Flow. Again, it works well. Searching your history searches the full text of the pages stored in your history. Again, choose your selection by the screenshot.
Tabs on Top. This is perhaps the most controversial of all of the changes. Apple haters mock them for taking a feature from Google Chrome. Many Apple fans grumble that it's an un-Apple UI. Here, I beg to differ.
The concept behind the Mac UI is that each window should represent a document rather than an application (unless the application has no document). That central concept is what makes the menuing scheme in place since 1984 work so well. The thing that has always bugged me about Safari in the past (as well as other browsers on the Mac) is that the traditional tabbed interface broke this convention. It visually gave the document window the feel of being the application itself with the tabs as the documents in a Microsoft Windows-style MDI interface. Moving the tabs to the top, in my opinion is an elegant and very Mac-like compromise between one window per document and the efficiency that tabs brings, especially for those of us who regularly have 10 or more open at a time.
Windows Native Look and Feel. I won't spend much time on this because I only use Windows because I'm forced to at work. Otherwise, it's been exiled from my home. Well, for you Windows users, Apple slipped Safari into a Windows-native look and feel, which for all its faults, is the right thing to do. I constantly b**** about Microsoft not complying with Apple's UI guidelines in their Mac software, so Windows users' complaints were justified.
Smart Address Field. This is much like Firefox's Awesome Bar, which if there was one draw for me to Firefox, this was it.
Phishing and Malware Protection. Overdue. Long overdue. This will warn you if you are attempting to access a site that is known to be dangerous.
Apple lists more at http://www.apple.com/safari/features.html. One feature, which isn't new, but would make many photographers happy if Safari were used more and more by those who view their work online is the ICC color profile support.
Safari uses advanced color management technology to deliver web images with rich, accurate color. In fact, it was the first browser to support International Color Consortium (ICC) profiles and has done so from day one, so the photos and images you see in your browser stay true to the original.
Now, a word of warning. This is beta software. With that comes the risk of crashes and data loss. However, based on my usage, it's pretty darn solid. I have read reports of people having Apple Mail issues when installing the beta and judging by what I've read, it seems to be related to the Growl plugin for Mail.
If you're comfortable with running beta software, then by all means, give this a try. Apple has raised the bar for browsers and this is good for everyone, even if you don't use Safari.
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