Art Of Great Speaking

The Top 10 PowerPoint Shortcuts You Should Know

Author: David Tracy

In my opinion, there are 4 key contributing factors to building presentations with incredible speed and efficiency. These are:

1. Practice.
2. Having a robust inventory of slides and diagrams./li>
3. Button shortcuts. This is why I still prefer 2003, because it reduces the extra step of toggling among ribbons.
4. Keyboard shortcuts.

In this article, I will list the 10 keyboard shortcuts that I use most often and that are not immediately obvious. In other words, I won’t include any shortcuts that everyone knows (e.g. Page Up, Ctrl+C).

Alright, here they are, in no particular order.

• Ctrl + arrow key Move objects pixel by pixel. You may notice, if you just select an object (e.g. shape, group, table) and hit the arrow key, the object will jump by a number of pixels.
• Ctrl + [ Decrease font size.
• Ctrl + ] And, likewise, increase font size.
• Shift + F5 Go to presentation mode on current slide.
• Shift + changing size of object Maintain ratio of object’s dimensions-i.e. a square will remain a square and not turn into a rectangle when you resize.
• Ctrl + Shift + G Group objects together (in PowerPoint 2003).
• Ctrl + Shift + H Ungroup a group objects (in PowerPoint 2003).
• Ctrl + click object with mouse Creates a duplicate copy of the object.
• Shift + changing length of line Ensures straightness of line.
• Shift + Alt + right arrow Increase indent of a bullet one level deeper.

Here is an extra bonus. Useful shortcut number 11:

• Ctrl + Shift + P Jump to the font size dropdown toolbar.

At the beginning of our discussion, I mentioned having a large inventory of created slides is instrumental in whipping together slides quickly. This, of course, takes time to collect and/or create such slides.

To speed things along, I have put together a Basic PowerPoint Toolkit, which you can freely download: http://www.learnppt.com/downloads/basictoolkit/.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/presentation-articles/the-top-10-powerpoint-shortcuts-you-should-know-2732005.html

About the Author

My name is David Tracy. For the better part of my career, I worked as a management consultant, where I focused largely on corporate strategy and M&A. In 2010, I decided to wrote an eBook called “Become a PowerPoint Guru.” You can find it at my site: http://learnppt.com.

Most of my articles here are excerpts from my eBook. You can also browse and download PowerPoint Diagram Packs from my site: http://learnppt.com/powerpoint/.

Practicing for presentations can waste more of your key personnel time then almost any

other business activity. The possible exception being useless meetings! To maximize your

planning efforts just follow these 5 easy steps. You will find that you can streamline the

process and make Presentation Practice much more productive.

*There must be One Person in Charge. This person has responsibility for scheduling,

coordinating and, perhaps most importantly, communicating with all of the presentation team

members. Preferably this is a staff position working in Business Development who can be

assigned the job. Never put a busy executive in charge of the day to day process.

*Select the Presentation Team Early. Be sure to determine who is required to be a

presenter. Almost always the client wants to meet and hear from the people working

directly on the project, not just the sales group.

* A detailed presentation schedule is mandatory. Everyone must understand what the plan

is. At a minimum the schedule needs to show the following: Presentation date and time.

Team practices and who needs to be present along with where and when practices will be

held. A block of time needs to be allocated for preparing visual aids. They can be power

point slides, presentation boards, handouts, leave behinds, or anything else that may need

to be created for the presentation. The schedule needs to be distributed to all team

members as quickly as possible to allow maximum time for individuals block out times in their personal schedules.

*When practices are scheduled everyone must be prepared to practice. This sounds redundant

but I can’t tell you how often I have heard people complain over what a waste of time a

practice session was. Having a room full of people waiting for someone to finish the power

point presentation slides is not where you want to be.

*Communicate everything pertaining to schedule with everyone as quickly as possible.

Again, numerous times I have seen practice sessions rescheduled without letting everyone

know. The result is always a conference room of senior staff with nothing to do! They

didn’t know the practice had been rescheduled.

Try these steps and you will be surprise at how much more productive your Presentation

Planning will become.

Allen Jossim is a retired executive and freelance writer with much presentation and public

speaking experience. Please go to his blog Public Speaking – You Can Do It! where helpful information

is always available. Allen Jossim has sold stamps and collectibles on ebay for 12 years. He also is a successful freelance writer. Allen is a retired executive from a major international commercial construction firm who enjoys living in rural north Georgia with his wife, dogs and cats!

Successful presentation skills can make or break your career. Speaking in front of a group of people can be difficult but there are simple ways to help yourself build confidence and your career.

*Many people get very nervous during a presentation and can forget to breathe. While talking it is important to remember to take regular breaths. Before starting take a few deep breaths to help you to relax.

*When you start your speech find a focal point in the room. It may be something in the back of the room, a window, someone in the audience or even the podium. If you lose you place or find yourself stumbling a bit, pause and lock in on your focal point. This helps you collect your thoughts without going into a panic.

*Look people in the eye while speaking, if you can, but don’t stare! If this is difficult for you, one trick is to look at their forehead. From a distance the audience will never know the difference and the effect is still the same.

*Plan what you are going to say but do not memorize it. Try writing down keywords or key subjects on paper in outline form in case you need to look at it. This ensures you do not forget what you want to say and also allows opportunity to ad lib which always sounds more natural.

*I always like to start off a talk or presentation with some humor, sort of an ice breaker. I participated in a presentation years ago at Virginia Tech University. We were proposing to construct an addition to their football field. My job was to present the price. My opening comment was, ‘I won’t keep you in suspense. Let’s get the price out on the table right now!’ upon which I proceeded to pull the estimate out of my pocket and, upon examination, and while putting my glasses on, said, ‘Whoa, this price is SO LOW I have to get my glasses out to read it!’ It was not much of a joke however a couple of people did laugh and it gave me a huge confidence boost.

*Finally, I advise you to talk a bit slower than normal. Often times, because you are nervous, words tend to come out of your mouth entirely too fast. I hope this article helps you to deliver a quality public speech.

Allen Jossim is a freelance writer and blog master of Public Speaking – You Can Do It

Allen Jossim has sold stamps and collectibles on ebay for 12 years. He also is a successful

freelance writer. Allen is a retired executive from a major international commercial

construction firm who enjoys living in rural north Georgia with his wife, dogs and cats!

As we know, Public Speaking causes more worry, fear and sleepless nights than almost anything else. And remember, Public Speaking is performing and you are only as good as your last show. The actual talking is only a small part of the problem. You have to wrestle with visual aids, get the tone of your voice correct, ensure you have impacting body language and handle that dreaded question you have not prepared for. Yet getting it right can be easy…if you ignore all the Public Speaking Rules When you Publicly Present, what are you actually trying to do? Simply communicate clearly with some passion and commitment. That’s it. Something you probably achieve every time you open your mouth. When you present you are using skills you have been using since you were a child. Your real fear is embedded in your own mind. Here are a few ideas that will help tremendously: Have you attended and completed a Public Speaking course? Yes? Now, forget and throw away every thing that you learned. Why? Because being a great Public Speaker means breaking some of the rules. And on courses you are normally only taught the rules. So, if you want to put your hands in your pockets, do it. If you have those little bits of cards you are holding on to for comfort, throw them away. If you are stuck behind the podium, get out front; we want to see all of you, top to toe.

So what should you do to make your presentations stand-out? Walk onto the stage with keenness. Add an extra bit of energy in your step. As you are walking, it’s OK to talk as well – if it feels natural for you. And what about eye contact, I hear you say. Have eye contact – look around the room, at the whole audience. Just don’t stare at the audience like some mad axe murderer. Do mad axe murderers stare? Maybe they don’t, but you know what I mean. PowerPoint – a great tool for insomniacs I have very rarely seen PowerPoint used well. People either just use text (which can hardly be seen), have things flying in, out and all over the place or have the same old boring images others have used – all of which is very distracting and can turn off your audience or actually send them to sleep. Can you be scruffy or in disarray when you Public Speak? No! Well I don’t think so. If you look shabby, the audience will think your presentation is also shabby. Cartoon Ties Make A Huge Difference… If your pockets are bulging with rubbish or your tie is down by your navel (or your tie is meticulously tied but it’s a cartoon one!) or your trousers are too short or your shoes are muddy, it will distract the audience. And that means they are not listening to you. Do your best to look well dressed and well groomed. Use these two most important points…and NOTHING will stop you getting on the stage and Publicly Speaking 1 .Don’t be perfect. Perfect presentations are D-U-L-L, dull. Making a small mistake and laughing along with the audience makes you come across as human and further engages you with the audience. 2. Put passion into your message. That way you will rarely go wrong. The best presenters do not use slides or glossy visual aids. The best presenters enthuse and all that enthusiasm has to come from you. So throw away the Public Speaking rulebook, get on that stage and wow the audience. What are you waiting for? Andrew Rondeau transformed himself from a $4 an-hour petrol-pump attendant to a highly successful Senior Manager earning $500k every year. Discover How to Maximize Your Income and Minimize Your Effort by receiving Andrew’s free e-Course and report: http://www.greatmanagement.org/

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