Online PowerPoint Presentation.com

Today, PhoneTopp, a company that develops software for smart phones, announced a new product to stream web conferencing and online PowerPoint presentations directly to your smart phone. The service will take feeds from web conferencing services like WebEx, or Microsoft Live Meeting Web conference, and as a middleman, streamline the data to fit on your phone. This will allow you to participate in web conferences on the go, and without a dedicated computer.

While PowerPoint slides may be hard to view on a smart phone such as the 3.5″ iPhone’s screen, the PhoneTopp application will let you zoom and, zoom out and scroll around the screen to be able to see the presentation in detail. A major feature of the application is that you don’t need to hassle with a complicated login. Once setup, PhoneTopp will call your phone at the time the conference is starting, log you on when you answer, and you will automatically be put into the conference.

PhoneTopp says that it will begin offering the mobile phone service in the first quarter of next year, for about $8 to $10 a month. I’m actually surprised that this type of software doesn’t already exist, and the lifespan for the PhoneTopp service may be limited. While it’s a great stop-gap for the current situation, Online collaboration services are bound to develop dedciated platforms. There’s already rumors, that Citrix is building an iPhone application specifically for it’s GoToMeeting service, and it’s all-too-likely that other web conference and video conferencing services will follow suit.

Many web conferencing services that host online PowerPoint presentations only let you present the slides, and don’t support simultaneous audio. This requires the presenter to either buy an audio solution from the web conference provider, or look elsewhere for the solution.Today, telephony provider, Jaduka offered a new servie called dukaUS, available to U.S. and Canadian companies. This new release will allow conference calls for up to 6 people at a time, absolutely free of charge. Jaduka claims that they are offering this free service to “demonstrate the capabilities of applications and network.

Jaduka’s new offering does have some restrictions, however. It only supports calls within the United States and Canada, and only allows 30 minutes of free conferecing a day. On top of these restrictions, Jaduka is not guaranteeing the service will be available to all users at any given time.

Jaduka representative:

While we have allocated a substantial portion of our conferencing resources for dukaUS, there may be times when all resources are being utilized by other Labs users. In this case, you will not be able to create a conference. This is a known limitation of our system resources and this small inconvenience is a fair trade off for giving our users free group calling.”

This solution may be great for short online presentations and conferencing, and the free service comes at a great time when many companies are feeling the effects from a tightening economy. However, for longer presentations, presenters might want to look at other solutions, because it wouldn’t be very professional if after 30 minutes everyone was just dropped from the conference.

There are quite a few rules on how many bullets you should have per slide (no more than 6, no more than 8, etc.) and while these are good general rules for the amount of data to have on a slide, they’re missing a critical point of bullets: they’re boring.

Having a online PowerPoint presentation with your main points listed as bullets, means that the participants really don’t need to listen to your long-winded explanation of your message or idea, they read the important parts right there on your presentation! Bullets are boring to look to look at, and just make your presentation look like a list of things they need to remember.

Too much text in a presentation will quickly lose the attention of your audience, particularly when presenting an online presentation, where they easily do other things like check email, or surf the web without seeming rude. Save the bullets for your own outline that you can use to reference and instead use more images in your presentation to represent the ideas you speak about to keep the participants visually stimulated.

Too often, presenters make the mistake of just writing out their entire presentation word-for-word (or even just bulleted) on the PowerPoint slides. The purpose of PowerPoint slides are to add a visual aid to your speaking, not for an easy reference for your own notes. Exciting graphics that are explained and emphasized through your message will make for a more engaging and memorable presentation.

With a tightening economy, Web conferencing is an attractive option for companies that conduct business with entities around the world. Web conferencing allows instant communication at a fraction of the cost of conventional travel, while saving time and reducing the carbon footprint of your company. Web conferencing is quickly becoming an acceptable and personal way to communicate with your clients, suppliers and employees.

Packetel’s Web conferencing service addresses the communication needs of companies by offering a complete web conferencing solution at an affordable price. The Packetel Turbo Meeting web Conferencing technology is web based, allowing anyone to quickly set up a presentation, and all participants can just as easily join the meeting, without having to download additional software.

Meeting organizers can simply invite their guests to join the online meeting anytime without needing any special training on the software. Packetel also offers additional media rich features for Web conferencing such as whiteboarding and online PowerPoiint presentations at no additional cost. The Turbo Meeting Web conferencing technology is offered at a flat fee of $12.99/month.

Packetel offers users the ability to easily manage their online meetings and Web conferencing invitations via a personal Turbo Meeting Web portal, as well as check the ability to constantly check the Web conference status. Users don’t need any special firewall setup to create or attend a Web conference.

Online presentations and meetings are some of the few winners during the current economic slowdown. While adoption of these technologies have been slowly increasing over the last few years, the financial crunch has forced many IT departments and small businesses to look more seriously at the technology as a way to cut costs.

Nasscom CEO, Ganesh Natarajan

Initially there was resistance, but now they are being used round the clock. It’s difficult to find time slots for those rooms,” said Ganesh Natarajan, chairman of Nasscom and the global CEO of Zensar Technologies, which has eight videoconferencing rooms.

Online PowerPoint presentations and meetings are not only helpful tools in cost cutting, but also plays a big role in improving worker satisfaction. Employees who can now video conference with distant locations instead of traveling, they can now spend more time with their family and friends, striking a better work/life balance.

Online meeting and videoconferencing technology has allowed businesses to grow by 30 to 35 per cent, with the capital and implementation costs being the major obstacles for some smaller, skeptical businesses. However, many companies are now offering web-based services with very little initial cost and pay-as-you go options, such as InstantPresenter. These companies allow video conferencing, online presentations and online PowerPoint presentations, which can all be set up in a matter of minutes.

While the focus of your online PowerPoint presentation is to share information with your online audience, keeping your presentation aesthetically pleasing can help keep them interested. PowerPoint has a wide array of “bells and whistles” to spice up a presentation, however many of these are over the top, used too often and don’t translate well when presented online.

For most presentations, slide transitions shouldn’t be used. In certain cases a particular transition might be relevant to the slide or the content or go well with the overall theme, but the more wild transitions just waste time and can be distracting. If you do decide to use a slide transition, stay with a consistent one throughout the presentation. Everyone knows what PowerPoint has to offer, you’re not impressing anyone by showing them you know too.

Similar to slide transitions, animations can be a distraction. In some instances animations can be useful in illustrating growth in a chart or graph, and can provide a bit of humoring relief. While the occasional use of animations might be ok, use them sparingly and keep your audience focused on the content and your message.

Be aware though that many web conferencing companies that allow you to conduct online PowerPoint meetings can’t display slide transitions and animations. These systems often upload each slide as an image, so each slide will only display whatever it looks like when you first load it. Make sure to upload and do a test presentation before you begin your web conference so that you can be sure your presentation works properly.

PowerPoint is frequently used as the presentation format for online presentations and meetings. While the format of PowerPoint remains the same online and presented in person, there are certain aspects that you need to consider when presenting online.

Visibility and Readabiliy of Your Font

Make sure the font that you use is large enough for everyone to see on varying monitor sizes and screen resolutions. Try your presentation on a variety of machines, operating systems and screen resolutions before your presentation.

Key Messages

Use key messages and points on your slides. Do not write out every word you are going to present on the slides. It is your job to speak to the slides and keep your audience engaged. They will quickly lose interest if all you are doing is reading your slides verbatim.

Slide Titles

Make sure that each PowerPoint slide has its own, accurate slide title. Use a larger, bold font for your title so that the audience can instantly be aware of what issues that slide will cover. This will help the audience stay focused.

Keep Your Backgrounds Simple

Make sure that the colors of your fonts sharply contrast the colors you use for your background. Solid color backgrounds are best to keep from having text or graphics that are difficult to see.

Graphs and Diagrams

Graphs and diagrams can help keep an online presentation attractive and interesting. However, only use them when they are useful or relevant. Distracting, unrelated images will leave your audience distracted or confused.

When you have a presentation to make, the first thing to do is to get all of your ideas and important information into PowerPoint and organized in a logical manner. If you are familiar with the subject you are presenting on, this is usually a quick task, and deciding what not to include is usually more difficult than finding what you will include. While this may be quick and routine, your presentation isn’t yet ready to go.

When you start to edit your online presentation, you need to do it from the mindset of your online audience. Start by playing the presentation, imagining you are seeing it for the first time, and from the mindset of someone that isn’t an expert on the subject matter. Be careful not to use unfamiliar jargon and references that won’t be apparent to everyone, or at least most of the people who will be viewing the presentation.

If you can find someone to listen to your presentation (who again, isn’t the expert you are on the subject), get their feedback and make edits accordingly. If you are speaking over the heads of your audience, they will quickly lose interest, and if you speak below them, they might be offended or feel that you’re not providing them with anything they don’t already know.

1. Do not overcrowd you slides. Keep your audience focused on the content of your online PowerPoint presentation. Overuse of images or effects will only distract them from the point you’re trying to make.
2. Use slides to help clarify your online presentation, but don’t use it as a replacement for handouts. If you have lots of technical data to support your idea, email handouts to your participants at the end of the online presentation.
3. Use animations and video sparingly. Many webcasting and web conferencing services won’t easily support multi-media content and if your online presentation relies too heavily upon it, you might find yourself in a difficult position if you have nothing else to present with.
4. Create a concluding slide that includes 3–5 key messages that summarize your content.
5. You can never emphasize your main point too many times. Repetition is the easiest way to have your audience remember your message.
6. Keep your design elements consistent throughout the entire online presentation. This includes layout, color scheme, font type (use no more than two throughout the entire presentation), font size and bulleting style.
7. Be as brief as possible. Instead of writing out complete sentences, use bulleted phrases as speaking points. Limit your bullets to around 6-8 per slide.
8. Keep lots of space in between your text for easier reading. Many people viewing an online PowerPoint presentation will not be watching it on the same sized monitor that your created it on. Test your online presentation on a variety of monitors before presenting.
9. Avoid using all CAPS, even when you are looking to emphasize an issue. Online, all CAPS have an appearance you’re yelling, not just emphasizing. Use color, or bold/italics for emphasis.
10. Avoid busy backgrounds, if you decide to have a background at all. Make sure that all of your text and images are contrasted against the background if you choose one. People have a variety of preferences for light/dark and contrast on their monitor, so text that is a similar color as your background may not show up at all on some monitors.

Steven Kosslyn outlines 3 goals you should strive to attain in any successful online PowerPoint presentation:

1. Connect with your audience
2. Direct and hold their attention
3. Promote understanding & memory

Goal 1: Connect with your audience. Do not include too much or too little information and select information and use language appropriate for your particular audience.

Goal 2: Direct and hold attention. Attention is drawn to areas that are perceptibly different, so leverage design principles in your online PowerPoint presentation by using contrasting colors and images where appropriate. Make differences big and obvious. People will naturally tend to group similar elements into a single unit, keep them focused on the topic at hand.

Goal 3: Promote understanding and memory. Messages are easier to remember when they are clearly understood. For example, the word Red presented in green text violates this principle as would a graph about the homeless population in Los Angeles, decorated with a background image of people playing with their healthy dogs. Remember that people expect any change in your online presentations, such as a sudden interjection of a joke or a story, or a visual change in slide color or an animation, etc. to have meaning, and when they don’t have meaning this becomes noise and distracts them from being able to remember the message. Audiences can only retain a limited amount of information in an online presentation, so limit the amount of messages within a presentation.