This Chart of the Month is an example of a technique that can convey very simple or very complex illustrations of gaps (as in this example) or “sweet-spots.” Gaps can be unoccupied areas on the chart, and sweet spots can be a spot on the chart where overlaid sections have created a highly concentrated sweet spot.

You can use the X and Y axes format (as shown here) or you can use the matrix frameworks in PowerFrameworks as starting points for this type of chart. If your message is simple, you shouldn’t need to animate the sections as reveals (the example shown here isn’t necessary to animate – but we did). If, however, the concept you’re conveying is complex, it will probably be clearer to animate the sections in sequential reveals, particularly with the sweet-spot concept (wipes are a good animation choice). View the second flash for an example of a sweet spot.

The sections should be semitransparent so that underlying sections can still be seen. Sweet spots will automatically become dark as more and more transparent sections are layered onto the chart.

You can also use this technique with data-driven line charts if you draw a semitransparent area that coincides with each line. Remember this technique the next time you need to illustrate these concepts. It just might be the visual concept that illustrates your message best.

This month’s Chart of the Month is unique because of the technique used to create it. Multiple objects in a circular pattern are difficult to connect in a manner that is balanced and symmetrical. Most connectors attach to one of the several points on the perimeter of the circle, which is fine in some cases, but looks awkward in others. The lines should appear to flow from the center of a circle to the center of then connected circle, which is vastly more visually appealing. The technique shown in the video for this Chart of the Month will make creating these connections easy and fast.

Helpful tips:

• To create these layouts, begin with a framework in the RE076 series. The connections in these frameworks provide the starting point for adding your own connections.
• Once you have created your own connections, you may wish to reduce the size of the circles so that they do not interfere with the connections.

Text should always be contained within a circle, not as a separate field placed over the circle. However, it is sometimes difficult to get text to appear correctly within a circle. The following adjustments should be tried in order – they are ordered by most preferred formatting to least preferred. Keep applying the fixes until they work, which may only require 1, 1 and 2, 1 through 3, or all of the fixes:

1. Remove the space between the text and the edges of the circle by making the internal margins 0 on top and bottom and on left and right – go to the Format AutoShape menu and click on the Text Box tab to make these adjustments
2. Word wrap text in AutoShape should be unchecked – break the line with shift-returns instead of having PowerPoint do it for you
3. Reduce the line spacing to 0.85 or 0.9 instead of 1 point
4. Reduce the amount of text and/or the font size if you still can’t fit the text in the circle.

Review the video to see how these steps work. All four of the steps were used in the video.

It’s usually not a good idea to force line breaks with shift-returns; but in this case, the superior visual appearance of the text in the circle justifies this type of formatting. The video below shows you how to make the adjustments.

Make the lines prominent. We used a 3-point line, but they can be a larger point size if you wish. The focal point of this concept is the connectivity, so make sure the lines are distinct and easily seen.

Be sure to download the animated example for a possible animation scheme. Enjoy this technique and the superior results it will produce for you.

PowerFrameworks has made a commitment to operate as Green as possible. During some of our brainstorming sessions, we developed a few best practices that we believe are helping reduce the consumption of paper goods and, and the same time, reduce our cost of operations. We are happy to share with you some ideas to consider for your own workplace.

Incoming faxes

PowerFrameworks is a virtual company, so we needed a method of receiving and distributing faxes in a meaningful way. The fax services – and there are several reliable options out there – receive the fax and email it to up to five email addresses as a .tif. This solved our distribution problem, but each recipient would then have to print the fax out, which is costly in terms of printer ink and paper stock. To get around this, we installed a second monitor to each computer and view the email .tifs onscreen instead of on paper. Companies that are not virtual should realize the benefits associated with this method, as well.

If email distribution is not an issue with you or your company but you’d still like to go Greener, many printers digitize the faxes before printing. You can “print” the faxes to PDF documents and view those PDF documents onscreen instead of on paper. Savings: expensive printer ink, paper stock, time delivering hard-copy faxes.

It’s true that you will still have the cost of your fax line to receive the faxes and/or the cost of the fax service, but you can take steps to reduce the number of faxes you receive by requesting those with whom you do business often consider “printing” their scanned or electronic documents to PDF documents and send them to you via email. It’s easier to monitor the completeness of a scanned document than it is a faxed document. If pages are missing, you know before you send it out, which saves time in the long run. Fax services usually base their rates on numbers of fax pages, which will enable you to choose a small-volume fax service option.

Outgoing faxes

There are a couple of approaches available to you, but we believe the best to be a combination of the two.

1. There are times when signed hard-copy pages need to be faxed. Since many offices are equipped with all-in-one printers, it is easy to scan a signed hard-copy document and save it as a PDF or other electronic format, which can be sent via email instead of fax, Postal Service mail, or delivery services. Savings: delivery fees, paper stock, printer ink.
2. Edits to documents are typically hand written on hard copies of documents. A great alternative is installing a tablet with a writing stylus on your computer. You can digitally sign documents, mark up drafts, highlight and eliminate sections of text easily. Do some research to make sure you make a suitable purchase that will work with your workstation. Savings: paper stock; printer ink, time saved putting the document through the fax machine, possible cost of long-distance phone charges.

There are also a number of fax/printers on the market that include the option to print your document as a fax, how this would operate varies from printer to printer though.

Adobe Acrobat users can create a digital signature within Acrobat. This is a good method, but can be confusing to the average user. For more information: http://www.acrobatusers.com/tutorials/digital-signatures-pdf-acrobat. This method does not require a tablet. Though you can add a graphic of your signature to the Acrobat signature that you create.

If you are a Mac OS X user, you can can print directly to PDF (or fax if your computer is attached to a phone line) from any program – it will be a print option. This also comes up as an option if you have Adobe Acrobat (full NOT the free reader) installed on PC or Mac, however this is not a standard option for all PC users. There are a number of options out there including a free open source one named PDFCreator that can be downloaded here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/

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There are It’s true that there are expenses associated with purchasing a second monitor and tablet/stylus, but the savings will pay for them shortly. Printer ink has become ridiculously expensive, paper is costly, it takes time distributing and processing hard copies of faxes and documents, and it takes time and effort to recycle used paper. But beside the ultimate cost savings, the reduction in office consumable goods is a good Green decision for any company. Let us know if you have any Green office practices that you’d like to share.

Circles – or other shapes – overlaying photographs, maps, or other graphics are a common technique to highlight areas. This best practice discusses a technique that raises the visual quality and professionalism of these types of slides.

Take a look at the graphic below. The graphic on the right shows a much more pleasing and professional way to overlay the circles. The overlaying circles don’t hang over the edges of the image, which makes placing and aligning text next to the image easier and eliminates any wasted space caused by the circles extending beyond the edges of the image.

It’s very easy to create circles that can be cropped in this manner, and it will only add a few quick steps.

• Create the circles and apply the fill color, line color, and percentage of transparency.
• Place the circles over the the appropriate sections of your image
• Resize the circles individually if you wish
• One by one, select a circle that extends beyond the boundary of the image
• Right click on the circle and select “Save as Picture”
• Select .png format for the picture and route the newly created picture (i.e., PNG image) to a place on your computer where you can find it
• Drag the newly created PNG image onto your PowerPoint slide
• Align the PNG image with the circle from which it was created
• Delete the drawn circle (you don’t need it any longer)
• Crop the portion of the PNG image so that it doesn’t overhang the edges of the image beneath it.

Repeat the process above for each circle that extends beyond the edges of the image beneath. You can add the shadow (PowerPoint 2007) or not. Enjoy using this technique.

If you are using PowerPoint 2007, you can apply bevels to the puzzle pieces to make them look more realistic. Here’s an easy bevel format for you to use:

1. Click on the puzzle pieces and make them all active
2. From the “Format” menu, select “Shape Effects,” presets” and the second-from-the-left preset on the top row. See below.
   
   Notice how the bevel above is too sloped to be a convincing puzzle piece? Add the following formatting and that problem will be solved.
3. With all of the puzzle pieces still active, right click and select “Format Object…” and then from the “Format Shape” menu, select “3-D Format.” See below.
   
4. From the “3-D Format” menu, change the top number (Width: ) to 4.5. See below

   

That’s all you have to do to make a realistic-looking puzzle.

The processes are simple for both PowerPoint 2003 and 2007.

PowerPoint 2003

Type the text in a regular text field that you’d like to apply to WordArt – see below. Not all of the symbols translate to WordArt, so you may need to use a character like what is shown below to separate your words or phrases.

• After you’ve typed you your text, triple click on the text so that it is all highlighted
• Click on the WordArt menu button and select the circular text – it’s the text that arcs
• Click OK
• Your text will appear in the WordArt screen
• Select the font you wish to use, and don’t worry about the setting the size of the font
• Click OK

• The WordArt will come in to your document as an elongated oval, but you want it to be perfectly round
• Click on the WordArt and then right click
• Select “Format WordArt”
• Click on the “Size” menu tab
• Make the height and width the same: make them both 3”, for example
• Click OK
• Move the yellow text marker around the circle until the beginning of the text and end of the text meet
• Easy formatting for perfectly round WordArt

PowerPoint 2007

• Type the text in a regular text field that you’d like to apply to WordArt – see below. You can insert any symbols you need, they will all translate

• After you’ve typed you your text, triple click on the text so that it is all highlighted
• Click on the Text Effects in the WordArt Styles menu under Drawing Tools/Format
• Select Transform
• Select Circle text

• The WordArt will come in to your document as an elongated oval, but you want it to be perfectly round
• Select the WordArt field, not “edit text” mode
• Right click and select Size and Position
• Click on the “Size” menu tab
• Make the height and width the same: make them both 3”, for example
• Click Close
• Easy formatting for perfectly round WordArt!

This slide is a great layout for displaying a significant amount of comparative data for a geographic region, which is not always that easy to do. This slide, however, does it well, cleanly and clearly presenting the information in a visual format. Here is an inventory of what this chart presents:

• Geographical display of regions and office locations
• Comparative representation of the number of accounts serviced by each office (size of pie)
• Comparative representation of the accounts for each region (composition of the pies for each location). The exact location of the account within the region is not necessary information for this message, so it is not included.
• Color coded regions synchronized with pie slices enable quick office/region alignment assessment.

This chart requires a few steps to:

• Develop the map with regions and office locations
• Develop the pie sizing:
  • Draw 1 circle and make it 1″ wide/1″ high
  • Duplicate this 1″ circle until you have one for each office location on the map
  • Size each circle according to the total number represented by the pie: format size dimensions as a decimal. For example, if the largest pie in this example represents a total of 20 accounts and the smallest represents a total of 1 account, format the size of these circles as 0.20 and 0.01 respectively
  • Group all of the size-formatted circles
  • Enlarge/scale the group by holding the shift key down and dragging a corner handle on the group. The correct size of the scaled circles depends on how well they fit around the map in the available space on the slide
  • Ungroup the circles and distribute them around the perimeter of the map according to the location they represent
  • Create pie charts for each location (use dd012_v13 or dd012_v15 pies in data-driven pie series as a starting point)
  • Size the pie to the correctly sized circle and replace the circle with the pie chart
  • Create the leader fields with the polygon tool, color light gray or white, and make semitransparent
  • Create the legend field.

The process above works well for building the slide in both PowerPoint 2007 and previous versions of PowerPoint.

This is not a push-button operation, but it is not tremendously time consuming either; and the result is a visual depiction of the information rather than a text table or text-intensive slide.

Click here to download a pdf version (198kb) of this article.

Click here to download (116kb) zip file containing powerpoint files and instructions for an example of hyperlinked loops and presentation.

Establishing and managing audience expectations. Setting and maintaining tone. Reinforcing takeaway thought(s). These worthy objectives should always be among the underpinnings of any presentation-development effort. Presenters often miss opportunities to help meet these objectives by failing to consider the use of pre- and postpresentation animated loops.

What is an animated loop?

An animated loop is a set of slides that is formatted to transition without prompting, automatically restart at the first slide, and cycle continuously until manually stopped. When thoughtfully developed to complement a presentation, these loops can provide an opportunity for presenters begin communicating before the actual presentation and continue communicating after the presentation. Animated loops can be easily hyperlinked so the audience does not experience any visual disruptions from prepresentation loop to presentation to postpresentation loop – very elegant transitions from one to the next.

What information should I put into a loop?

The slide contents for loops depend on when the loop is played: before a presentation or after. The loops should complement the presentation: visually consistent, harmonizing tones, cohesive message. The following ideas are thought starters, but you can add your own content messages as appropriate.

Prepresentation Loops

Loops can help establish and manage audience expectations, establish the presenter’s or company’s credibility, set a light tone by supplying a cartoon or quip, set a serious tone by providing alarming statistical facts, inform the audience that there will be a Q&A period following the presentation, premier the talking points in the presentation, and so on. These slides should be developed so that no matter when a member of the audience looks at them, they understand the message. Messages should not be developed over several slides. Each message should be on its own slide.

Postpresentation Loops

These loops can reiterate the main point of the presentation, provide contact information, provide additional resources for further information, inform the audience about an informal discussion opportunity, promote a product associated with the presentation, and so on. Like the prepresentation loops, these slides should be developed so that no matter when a member of the audience looks at them, they understand the message. Messages should not be developed over several slides. Each message should be on its own slide.

What circumstances lend themselves best to loops?

Presenters that do not follow or precede other presenters are most able to incorporate loops into their presentations. The loops can easily be set in motion in advance of the presentation and after the presentation, playing while audiences are assembling and disbanding.

Loops can also be played as a background during a questions and answers period.

How can I create a loop?

Loops are created as separate documents that are hyperlinked to the main presentation. The hyperlinks prevent the audience from seeing a working screen when the prepresentation loop has ended and the presentation started or when the presentation has ended and the postpresentation loop is started. This is an important functionality and does much to promote a presenter’s professionalism.

Create a Loop

1. Create the slides to be used as a loop just as you would any presentation. You can even add animated reveals on the slides if you format them to begin automatically.
2. In slide sorter mode, choose a slide transition design. There are many ways you can format the slides to advance. But just because there are many choices doesn’t mean you should use many. Choose one style you like – one that is not jolting or jarring when viewed – and apply it to all of the slides in the loop.
3. Select a transition speed. This is the speed that slides transition from one to the next, not the amount of time they appear on the screen. The choices are slow, medium, or fast (no need to get fancy here by formatting customized transition speeds). Usually medium speed is a good choice: it’s easy to view and doesn’t waste a lot of time.
4. Format to advance the slide “Automatically after” xx seconds. The number of seconds you choose needs to allow the content to be read unhurriedly. Each slide should receive its own number of seconds based on the amount of content on the slide.
5. In the Slide Show drop-down menu, choose “Set Up Show” and click on “Loop continuously until ‘Esc’.”

Create Hyperlinks

1. On the first slide of the prepresentation loop, place an unobtrusive object: a semitransparent arrow in the bottom-right corner of the slide is a good choice. Make sure that the arrow is not terribly visible to the audience so they do not look for its significance or wonder what it is. Format the arrow so that it is hyperlinked to the presentation. This is done easily by right clicking on the arrow and selecting “Hyperlink” and selecting the presentation from the menu. If the loop you are working on is in the same folder as the presentation, the presentation choice will come up in the window automatically as a choice. Otherwise you will need to navigate to where the presentation resides in order to link it.
2. Copy this newly hyperlink-formatted semitransparent arrow to each page within the prepresentation loop. You need to be able to start the presentation from any page in this loop. When one of these arrows is clicked, the presentation comes up immediately onto the screen in slide show mode and the presentation begins.
3. Save the changes to the prepresentation loop and then save it again as a PowerPoint Show (either a pps or ppsx document). As a PowerPoint Show it will launch in slide show mode.
4. When the presentation has concluded, you’ll want to begin the postpresentation loop. On the last page of the presentation, place another unobtrusive object on the slide (another semitransparent arrow perhaps) and hyperlink it to the postpresentation loop, which has also been saved as a PowerPoint Show (a pps or ppsx document). This is important: be sure you hyperlink the presentation to the PowerPoint Show postpresentation loop, or it will have to be manually clicked into slide show mode.
5. You’ll also want to remember to format it to “Loop continuously until ‘Esc’.” The postpresentation loop will play until you stop it. The postpresentation loop does not need to have the hyperlinks in the lower-right corner of each page. When you want to end the show, just right click anywhere on the slide and select “End Show.”

Traveling with your loops

If you are going to be presenting on a computer that is not your own, you will need to format your hyperlinks so that they travel easily. Make sure all of your documents are in the same folder. Then before you begin to format each hyperlink, click on the File tab, select Properties, and click on Summary tab. Make sure that the Hyperlink base is empty. If it is not empty, remove what is there. Click OK.

Create your hyperlinks as usual, but be sure that there is no address string in the Address window on the Insert Hyperlink menu, just the name of the document you wish to hyperlink. Now the hyperlink will look for the document within the existing folder, and you will be able to run your loops easily anywhere you place them. This is important:be sure to test the hyperlinks by moving the file containing the hyperlinked documents into different areas on your computer and running the loops. If they work in every location, you’ve been successful at creating hyperlinks that will travel well.

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The next time you have an opportunity to present in a situation that would allow for prepresentation and postpresentation loops, make some room in your presentation-production schedule to develop a thoughtful prequel and sequel to your presentation. hey are easy to develop, format, and use in front of audiences.

How can I learn more?

Each month we provide presentation-development best practices and guidelines in our feature article. You can also check out the tutorials for each PowerFramework. There are tips and tricks and usage recommendations in each one. If you do not find what you need, check Best Practices or FAQs. If you still don’t see what you need, contact us with your non-time-sensitive questions, and we’ll respond as quickly as we can.

Click here to download a 217kb ppt file for this article.

Gaps, disruptions, disconnects, interruptions … all commonplace concepts, but difficult to display visually. The techniques discussed in this article will help you solve that problem and make it easy to illustrate these concepts. The frameworks in series FR049 provide even more options for developing this concept.

Whether you are using PowerPoint 2003 or 2007, you’ll be able to create these slides. Let’s look at each step:

1. Begin by creating a background, which in this case is a gray rectangle that extends beyond the slide’s left and right borders (see below). The use WordArt to create your text (we’ve used “Day-to-day business”). Size the WordArt phrase and then duplicate the phrase field several times. Create an evenly spaced row of these phrases and place at the top of the background rectangle. Duplicate the row and offset it below the first row. Duplicate again and offset the third row. Continue to duplicate and offset the rows until you have a pattern that occupies the the full height of the background rectangle. You should, of course, apply colors to the background and WordArt from your template’s color palette.

   Notice in the graphic below how the gray background and the rows of WordArt extend beyond the left and right borders of the slide (see FAQ entitled, “How do I create my own background as a picture?” for additional information about creating these save-as-picture graphics).

   

2. Select the background and the rows of WordArt and save as picture. We chose to save the example background and rows of WordArt as a jpg. Remember to save it to a place you’ll be able to find it on your computer.

   

3. Bring the saved-as-picture graphic onto your slide. See below to see what the saved-as-picture graphic looks like when brought into your slide. The right side of the graphic has been cropped so that it fits perfectly on the slide. The left side hasn’t been cropped yet, but should be before going to the next step.

   

4. There are two options for interrupting the graphic.
   1. The first option uses a parallelogram (in “Basic Shapes” menu) over the cropped saved-as-picture graphic to create the interruption. This is the quickest and easiest way to create the interruption. The first picture below shows the active white parallelogram over the saved-as-picture graphic.

      

      Then you can simply insert a graphic or photograph over the parallelogram. This option works best when the photograph has a white background and/or the graphic you
      use to illustrate the interruption has no background.

      

   2. The second option is still easy, but has a few more steps. Import a photograph into the parallelogram using the steps in this FAQ. Then place the parallelogram containing the photograph over the save-as-picture photograph. You can see that the parallelogram is active because the handles are visible.
      

You don’t need any special frameworks to develop these two types of flow interruptions. The technique for bringing the save-as-picture graphic into the parallelogram is described in this FAQ. Instructions for both PowerPoint 2003 and 2007 are included.

There is another technique you can use to create these slides. This technique involves using the graphics supplied in FR049. See the tutorial for this series for a complete description of how to develop these slides.

These types of slides work perfectly well as a static page, but work even better when animated. View the flash below to see two animated examples.

Don’t judge this chart by the picture alone!  This is a wonderful blend of several PowerFrameworks series and some cool animation.  The funnels are in FR001, the screens are in FR006, and the cogs are in FR009. There are so many ways to convey a process (flows, issue tree variations, etc.), but this one is very unusual – a real storyteller.  Add your own spin to the concept:  sifting, sorting, categorizing, screening, crunching, raw to refined data.  We particularly like the cog action: “crunching data” is a common phrase and the cogs illustrate it perfectly.

There is a flash of the animation that you can view on screen now, and there is a PowerPoint download so you can study how it was put together and animated.

Click here to download an 112kb animated PPT example.