Understanding life

Alignment is important in professional-looking presentations.

It’s been a while since I added a “toolbox” article to my blog. In these articles, I cover some of the key features of PowerPoint such as the Format Painter or Drawing Guides that every PowerPoint apprentice or ninja should know about. These are the features that I use almost every time I create a PowerPoint presentation.

In the Non-Designer’s Design Book, Robin Williams presents the “Big Four” essential principles of design: alignment, repetition, proximity, and contrast. The Principle of Alignment is key to creating clean, organized slides that look polished and professional. The basic premise behind alignment is that nothing should be placed on a slide arbitrarily. Every item should have a visual connection with something else on the slide. Essentially, when you’re placing diagrams, images, or text on a slide, you look at the other items on the slide and place the objects so they align either horizontally or vertically to create a more uniform appearance.

Align options

When you’re placing multiple objects on a slide, it would be time consuming and less precise to align objects manually. PowerPoint provides several options for aligning objects on a slide.

In order to align objects on your slide, you must first select all of the objects that need to be aligned. You can do this by either holding down the left-button of your mouse and drawing a selection box around the objects, or you can hold down the Shift key and left-click on the desired objects.

PowerPoint provides lots of different alignment options.

Once you have the objects selected, there are a couple of different routes to finding the Align options. On the Home tab of the Ribbon, you can find Align options once you’ve clicked on the Arrange button within the Drawing section of the Ribbon. Or you can click on the Drawing Tools Format tab on the Ribbon, and the Align options can be found on the far right. Because both of these methods are kind of annoying, I’ve added the align options to my Quick Access Toolbar in PowerPoint 2007.

You can use PowerPoint's Align options to fix alignment problems.

Align selected objects or to the slide

Most of the time you’ll be aligning a set of selected objects between each other. However, sometimes you may want to align objects to the slide. For example, you might want to center align three images horizontally to the actual slide background. In order to achieve this action, you simply need to change the default setting from “Align Selected Objects” to “Align to Slide” in the same Align options dropdown menu (see above).

In certain situations, "Align to Slide" can come in handy.

Alignment is one of the “Big Four” design principles that every PowerPoint ninja or apprentice should leverage in their PowerPoint presentations. Rather than haphazardly placing objects on your slides, take the extra time to align the objects on your slides using PowerPoint’s align options. The extra attention to your slide layout will pay dividends with your audience. 

Thank you for your attention! 

Did you sleep well last night? If the answer is “No”, you are in good company. Insomnia is the most common sleep disorder in the UK, with up to a third of the population affected at some stage of the lives.


Insomnia doesn’t just mean inability to drop off to sleep. Other symptoms are : waking early and not getting back to sleep, constantly interrupted short periods of sleep, or hours of wakefulness. You may feel permanently tired , anxious or irritable, and your memory and ability to concentrate may be adversely affected.


When to visit the doctor

If the insomnia is persistent, visit your doctor . sleeping pills are not the only treatment, although they may be offered as a short-term solution. If you are suffering from the emotional distress, you may be advised to see a counselor.

Self-help

First , check your bedroom is not too hot or cold , noisy or stuffy. Keep it dark, well-ventilated and quiet.

Second, check you lifestyle:

Don’t eat rich, heavy meals after 7pm. Avoid caffeinated drinks, such as tea , coffee, cola and chocolate, four hours before bed. Opt for decaffeinated coffee, chamomile tea, or warm milk. Cutting down on your liquid intake before bedtime helps avoid night-time toilet visits.


Alcohol can also be stimulating, so if you are having a night-cap, drink it two hours before bed.


Smoking stimulates adrenalin production, so cut down or give up. Reseach shows heavy smokers take longer to fall asleep, wake up more during the night and sleep more lightly.


Synchronise your body clock by getting up and going to bed at the same time every day. Avoid daytime naps .


Develop a relaxing bedtime routine. Read or listen music, then take a warm bath, adding 4~6 drops of lavender oil. Research has shown this scent may be as effective as sleeping pills .


If you really can not sleep, try some bread, rice, or milk.


Go for a daily walk. Natural light helps to regulate your biological clock, so exercise outdoors if you can.


Forget the worries of the day. Write down any worries, thoughts or questions before bed. Next ,come up with solutions. With these written down,you’ll have less to think about and sleep should be easier.

Thank you for your attention!

It is cold, so bitter cold, on this dark, winter day in 1942. But it is no different from any other day in this Nazi concentration camp. I stand shivering in my thin rags, still in disbelief that this nightmare is happening. I am just a young boy. I should be playing with friends; I should be going to school; I should be looking forward to a future, to growing up and marrying, and having a family of my own. But those dreams are for the living, and I am no longer one of them. Instead, I am almost dead, surviving from day to day, from hour to hour, ever since I was taken from my home and brought here with tens of thousands other Jews. Will I still be alive tomorrow? Will I be taken to the gas chamber tonight?

Back and forth I walk next to the barbed wire fence, trying to keep my emaciated body warm. I am hungry, but I have been hungry for longer than I want to remember. I am always hungry. Edible food seems like a dream. Each day as more of us disappear, the happy past seems like a mere dream, and I sink deeper and deeper into despair. Suddenly, I notice a young girl walking past on the other side of the barbed wire. She stops and looks at me with sad eyes, eyes that seem to say that she understands, that she, too, cannot fathom why I am here. I want to look away, oddly ashamed for this stranger to see me like this, but I cannot tear my eyes from hers.

Then she reaches into her pocket, and pulls out a red apple. A beautiful, shiny red apple. Oh, how long has it been since I have seen one! She looks cautiously to the left and to the right, and then with a smile of triumph, quickly throws the apple over the fence. I run to pick it up, holding it in my trembling, frozen fingers. In my world of death, this apple is an expression of life, of love. I glance up in time to see the girl disappearing into the distance.

The next day, I cannot help myself-I am drawn at the same time to that spot near the fence. Am I crazy for hoping she will come again? Of course. But in here, I cling to any tiny scrap of hope. She has given me hope and I must hold tightly to it.

And again, she comes. And again, she brings me an apple, flinging it over the fence with that same sweet smile.

This time I catch it, and hold it up for her to see. Her eyes twinkle. Does she pity me? Perhaps. I do not care, though. I am just so happy to gaze at her. And for the first time in so long, I feel my heart move with emotion.

For seven months, we meet like this. Sometimes we exchange a few words. Sometimes, just an apple. But she is feeding more than my belly, this angel from heaven. She is feeding my soul. And somehow, I know I am feeding hers as well.

One day, I hear frightening news: we are being shipped to another camp. This could mean the end for me. And it definitely means the end for me and my friend. The next day when I greet her, my heart is breaking, and I can barely speak as I say what must be said: "Do not bring me an apple tomorrow," I tell her. "I am being sent to another camp. We will never see each other again." Turning before I lose all control, I run away from the fence. I cannot bear to look back. If I did, I know she would see me standing there, with tears streaming down my face.

Months pass and the nightmare continues. But the memory of this girl sustains me through the terror, the pain, the hopelessness. Over and over in my mind, I see her face, her kind eyes, I hear her gentle words, I taste those apples.

And then one day, just like that, the nightmare is over. The war has ended. Those of us who are still alive are freed. I have lost everything that was precious to me, including my family. But I still have the memory of this girl, a memory I carry in my heart and gives me the will to go on as I move to America to start a new life. Years pass. It is 1957. I am living in New York City. A friend convinces me to go on a blind date with a lady friend of his. Reluctantly, I agree. But she is nice, this woman named Roma. And like me, she is an immigrant, so we have at least that in common.

"Where were you during the war?" Roma asks me gently, in that delicate way immigrants ask one another questions about those years.

"I was in a concentration camp in Germany," I reply.

Roma gets a far away look in her eyes, as if she is remembering something painful yet sweet.

"What is it?" I ask.

"I am just thinking about something from my past, Herman," Roma explains in a voice suddenly very soft. "You see, when I was a young girl, I lived near a concentration camp. There was a boy there, a prisoner, and for a long while, I used to visit him every day. I remember I used to bring him apples. I would throw the apple over the fence, and he would be so happy."

Roma sighs heavily and continues. "It is hard to describe how we felt about each other-after all, we were young, and we only exchanged a few words when we could-but I can tell you, there was much love there. I assume he was killed like so many others. But I cannot bear to think that, and so I try to remember him as he was for those months we were given together."

With my heart pounding so loudly I think it wil1 explode, I look directly at Roma and ask, "And did that boy say to you one day, 'Do not bring me an apple tomorrow. I am being sent to another camp'?"

"Why, yes," Roma responds, her voice trembling.

"But, Herman, how on earth could you possibly know that?"

I take her hands in mine and answer, "Because I was that young boy, Roma."

For many moments, there is only silence. We cannot take our eyes from each other, and as the veils of time lift, we recognize the soul behind the eyes, the dear friend we once loved so much, whom we have never stopped loving, whom we have never stopped remembering.

Finally, I speak: "Look, Roma, I was separated from you once, and I don't ever want to be separated from you again. Now, I am free, and I want to be together with you forever. Dear, will you marry me?"

I see that same twinkle in her eye that I used to see as Roma says, "Yes, I will marry you," and we embrace, the embrace we longed to share for so many months, but barbed wire came between us. Now, nothing ever will again.

Almost forty years have passed since that day when I found my Roma again. Destiny brought us together the first time during the war to show me a promise of hope and now it had reunited us to fulfill that promise.

Valentine's Day, 1996. I bring Roma to the Oprah Winfrey Show to honor her on national television. I want to tell her in front of millions of people what I feel in my heart every day:

"Darling, you fed me in the concentration camp when I was hungry. And I am still hungry, for something I will never get enough of: I am only hungry for your love."

Thank you for your attention!

Pictures make presentations better. Here’s why.

A nautical metaphor.

Imagine a big wooden ship sailing into a stormy harbor. The waves crash as the sailors work to secure the ship against the dock. The more ropes the sailors can cast, the more securely the ship will weather the storm.

Think of the ideas in your presentation as ships docking in the stormy harbors of your audience’s minds. The more associations you can make with your ideas — the more ropes you can cast — the better they will be remembered.

The metaphor isn’t too far off from the actual biology of memory making. The more relationships you can associate with an idea, the more neural connections are formed and the more rooted it becomes in your memory. Most mnemonic devices play on this, getting you to associate additional objects or sounds with the thing you’re trying to remember.

Slides give you the opportunity to tap into parts of the brain words alone can’t reach — the picture parts.

Think of the visuals in your presentation as additional ropes to cast. It’s one thing to talk about your idea, it’s a better thing to show it.

Make a memory.

You can see this idea in action in the example slides below.

The slide on the left is a typical text-heavy presentation slide. It’s the speaker’s talking points in bulleted form. It contains everything the speaker is going to say, but doesn’t do much to make it more memorable. You could easily take this slide out and the presentation would be no worse without it — in fact, it may even be marginally better.

The slide on the right is the exact same content, but it uses a picture instead of words to relate the message. The speakers talking points have not changed, they’re just now being spoken instead of read. The audience has an extra trigger at their disposal, a visual cue, to make the content easier to remember.

Which slide resonates more with you?

It can feel risky to not include all of your content on a slide, to go with a visual instead, but your presentation is made stronger because of it. At the end of the day isn’t that the point?

Thank you for your attention!

The previous article in the Speech Preparation Series described how to select your speech topic and your core message.

This article describes how to support your core message with a speech outline, and provides numerous examples. This is the second step in the six-step speech preparation process.

Writing an outline is, unfortunately, a step that many skip. The most common excuse is simply “No time.” This is unfortunate because time spent on an outline is time well spent. It is necessary to ensure that you craft a coherent and focussed presentation.

Contents

1.Writing a Speech Outline
2.Basic Speech Outline
3.Speech Outline Variants
4.Outline Writing Tips
5.Speech Outline Extended Example

Writing a Speech Outline

An outline is a blueprint for your presentation.

It highlights the key logical elements. i.e. what points are being made to logically support the core message?

It highlights the key structural elements. e.g. introduction, body, conclusion, stories, high-level concepts

It links these elements together in a sequence, perhaps allocating very rough timings.

It can also map out the transitions between elements, although this may be deferred to a later stage of preparation.

Basic Speech Outlines

“An outline is a blueprint for your presentation.”

The basic speech outline template for structural elements is:
1.Introduction
2.Body
3.Conclusion

Similarly, the basic speech outline template for logical elements is the familiar advice:
1.Tell them what you’re going to say
2.Tell them what you’ve said

Put these together, and you have the start of a generic speech outline:
1.Introduction — Establish topic and core message; list supporting points
2.Body
3.Supporting Point One
4.Supporting Point Two
5.Supporting Point Three
6.Conclusion — Recap main points; summarize core message; call-to-action

It is surprising how well this simple 3-part outline template works for a wide range of speech topics. Incidentally, this same basic formula can be seen in novels, short stories, movies, plays, reports, business briefings, emails, memos, and many other forms of communication.

For many more examples, check out Why Successful Speech Outlines follow the Rule of Three.

Other Speech Outline Writing Tips

“When sequencing your outline points, try to avoid random order. Seek and extract the meaningful relationship.”

Note that all of these speech outline examples are appropriate for a short six to ten minute speech. Longer time windows will obviously allow for more detailed outlines.

You may be able to customize one of the generic speech outline formats for your speech; more likely,

you will need to craft your own to fit your situation. A few other things to consider:
The granularity of your outline should be roughly one outline point per minute of speaking time, perhaps less for lengthy presentations.

For presentations which are complemented with slides, your outline might include slide concepts, but no finer details.

Remember that your presentation is much more than your set of slides. Your outline should reflect your speaking elements which the slides complement.
When sequencing your outline points, try to avoid random order. Seek and extract the meaningful relationship.

1.Chronological – e.g. a biographical speech
2.Spatial – e.g. an entertaining travel speech
3Cause-effect – e.g. speech relating crime rate to drug use
4.Low to high importance – e.g. reasons to exercise
5.Broad vision to specific details – e.g. a management speech outlining new company direction

Your outline is not the same as cue cards, but they are related (if you use cue cards). An outline contains high-level speech elements; cue cards might additionally contain selected speech details e.g. transition phrases, key words/phrases, key numbers, or punch lines.

Speech Outline Example — Face the Wind

Here is the original outline that I put together for the Face the Wind speech. Comments follow which represent my thinking at the time of writing the outline.
Opening humor – connect with audience as typical home owner

Story #1 – Backyard tree battle
“Strong roots… strong tree”
Foreshadow: neighbour’s monster tree falling

Story #2 – Winter storms knock over many trees
National news (trees falling on houses), but our house okay
Arborists: “Wind came from a different direction”
Establish key analogy – Trees cannot face the wind.

Story #3 – Baby Maximus
Michelle and Lance have strong roots
Maximus is born
Conclusion
Call-to-action: “We must face our problems”
Comments on Face the Wind Outline

At the outline stage, I set up many key elements of the speech. I determined the three main stories, planned humorous opening, identified a few key phrases to incorporate, established contrast (tree/people), used a metaphor (roots of people), and concluded with a call-to-action.

Opening – I wanted to open with humor to offset the drama later in the speech. Also, I wanted to connect with the audience as a homeowner as many in the audience are also homeowners.

Story #1 – I wanted the first story to establish the “strong roots… strong tree” connection. By establishing that trees have strong roots, it makes the fact that they were toppled in the storm (story #2) more dramatic.

Story #2 – This story was essentially an expansion of the “wind came from a different direction” theory of arborists that I picked up several months prior from my friend. The fact that trees cannot face the wind is the key analogy in this speech, although the audience doesn’t know it yet.

Story #3 – This story tells about the struggles which eventually led to the birth of Maximus. The key element here is the contrast between trees and people (who can face the wind).

Thank you for your attention!