-Nick Smith

When you believe in things you don’t understand,
Then you suffer,
Supersition ain’t the way.
– Stevie Wonder

The late, great Mark Twain is quoted as having once said, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” This is almost certainly the case with PowerPoint.

Many of the commonly understood and accepted ways to use PowerPoint are wrong. They’re superstitions that we all believe in (or believed in at one time) for no other reason than everyone else believes in them, too. Five years ago, we all believed our smartphones were really smart. It wasn’t until Apple unveiled the iPhone that we had our first glimpse of what could be. After that, we weren’t satisfied with the status quo we had contented ourselves with just hours before.

Some prevalent PowerPoint Superstitions include:

• Add bullet points until the text box is full.
• Use images to fill up whatever whitespace is left after adding your text.
• It’s good to use lots of different fonts on every slide. People like variety.
• If you decide to make a portion of text bold, it’s good to underline and italicize, too. Extra points for changing its color.
• Random transitions give your presentation the extra-special edginess of uncertainty.

The problem here isn’t that people don’t know what rules to follow. It isn’t that we don’t require everyone to study design in school (although this isn’t a bad idea). It isn’t that there’s no one speaking up about how to do slides a better way.

The problem is that people aren’t aware of the problem. They think they know what they’re doing. They think this is how PowerPoint is supposed to be done. And since they don’t see a problem, they’re not searching for a solution.

Ordering Objects

The image to the left displays the list of commands you’ll see when you click the Arrange button. The first four commands, under the Order Objects heading, control the stack order of the elements on the slide. My guess is that if you’ve spent any time at all with PowerPoint, you’re already familiar with these four commands. Bring Forward and Send Backward increase or decrease respectively an element’s position in the stack by one, while Bring to Front or Send to Back move the object all the way to the top or bottom of the stack. But you knew that already.

Sidebar: Did you further know you can use the Selection Pane… command to open a pane that will let you edit the stack order manually? Give it a try sometime.

Grouping Objects

The next three commands, under the Group Objects heading, I assume you know as well. Group, Ungroup, and Regroup allow you to create collections of objects that will behave as one object until released.

Aligning Objects

It’s the next command I’d like to tell you about today. Under the Position Objects heading is a command called Align which has a fly out menu with several options in it, which you can see to the right.

These commands allow you to fine tune the positioning of anything on the slide. The first three commands control horizontal (left and right) alignment, and the following three control the vertical (up and down). This positioning is dynamic, meaning that it changes based on how many objects are selected. If only one object is selected, the object will be aligned to the slide. If two or more objects are selected the objects will be positioned relative to each other.

For example, if only one object is selected when you choose the Align Left command, the left-hand side of the selected object will be moved into alignment with the left-hand side of the slide. If two or more objects are selected when you choose Align Left, then the left-hand side of all the objects will be aligned with the left-hand side of the left-most object. If you want to override this default change in behavior at any time, you can do so by toggling the check box on the menu from Align to Slide to Align Selected Objects, or vice versa.

Align Left, Align Center, and Align Right will only change objects’ horizontal positions. It will not move them up or down at all. Similarly Align Top, Align Middle, and Align Bottom, will only change vertical positons. So if your goal was to have two objects line up right on top of each other, you’d have to choose two commands, Align Center followed by Align Middle or vice-versa.

Distributing Objects

The next two commands, Distribute Horizontally and Distribute Vertically, allow you to space objects evenly between to points. For instance, when you choose Distribute Horizontally, the left-most and right-most objects will not be effected, and the rest of the selected objects will be spaced evenly between the two. These commands only work when three or more objects are selected.

Aligning or Distributing Groups

The alignment commands also work on groups. Suppose you have your objects just the way you want them, but they’re slightly off center. Rather than trying to move them each over a few nudges at a time, you could create a group out of all the objects, align the whole group to the center, then release the group with the Ungroup command.

Alignment is one of the easiest ways to sharpen up the look of your slides. Take some time to experiment with the Align menu and learn how it’s commands behave in various situations. Of course you could always align objects by hand, nudging and positioning things until you have it just right, but learning to use the align tools can be a real time saving trick.

No matter how many projects I’ve done before. No matter how confident I am that I can do the work. Every single time I’ve done anything creative, I get panicky. And stressed. And feel like quitting before I even get started. Just like Han in the trash compactor on the Death Star, I have a bad feeling about this.

I get scared because I have no idea what I’m going to do. As I sit listening to the person I’m working with describe their problem or presentation idea or whatever, some little voice inside me thinks I ought to be able to spit out a really great, well-developed idea as soon as they stop speaking. They’ve come to me because I have good ideas. Now’s the time I better produce them, and by the bushel.

I know in my head that no creative project works this way. I know that once I dig in and start brainstorming that I’ll go through lots of bad ideas, and iterations, and revisions before I finally hit on an idea that’s truly a good solution. But despite this knowledge, my stomach still ties itself in knots every time I start a new project. Every time.

I guess learning to deal with that feeling is part of getting good at being creative. I don’t like it any more now than the first time I felt it, but I accept it, let it wash over me for a few seconds, then push past it and get to work. I don’t let it stop me from starting anymore. And I think that’s the first step.

Also, I’m kind of leery now of any projects I start that don’t cause me to feel this way at first. Usually a lack of that feeling means that I’ve done something like this before and I’m not challenging myself enough. It’s comfortable, and while that might feel nice, it also means I’m not gonna learn anything new on this one. It’s an indicator that I’m spinning my wheels. So in that sense, that terrible feeling is kind of like a compass. When I hear about a project and start to get that sinking feeling I know that’s what I need to be doing. I know it sounds funny but sometimes I get excited about a project just because of how scared it makes me.

I should also mention that I’ve never been unable to figure out a solution to any of the problems or projects that seemed so daunting and insurmountable at first. Eventually I can work through them. I guess my head just makes them seem much, much worse than they actually are. That’s another good reason to just push through the fear and get to work.

How about you? Do you ever feel this way?

1. Objectified

In this documentary, director Gary Hustwit explores the world of industrial design, or the design of everyday things. We often overlook the fact that nearly every object we come in contact with everyday, from bathtub stoppers to coffee cup lids, were all designed by someone. Someone had to think about that object. This film was eye opening in that it revealed just how much work and thought can go into the creation of things as seemingly simple as a potato peeler. Features interviews with Paola Antonelli, Jonathan Ive, and Dieter Rams, just to name a few.

Image from ObjectifiedFilm.com

2. Art & Copy

A film about advertising and inspiration, this film features interviews with some of the advertising worlds most prominent figures including George Lois, Lee Clow, Mary Wells, and Hal Riney. It explores some of the most famous ad campaigns of recent years including “Got Milk?”, “Where’s the beef?”, “Think Different” and more. This is a real gem for anyone interested in commercial advertising, but it’s full of valuable information for anyone interested in the thought and process behind big creative projects.

Image from IMDB.com

3. Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight

This film profiles Milton Glaser, the iconic graphic designer perhaps most famously remembered for the “I [heart] NY” logo. Lots of insight into Glaser’s thought processes, and into the life of this living legend of design. Glaser is charming throughout and this documentary plays out like a long conversation with a good friend. The insights he shares are fascinating in their simplicity and poignancy. This film would benefit anyone who engages in any kind of creative work.

Image from IMDB.com

4. Helvetica

Another film by Gary Hustwit is a tribute to a typeface, which one of the interviewees describes as “like air” in that it’s all around you wherever you go. It looks at the history of the typeface, it’s many applications, and the various opinions of today’s designers which run the full gamut from love to hate. Even if you’ve never noticed it before (or at least didn’t have a name for it) after watching this film the Helvetica typeface will jump out to you everywhere from Gap advertisements to street signs.

Image from IMDB.com

Salman Khan is the founder of Khan Academy, a website where you can learn just about anything for free.

The following is a quote from his TED talk (watch it in full below) when Salman is explaining his cousins’ feedback after receiving his tutoring via a YouTube video instead of face to face:

“They told me that they preferred me on YouTube than in person…They preferred the automated version of their cousin to their cousin. At first that’s very unintuitive, but when you actually think about it from their point of view it makes a ton of sense. You have this situation where now they can pause and repeat their cousin without feeling like they’re wasting my time. If they have to review something that they should have learned a couple of years ago or maybe a couple of years ago they don’t have to be embarrassed and ask their cousin. They can just watch those videos.

“If they’re bored they can go ahead, they can watch it at their own time at their own pace. And probably the least appreciated aspect of this is the notion that the very first time that you’re trying to get your brain around a new concept, the very last thing you need is another human being saying do you understand this.”

So much of what he says makes sense.

And I love Sal’s story. Stumbling on a great thing, turning it into a company, quitting his job, adoption by school systems…

Just amazing. Is this the future of education? Could you get your GED simply by taking Khan Academy classes for free? Could college educations eventually be free online, too? This is just another example of video on the internet is driving innovation and has the power to transform entire industries.

(via swiss-miss)

1. iPhone volume button becoming a shutter button.

They say that if you want to get better at photography you need to carry a camera with you everywhere you go. But unless you’re already a photographer chances are you don’t lug your camera around most days. That is until your cell phone became a camera. The iPhone has a great camera in it, but it’s always been a little awkward to get to the app and to trigger the shutter since you have to touch the screen (rather than a physical button) to take the picture. Apple announced recently that iOS five will add a button to turn on the camera directly from the lock screen. Also, when using the camera, the volume up switch will become the shutter button, which will make the phone behave a lot more like a real camera. Add to that the ability to use the headphone volume controls to trigger the shutter, too, and the iPhone is quickly becoming more of a serious photography device.

2. Photo Stream makes it easier to get your pictures off the device.

One of the real problems with using my iPhone to take pictures, though, is moving those pictures to, well, anywhere else. Of course I can email them to myself, but that seems so clunky. With the newly announced iCloud, though, all of the pictures you take on the phone will automatically sync to your other devices, making it easy to share them, save them, etc. This is a big deal because just making things more convenient makes me more likely to use them. I’m betting you feel the same way.

3. Snapseed

The iPad already has a lot of good photo-editing apps, but the problem for me has been trying to get my pictures on to the iPad in the first place. This is a little easier if you have the camera connection kit, but still it’s not ideal. iCloud seems to be solving that (hopefully), which put me on the lookout for the best photo editing app out there. Recently I found Snapseed, a really powerful but still fun and easy to use photo editing iPad app. I’ve been using it for a week or so now and I have to say that it’s controls are really easy to figure out and make the whole process of editing photos much easier and more fun than any other app I’ve tried. And it’s a steal at just $4.99.

Check out this amazing new photo set by photographer, Melissa Munding. The look of the wedding was inspired by the film, Amelie.

I loved Amelie for its visual style, and this wedding captured that remarkably well. I love the simplicity and balance of the bright vivid colors and vintage-y feel. And Melissa’s capturing of the event is exquisite, too.

For more inspiration in this style you might also check out the movie itself, or the lesser known TV series, Pushing Daisies, whose producer, Bryan Fuller, said plainly that the look of the show was heavily inspired by Amelie. I would love to see some presentations that looked like this. Maybe I’ll have to make one.

Excellent work, Melissa!

Icebreakers is a really cool, simple to use idea to add some conversation starters to your next event. The site makes it cake-easy to create little name badges that you can customize with quirky questions or prompts for your attendees.

It’s no wonder Icebreakers is so simple and brilliant, as it was created by one of my favorite bloggers, Swiss-Miss. You can also check out the flickr pool of previous Icebreakers prompts if you need some inspiration.

The Logitech R800 is the next generation of the presentation remote I use whenever I speak. (Mine was much cheaper when I bought it, but it’s out of production now, which is why it’s so expensive. Just in case Dave Ramsey ever reads this.)

The R800 has some noticeable improvements over its predecessor including double the range (100 ft), a brighter, green laser, and a more ergonomic shape. Most of the great features from the old one are still here, too, including an LCD display with a battery indicator and countdown timer, and buttons for starting the slideshow and blanking the screen. It has a receiver which stores in the handle which plugs into the USB port of any computer. It works with Mac or PC without needing to install any software.

The only thing it seems to have lost are volume control buttons like the old model. But that’s not a feature I use very often.

All in all, this looks like a pretty good deal to me. Mine’s not broke, but if it were, I think this would be my choice to fix it.