Shadow effects can help images to leap from your slides. (c) Thinkstock

One of my favorite new features of PowerPoint 2007 is the ability to add shadows to images, objects, and text. Previously in PowerPoint 2003, you were only able to add shadows to text — that’s it. You would need Photoshop and the necessary graphic editing skills to create professional-looking shadows for anything else. Now Microsoft gives you some Photoshop-like shadow effects in PowerPoint 2007.

Before I get into how to use PowerPoint 2007’s shadow effects, I’d like to provide a couple of use cases where shadows can be useful:

• Stacked images: When you stack one image on top of another, the top image can sometimes disappear into the lower image so that you can’t tell one image from another. The same applies to stacked objects. By adding a shadow to the top image, your audience can more easily distinguish between the top and bottom images.
• Emphasis: Adding a shadow to your images can help them to stand out more on your slides, especially when your images are white or light-colored on a white background.

On the left, you can see how a stacked object (arrow) stands out more with shadowing. On the right, white images can disappear on a white background. The shadow helps the image to stand out more. (c) Thinkstock

How to apply shadows to images

If you’d like to add a shadow to an image, you have a few different options. First, my preferred method is to use the “Drop Shadow Rectangle” Picture Style. To do this you first click on the image, and then on the top Ribbon bar you select Picture Tools>Format. Within the Picture Style section, the fourth option from the left is the “Drop Shadow Rectangle”. I also like to add a dark outline to the picture when I use this approach. Note: This approach only applies to pictures, not objects.

The Drop Shadow Rectangle option is simple and provides a good contrasting shadow effect. (c) Thinkstock

Second, another method is to use the Shadow effect within Picture/Shape Effects. You first click on the image or shape, and then on the top Ribbon bar you select Picture Tools (Drawing Tools for Shapes)>Format. For an image, you need to click on the Picture Effects button on the Ribbon and then select Shadow (for shapes, it is Shape Effects). From the shadow menu, you have three different outer, inner, and perspective shadow types with various orientations. I usually just use the Offset Diagonal Bottom Right option.

You have lots of options with the Shadow Picture Effects. However, I find the default shadow settings a little too subtle. (c) Thinkstock

Third, the final option is to manually configure the shadow for an image or shape using the Format Picture or Shape options. You can access these options two different ways. After following the steps above, at the bottom of the Shadow menu is the Shadow Options button. Alternatively, you can right-click on an image or shape and select the Format Picture/Shape button. You then select the Shadow tab on the Format Picture/Shape pop-up window.

Once you’re in the Shadow options, you can configure a variety of shadow settings: color, transparency, size, blur, angle, and distance. Experimenting with the various setting combinations will produce very different shadow effects.

There are two ways to get to the Shadow formatting options. Once you're on the Shadow tab, you can play with the shadow settings to produce different shadow effects.

Consistency is key with shadows

If you’re using shadows in your PowerPoint slides, the most important consideration is consistency. Frequently, you’ll run across slides where shadow effects have been applied haphazardly across different images and shapes. They have different degrees/intensities of shading at completely different angles.

PowerPoint ninjas ensure their shadows are consistent. Approach shadow effects as though the imaginary light source casting the shadow is always in the same position on the slide (e.g., top left corner). In other words, find a favorite style and use it consistently across your slides — same intensity, same angle.

On the top row, the different objects have different shadow effects. The bottom row has a consistent shadow effect (the imaginary light source is in the top left corner). It's subtle, but it can make a difference. (c) Thinkstock

In order to keep your shadow effects consistent, the Format Painter tool can come in handy for similar images or shapes. However, there may be other formatting aspects (e.g., fill color, outline color, etc.) that you don’t want to copy over and the Format Painter tool isn’t as useful. Although it can be a little more tedious, you can use the third option mentioned above to manually configure the various images or shapes individually to match each other.

There are three main types of shadows. In order to match up shadow effects using the format options, you have to be within the same shadow type.

Unfortunately, Microsoft did not include the ability to easily toggle between shadow types (outer, inner, or perspective) in the format options. If you have an object that has an inner shadow and another shape that has an outer shadow, you can’t adjust the various settings (e.g., blur, angle, distance, etc.) to match them up because their fundamental shadow types are different. You would need to select one of the presets with the right shadow type from the drop-down menu before you could match up the object’s shadow effect.

Bonus shadow tip

When you have an image with a white background, you can make the background transparent so that the shadow is around the main subject of the image instead of around the outside edge of the image. If you’re unfamiliar with how to make a portion of your image transparent, this post will show you how to use this feature in PowerPoint. Once you’ve made the background color transparent, you just add the shadow effects using one of the techniques mentioned above. Good luck!

In most cases with images on white backgrounds, you'll want to make the background transparent and have the shadow around the actual subject rather than the outer edge of the image. (c) Thinkstock

Don't be a slave to your PowerPoint slides! (c) Thinkstock

You have an important internal presentation coming up where you’re going to present to a group of senior managers at your company. Here’s your big chance to make a great impression and land the promotion you’ve been after. You’re excited to learn that they’re going to give you a full hour. You invest a lot of time in creating the perfect presentation. However, as you finish your last slide right before the hour is up, you realize you made a critical mistake — you left no time for group discussion. As your audience quickly files out the door to their next appointment, you’re left wondering if you should have structured your PowerPoint presentation differently.

I recently witnessed some colleagues experience this problem in their internal presentations.The content was great, but they just didn’t budget their presentation time effectively to allow for discussion between key stakeholders. They missed an opportunity to get all of the executives engaged in a discussion around their topic, and gain their commitment to support critical next steps for their projects. As I’ve said before, time is frequently the root of all PowerPoint evil.

At conferences, most presenters leave some time for questions from the audience. However, in smaller business meetings, presenters too frequently take up all of the allotted time presenting and don’t allow sufficient time for discussion. In many cases, the discussion during or after a presentation is the most important part. Here are six reasons why you want to encourage a discussion during your smaller presentation settings:

1. Your audience may provide suggestions, which enhance or strengthen your ideas
2. Your audience might have significant concerns about your content and resist your ideas. If you don’t hear what their concerns are, you’ll miss a valuable opportunity to resolve them
3. In a discussion, you have the ability to further tailor your content to your audience’s needs
4. By actively participating in a discussion on your topic, your audience may more readily support and understand what is being proposed
5. The retention of your content will be much stronger with your audience if they discuss it rather than just passively listen to it
6. The goal of most presentations is to drive some kind of action, and by discussing possible next steps at the end of your presentation, you can gain commitments from your audience to accomplish specific tasks

Presentation scenarios

I thought it would be helpful to identify some different scenarios that I’ve seen in the business world, and discuss why they work or don’t work. Perhaps you’ll recognize some of the scenarios, and hopefully you’re not the presenter on the bad ones.

Which scenario matches your last internal presentation?

“100% me” (Scenario A): As described above, the presenter uses all of the time to present and nothing else. It’s a one-way fire hose of content. The presenter leaves the audience with no time to discuss the key points of his or her slides.Opportunity missed.

“Oh yeah, any questions?” (Scenario B): The presenter mostly presents and then leaves only a token amount of time for group discussion. His or her audience may leave the presentation with questions unanswered and not be totally bought into the ideas presented.

Discussion is usually a good thing during presentations. (c)Thinkstock

“Let’s burn through the rest of my slides” (Scenario C): The presenter generates some discussion at the beginning of his or her presentation, but gets nervous about timing and powers through the rest of the slides to complete it on time. The presenter ends up rushing through his or her content, misses an opportunity to discuss next steps, and fails to answer any outstanding questions. What might have started well, ends badly.

“We’re going into overtime” (Scenario D): The presentation sparks an interesting discussion at the end, but the presenter didn’t factor in enough time for it. The discussion runs beyond the allotted time, resulting in some key people having to leave before it’s finished or causing other key people to be late to their next appointment. Right idea but bad execution.

“Present and discuss” (Scenario E): The presenter lays out his or her content and has budgeted ample time to discuss the key points of the PowerPoint presentation. Everybody has had a chance to discuss the content, fully understand it, and determine next steps. Hooray!

“A discussion interspersed with slides” (Scenario F): The presenter is well prepared and comfortable with having focused discussion during his or her presentation. The presenter has a specific goal in mind and realizes that discussion may get to the desired action more quickly than force-feeding his or her audience with more slides. Bonus: Everybody leaves happy when the meeting ends early.

Summary

Two-way communication is generally encouraged for most presentations. However, communication between audience members can be equally or more valuable than just communication between a presenter and his/her audience. The next time you present in a smaller business setting ensure that you leave ample time for discussion, and you’ll see a difference in the action and success your presentation is able to drive. Don’t let PowerPoint slides interrupt a good discussion!

Image fades can be useful in many situations (just like a good pair of jeans). (c) Thinkstock

You may have run into a situation where you wanted to fade a part of an image for a PowerPoint slide. By fade, I don’t mean the fade animation effect in PowerPoint. By fade, I mean blending the image into the background color or another solid color of your choice. You may have thought you needed Photoshop to create a fade effect with your images. However, you can achieve a fade effect directly in PowerPoint using an object with a blended transparent gradient fill.

Step 1 - Identify where a fade is required

Typically, I use the image fading technique in two ways. First, you can use it to emphasize a key part of an image and still leave the audience with a sense for the bigger picture. Second, you can also use it to hide or de-emphasize less important parts of an image. In the example below, I wanted to soften or remove the edge of the image so that it didn’t stand out so much on the slide. I’ve used this approach to allow bullet points to overflow on to an image and not have the text become lost in the image.

On the left, the edge of the image stands out. On the right, using the fade technique I was able to soften the edge so the image blends into the slide better (c) Thinkstock.

Step 2 - Choose an appropriate shape and size

I used a long, narrow rectangle for this fade effect.

Normally, I use rectangles to fade out parts of an image (objects need to be positioned on top of images). However, you can use other shapes to create more interesting fade effects. Sizing also becomes an issue with the fade effect as a wider shape makes the fade more gradual while a narrower shape makes the fade more sharp or abrupt.

Step 3 - Add a two-stop gradient fill to shape

With the shape on top of the image, you right-click on the shape and click on “Format Shape” at the bottom of the pop-up menu. Under the Fill tab, you select Gradient fill. Under the Gradient stops, remove one of the stops so you only have two (by default you get three stops but the third one is unnecessary).

Step 4 - Ensure the direction of the fade is correct

While still in the Fill tab, click on the Direction and choose the appropriate orientation of the fade. For example, if you want the fade to go left to right (or vice versa), make sure you select Linear Right or Left.

You need to make sure the direction of the fade is correct to achieve the desired effect.

Step 5 - Change stops to desired color for fade

Within the Format Shape > Fill tab, you configure your fade object.

In the Fill tab under Gradient stops, you select each stop and choose your desired color. For example, if your background is white and you want to fade an image into the background then you would select white as the color for both stops.

Step 6 - Change transparency of one stop to 100%

Next, you’ll need to adjust the transparency setting of one of the stops under the Gradient stops section to 100% (transparent). The other stop will be 0% (opaque). You may need to reverse the transparency settings of the stops depending on whether the fade flows the way you need it to.

With the image fading technique added to your toolbox, you’re better equipped to emphasize or de-emphasize key parts of images in your PowerPoint slides. This technique can add polish to your slides and help them communicate better. Good luck!

Composition also makes images better. (c)Thinkstock

In the first part of this article, I discussed how good presentation images need to be both relevant and unique. In terms of the uniqueness of an image, there are two factors: the subject of the photo and the composition of the photo. In the previous article, I looked at how the subject of the photo can make a presentation image more interesting, and now I’m going to turn my attention to the second area: composition. More…

Lots of photos are taken, but few are chosen. (c) Thinkstock

If you’ve read any presentation design books lately (Presentation Zen Design, Slide:ology, etc.), you’ve probably decided to use more images in your presentations. However, you may still be wondering if the images you’re selecting are good, average, or lame. Using more lame or average images in your presentations is about as helpful as adding more bullet points or animations to your PowerPoint slides. More…