Imitation Is The Sincerest Form Of Flattery

I know, the photo is just hilarious. But it does drive a point--you need good images for any presentation, images that encompass your topics or bullet points. Case in point, the Elvis Presley impersonator that you're currently seeing. Yes, imitation (or blatant "copying", if you will) is a big no-no in doing presentations. You don't want your clients to see you in a really bad light when you flash the next slide and they see a picture with a Corbis or iStock watermark. Most clients will fire at that--it just means you don't even have the budget to buy dollar images.

But fret not, people. Presentationzen has a neat roundup of websites where you can acquire (read: BUY) images at low prices, depending on the resolution needed. Some of the sites mentioned are:

(1) iStockphoto.com

One dollar for low-rez images and two-three dollars for higher-rez images.

(2) Dreams Time

About one dollar for high-rez images for members.

(3) Shutterstock

750 royalty-free downloads per month for $139 (US) subscription.

However, if budget's really low and you can't buy stock images, you can opt for the free ones. There's also a roundup of websites that offer free-but-not-so-bad images. Some of the sites mentioned are:

(1) Morgue File

Providing "...free image reference material for use in all creative pursuits.

(2) Flickr's Creative Commons pool

Search the myriad photos people are sharing on flickr by the type of CC license.

(3) Image*After

From their site: "Image*After is a large online free photo collection. You can download and use any image or texture...and use it in your own work, either personal or commercial."

I guess the third one is tops, as you can use it commercially. So there, no copyright infringement for you on your web developments! :)

To view the whole site listing, click here.

So there, buy images and get the much needed oomph your prezo needs!

Image and text parts of the link roundup aggregated from Presentationzen.com

The Art of Powerpoint Presentations

I know most of you have had this experience of pulling together a 30-slider Powerpoint deck from all sorts of resources, inserting images, putting in animation transitions, the stuff--and had to present it to a group of 10 people who could care less about your resources, images, and animations because from among the 30 slides, only 4 slides would most likely matter to them.

I think this is the art of Powerpoint presentations.

Blog author Joey De Villa of Globalnerdy.com has pooled together a (creative) summary of how one could present a deck without having to bore the audience to death and actually make them listen to what you have to say. Excerpts from his entry state that:

"Your slides are not cue cards. The purpose of standing in front of an audience is not to read aloud a document written in point form. You’re there not only to communicate an idea, but to engage the people in the room as well; the slides are there as support. That’s why slide presentation software has “presenter mode”, where the slides are displayed on the projector and your notes are displayed on your laptop."

To read the rest of the post, click here.

How about you? What are your Powerpoint eye candies?

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Image and text excerpts are copyright of Joey De Villa and have been aggregated from Globalnerdy.com. Please contact author for the use of image.