By Eve Porcello

Eve will be presenting at our complimentary Lunch & Learn Webinar, Getting Started with Office 2013 and 365, Thursday, April 4 at noon PT. Register now for the free webinar!

With the release of the new Windows 8 operating system and the nonstop commercials for the Microsoft Surface tablet, Microsoft is making an aggressive bid to remain relevant in the increasingly complicated landscape of personal computing. Part of this push is the release of Office 2013, the latest version of the familiar Microsoft Office Suite. Each of the applications included have been through a major design overhaul, and all include a variety of new features that make them especially compatible with touch-friendly Windows 8.

But even with all of these changes, is it really worth it to upgrade to Office 2013? Below we’ll take a look at the key features that make an upgrade a compelling idea.

Cloud Compatibility

With Office 2013, Microsoft has made it possible to store and sync all of your documents across all of your Windows devices, so they can be accessed from anywhere.  All you need to do is save documents to your SkyDrive, and you can open and edit these from any of your Microsoft devices. Never again will you have to email yourself a document or risk having your work stuck on a faraway computer. Office 2013 is designed to cater more toward our connected world.

Rich Media Features

Throughout the suite of Microsoft Office 2013 products, there are a variety of new rich media options to make your documents, presentations, and other files more interactive and engaging. For example in PowerPoint, you can find and add photos from albums on Flickr, Facebook, and other online services without saving to your computer.

PDF to Word Doc Capabilities

Have you ever had to type out an entire PDF document because you needed to be able to edit it in Microsoft Word? In Office 2013, you’ll never have to suffer through this again. Word now does a great job of converting PDF files to Word format.

Flexible Pricing and Delivery

As is the case with most software nowadays, installing the software is as easy as a download. All versions of the new Microsoft Office are available via download instead of with clunky software installation disks. Versions include Office Home and Student ($139.99), Office Home and Business ($219.99), and Office Professional ($399.99).

In addition, Microsoft has offered Office 365 as a productivity and word processing option. Office 365 provides all of the Office Suite as apps and is purchased as a subscription of $99.99 a year. This option includes all of the Office apps and comes with 60 minutes of Skype calls per month.

What do you think about the upgrade? Share your thoughts below!

If you’d like more information on the features of Microsoft Office 2013 and 365 before you take the plunge, join us for our free Lunch & Learn Webinar on April 4 from noon to 12:40 PT. Reserve your webinar seat now!

Additional Resources

• Microsoft Office 365/2013 Crash Course

• Microsoft Office 2010 Tips & Tricks Crash Course, PC and Mac

First: Balance between presentation and interaction. Reduce the number of slides and increase the number of interactions. The slides serve as the anchor, but all the details can happen outside the slides, such as on the flip chart, through your own storytelling, and interactions with the audience. If you haven’t come across “graphic recording,” check out Visual Meetings by David Sibbet to learn about the art and science of graphic recording and how this can create engagements in meetings and beyond.

Second: Edit each slide so it is easy on the eye and on the brain. Follow the 3x5 rule with no more than 3 to 5 key points per slide and 3 to 5 key words per point. But of course you have a lot of valuable information to present, so how can you stick to the 3x5 rule? There are ways to do so. One viable one is to have hyperlinks supporting documents and webpages. This allows you to dive into the details when the opportunity presents itself. The details are always a click away instead of being in the way.

Third: Add charts, graphics, and animations that are relevant, and omit the gimmicky stuff. A picture is worth a thousand words they say, but what they don’t tell you is that, in a presentation, this is only true if the picture is relevant and is adding amazing value to the point that you’re trying to make. Otherwise, the picture, or graph, and especially the cute animation, can largely backfire and stand out as a big distraction and a barrier to your purpose.

Additional Resources

• Complimentary Lunch & Learn Webinar: Microsoft Office 2010 Tips & Tricks

• Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 Techniques workshop

• Creating Compelling Presentations workshop

Examples of good uses of SmartArt Graphics

Example of not so good uses of SmartArt Graphics

 

What do you think of this SmartArt Graphic?

Additional Resource

One thing we see often when we work with business professionals on their PowerPoint presentations is that the typical slide tries to tell too much. Their intentions are good but these intentions tend to backfire. They want to be complete, detailed, and accurate. They want to tell the whole story and not leave gaps. However this overwhelms the audience and causes them to "check out"! You probably heard about the death by PowerPoint.

When the audience are subjected to this slide, are they going to see the completeness, the details, and the accuracy. Unfortunately not! This is what the audience is more likely to see:

You lost them right away! And now you have to fight to win them back.
Here is one of approaches that we teach to help eliminate the PowerPoint clutter, avoid losing the audience, and get them curious and engaged instead. This approach is called "breaking down the content." Here are the related steps and a couple of illustrations below:

1. Reduce the slide to the core messages; ideally 3 to 5 of them, expressed in 3 to 5 words each. Let us call this the "3x5" rule. This leaves the audience curious. It opens up the room for reflection and then conversation.
    
2. If some of these core messages require additional details, create a separate slide for this core message, following the same rule (3x5 rule). However use these detailed slides if and when necessary; right when the situation calls for it.
    
3. Balance between text and visuals, and select your visuals carefully. Visuals need to be relevant, simple, and clear. They should easily convey the point instead of making the audience think or wonder.

The reduced slide might look like this:

The slide that expands on feature 1 might look like this:

Stay tuned for more PowerPoint and presentation tips this week, including the complimentary lunch & learn webinar about Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 Techniques this Thursday January 28, 2010.