Communicate Using Technology
Book Review

By Dale Farris, Vice President Golden Triangle PC Club May 2004 General Overview Communicate Using Technology is an exciting business, owned by Dave Paradi (photo, right), who is known as "The Office Technology Lifeguard." Dave is a professional speaker who rescues people from "Death by PowerPoint" and other electronic sins. Mr. Paradi looks for the hidden dangers of using office technology and tells you about them. He will give you information to keep you safe through his newsletter, articles, and learning tools, and can help through his always valuable workshops, presentations, and consulting to save you from harm. Mr. Paradi also makes available numerous e-books, mostly in PDF format, that summarize many of his key principles. Reviewed here are just three (3) of these valuable e-books that focus on how to maximize your impact using Microsoft's PowerPoint slide show presentation program. While there are of course numerous books that focus on how to use PowerPoint, very, very few focus on the fundamental principles of designing and presenting power slide show presentations. Since Microsoft's PowerPoint presentation software dominates the business world, it is understandable why in so many instances computer presentations are organized and delivered using PowerPoint. However, there is a big, big difference between learning how to use PowerPoint, and learning how to use PowerPoint (or any other slide show presentation) to present an exciting, interesting, and never boring presentation. This is Mr. Paradi's focus:  to educate and train users of PowerPoint how to create dynamic presentations that will positively impact the audience, and NOT bore them to tears. As you might expect, Mr. Paradi has unfortunately sat through enough dismal presentations to provide him ample material to integrate into his super e-books on structuring effective presentations. In educational institutions that contain classes in public speaking, the focus remains on classic public speaking venues, styles, and approaches, while in the world of business many of today's presentations are built in Microsoft's PowerPoint software. This dependence on PowerPoint has resulted in a new arena of public speaking training, namely the specialized field of learning how to use PowerPoint to create successful presentations. Unfortunately, many of today's current public speaking educators are NOT trained to train others with PowerPoint. This provides the opportunity for Mr. Paradi to fill this void with his super materials. E-Book (1) - "The 20% You REALLY Need to Know About Structuring a Presentation" In this e-book, Mr. Paradi borrows from the age-old 80-20 Pareto principle, which states that "80% of the benefit comes from 20% of the knowledge," or 20% of the students give teachers 80% of their problems, or 80% of the results of a process are due to 20% of the causes. In the case of this e-book, Mr. Paradi finely details the 20% of what you REALLY need to know to complete almost all of your required tasks to result in a successful presentation. The format of the book explains a nice step-by-step process for accomplishing the task, and his material is superbly organized for maximum impact. Each step in his process explains: What you do Why you are doing it How you do it. The book also includes a summary of the step-by-step process as a quick job aid. In this e-book, Mr. Paradi organizes his ideas around structuring a successful presentation. He explains nine (9) key process steps, and this important material will help you: Select the right type of presentation for the situation, so you do not waste your time (or the audience's time) Define a presentation goal that focuses your work Analyze your audience, so you speak to their needs Move your audience confidently to the goal by defining the key points of the presentation Back up each key point with research that convinces the audience of your message Prepare a detailed outline that allows you to easily create your presentation slides He also includes a helpful list of additional resources, along with a summary of these key steps. This e-book is available for downloading in PDF format, contains 19 pages of information, and costs $11.97. Recommendation Anyone responsible for designing a presentation will realize great value in the minimal investment in this highly useful information that is based on the author's many years of experience, along with countless positive responses from thousands of his very satisfied customers. The e-book also will well serve all public speaking classes, as well as classes that cover PowerPoint as a fundamental introduction to the important principles of effective public speaking. E-Book (2) - "The 20% You REALLY Need to Know About PowerPoint 2002" In this additional learning tool, Mr. Paradi focuses on the essentials of PowerPoint, and the "20% of the PowerPoint features you REALLY need to know." Instead of presenting a full-fledged, complete training course on all the features of PowerPoint, Mr. Paradi has wisely realized what most all PowerPoint users eventually learn, that they end up regularly using about 20% of all the features of the software, while ignoring most all other functions. This is either because these other capabilities are unnecessary, or are just irrelevant to the real presentations customers actually create. As Mr. Paradi says, traditional software books go through every feature of PowerPoint, every menu item, and every toolbar button. That approach does not usually work with most customers. Instead, in his e-book "The 20% You REALLY Need to Know About PowerPoint," he takes a different, more practical approach. In this extremely valuable e-book, Mr. Paradi explains a 13 step process that walks you step-by-step through how to get up and running with PowerPoint quickly and easily. Each step in the process describes what you do, why you are doing it (so you understand how to adapt that step to your own unique situation), how to do it, and step-by-step instructions with screen printouts so you know you are doing it correctly. In addition, he includes a one-page summary of the process to print out and hang beside your computer as your "Cheat Sheet" quick reference guide. His finely tuned techniques will take you beyond the basic process so you can get the most out of using PowerPoint. The e-book is available in PDF format, for downloading, contains 45 pages of information, and costs $14.97. Recommendation This is a super bargain, and all PowerPoint customers should get a copy. Instead of working with one of the "dummies" titles on PowerPoint, customers will likely find this more practical, effective e-book a far better introduction to using PowerPoint. E-Book (3) - "The 20% You REALLY Need to Know About Creating Effective PowerPoint Slides" In this third e-book, Mr. Paradi concentrates on the actual use of the software, Microsoft's PowerPoint slide presentation application. In this title, Mr. Paradi concentrates on what works well, and how to implement the best features of PowerPoint in order to make your presentation stand out among the crowd of dismal presentations. As Mr. Paradi says, you have probably sat through (or done yourself) too many PowerPoint presentations that suffer from problems such as: Way too much text on the slides Choice of colors that made the slides unreadable Graphics that made no sense with the message Confusing or misleading graphs Words and graphics flying all over the screen Sound familiar? In this title, Mr. Paradi focuses on folks who know how to use the features of PowerPoint, but who are looking to take their presentations to the next level. You may have also tried the templates and wizards that come with the program, but were disappointed with the results. In response, Mr. Paradi provides the information professionals use to create slides that enhance the message they deliver. Not for nothing is Mr. Paradi known as The PowerPoint Lifeguard. On countless occasions, Mr. Paradi has rescued speakers and their audiences from "Death by PowerPoint." His ideas have been featured by "Presentations Magazine," "Canadian Business" magazine, Microsoft, the "Toronto Star," "BusinessWorld India," the Derek Bok Center For Teaching And Learning at Harvard University, Speaking of Impact, Presenters University, www.sellingpower.com, and the "Great Speaking" e-newsletter, as well as numerous internal organizational publications. In this super PowerPoint learning tool, Mr. Paradi will help you: Pick slide colors that subconsciously give you greater credibility Select fonts that make it easy for audiences to read and understand each point Write bullet points that keep the audience paying attention to every word you say Prepare digital photographs that are crisp and clear every time and load in a flash Find and use graphics that drive home each point you make Create graphs and tables that make your data easy to understand Evaluate if audio and video segments can be used to make your points come alive Use animations that visually direct the audience to key points Use a 36 question checklist to make sure every presentation will hit the mark The e-book is available in PDF format, for downloading, contains 44 pages of information, and costs $17.97. Recommendation This is a super bargain, and all PowerPoint customers should get s copy of this important book on PowerPoint. In addition, all educational institutions that are teaching PowerPoint can find Mr. Paradi's title an effective, and less expensive alternative to their traditional academic titles. Target Readers The targeted readers of Mr. Paradi's excellent material include anyone who teaches classes that involve PowerPoint, and of course all students who are learning PowerPoint. Professional educators who teach classes in public speaking also can make great use of Mr. Paradi's titles in their curriculum. I teach computer classes that cover PowerPoint, and when we get to this part of Microsoft Office, I remind students that just because they can use some neat feature / tool in PowerPoint, this does NOT necessarily mean that they will use the feature. For example, the array of fonts, font colors, and fill colors in PowerPoint is dizzying, but in my opinion about 98% of all these dazzling display options will likely be ignored when building professional PowerPoint presentations for use in most businesses. I also remind students to be very, very careful with transition effects, the integration of audio and video in their presentations, and to be certain that the overall theme of their presentation relates to the serious expectations of viewers of most all business presentations. In addition, I also regularly remind students that PowerPoint is just another tool for consideration when planning a presentation, and that the most important thing about their presentation is NOT necessarily the slide layout and design in PowerPoint, but instead their content, what they are trying to say, the makeup of their audience, and the purpose of their presentation. In effect, using PowerPoint is but one aspect of effective, impactful public speaking, and students should first learn how to improve their speaking skills before they begin to use PowerPoint to assist in their effort to achieve their presentation goal. Mr. Paradi's superb material will be a welcome addition to the toolkit used by any public speaking trainer or educator. About Communicate Using Technology Dave Paradi is known as The Office Technology Lifeguard. He rescues people from “Death by PowerPoint” and other electronic sins. Since 1999, Dave has been speaking professionally to audiences in Canada and the United States. He is the author of five books, an Instructional CD, and special reports. He offers numerous free articles and reports on his web site, www.communicateusingtechnology.com, that help people use the technology they already own to do what they want to do. Every two weeks Dave sends issues of his e-newsletter, “Communicating Using Technology,” packed with tips and resources for better technology use. Dave’s key idea is: “People don't want your message to be the technology you use. People want you to use technology to help them understand your message.” Dave is a member of the Ontario Society for Training and Development and a National Board member and Professional Member of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers. He holds an MBA from The Amos Tuck Business School at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire (1991) and a B.A.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from University of Toronto (1987). In 1998, he earned accreditation from York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in Facilitation and graduated from the Dale Carnegie Course. Dave's clients include professional speakers, sales managers and organizations, including Town of Oakville, Cambridge Shopping Centers, Ontario Drive Clean Office, Town of Newmarket, Ontario Society for Training & Development, and Southlake Regional Health Centre. Dave's articles and ideas have been published by: Canadian Business magazine, the Toronto Star, Microsoft, BusinessWorld India, the Derek Bok Center For Teaching And Learning at Harvard University, Speaking of Impact, Financial Services Journal Online, Presenters University, So to Speak, SpeakerNet News, Selling Power.com, ProducersWEB.com, Tech4Speakers e-newsletter, HRGopher.com, COPE webzine, Speaker's RE:source and the Great Speaking e-newsletter as well as numerous internal organizational publications. Dave also presents Project Management workshops in association with Business Improvement Architects (www.bia.ca) Publisher Contact Dave Paradi Communicate Using Technology 1080 Diamond Court Mississauga, ON L5V 1J5 905-510-4911 FAX 309-285-7913 dave@communicateusingtechnology.com www.communicateusingtechnology.com