Hi, how can one beef up PowerPoint skills in 2-3 months? Any good book/training available? I know generally we learn from jobs but still...thanks a lot!
Also what's the version of PowerPoint which is generally used in BBs? Thanks!
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eat some steak and then read excel 2006 workbook by frank oz
Not sure why an Excel book would help him learn PPT.
As far as the OP, PPT skills are not as value-add as say, Excel. You'll easily learn all you need to learn from PPT (the application) by making a few slides on your own. Here's a few suggestions:
Edit: Also, learn how to drop excel charts in properly. (Alt ES - Paste Windows Metafile)
what if you use excel 2007?
Great advice from logimech.
Formatting is key, everything needs to correspond in alignment, color, font, size, etc. Use the align/distribute functions rather than just lining things up by eye. Learn to use the gridlines and snap to grids, or use the position function. Learn how to manipulate the slide master. Alt-es is vital. Pasting in charts the normal way, and then editing in PP is a royal pain in the ass. Get the formatting correct in excel, and then paste it in as an image, just make sure the formatting matches.
You can learn most of this stuff online if you want, but buying any PP book, reading it and then practicing is the best way to learn.
I suggest pasting any thing from excel as an Excel object: Alt - E - S - L. That way you can quickly jump to the excel document and make any edits right there. Plus your associate won't have to ask you where the heck its at and you won't have to re-paste and re-size all the time. Also, learn to love gridlines for alignment in ppt. Atl - v - i - i.
Ctrl - G gets you to the same place
Many classes will show you how to do it.
Lots of the banks have their own proprietary add-ins or software running on top of PowerPoint, so instaed of trying to learn to create good-looking presentations, focus on learning to do things quicker by using shortcuts, as mentioned above.
Great advice folks! Thanks!
There are so many option to learn power point. Online training is also beneficial for you to gain maximum knowledge about any technology. I have also learned MS Office from online tutorial.
How long would it take to learn these skills sufficiently? Would a weekend of prep work?
Honestly I think a lot of this just comes with the job. People tell me you get faster once you're properly motivated by the fact that the faster you finish, the earlier you get to leave.
I would suggest upgrading your LinkedIn membership to LinkedIn premium that way you'll get access to Lynda. It has plenty of training material on excel and power point.
Most Important PowerPoint Skills (Originally Posted: 01/04/2013)
I see we have a thread of popular/essential Excel skills for consultants. I was wondering if we could begin a thread for PowerPoint as well. From what I'm told, most consultants, even in Financial Services, don't use alot of Excel but use tons of PowerPoint and maybe Project.
Thanks.
Powerpoint is less about "skills." It's just about getting used to the frameworks that your firm uses and how to structure a message in a deck and on a page. The best thing a new consultant can do is just get a whole bunch of old decks and steal good pages out of them. Put all of the pages that you like in one "template" file and then pull them out when you need them. Once you have the story-telling down, it's all about speed.
Also, I'm not sure who told you that most consultants don't use Excel, but it's definitely not true in MBB.
Exactly. If you have access to example decks, study and practice storylining.
Read Presentation Zen, learn how to tell a story based on the needs. Scientific data slides for a technical group? Then details are good, shown clearly. Anything you can find on great data visualization is great too. Never use 3D, or clipart....
Pick up good graphic design books while you're at it (or at least learn the concepts, like grid design, typography etc.)
Someone has just paid you $250,000 for a report and a deck....they better look professional. It's all you have to show your worth (as well as the quality of the content).
TT
I just peeked at that book on Amazon. It seems interesting, but I'm not sure it's applicable for consulting slide writing. The book shows you how to make PowerPoints that are concise visual aids for your in-person presentations. Consulting decks and slides are dense for a reason -- they're meant to be readable afterwards, even without the presenter.
Excel. Do all of your tables in excel and them copy/paste them into powerpoint. Easiest way to make things look clean.
I actually completely disagree. As a brand new analyst or associate, you're not writing the storyline for anything, so while that's a nice skill to have, it's not coming out of the toolbox until at least 6 months in. What is super helpful is knowing powerpoint shortcuts - even though you send everything off to production to have it beautified, being able to turn a page really quickly can determine how much time you have to waste.
I agree with the speed - you should be very efficient in terms of crunching out slides. Here are some ppt functions I found useful for getting things done faster. -F2 toggles between text and dimensions when you're playing around with a shape -shift + F3 toggles upper case/lower case/first letter capitalized -ctrl + shift + adjusts font sizes -alt + ctrl + shift + toggles super and sub scripts -if you need to duplicate an object, don't copy paste, just ctrl + drag -holding shift for whatever will keep the dragging or drawing straight -know all the ways you can align shapes/shapes to each other (align top, right, left, bottom) -you can also align objects to the page (align object middle, align objects centre) -you can distribute the space of multiple objects evenly (distribute horizontally/vertically) -Can also distribute columns and rows evenly in tables -ctrl + shift + G and H groups + ungroups -I keep on my toolbar bring to front + send to back -increase/decrease indent level for lists in a table becuase when you press tab in a table, it send you to the next cell -pick up object style + apply object style (for same function as paste special formats in excel) -in grid settings, turn on snap objects to other objects -drawing guides are also sometimes useful
It's been a long time since you posted this, but I think there's some good value in here for all to learn. Knowing how to quickly change fonts, sizes, align, bullet, superscript, indent, etc. is HUGE for junior folks who will be making lots of turns.
I personally didn't know the SHIFT trick for straight lines or SHIFT + F3 for toggling in and out of capital letters.
Thanks! +1 SB for you
Yeah, great stuff!
PowerPoint = SA ? (Originally Posted: 02/21/2015)
There's a 90% chance I can get a SA position at a certain boutique, under one condition......I need to be able to construct a high quality slideshow (PowerPoint) about a topic of my choosing.
Any suggestions as to where one can go to learn how to effectively use PowerPoint?
Suggestions on topic?
All advice is appreciated; thanks guys.
BIWS Powerpoint Package. I can hook you up if you like.
Any chance you can DM me that package? Thank You!
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