By Darrell L. Browning Have a presentation coming up? A panel discussion? A report to your leadership team? A keynote address? Well, you’ve prepared your half-hour presentation to perfection. Know it like the back of your hand. Nothing can shake you. But wait: there’s a problem. You’ve prepared your presentation to a perfect half-hour. You even timed it and paced your delivery—well, good for you. Upon your arrival, they tell you have just 10 minutes. Now what do you do? Who hasn’t seen people get flustered when they know their presentation is longer than the time allowed? We illustrate this problem with a true story. Recently, our organizational development trainer watched in awe as the presenter of an address to a professional group went waaaaayyyy over his 30-minute time limit. The presenter became flustered. The audience became shifty, noisy and a pack of clock-watchers. All of this happened because, our trainer discovered, the presenter had been told he had 45-minutes, not 30, to deliver his presentation. Somebody may have goofed up, but that doesn’t matter to the audience. People never mind if you finish early but audiences always rebel when you go over your allotted time—the time they have been told—not what the speaker believed to be true. How many of us have seen the most prepared presenters instantly become lost sheep, especially when they are time-challenged? Here are some tips to avoid that: Divide your presentation into three content areas: To deliver a 30-minute speech in 10 minutes, just cover MUST know items-- those will be the ones you've highlighted in yellow on your copy of the PowerPoint presentation or note cards. Must-know items are exactly what they seem to be: the things you want your audience to focus upon. Doing this will make you appear confident at all times. And those who invited you to speak will marvel at how well you handled things. ©BrowningLaFrankie 2009. Article Source: article base Darrell L. Browning is a principal founder of BrowningLaFrankie LLC, a Philadelphia-area based company specializing in helping companies manage crises, train leaders in media and presentation skills and facilitate strategic change through leadership development and organizational development training, workshops and individual coaching. Browning is the trainer-of-choice for The Wharton School MBA Program at the University of Pennsylvania in crisis communications, media training and business writing. A journalist by profession, Browning has more than 20 years of media experience with CBS-Radio, daily newspapers and national magazines. He holds degrees in Journalism and Social Sciences from The Ohio State University. 
How to Deliver a Half-hour Presentation in 10-minutes
Author: Darrell L. Browning
There are a lot of Powerpoint templates that you can make use of. The question now is how you are going to use them to the fullest or to your advantage. Today, you will learn how to use Powerpoint templates more effectively. About the Author:
The Right Way to Use the Powerpoint Templates
Author: Daniel McMillan
1. Know the theme of your Powerpoint presentation. It becomes a lot easier for you to choose your Powerpoint templates when you know the topic or the purpose of the discussion. For example, if you're attending an astronomy convention, it could be a good idea if your chosen template designs will be related to space, such as stars or planets. If it doesn't have one, then you have better chances of coming up with a more effective Powerpoint presentation with plain-colored Powerpoint templates or those that are not too flashy or colorful.
2. Download the template designs. There are a number of templates that are already included in the Powerpoint bundle of Microsoft; however, there are incomparable to the number that you can find in the World Wide Web. Thus, before you settle for the first thing that you can find, try to look for others in the Internet. A lot of them can be downloaded for free, so you don't need to worry about spending a dime for it. You can also shop for themed template designs.
3. Powerpoint templates should not cover the texts or images. The templates that you're going to use should not be too bold or too light that texts and even images don't appear clearly on the screen. Complement is the rule. If you're using light-colored texts, darker templates are advisable. The opposite is ideal if you have darker-colored words. If you will be using a lot of images, such as during product launches, go for Powerpoint templates that are of lighter hues.
4. Keep them uniform all throughout the presentation. You may be tempted to make use of different template designs all throughout the Powerpoint presentation. Don't. It doesn't just look too annoying to your audience, but it will also bring down your credibility. Consistency is always associated with professionalism. It will also save you a lot of time and effort.
5. Use the format menu. Would you like to change the existing template design of your Powerpoint presentation? It's actually very easy. You just need to save the Powerpoint template that you want to use. Then, on the Format menu of your Powerpoint application, select Apply Design Template. Locate where you have placed the template design. The choose Apply. It will change not just one but all template designs that you are currently using.
Using Help
When you are unsure of how to work your way around your Powerpoint templates, you can always hit the Help button of Powerpoint. You can also check out the websites where you got the template designs, since most of them do have guidelines on how to use their themes to your presentations. There are also plenty of tutorials, articles, and videos that can show you how to utilize templates.
