Presenting for success

How you present yourself, both when you're making a formal presentation as well as simply around the office, is vital to success at work.

Presentations are frequently dreaded by many people, so this issue we've got lots of hints and tips on improving the content and format of your presentations as well as articles to help you work with PowerPoint more effectively.

And if you find yourself getting too stressed about your next big speech, take some time out and "enjoy" our presentation disaster stories.

How others might perceive you at work is also important - but you might be less aware of it. Don't miss our feature which provides four quick ideas for how you can operate more effectively with colleagues.

As always, if you have any comments or suggestions for the newsletter, please email us at atworkuk@microsoft.com

Best wishes,
Chris

Essential "softer" skills for work

These days it's no longer enough to just be good at your job. Beyond the basic technical skills, employers now have much higher expectations as to the "softer" interpersonal skills that you can bring to your job.

If you want to apply for a new job, a pay rise or even a promotion, you will need to be more than just technically adept. This needn't be difficult - there are four essential skills to getting ahead at work.

Discover the four stage process that can help you.

Several issues ago, we asked you to email us your presentation disaster stories. We got a great response and had a lot of fun reading through your amusing anecdotes. So while you’re fine-tuning your own presentation skills (with the help of all the tips in this issue!), don’t miss these top ten tales of woe.
 

How do I bring my presentations to life and keep my audience wide awake?

If you’ve ever been subjected to ‘Death by PowerPoint’ you’ll know how important it is to make sure your presentation doesn’t bore your audience. Adding animations is a great way of doing this.

How do I team up with other people to develop joint presentations?

You can work on your presentation with other members of you team, even if they’re not in the same building as you.

How do I use a Project map to make sure that I achieve all my goals?

Readers' Corner

A really useful Word keyboard shortcut is the ability to jump to the location in which you last typed or edited text: Shift+F5.

This shortcut goes back to up to three editing points, and when you press it a fourth time, it returns to where you started. It also tracks the documents you’re working on and will jump between documents as appropriate.

The keyboard shortcut is useful both while editing (for instance, having copied something, to return to where you were typing previously in order to
paste) and when you open a document (although then it only goes to your last editing point).

Thanks to Karen Roem for this tip. Karen, there's a copy of Microsoft Project on its way to you now.

Don't forget if you want to participate in the Readers' Corner, email your Office hint, tip, idea or template to atworkuk@microsoft.com.
 

Essential tips for successful presentations

Writing a presentation? Before you get started check out these 3 essential tips for planning and writing that could make or break your next presentation.

And once your presentation content is ready to go, don't miss our 6 top tips for formatting your PowerPoint presentations.

Beta Undercover Reporter

Have you heard about the newest member of the Office family? Office Groove will transform the way you work in teams and, if our experience is anything to go by, save you sending a stack of emails.

Let the undercover reporter show you some of the highlights of Office Groove 2007.

PowerPoint has had a huge makeover and animations and slide transitions get a lot easier to manage in the 2007 release.

Read the latest comments on what it's really like to be working with the 2007 Office System Beta 2.

Quick tip: PowerPoint

Working with the pointer during a slide show

Hide the pointer and slide show toolbar immediately by pressing Ctrl+H.

Or hide them after a delay of 15 seconds by pressing Ctrl+U.

Learn more about PowerPoint.
 

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