terminologies in presentation application

30 Presentation Terms & What They Mean

Delivering a captivating presentation is an art that requires more than just confidence and oratory skills. From the design of your slides to the way you carry yourself on stage, every little detail contributes to the overall effectiveness of your presentation. For those who wish to master this art, getting familiar with the associated terminology is a great place to start.

In this article, we’ll explore “30 Presentation Terms & What They Mean,” shedding light on the key terms and concepts in the world of presentations. Whether you’re a professional looking to refine your skills, a student aiming to ace your next presentation, or just someone curious about the subject, this guide is sure to provide you with valuable insights.

Dive in as we explore everything from slide decks and speaker notes to body language and Q&A sessions.

Each term is elaborated in depth, giving you a comprehensive understanding of their meanings and applications. This knowledge will not only make you more comfortable with presentations but will also empower you to deliver them more effectively.

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Table of Contents

• Speaker Notes
• White Space
• Aspect Ratio
• Grid System
• Master Slide
• Infographic
• Data Visualization
• Call-to-Action (CTA)
• Color Palette
• Negative Space
• Storyboarding
• Bullet Points
• Eye Contact
• Body Language
• Q&A Session

1. Slide Deck

A slide deck, in its most basic sense, is a collection of slides that are presented in sequence to support a speech or presentation. The slides typically contain key points, graphics, and other visual aids that make the presentation more engaging and easier to understand.

Beyond merely displaying information, a well-crafted slide deck can tell a story, create an emotional connection, or illustrate complex concepts in a digestible way. Its design elements, including the choice of colors, fonts, and images, play a significant role in how the presentation is received by the audience.

2. Speaker Notes

Speaker notes are a feature in presentation software that allows presenters to add notes or cues to their slides. These notes are only visible to the presenter during the presentation. They can include additional information, reminders, prompts, or even the full script of the speech.

While the audience sees the slide deck, the speaker can use these notes as a guide to ensure they cover all necessary points without memorizing the entire speech. It’s essential to use speaker notes strategically – they should aid the presentation, not become a script that hinders natural delivery.

A template is a pre-designed layout for a slide deck. It typically includes a set design, color scheme, typefaces, and placeholders for content like text, images, and graphs. Templates can significantly reduce the time and effort required to create a professional-looking presentation.

While templates can be incredibly helpful, it’s important to choose one that aligns with the theme, purpose, and audience of the presentation. Customizing the template to match your brand or topic can further enhance its effectiveness.

4. Transition

In the realm of presentations, a transition refers to the visual effect that occurs when you move from one slide to the next. Simple transitions include fade-ins and fade-outs, while more complex ones might involve 3D effects, wipes, or spins.

Transitions can add a touch of professionalism and dynamism to a presentation when used correctly. However, overuse or choosing flashy transitions can be distracting and detract from the content. The key is to use transitions that complement the presentation’s tone and pace without overshadowing the message.

5. Animation

Animation is the process of making objects or text in your slide deck appear to move. This can involve anything from making bullet points appear one by one, to having graphics fly in or out, to creating a simulation of a complex process. Animation can add interest, emphasize points, and guide the audience’s attention throughout the presentation.

While animations can make a presentation more engaging, they must be used judiciously. Excessive or overly complex animations can distract the audience, complicate the message, and look unprofessional. As with transitions, animations should support the content, not detract from it.

6. Multimedia

Multimedia refers to the combination of different types of media — such as text, images, audio, video, and animation — within a single presentation. Incorporating multimedia elements can make a presentation more engaging, cater to different learning styles, and aid in explaining complex ideas.

However, it’s important to ensure that multimedia elements are relevant, high-quality, and appropriately scaled for the presentation. Additionally, depending on the presentation venue, technical considerations such as file sizes, internet speed, and audio quality need to be taken into account when using multimedia.

7. White Space

In the context of presentation design, white space (or negative space) refers to the unmarked portions of a slide, which are free of text, images, or other visual elements. Despite its name, white space doesn’t necessarily have to be white — it’s any area of a slide not filled with content.

White space can give a slide a clean, balanced look and can help draw attention to the most important elements. It can also reduce cognitive load, making it easier for the audience to process information. Good use of white space is often a key difference between professional and amateur designs.

8. Aspect Ratio

Aspect ratio is the proportional relationship between a slide’s width and height. It’s typically expressed as two numbers separated by a colon, such as 4:3 or 16:9. The first number represents the width, and the second represents the height.

The choice of aspect ratio can affect how content fits on the screen and how the presentation appears on different displays. For instance, a 16:9 aspect ratio is often used for widescreen displays, while a 4:3 ratio may be more suitable for traditional computer monitors and projectors.

9. Grid System

The grid system is a framework used to align and layout design elements in a slide. It’s comprised of horizontal and vertical lines that divide the slide into equal sections or grids.

The grid system aids in creating visual harmony, balance, and consistency across slides. It can guide the placement of text, images, and other elements, ensuring that they’re evenly spaced and aligned. It’s an important tool for maintaining a professional and organized appearance in a presentation.

10. Readability

Readability refers to how easy it is for an audience to read and understand the text on your slides. It involves factors such as font size, typeface, line length, spacing, and contrast with the background.

Ensuring good readability is crucial in presentations. If your audience can’t easily read and understand your text, they’ll be more likely to disengage. Large fonts, simple language, high-contrast color schemes, and ample white space can enhance readability.

11. Infographic

An infographic is a visual representation of information, data, or knowledge. They’re used in presentations to communicate complex data in a clear, concise, and engaging way. Infographics can include charts, graphs, icons, pictures, and text.

While infographics can effectively communicate complex ideas, they must be designed carefully. Too much information, confusing visuals, or a lack of a clear hierarchy can make an infographic difficult to understand. It’s important to keep the design simple and focus on the key message.

To embed in a presentation context means to incorporate external content, such as a video, a document, or a website, directly into a slide. When an object is embedded, it becomes part of the presentation file and can be viewed or played without leaving the presentation.

Embedding can be a useful tool to incorporate interactive or supplementary content into a presentation. However, it’s important to remember that it can increase the file size of the presentation and may require an internet connection or specific software to function correctly.

13. Palette

A palette, in terms of presentations, refers to the set of colors chosen to be used throughout the slide deck. This can include primary colors for backgrounds and text, as well as secondary colors for accents and highlights.

The right color palette can help convey the mood of a presentation, reinforce branding, and increase visual interest. It’s important to choose colors that work well together and provide enough contrast for readability. Tools like color wheel or color scheme generators can be helpful in choosing a harmonious palette.

14. Vector Graphics

Vector graphics are digital images created using mathematical formulas rather than pixels. This means they can be scaled up or down without losing quality, making them ideal for presentations that may be viewed on different screen sizes.

Vector graphics often have smaller file sizes than their pixel-based counterparts (raster graphics), which can help keep your presentation file manageable. Common types of vector graphics include logos, icons, and illustrations.

15. Mood Board

A mood board is a collection of images, text, colors, and other design elements that serve as visual inspiration for a presentation. It helps establish the aesthetic, mood, or theme of the presentation before the design process begins.

Creating a mood board can be a valuable step in the presentation design process. It can help you visualize how different elements will work together, communicate your design ideas to others, and maintain consistency across your slides.

16. Hierarchy

In design, hierarchy refers to the arrangement of elements in a way that implies importance. In presentations, visual hierarchy helps guide the viewer’s eye to the most important elements first.

Hierarchy can be created through the use of size, color, contrast, alignment, and whitespace. Effective use of hierarchy can make your slides easier to understand and keep your audience focused on the key points.

17. Stock Photos

Stock photos are professionally taken photographs that are bought and sold on a royalty-free basis. They can be used in presentations to add visual interest, convey emotions, or illustrate specific concepts.

While stock photos can enhance a presentation, it’s important to use them judiciously and choose images that align with your presentation’s tone and content. Overuse of generic or irrelevant stock photos can make a presentation feel impersonal or unprofessional.

18. Sans Serif

Sans serif refers to a category of typefaces that do not have small lines or strokes attached to the ends of larger strokes. Sans serif fonts are often used in presentations because they’re typically easier to read on screens than serif fonts, which have these small lines.

Some popular sans serif fonts for presentations include Helvetica, Arial, and Calibri. When choosing a font for your slides, readability should be a primary consideration.

19. Hyperlink

A hyperlink, or link, is a clickable element in a slide that directs the viewer to another slide in the deck, a different document, or a web page. Hyperlinks can be used in presentations to provide additional information or to navigate to specific slides.

While hyperlinks can be useful, they should be used sparingly and appropriately. Links that direct the viewer away from the presentation can be distracting and disrupt the flow of your talk.

PDF stands for Portable Document Format. It’s a file format that preserves the fonts, images, graphics, and layout of any source document, regardless of the computer or software used to create it. Presentations are often saved and shared as PDFs to ensure they look the same on any device.

While a PDF version of your presentation will maintain its appearance, it won’t include interactive elements like animations, transitions, and hyperlinks. Therefore, it’s best used for distributing slide handouts or when the presentation software used to create the deck isn’t available.

21. Raster Graphics

Raster graphics are digital images composed of individual pixels. These pixels, each a single point with its own color, come together to form the full image. Photographs are the most common type of raster graphics.

While raster graphics can provide detailed and vibrant images, they don’t scale well. Enlarging a raster image can lead to pixelation, where the individual pixels become visible and the image appears blurry. For this reason, raster images in presentations should be used at their original size or smaller.

22. Typeface

A typeface, often referred to as a font, is a set of characters with the same design. This includes letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and sometimes symbols. Typefaces can have different styles and weights, such as bold or italic.

The choice of typeface can significantly impact the readability and mood of a presentation. For example, serif typefaces can convey tradition and authority, while sans serif typefaces can appear modern and clean. The key is to choose a typeface that aligns with the purpose and audience of your presentation.

23. Visual Content

Visual content refers to the graphics, images, charts, infographics, animations, and other non-text elements in a presentation. These elements can help capture the audience’s attention, enhance understanding, and make the presentation more memorable.

While visual content can enhance a presentation, it’s important not to overload slides with too many visual elements, as this can confuse or overwhelm the audience. All visual content should be relevant, clear, and support the overall message of the presentation.

24. Call to Action

A call to action (CTA) in a presentation is a prompt that encourages the audience to take a specific action. This could be anything from visiting a website, signing up for a newsletter, participating in a discussion, or implementing a suggested strategy.

A strong CTA aligns with the goals of the presentation and is clear and compelling. It often comes at the end of the presentation, providing the audience with a next step or a way to apply what they’ve learned.

25. Thumbnails

In presentations, thumbnails are small versions of the slides that are used to navigate through the deck during the design process. They provide an overview of the presentation’s flow and can help identify inconsistencies in design.

Thumbnails are typically displayed in the sidebar of presentation software. They allow you to easily move, delete, or duplicate slides, and can provide a visual check for overall consistency and flow.

26. Aspect Ratio

27. interactive elements.

Interactive elements are components in a presentation that the audience can interact with. These could include hyperlinks, embedded quizzes, interactive infographics, or multimedia elements like audio and video.

Interactive elements can make a presentation more engaging and memorable. However, they require careful planning and should always be tested before the presentation to ensure they work as intended.

28. Placeholders

In the context of presentations, placeholders are boxes that are included in a slide layout to hold specific types of content, such as text, images, or charts. They guide the placement of content and can help ensure consistency across slides.

Placeholders can be especially useful when working with templates, as they provide a predefined layout to follow. However, they should be used flexibly – not every placeholder needs to be used, and additional elements can be added if necessary.

29. Master Slide

The master slide is the top slide in a hierarchy of slides that stores information about the theme and slide layouts of a presentation. Changes made to the master slide, such as modifying the background, fonts, or color scheme, are applied to all other slides in the presentation.

Master slides can help ensure consistency across a presentation and save time when making global changes. However, it’s important to note that individual slides can still be modified independently if necessary.

In presentations, a layout refers to the arrangement of elements on a slide. This includes the placement of text, images, shapes, and other elements, as well as the use of space and alignment.

Choosing the right layout can make your slides look organized and professional, guide the viewer’s eye, and enhance your message. Most presentation software offers a variety of pre-defined layouts, but these can usually be modified to better suit your content and design preferences.

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Presentations and PowerPoint glossary.

Custom font, embedded font, placeholder, powerpoint live, slide master, system font.

Custom fonts are those that have been sourced from outside of PowerPoint. They need to be installed on your computer to work and may not be compatible with PowerPoint Live.

The terms ‘deck’ and ‘presentation’ are used interchangeably. It is a collection of slides that you present in a slideshow. It may also be supported by a template in the background so you can insert pre-formatted layouts as slides to add extra content.

Embedded fonts are custom fonts that have been saved into a PowerPoint file so they’ll work for anyone accessing the presentation, without having them installed on their device. Embedding fonts can also make them viewable in PowerPoint Live. However, the licensing attached to certain fonts can prevent them from being embeddable. Some may be embeddable for viewing, but will be read-only. Additionally some fonts may be embeddable for use on a PC, but not on a Mac (and vice versa).

Each Slide Master contains a range of layouts. Layouts are pre-formatted blueprints for slides. When you insert a new slide in PowerPoint you are essentially choosing a layout to be brought in to your presentation as a slide to be populated. They contain placeholders for you to easily insert content in a way that adheres to a set design. Layouts are not visible in a presentation until they have been inserted as slides.

Examples of layouts are: Title, Agenda, Divider, Half Text Half Image, Chart with Text etc.

Placeholders come in different forms for different types of content (e.g. title, text, footer, image, chart, table, footer etc.). They will be pre-formatted to match the design so all you need to worry about is inputting your content.

PowerPoint Live uses the online version of PowerPoint to present slideshows in Teams. PowerPoint Online is less powerful than the desktop version of the app. We recommend against using it for presenting anything other than small presentations (<20mb) using system fonts and with minimal animation. Whenever possible, present from the desktop app using the share screen function in Teams.

Each page of your presentation is called a slide. Once a layout is inserted it becomes a slide, constituting part of your presentation. It is the canvas that hosts your content.

Every template (and presentation) contains at least one Slide Master. The Slide Master is essentially the ‘parent’ of the layouts in a template. It dictates the look, feel and behaviour of its layouts including fonts, colours, paragraph spacing, default shape formatting and more. Any changes made to the Slide Master will be applied to all related layouts. Multiple Slide Masters can be used as sub-designs in the template, based on the same central theme and complementary to each other, but with different layouts.

System fonts are those that are included with PowerPoint, meaning they’ll work on any device that has PowerPoint installed and in PowerPoint Online.

A template is a .potx file containing Slide Masters , which in turn contain slide layouts. A pre-designed framework for you to build your presentation with. Opening a template will launch a fresh PowerPoint file for you to put content into, preventing the original template from being altered.

Template design services

Template work example

Slide transitions are visual effects that occur when one slide moves to the next in a slideshow. These may be simple like a fade, or more complex like a morph where objects transform between one slide to match the next.

Microsoft Office/PowerPoint Terminology

• Ask A Question Box - Provides quick access to help.
• AutoContent Wizard - A wizard that produces a presentation with a general structure and suggested topics based on options you choose regarding the presentation output.
• AutoCorrect - Corrects capitalization, grammar, and spelling errors automatically as you type.
• AutoShapes - Ready-made shapes you can draw on the slides in your presentation by choosing a shape from the AutoShapes drop-down menu.
• Clip Art - Professionally designed images that you can add to documents. You can change the size, appearance, and location of clip art after it has been inserted into a document.
• Design Template - The background, fonts, bullets, formatting, and color scheme that you can apply to define the look of your presentation.
• Expanded Menu - A menu that displays both common and less-common commands after you pause the mouse pointer over it.
• Floating Toolbars - Toolbars that are not attached to the edge of the program window.
• Indents - Used to align bullets and text on a slide.
• Line Spacing - The vertical distance between lines of text.
• Normal View - The view you use to create and edit your presentation. It consists of three working areas: the Outline and Slides tabs, the Slide pane, and the Notes pane.
• Notes Pane - In Normal view, the Notes Pane is used to create notes for each slide in your presentation.
• Outline and Slides Tabs - One of the panes in Normal view, you use the Outline and Slides tabs to toggle between an outline of the text in your presentation and a thumbnail view of each slide.
• Presentation - An interaction between a speaker and an audience. A presentation usually includes one or more visual aids: in the case of PowerPoint, these are slides.
• Sizing Handles - Small circles or squares that appear along the border of a selected slide or object.
• Slide Pane - In Normal view, the area in the center of the application window where you create and format your slide content. It displays the current slide.
• Slide Sorter View - All slides in the presentation are displayed at once on the screen. In this view, you can rearrange, copy, and delete slides.
• Task Pane - Provides quick access to commands related to your current task.
• Transition Effects - In a slide show, a transition determines how the display changes as you move from one slide to the next.
• WordArt - A tool you can use to create unique text effects. Text objects you create with read-made effects to which you can apply additional formatting options.

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PowerPoint Glossary Of Terms

Like most programs, Microsoft PowerPoint has certain terms and phrases that are specific to it. We have attempted to list as many of the terms you are likely to come across below. If you come across a word or phrase that you either don’t understand, or that you think should be in this glossary, please let us know and we will add it.

• Action Buttons : predefined navigation buttons, such as Home, Help, Back, Next, and End, that help you navigate to a particular part of a presentation or a file.
• Adjustable Objects : objects with an adjustment handle, looking like a small yellow diamond, that allows the user to alter the appearance of the object.
• Animation Scheme : a set of professionally designed animations divided into three categories: Subtle, Moderate, and Exciting.
• Arc : a curved line whose angle you can change by dragging an adjustment handle.
• AutoContent Wizard : a wizard that takes you through a step-by- step process to create a presentation, prompting you for presentation information as you go.
• Automatic Layout Behaviour : a feature that recognizes when you insert an object onto a slide and changes the layout to fit the objects on the slide.
• Background : the underlying colours, shading, texture, and style of the colour scheme.
• Bullet Text : a list of items in which each item is preceded by a symbol.
• Colour Menu : the colour palette associated with Drawing toolbar buttons, such as Fill Colour, Line Colour, or Font Colour.
• Colour Scheme : the basic set of eight colours provided for any slide.
• Connection Pointer : a small box pointer that allows you to drag a connection line between two connection sites. .
• Connection Sites : small blue handles on each side of an object that allow you to add a connection line between two objects.
• Control Boxes : headings in a datasheet that correspond to the different data series.
• Design Template : a presentation with a designed format and colour scheme.
• Digital Signature : an electronic, secure stamp of authentication document.
• Dotted Selection Box : the border of a selected object that indicates you can manipulate the entire object.
• Embedded Object : an object created with another program but PowerPoint. You can update an embedded object in PowerPoint.
• Export : the process of converting and saving a file to a different format.
• Greyscale : a black and white image that displays shades of grey.
• Insertion Point : a blinking bar that indicates where text will be entered or edited as you type.
• Landscape Format : horizontal orientation of an image or output media where the object is wider than it is high.
• Legend : a list that identifies each data series in the datasheet.
• Linked Object : an object created in another program that maintains it connection to its source. A linked object will automatically updated if you alter the original.
• Margin Markers : small squares on the ruler that move both the upper and lower indent markers.
• Master Slides : special slides that control the properties of all other slides in a presentation.
• Normal View : a view that contains all three view panes: Slides, Outline/Slides and Notes.
• Notes Page View : a view where you can add notes and graphics that aid the speaker but are not displayed.
• Notes Pane : an area in Normal view where you can add speaker notes.
• Object : any entity in PowerPoint that you can manipulate such as a graphic, text box, sound etc.
• Offset : the direction and distance in which a shadow falls from an object.
• Outline/Slides Pane : an area in Normal view where you can organize and develop presentation content in text or slide miniature form.
• Paragraph : text that begins and end when you press Enter.
• Portrait : vertical orientation of an image or output media where the object is higher than it is wide.
• PowerPoint Viewer : a program that allows you to show a slide show on a computer that does not have PowerPoint installed.
• Pure Black and White : a black and white image that displays only black and white without any shades of gray.
• Resize Handle : a white circle on each corner and side of an object that you can drag to change the objects size.
• Scaling : resizing an entire object by a set percentage.
• ScreenTip : a yellow box that tells you the name of or more information about a button, icon, or other item on the screen when you place the pointer over the item.
• Selection Box : A grey slanted line or dotted outline around an object.
• Slide Master : see Master Slide.
• Slide Pane : an area in the Normal view where you can view a slide and add text, graphics, and other items to the slide.
• Slide Show View : a view where you can preview the presentation.
• Slide Sorter View : a view where you can see all the slides in a presentation as thumbnails.
• Slide Timing : the period of time that a slide appears on the screen.
• Status Bar : the bar at the bottom of the presentation window that displays messages about the current state of PowerPoint.
• Task Pane : a pane that allows you to quickly access commands related to a specific task without having to use menus and toolbars.
• Template : a presentation whose format and colour scheme is used as the basis for other presentations.
• Text Animation Slide : a slide with text that you set to appear incrementally.
• Text Label : a text object used primarily for short phrases or notes.
• Text Object : a box that contains text in a slide.
• Text Placeholder : a dotted-lined box that you can click to add text.
• Title Master : a master slide that contains placeholders that are similar to those of the Slide Master but that affect the title slide only.
• Title Slide : the first slide in a presentation.
• Title Text : text that identifies the name or purpose of a slide.
• Toolbar : a graphical bar in the presentation window with buttons that perform some of the common commands in PowerPoint.
• Window : an area of the screen used to display a PowerPoint program or presentation window.
• Word Processing Box : a text object used primarily for longer text.
• Word Wrap : a feature that automatically moves the insertion point to the next line within an object as you type.

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6.5 Designing a Presentation in Google Slides

Learning objectives.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Discuss similarities between Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint
• Review differences between Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint
• Explain the roles Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint play in a workplace

My Life in a Snapshot was intended to be a solo presentation, so you had no need to assemble a team. But what if you need to design a presentation on a different topic that does require a team? What if, for example, the presentation was a proposal for a new marketing campaign that you and four others have been working on? Is Microsoft PowerPoint still the best option? This section will introduce Google Slides as another tool you can use to create and build presentations.

Slides is the presentation application offered in the Google suite of products, which is a cloud-based system. To better understand the tool and its importance, let’s get started with the similarities it holds with PowerPoint .

Similarities between Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint

PowerPoint and Slides are both software programs that allow you to create and edit slideshows for presentations. When you begin to create a presentation with Slides , you will be presented with several themes and template s suitable for various applications in business, school projects, and general use. These designed templates can be customized with color, text, and style. Figure 6.41 shows Slides when first opening the program and selecting a new presentation; the default, a blank presentation, is circled. Next to the blank presentation option are the different themes and templates.

As in PowerPoint, once a presentation is either opened or begun in Slides, you will see a ribbon with tabs and options that are comparable with those in PowerPoint. In some cases, the programs even use identical word choices, such as the File, View, and Insert menus. It is a good idea to review the tabs in Slides before beginning a project. Look for the numerous overlaps in terminology and the familiar icons Slides shares with PowerPoint. However, one distinct feature of Slides is that it offers drop-down boxes from each tab, rather than a changing ribbon, as in PowerPoint.

There are other similarities between Slides and PowerPoint. For example, the thumbnails of the slides run down the left side with the highlighted slide in the center of the frame, and tabs across the top of the sidebar for navigation purposes. Both programs offer options for adding new slides, changing layouts, selecting design elements, and inserting text/images.

Both programs can create professional, high-quality electronic presentations. As technology continues to evolve, both programs adapt and continue to offer user-friendly tools. In general, both tools allow users to:

• add text, images, videos, charts, graphs, and links to any slide
• pick a custom font while selecting and using premade themes
• use basic transitions between slides and print to PDF
• collaborate with team members to greater or lesser degrees

Differences between Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint

Understanding some of the key differences between Slides and PowerPoint will help you decide which tool to use and when it can be most helpful while working at WorldCorp. To start, PowerPoint is a stand-alone software program that users can purchase or access through a provider such as a school, a company, or an organization to which they belong. Stand-alone software programs are typically installed on a computer’s hard drive and can be launched by double-clicking an icon on the desktop or by selecting the program from the list of installed programs in the operating system. Stand-alone software programs are self-contained and do not rely on external resources, such as a connection to the internet or services to function. They are referred to as “offline capable.” The application, or app, is just a click away for the user to begin their work, regardless of their internet connection. As the program has advanced and added new features, it has expanded to include online collaboration. PowerPoint now offers users online experiences through the combination of Microsoft OneDrive and Microsoft 365 .

Slides, by contrast, is a web-based software application that is part of the Google suite of productivity tools. As covered in the chapter on Essentials of Software Applications for Business , web-based software programs are hosted on a remote server and accessed over the internet using a web browser, rather than being installed on a computer’s hard drive. This makes it possible for users to access the software from any device with an internet connection, as the software and data are stored remotely and not on the user’s local machine. This helps ensure that there are no delays or negative experiences such as slowing down a user’s internet connection. They are often designed to be more lightweight, with fewer features compared with their desktop counterparts.

As a cloud-based application, Slides offers a unique advantage to offline applications when collaborating in a team. As with other Google programs, users can work on the same file in real time across multiple computers. This facilitates collaboration and eliminates the need to pass files back and forth between team members.

However, Google does offer an offline option for users as well. When using Google’s web browser, Chrome, users can install a browser extension that allows its online Google programs, such as Slides and Docs, to download the applications to their local computer, allowing users to work on their projects even without access to the internet. Additionally, Chrome operating systems typically come with other Google offline programs preloaded. Google offline functionality is available for some mobile devices and most desktop operating systems. It’s possible to use Google offline for some mobile devices and most desktop operating systems.

The most prominent difference between Slides and PowerPoint lies in their origins as a cloud-based application versus a desktop application, respectively. Slides has a minimal appearance and relatively fewer features, keeping things simple across their programs for ultimate user ease. Its goal is accessibility and collaboration in an online environment. In contrast, PowerPoint offers more robust features with more capabilities. In this respect, Slides works better than PowerPoint on mobile application devices.

However, it is still optimal to use a computer when creating a presentation in either program. Using a cell phone or a tablet poses challenges for users who want to harness the full potential of PowerPoint. To maximize the user experience, PowerPoint is recommended for use on a laptop or desktop computer due to its overall capability and processing needs. Having a larger screen with a more robust computer processor can make it easier to see subtle editorial changes or to handle large file size changes to a high-resolution image.

How Microsoft PowerPoint and Google Slides Function in a Workplace

Several features of Slides make it a unique and intriguing piece of software to have alongside PowerPoint . Both programs are commonly used in workplace settings, but may be used with different goals and audiences in mind. At WorldCorp, different teams use different tools in ways that work best for them; often, team members find that a project requires a combination of both programs.

A best practice for a collaborative presentation would be for a team to start working in Slides. Team members can work offline if they choose, or they can work together online constructing slides. Once the rough outline of the presentation has been accomplished and agreed upon through online collaboration, the Slides presentation can be saved as a PowerPoint file. Conveniently, Slides offers a way to quickly export presentations as PowerPoint files. A member of the team who is well-versed in PowerPoint and digital presentation development can then edit the slides if needed. They can work offline to unify and format each slide into a cohesive slideshow.

Conversely, you can also open a PowerPoint file in Slides. However, note that because Slides is less feature-rich than PowerPoint, you may not be able to preserve your slideshow exactly. Let’s look at converting the saved PowerPoint presentation that you have been working on, My Life in a Snapshot , to Slides. First, upload your PowerPoint presentation to your Google Drive . Then, open Slides; the PowerPoint most likely will be listed as a recently saved file on the opening screen. Select the file and begin. Figure 6.42 shows the warning that Slides wants to issue before you start editing: “Some PowerPoint features can’t be displayed and will be dropped if you make any changes” appears in a dialog box after selecting the saved file. There are fewer design options with Slides, and Google does not include all of the features that PowerPoint does, such as WordArt . This means that anything that was formatted as WordArt in PowerPoint will not appear correctly in the Google Slides version, or may even be deleted entirely. For this project, please go ahead and dismiss the warning to begin.

You may want to do this conversion process if you want to open your PowerPoint file for online collaboration, for instance. If your PowerPoint does not contain too many complex features, converting the file to Slides is usually an easy process that results in a Slides presentation that looks extremely similar to your original PowerPoint.

Sometimes, your choice of which program to use is determined by the software ecosystem that your company is part of. Workplaces will often choose one type of program—Google, Microsoft, or another large brand—to use at all levels of their company to streamline usage and file types. Preference and ecosystem requirements will typically be the key drivers in determining which tool to use for your presentation, but once you have learned one of the applications, you will have a faster learning curve when it comes to learning the other. Because Microsoft has traditionally dominated the office workplace, applications like Word and PowerPoint are more common in business settings. However, with schools and small businesses looking to offer free and affordable options for newer users (for example, Chromebooks are required in some classrooms), Slides continues to expand its reach. Its ease of use can attract those new to working with digital presentations or collaborating with teams on a project. Knowing and being confident in both programs removes the walls of an ecosystem, particularly if it is easy to change files from one type to the other. As we work in ever-diverse workgroups, the ability to move from one program to another becomes increasingly important.

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The big SlideLizard presentation glossary

Look up definitions & meanings of terms

Impromptu Speech

A speech that is given without any preparation, notes, or cards, is called an impromptu speech. It is often delivered at private events (e.g., weddings or birthdays) or for training presentation skills.

Manuscript Speech

For a manuscript speech, the speaker has an entire manuscript to read from. The benefit is that, as every single word is scripted, no important parts will be missed. However, speeches that are fully written down often seem unnatural and may bore the audience.

Declamation Speech

A declamation speech describes the re-giving of an important speech that has been given in the past. It is usually given with a lot of emotion and passion.

Extemporaneous Speech

An extemporaneous speech is a speech that involves little preparation, as the speaker may use notes or cards to give his talk. It is important that speakers will still use their own words and talk naturally. .

Eulogy Speech

A eulogy speech is given at a funeral. It is given by familiy members or friends of the deceased. The aim is to say goodbye and pay tribute to the person who has passed away.

Valedictory Speech

A valedictory speech is given in order to say goodbye, usually at graduation. It should inspire listeners and functions as a send-off into "real life".

.ppt file extension

A .ppt file is a presentation which was made with PowerPoint, that includes different slides with texts, images and transition effects.

.potx file extension

A .potx file is a file which contains, styles, texts, layouts and formatting of a PowerPoint (.ppt) file. It's like a template and useful if you want to have more than one presentation with the same formatting.

.pot file extension

They are used to create more PowerPoint files with the same formatting and later got replaced by .potx files.

.odp file extension

.odp files are similar to .ppt files. It's a presentation which was created with Impress and contains slides with images, texts, effects and media.

.ppsx file extension

A ppsx file is a presentation file. When you open the file the slide show opens and not the editing mode like in ppt files.

.pps file extension

A .pps file is a slide show. They are similiar to .ppt files but they open as a slide show if you double-klick them. They later got replaced by .ppsx files.

.pptm file extension

A .pptm file is a macro-enabled presentation created by MS PowerPoint which contains slides with layout, images, texts and embedded macros.

.potm file extension

A .potm file is a template for macro-enabled presentations. They are used for creating more .pptm files with the same macro settings and the same formatting.

.ppsm file extension

A .ppsm file includes one or more macro-enabled slides. They are used to show presentations with embedded macros, but not for editing them.

Learning on Demand

Learning on Demand means that the content is available extactly when it's needed by the learner

Microlearning

Microlearning means learning in small quantities. It is especially used in E-Learning.

Learning Chunk

Learning Chunk means, like Microlearning, learning in small quantities. The learning content is really small and can be absorbed quickly.

Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) are digital courses (online) with many participants (massive) that are available for free.

Web-Based-Training (WBT)

Web-Based-Training (WBT) is an older term for learnmethods that can be accessed over the internet.

A webinar is a seminar that takes place in a specific digital location at a specific time. It's a seminar that combines live and online formats.

Hybrid Learning

Hybrid learning means that one group of students are in class at school. Another group of students takes part in class from home at the same time. They both get taught at the same time.

Flipped Classroom

Flipped Classroom means that students work out the subject matter themselves at home through tasks such as reading, videos, etc. Interactive learning activities and exercises then take place in class.

Live Online Training (LOT)

In live online training, participants and teachers are not in the same physical room but in the same virtual room. This is usually possible through an online platform or a software system.

Break-out-Room

In live online training, it is sometimes useful to divide the students into small groups for certain exercises, as it would be impossible to have conversations at the same time. Break-out-rooms are used so that people can talk to each other without disturbing the others. When the exercise is over, they are sent back to the main room.

mLearning means mobile learning, which comes from "Mobile Telephone". You can access the learning material over your mobile phone anywhere, which makes learning mobile.

Asynchronous Learning

Asynchronous Learning means that the learning is time-shifted. The communication between student and teacher are time-delayed.

Tutorials are videos with instructions that show how for example a product or a software works.

A podcast is an audio or video contribution that can be listened to or viewed via the Internet. Podcasts can be used for information on specific topics but also for entertainment.

Computer Based Training (CBT)

Computer Based Traing (CBT) means digital learning programs, which work without internet. Exercises can be downloaded over the internet or can be distributed via storage media like a USB stick or a CD.

Virtual Reality

With Virtual Reality people can practice situations and important processes in a virtual room by putting on special digital glasses. They can influence what happens themselves.

Blended Learning

Blended Learning is a teaching / learning method that includes both in-person and online instruction. The technique has gained a lot of popularity, as it combines the benefits of teaching live and online, which makes it very successful, according to several studies.

Game-based Learning

Game-based learning is a popular approach where the instrument for a learning process is a game. Game-based learning scenarios are often found online - they are often favored because they engage learners in a way that few other learning methods do.

WWTBAM is an acronym for "Who wants to be a Millionaire", which is a famous quiz show that airs in several countries.

An e-lecture is a lecture that is held online. Many schools and universities offer e-lectures as technical opportunities improve.

Open Educational Resources (OER)

Open Educational Resources are free learning and teaching materials provided on the web. They have an open license (e.g., Creative Commons), which allows anyone to use and benefit from these resources.

Learning Management System (LMS)

Learning Management Systems (LMS) are online platforms that provide learning resources and support the organisation of learning processes.

Student Response System (SRS)

With Student Response Systems (SRS) it is possible to get live student feedback in the classroom. Questions and answers can usually be asked and given anonymously, which increases participation and engagement. An SRS may be used for any grade, including university.

Classroom Communication System (CCS)

A Classroom Communication System allows students and teachers to communicate efficently online. It improves students' engagement as they are animated to ask questions, give feedback and take notes. There are various companies that offer CCS solutions.

Personal Response System (PRS)

A Personal Response System (PRS) provides lecturers, presenters or teachers with the opportunity to ask a group of students or their audience questions. The questions are usually in a multiple choice format. PRS increase student engagement and provide an opportunity to receive instant feeback.

Informative Presentations

An information presentation is created when no solution is currently available. Facts, data and figures or study results are presented and current processes are described.

Instructive Presentations

Instructive Presentations are similar to informative presentations, but it's more than just giving informations. People attend instructive presentations to learn something new and to understand the topic of the presentation better.

Persuasive Presentations

A persuasive presentation is made, for example, to introduce an amendment. There are usually several options to choose from. It is particularly important to provide good arguments and reasons.

Solution Presentation

A solution has already been found during a solution presentation. The only thing that remains is to find a solution on how to realize the decision.

Concept Presentation

In a concept presentation, you have to give general information as well as try to convince the audience with good arguments and deliver a solution concept.

Motivational Presentation

A motivational presentation is meant to inspire people. In a company, for example, you could tell the company's story in a motivational presentation.

Screen presentation

A screen presentation is a graphic support and accompaniment to a spoken presentation. A popular programme for creating screen presentations is PowerPoint.

TOK Presentation

The Theory of knowledge (TOK) presentation is an essential part of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IB). The TOK presentation assesses a student's ability to apply theoretical thinking to real-life situations.

A pitch is a short presentation that is given with the intention of persuading someone (a person or company) to buy or invest. There are various forms of pitches, depending on the goal and intended outcome.

Audience Demographics

Audience Demographics are the characteristics of listeners like age, gender, cultural backgrounds, group affiliations and educational level. The speaker has to consider all these characteristics when adapting to an audience.

Audience Dynamics

Audience Dynamics means the motivations, attitudes, beliefs and values, which influence the listener's behaviour.

Internal Summary

Internal summary means to remind listeners about the major points which were already presented in a speech before coming to new ideas.

Internal Preview

An Internal Preview is a statement, which is made in the body of the speech, so that the audience knows what the speaker is going to discuss next.

Multimedia Presentation

A multmedia presentation is a speech in which several types of visual and audio aids are combined in the same speech with the help of computer software. .

Hybrid Audience

A mix between in-person and virtual participants for an event or a lecture is called a hybrid audience. Working with a hybrid audience may be challenging, as it requires the presenter to find ways to engage both the live and the virtual audience.

Distributed Audience

A Distributed Audience means that the audience you are trying to reach is spread over long distances.

Virtual Audience

A virtual audience consist of people who join an event / a meeting / a presentation via an electronic device (computer or smartphone) over the Internet. Each member may be located in a different place while an event takes place. Virtual audiences are becoming increasingly important as the amount of events held online is rising.

Co-located Audience

Co-located Audience means that the speaker talks to the audience in person. It is used verbal and non-verbal methods to communicate a message. The speaker makes gestures with their hands, changes their face expression and shows images.

Audience Response System (ARS)

Audience Response Systems (ARS) are technical solutions that are used in presentations in order to increase the interaction between the presenter and the audience. There are various forms of ARS that offer different features.

Glossophobia

Glossophobia means the strong fear of public speaking.

Slide Master

To create your own Template in PowerPoint it is best to use the Slide Master. After updating the Slide Master with your design, all slides (fonts, colours, images, …) adapt to those of the Slide Master.

PowerPoint Online

PowerPoint Online is the web version of PowerPoint. You can present and edit your PowerPoint presentation with it, without having PowerPoint installed on your computer. It's only necessary to have a Microsoft - or a Microsoft 365 account.

Normal view (slide view)

The normal view or slide view is the main working window in your PowerPoint presentation. You can see the slides at their full size on screen.

Outline view

The outline view in PowerPoint shows a list with the whole text of all slides on the left of the screen. There are no images and graphics displayed in this view. It's useful for editing the presentation and can also be saved as a Word document.

Slide Sorter view

The Slide Sorter view in PowerPoint shows thumbnails of all your slides in horizontal rows.The view is useful for applying global changes to several slides at once. Also it's useful for deleting and rearranging slides.

Notes Page view

The Notes Page view in PowerPoint shows a smaller version of the slide with a small area for notes underneath. In the presentation every slide has it's own space for notes. During the presentation the notes do not appear on screen. They are just visible in the presentation mode.

Master view

In the master view in PowerPoint you can edit the Slide Master.

Slide Layouts

PowerPoint has different types of Slide Layouts. Depending on which type of presentation you make, you will use more or less different slide layouts. Some Slide Types are: title slides, section heading slides, picture with caption slides, blank slides.

Slide transitions

Slide transitions are visual effects which appear in PowerPoint when one slide moves to the next. There are many different transitions, like for example fade and dissolve.

Animations in PowerPoint

Animations in PowerPoint are visual effects that are applied to different items like graphics, title or bullet points, instead of the slides. There are many different animations like: Appear, Fade, Fly in.

Effect Options

In the effect options in PowerPoint, further details can be specified for the selected effect.

Display duration

Under display duration in PowerPoint, the start of the animation, the duration, repetition and delay can be controlled.

Keynote is a programme which, like PowerPoint, is used to create digital screen presentations. It is mainly used by Apple users.

SmartArts are diagrams that convey processes, connections or hierarchies. They can also be edited individually and easily be added to your presentations.

Animated GIF

An animated GIF enables images to be played in a specific order. It is created when several individual images are saved in a GIF file.

Title Slide

The title slide is the first slide of a presentation. It usually contains a title and a subtitle.

Verbal Communication

Communication is verbal if it includes talking with other people. This can be face-to-face but also over the telephone or via Skype

Nonverbal Communication

Nonverbal communication means that the communication is based on someone's voice and body instead on the use of words.

Panel Discussion

A panel discussion is a structured conversation in front of an audience on a given topic between several people.

Vocalized pause

A vocalized pause means the pause when the silence between words is filled by the speaker with vocalizations like "um", "uh" and "er".

Vocal distractions

In vocal distractions filler words like um, er, and you know are used during a pause.

Body language

Body language is communication through movements, hand gestures and body posture.

To interview somebody means to ask a person different questions. An interview is often done by journalists.

Face-to-face

If you are talking to someone face-to-face you are directly facing each other.

Interpersonal communication

Interpersonal communication is face-to-face communication. It means that people exchange information and feelings through verbal and non-verbal messages.

Written Communication

The goal of written communication is to spread messages clear and explicit. Written Communication can be: emails, a contract, a memo, a text message or a Facebook Post.

Visual Communication

If there are used images or videos for communication, it is visual communication. Visual Communication is almost used everywhere like on television, posts on social media (Instagram, Facebook), advertisement.

Listening is a very important part of communication. To be good in communication you need to be a good listener. That doesn't mean just hearing what the other person is saying. But you need to listen active, engage your mind and intently focus on what your talking partner is saying.

Formal Communication

formal communication should be used for speeches or at work

Informal Communication

informal communication can be used when talking to your friends or your family

Online Communication

Online communication is communication over the internet. Online communication is often anonymous and over social media platforms you can communicate with people around the world.

Vertical Communication

Vertical communication means that information is passed from one person to the next according to a linear system based on their titles. This type of communication is used when a company follows a hierarchical structure or for important, sensitive information.

Horizontal Communication

Horizontal communication is the exchange of information between people, departments or units within the same level of an organisational hierarchy of a company.

Diagonal Communication

Diagonal communication means that the employees of a company communicate with each other regardless of their function and their level in the organisational hierarchy and regardless of their department within the company.

Internal Communication

Internal communication is particularly important for corporate communication. It communicates important information from leadership to staff so that they can do their jobs in the best possible way and work processes run well.

External Communication

External communication is the exchange of information between two organisations. For example, it can be an exchange with customers, clients or traders. Feedback from a customer also counts as external communication.

Closed Questions

Closed questions are followed by a short, clear answer. There are several answer options from which you can choose one or more.

Open Questions

In contrast to closed questions, the answer to open questions can be more detailed and creative. You can convey more information.

Leading Questions

Leading questions subconsciously make the respondent think in a certain direction.

Recall Questions

With recall questions, you have to remember something or something has to be recalled. Example: A teacher asks his students a question so that they remember the material from the last lesson.

Process Questions

Process questions are similar to recall questions but they need some deeper thoughts and maybe also analysis.

Hybrid Event

When an event consist of both virtual and in-person parts, this is called a hybrid event. This type of event is popular as it combines the benefits of both online and live events.

Virtual Event

Virtual events take place entirely online. They are very convenient as anyone may join from wherever they are via a smartphone or computer.

Corporate Events

A corporate event is an event organised by a company and intended for employees, stakeholders, customers, a charity event or public. The audience depends on the goal of the event.

Social Events

Social events in companys can be to celebrate an anniversary or to bond better as a team. They should address the personal interests of employees and revolve around things like entertainment and food.

Fundraising Events

The aim of fundraising events is to raise funds for a specific organisation. They are often organised by charities and non-profit organisations.

Community Events

Community events are about bringing people together, creating positive change and making new friends.

Pop-up Events

Pop-up events only last for a short period of time, such as only for one night or one month. An example: Another location of a shop is opened for only one month to extend the reach.

B2B means Business to Business. B2B events are between at least two companys. They help to build interpersonal relationships, which are important for a successful company.

B2C means Business to Customer. A B2C event is hosted by a company for its customers. It's important for gaining new customers and for satisfieing regular clients.

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Presentation Software: Glossary

Definition of terms used in this chapter:.

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Module 7: Visual Aids

Glossary and references.

Bajaj, G. (2007). Cutting edge PowerPoint 2007 for dummies . Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Publishing.

Beyer, A. (2011). Improving student presentations: Pecha Kucha and just plain PowerPoint . Teaching of Psychology, 38(2), 122-126.

Detz, J. (2000). It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it . New York, NY: St. Martin’s Griffen.

Duarte, N. (2008). Slide:ology: The art and science of creating great presentations . Sebastopol, CA : O’Reilly Media.

Duarte, N. (2010). Resonate: Present visual stories that transform audiences . Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Gries, L. E., & Brooke, C. (2010). An inconvenient tool: Rethinking the role of slideware in the writing classroom. Composition Studies , 38(1), 11-28.

Kadavy, D. (2011). Design for hackers: Reverse-engineering beauty . West Sussex, UK : John Wiley & Sons

Kosslyn, S. M. (2007). Clear and to the point: 8 psychological principles for compelling PowerPoint presentations . New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Lehtonen, M. (2011). Communicating competence through PechaKucha presentations. Journal of Business Communication , 48(4), 464-481.

Malamed, C. (2009). Visual language for designers: Principles for creating graphics that people understand . Beverly, MA: Rockport Publishers.

Mayer, R. E. (2001). Multimedia learning . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Palmer, E. (2011). Well spoken: Teaching speaking to all students . Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

Panag, S. (2010). A Web 2.0 Toolkit for Educators . Youth Media Reporter, 489-91.

Reynolds, G. (2008). Presentation Zen: Simple ideas on presentation design and delivery . Berkeley, CA: New Riders.

Tufte, E. R. (2003). The cognitive style of PowerPoint . Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press.

Tufte, E. R. (1997). Visual and statistical thinking: Displays of evidence for making decisions . Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press.

Vasile, A. J. (2004). Speak with confidence: A practical guide (9th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Vorvick, L. J. (2011). Color blindness. In MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlinepl us/ency/article/001002.htm

Weaver, M. (1999). Reach out through technology: Make your point with effective A/V. Computers in Libraries, 19(4), 62.

Williams, R. (2004). The non-designer’s design book: Design and typographic principles for the visual novice (2nd ed.). Berkeley, CA: Peachpit Press.

Yee, K., & Hargis, J. (2010). PREZI: A different way to present. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education (TOJDE), 11(4), 9-11.

Young, K. S., & Travis, H. P. (2008). Oral communication: Skills, choices, and consequences (2nd ed.). Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.

photo credits

p. 1 Magic Tap http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Grifo_m%C3%A 1gico.JPG By emijrp

p. 2 Cheeseburger Cake http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CakeBurgerSupreme.JPG by Michael Prudhomme

p. 5 Steve Jobs Presentation http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Steve_Jobs_Presentation_2.jpg By Ken.gz

p. 5 Handouts http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_Navy_070808-N-9421C-143_Lt._Lydia_Battey_distributes_handouts_explaining_the_symptoms_of_tuberculosis_to_local_residents_at_Bunabun_Health_Center_in_M adang,_Papua_New_Guinea.jpg By U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kerryl Cacho

p. 6 Dahlia http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dalia.jpg By Wirtual24

p. 6 – 12 Figures 13.1 – 13.14 Slide Graphics by Sheila Kasperek and Tom Oswald

p. 7 Beach leaping (In Figure 13.4): http://www.flickr.com/photos/foxtongue/4466028696/ By Foxtongue

P. 11 Roosevelt and Muir on Glacier Point (In Figure 13.10) http://memory.loc.gov/cgi- bin/query/D?consrvbib:4:./temp/~ammem_BRht: By Library of Congress

p. 13 Planets http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NASA_Astronomy_Picture_of_the_Day_2008_May_18_-_clip_01.jpg By Dana Berry

• Chapter 13 Glossary and References. Authored by : Sheila Kasperek, MLIS, MSIT. Provided by : Mansfield University, Mansfield, PA. Located at : http://publicspeakingproject.org/psvirtualtext.html . Project : The Public Speaking Project. License : CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives

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Presentation Software Definition and Examples

Presentation software brings complex ideas to life, one slide at a time

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Many software suites offer a program designed to accompany a speaker when he or she delivers a presentation. The specific presentation program in this suite of programs is usually (but not always) in the form of a slide show. This category of program is well-established; it doesn't change much, and it supports not only online visual display but also, generally, the printing of related handouts and speaker notes.

Benefits of Presentation Software

These programs make it simple and often fun to create a presentation for your audience. They contain a text editor to add your written content; they support charts and graphic images such as photographs, clip art or other objects to enliven your slideshow and get your point across crisply.

For a deeper dive into some of the leading applications in this software category, check out:

Other Forms of Presentation Software

PowerPoint and its clones work on a slide-based logic: When you move to the next point in your conversation, you advance to the next slide. An alternative model of presentations sets aside the slide model in favor of some other navigation system. Examples include:

Prezi offers a visual navigation tool that allows for zoom-in/zoom-out detail across a logical map of your presentation.

Microsoft Sway

Besides PowerPoint, Microsoft also offers Sway, which is a presentation and newsletter designer that supports simpler and more image-focused designs along a familiar linear flow path.

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Lesson Plan: Presentation Software - Functions & Terminology

Description.

This lesson introduces students to the functions of presentation software as well as the terminology associated with presentation software. Students will individually research three different types of presentation software to create a presentation that compares and contrasts each one. 

Download the lesson plan

Scroll to the related items section at the bottom of this page for additional resources.

• What is PowerPoint? Video
• Create a presentation Video
• Choose the right view for the task Video
• Add and format text Video

What is PowerPoint?

Note:  Microsoft 365 Copliot coming soon in PowerPoint.

 With PowerPoint on your PC, Mac, or mobile device, you can:

Create presentations from scratch or a template.

Add text, images, art, and videos.

Select a professional design with PowerPoint Designer.

Add transitions, animations, and cinematic motion.

Save to OneDrive, to get to your presentations from your computer, tablet, or phone.

Share your work and work with others, wherever they are.

PowerPoint help

What's new in PowerPoint for Windows

Office Quick Start Guides

Get Microsoft presentation templates

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Glossary of Terms for Presentations

Need clarification of some terminology you’ll hear when you attend an EMS workshop? Here’s a complete list.

This is the most important group to consider when planning a presentation. Without an audience, what would be the point of presenting?

Think of benefits as the main course. They are the most important details for you to share. Prepare a list of benefits by asking: what will the audience gain by listening to you or by accepting your recommendation?

Distractions

Repetitive gestures, non-words, nervous movement such as rocking and pacing, and other distractions make it harder for you to present your key messages. Become aware of unconscious ways that speakers distract their audiences.

When you play in doubt, doubt wins. ( see Playing Soft ) To counter, avoid using qualifying words that undermine confidence, such as can, might, think, or should.

Energy (see The Fundamentals )

Most audiences prefer to watch a presentation where the speaker is clearly making an effort to connect with the audience. Energy comes out as vocal variety, gestures and facial expression, helping you show passion and gain positive listener response. Energy is also a great mask, effectively covering up nervousness.

Eye Contact (see The Fundamentals )

Maintain eye contact with individual audience members long enough to complete your thought (3-5 seconds), rather than shifting your gaze from side to side.

Facial Expression (see The Fundamentals )

Use smiles, frowns, and other varied expressions to keep your audience engaged. Take a tip from stage actors: bigger audiences call for bigger expressions.

The Fundamentals

There are eight fundamentals that will impact how every speaker is perceived by an audience. Great speakers learn to excel in each area: energy, eye contact, facial expression, gestures, movement, non-words, pauses and speaking pace. Click here to see them all in one place .

Gestures (see The Fundamentals )

Use natural movements of your arms, hands and body to emphasize your main points. Avoid actions such as pointing, arms crossed or on your hips, or playing with your fingers.

I, Me and My

We hate to be the ones to tell you, but when you’re presenting, no one really cares about YOU. Your job is to convince listeners that your ideas mean something to them. So avoid these words and focus more on “you,” “your”, and “we.”

This is a misunderstood objective. Many people we work with mistakenly believe they are informing their audience when they really need to persuade their audience.

Introduction

The first minute or two of your presentation, where you grab attention and “tell them what you’re going to tell them.” Start off with an effective POW! Statement , state your case, and share the benefits.

Johnny Cash Day

EMS seminar participants often dress like the famous “man in black” on the second day of training, hopeful that they’ll look slimmer when they see themselves on camera. (These are the same people who say: “I’m never wearing THAT outfit again.”)

Lighten up, Francis

We use this line from the 1980 Bill Murray movie, Stripes , to remind speakers that they don’t have to take themselves so seriously in front of a group. Feel free to smile and use facial expression , even when presenting to a board of directors or a room full of accountants. (We’re grateful to our big toe, Sgt. Hulka, for this one.)

Movement (see The Fundamentals )

Purposeful movement, such as walking around the room, stepping forward, and approaching your audience helps to create a stronger connection to the listener. To help avoid nervous movement such as rocking, plant your feet when standing in place.

Nervousness

There’s a big difference between being nervous and looking nervous. Use energy to keep your voice strong and your movement natural.

Non-words (see The Fundamentals )

By all means possible, work to eliminate meaningless words (such as umm, OK, uhh, and others) from your presentations. They are extremely distracting to your listeners. SNAP !

Paper Training

Practice standing on a large piece of paper to eliminate rocking and shifting caused by nervous energy. When you hear the paper crinkle, you know you’re distracting from your message. (No, we are NOT puppy trainers!)

Pauses (see The Fundamentals )

Taking short breaks between thoughts helps the audience focus on your message, and also helps the speaker eliminate non-words. Pause early and often, we always say!

Personal Style

The image you want to convey to listeners each time that you communicate. Do you want to be professional, trustworthy, insightful, confident, or all of the above? You pick the adjectives, and then back them up with purposeful action.

Reality. It’s never wrong. Get it? Good speakers use techniques such as The Fundamentals to impact how they are perceived by their audience.

A vital objective in almost every presentation: most speeches are delivered to convince audiences to take on a specific belief, cause or action. Don’t ever confuse this with informing .

Playing Soft

Going through the motions, taking the easy path, and giving less than full effort conveys doubt and encourages negative perceptions . Competitors love when you play soft.

POW! Statement

The term we use to emphasize the importance of a strong opening. Start every presentation with a compelling introduction, and start every introduction with a POW! Statement (such as an attention-grabbing question, statistic, quote, analogy, story or joke) that will grab their interest and set the stage for the rest of your content.

We’re not your parents, so we won’t bug you to do your homework. But the best presenters we know are ones who prepare, ask for feedback, and practice ahead of time.

If you’re having trouble planning your content, try thinking of questions that your audience might ask. Use those answers as your talking points.

SELL It, Don’t TELL It

Owning your message is always preferable to simply giving out information. Deliver your presentation with passion and conviction. Instead of your audience saying “thanks,” they’ll walk away saying “WOW.”

We use this technique to help eliminate non-words by snapping when our clients use them. (It’s less invasive, and more legal, than our previous method: electroshock therapy!)

A big, authentic smile is a great way to connect with any live audience. Business doesn’t always have to be serious. (see Lighten Up, Francis ).

Speaking Pace (see The Fundamentals )

Should you speak quickly or slowly? Both, if you want to hold your audience’s attention for your entire presentation. Speed helps convey passion and excitement, while slowing down helps people focus on main points and big ideas. Just not TOO quickly or slowly!

Always wrap-up by restating your main points, making the last thing you say the most memorable. That way, you’ll have a lasting impact on your audience .

Trust Yourself to Be Yourself

It’s liberating to be yourself, rather than the conservative business professional you think you need to be. Your audience will appreciate seeing the real YOU (unless, of course, you’re really a jerk, in which case…be someone ELSE).

Using the Room

No one says you have to stay behind a lectern. Walking purposefully from side to side, making broad gestures, and moving towards individual audience members has a powerful impact on a presentation. (see Movement, Energy)

When presenting, take every opportunity to vary your volume and speaking pace , change facial expressions, move to a different part of the room, or to add a gesture. Variety helps connect presenter to listener, and keeps everyone more engaged throughout.

Visual Aids

Often interpreted as slides that should contain the text of a presentation. But they can be quite distracting. Less is always more: if it doesn’t help the speaker engage the audience , it isn’t a visual aid.

Use this technique carefully and purposefully, turning it both up and down to keep your audience engaged.

Winston Churchill

His famous recipe for a successful speech still works today: 1) Tell them what you’re going to tell them, 2) Tell them, and 3) Tell them what you told them.

Are You Looking To Improve Your Communication Skills?

(Legacy) Microsoft PowerPoint 2007: PowerPoint Terminology

Last Updated Saturday, April 20, 2024, at 2:43 am

PowerPoint is a program that allows you to present ideas with text, graphics, sounds, video, and animation. To understand PowerPoint better, you must first become familiar with special terms used by the program. This document provides definitions of many terms you may encounter when working with PowerPoint.

Animations Animation is a visual or sound effect accompanying text or graphics. For example, you can have an Excel pie chart appear one slice at a time, allowing you to discuss one slice before the next appears. For more information on animation, refer to  Using Animation  ( Win |  Mac ).

Clip Art Clip Art is the collection of pictures available in the PowerPoint  Clip Art gallery.

Master A  Master contains formatting and design elements common to every slide in your presentation. There are three types of master slides: the  Slide Master  ( Win |  Mac ),  Handout Master  ( Win |  Mac ), and  Notes Master .

Objects An  Object can be an item that you create or a graphic that you import from another source (such as a scanned image). Some examples include text boxes, Clip Art, WordArt,  SmartArt , and shapes.

Presentation The  Presentation is the file containing the collection of slides. A PowerPoint 2007/2008 file has a  . pptx extension.

Slide Show A  Slide Show is the presentation of your PowerPoint slides. A slide show can be viewed online, on a computer (e.g., set to loop continuously in a display booth), or projected to a screen (e.g., live conference presentation).

Template A  Template contains slide default settings. These characteristics include colors, fonts, bullet types, and special elements such as graphics.

Transitions A  Transition is the effect that takes place when you advance from one slide to the next. This feature is available only with  Slide Shows .

Wizard A  Wizard is a step-by-step guide for completing a task.

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5 Easy Ways to Add a Glossary to Your E-Learning Course

In today’s post, I’m going to show you five easy ways to build a glossary for your rapid elearning courses. You can use these tips to define words, footnote information, or as a way to add additional content to your courses.  This helps keep your course content light and still gives you a way to share more with your learners.  It also gives your learners control to choose what additional information they want or need when they need it.

1.  Use PowerPoint hyperlinks and navigation

In the demo below, I disabled the default player navigation and created my own via the notebook tabs.  This approach is very easy to do and works well for a shorter course with limited navigation needs.

Click here to view the demo .

• The tabs are built in PowerPoint and I use hyperlinks to get from one slide to the next.  I disabled the published player navigation so there’s no concern over the learner clicking back/forward buttons and ending up on the wrong slides.
• The glossary tab contains links to all of the definitions that are on separate slides.
• To make the definition slides, I duplicated the glossary tab slide and added the definitions.  When you click on the glossary, you get the main tab.  If you click on a word, you get a duplicate slide where I added the information specific to that word.

2.  Put Your Glossary on Hidden PowerPoint Slides

In this example, everything is still built with PowerPoint.  If you want to define a word, create a duplicate slide and then hyperlink from the word to the duplicate slide.  On the duplicate slide, you add additional content like the definition.  The demo shows three ways to approach this.

Click here to view demo .

• When you hide slides, you need to use the hide slides feature in the rapid elearning application and NOT the hidden slides in PowerPoint itself. Hidden slides in PowerPoint will not publish.
• The secret here is to duplicate the slide with the defined word.  When the learner clicks on the word they link to the duplicate slide which gives the appearance of being on the same slide.
• What you do on the duplicate slide is up to you.  You can add animations or just have the definitions appear on the slide.  So it can be as media rich as you want it.
• Since you’re linking away from the actual slide, you need to find a clear way to get the learner back on track.  I used “close” buttons and made them prominent.  If you’re using Presenter ’09, you don’t need to do this because you can use the slide branching feature as well.

3.  Put Your Definitions in the Slide Notes

In an earlier post I discussed ways to get more out of your slide notes .  One of the tips was to use it as a glossary.  In the example below, you’ll notice that I changed the notes tab to read “glossary.”  Whenever there’s a term that is defined or footnoted, I can add that to the PowerPoint notes section and make it available to the learner.

• The previous techniques required a link away from the slide.  In this one, the learner stays on the slide and clicks the glossary tab.  So there’s no concern about the learner having to navigate away from the slide.
• You do need to inform the learner when they can find more information in the glossary.  This is easily done by changing the font or adding some sort of visual clue like an icon.
• I like this glossary technique because the glossary is slide-specific and not part of a larger glossary that I have to maintain.  I just add the content as I need it.

4.  Hyperlink to an Attached Glossary

Here are three ways you can use the attachment feature to add a glossary.

• Rename the attachments link to “glossary.”  Then add each term as a link via an attached document or URL.  This probably works better for short courses with just a few terms.

• Add a glossary as an attached document or URL.  You put all of the terms together in one document.  When the learner clicks on the link, they can access that document and look up terms.  This approach probably works well if you have a lot of extra information but don’t expect the learner to look up terms throughout the course.  Using the URL option is nice because you can update the web page without republishing the course.
• Create a glossary and save as an html page.  Add named anchors that point to the text on the page.  You can learn more about doing that here under “ name attribute .”  Attach the glossary.html and use PowerPoint hyperlinks to link words on the slide to anchored text on the html page. Check out the demo below.

5.  Use the Engage Glossary Interaction

Not all of you have Engage, but if you do, there’s a really nice Glossary interaction.  I find it to be the easiest way since all of the programming is done and all I have to do is add the terms and definitions.  I also like that I am not limited to just text.  I can add audio, images, and all sorts of multimedia like video and Flash animations.

• You can insert the glossary on a slide, but I prefer to use it as a drop down tab.  If the learner wants to look up a term or definition, they can click on the glossary tab and when finished go right back to where they were.  This is good to help maintain the flow of the course.
• Make sure to let the learner know when a term is defined so that they know what to expect in the glossary.

These are simple yet effective ways to add a glossary to your elearning course and they don’t require a lot of programming and maintenance.  If you have some ideas or suggestions, feel free to share them with the rest of us by clicking on the comments link .

*Demo content copied from Wikipedia .  Shark music is the theme to Jaws by John Williams .

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42 responses to “5 Easy Ways to Add a Glossary to Your E-Learning Course”

February 24th, 2009

Tom- Thanks for these great tips. I’ll be sure to use them in my courses.

Another great post, Tom!

Like you, I prefer using the Engage Glossary interaction as a drop-down Tab. (I’ve also used the FAQ interaction the same way.)

The Engage Glossary interaction is an easy-to-use feature, and flexible with design elements. If appropriate, I’ve imported a SWF to a term’s definition if it helps the learner to understand it.

Jenise Cook http://www.RidgeViewMedia.com

Kathie Howard

This is a great blog. I’ve been watching your blogs every Tuesday. As you know. I am now at Kaplan University with the Curriculum Design team. I was really pleased to know that my department knew about and honors your blogs. BTW: the 4th idea is one that I’d like to use in my next project if possible.

Thanks a lot! Kathie

Sean Bengry

When making your decision, it is also good to note that the current Engage Glossary interaction has a limit of 500 entries.

Larry McIntyre

Tom, Once again this week’s tip is right on the mark. Great job! Thanks

Greg Friese

Clearly for lots of terms (less than 500) an engage glossary is the way to go. For the time you might spend to “program” the other methods you will have paid for Engage several times over.

For large glossaries, I prefer to use the tab interaction making each tab a letter or group of letters. Then I can copy and paste the glossary terms and definitions. This is more efficient if you have hundreds of terms.

Danny McCraine

Umm, didn’t *John* Williams write the Jaws score?

@Danny: I think John changed his name to Paul…something to do with the Beatles.

Hmmm…. Gail, Greg, and Sean have caused me to pause and ponder.

If I had a Glossary of over 50 terms, I’d probably go the route of #4, per Tom, and link to a file or a URL.

Adobe’s RoboHelp WebHelp or MadCap’s Flare work well for Web-based glossaries. (And, I believe both can single source output to PDF.)

this blog is what makes Articulate really valuable!

Thanks so much!

Sheldon Swimmer

If you look up – awesome blog with amazing, useful tips in the glossary, I think you’ll see a picture of our beloved Rapid E-Learning Blog author. Thanks Tom. You always seems to make our most pressing challenges seem so easily solvable.

Thanks for another great tip. Your weekly blogs are fantastic. They are always motivating me to try new things and give me wonderful ideas. You make everything seem so simple.

Ellen Brodsky

Love your blog, Tom. Great ideas well presented, as usual. Cool shark stuff too! Thank you.

I had a question on the 2nd example. On clicking the “Close” button the voiceover replays, giving the impression that the slide replays. What can we do to avoid this?

February 25th, 2009

I really like the way you present the courseware! Thanks, this newsletter has always been inspiration for me!

One thing that I have been wondering for a while, how did you make the powerpoint graphics so clear and sharp in the published project?

Whenever I used a graphic in PPT, they get compressed and the image quality in published SWF was really bad. If I convert the graphics into SWF, I can’t easily create hyperlinks in PPT!

I hope you can shade some light here.

Regards, Joanne

Hi Tom, thanks a lot for your work, that helps very much to use the possibilities of Articulate.

Very useful information with easy-to-follow demos. I used the first technique in PowerPoint though the slides are not very sophistically designed as shown in the demos. I learned about that also.

Again, thanks for the helpful tips.

Hi Tom, thank you for your good and very usefull work. I am tryng to do the glossary on power point following the exaple 2 but I have a problem, when I create a copy of the main slide, it appear on the navigation panel how I can hide it from the navigation panel? For instance if the main slide the number 3 and the glossary definition is slide 4 in the navigation panel I have both displayed

best regards, Mauro

Thank you for today’s blog, it is FANTASTIC!!!

Can you please tell me how you got your training presentation to look like the various tabs?

Thanks for the great feedback. I’m glad to share these tips. If there are other things you’d like to see, let me know .

@Shazia : If I had narration on the slide and didn’t want it repeated, I’d do this: create a duplicate slide with no narration. The close button links to that slide. Add a replay button on the screen that links to the slide with narration.

@Joanne : I use Articulate Presenter ’09. The graphics are pretty crisp. I’ve look at many of the PowerPoint to Flash products and have to say that I haven’t found any with better quality. You’ll always have some image degradation when you convert your graphics to Flash. Here’s a good post on how to get good image quality .

@Mauro : If you’re using Articulate Presenter, go into the slide properties and right click on a slide, from there select the “hide slide in navigation” option. That will hide the slide from the menu. If you’re using the ’09 products, you can use the branching feature to navigate around the hidden slides .

@TM : I’ll be doing a post on building a tabbed interface. I also have three templates that I’ll give away with the post.

@Tom @Shazia: “If I had narration on the slide and didn’t want it repeated, I’d do this: create a duplicate slide with no narration. The close button links to that slide. Add a replay button on the screen that links to the slide with narration.”

Brilliant! 🙂

February 26th, 2009

Great blog! I always look forward to reading your weekly blogs. They are so informative and I learn new things all the time. I saw your answer regarding an upcoming post on building tabbed interface plus the three templates you’re giving away… I can’t wait to read this blog. I really like that tabbed interface look. It will look awesome on a current project I’m working on so I’ll be waiting for that!

Thanks so much for sharing your expertise… 🙂

Blog: The Rapid eLearning Blog | Bscopes Feeds

February 27th, 2009

[…] Blog: The Rapid eLearning Blog tagged with: education Post: http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/5-easy-ways-to-add-a-glossary-to-your-e-learning-cou … […]

March 3rd, 2009

I liked your tip about duplicating slides and using hyperlinks for embedded glossary terms. It was easy to do and works well, except … how do you stop learners from navigating forward when they reach what should be the last slide, so they don’t see the duplicate slides at the end? How do you keep them from navigating backward from the duplicate slide if they should do that instead of clicking the “Close” button?

@Sue: you can build the navigation to work that way in PowerPoint, using hyperlinks. In Presenter ’09, there are branching controls that let you assign where the back and forward buttons go. That’s how I control it.

In PowerPoint, I’d build standard back/fwd controls on the master slide. That puts them on all slides. When you want to change it for a specific slide, just drop a hyperlink on that particular one. That lets you jump over and around slides.

Learners Lounge » 50 Practical Tips & Tricks to Build Better E-Learning

March 10th, 2009

[…] 5 Easy Ways to Add a Glossary to Your E-Learning Course (February 24, 2009) […]

March 11th, 2009

thank you .they were very usefull tips azza

Web 2.0 no meu Diigo - Semana 11 « Web 2.0 PT

March 15th, 2009

[…] 5 Easy Ways to Add a Glossary to Your E-Learning Course […]

March 19th, 2009

this is a great post – so many creative ideas! One question – in example 2 how do you place the video, on the PowerPoint box with and make it the right size?

March 27th, 2009

The glossary is great but I can’t figure out how to get it to appear in the heading along with attachments.

@Molly: In Presenter ’09, you insert the video and can scale it to fit the size of the box.

@Debbie: when you insert the Engage glossary, you have the option to insert on the slide or as a drop down tab. Use the drop down tab option.

April 30th, 2009

We have a HUGE glossary (100+ pages), so using the separate HTML option seems to be the best way. One thing… I can’t seem to get the anchor links to work once the PPt is published. And now I notice that the example shown above doesn’t work either. This is in the monkey example. Click on Macaque and you’ll see what I mean. Anyone know how to make the anchor links work? Thx!

Wait… Concerning my previous question about the anchor links, could it be my browser? I’m using Internet Explorer 7. Should I be using something else? Thx.

June 21st, 2009

hello, i just found you minutes ago. Im from mexico. This information is just what i need to finish some research about e-learning as an option for students here in my city (doing a tesis on it too). Thank you!

Get Creative and Build Better E-Learning Courses - The Rapid eLearning Blog

August 13th, 2009

[…] At another conference, someone wanted to know how to create an assembly line concept.  That’s where I quickly prototyped the moving box.  And the glossary post came as a result of someone asking about different ways to add a glossary to a rapid elearning course. […]

October 18th, 2009

Tom, your example #2, “Put Your Glossary on Hidden PowerPoint Slides” looks like it works for you. I can get it to work if the slide is not hidden—once I hide it—the link doesn’t work.

After looking on the Articulate site I came upon this link http://www.articulate.com/support/presenter09/kb/?p=618 , which says, “Slides you have hidden in PowerPoint will not display in your published output. Any hyperlinks you create that go to a hidden slide, therefore, will not work.

BTW, I’m using Studio 09.

October 19th, 2009

@John: You’re right. I made a change to the post. If you hide slides in PowerPoint they don’t publish. What you need to do is hide the slides via the slide properties manager in Articulate Presenter.

October 22nd, 2009

Thanks Tom. Got it—works great

February 22nd, 2010

I love your posts and have learned so much from them! Great job! I would like to know how you achieved the effect highlighting an object and fading the background. Ex. the glossary demo and the word call signaling. I would like to use the same effect for my products when I’m explaining how to navigate using the player controls.

February 23rd, 2010

Not sure exactly which one you’re referencing, but here are a few ways I do this:

The glossary in the call signally demo is an Engage interaction that drops down. By default it darkens the screen.

The photobox effect is easy to create. Create a duplicate slide. Add a black box over it and make it 20% transparent. Put your content on top of that. One the first slide, create a hyperlink to the photobox slide.

If you have Articulate Presenter ’09, you can use the annotations spotlight effect in a similar manner.

James Kingsley

September 1st, 2011

We have a new solution that makes it easy to add links from any word or pic to glossary terms! http://www.screenr.com/icWs

http://elearningenhanced.com/products/articulate-glossary-magic

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Required for admission consideration

We look for students who have been successful in a variety of challenging courses, especially those that are above and beyond what’s required for graduation. And we understand every school is different, so we evaluate your transcript specifically against your high school's curriculum.

Prior to high school graduation, we require you to complete a minimum of:

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If you're interested in engineering or the sciences, we recommend an additional year of math and laboratory science. Leaning more toward the liberal arts? We’d suggest another year of social studies and foreign language.

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Arts Supplement Required for music majors and those who are pursing a Arts Achievement Scholarship in either music or art studio

Applicants who are required to submit an Arts Supplement will see this required checklist item on their applicant status portal. Students must upload their portfolio materials using the portfolio updater prior to completing the Arts Supplement. You can access the portfolio uploader by logging into your applicant portal using your CWRU Network ID and clicking Edit Portfolio.

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We understand there may be more you want to share with us than can fit neatly on the Common App or Coalition with Scoir. Though not required as part of their application, some students choose to share additional information that may possibly strengthen their application and help us get to know them better. We welcome you to share such information with us.

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• Submit a 20-page sample of your work in either playwriting or screenwriting (or both) at least one week before the interview date. This can include either an excerpt from a full-length work or a combination of shorter pieces, such as 10-minute plays or short-film scripts. While dramatic writing is preferred, you may also submit other examples of your creative writing, such as short stories, poetry, essays, etc.

Stage Management

• Bring your stage management binders, copies of scripts you have worked on (with cues written in), paperwork related to the show, and any other evidence of skills related to stage management such as organization, managing/coordinating large groups of people, multitasking and communication.
• A one-page resume of experience in theater is required. You may also include experience in a related field, such as art, architecture, graphics or photography. Additionally, a statement of intent—even if that statement is exploratory—should be provided. Other materials may include a portfolio demonstrating skills in theater (renderings, sketches, paperwork, scale drawings, production photos, etc.) and related areas (artwork, photography, drawing, drafting, computer graphics, etc.). The portfolio may be in scrapbook format. Art projects or model-making could substitute or be included with the other requirements. The material should be organized into some kind of cohesive presentation, with identifying labels for references. The interviewer will retain a copy of your resume but will not keep your portfolio. Portfolio is for presentation purposes only.
• Submit a video and complete an online questionnaire for pre-screening by dance department faculty. The video submission should be 90 seconds to three minutes in length, and you should be clearly visible. Do not submit ensemble footage. Video may be from technique class or performance.
• Submit a portfolio PowerPoint consisting of 24 pieces of your work. Each image credit line should include the name of the piece, the dimensions, the material, media and the date completed. (For example: Self-Portrait, 18” x 24”, media soft pastel on paper, fall 2021.) If you are showing three-dimensional work, i.e. sculpture or pottery, you may want to show two different views, front and side, etc. You may also want to choose to photograph a specific detail.
• Autobiography : A short (250-word) essay, citing your course of study in the visual arts. Include any special out-of-school activities, i.e., art camp, working as a teaching assistant doing creative activities, or private art lessons. Describe both your junior high and high school art experiences, courses that you took, and subjects that you studied.
• Program of study : A separate, short (250-word) essay of what you hope to gain participating in our program in Art History and Art. You may want to consult the Art History and Art website for courses that are available for you to take.

Tell us more about yourself

Additional materials can be shared through a form on your applicant portal. You can use this opportunity to share videos, web links, PDFs, documents, photos and more.

Some students use this as an opportunity to add additional context to their application with materials like:

• Additional letters of recommendation
• Research abstracts
• ACT writing tests
• Schoolhouse.world tutor transcripts
• Predicted IB results
• Though not all may be eligible for college credit at CWRU, these test scores can still enhance your application. You can send scores directly to us or self-report them via your portal.

Anything you have that can help us know you better and understand the contributions you can make to our campus are welcome and appreciated.  

Introducing Apple Intelligence, the personal intelligence system that puts powerful generative models at the core of iPhone, iPad, and Mac

New Capabilities for Understanding and Creating Language

Image Playground Makes Communication and Self‑Expression Even More Fun

Genmoji Creation to Fit Any Moment

New Features in Photos Give Users More Control

Siri Enters a New Era

A New Standard for Privacy in AI

ChatGPT Gets Integrated Across Apple Platforms

Text of this article

June 10, 2024

PRESS RELEASE

Setting a new standard for privacy in AI, Apple Intelligence understands personal context to deliver intelligence that is helpful and relevant

CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA Apple today introduced Apple Intelligence , the personal intelligence system for iPhone, iPad, and Mac that combines the power of generative models with personal context to deliver intelligence that’s incredibly useful and relevant. Apple Intelligence is deeply integrated into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia. It harnesses the power of Apple silicon to understand and create language and images, take action across apps, and draw from personal context to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks. With Private Cloud Compute, Apple sets a new standard for privacy in AI, with the ability to flex and scale computational capacity between on-device processing and larger, server-based models that run on dedicated Apple silicon servers.

“We’re thrilled to introduce a new chapter in Apple innovation. Apple Intelligence will transform what users can do with our products — and what our products can do for our users,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Our unique approach combines generative AI with a user’s personal context to deliver truly helpful intelligence. And it can access that information in a completely private and secure way to help users do the things that matter most to them. This is AI as only Apple can deliver it, and we can’t wait for users to experience what it can do.”

Apple Intelligence unlocks new ways for users to enhance their writing and communicate more effectively. With brand-new systemwide Writing Tools built into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia, users can rewrite, proofread, and summarize text nearly everywhere they write, including Mail, Notes, Pages, and third-party apps.

Whether tidying up class notes, ensuring a blog post reads just right, or making sure an email is perfectly crafted, Writing Tools help users feel more confident in their writing. With Rewrite, Apple Intelligence allows users to choose from different versions of what they have written, adjusting the tone to suit the audience and task at hand. From finessing a cover letter, to adding humor and creativity to a party invitation, Rewrite helps deliver the right words to meet the occasion. Proofread checks grammar, word choice, and sentence structure while also suggesting edits — along with explanations of the edits — that users can review or quickly accept. With Summarize, users can select text and have it recapped in the form of a digestible paragraph, bulleted key points, a table, or a list.

In Mail, staying on top of emails has never been easier. With Priority Messages, a new section at the top of the inbox shows the most urgent emails, like a same-day dinner invitation or boarding pass. Across a user’s inbox, instead of previewing the first few lines of each email, they can see summaries without needing to open a message. For long threads, users can view pertinent details with just a tap. Smart Reply provides suggestions for a quick response, and will identify questions in an email to ensure everything is answered.

Deep understanding of language also extends to Notifications. Priority Notifications appear at the top of the stack to surface what’s most important, and summaries help users scan long or stacked notifications to show key details right on the Lock Screen, such as when a group chat is particularly active. And to help users stay present in what they’re doing, Reduce Interruptions is a new Focus that surfaces only the notifications that might need immediate attention, like a text about an early pickup from daycare.

In the Notes and Phone apps, users can now record, transcribe, and summarize audio. When a recording is initiated while on a call, participants are automatically notified, and once the call ends, Apple Intelligence generates a summary to help recall key points.

Apple Intelligence powers exciting image creation capabilities to help users communicate and express themselves in new ways. With Image Playground, users can create fun images in seconds, choosing from three styles: Animation, Illustration, or Sketch. Image Playground is easy to use and built right into apps including Messages. It’s also available in a dedicated app, perfect for experimenting with different concepts and styles. All images are created on device, giving users the freedom to experiment with as many images as they want.

With Image Playground, users can choose from a range of concepts from categories like themes, costumes, accessories, and places; type a description to define an image; choose someone from their personal photo library to include in their image; and pick their favorite style.

With the Image Playground experience in Messages, users can quickly create fun images for their friends, and even see personalized suggested concepts related to their conversations. For example, if a user is messaging a group about going hiking, they’ll see suggested concepts related to their friends, their destination, and their activity, making image creation even faster and more relevant.

In Notes, users can access Image Playground through the new Image Wand in the Apple Pencil tool palette, making notes more visually engaging. Rough sketches can be turned into delightful images, and users can even select empty space to create an image using context from the surrounding area. Image Playground is also available in apps like Keynote, Freeform, and Pages, as well as in third-party apps that adopt the new Image Playground API.

Taking emoji to an entirely new level, users can create an original Genmoji to express themselves. By simply typing a description, their Genmoji appears, along with additional options. Users can even create Genmoji of friends and family based on their photos. Just like emoji, Genmoji can be added inline to messages, or shared as a sticker or reaction in a Tapback.

Searching for photos and videos becomes even more convenient with Apple Intelligence. Natural language can be used to search for specific photos, such as “Maya skateboarding in a tie-dye shirt,” or “Katie with stickers on her face.” Search in videos also becomes more powerful with the ability to find specific moments in clips so users can go right to the relevant segment. Additionally, the new Clean Up tool can identify and remove distracting objects in the background of a photo — without accidentally altering the subject.

With Memories, users can create the story they want to see by simply typing a description. Using language and image understanding, Apple Intelligence will pick out the best photos and videos based on the description, craft a storyline with chapters based on themes identified from the photos, and arrange them into a movie with its own narrative arc. Users will even get song suggestions to match their memory from Apple Music. As with all Apple Intelligence features, user photos and videos are kept private on device and are not shared with Apple or anyone else.

Powered by Apple Intelligence, Siri becomes more deeply integrated into the system experience. With richer language-understanding capabilities, Siri is more natural, more contextually relevant, and more personal, with the ability to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks. It can follow along if users stumble over words and maintain context from one request to the next. Additionally, users can type to Siri, and switch between text and voice to communicate with Siri in whatever way feels right for the moment. Siri also has a brand-new design with an elegant glowing light that wraps around the edge of the screen when Siri is active.

Siri can now give users device support everywhere they go, and answer thousands of questions about how to do something on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Users can learn everything from how to schedule an email in the Mail app, to how to switch from Light to Dark Mode.

With onscreen awareness, Siri will be able to understand and take action with users’ content in more apps over time. For example, if a friend texts a user their new address in Messages, the receiver can say, “Add this address to his contact card.”

With Apple Intelligence, Siri will be able to take hundreds of new actions in and across Apple and third-party apps. For example, a user could say, “Bring up that article about cicadas from my Reading List,” or “Send the photos from the barbecue on Saturday to Malia,” and Siri will take care of it.

Siri will be able to deliver intelligence that’s tailored to the user and their on-device information. For example, a user can say, “Play that podcast that Jamie recommended,” and Siri will locate and play the episode, without the user having to remember whether it was mentioned in a text or an email. Or they could ask, “When is Mom’s flight landing?” and Siri will find the flight details and cross-reference them with real-time flight tracking to give an arrival time.

To be truly helpful, Apple Intelligence relies on understanding deep personal context while also protecting user privacy. A cornerstone of Apple Intelligence is on-device processing, and many of the models that power it run entirely on device. To run more complex requests that require more processing power, Private Cloud Compute extends the privacy and security of Apple devices into the cloud to unlock even more intelligence.

With Private Cloud Compute, Apple Intelligence can flex and scale its computational capacity and draw on larger, server-based models for more complex requests. These models run on servers powered by Apple silicon, providing a foundation that allows Apple to ensure that data is never retained or exposed.

Independent experts can inspect the code that runs on Apple silicon servers to verify privacy, and Private Cloud Compute cryptographically ensures that iPhone, iPad, and Mac do not talk to a server unless its software has been publicly logged for inspection. Apple Intelligence with Private Cloud Compute sets a new standard for privacy in AI, unlocking intelligence users can trust.

Apple is integrating ChatGPT access into experiences within iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia, allowing users to access its expertise — as well as its image- and document-understanding capabilities — without needing to jump between tools.

Siri can tap into ChatGPT’s expertise when helpful. Users are asked before any questions are sent to ChatGPT, along with any documents or photos, and Siri then presents the answer directly.

Additionally, ChatGPT will be available in Apple’s systemwide Writing Tools, which help users generate content for anything they are writing about. With Compose, users can also access ChatGPT image tools to generate images in a wide variety of styles to complement what they are writing.

Privacy protections are built in for users who access ChatGPT — their IP addresses are obscured, and OpenAI won’t store requests. ChatGPT’s data-use policies apply for users who choose to connect their account.

ChatGPT will come to iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia later this year, powered by GPT-4o. Users can access it for free without creating an account, and ChatGPT subscribers can connect their accounts and access paid features right from these experiences.

Availability

Apple Intelligence is free for users, and will be available in beta as part of iOS 18 , iPadOS 18 , and macOS Sequoia  this fall in U.S. English. Some features, software platforms, and additional languages will come over the course of the next year. Apple Intelligence will be available on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPad and Mac with M1 and later, with Siri and device language set to U.S. English. For more information, visit apple.com/apple-intelligence .

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Images in this article

What is cloud computing?

With cloud computing, organizations essentially buy a range of services offered by cloud service providers (CSPs). The CSP’s servers host all the client’s applications. Organizations can enhance their computing power more quickly and cheaply via the cloud than by purchasing, installing, and maintaining their own servers.

The cloud-computing model is helping organizations to scale new digital solutions with greater speed and agility—and to create value more quickly. Developers use cloud services to build and run custom applications and to maintain infrastructure and networks for companies of virtually all sizes—especially large global ones. CSPs offer services, such as analytics, to handle and manipulate vast amounts of data. Time to market accelerates, speeding innovation to deliver better products and services across the world.

What are examples of cloud computing’s uses?

Get to know and directly engage with senior mckinsey experts on cloud computing.

Brant Carson is a senior partner in McKinsey’s Vancouver office; Chandra Gnanasambandam and Anand Swaminathan are senior partners in the Bay Area office; William Forrest is a senior partner in the Chicago office; Leandro Santos is a senior partner in the Atlanta office; Kate Smaje is a senior partner in the London office.

Cloud computing came on the scene well before the global pandemic hit, in 2020, but the ensuing digital dash  helped demonstrate its power and utility. Here are some examples of how businesses and other organizations employ the cloud:

• A fast-casual restaurant chain’s online orders multiplied exponentially during the 2020 pandemic lockdowns, climbing to 400,000 a day, from 50,000. One pleasant surprise? The company’s online-ordering system could handle the volume—because it had already migrated to the cloud . Thanks to this success, the organization’s leadership decided to accelerate its five-year migration plan to less than one year.
• A biotech company harnessed cloud computing to deliver the first clinical batch of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate for Phase I trials in just 42 days—thanks in part to breakthrough innovations using scalable cloud data storage and computing  to facilitate processes ensuring the drug’s safety and efficacy.
• Banks use the cloud for several aspects of customer-service management. They automate transaction calls using voice recognition algorithms and cognitive agents (AI-based online self-service assistants directing customers to helpful information or to a human representative when necessary). In fraud and debt analytics, cloud solutions enhance the predictive power of traditional early-warning systems. To reduce churn, they encourage customer loyalty through holistic retention programs managed entirely in the cloud.
• Automakers are also along for the cloud ride . One company uses a common cloud platform that serves 124 plants, 500 warehouses, and 1,500 suppliers to consolidate real-time data from machines and systems and to track logistics and offer insights on shop floor processes. Use of the cloud could shave 30 percent off factory costs by 2025—and spark innovation at the same time.

That’s not to mention experiences we all take for granted: using apps on a smartphone, streaming shows and movies, participating in videoconferences. All of these things can happen in the cloud.

Learn more about our Cloud by McKinsey , Digital McKinsey , and Technology, Media, & Telecommunications  practices.

How has cloud computing evolved?

Going back a few years, legacy infrastructure dominated IT-hosting budgets. Enterprises planned to move a mere 45 percent of their IT-hosting expenditures to the cloud by 2021. Enter COVID-19, and 65 percent of the decision makers surveyed by McKinsey increased their cloud budgets . An additional 55 percent ended up moving more workloads than initially planned. Having witnessed the cloud’s benefits firsthand, 40 percent of companies expect to pick up the pace of implementation.

The cloud revolution has actually been going on for years—more than 20, if you think the takeoff point was the founding of Salesforce, widely seen as the first software as a service (SaaS) company. Today, the next generation of cloud, including capabilities such as serverless computing, makes it easier for software developers to tweak software functions independently, accelerating the pace of release, and to do so more efficiently. Businesses can therefore serve customers and launch products in a more agile fashion. And the cloud continues to evolve.

Introducing McKinsey Explainers : Direct answers to complex questions

Cost savings are commonly seen as the primary reason for moving to the cloud but managing those costs requires a different and more dynamic approach focused on OpEx rather than CapEx. Financial-operations (or FinOps) capabilities  can indeed enable the continuous management and optimization of cloud costs . But CSPs have developed their offerings so that the cloud’s greatest value opportunity is primarily through business innovation and optimization. In 2020, the top-three CSPs reached $100 billion  in combined revenues—a minor share of the global $2.4 trillion market for enterprise IT services—leaving huge value to be captured. To go beyond merely realizing cost savings, companies must activate three symbiotic rings of cloud value creation : strategy and management, business domain adoption, and foundational capabilities.

What’s the main reason to move to the cloud?

The pandemic demonstrated that the digital transformation can no longer be delayed—and can happen much more quickly than previously imagined. Nothing is more critical to a corporate digital transformation than becoming a cloud-first business. The benefits are faster time to market, simplified innovation and scalability, and reduced risk when effectively managed. The cloud lets companies provide customers with novel digital experiences—in days, not months—and delivers analytics absent on legacy platforms. But to transition to a cloud-first operating model, organizations must make a collective effort that starts at the top. Here are three actions CEOs can take to increase the value their companies get from cloud computing :

• Establish a sustainable funding model.
• Develop a new business technology operating model.
• Set up policies to attract and retain the right engineering talent.

How much value will the cloud create?

Fortune 500 companies adopting the cloud could realize more than $1 trillion in value  by 2030, and not from IT cost reductions alone, according to McKinsey’s analysis of 700 use cases.

For example, the cloud speeds up design, build, and ramp-up, shortening time to market when companies have strong DevOps (the combination of development and operations) processes in place; groups of software developers customize and deploy software for operations that support the business. The cloud’s global infrastructure lets companies scale products almost instantly to reach new customers, geographies, and channels. Finally, digital-first companies use the cloud to adopt emerging technologies and innovate aggressively, using digital capabilities as a competitive differentiator to launch and build businesses .

If companies pursue the cloud’s vast potential in the right ways, they will realize huge value. Companies across diverse industries have implemented the public cloud and seen promising results. The successful ones defined a value-oriented strategy across IT and the business, acquired hands-on experience operating in the cloud, adopted a technology-first approach, and developed a cloud-literate workforce.

Learn more about our Cloud by McKinsey and Digital McKinsey practices.

What is the cloud cost/procurement model?

Some cloud services, such as server space, are leased. Leasing requires much less capital up front than buying, offers greater flexibility to switch and expand the use of services, cuts the basic cost of buying hardware and software upfront, and reduces the difficulties of upkeep and ownership. Organizations pay only for the infrastructure and computing services that meet their evolving needs. But an outsourcing model  is more apt than other analogies: the computing business issues of cloud customers are addressed by third-party providers that deliver innovative computing services on demand to a wide variety of customers, adapt those services to fit specific needs, and work to constantly improve the offering.

What are cloud risks?

The cloud offers huge cost savings and potential for innovation. However, when companies migrate to the cloud, the simple lift-and-shift approach doesn’t reduce costs, so companies must remediate their existing applications to take advantage of cloud services.

For instance, a major financial-services organization  wanted to move more than 50 percent of its applications to the public cloud within five years. Its goals were to improve resiliency, time to market, and productivity. But not all its business units needed to transition at the same pace. The IT leadership therefore defined varying adoption archetypes to meet each unit’s technical, risk, and operating-model needs.

Legacy cybersecurity architectures and operating models can also pose problems when companies shift to the cloud. The resulting problems, however, involve misconfigurations rather than inherent cloud security vulnerabilities. One powerful solution? Securing cloud workloads for speed and agility : automated security architectures and processes enable workloads to be processed at a much faster tempo.

What kind of cloud talent is needed?

The talent demands of the cloud differ from those of legacy IT. While cloud computing can improve the productivity of your technology, it requires specialized and sometimes hard-to-find talent—including full-stack developers, data engineers, cloud-security engineers, identity- and access-management specialists, and cloud engineers. The cloud talent model  should thus be revisited as you move forward.

Six practical actions can help your organization build the cloud talent you need :

• Find engineering talent with broad experience and skills.
• Balance talent maturity levels and the composition of teams.
• Build an extensive and mandatory upskilling program focused on need.
• Build an engineering culture that optimizes the developer experience.
• Consider using partners to accelerate development and assign your best cloud leaders as owners.
• Retain top talent by focusing on what motivates them.

How do different industries use the cloud?

Different industries are expected to see dramatically different benefits from the cloud. High-tech, retail, and healthcare organizations occupy the top end of the value capture continuum. Electronics and semiconductors, consumer-packaged-goods, and media companies make up the middle. Materials, chemicals, and infrastructure organizations cluster at the lower end.

Nevertheless, myriad use cases provide opportunities to unlock value across industries , as the following examples show:

• a retailer enhancing omnichannel  fulfillment, using AI to optimize inventory across channels and to provide a seamless customer experience
• a healthcare organization implementing remote heath monitoring to conduct virtual trials and improve adherence
• a high-tech company using chatbots to provide premier-level support combining phone, email, and chat
• an oil and gas company employing automated forecasting to automate supply-and-demand modeling and reduce the need for manual analysis
• a financial-services organization implementing customer call optimization using real-time voice recognition algorithms to direct customers in distress to experienced representatives for retention offers
• a financial-services provider moving applications in customer-facing business domains to the public cloud to penetrate promising markets more quickly and at minimal cost
• a health insurance carrier accelerating the capture of billions of dollars in new revenues by moving systems to the cloud to interact with providers through easier onboarding

The cloud is evolving  to meet the industry-specific needs of companies. From 2021 to 2024, public-cloud spending on vertical applications (such as warehouse management in retailing and enterprise risk management in banking) is expected to grow by more than 40 percent annually. Spending on horizontal workloads (such as customer relationship management) is expected to grow by 25 percent. Healthcare and manufacturing organizations, for instance, plan to spend around twice as much on vertical applications as on horizontal ones.

Learn more about our Cloud by McKinsey , Digital McKinsey , Financial Services , Healthcare Systems & Services , Retail , and Technology, Media, & Telecommunications  practices.

What are the biggest cloud myths?

Views on cloud computing can be clouded by misconceptions. Here are seven common myths about the cloud —all of which can be debunked:

• The cloud’s value lies primarily in reducing costs.
• Cloud computing costs more than in-house computing.
• On-premises data centers are more secure than the cloud.
• Applications run more slowly in the cloud.
• The cloud eliminates the need for infrastructure.
• The best way to move to the cloud is to focus on applications or data centers.
• You must lift and shift applications as-is or totally refactor them.

How large must my organization be to benefit from the cloud?

Here’s one more huge misconception: the cloud is just for big multinational companies. In fact, cloud can help make small local companies become multinational. A company’s benefits from implementing the cloud are not constrained by its size. In fact, the cloud shifts barrier to entry skill rather than scale, making it possible for a company of any size to compete if it has people with the right skills. With cloud, highly skilled small companies can take on established competitors. To realize the cloud’s immense potential value fully, organizations must take a thoughtful approach, with IT and the businesses working together.

For more in-depth exploration of these topics, see McKinsey’s Cloud Insights collection. Learn more about Cloud by McKinsey —and check out cloud-related job opportunities if you’re interested in working at McKinsey.

Articles referenced include:

• “ Six practical actions for building the cloud talent you need ,” January 19, 2022, Brant Carson , Dorian Gärtner , Keerthi Iyengar, Anand Swaminathan , and Wayne Vest
• “ Cloud-migration opportunity: Business value grows, but missteps abound ,” October 12, 2021, Tara Balakrishnan, Chandra Gnanasambandam , Leandro Santos , and Bhargs Srivathsan
• “ Cloud’s trillion-dollar prize is up for grabs ,” February 26, 2021, Will Forrest , Mark Gu, James Kaplan , Michael Liebow, Raghav Sharma, Kate Smaje , and Steve Van Kuiken
• “ Unlocking value: Four lessons in cloud sourcing and consumption ,” November 2, 2020, Abhi Bhatnagar , Will Forrest , Naufal Khan , and Abdallah Salami
• “ Three actions CEOs can take to get value from cloud computing ,” July 21, 2020, Chhavi Arora , Tanguy Catlin , Will Forrest , James Kaplan , and Lars Vinter

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