07.07.08
Posted in Work at 12:05 pm by JohnB
I’m putting together a reasonably significant presentation for an organisation at the moment and have been provided with some reference material to get a ‘feel’ of their phrasing and terminology. I have a lot of fun looking at other peoples presentations as they usually say a lot about the person or organisation which created them.
I have always been of the opinion that a ‘presentation’ is given by a person and that tools such as PowerPoint or Keynote should be used to deliver punch, highlights and provide a flow to the message. The details of the message can be included in speaker notes for sure, but the actual delivery comes from the person.
I’ve sat through more than a few (too many if I’m honest) presentations where the ‘speaker’ simply reads through the information presented on the screen in fabulous verbosity! not fun and certainly not a valuable use of either of our time! So here’s my new presentation paradigm, put highlights on the screen to get attention, use graphics and animation where appropriate and timely to do so – a picture can say a thousand words, but sitting through pretty builds can just get boring. Make sure the notes supplied contain all of the information you are going to use – that’s what note are for, the slides should be clean and crisp.
And finally if your presenting, present, don’t simply read from the deck. Anyone can read, you have to engage.
- J.
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07.02.08
Posted in Home, Work at 5:46 pm by JohnB
Hi all,
I wanted to share this little bit of knowledge, I couldn’t find any information out there so I played around until things worked.
Scenario:
I buy Office 2008 for the Mac – Home and Student Edition because it’s cheaper and I don’t have an Exchange server.
I update as updates come along, like the diligent user I am (should user be highlighted there.. I’m not sure!)
I use the Mac Mail application for ALL of my email, because I like it and it works well. I use iCal for my appointments for the same reasons.
I take on a job where I’m given a mailbox on an Exchange Server. Now, Mail will connect to an Exchange server using the IMAP protocol and this is fine on the whole, unless that Exchange SErver is 2007 in which case appointment invitations are irretrievable (this is an Exchange issue I believe as Outlook on a PC connecting with IMAP does the same thing).
Joy! I’m allowed to download Entourage with Exchange access from the service provider of the Exchange system – it’s hosted you see, a solution i wholeheartedly support of course!
Pain! I install the new Entourage and then am prompted to do an update, the update fails with the message:-
"You cannot install Office 2008 12.1.0 Update on this volume. A version of
the software required to install this update was not found on this volume."
This is of course no fun, it’s even less fun when I find that non of my Office applications now work either!
The solution was to remove the Office Suite from the machine (dragging the folder from Applications to the Trash and emptying it), re-booting, re-installing the Suite from the DVD, re-installing the new Entourage from the DMG I downloaded and then letting the updater loose on the system.
It looks like the bottom line on this is – if you change ANYTHING in Office, do it from a FRESH installation before you update. This is more than tedious, even today I had to re-downloaed SP1 and then get the 12.1.1 update too, this process is only going to get longer until the restrictions that the updater seems to be hitting are mitigated.
But it’s working now so I’m (reasonably) happy!
- J.
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