Brief the Boss, Dazzle the Audience

ot long ago, the standard weapon in the federal speaker's arsenal was the overhead transparency. Agencies often had graphics departments standing by to prepare see-through sheets displaying an agency logo or seal, lots of bulleted lists, a few graphs, and perhaps a quotation from the Secretary.

Nowadays the content of presentations hasn't changed much, but the medium has. At meetings and conferences, those called upon to defend, explain or extol their programs arrive with floppy diskettes instead of transparencies. The savviest often tote their own notebook computer and matching projector, just in case no one else took care of getting that equipment.

Presentations are developed entirely on standard office PCs. Often the speakers do all the production themselves, but software keeps their handiwork from looking homemade.

Though they still can be printed out as overhead transparencies, presentations increasingly are displayed on a computer monitor or by a projector hooked to a PC. And presentations are getting fancier, thanks to today's multimedia software. It's much easier to introduce sound or motion into the show.

Tools at Hand

If you're ready to join the ranks of self-made presenters, you'll find it surprisingly easy and inexpensive. Development tools probably are installed already on your computer, as part of a standard package of office software. Microsoft Corp.'s Office 95 and Office 97 seem to be the most common software suites in federal offices, as they are in the corporate world. The Microsoft Office graphics tool is PowerPoint. Comparable software is included in Lotus Development Corp.'s SmartSuite (where Freelance Graphics is the counterpart of PowerPoint) and Corel Corp.'s WordPerfect Suite (where it's Corel Presentations).

These multiple-function products enable you to write most of a presentation with the word processing program and develop your charts and graphs with the spreadsheet component. Then you can assemble the parts into a presentation using PowerPoint, Freelance Graphics or Corel Presentations.

These presentation packages come with standard templates and many other aids to walk you through the design process. In only minutes, you can create a professional-looking set of slides. ("Slides" is the usual label for the individual screens you will create and display, even though most never will be imprinted on film.)

Probably you'll start with basic bullet lists, then enhance them with graphics or photographs, fancier colors and typography, textured backgrounds and the like. Your numbers become slick pie charts, bar charts or line charts at the click of an on-screen button.

In fact, most people go overboard when they realize what they can do. With each release of their office software, Corel, Lotus and Microsoft have been throwing in extra goodies. Corel boasts of its no-cost sound and video clips, for example. Lotus offers 134 "smart" templates. Some PowerPoint 97 templates have built-in animation. Beware: If you use too many presentation enhancers, you'll end up distracting viewers from your message.

What if your agency doesn't provide you with an office software suite? Freestanding presentation packages are available too. They include Harvard Graphics 4.0 and Active Presenter, both from Software Publishing Co., San Jose, Calif.; and Astound from Astound Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif. Active Presenter has won high marks from the trade press lately, and it has the advantage of occupying little space on your hard drive. Astound reportedly is more difficult to use but also more sophisticated in its features and better able to generate professional-looking presentations than the other software.

If you want to jazz up your slides with illustrations or photographs, you'll usually find that some general-purpose images are included with recent versions of your software. Your agency's graphics or publication staff may be able to supply more relevant digitized images, including official agency insignia. You also can buy packages of images, generally supplied on compact disk, and you can find more on the World Wide Web, either free or for purchase. It's illegal, of course, to use copyrighted images without permission.

Most of the presentation packages come with viewer software or the ability to create run-time versions of your presentations. Either of these features means you can show your presentation without having a copy of the software package in which you created the show. You can copy the presentation, and the viewer software if needed, to a diskette or even e-mail it to people who simply download it and click on their PCs' "run" button. The latest software also allows you to post your presentation on the World Wide Web.

Most of the time, however, you should plan on giving the presentation live. Without you there to connect the bullets, much of the meaning is lost. You can get a sense of this by reviewing some of the excellent PowerPoint presentations from the 1997 Air Force Information Technology Conference, on the web.

Speakers and workshop leaders at the Air Force IT conference were asked to prepare their presentations in PowerPoint, which most Air Force units have because the service has standardized with Microsoft Office. The conference organizers at the Standard Systems Group in Montgomery, Ala., asked for advance copies of the 160 presentations.

Speakers arriving at the assigned room found a desktop projector attached to a PC with the presentation installed and ready to go. The hassle of loading old-fashioned slide trays or swapping out slippery overhead transparencies was a thing of the past.

Affordable Power

The Standard Systems Group has an outstanding track record when it comes to organizing its annual conference. If you are scheduled to speak at a conference or meeting, you may find yourself at the mercy of less reliable people. To be on the safe side, consider carrying your own projection system.

You'll need a notebook computer that can run Windows 95 or Windows 97 with some capacity to spare. Sixteen megabytes of standard memory (RAM) and a 166-MHz Pentium processor are minimal. If you're buying the computer primarily for presentations, experts recommend that you spend the extra money for MMX technology on the processor. MMX is multimedia capability that will run graphics and sound readily. To get full use of the MMX power, aim for 2 megabytes of video RAM and 256 kilobytes of speeded-up memory known as cache.

Many such computers come with built-in sound systems. Whether or not you get built-in audio, be sure you can plug in speakers later on. When you are ready to use sound in your presentations, you may not be satisfied with the tiny speaker inside your computer. Similarly, you probably will get a CD-ROM drive with your computer. If you don't, be sure you can attach one as needed. That's in addition to a 1-gigabyte hard drive and 3 1/2-inch floppy drive.

Your screen should be an active-matrix SVGA display, which has 800-by-600-pixel resolution. The newer XGA screens have even sharper displays, but you pay a high price for that clarity. Rather than relying solely on specs, look at the screens and compare for yourself. Another feature to look for is a port that will let you hook your notebook up to a full-size computer monitor or television set, rather than the liquid crystal display on your computer. These connectors often are described as NTSC (National Television Standards Committee) video ports.

In a screen, bigger is better-at least to a point. Look for a 12.1-inch display at a minimum. You'll need to evaluate the trade-offs between notebook size (which obviously affects the screen size) and weight. Weight is a serious consideration for a presentation machine, which may weigh as much as 10 pounds naked-that is, without the traveling case, rechargeable battery pack, projector and other equipment.

Such a notebook computer would have set you back at least $4,000 a year ago, but prices have fallen. Dell Computer Corp. and Gateway 2000 Inc., the leading direct sellers of PCs to government, have been advertising notebooks that meet these specs for less than $3,000.

These companies often install the Microsoft Office suite at the factory. Government Technology Services Inc. of Chantilly, Va., one of the largest resellers to federal agencies, reports that comparable Panasonic notebooks have been selling well.

Briefcase Projectors

Besides your notebook computer and the computer file of your presentation, you'll need an electronic projector. The new projectors for use with computers far surpass their predecessors in weight, price and brightness, according to Tony Trombly, senior sales representative for reseller Future Enterprises Inc. of Lanham, Md.

In mid-1997, he says, the typical portable presentation projector weighed 15 pounds and cost $7,000. The projector delivered around 400 ANSI lumens of light output, which Trombly recommends as a minimum. At year's end, however, InFocus Systems Inc. of Wilsonville, Ore., began shipping its LP420 model. At 9-by-12-by-4 inches and less than 7 pounds, the LP420 delivers 500 lumens of output and has built-in audio for $6,000.

Less expensive models are available, but few if any offer SVGA resolution to match the clarity of your notebook's screen. Other makers are likely to follow with models based on the same breakthrough light engine from Texas Instruments. Trombly recommends using a wireless remote control, similar to that on a television set, with presentation projectors. It's an add-on for the new InFocus machine and others.

With notebook, projector and software, you're ready to become a presentation master. And if you don't think you'll need that skill, think again. Experts foresee even more competition for promotions, plum assignments, funding and the support of top management in federal agencies. The ability to present your ideas and your programs effectively can make a big difference in your career.