Presenting in the Metaverse: Stand Out by Staying on the Leading Edge

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The metaverse has been all over the headlines, but why does it matter for design professionals? This session will explore what the metaverse is (and isn’t), how it is poised to change how we work and connect with each other, and what that means for design, presentations, and interactive experiences. We’ll hop through some metaverse platforms, and discuss both practical applications and how getting metaverse-ready will help you stay on the leading edge and stand out professionally.

Topics include:

  • What is the metaverse and why do design professionals need to understand it?
  • Different types of metaverse platforms and their unique opportunities
  • How the metaverse intersects with 3D spaces, VR, NFTs, and blockchain
  • Examples of how presentations or experiences can be created in VR or 3D environments
  • How to use PowerPoint and 3D models in metaverse environments
  • Practical ways to start experimenting and building your skills

 

The Best PowerPoint Features Nobody Knows Exist

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PowerPoint has a reputation for being boring, and its functions really haven’t changed since flint was the cutting edge tool. But things have been really different since Office 365 came along. Now, there are new tools added every few weeks, and there are tremendous gains to be had from a whole host of functions. There are also a few stunning features hidden away that are really old.

So come to this session and learn how to get the most out of PowerPoint and give your presentations a real boost. You’ll see amazing things with AI-driven design ideas, 3D models, custom video cropping, ink drawing tools, interactive Zoom links, live subtitles, live presentations, and the terrific Morph transition.

In this session, you’ll learn to:

  • Do more with PowerPoint than you ever have before
  • Create sophisticated visual stories in seconds using a variety of tricks and hacks with Morph
  • Incorporate amazing AI functions to dictate, design, transcribe, and translate content

Tables of Contents, Indexes, and other Navigation in InDesign Files

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It’s no use filling your long documents with amazing information if the reader can’t find it! The good news is that InDesign has powerful tools for making indexes, tables of contents, bookmarks, and other navigation tools. The bad news is that these features are often confusing!

Let’s investigate these features and explore how to use them, why to use them, and how to make them bend to your will.

Topics include:

  • Creating digital bookmarks automatically based on styles
  • The difference between an index and concordance
  • Scripts and other tools that may speed your work
  • Building lists of images, figures, headings, and more

InDesign for Building Presentations

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You already have Adobe InDesign, so why not use it to help you make your presentations? After all, laying out a slide is very similar to laying out a page.

Join us as we explore:

  • Exporting InDesign documents to PowerPoint or Keynote
  • Amazing plug-ins, scripts, and resources to help you build high-quality slides
  • Why you should consider HTML5 (exported right out of InDesign!) for your next slide deck

Google Slides: What You Gotta Know

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For decades, most institutions have standardized on PowerPoint for presentations. However, in the last 10 years, some presentation designers have found themselves using Google Slides, and not always by choice! Perhaps your company has decided to use the Google Workspace suite of apps; or perhaps you felt you needed to use it to collaborate with a team.

Today, Google Slides is used by millions of people, and although it is juvenile in many ways compared to PowerPoint, it doesn’t mean you have to hate the experience of working with it. Internationally renowned designer Mark Heaps has worked on hundreds of presentations using Google Slides, and in this session, he’ll share some of the techniques he’s learned to deal with the transition.

Topics include:

  • Fundamentals to help you navigate from the language of PPT to Google Slides
  • Tricks and tips to make production a little less stressful, including important quick keys
  • Hacks to make life with your collaborators a little bit better
  • …and the ultimate question: “I know how to do it in PowerPoint, but how do I do it here?!”

 

Animation Techniques for PowerPoint

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When you’re designing presentations, you need to think outside the box and act more like a filmmaker. Learn why you don’t need to be afraid to animate… in fact, you’ll actually start looking for places to use these tools.

We’ll explore:

  • Using animations in PowerPoint effectively to enhance storytelling and design
  • Combining animations to create novel effects that will amaze, delight, and enrich your audience’s experience
  • How to use animation to create rhythm and continuity in your presentations
  • And maybe most important: How to have fun with presentation design again!

Headers, Captions, Numbering, and Sections for Long InDesign Documents

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Adding page numbers is easy in InDesign, but managing them well — along with your headers, footers, sections, numbering, and more — can be tricky!

Let’s take a deep dive into the world of headings and numbering, and see how InDesign’s automation tools can help us produce long documents faster than ever before.

Topics include:

  • Building section and page headers (such as chapter titles) based on paragraph styles
  • Using document variables and section markers
  • Free scripts for working with long documents

Awesome GREP Tips and Tricks

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Once you get started with GREP, you keep finding more and more uses for it! In this session we share several amazing GREP tricks with you. Note: While these are advanced tips, any InDesign user can take advantage of them. Just copy and paste them from the handouts to achieve great results!

This session includes:

  • Using GREP with other automation tools and batch scripts
  • Powerful but simple undocumented codes
  • Finding, styling, and dealing with e-mail addresses and URLs

Three Minutes Max: PowerPoint

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It’s time for our speakers to share their best tips and tricks for presentation design in under 3 minutes. This fast-paced and fun session is always full of mind-blowing tips and laughs. Don’t miss it!

Managing Images and Captions in InDesign

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If your documents include images (especially numbered figures and captions), you owe it to yourself to learn these from-the-trenches tips and techniques to speed up your work!

Topics include:

  • Using object styles to control images
  • Managing captions with styles
  • Using XMP metadata to create captions automatically
  • Creating automatic figure or table numbering
  • Flexible cross-referencing to figures that may move around your document