You already know that you shouldn’t stand behind a podium, that it’s important to practice, and that PowerPoint can get boring.

I spoke last week to a group of executives and one of the challenges that I saw in their presentations was the tendency to put spreadsheets on their slides when talking about financial topics.

In this CBSNews.

Peter Jeff (photo, left), adjunct public speaking instructor, says, "You can make your speechwriting sing by learning lessons from songwriters.

David Meadvin (photo, left), founder of the speechwriting firm Inkwell Strategies, is often asked "about how to write a winning speech.

Dave Johnson (photo, left), author of three dozen books and a former contributor to PC World and Wired, writes, "Mom always said not to judge a book by its cover, but the fact remains that most folks are going to judge the quality of your presentation by the quality of your visuals.

Walter E.

Learn how to convert a PowerPoint presentation into a sharable video.

Ian Griffin recently attended a forum where Kim A.

According to Nancy Duarte (photo, left), "Story is the most powerful way to persuade, whether you're persuading to sell your book or persuading to sell your idea.

“I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States …” In Washington, D.

Revise these slides to make the text more effective for presentation purposes.

These concepts will help make you a better listener on the job and in every other aspect of life.

A pie chart is better than a data table to show proportions in data.

When dealing with difficult audiences, it's important to be aware of the cast of characters involved.

When dealing with difficult audiences, it's important to be aware of the cast of characters involved.

As presenters, we regularly need to show our audiences how to fill out forms.

When replacing text with a visual, don't make the mistake of thinking that you need a fancy or complex visual.

If you are showing a process that repeats on a regular basis, make sure that it is clear for the audience.

On a monthly, quarterly or annual basis many people report their activity to the boss, a committee or stakeholders.

Often the design of our slides actually promotes too much text and leads to reading the slides.

When you are talking about date based events or information, don't use a simple list of the dates with no visual.

When you are presenting a calculation and how changes will affect it, make sure you do it so that the information is clearly understood.

Legal topics can be dry and boring if presented using slides that simply contain the words from a document.