So you’ve created an amazing Haiku Deck, something you’re proud of. Something you want to show to anyone and everyone, including the innocent bystander standing next to you on the subway platform. Well, we agree. It’s time to set your beautiful story free! And there are so many ways to do it, both straight from the app on your iPad or from the Haiku Deck website. Here’s how!
Sharing from the app
1. Play your deck directly from your iPad, the modern and engaging way to pitch to a small group. And with the parallax effect at work, advancing your slides has never been sexier.
2. Connect your iPad directly to a projector for a “1: many” talk, either through a direct connection with an iPad VGA adaptor.
OR
3. with Apple TV via Airplay. For more on how to do this, check out this post.
check out any comments users may have left for you
and download a supercool PDF you can use for a handout
We’ve been getting some support requests from fans saying their decks aren’t showing up in their personal gallery. There are a few different reasons this can happen, and this post should help you troubleshoot them.
1. Poor Internet connection: Many publishing issues can be attributed to poor network connectivity. Check your connection and try again.
2. YourHaiku Deck created has not been published to the web: Simply creating a deck using the Haiku Deck iPad application does not automatically make that deck available in your online gallery. You must first share or publish the deck for it to appear on our website.
3. You used a different account to log in to the Haiku Deck application and the Haiku Deck website: You must use the same account for both. To test this, sign in to www.HaikuDeck.com using your preferred account. Then sign in to Haiku Deck on your iPad using the same account. (From the main screen, you can adjust this with the button in the lower left that says either [SIGN IN] or [ACCOUNT]). Try publishing a deck from your iPad by emailing it to yourself, then clicking the link to view it online. Additional information about what do to if you’ve logged in with multiple accounts here.
Our friends at Ethos3 have been working for years to fight against the dreaded “Death by Powerpoint.” We caught up with Ethos3’s content writer and blogger Maggie Summers to hear her thoughts on simplicity, and how Haiku Deck can help further the cause.
Haiku Deck: We’re certainly aligned in our quest for simplicity! Tell us more about your take on it.
Maggie: Leonardo da Vinci once said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” The very existence of simplicity implies thorough understanding, as well as thoughtful inclusion and careful omission. It’s far easier to maintain complexity than it is to foster simplicity.
Distilling complexity is worth the effort. Ideas are far easier to understand when they’re presented simply. Points are more easily retained when there’s no clutter or extraneous jargon. In reality, most people just turn off and tune out in the face of complexity.
Creative Commons licensed image by Wesley Fryer
Haiku Deck: And what are your thoughts about Haiku Deck in particular?
We’ve been huge proponents of simplicity since the beginning of Ethos3, so we’re really excited to see this app come into the presentation space. Haiku Deck is essentially a manifestation of the presentation designer’s most important commandment––use big visuals with little text. We think it’s a great resource for the at-home presentation designer striving for simplicity.
Haiku Deck: What’s your advice for people who’d like to simplify their presentation style with Haiku Deck?
Maggie: Don’t be intimidated by Haiku Deck’s two-line per slide limit. Really, the app is doing you a favor by encouraging the use of as little text as possible to convey a point. It forces you to weed out the complicated, and find the simple. How can you disseminate that point in five words instead of ten? How can you narrow that message down into a single, pithy line rather than squeeze it into a bulky two? Simplify.
The two-line limit becomes much less daunting if you restrict yourself to including only one point per slide. There’s no such thing as a presentation that’s too long or too short. In fact, try not to think of length in terms of number of slides at all. More often than not, expanding a 25-slide presentation into a 50-slide presentation presents the same information much more effectively. The quantity of slides isn’t important. The memorability and impact of each individual slide in the deck is what truly matters.
Haiku Deck: What tips do you have for using images effectively?
Maggie: Large visuals also help the presentation designer embrace simplicity. Use visuals that support and nuance the point on a slide. Don’t be overly literal or prosaic with your choice of images. Instead, play up visual metaphors and use humor, irony, and unexpectedness to add depth to the words on the slide. Use text to communicate the essence of your main point, and then use a compelling visual to communicate further its meaning.
Haiku Deck: Any last thoughts?
Maggie: The simple resonates with audiences much more quickly and resoundingly than the complex. Where complexity tends to alienate and dissuade, simplicity implies accessibility and thoughtfulness, inspiring an equal chance at understanding for all.
Here’s a lovely Haiku Deck that Maggie created to capture her thoughts on simplicity:
Simplicity – Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires
A presentation also needs a presenter. People seem to forget this basic point – slides can be put on SlideShare, or emailed – but without narration that’s not the whole presentation, it’s just the slides. The best way to design slides for SlideShare isn’t the same as the best way to create slides to actually use in a presentation.
Pretty much every presentation design book we’ve read, and every expert we’ve talked to, emphasizes this exact point. And nearly everyone who has put a deck together has fallen into the trap of trying to make their slides work outside of the room in which they’re actually presented. Garr Reynolds of Presentation Zen fame calls this kind of hybrid approach–slides that repeat what the presenter says, with too much detail–a slideument. He also advises against it.
Haiku Deck, by design, encourages you to simplify by limiting the amount of text on each slide, but we get that there’s often more to your story. Just last week our friends at Edelman Seattle invited us to do a “Presentation Intervention,” and I put together this deck to explain what we’re about and outline some strategies to make presentations more captivating.
I built the deck around high-impact imagery with minimal text, and it worked beautifully in the room, but if you weren’t in the room, the takeaways wouldn’t be as clear. So I’m particularly excited about an awesome new Haiku Deck feature: the ability to add notes to the web view of your deck, so you can complete the picture.
Adding notes to my deck allowed me to explain the ideas behind each slide, so my story can live on outside the room.
Click to view the whole deck with notes.
How to Add Notes to Your Haiku Deck
To add notes to a new Haiku Deck (or to round out one you’ve already created), simply publish your deck and click through to view it on our website. Be sure you’re logged in to the site using the same credentials you use to log in from the app.
When you view your deck, you’ll see title and notes fields on the right. You can add text to either or both fields. Click the blue Save button, or click Preview to see how your text will appear in its final layout. Then advance to the next slide to add more notes.
Once you have your notes the way you like them, you can click Download at the bottom of your screen to create a very snappy-looking PDF you can use as a handout or downloadable ebook. Here’s a sample page:
sample handout page
Please try out the Notes feature, and let us know what you think! In the coming weeks we’ll be on the lookout for Haiku Decks with Notes for our Gallery, so if you create one, please let us know.
We’ve tried to make Haiku Deck as simple and intuitive to use as possible, but here’s our ultimate resource guide to help you get started. If there’s a question we didn’t answer, visit our support community or let us know in the comments! We’re always here to help.
Import Images Like a Pro (Learn how to use images in your camera roll, photostream and online accounts like Facebook, Instagram, Dropbox, Google Drive and more)
Visit our Featured and Popular Galleries to see the best decks from our community, hand-picked by our team. Tip: If you’re working in the app, you can visit the Gallery by tapping on the GALLERY button on the lower left hand corner in the MAIN MENU.
Tap GALLERY in the MAIN MENU to visit the Gallery in the app.
Pinterest boards (Inspiring examples of Haiku Decks from our creative community about education, real estate, business and more)
We’ve heard from some educators that they want to be able use Haiku Deck with their students, but are concerned by the recommended age rating in iTunes. Here’s the story.
When you create a Haiku Deck, our app combs through more than 40 million Creative Commons licensed images that were tagged with keywords when they were posted on the Internet. Our goal is to bring back beautiful and relevant pictures to accompany your words. Some photo sources have filters to prevent inappropriate content from being returned in the results. Whenever possible, we use these filters.
We also maintain a list of inappropriate search terms that will not yield the kind of image results that mischievous little eyes will find interesting. That said, the problem of in appropriate images is more complex than simply preventing younger users from running inappropriate searches. Photos are sometimes tagged by the photographer in unpredictable ways.
We’ll continue to work on a solution that strikes the right balance between returning great photo results and protecting little eyes, but for the time being, we feel the 12+ rating is the best way to communicate to teachers and parents that, despite our intentions, inappropriate content may appear in the app. For some creative workarounds, be sure to check out our top Teacher Appreciation Tips. Over time we hope to make Haiku Deck more accessible to a broader audience.
Until then, enjoy this inspiring deck, safe for viewers of all ages.
The following guest post is by Dr. Michelle Mazur, award-winning speaker, author, and speech coach. Recently we noticed that she had used Haiku Deck to create a slidecast to complement her blog, “Relationally Speaking.” We invited her to share how she did it, and she very generously related her experience and a few tips.
Haiku Deck: How do you use slidecasts on your site?
Michelle: A slidecast basically allows you to record a presentation on your computer screen screen with a voiceover. It’s an excellent way to engage your audience with a dynamic multimedia presentation when you can’t be in the same room with them.
I thought a slidecast would be a unique way to make my content stand out and let my own voice shine through.
Haiku Deck: Why did you choose Haiku Deck to make your slidecast?
Michelle: I wanted to create a presentation that was visually vibrant, with great images that would hold my audience’s attention while I spoke. I was planning to use PowerPoint to make the slides, but I was dreading it–searching for hours for the right images, then designing a template that would meet my needs. When I read about Haiku Deck in Fast Company Design, I decided to give it a try.
On the first slide, I typed “What is your presentation destination?” Haiku Deck gave me the option to search for pictures related to presentation or destination. I had the perfect image for my slide in about 30 seconds. Then I formatted the text exactly the way I wanted it. WOW! I was able to create my entire 21-slide deck in less than an hour. It would have taken much, much longer in PowerPoint.
Haiku Deck: How did you actually create the slidecast?
Michelle: This was my first slidecast, and I found the software choices to be somewhat limited for Mac users. There are several free programs such as Jing and Screencast.com. I wanted to have a bit more freedom and editing power, so my decision came down to Camstasia or Screenflow. Both cost $100 and have excellent reviews, but I chose Camtasia because it has a 30-day free trial and doesn’t put a watermark on your videos.
Next, I put my script together for the voiceover. Camtasia is incredibly easy to use and they have awesome video tutorials on their site.
I practiced my voiceover a couple of times, just like I would practice an in-person presentation. When I was ready, I hit record. I got lucky and did the whole slidecast in one take. Using the built-in editing features of Camtasia, I was able to trim the beginning and end.
Finally, I exported it to YouTube. You can see the results here:
All in all, it took me about 3 hours to create my slidecast with Haiku Deck. If I had used any other presentation software, I’m sure my time would have nearly doubled.
Haiku Deck: What other tips might be helpful for people who’d like to give slidecasting a try?
Michelle: I recommend using an external microphone for professional sound. Your computer’s mic makes you sound like you’re trapped in a tin can! You can pick up a nice microphone for around $30.00.
Zooming out, if you are a blogger, entrepreneur, coach, speaker, author, or have any kind of online presence, creating a slidecast with Haiku Deck is simple. It’s a great way to engage your audience. Camtasia gives your content your unique voice, and Haiku Deck makes it a visual delight!
When you export to PowerPoint or Keynote from Haiku Deck, the Mail app on your iPad will automatically open for you to email the exported “.pptx” file as an attachment, which can be opened on a computer with PowerPoint or Keynote.
However, if the exported PowerPoint file is too large to email, or you encounter issues sending it from your email account, you can always retrieve exported decks by connecting your iPad to a computer with iTunes. Here’s how:
Plug your iPad into your computer via the standard USB cable that it came with.
Open iTunes on your computer.
After a moment, you can select the iPad in the left sidebar (or you can click the iPad button in the top right corner in the newest version of iTunes)
Click the apps tab near top/center of iTunes.
Scroll down to the File sharing section (below where you see “sync apps”) .
Find Haiku Deck in the File sharing list and click it.
Your Haiku Deck exports will appear in the list of Haiku Deck documents.
Select the deck you want and click the “save to” button below the list of files.
Most people don’t think about it, but photos on your iPad often contain hidden location tags in them. In order for the Haiku Deck iPad App to access these images, you need to allow the app to use “location data.” If you deny this permission the first time you run Haiku Deck, your local photos may not appear.
If you’re trying to use images stored on your iPad in a Haiku Deck and you can’t see them when you click the “IMPORT” button, try this simple fix.
If you’re on iOS 6 or 7:
Go into to your iPad’s settings menu.
Choose “privacy” on the left.
Choose “photos” on the right.
Find Haiku Deck in the list of apps that appears.
Turn location services ON for Haiku Deck.
If you haven’t upgraded to iOS 6, the process is a little different:
Go into your iPad’s settings menu.
Choose “location services” on the left.
Find Haiku Deck in the list of apps that appears.
Turn location services ON.
The next time you try to access local images, they should appear.
