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Death By PowerPoint: Practical Advice For Improving Presentations
Thanks to Maxwell Hoffmann for pointing us to this excellent resource (on our favorite presentation website, SlideShare.net).
If you use PowerPoint to create presentations, get some ideas for improving their visual value by viewing "Enhancing Visual Effects in PowerPoint Presentations" (below).
By Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler and The Content Wrangler Community
6 Comments
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Comment by Scott McColgin on March 19, 2008 at 11:49am -
Thanks for posting this Scott. I think what it really needs though is a video to see how the "expert" would present this report. All too often, I've seen people with decent slides crash and burn during the presentation.
So, there are 2 issues:
1) Improving slides &
2) How to best present those slides
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Comment by Scott Abel on March 19, 2008 at 12:32pm -
I actually prefer present in a similar style as does Steve Jobs, who, I'm certain borrowed heavily from Guy Kawasaki. I learned a lot from Guy's book, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy: Creating Disruption for Fun and Profit.
The presentations I don't like are PowerPoint slides full of bulleted lists that the presenter (and audience) read. I think it's much more impressive to have a slide with one word or phrase on it and have the presenter speak to it. You can really tell who truly knows their topic when they present in this way.
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Comment by Ellen Dunnigan on March 19, 2008 at 1:10pm -
Powerpoint has run wild, it's true. The tips given in the slide show are good tips. I would add that it's important to keep your slides to a minimum (30 or less for every hour of presentation), remember to use spellcheck (Kapterev did not), and to consider powerpoint as a way to show supporting PICTURES rather than data, whenever possible. Use data/words/bullets on the slides only when you are "training" (ie, not doing a motivational or inspirational speech). More important, remember to not to look at the big screen when speaking to your audience and do NOT read from your slides. You'll bore us to tears if you do! Remember, it's not usually "what" you say but "how" you say it that makes the difference. The delivery of your important message is the key to getting a message to "stick".
We routinely teach /coach presentation skills, so feel free to call if you need help.
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Comment by Aaron M. Renn on March 19, 2008 at 2:51pm -
I found the experience of presenting in the Pecha Kucha format (20 slides @ 20 seconds each) very interesting. That forces you to ruthlessly trim the fluff.
I think there are two types of Powerpoints: those used to present to a group and those used as meeting handouts or to be read offline. The vast bulk of Powerpoints I'm guessing fall into the latter category, including most of what I produce.
I've tried to establish a few rules for my teams in creating these types of offline powerpoints. Keep them short - no more than 12 slides, preferably 3-6 for an executive presentation. Think through the story you want to tell first. Then tell the story using horizontal and vertical logic. Horizontal logic is a set of headlines that tell the story, such that if someone only read them and never looked at the core content, they'd still get it. Vertical logic is making sure the data on the slide backs up the points made in the headline.
I didn't invent this, for course, but have found it useful. It's probably less so for things you are actually giving in a standup presentation.
I don't think I would give a presentation with 61 slides, as the example in the original post was.
BTW: For data charts, the starting point for reference is Edward Tufte's "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information". That's a must read.
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Comment by Jeffrey Cufaude on March 19, 2008 at 7:46pm - I'd also recommend Garr Reynold's blog and book, Presentation Zen, as well as Beyond Bullet Points by Cliff Atkinson. Both are excellent resources.
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© 2008 Created by Pat Coyle
10 slides
20 minutes
30 point font
This is from his book, The Art of the Start.
If I ever need to give a presentation, this is the format I'll use.