MAYA Design has a good post on The Good Side of PowerPoint. It's a good article, nicely laid out.
The bottom line is they figured out, correctly, is that by removing almost all the text from Powerpoint, and just having compelling images to go along and support what their speaker is saying, is that their presentations will be very effective.
You shouldn't be reading what your presentation is saying. Your slides should support what you're saying, not echoing it. Nothing is worse that watching a presentation and reading along, line by line. Talk about ineffective.
The best advice I've run into for developing good presentations. Take out every word you can in the slides. Every single word that can go, goes. And try and use images, charts, graphs, or related information that you won't speak out loud. It works.
For awhile I thought that PowerPoint is evil incarnate, since I had been deluded with professors and students who had no clue how to speak.. but sure could make a PowerPoint! But now that I'm doing regular presentations, I want to share flowcharts, control diagrams, photos, and graphs with the audience. Having it in PowerPoint makes it a breeze. I just have to remind myself that having every word on there is pointless... otherwise, I'll become one of them!!! ACK! NOOOO!!!
A friend of mine that works at Lockheed Martin said that it is officially mandated that the PowerPoint must include all important information. He says the presentation should be able to stand on its own and convey all the necessary information to someone who wasn't at the presentation. This sounds ridiculous to me... what is the point of the presentation if you can just read it? Why didn't they write a memo with some pretty pictures? Seems more useful than a bunch of bulleted lists.
Have you ever seen http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_pp ? I really want to get a copy... just for the cover if nothing else!
I've seen, but haven't read, Tufte's book on Powerpoint. But I have had the luxury of seeing him speak on several occasions. And he does talk in length about this exact issue.
And for their requirement about having the presentation convey all the important information? That's easy.
Use the notes feature. You can have all your talking points and all the important items in the notes, which you can then distribute. But it won't show up in the actual presentation. You get the best of both worlds.
Comments
eliot
AMEN!!!
For awhile I thought that PowerPoint is evil incarnate, since I had been deluded with professors and students who had no clue how to speak.. but sure could make a PowerPoint! But now that I'm doing regular presentations, I want to share flowcharts, control diagrams, photos, and graphs with the audience. Having it in PowerPoint makes it a breeze. I just have to remind myself that having every word on there is pointless... otherwise, I'll become one of them!!! ACK! NOOOO!!!
A friend of mine that works at Lockheed Martin said that it is officially mandated that the PowerPoint must include all important information. He says the presentation should be able to stand on its own and convey all the necessary information to someone who wasn't at the presentation. This sounds ridiculous to me... what is the point of the presentation if you can just read it? Why didn't they write a memo with some pretty pictures? Seems more useful than a bunch of bulleted lists.
Have you ever seen http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_pp ? I really want to get a copy... just for the cover if nothing else!
Posted by: eliot | February 25, 2004 03:09 AM
Tony
I've seen, but haven't read, Tufte's book on Powerpoint. But I have had the luxury of seeing him speak on several occasions. And he does talk in length about this exact issue.
And for their requirement about having the presentation convey all the important information? That's easy.
Use the notes feature. You can have all your talking points and all the important items in the notes, which you can then distribute. But it won't show up in the actual presentation. You get the best of both worlds.
Posted by: Tony | February 25, 2004 07:37 AM