Good And Bad Powerpoint

Good and bad powerpoint

Who the hell are you?
Always include a brief introduction about you individually, your organisation, and why you’re speaking
Try to include an interesting fact about yourself they might remember: “I have 43 cats”, “I live in a cave”, “I can juggle”
Compliment your audience and thank them for the opportunity

Basics
This wizard looks OK but you should have your organisation’s logo on every slide
Colour scheme might be a bit overstated?
Aim for 1 slide for every 2 minutes. If you have more it will feel rushed, less it will be boring.

Topics of Discussion
The temptation is to treat the Powerpoint as a script and you will end up adding far too much text that your audience will read instead of listening to you, if they can read it at all because it ends up too small for them to see clearly. The bullet points should be a prompt for you and a reminder to the audience, not the entire talk. Text size below about 20 is too small.

The Abraham Lincoln problem
You’ve decided to include the Gettysburg address in your talk. What should the slide show?

The Gettysburg Address
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Don’t do that
It’s too long, and you will have to read it out along with your audience.

The Gettysburg address
New nation conceived in Liberty
Civil War : final resting place
Work unfinished
New birth of freedom

That’s ok
You can read out the full text while the audience sees the bullet points on screen
But better still:

The Gettysburg Address

Let the image speak
You can now read out the text while the audience looks at the images.

Clip art here we come!
Don’t use clip art
Or rather, only use clip art if it is suitable and relevant
Much better to find a new image
Liven up organisational stuff by adding relevant logos and photos of the people involved
Don’t use stock photos of ‘diverse happy people’

Resizing images
For photos and logos, NEVER USE THE SIDE ARROWS to change the image shape (you can use the corner arrows to resize)
The side arrows distort the content
Right click on the image to show the Picture Toolbar and use the Crop tool instead to change shape without distortion

Customised images
Use a sign generator
Don’t get carried way: one is enough

Animations and transitions
Is your audience aged 12?
If not, animations will soon lose their charm
If they’re watching the screen, they’re not listening to you
But do allow a break for each new slide so they read it and then turn back to you

Don’t include slides you skip over
Cut them out beforehand
If you find you really must, say “you can read these in the handouts” and move on

Don’t backtrack
The simplest way to show a presentation is using F5 and then pressing the space bar to advance. Don’t use the mouse.
If you need to refer back to an earlier slide, don’t click back. Insert a copy of the slide at the relevant point so you always move forwards.

Screenshots and websites
Following live hyperlinks breaks the flow of the talk and should be limited to websites you will need to interact live with.
For most websites take a screenshot (Ctrl+PrtScn) and then crop it down ruthlessly (people find a presentation screen harder to read than their monitor)

Fonts
Use Arial mostly, or Times New Roman ; Arial is best
Use Courier for quoted text
Use font size rather than bold and italics for hierachies
Don’t mix too many fonts

Finish on a high note
With a conclusion that summarises what you’ve said
Include contacts details and web address

Top and tail
Add an empty slide at the start of the presentation so that during set-up the title screen isn’t already showing
Add one at the end so you can leave it there during questions and changeover

Share the presentation
You’ve done it, you might as well share it.
Put it on Slideshare or your website or email it

Thank you and goodnight
For more tips on management in general and archaeological management in particular, visit http://10simplesteps.blogspot.com

http://10simplesteps.blogspot.com	83
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http://www.slideshare.net	20
http://allgoodstuff.wikispaces.com	4
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http://10simplesteps.blogspot.co.uk	2
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Good And Bad Powerpoint

by mlocock on Feb 28, 2008

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Good And Bad Powerpoint — Presentation Transcript