PowerPoint presentations

[simplydamon]

Hi,

How does everyone feel about PowerPoint presentations? As for me, shorter is definitely much better than a long one (I've actually received PowerPoint decks containing more than 100 pages). I think PowerPoint is a great visual tool that can help spread information easily; but I also think that too much PowerPoint kills some of the value in a presentation. Thoughts? Opinions?

[George]

I sat in some very long PowerPoint presentation before. Boy was it boring...haha. I've also been to some that had sound effect on every page, that was over kill.

[raincoaster]

I really enjoy the chance to catch up on my sleep.

The New Yorker had a fascinating article about the way PowerPoint was restricting the vocabulary of ideas in business and, thus, the possible achievements. When there are only so many thoughts that fit in a template, and only so many ways the thoughts can interact, you've got a very small meme pool.

[simplydamon]

Is it an article with a link?

For me, I've seen many people spend hours on a presentation. Could that actually be time spent being more productive? As for me, most of my presentations are quite short (no graphics, no sounds) because I believe simpler is better. The link below explains some of my reasoning with many things I see in the business world....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam's_Razor

I try to avoid "analysis paralysis".

[kd5145]

For me it is less about the the presentation and more about the presenter. If that person can convey the message ina clear, consise way then I actually do like to walk away with copies of the slides. KISS philosophy. More complex it gets, the less information you walk away with. 100 pages is WAY to much.

[Wysiwyg101]

There are some simple guidelines to follow when putting together a Powerpoint presentation. Someone mentioned the KISS principle. That is definitely the way to go. Speech making used to be 1) Tell them what you are going to tell them 2) Tell them 3) Tell them what you just told them. That also applies to powerpoint building. Don't let the slide get what we call too busy. One or maybe two bulletpoints per slide. Three at most. Forget the cheesy sound effects. Over a sound system they really sound stupid (especially the bullet per letter sounds ;-)). Some nice transitions can be good as long you don't go overboard.

On the 100 slide event you went to, that was definitely wayyyy to much. But I was the tech in a room at a medical convention once and the Doctor had four 35mm Slides. He took three hrs and 45 minutes to explain them all. And he went 45 minutes over his scheduled time.

KISS

(Powerpoint tip 1)
On the laptop you will be using to make your presentations from, Open up powerpoint, Go to tools/options/view tap/slideshow and uncheck the following: Prompt to keep ink annotations when exiting, Show Menu on right mouse click, and Show Popup Toolbar.

(Powerpoint tip 2)
Always transfer your presentation to the desktop instead of running it off of the CD or flash drive. It takes longer to access it and sometimes you can't afford the wait.