tips for powerful powerpoint presentations by paula hall · tips for powerful powerpoint...

Tips for powerful

PowerPoint

presentations

Based on 2 sources:

1. Extreme Makeover: PowerPoint Edition by Dean Shareski

2. From Average to Awesome: Tips for powerful presentation makeovers by Kevin Lerner

By Paula Hall phall@vcconnect.co.za

Why use PowerPoint?

It’s all about ‘Story-Telling”

When Good PowerPoint

goes Bad!

1. Distracting Background Templates

(not as cool as they look!)

Travelling to Egypt

The Mysteries of Egypt

MS Office

powerpoint-backgrounds.net/

Google new sites and blogs

Template Sources

2. Give Bullets the Bullet!

Bullets are certainly useful for organising your information, however:

• We tend to put too many bulleted points on one slide that each need to be explained

• This means that students will be looking at the same slide for far too long

• And, if each line of text is the same colour those reading the slide tend to see the text as one big blur

So, what can we do instead?

8 Multiple Intelligences

• Logical / Mathematical

• Verbal / Linguistic

• Musical / Rhythmic

• Bodily Kinaesthetic

• Spatial / Visual

• Interpersonal

• Intrapersonal

• Naturalist

Typical Example

8 Multiple Intelligences

Rather…

Musical / Rhythmic (Music Smart)

Alternatively…

Naturalist (Nature Smart)

3. DON’T JUST TELL ME – SHOW ME!

Images must be sharp and clear…

Never grainy or with pixels visible

Remember to define your images or blocks of texts – ‘framing’ can achieve this

CLEAR IMAGES / FRAMING / BACKGROUND

= far more dynamic!

Where can I get images from?

5. Tedious use of

‘Gimmicky’

that serve no real purpose Animations

At ALL!!!

‘Flashy’

Another typical error is to place far too much information on a single slide. This applies to bulleted information or whole paragraphs of what we consider to be relevant facts. And, once we have filled up a slide in this manner we read every word back to the class as if they are incapable of reading it themselves!

Using Font that is difficult to read,

or where the contrast is not clear

Remember, just because it looks great on your monitor

Doesn’t mean it will work at a distance!

7. Other Typical Errors include:

To Recap…

It’s all about “Story-Telling” Template

backgrounds are not always best

Only use bullets if you

have to

Use clear, bold graphics

Avoid pointless Gimmicks! Don’t overload

your slides

Allow time for Questions

Because,

• Presentation Gurus: Lessig, Godin & Atkinson (Youtube.com)

• presentationblogs.com

• google images.com

• flickr.com

• morguefile.com

(Image: Satmetrix.com (2009)

Resources to Check Out

Reference List:

• Big 13. 2005. peacock [online]. [Accessed 2 February 2010]. Available

from World Wide Web:

<www.big13.net/NBC%20Peacock/real%20peacock.jpg>.

• Extreme Makeover, PowerPoint Edition. 2006. Youtube.com video.

Available via < http://ideasandthoughts.org/videos/ > Directed by Dean

Shareski. Place of production unknown.

• Queens University. 2009. pc_resources [online]. [Accessed 2 February

2010]. Available from World Wide Web:

<http://meds.queensu.ca/assets/pc_resources.jpg >.

• Lerner, K, 2006. From Average to Awesome: Tips for powerful presentation

makeovers, Toastmasters, August 2006

Other Tools

Other Tools