Melanie Clay, University of West Georgia Powerpointless Waving Goodbye to Bad Presentations

Melanie Clay, University of West Georgia

Powerpointless

Waving Goodbye to Bad Presentations

Why We Love Powerpoint

Appeals to visual

interest

Organizes thoughts

So very easy to use

(and abuse)

PP Complaints Survey

Speaker reads

slides

Text too small

Full sentences

More Powerpoint Torture

Bad color choice

Moving/flying text

Annoying sounds

Just a delay

Let’s Make it REALLY UGLY

Only have to break

2-3 rules

Be inefficient, too!

Bad slides coming

up next

Important Characteristics of UGLINESS & POINTLESSNESS

Variety

Lots of

pictures

Visual and

sound

effects

REMEMBER: These are things NOT to do!

ANYTHING Goes with Text

Make it pretty and make it colorful.

THE SKY IS THE LIMIT

There are so many wonderful fonts to

choose from in Microsoft PowerPoint, so why

not just use them all?????????

REMEMBER: These are things NOT to do!

SPECIAL EFFECTS

Learn transitions and USE THEM!

Remember variety is the spice

And don’t forget the more pictures, the

better, too

REMEMBER: These are things NOT to do!

And the coolest tool of all:

YOU CAN USE THE LITTLE TYPEWRITER

TRANSITION TOOL WHEN YOU WANT TO SAY

EVERYTHING ON ONE SINGLE SLIDE – IT REALLY

DOESN’T MATTER HOW MANY WORDS YOU USE

– JUST MAKE THE FONT SMALL IF YOU NEED TO

– AND THEN YOUR READERS CAN HEAR THE

COOL TYPEWRITER SOUND AS THEY READ ALL

THE LITTLE WORDS. FOLKS REMEMBER THIS IS

A JOKE – Please don’t do this!

REMEMBER: These are things NOT to do!

Hot Tips for Great Text

Joy of Six

Six words per line

Six lines per slide

24-48 points

Usually no

punctuation

More Swell Text Tips

Contrast with

background

Please no fancy

fonts

AVOID ALL CAPS

Art & Graphics

Balance the slide

Complement, not

overwhelm text

No more than 2 per

page

White space is okay

Should create

feeling

Avoid glib clipart

Think photos or

artwork

Keep graphs &

charts simple and

readable

More on Art

Your Personal Style

Avoid the canned look

Keep it simpleKeep it consistent

Four Final Thoughts

Avoid distractions

Don’t read: connect

Timing – 3 slides/min

Persuasion not flash