Creating More Effective PowerPoint Presentations
Today’s Goals
•Using PowerPoint as a presentation aid
•Using good design principles
•Selecting bells and whistles•Creating the right finished
product
Criticisms of PowerPoint
• Bullet points reduce complex ideas to oversimplified, dumbed-down bits.
• Microsoft’s templates and add-ins make presentations generic, annoying, and too sales-pitchy.
• PowerPoint = teleprompter?• Add your own: ________________
As you prepare, ask:
•Is PowerPoint the most appropriate medium for this talk? Structure One-way communication Physical arrangement of room Alternatives
More questions…
•How much time do I have for the presentation? Information Overload Prioritizing and Outlining Slides/minute Spontaneous learning
More questions…
•How much information needs to be displayed on the screen? How much can I just talk about? Reading slides Intended interruptions Evocative images, words
More questions…
•What is the best way to help my audience visualize what I’m trying to communicate? Graphs/Charts Photos Text in bullet points or
paragraphs Sound
Design
•Matching format to content•Consistency •Emphasis•Readability
Fonts
•40 point Sans-serif (Tw Cen MT)
• 20 point Sans-serif
• 40 point Serif (Times New Roman)• 20 point Serif
• Light blue text on blue background
•Black text on blue background
Black Serif Font on White Background
"On the Decline of Oracles“ by Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) was born in Boston, and her
work reflects both her New England heritage and the landscape of England where she later lived with her husband, poet Ted Hughes. What Hughes called her "crackling verbal energy" is apparent in her poems' biting precision of word and image. Gestures in her life of defiance and ecstasy, love or despair, are reimagined in brilliant archetypal patterns. In the year before her suicide, she was writing the poems that secured her fame -- poems about her children and her failed marriage, about death and her imagination.
November 2004 State Cross-Industry estimates
ST OCC_CODE OCC_TITLE TOT_EMP H_MEAN A_MEAN
MA 00-0000 All Occupations 3129090 21.78 45290
MA 11-0000 Management occupations 207690 46.58 96880
MA 11-1011 Chief executives 21170 67.78 140980
MA 11-1021 General and operations managers 50430 48.61 101100
MA 11-2011 Advertising and promotions managers 1630 44.26 92050
MA 11-2021 Marketing managers 7730 54.41 113170
MA 11-2022 Sales managers 11070 51.90 107950
MA 11-2031 Public relations managers 1920 45.04 93690
MA 11-3011 Administrative services managers 8620 34.97 72750
MA 11-3021 Computer and information systems managers 11170 51.30 106690
MA 11-3031 Financial managers 20250 47.40 98590
MA 11-3041 Compensation and benefits managers 2020 46.50 96730
MA 11-3042 Training and development managers 1180 45.65 94950
MA 11-3049 Human resources managers, all other 1750 46.16 96010
MA 11-3051 Industrial production managers 4000 42.70 88820
MA 11-3061 Purchasing managers 2520 40.78 84830
Abraham Lincoln’s Abraham Lincoln’s BiographyBiography
"I was born Feb. 12, 1809, in Hardin "I was born Feb. 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. My parents were County, Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families--second families, perhaps I families--second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who died in my should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks.... My father ... removed from of Hanks.... My father ... removed from Kentucky to ... Indiana, in my eighth Kentucky to ... Indiana, in my eighth year.... It was a wild region, with many year.... It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up.... Of course woods. There I grew up.... Of course when I came of age I did not know when I came of age I did not know much. Still somehow, I could read, much. Still somehow, I could read, write, and cipher ... but that was all." write, and cipher ... but that was all."
"I was born Feb. 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families—second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks.... My father ... removed from Kentucky to ... Indiana, in my eighth year.... It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up.... Of course when I came of age I did not know much. Still somehow, I could read, write, and cipher ... but that was all."
The Presidency of Lincoln
Until…
The South Secedes!
How to Polish the Presentation
•Master Slides•Notes•Rehearsal •Handouts•Saving