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- agentdero, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Using Powerpoint? :)
- chchatham, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Here's one they missed: hide reminders/desktop alerts so you don't get a message like "refill herpes meds" etc during your presentation:
Powerpoint > Tools > Options. > Preferences tab > E-mail Options > Advanced E-mail Options.
Under When new items arrive in my Inbox, clear the Display a New Mail Desktop Alert (default Inbox only) check box. - tauquil, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Spelling mistakes aside, I just can't take anyone who recommends Clip Art seriously.
For decent advice on giving presentations read Presentation Zen instead. - katanna, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2My suggestion: Put a blank slide at the end! The black "(click now to end the show)" is SO TACKY!!!!
*sigh*
And like the article said, use it as a supporter of your ideas, don't write paragraphs!
Matthew - DooDah, on 10/12/2007, -0/+21 mistake when using power point: USING POWER POINT !
- Fipe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The next mistake is using tacky animations and that hateful, hateful effect where each letter appears individually with its own sound effect. It astounds me that people think it looks professional. Dugg.
- staticcart, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Instead of just saying that powerpoint is terrible, why don't you tell us all what features make something like Impress better?
- joel2600, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1they didn't seem to mention anything about sounds.
9) do not bother with most sounds unless they are especially relevant to the presentation. car crash noises and typerwriter sounds may look cool to you, but believe me... it's been done.
(obvious, but you'd be suprised how many people out there still put that damn stuff in there) - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1OpenOffice ftw
- EEBaum, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1MS ClipArt? You HAVE to be joking me. If I see one more oval-headed stick figure with a question mark over its head.......
- imjustabill, on 10/12/2007, -0/+19) Making your slideshow 90 mins long and thinking that anyone is going to pay attention
- blastcube, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1First Mistake: To actually install Powerpoint.
Second Mistake: Not using a REAL presentation application.
Mac Users: Keynote
Windows/Linux/Mac Users: OpenOffice 2.0 Impress (really nice!) - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+19: Keep 10-15% padding around the edges of your slide for when you have to use a video setup that 'crops' the image.
- schultzeworks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The point to remember about to much text is "why are you there?" The bullet points should only be a the topic and then YOU explain it. Don't put the FULL explanation on the slide with it jammed full or words -- otherwise, you might as well just email it to everybody and all stay home.
- staticcart, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1People keep saying that powerpoint is the problem. What features do the other programs have that make them so much better?
- OriginalGamer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Forget these tips, use Keynote or Flash, that's all you need to know. No matter how good you try to make a ppt presentation look it will always end up looking like a 7th grader did it in an intro to MS Office class.
- vypergts, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I would add
9) Don't, under penalty of death, use the built-in powerpoint backgrounds. Seriously, everybody has seen them and used them and unless you are a complete n00b, they are ugly and lame. At the very least, use a 1or 2 color gradient for something different or go online to MS's online library for some variety. Keeping in mind of course, that most text doesn't show up on top of group-shot photos or jpegs with a lot of dark colors to begin with.
Seriously, I want to gauge out my eyes everytime I have to sit through a presentation where someone uses the blue swirl or the sparky line or whatever the hell it is. 9 times out of 10 if the background is lame, the presentation to follow is too... - colosus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I love the fact that this guy tells people to use SpellCheck because it's one of the biggest mistakes and yet...
"Your audience _looses_ focus on you, and break into their own conversations. This is bad, you need to stay on top and act quickly. If you see that you are _loosing_ control specifically address someone that's talking by looking directly at them and saying 'Is there a question?'."
and
"Your audience _get's_ engaged and wants to participate."
It's so hard to take people seriously when they contradict themselves. - davidrussell, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2The maturity of some people here astounds me.
- petard, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Wow, people on this site are such idiots. Why do you care which program is used? They all do the same thing, which is show slides! PowerPoint is perfectly fine, all these linux/openoffice fanboys are so annoying!
- veracon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Impress is much nicer, but this is indeed a nice article.
- wallclimber, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Anyone have hints for openoffice Impress?" posted by theblackgecko
================================
Yes, here's one, but there's tons available with a little Googling.
http://urlx.org/tutorialsforopenoffice.org/dbf1 - MrC539, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I love these articles. Too bad nobody seems to follow the guidelines.
- silverdragon347, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I am glad some one wrote this down, but it kind of seems like we're reading it which is preaching to the choir, this should be distributed to the masses a little more.rnrnBTW I hate power point too but I go to quite a few conferences, and all of the people use power point poorly, so I don't care that they use power point, but I usually hope that they would do it better..
- daProject, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Just because large portion of people who use PowerPoint are unable to use it effectively does not make the program bad or useless. PowerPoint provides all the tools to produce an excellent presentation; it's up to the presenter to utilize them properly."
The point is,
It requires quite a bit of effort to make a PowerPoint presentation look good.
It requires quite a bit of effort to make a KeyNote presentation look bad.
Therefore which is the better app? Keynote gives better looking presentations much quicker and easier. The whole point of software is to allow us to do things better.
Of course, ultimately it resides on the presenter and its content, but the actual design of the presentations do play a large role, and Keynote is clearly superior in doing this, both in terms of ease of use of the software and of the results you can get in proportion to work put in. - zenchi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I'll agree with everyone who says 'Keynote.' Also, no digg. Check out Presentation Zen instead. Much better advice. http://www.presentationzen.com/
- wallclimber, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"THIS page has a MUCH better outline of what makes a good presentation." (Erm...I must have "loosed" the link :)
http://urlx.org/blogs.com/9f28 - wallclimber, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0C'mon! The guy didn't even know the difference between "lose" and "loose". THIS page has a MUCH better outline of what makes a good presentation.
Tell me again now, WMF files are good for what?
And as far as bullets go? PUH-leeeze!
Get a little "Zen" going here, no Digg for this one. - tauquil, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Here's the link:
http://presentationzen.blogs.com/
(when are we going to be able to edit our comments?) - miker71, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0keynote, I agree. I did a presentation using keynote PDF output on a PC running XP and the first question I got from an impressed audience was "you must show us how to use powerpoint", ROFL. keynote is my secret weapon for standing out from the crowd, it is my secret weapon :-)
- daProject, on 10/12/2007, -0/+09. Using PowerPoint in the first place.
Its all about Keynote, baby. - hiro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"1 mistake when using power point: USING POWER POINT !"
Too true, death by Powerpoint should be made a crime - bgfay, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The biggest mistakes with powerpoint usually occur not in the creation but in the presentation when the lecturer proceeds to read the presentation to a group of people who are perfectly literate. The presenation should be a tool in the lecture, not the entirety of it. Otherwise it should be sent as an email attachment. Oh wait, that's a virus risk. Instead, send a plain text email of what you're trying to say, cancel the meeting and save everyone time and energy as well as saving the company the money of having to reserve a meeting room and provide refreshments.
Of the powerpoint presentations I have seen in my career, one has been done well and been useful to me. I'm not exaggerating. There was only one that was used effectively. The rest were all wastes of my time.
It's the way that it's used. - surgen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This is a VERY good artical. I recently spent over 2 hours watching people present power point presentations, I think that point # 3 is key to a good presentation.
I HATE a slide, FILLED with text that the presenter just reads. I think it is best to have a slide that has the main points of that bigass block of text, and get rid of everything else. - theblackgecko, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Anyone have hints for openoffice Impress?
- ConceptJunkie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Yeah, I was amused by the slightly snotty tone about using spell check when the author made numerous spelling errors. Spell check doesn't replace basic skills in English, which is what people _really_ need. Spell checkers should be used to catch typos, which we all make, but if you can't spell in the first place, your text will still look stupid.
It's enough to make me "loose" my temper.
Otherwise, good tips though. - schultzeworks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Another idea entirely for presenting
I have switched to PDF's. New versions (6 and 7) let you present in full screen mode [ctrl-L] and a mouse click will advance to the next page/slide. All fonts are embedded, and get this, with a decent publishing app like Adobe InDesign, you can include playable and embedded videos. Finally, the document can be easily emailed and posted to the web (as can PowerPoint) but with more control over the appearance on any machine / platform / OS. - nmyers, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I think that the font issue is one of the biggest goofs I have seen people make in presentations. Time and time again I've heard "but it looked fine on my PC." Great tip. Although, the author is correct in the fact that embeddings fonts can increase the file size substantially. I think it's worth the trade off.
- ric6000, on 01/05/2008, -0/+0I love these articles, 9 Public speaking and the cardinal rule: you never want to read what's on the screen.
Take a look at http://templateswise.com to find more articles about PowerPoint and presentations tips.
Of course Keynote is not bad... - rogaline, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Pretty useful although most of it is about presentations per SE.
I though "keynote" runs only on Mac OS!! does it also run on Linux? or is it me taken by Steve Jobs, speaking of which I also agree that his presentations are the best I saw but after reading the article on how much preparation it takes; forget it I will try to use simple slides and hope for the Best - pritch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0On the subject of sound, mine would be "If you're writing the presentation on a machine without speakers, double check each slide to make sure it hasn't got sound effects added by default".
Found that out the hard way. No sound on the machine in my office, sound on the machine in the training room. Arse. - EEBaum, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"If it is a problem, just pack it up and leave, forget trying to get their attention."
They'll probably thank you for it. 80% of the powerpoint presentations i've seen, i didn't want to be there in the first place and was either obligated or being polite. - Odweaver, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I had the mistake of making one for someone that didn't know computers. That is the worst mistake of them all. By the time it was done it nearly crashed the school's server twice, and the system admin was pissed that the presentation took up two DVDs. I was proud of the chaos that powerpoint caused, since it had about 3-4 hours worth of movie clips on it....
- emutree, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0He recommends using clip art as an alternative to low-res Internet images? CLIP ART? I on the other hand would make a whole point - "Don't use clip art. EVER. Unless you're in the seventh grade and constructing your first presentation in which case the 'I just learned how to use PowerPoint but can't quite fill out my slides with enough content' look is acceptable because it is in fact true". iStockPhoto's where it's at.rnAnd yeah, PowerPoint is outright bad altogether, especially when stood next to the graceful and gorgeous joy of an app that is Keynote. Why aren't there ever any "Mistakes when creating Keynote presentations" posts? Because it's impossible to make a Keynote presentation look bad. Throw in clip art, sounds, animation and whatever - the app will somehow give an end result that isn't nearly as overdone and tacky as what PowerPoint would give you.
- ratsg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0PDF's are the way to go for presentations. Always embed fonts.
- 5blocksfree, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@ emutree
>> He recommends using clip art as an alternative to low-res Internet images? CLIP ART?
I think his point was to stay away from bitmapped images that usually end up getting enlarged to the point that they look utterly crappy. Instead, use vector-based (wmf) clip-art, since it is not resolution-dependent. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0What doodah and others have said. No digg.
- howrare, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Much as I would encourage everyone to avoid stock photography and clip art and go with custom photography on all occasions this could bankrupt you. In the real world stock photography is the lesser of the two evils.
- davidrussell, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Just because large portion of people who use PowerPoint are unable to use it effectively does not make the program bad or useless. PowerPoint provides all the tools to produce an excellent presentation; it's up to the presenter to utilize them properly.
- cyberghost232, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1The first mistake would be using powerpoint.
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