HOW TO FIX TOO LONG PRESENTATIONS
from the articleTop 20 Reasons Presentations Suck and How To Fix Them
By Geoffrey James
www.bnet.com
Most business presentations suck. They're boring. They're confusing. They're out of touch. This gallery explains exactly why most presentations are so dreadful, and what to do make your own presentations better.
Too Freakin' Long
* Diagnosis: It presents way more than anybody wants to know.
* Why It Happens: The speaker is “spraying and praying” in hope that something works.
* What Results: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…
* How to Fix It: Always make your presentation less than half as long as you think it should be.
MY THOUGHTS
in other words, don't get carried away.know how much time you have for the presentation. if the presentation is short simply tell the audience the "must-know". if you have more time, include the "should-know". if there are no other speakers and you have all the time, then you can share the "nice-to-know". whatever you've prepared,long or short, be very sensitive to your audience. when you see them getting restless or already snoring,it's time to change gears or put a break.
Showing posts with label presentation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label presentation. Show all posts
Friday, February 11, 2011
Friday, March 5, 2010
19 things you should never do in a powerpoint presentation
And Now, a Powerpoint Presentation, Redux
Category: Academia
Posted on: August 17, 2009 1:05 AM, by Scicurious
Sci was at a conference last week. It was a REALLY good time. As Sci advances in grad school, I feel I am beginning to come into my own, and it's a good feeling, esp when you can walk around feeling like you have a posse of fellow grad students and post-docs who all want to collaborate.
It's an exciting time, learning the latest stuff, seeing the newest methods, and meeting famous people. It's the craziest thing running into some of these professors. I've read all of their papers, I desperately try to meet all their grad students and postdocs, and my only goal is to see the famous person and say something GENIUS, something that will make them remember me and think that I've got promise. And then I meet them, and I say...I say...oh CRAP. Once in a while, though, the genius does come out, and then I feel that verily, Sci has BLINDED YOU WITH SCIENCE this day.
Last year at a similar conference, I ended up compiling a list of things that one should REALLY try to avoid if at all possible when giving a conference talk. There are more to add, every single time. Behold, the bad, the ugly, and the presentations guaranteed to give your eager listeners a headache:
The 19 things (and counting) you should NEVER do in a powerpoint presentation.
1) Do NOT spend your entire presentation with your back to the audience (I cannot tell you how many times Sci see this, presenters spending the entire time staring up at their powerpoints, gesturing vaguely with their arms).
2) Never use pale green on a white background to emphasize a point, unless you want to emphasize our eyestrain. Similar for neon yellow with pink. YIKES.
3) There is no reason to give a "I will talk about intro, methods, data, and conclusions" outline when you talk will be 20 minutes or less.
4) Make sure you can pronounce brain areas better than our recent president. It is not pronounced "nuke-ulus accumbens" (AUGH, REPEAT OFFENDERS!!!)
5) You have a WHOLE SCREEN! All to yourself, you lucky guy! Use it! Do not make your graph a tiny square in the middle that no one can see from the third row back.
6) If you don't know what to do with your hands, do NOT use then to wave your laser pointer at the screen all the time. You end up with the dreadful, circling laser pointer, like a buzzard over your data. It's one thing to circle the data your talking about, and that's good. It's quite another to have it circling your entire slide, slowly, over and over and over. Use when you need to, and the rest of the time, PUT IT DOWN. BACK AWAY SLOWLY.
7) There is NEVER an excuse for a semicolon in a powerpoint; Ever.
8) If you must use a screen capture, have the grace to crop the image so that we don't have to see the remnants of your Google toolbar.
9) Check your powerpoint for misspellings before you talk in front of several hundred people. If you screwed up it might be "extreem".
10) Try not to leave your mouse arrow hanging out in the middle of the screen for 3/4 of your talk.
11) Avoid the happy trigger finger for your slide advancer. Damn! You just gave away that really cool graphic on the next slide! For the fourth time.
12) DO NOT write it down, read it aloud, and follow it with your pointer. Honestly, at this point you might as well not be there at all.
13) If your hand is shaking, don't try to hold the pointer still over your slide, we're all going to see it and realize how incredibly freaked out you are. Or, being neuroscientists, we will try to diagnose you will Parkinson's.
14) I realize that you might have a monotone voice in your normal daily life, but TRY to vary it up when you give a presentation. We're exhausted, and all the caffeine in the world is not going to make us alert when you sound like the teacher from 'Peanuts.'
15) There are things called 'crutch-words'. You should...um...know what your...um...crutch...um...words are...um...they can be really...um...distracting.
16) There is such a thing as too much animation. Just because *flash* your powerpoint *fly in* can do it *underline* doesn't mean *wave like a flag* that it SHOULD *spin*. Also, if you have animations, know where they are so they don't catch you by surprise and make it obvious to everyone that you're giving a talk that was actually written by your post-doc.
17) I realize that big bad famous profs give a lot of presentations, but please have the courtesy to prep a little. I'm saying, if the presentation is 20 minutes, give a 20 minute talk, not a 40 minute talk that you won't make it through and have to skip through the last 20 slides worth of data. We will either assume that, despite your experience, you can't manage your time, or (more likely) that this is your "stock" talk, that you give all the time, and you (or your post-doc) couldn't be bothered to put something new together. It's not THAT hard. And here's a hint: you know it's going to be too long when you start giving your outline and you're already 10 minutes in.
18) Even if you did it at the last minute, KNOW your SLIDES. I actually heard a "hey, how did THAT get in here..."
19) And never, never, please never, begin or end your talk with a variation on "it's my first talk, and I'm totally nervous". *eyeroll*. In the best case scenario, we should not be able to TELL it was your first talk. We should assume you've got lots of experience. Being told that you don't know what you're doing doesn't inspire a lot of confidence. Statements like that don't earn you sympathy.
MY THOUGHTS!
Guilty! Guilty!Guilty! These are really valuable tips. As we gain experience in presentations and public speaking, we become confident and sometimes fail to take note of the little details that are actually not "little" to some audiences. So, pay attention. What have we got to lose?
Category: Academia
Posted on: August 17, 2009 1:05 AM, by Scicurious
Sci was at a conference last week. It was a REALLY good time. As Sci advances in grad school, I feel I am beginning to come into my own, and it's a good feeling, esp when you can walk around feeling like you have a posse of fellow grad students and post-docs who all want to collaborate.
It's an exciting time, learning the latest stuff, seeing the newest methods, and meeting famous people. It's the craziest thing running into some of these professors. I've read all of their papers, I desperately try to meet all their grad students and postdocs, and my only goal is to see the famous person and say something GENIUS, something that will make them remember me and think that I've got promise. And then I meet them, and I say...I say...oh CRAP. Once in a while, though, the genius does come out, and then I feel that verily, Sci has BLINDED YOU WITH SCIENCE this day.
Last year at a similar conference, I ended up compiling a list of things that one should REALLY try to avoid if at all possible when giving a conference talk. There are more to add, every single time. Behold, the bad, the ugly, and the presentations guaranteed to give your eager listeners a headache:
The 19 things (and counting) you should NEVER do in a powerpoint presentation.
1) Do NOT spend your entire presentation with your back to the audience (I cannot tell you how many times Sci see this, presenters spending the entire time staring up at their powerpoints, gesturing vaguely with their arms).
2) Never use pale green on a white background to emphasize a point, unless you want to emphasize our eyestrain. Similar for neon yellow with pink. YIKES.
3) There is no reason to give a "I will talk about intro, methods, data, and conclusions" outline when you talk will be 20 minutes or less.
4) Make sure you can pronounce brain areas better than our recent president. It is not pronounced "nuke-ulus accumbens" (AUGH, REPEAT OFFENDERS!!!)
5) You have a WHOLE SCREEN! All to yourself, you lucky guy! Use it! Do not make your graph a tiny square in the middle that no one can see from the third row back.
6) If you don't know what to do with your hands, do NOT use then to wave your laser pointer at the screen all the time. You end up with the dreadful, circling laser pointer, like a buzzard over your data. It's one thing to circle the data your talking about, and that's good. It's quite another to have it circling your entire slide, slowly, over and over and over. Use when you need to, and the rest of the time, PUT IT DOWN. BACK AWAY SLOWLY.
7) There is NEVER an excuse for a semicolon in a powerpoint; Ever.
8) If you must use a screen capture, have the grace to crop the image so that we don't have to see the remnants of your Google toolbar.
9) Check your powerpoint for misspellings before you talk in front of several hundred people. If you screwed up it might be "extreem".
10) Try not to leave your mouse arrow hanging out in the middle of the screen for 3/4 of your talk.
11) Avoid the happy trigger finger for your slide advancer. Damn! You just gave away that really cool graphic on the next slide! For the fourth time.
12) DO NOT write it down, read it aloud, and follow it with your pointer. Honestly, at this point you might as well not be there at all.
13) If your hand is shaking, don't try to hold the pointer still over your slide, we're all going to see it and realize how incredibly freaked out you are. Or, being neuroscientists, we will try to diagnose you will Parkinson's.
14) I realize that you might have a monotone voice in your normal daily life, but TRY to vary it up when you give a presentation. We're exhausted, and all the caffeine in the world is not going to make us alert when you sound like the teacher from 'Peanuts.'
15) There are things called 'crutch-words'. You should...um...know what your...um...crutch...um...words are...um...they can be really...um...distracting.
16) There is such a thing as too much animation. Just because *flash* your powerpoint *fly in* can do it *underline* doesn't mean *wave like a flag* that it SHOULD *spin*. Also, if you have animations, know where they are so they don't catch you by surprise and make it obvious to everyone that you're giving a talk that was actually written by your post-doc.
17) I realize that big bad famous profs give a lot of presentations, but please have the courtesy to prep a little. I'm saying, if the presentation is 20 minutes, give a 20 minute talk, not a 40 minute talk that you won't make it through and have to skip through the last 20 slides worth of data. We will either assume that, despite your experience, you can't manage your time, or (more likely) that this is your "stock" talk, that you give all the time, and you (or your post-doc) couldn't be bothered to put something new together. It's not THAT hard. And here's a hint: you know it's going to be too long when you start giving your outline and you're already 10 minutes in.
18) Even if you did it at the last minute, KNOW your SLIDES. I actually heard a "hey, how did THAT get in here..."
19) And never, never, please never, begin or end your talk with a variation on "it's my first talk, and I'm totally nervous". *eyeroll*. In the best case scenario, we should not be able to TELL it was your first talk. We should assume you've got lots of experience. Being told that you don't know what you're doing doesn't inspire a lot of confidence. Statements like that don't earn you sympathy.
MY THOUGHTS!
Guilty! Guilty!Guilty! These are really valuable tips. As we gain experience in presentations and public speaking, we become confident and sometimes fail to take note of the little details that are actually not "little" to some audiences. So, pay attention. What have we got to lose?
Sunday, November 22, 2009
powerpoint mistakes
PowerPoint Training Mistakes
From the Impact Factory
The following article was contributed by Gareth Butler
Ten Mistakes Not To Make In Your Next PowerPoint Presentation
PowerPoint Skills
Love it or hate it, PowerPoint is used all over the world, every day, to create presentations.
If you're getting ready to design a deck of slides for your next presentation, here are ten mistakes you need to avoid to create an interesting speech your audience will love.
Mistake #1: Don't Cram Too Much On One Slide!
Your audience has to listen to your speech, and read your slides at the same time. When they're doing one, they're not likely to be doing the other. It's essential to keep the slides simple.
Don't have a twenty bullet points on one slide. Or a couple of hundred words. Or four or five pie charts. Or a bar chart full of specific detail.
The best presentations make one clear point on each slide. Less is more!
If you say something during your speech that is clearly backed up by a fact on your slide, it adds authority to the point you're making.
For your next presentation, try limiting yourself to a maximum of five words per slide, including the title. Or can you ditch the words all together and illustrate your point with a photo? Try dropping all the numbers from a chart and just showing the trend.
Mistake #2: Don't Use Bullet Points On Every Slide!
I'm sure you've had to sit though one. You know, a presentation with endless slide after slide of bullet points. I've sat through many. The only good thing about them is they offer a chance to grab 40 winks.
There's nothing interesting about bullet points. They just encourage you to read from the slide, which insults an audience, and they take the audience's attention away from what you're saying.
There are much better ways to illustrate a point rather than bullets. Why not find a good photo that works as well (try BigStockPhoto.com or iStockPhoto.com). Or an interesting quote. Find a chart that shows the trend you're talking about. Show a simple table with raw data. Show logos of companies using the products you're selling (try BrandsOfTheWorld.com). Show newspaper clippings. Or don't show anything – sometimes, you need your audience to focus clearly on what you're saying.
Mistake #3: Don't Make Your Font Size Too Small!
When you're designing slides at your computer, it's easy to forget how your slides are actually going to be used. While 14pt text may look large enough sat in front of your computer, will it be visible from the back of a room when you present?
Just because you're projecting on to a 12' x 9' screen doesn't mean it's going to appear huge to everyone in the room. In fact, it's the opposite. Sat close to a PC, the screen almost fills your vision. From the back of a conference room, however, even a huge projected screen seems tiny.
My tip: when you've designed your slides on your PC, stand up, take five steps back and view your presentation. (You'll find a remote mouse useful for this.)
Can't read your slides now? Neither will your audience. Go into your master template, and double the text size. Now try again.
Mistake #4: Don't Use PowerPoint's Clip art!
I can only think of unprintable comments to make about the clip art supplied with PowerPoint. It's amateurish. It's badly designed. And there's such little choice, you see people shoehorning images into their slides which really don't fit the message or theme of their presentation.
My solution: use professional stock photography.
My favourite suppliers are www.BigStockPhoto.com and www.iStockPhoto.com. Both have almost a huge variety of photos ranging from animals to landscapes, landmarks to technology. Go to both sites and have a look around.
Is it expensive? Not at all. You pay between a couple of dollars per picture, which is nothing.
Tip: find a photo on a white background. In PowerPoint, click the transparency tool on the white area of the photo to cut the object out so it merges seamlessly with your presentation's background.
Mistake #5: Don't Use Sound Effects In Your PowerPoint Presentation!
Yes, PowerPoint does include exciting sound effects like (wait-for-it) a race car! A typewriter! A pane of glass being smashed! Gravy!
OK, I made that last one up.
Just resist all temptation and don't use any of them in your presentation.
They'll make you sound like an amateur who has just discovered some new features in PowerPoint and want to do everything possible to make them fit into your presentation whether they help or hinder.
And, believe me, they hinder.
There's not a lot more I can really say about sound effects. Just please, if you get nothing else from this article, understand this: never, never, use sound effects in PowerPoint.
Mistake #6: Don't Hack Together A PowerPoint Presentation At Random! Structure Gives Meaning
A presentation with no structure is like listening to someone ramble on about nothing in particular. It has no meaning, no message, and five minutes after the ramble has finished, you've forgotten everything about it anyway.
Which is why a good presentation should have a clearly defined structure. And by structure, I simply mean a beginning, a middle and an end.
Beginning: introduce yourself, your topic, why it matters and why you're the right person to talk about it.
Middle: the meaty substance. Talk pros and cons. Talk benefits. Talk features. Show them over and over why the message you're selling is essential. Repetition is good.
End: wrap it all up by referencing back to the beginning of your presentation. Give your audience a call to action – tell them what to do next.
Remember the saying "tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em, tell 'em, tell 'em you just told 'em."
Mistake #7: Don't Read Your PowerPoint Slides Aloud!
Occasionally, I see presenters who bring a slide on-screen, then read it, word-for-word aloud to their audience.
It's such a bad thing to do. Your audience will be insulted, and you're missing the chance to use your slides to back-up and give authority to what you're saying.
If you think you have a habit of doing this, the secret is all in the preparation. If you use a script to speak from, write the script first, then create your slides second, without copying chunks of your script into PowerPoint. If you prefer to speak from notes, then create a list of notes using different wording than what's on your slides.
Then practice in front of a live audience. Maybe a partner, or a colleague. Get them to stop you every time you start reading from your slides. You'll soon loose the habit.
Mistake #8: Don't Loose Your Audience With Ambiguous PowerPoint Slides!
All slides need a clear, simple path for the audience's eye to follow. When slides are filled with content that looks the same (for example, a long list of bullet points in the same type, colour and size) they get lost in the detail.
By making the importance of different parts of your slide clear, you'll instantly improve your audience's understanding of the message you're communicating.
Here's three of my favourite ways of improving the clarity of your slides.
Contrast: make more important items stand out. Make the font size bigger or brighter. Allow lots of space around the most important items.
Highlights: highlight important items with a different colour. For example, highlight rows in a table as you talk about them.
Simplify: reduce the number of words or bullets or pictures in a slide. Split one complex slide into several simpler ones.
Brainstorm your own ideas for more!
Mistake #9: Don't Irritate Your Audience With Annoying PowerPoint Animations!
Yes, PowerPoint does include lots of flashy effects in its custom animations palette.
Yes, you can buy add-ons if you want even more.
No, you shouldn't use them!
Like sounds and clip-art, over used animations in your presentation look amateurish.
They distract the audiences attention away from what you're saying as they focus on the screen. And do lots of random effects impress your audience? No, never.
Stick with one or two that you like. I tend to use Wipe Right and Box Out. That's it.
It's the same with slide transitions. Find one you like and use it throughout your presentation.
Concentrate your efforts on giving a great presentation, not experimenting with all out PowerPoint's animation styles!
Mistake #10: Don't Use The Amateurishly Designed Templates Supplied With PowerPoint!
Like most of the artwork supplied with PowerPoint, it's awful. Why didn't Microsoft hire someone to create some decent templates to bundle in with the software. Hey, Microsoft, I'm for hire if you want me!
The second-worst habit is finding free ones on the web. I can't remember ever seeing some nicely designed PowerPoint templates that someone is giving away for free. The quality is usually around about Microsoft's level!
The solution? Do it yourself, or hire a pro.
Try creating something simple. A graduated background, maybe, with your company's logo in the bottom corner. Or a good royalty-free stock photo with a semi-transparent tinted box laid over the top. Both solutions could look good.
Avoid these ten mistakes and you'll give a much better presentation the next time you speak.
MY THOUGHTS
Ugh! Ouch. It does pay to update yourself from time to time. You've prepared thousands of slides for probably a hundred presentations and you find out (by reading this article) that you're over using this and that or not using this and that. Whew! The biggest mistake I ever made was not having an lcd! Ha!ha! Well, I didn't know the talk was to be at an open space in one of the biggest malls. When my friend said 'hall', I assumed a hall with four walls! Well, the talk turned out pretty well without the slide presentation. So I guess, the best tip should be to know what you're talking about - with or without your slides.
From the Impact Factory
The following article was contributed by Gareth Butler
Ten Mistakes Not To Make In Your Next PowerPoint Presentation
PowerPoint Skills
Love it or hate it, PowerPoint is used all over the world, every day, to create presentations.
If you're getting ready to design a deck of slides for your next presentation, here are ten mistakes you need to avoid to create an interesting speech your audience will love.
Mistake #1: Don't Cram Too Much On One Slide!
Your audience has to listen to your speech, and read your slides at the same time. When they're doing one, they're not likely to be doing the other. It's essential to keep the slides simple.
Don't have a twenty bullet points on one slide. Or a couple of hundred words. Or four or five pie charts. Or a bar chart full of specific detail.
The best presentations make one clear point on each slide. Less is more!
If you say something during your speech that is clearly backed up by a fact on your slide, it adds authority to the point you're making.
For your next presentation, try limiting yourself to a maximum of five words per slide, including the title. Or can you ditch the words all together and illustrate your point with a photo? Try dropping all the numbers from a chart and just showing the trend.
Mistake #2: Don't Use Bullet Points On Every Slide!
I'm sure you've had to sit though one. You know, a presentation with endless slide after slide of bullet points. I've sat through many. The only good thing about them is they offer a chance to grab 40 winks.
There's nothing interesting about bullet points. They just encourage you to read from the slide, which insults an audience, and they take the audience's attention away from what you're saying.
There are much better ways to illustrate a point rather than bullets. Why not find a good photo that works as well (try BigStockPhoto.com or iStockPhoto.com). Or an interesting quote. Find a chart that shows the trend you're talking about. Show a simple table with raw data. Show logos of companies using the products you're selling (try BrandsOfTheWorld.com). Show newspaper clippings. Or don't show anything – sometimes, you need your audience to focus clearly on what you're saying.
Mistake #3: Don't Make Your Font Size Too Small!
When you're designing slides at your computer, it's easy to forget how your slides are actually going to be used. While 14pt text may look large enough sat in front of your computer, will it be visible from the back of a room when you present?
Just because you're projecting on to a 12' x 9' screen doesn't mean it's going to appear huge to everyone in the room. In fact, it's the opposite. Sat close to a PC, the screen almost fills your vision. From the back of a conference room, however, even a huge projected screen seems tiny.
My tip: when you've designed your slides on your PC, stand up, take five steps back and view your presentation. (You'll find a remote mouse useful for this.)
Can't read your slides now? Neither will your audience. Go into your master template, and double the text size. Now try again.
Mistake #4: Don't Use PowerPoint's Clip art!
I can only think of unprintable comments to make about the clip art supplied with PowerPoint. It's amateurish. It's badly designed. And there's such little choice, you see people shoehorning images into their slides which really don't fit the message or theme of their presentation.
My solution: use professional stock photography.
My favourite suppliers are www.BigStockPhoto.com and www.iStockPhoto.com. Both have almost a huge variety of photos ranging from animals to landscapes, landmarks to technology. Go to both sites and have a look around.
Is it expensive? Not at all. You pay between a couple of dollars per picture, which is nothing.
Tip: find a photo on a white background. In PowerPoint, click the transparency tool on the white area of the photo to cut the object out so it merges seamlessly with your presentation's background.
Mistake #5: Don't Use Sound Effects In Your PowerPoint Presentation!
Yes, PowerPoint does include exciting sound effects like (wait-for-it) a race car! A typewriter! A pane of glass being smashed! Gravy!
OK, I made that last one up.
Just resist all temptation and don't use any of them in your presentation.
They'll make you sound like an amateur who has just discovered some new features in PowerPoint and want to do everything possible to make them fit into your presentation whether they help or hinder.
And, believe me, they hinder.
There's not a lot more I can really say about sound effects. Just please, if you get nothing else from this article, understand this: never, never, use sound effects in PowerPoint.
Mistake #6: Don't Hack Together A PowerPoint Presentation At Random! Structure Gives Meaning
A presentation with no structure is like listening to someone ramble on about nothing in particular. It has no meaning, no message, and five minutes after the ramble has finished, you've forgotten everything about it anyway.
Which is why a good presentation should have a clearly defined structure. And by structure, I simply mean a beginning, a middle and an end.
Beginning: introduce yourself, your topic, why it matters and why you're the right person to talk about it.
Middle: the meaty substance. Talk pros and cons. Talk benefits. Talk features. Show them over and over why the message you're selling is essential. Repetition is good.
End: wrap it all up by referencing back to the beginning of your presentation. Give your audience a call to action – tell them what to do next.
Remember the saying "tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em, tell 'em, tell 'em you just told 'em."
Mistake #7: Don't Read Your PowerPoint Slides Aloud!
Occasionally, I see presenters who bring a slide on-screen, then read it, word-for-word aloud to their audience.
It's such a bad thing to do. Your audience will be insulted, and you're missing the chance to use your slides to back-up and give authority to what you're saying.
If you think you have a habit of doing this, the secret is all in the preparation. If you use a script to speak from, write the script first, then create your slides second, without copying chunks of your script into PowerPoint. If you prefer to speak from notes, then create a list of notes using different wording than what's on your slides.
Then practice in front of a live audience. Maybe a partner, or a colleague. Get them to stop you every time you start reading from your slides. You'll soon loose the habit.
Mistake #8: Don't Loose Your Audience With Ambiguous PowerPoint Slides!
All slides need a clear, simple path for the audience's eye to follow. When slides are filled with content that looks the same (for example, a long list of bullet points in the same type, colour and size) they get lost in the detail.
By making the importance of different parts of your slide clear, you'll instantly improve your audience's understanding of the message you're communicating.
Here's three of my favourite ways of improving the clarity of your slides.
Contrast: make more important items stand out. Make the font size bigger or brighter. Allow lots of space around the most important items.
Highlights: highlight important items with a different colour. For example, highlight rows in a table as you talk about them.
Simplify: reduce the number of words or bullets or pictures in a slide. Split one complex slide into several simpler ones.
Brainstorm your own ideas for more!
Mistake #9: Don't Irritate Your Audience With Annoying PowerPoint Animations!
Yes, PowerPoint does include lots of flashy effects in its custom animations palette.
Yes, you can buy add-ons if you want even more.
No, you shouldn't use them!
Like sounds and clip-art, over used animations in your presentation look amateurish.
They distract the audiences attention away from what you're saying as they focus on the screen. And do lots of random effects impress your audience? No, never.
Stick with one or two that you like. I tend to use Wipe Right and Box Out. That's it.
It's the same with slide transitions. Find one you like and use it throughout your presentation.
Concentrate your efforts on giving a great presentation, not experimenting with all out PowerPoint's animation styles!
Mistake #10: Don't Use The Amateurishly Designed Templates Supplied With PowerPoint!
Like most of the artwork supplied with PowerPoint, it's awful. Why didn't Microsoft hire someone to create some decent templates to bundle in with the software. Hey, Microsoft, I'm for hire if you want me!
The second-worst habit is finding free ones on the web. I can't remember ever seeing some nicely designed PowerPoint templates that someone is giving away for free. The quality is usually around about Microsoft's level!
The solution? Do it yourself, or hire a pro.
Try creating something simple. A graduated background, maybe, with your company's logo in the bottom corner. Or a good royalty-free stock photo with a semi-transparent tinted box laid over the top. Both solutions could look good.
Avoid these ten mistakes and you'll give a much better presentation the next time you speak.
MY THOUGHTS
Ugh! Ouch. It does pay to update yourself from time to time. You've prepared thousands of slides for probably a hundred presentations and you find out (by reading this article) that you're over using this and that or not using this and that. Whew! The biggest mistake I ever made was not having an lcd! Ha!ha! Well, I didn't know the talk was to be at an open space in one of the biggest malls. When my friend said 'hall', I assumed a hall with four walls! Well, the talk turned out pretty well without the slide presentation. So I guess, the best tip should be to know what you're talking about - with or without your slides.
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