PowerPoint Tips for Professionals or:

How I Learned to Stop Using

Templates and Love Power Point

Presented by: C. Todd Smith

Death by PowerPoint

Sound familiar?“PowerPoint hell” is the tedium some people report on sitting through PowerPoint visual presentations that are too long and complex, making excessive use of the software’s features and when the presenter just reads from the slides. Source: Wikipedia

Things to avoid

Beware of the template trap

BULLETSAREFOR GUNSNOTFOR PRESENTATIONS

Memberships and Affiliations Admitted to The Florida Bar 1994 United States District Court, Middle

District of Florida Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers American Trial Lawyer Association Central Florida Trial Lawyers

Association Orange County Bar Association Guardian Ad Litem Volunteer, Orlando

Legal Aid Society

Cutting and Pasting Trap On June 24, 2010, Plaintiff, JANE DOE, was

the operator of a motor vehicle in Seminole County, Florida that was struck from behind by a vehicle being operated by John Smith, who was at fault for the motor vehicle accident.

At all material times, including June 24, 2010, John Smith was insured by United Services Automobile Association, who tendered the limits of his bodily injury liability coverage on or about March 17, 2011.

SOUTHERN-OWNERS insured Plaintiff under a motor vehicle liability insurance policy, including underinsured and/or uninsured motorist coverage.

UNNECESSARY SLIDE TRANSITIONS

THE “SHRED” EFFECT

(If you were watching this in Power Point you would love this awesome looking, but totally useless, transition effect.)

THE “CHECKERBOARD” EFFECT

(If you were watching this in Power Point you would love this even more awesome looking, but totally useless, transition effect.)

THE “HONEYCOMB” EFFECT

(You get it, right? If you were watching this in Power Point, this effect would blow your mind.)

POOR COLOR CHOICES

Wrong Font and Too much Text

“The majority of the presentations that I see have text in a ten point font. As much text as possible is jammed into the slide, and then the presenter reads it. However, as soon as the audience figures out that you’re reading the text, it reads ahead of you because it can read faster than you can speak. The result is that you and the audience are out of synch.

The reason people use a small font is twofold: first, that they don’t know their material well enough; second, they think that more text is more convincing. Total bozosity. Force yourself to use no font smaller than thirty points. I guarantee it will make your presentations better because it requires you to find the most salient points and to know how to explain them well. If “thirty points,” is too dogmatic, the I offer you an algorithm: find out the age of the oldest person in your audience and divide it by two. That’s your optimal font size.” - Guy Kawasaki

Read more: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2005/12/the_102030_rule.html#ixzz1dKyrGkCe

BAD CLIP ART AND ANIMATIONS

tips

Telling the story

Start with Why

People aren’t interested in what you do, they’re interested in why you do it.

-Simon Sinek

TELLING the STORY:

Act I begins a story by setting up all of the key story elements, including the setting, the main character, a conflict, and the desired outcome.

Act II drives the story forward by picking up on the conflict in Act I and developing it through the actions and reactions of the main character in response to changing conditions.

Act III ends the story by framing a climax and a decision that the main character must face to resolve the situation.

Source: Cliff Atkinson, Sociable Media

Use visuals

5:45 a.m.

• Mother leaves for work

7:00 a.m.

• Employees arrive at Daycare

7:30 a.m.

• Child is is dropped off by his father and signed in.

9:00 a.m.

• Diaper changed according to diaper chart

• Employee takes out trash

9:30 a.m.

• Employee A reported to be the primary caregiver of child but she later says Employee B was the primary caregiver that morning.

9:45 a.m.

• Employee A claims she woke the baby to clean him and discovers burn injuries

9:58 a.m.

• Daycare calls Mother and she calls her father.

10:15 a.m.

• Father arrives at daycare, calls Mother, and insists that 911 be called.

10:40 a.m.

• 911 finally called and OCFD Rescue dispatched at 10:41

Guy Kawasaki’s10/20/30 Rule

10 slides

20 minutes

30 point font (30, 20, 10)

10

Click for Guy's Blog Post

www.prezi.com

tipsTECH

Get to know the ribbon in Office 2010

Office.com

AlwaysBePrepared

To handout or not to handout?

Don’t be boring.

Shortcuts:http://office.microsoft.com/en-ca/powerpoint-help/keyboard-shortcuts-for-use-while-creating-a-presentation-in-powerpoint-2010-HP010336519.aspx

Death by PowerPoint: http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/biztools/article.php/684871/Death-By-Powerpoint.htm

Really bad PowerPoint – Seth Godin http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/01/really_bad_powe.html

Tips: http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/powerpoint_tips.htmlhttp://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/

Portability – Office web apps: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/web-apps?WT.mc_id=PPT_WebApp

C. Todd Smithwww.ctoddsmith.com

Download this presentation at:Slideshare.net/ctoddsmith