Death by PowerPoint

re: Death by PowerPoint

Laura E. Hunter [MVP] — Thu, 25 Aug 2005 16:10:57 GMT

Bless you Jesper, bless you! As an occasional trainer, I try really hard not to be the person who sits there reading the contents of a Powerpoint slide to a classroom. It likewise makes me crazy when people do it to me. At Tech Ed I did exactly what you described here; that is, I stopped going to the presentations and just hung around the Cabanas all day - I just got my DVD full of slide decks and will be going through them now as time permits. (I really think the only ones I sat all the way through were yours, Steve's, and Mark Russinovich's.)

So glad to see that you're blogging, can't wait to read more!

re: Death by PowerPoint

Ulf B. Simon-Weidner — Thu, 25 Aug 2005 19:22:47 GMT

Hi Jesper,

very funny (unfortunately) and very true. I remember a lot of slides which looked like someone copied the whitepaper in it ;-)
One topic I was smiling about: I guess the per-event-template is also used to force the speakers to overdue and maybe overthink their presentation, so it's up to date. I don't want to know how old certain presentations would get if they just could resubmit without changes ;-)

But anyways, was funny to read and I can't wait for the next part "Death by the speaker".

And Laura: admit it was very interesting in the cabanas, next time we should just put our cabana-table on a stage in one of the session rooms and we'll have the most technical and most interesting session ever ;-)

How to sell to a Beancounter

E-Bitz - SBS MVP the Official Blog of the SBS — Tue, 30 Aug 2005 04:46:12 GMT

Thanks to everyone who join me at tonight's Technet event in Reading

Steve Lamb's Blog — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 01:04:37 GMT

I really enjoyed meeting so many people at tonight's TechNet event. Apologies to those who couldn't find...

re: Death by PowerPoint

dhargreaves — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 15:00:26 GMT

I work with a number of colleagues who do not understand the value of the slide master and consequently am constantly faced with slides where the basic information jumps all over the place. Or half way through a badly prepared presentation the style and layout is changed all together.

Another visual problem is where the design on the master is overcomplicated and incorporates dark conflicting colours. This may look exciting on the PC monitor but is hellishly difficult to read over a projector.

Please please use slide masters and keep the look and feel simple.

Powerful Powerpoint points

Eileen Brown's WebLog — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 18:01:24 GMT

Jesper, who seems to live on planes at the moment, has blogged about how to make your Powerpoint presentations...

re: Death by PowerPoint

Toby Getsch — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 21:18:37 GMT

Amen!

re: Death by PowerPoint

Jonathan Merrill — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 22:38:15 GMT

Jesper,

I hear you on all your points, except #2 (Most of your audience probably knows how to read).

I was responsible for doing the technical training at one of my previous employers. We gave the slides out afterwards and put them up on the intranet. Would you believe the number one complaint was the slides didn't contain enough information? They were "too brief". Good grief, damned if you do, damned if you don't.

PS. Number two complaint was better food. No one liked the cheese and crackers we served.

JMM

re: Death by PowerPoint

Mike — Wed, 14 Sep 2005 02:34:38 GMT

There are two parts to a PowerPoint presentation: the slides, and the talk. Presentations definitely go better when the PowerPoint part of it follows Jesper's advice. Unfortunately for those of use who miss the presentation, such sparse slides aren't much good on their own. Looking back at slides from TechEd NZ (just a couple of weeks ago), I find in many cases the slides alone aren't enough to jog my memory about what was said at talks I was paying attention to, never mind those I missed entirely.

If your presentation is to live on after the talk, you need to provide more than a copy of your slides. For a conference presentation, add some notes to your slides, to help fill in the gaps.

Most of use don't present at conferences. Our presentations are summaries of larger works: project proposals, progress reports, testing results, etc. Often, these should be independent documents, which should be provided instead of PowerPoint slides.

Colour troubles

Stephen — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 04:09:18 GMT

Hi Jesper, I'm curious about where you got your colour disabilities information from.

I've been using this site as a guide: http://www.lighthouse.org/color_contrast.htm

re: Death by PowerPoint

jesper — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 06:42:22 GMT

Personal experience Stephen. I'm pretty gravely color blind.

I really like the site you linked. It should be a requirement to read things like that for people who are NOT color deficient and who create presentations.

re: Death by PowerPoint

Terry Bernstein — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 23:15:31 GMT

One missing horror....
The animated bullet points that zoom in from the side of the screen and come to a sudden halt. Often with sound effect :-(
Just what you need after a good lunch.

SHIFT F5

Harry — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 10:58:58 GMT

I could have thought of it myself, but I never did. When testing on slide of my presentation I always hit F5. Thus I had to press PgDn a lot to get to the slide I wanted to see.
SHIFT-F5. Helpfull tip. Thanks.

re: Death by PowerPoint

Jens Häupel — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 11:46:18 GMT

Very true. I am color blind and once I attended a meeting where the presenter had used a red font on a dark green background. I could only guess the text since it had a shadow applied, which is usually a bad thing - especially with small fonts. But in this case the shadow had a different color that was in my visual spectrum.
Besides I try to stick to my PPT master even if the conference owners try to provide their own (black on white) ones.

re: Death by PowerPoint

Mary Lou — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 20:03:04 GMT

You, and Terry B above, have covered these points quite well! I trained on presentations using the old overhead transparencies technique. These were expensive to produce and therefore, we used them as needed - only a little bit of info to jog the memory.

Now, PP, is everywhere for everyone - I hate those animated presentations - it's like someone found the button and said "Hey, I can make these move!" Then, they creat hideous slides just because they can! Ouch!

Thanks for the tips - I'm sending the link to my boss right now!

re: Death by PowerPoint

Gerry — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 02:56:12 GMT

Power corrupts; PowerPoint corrupts absolutely!

re: Death by PowerPoint

Mike Bartlett — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 14:31:01 GMT

I agree with everything you say Jesper it should be mandatory reading for any presenter.
One comment re handouts, if they are going to be created on a black and white printer use the greyscale / black and white preview option, PLEASE! You wouldn't believe the number of handouts I have that are unreadable because the pretty colours on the screen dissappear into the background on the printer.

re: Death by PowerPoint

Bill — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 16:31:36 GMT

I believe that you left out the word "of" in this bullet.

Be conscious people with disabilities

Should it read:

Be conscious[of]people with disabilities

re: Death by PowerPoint

Barbara Conn — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 20:37:25 GMT

In developing a presentation, it's often useful (when you can make the time) to create a PowerPoint master file that's adaptable for everything from 10-minute overviews to 45-minute talks to 3-hour seminars to a printed
conference proceedings book—then you're ready for any opportunity that arises. The audience looks at a picture slide but listens to the speaker, who easily skips the next several slides (the ones with the explanatory text) included in the master file for intranet, Web, and/or print publication.

Very useful article, Jesper. Thanks. I'm linking to it from the Speaker Info page on our Capital PC User Group Entrepreneurs and Consultants SIG Web pages.

<i>Question:</i> About "Don't put your audience in pain," what colors would you recommend for words (foreground) and background? Colors that will work both when projected and printed? Thanks again.

Truely true

Fredrik Elmqvist — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 12:01:40 GMT

How true! I've seen presentations breaking all those rules. Heck, I've even made a few presentations of my own which probably would send me to jail for offending the basic design rules.

You put the finger on some intresting spots.

re: Death by PowerPoint

Thom — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 14:27:05 GMT

I've seen a presentation at a shareholder meeting that was so beautiful to look at, that no paid any attention to the speakers. At the end when the mike was handed out to the audience, someone even stood up and asked how it was done!!!. Lesson? Imagery and pictures might be beautiful, but keep it understated.

It was a fantasic pres though!

re: Death by PowerPoint

David M. McFall — Sun, 11 Dec 2005 00:47:12 GMT

I am a retired executive who still doesn't know as much as I should about PowerPoint, but have sat through numerous presentations that included some or all of your "don'ts."

Thanks, and thanks for your sense in instructive humor.

Becoming a better presenter

Jesper's Blog — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 23:28:02 GMT

Becoming a Better Presenter
This week I went to Dr. Edward A. Tufte's course on presenting quantitative...

re: Death by PowerPoint

IroeN — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 01:51:46 GMT

thx, i just added your blog to my Favorites Center :)

re: Death by PowerPoint

George Edwards — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 20:40:00 GMT

Excellent Posting.
One more. With a hundred squillion images on the intenet, why do people still pepper their slides with those evil and sinister little stick men?

Anyone who wants a copy of my report "Thanks, I enjoyed that ! - an A to Zizz of Presenttions" for some more tips, it's a free PDF download from www.TheGeorgeEdwards.com/downloads.htm
Help yourselves.

re: Death by PowerPoint

joey — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 05:51:08 GMT

sh!t ar

Looking forward to Exchange Connections Spring 2006

(e)Mail Insecurity — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 22:01:31 GMT

re: Death by PowerPoint

Dewi Morgan — Wed, 10 May 2006 01:42:40 GMT

"Be conscious people with disabilities"

I don't think there's a missing word here, just missing punctuation.

"Be conscious, people with disabilities"

This is a very good point. If you are narcoleptic, please ensure that you have an assistant armed with a stick. Falling asleep is the prerogative of the audience, not the speaker.

re: Death by PowerPoint

Robert Reinman — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 18:42:33 GMT

I really enjoyed your advice and tips BUT there is one MAJOR improvement that could be made to PowerPoint. The basic concept is to allow more functionality of control for objects on the slide. I am sure you are familiar with MS PictureIt program and how objects appear in a "film strip" on a side panel and the ease with which they can be sequenced, grouped, cut, etc. especially if "layered". So lets say such a "feature" could be added to PowerPoint what frustration and time saved, especially if one is trying to manipulate graphics/objects that are "buried" in a lower "layer".

re: Death by PowerPoint

Robert Reinman — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 19:15:57 GMT

Currently, PowerPoint will recognize a PictureIt! png file as as a "grouped" object. What would be nice is to have a choice in PictureIt! for a PowerPoint size dimension format that could be "imported" into PowerPoint AND have PowerPoint recognize the imported file as to being "grouped" or as "individual objects" contained within a single imported file. How nice that would be!

Death by Powerpoint - revisited

E-Bitz - SBS MVP the Official Blog of the SBS "Diva" — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 06:44:55 GMT

The background on the Vista OS..that I call "under the Sea" is very pretty. It's very stylish. There

Muerte por powerpoint

Be Geek My Friend — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 00:44:44 GMT

Cosas que hacer y no hacer en una presentación. De Jesper Johansson http://blogs.technet.com/jesper_johansson/archive/2005/08/24/Death-by-PowerPoint.asp

Verkleinern von virtuellen Festplatten

.: Daniel Melanchthon :. — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 01:19:56 GMT

Eine meiner Hauptaufgaben in meinem Job bei MIcrosoft ist es, anständige Präsentationen für die Veranstaltungen,