PowerPoint
One of the best, and worst, tools ever invented for a public speaker (I'm returning to the point of this blog) is PowerPoint. I've seen it all--"Death by PowerPoint" videos; the article by Edward Tufte, "PowerPoint is evil," etc. It's easy to mock PowerPoint; it has become a cliche.
Yet I require PowerPoint from my students and want them to know how to best use it. So I offer my top ten list of PowerPoint points of power: (is that cornball or what?)
1. If you are going to use PowerPoint, plan on making it a good one and plan on taking some time with it. It's a wonderful time killer. Plan first, deciding on the layout of each slide beforehand, remembering the 7 x 7 rule in terms of text (no more than 7 lines horizontally, including the heading, and the longest line no longer than 7 words). Look at all the available backgrounds first and make a decision on the one you will use and stick with it, because changing after typing the text in will alter the layout and you'll have to redo it.
2. Generally, dark background with very distinct font is more readable. Stick with Sans serif and no smaller than 24 point font.
3. Learn all the little commands, like b for black screen and w for white screen, ways to get rid of the pointer, (Control H), etc. Like all Microsoft products, there's more functionality than you can ever remember.
4. PowerPoint is lousy in showing hierarchy and relationship of ideas. It's bad form to use Roman numeral points, so hierarchy (main points, subordinate points) must be shown by font and color, a much harder task to maintain than it sounds like.
5. No animation.
6. Do we really need clip art? Isn't photography better?
7. Practice with the slides before actually giving the speech.
8. You are the center of attention, not the slides.
9. You don't have to have a slide for everything.
10. Stay in control of the slides; don't use automatic timing.
This is just a beginning; to really explain PowerPoint, I would need examples of poorly designed slides. An eye for design is necessary.
Yet I require PowerPoint from my students and want them to know how to best use it. So I offer my top ten list of PowerPoint points of power: (is that cornball or what?)
1. If you are going to use PowerPoint, plan on making it a good one and plan on taking some time with it. It's a wonderful time killer. Plan first, deciding on the layout of each slide beforehand, remembering the 7 x 7 rule in terms of text (no more than 7 lines horizontally, including the heading, and the longest line no longer than 7 words). Look at all the available backgrounds first and make a decision on the one you will use and stick with it, because changing after typing the text in will alter the layout and you'll have to redo it.
2. Generally, dark background with very distinct font is more readable. Stick with Sans serif and no smaller than 24 point font.
3. Learn all the little commands, like b for black screen and w for white screen, ways to get rid of the pointer, (Control H), etc. Like all Microsoft products, there's more functionality than you can ever remember.
4. PowerPoint is lousy in showing hierarchy and relationship of ideas. It's bad form to use Roman numeral points, so hierarchy (main points, subordinate points) must be shown by font and color, a much harder task to maintain than it sounds like.
5. No animation.
6. Do we really need clip art? Isn't photography better?
7. Practice with the slides before actually giving the speech.
8. You are the center of attention, not the slides.
9. You don't have to have a slide for everything.
10. Stay in control of the slides; don't use automatic timing.
This is just a beginning; to really explain PowerPoint, I would need examples of poorly designed slides. An eye for design is necessary.
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