Tuesday, October 28, 2008

How to Make a Bad Presentation

So I think Microsoft PowerPoint is probably the simplest program to use horribly wrong in the entire Windows suite. While everyone thinks that they know how to create a perfect presentation, I have compiled a list of my top five PowerPoint pet peeves in an attempt to dispel some presentation myths and mistakes.

1. LOTS OF TEXT - Having waaay too much text does not mean you say more, in fact, PowerPoint is a true champion of minimalism, and often embodies the literary truth that less is more, more or less.

2. Too Much Animation - Lots of moving pictures and text are an attention deficit nightmare. If your PowerPoint has to have a surgeon general's warning that it may cause seizures, then it probably isn't getting the message across.

3. Overpowering Music - Music can be a huge helper for most presentations, and can even be the difference between a bad presentation and a good presentation when used properly, but even good music can go horribly wrong if it drowns out the presenter.

4. Don't Just Read What's on the Page - The slides are meant to guide, but too often they become the main device of communication within a presentation. If notes are being used, they should be directly to the point, but should be expansive and shine light on the bullet points presented on the slides.

5. Not Proofreading Slides - It takes very little to destroy even the best buildups, but poor spelling ensures that that even a good presentation will crash and fail.

2 comments:

Mrs. Maloney said...

Well I hope you have a good presentation, not a bad one!

Raul said...

I thought your presentation was very good. Visually, it was great. The content of it was also very good because we atually learned a lot.