Comments on: Make Your PowerPoint Presentation Suck Less in Many Easy Steps

By: Stephen

Stephen — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:46:10 +0000

That is the most astounding and awesome presentation ever. The paper it came from also fills me with glee.

By: Rikard

Rikard — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:35:19 +0000

This is also relevant:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL_-1d9OSdk

By: Stephen

Stephen — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:28:05 +0000

Aaron: In general serif fonts work best for long blocks of body text, since the serifs form a nice line for your eye to follow. When you’re talking large text, especially with few words, sans serif fonts are more often used.

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:42:22 +0000

Of course, this is all dependent on knowing how to make one in the first place, and then, having a REASON to make one. Unless I simply want to show the tedium of my SAHM day. It would be one slide. Over. And Over. And over. And over And….

By: Aaron Lanterman

Aaron Lanterman — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 04:29:02 +0000

Why are you against serifs?

By: kat

kat — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 04:32:27 +0000

Thank you so much for writing this up. I’m printing it out and hanging it outside my cube wall because these are the same points that I drive people crazy with every time we give a design review and no one wants to listen to me.

By: Geof F. Morris

Geof F. Morris — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 01:05:38 +0000

These are great suggestions of when you can accompany your slides. Too often, slides are seen as some kind of report, able to be read independently of the presentation. That’s how things like eye charts get into my presentations [in my case, usually captures of Gantt charts and/or Excel spreadsheets].

And you wonder why I dread PMR week each month? It’s a letter off from PMS, I tell you. [Which doesn't mean that it compares, but it does mean that I'm damn irritable.]

By: Pop

Pop — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 23:54:03 +0000

I just sat through a powerpoint show at lunch where (1) the remote wouldn’t work because the presenter had no idea where its receptor was, and thus had to lean over and key each change; (2) the presenter “ummmmed” and “errred” her way through her apology when things didn’t work (she once hit the wrong key and ended the show!); and (3) the presenter not only read, but also stumbled over the reading–of slides she’d presented (by her count) about 30 times before. She could have used your “3 points like a sermon” and whole list. Perhaps I should email it to her!

By: Andrew Plotkin

Andrew Plotkin — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:38:37 +0000

And, most importantly, put a little role-playing game in the footnotes.

By: Roger

Roger — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 20:54:14 +0000

One thing I don’t like as an audience-member is feeling lost inside the slideshow. Am I near the beginning or the middle or the end? Something like a ’3 of 12′ slide numbering system, or maybe a progress bar, helps a lot.