

Death by PowerPoint - justin_hancock
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8207849.stm

======
mojuba
Reading text on slides and listening in parallel is hard to the point of
annoyance and losing interest in the talk. I was always wondering why everyone
keeps making the same mistake in their public talks and presentations. So,
finally someone said that.

PowerPoint is, I think, a tool for helping otherwise impotent speakers look
good. The final result though is the same: just bad speech, poor concepts
poorly delivered to the audience.

~~~
dkersten
The best presentations I've witnessed worked like this:

The slides contained only diagrams and SHORT bullet point summaries. No wall
of text or anything boring, tedious or annoying to read. Also, the slides
shouldn't mirror whats being said, thats boring and redundant. They should
summerise though, so that I can glance at the slide and know whats going to
(or has been) talked about. This aids me to focus, or to tune out parts that
are irrelevant to me. Also, when looking at slides later, it helps as a memory
aid for what the talk was about.

------
justin_hancock
There are some good points raised here one's well worth remembering in many
scenarios be it to investors, colleagues or academic Peers. The best preseners
I've seen almost never use PowerPoint.

~~~
tome
Indeed the best presenters I've seen never use slides, or handouts of any
sort.

~~~
migpwr
I agree with you that the best presenters probably don't use handouts or
powerpoint but maybe it's because they're gifted speakers. I think it's hard
for most people to carry an audience without any supporting material. A few
slides won't hurt if you're engaging and have information that adds value to
your presentation.

~~~
leif
The best ones I've seen really aren't that gifted --- they just make an effort
to structure what they want to say in a meaningful way, and use the crap out
of the chalkboard.

------
fogus
I'm very very far from a good public speaker, but when I do come out of my
hole and give a presentation my one simple rule is:

The slides should never stand on their own.

In other words, I try to use the slides as a supplement to the talk.

~~~
nudded
I agree, slides hold your presentation together. They should give your
audience a way to link the different parts of your story to the whole idea.

------
cromulent
The best advice I have seen is here (800KB pdf)

<http://www.sethgodin.com/freeprize/reallybad-1.pdf>

"If all you want to do is create a file of facts and figures, then cancel the
meeting and send in a report. Do it in PowerPoint if you want, but it’s not a
presentation, it’s a report. It will contain whatever you write down, but
don’t imagine for a second that you’re powerfully communicating any ideas.

Communication is about getting others to adopt your point of view, to help
them understand why you’re excited (or sad, or optimistic or whatever else you
are.) Unless you’re an amazing writer, it’s awfully hard to do that in a
report."

------
CWuestefeld
Last month I tried, for the first time, to go with the _Presentation Zen_
thing, and I think it turned into one of the best presentations I've ever
done.

On the other hand, one key person from the audience has asserted just this
morning that I failed to tell her a piece of information that is critical to
her. I remember saying it, and it's right there in the notes for the relevant
slide.

But boy, do I wish that I had a slide with bullet points on it, so I could
show her: "Oh yeah? Well, what's this?".

------
weinada
PPT is a great tool. It's just used incorrectly by the masses.

As someone already mentioned it's best leveraged for support. In most cases as
a visual aid. If you can get by without using any words and all imagery then
it's more likely to an entertaining presentation.

I also say this knowing that it all depends on the intended audience.

------
edw519
<http://www.norvig.com/Gettysburg/index.htm>

------
justin_hancock
Another tip, prepare your presentation on paper using a spider diagram,
central theme in the middle, sub-topics adding legs, add extra spiders on
spiders as required. You can make something like this very quickly (less than
30 minutes) especially when you know your subject it's a handy cue for the key
topics. It can be used to help prepare a PowerPoint however stick to the
recommondations on here and in the link.

------
movix
I try and use as little text as I can on the slides, and just one, or a couple
of key images. I find this really helps if I stumble in what I'm saying, or
lose track as I don't use paper notes to speak from. Glancing at an image
strongly related to your subject really helps to get you quickly back on
track.

Great public speaking skills are such a gift - just wish it was one I had.

------
fburnaby
Lawrence Lessig makes very good slide shows. He does this thing with html-
style meta tags that are very cool. He talks, while the slides outline the
context.

------
jodrellblank
Why does it take a presentation expert to say PowerPoint presentations are
often boring?

Tens of thousands of victims, er, people could have told him that over the
past 15-20 years.

------
onreact-com
This has been submitted already earlier with the original headline:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=772471>

