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Subject:RE: 25 Years of PowerPoint From:"Boudreaux, Madelyn (GE Healthcare, consultant)" <MadelynBoudreaux -at- ge -dot- com> To:<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:12:10 -0400
I liked Chris Morton's suggestions, which included most of the things I
try to remember and share about PPT slideshows.
A few I'd add:
1) Pick one animation style (and not an annoying one!!!) and use it
throughout. I like "appear" best. Your presentation isn't an ad on
showing off how cool PowerPoint is. (Unless it IS an ad on how cool
PowerPoint is, but I doubt it.)
2) RUN your slideshow; do not just take the audience through it in the
PPT builder. If you have a typo, it will be painfully obvious
(underlined in blue). Besides, the slideshow won't progress smoothly.
You would think this would be obvious, but I can't tell you how many
presentations I've sat through where the slideshow was run in the PPT
builder. More than I've sat through where it was run properly.
3) The corollary to "use telegraphic bullet points and don't make your
slide do all the talking," is: PLEASE don't just read off the slide.
Again, this happens too often, by people who absolutely should know
better. The Frequently Whimpered Whine you may hear grumbled under the
breath of your audience is, "Why did I take the time to come to this
meeting when I could have just read the slideshow presentation?" This,
of course, is just good presentation sense, untethered to PPT
slideshows.
Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers developing Table of
Contents, Context IDs, and Index, as well as Doc-To-Help
2009 tips, tricks, and best practices. http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/
Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/
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