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[Deg]

Gotta do a presentation. Always love doing them but i want to make something special this time. Any hints or websites that show me some cool powerpoint presentations that i could learn from?

Mine are ussualy pretty basic animations. Nothing flashy. I would maybe go for something flashier than just scrolling text and colour.

Ussualy GAF comes with great stuff.

 

[Chittagong]

Gotta do a presentation. Always love doing them but i want to make something special this time. Any hints or websites that show me some cool powerpoint presentations that i could learn from?

Mine are ussualy pretty basic animations. Nothing flashy. I would maybe go for something flashier than just scrolling text and colour.

Ussualy GAF comes with great stuff.

Depends on the audience. For a dry British crowd some well timed sounds work great. Go through half of your slides normally or even more boringly, then suddenly the next incoming slide makes the "screeching tires" sound, as does every bullet point after it. You must act like you didn't know what's going on, a bug or virus perhaps? Usually cracks everyone up. Come the last slide, they are really laughing their asses off.

 

[demon]

Make all your images spin for no reason whatsoever. That's what I do.

 

[tedtropy]

Make every event, piece of text, and slide transistion associated with an annoying two-minute poorly created WAV file, least that seems to be what most people at my college do. Oh, and extra points if it's some form of rap music...

 

[Dilbert]

The single biggest piece of advice that I can give you is NOT to use features like animation, sounds, video clips, etc. in your PowerPoint presentation. Please. For the love of God, don't do it.

The basic principles of presentations are still the same -- your visual aids are meant to be used to augment your delivery, not distract from it or take the place of the verbal/visual message that YOU are presenting. The classic rules still apply: Use visual devices (graphics, photographs, diagrams) as the primary focus of your slides. Use words sparingly, and only to reinforce key points that you will deliver in that part of the presentation. Organize the content in a logical and easy-to-follow way.

The only exception to the "classic" rules is when the presentation is also being used as documentation -- which is, unfortunately, endemic in engineering. In that case, you have to be more verbose and detailed with your slide contents, since there is a potential audience which will not get to hear your in-person delivery. However, that can also be accomplished -- perhaps more elegantly -- with notes. And, oh yeah, I've seen animation used effectively...exactly ONCE.

Clearly, using an attractive visual style and color scheme can enhance the impact of your presentation. But most people make some <AHEM> interesting choices which actually work against what they are trying to achieve.

 

[NohWun]

Here's a cool idea: Try adding some substantive content.

Nobody ever expects that in a PowerPoint presentation.

 

[calder]

The single biggest piece of advice that I can give you is NOT to use features like animation, sounds, video clips, etc. in your PowerPoint presentation.

Word. Make the points clear, concise and logical. Make the fonts easy to read and the colours appropriate (it never hurts to pimp the corporate logo colours as long as they form an easy to read combo). Smooth transitions and.... damn that's about it.

At gunpoint I added some graphics to a few presentations back when and never liked them. When I did my own and ditched all clipart (honest to god clipart) the supervisor who had me do all the other pic-heavy presentations for her immediately became a no-art convert. Diagrams that explain shit or VERY simple but important flowcharts are exempt of course.

 

[dem]

Bring pillows for your audience....



Powerpoint presentations are the worst....

 

[Memles]

Powerpoints are an aid...don't read off of them, and whatever you do, as jinx says, avoid all the sounds crap. Keep it simple, and use it to substantiate your points being made. It's the best way to make a powerpoint. Less is more.

 

[Deg]

Yeah i'm always less is more I just want to improve. Cant think of much. I'm great at using diagrams and giving handouts. I follow the rules. I wont bore people. They arent that long and i make sure it wont make people fall asleep.

 

[Phoenix]

Please oh please oh please. I have been to countless presentations in my life and the best ones that I have been to and delivered were short on sounds and transition foolishness and big on images (if its about something visual), animated IF AND ONLY IF it shows some flow on that same screen, and aural only if its about sound. Adding in meaningless presentation trash is only going to annoy many and detract your audience from you and have them salivating like puppies waiting for the next multimedia element to appear.