Will PowerPoint kill your presentation?
Recently, I was contacted by an American friend who has to give lots of presentations. He’s an experienced speaker, so what was his problem?
He had too much information to put on his PowerPoint and the slides were getting really dense. It’s no secret that PowerPoint slides can severely hamper an audience’s ability to take in information (for more on this, check out this article
PowerPoint is in danger of killing the art of presenting. Not because people are getting worse at speaking (my friend is a great speaker), but it’s changed many people’s approach to presentations. People tend to prepare the PPT slides and then ask: what do I say as the slides come up?
The result is a set of well-prepared slides that no one can read during the presentation – and a talk that doesn’t inspire. So, what’s the solution?
The key is to remember that you’re giving a presentation. You are there to speak and people are there to listen. PowerPoint should be treated like any other visual aid. It should be used to support your words; not dictate what you are going to say. Don’t fall into the trap of believing that you need slides for everything. Instead, prepare the presentation as a speech. Then think: what visuals do I need to support my words and make my message stronger?
Approaching things this way round, you can get the most out of PowerPoint. Use a few slides with graphs, diagrams, images or a couple of words on them to highlight key points or demonstrate the idea in action. And don’t ignore the other visual aids: draw diagrams on the white board or pass a mock-up of the product around the room. Even bring in a potato if it supports your message.
October 3rd, 2007 at 11:31 am
Good points Dan. Funnily enough, I read something similar just yesterday . . . http://blogs.hillandknowlton.com/blogs/davidferrabee/archive/2007/10/02/powerpoint-the-revolution-starts-here.aspx
October 3rd, 2007 at 11:43 am
I’ve just read the article you linked to here Aaron, and I like what the guy’s saying. I only have one disagreement. PowerPoint is a great tool; it’s one of the best visual aids we have. It can be powerful and it’s easy to use. But most people over use it and it kills their presentation.
When I’ve given presentation courses, people often ask me: “As a rule of thumb, how many slides should I use for a 20min presentation?” This is the wrong question. The question should be: “Do I need a visual aid to support this argument? And if so, what’s the best visual aid to use here?”
If you can answer those questions, you can start bringing out the power of your visual aids, including PowerPoint.
June 12th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
I totally agree, Dan. It’s perhaps worth bearing in mind that PP uses ’slides.’ You’d be a bit disappointed at your mate’s trekking-in-Nepal slideshow if she showed slide after slide of words describing the beautiful scenes. They’re slides. Images. Good ones evoke emotions, illustrate ideas, summarise scenes in a narrative.
A good approach to PP is to script a presentation on a notepad, or in Word - but stay away from PP. Then, when you’ve finished cutting 75% of it out, you can break the text up into manageable chunks and use these as the notes to your PP presentation. None of the text need ever reach a slide - so what does? Images, charts, diagrams - anything that will make the presentation more lively, engaging and memorable for the audience.
Anyone who loads reams of text directly into their PP should be shot with their own bullet points (in my humbel opinion).
One more thing to remember - PP is just one source of visual aids. There are others, including the presence of the presenter. Good speakers don’t need PP, but even a red hot PP still needs a good speaker - or at least deserves one.
June 12th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Haha. Love the idea of shooting people with their own bullet points. I can think of a few…