Why Bad Presentations Happen to Good Causes - The Goodman ...

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PowerPoint Is Your Friend
Seriously. – cont’d
© The New Yorker Collection 2003 Alex Gregory from cartoonbank.com. All Rights Reserved.
In short, the fault, dear reader, is not in our slides, but in ourselves. PowerPoint is a tool
like any other, and if you know how to use it properly, you can produce visuals that add
value to your presentation. Real know-how, though, goes beyond simply learning how
to insert some groovy animation or send text flying around a page. (Those skills more
properly belong in the “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing” category.)
Having spent countless hours working and experimenting with this software, I have
learned several techniques that take advantage of PowerPoint’s greatest assets – and some
are as easy as pressing a single key. Before designing your next slide show, I encourage you
to consider the recommendations below and to try some of these techniques for yourself.
First, accept what PowerPoint is not.
A PowerPoint presentation is not a document. Brochures, reports, memos or other printed
materials can do the heavy lifting of information transfer between you and your audience.
Your presentation – whether 10 minutes or two hours long – should neither resemble
nor recapitulate printed matter. It is also not an outline projected on screen to help you
remember the key points of your talk. If you need prompts, carry index cards.
Your time at the podium is an opportunity to convey the essence of your proposal, shine
a spotlight on key points of a report, or tell stories that bring your issue to life. And the
central purpose of your PowerPoint is to provide visual elements that more clearly explain,
more dramatically depict, and more emotionally emphasize each point you wish to make.
Bearing that in mind …