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

pg. 62
PowerPoint Is Your Friend
Seriously. – cont’d
Discover the little miracles.
As I said earlier, PowerPoint can perform some very useful tasks at the touch of just one
or two keys.
To bring the audience’s attention back to the podium:
Given the choice of looking at the speaker or a slide, audiences generally choose the slide.
Don’t take it personally: If they can hear you, they will not feel obligated to look at you,
too. Sometimes, though, you need their undivided attention. PowerPoint gives you the
tool: the letter B key. Press it once while in VIEW SHOW mode, the screen will go
black, and every eye in the room will return to you. Press it again and your slide magically
reappears – and every head will turn back to the screen. (You can achieve a similar effect
by pressing the letter W key – which will turn the screen white – but I have found that
audiences may be distracted by the white box, possibly because they expect something will
eventually appear inside it.)
To display any slide at any time:
Most public interest presenters I meet labor under the misconception that PowerPoint
only allows users to move forward or backward through a presentation one slide
at a time. If an audience member asks to see a slide shown earlier, these presenters
dutifully page backwards one slide after another, often having to click through several
animations within a single slide. Not only is this boring for the rest of the audience, it
is an unnecessary waste of time.
To jump to any slide at any time, simply type the number of the slide you wish to display
(using the number row on the keyboard) and hit the ENTER key. To return to the last
slide displayed before the jump, type its number and hit ENTER. Of course, this requires
having a numbered list of all your slides handy, but for that small amount of extra preparation,
you can move with complete freedom from one end of your slide deck to the other.
To access “bonus slides”:
As you plan a presentation, you may find yourself with slides you are ambivalent about
using. On the one hand, you might have a group of slides that will really drive a point
home. On the other, if the audience does not find that point fascinating to begin with, you
will probably want to get through that part of your talk as quickly as possible. So you are
left in a quandary: Build in one slide or more?
The technique of jumping to any slide at any time provides your solution. When you
have slides that seem optional, place them at the end of your presentation. Include these
“bonus slides” on your numbered list, and – using the instructions above – you can access
them as needed and then jump right back to where you were.
This kind of planning can also serve you well during Q&A. If you have given a
presentation several times, you probably know what questions will arise throughout your
talk or especially during Q&A. So create slides specifically to address those questions
(when you need visual support, that is) and add them to the back of your deck. If the
predicted questions arise, you will appear exceptionally prepared. And if they do not,
nobody in the audience will be the wiser.