Who Uses or Abuses PowerPoint?

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Need some great tips on presentations, organizational communications, and the proper use of PowerPoint?

The use of PowerPoint in presentations is not a natural or easy thing. It seems to me that you get 40% of presentations show to little, 40% show too much and end up reading the slides to you, and about 10% really do a great job of balancing the highlights and keeping the audiences attention and making the subject memorable. I have seen and done my share of abuse of PowerPoint. There is nothing like an animated arrow bullet with sound effect in a PowerPoint presentation to get the crowd running for the door. Then again, my son created a whole cartoon in PowerPoint and it was amazing.

More food for thought.
Know your subject and know it well. Understand who the intended audience is, and adjust accordingly.

I am definitely no master of the delicate balance or at presentations and usually fall in the over kill on slides. I keep working on my skills, and have a “PowerPoint Master” for a boss.

Check out the blog by Cliff Atkinson: “Beyond Bullets”
http://sociablemedia.typepad.com/beyond_bullets/

A few articles of interest:

  • The Future Story(board) of PowerPoint
  • Evocative Media
  • The Science of PowerPoint Overload

    The author also has a web site full of articles http://www.sociablemedia.com/articles_list.htm

    I love a quote from one of Cliff’s articles on Bullet Points:
    “Guns don’t kill communication.
    Bullet points kill communication.
    And when you use bullet points in a PowerPoint, you’re shooting yourself in the foot.”

    Cheers,
    -Shaan