Oral Presentations for SI505

5 Using Presentation Software (MS PowerPoint)

When using a presentation package, such as MicroSoft's PowerPoint, to develop and deliver an oral presentation, the technology introduces new issues and concerns.  Since most of you will be using PowerPoint, I will address that software specifically.  If you are not familiar with PowerPoint, pay special attention to this section.  When using PowerPoint, you need to understand issues of:

Developing a presentation with PowerPoint
Delivering a presentation with PowerPoint

Developing a PowerPoint Presentation

Here is some advice I've found useful when using PowerPoint to develop the graphic aids for a presentation:

• Start with a provided template.  These templates are useful in setting text standards and providing a background.
• Don't hesitate to customize the template.  Many of us have seen many PowerPoint presentations and we immediately recognize the standard templates.  If your template somehow reflects the subject matter of your presentation, it will look more original.  Obviously, you still want to maintain a professional appearance.  You could, for example, eliminate a distracting graphic from the template and add a small footer and logo identifying your project.
• Make any presentation-wide changes to the master slide.  You don't want to edit every graphic when you decide to make a global change to your presentation.  The master slide controls the formatting, background and text layout, that appears on your slides.  Do any customizing you see fit on this master slide.
• Use the promote and demote arrows to control the level of bullet points.  These arrows rely on the text settings on the master slide, by using them you eliminate the need to deal with tabs and indents to line up your text.
• Be careful when importing charts from MS Excel.  Controlling issues of sizing can be difficult and may necessitate some experimentation.
• If you use the provided clip art, do so sparingly.
• As mentioned elsewhere, choose strong contrasting colors if you are not limited to black and white.

Delivering a PowerPoint Presentation

Here is some advice I've found useful when using PowerPoint as a display mechanism for a presentation:

• Avoid sound unless it is very relevant and appropriate.  Note that some builds within PowerPoint have hidden associated sounds.  If you develop your presentation with the sound off, it  will be very distracting to find that each bullet point appears with a clicking, or worse car crash, noise when you give your presentation on a new computer that has the sound on.
• Be conservative with transitions and builds.  Transitions are minianimations that occur between slides.  Builds are animated ways of displaying bullet points one at a time.
• Some between slide transitions can be a nice addition, especially as an extra indication of a major topic or speaker change.
• If you choose to use builds, consider using the wipe down or wipe left effect for easiest readability.  Flying text is distracting and hard on the eyes.
• Including an all black slide at the end of your presentation is a nice way to avoid the distraction of unrelated text on the screen during the question and answer period.
• Be aware that many detailed graphics and/or lots of animations could slow your presentation down if the computer you are using lacks the memory or speed of the one on which you developed your presentation.

If you have other questions or items you'd like to see covered, let Mary Jane know.