Making the best ppt ever

Danger Ahead

Modern Whitewater Canoe by Philcanoe from Wikimedia Commons

Before I tell you how to build a good powerpoint, I want to
warn you about some of the dangers and pitfalls of
powerpoint and help you to avoid DANGER AHEAD!

Avoid The PowerPoint of Doom

asleep from factspy.net

Powerpoint of Doom
● Bad powerpoints are boring, don’t do a good job of
communicating information and are not fair to your
audience.
● Remember the Golden Rule, do not torture your
audience, unless you enjoy being tortured as well!

#1

Rule #1

PPT Templates

•Are not your friend…

PowerPoint Templates
● PowerPoint Templates are not good. They should be
AVOIDED.
● Just because they are there, doesn’t mean you should
use them.

Templates are:
•Inappropriate for your audience (see above)
•Create boring presentations
•Have places for the text and title that aren’t best for the
AUDIENCE’S comprehension

#2

Rule #2

No Bullets

Revolver by poter.simon from Flickr

Bullet Points
● No Bullet Points Allowed. That’s right – no bullet points.
Ever.
● New research into cognitive functioning—how the
brain retains information--proves that bullet points are
the least effective way to deliver important information.
● It just looks like BLAH BLAH BLAH when we see it on
the screen.

#3

Rule #3

Buying a New Suit

by Elmhurst College English Dept. from Quite Possibly The World's Worst PowerPoint Presentation Ever

Images
● Use pictures, but don’t let them use you.
● Keep slides SIMPLE! Too much diverts audience away
from content.
● Too many pictures also make saving a presentation
difficult.
● 1 or 2 HIGH QUALITY PICTURES per slide is enough.

#4

Rule #4

Racquetball Fundamentals

■ 2, 3, or 4 players.
■ 1 player serves, other “returns.”
■ Only serving player can score.
■ Served ball must land past serving line and

cannot hit back wall.
■ Ball can only bounce once before striking

front wall…but ball does not have to bounce.

by Elmhurst College English Dept. from Quite Possibly The World's Worst PowerPoint Presentation Ever

Animations/Transitions
● You don’t need animations/transitions/hopping
bunnies to make a good presentation.
● Those things usually take AWAY from the
presentation…
● People will stop listening to you and start looking for the
hopping bunny, spinning words, etc.

#5

Rule #5

Chilean Exports

• Fresh fruit leads Chile's export mix - Chile emerges as major supplier of fresh fruit to
world market due to ample natural resources, consumer demand for fresh fruit during
winter season in U.S. and Europe, and incentives in agricultural policies of Chilean
government, encouraging trend toward diversification of exports and development of
nontraditional crops - U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Economic Research Service Report

• Chile is among the developing economies taking advantage of these trends, pursuing
a free market economy. This has allowed for diversification through the expansion of
fruit production for export, especially to the U.S. and Western Europe. Chile has
successfully diversified its agricultural sector to the extent that it is now a major fruit
exporting nation. Many countries view Chile's diversification of agriculture as a model
to be followed.

• Meanwhile, the U.S. remains the largest single market for Chile's fruit exports.
However, increasing demand from the EC and Central and East European countries
combined may eventually surpass exports to the U.S., spurring further growth in
Chile's exports.

• If you’ve read this far, your eyes probably hurt and you’ve been reading this tedious
long-winded text instead of listening to me. I’m insulted- can’t you see I’m doing a
presentation up here? Look at me! Congratulations, however, on having such good
eyesight.

by Elmhurst College English Dept. from Quite Possibly The World's Worst PowerPoint Presentation Ever

Slide Text
● This is way too much text and way too small.
● How do you know what is important?
● Everything is the same size… size small, which means…
nothing is important
● You should: Use a REALLY BIG FONT and NOT VERY
MANY WORDS
● AND this is a slide that someone is probably going to READ
TO YOU…
● You hate that? We hate that. WE ALL HATE IT, so STOP IT!

#6

Rule #6

Beginner Motorcycles

• My personal favorite:
the Suzuki Savage

• Light weight (~380lbs)
• Adequate power

(650cc engine)
• Low seat height fits

most riders

by Elmhurst College English Dept. from Quite Possibly The World's Worst PowerPoint Presentation Ever

colors
● Using colors that no one is able to see, doesn’t work
● Remember that much of the population is color blind,
they can’t see red/greens/browns like the rest of us.
● And the rest of us don’t want to have to try to see that
mess…

#7

Rule #7

Don’t Steal

image 35 from Fake Brands

How can we attribute an image?

title of work + original creator
+ where you found the work

Copyright/Creative Commons, Quality Presentations by Ashley Sullivan from Mini-MERIT

Crab Shack by John Picton Photo, from Flickr

Can I Use That? Fair Use for the Remix Generation by Jane Lofton and Gail Desler from CUE 2015



Kyle Needs Help by Philip Greenspun from philip.greenspun.com

Need Help
● Now that you know NOT to do, what should you be
doing??

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience by Carmine Gallo from SlideShare

Steve Jobs
● Well, Steve Jobs is argued to be one of the best
presenters ever, so let’s see how planned his
presentations…
● Steve Jobs made his presentations in 3 steps.

ACT 1:
Create the Story

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience by Carmine Gallo from SlideShare

Act 1
Have a story to tell...

● Nancy Duarte, communication expert, recommends
that a presenter spend 90 hours creating an 1 hour
long presentation with 30 slides.

● And only 1/3 of that time is spent building slides.

...start at the very
beginning, a very good
place to start… Julie Andrews

A Fresh Start by Melissa Venable from foter

1st 30 hours (1/3)
● The first 1/3 of you time (or 30 hours) is spent collecting
ideas, organizing ideas, and sketching the story.
● Truly great presenters like Steve Jobs visualize, plan
and create ideas on paper (or whiteboards) before they
open the presentation software.

The single most important
thing you can do to

dramatically improve your
presentations is to have a
story to tell before you work on

your PowerPoint file.

– Cliff Atkinson, Beyond Bullet Points

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience by Carmine Gallo from SlideShare

Have a story to tell
● Great presenters write the story 1st!
● A real story with a beginning, middle and an end.
● Remember: The notes section on PPT is a great place
to write down your story, not on your slides!

ACT 2:
Deliver the Experience

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience by Carmine Gallo from SlideShare

Act 2
● The next 30 hours of the 90 hours is spent BUILDING
THE SLIDES.
● They aren’t just thrown in a PPT template.
● The images and text are selected CAREFULLY. That is
1 hour PER SLIDE!!!

Eliminate clutter;
keep it clean

13 Habits of the House by colemama from foter

Simplicity
1. Use REAL images when possible, not clipart and make
them as big at the slide.
2. Put your text in a box, with a contrasting color, so we can
see it!

Simplicity is the ultimate
sophisticatio–Sntev.e Jobs

– Steve Jobs

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience by Carmine Gallo from SlideShare

Simplicity
● A Steve Jobs presentation is strikingly simple, highly
visual, completely devoid of bullet points
● Instead he uses of BIG IMAGES and limited text

Create Twitter-Like Headlines

Twitter blue logo by Twitter from about.twitter.com

40 Characters per slide
● Experts in PowerPoint say you should aim for 40
characters per slide.
● NOT 40 WORDS, but 40 characters and spaces count!
● AND use 40 point font for all slides

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience by Carmine Gallo from SlideShare

1 idea per slide
● Notice that there is 1 idea on the slide. That’s it.
● That’s the rule: ONLY 1 IDEA PER SLIDE in 40
characters

BIRD

10% 65%

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience by Carmine Gallo from SlideShare

Spoken vs Seen
● If information is presented orally, people remember
about 10% of the content 72 hours later.
● That figure goes up to 65% if you add a picture to your
slide.

B

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience by Carmine Gallo from SlideShare

● According to researchers, your brain interprets every
letter as a picture so wordy slides literally choke your
brain.

● Choking brain=boredom!

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience by Carmine Gallo from SlideShare

● Here is an example of how a BAD presenter would
launch an Apple Laptop.

● They try to squeeze every piece of information onto
one slide –

● along with different font styles, colors, etc. YAWN

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience by Carmine Gallo from SlideShare

● Here is the 1st of Steve Jobs’s slides to introduce the
same Apple laptop.

● What’s the difference? First, no words.
● Why use words when you’re simply trying to show that

the computer is so thin, it fits in an office envelope?

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience by Carmine Gallo from SlideShare

● And here is the 2nd slide. It’s lighter than air.
● Challenge yourself to use fewer words and more

visuals.
● It does take more thought, but you’ll never deliver an

Apple worthy presentation if don’t.

Your font has meaning.

What does this font say?

What about this 1?

Dude check out this font!

Come to a space jam…
Are you serious?

Fonts carry meaning Choose 1 that fits your needs!
– Times is considered safe, boring
– Comic sans is unprofessional/cliché/childish
– Use script fonts and novelty fonts should only be used in
speciality situations.
– Serif fonts more formal/old fashioned.
- Sans serif more modern.

ACT 3:
Refine and Rehearse

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience by Carmine Gallo from SlideShare

The Final 1/3 - The Last 30 hours…
● Remember that 90 hours to build 30 slides? The last 30
hours of that is PRACTICE!

Master Stage Presence

Italian Baroque Mirror by Aleph500Adam from Wikimedia Commons

● You are the most important part of the presentation.
● You can’t have a good presentation without practicing,
● and you should know and understand what you are

going to say.
● And really, your slides should be meaningless without

you explaining them!

Eye contact
Open posture
Hand gestures

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience by Carmine Gallo from SlideShare

● You should not only practice WHAT you will say,
● but how you will say it AND
● how you will act.

○ Eye contact, look at the audience, not the
computer, or your notes or the screen.

○ Open posture, you are inviting, welcoming,
conversational.

○ You are NOT a comedian, this isn’t a routine, it’s a
conversation.

○ Hand gestures - motion to us, to the screen, to
whatever, but practice it!

How you act &
How you say it

=63%

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience by Carmine Gallo from SlideShare

delivery is very important
● Eye contact, open posture and hand gestures are
almost MORE important than the content… why?
● Cisco did studies and found that body language and
vocal tone account for about 63% of communication.
● That confirms other studies that found the majority of
the impression we make has little to do with the actual
words.
● Of course, you can’t improve your body language and
vocal delivery unless you..

Practice

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience by Carmine Gallo from SlideShare

You must practice.

And have fun

Child Laughing by cheriejoyful from Flickr

And have fun.
Because if you aren’t having fun, we aren’t either!