Quick resources for creating better presentations

One of the appealing things about using Powerpoint presentations is also one of the biggest negatives: it is very easy to create basic slides that consist of a title and list of bulletted content. Unfortunately, this approach is part of the problem as text-heavy slides tend to put audiences into a sleep-inducing trance. These basic slides are just one example of how NOT to create presentations, which is captured in a very funny way by this video.

However, there are many ways to improve your Powerpoint slide making skills. I think of this improvement as a combination of conceptually changing how you think about the delivery of content and ideas in a presentation along with necessary steps you need to know within the Powerpoint (or other presentation software such as Keynote and others) program to implement these concepts.

There are a number of bloggers who regularly discuss presentation design. Garr Reynold's Zen Presentation blog is a good one to read along with his book by the same name. Here is a brief 7-minvideo overview of key design concepts he promotes:



I have found his key principles very helpful in changing how I approach my presentations. I now tend to minimize the amount to text, use simple images to convey meaning, and use key points and repetition to try optimize learning.

Next time I will share resources related to the mechanics of using Powerpoint to achieve your goals.

Tim