Many of you have probably heard of a variety of “methods” to creating a PowerPoint presentation.  There are certainly some methods that are ineffective (in my opinion), but there are aspects of presentation design where there is simply no right answer. The bigger the better in my opinion, but as long as it’s legible by everyone in the audience, use the size that fits your style.   Giving my own opinion of what I (personally) think is the best method(s) to design presentations I’ve often been asked, “What’s the best method?”  Along those same lines I also hear, “How many

Working in PowerPoint every day, we’ve learned a few tricks. So when Microsoft asked us to use latest version of PowerPoint to create a cinematic presentation , we couldn’t wait to show off our skills. (Our We used PowerPoint 2010–and only PowerPoint 2010–to create a short trailer sharing “5 Rules for Creating Great Presentations.” When if comes to software, bells and whistles are great! If you don’t know how to use them.

There’s been a tremendous amount of interest in them, but as they were designed to complement Chris’s talk – they only tell half the story. Chris tested the effects of using two different types of PowerPoint slides in a presentation. Design your slides so that they can be processed quickly by the visual cortex, allowing the language areas to focus on what you’re saying. At last, we have some scientifically rigorous evidence to show that slides full of bullet-points don’t work. The research is the work of Chris Atherton , a cognitive psychologist.

"What would you like to see in PowerPoint design in 2009?" That's what Olivia Mitchell, who writes the fantastic Speaking About Presenting blog, asked me last month. Lots of great ideas!) My PowerPoint design wishes for 2009? The look and feel of social media techniques will transition into PowerPoint design. Presentations will be designed with audience Now, Olivia didn't ask just me: she also acted as community organizer, posing the question to a plethora of presentation bloggers. She asked us to write one post on this topic.

This is Your Brain on PowerPoint.  When it comes to experiencing a PowerPoint presentation, there's only so much your brain can process. We're seeing more PowerPoint slides with simple images and minimal words. The current PowerPoint design fashion vogue is overly simplistic, and panders almost completely to the right side of the brain. Our brains have 2 lobes. Loosely speaking, the left handles data, facts, and analysis.

Yes, you can design a PowerPoint presentation without using PowerPoint. With speedy internet access, you can design a presentation "in the cloud". What are Presentation Design Cloud Apps? When you access any of these three (currently free) online apps, you can design a presentation "in the cloud". (That's And you don't need Keynote or OpenOffice, either. Think Google Docs Presentations .

There’s a revolution in the design of PowerPoint slides, but not the delivery. Here are five methods that will make the delivery of your PowerPoint presentation stand out. This works best with a PowerPoint slide with a plain background with your message written on it in a clear font in a large point size. Most speakers still rely on their slides to cue them. They click, they talk, click, talk, click, talk…

You’ve read Presentation Zen and Slideology and you’re convinced about the benefits of using visually-engaging PowerPoint slides when you present. Suggest that they also have hard-copy notes (which is a useful back-up for technology failure anyway) and that they gradually transition from using their Powerpoint slides as their notes to using their hard-copy notes. After weaning themselves off their But everyone else in your organization stubbornly sticks to the bullet-point slides. How can you persuade them to change their minds?

Charts and graphs My recommendation is not to import these directly from Excel into PowerPoint. Create your chart in PowerPoint and only include the numbers which are required to make your point. Rethinking the design of presentation slides She calls it the Tell ‘n’ It’s called the Assertion-Evidence Format and it was developed by Professor Michael Alley (I’ve mentioned it previously but somehow never devoted a whole post to it). BTW, if you’ve downloaded and read my Presentation Planning Guide , you’ll see that this slide format

With all the recent emphasis on the design of your PowerPoints (Keynote for the Mac), it's time to revisit the fact that your visuals are NOT your presentation. think that the emphasis on PowerPoints (we'll call them PP for brevity) is because 2008 WAS a great year for great design with the publication of Garr Reynolds' book "Presentation Zen" and Nancy Duarte's "slide:ology" (both still best sellers on Amazon.) You and your Point of View are the centerpiece. I