Cam Beck asked me this question the other day in response to my post about your worst public speaking fear coming true : "So how do you know the difference between preparing and over-preparing?" First of all, here's what it looks like to be unprepared . Also, here's a post I wrote about how I prepare for a presentation . I've read lots of articles that say you can never be too prepared, or that it's better to over-prepare. I

In a perfect world, every new presentation would be prepared from scratch, tailored exactly to the specific audience. There are many different styles for designing PowerPoint slides . For basic design principles see PowerPoint slide design - the basics and PowerPoint slide design - adding elegance . But in reality, you sometimes have to cobble together a “new presentation” from pre-existing material. How can you create an effective presentation in the shortest possible time using pre-existing slides from different sources?

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?

How to Change the World A practical blog for impractical people. « A Brief History of Mine | Main | Resolution Assistance » December 30, 2005 The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint I suffer from something called Ménière’s disease—don’t worry, you cannot get it from reading my blog. Before there is an epidemic of Ménière’s

On Monday evening, I ran a PowerPoint Karaoke contest at the Cape Communicators Toastmaster Club. We had about 10 people who were each given a random deck of PowerPoint slides, and they were given about three minutes to present a presentation using their slides. It is a great way to both practise your impromptu speaking skills, and to have some practise with PowerPoint. This is the first one that I have ran, and it was a fantastic evening! It was all in good fun, and we had some very interesting takes on the topics.

Yesterday, I reported on the results of an experiment into the impact of Powerpoint custom animation on learning . incrementally introducing information on PowerPoint slides via custom animation decreases student learning over having all information shown on the slide at the same time. Two screencasts were prepared - one animated and one non-animated. I’ve now been given permission by the authors (Dr Stephen Mahar and colleagues) to publish samples of the screencasts used in the research. Summary of the experiment

It is imperative that presenters get training on the basics of communicating a clear message and presentation skills in order to understand that PowerPoint should just be a tool to support their message, not the message itself. Presenters not being prepared The second most commented area was presenters who were not prepared either on the topic or the slides. When you fumble through what is on each slide, you say to the audience that they are not important enough for you to have spent even thirty minutes preparing for this presentation. I’ve already reported on what audiences find most annoying based on the survey completed by 548 people.

The PowerPoint Revolution continues! don’t believe that there is anything inherently wrong with PowerPoint, but it has undoubtedly become the software program everyone loves to hate.   For instance, American-born statistician and Yale Professor Edward Tufte wrote a popular essay denouncing PowerPoint’s ability to provide quality analytics. Every few months another contender appears in the marketplace, attempting to poke a hole in the thick skin of the 800 lb slideware-gorilla that dominates meeting rooms across the globe. I

Is it possible to be prepared and still be spontaneous? I'll share my method of preparation just as an example. Each of us has our own method for preparing and practicing, so I'm not saying you should do what I do. If I'm lucky, I get to research my audience in advance and can start my preparations already knowing something about what their needs are. I've heard many speakers say that they create their presentation at the last minute, don't practice, and basically wing it , all because they don't want to lose spontaneity. They're afraid that if they practice,

During the last month I have seen some seriously challenged PowerPoint Slide decks. But I’ve recently noticed there are still pockets of stubborn “old school” PowerPoint users who simply refuse to change. Most people know what a poorly constructed and staged PowerPoint presentation can be. Part 1: The Seven Deadly Sins   For a while there things were looking up in Silicon Valley; people were using more pictures, less text, more color, and congruent graphs.