EppsNet Archive: PowerPoint

HW ‘s Presentation Tips: Get to the Fucking Point

by  on 
 

Here’s a simple presentation tip that would help a lot of people: Get to the fucking point. At a meeting this morning, the company sick time policy was explained to 100 people over the course of 30 minutes time via two PowerPoint presentations by two different people. I’ll summarize it here: If you’re well enough to work, you should come to work. If not, stay home. BUT — if you stay home too much, it may negatively affect your annual performance review. That’s the policy. Let’s open it up for questions. Don’t take 15 minutes to say something you can say in 15 seconds. Don’t feel like you have to include a historical introduction to the topic, charts, graphs, trends, industry comparisons. Other people are not in love with the sound of your voice the way you are . . . Read more →

Twitter: 2009-07-23

by  on 
 

RT @KathySierra: Don't learn PPT/Keynote, learn how the brain works. Learn storytelling. Study filmmaking. Apply learning theory. Inspire. # RT @OCWeekly: A very special OC Weekly farewell to Gidget the Taco Bell chihuahua http://tinyurl.com/n6k4mq # Thank God it's Friday! Wait — what? # Read more →

Presentation Zen

by  on 
 

Originally uploaded by Zach Graham. I was watching a webinar this morning and like a lot of presentations, this one had way too many words on the slides. They weren’t as bad as this but you get the idea. This approach is lazy, it’s insulting to the audience, and it makes everyone stupider. For anyone who aspires to do better, the best site I know of on presentations is Presentation Zen. Here are some sample slides for inspiration. Bonus link: The Gettysburg PowerPoint Presentation Read more →

PowerPoint Tips from the Pros

by  on 
 

As part of a presentation I’m putting together on managing software projects, I want to talk a little bit about what not to do and how things can go spectacularly awry. A great recent case study for this is the FBI Virtual Case File system, cancelled last year after spending over $100 million. The original slide I put together (click to enlarge) showed the basic facts of the case illustrated with a photo of a rocket sled crashing into a wall. The heading I put on there — “Another fine mess” — didn’t seem to add anything to the mix, and I couldn’t think of a better one, so I started to think about other ways to lay out the slide. In the second version, I dropped the header, used the rocket sled photo as the background, and overlaid the text on top of it. I think it came out… Read more →

How NOT to Do a PowerPoint Presentation

by  on 
 

Click on the photo to enlarge and feel the full horror. Originally uploaded by Zach Graham. Read more →

10 Best Questions to Ask at the End of a Talk When You Absolutely Have To

by  on The Programmer
 

From Bertrand Meyer: You know the feeling: You’ve accepted to chair a session at a technical conference, you’ve managed to keep the speakers on time, and a talk has just finished. “Any questions?” asks the speaker, met only by stunned silence. It’s your job as Chair to fill in, and you have no idea what to ask. Here, as a service to the community, is the list of the Ten Best Questions To Ask At The End Of A Talk When You Absolutely Have To: 10. When do you come up for tenure? 9. This doesn’t look like PowerPoint. What presentation software are you using? 8. Very interesting theorem you just proved on the last slide. It’s lemma 2 in chapter 1 of my 1977 thesis. 7. I like your accent. Where did you learn English? 6. Who does your hair? 5. On slide 2, what did Lambda stand for?… Read more →