Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Project 2: How to make a good Power Point

Here is one more:

42 comments:

AlphaBetaParkingLot said...

I rather liked this presentation, it was long, but i feel they really hailed in the idea that a Power Point should be minimalistic. If all the text is there, why bother speaking over it.
Write a minimal amount, and recite the rest as an actual presentation

Unknown said...

ok, this one is my favorite, because even though theres a lot of slides, they're all relevant, and it goes by quickly cause its just easy to read and take in.
I didn't like that it was as long as it was, but still wasn't that bad, honestly I didn't really dislike it a whole lot.
I learned to chill with the power points and not make them insane with info. and unnecessary things that nobody wants to read.

Greggles said...

i liked this presentation, even though it was 128 slides, because all of the concepts were explained very simply. I also liked this presentation because it kept the main points interesting even thouhg it was long.
I didn't like how sometimes it only showed pictures and not words so you had to infer what the pictures were supposed to mean.
I learned that your brain cant use the left and right half of your brain at the same time. I also learned that the short the text the better, and that pictures are good.

Zhanna Glazenburg said...

I didn't like how sometimes it only showed pictures and not words so you had to infer what the pictures were supposed to mean.

Funny: that is exactly what makes it my favorite of the three: not always having text forces you to think. Thus, you can no longer be a passive observer. You have to engage with the presentation. And at the end, isn't that the point of this exercise?

polkadot7 said...

This one is my favorite because it gets to the point of how to make an excellent presentation and why it works without using a paragragh to exaplin it.

The only thing I did not like was that it was very repetitive with the "microsoft word is not powerpoint," but it did get the point across.

I learned that you should limit the amount of information on every slide. Instead of having a ton of information on 5 slides you should split up the information and have 10 or 20 slides.

kingsley said...

1. What did you like? - He got his point across in the least amount of words possible.

2. What didn't you like? - It was rather lengthy in slides.

3. What did you learn from this presentation? - Powerpoint isn't an essay program, and slides should stay informative and short.

Max Power said...

I liked the fact that it was both humorous and got the point across through example. I balked when I saw that I had to read a 130 card slideshow, but it went by really quickly because it rarely had words.

I didn't like some of the repetitive features. Sometimes he would use the same picture/joke to reinforce a point, but it got kind of tiresome.

I learned how to effectively utilize pictures, and how to avoid diagrams and wordy passages- which is what I usually do.

Hannah Rose said...

What I liked about this powerpoint was that it didn't just say what you should do to make your power points better, but each slide was actually made to demonstrate the particular point. Also, like other people have said, it used lots of good pictures and as few words as possible.

There wasn't much I didn't like, except like polkadot said the repetition.

This powerpoint showed that it really doesn't matter how many slides you have or how long it is because sometimes it gets the point across better when it is long.

theglowingbriefcase said...

I agree with the post above. Each slide nicely demonstrated the point it was trying to make. I liked this because it put more emphasis on each point.

I disliked how long the presentation was, even though it went fast, i still felt like i was speeding through it just to finish it.

The presentation taught me not to cram all my information onto one slide

Unknown said...

as far as what the presentation was showing, and the points it made, yeah it was okay - but it was basically common sense, not anything i didn't know. kind of a waste of 5 minutes.

but for a powerpoint, it was good because it went by quickly and still made a lot of points/arguments. i guess the guy knew what he was doing.

Unknown said...

oh, and i learned that less is more. less slides = more attention

John Smith said...

1) What did I like about this presentation?

I really like that you made an effort to show how helpful visuals can be. Having a graph, or a picture, or even a comparison through a chart can really help to lay out the info and make it easier to understand. The repetative nature of some of the slides helps to solidify the info into your brain because hearing something more than once forces you to take in the information youre hearing.

2) What didnt I like about this presentation?

Well, for the most part I liked it all. One thing though is what you said about the size and style of the font. I think that if you don´t overuse it to bring glitz and glamour to the presentation, having different size, color and style of text can help to bring importance to certain words or ideas.

3) What did I learn from this presentation?

I learned that spreading the info out can really help. I used to think that having a lot of info on one slide would help to lay out the information better, but by spreading out the data, it keeps the audience interested and actually learning about what you are saying.

grannysmithapple said...

I liked this powerpoint because it got the message across, from beginning to end. Even though it seemed like the slides would take forever, I zoomed through them rather quickly.

It used minimal amount of bold words that grasped the attention of the reader. It also told you what not to do in a presentation.
The pictures & photos gave variety to the powerpoint.

4|ß3Я† €1|\|$+€!|\| said...

I liked that fact that many of the backounds were engaging significant pictures rather than just some backround color.

There wasnt much that I didn't like, aside from the length, but even that was quite bearable.

I learned that less words and more slides is the way to go, and that pictures and symbols can evoke strong emotions.

peacelove&music said...

I liked this presentation. it was kind of funny. It got the point across about less is more by comparing the cramed slides with light, easy to glance slides. It made more sence visualy.

I didn't really have a problem with it. It got the point across loud and clear...but in a simple way.

Obviously, I learned LESS IS MORE.

ResidentEvilX-Fire said...

this presentation was long but it was pretty good. i like the ones that said basically what not to do, like the don't use too much text. I didnt care too much for the length of the presentation and some of the stuff didnt make sense like the ms word thing and ms powerpoint thing. I learned to use more pictures and less text.

Cheesehead said...

I think the powerpoint got the point across, however it was probably a little too long. I know the whole point is to have as little words as possible, but on some of the pages where there was only one word, i feel like there could have been a combination of slides. However, im not the expert, and i deffiantly am a culpret for cramming a lot onto the slide so this presentation is a great tool to look at while we make a powerpoint.

lez said...

I liked this presentation because it was very simple and got the point across. It actually gave an example of how to make a power point better.

One thing I didn't like was that it was so long.

I learned that you should use pictures to help get the point across and don't put too many words on 1 slide.

Gepppettto said...

1.I liked how for the most part it had more pictures than words. It makes you have a better understanding of what is being explained, without it boring you.
2. I thought this power point was pretty great, my only slight complaint is the length. It was sort of repeatitive because if that fact.
3. I learned that pictures can be more useful than words. And that the less amount of words possible on a slide, while still conveying your point, the better.

Prometheus said...

I liked the presentation, it got the message across very well and I thought it did a good job of making the message quick and succint so that it didn't feel as long as one might imagine it would.

With that in mind, I thought some of the images were reused a bit much(i.e. the powerpoint logo). While I realize there's a point to such repetition I thought it ended up dragging the presentation down.

I learned that it is important to check your spelling, even on powerpoints (see slide 117).

Please raise my grade! said...

What i liked about the powerpoint is the effort to assist us in creating a masterpiece of a project. To make a powerpoint filled with information thats creative and not boring.

What i didnt like was the length i felt that they could have proven the point in fewer slides.

I learned that its not about quanity but about quality, This is not about just reading off the screen but letting the audience know that you are aware of what you are talking about and your not just reading off the powerpoint.

the3rdKind said...

1) This slide show really was able to make me forget how many slides there were. I liked this a lot because I could read everything and understand.

2) One thing that bugged my was at the end, they had a slide as a recap of the powerpoint that was what they said not to do. That annoyed me.

3) I learned that you don't need a slide with 100 words on it. One is fine, as long as you get your point across with that one word. Then it can be great and interesting.

Fergeson said...

1. I like how the presentation was bold and had ingaging visuals. The presentation got its point across very clearly that is mainly what i enjoyed about it, it wasnt just a powerpoint telling you how to make a good powerpoint it show you visually.

2.What is didnt like about it was that it was mostly in black and white. Futhermore some of the visuals didnt really help the presentation they were sort of just there for the sake of having a picture.

3. I learned the correct way to make a powerpoint wich is: Not using to many words, Incorperate visuals, and that not everything that you say has to be written on the screen, Importantly just type the main ideas.

Yoshua said...

-This presentation was my favorite. I thought that it got the point across very well and without overwhelming a viewer. I also like how it was light and humorous and also kind of witty.

- I didn't like that the presentation was so long. I thought that it helped that there were a lot of slides with fewer words on a slide ratehr than many words on a slide, but I still think that they could have made their point with fewer slides.

-I learned that spreading the information out can really help. Before, I assumed that a lot of facts on one slide was the way to do a powerpoint presentation, but it is evident that spreading out the data into many different slieds keeps the audience's attention and one can interact better with the presentation, whihc is the very point of a powerpoint.

Unknown said...

- This Presentation was great. It had a very visual way to tell a person what is good, and what is not. It really shows how boring and wrong some presentations can ( and often) be.

- Other than the fact that I think they ran outta pictures to use, I thought it was well thought out.

- I learned that a well made power point DOES NOT mean Microsoft word text. It has to have a feeling to it, like this one had funny pictures which kept it interesting. This means all powerpoints need an edge to keep them interesting, and not incredibly boring..

chellllllo? said...

1. What did you like? - There were huge pictures, and normally I would think that was too distracting but I realized it actually helps the reader concentrate more.

2. What didn't you like? - There was a bunch of repetitions in the slides. For example, ms word does not equal ms powerpoint.

3. What did you learn from this presentation? - That even if you have over 100 slides, you can still get through it in a few minutes if it is set up right.

Kronos said...

1. I liked this powerpoint because the slides were to the point.
2. I didn't like it because it was way too long.
3. I learned to break up the info that I wanted to present over a series of slides and also to only show necessary and relevant info.

Unknown said...

What I Liked: I liked the humor in it as well as how they systematically showed you how to make a good Power Point.

What I Disliked: I disliked how the slide show was 128 slides long when It could have been half that length. Also, some of the pictures would have made more sense with a caption.

What I Learned: I learned that the golden font aka the best font size in general to use is around a size 30, and I will keep that in mind as we finish up our Power Point. I also learned to keep the slides short and to the point in order to keep the readers attention.

Anonymous said...

i liked this presentation because it was humorous and informitive and totally not hipocritical, as in it was a presentation on how to make a good power point, and it was a good power point. i wonder if that bit of HTML that i just threw down will work.

what didnt i like? sometimes when pictures were used instead of words i didnt quite understand what they were getting at. mainly with the slide of all the boxes.

what did i learn? i learned that it is ok not to have every slide contain lots of facts, but rather, it is better to have less per slide. i feel like i (although i seldom make power points) always think of them sort of like outlines, with each idea on one slide, but i learned that it is more than ok (better) for each idea to get like 20 slides.

hooray!

lilaley said...

I really liked this powerpoint because it truly showed how a picture is worth a thousand words!
I, too, however didn't really like how loing it was. Though each slide was concise and minimalist, there were far too many slides!
Perhaps, though, if one really needs to get all that information across, dispersing the information on many slides as opposed to a few with largfe chunks of information is definitely the way to go. Overall, I think this powerpoint presented itself with the greatest clarity, and was the easiest one to swallow.

b-rad g said...

I really like the fact that they used so many pictures. It kept the presentation interesting and intriguing while also making it easy to learn from

I didnt like the fact that it was so long. Some of the slides i believed were unecessary in getting the main point of the presentation across. Overall no big compliants however.

I learned that it is ok to include a lot of useful information, however it is not necessary to put them all on one slide. It actually makes the presentation easier to learn from and to read if all the information is spread out. It makes it so that you feel that you learn something new each slide.

pl3144 said...

I liked this powerpoint presentation because although it was extremely long it didn't take a long time to go through and was also very informative. I didn't like how they kept saying that microsoft word didn't equal microsoft powerpoint, i got the idea the first time. I learned that less is more in powerpoint presentations and that pictures interest the viewers and can also be very beneficial to the slide.

lalalaa said...

I liked this powerpoint because it went by very quickly and gave helpful tips with humor on how to make a presenation successful. I didn't like how they repeated some things multiple times because its understandable. I learned that people dont remember all of your text on presentations, that it is better if you have less and to mix symbols with data.

Arkansas said...

it kept my attention with good pictures and colorful slides
i liked the layouts of the slides and how they got their point across by using good and bad examples
i learned how to hold the readers attention and to make more slides rather than putting a lot of information on fewer slides

2468 said...

This power point was very helpful because it gave a lot of information in a small amount of words. I liked the pictures and how they stated that it is ok to have a lot of information but it is necessary to use more slides. I also learned that using pictures is another way of teaching information. Also make sure that you check your spelling on all of the slides and using diagrams is not always helpful if you don’t explain.

abc123 said...

I liked the fact that the most important facts were repeated. For example Microsoft Word doesnt not equal Microsoft Power point and that a presentation is a dialogue not a monologue.
I didn't like when they showed random picures like the boxes and the toll booth.
I learned that data, images, and words have to all be blended and spread out throughout the presentation.

TheMoonIsALie said...

I liked the visuals used during this presentation. They did a good job of making me interested in the presentation. It also really helped me remember what was being said.

I thought for some slides, the whole "one word per slide" thing was a bit gratuitous, mainly when with the rhetorical questions that just seemed to makes this more repetitive than helpful.

I learned that a good presentation is really just based on simplicity, and being able to say a lot of information in a very small amount of words -- usually just one or two, plus visuals.

123456789 said...

This was my favorite out of all the projects on how to create a good powerpoint. It was funny and also got the point across. There were a lot of slides, but I was able to go through them quickly, as well as get something out of each one. It made it extremely clear that it is possible to make a good entertaining powerpoint using minimal text on each slide.

earthworm jim said...

I liked the clever quips of the author. His wit is astounding. I'd like to meet the man who can live with themselves after making a power point about what makes bad power points in their spare time. Put the mouse down and go outside and take care of that acne problem. I disliked that it took 20 minutes to load on my slow computer only to find that 90 of the slides had one word on them... Truly engaging and not at all annoying. I learned that anyway you cut it, power points suck, this one sucked just as bad as all the rest only with less words and some strange belief that it was superior to the other garbage the power point program churns out. Oh yeah, and I also learned that less is more, don't talk down to your audience, keep them engaged, don't overwhelm them, blah, blah, blah.

wucha-gona-do-about-it said...

I like this presentation a lot beucase it goes quickly for the most part. All the slides are relevent and it gets the point through. At some points the it takes a long time to get through a couple slides beucase the schools computers suck, but im sure it would be fine at your computer at home. I learned that a lot of slides with little words gets the point across easier than a few slides with a lot of words. People dont read presentation, its suppoes to be presented to you.

BK said...

I liked presenting with visuals
i liked that it was very easy to read the information
i didnt like that there were so many slides
i learned that you dont need to put so much information on slides because people read faster than they talk.

Rowan Manahan said...

Wow!

What amazing feedback. Thank you everyone for your thoughts, comments and votes; I am delighted that the presentation got such a great conversation started in this way.

Couple of points:
1. When presented live (rather than as a stand-alone on SlideShare) this presentation is 51 slides shorter than the 128 used here. In order for it to make sense on SlideShare, I had to drop-in many of the words I speak when presenting it, into 'commentary' slides.

2. Interesting reaction to the repetition approach. Again, this is tricky in a stand-alone piece like this one, being read by educated people like yourselves. When I'm presenting it, I use the repetitive elements like a 'refrain' and frequently the audience does a 'sing along' when I get to those elements. They're laughing, they're talking back to me, they're interacting with and enjoying each other - and the learning outcome goes way up as a result.

3. I try not to make more than 5 learning points in a talk like this. For this one, they were: (1) Maximum contrast (2) No clutter/logos (3)Legible font sizes (4) Bullets prevent learning (5) Images = emotional reaction = learning. My refrain was "Please stop using PowerPoint the same way as you use Word. PowerPoint is not an AutoCue." And my preamble was "Most people have inherited bad habits in PowerPoint for (largely unknown) historical reasons."

What's interesting to me, is that no audience I have ever presented that piece to have ever remembered less than 4 of my 5 learning points and they can all sing the 'refrain' - even years later!

What I have taken from your wonderful feedback is that SlideShare, useful though it is, really sucks most of the value out of a presentation. You are the presentation, not your slides. No matter how glossy and visually appealing your slides may be, the audience is there to hear YOU.

Thanks again for your time and for all of your provocative ideas.

Special thanks also to Zhanna. If you'd like the original presentation, or if I can help with any other materials, please do contact me through my blog; I'd be delighted to assist in any way I can.

Best regards,

Rowan Manahan