PowerPoint™ and similar software packages, such as Freelance™, Corel Draw and Harvard Graphics are now being increasingly used. These software packages are excellent for generating visual information on paper handouts and displays that can be projected onto a screen, PC or TV monitor. Some sophisticated projection systems such as BARCO or Lite-Pro™ allow multi-media as well.
The advantages of PowerPoint™ and similar packages are:
• Low cost of software package however the cost of sophisticated projection systems can be very high, typically £3,000 upwards.
• The ability to change complex visual information at the very last minute in contrast, for example, 35mm slides.
• Portability. You can take a floppy disk to a distant location with all the information on it provided you know that there is a projection system at the far end.
• High standard of display of words, charts, diagrams, clip art and pictures.
• When used with a laptop, it is very simple to control the presentation by using either a remote control or a mouse.
• Excellent for providing high quality handouts of visual aids, including a written commentary with each slide.
However, PowerPoint and similar packages are not being used well by most companies. Typical mistakes that companies make are producing slides that:
• All look exactly the same as any other similar company's presentation.
• Dump information. This both overwhelms and bores the audience.
• Concentrate too much on theatrical ways of producing information that can be distracting, especially when sound is involved.
• Allow the slides to dominate the show instead of being in support of the personality.
• Packages like PowerPoint encourage and seduce the presenter into using far too many word slides.
• People typically tend to prepare their presentation around a PowerPoint package instead of establishing their key points first and then seeing whether visual aids can assist a presentation.
Hints and tips of using computer generated presentations
• Limit the amount of information you want to put over. Make each slide earn its place. Many are tempted to use far too many slides. This means you are dumping more information than an audience can happily absorb. The human eye can pass information back to the brain at least four times as fast as the ear but this means that the brain of the listener has to work much harder! There is a limit to how long audiences will process endless graphs, pie charts and work slides. By contrast relevant pictures or photos are easier to look at.
• Make sure the slides focus on the key points. Key points get lost in a mass of detail.
• Well told case-studies or spoken vivid examples are often much more memorable and entertaining than relying on a deluge of visuals to do the job. Be creative in using vivid example or anecdotes. People remember stories long after the event.
• Presenters who start talking as they put up a new slide risk losing the listener's attention. Use a blank slide to force the audience to concentrate on what you are saying. In particular when you are introducing a complex slide so that they have to visualise in their minds first. Then show it and let them digest the content! Also use blank slides at the start and end.
• Try and limit the number of word slides. Lists of word slides tend to become monotonous and plain dull. Such slides used as an agenda, route map or summary are fine.
• Some information is complex. Using a series of build-up slides is much better than showing it all in one go.
• Presenters often tend to have the slide show running all the time they are speaking. One compromise is to start and finish without any slides at all. A start which tells a story/ case-study or some analogy is more likely to grab an audiences attention. Likewise it may be more effective for the audience to hear you, the presenter, summarise at the end without distraction.
• Use the notes page to remind the speaker what to say and to introduce the next slide. A hand-out version could have a written explanation of the visual such that it could be understood by people who had not attended the presentation.
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