Earlier in the summer, I conducted a 60-minute webinar for Brainshark, the specialists in online and mobile presentations. It would have been a garden-variety webinar for me—one of several dozen that I do every year—except for one thing:
It was attended by over 700 people!
There is something extraordinary about the silence that you hear through your headset when you know that it is coming from that many listeners. And this group was not shy about asking questions, as we happily drowned in a sea of them, via text message, interactive Q&A, and post-webinar followup. Here is a sampling of those questions and my answers, for your edification and amusement.
Any suggestions about how to capture and preserve the “story” for simplified slides that will be used by other people?
During the webinar, we spoke about how to hone and distill the slide and we spoke about how to use the Notes page to create the printed piece. We did not discuss how to instruct others on these tactics. For that, I like to use text boxes in the slide margins. There, I would include the core message of the slide, tips on how to tell the story, perhaps sequencing instructions, and anything else that a presenter (who didn’t create the slides) might need to know.
I have even gone so far as to create a text placeholder on the layout, in the slide margin, so that the comment box is always there, ready for me. Of course, these text boxes do not show during the slideshow; they are visible only when paging through the slides in Edit mode.
Having a lot of text also seems to force people to read it to their audience. Should you read the content of the slides or just talk with the slides as background?
Let me see how plainly I can put this. Never, ever, ever read your slides! As I said on the call, you become a drone and your audience becomes zombies. There will always be better ways to communicate. Your slides should always be the backdrop, while you should always be the main event.
Can you comment on the need to practice with your presentation and any words of wisdom on how to coach VPs who think they know it all?
Like all good crafts, this one benefits from practice, practice, and more practice. I realize, though, how many people feel foolish practicing a public speech in an empty room, or to two or three people, instead of the 200 or 300 who will be present for the real thing. Do it anyway; the awkwardness definitely fades with experience. I’ve actually practiced in front of my dog before. Eye contact is eye contact, even with different species.
VPs who think they know it all…that’s where we outside consultants come in. We can get away with saying the stuff that you might get fired over. We’re able to say “that’s horrible–never do that,” and the only thing that they can do is fire us one day earlier than our contract would have run out anyway. I am routinely brought in to lower the boom on executives and managers who are otherwise stubborn in their ways.
I struggle with data slides and I try putting the bulk of the data in an appendix. I read about how Steve Jobs set up his presentation and limited each page to no more than three thoughts. Are there any data templates for newbies?
I would visit the Microsoft Office page, where there are lots and lots of templates available for download, including some surprisingly good ones. . Additionally, I am one of probably hundreds of consultants who routinely create templates for organizations. But I’d start first with the free stuff…
After a presentation I am asked for a copy of the presentation. They are often frustrated by the fact that most of my slides do not contain many of the details I discuss in the meeting. Should I just enter all the details onto the slides?
Good, frustrate them. And then refuse to give them your slides! Kidding aside, this gets back to my recommendation that you separate the two tasks of creating visuals and creating handouts. Your slides are for the live presentation and their value after the fact should necessarily be diminished. For afterward, that’s when you create and distribute a PDF of your handout.
How do you address the concern of those who discuss legal issues, that they want to be sure the audience gets the accurate words?
Yes, that is challenging. For that, I would rely on animation:
1. I would place all of the words that you are required to display on the slide.
2. I would also create short subheadings of the main points.
3. During the presentation, I would show just the subheadings first, while I spoke to those points.
4. When I was done speaking, I would then show all of the rest of the verbiage.
The stuff you show could be word-for-word what you said, but when done in this order, it isn’t Death by PowerPoint. Say it first, display it second — that’s what you should do when you feel compelled to do both.
I notice you do not use punctuation with your bullets! Can you talk about that a bit?
Yes i believe that punctuation should be kept to a minimum so as not to confuse the audience who needs all of those extra dots and dashes anyway they just get in the way.
Kidding aside, excess punctuation could compel audience members to get into the cadence of reading something, which could upset the flow and rhythm of the presentation. If you really want someone to stop and then start again (like a question and an answer), that’s the time to punctuate. Otherwise, go naked…!
Any rule of thumb on best layouts which include images/pictures?
My favorite rule of thumb pretty much prevents me from using a firm layout: Make the photo as big as possible! Once done, then you look for areas of low contrast where you could place your (few) words. Sometimes you might have to fabricate low-contrast areas with semi-transparent shapes, like a 30% transparent black rectangle dropped behind the text.
To follow up the question on the leave behind, virtually every organization I have worked for uses slides as a method of retention and email communication. Very often it is expected that the deck stand alone without the presenter being present .
I know that most organizations do this, but it doesn’t make it right and more important, it doesn’t translate to better communication. There are better ways to give someone a brief of a presentation than the slides — if you need to give someone a document, create a document! Damn the expectation — be different. I guarantee you that if you created a leave-behind document that looked different than the slides, that allowed you to provide more detail, that looked and felt like a document, not a set of slides, your recipients would prefer it.
With Notes pages, can you show a small photo of the slide itself?
You sure can. In the default arrangement, the slide thumbnail takes up the top half of the page and your notes consume the bottom half. When you journey into the Notes Master, you can change that: make the text area much bigger, make the slide thumbnail smaller, integrate it with a headline or a caption, align it along the right margin, move it up next to a logo. Or move it off the slide altogether if you decide you don’t want it.
You get to design your handout page, including how you handle the slide thumbnail.
How many slides do you recommend in a one-hour presentation? What is considered overkill?
I resist those kinds of rules of thumb because it is so “defyable” — I could create a 45-minute presentation all on one slide if I were intent on doing so. That said, I would say that after about five minutes, most visuals begin to get tired. With that as a general guideline, that would argue for at least a dozen slides. On the other side of the spectrum, if you got beyond 100, you might make your audience dizzy with all of the transitions, even if they are subtle ones.
So…between 12 and 100…hmm, not very specific, is it? Most presentations are like snowflakes: no two are ever the same. That’s why it’s tough to be anything other than hopelessly vague.
What is a good way to display balance sheets in PowerPoint?
With lots of animation! You don’t want to make your audience drink from the fire hose, and that’s what happens when you display a balance sheet all at once. You want to bring them along gradually. So think of the best way to sequence the data on the sheet and use Animation to dole it out that way.
What if your presentation is being used as a training tool and you are not actually presenting it yourself but having people view it and then discuss it later?
I would have to wonder if the data should be in slide form at all — perhaps it would be better to create a document, that could provide details, examples, case studies, questions, quizzes, and all that good stuff.
You could make the case here that a self-running presentation could do all of those things, and you would be right. The key then would be to include good navigational controls. If you’re not there to give the class — if the slides really are the presentation — then they need to do a better job of hand-holding than they otherwise would have to. Tell the audience when it’s time to move to the next slide, give them clear cues for hyperlinks to more detail, URLs to websites, downloadable videos, etc. Be more like a website.
I’ve done many presentations and have used speaker notes, however my employers dislikes that I use them. How do I avoid having to use notes without feeling lost?
Most people run aground with speaker notes when they make them too verbose. Remember Axiom No. 2? When confronted with complete sentences, you become a drone? The danger is very real when your notes have complete sentences on them. Instead, just use notes as the most basic of roadmaps, so you can remember what the next big topic is to discuss, and so you can do it with just a glance. Then practice telling the meat of your story. When you are unburdened with having to remember the entire arc of the presentation — when your notes help you get from one main point to another — you can focus more on being in the moment and sharing your expertise about the topic.
How do I convince the scientists that I work with that they don’t have to include every detail of their work in their slides? They are so convinced that they are speaking the “truth” and must share it. I’m not sure they will go for the Notes Page/handout
Rome wasn’t built in a day — keep after them! Maybe create a few before-and-after examples, like the ones that I showed. Annoy them, pester them, nag them, noodge them…until they relent and agree to try it once, if even just to get you off of their backs. Then you might hook them for life.
What is the best way to use an infographic in a presentation?
Without seeing it, I can only speculate. But if I had to pick just one strategy to employ, I would harken back to our conversation about animation. Pretty good chance that the reason you are crafting an infographic is to show a complex relationship or system. So too, pretty good chance that sequencing that graphic will promote understanding. Think of the best way to tell the story and create sequencing of the various parts that allow you to tell the story that way.
We use numbered slides in training presentations. Participants can write down the number of the slide when taking notes, and this will be used for future reference. Often using slide numbers is the only way to keep us all on the same slide.
Okay, you got me! During the webinar, I defied you to come up with a reason for displaying slide numbers and you did! Very good — thanks for sharing…
One of the common threads in these questions is the angst created over how to plan for a good handout. Printing the slides and delivering them as a leave-behind is a wholly-deficient and misguided approach to take, even though it is the one employed by about 95% of all people creating presentations today. Here are a couple of excerpts that speak to this issue, from the third edition of what I affectionately refer to as “the PowerPoint Sucks book.”
