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Giving good presentations is not just common sense. Cognitive neuroscientist Stephen M. Kosslyn shows how to make presentations work better based on how our brains work. Where many books focus on how to create a first draft, Better PowerPoint gives you quick steps to improve one you already have. · 8 key rules that are easy to remember and use · Clear principles about how to design effective slides based on well-established scientific data · Quick steps to sharpen and strengthen your presentation · Easy-to-use checklists guide you through each aspect of your presentation · Chapters are structured to help you prioritize the most effective edits · Memorable examples and illustrations to show what works, and what doesn't · Lessons in what to fix can also help you create better first drafts faster. If you have a PowerPoint presentation that is not giving you the results you want, take advantage of what scientific research can tell you about how your audience is seeing and thinking about what you have to say.
[...]...This page intentionally left blank Better PowerPoint ® This page intentionally left blank Chapter 1 The No-Stress Approach PowerPoint Jedi use their skills at PowerPoint to make difficult concepts clear Me, I´m a PowerPoint Sith I use my PowerPoint skills to confuse and obfuscate If my boss doesn´t have a glazed look... bewilderment, then the brief isn´t complete Embrace the dark side —MIKE AITKEN (HTTP://WWW.NBC-LINKS.COM /POWERPOINT. HTML) Many PowerPoint presentations are confusing or even misleading despite their creator´s best efforts My goal is to help you improve those best efforts In this book I assume that you´ve already got a PowerPoint , Keynote®, or other electronic slideshow presentation or are well on your way toward... exactly this claim But I´ve been looking closely at PowerPoint presentations for many years, and my experience was different from theirs So, I decided to do what any scientist would do: conduct a study To study common errors in PowerPoint presentations, my colleagues and I began by using a random sampling technique to download 140 representative PowerPoint presentations; we took these presentations... was committed in 38% of the presentations Worst category: Business presentations, at 81% Better PowerPoint Although being original is generally a good thing, all good things must be tempered; and being original is not good when it confuses your audience members Without question, there´s room for improvement in many PowerPoint presentations In fact, every single presentation we examined included at least... a handout with additional details (to be passed out only at the end of your talk, so the audience members aren´t distracted during it), or – better yet – simply provide a URL to lead the audience members to a website where they can find the details 24 Better PowerPoint 11 Involving the Audience People automatically pay attention to things that are clearly different (Viva la Difference) And there is... groups, or ` `psychological units,´ is that we can immediately absorb only about four of them ´ at a time, which brings us to the third rule, which is demonstrated in the third panel of the comic strip 8 Better PowerPoint 3 Rule of Four: Present four or fewer groups of items at a time If you present more than four groups at any one time, you will tax your audience members´ cognitive abilities, causing them... four groups of concepts at a time By presenting the above and now interrupting the flow, proximity will group the four previous rules into a unit Now let me give you the second set of four rules 10 Better PowerPoint 5 Mr Magoo Rule: Text and graphics must be easily distinguished and recognized Don´t make your audience members feel like the visionchallenged Mr Magoo—viewers of an electronic slideshow... comprehension GET READY TO ROLL UP YOUR SLEEVES AND EDIT To be successful, any presentation must achieve three goals: It must connect with the audience members; focus their attention on what is relevant; 4 Better PowerPoint and lead them to understand and remember what you have to say An electronic slideshow is only an aid to your speech, but a poor slideshow can distract from—or even undermine—your intended... Use your very first slide to define the topic and set the stage for your presentation (Goldilocks) To do so, it can provide a title, your name, your affiliation, and any other vital information 16 Better PowerPoint Another effective opening takes two slides: • First, prepare a graphic that not only defines the topic, but also sets the emotional stage; this slide can greet attendees when they walk... 2.1 When transitioning from an opening graphic (top) to a graphic with introductory text (bottom), ensure that the background of the second slide is very low contrast, to make the text stand out 18 Better PowerPoint FIG 2.2 This slide acknowledges that many people have an overly narrow view of what psychology is and believe that it pertains only to psychotherapy The audience members need to be disabused .