Powerpoint presentation nitpickin' granularity

[shootingstar]

I presented at a meeting an incomplete draft of a short presentation. Colleague and I were looking for feedback from rest of our team.  Colleague himself has a communications background, so he knows about value of brevity and holding audience attention. So he and I never disagreed much on our draft wording.

At meeting:  Even the boss got very nitpickin' and added more verbiage.   Powerpoint bullet point sentences were getting too long.

Honest, it just wasn't worthwhile for me, to remind team on principles of good Powerpoint presentations.

I personally dislike presentations where people nearly write essays or manuals in the slide deck.

[Forum Administrator]

My powerpoint protips:

• If it doesn't fit on a slide using 12 point fonts, then you should use 8 point fonts
• Always say, "I'm not going to waste you time by reading this to you" right before you read the slides
• Use as many different transitions and fonts as you can to keep people interested
• Include typos just to make sure people have to pay extra close attention to what you are presenting

I used to present for a career.... you can trust me.

[Kzoo]

Death by PowerPoint is punishable by up to 25 years in prison.  No time off for good behavior.

[jsharr ★]

7 minutes ago, Forum Administrator said:

My powerpoint protips:

• If it doesn't fit on a slide using 12 point fonts, then you should use 8 point fonts
• Always say, "I'm not going to waste you time by reading this to you" right before you read the slides
• Use as many different transitions and fonts as you can to keep people interested
• Include typos just to make sure people have to pay extra close attention to what you are presenting

I used to present for a career.... you can trust me.

Nominated! @Kzoo

[Kirby]

Nothing says fun like a powerpoint presentation

[Kzoo]

51 minutes ago, jsharr said:

Nominated! @Kzoo

I like Kirby’s better.

[Airehead]

2 hours ago, Forum Administrator said:

My powerpoint protips:

• If it doesn't fit on a slide using 12 point fonts, then you should use 8 point fonts
• Always say, "I'm not going to waste you time by reading this to you" right before you read the slides
• Use as many different transitions and fonts as you can to keep people interested
• Include typos just to make sure people have to pay extra close attention to what you are presenting

I used to present for a career.... you can trust me.

And what is your career now?

[Razors Edge ★]

My question is whether or not this presentation mattered?  If it was a quick & truly informal, "let's just give a quick & dirty overview", then formatting and making it "pretty" don't matter at all.  However, if it is meant to be useful to the audience, then it needs to be aimed at and designed for that audience.  Seemingly, yours was just for existing team members, so they shouldn't have ANY reason to complain (except the boredom in their heads).  

And to save a click on Kirby's link:

Tom

[2Far ★]

12 hours ago, Forum Administrator said:

My powerpoint protips:

• If it doesn't fit on a slide using 12 point fonts, then you should use 8 point fonts
• Always say, "I'm not going to waste you time by reading this to you" right before you read the slides
• Use as many different transitions and fonts as you can to keep people interested
• Include typos just to make sure people have to pay extra close attention to what you are presenting

I used to present for a career.... you can trust me.

And don't forget sounds, lots of different sounds, different sounds for each bullet!

[2Far ★]

I use lots of pictures, frequently pictures of an absurd example of the information I'm trying to convey.

Spot the problem example:

 

[jsharr ★]

Just now, 2Far said:

I use lots of pictures, frequently pictures of an absurd example of the information I'm trying to convey.

Spot the problem example:

 

Well for starters, the margarita machine is empty, duh!

[2Far ★]

1 minute ago, jsharr said:

Well for starters, the margarita machine is empty, duh!

Yeah, I got of off LinkedIn, and my comment was "No Kegerator?"

[Razors Edge ★]

We do a Powerpoint for a monthly status meeting, and it is awful (to me).  My goal with any meeting is pick a well-defined topic, develop an agenda and goals beforehand, invite ONLY necessary people, and then stick to the freaking agenda during the actual 30 minute meeting.  On the other hand, I seem to have a few co-workers who think meetings are a better way to spend a day than doing actual productive work.  

For our monthly meeting, we agreed to "remove" a whole series of slides that I argued were not relevant.  I lost the argument to just delete them outright, so they moved the slides to AFTER the conclusion slides and labeled them as "background" info. The goal would only be too discuss them IF the client wanted a deeper dive.  Anyway, long story short, is that we now get to the conclusion slide, and then CONTINUE into the background slide discussion ?  I may delete them prior to the next meeting and see if anyone notice or complains.

Tom 

[jsharr ★]

6 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

We do a Powerpoint for a monthly status meeting, and it is awful (to me).  My goal with any meeting is pick a well-defined topic, develop an agenda and goals beforehand, invite ONLY necessary people, and then stick to the freaking agenda during the actual 30 minute meeting.  On the other hand, I seem to have a few co-workers who think meetings are a better way to spend a day than doing actual productive work.  

For our monthly meeting, we agreed to "remove" a whole series of slides that I argued were not relevant.  I lost the argument to just delete them outright, so they moved the slides to AFTER the conclusion slides and labeled them as "background" info. The goal would only be too discuss them IF the client wanted a deeper dive.  Anyway, long story short, is that we now get to the conclusion slide, and then CONTINUE into the background slide discussion ?  I may delete them prior to the next meeting and see if anyone notice or complains.

Tom 

[2Far ★]

8 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

 

.  Anyway, long story short, is that we now get to the conclusion slide, and then CONTINUE into the background slide discussion ?  I may delete them prior to the next meeting and see if anyone notice or complains.

Tom 

You can put them in sections & hide the section.

 

[Forum Administrator]

11 hours ago, Airehead said:

And what is your career now?

I got out of the central office and am an elementary school principal. 

[JerrySTL ★]

2 hours ago, 2Far said:

Spot the problem example:

Someone might break the popcorn machine in an emergency.

[jsharr ★]

NSFW

Be ready to fight back when the team offers criticism
 

 

[Indy]

2 hours ago, 2Far said:

I use lots of pictures, frequently pictures of an absurd example of the information I'm trying to convey.

Spot the problem example:

 

WHO THE HELL FORGOT TO MAKE MORE POPCORN???

[jsharr ★]

3 minutes ago, Indy said:

WHO THE HELL FORGOT TO MAKE MORE POPCORN???

The drunk that chugged all the margaritas is my bet

[shootingstar]

I need some wine..there was another Powerpoint presentation that a colleague was crafting.  Bullet point sentences were way too long /detailed.  zzzzzzzzzzzzzz?

Nothing I could say ...I would get creamed/jumped on again.  

[Ralphie ★]

Oh man - you are trapped in PowerPoint Hell!