Learn to create better quality visual presentations using powerpoint Neil Mason OM Portugal www.jabinonline.com
course contents INTRODUCTION — Even some "experts" can have a bad powerpoint day! Powerpoint is not your presentation, and your presentation is not powerpoint! Powerpoint is merely a tool to help you communicate what you want to say to your audience using visuals that will make your message clearer. Unfortunately, powerpoint has become a CONTENT PROJECTING tool in many cases. Used in schools, universities and churches to project massive amounts of material — an bore the brains out of the audience/congregation. This course is designed to make you THINK about what you want to present, and learn to present it more effectively to HELP your message get across. If you have questions — email me. neil.mason@om.org
Have a look at a couple of powerpoint presentations by some TOP executives from the IT world. Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs. What do you think is wrong with Bill Gates' presentations? Why do Steve Jobs' presentations work so well?
Bill Gates (Microsoft, Inc.)
Compare with:
Steve Jobs (Apple, Inc.)
Which presentation would YOU prefer to make and give? As we work through the 7 modules of the course, you will be able to analyze the problems of bad powerpoint design, and begin to make good choices in the presentations you make for yourself.
The course is divided into 7 basic module. | colour | contrast | typography | images | | effects and transitions | content | planning | You can work on them one after the other, or jump from one to another as you wish.
Definition of Terms: · Powerpoint™ Microsoft Office slideware programme. Part of MS Office™ suite. · powerpoint [small "p"] Generic term for any presentation or presentation software [slideware]
Colour — [color, US English] Don't you just love a bit of colour in your presentation? There's a lot to learn about using colour effectively. Here we will look at a few tips and tricks to get started. * Different people see different things Resource * Somewhere over the rainbow Resource * Webpage about Colour Theory file * Assignment
Different People See Different Things Some people are colour blind. That means that they don't see all colours in the same way. There are different types of colour blindness. Look at the picture of the traffic lights. Can you see the three colours on the left? Red, amber and green. The picture on the right just shows 3 tones of yellow!
Different projectors will also mess with your slides. This will depend on the light in the room, the quality of the projector and other factors. Be careful! If you can — try out your room and projector well in advance.
Somewhere Over the Rainbow Compare the two graphs below.
Sometimes a chart will look better with fewer colours. There is no need for the red arrow. It is obvious which direction the numbers are going. In fact, there is also no real need for the bars to be different shades as the item being compared is the same in all of them … this means that the only piece of information relevant is the GROWTH and nothing else.
Webpage — Theory of Colour http://www.colormatters.com/colortheory.html
Assignment Keep your eyes open in the street; and pay attention to what you read in magazines. Can you find good and bad examples of how colour is used in advertising? Can you see things that could even make good powerpoint slides? Why not copy some ideas into powerpoint to see what you can do? ——————————————— You do not need to submit this assignment. It is for your own meditation and thinking. However, if you would like some feedback, please feel free to email me: neil.mason@om.org
contrast Contrast in many ways is connected to colour. Many of the problems which occur in powerpoint presentations are problems of colour choices which do not take contrast into consideration. * Problem colour choices * Choosing the right background * Using an image as a background * Projectors and room conditions
Problem Colour Choices Contrast problems can be caused by bad colour choices. The goal is to make things easy to read! Look at the image below. Some of the colours may look great on the screen of your computer — but when they are projectedthey may be difficult to read because of the lack of good contrast. The best contrast here is the white text on the black background!
Choosing the Right Background How much time do you spend looking for a template with a nice background? Having the right background for your presentation can be very important. There are many colours, designs and templates to choose from. However, many backgrounds and templates create more problems for you. Most of us do not know which colour elements to choose. How can we ensure that our objects, boxes, graphs, text, pictures and so on will work with the colour of the background? Not only will this lead to colour clashes — but can also create problems with contrast.
Look at the picture: How do the green, yellow and red work with the shades of blue in the slide template? The information on the slides is not clear because the contrast between the information and the background "noise" is too great. All of this information would have worked better on a single colour background such as BLACK or WHITE … The information on the slide should be clearly legible. The background does not need to communicate anything. Practise using plain backgrounds.
Using an Image as a Background In the section about images, we will look further at using images as backgrounds. Look at the two slides below and see which one looks best:
Although there is nothing wrong with either of these slides … what we are looking at here is the text — and the CONTRAST needed to be visible to our audience. In slide one, the white text works on the blue background. In slide two, a semi-transparent box has been placed behind the text to create sufficient contrast between text and image.
Projectors and Room Conditions The biggest influences on your contrast will be the projector, and the room's conditions (dark or light) The Projector There's nothing worse than getting to a meeting or setting up in a church only to find that the projector quality is not good enough to show your slides. The Room A room with sunlight coming in through windows — or a room with blinds which block out the light? Some rooms have lights at the front — but they can sometimes be turned off. Whatever the case, you will need to think and plan ahead to be able to handle these situations. Now what? 1. Make sure that when you first make your slides you have designed them with the best contrast possible. 2. Try your slides well in advance — days before, or at least some hours before, if possible — At least you might have some chance to make some changes! Or play make alterations to the projector or to the room. 3. If at all possible take your own projector. If you are lucky, you might get to use an LCD screen. These are great for a smaller audience and you will have no problems with the contrast of your slides.
Typography — Knowing which font to use and which ones not to use. Which fonts will work together and which ones will not. Typography — we will look at a few simple concepts — but you would do well to study more about this topic if you really want to create beautiful slides. * Serif & Sans Serif * Font choices * Please NEVER … * Size matters * Font colours * Example from church * Assignment
Serif & Sans Serif There are different types of letters. Probably the two main categories you need to know about are serif and sans serif fonts. Serif Serif fonts are fonts like:
TIMES NEW ROMAN
GEORGIA
Sans Serif Fonts like ARIAL
VERDANA
HELVETICA
do not have serifs.
It is useful to know a little about typography as this will help you to make some interesting design choices in your presentations — which we will see later. Check out these online resources on the basics of typography: 1. Five Basic Rules on Typography! ! http://www.wiu.edu/art/courses/handouts/type.htm 2. Brief Introduction to Typography " http://www.eioba.com/a18607/5_basic_rules_on_typography
Font choices As a general rule, it is best to use a maximum of TWO, at some times THREE fonts. If you use two fonts, it is probably a good idea to use contrasting fonts. For example, you can use a serif and a sans serif font to complement each other by creating an interesting contrast. Don't use two different serif fonts — they do not create a strong enough contrast. The same is true for sans serif. If the fonts are similar — they will not work very well together — this creates a conflict rather than a contrast.
Conflicts = bad /
contrasts = good.
You can play a bit with fonts. Creating good effects by using fonts which work well together. Some fonts come in families that work well together. Bold, regular, condensed, light, light condensed, bold condensed, italic, caption and many more options. You can make a good impression with just very few options. Sometimes it is best to keep to few options and use them well; than too many and just make a mess.
"
Example of a good contrast
"
Example of a good contrasts using 2 font families.
Please NEVER … NEVER NEVER NEVER … Comic Sans Script was designs in the 1980s to be used in a computer game for children. It was designed to be informal and child-like. However, for some unknown reason which defies logic — this font has become one of the most widely used fonts ever. You can see it used to write signs, in shop windows, in CVs (oh yes, believe me, I've seen many!) I guess the main problem here is its over-use has been mostly inappropriate — used for formal purposes like class assignments (even at University)! The best advice I can give is to COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY AVOID using this font. You will make the world a much better place! Well, at least keep it to the young kids' class of Sunday School, at least! (Now … if only we could get people to stop using socks with their sandals!)
Size Matters Make sure that what you write can be seen from the back of the room! Quite often people want to put a lot of content into their slides. To do so means that they need to make the type small. This creates a problem, especially for people sitting further away from the screen! Make sure your slides can be read from far away.
Font Colours The same lessons apply from the section about colour and contrast with text. Here we take it a step further. When we use text, especially with images on the page, or a background whichis an image — it is important that the colour of the text be coherent (relates to) the rest of the page. In the example below you can see that the colour of the text matches the colour around the billboard, and does not "clash" with the colour of the sky. Other options would work — it is simply a case of experimenting to see what will work — and whether you get the correct CONTRAST as well.
An Example from Church Here's a good example for us to look at. Check out this advertisement from a church in the USA. Notice how the main text stands out nicely — huge and bold. This is how the advertisement catches your attention: big text, bold font, great contrast. The text giving more detail is in the same colour as part of the graphic on the left. This gives the overall feel of cohesion to the design. Next time you have to design a slide to advertise an event — think of these ideas.
FONT DISASTERS When you design your presentation, the fonts you choose to work with will work on YOUR computer. However, as soon as you put your presentation on someone elses computer, crazy things can happen!
[The slide on the left was designed using a font on my computer. However, when I put it on another computer, these fonts are changed into something else — a font disaster ]
Adivce: If you are going to use someone else's computer. 1. use common fonts — there's no reason why you can't do a good job with Arial or Times New Roman with the concepts we are learning here. 2. make text boxes into images (this needs some technical skills — but is simple enough if you know how — use photoshop, for example). Test your presentation BEFORE you give it, if you are not using your own computer. Better still … even if there is another computer provided — USE YOUR OWN!!!!!
ASSIGNMENT (not for assessment) Keep your eyes open in the street; when you are walking around town or driving anywhere. Look around you at the way advertisers use typography — the size of their fonts. Can you identify serif and non-serif fonts? How is colour used? Can you see examples of contrast used with fonts in advertising (you can also look in magazines and newspapers, or even on TV). What are the best and worst example you can see? Are there lessons you can use in your powerpoint presentations? You do not need to submit this assignment. It is for your own meditation and thinking. However, if you would like feedback, please feel free to email me: neil.mason@om.org
course contents An image is worth a thousand words. The problem is that most powerpoint presentations seem to prefer 1000 words and some bad pictures! We will look at how to choose good images, where to get them from, and how to use them better ‌ together with text. * Introduction * Where to get pictures * Picture Perfect * Picture NOT so perfect! * The Rule of Thirds * Assignment
INTRODUCTION We have now learnt how colour and contrast work with images. We have also been introduced briefly to the issue of typography in relation to images. In this section we will learn a little more about using images to communicate a message; and also about what images we can use (legally) ‌ and what things to avoid. Let's see how this impacts our presentations in future...
Where to get pictures There are plenty of places to get good images. First let's look at a few places where you can start to look. You have to be careful about the use of images in your presentations. It is quite easy to get in trouble.
Throughout the modules there are a number of pictures which I have used — some were taken from Google Images. This is probably not much of a problem here as this course is on a closed system and is not reselling any pictures which belong to other people. The pictures are also not of people. Copyright If you do not have permission to use images, you should not do so in a public place; and most certainly never for financial gain! OM Image Bank For communicating OM information to churches you can use images that you find on CALEB. Stock Exchange www.sxc.hu You can find many "royalty free" images here. This is a great site for finding pictures to use for non-commercial publication. Check the specific license agreements with individual members. You can also upload and share your own pictures here. images.google.com Be very careful about using images from Google … they are not automatically free of copyright. If you are presenting to smaller groups and not publishing the material more widely — you can find images here. flickr.com It is possible to use many images from flickr. However, remember that images belong to other people and you should not widely distribute your publication unless you have permission. Check individual copyright license agreements for the pictures you choose. YOU! Use your own pictures … especially if you are talking to a church about the oureach you were involved in over the summer; or about a place you visited. Make sure they are good enough quality for use in a presentation!
Picture Perfect Working with the size of your pictures. If you have a picture you took wiith your digital camera, and the image is 3 MB, imagine that you use 10 of them; then your file will be 30 MB … or larger! Too Big? If your images are too big, your file will be huge. You need to get the resolution down to 800x600 (most projectors still have this as their maximum). Check what you are working with. If you usually use the same projector which has different options, you can adapt your slides to the projector you use. Too Small? If your images are too small, they will look very bad when you project them. Don't stretch low resolution pictures … it just looks terrible.
The image on the right is "pixelated" — it's just too small to stretch. Avoid this! Microsoft Adive Microsoft has some information about working with images. — Reduce the file size of your powerpoint presentation http://tinyurl.com/images-size-ppt
— What size images should you use with powerpoint? http://tinyurl.com/images2-size-ppt
Picture not so perfect Here is some more simple picture advice. ClipArt Remember clip art? What? You still use it??? In the 1980s and 1990s clipart was new and exciting. You could easily find some little cartoonish picture to paste into your documents and presentations. Nowadays, clipart is considered as "not cool" … The problem with the artwork in this slide is the white around the clipart, which just looks terrible and unprofessional.
It is possible to improve the design by implementing rules (rule of thirds, good test size, nothing flying in from anywhere) … But still … maybe something kept only for kids' Sunday School?
The Rule of Thirds Ok — you have the right sized picture, you have good contrast … There are other things to learn about pictures and slides. The "Rule of Thirds"
A good quality picture as a background, using the rule of thirds, then placing text in the correct place according to the same rule … is such an easy way to create great slides. Notice also that the colour of the text usually matches something in the picture; or in case of the white text — in the second picture — it is a complete contrast to the other colours in the slide. Here is a good explanation of how the "rule" works — !
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds
Assignment This is a simple assignment, but can make a HUGE difference to the way that you look at the world … and the way that you design your presentations. The rule of thirds has been used for years on TV and in movies.
Next time you watch … take notice. Imagine the lines on the screen and see how the composition of the scenes has been made.
You can also see how the rule is used when you look at magazine pictures, billboards and advertising. Notice everything around you and see how designers work. Can you adopt some of these techniques into your powerpoint presentations? —————————————————— You do not need to submit this assignment. It is for your own meditation and thinking. However, if you would like feedback, please feel free to email me: neil.mason@om.org
!
Transitions & Effects — Powerpoint has dozens of special effects to animate your slides — but just because you CAN put in effects, that does not mean that you SHOULD! Let us now look at how to use effects · effectively! * Effects and transitions * Animations in your slides * Animations between
INTRODUCTION Just because your car CAN go at 180 miles per hour, that doesn't mean that you SHOULD go that fast! Just because Powerpoint™ has loads of different kinds of special effects and page transitions, that doesn't mean that we should use them all! And certainly not all in the same presentation! Watch the video and see how effects can ruin your presentation. http://www.youtube.com/v/lpvgfmEU2Ck Or — http://tinyurl.com/module5-0
Animations in your slides Learn to use effects … effectively! The previous video makes fun of people's exaggerations — but there is a lot of truth in what the speaker talks about. People tend to use a lot of effects to decorate their presentations. To be quite honest — no-one is impressed with spinning and flashing words flying in from all directions! Use effects when you need to use them.
Look at the slideshow on the right. The first slide makes use of a typical effect common in many presentations. In the second slideshow, the objects move in from the sides in tabs, creating a more visually pleasing animation — which is also much smoother. http://www.slideboom.com/player/player.swf? id_resource=253992 Or — http://tinyurl.com/module5-1
It is possible to create amazing animations — but animations need to be used for a REASON, not just to make things "look pretty". If they help communicate the message — yes — if not, then — NO! More advanced skills in working with powerpoint will enable you to create scenes and stories like this one completely created with MS Powerpoint™ 2010. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT9GGmundag Or — http://tinyurl.com/module5-2
Animations between slides Learn to connect slides together to create simple scenes. It is possible to create an interesting way to communicate by joining a group of slides together to create a scene. Two or more slides can be joined to create coherence. Join two slides when a quote has two parts! Look at the examples below. http://www.slideboom.com/player/player.swf? id_resource=253998 Or — http://tinyurl.com/module5-3
Create movement between items which joins them rather than looking at each one as being totally separate. The white line joins the slides together as they move and takes the eye to the text. http://www.slideboom.com/player/player.swf? id_resource=253994 Or — http://tinyurl.com/module5-4
Content — How much content is appropriate in a slide? What about handouts? How do we put it all together? * Appropriate content for each slide ! * Technical information and data " * Low content — high impact * When should I use handouts?
Appropriate content for each slide It is important that you know how much information to put on your slides. Learn about what is appropriate in terms of the quantity of your content. Many people make the mistake of putting everything on their slides that they are going to say in their presentation! Then they just read it directly from the screen. This is sooooooooooo boring! It's one of the main forms of "Death by Powerpoint!" Reading from your slides is one of the best ways to get everyone to fall asleep … or worse, get up and walk out. If you do this in a church — you will probably never be invited back to speak! The only time you can (probably) get away with doing this, is if you have written the Bible verse on your slides — this would be fine, as some people also prefer to read along when someone is reading from the Bible. If you have an important quote, it can also be a useful thing to have it written down. Especially if it is accompanied by a picture of the person or book from which you are quoting.
Technical information and data Showing more technical [or financial] information in slides can be a challenge. Very often such information can be difficult to see from a distance and can be quite boring to show. Technical Stuff You will have to decide exactly which information is important to show on a slide; and what information is too detailed and will need to be given out in a handout [there will be some information on handouts later]. If you remember back to what we looked at in FONTS, and CONTRAST, and COLOUR, there are concepts that can be put into practice for displaying more complex technical information. Look at these slides by Garr Reynolds (author of PresentationZen Design — ). Look specifically at some of the slides with technical information and how this has been dealt with using the concepts discussed here in earlier modules.
URL: http://goo.gl/61Gis
Low content — high impact Keeping content to a minimum quantity but maximum quality Slides with smaller amounts of text will very often have much greater impact on an audience. Let's say for example that you have a slide with various points you want to talk about. OMs 10 KFA (Key Focus Areas) is a good example. http://tinyurl.com/content6-1
In the examples above, content has been displayed as 10 bullet-points. Although this may be appropriate in some settings, there are better ways to introduce topics which are being talked about. Imagine a presentation in which the second option is used — and between the main KFA topics, there are pictures presented of each of the Key Focus Areas! The impact of such simple text creates a bigger impact — even with minimal information on the slide
When should I use handouts? Sometimes there is just too much detailed information … Our presentations can be divided into 3 distinct parts. – THE SLIDESHOW This is the part that your AUDIENCE sees when you are speaking / presenting. The slides are visual helps that complement your "talk". They help the audience to "keep track" and "stay interested" in what you are saying. – THE PRESENTER NOTES The notes that you use to remember what you want to say: · these can be written notes (be careful not to read out your text!) · they may be small cards that you hold in your hand which outline the main topics of your presentation · the notes may be your computer screen which shows you what you want to say, and maybe even what is on the next slide. Whatever kind of notes you prefer is up to you — but you should not put all your content on your SLIDESHOW … or there would really be no reason for you to be there … your audience could just read what you want to say. – THE HANDOUTS It is often appropriate to have something to give to your audience at some point. It is generally not a good idea to give your topic notes at the beginning, unless you have some kind of exercise to complete as you are speaking. If you have very detailed information which it is important for everyone to see clearly — this information may be better in a handout than in a slide. If it is a graph with financial information, paper is generally the better option. However, some graphs and information can be displayed simultaneously and explained while people refer to their paper notes.
Planning — This is the stage which is most easily forgotten. Don't just sit in front of the computer and write your slides. Some ideas of how to plan — this can be more fun than you might think! * Plan "analogically" * Use the light table * Practice
Plan "analogically" This is the real beginning … even though it's at the end of the course. Think for a moment about HOW you plan your presentations. Do you sit in front of the computer with Powerpoint™ and start writing directly into your slides? Do you take information from Word™ and place it directly into slides? Well … STOP for the moment — and get a piece of paper and a pen/pencil. Learn to plan analogically. Planning analogically simply means using paper and pencil first — before you go to the stage of opening your presentation software (check the list of presentation software in the resource section). I normally write notes on a piece of paper and then stick post-it notes onto the wall with my ideas. That way I can move them around or replace them if needed. Another useful method to plan analogically is to use a "story board". A story board is simply a sheet of paper with squares in which you can plan your sStoryboardcenes. You can start by writing actual notes into a story board, then progress to designing your slides in the boxes. If you need a template … you can make one — or just draw lines onto a sheet of paper.
By working this way, you can decide exactly how many slides you will need right from the beginning. Later you may want to develop slides into scenes — you can do whatever works best for you.
Use the light table The slide sorter / light table view. This view allows you to check through your presentation to see what the slides look like. Checklist * Are they cohesive? (Have you used the same colours and design all the way through?) * Are they in the correct order? * Is there too much information on any of them? * Are there too many slides? * Do I need MORE slides? * etc. This is the point where you can get a general overview and see what changes may be necessary.
Practice Anything and everything that you know how to do — has taken practice. Walking, talking … everything! Making better decisions about the design in your powerpoints takes practice … and also giving your presentation within the time limit — also takes practice! You don't have to write your "speech" and then give it exactly like you wrote it — but you DO need to make sure that what you say matches the time you spend on each slide — and that you don't talk too long (or too short). Other advice in the area of presenting and practice falls outside the domain of this course — which concentrates mostly on presentation DESIGN — but you will need to work on a number of different areas to improve all round. 1. General Presentation Skills — public speaking, cultural appropriateness — especially when using humour. What works in Britain might not work in America; what works in the US may not work quite so well in the Middle East or Asia! 2. Technical Skills — how to use the equipment: projector, remote controls, computers, having a backup to your presentation!! Don't rely on always having an expert. Especially when you are not using your own equipment. 3. Back up plan — have a back up plan! What if the projector doesn't work? What if there are computer problems? What if the electricity turns off? What if the computer you use cannot read your powerpoint? These are questions which you might need to consider — and have a plan to tackle. Have something always prepared that you do not need any visuals for at all. Some of the best presentations have no powerpoints at all!
!
Check out this one by Sir Ken Robinson. http://sirkenrobinson.com/skr
RESOURCES — Hopefully going through this course will: !
1. Give you an idea of what is good / bad powerpoint
!
2. Point you in the right direction to start creating your own great presentations
!
3. Show you some of the tools you need to be able to learn on your own
It will take you some time and effort — but the end result will be worth it.There are many excellent resources which will help you take things further. There are videos you can watch; books you can buy; and of course there are plenty of website for you to learn from … below are some to start you on your journey.
" " " " "
* Video * Book * Web * Slideware * Final notes
“
“
And I wish you "Great Presentations!"
Simplicity is not Easy
# Video Check out these videos … Nancy Duarte's company designed Al Gore's slideshow "An Inconvenient Truth". In this video she presents her first book "Slide:ology". http://tinyurl.com/video-nancy-duarte
Nancy Duarte's company was contracted by Microsoft to show what Powerpoint™ is capable of. This video is available in the original slideshow as part of MS Office 2011™. You can watch the presentation here, and if you have MS Office 2011™, you can see how it was made! http://tinyurl.com/video-newppt
Garr Reynolds is author of the books "Presentation Zen" and "PresentationZen Design". http://tinyurl.com/video-gar-reynolds
# Book Here is a list of further resources and reading. Presentation Zen Design Garr Reynolds If you could only buy ONE book … this is the one! A MUST! Ask someone to give it to you on your birthday, or at Christmas!
Slide:ology Nancy Duarte, Duarte Inc. Is the company which designed Al Gore's presentation "An Inconvenient Truth" — a film about a powerpoint presentation and it won an Oscar!?! This book is for a more advanced level of work. If you are interested in really taking things further — this is a good buy! Clear and to the Point
—8 psychological principles for compelling powerpoint,
Stephen M. Kosslyn [professor of psychology, University of Harvard.] This book talks about WHY certain things work and how our brains work. It will explain why what we have studied in these modules is not only a design issue to make things just "look pretty" — there are scientific reasons why they are important. The Non-Designers Presentation Book Robin Williams Another great book by this author is "The Mac is not a Typewrite" or "The PC is not a Typewriter". A good place if you want to develop your visual communication skills generally. The author is a graphic designer and teacher of graphic design. Another great book is “The Mac is not a Typewriter” or “The PC is not a Typewriter”. Highly recommended.
# Web Here is a list of resources from the internet. Links "
* Presentation Design Blog — Garr Reynolds http://www.presentationzen.com * Ethos 3 (presentation design agency) — Scott Schwertly
!
http://www.ethos3.com * Duarte Design — Nancy Duarte
!
http://www.duartedesign.com! * Slide:ology — Nancy Duarte
!
http://blog.duarte.com * Design Principles and Elements — wikipedia
!
http://tinyurl.com/resources1-1
Check out some of Garr Reynold's slides. There is a nice little section with some "before & after" pictures.
http://www.slideshare.net/garr/sample-slides-by-garr-reynolds
# Slideware There are a number of different slideware packages you can use. MS Office MS OfficeBy far the most widely used presentation software package is Microsoft's Powerpoint™. But there are other excellent options which can be considered if you don't have MS Office installed on your computer.
Open Office Open OfficeConsider OPEN OFFICE with it's slideware package called "Impress". This programme is very similar to Powerpoint, and can make a perfectly excellent presentations. You will discover that the best tool for making an effective presentation is YOU!
iWork iWorkIf you own a MAC — you may have Keynote™ — part of the iWorks suite. Keynote is extremely easy to use and can help you make some wonderful looking presentations. Of course — if yo haven't learned yet how to make wonderful looking slides, the best programme in the world isn't going to do the job for you! Keynote™ will open MS PPT presentations, and will also save in a number of different formats. — QuickTime, PPT, PDF, IMAGES, HTML, iPOD
Free Online Tools Google Docs (http://tinyurl.com/google-docs-prezo) can create a great looking presentation if you know how. Google Docs Google Docs can do an amazing job. You can upload presentations from MS Powerpoint™ directly, or you can save Google presentations as Powerpoint compatible files. Try it out. Once you get the hang of it — it's easy. AND IT'S FREE!
Other Free Online Tools ShareSlideshare.net and Slideboom.com are two sites worth a visit. These are sites where you can upload your presentations to be seen online — kind of like Youtube — but for presentations.
FINAL BITS AND PIECES There are many many more things to learn about creating great presentations. This course will — hopefully — start you off on becoming a better presenter. In years to come you may find that great presentation is about great communication — with great communication we move people to action. If you stay in missions, you will want to communicate the vision God has given you. This may be to raise support for your work, or to reach the hearts of new labourers to the harvest. If soon (or not so soon) you leave OM to go back to your home church, you will want to communicate effectively about what you have been doing on the field. As you possibly move into more education or employment (secular or otherwise), you may still find yourself needing good presentations skills in order to be successful. Finally, if you have any feedback concerning this course, anything you liked, didn't like, found relevant or irrelevant, anything which was helpful or confusing, useful or would have be useful to include, please let me know so that I can further develop this course for the future. Thanks! NEIL MASON [neil.mason@om.org]
Create Great Presenations www.JabinOnline.com [neil.mason@om.org]