we are 801 and we like to move it, move it!

~repost by Ben. this is how the article should look like~

Max your PowerPoint potential
The right design can help capture more attention.
Wed, Dec 31, 2008The Straits Times
By Robin Chan
CREATING a powerful and effective PowerPoint presentation is a vastly underrated skill. Just throw some slides together one after the other and voila, right?
That is probably the quickest way to losing your job, client and reputation.
A quick search in a bookstore will reveal hundreds of books that tell you how to nail the presentation, but few books that focus on the design of the actual PowerPoint slides.
Mr Dave Paradi, author of Guide to PowerPoint, estimated that corporations could be wasting over US$250 million (S$362 million) on bad PowerPoints each day.
Dr Donald Tan, a local lecturer and consultant on marketing and communications, said that PowerPoint is becoming increasingly abused as many people try to squeeze as much data as possible onto their slides.
'What it should be, is a visual tool to emphasise key points to the audience,' he said.
Of course, the PowerPoint is only one aspect of the presentation.
Ms Aisha Hussain, head of the business English department at the Singapore Institute of Management University, warned that slides must not overpower or distract from your presentation.
Nonetheless, regardless of setting, whether you are a consultant presenting your findings or a marketing executive making your pitch, PowerPoint continues to be a powerful presentation tool.
Ms Yang Mei Ling, a lecturer in the strategy, management and organisation division at Nanyang Business School, said: 'Your slides project your personality, credibility and professionalism - especially to an audience which does not know you personally.
'Lack of attention to organisation, format, spelling and grammar may convey an unfavourable image. This can put you at a disadvantage.'
So if you are not putting enough thought into your slides, 'Death by PowerPoint' could be just round the corner.
Here are our top survival tips.

KEEP IT SHORT

The length of the presentation is everything. Research shows the average attention span of a human being is 20 minutes.

Therefore, experts suggest keeping the presentation to 20 minutes at most. The total number of slides should be between 10 and 20 slides, so you should not spend more than one to two minutes a slide.

The aim is to keep the presentation moving swiftly.

KEEP IT SIMPLE

With your PowerPoint slides, less is more.

Use a common font style like Arial and a large point size of between 28 and 32.

Avoid animation as it is unprofessional. Instead, use simple transition effects to emphasise the end of each section.

CONTEXT MATTERS

Who are you presenting to? If you can answer this question, it should make the design of your slides that much easier.

Mr Garr Reynolds, author of Presentation Zen, suggests thinking of your slides not in terms of 'right or wrong' but rather in terms of what is 'appropriate or inappropriate'.

So before you design your slides, ask yourself if what you are doing is appropriate for a particular context.

MAKE A POINT

If your slide does not make a point, take it out of the presentation. That said, avoid having too many points on each slide. Make one point per slide.

Use short bursts of text separated by bullets to capture the main point of each slide.

Put your slide titles to work as well. They should help deliver the message. What might be most effective is a declarative sentence that states the point directly.

BE CONSISTENT

Everything from your colour scheme, text size and even syntax should be consistent.

For colours, contrast is important. In general, stick to a dark background with light-coloured text and vice versa.

A dark background with white font reduces glare.

MAKE IT VISUAL

Remember your slides are a visual aid. It is a chance to use graphs and images to enhance your presentation - so do it.

Good use of graphics should help to put the message across in a clearer way.

That said, avoid using clip art in the presentation.

LEAVE OUT THE CLUTTER

Do not clutter the slide with data. The more complicated and detailed data can be put on a handout.

POPULAR PRESENTATION METHODS:

The 10/20/30 rule: A term coined by entrepreneurship guru Guy Kawasaki, the presentation should not have more than 10 slides, last no longer than 20 minutes and have no text less than size 30 point font.

'If you must use more than 10 slides to explain your business, you probably don't have a business,' Mr Kawasaki noted.

Pecha Kucha: This is the brainchild of two Tokyo-based architects, Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham.

This method requires the presentation to have not more than 20 slides, with each slide lasting exactly 20 seconds. So the entire presentation is about six minutes and 40 seconds long.

If it sounds tough to do - it is. But it keeps presentations short and concise.

The Ignite method: The founders of the Ignite communities ask this: If you had five minutes on stage, what would you say? What if you have only 20 slides and they rotated automatically after 15 seconds?

Gaining popularity in some communities, the idea again is to keep the presentation short and to the point.

Useful resources: Read Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds, or visit www.presentationzen.com
Slideshare.com lets you check out other people's uploaded PowerPoint presentations.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on December 29, 2008.

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