isn't that a contradictio in terminis?

seriously.

worst.
program.
ever.

we tend to do pdf slideshows @ full screen.

strange - Ive never had to make a power point presentation in my life or career

as randomized said, awesome powerpoint really is a contradiction in terms... i avoid it at all costs... the mac version called keynote is a little better...

just don't use any of the standard powerpoint templates and treat it like you're laying out your portfolio or another graphic design project... limit the text in your presentation... tell the story through images and what you say... you don't want people to be reading the screen, you want them to be paying attention to what you're saying...

a few years ago i was able to find some presentations/publications by ideo that i modeled some powerpoint/keynote presentations on... but i can't seem to find them now...

agree with holz. No powerpoint, just pdfs.

The key is to put up slides that will remind you of what you need to talk about, without spelling it out for the audience. If you spell it out, then they'll just read the slide instead of listening to you. So that can be just an image with no words, it can be a couple of words really big... anything.

wrong, no, uh uh, no. this is the biggest danger why pdf and projected presentation should not be merged. i know that projecting pdf is the trendy thing to do these days, but the problem is it confuses two media - print and projected. powerpoint is merely a slideshow and should be treated as such.

I've actually found the animation functions (if used tastefully) to be one of the assets of powerpoint. Not stupid spinny images flying in from all directions, but highlights that can fade in or out, secondary info or images fading in or out, etc. In a very limited way, it allows one to merge a still image with After Effects-y motion graphics. But Powerpoint is extremely limited and clunky.

This is why I'm looking for sources for inspiration. I guess TED is a good source, and I'll try to track down the IDEO info too.

But, rather than just bagging on Powerpoint, how about some constructive sources? We all know it sucks, but I'm required to use the program for a presentation.

i start by just emptying the slide and starting from there.

don't organize it like a magazine. it is more about just good photography/rendering/diagrams. then titles and text should come in as you present it. it is to reinforce your talk, not replace it!

don't try to make it beautiful, just clear. it is kind of like people who over design Construction Docs. clarity. K.I.S.S.

Sorry to post yet another critique, but Tufte spells it out pretty well...sample of his essay here

I think the way to avoid the "cognitive style of ppt" is to story board your presentation, thinking about where the emphasis should be.

farwest -

edward tufte (the envisioning information guy) wrote a very small book on how to do better powerpoint presentations - you can order it for around 7 bucks off his website. a good little read and worth the money.

http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_pp

whoops - just saw someone else recommended it above me. consider mine a second of his approach.

i usually use pdf for presentation too. recently have begun using ppt cuz i want to insert flash animations in presentation. i am told the mac version of ppt is better but have not yet given it a try.

take a lesson from david byrne....

Thanks for the tips! I'd forgotten about the Tufte book—I own all the rest of his tomes of graphic mastery, so I suppose I should own that one too.

And thanks, Evan, for the Byrne link. I saw his project a few years ago. I love that he takes all of the worst tendencies of Powerpoint and makes them into slide-salad.

Thank you Evan. I can't believe I had to scroll this far down the thread before someone had mentioned the David Byrne Powerpoints.. GEEEZE. They are actually very beautiful.

ha. yeah, i was surprised no one mentioned em yet.

not as surprised as i am that byrne doesn't have the actual ppts available for download ;)

look up 'presentation zen' Gar Reynolds

The David Byrne and Paul Auster websites have eerily similar upper left hand corners.

I've used Powerpoint and actually do prefer it to using pdfs. Not because one is better than the other, but as was mentioned before one is projection based whilst the other is meant to be paper based. I used it mostly for school lectures, merging sound, motion and image. Which it does well. I deleted all the templates and made my own, less about image and more about how one could conceptualise the projection as a three dimensional space. Granted that was in an academic setting - I've found it most difficult to bring that forward professionally, and find myself reverting to the image-a-slide approach