PowerPoint Design Tips: Extreme Makeover PowerPoint Edition - Video Tutorial
We could all use some PowerPoint design tips from time to time, and in today's video Dean Shareski delivers an excellent online tutorial on how to give your PowerPoint presentations an extreme makeover.
Dean Shareski is a curriculum consultant and a specialist in technology in the classroom, and in this twenty minute presentation he teaches you how to transform your slides into great looking, ultra-clear means to communicate your message.
PowerPoint makes it easy for you to create presentations like everybody else's, but if you want your presentations to be clear and effective, the best thing you can do is forget about the default settings and templates, along with your preconceptions about what makes a good presentation.
Most templates and default backgrounds, for instance, add nothing to your message and very often distract your viewers from it. While they might seem cool at the time, how far are those vivid orange flames really driving your point home? Dean Shareski's answer - get rid of them.
Bullet-points are most commonly used by people reading from their own presentation slides, as a prompt as to what to say next. As TJ Walker has pointed out previously, your slides should not be your teleprompter. Rehearse what you have to say - the slides are there to add impact to that, and you are not going to create much of an impact with your back to the audience. Dean Shareski's solution: ban the bullet-point.
The use of flash animations, twirling text and visual pyrotechnics? You guessed it - these are left on the cutting room floor. Your text really doesn't need to dance around in circles to make a point, and those exploding fireworks you added to the top corner of your screen really don't help to convey your message at all. Get rid of them.
Trashy looking clipart can easily be replaced with free, high impact photographic images
Of course, Dean doesn't simply tell you what not to do, but also goes about providing some great solutions to making your PowerPoint slides come to life. Simplicity is key to all of these ideas, which include:
Framing your text for emphasis and readability
Keeping your slides simple by limiting them to one idea per slide
Using high quality photographic images instead of trashy looking clipart
Telling your story through simple but powerful visuals - including full screen photographs - and keeping your text to a minimum
About the author
Dean Shareski is a Curriculum Consultant with the Prairie South School Division in Moose Jaw, SK, Canada. He specializes in the use of technology in the classroom and holds a Masters of Education in Communications and Technology through the University of Saskatchewan.
