Content You don’t need super-flashy audiovisuals to keep your audience awake. Indeed, hyperactive graphics could distract or annoy your public rather than keeping them informed and entertained. What your presentation does need is a clearly organized structure, underscored and amplified with visual aids. Your support materials should not be a word-for-word transcript of what you plan to say. Instead, emphasize your main points with short, snappy text, and use visuals to add new and vital information (charts, diagrams, floor plans, photographs, video clips, and so on).
Distribution Digital presentations do not only get shown in front of a live audience; they also get posted on the Internet, sent via e-mail, printed out and photocopied, or presented as looping media shows on kiosks in stores, exhibitions, and other public places. When you choose the medium and develop the design for your presentation, consider how it will be distributed. Do other people need to be able to open or modify your files, or is the piece entirely in your control?
Computer Power(Point) The ubiquity of PowerPoint allows files to be shared and presented across Mac and Windows platforms. PowerPoint is handy for arranging charts of data because of its integration with spreadsheet software. This powerful tool for managing multimedia within your presentation can also be a clunky, finicky aggravation and a harbinger of bad design. Stay away from pre-made templates and whiz-bang transition effects. Start with a blank presentation and build your own clean, simple slide template.
Web-based Presentations Do you know how to build a Web site? Then why not build your presentation on the Web? Flash and html are both flexible in scale, look, and content-handling. Your presentation can live on the Web as an archive and reference.
More Alternatives:
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• PDFs produced via Adobe Acrobat can be viewed as a slideshow. Produce your source file in a page layout program and export as a PDF. This process gives you total typographic control from one easy-to-modify source file. Your presentation can include hyperlinks, and your files can be easily printed, e-mailed, and posted on the Web.
• Macromedia Director is an interactive animation tool that handles a wide variety of content. You can create stand-alone files that play from any computer.
• Keynote is a well-designed PowerPoint alternative for Mac users.
• Use your digital camera. Most cameras can be plugged into a TV to display a slide show.
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• Use the desktop of your laptop. If you are showing a variety of media and you don’t want to create one giant presentation, set your desktop image to an appropriate graphic and use desktop aliases as buttons.
• The overhead projector is an old-school technology that still functions well. Print your computer-designed information on transparencies.
• Just use paper! You can pack a huge amount of information on a single sheet, and your audience will have something to fidget with and doodle on while you are talking. |
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