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Don’t Be A PowerPoint Felon

21 Comments/ in Design, Good Slides, Uncategorized / by Nick
February 18, 2011

I just posted a new set of slides on Slideshare this morning. They’re from a humorous speech I gave at Toastmasters this week. I modified the slides so they would make sense without me being there to speak.

You may have noticed that I haven’t been posting everyday anymore, as I was doing up until a few weeks ago. Based on some thoughts that were inspired by a note on Facebook by Jesse Desjardins (which I couldn’t find today. Jesse, if you read this, can you post a link in the comments?) I’ve decided to spend more time on making my posts more visual by actually creating slides instead of just text. Posting text-based posts every day was making me a better writer, which is good, but I wasn’t really becoming a better presentation designer, which is one of my goals with this blog. I also hope this will make my posts more interesting and enjoyable for you, and that that will help the ideas I share here to spread farther than before.

Basically this change means higher quality posts less often. I’m still spending a similar amount of time per day on the blog, but I won’t have something new to share everyday. There will probably still be text-based posts from time to time, but I hope to make presentations like the one above the norm. As always, you can also follow me on Twitter to get your daily dose of great presentation articles and links.

I’ll give this a shot for a while and see how it goes. I’d love to have your feedback. Do you like the slides above? Did you like the old way better? Let me know!

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Tags: design tips, felony, Jesse Desjardins, Keynote, powerpoint, SlideShare, Toastmasters, twitter
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  • http://www.myecubby.com/ squinky86

    I wish I could have watched you present these slides! Limiting thoughts to one or two per slide does help people focus.

    When searching for images, both Yahoo and Google image searches have filters that allow you to search for images licensed under the creative commons.
    Yahoo:
    http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/advanced
    There’s a filter sectioned labeled “Creative Common License.” Also, Google has a “usage rights” section in their image search:
    http://images.google.com/advanced_image_search

    Don’t add to your PowerPoint Felony with theft and copyright infringement!

    • http://advanceyourslides.com Nick Smith

      Both good sites.

      And yes. No thief other people’s work!

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  • Jesse

    Here you go: http://www.facebook.com/notes/i-like-jesse-he-likes-me-too/my-slideshare-numbers/123863174352066

    • http://advanceyourslides.com Nick Smith

      Thank you, Jesse.

  • gary

    I just found your site through this presentation from Slideshare. I’ve done many presentations over the years and feel comfortable doing them but I recently made it a personal goal to become a better presenter. On another blog I read the author said most people don’t need sales skills – the need presentation skills. I agreed with him so I’m now making it my goal. I like the content on your site and look forward to learning more this year.

    • http://advanceyourslides.com Nick Smith

      Great goal, Gary, and I hope reading this blog will help.

      Have you found Nancy Duarte or Garr Reynolds’ books yet? Nancy’s are Slideology and Resonate. Garr’s are Presentation Zen, Presentation Zen Design, and The Naked Presenter. All are excellent and will lay an excellent groundwork for becoming an awesome presenter.

      You might also think about joining a local Toastmasters club. TM is a great way to become a better presenter in a low-risk, supportive environment.

      Best of luck to you! I’m glad you found me and I can’t wait to hear how things go for you as a presenter.

  • http://cr8ivecat.posterous.com/ avalok

    Great deck and design. I liked the choice of fonts and elegantly simple background too.

    • http://advanceyourslides.com Nick Smith

      Thanks, Avalok! The background is a standard one from PowerPoint Mac 2011 called “Story”. The fonts are Futura Medium for the basic text and Stencil Std for the stenciled letters. The text on the plain-white example slides (slide 13, for example) is Trajan Pro.

  • http://www.bienpensado.com David Gomez

    Great presentation Nick! Right to the point, easy to read, and entertaining.
    May I translate it into Spanish keeping all your info and links? I would like to share it with my friends and write a blog about it.
    Regards,
    David Gomez (Bogota, Colombia)

    • http://advanceyourslides.com Nick Smith

      Hey David, I’d be very happy to have you translate it and share it with whomever you like. Please just keep my name and the image attribution links on it. I’d love to have a copy of the finished product, too.

      • http://www.bienpensado.com David Gomez

        Thank you Nick! I’ll let you know as soon as I translate it so you can have it.

      • http://www.bienpensado.com David Gomez

        Hi Nick, here you can find your presentation in Spanish http://www.slideshare.net/mercadeobienpensado/no-sea-un-criminal-del-powerpoint

      • http://advanceyourslides.com Nick Smith

        Thank you, David! Looks great! I appreciate your willingness to do that. Let me know how the presentation is received.

      • http://www.facebook.com/mercadeobienpensado David Gomez

        Hi Nick, here’s the blog that was published today (in Spanish) http://www.bienpensado.com/3-recomendaciones-para-presentaciones-efectivas/
        David

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  • http://justsayray.wordpress.com Russ Ray

    I wish I had read this three weeks ago when I started teaching my most recent PPT class and was looking for examples of what not to do. #2 is my favorite… so many times I have seen students not only read their presentation to the class, but to read it while facing the screen and away from the class. I will definitely keep this in the arsenal for next time I teach this course.

    • http://advanceyourslides.com nickomundo

      Thanks, Russ! So glad you liked it. I hope you WILL use it to teach people what to do to make their presentations better.

      What kind of PPT classes do you teach?

      • http://justsayray.wordpress.com Russ Ray

        I teach an Associate’s comm class, a Bachelor’s comm class, and an elective public speaking class. I try to cover PowerPoint to some degree in all three, but we’re making a concerted effort now in the Bachelor’s program to eliminate death by PPT. Point, Click and Wow is one of the books they’ve chosen as a text.

        I’m planning on showing this tomorrow night and looking forward to the feedback. A couple of folks have already broken the rules, so I hope the point gets across for future reference.

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