{"id":293,"date":"2024-08-13T18:28:57","date_gmt":"2024-08-13T18:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/permutationcity.co.uk\/bp\/?p=293"},"modified":"2024-08-12T19:28:35","modified_gmt":"2024-08-12T19:28:35","slug":"powerpoint-misfit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/permutationcity.co.uk\/bp\/2024\/08\/13\/powerpoint-misfit\/","title":{"rendered":"PowerPoint misfit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’m not a PowerPoint expert.\nI occasionally have to do presentation to colleagues but it’s not a regular part of my job.\nThe discovery of a\nmarkdown to PowerPoint<\/a>\nconverters I’m probably going to use the PowerPoint editor even less.\nI normally most interested in the information, a bit of text and a few bullet points.\nThough there’s definitely a place for more than that.\nThis is more about the amount of content rather than how fancy it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Balanced presentations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A PowerPoint presentation has two main components: the slides and someone talking.\nIn my view the best presentations balance these things.\nThere’s enough information on the slides to provide a scaffold and\nshow some critical aspects.\nThe speaker adds more details, expanding individual points on the slides to full paragraphs.\nIt can be interactive with the speaker taking questions or reading the room.\nIf there are a lot of puzzled expressions in the audience then more details are required.\nIf everyone is nodding their heads it’s time to move on.\nIf everyone is shaking their heads maybe something different again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unbalanced presentations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If the slides have too much information then the speaker can end up just reading them out.\nTo me those presentations tend to be more boring.\nI can read, indeed I can read faster than the speaker will be speaking.\nIt’s possible to read it all and then have to wait for the speaker to catch up.\nYou also end up with a slide that’s crammed full of text.\nThat makes it harder to see what’s really important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slides can end up like this for different reasons.\nOne of them is that the slides are having to serve double duty.\nThey have to act as a backdrop for someone talking and<\/em>\nthey have to stand by themselves.\nThis is a shame.\nI can enjoy watching\nmaths videos on YouTube<\/a>\nbut I wouldn’t expect them to work if you switched the audio off.\nIf I read a\nbook for this blog<\/a>\nthen I expect to get everything from the text and not have someone narrate it for me.\nIt’s not that you can’t make something that does two jobs but\nit’s often not as good at each individual one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Examples<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If I were to make a presentation on\nThe Power of 10<\/a>.\nI could try to squash them all on to one page:<\/p>\n\n\n \n

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