Thank you for your input. There are many people who say that the visual style of PowerPoint can’t be done with “technical” presentations. You and your website prove that it’s not the case. Thank you.
Olivia

Great post as usual. Allow me to add my two-cents worth to why it is better to use PowerPoint or KeyNote if it is done properly and without bullet points. The visuals serve to reinforce the point you (the presenter) are trying to make. It is like watching a movie. You have the pictures and the narrator – you don’t see bullet points all over the screen. It is also why you should not hand out material to the audience before or during your presentation. You want the audience to focus on you – as CK says. That’s why movie theaters do not hand out the entire story line of the movie they are showing.

Norman

Better still is a wireless remote through which you can blank the screen !

Rather than no PowerPoint,I use it sparsely because a well designed visual or bulleted text can add great impact to your presentation, as you rightly said !

I appreciate your response. I like how you mentioned pausing to give people the opportunity to read the slide. A technique I feel works, is bringing up blank slides when powerpoint is not being used.

Thanks again!

I think adding PowerPoint or Keynote to a presentation can increase the impact of a presentation. That’s because it uses the visual channel – it’s like going from radio to TV. However, it does need to be used correctly. I agree that’s its effective for showing images and graphs, charts and diagrams. If you use text, I advocate using one carefully-crafted sentence which expresses the point of the slide. When I’m presenting with these slides, I give people a few seconds to read what’s on the slide before I start talking again. As you say they cannot read and listen at the same time.

Olivia

You are correct, let’s face it: If you can’t be interesting, what is the point of presenting? May as well just give them hand-outs and be done with it.

Keeping in your theme, have you noticed or do you have any opinions about Power Point / Keynote? You mention don’t use bullet points, and I would almost go a step further and say, don’t use power point. I have noticed that power point becomes a visual crutch. People cannot simply read your slide and listen to you at the same time.

Power point / keynote seems to be more effective for showing images of relevant data, or necessary photos. But text, in most cases, just detracts from the presentation.
Your thoughts?

Rhett Laubach