Sample PowerPoint® Presentation: U.S. Election - Battleground States by the Numbers

Aaron Stannard — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 08:59:00 GMT

If you watched our previous two screencasts, one where we contrasted poor presentation techniques with the sequenced presentation approach and one where we showed you how to build sequenced PowerPoint® presentations using SmartDraw 2009, then you might be asking yourself "so what does a good presentation look like from start to finish using these techniques?"

In today's screencast, "U.S. Election 2008: The Battleground States by the Numbers," we show you just that - a full PowerPoint® presentation from start to finish which incorporates sequenced visuals built using SmartDraw 2009. You can watch the presentation in video format below:

This SmartDraw screencast requires plug-ins enabled and the latest Adobe Flash Player installed.

If you liked the animated charts that you saw in this presentation the please download a free trial of SmartDraw 2009 and check out our improved PowerPoint® integration features.

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Screencast: Building Sequenced Charts in PowerPoint® Using SmartDraw 2009

Aaron Stannard — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 05:23:00 GMT

As a follow-up to yesterday's screencast where we demonstrated the difference between the sequenced presentation approach and Death by PowerPoint® we'd like to show you how we actually produced that presentation using SmartDraw 2009. So it is our pleasure to present to you our second screencast this week (there will be a third on Thursday), "Building Sequenced Charts in PowerPoint® Using SmartDraw 2009." Please watch the video below:

This SmartDraw screencast requires plug-ins enabled and the latest Adobe Flash Player installed.

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Screencast: Contrasting Sequencing with Death by PowerPoint®

Aaron Stannard — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 05:51:00 GMT

Over the past few days we have made the case for using animation in your PowerPoint® presentations, and today we intend to reinforce our argument with a powerful illustration. In today's screencast we are going to compare and contrast "Death by PowerPoint®," "Data Dumping," and presentations that use sequencing properly in order to underscore how effective good animation can be. It's our pleasure to present to you, "Contrasting Sequencing with Death by PowerPoint®:"

This SmartDraw screencast requires plug-ins enabled and the latest Adobe Flash Player installed.

If you liked the animated charts that you saw in this presentation the please download a free trial of SmartDraw 2009 and check out our improved PowerPoint® integration features.

If you liked this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed or follow us on Twitter.

The Case for Animation

Aaron Stannard — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:07:00 GMT

Rick Altman said the following in an earlier guest post called “Thriving with Animation:”

“Animation might be single-handedly responsible for more PowerPoint® annoyance than all the other annoyances combined. Between Edward Tufte and Dilbert creator Scott Adams, PowerPoint animation is publicly flogged more often than our politicians are.

And at the same time, when done correctly, animation isn’t noticed at all. It’s not unlike being a major league baseball umpire, who gets no respect for doing a good job.”

How many times have you seen terrible PowerPoint® presentations that use those horrible fly-in animations along with the unbearable screeching tires sound effect? That’s not a presentation—that’s a disaster. The systematic misuse of PowerPoint’s capabilities along with the addiction to text-heavy slides has created a “Death by PowerPoint” endemic in offices around the world.

Where do Bad Presentations come from?

Making a good presentation isn’t easy. You have to put a lot of thought into what your message is, how you’re going to present it, what visuals you’re going to use, when you’re going to interact with the audience, and so forth. Most bad presentations come about because presenters do one of two things:

Take the path of least resistance. This is what leads to those awful slides with bullet after bullet, after bullet of solid text. Instead of creating a presentation, they end up creating oversized flash cards that they project onto a big screen and then dutifully read aloud to their audience. This is the sort of presentation that makes members of the audience wish they had remembered to sneak in copies of the Wall Street Journal—this way, they’d at least have something to help them avoid the gruesome onslaught of complete and total boredom brought on by the presenter’s lifeless, monotone drawl.
Try too hard. Presenters usually make this mistake only once—the first time they get behind the wheel of a big PowerPoint presentation, they decide to go all out and use every feature, every animation, every transition, and every sound effect. These presenters are probably thinking, “Wow, my audience will be impressed with the breadth of PowerPoint features that I’ve been able to weave into a single presentation. I’m sure this will be a presentation that they’ll remember!” The big day of the presentation arrives and what happens? The audience is so distracted by the tacky overuse of the aforementioned features that they don’t even remember what the presenter was presenting.

The Case for Using Animation Well

How do presenters reconcile these two alternatives? They can’t take the path of least resistance and they can’t try too hard either. The answer is to use a third alternative: use animation “wisely and appropriately.”

Animation is a powerful tool when used correctly, and as Rick Altman said, “when done correctly, it isn’t noticed at all.” Animation shouldn’t be part of the substance of your presentation, which is what the “try too hard” crowd gets wrong. Let me lay out the case for using animation:

Animation lets you present your ideas in a logical sequence when done correctly. I’m not referring to the top-down or left-to-right order in which they appear on the slides, I’m talking about the order in which you speak about your ideas in conjunction with the slides themselves. Animation keeps you paced and guarded—you only talk about the most recently revealed item to the audience through animation. By adhering to the sequence that you established when you were building your presentation, this effectively prevents you from wandering.

Animation helps your audience relate to an idea by focusing their attention on one point of order at a time. I have to present complex material, like marketing proposals, and it can be tough if I don’t use animation. I find that animation is a necessity because it keeps my audience focused on a single point at a time. It’s not that I am trying to constrain my audience to learn at my preferred pace; rather, it’s that using sequencing allows me to make sure, through interacting with my audience, that the audience as a whole is on the same page.

Yours truly needs to explain to my audience a number of nuances and details for each point. Rather than dump them on my audience with five times the information and in one fifth of the time, I move along at a measured pace. And I don’t transition to the next part of the sequence until I am certain that my audience is ready. Doing this with every major point of my presentation ensures that my audience will walk away with a complete understanding of the idea I am presenting.

Animation builds up your punch lines. If a good comedian were performing a standup routine using PowerPoint, would he or she reveal all the aspects of his or her jokes at the same time and ruin the punch line? Of course not—so why would you spoil your own “punch lines” by dumping everything onto your audience at once, instead of building them up? Good comedians work by slowly building their audience up to the punch line. They don’t robotically recite the joke from start to finish; they slow down where they need to; they go into more detail on key areas of the joke; they wait for the audience to catch up with them; and then finally, they hit the audience with the punch line. Animation helps you build up to your “big idea,” your punch line. And you’ll be able to deliver it more effectively after you’ve prepared your audience with the earlier stages of your sequenced presentation.

Don’t believe me? Go watch “PowerPoint Comedy” on YouTube and tell me that that presentation would have been just as effective without robust sequencing and animation.

Over the next couple of weeks, we’re going to present more information about using animation correctly and we’re going to talk about how to use animation in SmartDraw 2009 (try it here,) so stay tuned.

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Working Smarter : Sequencing

Sample PowerPoint® Presentation: U.S. Election - Battleground States by the Numbers

Screencast: Building Sequenced Charts in PowerPoint® Using SmartDraw 2009

Screencast: Contrasting Sequencing with Death by PowerPoint®

The Case for Animation