TIPS FOR A COMPUTER PRESENTATION

Everybody can give a good presentation, if she is willing to invest enough time. Here are tips for giving good presentations. A good presentation is hard work, no trick. 1)Content is king 2)Minimize sentences 3)A good presentation has very few key ideas 4)Slide design 5)The speech during the presentation: speak slow and clear 6)Humor is permitted 7)This is hard work, no trick: practise, practise, practise

1) Content is king

You need content. If you dont have anything to say, keep quiet. The content must be tailored to the audience. Fill your presentation! Every sentence must be important. Everyone knows (just after 60 seconds), whether the speaker intends to fill or use his time.

2)

Minimize sentences
Minimize sentences! It much easier to keep in mind short sentences than complex ones. The sentences should have no comma and no and. Imagine your audience would memorize only one sentence from your talk A good way to achieve this is by splitting the text up into bulleted sentences

3)

A good presentation has very few key ideas

A good presentation has few -very few- key ideas. Try to focus your content on them Present very few key ideas and make sure everyone understands them. Now minimize those key ideas! They should be as brief as possible. A good presentation has few -very few- key ideas. Dont fear repetitions in this case. A good presentation has few -very few- key ideas. If you have your key ideas, you have a criteria, and youll know where to shorten your talk. Use of review and signposting: Reviewing: Periodically stop and review the key ideas that you have covered so far. Signposting. referring to the key ideas as you talk about your topics.

4)

Slide design
IES PROFESOR MXIMO TRUEBA - Curso 2008-09............................Dpto. Tecnologa. Seccin bilinge Tips for a successful computer presentation.......................................................................................Pgina 1

Knowing how to design easy-to-read slides is quite important:

Don't overuse multimedia effects. Animations and slide transitions? Cease and desist! Use no more than two different typefaces. Left-align, don't center Lists and bullet points (keep bullet points short -no more than six words per item-). Use no more than six bullet points per slide. Don't use all caps. Use large type, preferably a typeface that has no serifs, such as Arial. Serifs on the letters help the eye move from letter to letter on paper, but not on slides. Keep your text to a minimum on each line. Just use key words that will be further explained in the speech. Care about viewing environment: In a darkened room choose a light coloured type on a dark background. White or yellow on dark blue works well. -In a lighted room with overheads, use dark text on a light background. Keep the same coloured background throughout the presentation as a unifying theme. Emphasize key points by using contrasting colours

5) The speech during the presentation: speak slow and clear

Were not talking about wedding oration, sales pitch or political speech; so omit the filling stuff and go right to the core. Dont say the same three times in a row with different phrasing. Speak sloooooooowly, and cleeeeearly. One sentence after another. Dont read your content. You must practise to know your text by heart. Care your human contact with the audience: eye contact, loud-enough voice, tone.

6)

Humor is permitted
You can joke. A funny picture can lead to another topic, IF it isnt too much on a topic. Dont laugh yourself! A speaker better has a wry sense of humor.

7) This is hard work, no trick: practise, practise, practise

If you havent practiced enough, you cant build trust with you audience. CLARITY: Know exactly what you want to say (and not to say)

- SIMPLICITY: Keep it as simple as possible for you audience to understand and no more BREVITY: Never use two words when one will do. Remove redundancies.
IES PROFESOR MXIMO TRUEBA - Curso 2008-09............................Dpto. Tecnologa. Seccin bilinge Tips for a successful computer presentation.......................................................................................Pgina 2

HUMANITY: How to build trust with you audience?

A good presentation is hard work, no trick.

(are these the key ideas for these tips??!!)

IES PROFESOR MXIMO TRUEBA - Curso 2008-09............................Dpto. Tecnologa. Seccin bilinge Tips for a successful computer presentation.......................................................................................Pgina 3