On using computers for preparing presentations<\/p>\n
By Zatni Arbi<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Recently, I spent an entire afternoon attending
\na series of presentations of computer products at the Horizon
\nHotel, Ancol, Jakarta. I guess I was very lucky to be there, as
\nthere were a lot of exciting new products to see and there was so
\nmuch new information to learn. Interestingly, I also observed a
\ncouple of things some of the presenters did that annoyed me as I
\nsat there watching.<\/p>\n
Definitely there are rules governing what one should or should
\nnot do when giving a presentation. Knowing that the ability to
\ngive a good presentation could give me a comparative advantage, I
\nembarked on an investigation of the literature and I very briefly
\nexplored four popular business presentation programs today:
\nCorelSHOW! 5.0, Lotus Freelance Graphics 2.1, Microsoft
\nPowerPoint 4.0, and Harvard Graphics 3.0. You can see all four of
\nthem in the accompanying illustration.<\/p>\n
Of course, there are other very good business presentation
\nprograms that do the same job -- in some cases in much better
\nways. These include WP Presentation, Aldus Persuasion, Micrografx
\nCharisma and Gold Disk Astound. I reviewed WP Presentation more
\nthan one year ago, and its latest upgrade version is now part of
\nPerfectOffice bundle from WP\/Novell Application Department.<\/p>\n
The programs<\/p>\n
Each of the four programs I looked at can help you create on-
\nscreen or transparency-based presentations with striking impact.
\nHowever, they differ from each other in terms of ease of use and
\nthe level of assistance that you can get from them.<\/p>\n
The first of the four, CorelSHOW!, is part of the CorelDRAW!
\n5.0 bundle. As we all know, Corel's strength lies in drawing and
\nimage manipulation, but business presentation is not part of its
\nforte. Thus, it's not surprising that this particular program is
\nthe least powerful and least useful in the group.<\/p>\n
The only feature we can take advantage of is perhaps that this
\nprogram has the direct OLE 2.0 link facility with other members
\nof the CorelDRAW! family. So, you can easily place objects
\ncreated in CorelDRAW! or CorelPHOTO-PAINT!, or animated objects
\nfrom CorelMOVE! in your slides, and you can still manipulate them
\nin their native environment.<\/p>\n
Freelance Graphics 2.1 is part of Lotus SmartSuite 3.0 bundle.
\nIt is very capable and relatively easy to use. Of course,
\nimporting from 1-2-3 or Ami Pro is as easy as 1, 2, 3 itself.
\nOnce the leader of presentation programs, Freelance Graphics has
\nhad many of its features adopted by other programs -- in most
\ncases with even better implementation. The trouble is, Freelance
\nprogrammers seem to have stopped innovating, and therefore its
\nage shows.<\/p>\n
Microsoft included PowerPoint 4.0 in its Office 4.2 and 4.3
\nbundles. PowerPoint does CorelSHOW! and Freelance Graphics one
\nbetter with its extensive advice on preparing and organizing your
\npresentation. If you need to exchange files with a Mac, your
\nclear choice is PowerPoint. You can view PowerPoint for Windows'
\nfile in PowerPoint for Mac, and vice versa.<\/p>\n
PowerPoint helps you organize your outline, depending on what
\nyour presentation objective is. So, for instance, if you're
\nsuggesting a strategy that your company should follow in order to
\ngain a larger market share, PowerPoint's AutoContent Wizard
\nsuggests that your outline should include discussions of the
\nobjective, the present situation, the desired outcome, potential
\nstrategies, their advantages, their disadvantages and your
\nrecommendations. All of this may sound simple, but when you only have
\ntwo hours before the sales meeting to prepare your presentation,
\nyou will appreciate the help that AutoContent Wizard offers.<\/p>\n
However, as I looked at their features sets, I found the
\nstand-alone Harvard Graphics to be the most powerful and useful
\nof all. One of the strongest features of this program, as you may
\nrecall from my review of its earlier version, is the capability
\nto share a presentation among 64 users across a network. That's
\nby no means a small feat, and none of the others offer this
\ncapability without the help of a special environment such as
\nLotus Notes.<\/p>\n
Three other features make Harvard Graphics my favorite. First,
\nthere is the accompanying Harvard F\/X, a program that lets you
\ncreate drawings or add special effects. Second, there is a very
\nuseful set of design tips -- some of which I will share with you
\nshortly. Third, the included examples have been thoughtfully and
\ncarefully created based on common business themes, and you can
\nuse them directly for your own presentation. There are sample
\npresentations for market planning, brainstorming, company profiles,
\netc. These samples are as useful as PowerPoint's AutoContent
\nWizard. All I ever could wish is that SPC, the maker of
\nHarvard Graphics, had included more of these samples.<\/p>\n
None of these four can handle multimedia very well, so you
\nmight need to look somewhere else, such as Asymmetric Compel, if
\nyou wish to go a step further in your presentation and add
\nmultimedia elements to it.<\/p>\n
Slide preparation<\/p>\n
The first rule is the most obvious: Start with an outline.
\nObvious as this is, many presenters still go through this stage
\ntoo quickly. By the way, if you're using Microsoft Office, you
\ncan use Winword's outline to create the topics and subtopics of
\nyour presentation. When the outline is more or less complete, you
\ncan click on the Present-it! button on the toolbar, and
\nPowerPoint will be loaded for you. If you work with Lotus
\nSmartSuite, you can also take advantage of Ami Pro's Outline mode
\nand then call up Freelance Graphics. If you're using Harvard
\nGraphics, you will have to use its powerful Outliner.<\/p>\n
The second rule, limit the number of slides that you're going
\nto present. In my experience, using a small number of slides is
\nmore powerful than using a lot of them. Remember that the slides
\nare actually supposed to provide only cues so that you will
\nalways know what you have to talk about and won't miss important
\npoints. Using only a few slides means that you will have to
\nmemorize what you have to say. However, some presenters make the
\nfatal mistake of putting everything on the slides and reading
\neverything to the audience. If you do this, it won't take very
\nlong before your listeners tune you out.<\/p>\n
The next rule is that you should avoid using too many words in
\neach screen. You should not use all capitals, as these are much
\nmore difficult to read that you might realize. Font size is also
\ncrucial. In general, you should use fonts of 18 points or larger.
\nSmaller fonts would not be legible to most of your audience.<\/p>\n
If you're using an overhead projector, never use a dark
\nbackground. It will be disastrous! The same is still the case if
\nyou're using a display panel placed on top of an OHP. Always use
\nlight colors as the background and dark colors for the text. Many
\npresenters, in their effort to make a difference, have mistakenly
\nchosen dark colors for the slide background. It just makes their
\npresentations unattractive. Just remember that what looks pretty
\non the display monitor may look ugly on the OHP.<\/p>\n
And, as is the case for all of your other documents, don't
\nforget to check the spelling. Although your audience may not make
\na big deal of spelling errors, you might feel embarrassed, if you
\nnoticed them during your presentation, and this could disturb
\nyour concentration.<\/p>\n
The next step is practice and rehearse. PowerPoint has a
\nfacility that allows you to rehearse so that you will know the
\napproximate time of your entire presentation. You would find it
\nunder View, and select Rehearse New Timing.<\/p>\n
Finally, if you're doing an on-screen presentation, it's a
\ngood idea to add a blank, black slide at the end. That gives you
\nthe image of a majestic retreat!<\/p>\n
At the show<\/p>\n
One of the speakers that afternoon spoke too fast. That was
\nunfortunate, he was talking in English and the majority of the
\naudience did not know much English.<\/p>\n
The first rule on stage is that you should never hurry. Keep
\nyour pace. Remember that if you're too fast, your audience cannot
\nfollow you. If you're too slow, your audience will quickly doze
\noff. Either way, you won't succeed in getting your message
\nacross.<\/p>\n
If you're giving your presentation in English, try to use some
\npopular Indonesian phrases once in a while. You also could
\nfreshen up the mood with some local dialects, if you wished. In
\nmy own experience, mixing two or three Javanese phrases into a
\npresentation in the English language would go a long way.<\/p>\n
Finally, one of the presenters that afternoon turned his back
\ntoward the audience almost all of the time. He did this as he
\nread or pointed at the text on the screen. That's a no-no. If you
\nneed to point at something on the screen, come as close as you
\ncan to the screen and point sideways, with most of your body
\nstill facing your audience.<\/p>",
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