PowerPointe is Not a Place for Your Notes

6 Comments

simple presentationEvery few months I’m forced to sit through a presentation with slides full of the presenter’s notes and it drives me nuts.

We as an audience don’t mind if you bring your iPhone or notepad to the stage. Even small notecards don’t bother us. But when we’re forced to read your notes on screen, there’s a problem.

Presentations act as a tool to connect your audience’s visual sense to their hearing. If we have to read your notes, we’re not getting half of what you’re saying. Either augment your talk with visuals or don’t use them at all.

If you’re going to use a visual presentation, try this: take out all the words. Can’t do it? That means you’re relying too heavily on your presentation for your own notes. Get back to your computer and figure out a way to deliver your talk without any words on the screen.

Your audience thanks you.

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photo by poptech

Posted on September 13, 2012

  • http://www.jmlalonde.com Joe Lalonde

    Amen Justin. I was at a WordCamp event recently and a couple of the presenters used their PowerPoint as a place to store and read their notes. Their presentations seemed to drag on and on. The ones who used just graphics or a graphic and a couple of words seemed to flow much better.

  • http://coachradio.tv/ Justin Lukasavige

    Yeah, much more interesting when you use graphics, right? Spread the word so we don’t have to sit through these talks any more.

  • http://www.outstandinglandings.com/ Victoria Jones

    No kidding, right?! “Death by Power Point.” What’s worse is when you look in the bottom corner and see “slide 4 of 48.” Ugh!

  • http://coachradio.tv/ Justin Lukasavige

    That made me laugh, Victoria.

  • http://ericcswanson.com/ Eric C Swanson

    It blows me away that “professionals” will do a presentation and jut read the slides. Thanks, but I can read.
    Also, presenters view in ppt allows the presenter to see their notes without showing the notes to the audience.

  • http://coachradio.tv/ Justin Lukasavige

    No kidding, Eric. I just get mad, no matter how good the presentation is. I think the thought is that it feels good not to have a computer in front of you. Almost like having it memorized. I want to tell these guys that I’d rather they have a computer, iPad, phone, or even notecards.