Improving presentations and talks - suggestions ?

[SeRgIo_42]

Hi. I really appreciate any help/suggestion about this post.

I would like to improve some public presentations and I wonder whether
someone knows how to do this. The first question sounds silly but
it might be useful in some ocasions.

I would like to present some data using powerpoint/Keynote/whatever
with a similar "shade" effect like this
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/systempreferences/
The idea is to let the people see the whole screen but keep focus
in especific non shaded areas during the talk.

The second one is more challenging. Let's say I have two graphics.
I want to show them simultaneously somewhere in the same page
but since they are dynamic, it would be very very nice to show
the curve changes on the fly, during the presentation. It would also
be nice to "interact" with these curves with some text being show up
as the curves are presented to the public.

Thanks again,

S.

 

[Scottyk9]

I would like to present some data using powerpoint/Keynote/whatever
with a similar "shade" effect like this
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/systempreferences/
The idea is to let the people see the whole screen but keep focus
in especific non shaded areas during the talk.

Haven't tried this in a presentation yet, but Mousepose might be something to look at for the shade effect.

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/25586

 

[DXoverDY]

Just a helpful hint. A presentation is only as good as the data and the presenter. Not the way in which they put it into a slideshow. In other words, make sure you KNOW the information you are presenting, don't depend on powerpoint or keynote. Pretty isn't better either.

There's a part in a book i just listened to (thanks audible!) called Paranoia by Joseph Finder (Fin-Der, not Finder the app ). In which the main character is to present some information to his boss, he starts on it and gets the main info in there, then edits and jazzes the presentation up to the point that it's just pretty pictures with no content. The boss basically hates it. The point holds true in any presentation. I always give this advice. I'd rather have a bland no colors, no fancy pants presentation in which the data and information is given to me clearly.

That said, if you want to make a graph that incrementally shows changes, create a graph that contains the data in each part, then just change the slide each time for each successive part of the graph. with no transitions it shouldn't be noticable at all that you are changing slides. Not really sure if that is what you were trying to get at.

 

[SeRgIo_42]

Scottyk9 and DXoverDY,

Thanks for your prompt input.

Personally, I do not enjoy transitions/effects during presentations (especially
sound effects) but if you know what you are talking about, there is
nothing wrong looking for improvements. It is not just to catch the
audience's eyes but know how to use these tools for your subject.
I intentionally mentioned the use of dynamic graphs because it is
a common problem we have at our lab. Most presentations are
generally clear for the experts but a completely mistery
for visiting students.

Thanks again !

S.

 

[Mr. Anderson]

All you need to do is create a shape for the shade, set it to 50% some suitable level of transparency, place it over the page in the right spot and have it fade in/fade out.

But the key thing is, as mentioned above, worry less about the special effects and more about what you're presenting.

If you're trying high light certain areas of the page, you might be trying too hard and presenting too much info.

As for the interactive graph - I'd use flash for the presentation, but if you're not familiar with it, it might be too much. Again, a fade in/fade out, might be the best bet here and you can always go back a forth between the two images to repeat the change.

Good luck,

D