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PowerPoint Design & Editing

Perhaps one of the most deceptive tasks in making a presentation is designing an effective PowerPoint presentation. "Anybody can create a great presentation!" is one of the most common misconceptions of he computer age. Although Microsoft has been able to produce a program that is fairly intuitive to operate, on the superficial level, the program does little to dissuade one from creating a presentation which is totally incomprehensible. Worse yet, the large selection of effects and transitions allows one to create a presentation that is not only incomprehensible but one that so totally distracts the audience as to obscure the primary message.

Saying that PowerPoint is superficially intuitive leaves open the fact that there are aspects of programming in PowerPoint which are as obtuse to program as they are powerful in effect. For example creating complex forms or charts by grouping small segments allows very detailed and precise plotting of information; however, making any changes to that grouped object can be a very daunting task. Another example is in the ability to control effects, many people have been very confused by the results of a "simple" change to an effect's parameters.

One key to creating an effective presentation is to keep one concept to one slide. All too often, slides are crammed with so much information that the font size drops down to 8 or less. This creates a slide that would better serve as an eye chart rather than an information source. The use of background color verses font color is also very critical to legibility. Likewise, backgrounds that are too busy can distract from the text to result in an illegible slide set.

The over use of effects and transitions is the most common methods of distracting the audience. Effects in a presentation are like salt in food; too little is bland, too much is unpalatable. Effects should be used to enhance a key point being made. Effects should never be used to add "interest" or Pizazz" to an otherwise dull presentations. Some presentations are simply dull by their very nature, using an effect at every opportunity makes for an irritatingly dull presentation.

Editing a PowerPoint presentation has it's own set of challenges.

Generally the editor is working on a presentation that was created by someone else. Because PowerPoint is complex in some simple ways, there are usually several ways to achieve the same visual result. In order to successfully edit a slide deck, an editor needs to be aware of all of the ways to create a specific result and be able to distinguish between them. On site editors also always face time limits that require swift accurate editing on the fly. An experienced editor will have a bag of tricks, learned over time, that will cut around most of the more obscure programming techniques.

about the author:
John Le Duc has worked in the Audio Visual field in Las Vegas since 1970, served as the Event Staging Coordinator at the Desert Inn Resort from 1995 through 2000. He is currently semi-retired and is available on a consultant basis. Questions and inquiries may be directed through the contact page of this website. Or, to e-mail John Le Duc directly, click here.