We've all sat through our share of presentations that heavily relied on slides filled with bullet points. Rarely does anyone look forward to or remember much from these types of presentations, yet they are very common. It is frustrating for audiences to witness the speaker turn away from them to read from the projector screen. Nonetheless, presenters often rely on their slides for what they are going to say. Bullet points are routinely used because some presenters think by including so much information that they are being thorough. Another reason for slides with loads of text is that the presenter can print them out for an instant handout.
PowerPoint and Keynote are the two big names when it comes to presentation software. PowerPoint is part of Microsoft Office for Windows and Macintosh. Keynote is part of iWork and is only for Apple computers. Both pieces of software are guilty of guiding users toward using slides with titles and bullet points. Their slide templates are filled with layouts that include text boxes for titles and bulleted lists. Despite their tendency to lead users toward creating "death by bullet point" style slideshows, PowerPoint and Keynote support Presenter view. In Presenter view, also known as Presentation Mode or Presenter Tools, the speaker views his or her notes privately on the computer's screen while the audience sees only the slide on the projector's screen.
Continue reading "Presenter Notes Improve Slideshow Presentations"
