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.
Leonardo da Vinci said that "simplicity if the ultimate spoliation." It's a very challenging to take away things from a slide. However, simplifying the slide by leaving only what's essential will make for a more memorable and effective visual aid. With Presenter view, speakers can remove much of the text from a slide and and place it in the section for the presenter's notes. The slide is simplified and yet the presenter still can rely on her or her private notes.
Simplified slides use a minimal amount of text and employ meaningful images. A good example presentation is Brain Rules for Presenters by Garr Reynolds. His slides are simple and artistic.
Notice that some of Garr's slides contain only one image and others contain only a short phrase. There is not a lot of text to read on any of the slides.
Yes, with a simplified slideshow, a presenter cannot effortlessly print the slides as a handout. If a handout is necessary, it will need to be created separately from the slideshow, probably using word processing software. Handouts are primarily text, so it is certainly acceptable to include plenty of text and bulleted lists there. It is indeed more work to create a separate slideshow and handout. But, if a slideshow can be read by the audience and it speaks for itself, why make it a presentation in the first place? Let your audience read it on their own.
Besides showing streamlined slides, presenters who use Presenter view can see the next slide before the audience does. This allows the speaker to make smooth auditory transitions before advancing to the next slide. Furthermore, Presentation view allows the presenter to jump to slides without flashing the skipped slides to the audience.
PowerPoint and Keynote's presenter modes work in similar ways. There are enough differences, however, that below you'll see information about Presenter view for PowerPoint users and then information for Keynote users.
PowerPoint
When creating a slide show in PowerPoint users can click in the area below the slide to add notes.
When a projector is connected to the computer and you're in Presenter view, you will see the notes on the computer's monitor. In PowerPoint 2007, the notes appear along the right side of the presenter's screen. In Macintosh version of PowerPoint, the notes appear across the bottom of the presenter's screen.
The notes are not visible on the screen your audience views from the projector. They only see the slide while the presenter sees the slide, notes, previous slide, and upcoming slides.
In order to use Presenter view your computer must be able to support multiple monitors and it must be enabled in the computer's Display Control Panel. The only time Windows users can actually activate Presenter view is when a second monitor, which is usually a projector, is connected to the computer. Presenter view is not turned on by default in Windows, so users will have to activate it. This is done in Set Up Slide Show in PowerPoint 2007. Macintosh PowerPoint versions label this view Presenter Tools and automatically go into Presenter view when a second monitor is attached and Mirror Displays is turned off in the System Display Preferences.
More on Presenter view in PowerPoint:
Keynote
When you create a new slideshow in Keynote the Presenter Notes section is hidden. Select Show Presenter Notes from the View menu to make the area for typing notes visible.
Despite the fact that there are notes for the slide, they will not appear in the Presenter Display. By default presenter mode only shows the current slide and next slide. To change that, open Preferences from the Keynote menu and click the Presenter Display pane. Check the box next to Notes. You may also want to click the Customize Presenter Display button to enlarge the area where notes are displayed.
You can test what Presenter Display looks like with your slideshow by selecting Rehearse Slideshow from Keynote's Play menu.
When a projector is attached to a Mac, you must make sure that display mirroring is turned off. Do this by opening Displays in System Preferences. Click the Arrangement tab and uncheck the box next to Mirror Displays.
Now when a presentation is played in Keynote, the audience will see only the slide on the projector's screen. The presenter will privately see the slide, notes, and upcoming slide on the computer's screen. If the audience and presenter screens are somehow reversed, simply press X on the keyboard to swap the displays.
More on Presenter Display in Keynote:
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.
