Comments on: Stop powerpointing and start outlining

By: Atlanta Chiropractor

Atlanta Chiropractor — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 20:39:52 +0000

I’ve turned to using mind maps to outline and organize my thoughts for presentations. Then I use Powerpoint for images, stats and key points that I want to visually highlight.

However, my audience is usually a business audience, not academic. But I think the approach I use would easily work in an academic setting as well.

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:41:41 +0000

Yeah you absolutely nailed it, when I make a presentation I end up spending at least 80% of my time making it look “pretty” but barely spend ant time writing good content.

By: Ed

Ed — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 06:09:05 +0000

Shane, good insight! I need to do presentations when I try to get a freelancing gig and I find that overly animated powerpoint slides tend to distract my clients’ attention. At the end of the day, they’re just interested in what you’ve to offer versus what they need to pay. Hence it’s back to style of presentation and how much you really know your stuff.

By: Academic Productivity » Literate programming for talks: Beamer, Sweave and LaTeX

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 08:09:58 +0000

[...] lot of these issues can be fixed using tips here on the site. Outlining your talks for example helps get away from the staccato style of PowerPoint and as commenters have pointed out [...]

By: Web Designing Quotes

Web Designing Quotes — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 13:07:12 +0000

I turn all of my Keynote presentations into pdf files. It is rare that I really want to use page transitions or animation.

By: Dave Smith

Dave Smith — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:21:52 +0000

How can i stop power point from freezing? It wont let me add pictures.?

By: Todd Stanfield

Todd Stanfield — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 03:58:51 +0000

I turn all of my Keynote presentations (and ppt too) into pdf files. It is rare that I really want to use page transitions or animation.

By: Adam

Adam — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 00:27:20 +0000

Beamer rules!

By: Alex

Alex — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 01:30:30 +0000

I just completed my second presentation using beamer.
Once you get over the initial hurdles, it’s really quite
great. It also helps that everything comes out to
pdf. I can’t count the number of problems we had
in class last semester; ppt for win, for mac, 2000/2003/2008,
openoffice; total mess.

By: shane

shane — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 12:01:45 +0000

David, I adjusted the post in response to your first point. In regard to the second point, the formatting you get when importing is the formatting of the word file. I haven’t found a way to open it using a default template.