You’ve sorted your data, created your chart, and then added your data labels, but jeepers,
what a mess!
Instead of an informative illustration you have something that looks overwhelming and impossible to read. If only you could display the data in $ millions.
While setting up a template in PowerPoint 2010, we wanted to establish the default text style for any new text boxes placed locally on a slide. The placeholders, which were setup in the slide layouts, have been formatted and any text entered into them will adhere to the predetermined styles. This additional step will account for any text box created via the Text Box tool on the slide itself.
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For the past few weeks here in the U.S., the hot topic in the news has been the Debt Ceiling stalemate. Both sides of the discussion, as well as the media, have emphasized the importance of getting the situation resolved to avoid our nation’s first-ever financial default.
Sunday night, President Obama told reporters at the White House that “the leaders of both parties in both chambers have reached an agreement that will reduce the deficit and avoid a default.” While at that time House Speaker John Boehner was holding a conference call with Republican House members.
Before speaking publicly, Boehner’s pitch to his caucus was available online. This was found in The New York Times blog, The Caucus: http://www.speaker.gov/UploadedFiles/3-7-31-11-Debt-Framework-Boehner.pdf
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In a recent survey by online presentation company, SlideRocket1, 24% of respondents said they would rather forgo sex tonight than sit through a PowerPoint presentation. Those must be some pretty bad slides!
The survey consisted of 1,003 adults who use office software on a daily basis. Of those surveyed, 24% stated that boring slides had put them to sleep, and the biggest audience frustrations were “too much text” and “snoozer graphics.”
eSlide understands these opinions – every day we see overloaded slides or visuals that don’t help explain the presenter’s message. A slide deck is only one component of the presentation you deliver, and if it’s a snoozer it can cause audience attention to falter and if it’s overloaded it can steal attention away from your main points as people read ahead and ignore you.
There is a new movement in Swiss politics, and it’s Anti-PowerPoint!
Matthias Poehm, President of the Anti-PowerPoint Party of Switzerland is blaming PowerPoint presentations for a negative economic impact in 193 countries worldwide. Poehm calculates that 85% of employees and students who view presentations with PowerPoint feel that the slides are “killing motivation,” and the cost to the Swiss economy is 2.1 billion Swiss Francs (~$2.5B US) a year!
A public speaking trainer by trade, Poehm believes that if his party becomes the fourth largest in Switzerland, he will gain enough press coverage to bring attention to his “international movement.” One of his stated goals is to launch a national referendum in Switzerland to create a law banning PowerPoint during presentations. However, he goes on to say that “The only aim of the referendum is to lift the PowerPoint issue both to the awareness of the Swiss people and to the awareness of the world population. We don’t want to prohibit anything to anybody – through this virtual claim we only want people to have a look at the existing solutions.”
Poehm proposes that viewing the live creation of flip charts is the solution to this corporate production killer, suggesting that it is more exciting and engaging for an audience to watch the speaker illustrate their points with pen and paper than to read pre-prepared slides. We respectfully suggest that if presenters have trouble using materials prepared BEFORE the meeting, forcing them to hand draw their ideas in real-time before their audience will only have a negative effect. Continue reading