Graphics Programs Reference
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and comprehending text on a screen and listening to a speaker at the same time.
Therefore, lots of text (almost any text!), and long, complete sentences are bad,
Bad, BAD.
David S. Rose
The leave-behind
Never, ever hand out copies of your slides, and certainly not before your
presentation. That is the kiss of death. By definition, since slides are “speaker
support” material, they are there in support of the speaker—that is, you. Therefore,
slides should be completely incapable of standing by themselves, and are useless
to give to your audience where they will simply be guaranteed to be a distraction
during your talk. The flip side of this is that if the slides can stand by themselves,
why the heck are you up there in front of them? Just hand out the slides and sit
down! Instead, prepare a leave-behind deck that is different from (and substantially
more complete than) the presentation you actually give (but that follows the same
general structure). This should be left behind after you finish.
Builds
People are only capable of absorbing a very small amount of material at a time.
Therefore, it is counterproductive to throw up a slide with lots of text or complicated
diagrams. Each change on the screen should relate to one simple new thought that
should be expanded and explained by the presenter. As such, I am a great fan of
“builds,” in which text or a diagram is additively built in front of the audience over
several minutes. Since each advance is effectively a new slide, it is possible to
slowly and simply build up to a comprehensive d←nouement without losing your
audience along the way. I have done builds with 15 or more components, which
when delivered properly, can take upward of 15 minutes to run through but never
result in flagging audience attention.
Delivery
Here's a key concept that is completely counterintuitive, but unbelievably powerful:
“Say it, then show it,” rather than “Show it, then say it.” The vast majority of
 
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