Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
presenters put up a slide on the screen, glance at it, and then read it out loud to the
audience. This is completely and disastrously wrong. The right way (but difficult until
you've practiced enough to get comfortable with it) is to start talking about the next
point while you are still on the previous slide, and only then bring up the new slide.
This puts you in command of the presentation, and not the other way around, and
trains the audience to expect that all new and important information is coming from
you rather than from a slide deck.
Prompting
Aside from complete familiarity with your subject matter (which can only come from
constant practicing), presenters using computer-based slides should always take
advantage of the preview/prompting capability of their software. PowerPoint users
have Presenter Tools, Keynote users have Presenter's Dashboard, and a new entry
is Adobe's Ovation software, which runs PowerPoint presentations in a powerful
prompting interface. These software features help you from having to ever turn your
head to the screen or forget what is on the next slide.
