Datasheet

⻬ Educational content: Colleges and universities commonly have their
own banks of presentations for every conceivable subject. Some of these
presentations are sold for very high prices as “talks” by specialized
vendors — and the high prices are because these talk presentations
were created by highly renowned professionals. Even at the high cost,
these talk presentations are a steal because they’re the next best thing
to inviting those professors to speak to your students.
⻬ Kiosks: Kiosks can display anything and everything nowadays — from
travel information at airports to the playlist at the coffee shop jukebox.
And many of those kiosk displays are actually PowerPoint presentations.
⻬ Religious presentations: And now for the godly frontiers — that projec-
tion of the hymn lyrics in church was likely created in PowerPoint. So
was that fancy slide show that displayed pictures from the missionary
trip to South America.
⻬ Government presentations: PowerPoint is used everywhere in the
administrative sphere. Be it presidents or prime ministers — or even
organizations like the United Nations and its various agencies all over
the world — so much these days happens on a PowerPoint slide. And
yes, when something goes wrong, such as space shuttle disasters,
PowerPoint often is given some of that blame!
⻬ Multimedia demos: This is probably the most controversial use because
PowerPoint was never intended to be used as a tool to create multime-
dia demos that run from CD-ROM. Nevertheless, PowerPoint allows
interactivity and navigation between slides — and because so many
people already have PowerPoint, all those bosses decided that they
might as well ask untrained office staff to put it to good use!
Of course, you can use PowerPoint for so much more — electronic greeting
cards, quizzes, posters, and even multiplication tables. You’re limited only
by your imagination. PowerPoint is a great tool to present your ideas.
Giving People What They Like to See
The simplest secret of creating great presentations is to give audiences what
they like to see. If you give them anything else, they’re bound to complain
with bouts of loud-mouthed vengeance and stupidity. Okay — I admit that
was an exaggeration. They’re more likely to doze off and snore loudly while
you’re presenting!
So what do audiences like to see? That’s what I discuss next.
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Chapter 1: PowerPointing with the Best of Them
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