Links: On Sermon Presentations
- Presentation Suggestion #1: Illustration not sermon
- Presentation Suggestion #2: Think big!
- Presentation Suggestion #3: Worth Ten Thousand Bullet Points
- Presentation suggestion #4: Varying learning styles
- Presentations: An example
Depending the sermon, I may prepare and arrange my slides differently than for an education conference. It’s a different setting with different rules for effective presentation. Tim has some good thoughts here, so make sure to check them out.
Links: Storyboards and Gradients
From the entry:
A good storyboard artist is a good storyteller. The drawings do not have to be pretty, but they must have the meaning and the feelings behind the idea. A good storyboard artist is a good pitchman.
KeynoteUser: K09 Tip: Multi-color gradients
This is a great tip on using Keynote’s new tool for advanced gradients. I hadn’t even noticed this as I’ve worked with Keynote ’09.
The Power of Three
- "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." -Benjamin Franklin
- "…Government of the people, by the people, for the people." -Abraham Lincoln
- "We cannot dedicate -- we cannot consecrate -- we cannot hallow…" -Abraham Lincoln
- "I came; I saw; I conquered." -Julius Ceasar
You might notice that Abraham Lincoln got two mentions above. The tricolon is a repeated theme in Lincoln’s rhetoric, and I don’t think it’s any accident that Senator Obama is emulating his style. Mr. Nordquist writes:
…Rhetoric is an ancient art and a fairly consequential skill. Thomas Jefferson knew how to use words. So did Abraham Lincoln, John Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr. As it happened, echoes of the words of all four men could be heard in Tuesday night's speech.
It’s a powerful oratorical technique, and, when coupled with repetition and alliteration, the power of three strengthens any argument. It’s a style of speaking that is reminiscent of a pulpit. Think “faith, hope, and love,” “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,” “the things we touched, saw, and heard,” etc. How many good sermons follow a three point structure?
Until recently, I didn’t know an official name for this kind of rhetoric. I’ve just affectionally called it The Rule of Three. While tripods are not the steadiest of structures, a speech centered around the number three can be extremely successful at an emotional level, making your message all the more memorable to your audience.
Kermit and Billboards
Garr Reynolds posts about the similarity between slides and billboards, inspired by Nancy Duarte's new book. He outlines eight principles found on good billboards and how they translate to slide design. As a sample, here's a video from his post.
As an aside, I think it's awesome that this entire video could be created in Keynote.
Presentation Zen: Kermit learns visual thinking
Mr. Reynolds shares an old clip of Kermit doing some visual thinking on the Ed Sullivan show. Inspiration can come from the strangest places!
Book Recommendation: slide:ology
On his blog, Garr Reynolds points out a new book by Nancy Duarte called slide:ology. Here are his own words about it:
Slide:ology is practical, it's highly visual, and it's beautiful. I love this book. Slide:ology should come bundled with every copy of PowerPoint or Keynote ever sold from now on. I received a draft copy about three months ago that blew me away — the final product is even better than I expected.
I plan on picking it up this weekend. Be sure to check out the slide:ology website to get a taste of what the book is like.
Links: Graphs and This Moment
Scaffolding on Benjamin Zander's fantastic talk at TED, Garr Reynolds pens a piece about living the moment and applying the principle to approaching presentations.
Here's the presentation that inspired this post:
Seth's Blog: The three laws of great graphs
After reading this post, I'm going to have to rethink my love affair with bar graphs. Click away for some good guiding principles when adding graphs to your presentation.
Tricks and Theme Links
I'm not a fan of motion themes for general presentations, but they can be good for special projects. All of these themes are $10 each, or you can buy them as a pack for $25.
eventDV.net: TUTORIAL | Cut Lines: Using Apple Keynote as a Motion Graphics Tool
Have you ever wondered if you could use Keynote to create DVD navigation menus? Me neither, but here's how, proving yet again how versatile a tool Keynote can be!
via KeynoteUser
Free Objects From iPresentee
iPresentee – Keynote Objects
Free Rendered Images
Jumsoft: Keynote Jam
Update: I unzipped the archive on my Windows machine at work. The keynote file opened up like a folder, and I simply copied all of the images to another folder. They worked in PowerPoint 2003 just fine.
Presenting to Inspire
…Inspiration does not come from mere words, it comes from actions and behaviors. Words matter and words and speeches inspire and stories can change the world. However, it's not only the stories we tell, it's really about the stories we live.
Here's another great piece by Garr Reynolds that starts with Dr. Randy Pausch Last Lecture presentation and goes on to examine the way we can inspire others through our words and actions. It's a great read.
(Also, look through the comments for more stories of inspiration!)
Great Speeches, Bad PPT
Through a couple of mock PowerPoint decks, Garr Reynolds demonstrates how poorly implemented slides can detract from an otherwise great speech – definitely worth checking out!
A Couple Zen Links to Keep You Busy
Presentation Zen: Deep or Wide? You Decide
"Make a choice about what's important, and let go of all the rest." Mr. Reynolds covers the topic of scope vs. depth in classrooms as well as in presentations.
The problem with many presentations is that people simply try to say too much in a short amount of time. Most people struggle with practicing restraint in the preparation stage—including myself—and have a hard time making the tough choices about inclusion and exclusion before the presentation. Often no time is given to the idea of exclusion and paring down. As a result, audiences all too often get more than they want, need, or can comprehend.
Presentation Zen: Inspiration Matters
The world needs more inspiration, not less. Speaking is not the only way to inspire—actions inspire too, often more—but leaders know how to inspire with both words and action.
Thinking Out Loud
Did you notice as you stood in your office talking to no one in particular how thoughts in your head sounded different than on the slides? Did you discover flaws in logic? Mysterious new gaps in content on the slides you’ve been staring at all morning? That’s progress.
For more, follow the link: Rands in Repose: Out Loud
Bear With Me
image by Randall Munroe
I have to try this sometime. If you like this, visit xkcd for more simple but funny comics.
Loving Color
Anyway, I can't remember how I stumbled upon this website, but it's chock full of great color resources for those of you wanting to move away from the safe blacks, grays, and whites you usually see me use around here. The site is called COULORlLovers and it's absolutely filled with articles and opinions about color usage as well as several user-made and rated colors, palettes, and patterns.
Visit COLOURLovers
More Free Image Resources
Presentation Zen: 10 links to cool, high-rez images
After about five minutes of browsing the sites, I've already bookmarked nine of these resources. Hopefully, you'll find them just as useful.
Presentation Nightmares from Microsoft
Microsoft.com: The ten worst presentation moments
Think you can top these with a horror story of your own? Email me your worst at crysnrob [at] mac [com], and I'll share them (anonymously) in a future post. After a bad presentation, nothing is more comforting than sitting down and reading about someone who has had worse!
Edit: Stupid typo in the title...
Learning from Bill & Steve
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Garr Reynolds posts another great comparison between the presentation styles of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, focusing on the contrast between Bill Gates' formal tone of presentation and Steve Jobs' conversational tone as well as their visual styles. While the two presentations he's citing are very different, he shares some very useful insights (and be sure to read the comments for some good continued discussion).
Merlin Mann on His Own Presentations
43 Folders: How I made my presentations a little better
Merlin Mann of 43 Folders writes an excellent piece about his own experienced in preparing presentations. He cites some individuals I find very influential myself. He summarizes many good points, and I'll be bookmarking this link for future reference.
Here's a taste of the post:
I’m not suggesting your slides should undermine you, but consider sometimes showing images and text that make an orthogonal point to what you’re saying aloud to the audience at that moment. Let them discover the point (or the joke) without you leaning on it.
Let the slide serve your message, rather than letting you (and your personality and timing) be governed by the slide. That’s ‘death,’ and that’s “The Wørd.”
A Weekend Laugh
Life After Death by PowerPoint
Add to My Profile | More Videos
If this type of humor interests you, be sure to check his site out.