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"- If you use bullets, bring them onscreen one at a time, not all at once.
Pause long enough for someone to read the five words I recommended (a few
seconds after the bullet arrives onscreen), then start speaking once they're
no longer distracted by the "need" to read your text."
The instructor in my Presentations course (back when I was in sales at
Nortel) emphasized the importance of this. When you turn to the screen to
read the next bullet (whether the bullets appear one at a time or all at
once, as they will with overhead transparencies), you cue your audience that
you are about to change topic. The time that it takes them to read the
bullet is also the time that you use to formulate the first complete
sentence that you will speak when you turn back to face them, ideally,
starting with exactly the words that form the bullet point. Note that you
should take a moment to face the screen while reading the bullet silently,
even if you have your presentation on a PC that faces you as you address the
audience. It is the turning toward the screen and back that gives the
audience that all important cue.
"- Make the signal stand out from the noise: the text must be legible
against its background. Black text on a light (e.g., ivory) background is
highly legible without producing a glaring white screen that strains the
eye, particularly in a darkened room. White text on dark blue and yellow on
dark green also work well."
>From the same source: use light text on a dark background if your
presentation method is by PC and projector. Use dark text on a light
background if your presentation method is overhead transparencies (and a
backup set of transparencies can be a lifesaver when the PC crashes or the
projector proves incompatible, or its bulb -- the only one within 5 days
travel -- blows, as they surely will).
...and my instructor would approve of all of Geoff's other remarks, as well.
Stuart Rogers
Technical Communicator
Phoenix Geophysics Limited
Toronto, ON, Canada
+1 (416) 491-7340 x 325
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