TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
I attended a webinar not long ago which was very well done during the presentation -- and with the slide deck afterward, largely because the presentation included reference URLs on specific slides (footnotes, if you will) and a slide or two of "for the interested reader" URLs at the end. I still open it up for those links, even though a couple of the screen-shot based slides don't mean much to me at this distance.
You could provide links to a .DOC, or you might be able to provide links to a company knowledge base or other online resources. Anything in the presentation that's really clutter can be excised and presented as an aside.
PPT really can be a terror in the wrong hands. Our marketing/sales folks use it like I use any document preparation software (Word or Frame or Confluence or Notepad...). We went through rebranding not long ago. I was working with the marketing team, and asked for a map of old names:new names. I'm thinking a 2-column table, maybe a 3rd column to add notes. He provided a PPT, one slide per component. There was never a presentation, mind you, just sharing the slide deck with the stakeholders. 'Cause PPT is his native language.
FWIW,
Sharon
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+sharon -dot- metzger=gmail -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+sharon -dot- metzger=gmail -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Chris Morton
Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2016 5:49 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: PowerPoint From Hell
I could use your expert input.
I made my living (in part) from PowerPoint in the '90s, playing a key role in a traveling Great Oz show. The two companies for which I worked spent a great deal of time in researching what constitutes an effective presentation. This included such things as color schemes, typeface choices, font sizes, handout generationâyou name it.
I've let my client know that their decks are abhorrent, supported by a weblink I sent them:
No doubt we are trying to convey a lot [read: WAY too much] of information in our slides. The deck I delivered last week was 180 slides based on the client's scope (our presentations range in size from 30 to 300 slides).
Therein lies the problem: Our slide presentations are for myriad clients with different needs but the central requirement is that [they] convey information to readers beyond our verbal presentation.
Decades ago, our reports were done exclusively in Word in a standard business report format (complete sentences and paragraphs, supported by charts, graphs and figures, with footnotes). We switched to PP at the request of clients, but the need for a lot of detail didn't go away. We tell a market story in complex specialty <*redacted*> markets, and people pass our slide decks onto their colleagues months later.
Given our additional background, I am open to your suggestions for improvement to our process. Is it simply a matter of your revising our template, according to best industry practices for PP? Or should we rethink the way we are presenting?
So... clearly they need a method of supporting (not delivering) a live presentation, which PPT(x) does well. But what about three months later?
Record the presentations and offer them on disc (cloud)?
Looking for articles on Technical Communications? Head over to our online magazine at http://techwhirl.com
Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions? Search our public email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Visit TechWhirl for the latest on content technology, content strategy and content development | http://techwhirl.com
