Microsoft Powerpoint

[Nym]

Personally I think thata powerpoint should be as condensed as possible, so that when you are furiously checking your notes the night before an exam, you dont have to filter out loads of text of derivations. It should just have the key info it in to remind you of what has been said when you look back on it.

This is why one provides a compendium of the course

 

[table38]

If you use Powerpoint, you will be successful. To illustrate the point:

How could that not engender a sence of success for your presentation?

 

[Nym]

By the fact that everyone uses crapart to 'enhance' their presentations?

 

[Ascot]

By the fact that everyone uses crapart to 'enhance' their presentations?

Clipart can do wonders if used correctly. With regards to the "toys 'n' smiles" in Powerpoint I would say I've used most, if not all, in a business environment when it's essential/best case. Flow charts and Visio imports come to mind with advance animation.

I agree with others above on if you cannot stand in front of 200 people and do a speech with only your hands, then you are in the wrong job.

 

[yorksrob]

I disagree. I don't think there's anything wrong using notes, particularly if you've got quite a lot of information to impart. Afterall, it's only a works presentation, not an audience With Peter Ustinov

 

[Nym]

Clipart can do wonders if used correctly. With regards to the "toys 'n' smiles" in Powerpoint I would say I've used most, if not all, in a business environment when it's essential/best case. Flow charts and Visio imports come to mind with advance animation.

I agree with others above on if you cannot stand in front of 200 people and do a speech with only your hands, then you are in the wrong job.

Well, this is the poshest power point I've done in a long time, and this is only because I'm presenting for a position at a consulting firm, where presentations need to look fancy.

I must add, two lines have been removed for commercial and personal reasons, and not all slides look like this, only the title slide.

But equally, if I had to to there without any prior meterials I would still be able to present something very good about this design project.

Double edit: If anyone from the company who I am applying for recognises this presentation, please note, I have never slagged off your products on this forum and in some cases have continually sang their praises

 

[BlythPower]

All you need to know about PowerPoint...

 

[district]

Agree with most. There's nothing worse than death by powerpoint. It's not a script either and please, don't patronise me with large font Comic Sans.

And don't get me started on animations or transitions...

 

[43021HST]

I think Comic Sans has become the nationally agreed most patronising font.

Powerpoints in A-level sociology usually consist of the teacher saying something quite interesting and then displaying it as a powerpoint in extended terms for you to take notes from, meanwhile I take my notes in a brief and scruffy form which takes me little time to write out, everyone else tends to write Everything that's on the slide so I find myself sitting around for 5 minutes day dreaming and doodling on my notes.

Or the teacher asks you to form into groups and make your own powerpoint on a given subject. My group often does to much research and not enough time practising the powerpoint, this means when it comes round to the presentation day, we end up awkwardly standing up in front of the class.

In the presentation group you usually have three types of people;
The over-confident one who talks to loud and too much and nicks everyone elses cue's,
the Idiot (usually me) where no matter what he says and how he explains it always sounds like he doesnt know what he's saying;
The quiet one who spends most of his/her time staring at their shoes, at the board and anywhere else but the audience, and speaks into their collar and usually dumps their cue's on everyone else.

 

[NSEFAN]

Generally, I find a chalk-and-talk lecture to be of more value than a powerpoint presentation, because it forces the lecturer to present their ideas at a steady pace (this is very helpful when hard maths is involved!)

Furthermore, powerpoints are generally too vague to be of much use later, so I find it's best to try and understand any new concepts in the lecture, then read/talk about them afterwards for clarification.

 

[SS4]

Agree with most. There's nothing worse than death by powerpoint. It's not a script either and please, don't patronise me with large font Comic Sans.

I think Comic Sans has become the nationally agreed most patronising font.

You can always play the Comic Sans game

 

[Harlesden]

People are always telling you to think Positive, but SS4's cartoon reminds me of the one occasion you should NOT think Positive. When you go for an HIV test.

 

[Nym]

Yeah, that isn't THAT funny...

 

[ralphchadkirk]

Unfortunately all the presentations I get are in Comic Sans...

It's a really awful, patronising font.

 

[Ivo]

I was once told that Comic Sans is good because younger children can read the letter A more easily in small case because of the lack of the "tail" on the top.

Well, in that case...

What is wrong with Century Gothic?

 

[Nym]

Or Tahoma...?

 

[SS4]

Times New Roman or Arial for anything serious IMO

 

[Yew]

I was once told that Comic Sans is good because younger children can read the letter A more easily in small case because of the lack of the "tail" on the top.

Well, in that case...

What is wrong with Century Gothic?

Its a serif-ed font, so doesnt comply with disability regulations, as its harder for people with sight problems to read. According to one of my lecturers. However many of my lecture slides, and most of my text books, are in serifed fonts.....

EDIT: here is a serif for anyone who doesnt know

 

[Ivo]

But Century Gothic doesn't have serifs. And by "tail", I meant the bit at the top of the A that exists in most fonts but not Century Gothic or Comic Sans (even Arial has the "tail"). I do agree about Arial and Times New Roman, but in the modern world I think I would add Calibri as well - just because Microsoft decided everyone has to use it and as such so many people do use it without thinking otherwise.

 

[Ascot]

Wingdings all the way for a super duper presentation! Down wid da kidz for you academic fresherz!!1!

 

[ralphchadkirk]

Times New Roman or Arial for anything serious IMO

Agreed. I use Arial for essays and what not and Times New Roman for really long bits of writing.

 

[LE Greys]

I tend to use Baskerville for anything serious, because that's what most books are printed in. TNR was actually invented for the Times, and AFAIK it is the only publication to use it. For sans-serif, I tend to use Gill Sans, because it is very similar to the lettering on BR totem signs.

Incidentally, GWR nameplates are serif, LNER are sans-serif, that's how I remember the difference.

 

[Lampshade]

Wingdings all the way for a super duper presentation! Down wid da kidz for you academic fresherz!!1!

When I was doing GCSE ICT, it was a 15 hour exam split into three parts; a presentation, a report and a something else I can't remember. The guy sat next to me would look at what I was doing and do that in the next hour (three hours a week over five weeks). I cottoned on to this fairly quickly, learned to read and type Wingdings and did the rest of the exam in Wingdings, converting it to Verdana (my then font of preference) right at the end.

It worked anyway, I passed, he failed.

 

[90019]

Or Tahoma...?

Verdana's the way to go.

 

[Nonsense]

Just had a string of Sociology lessons which consist of what I call 'Death by Powerpoint' in which you take notes for what seems like hours from a powerpoint. I find powerpint sucks the life out of you as your brain gets flooded with bland backgrounds, stupid flashy slide transitions and bullet points. Boring, boring boring.

Whats RUKs views on Powerpoint?
Love it or hate it?

It does sound like you've got an appalling lecturer. Instead of taking notes, ask him/her for a copy of slides and spend the rest of the day in the pub.

As others have said, PowerPoint is a great way of getting a point across, but it can be used badly, but its not the PowerPoint thats at fault.

 

[Oswyntail]

I wonder if Comic Sans would have been as "popular" if it had been called "Stinky Plague Death Sans"?

 

[LE Greys]

It does sound like you've got an appalling lecturer. Instead of taking notes, ask him/her for a copy of slides and spend the rest of the day in the pub.

As others have said, PowerPoint is a great way of getting a point across, but it can be used badly, but its not the PowerPoint thats at fault.

Not necessarily, in my first year, there was one lecturer who (grudgingly) decided to give me a pad of paper the size of a telephone directory that was mostly printed dark grey, because he insisted on using blue lettering on a blue background. Nowhere to put in additional notes and virtually unreadable. I nearly failed the course, but just about got away with it.