Transcript Presentation software - Vrije Universiteit Brussel

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Presentation software
for UNESCO-IOC-IODE-OceanTeacher
and
for UNESCO-IOC-IODE-ODINAFRICA training
version dated 2003-05
by Paul Nieuwenhuysen, VUB, Belgium
A more comprehensive presentation with slides is available from
http://www.vub.ac.be/BIBLIO/nieuwenhuysen/courses/chapters/
(note: BIBLIO and not biblio)
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CONTENTS:
1. Presenting information is an important skill
2. Introduction and general guidelines for developers of
presentations
3. Specialised presentation software
(and Microsoft PowerPoint in particular)
4. Presentations through the WWW or through an intranet
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Presentation software
Presenting information is an important skill
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Why are presentations and
presentation skills important?
• To present / report activities or findings or suggestions
to superiors or colleagues
• To educate / train / teach people (for instance in science,
use of information, applications of computers…)
• To explain your ideas / work / activities / projects
• To convince other people of the value of your ideas
• To ask for opinions
• To ask for support / co-operation / contributions / …
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Presentation software
Introduction and general guidelines for
developers of presentations
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Media for presentation:
overview
• Overhead projection of transparencies
• Slide shows (using classical, hard copy 35 mm slides)
• Direct computer-controlled projection
• ...
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Media for presentation:
transparencies
There are various types of plastic transparencies for
overhead projection:
• For writing with suitable pencils
• For Xerox machines (can resist the heat in the machine)
For laser printers (can resist the heat in the machine)
• For ink-jet printers
(ink sticks well on the rough side;
see that the printer prints on the suitable, rough side!)
Price goes up!
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!? Question !? Task !? Problem !?
Which types of transparencies do you know?
Can you distinguish them?
How much do they cost in
comparison with each other?
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Planning an oral presentation:
a brief check list (Part 1)
• What is the aim of the presentation?
• What are my main points?
• What are my sub-points?
• What is my conclusion?
• What is the summary?
• Which questions from the audience can I expect
and which answers should I give?
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Planning an oral presentation:
a brief check list (Part 2)
• Who will be my audience?
• What size will be my audience?
• Which kind of visual aids will be useful?
• What handouts will be useful?
• Which is the appropriate language and terminology for
my audience?
• Where will I do the presentation?
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Planning an oral presentation:
a brief check list (Part 3)
• Will the following be available in the room:
»a whiteboard,
»a flipchart,
»an overhead projector,
»a slide projector,
»equipment for projection directly from a computer,… ?
• Can the room be darkened well enough for projection?
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Planning an oral presentation:
a brief check list (Part 4)
• Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse,…
• Test also on the pc that you will
actually use in the real presentation
(when this is not your own pc)
to avoid
»lost images
»wrong fonts
»…
• Be totally familiar with your introduction.
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Live presentations:
some tips (Part 1)
• Show confidence.
• Know that to feel nervous is to be human.
• Channel your adrenaline into positive energy.
• Breathe deeply before you start your presentation.
• Look at the audience and pause before you start to speak
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Live presentations:
some tips (Part 2)
• Concentrate on your message, not on yourself.
• Stand erect.
• Begin with a powerful introduction
or with an agenda/summary slide that lists the key-points
of your presentation .
• S p e a k c l e a r l y.
• Speak with authority.
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Live presentations:
some tips (Part 3)
• Use some silent pauses.
• Look at everyone.
• Deliver the message with dynamism.
Use movement to maintain attention.
• End with a powerful conclusion, challenge or appeal.
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Software packages that are useful for
presentations
• To create transparencies:
»(Word processing programs)
»Presentation software packages!
• To create hard-copy slides:
»Presentation software packages!
• For direct computer-controlled projections:
»(Word processing programs)
»(Hypertext editors + WWW browsers)
»Presentation software packages!
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Some tips for developers of
presentation slides: readability (1)
• Keep texts short.
• Use less than 10 lines of texts on a slide,
because people hate reading long texts and listening
at the same time.
• Use maximum 3 levels of headings per slide.
»Like this heading at level 2 for instance
—And like this and the next heading
at level 3
—This is just another example of level 3
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Some tips for developers of
presentation slides: readability (2)
• Use bullets to start each item in a text list;
use a contrasting colour for the bullets if possible.
• Create your slides so that they are well readable even
when printed or copied
»smaller and
»in black and white only.
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Some tips for developers of
presentation slides: typography (1)
• Use fonts that are present on most computers, so that the
slides can also be shown with the right, appropriate,
correct fonts, using the fonts on almost any computer.
• Use large characters, so that the people in the back
of the room can also read your message.
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Some tips for developers of
presentation slides: typography (2)
• Bold text is better readable in slides
than normal text.
(This is certainly so in the case of
light characters or lines
on a dark background.)
• Avoid a lot of italic text,
because it is less well readable.
• Use maximum 2 fonts per slide.
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Some tips for developers of
presentation slides: contrast
Foreground and background colours need high contrast for
visibility.
Examples
Some tips for developers of
presentation slides: contrast demo
•Dark characters on a very light background
•Dark, bold characters on a very light background
•Light characters on a very dark background
•Light, bold characters on a very dark background
•Light characters on a light background
•Light, bold characters on a light background
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Some tips for developers of
presentation slides: tables
• Use tables whenever possible, for instance when
comparing systems.
• Use small tables;
avoid detailed, big tables with small characters and
numbers, because nobody will be able to read them.
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Some tips for developers of
presentation slides: enhancements
Instead of text, try to use whenever possible:
»flow charts,
»schemes,
»charts (pie charts or others),
»pictograms
such as arrows to indicate a sequence,
and
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Some tips for developers of
presentation slides: titles
• Make the title stand out clearly from the body text lines.
• Do not use the same title on several slides, because this
may confuse your audience.
Instead, use
»variations
»or subtitles
»or insert terms like
“continued” or “cont.”
or “part 1” / “part 2” / …
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Some tips for developers of
presentation slides: the final slide
• Use the last slide well, for example:
»To repeat an important message or address
»To thank the audience
»To ask for something
(for instance: a participation or a contribution or an
approval or a comment)
• In other words: do NOT show an empty or meaningless or
confusing or distracting screen during the final part of
your presentation.
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Thank you for your attention
Any questions?
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Presentation software
Specialized presentation software
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Examples
Presentation software packages
for Windows
Presentation software strictu sensu:
• (Harvard Graphics)
• Lotus Freelance (part of the Lotus Office software suite)
• Microsoft PowerPoint 95, 97, 2000, XP=2002...
(part of the Microsoft Office 95, 97, 2000, XP=2002 …
software suites)
• the module for presentations in Open Office,
an office software suite
that is developed further by Sun
•…
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Presentation software packages:
learning to use them (Part 1)
Ways to learn using presentation software:
• computer-assisted introduction / tutorial / instruction
coming with the software package!!
• in-context hypertext help built into the software package!
• books or chapters of books, about the software package
• manual and documentation for the software package
…
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Presentation software packages:
learning to use them (Part 2)
• computer-assisted introduction / tutorial / instruction
available online
• Usenet groups about the program:
for instance, about Microsoft PowerPoint:
news:microsoft.public.powerpoint
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Task
Have a look at the computer-based tutorial
for the presentation software that you will use.
For instance
a tutorial about PowerPoint is available from
http://www.vub.ac.be/BIBLIO/nieuwenhuysen/courses/overview.pps
(in the form of a PowerPoint show file),
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Task
If you are not satisfied
with other methods to learn PowerPoint,
you can have a look at a tutorial about PowerPoint
that is available free of charge
through the WWW:
http://www.uwec.edu/Help/
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Task
If you are not satisfied
with other methods to learn PowerPoint,
you can study a book such as
How to use Microsoft PowerPoint 2000.
(Visually in full colour)
by Daffron, Susan C.
Indianapolis : SAMS, 1999, 290 pp.
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Tips for developers of
presentation slides: icons and logos
• Try to insert a logo or small image (icon) on each of your
slides, that symbolizes / summarizes the contents of the
presentation.
• Insert a logo at least in your title slide.
• Note: use an existing, official logo as it is;
in other words: do not change its colours, shape…
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Task
Learn to select clip art and to insert it in a slide.
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Tips for developers of slides:
frames
• Avoid unnecessary frames/borders on the slide, even
when these are suggested by the program that you use,
because the border of the slide already serves as a frame
for your message.
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Tips for developers of slides:
frames demo
• This slide shows/demonstrates that a frame on a
slide eats up space
that cannot be used anymore to show your
message and text.
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Tips for developers of slides:
images
• Use images or photos instead of text, or together with text,
whenever possible.
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Example
Tips for developers of slides:
image example
Example of a photo + text in a suitable colour,
inserted in a slide:
Fishes on the market
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Tips for developers of slides:
templates for slides = slide masters
• Try to avoid modifying the formatting of each individual
slide in a presentation.
Better: improve the template slide = slide master, on
which your presentation is based
• Advantages:
»Less work for you
»More uniform / consistent formatting
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Tips for developers of slides:
working with a slide master
• Improve the layout of the
slide master if required in
View | Master | …
• Edit the contents of your
slides in View | Normal.
• (Do NOT edit the contents
of your slides in this view.)
• (Avoid editing the layout
of your slides in this view.)
Slide show !
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Tips for developers of slides:
motion and transitions
• Effects are possible:
»Motions / animations can be added to the contents of a
slide.
»Transitions from one slide to the next can be animated.
»A sound can be added to slide transition.
• Keep all these effects to a minimum;
use them efficiently and effectively only.
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Example
Example of a poor-designslide
• The slide title is not placed well.
• A colour background may result in too much gray when printed.
• There is not enough space in front of the text on this slide.
• There is no margin on 1 side of this slide, so that text falls off this slid
• There is no logo on this slide.
• Animation effects can be distracting!
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Example
Another example of poor-designslide
• This following lines can be improved:
»This line is in a different colour, without reason.
»This line does not end with a full stop, but all other lines do
»The size of the characters in this line is different.
»The character font in this line is different, without reason.
»Italic text is not well readable in this line.
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Task
Create a slide show
for direct projection from a computer,
using a presentation program.
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Task
When you have created a slide show,
print an audience handout for every person
in your audience.
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!? Question !?
What is the difference between
the file formats created by Microsoft PowerPoint,
that have the file name extensions
.PPT and .PPS?
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!? Task !? Problem !?
•Activate a .PPT file directly from the operating system
(NOT using the program Microsoft PowerPoint)
•Do the same for a .PPS file.
•Observe the difference.
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Task
Practice using a .PPS file for your presentation.
(That is better than
starting your presentation in editing mode
with a .PPT file.)
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Presentation software
Presentations through the WWW
or through an intranet
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Making presentations available
through a web: introduction
• A presentation in the form of a series of slides made by a
presentation software package like Microsoft PowerPoint
can be made available (can be published)
»through a local web (an intranet) or
»through the WWW
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Making presentations available
through a web: how does it work?
• The software package allows you to save (convert) a
presentation file in a more suitable format for this method
of publishing:
HTML files + linked graphics files + linked multimedia
files +…
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Presentations through a web with
PowerPoint 97: how?
• Microsoft PowerPoint 97
allows saving a presentation as an HTML file,
with each complete slide in the form of an image that is
stored as a GIF or as a JPG file, with a high fidelity.
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Presentations for a web with
PowerPoint 97: advantages
• The user does not need the full PowerPoint
program of a program to view a PowerPoint
file, but can view the presentation with any
web browser!
• A table of contents is provided automatically
in a frame to the web browser.
• Graphical user interface elements are offered
to the user automatically such as a button for:
Show next slide.
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Presentations for a web with
PowerPoint 97: far from perfect (1)
• When users save slides as JPG file, the
characters become less sharp.
• Slides with PowerPoint animations can NOT
be saved and hinder saving of slides further in
the presentation file.
• The resulting presentation take more disk
space than the original presentation, as text is
converted to images in GIF or JPG format.
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Presentations for a web with
PowerPoint 97: far from perfect (2)
• Images or parts of the text on a slide can NOT
be copied and pasted from the web browser
window to another document.
• The full text of the slides is available for
indexing by search engines.
When a search engine has indexed the text of
a presentation, the slides can be retrieved by
using that search engine, even through the
WWW, BUT ONLY in a text version without
graphics, which can be confusing.
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Presentations for a web with
PowerPoint 97: far from perfect (3)
• The saved web version can NOT be saved
back in the original PowerPoint file format.
• Working hyperlinks can NOT be
incorporated in the slides.
•…
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Presentations through a web with
PowerPoint 2000 or 2002: how?
• Microsoft PowerPoint 2000
and more recent versions
allow saving a presentation as a set of HTML/XML files,
using one of various methods, to be selected in the
program.
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Presentations through a web with
PowerPoint 2000 or 2002: options
• A screen capture of the various options for
saving/converting/publishing:
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Presentations through a web with
PowerPoint 2000 or 2002: advantages
• The user does not need the full PowerPoint
program or a program to view a PowerPoint
file, but can view the presentation with a web
browser!
• The resulting slides are resized together with
the window of the web browser!
(if the appropriate option has been chosen before
saving the slides in HTML/XML format)
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Presentations through a web with
PowerPoint 2000 or 2002: advantages
• The slide show can be seen with a browser in
full screen mode, that is without distracting
window frame and buttons of the browser!
• A table of contents is provided automatically
in a frame to the web browser.
• Graphical user interface elements are offered
to the user automatically for
»Show next slide,
»Show full screen,…
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Presentations through a web with
PowerPoint 2000 or 2002: advantages
• Downloading and viewing a large
presentation with slides in HTML/XML
format is less difficult than downloading the
corresponding file in the classical PowerPoint
file format, when a small network bandwidth
is a problem.
The reason is that the HTML version consists of
many files that are each smaller than the single
corresponding file in PowerPoint format.
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Presentations through a web with
PowerPoint 2000 or 2002: advantages
• Notes added to slides by the author of the
presentation can be shown in the web browser
window under each slide.
• Parts of the text or images on a slide can be
copied and pasted from the web browser
window to another document.
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Presentations through a web with
PowerPoint 2000 or 2002: advantages
• Working, active hyperlinks can be
incorporated in the slides.
+ Broken links can be detected with Microsoft
FrontPage working with the slides that form
part of a FrontPage web.
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Presentations through a web with
PowerPoint 2000 or 2002: advantages
• The full text of the slides is available for
indexing by search engines that index html
files.
So when a search engine has indexed the text
of a presentation, each slide can be retrieved
by using that search engine, even through the
WWW!
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Presentations through a web with
PowerPoint 2000 or 2002: advantages
• Summarized:
When you work in this way, you use
PowerPoint as an advanced program for the
creation of web documents.
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Presentations through a web with
PowerPoint 2000 or 2002: limitations
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In our experience, making a presentation
available through the WWW or an intranet
offers a high and acceptable fidelity, when the
option is chosen to save in a format that is only
suitable for the Internet browsers
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 or higher.
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Presentations through a web with
PowerPoint 2000 or 2002: limitations
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• Saving for other browsers than
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 or higher,
for instance for Netscape browsers,
results in slides that can indeed be viewed with
Netscape, but in which text and pictures are
placed in a different way in comparison to the
original PowerPoint presentation.
This should be avoided in most cases.
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Presentations through a web with
PowerPoint 2000 or 2002: limitations
• Even when an acceptable method is used, the
result is not ideal.
For instance:
»When the window occupied by the browser is
small, the characters take too much space and
they are not well integrated in the slide.
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»The relative sizes of characters can be distorted
(for instance the size of the characters in the
title can show up smaller than those in the body
of the slide).
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Presentations through a web with
PowerPoint 2000 or 2002: limitations
»A computer works slower with the web
version of a presentation than with the
proprietary, normal, classical Microsoft
PowerPoint PPT or PPS file formats.
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Presentations through a web with
PowerPoint: tip on file sizes
• When images, sounds, videos… are part of the
presentation, then keep their file size small, so that
downloads through the Internet / WWW are fast.
• More concretely for images:
use appropriate file formats like
»GIF
»JPG with an appropriate degree of compression, taking
into account that more compression gives lower quality
• (This is not important in a live presentation directly from
a computer without download from a server.)
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Presentations through a web:
conclusions
• Powerful method
»to make series of presentation slides available
»to create web pages that are adapted well to the limited
size of a video display
• Not simple to achieve acceptable results;
not yet perfect.
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