Chapter 21, Additional Case 3: Choosing Effective Slide Layouts
Chapter 21, Additional Case 3: Choosing Effective Slide Layouts
Background
Once or twice a month, you and your longtime friend Sang Jun Lee meet for lunch to catch up on what is new in your professional and personal lives. As a crime-scene examiner for a county crime lab, Sang collects, examines, and investigates physical evidence from crime scenes that may help locate and convict criminals. During one lunch date, Sang tells you about an article he recently read about the “evils” of PowerPoint. “The author argued that PowerPoint emphasizes format over content,” Sang says. “The software encourages speakers to reduce everything to a bulleted list or an incoherent graphic.
“I’ve heard that before,” you reply. “In one of my courses, we read a few articles on PowerPoint. Most of the articles had titles like ‘PowerPoint-Induced Sleep,’ ‘PowerPoint Pitfalls,’ ‘The Pentagon Declares War on Electronic Slide Shows,’ and ‘Friends Don’t Let Friends Use PowerPoint.’ The authors made the same points as the article you just read. The templates are ugly, and they dumb down presentations and convey information poorly.
“That article made me a little nervous,” Sang says. “I’m scheduled to talk to students enrolled in an introduction to crime-scene investigation course next week. The professor asked me to give a brief overview of fingerprinting. I’ve started to put together a PowerPoint presentation, but now I’m worried that I might be going about it all wrong. Would you be able to help me?
“Sure. I’ll do some Internet research and see if I can find some advice on creating useful slides.
“That's great, but what I really need help with is how to present my information. I use the default title-and-text slide for almost all my slides. I know the software includes many other slide layouts—two-column text, content over text, text over content—but I’m not sure when to use them.
“Email me a few of your slides, and I’ll take a look.” (See Document 21.1).
Your Assignment
- Use the Internet to research guidelines for preparing effective presentation graphics using presentation software. Focus your research on guidelines related to slide layout (the way information is arranged and presented on a slide), not slide design (the use of color schemes). Write Sang an email reporting your findings.
- Using strategies discussed in Chapter 21, revise Sang’s sample slides (Document 21.1). Include a brief email to Sang explaining your revisions.
DOCUMENTS
Document 21.1
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