/ The-

Non--
Designer’s -
Presentation-
Book-
second edition

principles
for
effective
presentation
design

Robin Williams
Peachpit Press
 The Non-Designer’s Presentation Book • second edition
/ rob i n w i l li a ms

©2018 by Robin Williams

Peachpit Press

Executive Editor: Nancy Davis

Senior Production Editor: Tracey Croom
Interior design: Robin Williams
Production: Robin Williams
Index: Robin Williams
Cover design
and production: John Tollett

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author nor Peachpit Press shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to
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isbn 13: 978-0-13-468589-2

isbn 10: 0-13-468589-X

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed and bound in the United States of America

 This book is dedicated to
every single person who
has bought a copy of
The Non-Designer’s Design Book,
especially those of you who
have written to tell me
how much it meant to you.
Thank you so much!
I wrote this one for you.

x
This page intentionally left blank
 Contents
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x

before you design

1 Where to Begin?
What’s a presentation? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Does it need to be digital? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3

Yes, it needs to be digital. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Which slide size to use?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
Both presenting and posting? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Where is your audience?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
What’s a bad presentation? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
What’s a good presentation? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Software options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Boundaries can be great. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Templates and assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Share your slides. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

2 Get yourself Organized

Plan, organize, outline, write. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Now that you’re organized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
33

Four principles of presentation design (overview) . . . . . . . . . . . 44

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optimize the content

3 Clarity 45

Edit the text!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Spread out the text!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
How many slides in a presentation? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Sometimes you need lots on one slide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

4 Relevance
Get rid of superfluous stuff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
65

Backgrounds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Don’t use dorky clip art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Use relevant photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

5 Animation
Animation creates a focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Concerns about animation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
75

6 Plot
Make a beginning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Tell us where you’re going . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
85

Text vs. images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Find the humans in the story. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Tell relevant stories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Vary the pace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Make an end . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
And leave time for questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Four principles of design (overview) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

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design the slides

7 Contrast
Contrast with typeface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Contrast with color. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
97

Contrast provides substance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Contrast can help organize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Contrast demands attention. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

8 Repetition
Repeat to create a consistent look . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
105

Repeat a style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Repeat the image, but differently . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Unity with variety. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Design the repetitive elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Repetition doesn’t mean sameness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

9 Alignment
Alignment cleans up individual slides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Alignment cleans up your deck. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
115

Alignment unifies your deck. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Alignment makes you look smarter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Alignment is a great organizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Alignment will need adjusting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Intentionally break the alignment!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

10 Proximity
Create relationships. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
White space is okay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
123

But avoid trapped white space. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Proximity cleans and organizes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Proximity is a starting point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

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beyond the principles

11 Handouts 131

Why include handouts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

12
Learn your Software 137

Turn off “Autofit” or “Shrink text to fit”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Set the vertical alignment to the top . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Adjust the space between lines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Adjust the space between paragraphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Crop or mask an image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Don’t squish the images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

13 Ignore these Rules 149

Never read a slide aloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Never use serif typefaces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Never use animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Never use more than one background. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Never make a slide without an image on it . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Never use more than five bullet points per slide. . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Never use more than two or three words per bullet point . . . 157
Never use PowerPoint. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Never turn the lights off. Never turn the lights on. . . . . . . . . . 158
Never provide handouts before your talk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Never use pie charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Never use Arial or Helvetica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

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14 Listen to your Eyes

Quiz: Listen to your eyes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
161

Checklist for content. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Checklist for slides. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Put it all together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

15 Resources

Index
175

177

ix
 Introduction
I’ve given hundreds of presentations in the past thirty years, watched hundreds
of others, and learned a thing or two about effective presentations.
I don’t always use PowerPoint or Keynote. I’ve given presentations using the
computer itself as my vehicle, or directly in the app I’m teaching. I’ve given
plenty of talks without using a computer at all (sometimes because the technology
failed). Today most people use PowerPoint or Keynote, so this book focuses on
digital presentations using the popular presentation programs.
There are three things you must know and accept if you want to create a decent
digital presentation:
It takes time to create a good presentation. There’s no way around
this. Well, you can create a functional and perhaps passable digital
presentation in a short amount of time, but to create a good or
great one, you need to invest the time in developing a good structure,
investing in great images, making it consistent and clear. It takes
much longer than you might have thought.
You must learn your software. You really cannot create a good
presentation unless you know how to use the software. Read the
manual. Read the Help files. Take a class. PowerPoint likes to do
things for you, it likes to take over your formatting, so if you want
control over your slides yourself (which of course you do), you must
learn how to circumvent the automatic features and take charge.
Everyone expects more from you these days. You can’t get away
with bad design and schlocky presentations anymore— everyone is
much more visually literate and we all expect more. We want lively
content and visually stimulating slides and an invigorating personal
presentation. You’ve got to rise to the occasion.
I have to assume if you’re reading this book that you are interested in learning
how to design visually interesting and professional-looking slides. So let’s go!

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chapter four
Relevance

Everything you put on your slide should be relevant to the topic

of that slide and to your audience. This includes not only the text,
but the graphics and backgrounds.
Remember, the point in your presentation is to communicate
something clearly. The more irrelevant items you have on your
slides, the more it takes attention away from you and the more
difficult it is for your audience to mentally sift through the pieces
and combine them into a coherent whole, all while trying to listen
to you.
And keep in mind that what is relevant to one audience might not
be to another. Does the older, conservative audience really want
the loud and obnoxious video bits that are in the presentation?
Part of the clarity and relevance of the information develops from
your commitment to do your homework—you cannot create
one presentation to show to six different audiences. You might,
however, create one master presentation with everything you want
to say about this topic, and then make six copies of that master to
customize each one for an individual market. Your thoughtfulness
and care will show, and it will impress your audience.

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four principles of conceptual presentation design

Get rid of superfluous stuff

You don’t need all kinds of gewgaws sitting on your slide cluttering up your
information. Don’t stick random rubbish in the corners—the corners really
don’t mind being empty! The more stuff you stick on the screen that has
nothing to do with your presentation, the more you disrupt the focus. If
the focus is visually disrupted, it translates into your audience losing focus.

A shovel? I have to dig my own foundation? There’s buried treasure?

You’re a grave-digger? Don’t you find your mind trying to make a
connection between the shovel and the information?

Even if the clip art is related in some way, the more you
make my eyes wander around the screen trying to figure out
what’s going on, the more you lose me. Can you feel your
eyes trying to make sure you’ve scanned everything on this
screen? Can you feel them wandering around?

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That includes the logo on every page

I realize there is a strong belief in making sure that every darn slide in the
entire deck has at least one company logo on it, or perhaps two logos, or
a logo and a tag line, or a logo and a company name and a tag line. Yes,
you’ve got people trapped in a room for an hour and they have no choice
but to look at the screen, so why not brand your brand into their brains?
Is the point to make sure they don’t forget who you are? Hmm, wouldn’t the
audience be more inclined to remember you if 1) your presentation is clear
and relevant, and 2) the handouts are terrific and useful and nice-looking
so they will be kept and not trashed? It is on your useful handout that your
corporate logo belongs, not on the ephemeral slides. After a few slides that
logo becomes simply clutter and the brains of attendees blank out its meaning.

One logo on every slide. No, two logos on every slide. Combine that
with the unnecessary background picture, the blue edges taking
up space, and the horizontal line. If we take out everything that’s
irrelevant, perhaps we can make the type big enough to read.

There’s still too much text (if it’s a live presentation) and the statistics could
use more interesting treatment, perhaps with images of actual humans, but
at least we’ve gotten rid of the irrelevant pieces and can start to work from
here. After you read Chapter 8 on Repetition and Chapter 9 on Alignment,
come back to this page and notice how those principles were applied.

Your brand is bigger than your logo—it includes your colors, your typography,
your inimitable style, your critical information, your useful handout, your
confidence, the professionalism of the presentation. It’s not just the logo.

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four principles of conceptual presentation design

Backgrounds
A great deal of the visual impression of your presentation comes from the
background you choose, so choose it carefully. If you can’t find a template
that suits your material, there are lots of graphic tools in PowerPoint and
Keynote to create your own background. You can also invest a few dollars
in images from a vendor such as CreativeMarket.com or iStockphoto.com.
There are two important things to remember:
Choose a background that complements your talk, one that is
relevant to it, not a background that contradicts or confuses it.
Work with the background—don’t just randomly pile stuff on it.
Below-left you see the actual opening slide as the presenter created it; on
the right, she added a nice background image that she bought for $3 at
iStockphoto.com, and we used an interesting and relevant font (Apocrypha)
instead of the default Arial. You can see what a dramatic difference it makes,
and you can imagine the difference in the audience’s immediate perception.

You will learn in the next section that all I did with the type in the way of design
was to add contrast—a contrast of the size of font and a contrast of color.
And don’t be afraid to put your name on the introductory slide—your audience
wants to know who you are.

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 4: relevance

Hmm, a presentation about purchasing a home on a background of the open

ocean. My brain, all through the speaker’s talk, will be constantly trying to
process the connection between the ocean and a suburban house.

Here’s a guideline to remember: If it looks hard to read, it is. This example

is hard to read even on your computer, so please consider how much more
difficult it will be on a screen in a large room. Besides making the text difficult
to read, this irrelevant background does nothing to clarify the topic.

I realize that it’s often hard for new designers to allow empty space on the
slide, but you must learn to let it be there. Random shapes or images can
actually make it more difficult to place and organize text effectively.

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four principles of conceptual presentation design

Part of the ubiquitous problem of inappropriate backgrounds and their use

is that many free PowerPoint templates disobey this very guideline, leading
many to think it’s perfectly okay to put a lot of wimpy text on a busy
background. Take this free template, for example:

The text is directly on top of the distracting (and irrelevant)

background; you assume that since a “designer” created it this
way, it must be okay. Never assume that. This slide (and most
templates) gives you five levels of bullet points, as if anyone in the
entire room could ever read past the second one. Heck, you can’t
even read past the second one. Use your own common sense.

But templates are getting better. If you have an old version of PowerPoint,
it would behoove you to upgrade so you can get the new templates that are
included with the application, and then download some new ones from
either the Microsoft site or from the many sites that provide PowerPoint
templates. Choose the templates with a consciousness about the purpose of
your presentation; choose a background that supports your message.
See Chapter 15 for some sources for good templates.

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 4: relevance

The more complex the information,

the simpler the background
Occasionally there is no way around the necessity of putting a lot of data
on one slide. Just keep in mind that the more text, charts, graphs, or images
that you must put on the slide, the simpler your background must be.
It’s not necessary to have exactly the same background on every slide in your
deck (see Chapter 8 for more on that topic), so if you’ve got a graphic theme
you really like that ties your slides together, you can get away with eliminating
parts that are not necessary when you have a lot of data on one slide.

It’s not hard to find the irrelevant and unnecessary items on this slide (left).
Make a habit of really seeing the individual elements so you can make decisions
about what can go and what should stay.

When is a busy background okay?

A busy, complex background can be perfectly great if the data on that slide
is large enough and bold enough to be understood—and if that background
is relevant. When you see a busy background that works (it doesn’t confuse
the message, you can read the text, etc.), ask yourself why that is? Put it
into words; the more often you put into words what works and what doesn’t
work, the easier it is for you to automatically create better slides.

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four principles of conceptual presentation design

Don’t use dorky clip art

You cannot use dorky clip art— especially dorky animation clip art— even if
it comes with your app; if is does come with your app, your app is probably
old because the clip art has been getting phased out, fortunately. There
are a number of terrific places to get free or inexpensive professional-level
illustrations and photographs (see the Resources page in the last chapter),
or let your information stand on its own.
Don’t believe someone who tells you that you must have a graphic on every
slide. That’s baloney. Having silly or random art on every slide only lowers
the quality of your presentation.
The text on your page is the most important element. Images can be terrific
and can add hugely to the emotional impact, but if their point is to add to
the emotional impact, why use goofy pictures? Do they add to the clarity? Are
they relevant? Probably not. Probably just the opposite. So be careful of the
images you put on the page—make sure they enhance and support your text.

I’m really quite astounded by how Fortunately, dorky clip art is getting
many slideshows still use random and more difficult to find and the current
silly clip art on their slides, especially trend is to use full-screen photos,
their already overcrowded slides. which can create another problem
because too often the photos do not
relate to the text or they are misplaced
(as above), misused, or misleading.
Be conscious.

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 4: relevance

The arbitrary clip art on these slides is not relevant and it does not clarify the
information. It adds visual interest, but not the positive kind.

Really, it’s okay to eliminate the clip art! These slides have enough visual interest
without distracting little pictures. Without the clip art, you can make the
headlines bolder and bigger; you can also make the bullets smaller. Emphasize
what is important, tone back what is not. (I would personally get rid of that little
doodad under the headlines.)

Remember, everything in and around the presentation reflects on you and

impacts the perception of the value of what you are presenting. If a picture
is worth a thousand words, think of how extra brilliant you have to be to
make up for one goofy clip art image.
See Chapter 15 for some resources where you can find high-quality photos
or illustrations—and ideas.

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four principles of conceptual presentation design

Use relevant photos

There is a trend in presentation design to use one full-screen graphic per slide.
And the graphic has to be “high impact.” I have seen a number of slideshows
where the presenter followed that rule, but the high-impact photos on the
slides had nothing to do with the topic!
A problem with irrelevant images is that our minds are very visual so we are
very attracted to the gorgeous or provocative photo. But our minds are also
very practical, so they immediately start trying to place the photo into the
context of the presentation topic. If there is no relevance, if the photo is
completely random but gorgeous, our brains have to do a lot of processing
to figure that out. Meanwhile you’re talking away and I’ve missed half of
what you said, gaping in awe at your high-impact photo with the right side
of my brain and trying to use the left-side of my brain to process what you’re
talking about at the same time.
If you choose to use high-impact photos as your design theme, you need to
use them throughout the slideshow. The point is not to use one or two terrific
photos and then put a dozen bullet points on the slides in-between—you
need to commit to the design concept throughout the deck, or not. One
option is to use a high-impact (and relevant) photo to introduce each topic.
You introduce the topic with this mind-grabbing image to get the audience
in the mood, then carry on with your beautifully designed text-based slides.
Or use a slice of that photo as a repetitive element on the succeeding slides.
Whatever you choose, make it relevant.
A problem with using high-impact photos is that it can be difficult and
time-consuming to get the perfect photo for each slide (assuming you’re not
using random, irrelevant images). Even if you can get the images inexpensively
at one of the resources mentioned in Chapter 15, it’s still time consuming.

Video and animated clips

This, of course, also applies to video clips in your presentation (see Chapter 5
regarding animation and transitions built within PowerPoint or Keynote).
Don’t be misled into thinking I want to watch some indiscriminate YouTube
video as filler or mere entertainment—I’m using valuable time to come to
your presentation to get specific information. Use video, by all means! But
please make it worth my time. Be able to put into words why that particular
video clip is relevant to your presentation. If you can, then use it!

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 consistency

Index
A B
active voice, 50–51 backgrounds for slides, 68–71, 154
alignment, 115–122 Bing.com/images, 176
cleans up individual slides, 116 example from, 135
cleans up your deck, 117 brand, it’s more than your logo, 67
intentionally break it, 122 bullet points
makes you look smarter, 119 do you really need the bullets? 58–59
principle of, short form, 96, 115 found in templates, 70–71
quiz on, 168 how many to use? 156
unifies your deck, 118 how many words per bullet? 157
Alley, Jim, 136 slides instead of bullets, 56–60, 157
alternatives to a digital presentation, 4–7 takes the same amount of time, 60
animation
animation presentation software
PowToon, 27 C
VideoScribe, 26 Cain, Susan, 32
avoid competing with it, 84 Canva, 22–23
examples example of slides built in, 14
clarify charts, 83 templates in, 31
create a focal point, 76–77 charts
illustrate and clarify, 82 can be animated, 83
Flash animations as slide decks, 32 complex data in, 10, 64, 121
movement calls attention to itself, 84, 107 make handouts with, 131, 133
quiz on, 164 pie charts, 159
too much, 84 checklists
use relevant animation, 75, 153 for content, 172
Apache OpenOffice Impress, 28 for slides, 173
Apple Keynote. See Keynote clarity, 45–64
Arial, 160 quiz on, 162
aspect ratio of slides, 8–9 clip art
assets, resources for, 31, 175 get rid of it, 63, 66, 72–73, 155
audience close together, as elements. See proximity
consider placement of info on slide, 11 color, contrast with, 100–101
include them in the presentation, 5 complex slides, what to do, 10, 63–64, 121
perception of your presentation, 1 concept maps, 38–39
set us up for the end, 92–93 consistency. See repetition, principle of.
tips on talking to them, 88, 92–93
AutoFit in PowerPoint, 139

177
contrast

G
contrast, principle of, 96–104 Geohegan, Steve, 10, 175
what is it? 97 gerunds, avoid using, 52
call attention to something with, 104 Gettysburg Address, 4
contrast with color, 100–101, 103 gewgaws, get rid of them, 66–67
contrast with type, 98–99 Google.com/images, 176
organize with contrast, 103
Google Slides, presentation software, 21
quiz on, 166
CRAP principles
created by me in 1993, 44
design overview, 96, 174
H
principles in slide decks, 44 Haiku Deck, 15, 25, 31
CreativeMarket.com, 31, 175 handmade elements in graphic design, 91
credits, 175 handouts, 131–135
Croom, Tracey, ii posted online
include speaker notes, 10, 134
slides without speaker notes are useless, 32
D quiz on, 170
when you do NOT need handouts, 135
data versus emotion, 87
why include handouts, 132–133
Davis, Nancy, ii
hard to read? 69
design
Helvetica, 160
four basic principles of, short form, 96
humans: in the story, in the audience, 88
is about seeing, 100

E I
idea clouds, idea webs, 38–39
edit the text, 46–54
Ignite Talks, 30
complete sentences, avoid them, 48
experiment with, 53–54 images
gerunds, avoid using, 52 crop an image, 146
use active voice, 50–52 emotion versus data, 87
when you need a lot of text, 55 high-impact photos, problems with, 61, 72, 74
make sure they are relevant, 74–75
empty space, 125–126
mask an image, 147
necessary to use images? 155
F power of images, 90
resize an image, 148
film intros are like presentation intros, 86 resources for finding, 31
Flickr Creative Commons, 31, 175 tilt an image, 148
fonts. See also text/type. use as repetitive elements, 110
Arial or Helvetica, don’t use, 160 versus text, 87
Times New Roman, 160 weak versus strong, 108–109
where to get fonts, 31, 175

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L
where to find images lecture is not a presentation, 4
list of resources, 175–176 Lehr, J. H., 2
Bing.com/images, 176 lights on or off, 158
CreativeMarket.com, 31, 175 line spacing of text, 142–143
Flickr Creative Commons, 31 LinkedIn/Microsoft SlideShare.net, 32
Google.com/images, 176 listen to your eyes, 100
Wikimedia Commons, 31 quiz on, 161–171
ings, avoid using them, 52 logos
Inspiration software for mind mapping, 38 handouts provide permanent record, 133
Isakson, Paul, 154 not useful on every slide, 67
iStockphoto.com, 175

M
K Microsoft PowerPoint. See PowerPoint.
Kawasaki, Guy mind maps, 38–39
10:20:30 Rule, 30, 89 Miniature Book Society, 91
K-Drama, 41
Keynote
adjust spacing N
between lines of text, 143 Non-Designer’s Design Book, 44
between paragraphs, 144–145
line spacing vs. paragraph spacing, 144
images O
mask an image, 147 online, posting presentations
resize an image, 148 designed to stand alone, 14
tilt an image, 148 include speaker’s notes, 10, 32, 134
Light Table to view deck, 41 principles still apply, 3
Magic Move transition in, 82 organization of deck, 34–42
outline view in, 36–37 alignment can help organize, 120
sample of, 19 contrast can help organize, 103
slide size, choose one, 9 proximity can help organize, 127
text outline view, 36–37
changes size automatically—
make it stop!, 138
vertical aligment adjustment, 141
where to buy Keynote, 19
KeynotePro.com, 78

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P
pace, 90–91 presentations
paragraph spacing of text, 144–145 what are they? 4
passive voice, how to avoid, 50–52 alternatives to digital presentation, 4–7
PechaKucha, 30 audience perception of you, 1
photos. See images. bad features of, 16
boundaries in creating, 30
pie charts, 159
conversational presenting in Prezi, 24
plot
good features of, 17
what is it? 85
Ignite Talks, 30
beginning, make one, 86
Kawasaki’s Rule, 30, 89
end your presentation, 92–93
lights on or off, 158
make sure your story is relevant, 89
organize before you build, 34–42
quiz on, 165
pacing, 90–91
story in its usual sense, 88–89
PechaKucha, 30
tell me where we are going, 87
reading slides aloud, 49, 55, 150–151
pop-up viewing screen
rules to forget, 149–160
slide size for, 9
share your deck online, 32
what the audience sees, 11
slides, how many? 58–62
PowerPoint speech or lecture is not a presentation, 4
adjust spacing stand-alone or online
between lines of text, 142 designed to stand alone, 14
between paragraphs, 144 include speaker’s notes, 10, 32, 134
line spacing vs. paragraph spacing, 144 principles still apply, 3
example of, 20 takes time to create, x
Google Slides can be imported by, 21 worst ever, 94
images
PresentMe, 28
crop an image, 146
Prezi, 24
resize an image, 148
Prodigy, 89
tilt an image, 148
proximity, 123–128
integrate VideoScribe animation in, 26
creates relationships, 124
never use it? 158
principle of, short form, 96, 123
outline view in, 36–37
quiz on, 169
slide size, choose one, 9
Slide Sorter to view deck, 41
text
changes size automatically—
Q
make it stop!, 139 questions, leave time for, 93
vertical aligment adjustment, 140
where to buy, 20
PowToon, 27

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R
reading your slides aloud, 150–151 slides
how to avoid, 49 slides are free—use plenty, 58–62, 86
when it is appropriate, 55 slide size, 8–9
Read The Manual, 18 Slides.com, 29
relationships between elements. SlideShare.net, 32, 40
  See proximity. software applications
relevance, 65–74 learn your software, 18, 137–148
of human stories, 88–89 Apache OpenOffice Impress, 28
quiz on, 163 Apple Keynote, 19. See also Keynote.
repetition, principle of, 105–114 Canva, 22–23
create consistency with, 106–107 Emaze.com, 28
does not mean sameness, 114 Google Slides, 21
elements need conscious design, 112–113 Haiku Deck, 25
images create repetition, 110 learn your software, x, 137–146
principle of, short form, 96, 105 Live-Documents.com, 29
quiz on, 167 PowerPoint, 20. See also PowerPoint.
unity with variety, 111 PowToon, 27
resources, 175–176 PresentMe, 28
Robson, Lynn, 68, 106–107 Prezi, 24
Rohr, Dave, 153 Slides.com, 29
VideoScribe, 26
RTFM, 18
Visme.co, 29
Rules of Life
Zoho.co, 29
three rules of life, 113
spacing adjustments in text, 142–145
when in doubt, don’t, 100
speaker notes, post them online, 10, 32, 134
Russia, SlideBoom.com, 32
speech is not a presentation, 4
standard slide size, 8–9
S story. See plot.

Sanford, Hero, 76–77

Shakespeare
bad guys in, 88, 119
Macbeth, 78–79
Midsummer Night’s Dream, 38
Shakespeare at Sea, 6–7
trashed books for art, 91
Volumnia in Coriolanus, 161
Sheldon, Carmen, 86–87
Shiori, 76–77
Shutterstock.com, 175
SlideBoom.com, 32

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T W
Teachery.co, 15 white space
templates avoid trapped space, 126
KeynotePro.com, 78 let it be there, 125
where to find templates, 31, 175 widescreen slide size, 8–9
10:20:30 Rule, 30, 89 Williams, Jimmy Thomas, 76–77, 175
text/type Williams, Ryan, 76–77
Arial or Helvetica, don’t use, 160 Williams, Scarlett, 76–77
contrast with type, 98–99, 102 and Hero, 25
repeat fonts for consistency, 106 worst presentation ever, 94
repetition with typography, 109
serif typefaces, okay to use, 152
spacing adjustments, 142–145
text changes size automatically—
Z
Zipcast, 32
make it stop! 138–139
Times New Roman, 160 Zoho.com, 29
type vs. image, 87, 155
vertical alignment is unwanted, 140
themes. See templates.
Times New Roman, 160
Tollett, John, ii, 123, 130, 147, 175
transitions
examples
complement the information, 78–79
interrupt but stay on track, 81
transition between topics, 80
movement calls attention to itself, 84
quiz on, 164
too much! 84
use an obnoxious one here, 93
use relevant transitions, 75, 153
trapped white space, 126
t. s. eliot, 55
type, typography. See fonts.

V
vertical alignment of text, 140–141
video clips, use relevant clips, 74
VideoScribe, 26
Visme.co, 29

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