Office 2011 for Macintosh: The Missing Manual

Chapter 19. Planning and Creating Great Presentations

Communication takes many forms, from smoke signals to web pages; from rude gestures to polished oratory; from an order at the drive-through to a speech at the podium. And whether you’re a Great Communicator or a first-time speaker, what you’re really doing in any of these instances is making a presentation: you’re delivering information to others to get your point across.

PowerPoint’s a great tool to help you make presentations. But it’s only a tool. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking the computer presentation is the star of the show. You are the star of the show. PowerPoint, your handouts, your guest speakers, and your sharp new suit are all playing supporting roles.

Before you even boot up your computer, it’s worth spending some time thinking about your presentation’s goal (convince Mom and Dad to let you go away to camp, for example) and who your audience is (two people who know you very well). As a wise man once said, “Scratch ‘em where they itch.” To succeed, your presentation has to resonate with the audience’s needs, expectations, and assumptions. The first two parts of this chapter help you plan an effective presentation tailored to your audience. The last section deals with presentation nuts and bolts—picking out laptops, projectors, and so on.

If you’re an award-winning member of the dinner-speech circuit and you just bought this book to learn how to use Office and PowerPoint, then by all means skip ahead to the next ...