DEVELOPING PRESENTATIONS: Effective Multimedia Presentations

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Introduction to Computing CS101

LESSON 31

DEVELOPING PRESENTATIONS

Focus of the 22th Lesson was on Spreadsheets:

Second among the four lectures that we plan to have on productivity software

We learnt about what we mean by spreadsheets

We discussed the usage of various functions provided by common spreadsheets

Spreadsheets:

Electronic replacement for ledgers

Used for automating engineering, scientific, but in majority of cases, business calculations.

A spreadsheet - VisiCalc - was the first popular application on PC's.

What Can They Do?

Can perform calculations repeatedly, accurately, rapidly.

Can handle a large number of parameters, variables

Make it easy to analyze what-if scenarios for determining changes in forecasts w.r.t. change in

parameters.

Are easy to interface with other productivity SW packages

Easy to store, recall, modify

Make it is easy to produce graphs:

The Structure of A Spreadsheet:

Collection of cells arranged in rows and columns

Each cell can contain one of the following:

Numbers

Text

Formulas

These cells display either the number or text that was entered in them or the value that is found by

executing the formula.

Connecting Two Cells:

And this one, A2

Let's call this

cell A1

=A1 + 4

Today's Lecture:

Developing Presentation:

Third among the four lectures that we plan to have on productivity software

We will discuss several design guidelines for making effective multimedia presentations

We will become able to develop simple presentation with the help of presentation making software

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31.1 Presentations:

I used to use transparencies in conjunction with overhead projectors for making presentations

Some time back, I used to write on transparencies with felt-tip markers

Then I moved on to developing presentations on a PC, and printing the final version on transparencies

with a laser printer

Some of my contemporaries used color inkjet printers instead of the laser printer

Another option was to develop them on a computer and then transfer to 35mm slides using a camera,

and display it using a slide projector

Problems With All Those Modes:

It was difficult and often costly to make changes, especially last minute changes

No sound, no animation, no video

Electronic transmission, in some cases, was not easy

It was difficult keeping track of old ones and making sure of their proper storage

Solution: Multimedia Presentations :

Great tool for effectively communicating ideas to an audience

All electronic

Easy to make last minute changes

The undo feature encourages experimentation

More attractive; commanded more interest

May include animations, sound, video

Easy to catalog, store, and recall

Great tool for making presenter-free interactive material (e.g. self-learning tutorials)

The Presentation Scenario:

Presentation

Info

screen

Audienc

Info

Presenter

The Goal of the Presenter:

Maximize the (sum of the 2 types of) info that needs to be transferred to the audience.

Recommended Approach

Put together a presentation that is:

Simple,clear ,consistent, design guidelines for simplicity, clarity, consistency

Layout Guidelines:

Keep layouts simple

Vary the look of successive slides. Mix up graphics with bulleted lists with animations

Avoid cluttering the slides with too much text or graphics. Your audience should hear what you have to

say and not be distracted by a busy layout

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Introduction to Computing CS101

Put a title on each slide. As soon as the audience see the slide, the title should make it clear as to the

point of that slide

Slide Background:

Keep the backgrounds simple. You want a background that shows off your info, not one that makes it

illegible

Avoid bright background colors. Light colored text against a dark background works best

Keep colors, patterns, and text styles consistent (not necessarily the same) for all slides in a presentation

Color Usage Guidelines:

Use color sparingly to to highlight a point, but don't get carried away

Choose them with care; at times, the wrong choice may convey an unintended message

Select background colors that are easy on the eye for several minutes of viewing, e.g. don't go for a

bright yellow or red or other warm colors for background

Instead, use cool colors like blues and greens as backgrounds

Writing Text:

Limit text to a few phrases on a screen. A good rule of thumb is 5±2 lines on a slide

Write short phrases - not sentences - in the form of bulleted points: if you display sentences on your

slides, you have nothing to add!

Have every bullet on a slide begin with a verb, or alternatively, have each begin with a noun

Text Usage Guidelines:

Normal text is easier to read than ALL CAPS

Avoid ornate typefaces

Use a clean & readable typeface, e.g. sans serif ones (Arial, Verdana, Helvetica)

Use at least a 24-point size, with the normal text size being 28-32

Be consistent in type size throughout the presentation

Keep text simple and easy to read by not using many different text styles (bold, italics, underline)

different typefaces, different font sizes, varying font colors within a sentence

A Word of Caution on Guidelines:

These guidelines are not `Laws of Nature'

For example, if I keep on repeating the same type face and font size and background throughout a long

presentation, I'll put the audience to sleep

At times, I use a warm background color or a very large (or small!) font size on a slide or two just to

wake the audience up, or to make an important point

Graphics & Images:

Use simple graphics or images in place of text

Example:

Components of an OS diagram (Lesson 11)

It not only listed the components in the form of colored discs, but also gave info visually about their

interactions (through overlaps) and relative importance (through the size of each disc)

Animations & Transitions:

Use simple slide transitions. Too many different transitions are distractive

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Introduction to Computing CS101

Animation is especially suitable for displaying:

Steps of a process: Waterfall model

Flow of info in a system: How does IM works?

Graphics and Images examples:

All currency figures are in thousands of US Dollars

1st Year 2nd Year

3rd Year

4th Year 5th Year

Billing Schedule

Lahore

20x42x0.5

420 30x96

2,880 40x169

6,760 50x317

15,850

60x490

29,400

Dubai

60x15x0.5

450 70x35

2,450 80x45

3,600

90x50

4,500

Islamabad

40x25x0.5

700 50x60

3,000

60x100

6,000

Karachi

50x45x0.5

1,125

60x100

6,000

Total

420

3,330

9,910

23,575

45,900

Costs for the Development Workforce

Lahore

15x42x0.8

504 17x96

1,632 20x169

3,380 24x315

7,608

28x490

13,720

Dubai

48x15x0.8

576 57x35

1,995 66x45

2,970

78x50

3,900

Islamabad

20x35x0.8

560 24x60

1,440

28x100

2,800

Karachi

24x45x0.8

864

28x100

2,800

Total

12,882

23,220

504

2,208

5,935

Costs for the Sales and Support Workforce

Singapore 120x2

240 110x3

390 110x4

440 110x5

550 125x5

625

Wash., DC 200x3

600 180x10

1,800 180x20

3,600 180x30

5,400 190x40

7,600

Chicago

210x2

420 200x3

630 200x4

800 200x5

1,000

Total

840

2,610

4,670

6,750

9,225

Costs for the Corporate Office

Corporate 40x3

120 42x4

168 44x6

264 46x8

368 48x10

480

Total

120

168

264

368

480

Profit

(1,044)

(1,656)

(959)

3,575

12,975

P/S

-249%

-50%

-10%

15%

28%

NPV Discount Rate

17%

NPV @ that Discount Rate

5,125

IRR

68%

Sales Forecast

Year of Operation

31.2 The Structure of A Presentation:

Title slide

Overview slide

Main body

Slide 1

Slide 2

Slide 3

...

Summary slide

Divide long presentations into sections, and have separate title, overview, summary, body slides for

each section

31.3 Presentation Development SW:

One can use a word processor to develop presentations of reasonable quality

However, using a SW package especially designed for developing presentation can:

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Introduction to Computing CS101

Speed-up the task

Make available features not available in standard word processors

Presentation development SW lets users:

Choose from a variety of ready-made presentation designs

Create original designs as well as change colors, background, fonts in ready-made designs

Add, delete, move slides within a presentation

Insert graphics & images, or create their own

Presentation development SW lets users:

Import from other applications or create new tables/plots

Create simple animations

Incorporate sound and videos

Add hyperlinks, custom navigational controls

Save work in HTML, PDF, graphics formats

The Best Feature: Undo

Allows you to recover from your mistakes

Allows you to experiment without risk

Popular SW:

Microsoft PowerPoint

CA Harvard Graphics

Lotus Freelance Graphics

Corel Presentation

Let's now demonstrate the use of the presentation making SW:

We will create a new presentation

Enter text

Add, delete, and move slides

View slide show

Today's Lesson was the ...:

Third among the four lectures that we plan to have on productivity software

We discussed several design guidelines for making effective multimedia presentations

We became able to develop simple presentation with the help of presentation software

Focus of the Final Productivity SW Lecture: Database SW:

To become familiar with the basic functions and features of desktop data management software

To become able to build a small application with the help of database software

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