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How to make PowerPoint presentations look good in SlideShare and DimDim
Lately I’ve been working a lot with SlideShare and DimDim to show PowerPoint presentations to customers and prospects. I try avoid “death by bulletpoint“, and instead incorporate a lot of diagrams into my slides in order to complement my speaking points. Unfortunately, a lot what looks great in PowerPoint 2007 (Windows) and 2008 (Mac) look awful in SlideShare and DimDim.
So, here is a checklist of things to avoid so that your slides look fine whether they are rendered in PowerPoint, SlideShare, or DimDim:
- Don’t use slick color gradations that PowerPoint 2008 uses by default. Use basic, solid colors.
- Don’t use shadows on objects.
- Don’t depend on builds within a single slide. Instead, use multiple slides to create a build. Tedious but worth it for complex diagrams.
What else can you think of?
Hopefully someday these kinds of issues will be taken care of as SlideShare and DimDim mature. And, one would hope that, as Microsoft creates more online offerings around Office, they will provide a way to faithfully render PowerPoint slides online.
Al Sargent's blog 
Avner 10:45 pm on November 24, 2008 Permalink |
Always include slide #’s for people watching who may not want to interupt the flow of a presentation they can more easily direct the presenter back to a specific slide.
Not so much a DimDim SlideShare issue but generally a good practice I’ve seen overlooked to often.
Cheers
Virginia 1:40 am on November 25, 2008 Permalink |
If there’s any text, avoid unusual type faces – stick to the most common sans serif ones preferably “Arial” or “Lucida Sans.” Al, what are your favorite type faces?
Al Sargent 8:40 pm on November 25, 2008 Permalink |
Hey Ginny, my favorites are whatever are default in PowerPoint. Arial or Helvetica have been the defaults in PowerPoint up to version 2003, I believe. Calibri is now the default in PowerPoint 2007 and 2008. They may not be everyone’s favorite font, but they always work, which means one less thing to worry about before delivering that big presentation.