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How many times have you sat down to a pre­sen­ta­tion only to be faced with War & Peace on each slide? Bul­let fol­low­ing bul­let only sep­a­rated by some sub-bullets and a graph in a font so small that it looks like braille?

Then there’s that moment just before the pre­sen­ter switches to full screen mode when you notice that this is slide one of 128. And you think to your­self: this is time I am never, ever going to get back.

Life­hacker points to a deck by Alexei Kapterev high­light­ing where so many pre­sen­ters go wrong:

[slideshare id=85551&doc=death-by-powerpoint4344&w=425]

While the points are not par­tic­u­larly new, to my mind they can­not be made often enough.

Beyond this, the next port of call for the repen­tant Pow­er­Pointer has to be Pre­sen­ta­tion Zen. From there to TED and Pecha Kucha (see here for exam­ples). And on to Ama­zon to order Jon Steel’s excel­lent Per­fect Pitch and Guy Kawaski’s The Art of the Start.

Guy’s 10/20/30 rule has to be the one we should all aspire to: 10 slides, 20 min­utes, 30 point type – and then a really good con­ver­sa­tion. While I’m not there yet myself, if you see me doing the kinds of pre­sen­ta­tions in Kapterev’s deck, do me a favour – stop me and slap me. Thank you.

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