Getting the Message Across Using Slideware Effectively in Technical Presentations

177 Pages·2016·12.05 MB·English

by  Stephane Faroult

Getting
the Message
Across
Using Slideware Effectively
in Technical Presentations
―
Stéphane Faroult
Getting the Message
Across
Using Slideware Effectively in Technical
Presentations

Stéphane Faroult
Getting the Message Across: Using Slideware Effectively in Technical Presentations
Stéphane Faroult
ISBN-13 (pbk): 978-1-4842-2294-2 ISBN-13 (electronic): 978-1-4842-2295-9
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4842-2295-9
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016959515
Copyright © 2016 by Stéphane Faroult
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Contents at a Glance
About the Author .....................................................................................................ix
Acknowledgments ...................................................................................................xi
Introduction ...........................................................................................................xiii
■ Chapter 1: Designing a Presentation .....................................................................1
■ Chapter 2: The Score ...........................................................................................19
■ Chapter 3: Populating Slides ...............................................................................35
■ Chapter 4: Editing Images ...................................................................................59
■ Chapter 5: Transitions .........................................................................................83
■ Chapter 6: Animations .......................................................................................103
■ Chapter 7: Putting the Magic Together ..............................................................125
■ Appendix A: Introducing Oneself .......................................................................151
■ Appendix B: Licensing Issues ............................................................................155
■ Appendix C: Documents .....................................................................................159
Index .....................................................................................................................165
iii
Contents
About the Author .....................................................................................................ix
Acknowledgments ...................................................................................................xi
Introduction ...........................................................................................................xiii
■ Chapter 1: Designing a Presentation .....................................................................1
Surviving the Corporate Template ....................................................................................1
The Important Choices .....................................................................................................3
Slide Size ................................................................................................................................................3
Color Palette ...........................................................................................................................................5
Slide Background .................................................................................................................................10
Fonts .....................................................................................................................................................10
Saving the Theme ...........................................................................................................14
Summary ........................................................................................................................17
■ Chapter 2: The Score ...........................................................................................19
Storytelling .....................................................................................................................19
Orchestration ..................................................................................................................20
Continuity and Breaks ..........................................................................................................................21
Continuity in Slides ...............................................................................................................................21
Breaking Continuity ..............................................................................................................................24
Melody ..................................................................................................................................................28
The Human Factor ................................................................................................................................33
Summary ........................................................................................................................34
v
■ CONTENTS
■ Chapter 3: Populating Slides ...............................................................................35
Vision ..............................................................................................................................35
Text and Annotations ......................................................................................................36
Graphical Elements ........................................................................................................40
Charts and SmartArt .............................................................................................................................40
Pictures.................................................................................................................................................41
Shapes ..................................................................................................................................................47
Layers and Groups .........................................................................................................55
Summary ........................................................................................................................57
■ Chapter 4: Editing Images ...................................................................................59
Placing Images on a Slide ..............................................................................................59
Edge to Edge .........................................................................................................................................60
Background Removal ............................................................................................................................61
Small Images ........................................................................................................................................63
A Gimp Crash Course ......................................................................................................65
What You Must Know ............................................................................................................................65
Filters ....................................................................................................................................................68
Image Correction ..................................................................................................................................69
Background Removal ............................................................................................................................70
Preparing Portraits................................................................................................................................75
How Far to Go .................................................................................................................80
Summary ........................................................................................................................81
■ Chapter 5: Transitions .........................................................................................83
Thinking Transitions .......................................................................................................83
Transitions and Animations ............................................................................................84
Classifying Transitions ....................................................................................................86
Accentuating a Break .....................................................................................................89
Pushing the Boundaries .................................................................................................93
Summary ......................................................................................................................100
vi
■ CONTENTS
■ Chapter 6: Animations .......................................................................................103
Why Animate ................................................................................................................103
The Grammar of Animations .........................................................................................104
Appearance/Disappearance Effects ...................................................................................................106
Emphasis Effects ................................................................................................................................110
Motion Effects .....................................................................................................................................114
Timing ..........................................................................................................................117
Duration ..............................................................................................................................................117
Triggering ...........................................................................................................................................119
Combinations ...............................................................................................................119
Appearance and Motion: Slanted Zoom ..............................................................................................119
Emphasis and Motion: The Big Picture ...............................................................................................121
Summary ......................................................................................................................124
■ Chapter 7: Putting the Magic Together ..............................................................125
Sleight of Hand .............................................................................................................125
The Computer Code Sawn in Half .................................................................................130
The Vanishing Slides ....................................................................................................143
Summary ......................................................................................................................149
Conclusion ....................................................................................................................149
■ Appendix A: Introducing Oneself .......................................................................151
Teaching Your Rules .....................................................................................................151
Time and History ..........................................................................................................152
References ...................................................................................................................153
■ Appendix B: Licensing Issues ............................................................................155
Fonts ............................................................................................................................156
Images ..........................................................................................................................156
vii
■ CONTENTS
■ Appendix C: Documents .....................................................................................159
Pure Text Document .....................................................................................................159
Speaker’s Notes ...........................................................................................................160
Handout Slides for Handout Documents ......................................................................160
Utilities .........................................................................................................................162
Reducing the Size of PDF Files ...........................................................................................................163
Indexing Slides ...................................................................................................................................164
Index .....................................................................................................................165
viii
About the Author
Stéphane Faroult is known as a database consultant and author. He is also
at times a college instructor. He has spent a good deal of his consultancy
career not only fixing problems but also explaining to groups of people
why the problem occurred in the first place, which led to creating courses
and seminars that he gave both in his native French and in English. The
necessity of explaining system architectures and potential traps that were
hard to replicate and demonstrate, as well as in another context to
students what was really happening inside a computer, led him to use what
is generically known as “slideware” in a very visual way – to transfer his
painfully acquired own understanding as efficiently as possible.

ix
Acknowledgments
The first person I have to thank is also my first reader, Sandra Peele, whose remarks helped me clarify the
text, and occasionally led me to redesigning figures; her redoing my examples with a different version of
PowerPoint from the one I had been using, which is far more than I was expecting of her, also helped me
write a more generic text with a focus on principles rather than details. I must also thank Sara Whalen and
those of her COMM311 students at K-State who commented on a kind of early video draft; their remarks
helped me better structure this book.
Needless to say, my warm thanks go to all the people at Apress who have helped me turn my book
project into the real thing: my editor Laura Berendson; as well as my old acquaintance Jonathan Gennick;
and Jill Balzano, the coordinating editor with whom I already had the pleasure to work with, but as a
technical reviewer instead of author. A special thanks to Karen Jameson, the Copyeditor and eStudio
Calamar, the cover designer of this book.
xi