Saturday, September 12, 2009
Simplifying the Power Point
Just got done redoing my power point. It was an exercise in frustration and a great learning experience. The first good thing that came out of it is the idea of less is more. I like the slimmed down approach, and as I have viewed 2 Power Points in the last 2 weeks, I can so see what is going wrong with those presentations. But mine new one is to the point of boredom, I think. Some of the pictures I had in the first presentation, I thought, were okay, as they were pictures taken where the promotion was done. A lot has to do with the mechanics of the Power point it self. There are so many thing I don't know how to do. Put in background color, flip pictures ( I read the explanation 3 times and still couldn't figure it out), re size pictures, putting text over pictures, ect, ect. I hope I don't sound like I am whining. I want to learn this stuff, but I learn better by someone showing me. I loved some of the pictures that people were Photo shopping (for our picture a day), but have never done that, either. Anyway, I don't think my presentation is better , just different. Also even though I had a picture of what I wanted in my head, most times I could not find that picture on a free web site. I know for my 20 slide/20 sec Power Point I am going to use my own pictures.
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Sandra, I can totally sympathize with your frustration over learning the intricacies of Powerpoint. My school district has been stuck with Office 2000, so when we purchased laptops last year and added 2007, I thought I was going to go CRAZY! And of course my poor planning meant that I had very little time to get something together. All I can tell you is find the time to just play with it. That's the only way I have figured Powerpoint out. But I hear the same complaints from my co-workers so one of my goals this year is to hold technology meetings to teach the teachers how to use these complicated applications. I also hear the same issues from our parents and so am also coming up with classes for them. You Tube also has great tutorials that are very helpful. I have used several of them for Excel and have shown them to my students.
As for the photo search. Yes, that by far took more time than anything else. I'm very obsessed about that kind of thing, so I literally spent HOURS searching for just the right picture. I had the most luck with Flickr, but the real challenge for me was coming up with the perfect search words to get the photo I needed. I'm very happy with the result, but if I have to put that much time into each presentation I create, I'll be putting in some very late hours. I think the thing to do would be to start collecting a file of images to be used whenever, so I don't, again, feel so rushed.
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