Advice I was given in my youth:
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If you're putting lots of text on your slides, you're doing it wrong anyway. The slides are stage dressing for your talk, they NOT ARE your talk!
Put in your slides which can't be communicated verbally. Like photos of your experiments, data graphs, figures, the likes.
Example:
@datenwolf @freakboy3742 I think that depends on the audience. When I was giving talks outside the UK I often quite intentionally added more text (and slides) because for a 2nd/3rd/.. language speaker it's common especially in tech that they are strong in written but not spoken form.
Making copies of the materials available in advance also works wonders, and unlike university lecturers your listeners might actually have read through them.
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RE: https://oldbytes.space/@feoh/116687129039392818
Advice I was given in my youth:
Print your slide on a full piece of paper. Put the paper on the ground. Stand on a chair.
If you can’t easily read your slide, neither can the person at the back of the room.
It flummoxes me that 30 years into using computers to show slides, tiny fonts in slide is *still* widespread practice.
@freakboy3742 When I first did them the best advice I was given was 'write it on a postage stamp, if you can't fit it on a postage stamp there's too much on that slide'
I think it's in reality a bit more nuanced depending upon audience and language skills.
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R relay@relay.publicsquare.global shared this topic
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RE: https://oldbytes.space/@feoh/116687129039392818
Advice I was given in my youth:
Print your slide on a full piece of paper. Put the paper on the ground. Stand on a chair.
If you can’t easily read your slide, neither can the person at the back of the room.
It flummoxes me that 30 years into using computers to show slides, tiny fonts in slide is *still* widespread practice.
@freakboy3742 I never heard this, but it makes sense. Thanks for the tip!
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RE: https://oldbytes.space/@feoh/116687129039392818
Advice I was given in my youth:
Print your slide on a full piece of paper. Put the paper on the ground. Stand on a chair.
If you can’t easily read your slide, neither can the person at the back of the room.
It flummoxes me that 30 years into using computers to show slides, tiny fonts in slide is *still* widespread practice.
@freakboy3742 bloody PowerPoint makes fonts smaller and smaller the more text you put on slides. This removes some of the feedback.
I would also add that using complete sentences with bullet points is stupid. Oh, and stop using clip art just to fill space. I should take my meds now, grumpy old man that I am.(I'm more or less forced to use ppt at my job, but in my old job I could use LaTeX)
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If you're putting lots of text on your slides, you're doing it wrong anyway. The slides are stage dressing for your talk, they NOT ARE your talk!
Put in your slides which can't be communicated verbally. Like photos of your experiments, data graphs, figures, the likes.
Example:
EXACTLY. If your audience is reading everything you plan to say, then why are you there?
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RE: https://oldbytes.space/@feoh/116687129039392818
Advice I was given in my youth:
Print your slide on a full piece of paper. Put the paper on the ground. Stand on a chair.
If you can’t easily read your slide, neither can the person at the back of the room.
It flummoxes me that 30 years into using computers to show slides, tiny fonts in slide is *still* widespread practice.
@freakboy3742 completely agree.
In addition my father gave me similar advice about my resume that I want to share.
He told me not to use small font size on my resume (I was using size 8 to fit everything in one page) because most hiring managers are older and would have trouble reading the resume especially if they printed it out.
Now years later I see the validity of the statement because I face that problem when people use small fonts in their resume.
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R relay@relay.an.exchange shared this topic
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RE: https://oldbytes.space/@feoh/116687129039392818
Advice I was given in my youth:
Print your slide on a full piece of paper. Put the paper on the ground. Stand on a chair.
If you can’t easily read your slide, neither can the person at the back of the room.
It flummoxes me that 30 years into using computers to show slides, tiny fonts in slide is *still* widespread practice.
reading uses the auditory loop; you can't listen and read at the same time.
I do things like keywords or headings on slides. Occasionally text of a quote. I use images of theorists, diagrams, and illustrative photos.
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If you're putting lots of text on your slides, you're doing it wrong anyway. The slides are stage dressing for your talk, they NOT ARE your talk!
Put in your slides which can't be communicated verbally. Like photos of your experiments, data graphs, figures, the likes.
Example:
@datenwolf @freakboy3742 absolutely!
Text on slides means people are too busy reading to listen.
Full talk content on slides means you needn't bother being there.
Images on slides illustrate and illuminate. -
@freakboy3742 ugh, so much this. Every new tool for making slides tries for "pretty" slides which often have too-small text in a too-empty field.
@nedbat @freakboy3742 … with poor contrast because some people think colors that look great on their hi-dpi monitor looks great on a projector too. And I mean both classic light/dark contrast AND color contrast.
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RE: https://oldbytes.space/@feoh/116687129039392818
Advice I was given in my youth:
Print your slide on a full piece of paper. Put the paper on the ground. Stand on a chair.
If you can’t easily read your slide, neither can the person at the back of the room.
It flummoxes me that 30 years into using computers to show slides, tiny fonts in slide is *still* widespread practice.
When I served in the Army, there was a minimum font size for PPT presentations. I want to say 18pt?
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RE: https://oldbytes.space/@feoh/116687129039392818
Advice I was given in my youth:
Print your slide on a full piece of paper. Put the paper on the ground. Stand on a chair.
If you can’t easily read your slide, neither can the person at the back of the room.
It flummoxes me that 30 years into using computers to show slides, tiny fonts in slide is *still* widespread practice.
but also something as simple as an X,Y chart with linear axis and > ~~4 variables
the lines are in color, hard to tell apart, and the legend is at the bottom, so one has to look down at legend then up at chart
total basic fail -
RE: https://oldbytes.space/@feoh/116687129039392818
Advice I was given in my youth:
Print your slide on a full piece of paper. Put the paper on the ground. Stand on a chair.
If you can’t easily read your slide, neither can the person at the back of the room.
It flummoxes me that 30 years into using computers to show slides, tiny fonts in slide is *still* widespread practice.
@freakboy3742
I've heard this idiotic phrase at almost every conference I've attended: "I know you can't read this but..." -
When I served in the Army, there was a minimum font size for PPT presentations. I want to say 18pt?
Ironically, it's my experience as a former US Army contractor that they're one of the biggest drivers towards cramming too much stuff into slides. Their workplace culture was centered around slides rather than reading, and the slides (both while presenting and as take-aways) are probably their only engagement with the topic. If you didn't get it in front of them in slide format, you probably weren't getting any of their attention on the matter. The tendency to cram text and "eye charts" is often merely responding to these perverse incentives.
I wish people would read more, even if it's just executive summaries. Unfortunately, GenAI slop is making the art of concise writing worse rather than better.
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@freakboy3742 completely agree.
In addition my father gave me similar advice about my resume that I want to share.
He told me not to use small font size on my resume (I was using size 8 to fit everything in one page) because most hiring managers are older and would have trouble reading the resume especially if they printed it out.
Now years later I see the validity of the statement because I face that problem when people use small fonts in their resume.
@suramya @freakboy3742
I am currently working on my resume and was about to make this mistake.Excellent timing.
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RE: https://oldbytes.space/@feoh/116687129039392818
Advice I was given in my youth:
Print your slide on a full piece of paper. Put the paper on the ground. Stand on a chair.
If you can’t easily read your slide, neither can the person at the back of the room.
It flummoxes me that 30 years into using computers to show slides, tiny fonts in slide is *still* widespread practice.
@freakboy3742 Personally I blame the prelevalence of online presentations. Small fonts are more acceptable in such a setting because all attendees have a high resolution screen directly in front of them.
Pesenting an in person training, let alone a talk at a conference in a long shoebox shaped room - minimal text, super large fonts.
As a trainer I've worked with companies whose presentation template was created by a design company. Cool, but only aimed at online presentations, so unusable for training.
And no, slide content is neither 'the talk', nor is it reference reading for the attendees. A violin is important in a concerto, but it's not about the violin, but about its effect on those listening, a means to an end.
If you disagree, feel free to use minute fonts and add lots of preferably unrelated clipart, or super complicated ai generated infographics. Wingdings, anyone?
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When I served in the Army, there was a minimum font size for PPT presentations. I want to say 18pt?
@chessert I’m pretty sure 24pt was the value I was told… but either way, a lot more than 12.
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RE: https://oldbytes.space/@feoh/116687129039392818
Advice I was given in my youth:
Print your slide on a full piece of paper. Put the paper on the ground. Stand on a chair.
If you can’t easily read your slide, neither can the person at the back of the room.
It flummoxes me that 30 years into using computers to show slides, tiny fonts in slide is *still* widespread practice.
@freakboy3742 The font "size-up" button is right there. Smash it! Lots of times!
Shown is the "Increase Font Size" button in #LibreOffice. Shortcut is Ctrl + ]
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It flummoxes me that 30 years into using computers to show slides, tiny fonts in slide is still widespread practice.
25+ years ago, PowerPoint shipped a misfeature where, if you typed more text into a text box, it would automatically shrink the text to fit.
When Keynote shipped, it did not have this misfeature. I believe this is 90% of the reason that early Keynote presentations looked better than PowerPoint presentations of the same era: If you typed too much text into a box in PowerPoint, it would make it unreadable for people in the audience, if you did the same in Keynote you had to manually reduce the size and that felt wrong.
Some time around Keynote 3ish, they also added this misfeature.
@david_chisnall @freakboy3742
I hate autofit! -
RE: https://oldbytes.space/@feoh/116687129039392818
Advice I was given in my youth:
Print your slide on a full piece of paper. Put the paper on the ground. Stand on a chair.
If you can’t easily read your slide, neither can the person at the back of the room.
It flummoxes me that 30 years into using computers to show slides, tiny fonts in slide is *still* widespread practice.
@freakboy3742 and it would be nice if conference organizers would advise the projector's resolutions, because it's not the same to write slides in an 8k screen and then project in a 1080p projector.
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RE: https://oldbytes.space/@feoh/116687129039392818
Advice I was given in my youth:
Print your slide on a full piece of paper. Put the paper on the ground. Stand on a chair.
If you can’t easily read your slide, neither can the person at the back of the room.
It flummoxes me that 30 years into using computers to show slides, tiny fonts in slide is *still* widespread practice.
@freakboy3742
That’s a perfect idea for proofreading! I try to adjust font size so others can see, but depending on the projector and room size it’s hard to judge with a laptop screen. Making sure the font is contrasting well with the background helps ( i .e. background is a picture and font is white, the picture has to be dim so the font stands out) but this makes so much more sense!
