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Ask HN: What can I use to make presentations that don't suck?
I have to give a presentation as part of my Master's project soon, and we have to produce slides. I've never given a full on presentation. What can I use that isn't Powerpoint to produce simple, clear slides?
Currently looking at LaTeX + beamer, or simply drawing things nicely on my white board, photographing, cleaning up and adding a bit of text. Any other ideas or suggestions?
- JayNeely 17y agohttp://prezi.com/ http://prezi.com/ 's front page has taken a turn for the worse, but they create some visually interesting presentations. If you have to use slides specifically, take a look at Garr Reynold's (PresentationZen.com guy) sample slides... http://www.garrreynolds.com/Presentation/sample1.html http://www.garrreynolds.com/Presentation/sample1.html ...and presentation tips: http://www.garrreynolds.com/Presentation/index.html http://www.garrreynolds.com/Presentation/index.html Finally, http://slideology.com http://slideology.com is also a good resource; checkout the most-read articles list in the sidebar.
- SandB0x 17y agoPrezi is certainly a refreshing take on things. Unfortunately it seems we do have to create slides, but I'll keep it in mind for next time. Thanks for the rest of the links too.
- swolchok 17y agoI am a die-hard Linux fan. However, I recently discovered that the latest Powerpoint is head and shoulders above Beamer and OpenOffice (try SmartArt, for example), so I use the school's Windows machines just to work on my presentation.
- bhousel 17y agocheck out http://280slides.com/ http://280slides.com/
- amirkhella 17y agoUsing graphics/images from iStockPhoto and similar sites helps convey the point. An important rule to remember: your audience will either be reading your slides, or hearing what you say. So make sure they compliment each other. Guy Kawasaki has some helpful advice on how to use text in presentations: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2005/12/the_102030_rule.html http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2005/12/the_102030_rule.html
- Auzy 17y agoPowerpoint is simply a tool. If you have poor presentation skills, any software will create crappy slides. Yes using different tools may help make it easier, but similar to an artists work, the ultimate quality of the piece will lie with the artist. Yes using different tools may produce slightly better results, but the designer is the biggest contributing factor. Powerpoint is powerful enough to do anything you need, so I don't see why you shouldn't consider it. Thinking differently for the sake of doing so doesn't make sense!
- stevelosh 17y agoIf you like Markdown you could give slidedown a try. You write your slides in Markdown and then render them to HTML: http://github.com/nakajima/slidedown http://github.com/nakajima/slidedown
- nailer 17y agoThere was a presentation tool used at PyCon during one of the lightening talks that used an interesting 'zoom and rotate' concept. Any HN folk know what this is?
- SandB0x 17y agoCould it be Prezi (on JayNeeley's post)?