When SlideShare started I thought it had the potential to be a resource for examples of good presentation design. However, it seems to me that its lack of support for anything other than slide-by-slide shows has undermined the ability of good designers to show off the more interesting graphics capabilities of PowerPoint.

1. Do reinforces
poor presentation
design?
a conversation

2. This conversation took place
in
2 months ago

3. It was between these members
of the group Great Communicators!
Effective Presenting & PowerPoint
Steve Hards Geetesh Bajaj Konrad Schroth Don Weatherbee
Ellen Finkelstein Michelle Johnson
Glenn Behenna
Pedro Ricart
Steve Vachss Jessica Pyne

4. France
India
Texas
USA
NY
USA
Dominican
Republic
California
USA
United
Kingdom
Iowa
USA
Virginia
USA
It was an international conversation

5. SlideShare reinforces poor
presentation design?
“When SlideShare started I thought it had
the potential to be a resource for examples
of good presentation design. However, it
seems to me that its lack of support for
anything other than slide-by-slide shows
has undermined the ability of good designers to
show off the more interesting graphics
capabilities of PowerPoint.”
Does anyone else share my disappointment?

6. In 2007 I launched my own add-in for PowerPoint, building on my
experience as Director of Sales and Operations for Visual Exemplars
Ltd, the developer and supplier of Perspector, the 3D add-in for
PowerPoint.

7. “I do think that how people
design is not their prerrogative...
“... but the fact that they don't make any
improvements in the graphic and animation
conversion engines is something that leaves a lot to
be desired.
Lots of people get over those limitations by creating
slides that are nothing more than flat graphics --
and that's something SlideShare
should seriously look into.
Have a great day...”

9. “SlideShare's shortcomings reveal a common
prejudice that says PowerPoint presentations
are simply documents…”
“I came across another "slide deck" sharing site recently
that converts PowerPoint to PDF!
Of course, a presentation prepared for an audience without
a presenter is different from (to) a presentation designed
to support a speaker. Even considering this, SlideShare
falls short as a showcase. I have converted
presentations to video and uploaded to SlideShare - this
obviously supports animations, transitions and
audio but there apparently is no way for the viewer to
step thru the presentation or use on-screen
navigation. Sigh..”

10. http://www.slideshare.net/pptcrafter/
do-you-need-a-powerpoint-specialist

11. The impact is lost without animations

12. “I've used Slideshare to share presentations I've
given (Presentation Design, Swine Flu) and to host
another design for Slideshare (Narration).”
“I've also used to put up a presentation (private link) that
I've submitted for consideration for Technical Conferences.
When I put a PPT up on Slideshare, I break down
"static" animation events to several slides, and let a
series of slide show how I used the "click" events. Granted
it would be nice if Slideshare would handle animation
events without the extra work from me, but like all things, I
work with what is available to me. PLUS - it is FREE!
Also if you want people to see what you have done
within a PPT, then allow them to download it
and be impressed. :)|”

16. “Ellen, you are right that SlideShare has more
viewers than any other online presentation
site ...”
“...that's the reason I would like to put
more of my content on SlideShare... but
when I am trying to show how an
animation works, then I just use
PowerPoint 2010's new video output
options and upload to .. The
rest of the time, I use SlideShare.”

18. “The good/popular presentations on
SlideShare are more like storybooks. You
would design your slides
differently if you were presenting live.”

20. “@Michelle - nicely put! They should call it
StorybookShare and stop reinforcing the notion
that this is what presentations should be.
Most of the content there would be
communicated better fleshed out as Word
documents :-)”

21. “I have 3 presentations up on Slideshare - two
(Presentation Design and Swine Flu) are exactly as
I gave them, the third (Presentation Narration)
was more designed with Slideshare in mind and has not been
presented live.”
“I discovered that difference wasn't as big as I had thought
it would be, but there is a difference for sure.
But the same is true for webinars, e-Presentations and so
forth, each method or path for getting the information
across will bring with it, modification to the fundamental
design of it.”

22. “I agree that presentations given online need to
be different from those given in person..”
If there's narration, the difference is less (although
there still isn't the opportunity for interaction with the
audience). Without narration, the difference is
huge, because the slides need to tell the entire
story.
Gone are the days when presentations are limited
to poster boards you can haul into the conference
room, and you've also got more optionsthan the
de facto office suite provides. Here's a look six of
the most popular presentation creation tools.
Narration
No Narration

23. “Great points!”

24. “Excellent discussion and well
considered contributions regarding the
important differences between
conveying information through slides
(perhaps in terms of supporting slides
providing reference information to a
course), as compared to using slides
to underpin the speaker who expands
on the important points bringing
relevance to and interaction with the
intended face to face audience. Looking
forward to more views : - )”

26. A few more thoughts:
“1. 99% of the presentations on Slideshare are
awesome examples of what NOT to do in a
presentation.
2. I'll referenece the Presentation Design one I have
up on Slideshare again (since it is there and you can
see it) - when someone sees it on Slideshare, they
get maybe 50% of what the seminar is about, the
other 50% comes from me as the speaker. But I
understood this when I put it up there…”

27. A few more thoughts:
“One of the points I make when I give this is to encourage
people to review the presenation on line in a week or two,
and see all the things they missed the first time.
For example, the overall flow of it, how transitions were used,
how humor was placed, etc. These are all things that most
people miss on the first go around. :)
3. I've done several ePresentations (narrated PPT converted
to FLV) and those are very different from my live
presentations. I have think move like I'm watching TV and
how to maintain visual interest as the narration progresses.”

28. I agree with Don, almost all presentations in
Slideshare really suck. To me Slideshare shoul be
called slidecumentshare because most of the
presentations are that.
“Check the ones that are featured and you see some slide
design worth of seeing but as I said most of
the other are really bad even for web delivery.”

30. Don's comments are really on point.
“Design of an on-demand presentation is very
different from a live, face-to-face presentation.
Our company blog at PresenterNet will have
an upcoming series of posts about creating
on-demand presentations. FYI, our customers
deliver on-demand content using our
Showroom feature. For an example, go to
http://mompres.presenternet.com. Note that
this is an interactive example that collects
response data as you view it.”

32. I guess to fair, I should also mention there are
absolute gems on Slideshare, which have given all
kinds of interesting ideas for use in presentations
I put together for my employees at my plant and
for the 1 to 2 external seminars that I do a
month. Yeah, I don't do stuff as my only job, but
as part of my job. :)

33. I'm totally with you on this, Steve. SlideShare has been my bugbear
for a while now. In fact, SlideShare was the inspiration for an article
I wrote a few months ago:

42. I think the biggest issue is not so much the
animation - although this is definitely a
problem, particularly as we use animation
to engage audiences and explain
complicated problems visually and simply.
The biggest issue is the lack of
narration. SlideShare does allow it
but the process is ridiculously painful (yes, I
went through it - and I wish I hadn't!) SlideShare has
completely become a platform where
audiences don't watch a
presentation - they read it.

43. What really pains me is that presenters use the same
slides for their presentations, and then upload them to
SlideShare. I'm concerned that this has led to a selection
of presenters thinking: 'Hmm, well if I don't write
this here, SlideShare viewers won't get what this
means when they look at it later... I'll add the text
anyway, even though I'll be explaining it at my live
presentation.'
So completely agree with you Steve - I'll refer to it as
StorybookShare from now on!

44. “I also have a narrated
presentation on SlideShare and I
agree that it was painful. I've
recently been using
and their procedure is so much
easier. You can upload MP3 files,
use a mic, or even use the phone! I
have two presentations there and
they are both jarretad.”

47. I'm narrated about 20 plus presentations, and do
it and assemble at home, then convert to FLV or
mp4 for uploading or use. I find most on-line
"system" for the assemble to be too cumbersome
for me. But then I have a bit of the Sound
Engineer in me, so I may well be bias :)
I for one upload the same presentation I give live
to slideshare for those that attended to review
later. I don't "revise" them for Slideshare on
purpose. I did do one specifically for Slideshare
and did include more slides or words as needed to
allow the presentation to be read on line (no me
or narration).

48. “@ Jessica - I think you have highlighted the
really insidious problem with SlideShare...
something that was lurking in the back of
my mind and hadn't put my finger on until
you articulated it... "I'm concerned that this
has led to a selection of presenters thinking:
'Hmm, well if I don't write this here,
SlideShare viewers won't get what this
means when they look at it later... "
Thanks!”

49. Notes for the win.
“ If I want someone to
understand the slide
without be being there,
I add notes :).”

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