Thank you Carolyn Foote (Not So Distant Future Blog) for pointing me to the “PowerPoint Extreme Makeover” post on Dean Shareski’s Ideas and Thoughts Blog. The video is a YouTube, so for those of you who can’t access because it’s blocked by your district, I encourage you to view it at home. Here are some notes I took:

• Use contrasting background and text (what looks good on the computer screen may not look good projected on a screen)
• Start out with a script and build slides that are relevant to your idea
• One idea per slide (minimal text)
• The whole point of your presentation is to tell a story not have an audience read it off your slides.
• Use minimal animation and sound
• Frame text for emphasis and readability
• Use images instead of clipart and choose images that convey emotions (suggestion for images sources: Google Images, Flickr/Flickr Creative Commons, & Morgue File)
• Tech Tip: pressing the “B” key while in slide show will put up a black slide – useful if you want audience to focus on you and not the screen!

Just for fun: Pogue’s Post (The New York Times) wrote about Your Birth Tune – where you can find out the #1 song for the day you were born. Mines was “I’ll Take You There” by The Staple Singers.

Free Comic Book Day is May 3, 2008 – Visit the website to find participating stores in your area.