Robin Williams, teacher and designer, knows what it takes to give a good presentation. In this revised and updated book, Robin makes it easy for even first-time presenters to get past their fears of creating a presentation. She expands upon the four fundamental principles of good design and typography introduced in her award-winning Non-Designer’s series and adds four more principles specific to achieving clear communication with slides. Let Robin guide you in her signature light-hearted style through the entire process of creating a presentation—from planning and organizing your ideas to designing effective, beautiful slides that won’t put your audience to sleep. In this essential guide to presentation design, you’ll learn: •    What makes a good presentation—or a bad one •    How to plan, organize, and outline your presentation •    Four principles for developing effective presentations •    Four principles for designing beautiful slides that communicate clearly •    Specific tips for using animation and transitions that aren’t annoying •    A list of timeless presentation rules . . .  that you should totally ignore

Table of Contents:
1: Where to Begin?    What’s a presentation? Does it need to be digital? Yes, it needs to be digital Which slide size to use? Both presenting and posting? Where is your audience? What’s a bad presentation? What’s a good presentation? Software options Boundaries can be great Templates and assets Share your slides   2: Get yourself Organized      Plan, organize, outline, write Now that you’re organized Four principles of presentation design (overview)   3: Clarity          Edit the text! Spread out the text! How many slides in a presentation? Sometimes you need lots on one slide   4: Relevance   Get rid of superfluous stuff Backgrounds Don’t use dorky clip art Use relevant photos   5: Animation   Animation creates a focus Concerns about animation   6: Plot  Make a beginning Tell us where you’re going Text vs. images Find the humans in the story Tell relevant stories Vary the pace Make an end And leave time for questions Four principles of design (overview)   7: Contrast      Contrast with typeface Contrast with color Contrast provides substance Contrast can help organize Contrast demands attention   8: Repetition   Repeat to create a consistent look Repeat a style Repeat the image, but differently Unity with variety Design the repetitive elements Repetition doesn’t mean sameness   9: Alignment   Alignment cleans up individual slides Alignment cleans up your deck Alignment unifies your deck Alignment makes you look smarter Alignment is a great organizer Alignment will need adjusting Intentionally break the alignment!   10: Proximity   Create relationships White space is okay But avoid trapped white space Proximity cleans and organizes Proximity is a starting point   11: Handouts   Why include handouts   12: Learn your Software         Turn off “Autofit” or “Shrink text to fit” Set the vertical alignment to the top Adjust the space between lines Adjust the space between paragraphs Crop or mask an image Don’t squish the images   13: Ignore these Rules            Never read a slide aloud Never use serif typefaces Never use animation Never use more than one background Never make a slide without an image on it Never use more than five bullet points per slide Never use more than two or three words per bullet point Never use PowerPoint Never turn the lights off. Never turn the lights on Never provide handouts before your talk Never use pie charts Never use Arial or Helvetica   14: Listen to your Eyes            Quiz: Listen to your eyes Checklist for content Checklist for slides Put it all together   15: Resources