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Any
time we go to a presentation and spot a pointer on the podium,
we know we’re doomed. Pointers
worked well for World War II generals to pinpoint bombing
targets on blown-up aerial photographs of German industrial
facilities; today, their only use as a presentation device is to
try to compensate for an overly complicated visual.
The
problem with pointers is multifold.
First,
having a pointer violates the rule that a good presenter empties
his hands and pockets of anything that might be tempting to play
with prior to getting anywhere near the platform.
This is essential, as your level of anxiety is greatest
at the beginning of your presentation, and that is when you are
most likely to reach out for and use a crutch.
Once you pick up a pointer, it’s very difficult to put
it down during your talk. Pointers,
given their size, are almost impossible to not play with,
whether as a bridge between the hands or as a leg massage tool.
Telescoping
pointers are the worst, as the action of stretching and
collapsing soon becomes the overbearing focal point of the whole
presentation. We’ve
actually witnessed an individual whose nervous energy at the
beginning of his presentation was so great that he was able to
snap a wooden pointer in half, which of course didn’t help his
comfort level very much.
Beating
it to Death
Second,
they violate the rule that you can’t engage in any behavior
that takes the audiences attention away from the argument that
you’re there to make. Just
as one must never step to the front of the room with keys,
coins, or marbles in your pant pockets, you cannot deliberately
put something in your hand that carries even a remote chance of
become an object of attention.
Audiences
latch on to the position and direction of the pointer, forever
anticipating where it will strike next.
And strike it often does, especially if the screen is the
pull-down kind that flutters in response to a direct hit.
We
actually call this the ‘poor bastard’ syndrome, as in the
famous George Patton speech where he admonishes the troops to
remember its their jobs to make sure the other
poor bastard dies for his
country. The feel
and the sound of this rug-beating can be intoxicating to a
presenter, who is often completely unaware of the obnoxious
nature of his behavior. However
it’s used, the pointer becomes the focus, not the content.
Third,
and most importantly, a pointer allows the presentation designer
to not stop and think about whether the visual could be designed
so that the data stands out without having to actively draw
attention to it. Are
you pointing at one element in the visual because you have more
than one concept happening at the same time?
In most cases, if you feel the need to use a pointer then
you know the slide needs to be broken apart into its
composite concepts. Separate
the components, explain each one, and then show their context in
the overall scheme by bringing all the elements together in an
additional slide.
Along
the same lines, remember that needing a pointer by definition
puts you in violation of one the basic rules of visual design,
i.e., One concept per visual.
Solution:
Depending
upon the content you must deliver to your specific audience,
we’re willing to concede that at some point you will have a
legitimate need to “point to” a certain element in your
slide. You may have
a client who insists on seeing a large amount of data grouped
together, or you may need to refer to a specific area of an
engineering diagram or even a photograph.
You can
add interest or entertainment by showing a “what’s wrong
with this picture” graphic and then actually pointing it out.
Keep in mind that any slide that needs a pointer
mechanism to work should be the exception and not the rule.
If,
after all your best efforts, you find yourself with a visual
that needs specific elements “pointed” to, you can easily
solve the pointer problem by clever use of the software rather
than old-fashioned hardware.
By simply drawing an AutoShape circle around your desired
area of attention, and animating it alive with the Wipe Down or
Wipe Right build, you can point out your data without maker your
pointer the point.
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