Re: Presentation tools used ?

On Mon, Oct 23, 2023 at 8:30 AM Steve Litt <slitt(at)troubleshooters(dot)com>
wrote:

> Achilleas Mantzios said on Sun, 22 Oct 2023 08:50:10 +0300
>
> >Hello All
> >
> >I am going to give a talk about PostgerSQL, so I'd like to ask you
> >people what do you use for your presentations, also I have no idea how
> >the remote control works to navigate through slides. I have seen it,
> >but never came close to using one.
> >
> >I have access to google slides and libreoffice Impress. What tools
> >would you suggest ? What's your setup ?
>
> I use presentations in my work, both given by myself and given by
> trainers. I can tell you Libreoffice Impress is absolute garbage. It
> intermittently loses style definitions. As far as google slides, I know
> nothing about them except I don't trust Google. Also, I'm not fan of
> Software as a Service (SaaS) for non-big-enterprise usage. I prefer to
> keep it all on my hard disk. That's where my PostgreSQL software
> resides.
>

One big problem on most of these also is that you have presentation and
content tied together. So retheming a presentation is difficult or
impossible.

This is one area where Beamer (which I see you mentioned) really shines. I
can change my presentations if someone wants them themed differently
separate from my content.

>
> Beamer (a LaTeX package) is the Cadillac of the industry, but only if
> you're willing to put in the work. I've done presentations in
> VimOutliner, but it's not "pretty" and so is only appropriate for
> certain audiences. I created Free Software called HTMLSlides, but it's
> not easy to use. I don't recommend it.
>

Also I have noticed a lot of folks in the community (myself included) use
Beamer mostly.

I love it. It makes my life a LOT easier.

>
> If you don't want to use Beamer, my advice would be to research tools
> that convert Markdown to slides. Markdown is lightning quick to author
> in, very much unlike Beamer.
>
> Two other suggestions:
>
> 1) Please have mercy on your audience members with poor vision, and use
> black type on white background. Yeah, it's not "pretty" and it's not
> "hip", but you won't lose people who can't read purple on blue.
> Likewise, use large fonts so everyone can read. If you need small
> fonts to reveal all your info, you need to split the slide in two.
>

+1

I do sometimes make an exception for this when something is sponsored and
the sponsoring company requests it.

>
> 2) Don't read from your slides. If it's necessary to read the slide,
> what I do is tell the audience to read the slide, and then after
> they've read it I ask for questions and give them answers. But
> typically, my slides are an overview, and my verbal presentation is
> a dialog between myself and the audience.

Slides should be a mnemonic device for you as a speaker and for the
audience later, not a source of direct information except when you need a
visual exploration and then the images are helpful.

>
>
> HTH,
>
> SteveT
>
> Steve Litt
>
> Autumn 2023 featured book: Rapid Learning for the 21st Century
> http://www.troubleshooters.com/rl21
>
>
>

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