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Grids, The Rule of Thirds, and Rethinking Slide Presentations
Merlin Mann | Dec 31 2007
I received my contributor copy of Garr Reynolds's Presentation Zen book last week and proceeded to devour it over the weekend. A fuller review is coming to this space soon, because this is the book about presentations that's needed to be written for years, and it's just fantastic. Best of all it's not another recipe book about "how to make slides" -- this is about re-imagining how your entire presentation will work together as a persuasive and integrated show, from conception through delivery. Awesome. Anyhow, with my inaugural Macworld talk looming on the horizon (T-minus 16 days, thanks), I've been inspired by Garr's book (and the top-notch site on which it's based) to, among other things, try revamping the approach to how slides fit in to my overall show. As I said on the Twitter, that starts with shit-canning the PowerPoint-y Keynote templates I've previously torn up and pasted together for stuff like Inbox Zero (here's the slides for that one, which Garr was kind enough to feature in his book). But, now, rather than strictly trying to reinvent the wheel, I have a quest. A quest for a crazy-simple, design-centric Keynote template that's more about composition than gradients and 3-D bullet points. Ever heard of The Rule of Thirds? Yeah, you probably have. Like the wikipedia article says:
Here's a good example off that wikip page. (image by Moondigger [CC-By-SA-2.5]) And the one-third grid works. So much so that in apps like iPhoto '08, the The Rule of Thirds (and the related Golden Ratio) have come up on Garr's site before, and on page 151 of his book, he talks about how a grid like this can provide a level of light constraint that makes your layout easier and more harmonious:
And, how. So, I want this for Keynote. I've begun lightly noodling with a new set of Masters that's built around a Rule of Thirds grid (trashing the whole Center MacCentercenter approach), but before I get ahead of myself, I figure why not cast my line towards the more gifted waters of the LazyWeb first... The Question to YouHave you tried using grids like the Rule of Thirds in your own slide decks? Got a favorite layout or inspiring grid structure that works well for a slide’s aspect ratio? Got great advice on getting out of the stock slide template look? Links to graphical examples welcomed. Winning high-five goes to folks who are willing to share the actual Keynote template they've used. 20 Comments
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The latter.Submitted by jth on January 2, 2008 - 2:47pm.
Sorry, but while going through college, I did not enjoy watching presentations like what I'm assuming yours may looks like. Yes, they were okay for notes review, but if I'm provided the complete content of your presentation, then why am I in the class? I'd guess your next thought is: "well, it's not all in the presentation, of course". Which begs the question then, why so much, if I have to pay attention and take notes anyway? I think the thought you arrived at near the end of your post is in the right direction. If your presentations are entertaining and interesting to watch, and you provide written notes after the class is over, you not only have your student's attention during the class, but they're also taking some high level notes. These are then augmented by the notes you provide. Students have a reason to come to class while you're doing all you are reasonably expected to (and then some). As another bonus, the students who learn better by listening and taking notes themselves will get that additional synthesis, which they may not be getting now because they've got notes in front of them. Please, for your students sake, play with this concept. I wish 95% of my professors had. (For those wondering about a "teleprompter"...have you not found the keynote "presentation" mode? If so, do none of your slides have notes associated? Those get displayed below your current slide in presentation mode!) » POSTED IN:
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