Resources

Giving a truly effective and entertaining presentation is difficult for a lot of us, but with a little bit of knowledge and some practice, you can drastically improve your presentations, making you more at-ease in front of an audience, and making the experience more enjoyable for them as well.

I still get nervous when I make my own presentations, but I use whatever resources are at my disposal to be well-prepared and ready when the time comes to present.

Below are some favorite resources I turn to for advice, ideas and inspiration.

See also my list of web links on del.icio.us. The newest resources from this list are featured in the New Resource Links section on the front page.

Better Approaches to Presentations

http://www.presentationzen.com
Garr Reynolds’ blog, “Presentation Zen” is one of the best. Read it regularly.

http://www.beyondbulletpoints.com
Cliff Atkinson created the “Beyond Bullet Points” approach to presentation creation and delivery and is the author of Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate and Inspire. I highly recommend both the book and the website.

Color

http://kuler.adobe.com
Kuler is Adobe’s Flash-based color palette creator.  Use the tools to create your color palettes, then save them to Photoshop or share them with others on the site.  Kuler is a fun way to explore color and get some ideas for your presentations.

http://slayeroffice.com/tools/color_palette/
This nifty tool helps you quickly create a color palette based on a color you select. You do need to know the hexadecimal notation for the color but it can quickly and easily give you a nice, harmonious range of colors to use in a presentation.

http://www.mariaclaudiacortes.com/
This Flash-based site is a fun way to learn more about color and color symbolism.

http://www.colormatters.com
Excellent site for information and ideas on using color effectively.

Fonts

Fonts (or ”typefaces”) help to subtly reinforce (or detract from) the message you are trying to present to your audience. Getting a feel for what a type “says” to the audience can help you select the most appropriate font for your needs.

http://www.fonts.com/AboutFonts/Type101/
Fonts.com has a Type 101 section on their website.  Go here to learn some of the basics.

Images (Photos & Clip Art)

http://office.microsoft.com/clipart/default.aspx?lc=en-us
Microsoft Office Clip Art site. Here you will find thousands of FREE photos and clip art that you can download and use not only in PowerPoint, but in all of your Microsoft Office applications (a valid license for Microsoft Office is required to download content).

http://sxc.hu
The Stock Exchange is a site where you can download very good quality images for free!  Amateur and professional photographers add their works to the Stock Exchange for worldwide use.

http://www.flickr.com
The photo-sharing site Flickr is a great place to find images to use in your presentations.  Many of the photos are available under Creative Commons licenses.

http://www.fotolia.com
While the three free sources above often fulfill all of my needs, when I need to find something different, I often turn to Fotolia, an excellent collection of stock photos available for purchase.  Prices are reasonable (about $3.00 – $5.00 for most images) for use in presentations.

Organizations

http://www.iabc.com
International Association of Business Communicators

http://www.stc.org
Society for Technical Communication

http://www.toastmasters.org
Toastmasters International

Slide Design

http://www.bamagazine.com/
Before & After is a real-world, hands-on graphic design magazine. Each issue provides practical instructions for simple and extremely effective graphic designs. I often use their articles as inspiration for slide layouts, color schemes, font choices, etc. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

http://www.dynamicgraphics.com
Website of the magazine Dynamic Graphics. While geared towards graphic designers, the magazine is an excellent source of inspiration for your slide layouts.

What resources do you rely on for your presentations? Leave a comment and share them!