【正文】 th more detail on Linux and open standards. If those other topics don39。s true that less is more on any single page (and even for visuals in general) so long as your pages are brief and direct, repeating pages in order to highlight the progress of your presentation is an effective use of supporting visuals. In this instance, more can be more. Just don39。 graphs Charts and graphs can be very effective tools. They can also be annoyingly clumsy, obscuring the very information they39。t be on the screen at all. This introduction to the simplest, most mon and effective types of charts used in presentations should help you develop the basic skills you need to decide when to use a graph, how to select the type most appropriate to your data, and how to create it using the software you already have available, in a style that will blend harmoniously into the IBM template. Before you even begin creating charts, there are a few points to keep in mind. ? Charts must be read. They don39。re ready to Present It — which just happens to be the subject of the third and final section of the IBM Presentation Methodology. The template The IBM Presentation Template (someone reading this has already mentally shortened it to the IPT, no doubt) gives you a few basic options to choose from. Inside of the blue bands (the letterbox area), you can either use a black background with white text or a white background with black text. You can have background imagery on the title slide inside the letterbox or in the blue bands. A few things you shouldn39。re thoroughly prepared. Say It, Don39。re probably forcing your inperson audience to read too much. And if you39。t already included.) If you can39。re new to public speaking, you might want to browse the list of remended reading provided elsewhere. However, here are a few general pointers that apply to novice and experienced presenters alike. You Talking to Me? Before you present, try to answer the following for yourself about the people you see in the room, based on what you know about them or, if you have nothing else to go on, their expressions and the way others respond when they speak. ? Who are the critical decision makers of the audience, whose yes or no may be all that matters ultimately? What are their needs and priorities? ? Who are the influencers in the audience, who seem to mand a sense of authority and may be expected to make remendations to the critical decision makers? ? Who are your allies? Not just friends or colleagues you may recognize in the audience, but the 20 percent who appear most receptive to the points you are making and are probably generally supportive to most people presenting to them. While it may seem counterintuitive, present mostly to the people you see in the audience who obviously want you to succeed, while being aware of the decision makers and influencers. Micki Holliday (Secrets of Power Presentations) says: Presenters tend to get distracted and controlled by the negative personality types. They try to convince, cajole, persuade that one person, often to the detriment of the rest of the audience. It is usually a hopeless task. Do not read your slides. Assuming the text (if any) on your slide is legible (as it should be), your audience can read it faster than you can speak it. Few things are more annoying than watching someone merely read or closely paraphrase page after page of text. People will either assume that you don39。s useless merely to tell your audience what they39。s an example of the effective way to transition between slides, given by Gene Zelazny in Say It With Presentations: 1. Continue eye contact with the audience as you finish discussing the previous slide. As we39。re changing the slides on your own, you should be quiet during the change of visuals, so that the audience can absorb the new slide for half a second without also having to concentrate on what you39。t plan to take questions, allow a little time for them anyway. As important as it is to deliver a good presentation, it39。s rarely time for a survey. In any case, it39。re familiar with, and the remendations for overing them. Change your own slides. While not always possible, depending on the presentation environment, you should generally be prepared to change your own slides. Sometimes, though, you have to have someone else running your slides, or perhaps the audience is stepping through the slides themselves while you speak to them over the phone or in a Webcast. You39。s more powerful, what critical technologies are in the latest version, and why this particular benchmark is relevant to your audience. Transition first, then change slides. This is one of the most effective practices you can adopt. Too often, speakers will change the visuals first, everyone starts reading while the speaker starts a transition to this subject, and the audience starts with a sense of confusion until the speaker39。re a novice presenter and too nervous. Explain your slides. Good supporting materials, on their own, will prompt questions in the audience39。s notes or create an Adobe Acrobat file of such a printout, which is what you can then to them. Speaking tips There are many books, articles and seminars devoted to the skill of speaking to an audience. This isn39。t going to be able to stand on its own when you it off to whoknowswhat environment and audience. If you have to a presentation you won39。s bee an accepted part of the culture at IBM (and elsewhere) to a presentation to someone, in lieu of presenting it in person or when an inperson presentation isn39。ll see more guidelines in the nondisplaying margins of its slides, and more detailed explanations are available from the template download menu. For now, we39。ll find all sorts of examples of chart