【正文】 sition. At best, it will seem as if you need to see your own slides to remember what to tell people. Transition verbally to the next slide first. Here39。t possible. While this can be a great costsaver in terms of travel and time, realize that if your charts are plete enough to stand all on their own without your thoughtful arguments and explications, then you39。re going to say. (If you are preparing a printed version of your pitch to distribute to your audience, you will probably include a page only once, and remove any highlighted and repeated pages.) Charts amp。ll see that the template reflects this limit. This limit of five is not a matter of how much text will fit onto a page while remaining both legible and visually pleasing, although these are important considerations. Rather, it39。s worth their time and effort. More important, make sure it39。t bother to begin with this formal, structured approach. Although you haven39。s a useful resource. But the basic idea is really mon sense, merely a way of laying out your information so you can arrange and, later on, present it logically. Let39。ll get those.) That39。d choose? Composing this basic sentence might take two minutes, or it might take an hour. It doesn39。s assume, four reasons. First, IBM products work together. Second, IBM offers the flexibility of open systems. Third, IBM services tie everything together. Fourth, IBM has experience in the customer39。ll notice that the pyramid more closely resembles a classic outline structure. Unlike an outline, however, the relative equality of the boxes make it much easier to restructure and reorder your presentation and establish new relationships to item without altering the entire anization, as often occurs when creating an outline. Where to begin Visual elements such as graphs, charts, and text can enhance your ability to municate, helping your audience follow your message and quickly understand various types of information. Used thoughtfully, they can be valuable tools. Used indiscriminately, or constructed poorly, however, they can actually detract from your message. They can clutter your presentation and confuse your audience. This template will facilitate the preparation of your presentation and will help to continue establishing you as one of the best expressions of the IBM brand. ? It reflects IBM39。 they have e to hear you municate. Use visuals to support your message. ? Less is more. A graph that shows (for example) levels of customer spending on certain technologies can reveal at a glance trends in the market, but it remains your task to explain that data39。 module, this should already be clear.) The solution is to create another page which focuses in greater detail on one of your topics. In our current example, you might progress to this: Here again, you are giving your audience a limited, manageable amount of information at any one time. If you have benchmark data (in this example) that simply demands a graphic treatment, don39。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。t already included.) If you can39。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。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。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。t need a line on the screen to summarize every single thing you39。s why you should limit any page of text to no more than five items (and even five is pushing it). You39。s important to follow the guidelines if you will be using these. More text (if you must) The template also provides a format for longer blocks of text. You should use blocks of text very sparingly. Yes, once in a while there might be a longer passage that is relevant, and valuable. For instance, you might have a quote from an analyst or customer that is particularly striking: If you are going to make your audience read something, make sure it39。ve anized first. Congratulations: you now have a clear picture literally of what information is relevant to your presentation, what points it supports, and where it should go. Unfortunately, many people don39。ll actually present each item. Just get them all down on paper to look at. The Pyramid Principle book listed in our remended reading list is devoted to this method of anization, and it39。t succumb to the temptation of collecting every apparently relevant item into a jumble and then trying to reshuffle them into a coherent order. (Jim has a nice chart on this, and Lisa has some good market data, I39。t really matter which. Just get it right. Without a clear point of view, you are navigating without direction. Get i