Often times when a presenter turns to a whiteboard or a handout or a book s/he will leave the current slide showing. Why? Is it necessary? In some cases it might be, in most cases its not. Just hit the letter ‘B’ when that point is reached in the presentation. See what happens. Where does your audience turn their attention?

(You could also hit the ‘w’ key for a similar effect)

If you can, create a handout for your presentation.  By handout, I mean a well thought out compliment to your talk and not a printout of your slides exactly as you intend to give them. What point would that accomplish?

In a time-crunch scenario, and you almost always are in a time crunch scenario, aren’t you? You may consider handing out your notes view. Assuming you have notes there. That should be a good thing, right?

Maybe. Maybe not.

Be careful when giving such a handout, you can lose your audience’s attention. They’ll start reading. When they start reading, they’ve just stopped listening to anything you say. Handouts need to be concise, yet have more information than what is on the slide. Often times it is best to have what Edward Tufte refers to as a “supergraphic.” Something with so much data that it cannot be displayed on a standard presentation slide. Or if it can, it shouldn’t.

A supergraphic will allow the audience members to focus in on specific area of interest to them. Examples Tufte uses are maps of cancer incidents across the USA. My attention may be drawn immediately to my hometown, while yours may be drawn immediately to the a high incidence area.