for the loss of this blog for a week. My ISP were all the help they could be without actually doing anything about it – such as replying to questions in less than three days at a time.
That said, I’m not a big fan of apologies in presentations. Consider this: when you say to an audience “I’m sorry this slide isn’t too clear – I hope you can read it at the back” what you mean is, no doubt, to be respectful of your audience and assure them that you’ve got their interests at heart. What they hear you say however is totally different.
What an audience hears you say at this point is: “I’m sorry the fact that I was too lazy or dis-organized to get this slide right for you instead of going out for a drink with my friends is actually showing“. You’re actually saying that something else (and I don’t care what – it could be anything!) is more important to you than your audience and getting your presentation’s slides sorted out.
There are few honorable excuses – such as when your wife unexpectedly goes into labour three weeks early – but by and large, if you’ve got to apologise for your presentation skills, you’re just plain rude! ;)
“You probably can’t read this slide, but…” rates as my all-time least favorite line. It’s the equalivent of saying, “You probably can’t hear me, but I’m going to keep talking anyway.”
I’m with you. No apologies. Just fix it.
BTW, I’ve never seen a Excel spread sheet imported into PowerPoint successfully. Have you?
Once – just once…. and TBH it took longer to do than to write the slide right in the first place! :)