I am so grateful for the feedback I received regarding my first version of the handout for NECC. I am so thankful for a learning network like you all!
Here is version 2.2, with lots of changes and improvements. I learned from David Jakes that consistency is important, as is a flair of formality. Counsel taken.
I also decided to go greyscale style, because I didn’t want to risk bad copies if printed on a laser printer.
I found some spots where bullets were different sizes, and the like. I also created this pdf on my Mac, so the graphics look a bit better (well, the one CC graphic, anyway).
So, what do you think?
Why “shadow” your presentation handout title (and contact info–link to blog)? I personally think this should be in white space outside the table, and a little more prominently displayed. Enclosing it in a cell in the table makes it “lost” to the viewer. It’s really not part of the information in the table, so why include it in the table. Let it escape, and be above the table. Then when attendees go back to it, the first piece of information they see is where it came from, and not that it is a table of information. The information is good, but an attendee flipping through their assortment of handouts, goodies, fliers, and other assorted material from NECC may mistakenly think they lost the cover sheet to a handout they received. Remember folks are going to be inundated with give-aways at the conference. I would consider pulling it out of the table, prominently displaying it at the top, and using a good looking font–maybe like the one at the top of the blog here itself.
Speaking of handouts, I have attended many conferences, and been the one who “did not” get a handout because they ran out. Infuriating. So at presentations I do, I make a handout, but I also make cards or even sometimes stickers with the address of the handout so that those who would rather download it later can return and get it at their own leisure. I also place at the footer of any presentation powerpoint the address of the presentation and handouts. My hope is that subliminally attendees will realize they can visit the site and not only get the handout, but also have an interactive map of the presentation itself, and perhaps be able to take it and use it for their own purpose (and suppose I should say under the umbrella of Creative Commons.)
Along those same lines, why are the links not hyperlinked in the on-line version of the handout. Isn’t that possible with pdf files?? I believe it is.
Just my thoughts.
Strictly cosmetic again —
is there a reason why WordPress, Drupal and Moodle are larger columns than the Word Press MultiUser??
If you extrend the WordPress MU a bit to the left = I think it will look perfect.
As for the LINKS — YES
hmmm — it is sad when you comment about desktop publishing — and you lose your own text…….
to complete the sentence………
As for the LINKS — Yes, you can embed them into a PDF. I was lucky enough to get Adobe Acrobat 8 which does this well, so if you need help, just let me know.
Finally, please please please — put this up available on the internet. I know I much rather view handouts AFTER the sessions, then collect them and carry them around with all the other junk (oops — material) we get at the conference.
Hugs to you, my friend.
Jen
Hello, Chris,
I just saw your handout, and wrt hosting and DrupalEd, we are offering (among other things) hosting, theming, and customization of DrupalEd.
Also, I’ll be down at NECC as well — looking forward to meeting up.
Cheers,
Bill
As far making those columns evenly spaced, there is a function to do that too, and you can apply it to just the columns you are interested in. I don’t know if thats a possibility with Googledocs, but it definitely can be done in Word and Excel.
I’m so glad to see you are getting even more good feedback.