Introduction by Barbara Gabogrecan
It is so true that when Power Point Presentations are used, most speakers forget that people want to hear what they have to say, rather than read what messages they can provide. If a Power Point is used, the speaker should never look at the screen themselves (they should keep their eyes riveted on the audience). To do this successfully probably means that the speaker needs someone to move the slides for them, to coincide with their spoken message.
Maria Pantalone of www.infinitegrowth.com.au has written a very interesting article on the use of Power Point. You can read more of her expert advice on speaking skills here
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Using PowerPoint in your presentations
PowerPoint presentations … some people love them and some loathe them. Many of us at some stage have experienced ‘death by PowerPoint’ with some of us possibly even guilty of it.
One option is to not use a PowerPoint slideshow. After all, PowerPoint slides are only a visual aid to you as the speaker. Their purpose is to add impact to what you, the speaker, is saying.
Quite often presenters feel that they need to place every piece of information onto the slides with every animation that they can find. The end result is a visual distraction that can even cause motion sickness if you’re not careful.
Designing effective slides
Ideally your slides should provide your audience with an at-a-glance understanding of the information to support your main points. After all, it is a visual aid just like any other that you may use – such as product samples. Your PowerPoint presentation should enhance your verbal message, not detract from it.
Good slides are:
1• Visible
Limit the number of words per line: 3-4 per line is optimal with 6-7 maximum
Limit the number of lines per slide to five
2• Clear
Focus one idea per slide
Directly relate each slide to your objective
3• Simple
Eliminate extra information and clutter
Use words and phrases rather than sentences
Visually simplify using design and colour
Avoid over-use of animation
Fonts
Using an appropriate size helps your audience to easily read your slides.
Microsoft PowerPoint automatically sets titles at 44 points and the body of content at 32 points. If possible, use these settings as they are easy to see from a distance.
If you do decide to change the size then limit it to four points above or below the default size in Microsoft PowerPoint.
Font Styles
San serif fonts such as Arial work better than serif fonts on a projected image. Serif fonts such as Times New Roman have thin lines that are harder to read across a distance.
Graphics
The use of charts and graphs should provide an easy-to-understand pictorial view of information. Avoid distractions such as unnecessary gridlines.
Less is more
When it comes to a PowerPoint presentation, less is more. After all, your audience is there to listen to you. The slideshow is used to enhance and support your message.
By following these tips you’ll be able to design an effective PowerPoint slideshow that will add value to your presentation.
I must say I do loathe powerpoint presentations but I will definitely try these hints.
its really cool!!
i like using Power Point Presentations! some people love them and some loathe them
I do agree with everything in the article. I’m a regular user of PowerPoint and still find this article useful for me. Nice!
The article gives very useful information power point presentation. In recent days we often need to present our ideas, plans, strategies in power point. The info in the article would help me as well as many in developing our power point presentation skills.
This is an awesome article on power point presentations. They can seem scary but with this information it makes them simple.
I have witnessed text overload on powerpoint more often than I care to remember! It’s great to see a refreshing article discouraging that.
I agree that powerpoints should be clear and simple. After all you have to have a good knowledge of what you are presenting. And putting everything on a powerpoint makes it look like you don’t.
This a very informative article thanks for the information.
This was a good presentation of how Powerpoint is so very useful. It can be implanted into any business, that can give value to your company.
I should also mention that the actual presentation is stronger when the speaker concentrates on what they have to say, rather than simply relying on the Power Point.
power point presentation can be powerful when used correctly. I really appreciate the ideas shared here.
awesome article
Great information and advice about PowerPoint presentations. Have had some struggles in my last few meetings keeping clients interested in my visual presentations with PowerPoint. With these tips, I will incorporate all these strategies with my next business meeting. Keeping it simple, clear and effectively but interestingly short. That is my philosophy.
Power Point can be very helpful for home based business. Your ideas are just awesome … thanks for sharing these ideas which I will try following.
This is an awesome blog in my opinion. I served in the US military where I had to put together briefings for high level officers. I was trained to use all of the examples used in this piece. There is one item mentioned about not adding all your information on a slide. I dont know how many times I saw this and it made me want to sit the person speaking down because I can read.
I might suggest to also think about hiring a professional graphic designer to build your slides if you have the budget. The automatically generated graphs and tables in powerpoint don’t accomplish the things you talk about for creating effective slides. Often they look cluttered. You need someone who knows what they’re doing to make them easier to read.
good one….
Lol, I struggle so much keeping my slides from being filled with information. Just another reminder from the internet that less is more.
I think the main thing to concentrate on when doing a Presentation, is to concentrate on your talk and have the Power Point just to give things such as graphs, bullet points etc. And NEVER look at your powerpoint – look at the people you are speaking to. You want their attention; don’t send them to the Power Point instead of you!
I like your comment Ronnie – I bet others tend to think that the more they put on Power Point, the more impressive and knowledgeable they appear – but in fact, if they depend on Power Point instead of what they are saying, in fact, they appear as though they don’t have the information at their fingertips! Good comment.
Recently I made a video and did a talk over. As I had no actual pictures for the first part, I used Power Point to make the words more interesting to look at. This was a unique way (for me) to use Power Point. If you would like me to mail you a copy, please let me know.
i love using Power Point Presentations. and also it gives lots of information to me thax for sharing so much informaion!!!!!!!!
It is the design that really matters. I like the points you showed.
I create a lot of powerpoint presentations for my work, and I must say that these tips are spot on, especially the tip of using an appropriate font and the “less is more” approach.
Some really interesting comments on the use of Power Point for presentations!
power-points are very helpful, and this helps a lot and teaches how to make a good power point.
Great tips. I agree it’s important the power point presentation should support the talk. It shouldn’t be the talk itself. Looking forward to reading more articles here!
At my new job, I have the privelege of having an old marine officer as my director. The first time I presented, I was PATHETIC. He ended up taking me aside, and then running me through a number of drills over the course of not days, but WEEKS. The general jist is that you should already know that each slide’s point is. Think BIG points, not lots of details. They can look at the slide for details.
These are some pretty useful tips. I make sure to check back to this site whenever I need to do a powerpoint presentation.
Too many people still think that a powerpoint presentation = Word document and forget the purpose of a PPT presentation. This article gives lots of information.
This is very helpful hints for power point presentations. It is very important to know what you are going to say to an audience before going up there. The advice to never look on the screen is very important. Doing presentations in front of audiences is very hard for a lot of people. Part of it is due to the fear of public speaking.
Power point has many qualities I like. Like the things you mentioned to only incude the most important points, to be clearly Visible, to remain Simple and easy to understand. Interesting article.
Great points! I especially hate it when speakers try to take EVERYTHING they’re going to say and include it on their PowerPoint slides. Why not just give me a hard copy of the presentation and just let me read it on my own, instead of reading it all to me?!?!?! I mean, I CAN read! Plus, when they pile too much info on those slides and the writing ends up tiny, I have a terrible time, because I have poor eyesight. PowerPoint is definitely best used by merely including the highlights on the slides and NOT trying to repeat EVERYTHING you’re going to say. Then, focus on presenting the spoken part well.
Will be sure to improve my power points in the future.
You’ve captured the bane of my existence! Thanks for the methods to eradicate this pain!
It’s good to know a bit about your audience before making a presentation, because no one wants to sit there being bored and have none of the information being presented be of any relevance to them!