Powerpoint Presentation Tips like these can help you keep your audience from snoozing through your presentation, and make the multimedia software a valuable tool that will add the secret sauce the next time you stand up in front of an audience.
Powerpoint Presentation Tips: they’re so simple that everyone can use them
When’s the last time you watched a presentation and thought that the slideshow was valuable? Possibly never. From schools to the corporate boardroom, we all make the same mistakes…again and again and again.
Here are some simple suggestions that will make sure that you don’t fall into the same trap.
- Keep it simple: our eyes can gather information far faster than our ears. So when you’re designing visuals for your show, don’t overwhelm you audience. Keep every slide simple. “Landscape” visuals work best.
- Have a visual theme throughout the show: when you do your audience won’t be distracted by it.
- You’re the star of the show: keep it that way. Your PPT is only there to support you.
- Use high def images on your slides. Lo-def looks terrible on a large screen.
- Bullets: they’re lethal! So keep them to a minimum. The best rule of thumb is to limit the number of bullets per slide to three. Don’t feel that you even have to use text on every slide. But if you do, that leaves you enough room on the slide to keep your font large enough for everyone to read.
- Start each point of your presentation with strong, compelling information. You can’t get them to listen by boring them.
- The 5/5/5 rule (“no more than five words per line of text, five lines per slide, and five text-heavy slides in a row”) is dated, if not dead. The new rule is still five words per line, but only 3 bullet points per slide.
- Since the slide presentation is no longer going to dominate the show, what will? You will. So know your stuff cold. Memorize your opening and closing. Refer to notes sparingly. Don’t just read your script: know it and use note cards as reminders, so you can talk to the audience…not to your script. If you’re not going to read a script, that will limit you to what you actually know.
- Take your time delivering your talk, and pause where appropriate. That can build suspense and get your audience to listen. How much do you listen when a speaker drones on and on in monotone?
- Practice makes perfect, so rehearse. And do a “tech rehearsal.” That’s when you deliver your talk in the actual venue, with the actual technology that you’ll use. Do it and you won’t show up without the “dongle” or the cords or the connectors. (And won’t embarrass yourself)
These are Powerpoint Presentation Tips you can use every day.
PowerPoint is a tool that can improve your presentation. Or it can help you fail.
Rule 1 is the key: Keep it simple and you’ll do just fine.
We use the KISS rule, with short points, focus on distinct topics, and leading with compelling information (“hot buttons”) when we give Power Point presentations, or when we create scripts for “Marketing Messages on hold” that will grab your customers’ attention and deliver your message to them. Find out more about simple yet effective messages on hold at www.informermessages.com or click here for more information
