Do You Read Long Speeches During Powerpoint Presentations?

Slideshows are quick to produce, easy to update and an effective way to inject visual interest into almost any presentation.

However, slideshows can also spell disaster even for experienced presenters. The key to success is to make certain your slideshow is a visual aid and not a visual lark.

Tips for Making Effective PowerPoint Presentations

• Apply the slide master characteristic to create a consistent and elementary design template. It is fine to vary the content presentation (bulleted list, two-column text, text and epitome, etc.), but be consistent with other elements such as font, colors and groundwork.
• Simplify and limit the number of words on each screen. Employ key phrases and include only essential data.
• Limit punctuation and avert putting words in all-capital letters. Empty space on the slide will enhance readability.
• Use contrasting colors for text and background. Light text on a dark background is all-time. Patterned backgrounds can reduce readability.
• Avoid the use of flashy transitions such as text wing-ins. These features may seem impressive at offset simply are distracting and become erstwhile quickly.
• Overuse of special effects such as animation and sounds may make your presentation "cutesy" and could negatively affect your brownie.
• Use skilful-quality images that reinforce and complement your message. Ensure that your image maintains its touch on and resolution when projected on a larger screen.
• If you use builds (lines of text actualization each fourth dimension y'all click the mouse), accept content appear on the screen in a consequent, simple manner; from the top or left is all-time. Apply the characteristic only when necessary to make your signal, because builds can ho-hum your presentation.
• Limit the number of slides. Presenters who constantly "flip" to the next slide are likely to lose their audience. A good rule of thumb is one slide per minute.
• Learn to navigate your presentation in a nonlinear fashion. PowerPoint allows the presenter to jump ahead or back without having to page through all the interim slides.
• Know how to and practice moving forward and backward within your presentation. Audiences often inquire to come across a previous screen again.
• If possible, view your slides on the screen you'll exist using for your presentation. Make sure the slides are readable from the back row seats. Text and graphic images should be large enough to read but not so large equally to announced "loud."
• Have a Plan B in the event of technical difficulties. Remember that transparencies and handouts will not evidence animation or other special effects.
• Practice with someone who has never seen your presentation. Ask them for honest feedback about colors, content and any effects or graphic images you've included.
• Exercise not read from your slides. The content of your slides is for the audition, not for the presenter.
• Do not speak to your slides. Many presenters face their presentation onscreen rather than their audience.
• Do not apologize for anything in your presentation. If you believe something will be hard to read or understand, don't employ it.

The Seven Deadly Sins of PowerPoint Presentations

By Joseph Sommerville

It's not surprising PowerPoint© slideshows have get the norm for visuals in nearly business presentations. Slideshows are quick to produce, easy to update and constructive to inject visual interest into the presentation. Withal, slideshows can also spell disaster fifty-fifty for experienced presenters. The key to success is to make certain your slide show is a visual aid and non a visual distraction. For the all-time results, avoid these common "seven deadly sins" of PowerPoint© presentations.

1. Slide Transitions And Sound Effects: Transitions and sound effects tin can become the focus of attention, which in plow distracts the audience. Worse yet, when a presentation containing several effects and transitions runs on a figurer much slower than the one on which it was created, the event is a sluggish, almost comical when viewed. Such gimmicks rarely enhance the message you're trying to communicate. Unless you are presenting at a scientific discipline fiction convention, go out out the laser-guided text! Leave the fade-ins, fade-outs, wipes, blinds, dissolves, checkerboards, cuts, covers and splits to Hollywood filmmakers. Even "builds" (lines of text appearing each time you lot click the mouse) tin can be distracting. Focus on your message, not the technology..
   
2. Standard Clipart: Death to screen beans! PowerPoint© is at present so widely used the clipart included with it has get a "visual cliché." It shows a lack of creativity and a tired adherence to a standard form. First, make certain that you demand graphical images to raise your message. If you practice, use your own scanned photographs or meliorate-quality graphics from companies such equally PhotoDisc (www.photodisc.com) or Hemera's Photograph Objects (www.hemera.com). Screen captures can add together realism when presenting information about a Website or computer program. 2 popular screen capture programs are Snagit (www.techsmith.com) for Windows and Snapz Pro (www.ambrosiasw.com) for Macintosh. Both are bachelor equally shareware.
   
3. Presentation Templates:Some other visual cliché. Templates force you to fit your original ideas into someone else's pre-packaged mold. The templates often incorporate distracting backgrounds and poor color combinations. Select a adept volume on Web graphics and use the same principles to your slides. Create your own distinctive look or apply your visitor logo in a corner of the screen.
   
4. Text-Heavy Slides: Projected slides are a good medium for depicting an idea graphically or providing an overview. Slides are a poor medium for detail and reading. Avoid paragraphs, quotations and even complete sentences. Limit your slides to five lines of text and use words and phrases to make your points. The audience will be able to digest and retain key points more easily. Don't apply your slides equally speaker'south notes or to simply project an outline of your presentation.
   
5. The "Me" Paradigm: Presenters often scan a table or graphical image directly from their existing print corporate material and include it in their slide prove presentations. The results are almost always sub-optimal. Print visuals are normally meant to be seen from 8-12 inches rather than viewed from several feet. Typically, these images are too small, too detailed and too textual for an constructive visual presentation. The aforementioned is true for font size; 12 point font is adequate when the text is in front of you lot. In a slideshow, aim for a minimum of 40 point font. Call back the audience and move the circle from "me" to "we." Brand certain all elements of whatever detail slide are large plenty to exist seen hands. Size really does matter.
   
6. Reading: A exact presentation should focus on interactive speaking and listening, non reading by the speaker or the audition. The demands of spoken and written language differ significantly. Speech is shorter, less formal and more than direct. Reading text ruins a presentation. A related point has to do with handouts for the audience. Ane of your goals as a presenter is to capture and agree the audition's attending. If you distribute materials earlier your presentation, your audience will be reading the handouts rather than listening to you. Often, parts of an effective presentation depend on creating suspense to engage the audience. If the audience can read everything you're going to say, that element is lost.
   
7. Faith in Applied science: Yous never know when an equipment malfunction or incompatible interfaces volition forcefulness yous to requite your presentation on another calculator. Be prepared by having a back-up of your presentation on a CD-ROM. Ameliorate yet is a compact-flash retentivity card with an adapter for the PCMCIA slot in your notebook. With it, you can still make concluding-minute changes. It's also a good idea to prepare a few color transparencies of your key slides. In the worst-case scenario, none of the technology works and you have no visuals to present. You should nonetheless be able to give an excellent presentation if you focus on the message. E'er familiarize yourself with the presentation, exercise it and be prepare to engage the audition regardless of the technology that is available. It's nigh a lost art.

Joseph Sommerville has earned the title "The Presentation Skillful" for helping professionals design, develop and evangelize more effective presentations. He is the principal of Peak Communication Performance, a Houston-based firm working worldwide to aid professionals develop skills in strategic communication.

Tips for Constructive PowerPoint Presentations

Fonts

• Select a unmarried sans-serif fonts such every bit Arial or Helvetica. Avoid serif fonts such as Times New Roman or Palatino because these fonts are sometimes more difficult to read.
• Use no font size smaller than 24 point.
• Use the same font for all your headlines.
• Select a font for torso copy and another for headlines.
• Use bold and different sizes of those fonts for captions and subheadings.
• Add a fourth font for page numbers or as a secondary body font for sidebars.
• Don't utilize more iv fonts in any one publication.
• Clearly label each screen. Utilise a larger font (35-45 points) or unlike color for the title.
• Utilize larger fonts to indicate importance.
• Utilize different colors, sizes and styles (e.g., bold) for bear on.
• Avoid italicized fonts equally these are difficult to read quickly.
• Avoid long sentences.
• Avoid abbreviations and acronyms.
• Limit punctuation marks.
• No more than than vi-8 words per line
• For bullet points, use the vi x 6 Rule. One thought per line with no more than 6 words per line and no more than than vi lines per slide
• Utilize dark text on light background or light text on nighttime background. However, dark backgrounds sometimes brand it difficult for some people to read the text.
• Do non utilize all caps except for titles.
• Put repeating elements (like page numbers) in the same location on each page of a multi-page document.
•  To exam the font, stand six feet from the monitor and encounter if you tin can read the slide.

Pattern and Graphical Images

• Use design templates.
• Standardize position, colors, and styles.
• Include only necessary information.
• Limit the data to essentials.
• Content should be self-axiomatic
• Utilize colors that contrast and compliment.
• Too may slides can lose your audience.
• Keep the background consistent and subtle.
• Limit the number of transitions used. It is oftentimes better to use only one so the audition knows what to expect.
• Use a single style of dingbat for bullets throughout the page.
• Employ the aforementioned graphical rule at the acme of all pages in a multi-folio document.
• Utilize one or ii big images rather than several small images.
• Prioritize images instead of a barrage of images for competing attention.
• Make images all the same size.
• Use the same border.
• Accommodate images vertically or horizontally.
• Use just plenty text when using charts or graphical images to explain the nautical chart or graph and conspicuously label the prototype.
• Go along the blueprint clean and uncluttered. Get out empty space effectually the text and graphical images.
• Use quality clipart and use it sparingly. A graphical prototype should relate to and enhance the topic of the slide.
• Try to use the same way graphical epitome throughout the presentation (e.g., cartoon, photographs)
• Limit the number of graphical images on each slide.
• Repetition of an image reinforces the message. Tie the number of copies of an image to the numbers in your text.
• Resize, recolor, reverse to turn ane image into many. Use duplicates of varying sizes, colors, and orientations to multiply the usefulness of a single prune art epitome.
• Make a single image stand out with dramatic contrast. Use color to brand a dramatic change to a unmarried copy of your prune art.
• Check all images on a projection screen before the actual presentation.
• Avoid flashy images and noisy animation furnishings unless it relates directly to the slide.

Color

• Limit the number of colors on a single screen.
• Vivid colors make small objects and sparse lines stand out. Yet, some vibrant colors are difficult to read when projected.
• Use no more than than four colors on i chart.
• Cheque all colors on a project screen before the actual presentation. Colors may project differently than what appears on the monitor.

General Presentation

• Plan carefully.
• Do your research.
• Know your audition.
• Time your presentation.
• Speak comfortably and clearly.
• Check the spelling and grammar.
• Do not read the presentation. Practice the presentation so you can speak from bullet points. The text should be a cue for the presenter rather than a message for the viewer.
• Give a cursory overview at the start. Then present the information. Finally review important points.
• It is often more constructive to have bulleted points appear one at a time so the audience listens to the presenter rather than reading the screen.
• Employ a wireless mouse or pick upwards the wired mouse so y'all can motion around equally y'all speak.
• If sound effects are used, await until the sound has finished to speak.
• If the content is complex, print the slides so the audience tin can take notes.
• Do non turn your dorsum on the audition. Try to position the monitor and then you can speak from it.

Additional Resources

• Download Interactive Slide Show | Designing Constructive PowerPoint Presentations | 53 slides
• Legislative Staff Services

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Source: https://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislative-staff/legislative-staff-coordinating-committee/tips-for-making-effective-powerpoint-presentations.aspx

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