Avoiding Death by PowerPoint
I’m sure that we’ve all suffered “Death by PowerPoint” where the presenter reads from the screen words that are so small as to be illegible; we’re woken up by “flashy” screen transitions, and by the 94th slide we’re ready for screaming! Hopefully, these notes will go some way to resolving this issue…
Limit the number of words or bullets on each slide
If you are using a bulleted list, I recommend that 6 bullets should be the maximum on any slide (with 6 words per bullet); however, that shouldn’t mean that your presentation should consist of slides all with 36 words on them!. The presentation should not be a reading report! Only a few words or a phrase to emphasise or reinforce an idea are all that is needed.
And talking of bullets… Don’t forget that there are other ways to present a slide – they don’t all have to be bulleted lists!
Use slide transitions and animations wisely
You can always tell a new PowerPoint user who has just discovered slide transitions: words are flying in from every direction often with more sound effects than a StarWars movie. Speakers must keep in mind that they are the show – not what is on the screen. Transitions often distract from the message; Judicious use of transitions can help an audience know where you are going, rather than distract them.
I once sat through a presentation where each letter appeared one at a time to the accompaniment of a typewriter sound…
Just because you can, doesn’t mean that you should!
Choose a clear design template
Avoid busy backgrounds, or ones with hard-to-read fonts, or fonts with equal colour density to the background (i.e. the worst case would be bright green letters on bright red field).
Let the audience know where you are going
PowerPoint is great to help audiences know where you are in a program. List the agenda (what will be covered), key points, use topic headers at the top of your slides, use thematic clipart for each subject area, use full screen titles to announce major presentation transitions, include a conclusions slide (what was covered). The more you help an audience know where you are going, the more they will stay with you and learn.
Remember what you are presenting
If your presentation is only to last for, say, 10 minutes as an introduction to your organization or product, then you don’t want to have 50 slides; Similarly, if you are running a training course for a day, you probably need more than 10! A good average to go for is no more than 20 slides in an hour
Know your subject
Arguably, this is the most important way to avoid Death by PowerPoint – if you know your subject, you’ve a chance of keeping your audience interested and engaged; if you don’t know the subject, then perhaps someone else should deliver the presentation?
And finally,…
Practice, practice & then practice again!