Creating an Effective PowerPoint Presentation

Hints for a successful presentation:

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Plan carefully
Do your research
Know your audience
Time your presentation
Practice your presentation
Speak comfortably and clearly

Effective PowerPoint Slides

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Use design templates

Standardize position, colors and styles
Include only necessary information
Limit the information to essentials
Content should be self-evident
Use colors that contrast
Be consistent with effects, transitions and animation
Too many slides can lose your audience

Text guidelines
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Generally no more than 6 words a line

Generally no more than 6 lines a slide
Avoid long sentences
Larger font indicates more important information
Font size generally ranges from 18 to 48 point
Be sure text contrasts with background
Fancy fonts can be hard to read
Words in all capital letters are hard to read
Avoid abbreviations and acronyms
Limit punctuation marks

Clip Art and Graphics

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Should balance the slide

Should enhance and complement the text, not overwhelm
No more than two graphics per slide

* PowerPoint presentations can also saved in HTML format and inserted in a Web page.

Virginia Montecino July 1999

Source: http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/powerpoint.html

Dos and Don'ts in PowerPoint Presentations

Written by Ray Mason
Friday, 20 November 2009

The Internet provides a lot of tutorials on how to prepare a PowerPoint presentation (PPT).
Here, we shall give some easy-to-follow steps for a PPT:
Dos
Begin the presentation with a content slide which describes what the presentation
contains. Stick to the order mentioned.
The content of the slide must be in bullet form, not complete sentences
The optimum number of points in a slide is 5-6
Show one bullet point at a time rather than the entire slide. This helps the audience to
concentrate on whatever is being said rather than reading forward.
Be consistent with the font size. Use at least a font size of 16-18.
The color of the font must sharply contrast with the background. Hence making the
content easily readable without an effort from the audience
Use consistent backgrounds
Always use effective conclusions as the last part of any presentation is most
remembered
Always end with a thank you slide thanking the audience for their time and patience
People are essentially visual and remember visual images better than text.
Stick to the key concepts. Avoid description of specifics and unnecessary details.
Choose good PowerPoint templates don't use dull and boring template
Don'ts
1. Avoid wordiness: use key words and phrases only
2. Don't use excessive animations as it distracts the audience
3. Don't use different color fonts unless necessary
4. Don't get distracted by audience noises or movements
5. Don't turn your back to the audience.
6. Don't read the slides aloud. Your audience can read them far faster than you can talk.
7. Don't attempt to memorize your text
8. Don't clutter your slides with unnecessary logos and graphics.
9. Avoid the use of showy transitions such as text fly-ins etc. These features undoubtedly
are impressive for beginners, but are distracting and get old quickly
10. Try avoiding dark backgrounds in a poorly-lit room or light backgrounds in a well-lit
room.
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