General Advice for Creating Effective Presentations

 The biggest complaint audiences have with PowerPoint presentations is that they are often too packed. PowerPoint is a very useful tool for summarizing and overviews. If your entire slide is filled with 10 point font sized text that your audience is expected to read, the presentation will not be successful. Break up text with images, charts, etc. and don’t cram too much on each slide.

 Another complaint is the use of transitions and animations. Transitions move the reader from idea to idea on a slide and from one slide to the next in a fashion similar to how transitions work in an essay within and between paragraphs.  Unless you have a reason for only allowing one line of text to appear at a time, don’t use this transition. See the next slide for poor examples.

This is an example of lines appearing on the screen too slowly for a reader. Use only if you have a reason to have items appear singularly. It’s an even worse idea to have words crawl on to the slide to be read.

If you are using transitions between slides, be consistent—use the same transition for each slide. Some transitions can be annoying, though, for example the one that introduces the next slide.

The longer the audience has to wait for material to appear, the more annoyed they can become.

 Backgrounds and text color should work harmoniously so that readers are paying attention to what you are saying, rather than your slide design.  If you are unsure of what colors will work well for you, select one of the design themes that you can find in your PowerPoint software.

I have chosen to only apply the color to this one slide only for demonstration purposes. Selecting a background color via the Edit Color Schemes link will apply the new color to every slide. If you have a reason to change the color of only one slide, right click the slide and select background. This will give you the option of applying your color to one slide or to the entire presentation. Next, select a color of text that works. For example, blue text on a red background is not a good choice. Black text against darker colors can be difficult to read; white or yellow may be a better option. Experiment to make sure that the audience can READ your slides.

 Your slides should accompany your spoken presentation, which means they should not be filled with text the audience is meant to read.  A presentation without an accompanying speaker, in an online environment for example, needs more text. Consider your venue!

 Whether you are using photos, clip art, charts, or maps, select images that support your text and the topic.  Make sure images are clear and that they don’t increase the file size of the presentation too much.