Avoid these 1. slide background too bright ~ try dark background, light font 2. slide design too busy ~ simple images, no “shaded” variations 3. too many slides ~ 15 min = about 20 slides 4. font–size too small ~ 20 point is good, 18 is ok, 16 too small 5. font–type too fancy ~ use sans-serif (Arial), not Times New Roman 6. font–color too light/dark ~ use high-contrasts (check the room) 7. copy & paste of your essay ~ provide outline with bullets 8. too much text ~ abbrev. text, phrases not sentences 9. text + images ~ they crowd one another 10. unreadable images ~ maps, charts, spreadsheets with tiny data 11. fancy visual or sound effects ~ except maybe a little for fun Effective PowerPoint Design Avoid the Following

Good techniques 1. insert page numbers ~ esp. before printing 2. focus on the content ~ not the special effects 3. use bulleted or # lists ~ and “animate” to show one line at a time 4. consistent slide design ~ don’t switch, use the same background 5. enlarge images ~ to fill entire page, add caption over the image 6. graphs, maps, chart ~ be sure to explain these images, legend? 7. use “Index” page ~ with titles of each slide, like a book 8. images with data ~ pie charts are more readable 9. check line-spacing ~ nothing too close together Effective PowerPoint Design Use these techniques

Bullets animated 1. “Format” menu ~ select “Bullets and Numbering” 2. click on text box, select all text 3. “Slide Show” menu ~ select “Animations” 4. click on “green star” for “Entrance Effects” ~ select “Appear” 5. click on “green star” for “Effect Options” ~ select “paragraph” 6. click “multi-star play button” ~ to preview animation effects Effective PowerPoint Design How to animate bullets or #s