There are three current experts on making presentations with Powerpoint - check them out on Youtube…
- Jean-luc Doumont
- David J. P. Phillips - Mr "Death By Powerpoint"
- Pat Flynn
Whilst these experts disagree on a few things, there is general agreement on most
- They agree that ineffective Powerpoint slides have too much information on them (more than 5 items)
- Ineffective slides have text that is too small to read, and not organized into a short sentence of no more than two lines - one sentence per slide
- Ineffective slides are confusing and do not direct the audience's attention to the ONE key point of the slide
- Ineffective slides contain distracting animations and/ or transitions - unless used for a special effect
- They agree that the emphasis of a presentation should be on the presenter – not the slide
Here is a summary of the seven things they agree should be part of an effective presentation:
- 01. We need to eliminate any “noise” or confusion that gets between us as presenter, and our audience
- 02. We need to avoid bullet points unless they form a self-contained package - the audience will start reading doen the points and miss our current message
- 03. Instead, each slide should have just one topic sentence of 2 lines (max) and a relevant, helpful image that illustrates the point of the slide
- 04. When presenting slides, we should use redundancy - our speech should repeat the essential point of the slide so...
- 05. Each slide should be understood by a blind person who can hear our speech, and a deaf person who can read the slide
- 06. If we need to tell a short story or anecdote, we should turn the slides off, or put up a plain black slide so the attention is on the presenter telling the story
- 07. Finally, we should avoid distracting transitions and animations – unless for a special effect – they are usually “noise” - but they can be fun!
Experts are still debating whether we should have dark backgrounds with light text (which is easier to read) or plain white backgrounds (apart from images)
- The preference seems to be that charts and images usually look better on white backgrounds, and white slides are far easier to print as a handout - so plain white is the way to go