PowerPoint Presentation Tips & Tricks

USD 261 Leadership Academy

2005-06Lisa Cundiff

Getting Started• Start with the end in mind• Use the ‘slide master’ feature

for consistency (View>Master>Slide Master)

Font size:Before you start to prepare your presentation, determine (guess) how far your audience will be from your screen, then choose the best font size. Use the “sign painter's” rule of thumb:

1" letter is readable from 10 ft.2" letter from 20 ft. 3" letter from 30 ft.

Assume 72 point fonts are

1" high

Color Selection

DON'T use dark backgrounds in a poorly-lit room or light backgrounds in a well-lit room.

It's hard to read off such backgrounds.

DON'T use dark fonts on dark backgrounds or light fonts on light

backgrounds.

Be careful about using reds and greens because they can be difficult to see--

especially if you are colorblind!

TextUse text sparingly

– Use a maximum of six points per slide and six words per point.

Remember, if your audience is concentrating on written text, they are most likely not giving you their

complete attention.

Don’t forget to read the small print. There might be some important information. Never mind what the speaker is saying. Maybe the text is redundant, but you won’t know unless you read it. Forget this; when is lunch? On the other hand, if I type everything, I won’t have to memorize anything, so I can just glance up here and read it blah, blah, blah, etc, etc, etc…and so on and so forth……….

Too Much!

Minimize or avoid animated texts, sounds, and fancy transitions.

These can be effective in certain situations, but often distract your

audience from the main points you are making.

FOCUS – PLAN – PRACTICE

• FOCUS  on the main point(s) you want to make.

• PLAN  the layout of your presentation. Does everything fit together?

• PRACTICE  your entire presentation at least once before you present it to your audience.

Give Credit Where Credit is Due!

http://www.anandnatrajan.com/FAQs/powerpoint.html

http://www.microsoft.com/office/previous/xp/columns/column08.asp

http://people.csp.edu/saylor/effective_powerpoint.htm

http://www.roadtools.com/tips.html

The Total Communicator

10 of the Most Common Mistakes Presenters Make

http://totalcommunicator.com/

PowerPoint Presenter Tools