Slide Design
1. Put as little on a slide as
you can manage (keep the text VERY simple). Full sentences are NOT bullet
points. Titles however, should be full
sentences where possible.
2. Never use a font smaller
than 24 point for normal text (you can sometimes get away with 20 point in
diagrams but only if you absolutely
have to.
3. A picture paints a thousand
words – use a photograph or other picture on nearly every slide (as long as it
is relevant). Think about creating your
own graphic with the drawing tools if you can’t find a suitable one elsewhere.
4. Use a simple background, if
light use dark text if dark use light text.
Experiment with creating your own with simple colours or gradients
rather than using the preset ones. You
can add simple coloured bars or lines to the edge of the slide master.
5. If animating text, do it
simply and quickly. The best options are
“Appear”, “Wipe” (from top or left, very fast), Fade (only if very fast).
Presenting
6.
NEVER
just read a slide – YOU are giving the presentation. The purpose of the slides is to help you and
the audience follow your presentation not to BE the presentation.
7.
Make
use of some simple quick keys to give you more control over the show:
B = Blank BLACK screen
W = Blank WHITE screen
Ctrl P changes the pointer to a pen (and Ctrl A puts it
back to automatic). Hitting the E will
erase any drawing you make with the pen.
Ctrl
H hides the pointer
Slide
No then Enter takes you straight to that slide (print yourself a
list of slide titles and numbers to remind you)
8.
Don’t
just use the Handouts option in PowerPoint.
Give out more detailed handouts so that you can keep your slides
simple. Remember you can export your
slides to Word (File, Send to, Microsoft Word) and put extra notes alongside
each slide.
9.
Avoid
using unnecessary sound and fancy multimedia stuff – if
you’re just putting it in to wake up the audience then perhaps you need to work out why they are asleep!
you’re just putting it in to wake up the audience then perhaps you need to work out why they are asleep!
10.
Never
turn your back on the audience – position your monitor so
that you can maintain eye contact as much as possible.
that you can maintain eye contact as much as possible.
Stop
Annoying Audiences
A
recent survey shows what annoys most people about PowerPoint presentations.
These
are the top irritants:
|
The speaker reads the
slides to us
|
60.4%
|
|
Text so small I
couldn’t read it
|
50.9%
|
|
Full sentences instead
of bullet points
|
47.8%
|
|
Slides hard to see
because of colour choice
|
37.1%
|
|
Moving/flying text or
graphics
|
24.5%
|
|
Annoying use of sounds
|
22.0%
|
|
Overly complex
diagrams or charts
|
22.0%
|
It
shows that whilst multimedia aspects are usually thought to be the most
annoying parts of a slide show, it is actually the text itself that annoys most
people.
Clear,
short, relevant and readable text is simple to achieve – but so many people
fail. Don’t be one of them.
