Technology Tips

5 Steps to a Better PowerPoint

Provided by Terence Peak, Coordinator of Technology Training

Here is the scenario:

Your study group has chosen you to prepare a PowerPoint for their class presentation, which will comprise half of the group’s grade. What will you do? The last PowerPoint you created put the entire class to sleep! Not only that, your choice of background color and font style reminded your parents of Woodstock! How can you create a PowerPoint that will make the grade?

Here is the answer:

Location is Everything

What are the lighting conditions in the room where you will make your presentation? If in a darkened room, such as an auditorium, or a classroom during an evening class, use a light-colored or white background. If you will be using a classroom during the day, a darker colored background will work best.

 

Contrast: Seeing is Believing

Contrast the text color with the background. Use dark text colors such as blue or black. If your background is a darker color, contrast it with white or mauve. Use the shadow feature to make the text stand out when using light text colors.

 

One Slide show, One Background

Whether you use a design template or a colored background, use the same background on every slide. When you make many changes in the background elements of a show, the audience will focus on the change of background, not the presentation. The same holds true for slide transitions. Keep the same slide transition through the entire show!

 

Less is More

While PowerPoint does allow users to place sound effects, clip art and animated GIFs, they are rarely necessary. Unless your presentation requires a significant amount of graphics to make its point, use graphics, such as clip art sparingly. A good rule of thumb for clip art is one clip art for every three slides. As for sound, effects, the only person making any noise is the presenter. Sound effects take away from the effectiveness of a presentation, and diminish its quality. (The applause you will receive when you finish your presentation is the best sound effect).

 

The 6X6 Rule

A PowerPoint is a visual aide, not your report. Use the information on each slide to inform your audience about a point you are trying to make. Keep the text simple, no more than 6 bullet points per slide, and 6 words or less per bullet point. The text will serve as a reference point for your audience. Type all the information that you need to convey in paragraph form in the Notes section. When you print your presentation, make sure that you print both your notes and your presentation.

Click Here and here to see samples of 5-step PowerPoints