Four PowerPoint Reminders

I joined a business networking group recently and every week one or two people give a PowerPoint presentation. They’re interesting and informative; I’m learning a lot about the people and their businesses. The PowerPoint presentations, however, need some help.

There are four areas that are crying out for improvement:

Too much text on the slides.

The more text on the slide, the smaller it gets. The smaller it gets, the fewer people who can actually read anything. Rather than write your whole script on the screen, put one or two words to help jog your memory. Or better yet, just use a picture, preferably one you’ve taken yourself. When using text, font size and style are critical. A clean font such as Arial, Georgia, Helvetica, New Times Roman and Verdana work well. Stay away from fancy scripts—they’re impossible to read. Font size should be 36-44 point size for titles, 28-32 for all other text.

Not using the correct screen presentation.

I have seen people use a power point presentation that someone else has set up for them. Instead of using the slide show layout for the presentation, they use the normal layout. You can choose the layout at the right or left of the bottom task bar depending on what version of power point you have. It looks like this.

The one in yellow is called normal and this is the set up most people use to set up their slide show. This layout shows quite a lot of their presentation before they’re ready to show it. The audience’s attention naturally gravitates to the screen rather than the speaker’s introduction. Not a smooth beginning.

The second one from the left is the slide sorter. If you click on this one, you can reorder your slides. The third from the left is the reader view, which I haven’t used. The furthest one to the right is the slide show – this is the one you should use for showing your presentation.

Not using a remote for advancing slides and the B button

The B button is magic. With the slide show layout selected, go to slide #1 of your presentation and hit the B button. This will make your screen go black, which will allow you to start your presentation with everyone looking at you as you make your dynamic introduction. Then hit any key on the keyboard and voila! The screen will light up with your first slide and you’re ready to go.

The amazing race

There is nothing worse than watching someone race back and forth to their computer to hit the advance button at each slide change. Please! Use a remote to advance your slides.

One final tip: look at your audience, not the screen!

As I wrote in “How Effective are Your PowerPoint Presentations?” remember that PowerPoint is a visual aid intended to enhance your presentation. It will never replace good speaking skills.

Mary Anthes is a retired business owner, speaker and a Distinguished Toastmaster. She can be reached at nmanthes@shaw.ca