With its ease of use as a presentation tool, PowerPoint can be a pleasant, eye-catching visual aid or a weapon of mass distraction overflowing with text, charts, stats and images. (Admit it. We've all sat through the mind-numbing pain of an overstuffed presentation while our imaginations wandered off on a mental vacation to a beach in Barbados.)
If you've done your share of PowerPoints through the years, you know that "less is more" and that trying to jam too much onto your slides will guarantee your own slide into the abyss of audience indifference. Fortunately, focusing on five key components of the PowerPoint experience can not only save you from bombing, but lift you to that elite plateau were presenter and presentation come together in the most crowd-pleasing way possible.
1.) Keep it simple. While visual effects have their allure, the most effective PowerPoint presentations feature easy-to-understand charts and graphics that support what the speaker is saying. Keep text to five words or less per line and no more than five lines per individual slide.
2.) Edit, edit, edit. When you've drafted your PowerPoint slides, put them aside for awhile, then revisit them with your overall objectives and audience fresh in mind. If any words or images strike you as unnecessary, confusing or off target, edit until you've stripped away all the clutter. Your presentation will look and communicate better and so will you.
3.) Don't mimic your PowerPoint. The surest way to lose an audience is to not make eye contact with them for long stretches of time while you redundantly read, word for word, what's on your slides. PowerPoint works best when you've prepared remarks that expand and elaborate on what appears on the screen while you directly address your audience.
4.) Use numbers selectively. It can be tempting sometimes to heavily season your slides with numbers and statistics that support your message. Not so fast. Too many numbers and figures can overwhelm your viewers and neutralize their intended impact. A better approach is to package most of your statistics in printed handouts for more thorough digestion at a later time.
5.) Hold off on handouts until the end. Your audience's attention is already split between watching and listening to you and viewing the PowerPoint slides that support your message. Unless it's crucial that people read a certain handout while you're presenting, things will go a lot smoother if you distribute printed materials after you're done.
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