The much-maligned PowerPoint is not expressionless.
Whether delivered in PowerPoint, on a PC, or Keynote, on a Mac, bad slides, delivered badly will brand your audience regret their 2d serving at the cafe.
We've all suffered through horrible slide shows with long lists of unreadable bullets, pixelated clip art delivered by a speaker who constantly turns abroad from the audition and so they can read from the screen.
Bad slides, delivered badly will brand your audience regret their 2nd serving at the cafe. Click To Tweet
Well, I accept good news.
Well-designed slides, used sparingly and with expert timing can exist brilliant. Heck, they can fifty-fifty make an otherwise good presentation awesome.
If you know what to do…
If you've ever struggled to create interesting slides or worry your slides are as well wordy or you take too many of them, this will help.
Hither are my 10 piece of cake ways to make any PowerPoint presentation awesome.
1. Build your slides last.
You could be tempted to start monkeying with slides early in your speech communication writing process – don't. It's like building a road – until you lot know where that road is heading there'due south no point laying downwards sidewalks and planting trees. Your slides are there to Add to a well-designed spoken communication, not to replace it.
Your slides are at that place to Add together to a well-designed spoken communication, non supplant information technology. Click To Tweet
ii. Don't try to replace yous.
People come to listen to you – your thoughts, interpretations and insights. Fancy transitions, YouTube clips, and tons of text steal from your content and delivery.
Remember: every time you striking that clicker the audience leaves you and goes to the screen.
3. Use a consistent theme.
A consequent theme pulls together the variety in your images and message, as you motion from problem to solution. You could use the baked-in themes supplied in PowerPoint or Keynote – I don't considering I desire a simpler, more unique look.
I create a custom theme simply with my titles, a consistent white background, and sometimes with my logo or my customer's logo.
iv. More prototype, less text.
Desire to apace ameliorate a tired slide deck? Make your images larger (in this mail service I share where to go free images) and reduce the text. Remember the theme in this post is your slides shouldadd to your speech – non distract the audience away from you.
Nosotros know our brain can process images some 60,000 times faster than text – using a big image gets your signal across chop-chop, without being a distraction. And a short list of cursory bullets helps your audience follow your statement – zilch more.
5. One story per slide.
In my 60 infinitesimal speech, I might take 30-35 slides, depending on stories I'm telling or complexity of the message. Each slide represents a consummate story. I might be presenting statistics (sparingly), recalling an experience that leads to a lesson, or pedagogy a lesson.
Simply, I always stick to one story per slide.
6. Reveal one bullet at a time.
The trick when presenting text, like a curt listing of bullets, is to make your point without losing the audience. 1 technique is to reveal one bullet at a fourth dimension. In PowerPoint, correct click on your text box, select Custom Blitheness > Add Entrance Effect and then choose the effect you want. In Keynote, click Animate > Build in and choose the consequence you desire.
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7. Leave the fireworks to Disney.
Information technology'due south great that you know how to turn text into flames and make images spin – only get out those fireworks to Disney. Your job is to brand you the star. Uncomplicated transitions, clean fonts and large, attractive graphics trumps PowerPoint tricks, every time.
8. Use the two/4/8 rule.
When I expect dorsum at my most successful slide decks in that location'southward a pattern, I call it the 2/4/viii dominion: about every 2 minutes I take a new slide (about 30 slides for a 60 minute speech), no more than 4 bullets per slide, and no more than eight words per bullet.
Just like any recipe, utilize the 2/4/eight dominion equally a guide and then vary the ingredients as needed.
9. Fade to black when speaking.
Your slides are not the bespeak—you are. When y'all fade to blackness y'all regain your audience's attention. For example, after I present one solution (that's also shown on the screen), I'll fade to black while I expound on how to apply the solution in your work.
It's no different than a shut-up in a moving picture – the director wants you lot to focus only on the speaker. Annotation that some remotes don't have the black screen feature – if y'all're shopping for a remote exist certain it does.
Your slides are not the point—yous are. Click To Tweet
10. When in incertitude, dump it.
If you're Al Gore explaining trends in CO2 emissions, slides can be essential – they tin can too be a lark. When I'm struggling, trying to determine if I need a slide, or not, I enquire myself: "Will it make my oral communication meliorate?" If non, I dump it.
Remember, nobody will miss what isn't in that location.
One last thing. If you're flight solo, without an A/V crew, spend the $80 and pack a remote (with spare batteries.) Nothing's worse than watching a speaker repeatedly lean over, hunt for the correct central, and then peck away to advance the slides.
If you enjoyed this article, here are more than about PowerPoint:
How the experts create world-class PowerPoint Slides (and yous can too)
PowerPoint Primer – the only three slides y'all'll ever need
How to add together video to PowerPoint and Keynote like a pro
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How to Make a Powerpoint Program Ineasy Worship TUTORIAL
Posted by: jamestexed1975.blogspot.com
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