Skilled presenters use visuals to enrich their verbal message. These 10 guidelines will help you create visuals that connect you with your audience.
Go light on text. Use slides as your headlines. You deliver the news. Brief text keeps the focus where it should be – on you. Heavy text leads the viewer to read – and not listen. Use bullet points – no more than five per slide. Limit each bullet to eight words max.
Embrace white space. Let your slides breathe – leave lots of white space. Avoid pointless graphics and chunky text. Less clutter is more power.
Prepare a background document. Each time you present, prepare a document that conveys the essence of your content. Give that document to attendees – and to anyone absent. Don’t give them copies of your slides.
Make it easy to read. Use 44-point text for titles and 32-point text for subtitles and bullets. If the room is large, consider increasing the size. Use the same font set throughout, and use no more than two complementary fonts (e.g., Arial and Arial Bold). Sans-Serif fonts (Arial or Gill Sans) work well. Whatever font you pick, make sure the text is clear from the back of the room.
Limit builds and transitions. Bits of animated text are fine, but too much stifles momentum.
Use attractive graphics. Quality photos work well, especially photos of relevant people. Take your own with a digital camera, buy good stock photos, or use images available on line. Avoid PowerPoint Clip Art or cartoonish line art; most of it is tired and unprofessional.
Create a visual theme. An original and consistent visual theme adds class. A generic design will suggest your presentation is canned. Make your own design or buy templates on-line (see www.powerpointtemplatespro.com).
Chart the right course. Pie charts, bar charts and line charts can be a good way to display data. Display what matters, nothing more. Limit each slide to four slices of pie, or six bars or lines (or six pairs).
Use color well. Colors help persuade and motivate. Cool colors such as blue and green work best for backgrounds. Warm colors such as yellow and orange-red are best for text. A failsafe combo: yellow text on blue background.
Consider video and audio. Good video is a nice change of pace to your slides, a way to hold or heighten interest. You can use video clips in PowerPoint without leaving the application. Short audio clips work too, especially a relevant sound bite from an authority.
One final reminder: never turn your back on your audience and read off your slide.