Good communication is essential for professional PowerPoint presentations. PowerPoint presentations are a traditional but heavily-used presentation method in both business as well as academic environments. The information you are presenting in front of the audience during such presentations is important. In such presentations you want your audience to get the most out of it.
PowerPoint presentation slides can be a very effective in making your presentations more effective by helping audience understand and remember the key points being made. However, following are a few simple tips to help you avoid the pitfalls of bad ppt presentations :-
Do
• structure the content of your ppt presentations and organize the ideas so that they relate to one another. Your professional PowerPoint presentations should be complete whole and not fragmented.
• use text sparingly and graphically represent concepts and ideas embodied in your presentations.
• use PowerPoint charts and graphs to make your presentations compact and effective.
• add visual interest to your content. Utilize appropriate professional PowerPoint templates for greater effective.
Don’t
• read out your ppt presentation word by word without otherwise elaborating on the content. Remember, your ppt presentation is to supplement your discourse.
• stuff too much information in your presentation slides. Some experts suggest no more than five words in a point and no more than five bulleted points in a presentation slide.
• use too much and unnecessary animations, effects and transitions. Flying fancy text and complicated cheeky slide transactions can distract your audience and drive their attention away from your PowerPoint presentation. Help your audience stay focused on your message by using minimal words and animation. Use effects and animations only if you are convinced of the value they are going to add to your presentations.
• have too many slides in a single PowerPoint presentation. This might defeat your purpose by creating a situation of information overload. Don’t overuse it. We mentioned this earlier however it bears repeating. Don’t use your PowerPoint slides as crutches which are indispensable for your presentations and in the absence of which you feel helpless. For example, in a presentation of around 45-50 minutes there should be no more than 25-30 slides. Prepare your slides to support you and not like a stand-alone document.
These few simple PowerPoint tips can facilitate better audience engagement in your professional PowerPoint presentations and add to your overall success. Adopt these simple but powerful tips for your upcoming presentations and make a powerful impression.