How to Make an Impressive PowerPoint

Yi-chen Chen @ April 2010

A Hi-tech Visual Aid—PowerPoint

How popular is PPT? Over 90% of all professional

speakers use PowerPoint during their speeches.

At least 90% of all multimedia presentations in the US are created with PowerPoint.

A careless PPT presentation can hurt more than it helps by confusing or distracting the listener.

Tips you need to know

Creating great PowerPoint slides Content (text and art) Color Font (type and size)

Delivering your speech using PowerPoint

Content Text

Don’t fill up a slide with too much text.

If you have a lot of information, divide it among two or more slides.

Simplify text. Use keywords/subtitles/easy-to-

remember phrases.Round off numbers.

Art Clip art, pictures, photos, …etc. Art can be entertaining or

humorous. Use a maximum of three pieces of

art per slide.

Time waits for no man~

Ask her today! Wait no more!

Color Be consistent. Use the same color

combinations for all slides. One color for the background of your slide

Dark: black or dark blue work best. A dark background eliminates the

bright whiteness of the LCD projector light & focus your audience’s attention on the content.

One color for titles One color for the text

Light: yellow or white suit dark blue/black best.

Light colors can contrast well against a dark background.

Font Type and Size Fancy, decorative, and cursive writing

fonts are hard to read and can be distracting.

Font type Roman style fonts: Times New

Roman, Bookman Old Style, Ms Reference Serif.

Sans-serif fonts: Arial, Verdana, MS Reference Sans Serif.

Font size Slide title: minimum 34-46 points. Text: minimum 24 points.

PowerPoint – Good or Bad

Compare

What’s the characteristics of a GOOD ppt?

What’s the characteristics of a BAD ppt?

PowerPoint - The Ugly

Delivering your speech using PPT Be very familiar with your slides. Face your audience at all time. Focus all of the attention on YOU. Use PowerPoint Slides sparingly. Back up your PowerPoint

presentation. Make copies of all your PPT slides

by printing them out on transparency film.

Print out your presentation.

Giving Effective PPT Presentations - Dos and Don'ts For PowerPoint Presentations -

Don’ts• Poor font choices • No-graphics-all-text presentations • Poor color choices • Using PowerPoint as a crutch

– Too much text– Reading the slides

• Too many animations • Too many different transitions • Inappropriate or too many sounds• Unsuitable templates

Poor font choices

Make sure there is good contrast between the slide background color and the text color.

Avoid script type fonts, as they are hard to read. Keep the fonts simple and don't use less than a 30 point font for easy reading in the back rows

No-graphics-all-text presentations Keep your audience interested by

including pictures and other graphics such as pertinent charts that reflect the content of your presentation. Drive your point home with a picture rather than text.

Poor color choices Avoid unusual or electrifying color

choices. Many are unsettling to the audience, or hard to read, so they won't be listening for your message.

Pick a background color that is suitable for the topic and make sure there is good contrast between the background and font color choices.

If possible stick to two main colors and use a third color sparingly.

Using PowerPoint as a crutch Too much text Do not write the complete content for

the presentation on the slides. PowerPoint is meant only as an accompaniment to your oral presentation.

Keep the text to a minimum on your slides -- use "jot notes". Three or four bullet points is plenty for a slide. If a simple graphic will illustrate your point, use it rather than text.

• Reading the slides• Along with too much text on the

slides, nothing is worse than a presenter who turns toward the screen and proceeds to read the slides to the audience. Again, what does the audience need you for? Email them a handout of the presentation and save everyone the time and money.

Too many animations

Animations are meant to add a little pizazz to your presentation, and preferably grab the audience's attention for an important point.

Use them sparingly and your presentation will be much more effective. Remember that old cliché "less is more".

Too many different transitions

Transitions are similar to animations in that they should be used only to enhance your presentation.

If you use transitions, try to keep them simple and use the same one throughout the presentation. The audience should be interested in your message, not how you can dazzle them with motion.

Inappropriate or too many sounds Use music and sound effects either to

make a crucial point (sound effect) or as subtle ambient background music.

You can embed music into PowerPoint presentations or play tracks from a CD.

Use them wisely.

Re-design the templates Many of designed templates are too

busy or glitzy. The simpler the better is always a

better choice.

K.I.S.S. Keep It Silly & Simple

Dos

Match Design to Purpose Keep It Simple Use Fewer Fonts Use Less Clip Art Be Consistent

Match Design to Purpose

Decide if your presentation is meant to entertain, inform, persuade, or sell.

Keep colors, clip art, and templates consistent with your main objective.

Keep It Simple

As with any design, cut the clutter.

2 font families are enough No more than one graphic image

or chart per slide.

Use Fewer Fonts Don’t use more than 4 fonts in any

one publication.

As a general rule, when designing a publication I never use more than four fonts. Realistically, how many do you need? For a newsletter layout, you could use one font for headings, one for body text (which could also be used in italics or bold for captions) and one for subheadings. You may not even need that fourth one. — Stuart Gardoll “Desktop Publishing Do's and Don'ts”

Use Less Clip Art Unify Prioritize Pick a Central Idea Reduce & Resize The Bottomline: Make sure each

image used serves a necessary purpose and is appropriate to the tone and style of the piece. When the image count rises above three on a single page, consider other ways to achieve the same effect without adding more visual stimulation.

Be Consistent

Use the same colors and fonts throughout. Select graphic images in the same style. Templates go a long way toward helping to maintain consistency.