Making Your (Power)Point

Diane CassidyThe University of North Carolina at Charlotte

First and Foremost

You are the most important part of your presentation…not PowerPoint

Your presentation is there to assist you You are not there to assist your presentation The message is delivered by the presenter,

not the presentation

Key Considerations

Purpose – why? Location – where? Audience – to whom?

Purpose

Why are you giving your presentation? Selling a product? Trying to convince someone of something? Conveying news? Teaching? Giving instructions? Telling a story?

Whatever the purpose, make sure your presentation achieves its objectives

Location

Where are you giving your presentation? Consider room size and brightness – this will

affect your choice of background and font colors and sizes

Do not force your audience to strain to see Make sure all slides can be read from

anywhere in the room – both font size and color as well as background color will have an effect on this

Audience

To whom are you giving your presentation? Use appropriate language

Do not condescend but use language that will be understood by everyone present

If your content is technical but your audience is not, compensate accordingly

Choose appropriate level of formality Do not use slang or very casual speech when

addressing your superiors

Rules of Thumb

No more than 6 words per line No more than 6 lines per slide Minimum font size 24 Less is more – limit fonts to no more than 2 Use bold, italics, and underline for emphasis

instead of additional fonts or colorsNote: these rules are not set in stone but serve as

sensible guidelines; use your own judgment according your particular needs

Elements of Design

Less is more! Use a consistent background (color or design) Use a consistent font Use a consistent font size Use consistent font colors Do not use too many colors – generally 3 will

do just fine

The Bells & Whistles

Graphics and animation are there to help you make your point

Do not overdo or your message will get lost When in doubt, leave it out Be careful when adjusting the size of a

graphic – stretch or shrink proportionally rather than from a single corner

Distorted graphics look silly

It’s the Little Things

Try to avoid ending a sentence with a single word on a line by itself

Split slide content over two or more slides rather than cramming it all on one

Information that ‘belongs’ together works fine if it is spread over two or more slides

Be consistent with the use of punctuation

Slide Transition

The use of slide transition can add class to your presentation but do not get carried away

You do not want your audience focusing on ‘how the next slide will appear’ and losing site of your message in the process

Custom Animation

A very powerful tool that can be easily abused and over-used

Do not use this unless it is helpful to your presentation and the point you are making

Can be a very effective way to lead your audience where you want them to go

Allows you to withhold information until you are ready to present it

Murphy’s Law

If anything can go wrong, it will… A presentation is often given on a different

computer than the one on which it was created

Check out the equipment ahead of your presentation time if at all possible to make sure everything is in working order

Have a backup plan…just in case!

Never, Never, Never

Never read directly from your slides! Your audience can do this better and faster

than you; do not bore them Expand on the slide contents – they are there

as a guide, a reference, an outline – they are not there to be read from verbatim

Rehearse Timings

If your presentation is to run automatically, be sure to take advantage of the built-in feature and rehearse timings ahead of time

Whether your presentation will run automatically or not…REHEARSE

If you are not aware of the presentation content, do NOT give the presentation!

Speaker Notes

Use the speaker’s notes feature to keep track of what you intend to say at each slide

This information is not visible to the audience but can be printed as a reference for you

Rehearse so that you are familiar with what you want to say

Try not to read from your notes while giving the presentation

Content

Plan, organize, deliver A well-planned and carefully organized

presentation makes for a smooth delivery Do not skip around but rather follow a

cohesive structure where one slide follows logically from the previous slide

Use separator slides to announce a new topic if needed

Spelling and Grammar

Spell check AND proofread! Your credibility is at stake Poetic license is one thing but outright errors

are not acceptable An ounce of prevention can be a lifesaver