Making Effective Presentations
An Introduction to Simple, Professional Presentations
Intro Powerpoint Design Format Animation Preparation Presentation Tips Conclusion

First: The Bad News...
The hard truth is that making a good presentation is a lot of work – especially
if you’re not used to making them.
• Choosing the right medium and learning how to use it.
• Customizing and preparing materials relevant to the
presentation.
• Doing the research on what you have to present, and
thereafter figuring out what point exactly you want to get
across (and how to do so).
• In some cases, you have to prepare your presentation with a
group.
• Most important: you have to deliver the presentation!
Intro Powerpoint Design Format Animation Preparation Presentation Tips Conclusion

Now, the Good News
Once you get used to it, making and delivering good presentations becomes
manageable – and there are easy ways to go about it.
• You have no choice: making presentations is a key
competency expected of any professional today.
• Although making presentations takes some doing, it’s not
as complicated as it seems.
• All you have to do is follow basic dos and don’ts about
making presentations.
• Besides, there are plenty of software programs that make
putting together a presentation easy (like Powerpoint).
Intro Powerpoint Design Format Animation Preparation Presentation Tips Conclusion

Bad Presentations
It’s hard to say what makes a good presentation. But it’s easy to identify what
makes a bad one.
• The presenter either doesn’t know what s/he is talking
about or what point to get across.
• The presenter isn’t familiar with the equipment being used.
• The materials are painful to look at or difficult to see/read.
• The medium overpowers the message.
• The presentation itself is poorly delivered.
Intro Powerpoint Design Format Animation Preparation Presentation Tips Conclusion

Intro Powerpoint Design Format Animation Preparation Presentation Tips Conclusion

The first step is to design the “look” of your presentation.
You can do this by right-clicking the slide, and selecting Slide Design.
From there, pick a template for you to use. It will be applied to all your slides.
Intro Powerpoint Design Format Animation Preparation Presentation Tips Conclusion

Next, you should format your slides.
The easiest way to do that is to make changes to the master slide.
Intro Powerpoint Design Format Animation Preparation Presentation Tips Conclusion

On Formatting Slides
Some pointers to live (or die) by.
• Changes made to the master slide are applied to all slides.
This makes formatting easier.
• To reduce file size, embed images or similar objects on the
master slide if you want these to appear on all slides.
• Be careful with the colors and fonts you use on your slides:
you might be making the text hard to read.
• Be mindful that what might look good on-screen may not
look good when projected.
• You can also design a blank template from scratch if you
don’t want to use an existing design.
Intro Powerpoint Design Format Animation Preparation Presentation Tips Conclusion

If you’re just creating a simple presentation, you can apply uniform animation
onto the master slide.
Alternatively, you can apply individual animations to each slide later on.
Intro Powerpoint Design Format Animation Preparation Presentation Tips Conclusion

Some Notes on Animation
Animations are cool – but only if done right.
• Animations are not always necessary, but they do allow you
to break down your presentation and pace how it should be
delivered.
• Pick your animations wisely. Some animations are
inappropriate for the type of presentation you are making.
• Don’t get carried away: generally, simpler animations are
better.
• The simplest animations to use are entrance and exit
effects.
• Combining animations and changing their timing can have
interesting effects (but are time-consuming to do).
Intro Powerpoint Design Format Animation Preparation Presentation Tips Conclusion

Overview
Making Effective
Presentations
POLECO Boot Camp 2005
Making Effective
Overview
Presentations
POLECO Boot Camp 2005
Now, you’re ready to begin typing in the content of your presentation.
Of course, you’ll have to add slides as you go on.
Intro Powerpoint Design Format Animation Preparation Presentation Tips Conclusion

When Preparing the Slides
It might seem simple, but there’s more to it than just typing away.
• Remember: you don’t have to put everything you want to
say on the slide.
• Present complete key ideas as concisely as possible on
screen (but be prepared to explain away).
• Be mindful of how the text looks: large, long blocks of text
on the slides are very painful to look at.
• If you’re comfortable doing so (or just brave), you could
create hyperlinks throughout your presentation.
• Plan ahead: if you know how much time you have to
present, don’t make too many slides.
• Where appropriate, make sure to put titles on the slide.
Intro Powerpoint Design Format Animation Preparation Presentation Tips Conclusion

To launch your presentation, press F5 or the on-screen launch button.
To go forward: Page Down, Space Bar, ,
To go backward: Page Up, Backspace, ,
Intro Powerpoint Design Format Animation Preparation Presentation Tips Conclusion

If you have to jump to a different slide, right click anywhere in the presentation or
move the cursor to click on the navigation options on the lower left of the screen.
Then search for the slide you want to jump to.
Intro Powerpoint Design Format Animation Preparation Presentation Tips Conclusion

Practical Tips
Things you should already know – but probably don’t practice.
• Rehearse your presentation before you deliver it: that way
you’ll know that everything that should work, does.
• Test and setup all equipment prior to your presentation,
and make sure you know how to operate them.
• If other presentations are going to be made, load all of
them into one computer to avoid delays in between.
• Keep it simple: that way a presentation is easier to make,
and when you do emphasize something, it gets noticed.
• When delivering the presentation, bring a print copy.
• Choose fonts carefully: if you have to use another
computer to present, it might not come out as you intend.
Intro Powerpoint Design Format Animation Preparation Presentation Tips Conclusion

It’s possible to save the fonts you use in the same file as the presentation.
It doesn’t work with all fonts, though, and it can increase the file size substantially.
Intro Powerpoint Design Format Animation Preparation Presentation Tips Conclusion

Notes Pages
For your reference, you can prin