Tips for Effective Presentations

POWERPOINT PRESENTATION
DOs &
DON’Ts

Your best to remember the following…
DO

DON’T
Choose Serif fonts like
Times New Roman
They are harder to read on a screen

Use san-serif fonts like
Ariel, Gil Sans, or Century Gothic
They are easier on the eye
DO

DON’T
Underline words for emphasis
People mistake these for hyperlinks and
they are harder to read.

DO
Vary a font’ssize, styleorcolor for emphasis
or group words together *
*But avoid doing it all on one slide

DON’T
Use visually complex fonts
Especiallyavarietyofthem

Choose easy to read fonts
&
Stay in a font family
DO

DON’T
Use fonts that are smaller than
24 points
Any smaller and it can’t be read easily from a distance

DO
Back up about 2 feet
Watch your presentation
See if you can read everything

DON’T

DO
Choose a color palette & layout style
And stick with it

DON’T
Fill up the screen with lots and lots information written in sentence form. Or even bullet after bullet after bullet. The visuals in your presentation should help guide your speaking, not replace it. People can read faster than they can speak, and they don’t want to hear you just read from the slides. Plus, the more you put on a slide, the smaller the text will get and the smaller the text gets, the harder it is to read. Then, you will annoy your audience as they try to follow along, but falter in their attempts. An annoyed audience is not a happy audience and an unhappy audience won’t really give you the attention your hard and carefully researched presentation deserves. In other words, did you really read all of this? Would you expect your audience to?

DO
DO
Choose only key points to highlight
Follow a 7 words / 6 lines guideline
Make every slide matter

DON’T
Use visually complex backgrounds

DO
Change the pace by adding
relevant video and website links*
*Just make sure you’ve loaded those pages ahead of time

DON’T
Go crazy with sound effects and animations*
*Imagine many things spinning & whizzing around on the page

Use backgrounds that don’t compete with the message

DON’T
Include werds that are spellledincorractly
Include incorrect information

DO
Check your spelling
Proofread each slide
Make sure all information is correct

DON’T
Overload slides with images
Copy and paste images from the Internet

DO
Choose images
that match
your message
p.s. That‘s jazz great Dizzy Gillespie looking for the right picture

DON’T
Simply read off the screen

DO
Practice ahead of time
Make notes for reference
Look at the audience

DON’T
Forget to review your main points

DO
Credit your sources*
Web Resources
Works Used & Consulted
Colourlovers.com – great for finding color palettes
Flickr.com – find free images open to public use
Slideshare.net – see how others approach the same idea
Huber, Elaine. “PPT Dos and Don’ts.” accessed Oct. 25, 2010. http://www.slideshare.net/elainehuber/ppts-dos-and-donts.
Desjardins, Jesse. “Steal this presentation.” accessed Oct. 22, 2010. http://www.slideshare.net/GlobalGossip/ steal-this-presentation-5038209.
Marcello, Tom. “Dizzy Gillespie – contact sheet.” accessed Oct. 26, 2010. http://www.flickr.com/photos/tommarcello/435710613/in/faves-78239079@N00/.
*Images can be sited throughout the presentation or on the very last slide

Created by K. Covintree
Fall 2010
That’s it!Thanks for Watching!

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Tips for Effective Presentations

by K H Covintree

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