This document provides top ten tips for creating effective slides. The tips include keeping slides simple with limited text, using high quality graphics and visual themes, proper use of color and fonts, including audio/video sparingly, and using slide sorters to structure the presentation. Transitions should also be limited for clarity and focus on the content. Overall, the tips emphasize visual design and organization to engage audiences.
Keep your slides simple; filling them with too much text or information can make your presentation looked cluttered and become distracting as you talk.
Limit the amount of text and bullet points within your slides; the audience should not be obtaining information from the slides, but from the presenter’s words.
Try to limit your transitions and effects with your presentation. Ridiculous and tedious transitions can distract or bore viewers when they are used in rapid succession, as most “clicks” in powerpoints do.
Using high quality graphics within your presentation will make it look more professional. There’s nothing more offsetting about a photo than it being pixelated or stretched an unnatural way. It only says that the presenter is incapable of assessing quality work.
Having a common theme throughout a presentation will better fuse your argument together visually. A random theme will only exaggerate random thoughts, which are not streamlined like they should be. Also, choosing a cliche theme used countless limes before will make the presentation seem tacky.
Every chart has a specific purpose; make sure you are using the correct chart for the correct info!
Using correct color schemes throughout your presentation will enhance its effectiveness. Clashing colors will be hard on the eyes, and will deter your audience’s attention to the color instead of your words.
There are appropriate fonts for every bit of information. Using a silly or comical font for a serious presentation might not be in the best interest of the presenter!
Using audio files or videos in a presentation can really liven it up a bit. Just make sure the audio/video are embedded correctly, and don’t take a lot of window minimizing to play it.
Viewing your own presentation in chunks or as a whole can help with your personal organization of the presentation. The Slide Sorter lets you do this. Organize!
