Guy Kawasaki provides 10 recommendations for improving PowerPoint presentations in his "Presentation Checklist". The recommendations are to use a black background with white sans-serif text at least 30 points font size. Slides should have 25 words or less and use phrases instead of complete sentences. No more than 4 bullets per slide should be built to appear step-by-step. Capitalization, pictures, and branding with the company logo in the corner are also addressed. Following these recommendations aims to make presentations more powerful through simplicity and clarity of message.

1. If you want to ensure that your presentation is as powerful
as possible, check it against these ten recommendations.
Presentation Checklist by Guy Kawasaki
Change your background to black.
Gravitas is a good thing, and black says it.
White says, “I am clueless and am going to
make you stare at a bright object.”
Change all your text to a sans serif,
bold, and white.
Arial is just fine. If you want to show you’re
warm and fuzzy with a font, pin something
on Pinterest and come back later.
Change all your text to at least
thirty points.
Now remove text until everything fits.
Less. Is. More.
Use twenty-five words or less per slide.
The purpose of a slide is to anchor what you
want to say, not say it. Less. Is. More.
Convert all complete sentences
to phrases.
If phrases aren’t enough for the audience,
you’re speaking to the wrong people.
Reduce the number of bullets to no
more than four per slide.
If you need more than four bullets to explain
something, you either need another slide or
you’re saying too much.
“Build” your bulleted lists by clicking
to make each item appear.
A build forces you to roll out a story in a
step-by-step fashion.
Capitalize correctly.
The only place to use Title Caps is the title.
Everything else is sentence caps.
Reduce the number of pictures or
graphics to three or less per slide.
Big font, big pictures—think big all the time.
Put your company name or logo in one
of the corners of every page.
Think ABB: always be branding.
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Learn more about the Art of the Start 2.0 at GuyKawasaki.com
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