The document provides tips for developing good PowerPoint presentations, including organizing content into an overview, body, and summary; designing readable slides with a clear font, limited colors and styles, and bulleted lists; and proofreading for correctness, clarity, and concision. Graphics should be simple and explained, and the conclusion restates the main points about organization, design, and proofreading.

1. Developing Good PowerPoint
Presentations
By Laura Osborne
November 12, 2011

2. Overview
 Organizing content
 Designing readable slides
 Proofreading for the 3 Cs –
 Correctness
 Clarity
 Concision

3. Organizing content
 Tell them what you are going to tell them
 Have an “overview” slide after your title slide
 Tell them
 Organize your material into key points
 Give each slide a title
 Tell them what you told them
 Have a summary slide near the end
 Tell them where to go for more information
 Provide a business card slide last, or links to
further information

4. Designing readable slides
 Use a standard, clear, easy to read font
 Sans serif fonts are ideal. The font used in this
presentation is Gill Sans MT.
 Use no more than 2 different fonts
 Use a template to help maintain consistency
 Format > Slide Design
 Avoid red
 Red text is hard to read; red backgrounds are
“muddy” when projected

5. Designing readable slides, cont.
 Pick a font color that contrasts with the
background color
 For example, dark green would be too hard to
read against this background
 Use at least a 24 point font
 28 point is even better
 But don’t exceed 32 point (except for slide
titles)

6. Designing readable slides, cont.
 Format content in bulleted lists
 Avoid long paragraphs
 Avoid numbered lists unless you are providing
instructions
 Don’t exceed 6 main bullet points per slide; if you
need more, start a new slide
 Keep list items consistent
 Only capitalize the first word
 Use consistent end punctuation (either have
periods at the end, or don’t)

7. Designing readable slides, cont.
 Careful with the bells and whistles
 For this assignment, you don’t need:
 Animated graphics
 Slide transitions
 Use graphics as (or if) needed
 Numerical data may be presented in a chart or
graph
 Photos may be used to make a point
 Graphics should always be explained (as you
are speaking) – the audience should understand

8. Graphics Example
Use the Paragraph dialog
box to adjust alignment,
indentation and spacing.
Notice the Spacing settings;
here’s where you adjust
spacing between paragraphs.
(Instructor’s note: The purpose of
the graphic is made clear, and the
relevant portion is marked.)

9. Proofreading for the 3 Cs
 Correctness
 Are your facts correct?
 Is your grammar, spelling, punctuation, capitalization,
and syntax correct?
 Clarity
 Are
your ideas clearly presented in an order that
makes sense?
 Concision
 Are any of your bullet points more than 2 lines long? If
so, revise to omit needless words.

10. In conclusion
 Remember to start with a preview of your
main points
 Remember to use slide titles to guide
viewers through your main points
 Remember to conclude with a summary
 Use lists, not paragraphs
 Keep slide design simple and consistent
 Proofread, proofread, proofread

11. For further information
(either provide your contact information on this
slide, as it would be formatted in a business
card, or provide links to more information, or
provide names of others who could be
contacted for more information)