How to prepare a good power point presentation?

In the last month
Presentations
How many
presentations were
good?
Aboubakr Elnashar

ContentSlides
Presenter
Presentation

Great Content:
bad Slides will not damage the presentation...
Bad content:
great Slides cannot improve bad Content!
(Osterwalder A, 2006)

Know standard of the audience.
-Do they have a background like yours?
-Don’t assume the audience will all be experts.
-Never underestimate your audience!
Time allotted to you.

New information
Novel discovery
Answers an interesting question
Describes important ideas
Concise& to the point

Slides
1. Outline slide
2. Layout
3. Structure
4. Animation
5. Bullets
6. Fonts
7. Color
8. Illustrations
9. Graphs
10. Video clips
11. Audio clips
12. Spelling& Grammar
13. Conclusion
14. Questions

 The slides should enhance the
presentation, not be the presentation (Compton
K, 2002)
 Goals:
 Convey the necessary information
 Be readable/understandable
 Be interesting (enough)
 Avoid:
 Over stimulation
 Boring

1. Outline slide
 Start with
 Main points
 Follow the order of your outline for the
rest of the presentation

2. Layout
 Simple but attractive
 The same layout

 Avoid backgrounds that are distracting or difficult to
read from

3. Structure
 Write in point form (Bullets). DO NOT use
sentences or paragraphs.
 Avoid wordiness: use key words& phrases
 Simple image on every slide.
 Balance of Slide Elements: text, graphics
{You want the audience to focus on what you
present, not the way you present}.

Bad
 This page contains too many words for a
presentation slide. It is not written in point
form, making it difficult both for your
audience to read and for you to present each
point.Although there are exactly the same
number of points on this slide as the previous
slide, it looks much more complicated. In
short, your audience will spend too much
time trying to read this paragraph instead of
listening to you.

4. Animation
 Show one point at a time:
 Audience concentrate on what you are saying
 Prevent audience from reading ahead
 keep your presentation focused

Use the “Slide show” - “animations” -”custom”-
option
Same animation
Simple "Wipe Left-to-Right" is good
Do not use:
Distracting animation
Move" or "Fly" {too tedious& slow}
(used in many presentations today).

5.Bullets
 3-6 bullets/ slide
 4 if large title, logo, picture
 Each bullet 1 line, 2 at the most.
 This is known as “cueing”
 “cue” the audience in what you
are going to say.
 This gives the audience a
“framework” to build upon.

 Crowded text: audience will not read it.
 Reading speed does not match listening
speed:
confuse instead of reinforcing each
other.

6. Fonts
Size:
 Title: at least 28-point.
 Text: at least 18-point
 References: 14-point
 Different size for main points& secondary points
 Text can be read from the back of the room.

 You are close to your monitor
 Your audience is far from the screen
Tahoma
32 pt
28 pt
24 pt
20 pt
18 pt
16 pt
14 pt
12 pt
10 pt
TNR
32 pt
28 pt
24 pt
20 pt
18 pt
16 pt
14 pt
12 pt
10 pt
Courier
32 pt
28 pt
24 pt
20 pt
18 pt
16 pt
14 pt
12 pt
10 pt
Comic
32 pt
28 pt
24 pt
20 pt
18 pt
16 pt
14 pt
12 pt
10 pt
Lucida Sans
32 pt
28 pt
24 pt
20 pt
18 pt
16 pt
14 pt
12 pt
10 pt

-Type
Main font: same
2 complementary fonts: Arial& Arial Bold.
Serif font:
e. g. Times New Roman
Used in documents filled with lots of text.
{Easier to read at small sizes}

San-serif fonts
Arial
Avoid: Script or Old English
Use a standard font: Times New Roman or
Arial.
Roman& Gothic are easier to read

- Caps
 Do not use all capital letters
 Makes text hard to read
 Conceals acronyms
 Denies their use for emphasis
-Italics
 Used to highlight thoughts or ideas
 Used for:
“quotes”, book, journal, or magazine titles

Bad
 If you use a small font, your audience won’t be able to read what you have written
 CAPITALIZE ONLYWHEN NECESSARY. IT IS
DIFFICULTTO READ
 Don’t use a complicated font

7. Color
 Use color to:
Reinforce the logic of your structure
Emphasize a point (occasionally)
 Font color that does not contrast with
the background is hard to read

Colors:
I. Cool:
blue& green
best for backgrounds {appear to recede away
from us into the background}.
II. Warm:
orange& red.
best for objects in the foreground (such as text)
{appear to be coming at us}.

The Color Wheel
 Harmonizing: Adjacent colors
e.g. Green& Yellow
 Contrasting=Complementary:
separated by another color
 Clashing: Colors that are
directly opposite
e.g. yellow on blue.

 Reds& oranges :
high-energy but difficult to stay focused on.
 Greens, blues, and browns :
mellower, but not as attention grabbing.
 Color font that contrasts sharply with the
background
blue font on white background
Yellow font on blue background

Avoid
color for decoration {distracting& annoying}.
Different color for each point
Different color for secondary points
Red-green combinations {7 % of population
are red-green colorblind}
Glaring colors
White font on Light Green, Light Blue or Pale
Yellow background
Usually can’t read this…

Dark room
white or light font on dark background
(dark blue, grey, etc.).
Good light Rooms: (which is highly
advisable)
Black or dark font on white background

Lots of people can’t read this –
and even if they could, it makes your eyes hurt.
Colour - Bad

8. Illustrations
 Diagrams are great communicators
 (Well-drawn) pictures easier to
understand
 Use only when needed, otherwise they
become distracters instead of
communicators
 They should relate to the message&
help make a point

9. Graphs
 Use graphs:
 Data in graphs is easier to comprehend &
retain than is raw data
 Trends are easier to visualize in graphs
 Graphs& figures:
large
Title
High-quality

Types
Pie Charts.
Used to show percentages.
Limit the slices to 4-6
contrast the most important slice either with color
or by exploding the slice.

Vertical Bar Charts.
Used to show changes in quantity over time.
Limit the bars to 4-8
Horizontal Bar Charts.
Used to compare quantities.

Line Charts.
Used to demonstrate trends.
Tables
Good for side-by-side comparisons of
quantitative data.
lacks impact on a visceral level.

Graphs - Good
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
January February March April
Items Sold in First Quarter of 2002
Blue
Balls

Graphs - Bad
20.4
27.4
90
20.4
30.6
38.6
34.6
31.6
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
January February March April
Blue Balls
Red Balls

Graphs - Bad
 Minor gridlines are unnecessary
 Font is too small
 Colors are illogical
 Title is missing
 Shading is distracting

Pick A Line, Any Line
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Series1
Series2

10. Video clips
To show concrete examples
promote active cognitive processing,
{this natural way people learn}.
Illustrate your point better
Increase the interest of audience.

11. Audio clips
As interviews.
Avoid
-Cheesy sound effects (sound of a horn or
clapping when transitioning slides).
-Extra sound effects attached to animations
{lose credibility with your audience}.

12. Spelling& Grammar
 Checked
 If English is not your first language:
pls have someone else check your
presentation

13. Conclusion
 Effective& strong
 Your audience is likely to remember your last
words
 Conclusion slides:
 Bring people back if they zoned out
 Summarize the main points of presentation
 Suggest future research

14. Questions??
 Avoid ending presentation abruptly
 End with a simple question slide to:
 Invite audience to ask questions
 Provide a visual aid during question
period

Presenter
Before
At the start
During
At the end

Before the talk:
 Practice in front of friends or using a video
camera& timer
 Take criticism as constructive, not personally
 Make changes well in advance
 Know Your Location
Check the podium& AV equipment
How far is audience from screen?
Do you need a laser pointer?

At the start of the talk:
 Thank the sponsor, panel
 Start using an emotionally competent stimulus
 Story
 Question
 Anecdote
 Application

During the Talk:
 Do not read your notes word for
word!
-It’s called a “presentation” & not “a reading” of
your work
-Reading a slide is annoying
-Do not read your slides like a script
-You should not simply be a text-to-speech
converter.

 Do not use the media to hide you
Face the audience, not the screen
Make eye contact
Don’t pace up& down but also don’t
stand rigid

Are you hiding behind the podium?
Are your hands/face motionless?
Are you staring…
at your advisor/boss?
at your laptop?
at the screen?
at the ceiling?
Is your back to the audience?
IF SO… you’re probably BORING!
Dead Man Talking

 Spend between 30sec- 2min/slide
Sometimes nerves make for fast talking
Calm down.
[It’s not a race
People need time to absorb information}

Not exceed your allotted time
You were poorly prepared
Have bad manners
If you’re running late:
 skip
Don’t just talk faster!

 Do be enthusiastic
Are you interested in your topic?
 If no, get a different one!
 If yes, act like it
If you aren’t excited…
 Can’t expect other people to be!

 Vary the tone of your voice, Vary your
tempo, volume, gestures
Microphone at middle of your chest
Not 2mm from your mouth
Modulate your voice evenly
If not using a mic – project your voice!

 Don’t wave your pointer all over the slide
 Do not point at everything
{Not everything is equally important}
 Don’t point with your middle finger

Orient the audience:
Don’t take lots of drinks {distracting&
unprofessional}
Spend time on
graphs, charts, anatomy
Memorize the outline
Memorize the concluding sentence
Be able to recover from interruptions

Careful use of pause
When starting a major result
Raising a question
Showing a complicated fig
Avoid annoying mannerisms
Use of OK
Interrupting yourself with I mean or you know

At the end of the talk
Be prepared to get questions!
Move towards the person who asked it
Repeat or rephrase
“What if I don’t know the answer?”
Know when to say “I don’t know”
Know how to say “I don’t know”
Don’t be uncomfortabl

Close by thanking your audience
Plan to stay a while after talk
Audience may want to talk with you

Conclusion
Good presentation= Good
content, slides& presenter

Questions??

How to prepare a good power point presentation?

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