The document provides tips for effectively using PowerPoint in presentations. It recommends using PowerPoint to illustrate content, not as an outline. Slides should have sparse information with no more than 8 lines of text per slide. Animations and transitions are discouraged. Presenters should create an outline first before designing slides. High contrast colors make text readable. Slides at the end allow for seamless transitions and Q&A. Presenters should rehearse and focus on engaging the audience, not the slides.

1. EFFECTIVE USE OF
POWERPOINT

2.  PowerPoint, when displayed via a projector, is a useful tool for
showing audiences things that enhance what the speaker is saying.
It is a useful tool for illustrating the content of a speech, such as by
showing photos, graphs, charts, maps, etc., or by highlighting
certain text from a speech, such as quotations or major ideas. It
should not be used as a slide-show outline of what the speaker is
telling the audience.

3.  Slides used in a presentation should be spare, in terms of how much
information is on each slide, as well as how many slides are used. A rule of
thumb is to put no more than eight lines of text on a slide, and with no
more than eight to ten words per line. In most cases, less is more, so four
lines of text is probably better. Don’t display charts or graphs with a lot of
information—if it’s useful for the audience to see such things, pass them out
as handouts.

4.  Unless you’re an experienced designer, don’t use the
transition and animation “tricks” that are built into
PowerPoint, such as bouncing or flying text. By now, most
people roll their eyes when they see these things, and these
tricks add nothing of value to a presentation.

5.  Start by creating an outline- The most important part of any presentation is the
content, not the graphical appeal. That is why you should develop your presentation
with the content first, before deciding on the look (colors, graphics, etc.) Create a good
structure for your presentation by reflecting on the goal of the presentation, what your
audience is thinking right now, and what points you need to make in order to move the
audience from where they are to where you want them to be. Write an outline on paper
or use sticky notes so you can move ideas around. By creating an outline first, you
ensure that the content of your presentation is solid before you concern yourself with
the visual elements.

6.  Use Contrasting Colours- If you want your audience to be able to see what you have on
the slide, there needs to be a lot of contrast between the text color and the background color. I
suggest a dark background with light text – I usually use a medium to dark blue background
and white or yellow letters. Some prefer a light background and dark letters, which will also
work well - which you choose will depend on personal preference. Don’t think that just because
the text looks fine on your computer screen that it will look fine when projected. Most
projectors make colors duller than they appear on a screen, and you should check how your
colors look when projected to make sure there is still enough contrast. To check that your
colors have enough contrast, use the Color Contrast Calculator.

7.  Stop the moving text- When text comes on the screen, we want the audience to
read the text, then focus back on the presenter to hear the message. If the text moves
onto the screen in any way – such as flying in, spiral or zooming – it makes it harder
for the audience members to read since they have to wait until the text has stopped
before they can read it. This makes the presenter wait longer between each point
and makes the audience members focus more on the movement than on what is
being said. I suggest the use of the "Appear" effect, which just makes the text appear
and is the easiest for the audience to read.

8.  Use visuals instead of text slides
Every two years I ask audiences what annoys them about bad
PowerPoint presentations. The latest survey confirms that audiences
are more fed up than ever with the overload of text on slides. Instead of
using slides that only contain text, use visuals such as graphs, diagrams,
photos and media clips to engage the audience. I've developed a five-
step method for creating persuasive visuals in my book The Visual Slide
Revolution.

9.  Have Slides at the End of Your Presentation
The last slide you speak to should not be the last slide in your presentation file. You should
have three identical copies of your last speaking slide so that if you accidentally advance
one too many times at the end of your presentation, your audience never knows because
you don’t drop into the program, the slide looks like it has not changed. After these slides,
you should include some slides that answer questions that you expect to be asked. These
slides will be useful during Q&A sessions after the presentation. The final slide should be a
blank slide so that if you go through all the other slides, you have a final backup from
dropping into the program.

10.  Be able to Jump to Any Slide- PowerPoint has a feature that allows you to be
able to move quickly and seamlessly to any slide in your presentation. To do so, you
need to know the slide numbers. The easiest way to print a list of the slide numbers
and associated slide titles is to go to the Outline View and collapse the details for
each slide (there is a button on the left side of the screen in this view that will do
this). Then print the view. To jump to any slide, just enter the slide number on the
keyboard and press the Enter key. This will move you directly to that slide. This
technique is very useful for moving to a prepared Q&A slide or for skipping parts of
your presentation if time becomes an issue.

11.  Blank the screen- Sometimes we want the image on the screen to disappear so
that the audience is focused solely on the presenter. There are two ways to do
this. The first is if you want to blank the screen with a black image, similar to
shutting the projector off (we used to do this all the time with overhead
projectors by just shutting the projector off). Just press the B key on the
keyboard and the image is replaced with a black image. Press the B key again
and the image is restored. If you want to use a white image instead of a black
image, press the W key each time.

12.  Draw on the screen during a presentation- Sometimes it can be valuable
to be able to draw on the screen during your presentation to illustrate a
particular point or item. This can be done in the following way. Press the
Ctrl-P key combination to display a pen on the screen. Then, using the left
mouse button, draw on the slide as you wish. To erase what you have drawn,
press the E key. To hide the pen, press the A key or the Ctrl-H key
combination

13.  Above all, use high-contrast color schemes so that whatever is on your
slides is readable. Unless you are a talented graphic designer, use the
templates that come with PowerPoint or Keynote, and keep it simple—high
concept design in a slide presentation doesn’t help in most circumstances,
unless you’re in the fashion or design fields. If you use graphics or photos,
try to use the highest quality you can find or afford—clip art and low-
resolution graphics blown up on a screen usually detract from a
presentation.

14.  Rehearse your PowerPoint presentation and not just once. Don’t
let PowerPoint get in the way of your oral presentation, and make
sure you know how it works, what sequence the slides are in, how
to get through it using someone else’s computer, etc. Make sure
that you can deliver your presentation if PowerPoint is completely
unavailable; in other words, make sure you can give your speech
without your PowerPoint presentation.

15.  Get used to using black slides. There are few speeches that need
something displayed on the screen all the time. If you include a black
slide in your presentation, your audience will refocus on you, rather
than on the screen, and you can direct them back to the screen when
you have something else to show them. Put a black screen at the end of
your presentation, so that when you’re done, the PowerPoint
presentation is finished and off the screen.

16.  Concentrate on keeping the audience focused on you, not on the screen.
You can do this by using slides sparingly, standing in front of the audience
in a way that makes them look at you, and, if possible, going to the screen
and using your hand or arm to point out things on a slide. If you expect to
be using PowerPoint a lot, invest in a remote “clicker” that lets you get away
from the computer and still drive your presentation. If you don’t have one of
those, it’s better to ask someone to run the presentation than to be behind a
screen and keyboard while you talk.

17.  If you show something on a computer that requires moving the
cursor around, or flipping from one screen to another, or some other
technique that requires interaction with the computer itself, remember
that people in the audience will see things very differently on the
projection screen than you see them on the computer screen.

18.  Keep motion on the screen to a minimum, unless you’re showing a
movie or a video. It’s better to show a static screenshot of a Web page,
embedded on a slide, than to call up the Web page in a browser on a
computer. If you want to point out something on a Web page, go to the
screen and point at it—don’t jiggle the cursor around what you want
people to look at: their heads will look like bobble-headed dolls.

19.  Don’t “cue” the audience that listening to your speech means getting
through your PowerPoint presentation. If the audience sees that your
PowerPoint presentation is the structure of your speech, they’ll start
wondering how many slides are left. Slides should be used asynchronously
within your speech, and only to highlight or illustrate things. Audiences are
bored with oral presentations that go from one slide to the next until the
end. Engage the audience, and use slides only when they are useful.

20.  THANK YOU !!
Submitted by: Kristelle Gregorio
BM12103