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How to Use Powerpoint to Make Presentations TUTORIAL

How to Use Powerpoint to Make Presentations

People holding a virtual meeting Slideshows are quick to produce, easy to update and an effective way to inject visual involvement into almost any presentation.

Still, slideshows tin can as well spell disaster even for experienced presenters. The key to success is to make certain your slideshow is a visual help and not a visual distraction.

Tips for Making Effective PowerPoint Presentations

Use the slide master feature to create a consistent and unproblematic blueprint template. Information technology is fine to vary the content presentation (bulleted listing, 2-column text, text and epitome, etc.), just be consequent with other elements such as font, colors and background.
Simplify and limit the number of words on each screen. Use primal phrases and include but essential information.
Limit punctuation and avert putting words in all-capital letters. Empty infinite on the slide volition heighten readability.
Use contrasting colors for text and groundwork. Calorie-free text on a dark background is best. Patterned backgrounds tin reduce readability.
Avoid the use of flashy transitions such as text fly-ins. These features may seem impressive at first simply are distracting and get quondam apace.
Overuse of special effects such as blitheness and sounds may make your presentation "cutesy" and could negatively affect your credibility.
Use good-quality images that reinforce and complement your bulletin. Ensure that your paradigm maintains its impact and resolution when projected on a larger screen.
If you lot use builds (lines of text appearing each time yous click the mouse), have content appear on the screen in a consistent, elementary style; from the top or left is best. Use the feature only when necessary to make your point, because builds tin can slow your presentation.
Limit the number of slides. Presenters who constantly "flip" to the next slide are likely to lose their audience. A good rule of pollex is one slide per minute.
Learn to navigate your presentation in a nonlinear mode. PowerPoint allows the presenter to jump ahead or back without having to page through all the interim slides.
Know how to and do moving frontwards and astern within your presentation. Audiences often ask to see a previous screen once more.
If possible, view your slides on the screen you'll be using for your presentation. Make certain the slides are readable from the back row seats. Text and graphic images should be big enough to read but not so large every bit to appear "loud."
Have a Program B in the consequence of technical difficulties. Remember that transparencies and handouts will not show animation or other special effects.
Practice with someone who has never seen your presentation. Enquire them for honest feedback virtually colors, content and whatever effects or graphic images yous've included.
Do not read from your slides. The content of your slides is for the audience, not for the presenter.
Practice non speak to your slides. Many presenters face up their presentation onscreen rather than their audience.
Do not apologize for annihilation in your presentation. If you believe something volition be hard to read or understand, don't utilise it.

The 7 Deadly Sins of PowerPoint Presentations

By Joseph Sommerville

It'south not surprising PowerPoint© slideshows accept become the norm for visuals in most business organization presentations. Slideshows are quick to produce, like shooting fish in a barrel to update and effective to inject visual involvement into the presentation. Notwithstanding, slideshows can also spell disaster even for experienced presenters. The cardinal to success is to brand certain your slide show is a visual assistance and not a visual distraction. For the all-time results, avoid these common "seven deadly sins" of PowerPoint© presentations.

Slide Transitions And Audio Furnishings: Transitions and sound effects can become the focus of attending, which in plough distracts the audition. Worse yet, when a presentation containing several effects and transitions runs on a computer much slower than the one on which it was created, the outcome is a sluggish, well-nigh comical when viewed. Such gimmicks rarely enhance the message you're trying to communicate. Unless you are presenting at a science fiction convention, get out out the laser-guided text! Exit the fade-ins, fade-outs, wipes, blinds, dissolves, checkerboards, cuts, covers and splits to Hollywood filmmakers. Even "builds" (lines of text appearing each time you click the mouse) can be distracting. Focus on your bulletin, non the technology..
Standard Clipart: Death to screen beans! PowerPoint© is now then widely used the clipart included with information technology has become a "visual platitude." It shows a lack of creativity and a tired adherence to a standard form. Kickoff, make certain that you need graphical images to enhance your message. If you do, use your own scanned photographs or better-quality graphics from companies such as PhotoDisc (www.photodisc.com) or Hemera'southward Photograph Objects (www.hemera.com). Screen captures tin can add together realism when presenting information almost a Website or computer program. Two pop screen capture programs are Snagit (world wide web.techsmith.com) for Windows and Snapz Pro (www.ambrosiasw.com) for Macintosh. Both are available equally shareware.
Presentation Templates:Some other visual cliche. Templates strength you to fit your original ideas into someone else's pre-packaged mold. The templates frequently incorporate distracting backgrounds and poor color combinations. Select a adept book on Web graphics and apply the same principles to your slides. Create your own distinctive look or use your company logo in a corner of the screen.
Text-Heavy Slides: Projected slides are a good medium for depicting an idea graphically or providing an overview. Slides are a poor medium for item and reading. Avert paragraphs, quotations and even complete sentences. Limit your slides to five lines of text and use words and phrases to brand your points. The audition will be able to digest and retain key points more easily. Don't utilise your slides as speaker'due south notes or to simply projection an outline of your presentation.
The "Me" Prototype: Presenters often scan a table or graphical image directly from their existing print corporate material and include information technology in their slide bear witness presentations. The results are almost e'er sub-optimal. Print visuals are normally meant to be seen from viii-12 inches rather than viewed from several feet. Typically, these images are as well minor, too detailed and too textual for an constructive visual presentation. The same is truthful for font size; 12 point font is acceptable when the text is in front of you. In a slideshow, aim for a minimum of 40 bespeak font. Recall the audience and move the circle from "me" to "we." Brand sure all elements of whatever particular slide are large plenty to be seen easily. Size really does matter.
Reading: A verbal presentation should focus on interactive speaking and listening, non reading by the speaker or the audience. The demands of spoken and written language differ significantly. Spoken language is shorter, less formal and more direct. Reading text ruins a presentation. A related betoken has to do with handouts for the audience. One of your goals as a presenter is to capture and concur the audience's attention. If y'all distribute materials earlier your presentation, your audience will be reading the handouts rather than listening to you. Often, parts of an constructive presentation depend on creating suspense to engage the audience. If the audition can read everything you're going to say, that element is lost.
Faith in Technology: You never know when an equipment malfunction or incompatible interfaces will strength you to give your presentation on some other reckoner. Be prepared by having a back-up of your presentation on a CD-ROM. Better nonetheless is a compact-flash memory menu with an adapter for the PCMCIA slot in your notebook. With it, you can still make last-minute changes. It'south as well a good thought to set a few colour transparencies of your key slides. In the worst-case scenario, none of the technology works and you lot have no visuals to present. Y'all should still exist able to give an excellent presentation if you focus on the message. Always familiarize yourself with the presentation, exercise information technology and be ready to engage the audition regardless of the technology that is available. It's almost a lost art.

Joseph Sommerville has earned the title "The Presentation Expert" for helping professionals design, develop and deliver more than effective presentations. He is the principal of Peak Communication Performance, a Houston-based firm working worldwide to help professionals develop skills in strategic communication.

Tips for Constructive PowerPoint Presentations

Fonts

Select a single sans-serif fonts such as Arial or Helvetica. Avert serif fonts such as Times New Roman or Palatino considering these fonts are sometimes more than difficult to read.
Use no font size smaller than 24 signal.
Use the same font for all your headlines.
Select a font for body re-create and another for headlines.
Utilize bold and different sizes of those fonts for captions and subheadings.
Add together a fourth font for page numbers or every bit a secondary torso font for sidebars.
Don't employ more than iv fonts in any one publication.
Conspicuously label each screen. Use a larger font (35-45 points) or different colour for the title.
Employ larger fonts to indicate importance.
Use different colors, sizes and styles (e.g., bold) for impact.
Avert italicized fonts as these are difficult to read quickly.
Avert long sentences.
Avoid abbreviations and acronyms.
Limit punctuation marks.
No more than 6-8 words per line
For bullet points, use the 6 10 6 Dominion. One thought per line with no more than than 6 words per line and no more than 6 lines per slide
Use nighttime text on low-cal background or light text on dark background. Even so, dark backgrounds sometimes make it difficult for some people to read the text.
Do not use all caps except for titles.
Put repeating elements (similar page numbers) in the same location on each page of a multi-folio document.
To examination the font, stand vi anxiety from the monitor and encounter if you can read the slide.

Design and Graphical Images

Use design templates.
Standardize position, colors, and styles.
Include only necessary data.
Limit the information to essentials.
Content should be cocky-evident
Apply colors that contrast and compliment.
Too may slides can lose your audience.
Keep the background consistent and subtle.
Limit the number of transitions used. It is often ameliorate to use but one so the audience knows what to expect.
Use a single style of dingbat for bullets throughout the folio.
Use the aforementioned graphical rule at the top of all pages in a multi-folio certificate.
Use one or two big images rather than several small images.
Prioritize images instead of a avalanche of images for competing attending.
Make images all the aforementioned size.
Use the aforementioned border.
Adjust images vertically or horizontally.
Use only enough text when using charts or graphical images to explicate the chart or graph and clearly label the image.
Go on the design clean and uncluttered. Leave empty space around the text and graphical images.
Use quality clipart and utilise it sparingly. A graphical image should relate to and enhance the topic of the slide.
Try to apply the same style graphical paradigm throughout the presentation (due east.yard., cartoon, photographs)
Limit the number of graphical images on each slide.
Repetition of an image reinforces the message. Necktie the number of copies of an paradigm to the numbers in your text.
Resize, recolor, reverse to turn one epitome into many. Use duplicates of varying sizes, colors, and orientations to multiply the usefulness of a single clip fine art image.
Brand a single image stand up out with dramatic dissimilarity. Use colour to make a dramatic change to a single copy of your clip fine art.
Check all images on a projection screen before the actual presentation.
Avoid flashy images and noisy animation effects unless information technology relates directly to the slide.

Color

Limit the number of colors on a single screen.
Brilliant colors make minor objects and thin lines stand out. However, some vibrant colors are difficult to read when projected.
Utilize no more than than four colors on one nautical chart.
Bank check all colors on a projection screen earlier the actual presentation. Colors may projection differently than what appears on the monitor.

General Presentation

Plan carefully.
Exercise your research.
Know your audition.
Time your presentation.
Speak comfortably and clearly.
Check the spelling and grammar.
Do non read the presentation. Do the presentation so y'all can speak from bullet points. The text should be a cue for the presenter rather than a bulletin for the viewer.
Give a brief overview at the starting time. Then nowadays the data. Finally review important points.
It is oftentimes more effective to accept bulleted points appear one at a fourth dimension so the audience listens to the presenter rather than reading the screen.
Employ a wireless mouse or option upwardly the wired mouse so you tin can movement around every bit you lot speak.
If sound effects are used, wait until the sound has finished to speak.
If the content is complex, print the slides so the audience tin have notes.
Exercise non turn your back on the audition. Endeavour to position the monitor and then you lot can speak from it.

Additional Resources

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