PowerPoint – Tips for Professional Slides
There are some pointers to follow if you want to ensure that you have the most professional looking PowerPoint presentations for your audience.
- Use minimal text in each slide or no text at all. The slide should only contain a brief bullet point to support your verbal presentation. Or even more effective in gaining understanding and retention, use no text and only utilize graphics to convey your point on the slide. If the audience has to spend time reading your slide, then they will not be listening to what you are saying. Put any other details or text you want them to have, in a handout.
- Use consistent transitions and animations. Try to use the same transitions between each slide and the same animations between each text and graphic. If you use too many different types, it will be too “busy” and your audience they will not be as attentive and will not retain as much information.
- Do not put sound with your transitions and animations unless it is an un -narrated presentation. If there are sounds during your transitions, it will distract from any dialogue you are giving.
- Use lots of pictures and graphics. We all love pictures and graphics. Look at advertisements such as billboards and brochures. They all contain pictures. Use plenty of them in your presentation to support your text. In general, if you think of each slide as a billboard supporting your idea or points, it will be a successful presentation.
- Optimal colors for presentations. The optimal colors that best attract the eye in presentations, is a dark background with a light text. In a darker room setting (the typical lighting for presentations), a dark slide background absorbs the light emitted by the projector, while the contrast with light-colored foreground elements (text, pictures, etc.) makes the slide more readable and draws the eye to the lighter elements.
- Steer clear of backgrounds with lots of red as they make people edgy. However, simple black backgrounds with light white or yellow text is good if you can’t think of a creative background idea.
