Avoiding “Death by PowerPoint”
presentation out.
Keep it Short
There is a place for text in PowerPoints.
But use the text as an outline of the topic
rather than a means of delivering the substance of your topic. Remember, you are the
star of the presentation, so the important
substance should come from you, not the
screen. Try not to have more than three bullet points per slide, and do not let the bullet
points extend more than two lines. Never
go below 30-point font, and bigger is even
better. Vary slides so that not every slide is
the same structure. For critical takeaways
from your presentation, give them a position of emphasis by having a single point on
the slide. Try to use words and phrases rather than long sentences. Then during your
presentation, use the slide to guide your
discussion and keep you organized so you
rely less on notes. If you cannot boil your
slide down to three bullet points, go back
and try again! Editing presentations is a process just as with your written work.
Alternatively, you can use the slide
to display certain key text. For example, if
your presentation is about specific contract
language or the specific words of a statute,
use the slide to blow up that language so
your audience has it for reference while you
deliver the substance. For every PowerPoint
decision you make, ask yourself, “Is this going to distract the audience from listening
to me?” If the answer is yes, do not do it.
PowerPoint Advanced Techniques
The very best thing you can do for your
PowerPoint presentation is to animate. Animating means simply controlling the timing
of the text or images on the screen. People
read faster than you can speak, and that is
why animation is important. If you show the
whole slide at once, your audience is going
to read everything on your slide from start
to finish. And while they are doing that, they
are not listening to anything you say.
For PowerPoint novices, animating can
seem daunting. But it is incredibly easy.
Highlight your first bullet point with your
cursor, then click on “Animate” in the top
menu. A menu of animation choices will
show up. I use the first one, “Appear”;
click on it. (Use the same type of animation
throughout the presentation—for example, do not use “Appear” on one slide and
then “Fly In” on the next). And then go to
your second bullet point and repeat these
steps. If you add a bullet point and need to
change the order, click “Reorder” on the
top right menu. During your presentation,
use the same technique you use to advance
the next slide to move to the next bullet
point (e.g., space bar, arrow key). You can
also purchase a wireless presentation clicker
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that allows you to advance your presentation without being near a computer.12
The most frequent complaint about PowerPoint is that the presentations lose human
contact, and instead resemble a display.13
As a result, discussion and conversation decrease. One tip for infusing more discussion in your presentation is to press the “B”
key after you have shown a particular slide,
which will automatically make the screen go
dark. This will give you a chance to speak
to your audience from the heart without any
distractions from the screen.
Other Presentation Tips
Handouts
Many good presentations have handouts—something for the audience to take
home with them as a reminder of what they
learned in your presentation (or your contact information if you are presenting to potential clients). But do not give the handout until after your presentation. If you do,
your audience will not be paying attention
to you—they will be reading the handout.
Open with Strength and Confidence
Do not apologize for a presentation’s potential shortcomings before you begin. Too
often, I see the presenter begin with, “Sorry, this presentation is dense,” “I’m not very
techno