Whether teaching, a professional business presentation, or training, PowerPoint is a magnificent and powerful tool. The secret is, make PowerPoint a visual aid in your work, not a distractor. The basic rule to creating captivating HiSlide presentations revolves around your skill with PowerPoint design tools, your presentation flow, and consistent style. Your performance is surely unforgettable if you follow the following simple steps.
Begin by outlining your speech
Just like lesson objectives, it is essential to describe your presentation’s purposes to guide the flow of your presentation and manage your audience’s expectations. Outlines clarify the goals of your presentation and critical points for your audience to note.
Use a few words
Wordy slides, long sentences, and quotes will make your presentation untidy by being cluttered; your audience is most likely going to get bored too. Use Images instead, especially where a single image or graph can replace words. Select the best quality images.
Keep your audience attentive
The slides are a visual aid; the presentation is you and your speech. Grab your audience’s attention by being audible, moving around, and occasionally stopping to flip the next slide. Take note not to turn your back on your audience.
Use bigger fonts
Not everyone in your audience has sharp eyesight. Ensure your font is visible from any point in the room. The most commonly used font size is between twenty-eight points to forty. You can ensure everyone sees your slides comfortably by testing and asking before you dive into your presentation.
Ensure your design is consistent
Your presentation’s focus is you and the information you are conveying, which should be clear and concise. Maintaining a consistent style and theme allows your message to reach your audience seamlessly without distractions.
Choose a topic per slide
Make following your speech simple for your audience by preparing adequately and leaving more space for creativity using one slide per issue or elaborative point.
Try the Rule of Three
The point is to have three main ideas then break down these three ideas further. This approach will help reduce cluttering your slides and drive the point straight home without overly explaining yourself.
Create one sentence only per slide
PowerPoint presentations are built on the idea that; the best messages are easy to retain in your memory, therefore very short and concise. You should avoid bullet lists for this matter and lead your audience through the topic with your speech.
Have your Audience in mind
To be more persuasive, evaluate your work from different angles. Be in your audience’s shoes and try imagining how they see and receive your message.
Avoid the following in your presentation
Animations that are uncalled for
Animations in your presentation are sometimes acceptable, depending on your message and audience. However, the focus must remain on the message. Animations and transitions, if overdone, will drown your message, therefore, minimize their usage. If you have to include animations than ensure you use animations that will help your audience follow through your message, they need to be modern and professional.
Unnecessary Slides
Be sure only to add slides or content that support your main point. Great quote, graph, phrase, chart, or the picture might be luring, but must it be there? Remember the few words rule; less is more.
Your PowerPoint presentation is not a teleprompter
Create index cards that you can hold and use, not the PowerPoint. If you use your PowerPoint in this manner, the result will be overcrowding your slides. Another thing is you will make the presentation the focus, not you. Hence losing your audience and the message at the same time.
Hold giving out the presentation at least until you finish your presentation.
Hard copy presentations, even soft copies sent to their devices before or during the presentation, are sources of distraction. To keep your audience attentive, hold on until when you complete, and the message is home.
Remember to refocus attention by fading slides into blackness, particularly where a more extended explanation is needed. Also, check on your tonal variation, ask questions, include videos. Strive for simplicity, limit punctuations and avoid capitalized words, choose colors wisely, be flexible, and use your slides in a non-linear manner and Lastly; Practice because practice makes perfect.
