The much-maligned PowerPoint is not dead.
Whether delivered in PowerPoint, on a PC, or Keynote, on a Mac, bad slides, delivered badly will make your audience regret their second serving at the buffet.
We’ve all suffered through horrible slide shows with long lists of unreadable bullets, pixelated clip art delivered by a speaker who constantly turns away from the audience so they can read from the screen.
Bad slides, delivered badly will make your audience regret their second serving at the buffet. Click To TweetWell, I have good news.
Well-designed slides, used sparingly and with good timing can be brilliant. Heck, they can even make an otherwise good presentation awesome.
If you know what to do…
If you’ve ever struggled to create interesting slides or worry your slides are too wordy or you have too many of them, this will help.
Here are my 10 easy ways to make any PowerPoint presentation awesome.
1. Build your slides last.
You could be tempted to start monkeying with slides early in your speech writing process – don’t. It’s like building a road – until you know where that road is heading there’s no point laying down sidewalks and planting trees. Your slides are there to ADD to a well-designed speech, not to replace it.
Your slides are there to ADD to a well-designed speech, not replace it. Click To Tweet2. Don’t try to replace you.
People come to listen to you – your thoughts, interpretations and insights. Fancy transitions, YouTube clips, and tons of text steal from your content and delivery.
Remember: every time you hit that clicker the audience leaves you and goes to the screen.
3. Use a consistent theme.
A consistent theme pulls together the variety in your images and message, as you move from problem to solution. You could use the baked-in themes supplied in PowerPoint or Keynote – I don’t because I want a simpler, more unique look.
I create a custom theme simply with my titles, a consistent white background, and sometimes with my logo or my client’s logo.
4. More image, less text.
Want to quickly improve a tired slide deck? Make your images larger (in this post I share where to get free images) and reduce the text. Remember the theme in this post is your slides should add to your speech – not distract the audience away from you.
We know our brain can process images some 60,000 times faster than text – using a large image gets your point across quickly, without being a distraction. And a short list of brief bullets helps your audience follow your argument – nothing more.
5. One story per slide.
In my 60 minute speech, I might have 30-35 slides, depending on stories I’m telling or complexity of the message. Each slide represents a complete story. I might be presenting statistics (sparingly), recalling an experience that leads to a lesson, or teaching a lesson.
But, I always stick to one story per slide.
6. Reveal one bullet at a time.
The trick when presenting text, like a short list of bullets, is to make your point without losing the audience. One technique is to reveal one bullet at a time. In PowerPoint, right click on your text box, select Custom Animation > Add Entrance Effect and then choose the effect you want. In Keynote, click Animate > Build in and choose the effect you want.
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7. Leave the fireworks to Disney.
It’s great that you know how to turn text into flames and make images spin – but leave those fireworks to Disney. Your job is to make you the star. Simple transitions, clean fonts and large, attractive graphics trumps PowerPoint tricks, every time.
8. Use the 2/4/8 rule.
When I look back at my most successful slide decks there’s a pattern, I call it the 2/4/8 rule: about every 2 minutes I have a new slide (about 30 slides for a 60 minute speech), no more than 4 bullets per slide, and no more than 8 words per bullet.
Just like any recipe, use the 2/4/8 rule as a guide and then vary the ingredients as needed.
9. Fade to black when speaking.
Your slides are not the point—you are. When you fade to black you regain your audience’s attention. For example, after I present one solution (that’s also shown on the screen), I’ll fade to black while I expound on how to apply the solution in your work.
It’s no different than a close-up in a movie – the director wants you to focus only on the speaker. Note that some remotes don’t have the black screen feature – if you’re shopping for a remote be sure it does.
Your slides are not the point—you are. Click To Tweet10. When in doubt, dump it.
If you’re Al Gore explaining trends in CO2 emissions, slides can be essential – they can also be a distraction. When I’m struggling, trying to decide if I need a slide, or not, I ask myself: “Will it make my speech better?” If not, I dump it.
Remember, nobody will miss what isn’t there.
One last thing. If you’re flying solo, without an A/V crew, spend the $80 and pack a remote (with spare batteries.) Nothing’s worse than watching a speaker repeatedly lean over, hunt for the right key, and then peck away to advance the slides.
If you enjoyed this article, here are more about PowerPoint:
How the experts create world-class PowerPoint Slides (and you can too)
PowerPoint Primer – the only 3 slides you’ll ever need
How to add video to PowerPoint and Keynote like a pro
These tips are really useful for us. I don’t get much traffic from slideshare but after reading your tips, I hope I’ll get success. Thanks for share, Hugh Culver.
Thanks Janet-great to hear!
thanks for ur help i’ll use it
Well said, Hugh. You’re spot on with playing down the value of slides, like by building them last, and fading them to black.
I’d add an 11th tip, too. That is, in your presentation’s title, use the “ABCD model”. In other words, include things like an Action (e.g. a verb like “make”) and a Benefit (e.g. an adjective like “easy”) – right in the title.
While you prepare your talk, ABCD keeps you focused on your audience – what they’ll learn to do, how they’ll benefit, etc. So your talk’s easier to build. And the audience’ll be keen to hear what you say, because your value prop’s spelled out, even before you speak!
Thanks Craig – great addition to this post!
Thank you for that very useful tips.
Thanks Christopher – glad this was helpful!
Thanks Hugh, concerning the 2/4/8 rule, what if i want to define a word its lengthy definition what will be the advice in this situation
There are lots of exceptions to any rule – and I would use a longer bullet if necessary.
great work guy…
Excellent tips, especially for a beginner ……. Clear cut logic! It takes the confusion out of you,!
Thanks
amazing tips, it will be totally useful for my presentation to the whole school.
Thanks Bryan – glad they helped.
Your tips were were useful while creating the presentation , they helped me a lot to understand the minute details of the presentation .Thank you Hugh
Thanks for sharing such an amazing tips like this.
These tips will really help the beginners. With the help of these tips you can create an awesome presentation.
Nice points sir I prepared many presentations but I missed that2/4/8 point thanks a lot sir.
Thanks a lot! Very useful information.
Well I was hoping this article would show me how to make my presentation “Disney” due to my social anxiety of presenting, but I will heed your advice and bring the attention back to the substance….and me. Thanks!
Myles. The best presentations are when the slides (if any) support the speaker. The trick is to complete all your prep for your presentation and only then create the slides. In this way the slides are the supporting actor only. The temptation (been there) is blow your audience away with snazzy slides. It actually works the other way. Snazzy slides steal the show and unless they are even better than the speaker, they detract from the impact of the speech.
Nice guidance
Very helpful indeed. Thanks so much
Thanks Moses!
thanks for sharing this articles
My pleasure!
Practical tips on the presentation! Any recommendations for a remote?
Hi Vance. I’m a big fan of my remote. It’s a Keyspan PR-03 remote mouse and after hundreds of keynotes it’s still going strong!
Hey Hugh Culver,
I was searching for the make presentation good and came to your blog. I got to know nice information about it very first time from your blog. But I had one question. Use Bright Visuals and Go For Vibrant Colors is okay for the presentation?
You can use anything that holds the audience attention without taking attention off you. Lots of moving objects and snazzy techniques might look great when you are building you deck, but they don’t help your audience to learn from you. Less is usually best.
I’ll start by saying this makes a lot of sense and thank you!
I’ll continue with a thought that I think it depends on the context, depending on the type of presentation.
I’ve dealt with (and just plain been privy to) many a sales presentation where the PowerPoint is also a takeaway sales deck. The clients liked it and all were happy.
The presentation was at once a “presentation” but also a vehicle to walk the clients through the information complied concisely in a PowerPoint deck. But it was much denser than anything talked about here.
I think it’s important to keep the context in mind, and not put every “PowerPoint” in the same basket. Perhaps that goes without saying, but sometimes we can’t be too sure.
Loved your article. Will be trying your tips it in an upcoming presentation. Thanks.
Hi) These are really useful tips) Thanks a lot for sharing)
First off I want to say fantastic blog! I had
a quick question in which I’d like to ask if you don’t mind.
I was interested to know how you center yourself and clear your head
before writing. I’ve had a hard time clearing my thoughts in getting my thoughts
out. I truly do take pleasure in writing however it
just seems like the first 10 to 15 minutes are usually lost
just trying to figure out how to begin. Any suggestions or tips?
Thanks! – Calator prin Romania
Great question. I typically prepare by thinking where I want to be in 30 or 6o minutes, when I have finished the exercise. I find that just a few seconds of imagining the end point centres me for the writing time.