PowerPoint presentations use slides, which we can produce and update quickly. They add visual interest to virtually any presentation. Slideshows, however, if not prepared properly, can destroy your message and kill people’s attention span. As you prepare your slides, there are some things you need to bear in mind.
Here are some tips that can help you give effective presentations:
Keep The Slides Appropriate and Simple
Choose your colours accordingly, so that they go with your theme. Make sure that the design of the slide is not too flowery or gaudy if you are giving a financial, technical, operational, or any other functional presentation.
By following this tip, you will exploit your effective presentation skills more fully. Your audience will not get the impression that you did not properly prepare for the session.
Use Different Heading Styles
One of the rules that one should apply when designing engaging content with PowerPoint presentation slides is to use the heading styles which are already given.
These heading styles are used to differentiate what the speaker is talking about. They highlight how major or minor your themes and sub-themes are.
The clearer your presentation is regarding prioritization, the longer you will be able to hold people’s attention. Nothing tires viewers more than confusion, incoherence, or lack of clarity.
Use HD-Pictures & Other Visuals
Visual aids are your friends. The world’s best presenters, public speakers, and charismatic leaders use them extensively.
If you can integrate the spoken word with objects, people, and other items that the audience can see and relate to, your message will be significantly more powerful and memorable. Also, people’s attention spans are longer if words are accompanied by visuals.
PowerPoint has many options regarding visuals and how to present and edit them. You can also add 3-D images, video footage, music, sounds, and other audio items to enhance your delivery.
However, make sure that your use of presentation aids is appropriate. Do not use them just for the sake of it. Your audience will soon realize if you do.
How about using a portable HD projector like Piqo Projector for ease of setting up, 1080p HD resolution and built in speakers? Check out this Top 5 Portable Projectors for Presentations guide for some ideas.
Use Charts & Graphs To Show Numbers & Patterns
Presenting statistics and other data with numbers is confusing and tiring at the best of times if you only use the spoken word. Confusion and fatigue are the kiss of death as far as engaging your audience is concerned.
Charts and graphs are extremely effective in conveying numerical information rapidly in a way that most people understand and remember. This is especially so if you explain each illustration using straightforward language.
Charts and graphs offer the following benefits to your presentation:
- They simplify complex ideas, numbers, and statistics.
- Your viewers are more likely to get the point you are trying to make instantly.
- They are nice, i.e., most audience members like them.
- They engage the audience more effectively.
- If you are presenting dry data, they make them more interesting, i.e., they turn the processing of typically uninspiring data into a more pleasant activity.
- Analysts and other professionals can extract much more useful information when they use graphs and charts.
Use Pre-Installed Templates
If you are not sure about your presentation style and design, even after reading the above points, you can always use PowerPoint’s pre-installed templates.
There are many of them. Most people who are not comfortable with the program tend to use templates. There is usually something there for each occasion.
If you want to spend more time on substance rather than layout, you are more likely to make more effective presentations if you use material that PowerPoint creators designed for your use.
Don’t Write Paragraphs – Keep The Text Concise & Engaging
When you are using slides, i.e., visuals, keep the amount of text within them to a minimum. There is no point in putting up images of giant paragraphs. Your aim with slides is not to provide your viewers and listeners with subtitles. Their purpose is to make your messages, data, and arguments more powerful.
Remember the old saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Whatever you write on the slides should serve as a brief synopsis of what you are talking about. Most people find that if they use bullet points, the amount they write tends to be less than without them.
The best designed presentation is one that says the most with the fewest possible words.
Check Your Slides
Carry out a trial run of your slides before your presentation begins. There is nothing more embarrassing and frustrating for the presenter than to find that the slides don’t appear or that the projector or screen does not work.
Make sure you have profread your content. Spelling, grammar, punctuation, and style should be perfect.