General guidelines on delivering a great PowerPoint presentation
It is not an easy task to develop a PowerPoint that delivers your major points and is visually
pleasing.
Preparing your slide content
Write a script: Make sure your script follows good story telling conventions: give it a
beginning, middle, and end; have a clear arc that builds towards some sort of climax; make
your audience appreciate each slide but be anxious to find out what’s next; and when
possible, always leave them wanting more.
One point at a time: Plan your presentation so just one new point is displayed at any given
moment. Bullet points can be revealed one at a time as you reach them. Your job as
presenter is to control the flow of information so that you and your audience stay in sync.
No paragraphs: Your slides are the illustrations for your presentation, not the presentation
itself. They should underline and reinforce what you’re saying as you give your presentation
— save the paragraphs of text for your script.
Your first slide should include: the title of your presentation, your name and your
organisation.
Keep abbreviations and acronyms to a minimum.
Have a concluding slide that covers the key messages and has your contact details.
Guidelines on the presentation design
Use a sans serif font for body text. Sans serifs like Arial, Helvetica, or Calibri tend to be the
easiest to read on screens
Optimum title text is 45 – 55 points and no smaller than 36 points
Body text should be at least 26 points
Put dark text on a light background. This easiest to read. If you must use a dark background
– e.g. your company uses a standard template with a dark background – make sure your text
is quite light (white, cream, light grey, or pastels) and bump the font size up two or three
notches.
Use decorative fonts only for slide headers, and then only if they’re easy to read.
Align text left or right. Centred text is harder to read and looks amateurish. Line up all your
text to a right-hand or left-hand baseline – it will look better and be easier to follow.
Avoid clutter.
Avoid the use of clip art.
Use images only when they add important information or make an abstract point more
concrete.
If using video, ensure that you load the file itself in the folder with your presentation. Do not
link it and then only bring the powerpoint slide. Presentations containing pictures and
multimedia can be quite large and it can be useful to compress the file size.
Prior to the presentation
Give some thought to your own presentation manner – how you hold yourself, what you
wear, how you move around the room. You are the focus when you’re presenting, no matter
how interesting your slides are.
Even if you email your presentation to the Conference Organisers, bring your presentation on
a USB as a back-up.
Load your presentation at the speaker preparation room a minimum of 4 hours prior to your
session.
Check your slides on the speaker preparation room computer with an AV technician.
Check for issues with formatting
During your presentation
Open with something surprising or intriguing, something that will get your audience to sit up
and take notice
Keep an eye on the audiences’ body language, it will let you know to move on or create more
interest and excitement
Ask questions: Questions arouse interest, pique curiosity, and engage audiences
Reference
Website: Lifehack
Article: 10 Tips for More Effective PowerPoint Presentations – Dustin Wax
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/10-tips-for-more-effective-powerpoint-
presentations.html