10 Tips To Create Powerful Presentations

1. Have a focus, a main point that you are communicating. If this is a presentation to a customer, the focus should be the customer’s needs. Put that right up front and focus the presentation around those needs. This is your “handshake” with your audience.
   
2. Have a structure. Starting from an outline is the best way to create structure. Tell them what you are going to tell them; then tell them; then tell them what you told them. This generally means having a slide early on that lists the presentation topics, then the body of the presentation, then the conclusion or recommendation.
   
3. Choose or create a template, including colors and font style, then stick with it throughout. Showing a lot of different styles, colors and layouts is disconcerting to the audience.
   
4. Choose a plain font such as Times Roman or Arial and stick with it. It is tempting with computerized slides to use several different fonts. Don’t, it will make your slides look messy and difficult to read. The same applies to slide transitions and bullets.
   
5. Choose background colors that are appealing without giving a headache. Blues, greens, burgundy and grays convey professionalism. Red and orange are high energy but can be difficult to stay focused on when used excessively.
   
6. Make the font size no smaller than 20 points for bulleted items and 28 points for the title. Any smaller and people won’t be able to read the slide. Stay below 40 point type.
   
7. Keep each bullet point to one line – two at most. Your points don’t need to be full sentences, just key words or phrases. Text should cover no more than one third of the slide. If you go beyond that, consider breaking the slide into two or more slides.
   
8. Limit the number of bullets on a slide to six. If you crowd too much text on a slide, the audience won’t be able to read it. If you need more, break it into two or more slides.
   
9. Use clip art, animation, video, and audio only if it serves a purpose. When choosing to include graphics, ask yourself if it makes your presentation clearer, more interesting, or more entertaining. If not, don’t include it.
   
10. Don’t use the presentation as your lecture notes. Your slides should compliment and emphasize what you say, not reiterate it. If you want your audience to have more information, make copies of your lecture notes for them as a leave behind.

Choosing The Right Chart For Your Data

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Other Resources For Presenters:

Books - Extremely insightful ways to present information can be found in books by Edward R. Tufte. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, shows how to picture numbers, Envisioning Information, shows how to picture nouns. They are available from Graphics Press, Cheshire, CT (800) 822-2454.