Create an Effective PowerPoint

Everyone has had to speak in front of people. Some in the form of speeches and others have had to make presentations on a specific subject. PowerPoint has become a very effective tool for public speaking, but some people have made terrible PowerPoint presentations that actually hinder their speaking ability. By following these steps you can make a very effective, clean, and professional looking PowerPoint that will impress anyone.

Steps

Choosing the topic

1. Find a topic that you can talk about with some knowledge. Choose an interesting angle for your talk.
2. Create a basic outline on a sheet of paper.

Preparing the PowerPoint slides

1. Apply a template (one that is not hard on the eyes, and looks organized and professional).
2. Summarize the main purpose or idea of your PowerPoint in your title slide.

Making the presentation effective

1. Use the appropriate size for the text. Choose text that is large and clear to see. Make sure that it is visible from the back of the room you'll be presenting in. It should be clear, easy to read and not blending into the background used.
2. Instead of citing your sources all on one slide, cite the sources you referenced as you present them throughout the PowerPoint presentation.
   • The references can even be placed below the slide, making them easily findable should you send the slides to people by email.
3. Try not to use pictures as a background. They make it hard to read the text.
   • If you feel you must use a picture as a background, use a transparency behind your text so it is easy to read, and have your text and your transparency contrasting colors. To do this, right click the text box, click on format placeholder, and change the fill to a color and make it transparent. (Around 70-80% transparency works well)
   • On the other hand, pictures in the background catch the reader's attention and makes your presentation look professional. However, make sure that the words contrast with the background. Also, find large pictures that aren't blurry. Try searching up vector.
4. Use graphs and tables to show your information often, but not too often.
5. Use short sentences and phrases, keep your text short. Remember the 5 by 5 rule. Five bullets with less than 5 words each. Please, no long paragraphs or slide long quotes!
6. Only use animations for emphasis. Don't over-exaggerate your animations, slide-ins work really well for bullets.
7. If you use slide transitions, stick to only one. Don't try to mix it up because then it will look sloppy. Note: just because you should stick to one slide transition does not mean that you should only stick to one animation.

Finalizing the PowerPoint slides

1. Look over the presentation at least five times. Look for mistakes and do touch-ups. Best of all, read it through as if you were giving the presentation and see how it all pulls together.

Tips

• Use attention grabbers to get listeners interested in your subject.
• Make sure you save your work often.
• Make titles short and to the point after you have filled in the information. (in other words make your titles last)
• Animations should be used for only two things: emphasis on a point and introducing bulleted information.
• A fade in animation looks clean and professional.
• Templates are there for a reason, so don't be afraid to use them. If you don't like any of the templates, look up a few online and find a fitting one that you would like to use.
• Don't use animations that distract from your points and don't use them too often.
• Change the format of your slides often (i.e. change your text from left to right, and pictures from left to right, etc...)
• Memorize your information so you don't read off of the presentation. This will make it appear that you're speaking to the people in the audience, instead of just the screen.

Warnings

• Don't use sentences, it is too tempting to try to just read off the PowerPoint presentation, and thus, the presentation will become boring and interminable.
• Don't use images that are copyrighted. Copyrighted images are illegal to use without permission.

Related Articles

• Make Animation or Movies with Microsoft PowerPoint
• Make a PowerPoint Presentation with Lots of Bitmap Images and Small File Size
• Insert a PowerPoint to Google Page
• Add a PowerPoint File to a Blog
• Put a Hyperlink in Microsoft PowerPoint
• Insert a PowerPoint to MySpace Profile

• Make Your Google Presentation As Effective As Possible

See also

• Add a PowerPoint File to a Blog
• Create Less Annoying Powerpoints
• Make a PowerPoint Presentation with Lots of Bitmap Images and Small File Size
• Remove a Solid Background Color of an Image in PowerPoint
• Make a Powerpoint Template
• Create a PowerPoint Presentation
• Use Microsoft Office PowerPoint
• Fix a Corrupted PowerPoint PPTX File
• Create a Powerpoint Handout
• Add Background Graphics to Powerpoint

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