PowerPoint Tips

 

1. USE A THEME WITH COLORS AND DESIGN WITHOUT BEING DISTRACTING.

 

Black and White and similar bland color schemes tend to be boring. They have no zip.

 

While this may look cool, it is so distracting, you won’t notice the bulleted information.

This is about right. It has some color and at the same time, you’ll pay attention to the information presented.

Want some cool themes?

 

2. USE LARGE TEXT, COLORED OPPOSITE FROM THE BACKGROUND.

 

Text that is near the same color as the background is hard to read.

Light text on dark background works well. So does dark text on light background.

Want text over a picture? Test it out. Here you can see mixed results. Consider moving the picture.

 

 

3. BULLETS SHOULD BE ONE LINE OF TEXT—MAX OF TWO LINES.

Otherwise, your audience starts reading and does not pay attention to you.

 

This PowerPoint slide is for reading—not speaking. It will overload the audience; the audience will read and not pay attention to the speaker speaking. Not good.

This is great. The focus will be on the speaker as the speaker explains the bullets.

 

 

4. BULLETS SHOULD APPEAR ONE AT A TIME.

Pictures should appear ONE at a time also.

Otherwise, it causes distraction as the audience reads ahead of what the speaker is saying.

 

AND WHEN THE BULLET APPEARS:

5. YOU SHOULD SAY EXACTLY WHAT APPEARS ON SCREEN.

Not what is going to appear; Not things that are not on screen.

After you say what the bullet says, you should explain it. Look at the examples below.

 

When this bullet appears, the Speaker would say:

“Keep your bullets short. This keeps the audience from being overwhelmed with information and reading while you speak.”

When this bullet appears, the Speaker would say:

“And, this keeps the focus on the speaker. Because the audience is just momentarily looking at a few words, they can concentrate on the speaker.”

When this bullet appears, the Speaker would say:

“That happens because the speaker explains the bullets—orally. So, the audience needs to listen to the speaker.”

 

HOW TO MAKE YOUR BULLETS APPEAR ONE AT A TIME IN POWERPOINT 2003

You can use other ways to make the bullets appear but most of them are irritating.

 

6. YES—HAVE PICTURES! VIDEOS ARE COOL TOO.

Otherwise, the Powerpoint is too texty and gets boring.

 

       

 

Suggestion: Have a picture on almost every slide.

 

HOW TO MAKE PICTURES APPEAR ONE AT A TIME IN POWERPOINT 2003

You can use other ways to make the pictures appear but most of them are irritating.

What if the pictures or bullets don’t appear in the right order? You need to order them on the right side of the screen. Need help? See your Professor.

 

Have a frame and want your bullets/pictures to appear one at a time? If you select "appear" on the animation schemes and then select apply to all slides, it will mess up the custom animation of the other slides. In order to avoid this problem, you need to inactivate the "appear" on the slide you want to customize. After you do this, you can customize the order of appearance on that specific slide. Make sure not to select "appear" for all slides if you have already done custom animation- it will deactivate it.

 

7. CITING AN EXPERT?

Use a bullet for his/her name and qualifications. Then, the next bullet should state what he/she said.

 

 

You would say something like “Edward Miller, John Hopkins Medicine Chief Executive Officer, has noted that Stem Cell Research Benefits include . . .” (Typically, you would have bullets for what the benefits are)

8. INSERTING A COMMENT/THOUGHT

Want to write a comment to yourself or to your professor but don’t want viewers to see?

At the top of the PowerPoint Screen, Click Insert, Comment. (the yellow note below).

 

 

 

9. USE THE POWERPOINT THROUGHOUT—INCLUDING THE INTRO AND CONCLUSION.

 

FOR THE INTRO—HAVE A TITLE SLIDE AND THEN AN ATTENTION GETTER SLIDE

 

Here is the first slide—you do not use it in your presentation; it is just there like a cover page for a paper.

This is the second slide but the first one you would actually use in the presentation—THE ATTENTION GETTER SLIDE. Here, the speaker asks “What makes a flamingo pink? What turns a flamingo from white (the white flamingo picture appears ) to pink? (the pink flamingos picture appear). The speaker pauses and looks for an answer from the audience. Then, up pops the picture of the shrimp. “Eating shrimp is the answer. Shrimp give flamingos the pink pigment.”

 

FOR THE CONCLUSION—HAVE A BLANK SLIDE AND THEN A BIBLIOGRAPHY SLIDE

 

End with a blank slide so that your audience sees it and is not distracted while you answer questions.

After the blank slide, include a bibliography for your professor and for anyone else receiving your PowerPoint who might want to seek more information.

See your RFS Public Speaking Booklet for how to do your citations.