Have you ever sat through a boring PowerPoint Presentation? Did you find yourself nodding off? Did the presenter reads directly off the slides, word…for…word?

 

Certainly, you’ve never been the presenter of such PowerPoints….or have you?

 

Before we uncover some of the tricks and features of PowerPoint, IT consulting expert Cheryl Smith shares  a few guidelines to keep your PowerPoint professional but still interesting and eye appealing to your audience.

 

A Few Suggestions for Professional, Yet Engaging PowerPoint Presentations

 

Creating Slides ~ Appearance matters

·         Use easy to read fonts, stay away from script and cursive fonts

·         Keep design basic non-distracting

·         Use legible font size, smaller fonts are harder to read

 

Consistency ~ Organized and professional

·         Design theme

·         Color Schemes

·         Over all design-keep same one throughout entirety

 

Backgrounds ~ Watch for Contrast

·         Black text with white background – very effective

·         Bright colors are distracting

·         Light colors strain the eyes

·         Consider printing – color backgrounds use more ink

 

Take Home Message ~ Highlight or accent message

·         One point per slide

·         Limited custom animations – only on main message preferred

·         Use WordArt to bring home the message

 

Straight and Simple ~ Remember audiences can only read or listen, they can not do both!

·         Use Keywords ONLY!

·         No sentences or paragraphs

·         Do NOT read from the slides

 

Images should be used ~ A picture is worth a thousand words!

·         Include images, but limit them to one per slide

·         Keep image relevant to subject of presentation

·         Be careful resizing images, images can be pixilated

 

Keep your audience in mind when creating the presentation, and rehearse over and over until you know the content - without having to look at the slides. Make eye contact with the audience and interact with them.

 

If you feel you need to add more information to the slide, give them a handout to take home instead. Do not worry about covering everything within the presentation. Most people like a handout to take with them for future reference.

           

After all, all the computer services and software in the world won’t help you if you don’t know how to use it.

 

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