Do's & Donts in Preparing PowerPoint Presentation

Editor's Notes

• #3: Design includes harmonious and appealing arrangements of layout/format, colours, fonts, backgrounds, images, pictures, etc. First principle is to be consistent and don ’t mix up different styles One of the key differences between an amateur and a professional Web site is consistency. Professional sites employ well-designed and consistent pages that are consistent across the site in their look and functionality while an amateur combines and mixes up so many things of different forms in his/her slides. The human mind constantly searches for patterns in all things that we see—that will establish a unified picture as a whole as well as familiarity. We get distracted when there are so many things of different kinds in what we see giving a burden to our understanding and thinking as well as emotion. So when we say consistent, it means there is a pattern, some uniformity and standardization, which can be easily understood and remembered. This refers to our colour, fonts, layout, images and even sound. When your site is consistent, you have a site that:   When you take steps to include consistency in your development cycle, the number of tasks is reduced and simplified and saves you time because some of the slides have already the same images and look. Using ready-made templates, layouts, and themes can save time when authoring new files, letting the author focus on writing the actual content. This is the reason why there are many templates offered by Powerpoint because it already give you the same animation, transition, layout, etc. Okay, let me show you a Powerpoint that I prepared where you will see consistency in design.
• #4: When you harmoniously combine colours, you attract quicker attention to the subject, reinforce impact and recognition, help in establishing powerful identities and brand, set a mood and emotion. We all know that colours also affect emotions – red makes us feel warm and angry; black, somber and depressed, yellow, cheerful, green, relax and cool; blue, also relax, etc. We choose colour combinations that are complementary to our overall design, support our messages/content and objectives. I think we have learned in school the different categories of colour combinations- you have the primary, secondary (mixtures of two colours from primary); tertiary (blending of colours from primary and secondary hues) and complementary are colours located opposite each other in the colour wheel. Most colours look great when combined with the shades in various values or intensities. These colour schemes are called Monochromatic , which consist of colours drawn from the same hue. Any three neighboring colours on a 12 part colour wheel make up an Analogous colour scheme. They are always harmonious as they share the same undertones: yellow-green, yellow and yellow-orange. Opposites attracts, even with colours, and that ’s how you get Complementary colours: they are the opposite hues on the colour wheel, that “complete” each other when used as a pair. Warm colours have cool complements and vice versa. Use colours such as purple and light yellow and bright green rather than all neutral colours in light shades (will make it appear dead)
• #8: If we are aiming for a clean look in the overall design, the content should also be simple. When we see a poster or a page or a slide full of letters and too crowded, we are turned off, and we leave the page. The same way, our slides should not contain too many words, many fonts and bullets or crowded with too many contents and messages because when it becomes cluttered, the information is more difficult to read. What we are aiming here for is readability and understandability. Keep the information in your presentation concise. The words that appear on the slide should spark the larger thought, not explain it. Follow the 7 x 5 rule, which limits the words on a visual to no more than seven words per line and a maximum of five lines, Headings or titles should be kept to four words or less.
• #16: With regard to font, the rule of thumb is to use around 36-40 pt size for headings; 24 ft size for the main points and 20 to 18 pots for sub headings, not smaller than that. Using a font that ’s too small. The smaller the font, the more difficult it will be for the audience members at the back of the room to read your information. Don ’t use more than 3 fonts as it will give a confusing appearance, making it difficult to follow the messages as you keep changing fonts and get a unified look or a pattern. You also get confused as to which messages or points are being emphasized when there are too many fonts. At least two font types for pure content and three if there are diagrams involving captions and labels. Using all bold is difficult to read as the spaces in between letters become tighter. Using all capitals also for enumerated messages appear as if they are shouting at you. Avoid using all caps and bold as they are meant to shock and turn you off before you even read them Typically, red has negative connotations. It ’s almost always interpreted as a warning sign or danger, and gives a shocking or destabilizing effect and emotion. Don ’t use difficult to read or uncommon fonts that might not be saved on other’s people computers
• #31: DON'T use dark fonts on dark backgrounds or light fonts on light backgrounds. Incredibly obvious as this injunction may seem, people do violate it often. DON'T use dark backgrounds in a poorly-lit room or light backgrounds in a well-lit room. It's hard to read off such backgrounds. This is one of the most violated principles in PowerPoint and our trainers here have repeatedly committed the same mistakes despite so many warnings already. Everyone takes it for granted that when they project their powerpoint on the screen, they get shocked at what they have done. Sometimes, what appears on the screen is different when it gets projected. On the screen light on light seems to be readable but when it gets projected on the screen, it becomes different. So to avoid this happening, please follow the tips above
• #38: 2. Don ’t use too many pictures and graphics which might take the focus away from more important items such as keywords and relevant dat. What does too many pictures and images produce? You get your viewer confused and cannot follow which one you are focusing on. Thus, there is no focus on the messages you want to convey because they get distracted from too many photos and images. It could also communicate wrong impressions and messages especially if you choose the irrelevant and wrong pictures. 1. Don't limit your presentation to what PowerPoint offers. Use outside images and graphics for variety and visual appeal, including video. A video"It helps with humor, conveys a message and loosens up the crowd and serves as springboard for the lesson. Do break your presentation or text with relevant images and/or graphics as people get stimulated with images/picture. But choose relevant photos or images. Do not use images just for the sake of using images or photos. Choose images that have connection to the message
• #48: The overuse of technological bells and whistles in PowerPoint presentations is an under-rated problem. Many presenters think, "If it's new and dynamic; it will make my PowerPoint presentation much better." There is nothing better than a PowerPoint presentation that is done professionally with only limited effects. Overusing animation. Animation is great for capturing the audience ’s attention and adding interest to any presentation, if used in moderation. However, when things are whirling, whizzing and zooming across the screen, they direct the people’s attention away from your message. They’ll be too busy trying to figure out how you got your visuals to do those amazing tricks DON'T use annoying/animated/busy backgrounds. These detract from the talk, and can make slides hard to read. DON'T use silly/gratuitous animations/clip-art, especially in a technical talk. For every animation you put in, ask yourself whether you really need it, and whether the slide can be explained without it. In my experience, the only good use for animation is to show a progression of events. In other words, if you want to say "Initially, the doodad is red, but when a full moon appears, the doodad turns green." then animation may be a good way to present it. Animation is attractive, but often unnecessary for presenting steps of a process or algorithm. It's completely unnecessary for backgrounds, individual bullets, comments, the first thing to appear on a slide, and so on. Unexpected animation. Be sure to rehearse your animated presentation before you give it. This ensures the animation you ’ve used is working properly and is appropriate for the audience. Don’t let any unexpected sights or sounds catch you off guard.
• #54: A common mistake is the overuse of PowerPoint animations and transitions during a slideshow. I'm sure you've seen what I'm talking about; the presenter that animates each sentence so it flies in, drops down, and explodes on the screen with an accompanying sound effect. What happens after that? Do you lose track of what the presenter is saying? Forget within three seconds what the point was because you were so focused on the effects that you missed the content? Avoid overuse of animations and transitions Reveal rather than push, subtly uncover rather than open abruptly, turn on a candle rather than the headlights. Consistency -Once you establish a mode of changing from one slide to the next, keep that one consistently throughout the presentation. Speed - In general, transitions tend to be effective when they are not intrusive. In this light, slow transitions tend to be smoother and more pleasing to different audiences. Fast transitions, tend to be too abrupt and to attract too much attention to themselves. , it is your responsibility as a presenter to use transitions and effects to serve your communication needs   Here are my general recommendations to you for making an intelligent and effective use of transitions inside your presentations: 1) Scope - Use your effects or transitions to help clarify content and not to try to emphasize it. Reveal rather push, subtly uncover rather than open abruptly, turn on a candle rather than the headlights. 2) Communication - Consistency among transitions leads to easier readability and will facilitate your audience in understanding your content. Once you establish a mode of changing from one slide to the next, keep that one consistently throughout the presentation. 3) Speed - In general, transitions tend to be effective when they are not intrusive. In this light, slow transitions tend to be smoother and more pleasing to different audiences. Fast transitions, unless very subtle and affecting only a small part of the screen tend to be too abrupt and to attract too much attention to themselves. 4) Culture - Transition need to take into consideration cultural habits, traditions and reading habits which may vary greatly from one country to another. 5) Results - Best transitions and effects are the ones that go completely unnoticed relative to the content being displayed by them. Like when you don't notice the turning of pages of the book in front of you, or the glass from which you are drinking, so transitions should serve the purpose of bridging or smoothing out the possible visual jump required to go from one slide to the next. 6) Attention - Use the power of your transitions to reveal information gradually. That focuses audience attention and improves the integration between your presentation and the supporting visuals. These are my simple rules for an effectively utilizing all of those visual ammunitions you have at your disposal when preparing a presentation. If you can master this lesson in restrain, chastity and zen-design you will see that when it comes to transitions and visual effects, less is always more .      
• #61: 4. Don't parrot PowerPoint. One of the most prevalent and damaging habits of PowerPoint users is to simply read the visual presentation to the audience. Not only is that redundant — short of using the clicker, why are you even there? — but it makes even the most visually appealing presentation boring to the bone. PowerPoint works best with spoken remarks that augment and discuss, rather than mimic, what's on the screen. "Even with PowerPoint, you've got to make eye contact with your audience," says Roberta Prescott of The Prescott Group, a Connecticut-based communications consulting firm. "Those people didn't come to see the back of your head." 5. Time your remarks. Another potential land mine is a speaker's comments that coincide precisely with the appearance of a fresh PowerPoint slide. That merely splits your audience's attention. A well-orchestrated PowerPoint program brings up a new slide, gives the audience a chance to read and digest it, then follows up with remarks that broaden and amplify what's on the screen. "It's an issue of timing," Kerr says. "Never talk on top of your slides." 6. Give it a rest. Unique from other products in Microsoft Office Small Business 2007 , PowerPoint is most effective as a visual accompaniment to the spoken word. Experienced PowerPoint users aren't bashful about letting the screen go blank on occasion. Not only can that give your audience a visual break, it's also effective to focus attention on more verbally-focused give and take, such as a group discussion or question and answer session. Distribute handouts at the end — not during the presentation. Some people may disagree with me here. But no speaker wants to be chatting to a crowd that's busy reading a summation of her remarks. Unless it is imperative that people follow a handout while you're presenting, wait until you're done to distribute them. 10. Edit ruthlessly before presenting. Never lose the perspective of the audience. Once you're finished drafting your PowerPoint slides, assume you're just one of the folks listening to your remarks as you review them. If something is unappealing, distracting or confusing, edit ruthlessly. Chances are good your overall presentation will be the better for it.