How To Do A Powerpoint Presentation

Sooner or later in your public speaking journey you will either end up using Powerpoint or be exposed to it as a listener. Whilst Powerpoint CAN be a useful tool, it can often make or break an effective presentation. In other words, it can be used for good, and it can be used for evil!

Ultimately, public speaking and presenting is about communicating ideas and emotions and getting others to understand or adopt your point of view. However, too often I see speakers using Powerpoint as a way of listing fact after fact after fact in bullet points, which is a surefire recipe for boring the audience. It certainly does not enhance the message. If all the speaker wants to do is show a list of facts and figures, why not just compile them in a report and cancel the presentation entirely? Why would we need to see them speak?

Rather than make a list of tips about ‘how to’ make a Powerpoint presentation, I thought it would be equally powerful to write an article about how NOT to do a Powerpoint presentation.

Tip #1

Don’t bother finding out much about your audience or thinking about the goal of your presentation. Just concentrate on all the information and piles of facts that they need to absorb.

Tip #2

Don’t invest any time into practising your Powerpoint presentation i.e. what slides you’re going to show and when. Don’t test your equipment before the speech. It will all pan out just fine on the day.

Tip #3

Make your text so small that the audience can’t read it. The audience will enjoy squinting and straining their eyes to try and make out what’s on the screen. Then again, they may not even bother trying.

Tip #4

Cram your slides full of text and riddle them with bullets. People love to read line after line of words. They’ll be able to listen intently to your presentation as well as struggling to keep up with all the reading you’re getting them to do.

Tip #5

Just because you can, why not use all the different colours, graphics and fonts that Powerpoint provides? You could even get fancy - try out the spinning transitions and get your graphics flying all the place. This will definitely keep your audience interested and not overwhelm them.

Tip #6

Rather than ad lib around the information on the slides, turn your back on your listeners and just read the text out loud. The audience haven’t really come to listen to you after all.

Tip #7

When doing a professional Powerpoint presentation on behalf of your company, make sure to put your company logo and name on every single slide. You don’t want your audience to forget where you came from halfway through your presentation. And it won’t look like advertising or overkill.

Tip #8

When using photos and graphics, just use the standard clipart that comes with Powerpoint and find some cheesy, grainy photos to enhance the quality of your slides. Don’t invest time and money into professional stock photos that you can easily find on the internet.

Tip #9

Make handouts of all your slides. Your listeners will be dying to take away pieces of paper that make no sense to them after your presentation.