This document provides tips to avoid "Death by PowerPoint" and improve presentation skills. It advises using one thought or main point per slide presented in 7 seconds or less. Slides should be simplified to include only essential visuals like graphics and narration, excluding background templates, logos, clip art, and excessive text. Formatting recommendations include a minimum 36 point font size and avoiding all capital letters. The tips encourage presenters to get feedback on selected issues and iteratively improve one slide at a time.

1. 10 Minute
Death by
PowerPoint
Test

2. Presented by

3. Open up one of
your presentation
decks and ask the
following questions:

4. Internet Users and News
46% go to a national TV news website
39% go to web portals like Yahoo or
Google
32% go to local daily newspaper web
sites
4% frequently use blogs as aof
your
sfor
Do
any
source lides
news have
mul2ple
bullet
points
like
this
7% use cell phone as a source for news
example?

5. 2009
Do
use
bar
charts
?
2008
2007
Product
3
Product
2
2006
Product
1
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70

6. Or
graphs
like
this?
We
are
Growing
Dec
’09:
10.3
million
Jan
’09:
8.3
million
+63%
+32%
Jan
‘08:
6.3
million
6

7. Do
you
use
Pie-­‐charts?
Do
your
charts
look
like
this?

8. Is
your
type
size
less
than
36
point?

9. Do
use
the
same
background
template
on
every
slide?

10. Do
any
place
your
logo
or
your
name
on
every
slide?
Logo

11. Do
use
any
type
of
clip
art?

12. Do
use
ALL
CAP’s
in
your
body
copy?
WHY DO PEOPLE USE
ALL CAPS IN THEIR
PRESENTATIONS?

13. If you answered yes to any of
those questions, your presentation
could use some help.

14. If you answered yes to three or more
questions, your audience may look like this.

15. Death by
PowerPoint
has a cure.
Here are some tips

16. Does your audience care about
every point in your slide.

18. One
thought
per slide!

19. Not one
CONCEPT
per slide.

20. One
thought
per slide!

22. Look at your slides and count to 7. If you
can’t get your main point in that amount of
time, you will loose your audience.

23. Treat your content li
ke a
billboard message.
Make your point q
uickly.

24. Ask yourself: Can a 10 year old understand my slides?

25. Try not to use less than
36 point type

27. Verbal Material
People learn better when words are
presented as narration rather than text.

28. Visual Material
People learn better from narration &
graphics rather than narration,
graphics, & text.

29. People learn better when extraneous
visual material is excluded.
You don’t need your background, your
logo and ugly clip art.

30. THE AVERAGE PERSON
CAN READ upper and lower
case type, FASTER THAN
TYPE IN ALL UPPER CASE.

31. Can’t change everything
at once?
Pick two issues and make
improvements on your next
presentation.

32. Keep tweaking one slide at a time.
Before you know it, you’ll have
transformed your presentation into
something useful, engaging and
valuable to your audience.

33. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
- Steve Jobs

34. If you ever need help with your
presentations, ping me – I’m happy
to review what you’ve done and give
you some suggestions.
Oh, and of course if you like the tips
you see here, you can always
subscribe to my blog!.

35. Al
Bonner
785-­‐856-­‐0421
Presenta2ontransforma2ons.com
albonnerconsul2ng@gmail.com