1. EFFECTIVE USE OF POWERPOINT
AS A PRESENTATION TOOL
POLICARPIO, PATRICK
FV1215

2. CREATE A LOGICAL FLOW TO YOUR
PRESENTATION
• Better yet, tell a story. The absolute last thing you want
to do is turn your presentation into a random assortment
of bulleted lists, which is what often happens, especially
when PowerPoint is involved. There must be a flow. Start
with a good outlining or mind mapping program. Decide
if your talk is going to be a persuasive speech or an
enabling one.

3. DISTRIBUTE A HANDOUT.
• I do not think that you should distribute a
handout before you begin speaking. If you
do so, people will start reading ahead
instead of listening to you. It’s just one more
distraction to keep them from focusing on
your message. It also eliminates any surprises
or drama you have built into your
presentation.

4. REMEMBER, LESS IS MORE
• Fancy slide transitions and fly-ins get old
quickly. I strongly recommend that you keep
things simple. A basic dissolve from one slide
to another is usually sufficient .Also, have all
your bullets appear at once rather than one
at a time. Avoid sound effects—they serve
no other purpose than annoying the
audience and distracting them from your
presentation.

5. PAY ATTENTION TO DESIGN
• PowerPoint and other presentation
packages offer all sorts of ways to add visual
“flash” to your slides: fades, swipes, flashing
text, and other annoyances are all too easy
to insert with a few mouse clicks.

6. USE IMAGES SPARINGLY
• There are two schools of thought about
images in presentations. Some say they add
visual interest and keep audiences
engaged; others say images are an
unnecessary distraction.
• Both arguments have some merit, so in this
case the best option is to split the
difference: use images only when they add
important information or make an abstract
point more concrete.

7. MODULATE…
• Especially when you’ve done a presentation
before, it can be easy to fall into a drone,
going on and on and on and on and on
with only minimal changes to your inflection.
Always speak as if you were speaking to a
friend, not as if you are reading off of index
cards. If keeping up a lively and personable
tone of voice is difficult for you when
presenting, do a couple of practice run-
throughs.

8. MAKE YOUR PRESENTATION
READABLE
• Avoid paragraphs or long blocks
of text.
• Use appropriate fonts.
• Avoid detailed reports.

9. KEEP IT SIMPLE
• As with any design, cut the clutter. Two
font families is a good rule of thumb.
No more than one graphic image or
chart per slide is another good rule.

10. BE CONSISTENT
• Use the same colors and fonts
throughout. Select graphic images in
the same style. Templates go a long
way toward helping to maintain
consistency.

11. MATCH DESIGN TO PURPOSE
• Decide if your presentation is meant to
entertain, inform, persuade, or sell. Is a
light-hearted or a more formal
approach most appropriate to the
subject and your audience? Keep
colors, clip art, and templates
consistent with your main objective.

12. USE LISTS AND TABLES TO ORGANIZE INFORMATION
• Effective presentation designers avoid
including long paragraphs of text. Using lists
consisting of short phrases that summarize
the message encourages the audience to
listen to the presentation rather than just
look at the slides.

13. CHECK SPELLING AND GRAMMAR
• Using PowerPoint's "Spelling"
function from the "Review" menu
helps ensure the presentation
contains no errors.