Creating an Effective PowerPoint Presentation

Hints for a successful presentation:

• Plan carefully
• Do your research
• Know your audience
• Time your presentation
• Practice your presentation
• Speak comfortably and clearly

Effective PowerPoint Slides

• Use design templates
• Standardize position, colors and styles
• Include only necessary information
• Limit the information to essentials
• Content should be self-evident
• Use colors that contrast
• Be consistent with effects, transitions and animation
• Too many slides can lose your audience

Text guidelines

• Generally no more than 6 words a line
• Generally no more than 6 lines a slide
• Avoid long sentences
• Larger font indicates more important information
• Font size generally ranges from 18 to 48 point
• Be sure text contrasts with background
• Fancy fonts can be hard to read
• Words in all capital letters are hard to read
• Avoid abbreviations and acronyms
• Limit punctuation marks

Clip Art and Graphics

• Should balance the slide
• Should enhance and complement the text, not overwhelm
• No more than two graphics per slide

* PowerPoint presentations can also saved in HTML format and inserted in a Web page.