I'm on a mission this year. A mission to expunge PowerPoint slides from all my clients' presentations. For a while, I thought it was getting better. People seemed to be using fewer slides, though they were as poorly designed as ever. But, alas, there seems to have been a relapse. Maybe it's because Microsoft comes out with new bells and whistles every couple of years or so and the temptation to use them is just too great to resist. I realize with an addiction like this one, expecting people to do away with it entirely is probably unrealistic. Well, a girl can dream, can't she?
In lieu of going cold turkey, I'd like to recommend a few techniques that will improve any presentation and that will encourage the weaning process.
1. Limit the number of slides. These days, it is not unusual for a 30-minute presentation to contain 30-40 slides. THIS IS WAY TOO MUCH! Think about it from the audience point of view: They have to sit there and listen to a disembodied voice read to them. They have better ways to spend their time. When it's me in the audience being bored, I just wish the presenter had sent the presentation to me and let me read it at my leisure rather than forcing me to attend the event. Bottom line, for a 30-minute presentation, choose the 5-10 most important slides. (Hint: 5 is better –- and so much braver –- than 10.)
2. Limit the information on each slide. There should be no more than 4-5 bulleted items or chart items on a slide. The fewer, the better. These can be fragments. You don't have to write complete sentences or include every thought you've ever had on the subject. These bullets should function as triggers or cues for elaboration. I once watched a terrific presentation by the president of a major ad agency whose slides each consisted of a single statement –- no headers, no details, very powerful.
3. Make sure the slide is readable. How many times have you found yourself struggling to read a slide because the font was too small? This is another happy outcome of cramming too much info onto a slide. Have mercy on your audience. Body copy should be at least 18 points. 20+ is better.
4. Use message titles. Instead of a slide with a headline that says "Performance," which in reality tells nothing about performance, consider a more complete thought such as "Company X significantly outperformed the S&P through 12/31/06". If you're stuck, you can often find the makings of a message title in your very first point on the slide. If you do nothing else as a result of reading this post, do this.
5. Use animation and other bells and whistles sparingly. Most of the effects PowerPoint offers are useless. There is, however, at least one winning effect, the slide transition, "cover down." This effect creates a smooth, professional transition from slide to slide and far outperforms the default transition. Make sure you click "apply to all." If you're bent on animating the information on the slide, experiment with those in the "peek" and "wipe" categories.
6. Automate effects as much as possible. There may be an item or two on an occasional slide that you would like to control by mouse click, but if you're clicking for each item to appear, trust me, it's too much work for you and too much "noise" for the audience.
7. Make liberal use of the "B" key. Most people don't know this, but if you press the letter B on your keyboard during a PowerPoint presentation, the screen will go dark. This is a wonderful feature if, for example, you get into an audience discussion and want to eliminate the distraction of the projected image. When you're ready to move on, press B again and you'll be right where you left off.
8. Do not use a laser pointer. I don't know whose brilliant idea this little piece of technology was, but not only is it distracting, it is quite ineffective, magnifying every movement or tremor of your hand. Can you say Stage Fright?
There is much more to this, but these techniques should start you on the road to recovery. I'll have more on presentations, including PowerPoint in a future post.
Ruth Sherman • Ruth Sherman Associates, LLC • Greenwich, CT • ruth (at) ruthsherman (dot) com • www.ruthsherman.com
Related Stories: | Topics:Leadership, Microsoft PowerPoint, Computer Technology, Presentation Software, Productivity Software, Software |
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Recent Comments | 16 Total
January 5, 2007 at 9:11am by Rich Bloor
I absolutely agree with all your points... While Powerpoint has its pros and cons... as a presentation tool, it seems to me, based on 20+ years of working with presentations and persenters... the fundamental issue is a lack of understanding of HOW to CONSTRUCT effective presentations!
Because the tool is so readily available, and easy to use, often, the task of preparing the slides is delegated to the lowest spot on the food chain. Lacking design or communication training and experience, THAT poor soul tries, as best he or she can, to accommodate the person requesting the material... Worse, the presenter lacks the design/communication training/discipline, and the result is the overcrowded, hodgepodge we too often see.
Microsoft should package Powerpoint with Effective Presentation tips, or make such guidance available on its web site. Even at the highest levels of sophisticated, multi-billion dollar global organizations, Presentations for the design challenged, should be required reading.
January 5, 2007 at 10:38am by Donna Karlin
Bravo! I love how you think!
Powerpoints eat up time, pretty much guarantee little if no dialogue and put half if not more of the attendees to sleep. What's the rule? 10 - 20 - 30? Something like 10 slides, no more than 20 minutes and no less than a 30 pt. font.
I'd much rather generative dialogue...conversation. What a concept! Thanks Ruth.
Donna
January 5, 2007 at 3:27pm by Karin Whitley
I echo all your points re: the monotony of a poor slide show, Ruth!
I never knew about hitting the B key to turn the show to black. What a great tip! I will definitely share it with others. Thanks!
January 5, 2007 at 4:32pm by Uncle Paul
Good luck! The dependency on Powerpoint by people too lazy to learn to communicate ideas effectively is at an all time high. Especially salespeople. Check out a Steve Jobs keynote to see how to use a slide show.
January 6, 2007 at 10:39am by Elisabeth Gareis
We've created a tutorial on the effective design and delivery of PPT presentations, echoing Ruth's recommendations. If you are interested, it's free and available at http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/tutorials/powerpoint
January 7, 2007 at 2:01pm by Joe Raasch
Even the best and brightest ideas crack and fade when subjected to this software!
Is PowerPoint better than using overheads? Sure. Not by much if we use it FOR our presentations instead of as SUPPORT to generate discussion and impart information.
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February 28, 2007 at 12:26am by Antonio
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November 19, 2007 at 7:12pm by Ralph Kerle
I have recently come across a series of comments about the "death of PowerPoint" that are at best ill-formed and at worse reactionary. I offer this is a way of comment - an extract from a blog I wrote some months ago entitled the Ill Informed Death of PowerPoint.
The basis of many of the argument against PowerPoint are incorrect because they come from a very narrow and ill-informed perspective.
The use of PowerPoint as a backdrop to a live presentation is an important topic. I dislike the diffusion of focus when text is used as tag line or summary points and becomes a prop or excuse for bad performance with a bad script. I also hate the way it seems to dominate performance - the speaker is often more concerned about the flow of the slides than the train of thought or narrative in the presentation.
PowerPoint is an aesthetic medium and I have always wonder why users of PowerPoint presentations don't understand the potential of this medium.
My guess and experience suggests that the majority of those called upon to prepare PowerPoint presentations have not been trained in the production and design of multi-media arts and yet that is the very basis of the medium.
PowerPoint was the first true "populist" multi-media platform. It commenced the democratisation of media. It opened up a huge new market for audio-visual manufacturers and hirers that saw a real opportunity to sell multi-media equipment across industry sectors to support live presentations rather than just their traditional markets of television, live concerts etc.and very little training accompanied its introduction other than how to use the software functionally. It also created a whole new industry for film-makers, graphic designers, visual artists, writers etc. Unfortunately, the philosophy and practice behind its usage as a multi-media art form has never been properly explored, fully surfaced or recognised in either the artistic or business domains. And, of course, not everyone wants to or needs to develop skills in this area.
The arrival of this new technology into the hands of the novice meant the novice was more concerned about how the technology worked rather than how it might be harnessed to enhance the performance and content of the presenter. Common practice has been to spend more thought and time on making sure the entire technology of the performance works correctly - rather than the importance of the content, its potentiality and possibilities in presentation. If you are called upon to use PowerPoint and have only been educated to use text to advance your argument and that is the only medium you feel comfortable creating in then naturally you revert to the practice you feel most comfortable and know. If however, you can work with text, image and sound then a whole new platform opens up.
I would argue PowerPoint is a vital populist tool for performance and communication in the new whole brain thinking era. And it's use is in its infancy. Everyone now has the opportunity to become a multi-media artist. With the advent of Web 2.0, I am observing the ease with which my 11 year old twins and 9 year old use tools way beyond PowerPoint to create and present content aesthetically - a wondrous world of imagination that I didn't experience with my readin', riting' and 'rithmetic.
I use PowerPoint to re-enforce my live presentations conceptually never as a bullet point summary. The metaphor I use is that it is like theatre set design. As a tool it offers an incredible range of options in which to create an aesthetic tension that moves back and forth between live performance and contemporary multi-media to create powerful impressions. It offers design opportunities in visual images, moving images, sound in all forms. It can be edited quickly to accommodate any audience. Importantly, it can be edited to work in the moment. This is not possible with radio, television or print.
I think the argument against PowerPoint is a faulted one and one carried out in the main through ignorance of the capabilities of the live performance medium rather than anything more substantive. And dare I say it, reactionary!!!
After all we live with radio, TV and print on a daily basis without having any control over that content. We were never able to edit textbooks. They were sacrosanct.
Here is a very simple contemporary media tool over which we have total creative control!! Whoopee!!!
November 20, 2007 at 8:35pm by Ruth Sherman
Ralph, I do appreciate the time you took to write your comments and the thought that went into them.
If I understand correctly, you are persuaded that PowerPoint is a great medium that has been poorly understood and used and, though you were indirect, people like me create a disservice when we say “please, no more” without also pointing out that the program can be a fantastic presentation enhancement if only used as it was meant to be.
In fact, I agree with much of what you wrote, particularly your third and fifth paragraphs. The statements you make after that are also true regarding the enormous market for artistic talent the software opened up. And we certainly are accustomed to visual stimulation as evidenced by the loads of media we are bombarded with daily.
I disagree, however, with your statements concerning the simplicity of the program. Certainly, compared to professional programs it is simple. But it is not easy to throw a presentation together for most business people, nor is it quick to take advantage of the numerous bells and whistles that PowerPoint makes available. In fact, for most people, it is painstaking work that does not make good use of their time and so they end up throwing everything up on a slide but the kitchen sink and audiences get a boring, monotonous, unappealing slide show that adds nothing to the presentation.
My experience of many years working with business pros has shown that they will never spend the time necessary to create a slide show that does not distract from the main messages. Nor will they hire the talent to create a good show or properly train the in-house designers or — and this is key — accept their creative ideas even if they are good. They have become so inured to the ugliness of the slides, they are satisfied, even desirous of them. They know no better! It is really a shame.
And all that is before a presenter even stands up, remote control in hand, and tries to coordinate the visuals, notes and audience reactions or participation. The biggest obstacle in my clients paths is, by far, is the lack of time they allot to preparation. it is hard enough to get them to perform well physically and vocally without the added hours to develop content and coordination that PowerPoint requires.
Therefore, my cure for these ills is to lose the slide show entirely and go back to a simpler but effective way of presenting: no slides at all, or just a very few that make the most important points. There is still no connection like the human connection. Poorly designed and executed slides, which are endemic to our business culture, and which I see no signs of abating, block that connection. My mission is to unblock it.
November 10, 2009 at 5:51am by dfhfg ASDASF
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November 11, 2009 at 1:02am by dfhfg ASDASF
What is the limitations of power point?
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