Week 5 - Clear - Presentations

Have you ever had to give a PowerPoint presentation at work? Did you spend countless hours designing and re-designing slide after slide not knowing what to use or (more importantly) not to use on each and every slide?  Well....look no further.  Here are a few handy tips to keep in mind the next time you have to  prepare a PowerPoint presentation for work or any other activity!

TEXT ON SLIDES AND BULLETS

• Try not to overload your slides with too much text.  
• The audience will not hear your important points if they are reading slides full of text. 
•  Also, do not read word for word from the slides. 
• Only put important points on the slides and allow those points to aide you during your presentation to the audience. 
• As for the bullets do not use too many or your audience will lose focus!!!

FONTS AND COLORS AND STYLE

When using fonts and colors make sure that you use a font that is easy to read. Don't use colors that are hard to read or distract from your presentation and your point! Too many changes in fonts or colors may look cool, but can be very distracting to the audience. Make sure that your text is not too small or the audience will not be able to read the slides with your important points. 

Remember BIGGER is better!

GRAPHS AND OTHER NO-NO's

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9731367@N02/5930357313/

Make sure that your graphs are accurate and that they are not overwhelming.  Graphs can be confusing to an audience if they contain too much information and have lines or graphics going every which way! In this case simple is better like the graph to the right.  Also, try to stay away from transition slides unless you are going from section of your presentation to another.  Transitions can be a major distraction and leave the audience thinking about the transition slide and how cool it was, rather than the information you are presenting. Last, animations and clip art are not considered to be professional.  Try to use meaningful images in your presentation so that the audience will connect with your point on a more emotional level. To see these examples and more PowerPoint don'ts in more depth, please watch the video below.

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