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President's Tip of the Week

PowerPoint Design in 2009: Six most recommended tips
(11/17/09)

As you read this, keep in mind that to satisfy the objectives for CC speech #8, you do not need to do a PowerPoint presentation. There are so many other options open to you. These tips are just to help you do it right, if that’s the route you’d like to take.

The following six tips are summarized from a collection of expert recommendations collected by Olivia Mitchell available for reading here.

  1. Plan your content first: The most important recommendation is to plan your content first. In some cases, it was the only recommendation that the expert contributors made. “Many people start the process of creating a presentation in PowerPoint by entering text on the slides. Bad idea. The content should drive the design” (Ellen Finkelstein).
  2. Use a plain background and remove any unnecessary detail: Delete that template. Templates add clutter and distract from the visual impact of a slide. Instead, “when it comes to slide design, you shouldn’t think of decoration but of communication. Everything you add to your slides should have a positive impact on the message you are communicating” (Christophe Harrer).
  3. One idea per slide: “Presenters can completely transform their presentations from boring bullets to high-impact visuals by putting one point on a slide” (Ellen Finkelstein).
  4. Support the headline with graphic evidence: “Use graphics rather than bullet lists to support the headline” (Michael Alley).
  5. You don’t always need a slide: “You only need a visual aid in a presentation if you would need one in conversation” (Andrew Lightheart).
  6. Put the detail in the handouts: “Well-designed slides are terrible handouts since they lack the on-slide text necessary to form an informative narrative. [Create] handouts that are distributed after the presentation” (Mike Pulsifer).
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