It does not matter where you are at with your career or still studying, the use of PowerPoint in your presentation is a fundamental skill that you will need to learn. In fact it is an important part in your armoury as a project manager that your presentation skills are at the top level. The effective use of PowerPoint can enhance or ruin your key message.
PowerPoint presentations are a key way to get your message across in an informative and entertaining way. Whether it is looking to pitch an idea or keep management up to date the tips below will assist you in delivering a memorable presentation.
Below are 8 tips to improve your presentations so that you can impress in your meeting or alternatively receive those extra presentation marks!
Tip 1
Use the KISS rule. KISS stands for Keep It Simple Stupid, and this is a fundamental rule in presentation delivery. In fact, Albert Einstein once said that if you can’t explain it to a six year old you don’t understand it yourself.
Remember that the words are there to add value to your presentation. It is not a substitute to help you remember what is in your presentation. The slide is there to help the audience, It is not there to help you!
Filling up your slides with too much detail also prevents your audience from wanting to or being able to read them. You will quickly lose the attention of your audience if there is too much for them to absorb. It is also difficult to try and read slides and listen at the same time.
Compare the complex slide versus the simpler slide below:
There are three things that you should bring with you to a presentation. They are:
- Your notes or cue cards
- Copies of the slides themselves, preferably with a section for notes and,
- PDF handouts so that the audience can seek further information on their areas of interest.
A key tip is using the neighbour test. If you can hand over your presentation slides to your neighbour and they can make sense of them then they have your handouts and not your presentation slides. Your slides should not make sense to a stranger straight away as it is your job to bring the clarity to them.
Tip 2 – Acronyms
A key skill for a presenter is to know beforehand what amount of jargon you can use in your presentation. You don’t want to exclude any individual or groups because they simply do not understand the jargon you are using. The worst-case scenario is if you offend people by doing this.
So if jargon is going to be used throughout the presentation then it is important to run through definitions in order to clarify what the terms mean.
Tip 3 – Branding
Many of us proudly display our brand on every slide of a presentation. However as you start to simplify your slides you should ask yourself whether the branding is now becoming a distraction.
You should ask yourself whether the branding is bringing any added value to your presentation.
If there are concerns that your presentation may be re-used without your permission then a suggestion is to add the brand as a light watermark in the footer of the document.
Tip 4 – Visualising Your Data
It is important when presenting your data to your audience that you keep it in a format that people can quickly understand. You can lose an audience if they are focusing on trying to make sense of data and not focusing on the message you are trying to get across.
The skill for the presenter is to avoid distraction and leave the audience to focus on the important key concepts. You can present more detailed data in the handouts
For example, shifting the format of data presentation from this:
To a more simplified slide such as this:
To this:
Tip 5 – Use the White Space to Your Advantage
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you need to fill in any white space on the slide. By white space we mean any space on the slide that is of a solid colour. If a slide is cluttered with information you are going to quickly lose their attention and it can be a presentation killer.
White space is also important as it allows a separation between objects so that your audience can easily distinguish between them and provides the chance for them to focus on the message you are trying to get across. It also makes headlines easier to read and generally a much more pleasurable experience for the audience member.
Tip 6 – Use Design Ideas
This is a relatively new addition to PowerPoint and uses AI to provide helpful suggestions for your presentation as you go along. It is a great feature and provides great ideas to help improve the layout of your presentation.
The key improvement Design Ideas will make will be with slides that contain bullet points. It changes them into a much more visually appealing format.
It makes the improvement of your slide incredibly simple and can transform your slide from something like this:
Tip 7 – Use Scalable Vector Graphics
There is a common problem when adding .jpeg or .png images to your presentation. When you wish to scale them up you can lose image focus. This is because those images are made up of pixels.
A good alternative is to use scalable vector graphics or .svg files. They are made up of mathematical lines and fills rather than pixels they will not lose focus when you wish to enlarge them. The icons option on the main ribbon of PowerPoint are all .svg images. They are also now able to be formatted using the formatting tool.
By using this format, you can scale them up without losing the resolution and they are also a smaller file size than other formats.
Tip 8 – Apply the Rule of Thirds
Photographers have been using the rule of thirds as a standard since film was invented. You can apply the same rule to your presentation slides.
The rule is applying gridlines as two evenly spaced vertical and horizontal lines. Place your images and text at the points that they intersect. In fact where these lines meet is called a PowerPoint!
By applying text and image at the PowerPoints you will be left with a much more appealing slide.