Giving Power Point Presentations

Content for presentations

Whatever organizational pattern you use, your speech needs to be well-marked for the user and follow a general format:

• Introduction forecast
• Discuss the purpose / goal of talk
• Provide an overview slide including all main points you plan to address
• Use these points as main headings for slides during your presentation
• Main points
• Include within each main point:
• Explicit statement of each point
• Details about point
• Summary of main point (if point requires more than one slide)
• Make a transition to the next point
• Wrap up
• Summarize all main points
• State what you have intended to accomplish with your talk
• Indicate what action you want the audience to take
• Ask for questions

Visuals for presentations

• Font size
• Use a much larger font size for headings to clearly differentiate the main point from the explanation (or use a different color for headings)
• Use the largest font size that consistently allows you to include all the text you wish on each slide
• Font type
• Use a sans serif font such as Helvetica for headings and for sparse text
• Use a serif font such as Times New Roman for the body of the slide if you have wordy slides
• Avoid using all capital letters for headings in most cases
• Color
• Make a strong contrast between background and text
• Use a dark text with a light background and a light text with a dark background
• Make the background match the room color (light in a bright room, dark in a dark room so that the words stand out)
• Visual sets
• Visual sets are any repetitious aspect to your slides
• Visual sets help orient your listeners to your talk so include as many as possible
• Visual sets include:
• using consistent placement of headings
• using consistent color scheme and font
• using the same PowerPoint template for entire presentation
• using same effects for all slides (e.g.., fade to black for transition, points fly in from left, etc..)
• Readability
• Include one main point per slide
• Limit six words per line
• Limit six lines per slide
• Use as little text as possible on each slide
• Use a conservative template appropriate for your audience