The 4 Most Important PowerPoint RULES for Successful Presentations

THE FOUR MOST

IMPORTANT

POWERPOINT RULES

FOR SUCCESSFUL PRESENTATIONS

THE FOUR MOST

IMPORTANT

POWERPOINT RULES

FOR SUCCESSFUL PRESENTATIONS

@ned_potter

YOU’RE A BIT

COULD BE BETTER

STRESSED OUT because you know your presentations

BUT YOU DON’T KNOW

WHERE TO START?

AN ATTRACTIVE

PRESENTATION IS

JUST A BYPRODUCT

OF AN EFFECTIVE

PRESENTATION.

RELAX.

AN ATTRACTIVE

PRESENTATION IS

JUST A BYPRODUCT

OF AN EFFECTIVE

PRESENTATION.

RELAX.

and 4 things really matter for making an effective presentation

RULE 1

MORE

IMAGES LESS TEXT

WORD HEAVY SLIDES can be difficult to read from the back of the room, and people can only listen and read at the same time for a very short period.

If they end up having to choose between listening to you talk or reading your slides, you become OUT OF SYNC with your audience.

IS YOUR PRESENTATION WORKING WITH YOU

OR AGAINST YOU?

IMAGES ARE NICE TO LOOK AT,

ENGAGING, ENRICHING, AND

CAN SUPPORT YOUR STORY.

IMAGES ARE NICE TO LOOK AT,

ENGAGING, ENRICHING, AND

CAN SUPPORT YOUR STORY.

People can look at images and listen to

you speak at the same time, no problem.

BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, IMAGES

HELP PEOPLE LEARN

BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, IMAGES

HELP PEOPLE LEARN Learning is improved when narration occurs

simultaneously with relevant images.

BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, IMAGES

HELP PEOPLE LEARN Click these

sites for amazing images

you can use legally with Attribution

COMPFIGHT FREEIMAGES MORGUEFILE PHOTFUNIA MULTICOLR

BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, IMAGES

HELP PEOPLE LEARN COMPFIGHT FREEIMAGES MORGUEFILE PHOTFUNIA MULTICOLR

Compfight searches Flickr better than Flickr searches itself, for millions of images. TIP: Make sure you choose the ‘Creative Commons’ option after your first search, & ignore the sponsored links above the dotted line.

BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, IMAGES

HELP PEOPLE LEARN COMPFIGHT FREEIMAGES MORGUEFILE PHOTFUNIA MULTICOLR

Freeimages is great for stock photography – there are loads of great images for enhancing slides. TIP: Sign up for the free account to get full-sized versions of the images you find.

BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, IMAGES

HELP PEOPLE LEARN COMPFIGHT FREEIMAGES MORGUEFILE PHOTFUNIA MULTICOLR

Morguefile also has stock photography – there are fewer images but they’re free for commercial use. TIP: There are images where no attribution is required – these are useful for situations where there’s no room to credit the author, e.g. posters, business cards, and tweets

BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, IMAGES

HELP PEOPLE LEARN COMPFIGHT FREEIMAGES MORGUEFILE PHOTFUNIA MULTICOLR

Photofunia allows you to put your own images INTO existing pictures. TIP: To create your own text to add to a billboard or painting in Photofunia, create a textbox in PowerPoint, write your text, right-click and Save As Picture. You’ll then have an image of your text to upload into Photofunia.

BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, IMAGES

HELP PEOPLE LEARN COMPFIGHT FREEIMAGES MORGUEFILE PHOTFUNIA MULTICOLR

The Multicolr Search Engine is just about the most fun you can have finding images: it searches by colours not keywords. TIP: Create an image-only presentation that stays completely on brand by picking your organisation’s corparate colours in Multicolr…

MAKE THE MOST

OF YOUR IMAGES

AND WRITE ON THEM IN A

MINIMUM FONT SIZE OF 24…

AND WRITE ON THEM IN A

(THIS IS 24. If you need it smaller than this, you’re using too much text)

MINIMUM FONT SIZE OF 24…

RULE 2

MAKE

ONE POINT PER SLIDE

THIS GOES BACK TO THE

IDEA OF BEING IN SYNC

WITH YOUR AUDIENCE.

Focus on one thing at a time. Allow your audience to digest it, then move with

them onto the next theme.

DRAW ATTENTION TO IMPORTANT MESSAGES

WITH COLOUR

OF COURSE, FEEL

FREE TO BREAK THE

ONE POINT PER

SLIDE RULE WITH

GOOD REASON

INTRODUDCTIONS

SUMMARIES

COMPARISONS

ALL OF THESE

THINGS CAN

REQUIRE STACKING

ON THE SAME SLIDE

BUT OTHERWISE GIVE

EACH POINT IN YOUR

PRESENTATION

ROOM TO BREATHE

RULE 3

NO

BULLET POINTS

BULLET POINTS CAUSE ALL

SORTS OF PROBLEMS.

• They’re ugly • They encourage you to put more

than one point on each slide • They don’t leave much room for

images • They’re symptomatic of a wider

DEATH BY POWERPOINT malaise

BULLET POINTS ALSO ENCOURAGE

YOU TO READ THE SLIDE ALOUD.

BULLET POINTS ALSO ENCOURAGE

YOU TO READ THE SLIDE ALOUD.

And if you’re saying the exact same thing that’s written on the slide, why do you even need to be there?

Learning is reduced when information presented is redundant – such as reading text verbatim from slides

RULE 4 KEEP IT

SIMPLE

KEEPING IT SIMPLE DOESN’T MEAN

DUMBING DOWN

IT’s .about

GETTING RID OF EVEYTHING THAT ISN’T ESSENTIAL TO TELLING YOUR STORY.

.about

IT’s .about

GETTING RID OF EVEYTHING THAT ISN’T ESSENTIAL TO TELLING YOUR STORY.

.about

Learning is improved when multimedia is free from extraneous information

SO, WHAT COUNTS AS

EXTRANEOUS?

SO, WHAT COUNTS AS

EXTRANEOUS? Animations?

Yup. If they’re there to make a specific point, by all means use them – but if they’re there for the sake of it, they spoon-feed the audience so much it lulls their brains into a non-receptive state (akin to watching TV rather than a presentation)

SO, WHAT COUNTS AS

EXTRANEOUS? Transitions?

Yes. If all your slides transition from one to the next with the same effect or animation (with an upward sweep, or by revolving, etc) then it makes them all feel the same. There’s no WEIGHTING of the information you’re presenting. So transitions don’t help you tell your story – if anything they do the opposite. Animations = extraneous.

SO, WHAT COUNTS AS

EXTRANEOUS? Templates?

Absolutely, PPT Templates are extraneous too. Having your organisational logo on every slide is the very definition of extraneous – have it at the beginning and the end, but not on each one of the 50 slides in between. Templates get in the way of learning. They’re nothing to do with the story.

And besides…

TO TELL YOUR STORY, YOU NEED A HIERACHY OF INFORMATION. WHO’S IN CHARGE HERE - YOU, OR POWERPOINT?

TO TELL YOUR STORY, YOU NEED A HIERACHY OF INFORMATION. WHO’S IN CHARGE HERE - YOU, OR POWERPOINT?

(Aim for consistency, not duplication)

WOOHOO!

THAT’S THE

END OF ALL THE

RULES

*

WOOHOO!

THAT’S THE

END OF ALL THE

RULES

*

* Actually there’s one final rule – always credit your image sources!

Projector: CC-BY RVWITHTITO www.flickr.com/photos/rvwithtito/4236716778/sizes/l

Eye close up: CC-BY Sara .Nel

www.flickr.com/photos/saranv/3521287388/sizes/l

Feet up: CC-BY Davedjoe www.flickr.com/photos/92414546@N04/14441260000/sizes/l

Stencil: CC-BY-NC-SA Camil Tulcan

www.flickr.com/photos/camil_t/4171629278/sizes/l

Tree: CC-BY-NC Richard Cawood www.flickr.com/photos/cawood/15117958922/sizes/l

Computer user CC-BY-NC-SA Matheson Learning Commons

www.flickr.com/photos/matheson_learning_commons/8382876760/sizes/l

French Words CC-BY Monsieur J www.flickr.com/photos/jblndl/4266814468/sizes/l

Amazing hallway CC-BY-NC-SA Stuck in Customs

https://www.flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms/3725191263/sizes/l

Massive Boat CC-BY-SA Thomas Leth-Olsen www.flickr.com/photos/thomasletholsen/7367984008/sizes/l

Pointing Hand CC-BY Shudhamshu

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhamshu/3202963823/sizes/l

Bullet CC-BY-SA Eschipul https://www.flickr.com/photos/eschipul/4160817135/sizes/l

Desert CC-BY-NC-SA Nunodantas

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ndantas/6165100763/sizes/l

Fireflies all colours CC-BY-NC Tinkerlog https://www.flickr.com/photos/8123185@N02/3659676928/sizes/l

Fireflies all blue CC-BY-NC Tinkerlog

https://www.flickr.com/photos/8123185@N02/3659677764/sizes/l

Shoes CC-BY-NC-SA by Chishikilauren https://www.flickr.com/photos/chishikilauren/10317213/sizes/o/

Pile of Bullets CC-BY US Army Environmental Reserve

https://www.flickr.com/photos/armyenvironmental/3552296540/sizes/l

Questionmark lights CC-BY Beatnik Photos https://www.flickr.com/photos/dharmabum1964/3108162671/sizes/l

Wineglasses CC-BY Julien.Belli

https://www.flickr.com/photos/julienbelli/14465146006/sizes/l

Boys are dumb CC-BY-SA by quinn.anya https://www.flickr.com/photos/quinnanya/4400139828/sizes/l

Questionmark CC-BY nadinehiedrich

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nadineheidrich/11983141774/sizes/l

Jumping with Balloons CC-BY Magdalena Roeseler https://www.flickr.com/photos/magdalenaroeseler/13268612333/sizes/l

Cushion CC-BY-NC Jeremy Brooks

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremybrooks/3076443696/sizes/l

At the start I said that a good looking presentation is just a by-product of an effective one. This is based on the four multimedia learning principles dotted throughout the slides, to back up the rules.

At the start I said that a good looking presentation is just a by-product of an effective one. This is based on the four multimedia learning principles dotted throughout the slides, to back up the rules.

Learning is improved when narration occurs simultaneously with relevant images. Learning is improved when attention is focused on important parts of the presentation with cues highlighting key material.

Learning is improved when multimedia is free from extraneous information.

Learning is reduced when information presented is redundant – such as reading text verbatim from slides.

At the start I said that a good looking presentation is just a by-product of an effective one. This is based on the four multimedia learning principles dotted throughout the slides, to back up the rules.

Learning is improved when narration occurs simultaneously with relevant images. Learning is improved when attention is focused on important parts of the presentation with cues highlighting key material.

Learning is improved when multimedia is free from extraneous information.

Learning is reduced when information presented is redundant – such as reading text verbatim from slides.

These are all adapted from research into what works and what doesn’t, undertaken by Dr Richard Mayer at the University of California – you can read more of his

work by clicking the arrow.

At the start I said that a good looking presentation is just a by-product of an effective one. This is based on the four multimedia learning principles dotted throughout the slides, to back up the rules.

There are plenty of other rules about making presentations (like only using 3 fonts, for example, which I’ve completely ignored for this one) – but none of them are as important as these four, because they relate to substance (from which style should be a natural by-product).

It’s not a RULE as such, but using non-standard fonts in a presentation also makes a huge difference to how engaging it looks.

ANTONIO Aller

Pacifico FENGARDO NEUE

AlfaSlab One

The fonts used in these slides are listed above – they’re all available for free via www.fontsquirrel.com

Go to ned-potter.com for more information on presentation skills

Go to ned-potter.com for more information on presentation skills

I’m on Twitter @ned_potter

Go to ned-potter.com for more information on presentation skills

I’m on Twitter @ned_potter

Thanks for watching!

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