PowerPoint Like A Pro
 By R.K. Sparkman

The ubiquitous PowerPoint software moved business presentations from the felt pen and chalk era into the digital age. It also elevated expectations.

Today even the most techno-phobic audiences demand high standards in what they view. That means there are two inherent dangers when creating PowerPoint presentations:

1. Doing too much
2. Doing too little

The challenge is to take advantage of PowerPoint’s incredible capabilities without the presentation resembling a carnival billboard. As in the 1990s when desktop publishing unleashed some of the gaudiest designs ever printed on paper, so too PowerPoint is routinely abused by undisciplined use of its special effects and limitless options.

Unless you’re professionally trained in graphic design, it’s prudent not to push the envelope. With PowerPoint’s wizards, templates and numerous third-party software, you can still give your presentations an effective, polished look.

But first, avoid “doing too much.”

• First of all communicate. Don’t let fancy stuff get in the way.

• Keep designs simple, readable and uncongested. Avoid multiple colors and unnecessary graphics. Better too little, than too much.

• Never use ALL CAPS. Words lose their shape when you do. Words are recognized by their shapes.

• Don’t put light colored text on light colored background. For screen viewing, use light text on dark background, and reverse that for print.

• Limit presentations to two fonts. Use san serif fonts, like Arial, when projecting onto large screens. The fine, curly ends of serif fonts, like Times Roman, are lost when magnified.

• Be wary about changing default “legibility” settings, such as two lines per title and two lines per bullet. These defaults work visually. Experiment at your peril.

• Maintain a consistent look and feel. It’s less disruptive and less distracting. Let viewers concentrate on the message, not on discovering new formats with each slide.

• Set “Replace straight quotes with smart quotes” under “Options.” They look more professional.

• Always use spell check as you type. Nothing is less professional than misspelled words on a projection screen.

• Don’t use art or graphics that don’t pertain. Off-point pictures leave viewers scratching their heads.

Employ PowerPoint’s powerful enhancements, but tread lightly.

Animate slides to draw attention to important points and to control information flow, not merely to jazz up things. Animation effects such as “Fade in” and motion paths effectively direct attention to particulars. But don’t introduce movement for the sake of movement alone.

Add sound and video for variety. But understand that PowerPoint isn’t a movie projector. Don’t try to force the software to do what it doesn’t do best.

Broaden your choices with Microsoft’s wide variety of free templates. Even if you never modify the colors or fonts of your templates, you can find a little-used, unique-appearing template to give your presentation that one-of-a-kind look.

You can directly import Microsoft Excel charts and graphs, but be careful. Too many elements – rows, columns, titles, labels – overwhelm the viewer.

A work-around technique for complicated charts is to add one element at a time to the slide, allowing time for the previous thought to be digested completely before giving the viewer additional information. Check the “custom animation” technique in the Slide Show menu for adding sequential elements.

Break the rules, but with purpose and restraint.

• It’s OK to occasionally vary from the cookie-cutter template, particularly for emphasis.
  
  For instance, after 10 slides with consistent title, font, spacing and color background that explain the artistic value of the Mona Lisa, it can be effective to next display the picture of Mona all by herself, shedding titles, formatting, fonts, etc. Let the portrait carry the entire slide for full impact. The difference from what has preceded it will draw attention to its uniqueness. But if every slide is unique, the medium becomes the message, and viewers can miss the point.

• People read top to bottom, left to right, so break this rule rarely. If the dominant visual element in a slide is in the middle, the viewer’s eye will be drawn there first, then normally proceed down, perhaps missing text or graphics at the top.

Want to do even more with PowerPoint? Check out these two books:

1. How to Do Everything with Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 by Ellen Finkelstein

2. PowerPoint 2003 for Dummies by Doug Lowe

(Posted July 2005)

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