The main purpose of this tutorial is to show you what you can do with
PowerPoint. What you should do, however, is a whole different
story. It is often said that style is a personal issue, however, in the
case of presentations, legibility comes always first and should
never be sacrificed for the sake of the presenter's artistic fantasies.
Below are a few basic stylistic suggestions:
DO:
DON'T:
Save your work frequently (Ctrl+S)
Backup your work frequently (every day, if
possible)
Store each presentation and its associated
files in its proper folder
rely on the program's Autosave feature.
be brief (no more than 6 bullets/points per
slide)
use appropriate fonts: big (min. 28pts) and
clear (sans-serif). If
possible, test your slides: run the slide show and see if you
can read your slides from the last row of the room where you will
be presenting.
use appropriate colors: not too bright, high contrast,
consistent. Remember that what looks good on your monitor
does not necessarily look good on the big screen.
put everything you present on the slides. Remember that
slides are just a visual aid -- if you overload them, the audience
will end up trying to read the slides and not paying attention
to you.
use different colors / fonts on every single slide.
use bright background colors that will strain your audience's
eyes
use too many animation effects! They are VERY distracting
for the audience and make you look like a show-off. Use animation
only to make a point and not to make your presentation more interesting
(use content to do that!).
use the powerful UNDO command (CTRL+Z) to experiment and
learn to use the software
ask for help when you need it
maintain a good relationship with someone who knows more
about PowerPoint than you do
run experiments at the last minute.
run experiments before you save a separate copy of your
file.
panic and start banging your head on the monitor. It
won't help (personal experience talking!)
Examples:
Remember that not everybody
has your vision. When you design your slides, keep in mind that
your audience might include people with partial sight and color
deficiencies.
For more information, visit http://www.lighthouse.org/color_contrast.htm
