Powerpoint what makes a good presentation

Keep it simple. There reaches a point where bullet points become less of a visual aid and more of a visual examination. Bullet points should support the speaker, not overwhelm his audience. The best slides have little or no text at all, in fact. Instead, think about how you can break up large lists into three or four bullet points.

Carefully consider whether you need to use more bullet points, or if you can combine multiple topics into a single point instead. Animation, when used correctly, is a good idea. It breaks up slow-moving parts of a presentation and adds action to elements that require it. But it should be used judiciously. Adding a transition that wipes left to right between every slide or that animates each bullet point in a list, for example, starts to grow taxing on those forced to endure the presentation.

Viewers get bored quickly, and animations that are meant to highlight specific elements quickly become taxing. Aim for no more than a handful of these transitions for each presentation. Sometimes images tell a better story than text can.

And as a presenter, your goal is to describe points in detail without making users do a lot of reading. Tables, for example, are often unnecessary. Ask yourself whether you could present the same data in a bar or line chart instead.

Color is interesting. It evokes certain feelings and adds visual appeal to your presentation as a whole. Studies show that color also improves interest, comprehension, and retention. It should be a careful consideration, not an afterthought.

What I do is look for palettes I like, and then find ways to use them in the presentation. There are a number of tools for this, like Adobe Color , Coolors , and ColorHunt , just to name a few.

A simple rule of thumb here is that contrast is your friend. Dark colors work well on light backgrounds, and light colors work best on dark backgrounds. Spend some time in the Slide Sorter before you finish your presentation. By clicking the four squares at the bottom left of the presentation, you can take a look at multiple slides at once and consider how each works together. Are you presenting too much text at once?

Move an image in. When choosing fonts, you should also make sure that they are still legible at long distances. Script, italic and decorative fonts are very slow to read, which is why they should be avoided in presentations.

It is not so easy to choose the right font. Therefore, we have summarized for you how to find the best font for your PowerPoint presentation. In a good presentation it is important to be able to read the text on the slides easily and quickly.

Therefore, do not use images as slide backgrounds if there is also text on them. The picture only distracts from the text and it is difficult to read it because there is not much contrast with the background. It is also harder to see the image because the text in the foreground is distracting. The whole thing looks messy and distracting rather than informative and clear. Never just read the exact text from your slides. Your audience can read for themselves, so they will only get bored and in the worst case it will lead to "Death by PowerPoint".

You may also give them the feeling that you think they are not able to read for themselves. In addition, you should avoid whole sentences on your slides anyway. List key points that your audience can read along. Then go into more detail and explain more about them. Never turn around during your presentation to look at your projected PowerPoint.

Not to read from your slides, but also not to make sure the next slide is already displayed. It looks unprofessional and only distracts your audience. In PowerPoint's Speaker View, you can always see which slide is currently being displayed and which one is coming next. Use this to make sure the order fits. You can even take notes in PowerPoint, which are then displayed during your presentation. You can read all about notes in PowerPoint here.

In a good presentation, it is important to always be aware of the given time and to stick to it. It is annoying when your presentation takes much longer than actually planned and your audience is just waiting for you to stop talking or you are not able to finish your presentation at all. It is just as awkward if your presentation is too short. You have already told everything about your topic, but you should actually talk for at least another ten minutes.

Practice your presentation often enough at home. Talk through your text and time yourself as you go. Then adjust the length so that you can keep to the time given on the day of your presentation. The structure of a good presentation should not be complicated. Your audience should be able to follow you easily and remember the essential information by the end. When you have finished a part, briefly summarize and repeat the main points before moving on to the next topic.

Mention important information more than once to make sure it really gets across to your audience. However, if the whole thing gets too complicated, it can be easy for your audience to disengage after a while and not take away much new information from your presentation. On the day of your presentation, be sure to choose appropriate clothing. Your appearance should be formal, so avoid casual clothes and stick to professional dress codes.

When choosing your clothes, also make sure that they are rather unobtrusive. Your audience should focus on your presentation, not on your appearance. Think about who your audience is and adapt your presentation to them. Find out how much they already know about the topic, what they want to learn about it and why they are here in the first place. If you only talk about things your audience already knows, they will get bored pretty soon, but if you throw around a lot of technical terms when your audience has hardly dealt with the topic at all, they will also have a hard time following you.

So to give a successful and good presentation, it is important to adapt it to your audience. You can also ask a few questions at the beginning of your presentation to learn more about your audience and then adapt your presentation.

With SlideLizard , you can integrate polls directly into your PowerPoint and participants can then easily answer anonymously from their smartphone. Keep it short and limit yourself to the essentials. The more facts and information you present to your audience, the less they will remember. Also be sure to leave out information that does not fit the topic or is not relevant.

You will only distract from the actual topic and lose the attention of your audience. The time your audience can concentrate and listen with attention is rather short anyway, so don't waste it by telling unimportant information. Tell compelling and exciting stories to make your presentation really good. If you speak in a monotone voice all the time, you are likely to lose the attention of your audience.

Make your narration lively and exciting. Also, be careful not to speak too quietly, but not too loudly either. People should be able to understand you well throughout the whole room. Even if it is not easy for many people, try to deliver your speech with confidence. If you are enthusiastic about the topic yourself, it is much easier to get your audience excited about it. Helena supports the SlideLizard team in marketing and design.

She loves to express her creativity in texts and graphics. With SlideLizard you can engage your audience with live polls, questions and feedback. Directly within your PowerPoint Presentation. Learn more. A vocalized pause means the pause when the silence between words is filled by the speaker with vocalizations like "um", "uh" and "er". Audience Response Systems ARS are technical solutions that are used in presentations in order to increase the interaction between the presenter and the audience.

There are various forms of ARS that offer different features. PowerPoint Online is the web version of PowerPoint. You can present and edit your PowerPoint presentation with it, without having PowerPoint installed on your computer. It's only necessary to have a Microsoft - or a Microsoft account.

An e-lecture is a lecture that is held online. Many schools and universities offer e-lectures as technical opportunities improve. The latest SlideLizard news, articles, and resources, sent straight to your inbox. Book free Demo. Table of contents 1.

Speak freely One of the most important points in good presentations is to speak freely. Familiarize yourself with the technology In order to be able to speak freely, it is important to prepare the text well and to engage with the topic in detail.

Get the attention of your audience Especially in long presentations it is often difficult to keep the attention of your audience. Hold eye contact You want your audience to feel engaged in your presentation, so it is very important to hold eye contact. Speaking coherently In a good presentation it is important to avoid jumping from one topic to the next and back again shortly afterwards. Matching colors An attractive design of your PowerPoint is also an important point for giving good presentations.

Slide design should not be too minimalistic Even though it is often said that "less is more", you should not be too minimalistic in the design of your presentation. Write only key points on the slides If you want to create a good presentation, it is important to remember that your slides should never be overcrowded.

Do not overdo it with animations Do never use too many animations. Use images Pictures and graphics in presentations are always a good idea to illustrate something and to add some variety. Choose a suitable font Never combine too many fonts so that your presentation does not look messy.

Do not use images as background In a good presentation it is important to be able to read the text on the slides easily and quickly.