powerpoint presentation dos and don'ts

Don’t Present Without These 16 PowerPoint Dos and Don’ts

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Have you ever struggled to hold your audience’s interest during a presentation? Painstakingly created slide after slide only to be met with bored, disengaged faces? 

Even the most confident speakers can falter when it comes to crafting compelling PowerPoint decks. Without proper slide design best practices, it’s easy to lose your audience in a sea of dense text, chaotic graphics, and disorganized content.

You don’t have to suffer through presenting lackluster slides anymore. In fact, following simple PowerPoint best practices can totally transform your deck from meh to marvelous.

In this post, we’ll share 16 PowerPoint dos and don’ts to level up your presentations and captivate audiences. These tips will help you create professional, visually striking slides your viewers will remember.

16 Dos And Don’ts Of Powerpoint Presentations

Here are some important 16 presentation dos and don’ts you need to keep in mind while creating slides and presenting them.

PowerPoint Dos

Let’s start with the best practices and strategies to implement when designing PowerPoint presentations . What techniques should you use to create memorable, polished slides?

1. Keep It Simple With Minimalist Design

Let’s start with a common mistake – overcrowded, distracting slide design. We get the temptation to tart up slides with fancy backgrounds. But resist the urge! Fancy templates with complex colored patterns or photos unrelated to your content just make it harder to digest key information.

Instead, embrace the power of simplicity. Stick to minimalist templates and avoid template themes with extra decorations. Use neutral backgrounds and empty negative space to let your content shine. Remember, your audience came for your message, not for clip art kittens. Keep slides clean and attention stays where it should be.

2. Cut the Clutter – Follow the 6×6 Rule

Now for another slide buzzkill – mammoth blocks of dense text. You may be tempted to pack slides with long sentences and paragraphs. Don’t give in! Text-heavy slides are guaranteed to lose audiences fast.

For easy-to-digest nuggets, follow the handy 6×6 rule. Limit slides to just 6 lines of text maximum, with each line containing 6 words max. Anything more turns into an overwhelming wall of words.

Stick to concise phrases, short sentences, and bulleted lists. Use just keywords and supporting stats – leave nonessential info out. With this less is more approach, key points will stick better.

SlidesAI is a text-to-presentation add-on tool that converts walls of text into beautiful slides. It does this automatically generate condensed phrases and bullet points from your text ensuring clutter-free slides throughout your presentation.

3. Boost Engagement With Quality Visuals

Speaking of key points sticking better…you know what helps even more? Quality graphics and visuals!

Research shows we process images 60,000 times faster than text. So reinforce your points with strong visuals. Use high-resolution photos, charts, illustrations, and infographics. But avoid clipart or random stock photos – ensure every graphic clearly supports your narrative.

Well-designed visuals make presentations more memorable and engaging. Just remember to optimize graphics for high-resolution viewing and include alt-text (alternative text) descriptions for accessibility. Then watch those visual aids boost information retention and audience interest.

SlidesAI has a library of 1.5M high-quality premium stock images that you can select and include in your slides.

4. Create Brand Consistency With Formatting

Imagine a presentation where every slide had a totally different layout, colors, and font… no visual consistency at all. It would look sloppy and amateurish, right?

Formatting matters – big time! Brand your presentation by using consistent design elements throughout all your slides.

Pick one professional font combination and stick to it. Limit your color palette to 2-3 colors max. Maintain alignment and space elements consistently.

With unified branding, your deck will feel polished, intentional, and visually pleasing. Bonus – consistent branding also boosts memorability as the audience becomes familiar with your “look”.

SlidesAI ensures complete branding consistency across all presentation slides by applying your color schemes , fonts, etc to designs through artificial intelligence.

5. Check Accessibility Settings

Speaking of memorability, if some audience members can’t actually view your slides, they certainly won’t remember your message.

Ensure your presentation is inclusive and accessible to all by checking key settings. Use color contrast and legible fonts so those with visual impairments can still grasp the content. Optimize images with alt text descriptions. Verify videos are captioned.

It may take a bit more effort up front but making your presentation accessible opens your message to a wider audience. It also demonstrates corporate responsibility.

6. Create Custom Icons and Illustrations

Most PowerPoint templates come with generic icons. However, you can amplify brand personality and memorability by creating custom icons and simple illustrations.

Don’t just use a generic checkmark when you can insert your own branded indicator relevant to your company. Design illustrated characters to represent concepts. Even use emojis strategically to inject fun and improve recall.

Handcrafted visuals, even if basic in style, make presentations stand out and drive home key points better than generic clip art ever could.

7. Use Subtle Animations – But Not Too Many!

Animations, when used well, can help guide the audience’s eye and transition between ideas smoothly. Emphasize key points and important transitions with subtle animations.

Entrance and exit effects can focus attention while builds and motion path animations can demonstrate processes dynamically. Use sparingly and subtly for the best impact.

But avoid going animation crazy with sounds and excessive movement. That becomes more distracting than engaging. Limit animations so they enhance content rather than detract.

8. Pace Your Delivery

Creating stellar slides is an excellent start but don’t stop there. The live delivery is just as crucial. Invest time practicing your presentation with your slides.

Rehearse the flow and pace of your narrative. Refine and memorize transitions between slides . Nail your timing to keep the audience engaged. Get so comfortable delivering your content that the slides become natural visual aids.

With great slides and honed delivery skills, your audience will hang on to your every word from the introduction to a powerful conclusion.

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PowerPoint Donts

Just as important as the dos are the don’ts. What pitfalls should you avoid when designing PowerPoint presentations?

9. Don’t Use Distracting Backgrounds

Remember our tip to embrace minimalism? Well, the opposite is using distracting backgrounds. Avoid loud colors, complex patterns, or images totally unrelated to your content. At best, they are distracting. At worst, they make key info harder to comprehend.

Stick to simple, neutral backgrounds. If using an image, ensure it directly reinforces your narrative. Anything extra risks your message getting visually lost. Keep backgrounds clean so content remains the focal point.

SlidesAI avoids using distracting backgrounds like crowded templates or unrelated images in the presentations. It focuses on simple, clean backgrounds to keep attention on your key content.

10. Don’t Overwhelm With Walls of Text

We covered the 6×6 text limit rule earlier. But even with 6 lines and 6 words, slides can become text walls without good visual breakdown. Big blocks of text are tiring to read and make retainment tough.

Instead, thoughtfully chunk text into concise sections. Use headers, subheaders, and bullet points to organize key bits. Align text left for easier scanning. Supplement with supporting imagery. Breaking up text improves comprehension drastically.

11. Don’t Rely On Boring Bullets

Speaking of bulleted lists, bullet overkill is another issue that turns slides into snore fests. Slides crammed with back-to-back bullet points lose audiences fast. The endless text blurs together with minimal memorability.

For memorable content, limit bullets to key takeaways only. Then reinforce each point visually – a photo, icon, chart, etc. Quality visuals boost memorability way more than a slide stuffed with 11 bullet points ever could.

12. Don’t Use Inconsistent Formatting

Remember, formatting matters! Shifting layouts, fonts, and color schemes appear disjointed and sloppy. The mismatched design screams amateur hour.

Establish a visual style and stick to it slide to slide. Use the same fonts, limit your color palette, and space elements consistently. Most importantly – maintain alignment across all slides. With unified branding, your presentation will look polished and professional.

SlidesAI ensures your presentation formatting stays consistent slide to slide by applying your preferred color palette, fonts, etc through its intelligent algorithms.

13. Don’t Include Unnecessary Animations

Animations can be great for guiding the viewer’s eye and demonstrating motion. But avoid going overboard. Excessive animations, sounds, and movement become more distracting than engaging.

Use animations subtly and intentionally . Emphasize only key points and important transitions with simple builds or entrance effects. Anything superfluous, whether flying text or whooshing sounds, pulls attention away rather than enhancing content.

Keep it simple and purposeful. Let smooth, minimal animations work behind the scenes rather than take center stage away from your narrative.

14. Don’t Use Unsupported Graphics

Only include images, photos, charts, etc that directly support the ideas and messaging in your presentation. Don’t insert fluffy visuals that have no clear tie to your content.

Every visual aid you present should clearly reinforce your narrative rather than derail tangents. Unsupported graphics quickly become distractions. They also undermine your credibility if audiences can’t grasp the connection.

Keep it focused. Be intentional about every visual you include. Remove anything superfluous that doesn’t serve a purpose.

15. Don’t Plagiarize Content

While it’s fine to find inspiration from other presentations, copying chunks of text or visuals without proper attribution is unethical. Never pass off someone else’s hard work as your own.

Always credit sources directly within your presentation if incorporating external ideas, quotes, charts, images, etc. Also, avoid violating copyright laws by inserting visuals without licensing them appropriately first.

Your presentation should showcase your unique ideas, voice, and message. Ensure you create original content or properly cite anything derived from others. Your integrity depends on it.

16. Don’t Wing Your Speech

With great slides completed, don’t just wing it on presentation day. The live delivery is just as crucial. Invest time to refine your pacing, transitions, slide timing, and flow.

Practice your speech thoroughly with the deck so your narrative and movements feel natural. Nail down transition phrases between slides. Get 100% comfortable presenting your content.

With stellar slides and a well-rehearsed delivery, your presentation is sure to wow audiences from start to finish.

There you have it – 16 PowerPoint dos and don’ts for creating memorable, professional PowerPoint presentations. Apply the dos to make high-impact slides, and avoid the don’ts for mistake-free presentations.

Put these PowerPoint best practices into play and watch your ordinary slides transform into extraordinary visual stories. Your audiences will be engaged from start to finish.

But even with these tips, crafting stunning presentations can be time-intensive. Instead, let SlidesAI do the work for you using the power of AI.

SlidesAI integrates with Google Slides and PowerPoint (coming soon) to instantly generate professional presentation decks from your content. Simply input your text – SlidesAI will turn them into visually cohesive slides designed for audience engagement.

SlidesAI saves tons of time by handling slide layouts, formats, graphic design, and branding tailored to you. The AI delivers presentation-ready slides in seconds.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What are the dos and don’ts of powerpoint presentations.

Key PowerPoint dos include simple designs, concise text, quality visuals, consistency, accessibility, custom icons, subtle animations, and practice. Don’ts involve distracting backgrounds, walls of text, boring bullets, inconsistent formatting, excessive animations, irrelevant graphics, plagiarism, and winging it.

What is the 5 by 5 Rule in PowerPoint?

The 5 by 5 rule recommends having no more than 5 lines of text per slide and 5 words per line. This keeps each slide focused and text easy to digest. Too much text overwhelms audiences.

What is the 7 Rule on a PowerPoint Presentation?

The 7 rule states that your slides should have no more than 7 bullet points. Like the 5 by 5 rule, this maintains simplicity for the audience. More than 7 bulleted items become hard to retain.

What are the 5 Rules of PowerPoint?

5 key rules are: don’t cram slides with too much text, minimize slides for emphasis, utilize quality visuals, stick to a consistent format, and limit animations. Following these makes presentations professional, clean, and engaging.

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18 PowerPoint Dos and Don’ts

• Presentation design /
• Visual communication

While there are many who advocate for this new app and that great new program, Microsoft Office’s PowerPoint remains the lifeblood of many marketing presentations and documents. It’s our old friend who knows our needs and wants better than we know them ourselves, who’s always there for us in times of big campaigns and important reports.

For those looking to improve their presentations, these PowerPoint dos and don’ts will not disappoint –  we’ve put all our research and experience into it to ensure that. If you’re just discovering PowerPoint’s endless capabilities, these tips will help you master it in no time.

We’ve also included some Pro Tips that might hold the answers to some of the questions you’ve been having. Let’s get started.

PowerPoint Dos

1. know your audience.

All marketing actions should start here. It’s the same for presentations, regardless of their intended purpose. Your information, design and style should be based on what your audience will understand and respond to.

Nancy Duarte, Principal of Duarte Design and author of “ Slideology ”, recommends asking 7 questions to know your audience and build an audience persona slide to place at the front of your presentation.

Download this PPT template from Duarte Design

2. Create a structure

Things can quickly spiral out of control if you dive head on to designing the document, without a structure in place. Even if you’re creating a presentation to illustrate an existing piece of content, you’ll still need to tailor it to PowerPoint specifics regarding quantity of information, succession of ideas, verbal details used when presenting it etc.

If you’re halfway through the presentation and don’t remember what comes next, go back to your structure. This will help maintain a cohesive train of thought and message flow.

For instance, we usually start our presentation creation process by putting together a structure of the presentation, then we add content to fill-in the structure and, finally, we design the content.

3. Use keywords

This will help you convey a clear message and keep your audience’s attention. It’s also of great help to you when creating the flow of the presentation.

Start with the topic of your presentation, your principal keyword will derive from that and will most likely be comprised in the presentation title. The structure of your presentation will give you another set of keywords.

For example, this presentation starts with 2 main longtail keywords: search content and social content. If you browse through the presentation you’ll notice that certain keywords that are essential to the topic at hand are distributed recurrently throughout the presentation, such as: content marketing, social media, digital channels and content strategy.

Search Content vs. Social Content von SEMrush

4. Organize your information clearly

Be brief and clear. Don’t crowd your slides. Instead, opt for no more than 2-3 sentences per slide and keep in mind your keywords. Think of them more like statements than sentences.

Treat your slides like billboards .

If you’re using lists, 6 bullets/points per slide should cover it. Make sure to leave enough space between lines of text.

Limit the number of slides. A good case practice is using 20-30 slides or one slide per minute.

Use section divider slides; this will help break up content into memorable chunks.

5. Use a legible font

Opt for a legible font and type size. Don’t use eccentric fonts that will make it impossible to make out the actual words. Stick to standard, easy-to-read fonts, preferably sans-serif (fonts such as Arial or Helvetica). This will also minimize the risk of having your fonts substituted when sending to other people.

Titles should be at least 28 to 48 points, bulleted text or body copy at least 24 points. Only use caps in headlines and section titles, not in paragraphs.

6. Ensure design consistency

Create a template based on your brand guidebook, using the company logos and colors. This will make it so much easier to create consistent presentations and maintain design unity across your work.

Create different layouts for different occasions, within the same template; this way, your presentations will be unified from a design point of view but still have original elements given by the different layouts used.

Featured Download:  An Easy Guide To Repurposing Content

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7. Be smart about colors

If your brand book already has a color palette you’re all set. If you’re doing something different, you’ll want to make sure you’re using the appropriate colors: not too bright, high contrast, consistent. A color that looks good on your monitor does not necessarily look good on the big screen you’ll be using to present.

The relationships between the colors you’re using are also important. Limit the use of color to 2 to 4 colors/shades. Use colors that will stand out and will be easy on the eyes (dark backgrounds and light text is a good case practice.) Try Paletton to experiment with different combinations and see what would work best for what you have in mind.

Get inspired by this year’s Pantone color palette to design visually attractive presentations:

Presentation Design Tips – Pantone Best Colors To Use In 2017 from Visual Hackers

8. Use visual elements to illustrate your ideas

Graphs and charts can help show relationships, comparisons, and change. Illustrate your point by verbally discussing each element. Only include 1 to 2 images per slide. You can also use shapes to illustrate complex topics.

Make sure to use these visual graphics to enhance your message and increase understanding. Too much of anything can lead to over stimulating your audience and losing their attention.

9. Save, save, save

It’s best to prevent any technical mishaps and save your work every 5-10 minutes. Even though the program has an automatic save and recover function, there have been plenty of instances when it was too late or something went wrong. CTRL+S is your mantra.

10. End with a summary slide

It’s a good case practice to go through your key points and list the final benefits in a summary slide, at the end of your presentation.

The most important sections of your presentation are the beginning and ending. The beginning is when you will grab the attention of the audience. The summary ending will make it easier for them to remember your ideas.

Here’s an example from one of our clients’ presentations:

11. Keep your presentations well-organized

Store each presentation and its associated files in its proper folder, together with all the visual elements you’ve used.

12. Use animation and sound carefully

Like graphics, animations can be used to enhance your ideas. Abuse them, and you have information overload again. You can also integrate sounds into your presentation, if that’s something that supports your ideas or is needed.

For example, this animation emphasizes that the solution offered by the client is much faster and prevents higher losses:

13. Use transitions for a more dramatic impact

Transitions between slides can help your presentation make more of an impact. However, they can also be quite distracting. A good case practice is to keep transitions to a minimum and use the same transition or a variation of the transition.

Transitions can help when you want to break up content over several slides while still keeping a sense of continuity. Think of it as creating movie scenes rather than individual slides.

With the help of more complex animations and transitions, you can replicate modern effects you typically see on websites, such as parallax scrolling. This type of transition can help the narrative of your presentation and enhance it’s storytelling.

PowerPoint Don’ts

1. put everything on one slide.

It’s not as obvious as you might think. We’ve all done it, at one point. For those situations when there is still something to say, illustrate or include, take a step back and ask yourself “If I can’t see this slide and I can’t read off of it during my presentation, will I still be able to convey its essence?” And there you have your answer.

Only put the essence down. It’s recommended that you don’t use more than eight words per line or eight lines per slide. Start with creating the slides you want and then go back and edit them – remove all non-essential information, remove unnecessary words, and take out slides you can live without. Cut your presentation by as much as half to get to the core if it.

2. Overuse transitions, animations and sound

These effects are meant to be used scarcely, to increase the impact of one idea. They can become a distraction very quickly.

Keep your message front and center and spice up your presentation with enhancing elements at the end. Most presentations 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.

3. Use hard-to-read color combinations and fonts

Stay away from red/green, brown/green, blue/black, blue/purple combinations. Instead, aim for a high contrast between background and text. Also, don’t use bright background colors that will strain your audience’s eyes.

You should also try not to use different colors and fonts on every single slide. Your template will help with this.

4. Use generic graphics and (very) stock photos

If you’re going to opt for visual elements, make sure they are well-designed and suited for your audience. Don’t use generic clipart you found on Google, that’s just offensive to your audience.

The same goes for stock photos that look the same and have been used by everyone. Chances are someone has seen or used that image as well, so instead of helping, it actually hurt your point.

5. Think the slides are for you

Too many people seem to think PowerPoint is just a speech handout. Your presentation is meant to help the audience follow you and to give the clues to organize the information you are sharing, it’s not a substitute.

Pro Tips and Tricks

Choose a story archetype to structure your presentationCreate custom slide sizes – for example, if you want to show a quick presentation to someone on your smartphone, you can create slides the size of your actual screenAlign objects to get a clean design – try this tool for slide proofingGet more control over objects’ designs using “Format” menus Create custom shapesCrop images into custom shapesEmbed your font files to make sure they don’t changeEmbed multimediaCompress images to reduce the size of the presentationUse Touch Bar shortcuts Use a black background for scientific presentations Convert vectors to editable shapes in PowerPoint

Whatever your choice of presentation creation program, remember that your ultimate goal is to convey a message. Follow the principles above and make sure everything you’re including in it supports your message and enhances it, without distracting the audience.

If you need help with creating a last-minute report or presentation, we’ve got just the team for you. Drop us an email and request a quote and we’ll make sure to help you deliver a successful presentation!

Image credit: Mind Blown – Liana Azwa via Behance.net

Are you ready to take your presentations to the next level?

Our team can help with everything from researching your project, writing the content, designing and building your slides, and even creating handouts.

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I really like it

That’s great! Thanks!

Thanks for the info. I really appreciate it

This is really great! It helps a lot!

Lol I love this but it could use some more donts

Thanks for the appreciation and feedback Mike. We’re actually working on an updated version of this article and it will have a few more Don’ts 😉

i agree more don’ts would help a lot

thanks for the insights. They are very helpful. I hope to benefit more in the future presentations

Great tips there Paula! Definitely gonna apply some of these to my upcoming presentations especially embedding visual media and adding touchbar shortcuts. I also found this article https://slideuplift.com/blog/powerpoint-hacks-you-did-not-know-for-effective-presentations/ helpful for some more dos and don’ts to create effective presentations.

Great tips for PPT makers. This certainly helps, will share the articles with my PPT design team. Thanks

Excellent article! Congratulations on the information. 57439559

Great PPT Dos and Don’t s

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14 Dos and Don’ts for an Effective Presentation

Renderforest Staff

16 Jun 2021

7 min read  

Giving a presentation can be stressful. There are just too many balls to keep in the air: an effective opening, audience engagement, body language, visual aids, anxiety management. The list goes on. 

On a positive note, public speaking and presentation skills can be learned and refined. That’s why we put together a list of 14 dos and don’ts that will help you deliver a killer presentation. If you already have your presentation idea and are wondering how to effectively develop and deliver it, this article is for you.

Let’s jump right in and explore the basic rules of making and giving a presentation.

Focus on the Key Message

From the very beginning, the audience should feel that your speech is leading to something important. This is what will spark their curiosity and keep their attention focused. 

Of course, to achieve such an effect, you should actually have something important to communicate. Otherwise, your audience will feel like they wasted their time (and would be right to think so). The material you present should resemble an arrow with a clear point, not an unending loop of words that leads to nowhere. 

But having something worth telling is only part of the job. You also need to make sure that your entire presentation is woven around that key idea. From beginning to end, your core message should be your guiding light. Each sentence should move the audience closer to it, and by the end of the speech, leave them with a sense of illumination.

Recommended Reading

• A Guide to Presentation Outline [Infographic] 
• Best Corporate Presentation Designs

Plan the Structure

Planning your speech beforehand is the only way to avoid getting sidetracked. As you think about your message, try to structure it in a way that makes its delivery most effective for the audience.

So, how do you structure a presentation? Consider both the logical and emotional implications of your structure. First, you want to give your listeners enough background information to help them get better acquainted with the topic, but not so much as to get them bored. Once all the need-to-knows are out of the way, make a seamless transition to your main message and start laying out your arguments in a convincing way.

Also, think about the emotional effect you want to achieve in each part of your presentation. The best way to go about it is to capture your audience’s attention right off the bat, which is often considered to be the hardest part of giving a presentation.

“How do I begin a presentation?” is a question you’ve surely asked yourself.  Once you’re done introducing yourself, you can jump into the presentation with a story or an intriguing question. Then, build suspense throughout the speech and release it at the end with a well-grounded closing statement.

Tell a Story

How do you present a topic? As human beings, we’re attracted to stories. This is why we go to the movies, read fiction and, yes, become all ears when hearing gossip. Thus, it’s always a good idea to begin your presentation with a story or even spice it up with one in the middle. This can make all the difference between an engaged and indifferent audience. 

Need some proof? Watch this TED talk and see how the presenter wins the audience over in less than 3 minutes using the magic of a personal story (admittedly, a relatable one).

Keep a Conversational Tone

Many first-time public speakers try a bit too hard to make their speech expressive. As a result, their presentations appear showy and even pompous to the audience.

To prevent this, simply use a conversational tone. Feel like you are communicating your message to individual people, rather than a large alien audience. This will not only ease you up but will help the audience connect to you as well. 

After all, when you really look at it, you are talking to individual people, not their aggregation.

Remember the Takeaway

What is the one thing you’d wish the audience to take away from your speech as they leave the room or the auditorium? Define it in a single phrase or sentence, using straightforward, accessible language, and present it at the end of your presentation. Keep that takeaway in mind when planning your speech, and put a special emphasis on it during the wrap-up.

Source: TED talk by Angela Lee Duckworth

Time your speech.

There’s probably a specific timeframe within which you should complete your speech. Even if it’s not rigidly set, the audience will have certain expectations as to how long your presentation will take. 

Therefore, it’s important to plan beforehand the approximate time your speech should take and set a timer during rehearsals. If your presentation lasts longer than expected, make sure to leave the inessential parts out. 

As you memorize your material, your speech will get smoother and faster. This will also shorten the time required for it. Thus, before making any adjustments to the length of your script, rehearse it a few times.

Do Your Rehearsals  

Practice your speech as many times as necessary to build confidence. This is not to say you should memorize every single word or sentence, but you should know exactly what you need to cover at every point. 

When you’re confident enough about your speech, there’s one less reason to be nervous during the presentation. You can now relax and focus on building rapport with your audience.

• 100+ Creative Presentation Ideas
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Perhaps, the worst thing you can do during a presentation is to read your script. Even glancing at a paper or screen far too many times is distracting enough. What’s more, your audience will find it difficult to connect to your message, as it will all feel mechanical and staged.

The solution? It’s fairly simple: rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.

Don’t Rely on Slides

A slide should never be the main source of information for the audience. Use it as a mere extension that makes your speech more engaging or credible. Always keep in mind that your audience needs to learn from you , the speaker, not from your slide.

It goes without saying that you shouldn’t stuff any slide with text. Or include so much information (whether textual or visual) that your audience gets overwhelmed and stops following your speech. When it comes to slide design, minimalism is your best friend. 

To know if you’re relying heavily on your slides or not, ask yourself this question: “Will my presentation still make sense without the slides?” If the answer’s no, then you should rethink your script. But, there’s also a fun side to this. When you free your slides of the burden to inform, they can now be used creatively and even enhance the effect of your speech.

Notice how the presenter in the video shown above only turns to slides to highlight or demonstrate a point she made. And if you remove all the slides? The presentation will be just as complete and impactful.

Don’t Use Fancy Slideshows

How a good presentation should look like? Nowadays, there are lots of advanced presentation software and screen-sharing tools one can use to “wow” the audience. The problem with them? “Wowing” your audience with something as trivial as slides is hardly why you’re making your speech. The fewer distractions there are in your presentation, the better. Keep this in mind, and avoid using anything showy. 

Don’t Talk Too Fast (or Slow)

While presenting, it’s recommended to maintain a consistent pace that’s neither too fast nor too slow. Talking fast might cause unnecessary tension in the audience, and excessively slow speech is sure to annoy them.

While different people naturally speak at different paces, it’s still something that can be worked on and modified with enough practice. You can refine your pacing during rehearsals until the preferred pace is second nature to you.

Don’t Forget Backup Slides

You’re about to start your presentation, but the internet connection is too slow, and your slides won’t load. On top of it, you didn’t follow our advice about not relying on slideshows. What do you do?

Well, if you’re considerate enough, you will have a USB flash drive with backup slides. Next time you feel like forgoing this little step, recall this scenario.

Don’t Neglect Body Language

The way you move your body on stage tells a story. And if that story is incoherent with the one you’re telling with your words, disharmony arises. Imagine a speaker is talking about peace and tolerance, yet their every movement is abrupt, hasty, and aggressive. Sure, this might be the result of nervousness, but would you still be able to connect to their message? The answer’s likely to be no.   

When rehearsing your speech, don’t neglect body language. Practice standing tall, keeping your hands open, and your movements relaxed. Avoid pacing on the stage during your presentation, as it may distract or, worse yet, annoy your listeners. 

Check out this TED talk by Emily Esfahani Smith. Pay attention to how her empathetic facial expressions and open hand gestures help to reinforce her message.

And, of course, don’t skip eye contact. Instead of glancing over the entire audience, pick a few individuals from different parts of the room, and establish your eye contact with them. This little trick will help you feel like you’re speaking to one person at a time. And that’s far more manageable than speaking to everyone at once.

To emphasize a point, sometimes, what you need is not words but their absence. Take a pause after you ask a question or make a strong statement. Spare your audience a moment to think, reflect, and ponder. Or leave a gap of silence right before you present something exciting to build suspense and anticipation.

No one expects you to go on talking for 10-15 minutes without a pause. Take a few seconds once in a while to breathe. Draw in deep breaths to collect your thoughts and calm your nerves if the situation calls for it. This is one of the most effective ways to relax when presenting.

These were the things good presentations include. Hopefully, you’ve learned enough from our tips and are now ready to get to work. Delivering effective presentations is not an easy task, but definitely, one that’s worth the effort. If you’d like to create a presentation for your speech or even online platforms, give these customizable templates a try.

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PowerPoint Presentations: Do’s and Don’ts

The problem

Picture this: You attend a meeting a work. The presenter pulls up their white PowerPoint slides cluttered with paragraphs and charts. They drone on about the gap between point A and point B on a complicated graph. Of course, you can see neither point A nor B so you trust that their gap estimate is correct…and significant. Significant enough to take six minutes to cover. You look at your watch. The meeting is nowhere near complete. Though you feel happy for this vacation from your desk, you cannot seem to focus on what the presenter is saying. Speaking of vacation, you think about the tropical destination ad you saw this morning. A beach vacation would be nice…

Does this situation seem all too familiar? For many businesspeople, this is a weekly, if not daily, occurrence. The cycle continues: bad presentation after bad presentation. None are memorable. Few are tolerable. Put bluntly, these presentations are inefficient, ineffective time wasters. Though the present PowerPoint presentation situation feels bleak, you can be the agent of a positive future.

To turn you into a positive agent, let’s cover the dos and don’ts of PowerPoint presentations.

Dos and Don’ts

Don’t confuse your PowerPoint with your presentation. Your presentation includes your speech aiming to reach a goal with your audience (i.e. persuade, inform, educate, etc.). YOU are your presentation. Whether you accept the fact or hide in the dark, YOU either make or break your presentation. PowerPoint, or any other presentation software, whiteboard, chalkboard, paper, etc., is a visual aid. An aid to you, the presenter. A tool for you to either harness or misuse.

Do use visual aids. Though PowerPoint is a tool, not the presentation, using this visual aid does not have to be a bad thing. Visual aids help listeners follow along and understand key points.

Don’t build your presentation based on your PowerPoint. Most presentation preparation should include determining an attention-grabbing opener and closer and appropriate and well-supported content, gathering your thoughts in an organized and easy-to-follow way, and practicing the presentation for extemporaneous delivery, full of great eye contact and expression. A small part of presentation preparation should include preparing a PowerPoint. Unfortunately, many presenters instead use their PowerPoints as notes from which to read. In a study, four hundred fifty-three frequent PowerPoint viewers (1-2 times daily) were asked for the major aspects of PowerPoint presentations that annoyed them most [1]. The most frequent answers were 1) reading word-for-word from slides (71.7%) and 2) including full sentences (48.6%) [1]. The lesson learned: your PowerPoint should not be a written version of your presentation.

Do focus on one message per slide. Putting more than one message on a slide causes the audience to choose which message to focus on and takeaway [2]. Instead, save yourself the slide space and choose one message for your audience per slide.

Don’t overcomplicate your slides. White space (aka “empty” space) on your slide is good. When your slides become too cluttered, the audience will, at best, have a difficult time following, at worst, give up trying to understand. What is too cluttered? For example, if a single slide has more than one chart or graph, the slide is too cluttered. A good rule of thumb is six components per slide, with a component being a single bit of information like a bullet point with text, an image, or a title [2]. David Phillips, a Swedish presentation guru, explained that including any more than six pieces of information forces your audience to use 500% more cognitive resources [2]. Being that humans are energy-savers, this loosely translates to, you will lose your audience’s attention .

Do be careful when using charts and graphs. Though data can be helpful in illustrating a point or backing up an argument, most charts and graphs are too complex to understand quickly. To combat this, presenters will add red lines, data labels, and different markings to clarify [3]. Instead of helping, these marks further clutter the content [3]. If you must use a graph or chart, try using contrast to focus in your audience on the key message. For example, make all the numbers in your chart a faint light gray except the number you wish to focus in on, which can be a solid dark black [2]. Or, to avoid complicated charts and graphs, pull out the significant statistic and write it as a bullet point or phrase.

Don’t use hard-to-read fonts. Stick to serif and sans serif typefaces and use 18-point font or larger [1]. Also, avoid using all uppercase letters. Lowercase letters are easier for your audience to read [1]. Make sure the most important content on your slide stands out due to contrast and also, size [2]. Use larger font sizes for your content, rather than your titles [2].

Do use dark backgrounds on your slides. As stated above, you are your presentation. However, when you stand next to a huge bright screen, the presentation becomes less about you and more about the slides [2]. The audience will be drawn to look at the PowerPoint instead of you. Instead, utilize adept presenter and well-known entrepreneur, Steve Jobs’ technique of dark backgrounds accompanied with minimalism in text and imagery [1].

There you have it. Just four dos and four don’ts for creating infinitely more effective, efficient, and even entertaining PowerPoint slides for your next presentation. This will help your audience focus on you and your message, rather than using your presentation time to plan their next vacation.

[1] Hamilton, C., Kroll, T. (2018) Communicating for Results: A Guide for Business and the Professions. (11 th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwpi1Lm6dFo

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRIcD7v-Vm8

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Do’s and Don’ts of Designing PowerPoint Presentations – What’s Important

Animations Bullet Point Presentations Business Presentation Corporate Presentation Design Data Visualization PowerPoint Design PowerPoint Presentation Professional Presentation Design

Discover the essential do's and don'ts of designing PowerPoint presentations. This will ensure you never struggle to maintain your audience's interest again. If you've ever crafted slides only to face a crowd of disengaged onlookers, you know how crucial engaging presentations are. Even seasoned speakers can stumble if their PowerPoint lacks clarity and visual appeal. By mastering how to make the best PowerPoint presentation, you can ensure that you deliver your message concisely and memorably. It helps you avoid the pitfalls of overwhelming text and disorganized designs.

8 Do's And 8 Don’ts Of PowerPoint Presentations

When it comes to the do's and don'ts of designing PowerPoint presentations, understanding the key elements can make all the difference. Whether you're aiming to inform, persuade, or engage, the way you design your slides plays a pivotal role in how your message is received. By focusing on essential design principles and avoiding common pitfalls, you can create a presentation that not only looks professional but also resonates with your audience. Let's delve into the crucial do's and don'ts that will elevate your PowerPoint skills and help you deliver your message effectively.

8 PowerPoint Do's: Enhancing Your Slides for Impact

1. opt for minimalist design.

Simplicity is key in the do's and don'ts of designing PowerPoint presentations. A minimalist design helps your audience focus on what's important without getting distracted by too many details. This approach, emphasizing how to make the best PowerPoint presentation, involves using a clean layout, ample white space, and limiting the number of elements on each slide. By keeping it simple, you enable your audience to absorb and retain the information more effectively.

2. Eliminate Clutter with Design Rules

Effective presentation design is all about clarity and engagement. The 5-5-5 rule suggests limiting yourself to five words per line, five lines per slide, and five text-heavy slides in a row to avoid overwhelming your audience. The 10-20-30 rule by Guy Kawasaki advocates for 10 slides in a 20-minute presentation with a minimum 30-point font size. Lastly, the 6x6 rule recommends no more than six bullet points per slide and six words per bullet. These guidelines help in creating slides that are easy to follow and impactful.

3. Enhance Engagement with Quality Visuals

Using high-quality visuals is a fundamental aspect of PowerPoint presentation do's and don'ts. Graphics, images, and charts serve as powerful visual aids that can make your presentation more engaging and easier to understand. They can break up text, illustrate points, and add a layer of storytelling to your presentation. Remember, a relevant and striking visual can convey your message more powerfully than words alone.

4. Foster Brand Consistency

Consistency in your presentation's formatting reinforces your brand and message. This involves using a consistent color palette, typography, and design elements throughout your slides. Such a consistent design not only looks professional but also makes your presentation more coherent and memorable to the audience.

5. Prioritize Accessibility

Ensuring your PowerPoint is accessible to everyone, including individuals with disabilities, is crucial. This means checking color contrasts, providing text alternatives for images, and ensuring your presentation can be navigated without a mouse. Making your presentation accessible is a key step in being inclusive and reaching a wider audience effectively.

6. Incorporate Custom Icons and Illustrations

Custom icons and illustrations can add a unique and personal touch to your presentation, making it stand out. These design elements, tailored to your message, can enhance understanding and retention. Avoid generic clip art in favor of custom graphics that align with your content and branding.

7. Employ Subtle Animations

Animations can be a useful tool when used sparingly. They should enhance, not distract, helping to emphasize key points or transition smoothly between topics. Subtle animations can guide your audience's attention and contribute to a dynamic and engaging presentation.

8. Control Your Presentation's Pace

Timing is everything. Pacing your delivery ensures that your audience stays engaged and can absorb the information you're presenting. It's important to allocate time wisely, giving each slide its moment, without rushing or dragging the presentation.

8 PowerPoint Don'ts: Avoiding Common Pitfalls

1. avoid busy backgrounds.

Distracting backgrounds can make your text hard to read and divert attention from your main message. Stick to simple, clean backgrounds that support your content rather than competing with it. This helps keep your audience focused on what you're saying, not where you're saying it.

2. Refrain from Overloading Slides with Text

Too much text can overwhelm your audience, making it hard for them to follow along and retain information. Use bullet points strategically to convey information concisely and keep your audience engaged. Remember, slides are there to support your speech, not to serve as a script.

3. Move Beyond Basic Bullets

While bullet points are a common feature in presentations, relying solely on them can become monotonous. Mix up your slide formats with visuals, charts, and other elements to keep your audience interested and engaged. This variety can make your presentation more dynamic and memorable.

4. Maintain Formatting Consistency

Inconsistent formatting can be jarring and detract from your message's professionalism. Ensure that your slides are uniformly styled in terms of fonts, colors, and layout. This consistency helps build a cohesive narrative throughout your presentation.

5. Limit Animation Use

While animations can add interest, too many can be distracting and detract from your message. Use animations purposefully and sparingly to enhance your presentation without overwhelming your audience with too much motion.

6. Avoid Using Unsupported Graphics

Ensure that all your graphics and visuals are supported by your presentation software and the hardware you'll be using. Unsupported graphics can lead to technical issues that disrupt your flow and distract your audience.

7. Never Plagiarize

Originality is key in presentation design. Ensure all your content is original or properly credited. Plagiarizing not only undermines your credibility but also disrespects the original content creators.

8. Don't Improvise Your Speech

In designing PowerPoint presentations, don't overlook the importance of rehearsing your speech. It's not just the slides that matter but also how you present them. Spend time aligning your speech with your visuals to keep the audience engaged. Practicing ensures your delivery is smooth and your information clear, making your professional PowerPoint presentations effective. Thorough preparation will help you captivate your audience from start to finish.

In the realm of PowerPoint presentation do's and don'ts, striking the right balance between informative content and engaging design is crucial. By adhering to these guidelines, you're not just creating slides; you're crafting a narrative that captures and retains your audience's attention. Remember, the success of your presentation hinges on both the clarity of your content and the effectiveness of your design. As you employ these strategies in your professional PowerPoint presentations, you'll not only keep your audience engaged but also convey information in a way that's impactful and memorable. Embrace these practices to ensure your next presentation stands out for all the right reasons.

Come to Deck Sherpa for Professional PowerPoint Presentations

Understanding and implementing the do's and don'ts of designing PowerPoint presentations is crucial for maintaining your audience's engagement and effectively delivering your message. These guidelines are not just rules; they are the building blocks for creating slides that are clear, impactful, and memorable. By focusing on essential design elements like minimalism, consistency, and quality visuals, you can elevate your presentation and ensure your message resonates with your audience. Following these principles helps in avoiding common pitfalls that can detract from your presentation's effectiveness, ensuring your key points are communicated clearly and your audience stays connected throughout your presentation.

Looking to make your next PowerPoint presentation stand out? Deck Sherpa, India's leading presentation design agency, is here to help. Our expert design team is well-versed in all these essential tips, crafting presentations that captivate and inform, for clients both in India and around the globe. Whether you're presenting locally or on an international stage, let us help you create a presentation that resonates and engages. Visit our Showcase page on the Deck Sherpa website to see our work and discover how we can elevate your next presentation. Let's make your message unforgettable together.

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Q. What are the dos and don’ts of PowerPoint presentations? A. The dos and don'ts of PowerPoint presentations include keeping a simple design, using high-quality visuals, maintaining consistency, and avoiding overwhelming text or distracting animations. Q. What are presentation design rules? A. Presentation design rules include guidelines like the 5-5-5 rule, the 10-20-30 rule, and the 6x6 rule, which help in creating clear, impactful, and engaging slides. Q. What is the 7 rule in PowerPoint? A. The 7 rule in PowerPoint suggests limiting each slide to no more than seven bullet points and seven words per bullet to ensure clarity and retain audience engagement.

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Powerpoint Do’s and Don’ts

by Michelle Stevens

Believe it or not, but PowerPoint, the ever present presentation tool, has been with us for nearly three decades. As anyone who has ever sat through a particularly dull slide deck can attest, there is a fine art to building and exhibiting a compelling presentation that keeps an audience’s attention. Here are a few tips to make your next PowerPoint something special:

DO:  Stay Concise

The biggest rookie PowerPoint mistake is to copy and paste all your information verbatim into the slides.

Not only is this incredibly boring, but no one is going to have the time or inclination to read a wall of text. Don’t turn a presentation into a book.

There’s no hard rule, but a good general principle is to limit yourself to five words per line and five lines per slide.

DON’T:  Overdo the Special Effects

After years of updates, PowerPoint is extremely full featured at this point.

But, while it can be fun to play with all the bells and whistles, too often they just end up being distractions,

Avoid overusing animations, flashy transitions, jarring sound effects, busy backgrounds, unnecessary drop shadows, ornate fonts, or any other effect that doesn’t make your information clearer.

DO:  Use Humor

Because the format is so well established and we’ve all seen thousands of them, even the best powerpoint presentations can struggle to engage audiences.

Don’t treat a presentation like an open mic night at the comedy club, but the occasional comic, snappy pun, or amusing anecdote will liven things up, make your arguments more memorable, and prevent monotony from setting in.

DON’T:  Just Read the Slides

Your audience, presumably, can already read. They don’t want to have the words on the screen read back to them word for word. Your slides should support an oral presentation, not just reiterate it.

Know the material well enough that your bullet points will jog your memory of the finer details that need to be addressed.

DO:  Look Up!

Even if you aren’t just reading from the slides and are just referring to them, you should still look up now and then to maintain eye contact with the audience– how else will you know if they are still awake?

DON’T:  Rush

Give your audience ample time to read each slide, but don’t delay so long as to lose their attention.

Also, don’t start speaking as soon as the next slide loads. Give the audience a few moments to scan the slide and get ready to hear what you have to say about it.

Likewise, don’t hit the next slide as soon as you finish discussing the current one. Give readers time to digest the information, and check out the room to see if they look ready to move on.

DO:  Be Bold and Direct

Use bold colors and sharp contrasts, not only because it will enhance legibility but because it imparts emotion and energy into your presentation.

Similarly, when it comes to fonts for presentations , bigger is almost always better. A point size of 18 is just about the bare minimum. Shoot for something closer to the mid to upper 20s. Also, bear in mind, sans serif fonts are considered more legible at big sizes.

DON’T:  Over Rely on Clipart

Especially in creative fields, people will notice clip art that doesn’t quite fit. Pull images and video from the web that are highly relevant and help drive your point home in an appealing way.

DO:  Save Handouts for the End

There’s some debate about this one. Some authorities believe following a handout will improve audience recall, but many believe it just pulls awareness away from the presenter.

Attendees already have the constant threat of smartphones to distract them. Don’t give them anything else that might overshadow the main event.

Be the center of attention at all times. Make your case and make it well, and then provide supplementary materials for people to look over at their leisure.

DON’T:  Overuse Statistics

No one needs to see all the raw data that went into your presentation. They want you to synthesize that information for them.

Slides overloaded with too many facts and figures will be tuned out. Besides anyone who needs all the granular details will ideally be able to get them on your website or handout materials.

If you have a stat you think is vital to the story you are telling, try to at least format it in a visually interesting way like a simple chart or graph.

DO:  Use Bullets and Numbered Lists

Humans process information better when it’s organized in discrete chunks. Take out information and break it down into major sections, and then break those down into subsections.

Information should flow in an orderly fashion and be extremely easy to understand and digest.

Progressively released bullet points (that pop up one at a time) can also be useful for helping the audience keep track of where you are in the presentation.

DON’T:  Be Afraid to Take a Pause

You don’t have to run through your slides unceasingly. Some presenters prefer to leave questions to the end, but others allow questions at any time.

But, if a question arises that causes a digression, consider hitting the letter “B” on the keyboard. This will pause the presentation and clear the screen,

If you leave the current slide up many eyes will stay fixated on it even as you are discussing something totally different.

• Presentation Design

Presentation Do’s and Don’ts: What You Need to Know

Camille del Rosario

Giving a presentation can be a nerve-wracking experience, especially if you’re not fond of public speaking. Luckily, there are ways you can improve your talk and give maximum value to your listeners. Your public speaking skills — like speaking clearly and minding your body language — are important. But you also have to complement this with good and effective presentation design .

There are a lot of things that you can do to improve your presentation design and delivery method, from using attention-grabbing images and PowerPoint graphics to enhancing interactivity with the audience. In this article, we list all the important do’s and don’ts when giving a presentation to amplify the value that listeners will get from your pitch.

Presentation Do’s 

1. plan the structure.

You might have a lot of information you want to share with your audience. The first part of your preparation should be planning your structure.

• You can’t deliver a huge load of information at once, so create an organized guide for you to follow throughout your talk.
• Start with providing your listeners with background information about you and the topic.
• Next, highlight your main message or key point and then supplement it with data-based arguments backed by verified sources.
• Finally, plan your concluding thoughts or CTA to maximize your presentation’s impact.

With all the points that you need to make, it’s easy to get sidetracked and lose your train of thought. If there’s one thing you can take away from these tips, it’s to never give a presentation unprepared.

2. Use the Rule of Thirds

Have you ever seen a presentation deck so rife with information that it becomes too much? There’s a reason minimalism is good practice when designing your slides. If there are too many things going on on your presentation deck, you run the risk of distracting your listeners and overloading their brains with too much information.

Generally, you should keep it simple by using centered or symmetrical layouts. But sometimes, your content doesn’t allow for a strictly symmetrical layout. Your slide may end up looking unbalanced or unfinished.

Using the rule of thirds is a good principle to counter that. Imagine that your slide is divided into three equal parts vertically and horizontally. Place text, images, or other objects on each section of the grid to make the slide as balanced and aesthetically pleasing as possible. This helps you align the objects in your deck in a way that’s easy on the eyes and gives room for white space.

3. Use Negative Space Generously

Negative space is the “blank” part of a design — no elements whatsoever. But just because they’re blank doesn’t mean they don’t serve a purpose. Negative space, also known as white space, is an important functional element of your design. They help clear up the layout so that the audience’s eyes are drawn only to the most important parts.

Using negative space will greatly improve your audience’s ability to absorb and retain information. It’s a common beginner design mistake to fill up every corner with text and graphics, but don’t give in to the temptation!

4. Think Twice When Choosing Stock Photos

Overcrowded layouts and big blocks of text are off-putting for audiences. If you saw walls of text in a PowerPoint presentation, most likely, you wouldn’t be motivated to read every single line from start to finish. That’s why you need to add attention-grabbing visuals.

When adding visuals to your presentation, stock photos are a good resource. But make sure that you maintain a selective attitude when using them. Instead of settling with the first photo that pops up after a query, conduct a more specific search and find photos that are relevant to your topic.

Images have been shown to increase retention by up to 24%, so adding them to your presentation will keep your listeners engaged. Try to keep the text as minimal as possible and instead incorporate more images or visuals that are captivating, high-resolution, and relevant to your presentation.

5. Choose Your Fonts & Colors Carefully

The fonts and colors you use in your presentation deck can make or break its ability to engage your audience and provide important information. In line with keeping your slides simple, choose fonts that are readable and use only colors that are easy on the eye.

Make sure your color choices are on-brand — or at the very least, relevant to your topic. Pastel colors and monochromatic palettes are a trendy choice these days. So are neon elements on dark backgrounds. But as long as they provide enough clarity and contrast, it’s totally your choice!

When it comes to fonts, go for the simplest choices. But your font doesn’t have to be boring! A great way to tell if a font is appropriate for a presentation is to do a size test. If a font is easy to read at a very small size, then it’s workable. (But that’s just a test — in your actual presentation, remember to keep your font sizes big and friendly!)

6. Let Your Passion Shine Through with Storytelling and a Conversational Tone

Even if you’re speaking about a formal or technical topic, it doesn’t mean that you can’t be casual in your presentation. People appreciate listening to someone who’s human and who they can relate to, making story-telling a valuable skill in public speaking. Stories also help people retain information better!

Engage your audience by telling a story that’s related to your main point. You can start your presentation with a backstory or capture attention halfway through. And while you’re story-telling and providing value to your audience, make sure that you’re showing them how interested and passionate you are about the topic at hand.

7. Use Audience Engagement Strategies

As much as possible, you want to keep your audience engaged from start to finish. Aside from adopting the best practices in speech delivery and presentation design, you may also want to make your talk more interactive. Here are a few ways you can do this:

• Involve your audience in the conversation. Ask them questions every couple of minutes or tell a short story or two to keep their eyes and ears on you.
• Make eye contact with your audience and pay attention to your own nonverbal cues like gestures, posture, and facial expression.
• Rehearse and time your speech. It’s easy to lose track of time during a presentation, so make sure you know how much of your audience’s time you’re taking by conducting a timed rehearsal. As a bonus, this will also help you gain clarity about the flow of your talk or even help you anticipate questions and reactions.

Information is not hard to come by, especially in the digital age. Your audience can easily get access to and learn about the topics you’re going to talk about from other resources. So what makes your presentation special? In the end, there’s still nothing that can compare to hearing it from a professional who can deliver this information in a more intimate and engaging manner.

8. End Your Presentation With a Key Question or Call to Action

You can’t always guarantee that your audience will remember everything you discussed in your presentation. So it’s important that you identify your main point — the one thing that you want to leave your audience with.

So before presenting, make sure you’ve identified “the one idea to rule them all.” Summarize what you discussed in a single statement, which can be in the form of an insight, question, or action. Doing this will get your audience thinking and allow them to appreciate what your presentation was really about.

Presentation Don’ts

1. don’t use too much text.

You’re not writing a book — your slides are meant to be observed for several seconds with minimal effort from the viewer. You have a limited hold on your audience’s attention. Don’t risk being boring via information overload and keep text at a minimum.

For more complex information, use short sentences divided into three to five bullet points per slide. You can also use data visualizers like charts and graphs, but remember to simplify these as well by only using a few variables at a time.

And if you really want to provide lengthy content, consider providing your audience with presentation aids like printed handouts or links to digital documents that they can study at their leisure after your presentation.

2. Don’t Just Read the Slides Out Loud

If your slides contain absolutely everything you want your audience to know, then what are you there for? Trust us — you don’t want your audience sitting there thinking, “This could have been an email.” Make the most of their time by making your presence valuable.

Giving a presentation is more than just about relaying information. It’s also about engaging with your audience by provoking wonder, emotion, interest, and action. Your presence is needed to lend credibility and authenticity to the information you’ll provide. So refrain from reading your slides out loud! You’re a human talking to humans. Make your front-and-center moment matter.

3. Don’t Talk Too Fast or Too Slow

If you’ve ever attended a talk where the speaker spoke too fast, you were probably tense the whole time only to end up without a single takeaway from the presentation. Or if the speaker spoke too slowly, you might have found yourself dozing off halfway through.

Speak at a moderate, conversational speed to help your audience understand you clearly. Don’t forget to modulate your pitch and volume. It’s okay to get excited — but don’t let emotion get in the way of your delivery. Even when you’re at your most passionate, avoid bellowing, screeching, or whispering.

Basically, clear speech is a matter of avoiding all extremes. You can do it with practice, practice, practice!

4. Don’t Overuse Charts and Graphs

Charts and graphs are valuable visual cues that help you express important numbers or statistics — but there is such a thing as overusing them. Sure, your audience will be able to absorb information from one to two charts, but if you use them more than ten times in your entire presentation, for example, the chances of your audience being able to understand and retain that information are slim.

Again, if you really think your audience should have a truckload of information at hand, then email or print out the relevant documents for them. If you manage to capture their genuine interest during your simplified presentation, they are more likely to seek out additional information later on.

5. Don’t Use Hard-to-Read Fonts

Your audience will rely on your presentation to guide them through understanding the topic you’re discussing. Make sure that your points are readable and clearly state the key points. You don’t have to use the most aesthetic font available. Stick to basic and easy-to-read options.

Broken fonts can really ruin a presentation, so here’s a little secret. For maximum portability, use easily accessible web fonts like Google Fonts . This way, you’ll be able to have access to them no matter what device you use to present — all you need is an internet connection.

6. Don’t Use a Low-Contrast Color Palette

Contrast is one of the main principles of design. It can be expressed in different ways — through size, shape, texture, and most commonly, color. Contrast helps establish hierarchy, effectively informing viewers what they are looking at.

With low contrast, it’s difficult to tell the difference between two colors that are side by side. The highest contrast possible is black and white, which is why many presentations simply use black text on white backgrounds (or vice versa).

But plain black and white presentations can get really old, really fast. Using a more diverse color palette will add interest to your presentations. Just make sure to amp up the contrast by using dark colors on light colors and light colors on dark colors.

7. Don’t Use Too Many Effects

One of the exciting features of presentation software is your ability to add transition effects to your slides. While these were fun in high school, they’re not necessarily at home in formal pitch decks and corporate presentations.

Using too many effects can distract your audience and deter them from absorbing the more important points of your presentation. Keep the dazzling effects to a minimum and make your slides as simple as possible.

8. Don’t Use Irrelevant and Low-Resolution Images

Stock or custom images are a very good way to keep your audience engaged, but you have to make sure to use good-quality images that are actually relevant to the topic at hand.

Using blurry, pixelated, or low-quality photos will set you up for a negative impression. And irrelevant images make it pretty obvious that you didn’t spend enough time on your deck. Weird or off-topic image choices can really impact your credibility. Fortunately, there are loads of creative resources available online today, many of them free or affordable.

Ready to Put Your Presenter Hat On?

These tips will definitely help you position yourself as an expert in your subject matter. You don’t need to be a graphic designer to create truly engaging presentations that are easy on the eye.

But we know that the fear of public speaking is one of the most common phobias — this means that for most people, having to design and present slideshows can feel like a little too much work! So if you need a boost, we’re here to help. With Design Pickle’s Presentation Design services, you can win over your audience with engaging, well-designed, and on-brand presentation designs that stand out from the competition. No sweat!

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How to Design a Presentation

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Elevate Your Presentations: Mastering the Art of Dynamic PPT Design for Impactful Delivery

PPT designs are critical for businesses and professionals to communicate their ideas, products, and services. A well-designed presentation can help you engage your audience, persuade them to act, and achieve your goals. However, creating a successful PowerPoint presentation requires careful planning, thoughtful design, and attention to detail. In this post, we’ll cover the dos and don’ts of PPT design to help you create compelling and engaging presentations.

Why is presentation design critical?

Before understanding the dos and don’ts of ppt design, we need to understand why presentation design is critical because it significantly impacts the effectiveness and impact of your message.

Here are a few reasons why presentation design plays a crucial role:

• Visual Appeal: A well-designed presentation captivates the audience and grabs their attention. Visual elements such as color schemes, typography, images, and layout contribute to the overall aesthetics of the presentation, making it visually appealing and engaging.
• Enhances Understanding: Effective presentation design helps convey complex information clearly and concisely. Well-structured slides, visual cues, and graphical representations can make it easier for the audience to understand and retain the key points of your message.
• Supports Storytelling: Presentation design helps to tell a compelling story. Through the strategic use of visuals, text, and animations, you can create a narrative flow that guides the audience through your content, making it more memorable and impactful.
• Builds Credibility and Professionalism: A well-designed presentation reflects your professionalism and attention to detail. It enhances your credibility as a speaker and creates a positive impression on the audience, signaling that you have put effort into crafting a high-quality presentation.
• Engages the Audience: Effective presentation design keeps the audience engaged and focused. Visual elements, such as eye-catching images, infographics, or videos, can evoke emotions and connect with the audience, increasing their interest and involvement in your presentation.
• Emphasizes Key Points: Design elements can be used to highlight and emphasize important information or key messages. Strategic use of color, font size, and visual hierarchy draws attention to critical content, ensuring that your key points are effectively communicated and remembered.
• Facilitates Retention: A well-designed presentation enhances information retention. People remember visuals more effectively than text alone. By incorporating visuals, diagrams, and other graphical elements, you can help the audience better understand and retain the information you present.
• Supports Branding: Presentation design provides an opportunity to reinforce your brand identity. You can create a cohesive and recognizable visual identity that aligns with your brand image by using consistent brand colors, fonts, and imagery.

Let us now understand the dos and don’ts of ppt design that can affect your presentation significantly.

Here is the list of dos and don’ts of ppt design:

The Dos of PPT Designing:

• Define your objective : Before starting your PPT designing process, define your presentation’s objective. Determine what you want to achieve with your production and the audience’s needs, preferences, and pain points.
• Keep it simple : Use straightforward language, avoid jargon, and keep your presentation visually clean and uncluttered. Use only essential text and images to convey your message, and avoid using too many animations, transitions, or effects that distract your audience.
• Use high-quality images : Images are a powerful way to communicate your message, emotions, and ideas. Use high-quality and relevant images that support your message, and avoid using low-resolution, stock photos or generic images.
• Use consistent design : Consistency is crucial in PPT design. Use the same font, color scheme, and design elements throughout your presentation. This creates a cohesive and professional-looking presentation and helps your audience focus on your message. Understanding the presentation dos and don’ts will give better insights and help in enhancing the overall presentation.
• Use charts & graphs : Use charts, graphs, and diagrams to convey complex data or statistics in a visually appealing and easy-to-understand way. This helps your audience grasp your message quickly and also supports your credibility.
• Proofread and edit: Avoid spelling and grammatical mistakes by thoroughly proofreading and editing your slides.
• Test your presentation: Run a test presentation to ensure everything displays correctly and smoothly.

The above-mentioned are a few dos in PowerPoint presentations that should be considered and implemented to improve the effectiveness and engagement of your presentation.

The Don’ts of PPT Designing:

Now let us look in-depth into the Don’ts of PPT Design

• Use only a few bullet points : Bullet points help summarize information, but too many can overwhelm your audience and make your presentation boring. Use bullet points sparingly, and focus on the essential issues.
• Use only a few fonts or colors : Using too many fonts or colors can make your presentation look more cohesive and professional. Stick to one or two fonts and a color scheme that complements your brand identity and supports your message.
• Don’t use too many animations : Animations can add visual interest to your presentation, but too many can distract your audience and make your presentation look childish. Use animations sparingly and only when necessary to support your message.
• Don’t use copyrighted images : Using copyrighted images without permission can lead to legal trouble and damage your reputation. Use only photographs you have the rights to or licensed under Creative Commons.
• Don’t read your slides : They should support your message, not replace them. Avoid reading your slides verbatim and use them to guide your presentation. Engage your audience with eye contact, body language, and storytelling.

These dos and don’ts of ppt designs are to be considered to ensure that the content reaches the audience effectively and is kept engaging.

You can also check the do’s and don’ts ppt template free download . Also, there are multiple do’s don ts formats available on the internet that you can utilize to enhance your overall quality.

Here are a few tips to improve your presentation skills:

It is necessary to consider several other parameters mentioned below, along with the dos and don’ts of ppt, so as to improve the overall content relevance and effectivity.

• Know your audience: Understand your audience and consider their level of knowledge, interests, and expectations.
• Body language is the key: Maintaining good posture, making eye contact with your audience, and using hand gestures will improve the overall effectiveness of your presentation.
• Engage with the audience: Interacting with the audience and involving them will create a great atmosphere, and you will understand how well they grasp the content.
• Practice thoroughly: Rehearse your presentation multiple times to become familiar with the content and delivery. Practice in front of a mirror, record yourself or present it before your colleagues or friends and ask for feedback.

Remember, a well-designed and well-delivered PowerPoint presentation can effectively convey your message and engage your audience.

These tips become effective if you thoroughly understand the dos and don’ts of ppt design and implement them together.

Effectiveness of verbal communication in PowerPoint presentation:

Along with the dos and don’ts of ppt design, here are some key points to consider for enhancing the effectiveness of verbal communication during a PowerPoint presentation:

• Clarity and Enunciation: Speak clearly and enunciate your words to ensure your audience understands you. Pay attention to your pronunciation, and articulate your words with proper emphasis. Avoid speaking too fast, making it difficult for the audience to follow your message.
• Tone and Inflection: It is a good practice to vary your tone and inflection to keep your audience engaged and interested. Use a conversational and engaging tone to create a connection with your audience. Emphasize key points, use appropriate pauses, and modulate your voice to convey enthusiasm and the importance of your message.
• Eye Contact: Maintain eye contact with your audience to establish a connection and build trust. Look at different sections of the room and make eye contact with individuals to create a sense of engagement. Avoid solely focusing on your slides or notes, as it can create a disengaged atmosphere.
• Body Language: In addition to understanding the dos and don’ts of PPT design, your body language can greatly impact how your message is received. Stand tall, maintain an open and confident posture, and use appropriate gestures to support your verbal communication. Non-verbal cues such as facial expressions and hand movements can help convey emotions and engage the audience.
• Engagement and Interaction: Encourage audience participation and engagement throughout your presentation. Pose questions, ask for opinions, or encourage discussion to involve the audience in the topic. This keeps the audience actively engaged and helps create a more interactive and dynamic presentation.
• Pace and Timing: Along with the dos and don’ts of ppt, paying attention to the pace and timing of your speech is necessary. Speak at a moderate pace, allowing the audience to process the information. Avoid rushing through the content or speaking too slowly. Use pauses effectively to emphasize important points, give the audience time to absorb information, and create a sense of anticipation.
• Adaptability: Be adaptable and responsive to your audience’s reactions and feedback. Pay attention to their level of understanding and engagement. Adjust your communication style, provide additional explanations, or clarify any points to ensure effective comprehension and engagement.
• Confidence and Authenticity: Project confidence and authenticity in your delivery. Believe in your message and express it with conviction. Be genuine and authentic in your communication, allowing your personality to shine. This will help you establish credibility and connect with your audience more deeply.

Remember, effective verbal communication in a PowerPoint presentation combines clear and articulate speech, engaging delivery, audience interaction, and adaptability. By focusing on these aspects, you can enhance the impact of your verbal communication and deliver a successful presentation.

These points, if considered along with the dos and don’ts of ppt design, will surely improve the overall power point presentation and can keep the audience engaged throughout.

In conclusion, PPT designing requires a strategic approach, creativity, and attention to detail. Following the dos and don’ts of PPT design, you can create practical and engaging presentations that help you achieve your objectives and connect with your audience. A well-designed PPT with good presentation skills will help in delivering the content effectively.

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The do’s and don’ts when giving a powerpoint presentation.

By Lauren Clarke

One of the most useful skills to have in life is the ability to stand on stage, in front of the audience and give a great presentation.

However, even experienced presenters tend to make the some rookie mistakes when giving a PowerPoint presentation.

To avoid making such mistakes, we have compiled some simple tips – the dos and the don’ts when giving a PowerPoint presentation.

Prepare, Prepare, Prepare

We cannot over-emphasise how important preparation is when giving a PowerPoint presentation. Know your topic that you are delivering, forwards and backwards. Write down the major points that you want to deliver to your audience on your slides as well as on your cue cards. By doing so, the chances of you digressing into other topics are very slim.

Start off your PowerPoint presentation with a catchy introduction to get your audience interested or even curious about your topic of presentation. Get them engaged and wanting to stay on to find out more about the rest of the topic that you will be presenting.

Once you have the audience’s attention, keep the momentum going by branching out from your introduction. Avoid reading and looking at your slides all the time and try to engage your audience by asking closed questions that require the audience to reply by a show of hands. You could also include your personal experiences relating to your topic of presentation; who does not like to listen to real life events! End your presentation with a great wrap-up and a summary of your presentation. Do include your contact details for those audiences who want to know more or have questions for you.

Another way to get organised for your presentation is by using Prezentt. Upload your slides and content and remember to share the link with your audience on the day of the presentation. By sharing your slides in real time with your audience, they will be more engaged in your presentation. Not only that, you will save countless hours of administration time and cost, and will effortlessly improve the interaction between you and your audience.

Posture and Body Language

How you present yourself in front of the audience says a lot about you and your personality. From your posture and body language, the audience will roughly know how dull and boring or how exciting and full of zest your presentation will be. Your body language is an essential tool of any public speaking.

Stand up straight, avoid slouching and regardless if you are using a microphone or not, always speak with clarity. Try to make eye contact with audience members during your presentation to increase audience engagement.

Pace Yourself

It is very common to have the moderator or event manager informing you on how long your presentation should be when giving a PowerPoint presentation. Normally, you will be informed prior to the presentation date as you will need to prepare your slides and get organised. With the time allocated to you, try to pace yourself and avoid pacing aimlessly. Eventually, the audience will focus on your movement instead of your presentation.

Do not speak so quickly that the audience cannot comprehend what you have just said, but don’t speak so slowly that your audience falls asleep or walks out of the room either!

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Ineffective Slides and Visuals

Poorly prepared slides can ruin a good PowerPoint presentation, so it is worth the time and effort in getting your slides right. The most effective presentation visuals do not have to be flashy, they just have to be brief and consistent.

Avoid cluttering your slides with text in tiny font sizes. It is a waste of time when your audience is not able to read your slides if you use font size 12 or when your slides contain too many words. Also, do not use animation like an animated emoji or a dancing clown, as it will only distract your audience.

Ignore the Audience

If you think that giving a PowerPoint presentation is all about you, you might need to rethink your priorities. Do not ignore the audience and always remember why they are there in the first place. Without the audience, you would end up giving your presentation to an empty room!

Ignoring the audience happens sometimes when speakers are afraid or have stage fright – they just want to get the presentation over and done with! They rush through the presentation and don’t deliver their message effectively. Pay attention to your audience and they will listen to you.

Read your Slides Out Loud

Have you ever seen an actor on stage performing while holding a script in his hand?

Ideally, a presenter won’t simply read out the entire presentation from their notes but you may find it useful to use Cue Cards, just in case you lose your chain of thought.

What you should not be doing is reading your slides out loud, word for word. You audience can read your slides clearly, so what is the point in giving a presentation to your audience if you are going to read your presentation from your slides? It sends a message to your audience that you are lazy in preparing your slides and you don’t really know your topic. If you are familiar with the flow and content of your presentation, you won’t be reading the slides.

In addition, if you’re simply reading the slides from your PowerPoint presentation, you’ll end up having your back facing the audience most of the time. This is a big mistake. The audience wants to see your face and not your back so this is very distracting. Remember that presentation slides are meant to improve your talk!

While there are plenty of other dos and don’ts when giving a PowerPoint presentation, this is a short list of the basic ones which you should be able to implement when giving your next presentation.

Remember that when giving any kind of presentation, it all comes down to one thing: valuing your audience and being worthy of their time. When you continue to focus on providing the best to your audience, you will find yourself giving a great presentation every single time.

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10 dos and don’ts of using Microsoft PowerPoint for a presentation

By:  Cathie Briggette with lots of  help from the   US SMB Microsoft Team

PowerPoint can be both provocative and persuasive in a business meeting.

And exactly the opposite can occur.

PowerPoint can be the most awesome business presentation tool, or it can make you look absolutely awful.  This two-sided view of Microsoft’s popular presentation and graphics program in  Office 365  mirrors a debate coursing through business and academia. While many embrace the values of PowerPoint as a potent business tool, there are others who contend that it’s a drag on effective interaction—that it confuses, distorts, and even strangles communication.

Any discussion of PowerPoint’s merits and faults merely illustrates the importance of using the program to the best of its advantage.

Here are 10 ways to use PowerPoint to help make your presentation look brilliant, not brainless.

1.      Use Compelling Material

In a way, PowerPoint’s ease of use may be its own worst enemy. However simple and engaging it can be to build eye-catching slides and graphics, bear in mind that PowerPoint isn’t self-sufficient. The audience has come to hear you, not to stare at images tossed onto a screen. Build a strong PowerPoint program, but make sure that your spoken remarks are just as compelling. “PowerPoint doesn’t give presentations—PowerPoint makes slides,” says Matt Thornhill, President of Audience First, a Midlothian, Va., business that offers presentation training. “Remember that you are creating slides to support a spoken presentation.”

2.      Keep it simple...... (KISS)

3. Minimize numbers in slides

PowerPoint’s lure is the capacity to convey ideas and support a speaker’s remarks in a concise manner. That’s hard to do through a haze of numbers and statistics. For the most part, most effective PowerPoint displays don’t overwhelm viewers with too many figures and numbers. Instead, leave those for a later, more thorough digestion in handouts distributed at your presentation’s end. If you want to emphasize a statistic in PowerPoint, consider using a graphic or image to convey the point.

One of the most prevalent and damaging habits of PowerPoint users is to simply read the visual presentation to the audience. Not only is that redundant—short of using the clicker, why are you even there? —but it makes even the most visually appealing presentation boring to the bone. PowerPoint works best with spoken remarks that augment and discuss, rather than mimic, what’s on the screen.   Make eye contact with your audience.  These people didn’t come to this presentation to be read to.  They came to hear about your topic and hear You.

6. Give it a rest

Unlike other products in Office 365 , PowerPoint is most effective as a visual accompaniment to the spoken word. Experienced PowerPoint users aren’t bashful about letting the screen go blank on occasion. Not only can that give your audience a visual break, it’s also effective to focus attention on a strictly verbally give and take, such as a group discussion or a question and answer session.

7. Use vibrant colors

8. Import other images and graphics

Don’t limit your presentation to what is offered. Use outside images and graphics for variety and visual appeal, including video , which is easy to embed in PowerPoint slides.

9. Distribute handouts at the end—not during the presentation

No speaker wants to be chatting to a crowd that’s busy reading a summary of his or her remarks. Unless it is imperative that people follow a handout while you’re presenting, wait until you’re done to distribute them.

10. Edit ruthlessly before presenting

Tags: Microsoft

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15 Do’s and Don’ts for PowerPoint in the Classroom

PowerPoint is an amazing tool for teachers. It can help you inform, entertain and engage your students. However, not all PowerPoint presentations are created equal. Some will make you want to poke your eyes out and make an appointment for root canal for fun.

My first year of teaching (2002) the assistant principal handed me a box of chalk and a blackboard to use. I still have the chalk dust under my nails and up my nose. When the SMART Board became available in my school and I and could use PowerPoint about ten years ago I thought I’d died and gone to heaven!

And I proceeded to make some of the most awful presentations imaginable. My poor students! The more I learned the worse it became. A fellow teacher showed me animations. The next day I’m lucky a kid did not have a seizure as I presented jumping, disappearing, twirling words and pictures ad nauseam.

A few clear guidelines on what to do and what not to do when designing your presentations will vastly improve your results. Avoid glaring colors, walls of words and complicated graphs. Keep your slides clean, legible and a backdrop to your lecture.

Let me quickly dispel a couple of theories. NO ONE CAN MULTITASK. You can try and do two things simultaneously, but your brain can only do one thing at a time. Trying to multitask can actually hurt your brain, according to Forbes .

What this means is that students cannot listen to what you’re saying, read what’s on the PowerPoint, take notes, look at the pictures and make sure their hair looks good all at the same time.

The amount of stimuli a student is subjected to has a direct effect on their ability to absorb, understand and remember information. This is known as Cognitive Load Theory.

The primary motive of most teachers is to inform and incite learning. To do this in an effective manner requires having these ideas top-of-mind as we plan.

Let’s cover some caveats and guidelines for your PowerPoints.

Don’t do this…

1. No Death By PowerPoint

I don’t think anyone has actually died from a brutal PowerPoint, but your presentation surely will. An endless array of slides being clicked on as you drone on is not conducive to exemplary pedagogy. Even if you sing, dance and do a stand-up routine instead of droning the students will be distracted from your performance by what’s happening on the SMARTBoard.

2. No walls of text

Teachers are notorious for displaying one or more paragraphs of content on each slide. The idea is to give students something to take notes from. This can work; students will write what you have fed to them. They will fill their notebooks with ink.

There are two problems with this method. Number one, many students write word-for-word without without mentally computing the information. Secondly, their cannot focus on copying notes and listen to you at the same time.

Instead, try relegating just a word, phrase or question on the slide. Don’t speak while they write it down. Kids will have to listen to you in order to define the word or answer the question.

3. Too many visuals

This problem harks back to the Cognitive Load theory mentioned earlier. A slide that is too visually stimulating is often a bad idea. Can you occasionally create a slide filled with pictures, photos and colors? Yes, but include a simple slide before the busy one to allow content absorption, them follow up with the “popping” slide.

4. Small pictures, fonts, graphs or maps

I was guilty of this on a regular basis.

Me, “Class, according to the map where did the first battle take place?”

Class: “I can’t see the names on the map; it’s too small.”

Me. “No, it’s not, but if you can’t see come up to the front and look.”

Reality check, many students don’t wear their glasses. Also, we’re normally in the front near the presentation. Stand at the very back of the room to see what that view is like.

5. Too many bullet points

The purpose of bullet points is to succinctly display information. Too many bullet points defeats the whole purpose. It forces you to use a smaller font as well. Keep it down to three or four, or refer to the 25-word rule.

6. Reading from the PowerPoint

Don’t do this. It makes you redundant and superfluous. Think about when when your students a PowerPoint presentation as an assignment. What is it like when they present by simply reading what they wrote on each slide. Awful.

I have to assume you don’t need the notes on the slides as a cheat sheet. Most teachers know their content. A brief phrase is all you need to jar your memory as to what you wanted to say. If there are statistics or details to remember put them in the notes portion of the slide.

7. Glaring colors combos

Do you think that orange, yellow and purple work well together? Perhaps on a tie-dye shirt, but not for visual aids. It’s best to keep the color pallet crisp with contrasting dark and light. This makes for easy reading and no jarring distractions.

8. Intricate graphs

I think the slide above says it all.

Do this instead…

9. keep it streamlined and simple.

Think about a black cocktail dress; it’s simple but stunning. Your PowerPoints should be black cocktail dresses, or a tailored grey suit if you’re a man. They will be both visually appealing and, most importantly, effective teaching tools.

10. Keep it clear

Always look at your presentation through the eyes of a student. If there is ANY way to misread or misconstrue something they will.

I remember comparing the Civil War to a bad break up, trying to make connections for the kiddos. To illustrate the point of view of the south I asked them to imagine:

Imagine your significant other turned out to be the opposite of everything you ever wanted. S/he was a bully and wouldn’t let you see your friends. He pushed you around and took your money. So you break up.

Then the law tells you that you must reunite with this awful person and were forced to reunite with them. How would you feel?

Many of them had a lot to say about that. I congratulated myself for making a good connection for the kiddos. Until I read a student’s essay on the Civil War:

The North and south had bad marriage. It got physical. Even though they hated each other they couldn’t get a divorce. The law made them stay together. This was good because nobody had to pay child support.

Not exactly the results I was looking for. Clarity is a necessity.

11. Save the memes for Instagram

Anything that can distract kids will. One photo or picture per slide will suffice. Memes and gifs should be kept to a minimum. I love a good gif and can’t help but use them sometimes. But it’s not good practice if your goal is a focused class.

12. Under 25 words

There’s an arbitrary rule in town, created by yours truly. No one slide should contain more than 25 words 90% of the time. Follow a concrete guide such as this and you’re sure to improve your slides.

13. Ask a question on each slide

Type a question on your slide and nothing else. I mentioned this above as one way to utilize a presentation. It could be the same question on every slide.

For instance, when I taught the Roaring Twenties each slide had a different change that took place during the decade. The question on every slide was: It this a political, economic or social change? Students were learning content and reviewing key social studies terms.

Another example are the MAIN causes of World War I. For each cause there is one word on the slide: Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism and Nationalism. The question for each was the same: How would this cause a war?

14. Add a short video

Enhance your presentation with a short video whenever possible. Find one that reiterates what you are teaching or hones in on one aspect of the lesson. It’s good for differentiation, reinforces content and breaks up the PowerPoint. Be sure to ask at least one question about the video so that students actually have to pay attention.

15. Try using one picture for your background

This is quick, easy and effective. Instead of scrounging around for appropriate photos and pictures for every slide find a nice one and use it as your background. Then create a text box for your question or phrase for each slide. This helps to ensure that there’s not too much text, because you want most of the background picture to show.

I know some of these suggestions are controversial. Maybe you’re yelling at your screen as you’re reading this.

“Are you kidding me? If it weren’t for my funny and engaging PowerPoint presentations my students would be asleep or on their phones!”

That’s fine. Just remember why you’re creating the presentation; to reinforce learning. If you create your PowerPoints looking at it through your students’ eyes the presentations will rock!

Teach and Thrive

A Bronx, NY veteran high school social studies teacher who has learned most of what she has learned through trial and error and error and error.... and wants to save others that pain.

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17 “Do’s” and “Don’ts” for Giving a Great Presentation

Public speaking is the #1 fear for a huge percentage of people .  It’s above the fear of dying for many people.  How can you think about giving a great presentation when you’re worried about even giving a basic presentation?

I’ve been doing public speaking events for over a decade, but it definitely wasn’t an easy journey.  It’s hard to get comfortable talking in front of groups of 10 people, let alone a hundred or a thousand.  Still, this is a skill that you can learn and even master with some study and practice.

Let’s look at some major “do’s” and “don’ts” for creating a great presentation.

11 “Do’s” for Giving a Great Presentation

1. believe that giving a great presentation is a learnable skill..

Giving a good presentation is a learnable skill.   Even true introverts can give excellent presentations.   In fact, introverted people actually tend to plan better presentations though they may be more afraid to give them.  Extroverts are more likely to “wing it” but are more naturally comfortable being on a stage.

Both approaches have value, but both have their pitfalls.  Learning to give a great speech isn’t like putting a hammer to a nail.  It’s an organic process, and it takes time to get good at it.  But, through practice and repetition, you can be an amazing presenter !

2. Prepare for the presentation!

It takes a tremendous amount of work to make something appear effortless.  My general rule of thumb is to allocate 45-60 minutes of preparation time for every 5 minutes of speaking time .  So, for an hour-long presentation, I may prepare 10-12 hours ahead of time.

One important question is whether script the entire speech.  It depends on what you’re speaking about, but it’s generally advisable to not script 100% of your remarks.  It’s good to rehearse but not “sound rehearsed.”  Outline the presentation, make notes of any stories you want to tell and major points to drive home.  But, it’s not critical that you script every single word.

You can also prepare by having great-looking slides that will impress your audience.  That will give you more confidence going into the presentation.

3. When you’re with your peers, it’s ok to “speak your geek.”

Know your audience!  If you’re speaking to a group of colleagues, you don’t need to “dumb things down.”  It’s good to speak in layman’s terms with patients and audiences who are unfamiliar with your work.  However, with peers, feel free to use technical jargon that’s widely understood.

4. Use stories to transform your communication.

Listeners will only remember data 5% of the time, but they’ll remember stories 60% of the time .  That’s because stories are how we naturally communuicate !  Our brains are wired to think that way.

Listen to the podcast episode with Nancy Duarte to learn the formula for creating the most memorable story.  

Every presentation is more memorable with stories.  In fact, stories may be the only parts of your presentation that anyone remembers.  One thing you can do is build a “story library” for yourself.  Basically, that’s a collection of 10-20 stories that are memorable/impactful to you that you can pull out and use in a variety of different presentations when the need arises.

5. Develop a good “pre-talk ritual.”

Immediately prior to your presentation, what are you doing to get yourself ready to go up on stage?  Some people like to “pump themselves up,” and others prefer to “calm themselves down.”  I’m more of a calm-yourself-down kind of presenter.

If I’m presenting at a conference, for example, I like to sit in on the presentation right before mine and just listen.  I shut my brain off and don’t think about my presentation at all.  It’s helpful for me to be calm and just relax.  Otherwise, I find that I “get in my head” too much and I start getting anxious.

I know other people that prefer to listen to some Rocky music and box an imaginary punching bag.  Whatever your needs, pick a pre-talk ritual that helps you get in the right frame of mind so you can go out on that stage and crush it!

6. Follow the structure of a great presentation as outlined in Nancy Duarte’s podcast episode.

Jump to 19:52 to hear Nancy eloquently express the formula of a great presentation.  This is backed by thousands of analyses from the greatest speeches in history.

7. Use repetition, familiar phrases, imagery, and metaphors to help transport the audience.

If you’ve ever listened to Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, you’ll hear him use a lot of references that would have been familiar to his audience.  These references include Scriptures, hymns, and cultural references.

He also used repetition to great effect.  The phrase “I have a dream” appears 8 times in his speech.  That repetition made the speech more memorable and helped transport the audience to a new plane of comprehension.

8. Have the right level of emotional appeal to fit your audience.

Passion and emotion are good, but it needs to fit the “mood” of the audience to some degree.  You’re probably not going to do well giving a eulogy if you’re yelling and pumping people up like it’s halftime at the Super Bowl.

Emotional appeals are good and can help audience members  feel  the weight of your words in a more high-impact way.  Just make sure to “read the room” as you consider how to bring emotion into the presentation.  Sitting in the presentation before yours can be a great way to gauge how the people in the room are feeling.

9. Use your presentation to translate to real growth in your business.

If you’re doing public speaking, what’s the point?  That is, what value does the speaking engagement bring to your business?  If you’re just in it to make money or get some experience, that’s fine as far as that goes.  But, a speaking engagement could be more valuable in propelling your business growth forward.

Are you going to a conference ?  You can network with other presenters and look for opportunities to collaborate.  You could meet the attendees and perhaps earn some new clients.

Speeches can also help establish you as a thought leader.  If your speech is being recorded, a great presentation can even be an opportunity for free promotion.

Whatever your plan, be intentional!  If you get invited to speak at an event, take that opportunity and use it for real business growth!

10. Use a speaking coach.

I haven’t used a speaking coach before, but I’ve definitely been considering it since my interview with Nancy Duarte .  Even the most seasoned veterans can benefit from coaching.

A good speaking coach can show you how to change your inflection, insert pauses and places to emphasize your points, and help you craft the structure of your speech.  You might not be able to afford one when you’re first starting out, but it’s worth considering if you’re going to be doing public speaking on a regular basis.

11. Use data to support your presentation.

Data are important to support the validity and authority of your talk, but you’ve got to weave it effectively into the story structure.  Don’t just spout random bits of data with no context.  Offer the data as supporting evidence within your story narrative.

6 “Don’ts” for Giving a Great Presentation

1. don’t be the hero in your story..

Always be the guide in your story !  The  audience is the hero.  You don’t want to be Luke Skywalker!   You want to be Yoda!!  The hero is the lead character in the story.  If you make yourself the hero, the audience who already thinks of themselves as the hero sees you as competition in the story.

If you play the guide instead, the audience looks to you to help them solve their problems.  Always be the guide, not the hero!!

2. Don’t be afraid to speak “off the cuff” occasionally.

I don’t generally advise “winging it,” but sometimes a little extemporaneous speaking is called for.  This is where the “story library” idea can come in handy.  You may be able to tell the same story in a variety of settings and emphasize different aspects of the story each time.  This strategy can give the feel of spontaneity but with the confidence of you generally knowing what you’re going to say.

3. Don’t create slides in a “linear fashion.”

When you’re creating a slide deck, don’t just do it in a linear fashion (e.g. slide 1, slide 2, etc).   Start with the “guiding light” or main central point, and then every slide serves to drive home that central point.  You should be constantly driving your audience towards that central point.  All slides support that central point because it may be the only point your audience remembers.

4. Don’t read directly off the powerpoint slides.

I have gotten up and left in the middle of lectures when the lecturer was reading directly off the slides.  It’s so boring!  I can read faster than they talk.  They aren’t saying anything new by the time I’m finished reading, so I’m ready to move on to the next thing.

Powerpoint slides are fine, and you can even use it as a sort of teleprompter, but just don’t read directly off it!  Did you know you can hit the “B” button to turn your screen black or “W” to turn the screen white?    Then, you could use the powerpoint as a teleprompter and the audience doesn’t see it.

Put one central point on each slide and use it as a way to jog your memory for what you want to say.  You can have a couple of hundred slides with only one point or image per slide and it’s better than having 20 that are jam-packed with too much info.

5. Don’t use the podium as a crutch.

Move around the stage!   It projects confidence and keeps the audience engaged.  The best way to feel comfortable moving around the stage is spending a lot of time preparing the presentation beforehand.  Then, you’ll feel more confident breaking away from the podium.

6. Don’t be so afraid of public speaking that you never give it a try!

Public speaking is a genuine fear for a lot of people, but it’s so much fun!  You can do it!  Just give it a shot!

Final Thoughts

Public speaking isn’t an innate talent, and it’s not limited to extreme extroverts and “naturally charismatic” people.   Anyone can learn to be a public speaker.   If you’re worried about how it’ll go, start small.  Join the Toastmasters or similar club in your area.  Get with a speaking coach.  Read, study, and learn the tips and techniques of the best speakers.

Then, start looking for opportunities to speak to others.  Start with yourself, your friends, and your family.  Move up to local clubs and organizations, then gradually step it up from there.  There’s so much value in being good at public speaking, and I think it’s worth it to step out in faith and try!

Further Reading

• Listen to the companion podcast episode with Nancy Duarte
• 5 Big Mistakes Physicians Make with Social Media
• What Makes a Great Physician Leader?  10 Lessons from a Surgeon General.

Please leave a comment below!  What’s your top tip for someone interested in public speaking?

Full Disclosure: Some of the links to the resources listed above may be affiliate links, which means that I will receive a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. But it doesn’t cost you anything extra—it’s just a way to show you appreciate what we do here. Thanks for this.

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7 Tips to Conduct Effective Business Meetings (With Do's and Don'ts Templates Included)

Mohit Sabharwal

Have you been conducting business meetings where you catch your employees dozing off? Or where some people begin to share their ideas, and others shoot them down? Let's admit, we’ve all been a part of bad meetings where there is no clear agenda, and people are coming in late, uninterested, and unproductive.

As per statistics, managers spend over 23 hours per week in meetings in an upward 50-year trend. Business meetings play an essential role in decision-making and goal accomplishment. However, most of the discussions remain ineffective since people do not plan properly and ignore the meetings' execution. It results in wastage of time, effort, and money.

Nevertheless, we bring you tips that can work for anyone, irrespective of the title or organization. Read on.

Ways to Get The Most Out of Your Business Meetings

There are ways to conduct well-balanced and productive business meetings that benefit the employees as well as the managers. Effective business meetings should encourage both parties to participate in the session to reach a beneficial decision for the organization.

Therefore, we bring you some easy tips that you can use for productive business meetings. We have also included business meetings PPT templates to make your sessions interesting and informative.

You must prepare and take notes before going to the meeting. Before you send an invite for your next meeting, pause, think, and answer questions such as:

→ Why is the meeting important?

→ What problems do you want to highlight?

→ What is the outcome you are expecting from the meeting?

→ Is the meeting necessary, or some other form of communication can serve the purpose?

Answering questions like these will help you clear your vision about the meeting and give you a head start for it.

An agenda is a compass for the conversation. However, a majority of the meetings wander off course as they start with no purpose. Once you know that you want to conduct a meeting, you should go ahead and write the purpose of the meeting on a hand-out or a whiteboard. You can also discuss it explicitly at the outset. You must tell everyone why they are invited to the meeting and what they are supposed to accomplish with it. Therefore, you should set a plan to keep the discussion on track.

3) Value time

Nothing is more annoying than a room waiting for the person in charge to show up. Time is valuable and must be honored. Hence, meetings need to start and end on time. Employees and managers should arrive on time. If the purpose of the meeting is accomplished with a short discussion, it is better to conclude it. There is no point in stretching the session for no reason as it only drains the energy of the group.

4) Encourage open communication

You must let others participate in the meetings and encourage them to share their ideas. In other words, let everyone else flush out their opinions so that you can make a good decision in the end. Take the lead and help people bring out their best ideas to make the wisest decisions. Try to make your meeting a collaborative process. 

5) Give everyone a role

Sometimes, people are reluctant to share their ideas and opinions because they are afraid of being judged. However, you can shatter this phobia and invite them to the foreground by assigning them the roles. Give the participants a job to do in a meeting to help them speak up and make them feel valued.

You can assign tasks to the employees such as brainstorming, discussing a plan of action, and more based on the agenda of the meeting. These tasks can help employees prepare their points, feedback, and opinions in the meeting without any stress.

6) Keep an open mind

Many ideas and feedback can deviate you from the purpose of your meeting. You must stick to your agenda; however, keep an open mind to let the employees' new ideas and approaches come in. It makes the employees comfortable to share their honest opinion irrespective of their expertise or rank in the company. 

7) Follow-up

Execute an effective business meeting with a structured follow-up message. Delegate tasks, set deadlines, schedule next meetings, and follow up with employees. Also, take feedback from the employees on the efficacy of a meeting, review it, and conduct open discussions to know the loopholes. Take necessary actions to make business meetings more effective.

Effective business meetings are meant to keep you engaged and provide you with the correct and vital information. Therefore, you must incorporate the above tips to obtain the best results. To hit the nail on the head, you can use SlideTeam's business meetings do's and don'ts PowerPoint templates to help you navigate formal discussions in the right direction.

This business meeting PPT template lets you highlight points that are essential or optional for a meeting. It will help you keep your focus on vital subjects. The template is completely customizable. You can use it based on your needs.

Download this template

Use this professionally designed business meeting template to list down things allowed in a meeting. You can use it at the beginning of a meeting to prepare your audience. The template showcases two separate sections for do's and don'ts. You can use both sections to highlight your points clearly in the template.

Grab this template

Clinch your next deal with this template which showcases ways to conduct a valuable and dynamic meeting with a client. The slide showcases do's and don'ts that everyone needs to follow during a client meeting. You can incorporate your points in the slide as it is a customizable template.

Create a business meeting do's and don'ts list with this PPT template. Use this ready-made design to display the practices that must be followed in a business meeting. It also highlights points that should be ignored during business meetings at all times. It is a creatively designed template to help grab the audience's attention. Select this customizable template now!

Make your next business meeting successful and achieve your goals with this PPT template. This flexible design will help you plan your sessions, set agenda, and communicate your ideas effectively. Incorporate this customizable slide now to hold an impressive discussion.

Bring out the best of the ideas in your business meetings using this innovative PowerPoint template. You can incorporate this PPT slide to showcase the purpose of the meeting, assign tasks, create an action plan, and more. Grab this customizable preset to make your meetings interesting for the employees.

Lead effective business meetings using this simple yet innovative PowerPoint template. This customizable slide is set to help you conduct a productive business meeting by letting you showcase the vital points. Keep everyone on track and focused with this stunning PPT slide.

Conducting business meetings requires effort and patience. It is essential to outline discussions beforehand to make an impact on the audience. 

So use the tips mentioned above with the professionally designed do's and don'ts templates to maximize the effectiveness of your meetings. Incorporate our editable slides to encourage the desired business etiquettes. After all, when the design is brilliant,  formal sessions become interesting and engaging automatically.

P.S: To increase the efficiency of your on-site and remote meetings, explore our actionable PPT templates featured in the  blog . 

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Free Dos And Donts Presentation Templates

Teach both do's and don'ts with our pre-made, editable free dos and donts powerpoint templates and google slides themes, effective tools for comparing topics. it includes checklists to show what's right and helps to highlight key points with bright colors and eye-catching icons. free templates for all your needs don't wait, get your free templates now.

• Simple checklists and tick marks: Make your "dos" and "don'ts" crystal-clear at a glance.
• Bold green checks and red Xs: Visually reinforce your points, no words are needed.
• Multiple formats (4:3 & 16:9) and orientations (portrait & landscape): These slides adapt to any screen, big or small.
• Royalty-free and 100% editable: Customize them with your own content, without worrying about copyright.
• Free slides available: Try before you buy! See how our powerful free templates can transform your presentations.
• Perfect for everyone: From business people to students to anyone who wants to communicate effectively.
• Ideal for any occasion: Boardroom pitches, classroom lessons, workshops – these slides conquer them all.
• Simple and clear: No more text overload! Our slides are designed to be easy to understand at a glance.
• Visually engaging: Infographics, checklists, and bold colors keep your audience hooked and help them understand the positive and negative aspects .
• Time-saving: Drop the blank canvas! Get started quickly with pre-designed slides.
• Versatile: Adapt our templates to fit any topic or presentation style.
• Confidence booster: Deliver your message with clarity and impact, knowing your slides are top-notch.

We're here to help you!

What are dos and donts powerpoint templates.

Dos And Donts PowerPoint templates are a great way to create presentations that help people learn about proper behavior and etiquette. These templates provide visuals to emphasize certain dos and don'ts in different situations.

Where can we use these Dos And Donts Slides?

You can use these Dos and Donts Slides in any presentation, classroom, or workplace meeting. You can also use them to help engage an audience in a discussion about etiquette or to help teach proper behavior in various situations.

How can I make Dos And don'ts PPT Slides in a presentation?

Start by creating a table with two sections to explain Dos And don'ts. Determine the points and the core idea that you will use. Suppose you want to create slides by yourself. Visit Tips and tricks for detailed instructions.

Who can use Dos And Donts PPT Templates?

Anyone can use Dos And Donts PPT Templates. The templates help create presentations and infographics that communicate importantly do's and don'ts of any topic. They are ideal for business presentations, school projects, or other communication projects.

Why do we need Dos And Donts PowerPoint Slides?

Dos and Donts PowerPoint slides effectively communicate important safety and compliance information to employees quickly. They provide a visual aid to remind employees of the proper procedures and safeguards.

Where can I find free Dos And don'ts PPT Templates?

Many websites offer free Dos And don'ts PPT templates. Slide egg is one of the best PowerPoint providers. Our websites' uniquely designed templates help explain the consequences of not following the proper precautions.

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Dos & Don'ts PowerPoint Templates For Presentations:

The Dos & Don’ts PowerPoint templates go beyond traditional static slides to make your professional presentations stand out. Given the sleek design and customized features, they can be used as PowerPoint as well as  Google Slides templates . Inculcated with visually appealing unique and creative designs, the templates will double your presentation value in front of your audience. You can browse through a vast library of Dos & Don’ts Google Slides templates,  PowerPoint themes  and  backgrounds  to stand out in your next presentation.

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What is a dos & don'ts powerpoint template.

A Dos & Don’ts PowerPoint template is a ready-made presentation template that provides a structured framework for creating professional Dos & Don’ts presentations. The Dos & Don’ts PPT presentation template includes design elements, layouts, and fonts that you can customize to fit your content and brand.

How To Choose The Best Dos & Don'ts Presentation Templates?

Keep the following points in mind while choosing a Dos & Don’ts Presentation template for PowerPoint (PPT) or Google Slides:

• Understand your presentation goals and objectives.
• Make sure the Dos & Don’ts template aligns with your visual needs and appeal.
• Ensure the template is versatile enough to adapt to various types of content.
• Ensure the template is easily customizable.

Are Dos & Don'ts PowerPoint Templates Compatible With Google Slides?

Yes, all our Dos & Don’ts presentation templates are compatible and can be used as Dos & Don’ts Google Slides templates.

What Are The Advantages Of Dos & Don'ts Presentation Templates?

Dos & Don’ts PPT presentation templates can be beneficial because they:

• Add multiple visual and aesthetic layers to your slides.
• Ensure that complex information, insights and data is presented in a simplistic way.
• Enhance the overall visual appeal of the content.
• Save you a lot of time as you don’t have to start editing from scratch.
• Improve the professional outlook of your presentation.

Can I Edit The Elements In Dos & Don'ts PowerPoint Templates?

Yes, our Dos & Don’ts PowerPoint and Google Slides templates are fully editable. You can easily modify the individual elements including icons, fonts, colors, etc. while making your presentations using  professional PowerPoint templates .

How To Download Dos & Don'ts PowerPoint Templates For Presentations?

To download Dos & Don’ts presentation templates, you can follow these steps:

• Select the resolution (16*9 or 4*3).
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• Make the payment (SlideUpLift has a collection of paid as well as free Dos & Don’ts PowerPoint templates).
• You can download the file or open it in Google Slides.

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