Six Major Mistakes When Doing Powerpoint Presentations
One of the editors here at Lifehack, Chris Smith, frequently writes about engineering. Equally I was reading some of his recent articles, I was influenced to write a tech article of my own, so here it is.
So, you are sitting in a visitor meeting and the presenter puts upward the offset slide. You are probably thinking to yourself,
"Oh no, not another Powerpoint presentation – BORING!"
Unfortunately, most people who apply Powerpoint, Keynote or other similar software for making slide presentations completely abuse the technology. Instead of using these programs to enhance their presentations, they end up putting their audiences to sleep instead.
I've been guilty of abusing this technology myself when I first started using Powerpoint equally a product marketing manager. Originally, the intent was to replace the use of cumbersome overhead slides and when I realized just how easy it was to create new slides with a figurer program, like everybody else, I just went crazy with it.
I'1000 notwithstanding using Powerpoint these days in my talks and seminars merely fortunately after seeing many others make the same mistakes that I did with their presentations, I took it upon myself to get some training on how to best use this tool. To assistance you out with your ain presentations, I have identified half-dozen major mistakes that almost Powerpoint users make and how you can avoid them.
1 – Text Besides Small
Quite often, the text used on slides is much also minor to read once projected on a screen. A good test to use is become to the back of the room where the furthest audience fellow member would exist sitting earlier y'all practice your presentation. Put on the slide with the smallest sized text. If you tin can't make out the text easily, then neither will any audience fellow member sitting in the back of the room. You will have to make your text size larger (I would suggest at least 35-xl font size minimum). Also, it is a good idea to use sans-serif fonts like Arial (rather than serif fonts like Times Roman) on slides since they are easier on the eyes on a screen.
2 – Too Much Text
Another major mistake that many people make is trying to fit in too much text on whatever single slide. Information technology is a nightmare for audiences when they run into a slide jammed total of text. If audience members start reading all the text on such a slide, they will not be able to listen to you as the speaker at the same fourth dimension. A good rule of thumb to employ is have no more than iv to five bullet points per slide (I often use merely 3 points) and no more than than five words per point. If you have more bullet points, divide them up on split slides.
3 – Reading Off Each Word
A sure sign of an ineffective presenter is when he or she looks at the screen and reads off every last word up on the slides. From a presentation skills point of view, this is bad considering the presenter loses eye contact with the audience. You lot besides don't want the audition to have to look at your backside all the time. Again, limit the number of words on each bullet point then that you can speak more naturally by expanding on what is actually on each slide.
iv – Abusing The Bells And Whistles
Another indicator of an inexperienced Powerpoint user is when too many of the fancy functions from the program are used in the presentation. This would include the utilise of too many different slide transitions, animations, sound effects, etc. Y'all are not there to print the audience with your vast cognition of the different bells and whistles that Powerpoint has. These tin go rather tiring on the audience. Go along things uncomplicated and call back that the slides are there to enhance your verbal presentation, not the other way around.
five – Ineffective Use Of Images
It is true that a moving-picture show is worth a thousand words and images can definitely enhance your presentation. The central is to apply them to illustrate major points you are making. Don't have as well many images on any single slide. I ordinarily use just i epitome per slide. Brand sure the image is good enough quality by testing it out on a wall or screen first. Sometimes images that look fine on your computer monitor may stop up looking bad when blown up on a wall. Too, make sure whatsoever images you use are relevant to the points yous are making during your presentation. Don't merely put up images for the sake of having pictures up there. At that place must exist some obvious connection betwixt the images yous employ and the points y'all are trying to make.
6 – Non Having Backups
Engineering is technology. This means that it can fail when least expected. I've had to resort to using somebody else's laptop when my own failed. It was a skillful affair that I had a fill-in copy of my Powerpoint file on a flash drive. From a speaker point of view, it is too a good thought to exist able to deliver your presentation without the slides only in case of projector failure. I often bring some props to employ in instance I have to do a sudden version of my talk without slides and aye, I have had to practice this in one or two cases.
So at that place yous have it. If you tin can avoid just these six major mistakes that many presenters make out there, the effectiveness of your presentations will exist increased dramatically. Afterwards you have created them, rehearse your presentations in accelerate with the slides, as your efforts volition brand you appear to be a more professional person presenter in front of audiences.
Source: https://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/six-major-mistakes-when-doing-powerpoint-presentations.html
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