Tips for Developing Effective PowerPoint Slide Presentations
There are many tools you can use when making professional presentations. One very powerful
yet sometimes misused tool is PowerPoint. PowerPoint allows you to create attractive and
effective slide presentations to support (note the word “support”) your verbal presentation. When
used effectively and with care, PowerPoint can help you to stay on track, support your message
with a variety of media options, and educate and entertain your audience. When misused,
PowerPoint can make your presentation a bust.
Here are some tips for making excellent PowerPoint presentations.
 Be consistent. Consistency is important in order to make the audience feel comfortable.
Consistency means that there is a design that flows from the first slide to the last slide.
Design includes color, font size, background, slide template, building of bullets and other
features, slide transitions, and so forth. Inconsistency tends to put the focus of the audience
on what will come next rather than on your message. Remember—the purpose of any slide
presentation is to support you presentation. The focus should be on your message!
 Select colors that are easy on the eye. Think of your audience when you select colors for
your background, bullets, text, and other features of the slide. Bright orange or red
background may be annoying to view after about two slides. Excellent colors include those
from the blue, green, and purple families. These are thought to be cool colors. They have a
calming and pleasant feel to them. Hot colors (reds, oranges, and yellows) are not as
comfortable to view. If you do need to use hot colors, consider toning down the colors and
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making them less intense. In graphics terms, this means that the colors are best used when
less saturated. Hot, bold colors are excellent for use in graphics where the viewer sees them
for only a limited time or when you want to highlight something important, such as in a pie
chart or graph. Consider sticking with the PowerPoint color schemes. These have been
developed by color professionals and tend to work well for audiences.
 Select your text font and size carefully. First, TrueType font is supported by all Windows
PCs automatically. The other option is PostScript, which requires a separate program for
viewing. Most Windows programs support most PostScript fonts, but you are definitely safe
if you stick with TrueType fonts because they are supported by all Windows programs.
Be sure that your font size is large enough to be read by your audience. A good rule of
thumb is to maintain a minimum font size of 24 point. Also, think carefully about the font
type itself. Times Roman and Arial are excellent choices. More elaborate, difficult-to-read
fonts can be hard for the audience to read.
 Use phrases rather than complete sentences. Remember that the purpose of a PowerPoint
slide is to provide an outline from which you can elaborate. You should not put so much
content onto the slide that you are merely reading the slide. PowerPoint slides do not take the
place of your presentation. They may help guide you and remind you of the important points;
however, they should not be the presentation itself.
 Avoid too much on a slide. Too much means too much text, animation, color, building, font
animation, and so on. Keep your slides simple and sleek. Think carefully about why you are
using a PowerPoint feature. Do you want to emphasize something? Do you want to focus
your audience’s attention to a specific place on the slide? Do you want to control the speed at
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which your audience reads the slide? What is the purpose of the PowerPoint feature you are
using? If you do not have a purpose, do not use the feature.
 Be visual. Remember that many people are highly visual learners. You will probably be
making a verbal presentation along with your PowerPoint slides, so use your slides to include
as many visual elements as possible. Use images, photographs, charts and tables, graphs, line
drawings, and other similar features.
 Edit your work! Never present a slide with a type or spelling or grammatical error. Even
one mistake can impact your credibility. Check and recheck each line in each slide, even the
tables and charts.
Developing excellent PowerPoint slides to effectively support a presentation takes thought,
planning, and hard work. In the long run, however, excellent slide support of your talk will make
a highly effective and professional presentation.
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