How to Prepare Effective Slides for Oral Presentation

Electronic slide presentations---most notably, in the Microsoft PowerPoint format---are one of the most widely used business communications tools. They also have gained a reputation as one of the most widely abused, often used ineffectively in presentations that practically put audiences to sleep in their seats. Fortunately, by developing your presentation slides with a high degree of intention and following some important best practices, you can avoid the potential pitfalls and develop an effective oral presentation support tool.

Things You'll Need

• Presentation software package (e.g., Microsoft PowerPoint)

Instructions

1. Outline the message you want to deliver, including main points, supporting points and key takeaways for the audience. Do this before you even open PowerPoint or another slide development program. Having a clear understanding up front of the message you want to deliver in your oral presentation will ensure that the message drives the visuals, and not the other way around.

2. Select a visual template for your slides. This will include not only a color scheme, but also a font type and hierarchy of formatting and bullet types to denote titles, supporting points and more. Keep it simple: A light background with dark text and a clearly legible font works best. Avoid busy designs that could distract from your message.

3. Create introductory slides that draw listeners into your topic, including an agenda slide that highlights the key areas you will cover in your presentation.

4. Create one or more (preferably just one, if possible) slide to support each main point in your outline.
   • Develop a headline for each slide that clearly and succinctly states that slide's focus area or key message.
   • Add bullet points to the body of each slide that summarize the main supporting points for that slide's header.
   • Include graphics---photos, graphs or charts---that help to illustrate your key points and hold the audience's attention. Combining text and visuals has a greater chance of conveying your message effectively than text alone.
   • Develop conclusion slides that emphasize the key takeaways or the call to action for the audience. What do you want the audience to do? What do you want the audience to remember? Your final slides are your chance to drive home your key points or leave the audience with a question to think about or answer.

5. Once you have a first draft of your slides, edit mercilessly, not only for grammar and accuracy, but also to pare down to as few words as possible. Eliminate any word that is not necessary to audience understanding; delete examples and other supporting bullet points that you can better explain through your oral presentation and aren't necessary in print.

6. Review your slides for consistency with presentation best practices. Make sure that your font size is no smaller than 30 point. Ensure consistency throughout your slide presentation by double-checking to make sure that your template is consistent on each slide. For example, if 40 point, boldface type denotes a slide title, all titles should conform to this formatting.

Tips & Warnings

• Less is more. The slides aren't going to deliver your presentation, you are. Summarize the most important points on your slides with the fewest words possible, and bring them to life with examples and anecdotes within your presentation.

References

• Turpin Communication
• Groundwire