Powerpoint: The Good, the bad, and the ugly!

There are certain things we should always remember in making good powerpoint presentations! Bad powerpoint presentations can be very confusing, hard on the eyes, and extremely boring. It is very important that in making a powerpoint presentation you try to keep these five things together.


1) The less words per slide the better! When your slides are packed with information it takes away from you as a presenter and what it is you have to say. PowerPoint is an AID! It is only there to enforce important parts of your presentation not to be your crutch.

2) Leave the rainbows outside! Don't let your slides be a burst of unnecessary color. Make sure your slides are professional. If you have a theme, GREAT! Remember your presentation will most likely be given in a dark room and you want your presetation to be easily read and understood.

3) Get off the slides! Make yourself cue cards. Practice what you are going to say. Use the notes section of PowerPoint. DO whatever is neccessary not to read word for word what's on your presentation. You are trying to sell your ideas and opinions and in order to be convincing you must engage your audience.

4) What's in a picture? The images you place on your slides should look professional and be interesting. Make sure they are relevant to your slides and make sure they are quality photos. When people include pictures on their slides that are obviously pixelating it is quite a nightmare! At the same time, pictures can really express important parts and features so don't leave them out.

5) EDIT! Please check for spelling and grammatical errors. The worst thing is having a slide sitting in front of an audience for several seconds or minutes and have an obvious error blaring in their faces. Especially when EVERYONE notices.