How to Make a Great PowerPoint Presentation

In almost every facet of life, it is now required to give a presentation at one point or another. However now-a-days it is essentially expected that the presentation be done with Microsoft PowerPoint. Here are some tips to making your PowerPoint memorable as well as effective.

Keep Text to a Minimum: I cannot stress this one enough. Too many times PowerPoint presentations have too much text on the screen, so everyone is scrambling to read or the presentation is boring because the presenter is simply reading off the screen. This is awful! Keep the text to a title and several bullet points. Let your mouth fills in the blanks. This makes you take your eyes off your own screen and look at the audience, which is always a must.

Have pictures: Pictures truly are worth a thousand words. By adding pictures you are adding not only color but something visual for the audience with which to connect. Try to have at least one picture on every slide and don't rehash the same pictures...the audience will know. You can find great photos just going to Google Images. Just make sure you cite where you got the photos.

HAVE COLOR: Some of the worst PowerPoint presentations I have seen were white backgrounds with black text and that was it. Who wants to stare at that?! I promise you, the answer is nobody. A little color and a background go a long way. To do this, just go to design slide, where they have several designs already made. If you have the Internet (which if you are reading this you do) you can download backgrounds from Microsoft for free. An interesting background and color adds a whole new dimension to your presentation. However be careful to not choose a backdrop that is terribly distracting. Also choose a text color that is still easy to read against your chosen backdrop. It may look pretty but if no one can read it, your presentation still stinks. If you are feeling frisky you can experiment with font, however again make sure it is legible.

Keep animation between slim and nonexistent: You may get away with this for some school presentations however animation is typically pretty corny and gives the presentation an overall unprofessional feel. One place I might use animation is to have my bullets point come in one at a time as I speak. This prevents the audience to jump ahead of me by reading the rest of my slide and tuning out before I am done talking.

Know your material inside out and backwards: So we covered in tip number 1 that you shouldn't put a lot of text in your slides. However what tends to happen is people then read off of note cards or note books. This makes the presenter look unsure and ultimately lame. Impress me! Know your material so when you go to present, you look at the audience and put inflection in what you are saying instead of reading off a card. You are the one presenting so you should know this stuff already. You don't have note cards to answer questions, so you shouldn't need them for your PowerPoint presentation. The ONLY exception for note cards is as a reference to make sure you don't forget anything. A small list of bullet points (to cover each bullet point on your slide) should be all you need at the most.Good luck with your presentation. As a bonus, wear nice clothing even if this is just for school. The teacher WILL be impressed that you are trying to be professional.