Tutorial free : Tips For Making Effective PowerPoint Presentations : e

Make use of the slide master feature to make your presentations in a simple, attractive and most importantly, consistent design. While there is nothing wrong with varying the presentation of content (e.g - text in one or two columns, bullet points, images and so on), the other elements of your design such as color, background and font should be consistent from slide to slide.
Limit the amount of text per slide. Pare it down to the essentials and use key phrases.
Don't go overboard with punctuation and definitely do not use ALL CAPS. Leave empty space on the side to make your presentation more readable.
Make your text easier to read by using contrasting colors for the background and text. A light background and dark text is best; avoid patterned backgrounds, these make your text very hard to read.
Don't be tempted by gimmicks like text fly-ins. These distract your audience; who are likely as not already tired of them anyway.
Going overboard with sounds and animation may make for a very flashy presentation, but looks less professional and can result in your presentation not being taken seriously.
Use high quality images which will appear clear even at the resolution required for projection. Good quality images will enhance your presentation, while poor quality, fuzzy images will detract from your message.
If you do use builds, make your content appear in a simple, consistent fashion - for instance, from the top or from the left. Only use these slides when absolutely necessary to drive a point home; otherwise, they needlessly slow down your presentation.
Limit the number of slides per minute. If you rapidly transition from one slide to the next, you can easily lose the interest of your audience. One slide per minute is a good rule.
Be ready to navigate through your presentation in a non-linear way if needed. PowerPoint allows you to jump ahead or back without having to flip back through the slides in between.
Be prepared to move forward and backward through your presentation; your audience may ask you to repeat a slide.
If possible, view your slides on the screen you'll use in your actual presentation. Be sure that they can be read from any seat in the room. Make sure that your text and images are large enough to be easily seen but not so large as to be distracting.
Always have a backup plan in case that something goes wrong in your presentation. Keep in mind that your animations will not be visible in handouts or transparencies.
Show your presentation ahead of time to someone who has never seen you present. Ask them for their honest opinion about the content, the colors and graphics, along with anything else they may have noticed.
Do not read from your slides. Your slides are for the audience, not you. Have your own talking points prepared before your presentation.
Talk to the audience, not to your slides. A lot of presenters make the mistake of speaking towards the screen, rather than to the audience.
Don't apologize for anything in your presentation. If there's something in your presentation which you feel may be difficult to read or understand, it's best to take it out of the presentation altogether.

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