Extreme Makeover: PowerPoint Edition

Amy HarrisJenny Dale

Text-heavy slides: Before

• There is nothing worse when you’re presenting than a wordy slide.

• There are two reasons for this. First of all, it is nearly impossible for your audience to read so much text (especially if you’re in a large room)

• Secondly, putting entire sentences on your PowerPoint slides encourages you to read directly from the slide, which means you are facing your PowerPoint and not your audience. Your audience is also less likely to pay attention to you talking because they can read what you’re going to say (if they can read it, that is).

Text-Heavy Slides: After

• Too much text = bad– Difficult to read– Harder to engage with your audience

• Use the 7x7 rule• Bullets, not sentences

Images: Before

• Like all things, moderation is key• Make them relevant and interesting but not

overwhelming to your content• If you have to explain your choice of images,

maybe you should rethink

Images: After

• Like salt, images are great in moderation• Watermarking is your friend• So is Flickr (advanced searching)• Some text + well-chosen images is ideal

http://www.flickr.com/photos/peacockmodern/4501127980/ [by-nc-nd/2.0]

Font: Before

• Powerpoint has lots of fonts• We should use as many as possible

• An interesting font keeps your audience interested

• Some fonts have entire websites devoted to them!

• Not using an awesome font is SCARY!

Font: After

• KISS• Sans serif is easier to read online• Let the geniuses at Microsoft help you!• Font size should be no less than 24

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lwr/52770741/ [by-nc-sa 2.0]

Animations: Before

• Animations are awesome• PowerPoint has lots of them• So we’re obligated to use them allRIGHT??

Animations: After

• Moderation is key (again)• Good for revealing one point at a time• Stick with one motif

To incorporate animation, use the animation tab in PPT and choose “Animate” or “Custom Animation”

Charts: Before

1990 1995 2000 2005

00.5

11.5

22.5

33.5

44.5

5

blue used in pptred used in ppt

green used in ppt

blue used in pptred used in pptgreen used in ppt

Charts: After• Keep it simple• Complex graphs are more useful on handouts

Source: http://www.someecards.com/2010/11/15/the-simplest-pie-chart

Inserting a chart

Other Uses for PPT

• Quizzes (Jeopardy!)• Clickers• Embedding (Slideshare)

PowerPoint alternatives

• Prezi• Google Presentation

*

Questions?

• Always include a “Questions?” slide– With your contact information• Amy Harris a_harri2@uncg.edu• Jenny Dale jedale2@uncg.edu

– And a link to your presentation if available