Powerpoint tips

Debbie's top 12 Powerpoint tips

• Use Contrast. Either have a dark background and light lettering or vice versa.
• Try to have visuals to break up text.
• Be consistent. If you use animation - don't have text coming in from the left on one slide, the right on another, twirling in on the third.
• Set the font, background and colours on the slide master (the slide and handout master are my best friends). This way you only have to set up the style once instead of every new slide (master is on the view menu).
• Always create a reverse presentation in case you walk into a very light room and your dark slides won't show up. By this I mean if you’re planning a dark background with light lettering, have an alternate copy of your presentation with a light background and dark lettering.
• Always, always, always, always prepare for disaster. I copy all my presentations onto CD (or floppy) and bring them with me. This way if the laptop dies, I'll still have my presentation and the ability to borrow a laptop.
• Don't put too much text on a slide. Tiny text is the cardinal sin of PowerPoint. 20 point should be your absolute minimum.
• Try to use a sans serif font - like Arial, Verdana, Tahoma. It's easier to read in the large font sizes.
• Office 2000 has really good clipart on the CD, lots of fun animated pictures and graphics. Animation will only show up when you're in presentation mode.
• When you're working in outline view, you can work in the outline text instead of the actual slide itself.
• There is a black/white option (the icon on the toolbar is two opposing triangles, one in colour, one in black and white) that you should use when you print your presentation. Be sure to select print in greyscale too. This is a quick option to use if you arrive in a light room where your dark background won't show up well. In black and white, the dark backgrounds turn white and all light text changes to black.
• If you’re giving handouts, seriously think about creating a bullet point list, or a bit of description text for two reasons. First, you don't give away your intellectual property which is on the slides and secondly, it will stop people from being a bit lazy and not listening to you. They won't have the slides to look at.

Articles supplied by Debbie Mayo-Smith of Successful Internet Strategies. Debbie is an Internationally renowned expert in email marketing and is in demand as a consultant, author, trainer and keynote speaker. To subscribe to Debbie's free on-line newsletter full of business tips click here.