SofemaOnline (www.sofemaonline.com) looks at the effective use of PowerPoint to support Presentations

PowerPoint slides are an excellent tool and aid to learning particularly if used effectively and can emphasise a point as well as provide humor and at the same time become an anchor for a message.

Consider some PowerPoint (PPT) challenges that we face as trainers:

a) It is possible to “hide” behind a PPT presentation

b) It can overload with information

c) The content may not be strong

d) May confuse if not laid out well

e) May even appear as a crutch to the audience

f) The audience tunes out

g) Overuse of Bullet Point Lists 

About Learning Styles

Different People – Different Styles

Consider for example Listening, Reading, Tactile Involvement, Interaction, Developing and Creating “doing”.

If our presentation focused only on text and speech we would leave behind almost 40% of our audience who prefer to learn visually.

In any presentation, it's always good to vary the learning style because it will appeal to all different learning styles.

Developing Your Presentation

Never start your work in PowerPoint. Why?

Simply because it will be too constraining – PowerPoint drives you to behave in a specific way which is not conducive to creating text.

So always create your text outside of PowerPoint then as a final step load it into the program.

This way is faster & more effective essentially the purpose of the slides is to add to well-designed content.

Essential Steps to Build an Effective Training / Presentation or Speech

Full Research to gather all relevant information

Prepare First Draft

Polish & Review

Build Slides

Polish & Review adding relevant images

Delivery

Use Stories

Stories connect your audience to your message. All presentations are a type of theatre. Tell stories and anecdotes to help illustrate points. It all helps to make your presentation more effective and memorable.

Ideal Presentation Length

There is an adage that says – “No one ever complained of a presentation being too short.” Nothing kills a presentation more than going on too long.

For most people, a shorter presentation is better. Keep your presentation to under 22 minutes if you can. Break up longer presentations into manageable parts.

Using the Rule of Three

A simple technique is that people tend to only remember three things.

Work out the three messages that you want your audience to take away and structure your presentation around them.

If possible use a maximum of three points on a slide.

Dealing with Bullets & Lists

When you present a list during a presentation try to keep it as short as possible, as long lists become distracting.

A maximum of no more than 4 - 6 bullets per slide (For longer lists break it into separate lists or remove the least meaningful bullets).

When assessing how long a presentation will last consider that we change the slides approximately at 2-minute intervals to about 30 slides for a 60-minute speech.

Using Visual Aids

Using pictures in your presentations instead of words can double the chances of meeting your objectives.

Avoid at all costs simply reading the PowerPoint slides aloud to the Audience

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