Powerpoint Tips

Powerpoint is a great tool--as long as you don't let it take the driver's seat in the presentation.

Here are some tips so that your powerpoint adds to your presentation:

1. Do not, I repeat, do not read directly off your slides. The audience can do this off their own. Use the slides only to aid you in making your point, not to make the point for you.

2. Use high quality images. Believe me, if your audience has seen many presentations, they've probably seen many of the pics in the clip art library. You want your presentation to stand out in their mind. Try visiting a site like artstor for excellent images. (Google images can be a great resource too.)

3. Have a consistent theme. If you use a million different font styles, backgrounds, etc, your audience will wind up feeling frustrated and confused.

4. Use audio and video. They can make your presentation look very professional. You can import music from your itunes library, or visit the Find Sounds database for sound effects to download.

5. KISS. "Keep it simple, stupid." It's a phrase used often by elementary school teachers, but it holds true in many situations, particularly in ours. Including pictures and perhaps a bit of text on your slides can benifit your presentation. But if you put too much text on your slides, your audience will spend their time trying to take in everything on the slides that they won't be listening to YOU.