There are a million and one tips and tricks for using PowerPoint effectively, but what REALLY matters most? This presentation takes the 4 most important changes you can make to your presentations and explains simply how to go about them. The focus is on use of images, making one point per slide, not using bullet points, and keeping things simple. Each of the rules is backed up by actual research, into multimedia learning principles, conducted at the University of California. There's also several useful sites linked to, including 5 fantastic image resources, and a great place to download fonts. See the associated blogpost for this slidedeck at http://www.ned-potter.com/blog/the-4-most-important-powerpoint-rules-for-successful-presentations. If you're interested in more presentation tips, have a look at the other presentations on this Slideshare account, or head over to www.ned-potter.com/blog, where I've also written extensively about Prezi.

1. THE FOUR MOST
IMPORTANT
POWERPOINT
RULES
FOR SUCCESSFUL PRESENTATIONS

2. THE FOUR MOST
IMPORTANT
POWERPOINT
RULES
FOR SUCCESSFUL PRESENTATIONS
@ned_potter

3. YOU’RE A BIT
COULD BE BETTER
STRESSED OUT
because you know
your presentations
BUT YOU DON’T KNOW
WHERE TO START?

4. AN ATTRACTIVE PRESENTATION IS JUST A BYPRODUCT OF AN EFFECTIVE PRESENTATION.
RELAX.

5. AN ATTRACTIVE PRESENTATION IS JUST A BYPRODUCT OF AN EFFECTIVE PRESENTATION.
RELAX.
and 4 things really matter for making an effective presentation

6. RULE 1
MORE
IMAGES
LESS
TEXT

7. WORD HEAVY SLIDES can be difficult to read from the back of the room, and people can only listen and read at the same time for a very short period.

8. If they end up having to choose between listening to you talk or reading your slides, you become
OUT OF SYNC with your audience.

9. IS YOUR PRESENTATION WORKING WITH YOU
OR AGAINST YOU?

10. IMAGES ARE NICE TO LOOK AT, ENGAGING, ENRICHING, AND CAN SUPPORT YOUR STORY.

11. IMAGES ARE NICE TO LOOK AT, ENGAGING, ENRICHING, AND CAN SUPPORT YOUR STORY.
People can look at images and listen to you speak at the same time, no problem.

12. BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, IMAGES
HELP PEOPLE LEARN

13. BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, IMAGES
HELP PEOPLE LEARN
Learning is improved when narration occurs simultaneously with relevant images.

14. BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, IMAGES
HELP PEOPLE LEARN
Click these sites for amazing images you can use legally with Attribution
COMPFIGHT
FREEIMAGES
MORGUEFILE
PHOTFUNIA
MULTICOLR

15. BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, IMAGES
HELP PEOPLE LEARN
COMPFIGHT
FREEIMAGES
MORGUEFILE
PHOTFUNIA
MULTICOLR
Compfight searches Flickr better than Flickr searches itself, for millions of images.
TIP: Make sure you choose the ‘Creative Commons’ option after your first search, & ignore the sponsored links above the dotted line.

16. BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, IMAGES
HELP PEOPLE LEARN
COMPFIGHT
FREEIMAGES
MORGUEFILE
PHOTFUNIA
MULTICOLR
Freeimages is great for stock photography – there are loads of great images for enhancing slides.
TIP: Sign up for the free account to get full-sized versions of the images you find.

17. BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, IMAGES
HELP PEOPLE LEARN
COMPFIGHT
FREEIMAGES
MORGUEFILE
PHOTFUNIA
MULTICOLR
Morguefile also has stock photography – there are fewer images but they’re free for commercial use.
TIP: There are images where no attribution is required – these are useful for situations where there’s no room to credit the author, e.g. posters, business cards, and tweets

18. BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, IMAGES
HELP PEOPLE LEARN
COMPFIGHT
FREEIMAGES
MORGUEFILE
PHOTFUNIA
MULTICOLR
Photofunia allows you to put your own images INTO existing pictures.
TIP: To create your own text to add to a billboard or painting in Photofunia, create a textbox in PowerPoint, write your text, right- click and Save As Picture. You’ll then have an image of your text to upload into Photofunia.

19. BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, IMAGES
HELP PEOPLE LEARN
COMPFIGHT
FREEIMAGES
MORGUEFILE
PHOTFUNIA
MULTICOLR
The Multicolr Search Engine is just about the most fun you can have finding images: it searches by colours not keywords. TIP: Create an image-only presentation that stays completely on brand by picking your organisation’s corparate colours in Multicolr…

20. MAKE THE MOST
OF YOUR IMAGES

21. AND WRITE ON THEM IN A
MINIMUM FONT SIZE
OF 24…

22. AND WRITE ON THEM IN A
(THIS IS 24. If you need it smaller than this, you’re using too much text)
MINIMUM FONT SIZE
OF 24…

23. RULE 2
MAKE
ONE
POINT
PER SLIDE

24. THIS GOES BACK TO THE IDEA OF BEING IN SYNC WITH YOUR AUDIENCE.

25. Focus on one thing at a time. Allow your audience to digest it, then move with them onto the next theme.

26. DRAW ATTENTION TO IMPORTANT MESSAGES
WITH COLOUR

28. OF COURSE, FEEL FREE TO BREAK THE ONE POINT PER SLIDE RULE WITH GOOD REASON

29. INTRODUDCTIONS SUMMARIES COMPARISONS ALL OF THESE THINGS CAN REQUIRE STACKING ON THE SAME SLIDE

30. BUT OTHERWISE GIVE EACH POINT IN YOUR PRESENTATION
ROOM TO BREATHE

31. RULE 3
NO
BULLET
POINTS

32. BULLET POINTS CAUSE ALL SORTS OF PROBLEMS.
•They’re ugly
•They encourage you to put more than one point on each slide
•They don’t leave much room for images
•They’re symptomatic of a wider DEATH BY POWERPOINT malaise

33. BULLET POINTS ALSO ENCOURAGE YOU TO READ THE SLIDE ALOUD.

34. BULLET POINTS ALSO ENCOURAGE YOU TO READ THE SLIDE ALOUD.
And if you’re saying the exact same thing that’s written on the slide, why do you even need to be there?

35. Learning is reduced when information presented is redundant – such as reading text verbatim from slides

36. RULE 4
KEEP IT
SIMPLE

37. KEEPING IT SIMPLE DOESN’T MEAN DUMBING DOWN

38. IT’s .about GETTING RID OF EVEYTHING THAT ISN’T ESSENTIAL TO TELLING YOUR STORY.
.about

39. IT’s .about
GETTING RID
OF
EVEYTHING THAT ISN’T
ESSENTIAL
TO TELLING
YOUR STORY.
.about

40. Learning is improved when multimedia is
free from extraneous information

41. SO, WHAT COUNTS AS EXTRANEOUS?

42. SO, WHAT COUNTS AS EXTRANEOUS?
Animations?
Yup. If they’re there to make a specific point, by all means use them – but if they’re there for the sake of it, they spoon-feed the audience so much it lulls their brains into a non-receptive state (akin to watching TV rather than a presentation)

43. SO, WHAT COUNTS AS EXTRANEOUS?
Transitions?
Yes. If all your slides transition from one to the next with the same effect or animation (with an upward sweep, or by revolving, etc) then it makes them all feel the same. There’s no WEIGHTING of the information you’re presenting. So transitions don’t help you tell your story – if anything they do the opposite. Animations = extraneous.

44. SO, WHAT COUNTS AS EXTRANEOUS?
Templates? Absolutely, PPT Templates are extraneous too. Having your organisational logo on every slide is the very definition of extraneous – have it at the beginning and the end, but not on each one of the 50 slides in between. Templates get in the way of learning. They’re nothing to do with the story.

45. And besides…

46. TO TELL YOUR STORY, YOU NEED A HIERACHY OF INFORMATION. WHO’S IN CHARGE HERE - YOU, OR POWERPOINT?

47. TO TELL YOUR STORY, YOU NEED A HIERACHY OF INFORMATION. WHO’S IN CHARGE HERE - YOU, OR POWERPOINT?
(Aim for consistency, not duplication)

48. WOOHOO!
THAT’S THE
END
OF ALL THE
RULES
*

49. WOOHOO!
THAT’S THE
END
OF ALL THE
RULES
*
*
Actually there’s one final rule – always credit your image sources!

50. Projector: CC-BY RVWITHTITO
www.flickr.com/photos/rvwithtito/4236716778/sizes/l
Eye close up: CC-BY Sara .Nel
www.flickr.com/photos/saranv/3521287388/sizes/l
Feet up: CC-BY Davedjoe
www.flickr.com/photos/92414546@N04/14441260000/sizes/l
Stencil: CC-BY-NC-SA Camil Tulcan
www.flickr.com/photos/camil_t/4171629278/sizes/l
Tree: CC-BY-NC Richard Cawood
www.flickr.com/photos/cawood/15117958922/sizes/l
Computer user CC-BY-NC-SA Matheson Learning Commons
www.flickr.com/photos/matheson_learning_commons/8382876760/sizes/l
French Words CC-BY Monsieur J
www.flickr.com/photos/jblndl/4266814468/sizes/l
Amazing hallway CC-BY-NC-SA Stuck in Customs
https://www.flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms/3725191263/sizes/l
Massive Boat CC-BY-SA Thomas Leth-Olsen
www.flickr.com/photos/thomasletholsen/7367984008/sizes/l
Pointing Hand CC-BY Shudhamshu
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhamshu/3202963823/sizes/l

51. Bullet CC-BY-SA Eschipul
https://www.flickr.com/photos/eschipul/4160817135/sizes/l
Desert CC-BY-NC-SA Nunodantas
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ndantas/6165100763/sizes/l
Fireflies all colours CC-BY-NC Tinkerlog
https://www.flickr.com/photos/8123185@N02/3659676928/sizes/l
Fireflies all blue CC-BY-NC Tinkerlog
https://www.flickr.com/photos/8123185@N02/3659677764/sizes/l
Shoes CC-BY-NC-SA by Chishikilauren
https://www.flickr.com/photos/chishikilauren/10317213/sizes/o/
Pile of Bullets CC-BY US Army Environmental Reserve
https://www.flickr.com/photos/armyenvironmental/3552296540/sizes/l
Questionmark lights CC-BY Beatnik Photos
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dharmabum1964/3108162671/sizes/l
Wineglasses CC-BY Julien.Belli
https://www.flickr.com/photos/julienbelli/14465146006/sizes/l
Boys are dumb CC-BY-SA by quinn.anya
https://www.flickr.com/photos/quinnanya/4400139828/sizes/l
Questionmark CC-BY nadinehiedrich
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nadineheidrich/11983141774/sizes/l
Jumping with Balloons CC-BY Magdalena Roeseler
https://www.flickr.com/photos/magdalenaroeseler/13268612333/sizes/l
Cushion CC-BY-NC Jeremy Brooks
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremybrooks/3076443696/sizes/l

52. At the start I said that a good looking presentation is just a by-product of an effective one. This is based on the four multimedia learning principles dotted throughout the slides, to back up the rules.

53. At the start I said that a good looking presentation is just a by-product of an effective one. This is based on the four multimedia learning principles dotted throughout the slides, to back up the rules.
Learning is improved when narration occurs simultaneously with relevant images.
Learning is improved when attention is focused on important parts of the presentation with cues highlighting key material.
Learning is improved when multimedia is free from extraneous information.
Learning is reduced when information presented is redundant – such as reading text verbatim from slides.

54. At the start I said that a good looking presentation is just a by-product of an effective one. This is based on the four multimedia learning principles dotted throughout the slides, to back up the rules.
Learning is improved when narration occurs simultaneously with relevant images.
Learning is improved when attention is focused on important parts of the presentation with cues highlighting key material.
Learning is improved when multimedia is
free from extraneous information.
Learning is reduced when information presented is redundant – such as reading text verbatim from slides.
These are all adapted from research into what works and what doesn’t, undertaken by Dr Richard Mayer at the University of California – you can read more of his work by clicking the arrow.
At the start I said that a good looking presentation is just a by-product of an effective one. This is based on the four multimedia learning principles dotted throughout the slides, to back up the rules.

55. There are plenty of other rules about making presentations (like only using 3 fonts, for example, which I’ve completely ignored for this one) – but none of them are as important as these four, because they relate to substance (from which style should be a natural by-product).

56. It’s not a RULE as such, but using non-standard fonts in a presentation also makes a huge difference to how engaging it looks.

57. ANTONIO
Aller
Pacifico
FENGARDO NEUE
AlfaSlab One
The fonts used in these slides are listed above – they’re all available for free via www.fontsquirrel.com

58. Go to ned-potter.com for more information on presentation skills

59. Go to ned-potter.com for more information on presentation skills
I’m on Twitter @ned_potter

60. Go to ned-potter.com for more information on presentation skills
I’m on Twitter @ned_potter
Thanks for watching!

61. STILL HERE?
TRY THESE OTHER GUIDES: