Three standard rules of “how to do a Power Point presentation”
– and why to really follow them

I got diagnosed a serious Power Point Boreout recently. After 15 years working with it and hardly any new features for years, I am simply running out of ideas.

Additionally every person seems to have a different perception of a good presentation and I still don’t understand why people still pack way too much text on one single slide, even after attending a “how to do a right Power Point Presentation” training. So how come that all of us still have to deal with crapy ppt. presentations every once in a while, being held with a licence to kill their audience (by boredom…)?

Three standard rules of “how to do a Power Point presentation” and why to really follow them

1) Do not use Power Point as a Teleprompter – six words on each slide should be enough to underline your content. Keep it short and simple, Punchline first!

2) Do use diagrams and pictures that really come to the point.

• Diagrams should be selfexplaining and underlining the key message of the main topic (do the math for your audience and add percentages such as “15% increase of sales”, shorten numbers by using e.g. 10 KEUR etc.).
• Avoid using pictures of archery targets, thumbs up, handshakes, a jigsaw piece being fitted into a puzzle and cogs (seriously, what does it really say? Everything is somehow interrelated? Time to check your watch?)

3) Create two versions: A handout and the presentation itself (according to point 1 and 2). Your audience will be thankful for a handout including more details on the topic (hand it out before the presentation starts!), to take notes and reflect the content at a later point in time.

Hint: There are always some people who say that they don’t need a handout, but keep in mind that every person has different kind of learning style (visual, auditory, read/writing learning style) and it’s your job to address all of them.