Making the Presentation

• Pick the proper coloring. The best way to make a PowerPoint design, especially when it’s being projected onto a screen, is to use a dark background with light text. The words are easier to see that way.
• Keep the slides short. Too much text crowds the slide, making it hard to read and just plain confusing. Use short bullet points and elaborate on them in your speaking.
• Keep the slides simple. Using lots of flashy, multicolored text and loads of clip art, animations, and sounds is tempting, but it makes a good presentation terrible. Keep a steady color theme throughout the presentation, and use minimal animations—only enough to make your point.
• Make sure your audience can read your text! If the text is too small, people will have to squint to read it. As a rule of thumb, don’t go below size 24. Also, make sure your font is legible. This is a good, legible font. This is not.

Presenting the Presentation

• Project your voice. Don’t mutter, but don’t scream at everyone, either. Keep a fairly loud and confident tone throughout the presentation.
• Watch your posture. No one’s going to listen to a bent-over bum with his head hung. Stand up straight and hold your head high. This will also help to project your voice.
• Use a little humor, just enough to keep the audience interested. No, everything is not a joke, and a lot of your presentation has to be serious. But a boring PowerPoint presentation is a work of torture. Slip in a few jokes here and there, just enough to keep your audience from drifting off.
• Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, no matter what…read straight from your PowerPoint slide! That is the worst possible thing you can do during your presentation. A PowerPoint is a visual guide, not a hard-and-fast film. Make sure you’re elaborating from your own mind!