...Moses said, "Oh, my Lord...for without my PowerPoint I will be lost."
"That's pathetic," said the Lord, "now just pull yourself together and keep these guidelines - or commandments, if you will - in mind." And the Lord presented Moses with the attached hand-out:
Thou shalt...Read the entire article over at the Babson Free Press site (link via A PowerPoint Blog).
- Speak to your audience before launching your visuals.
- Keep eye contact primarily with your audience, not with your visual aids.
- Avoid reading your slides or overheads to your audience, please.
- Keep text to a minimum; let images and graphics illustrate and dramatize your points.
- Use a font style that is simple and large enough (generally sans serif styles at least 20-24 points) to be read at a distance.
- Keep the number of points to 3 - 5 per slide.
- Ensure consistency of syntax on each slide (e.g., if the first bullet point starts with a verb, all subsequent bullet points should start with a verb-it's easier to comprehend and more powerful).
- Take time to introduce - and pause to allow the audience time to absorb - any - complex information (e.g., from a graph or chart).
- Put your slide titles to work: they should help deliver the message not merely give a name to the slide.
- Turn off the projector or overhead to focus attention and re-claim the spotlight.
