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Making Powerpoint Slides: Avoiding The Pitfalls of Bad Slides

The document provides tips for creating effective PowerPoint slides by avoiding common pitfalls. It recommends outlining the presentation, using a clear slide structure with 1-2 points per slide in bullet points, and choosing fonts, colors, backgrounds, and graphs that are easy to read but not distracting. The tips emphasize keeping slides simple with minimal content so the audience focuses on the speaker rather than reading. Overall, the document stresses designing slides for clarity, simplicity, and consistency to effectively convey the presenter's message.

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Austine Cacho
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47 views28 pages

Making Powerpoint Slides: Avoiding The Pitfalls of Bad Slides

The document provides tips for creating effective PowerPoint slides by avoiding common pitfalls. It recommends outlining the presentation, using a clear slide structure with 1-2 points per slide in bullet points, and choosing fonts, colors, backgrounds, and graphs that are easy to read but not distracting. The tips emphasize keeping slides simple with minimal content so the audience focuses on the speaker rather than reading. Overall, the document stresses designing slides for clarity, simplicity, and consistency to effectively convey the presenter's message.

Uploaded by

Austine Cacho
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Making PowerPoint Slides

Avoiding the Pitfalls


of Bad Slides
 PhotoSnack is a simple yet elegant online photo slideshow maker.
It combines photo slides with music quickly. Just upload your
photos, choose slideshow effects, select music track from
Photosnack list and click “Publish”.

 Prezi is a presentation tool that can be used as an alternative to


traditional slide making programs such as PowerPoint. Instead of
slides, Prezi makes use of one large canvas that allows you to pan
and zoom to various parts of the canvas and emphasize the ideas
presented there.
 Google Slides is a presentation program included as part of a
free, web-based software office suite offered by Googlewithin
its Google Drive service. The service also includesGoogle Docs
and Google Sheets, a word processor and spreadsheet
respectively.
 Haiku Deck is a free app that makes presentations simple,
beautiful, and fun. ... As a Haiku Deck Basic user, you may create
and share one public presentation, viewable on any web-connected
device
Tips to be Covered

 Outlines
 Slide Structure
 Fonts
 Colour
 Background
 Graphs
 Spelling and Grammar
 Conclusions
 Questions
Outline

 Make your 1st or 2nd slide an outline of your


presentation
– Ex: previous slide
 Follow the order of your outline for the rest of
the presentation
 Only place main points on the outline slide
– Ex: Use the titles of each slide as main points
Slide Structure – Good

 Use 1-2 slides per minute of your presentation


 Write in point form, not complete sentences
 Include 4-5 points per slide
 Avoid wordiness: use key words and phrases
only
Slide Structure - Bad

 This page contains too many words for a


presentation slide. It is not written in point
form, making it difficult both for your audience
to read and for you to present each point.
Although there are exactly the same number of
points on this slide as the previous slide, it
looks much more complicated. In short, your
audience will spend too much time trying to
read this paragraph instead of listening to you.
Slide Structure – Good

 Show one point at a time:


– Will help audience concentrate on what you are
saying
– Will prevent audience from reading ahead
– Will help you keep your presentation focused
Slide Structure - Bad

 Do not use distracting animation

 Do not go overboard with the animation

 Be consistent with the animation that you use


Fonts - Good

 Use at least an 18-point font


 Use different size fonts for main points and
secondary points
– this font is 24-point, the main point font is 28-point,
and the title font is 36-point
 Use a standard font like Times New Roman or
Arial
Fonts - Bad
 If you use a small font, your audience won’t be able to read what you have written

 CAPITALIZE ONLY WHEN NECESSARY. IT


IS DIFFICULT TO READ

 Don’t use a complicated font


Colour - Good

 Use a colour of font that contrasts sharply with


the background
– Ex: blue font on white background
 Use colour to reinforce the logic of your
structure
– Ex: light blue title and dark blue text
 Use colour to emphasize a point
– But only use this occasionally
Colour - Bad

 Using a font colour that does not contrast with


the background colour is hard to read
 Using colour for decoration is distracting and
annoying.
 Using a different colour for each point is
unnecessary
– Using a different colour for secondary points is also
unnecessary
 Trying to be creative can also be bad
Background - Good

 Use backgrounds such as this one that are


attractive but simple

 Use backgrounds which are light

 Use the same background consistently


throughout your presentation
Background – Bad

 Avoid backgrounds that are distracting or


difficult to read from
 Always be consistent with the background that
you use
Graphs - Good

 Use graphs rather than just charts and words


– Data in graphs is easier to comprehend & retain
than is raw data
– Trends are easier to visualize in graph form

 Always title your graphs


Graphs - Bad

January February March April


Blue Balls 20.4 27.4 90 20.4
Red Balls 30.6 38.6 34.6 31.6
Graphs - Good
Items Sold in First Quarter of 2002

100
90
80
70
60
Blue Balls
50
Red Balls
40
30
20
10
0
January February March April
Graphs - Bad
100

90
90

80

70

60

Blue Balls
50
Red Balls

40 38.6
34.6
30.6 31.6
30 27.4

20.4 20.4
20

10

0
January February March April
Graphs - Bad

 Minor gridlines are unnecessary


 Font is too small
 Colours are illogical
 Title is missing
 Shading is distracting
Spelling and Grammar

 Proof your slides for:


– speling mistakes
– the use of of repeated words
– grammatical errors you might have make

 If English is not your first language, please


have someone else check your presentation!
Conclusion

 Use an effective and strong closing


– Your audience is likely to remember your last words

 Use a conclusion slide to:


– Summarize the main points of your presentation
– Suggest future avenues of research
MINIMIZE

 Keep slides counts to a minimum to maintain a


clear message and keep the audience attentive
Clarity

 Avoid being fancy by using a font style that is


easy to read
Simplicity

 Use bullets or short sentence, summarize the


information on the screen to have your
audience focus on what the speaker is saying
than on reading the slide
Visuals

 Use graphics to help in your presentation but


not to many to distract the audience.
Consistency

 Make your design uniform. Avoid having


different font styles and backgrounds
Contrast

 Use light font on the dark background or vice


versa.
Questions??

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