Business PowerPoint Presentation Tips

As a part of the Microsoft Office suite, PowerPoint has become the world's most widely used presentation program. It is widely used by business people, educators, students, trainers to make presentations. With this tool, one can easily and clearly display text, graphics, movies, and other objects in the form of a slide show. Whether it is used to prepare for a meeting, an exhibition or a course, PowerPoint helps us a lot.

In business areas, Microsoft PowerPoint especially makes us convenient in organizing all kinds of activities. Here I would list some top tips for creating successful business presentations
Tip1. Present Your Topic by Using Key Phrases: Use key phrases that include only essential information. Choose only the top points about your topic and make them consistently throughout the delivery. Simplify and limit the number of words on each slide.

Tip2. Avoid Using Fancy Fonts: Choose a font that is simple and comfortable for audience to read such as Times New Roman and Arial. Use, at most, two different fonts. Keep all fonts large enough (at least 24 pt and preferably 30 pt) so that people at the back of the conference room will be able to see clearly what is on the screen.

Tip3. Make the Text’s Color and Background’s Color Contrastive: Dark text on a light background is best. Patterned or textured backgrounds would reduce the readability of text. Keep the color scheme consistent throughout your business presentation.

Tip4. Use Templates Effectively: When using a template, choose one that is appropriate for the content. A simple, straightforward layout is best if you are presenting to business clientele.

Download from: http://www.presentationmagazine.com/business-3-289.htm
For more free business PowerPoint templates:
http://www.presentationmagazine.com/...t_template.htm

Tip5. Limit the Number of Slides: Do not try to insert too many slides, make sure that the presentation will not become too long. It also avoids the problem of continually changing slides during the business presentation. On average, one slide per minute is right.

Tip6. Try to Use Photos, Charts and Graphs: Embedding photos, charts, graphs and even digitized videos will add variety and keep your audience interested in the presentation. Avoid using only text in your slide.

Tip7. Avoid Cluttering Up with Too Many Transitions and Animations: While transitions and animations can attract your audience’s interest in the business presentation, too many of them would distract your audience from what you are saying.

Mind you - we go further; given how little laptops weigh and so on... and given that there's nothing worse or more embarassing than not knowing which button to press on a different laptop to the one you're used to..... we suggest to our clients that they simply take their own laptops with them.

All they have to do when they arrive is swap over the VGA cable and your ready to go.....

It's more reliable (that is, less prone to going wrong) than saving files in different formats

S

I agree with many of the points here - but what's missing is why you're using slides in the first place.

Remember that slides are there to help your audience understand and remember your presentation - they are not there to help you remember what to say.

That means that there is no "right number" of slides to have. Use a slide whenever it will help the audience remember or understand what you're saying.

A useful format is to team a key phrase with a photo, chart or diagram.

On the question of slide design, I suggest using a san serif font (that's one which doesn't have any additional detail - Times New Roman is a serif font because of the additional tiny lines).

I also think that white text on a black background works very well and looks smart and elegant. The only situation that this doesn't work is if you're presenting in a room where the sun might be shining directly on the screen.

.... if anyone figures out why on earth the default for PowerPoint is Times New Roman, please let me know, 'cos that's pretty much useless on the screen! A Microsoft Mystery!

Simon

I agree Simon - Powerpoint defaults have a lot to answer for!