The presentation guru gives his top five tips for visual communication
LOVE or hate giving PowerPoint presentations, they are a fact of office life for most of us. And often being good at it distinguishes you from your colleagues. To help you along, we’ve selected five of the most useful tips from Dave Paradi’s book: 102 Tips to Communicate More Effectively on PowerPoint.
1. Tell a story. Decide on the content first before you think about colours or graphics. Paradi suggests you draw out a storyboard, using movable sticky notes to organise your ideas: “By creating an outline first, you ensure that the content of your presentation is solid before you concern yourself with the visual elements.”
2. Use contrasting colours. If you want your audience to be able to see what you have on the slide, there needs to be a lot of contrast. Paradi says: “I suggest a dark background with light text – I usually use a medium to dark blue background and white or yellow letters. Some prefer a light background and dark letters, which will also work well.”
3. Use big font. Make sure the font is big enough for the audience to see. Less than a 24 point size is usually too small to be read in most situations. Text at a 28 or 32 point size, with titles being 36 to 44 point size is recommended.
4. Blank the screen. Presentations should be about the presenter persuading the audience. To make sure you are doing this effectively and the audience is not simply transfixed on your slides, turn the presentation off occasionally when you’re talking. To do this with ease press the B key on the keyboard and the image is replaced with a black screen.
5. Turn the pointer off. It is really annoying to have the pointer (the little arrow) dart around the screen while the presenter is speaking. It draws the audience’s attention to the screen and away from the presenter. To prevent this presentational faux pas from happening, after the Slide Show view has started, press the Ctrl-H key combination.