PowerPoint with PowerPass: DOs and DON’Ts of a presentation

Raise your hand if you’ve:

• Cramped up decks with too much information because of the grappling fear that you’ll miss out on something important.
• Used colourful fonts and irrelevant images to fill up the empty spaces.
• Presented a deck in no particular order or structure.

We’ve all been there and done that. But why continue when you have a PowerPoint course that’ll help you create spectacular presentations? We promise - no rocket science needed.

If you haven’t signed up for the PowerPoint program yet, here’s just a taste of the nuggets of knowledge you’ll receive that’ll have you raising your hand every time someone asks for a volunteer to create decks.

Table of contents:

1. Mistakes to avoid in presentations - the DON’TS
2. Tips to create a presentation you’re proud of - the DO’s

If you want your presentation to be the talk of the town (in a good way, of course), then AVOID THESE 9 MISTAKES at all costs!

The DON'TS

1. Rushing with your deck:
   A good deck is a labour of love. Even though you may be on a time crunch to create it, take some time to breathe and focus on what’s important. Make sure you identify what the purpose of your deck is, make notes, and decide on a structure.

2. Too much clutter:
The human eye naturally seeks simplicity and clarity. If you clutter your PowerPoint slides with an abundance of text and graphics, you’ll confuse viewers and lose their attention. Instead, prioritise simplicity. Keep only keywords, phrases, or short sentences on slides because you can verbally elaborate while presenting.

3. Bad contrast:
Poor contrast destroys readability and makes your presentations look amateur.
As a rule, avoid dark text on dark backgrounds as well as light text on light backgrounds. Stick with dark text on a light background or vice versa to ensure readability and attract the audience’s attention.

4. Reading out slides verbatim:
Instead of reading slides out verbatim, think of them as a visual complement to what you’re actually saying. Your audience can read what’s on the slides in front of them. Simply repeating this information makes it a boring presentation. Stick to more visuals and less text on slides.

5. Talking to the screen:

You must direct your attention to the audience; not to the screen. The goal of presenting is to build a rapport with your audience. Rehearse and go through your presentation multiple times so you don’t use your screen as a crutch.

6. Adding extreme transitions and animations
Animation and transition effects can add punch to PowerPoint presentations and help focus the audience's attention. If you overuse them, the audience will become distracted and probably won’t hear what you have to say. Also, make sure that the imagery you use is not pixelated. Good images are the backbone of your presentation.

7. Mixing things up
By this, we mean, do not try to use several different alignments, fonts, colours, spacing, and themes unless it is a conscious and consistent design decision. Because that may really confuse your audience and divert their attention from the cream of the topic. Once you determine these elements, stay consistent.

Tips to create the PPT you’re proud of

The DOs

Now, here are a few DO’s for you if you want to create a presentation you're proud of:

1. Understand the brief and objective properly
   It's a sin to proceed with filling up slides before knowing the brief and purpose of your presentation. Make sure you know what your deck is trying to cover and sketch rough notes first before dolling up the slides.
2. Know your target audience

It is essential to know who your target audience is, before you start prep. Making a note of the age, gender, cultural beliefs, and thought processes of your TG will help you shape content accordingly. For example- if you are presenting to teenagers or a fairly young crowd, you know you can use pop-culture references that they will relate to.

3. Recreate a mood or feeling through your deck
Your decks should have your personal touch, and the power to make the audience feel something. Whether you’re trying to convince them to buy a product, or persuading them to make a decision, your PPT should set or recreate the mood.

4. Rehearse to feel more confident while presenting

Doing a practice run ahead of time will help you nail your timing, ensure that you’ve prepared enough information to share with your audience, and also iron out any technical issues you may experience on presentation day.

5. Spend time choosing the right image
Images form the backbone of your PPT. Hence, using the right visual imagery can make your presentation a success. Avoid using pixelated or irrelevant images. Choose photographs or visuals that do justice to your slide’s textual content, as well as what you speak about.

Disclaimer: You may be reading this blog after the current learning course has lapsed. Head over to our all courses page to check for the latest courses and upskill yourself!