One of the worst presentations i've had the displeasure of attending was not even made in powerpoint. It was 30 minutes of black text-on-white-background agony - in PDF form - and 10 pt font.
So here are my tips:
*if your presentation is longer than 10 minutes, think of text and background color. Black text on a bright background, along with a big screen puts a lot of strain on the eyes. Use a brighter text on a dark background.
* instead of trying to cram 500 words into one slide, try diving it up into several slides. You shouldn't even have that much text in your presentation to begin with!
* ppl like to look at images. If they are listening to you, they're not reading the text and vice versa. So if you want them to listen to you, put a small simple clipart or image (in the corner) that ppl can associate with what you are talking about. That way the audience can rest their eyes on that (instead of you!). This applies to the slides when you dont have any important graphical objects, like diagrams.
* use a large font size (its a presentation, not a visit to the optician).
* dont go with any fancy schmancy fonts. Use a nice sans-serif for headers and bullet points, or if you have sentences, a nice serif will do. Personally i think Georgia is a good serif for presentations since its included in Windows and since it was designed for beeing read on a screen. A sans-serif font that'll do which is also included in Windows is Trebuchet MS.
* DO NOT use Arial or Times new roman, I *despise* those two fonts because they're so ugly. Using some other fonts will actually make me think you cared enough of your audience to put some effort into your slides.
Ok, the last point had a more personal touch to it
here are some more tips
One of the worst presentations i've had the displeasure of attending was not even made in powerpoint. It was 30 minutes of black text-on-white-background agony - in PDF form - and 10 pt font.
So here are my tips:
*if your presentation is longer than 10 minutes, think of text and background color. Black text on a bright background, along with a big screen puts a lot of strain on the eyes. Use a brighter text on a dark background.
* instead of trying to cram 500 words into one slide, try diving it up into several slides. You shouldn't even have that much text in your presentation to begin with!
* ppl like to look at images. If they are listening to you, they're not reading the text and vice versa. So if you want them to listen to you, put a small simple clipart or image (in the corner) that ppl can associate with what you are talking about. That way the audience can rest their eyes on that (instead of you!). This applies to the slides when you dont have any important graphical objects, like diagrams.
* use a large font size (its a presentation, not a visit to the optician).
* dont go with any fancy schmancy fonts. Use a nice sans-serif for headers and bullet points, or if you have sentences, a nice serif will do. Personally i think Georgia is a good serif for presentations since its included in Windows and since it was designed for beeing read on a screen. A sans-serif font that'll do which is also included in Windows is Trebuchet MS.
* DO NOT use Arial or Times new roman, I *despise* those two fonts because they're so ugly. Using some other fonts will actually make me think you cared enough of your audience to put some effort into your slides.
Ok, the last point had a more personal touch to it