PowerPoint Tips and Tricks to help you look elegant.
PowerPoint Tips
- Put the audience first; what do they need and what will help them?
- Be certain about your desired outcome before you start designing slides.
- Read from your notes or laptop, never from the screen. Preferably don’t use notes at all; you know your stuff.
- Keep the amount of information on the slide to a minimum and use high quality images rather than text if appropriate.
- Use one font and one background for text; keep it consistent. Make sure that your theme matches you or your organisation.
- Make your slides clear; use contrast and a large font (two sizes max).
- Use short sentences; slides are visual aids not a reading test.
- Limit the number of points on a slide; four is enough.
- Limit transitions and animations; use what is appropriate to your audience.
- Get to know (practice!) PowerPoint tips and tricks so that you can use them elegantly.
- Practice – practice being brilliant. Practice out loud and practice with others.
- Have a back up plan – always!
- Finish professionally with a flourish.
PowerPoint Tricks
- Show presenter view on your laptop; click on Slide Show tab, then select Set Up Show. In Multiple monitors box, select monitor to display slide show on. Tick Show Presenter View and your speaker notes will display on your laptop.
- F5 starts your slideshow.
- Shift F5 starts slideshow from current slide.
- Full stop or b blacks out the screen. Repeat to return to slideshow. Turning the screen off brings your audience’s attention back to you.
- Comma or w whites out the screen. Repeat to return to slideshow.
- Number Enter takes you to that slide e.g. “5 enter” takes you to slide, which is so much more elegant than scrolling through.
- Right click brings up the menu.
Remember: you are not the projectionist, you are the event – the energy comes from you.