How To Create A Winning PowerPoint Presentation

In recent years the PowerPoint presentation has become something of a cliché. Due to poor presentation and lack of understanding this excellent resource is in danger of becoming a byword for interminable waffle and meaningless graphics.

It is important to remember that the key aspect of an effective PowerPoint presentation is the person conducting it. The software is there to enhance and illuminate certain facts and ideas but it cannot stand on its own in front of a conference room full of executives. Too often PowerPoint is seen as a crutch, an attention grabbing visual trick that nullifies the need to present coherently. If used as such your presentation will come across as gimmicky and confusing; as invaluable as PowerPoint is there is no substitute for effective human communication to inspire, educate and excite.

So how can you best use PowerPoint to your advantage in a presentation situation? Well, to start with you need to dispense with it for a while and go back to good old pen and paper. Rather than charging straight in with all singing, all dancing slides make sure to thoroughly prepare both your argument and your presentational style. In the politics heavy world of the office it is always advisable to consider how you are coming across and whether your 'performance' is appropriate to your position and reputation within the work environment.

When you do come to incorporate PowerPoint into your presentation keep it simple. Remember that the slides should be the servant of the argument rather than the other way round. Do not get seduced by using overly fancy graphics and fonts that do not compliment the information; instead go for impact and consistency. The best fonts to use are Sans Serif ones like Arial and Calibri whilst a font size between 24 and 32 is proven to have the greatest clarity to an audience.

The visuals that you use should be just that - visual. There is no point flashing up slides full of text, your audience won't take them in and, in any case, that sort of information should be coming from your lips rather than a screen. The sure fire way to get a group of people engaged with data and statistics is to present it visually in the form of a graph, chart or diagram that imparts the detail of your data in an immediately accessible and concise manner. Few elements vary the flow of a presentation better than introducing video clips; these have an immediacy which is guaranteed to catch the attention of your audience and make them more open to the information being provided.

The performance nature of PowerPoint presentation adds another dimension to understanding software that is not present when getting to grips with excel, outlook or word. For this reason training courses in this field are imperative, not only to fully comprehend the technical possibilities but to bolster confidence in public speaking. A strong PowerPoint presentation can be a truly memorable event and can result in great benefits both to the presenter and their company alike.