Online PowerPoint Presentation.com

There are quite a few rules on how many bullets you should have per slide (no more than 6, no more than 8, etc.) and while these are good general rules for the amount of data to have on a slide, they’re missing a critical point of bullets: they’re boring.

Having a online PowerPoint presentation with your main points listed as bullets, means that the participants really don’t need to listen to your long-winded explanation of your message or idea, they read the important parts right there on your presentation! Bullets are boring to look to look at, and just make your presentation look like a list of things they need to remember.

Too much text in a presentation will quickly lose the attention of your audience, particularly when presenting an online presentation, where they easily do other things like check email, or surf the web without seeming rude. Save the bullets for your own outline that you can use to reference and instead use more images in your presentation to represent the ideas you speak about to keep the participants visually stimulated.

Too often, presenters make the mistake of just writing out their entire presentation word-for-word (or even just bulleted) on the PowerPoint slides. The purpose of PowerPoint slides are to add a visual aid to your speaking, not for an easy reference for your own notes. Exciting graphics that are explained and emphasized through your message will make for a more engaging and memorable presentation.

While the focus of your online PowerPoint presentation is to share information with your online audience, keeping your presentation aesthetically pleasing can help keep them interested. PowerPoint has a wide array of “bells and whistles” to spice up a presentation, however many of these are over the top, used too often and don’t translate well when presented online.

For most presentations, slide transitions shouldn’t be used. In certain cases a particular transition might be relevant to the slide or the content or go well with the overall theme, but the more wild transitions just waste time and can be distracting. If you do decide to use a slide transition, stay with a consistent one throughout the presentation. Everyone knows what PowerPoint has to offer, you’re not impressing anyone by showing them you know too.

Similar to slide transitions, animations can be a distraction. In some instances animations can be useful in illustrating growth in a chart or graph, and can provide a bit of humoring relief. While the occasional use of animations might be ok, use them sparingly and keep your audience focused on the content and your message.

Be aware though that many web conferencing companies that allow you to conduct online PowerPoint meetings can’t display slide transitions and animations. These systems often upload each slide as an image, so each slide will only display whatever it looks like when you first load it. Make sure to upload and do a test presentation before you begin your web conference so that you can be sure your presentation works properly.

PowerPoint is frequently used as the presentation format for online presentations and meetings. While the format of PowerPoint remains the same online and presented in person, there are certain aspects that you need to consider when presenting online.

Visibility and Readabiliy of Your Font

Make sure the font that you use is large enough for everyone to see on varying monitor sizes and screen resolutions. Try your presentation on a variety of machines, operating systems and screen resolutions before your presentation.

Key Messages

Use key messages and points on your slides. Do not write out every word you are going to present on the slides. It is your job to speak to the slides and keep your audience engaged. They will quickly lose interest if all you are doing is reading your slides verbatim.

Slide Titles

Make sure that each PowerPoint slide has its own, accurate slide title. Use a larger, bold font for your title so that the audience can instantly be aware of what issues that slide will cover. This will help the audience stay focused.

Keep Your Backgrounds Simple

Make sure that the colors of your fonts sharply contrast the colors you use for your background. Solid color backgrounds are best to keep from having text or graphics that are difficult to see.

Graphs and Diagrams

Graphs and diagrams can help keep an online presentation attractive and interesting. However, only use them when they are useful or relevant. Distracting, unrelated images will leave your audience distracted or confused.

Far too often, I see online PowerPoint presentations that just come to an end after an important issue has been discussed. The presenter might finish by saying “well, that’s all I have” or a similarly pathetic statement that just feels awkward. Every online PowerPoint presentation needs a strong concluding slide.

Your conclusion slide should have 3-5 key messages that have already been introduced throughout the presentation, and reiterated on this final slide. Repetition is a key element in any PowerPoint presentation to keep your audience engaged, and for them to walk away remembering your message. The conclusion slide isn’t just to tidy up your presentation, but it’s you last chance to drive home the messages you just spent the rest of the presentation explaining.

The conclusion slide may also have a few bullet points on calls to action that are required either by individuals, or concepts in general. Keep your conclusion slide clean and simple and spend most of your time speaking to it, not reading from it. Use large fonts that have a good contrast with your background, so that everyone can read the messages and let them sink in. Save your most prominent message for last, and emphasize it in your presentation. Finally, be sure to thank the audience for their time and attendance, and if possible and appropriate, field any questions they may have.

1. Do not overcrowd you slides. Keep your audience focused on the content of your online PowerPoint presentation. Overuse of images or effects will only distract them from the point you’re trying to make.
2. Use slides to help clarify your online presentation, but don’t use it as a replacement for handouts. If you have lots of technical data to support your idea, email handouts to your participants at the end of the online presentation.
3. Use animations and video sparingly. Many webcasting and web conferencing services won’t easily support multi-media content and if your online presentation relies too heavily upon it, you might find yourself in a difficult position if you have nothing else to present with.
4. Create a concluding slide that includes 3–5 key messages that summarize your content.
5. You can never emphasize your main point too many times. Repetition is the easiest way to have your audience remember your message.
6. Keep your design elements consistent throughout the entire online presentation. This includes layout, color scheme, font type (use no more than two throughout the entire presentation), font size and bulleting style.
7. Be as brief as possible. Instead of writing out complete sentences, use bulleted phrases as speaking points. Limit your bullets to around 6-8 per slide.
8. Keep lots of space in between your text for easier reading. Many people viewing an online PowerPoint presentation will not be watching it on the same sized monitor that your created it on. Test your online presentation on a variety of monitors before presenting.
9. Avoid using all CAPS, even when you are looking to emphasize an issue. Online, all CAPS have an appearance you’re yelling, not just emphasizing. Use color, or bold/italics for emphasis.
10. Avoid busy backgrounds, if you decide to have a background at all. Make sure that all of your text and images are contrasted against the background if you choose one. People have a variety of preferences for light/dark and contrast on their monitor, so text that is a similar color as your background may not show up at all on some monitors.

Steven Kosslyn outlines 3 goals you should strive to attain in any successful online PowerPoint presentation:

1. Connect with your audience
2. Direct and hold their attention
3. Promote understanding & memory

Goal 1: Connect with your audience. Do not include too much or too little information and select information and use language appropriate for your particular audience.

Goal 2: Direct and hold attention. Attention is drawn to areas that are perceptibly different, so leverage design principles in your online PowerPoint presentation by using contrasting colors and images where appropriate. Make differences big and obvious. People will naturally tend to group similar elements into a single unit, keep them focused on the topic at hand.

Goal 3: Promote understanding and memory. Messages are easier to remember when they are clearly understood. For example, the word Red presented in green text violates this principle as would a graph about the homeless population in Los Angeles, decorated with a background image of people playing with their healthy dogs. Remember that people expect any change in your online presentations, such as a sudden interjection of a joke or a story, or a visual change in slide color or an animation, etc. to have meaning, and when they don’t have meaning this becomes noise and distracts them from being able to remember the message. Audiences can only retain a limited amount of information in an online presentation, so limit the amount of messages within a presentation.

Fonts and Colors are often overlooked aspects of a well designed and effective online PowerPoint presentation. Easy-to-read fonts and solid, well-contrasted colors allow your audience to quickly read your presentation, and focus on your message, rather than your online PowerPoint presentation’s design.

Online PowerPoint Presentation Colors

• Limit the number of colors on a single screen to a minimum.
• Bright colors make small objects and thin lines stand out.  However, some vibrant colors are difficult to read when projected, particularly when contrasted against a similarly colored background.
• Use no more than four colors on any single chart.
• Check the colors of your online PowerPoint presentation on variety of screens. Your online presentation may look drastically different on various monitors, so you need to make sure your design works for the majority of them.

Online PowerPoint Presentation Fonts

• Use sans-serif fonts such as Arial or Helvetica.  Avoid serif fonts such as Times New Roman or Palatino as they are sometimes more difficult to read.
• Use no font size smaller than 24 point. Your online PowerPoint presentation will be viewed on monitors of different sizes. You need to make sure that your text is legible for the majority of them.
• Use clear headlines.  Use a larger font (35-45 points) or different color for the headline.
• Use a single sans-serif font throughout the online presentation.  Use different colors, sizes and styles (bold, underline) only for impact.
• Try to avoid italics as they may be difficult to read.
• Do not use all caps except for titles.

A key element in producing an influential online PowerPoint presentation is tailoring it to your audience and effectively presenting the material. Content is what drives your online PowerPoint presentation. It’s easy to get lost in the fancy multimedia features that PowerPoint offers, however fancy graphics and animations are no substitute for quality content. Without it, you’ll quickly lose your audience.

A good online PowerPoint presentation should follow this structure:

• Attention-getting opener
• Brief overview of the topic
• Describe what your audience needs, that is, the problem
• Explain how your solution meets that need
• Tell how your audience can implement your solution - that is, action steps
• Brief summary and conclusion

By organizing an online presentation into this six-step structure, you can ensure a logical flow that everyone can easily follow even when you’re not physically there to deliver the presentation and make eye contact with your audience. The material in each step must be simple and organized. Create a separate outline to use as notes, so you’re not reading directly from the online presentation. By concentrating on your text in outline form, you can easily write down your ideas, see the flow of the entire presentation at once, and move ideas from one place to another so they flow more logically.

An important design technique in any PowerPoint presentation is proper alignment of text and graphics, particularly with frequent slide transitions and online PowerPoint presentations. It can be quite distracting when headers, footers, and logos jump from one location to another, creating an animation of sorts.

Using the Slide Master
The slide master allows you to edit your header, footer, company logo, and other information you would like to see on all of the slides in your presentation. Modifying this single master slide will make your changes global throughout your presentation. Creating the slide master should be the first step in creating any new online PowerPoint project.

To access the slide master, go to VIEW > MASTER > SLIDE MASTER

If you have a graphic or header that you would like to appear in the same location on only a few slides, you can either “duplicate” the slide and make changes to the parts that you don’t want to be identical, or simply “copy” and “paste” the graphics or information from one slide to the next. This will retain its location on the new page.

Today, many people distribute a copy of their online PowerPoint presentation to the audience at the end of their web conference or webinar. To make sure that all recpients are able to flawlessly view the presentation on their own computer, here are some design tips that will help prevent viewing problems:

1. Use fonts that come pre-installed with Microsoft Windows, or better yet, standard cross-platform fonts like Arial and Times New Roman, which are pre-installed on both Windows and Macintosh systems. If you use special fonts that the recipient of the presentation doesn’t have, it will default to a different font that may not be as flattering or style appropriate when viewed on their system.

2. Avoid embedding video and audio files. These will not necessarily go from Macintosh to Windows (and vice-versa) systems gracefully. You have to be very careful about how you insert the files in order to get them to “travel” properly. These media files can make a PowerPoint presentation very large and difficult to send via Email. Media files may also have difficulty playing properly in a web conference.

3. Go through all of the slides in your presentation on a different platform (Macintosh and Windows); be prepared for slight visual changes and make sure they are all acceptable. If your presentation is complex, try it on multiple machines. Most importantly, if you are presenting the PowerPoint online, be sure to do a few run-throughs with your web conference software.