PowerPoint cannot make a poor presentation better

20th October 2011

and more often than not, it makes it worse. Before you start assembling a mass of slides, make sure you:

a) have prepared a good presentation that fits the topic, audience and time frame.

b) consider whether you really need slides to illustrate some of your points. Just showing an outline of your speech as you talk – or worse, reading from your slides – will deaden the presentation.

c) try using illustrations rather than words to amplify your points. Such visuals will reinforce your message, not distract or bore your audience.

To find out what annoys people most about PowerPoint (and see if you agree), check out the results of this survey.