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PowerPoint
Presentation Skills
Understanding key PowerPoint presentation skills will help maximize the effectiveness of your next presentation
October 05, 2006
By: Lynn Marotta
PowerPoint presentations can be a very effective way to
conduct business presentations. There is however a definite
difference between an effective presentation and an
ineffective one. This article focuses on the specific
PowerPoint presentation skills that are critical to conduct
effective PowerPoint presentations.
When preparing for a PowerPoint presentation, there is
one key thing to consider before you even begin creating
your slides. You need to determine what the key points are
that you want your audience to take away from the
presentation. Your whole presentation will then need to be
organized around these key points. Once you have determined
and clearly defined what the key points are, you can then
focus on the layout details of the slides for the
presentation itself.
Let us look at some of the specific things you need to
consider when preparing for a PowerPoint presentation. One
thing to keep in mind is how the PowerPoint will be
delivered to your intended audience. Will you be giving an
oral presentation, or will you be delivering the PowerPoint
for the recipients to follow online. When discussing the
following points, we will look briefly, at how the delivery
method affects the strategy.
- Focus on the visual -- The general rule of
thumb is that you can never have too many visuals in a
PowerPoint presentation. People tend to under utilize
graphics and over utilize text on PowerPoint slides.
Graphics are much more useful and memorable for the
recipient. This holds true whether the PowerPoint
presentation is viewed online or is given orally in front
of a crowd.
- Do not make it too long -- Be conservative on
the length of the presentation itself. You want to include
just enough information to get your point across. You may
be able to get away with a little bit longer presentation
if you are preparing slides strictly for an online
audience. They generally have more time to go through the
slide presentation at their leisure. However, it is always
a good idea to be as concise as possible.
- Effectively introduce -- This may seem like a
trivial point, but it is not. Introductions are important.
An effective PowerPoint introduction should clearly define
the purpose of the entire presentation. It also gives you
a means to point out the key things you want the audience
to take away from the presentation.
- Carefully review -- This is critical no matter
which method of delivery you will be using. You do not
want to send out a PowerPoint with slides that are riddled
with typos and grammatical errors. You also want to make
sure that the slides are easy to read and follow. If you
are presenting your PowerPoint orally in front of a crowd
of people, you need to make sure you practice ahead of
time. You want to make sure you stick to the key points,
and stay within your designated time limit.
With a focus on the key points, and some careful
attention to details you can prepare a powerful PowerPoint
presentation that is sure to be well received.
About the Author
Lynn Marotta is a successful freelance writer and
contributor to Web-Conferencing-Zone.com. Your
definitive guide to
web conferencing services,
online collaboration software and
web meetings for business.
Also See: [
Microsoft Net
Meeting software, replaced by Windows Meeting Space ]
[ Use the
full advantages of groupware applications to improve
collaboration ]
[ Group
collaboration software, WebOffice & Groove Virtual Office
review ]
Home Page:
[ Web-Conferencing-Zone.com ]
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