Writing a lot of text, then it is not a presentation! Sure, you may use PowerPoint to document (or anything) but when you want audience to listen to you, the PowerPoint cannot be more important than you are. If you write too much, is it since you don’t know or remember it to speak?

Who would ever both read and hear you?

It is very great and fully to add smart bullets, so we have to read and really think why you talk about this. It’s awesome! But the listening is easily lost.

I love the simple “Code” and you talk about it.

If you start with all bullets, then all listeners will always start read ahead of you. If I lost my track for a second, I have really hard to know which bullet you are now on. If all bullets are always up there – I don’t know!

Added 3rd bullet, but not 4th yet.

If you are good with point 3, then this may be ok to skip. But it is always better to gray out all bullets that you are not talking about right now.

Click to show how to do it!

I see clear that “Common” is what we talk about.

The problem if you add pictures that look nice, but they don’t really have anything to add. Then I get sit there and wonder why that person/building/nature/sport/etc. and I am trying to find the meaning. I miss listen to what you say now.

AIK football is nice – but why in this slide?

The bullets are there to show what you are talking about. That’s it. You may have three bullets for an hour, or three bullets for every minute. But don’t write “text” for you, and don’t ever ever read the text from the slides! Slides are on your side; they are not the center.

Don’t write your “text” – talk it!

If you add any quotes, the speaker shall read them out. You probably add one line in a time, to make it easier to reading. If you instead let the audience read it, then you need enough time to read it and they all need different time. For fast readers they will lose the listener, and if I am slow, I get stressed. So you read it out for us.

What a lovely quote!

I like to use animation, mostly to only add new bullets a bit soft, instead the boom new bullet comes too fast. The same is the transition, to softy move on to next slide. Even more spacy animations can be used – but you make sure that each animation takes time, where you should never talk when it is moving. We only receive one thing at the time!

Perfect animation! Play to see it!

You are usually required to use a theme for PowerPoint. Sometimes these are really crazy, with all colors and added logo to every slide, some layouts with way too much “extras”. Find the simplest layout and stick with that for all slides. Or just don’t use the theme. Just do it.

Where do I read? Do I read? How much?

Don’t keep standard white background – or your company default template colors. On a stage with white, the audience can’t see you. Really, they all focus on the screen. And please, no pink or green yellow and all. Stay black, or maybe dark gray.

Dark looks so nice! 😎 Click to see!

All templates have subject BIG and then the “information” smaller. Why is the subject so important? The slides have what’s really interesting after the subject… So keep the focus on the important stuff!

Why show other than subject – if that important?

Remember: less is more. If the subject is so so SO important – then have focus to the subject, and nothing else. The listeners know something about your slides, so they know what you talk about. So why say it when all already know? Why do we need a subject?

We only talk about development!

It is very common to only use the half screen. And to the right it is blank – or any random image. Come on, just do it right, use the space you have! And do not add any nice picture, that only makes the audience to focus on the wrong things.

Why is 50% just blank?

The “meta” makes you lose the audience. Everyone – I really mean that – they start to read, every slide, and many times. Focus focus focus, and never distract your listeners with non-information adding zero. It is used too often without thinking of it.

If you are interesting – they still lose you!