The Power of PowerPoint

While reading the articles, I agreed on most of what they were saying but I had a few questions. I mainly didn't understand why the writers of the articles advise not to use animations or sounds on PowerPoint presentations. Personally, every time I am in the audience in a PowerPoint presentation and there is an animation or a sound, I wake up and pay more attention to what the person is saying.

Another aspect I didn't know that was really crucial, and in all three articles they had repeated it, was the quality of the pictures someone uses. Even though these articles were mainly talking about presentations in businesses and at a corporate level, I can tell the impact it might have to an audience, instead of using a clip art.

One thing that shocked me was the amount of information someone used in their presentations. In most of the ones I have been in and even presentations I have made, the information in the slides aren't less than six words. In one of the examples there was only a background picture and a number (72%). After reading the article, it made sense to use as little amount of information as possible in the slides and explain it better. By creating visual and vocal connections, the audience will remember what you are saying better.

This would be one of the biggest advices to give to my classmates with their PowerPoint presentation. Use more visual support because in this way the audience will remember more visually then just by using bits of information. Images stay longer in my head rather than words.

Another tip I would give to my classmates would be to use cue cards. This way you will have time to organize what you will say during the presentation and with a few words on it you will remember what comes next. You will also avoid using your PowerPoint presentation as a teleprompter.

The suggestions they made in the articles were very good ones. Especially the amount of information you put on your slides. Thinking about past PowerPoint presentations, the ones I would fall asleep in would be the ones that had 20 points in one slide. The most entertaining one I had seen was about 5 slides. Two of them had 3 bullets each and the rest were images. Your audience will pay more attention to what you are saying and not so much on what they have to read in the slide.

These were the main guidelines I thought were important. And what I really find annoying about some PowerPoint presentation is the simplicity. For example having a white background and writing in black letters. Why not a clear blue background with dark green letters? I like it better :D