Oral Communication Center
Using PowerPoint Effectively in an Oral Presentation
WARNINGS!
1. Use PowerPoint only if it will enhance audience attention, understanding, or retention.
2. Be selective about what you put on slides. Don't put the entire presentation on slides.
3. Use visual and audio effects only if they serve your purpose and do not call attention to themselves. Make the technology serve the presentation. Don't let it dominate.
BEST PRACTICES
1. Design slides so they're easy to read and understand.
Use fonts, images, and graphics that are large enough.
Choose text and background colors for good contrast. Avoid ready-made backgrounds and templates that work against you in any way--distracting, bad color, overused, etc.
Eliminate unnecessary text. Use key words and phrases.
Be consistent with format, style, fonts, colors, capitalization, punctuation, etc.
On graphics, be sure to clearly label columns, rows, axes, units, etc.
Include all relevant data, but eliminate clutter (what Edward Tufted calls "chart junk").
Don't just take charts, tables, maps, and graphs wholesale from other sources. Put up only what you need.
2. Cite the source on every slide where borrowed material appears. But don't make the citation so big it dominates the slide, and don't use complete Internet addresses. They clutter up the slide. Identify websites by their basic names (e.g., www.toyota.com, www.hamilton.edu). If listeners want the exact URL, they can get it from you later.