THE FOUR MOST

IMPORTANT

POWERPOINT
RULES

FOR SUCCESSFUL
PRESENTATIONS

THE FOUR MOST

IMPORTANT

POWERPOINT
RULES

FOR SUCCESSFUL
PRESENTATIONS
@ned_potter

YOURE A BIT

STRESSED OUT
because you know
your presentations

COULD BE BETTER
BUT YOU DONT KNOW
WHERE TO START?

RELAX.

AN ATTRACTIVE
PRESENTATION IS
JUST A BYPRODUCT
OF AN EFFECTIVE
PRESENTATION.

RELAX.

AN ATTRACTIVE
PRESENTATION IS
JUST A BYPRODUCT
OF AN EFFECTIVE
PRESENTATION.

and 4 things really matter for

making an effective presentation

RULE 1

MORE

IMAGES
LESS

TEXT

WORD HEAVY SLIDES can be difficult to

read from the back of the room, and people can only
listen and read at the same time for a very short
period.

If they end up having to choose

between listening to you talk or
reading your slides, you become
OUT OF SYNC with your audience.

IS YOUR PRESENTATION WORKING WITH YOU

OR AGAINST YOU?

IMAGES ARE NICE TO LOOK AT,

ENGAGING, ENRICHING, AND
CAN SUPPORT YOUR STORY.

IMAGES ARE NICE TO LOOK AT,

ENGAGING, ENRICHING, AND
CAN SUPPORT YOUR STORY.
People can look at images and listen to
you speak at the same time, no problem.

BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, IMAGES

HELP PEOPLE LEARN

BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, IMAGES

HELP PEOPLE LEARN

Learning is improved when narration occurs
simultaneously with relevant images.

Click these
BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY,
IMAGES
sites for

HELP PEOPLE LEARN

amazing images
you can use
legally with
Attribution

COMPFIGHT

FREEIMAGES

MORGUEFILE

PHOTFUNIA

MULTICOLR

Compfight searches Flickr

better than Flickr searches
itself, for millions of
images.
TIP: Make sure you choose the
Creative Commons option after
your first search, & ignore the
sponsored links above the dotted
line.

BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, IMAGES

HELP PEOPLE LEARN

COMPFIGHT

FREEIMAGES

MORGUEFILE

PHOTFUNIA

MULTICOLR

Freeimages is great for stock

photography there are
loads of great images for
enhancing slides.
TIP: Sign up for the free account to
get full-sized versions of the images
you find.

BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, IMAGES

HELP PEOPLE LEARN

COMPFIGHT

FREEIMAGES

MORGUEFILE

PHOTFUNIA

MULTICOLR

Morguefile also has stock

photography there are
fewer images but theyre
free for commercial use.
TIP: There are images where no
attribution is required these are
useful for situations where theres
no room to credit the author, e.g.
posters, business cards, and tweets

BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, IMAGES

HELP PEOPLE LEARN

COMPFIGHT

FREEIMAGES

MORGUEFILE

PHOTFUNIA

MULTICOLR

Photofunia allows you to put

your own images INTO
existing pictures.
TIP: To create your own text to add
to a billboard or painting in
Photofunia, create a textbox in
PowerPoint, write your text, rightclick and Save As Picture. Youll
then have an image of your text to
upload into Photofunia.

BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, IMAGES

HELP PEOPLE LEARN

COMPFIGHT

FREEIMAGES

MORGUEFILE

PHOTFUNIA

MULTICOLR

The Multicolr Search Engine

is just about the most fun
you can have finding
images: it searches by
colours not keywords.
TIP: Create an image-only
presentation that stays completely on
brand by picking your organisations
corparate colours in Multicolr

BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, IMAGES

HELP PEOPLE LEARN

COMPFIGHT

FREEIMAGES

MORGUEFILE

PHOTFUNIA

MULTICOLR

MAKE THE MOST

OF YOUR IMAGES

AND WRITE ON THEM IN A

MINIMUM FONT SIZE

OF 24

AND WRITE ON THEM IN A

MINIMUM FONT SIZE

OF 24

(THIS IS 24. If you need it

smaller than this, youre using
too much text)

RULE 2

MAKE

ONE
POINT
PER SLIDE

THIS GOES BACK TO THE

IDEA OF BEING IN SYNC
WITH YOUR AUDIENCE.

Focus on one thing at a time. Allow your

audience to digest it, then move with
them onto the next theme.

DRAW ATTENTION TO
IMPORTANT MESSAGES

WITH COLOUR

OF COURSE, FEEL
FREE TO BREAK THE
ONE POINT PER
SLIDE RULE WITH
GOOD REASON

INTRODUDCTIONS
SUMMARIES
COMPARISONS
ALL OF THESE
THINGS CAN
REQUIRE STACKING
ON THE SAME SLIDE

BUT OTHERWISE GIVE

EACH POINT IN YOUR
PRESENTATION

ROOM TO
BREATHE

RULE 3

NO

BULLET
POINTS

BULLET POINTS CAUSE ALL

SORTS OF PROBLEMS.
Theyre ugly

They encourage you to put more

than one point on each slide

They dont leave much room for

images

Theyre symptomatic of a wider

DEATH BY POWERPOINT
malaise

BULLET POINTS ALSO ENCOURAGE

YOU TO READ THE SLIDE ALOUD.

BULLET POINTS ALSO ENCOURAGE

YOU TO READ THE SLIDE ALOUD.

And if youre saying the exact

same thing thats written on
the slide, why do you even
need to be there?

Learning is reduced when information

presented is redundant such as
reading text verbatim from slides

RULE 4

KEEP IT

SIMPLE

KEEPING IT SIMPLE DOESNT MEAN

DUMBING DOWN

ITs .about
.about
GETTING RID
OF
EVEYTHING THAT ISNT
ESSENTIAL
TO TELLING
YOUR STORY.

ITs .about
.about
GETTING RID
OF
EVEYTHING THAT ISNT
ESSENTIAL
TO TELLING
YOUR STORY.

Learning is improved when multimedia is

free from extraneous information

SO, WHAT COUNTS AS

EXTRANEOUS?

SO, WHAT COUNTS AS

EXTRANEOUS?
Animations?

Yup. If theyre there to make a

specific point, by all means use
them but if theyre there for the
sake of it, they spoon-feed the
audience so much it lulls their
brains into a non-receptive state
(akin to watching TV rather than a
presentation)

SO, WHAT COUNTS AS

EXTRANEOUS?
Transitions?

Yes. If all your slides transition from

one to the next with the same effect
or animation (with an upward
sweep, or by revolving, etc) then it
makes them all feel the same.
Theres no WEIGHTING of the
information youre presenting. So
transitions dont help you tell your
story if anything they do the
opposite. Animations = extraneous.

SO, WHAT COUNTS AS

EXTRANEOUS?
Templates?

Absolutely, PPT Templates are

extraneous too. Having your
organisational logo on every slide is
the very definition of extraneous
have it at the beginning and the
end, but not on each one of the 50
slides in between. Templates get in
the way of learning. Theyre nothing
to do with the story.

And besides

TO TELL YOUR STORY, YOU NEED A HIERACHY

OF INFORMATION. WHOS IN CHARGE HERE
- YOU, OR POWERPOINT?

TO TELL YOUR STORY, YOU NEED A HIERACHY

OF INFORMATION. WHOS IN CHARGE HERE
- YOU, OR POWERPOINT?
(Aim for consistency, not duplication)

END
THATS THE

WOOHOO!

OF ALL THE

RULES

END
THATS THE

WOOHOO!

OF ALL THE

RULES

Actually theres one final rule

always credit your image sources!

Projector: CC-BY RVWITHTITO

www.flickr.com/photos/rvwithtito/4236716778/sizes/l
Eye close up: CC-BY Sara .Nel
www.flickr.com/photos/saranv/3521287388/sizes/l
Feet up: CC-BY Davedjoe
www.flickr.com/photos/92414546@N04/14441260000/sizes/l
Stencil: CC-BY-NC-SA Camil Tulcan
www.flickr.com/photos/camil_t/4171629278/sizes/l
Tree: CC-BY-NC Richard Cawood
www.flickr.com/photos/cawood/15117958922/sizes/l
Computer user CC-BY-NC-SA Matheson Learning Commons
www.flickr.com/photos/matheson_learning_commons/8382876760/sizes/l
French Words CC-BY Monsieur J
www.flickr.com/photos/jblndl/4266814468/sizes/l
Amazing hallway CC-BY-NC-SA Stuck in Customs
https://www.flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms/3725191263/sizes/l
Massive Boat CC-BY-SA Thomas Leth-Olsen
www.flickr.com/photos/thomasletholsen/7367984008/sizes/l
Pointing Hand CC-BY Shudhamshu
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhamshu/3202963823/sizes/l

Bullet CC-BY-SA Eschipul

https://www.flickr.com/photos/eschipul/4160817135/sizes/l
Desert CC-BY-NC-SA Nunodantas
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ndantas/6165100763/sizes/l
Fireflies all colours CC-BY-NC Tinkerlog
https://www.flickr.com/photos/8123185@N02/3659676928/sizes/l
Fireflies all blue CC-BY-NC Tinkerlog
https://www.flickr.com/photos/8123185@N02/3659677764/sizes/l
Shoes CC-BY-NC-SA by Chishikilauren
https://www.flickr.com/photos/chishikilauren/10317213/sizes/o/
Pile of Bullets CC-BY US Army Environmental Reserve
https://www.flickr.com/photos/armyenvironmental/3552296540/sizes/l
Questionmark lights CC-BY Beatnik Photos
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dharmabum1964/3108162671/sizes/l
Wineglasses CC-BY Julien.Belli
https://www.flickr.com/photos/julienbelli/14465146006/sizes/l

Boys are dumb CC-BY-SA by quinn.anya

https://www.flickr.com/photos/quinnanya/4400139828/sizes/l
Questionmark CC-BY nadinehiedrich
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nadineheidrich/11983141774/sizes/l
Jumping with Balloons CC-BY Magdalena Roeseler
https://www.flickr.com/photos/magdalenaroeseler/13268612333/sizes/l
Cushion CC-BY-NC Jeremy Brooks
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremybrooks/3076443696/sizes/l

At the start I said that a good looking presentation is just a by-product of an effective one. This is based on
the four multimedia learning principles dotted throughout the slides, to back up the rules.

At the start I said that a good looking presentation is just a by-product of an effective one. This is based on
the four multimedia learning principles dotted throughout the slides, to back up the rules.

Learning is improved when narration occurs

simultaneously with relevant images.
Learning is improved when attention is focused on important
parts of the presentation with cues highlighting key material.

Learning is reduced when information presented is

redundant such as reading text verbatim from slides.
Learning is improved when multimedia is
free from extraneous information.

At
thestart
startI said
I said
that
a good
looking
presentation
isajust
a by-product
of an effective
one.
This ison
At the
that
a good
looking
presentation
is just
by-product
of an effective
one. This
is based
based
onmultimedia
the four multimedia
learning
principles
dottedthe
throughout
the slides,
to back up the rules.
the four
learning principles
dotted
throughout
slides, to back
up the rules.

Learning is improved when narration occurs

simultaneously
These arewith
all relevant
adaptedimages.
from research into

what
works
and
what
doesnt,
undertaken
Learning is improved when attention is focused on important
Dr presentation
Richard Mayer
at the
University
partsby
of the
with cues
highlighting
key material.
of California you can read more of his
work by
clicking
the arrow.
Learning is reduced
when
information
presented is
redundant such as reading text verbatim from slides.
Learning is improved when multimedia is
free from extraneous information.

There are plenty of other

rules about making
presentations (like only
using 3 fonts, for example,
which Ive completely
ignored for this one) but
none of them are as
important as these four,
because they relate to
substance (from which
style should be a natural
by-product).

Its not a RULE as such, but using non-standard fonts in a presentation

also makes a huge difference to how engaging it looks.

ANTONIO
Aller
Pacifico
FENGARDO NEUE
AlfaSlab One

The fonts used in these slides are listed above theyre

all available for free via www.fontsquirrel.com

Go to ned-potter.com for more

information on presentation skills

Im on Twitter @ned_potter

Go to ned-potter.com for more

information on presentation skills

Im on Twitter @ned_potter

Thanks for
watching!
Go to ned-potter.com for more
information on presentation skills

TRY THESE OTHER GUIDES:

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HERE?