PowerPoint (Book Excerpt)

This is an excerpt from "Public Speaking: How to Speak in Public Without Getting Sweaty Palms, Shaky Knees and Dry Mouth" by Clifford L. Marshall, II.

This last chapter deals with the most popular tool used in presentations and speeches, the PowerPoint program from Microsoft. We want to emphasize the word tool in the previous sentence because that is what PowerPoint is, a tool. Many speakers believe that PowerPoint is the presentation and allow it to consume the event. Speakers will put so much time and effort into putting together the PowerPoint program that they will forget to practice their speech and begin to read what is on the slides. The number 1 complaint from audiences is that they were bored and confused because the speaker read the slides, which usually contains too much information.

In the 1990's the PowerPoint program became a great phenomenon. It had the ability to make pretty graphics with sounds and movement. It contained colors and different fonts in numerous sizes and it was all at your fingertips from the comforts of your home or office. While people became more creative with the program they seem to lose the ability to do the oral presentation. Instead of going to hear a good speech audiences began to see slideshows. This program also began to give individuals a false sense of being able to do public speaking. Public speaking is about speaking; it is not about showing slides with colors and sounds and moving parts and thinking that it is going to make a great speech.

Then there are those speakers who give out copies of the slides as a document. The slides, with a great deal of information, are hard enough to read on a big screen so imagine the difficulty of reading them when they are in little boxes 3 by 3 inches on paper. Not to mention that most slides are in color and due to printing cost they are usually copied in black and white and become even more unreadable.

After years of watching all the bells and whistles audiences want speakers to actually speak again. Our recommendation is to first sharpen your oral presentation skills. Dealing with anything that can breakdown due to computer malfunction can be a very scary experience for the presenter and very frustrating for the audience. A speaker must be able to stand in front of an audience and speak in case of a mishap or malfunction. If speakers rely too much on technology they put themselves in a position to fail. Build your oral skills to the point where you don't need any tools but your voice and you will never fail to give a good presentation. Once your oral skills are up to par you can then begin to add tools including a PowerPoint presentation.

PowerPoint can be a very awesome tool if used properly. It would take a whole book to discuss how to properly use the tool but we will give you a few hints on the best way to use it.

Keep slides Uncluttered

Never put too much information on a slide. This causes the audience to have to read and not pay attention to what is said.

Slides should only have Bullet Points

Slides need to only have a bullet list of topics so that the audience knows what the next topic is.

Projection of slides should be right of center

Never put the screen in the center of the room where it becomes the center of attention. The speaker should always be the center of attention and the projection screen should be to the right. Due to the fact that people are conditioned to read from left to right having the screen to the right of the speaker creates a natural flow for the eyes and makes the information easier to digest.

Don't give out the slides as a Document

Speakers who give out the slides as documents are not using the program correctly. If you want to give out supporting documentation use a program that creates presentable documents which will give your presentation a more polished look and feel.

These are just a few suggestions to eliminate the most glaring mistakes that speakers make when using PowerPoint. With technology, better speakers should take time to study the best ways of using the PowerPoint tool and not get caught up in the bells and whistles that can give a false sense of success. It's all about the audience, so even though you may like something that looks nice and cool it may not work with an audience.

©Clifford L. Marshall, II 2005

This is an excerpt from the forthcoming book "Public Speaking: How to Speak in Public Without Getting Sweaty Palms, Shaky Knees and Dry Mouth" by Clifford L. Marshall, II. He is the President of the 3LGroup, Inc. a communications company that teaches communication skills through Customer Relations, Public Speaking, Team Building and Leadership workshops.