If you have watched any presentation over the past couple of decades then the chances are you have watched a PowerPoint presentation. If you need to create your own presentation and have either not done one before or need a refresher because you have not done one for a while then the tutorial below will help you get started.

I must admit I have seen some dire presentations sometimes by good lecturers and all they need to do is follow some of these tips.

Some tips when doing presentations are:

1. Be consistent with fonts, do not use different fonts on every line. Try and stick to the one font throughout.
2. Don’t use too many different animations.
3. Make sure that you use a font size that is not too small, 24 point is a good minimum but this can depend on the size of the screen, the quality of the screen or projector and the room size. Also take into account the age of your audience.
4. Be careful with colours, make sure they are clear and follow guidelines for colour blindness. Avoid using orange, red and green in your template and text. See more about accessibility on Microsoft’s website, click here.
5. Don’t cram your slide with information. These should just be prompts or useful images, videos, audios or charts.
6. Keep the number of slides to a minimum.
7. Be early for your presentation and test it. Make sure you have more than one copy. Don’t rely on being able to download it.
8. Press F5 to start on Windows or Shift+Cmd+Enter to start on a Mac. It is frustrating for your audience to watch whilst the presenter is fumbling to get their presentation started.
9. Practise. Also make sure you are familiar with the system if you are going to be switching from PowerPoint to YouTube, Word, Excel etc.
10. Don’t stand there reading what is on every slide. The audience can do that.

There is more coming soon on how to use PowerPoints features so keep a look out here and on my website www.jargonfreehelp.com.