Making PowerPoint Slides
Avoiding the Pitfalls
of Bad Slides
PhotoSnack is a simple yet elegant online photo slideshow maker.
It combines photo slides with music quickly. Just upload your
photos, choose slideshow effects, select music track from
Photosnack list and click “Publish”.
Prezi is a presentation tool that can be used as an alternative to
traditional slide making programs such as PowerPoint. Instead of
slides, Prezi makes use of one large canvas that allows you to pan
and zoom to various parts of the canvas and emphasize the ideas
presented there.
Google Slides is a presentation program included as part of a
free, web-based software office suite offered by Googlewithin
its Google Drive service. The service also includesGoogle Docs
and Google Sheets, a word processor and spreadsheet
respectively.
Haiku Deck is a free app that makes presentations simple,
beautiful, and fun. ... As a Haiku Deck Basic user, you may create
and share one public presentation, viewable on any web-connected
device
Tips to be Covered
Outlines
Slide Structure
Fonts
Colour
Background
Graphs
Spelling and Grammar
Conclusions
Questions
Outline
Make your 1st or 2nd slide an outline of your
presentation
– Ex: previous slide
Follow the order of your outline for the rest of
the presentation
Only place main points on the outline slide
– Ex: Use the titles of each slide as main points
Slide Structure – Good
Use 1-2 slides per minute of your presentation
Write in point form, not complete sentences
Include 4-5 points per slide
Avoid wordiness: use key words and phrases
only
Slide Structure - Bad
This page contains too many words for a
presentation slide. It is not written in point
form, making it difficult both for your audience
to read and for you to present each point.
Although there are exactly the same number of
points on this slide as the previous slide, it
looks much more complicated. In short, your
audience will spend too much time trying to
read this paragraph instead of listening to you.
Slide Structure – Good
Show one point at a time:
– Will help audience concentrate on what you are
saying
– Will prevent audience from reading ahead
– Will help you keep your presentation focused
Slide Structure - Bad
Do not use distracting animation
Do not go overboard with the animation
Be consistent with the animation that you use
Fonts - Good
Use at least an 18-point font
Use different size fonts for main points and
secondary points
– this font is 24-point, the main point font is 28-point,
and the title font is 36-point
Use a standard font like Times New Roman or
Arial
Fonts - Bad
If you use a small font, your audience won’t be able to read what you have written
CAPITALIZE ONLY WHEN NECESSARY. IT
IS DIFFICULT TO READ
Don’t use a complicated font
Colour - Good
Use a colour of font that contrasts sharply with
the background
– Ex: blue font on white background
Use colour to reinforce the logic of your
structure
– Ex: light blue title and dark blue text
Use colour to emphasize a point
– But only use this occasionally
Colour - Bad
Using a font colour that does not contrast with
the background colour is hard to read
Using colour for decoration is distracting and
annoying.
Using a different colour for each point is
unnecessary
– Using a different colour for secondary points is also
unnecessary
Trying to be creative can also be bad
Background - Good
Use backgrounds such as this one that are
attractive but simple
Use backgrounds which are light
Use the same background consistently
throughout your presentation
Background – Bad
Avoid backgrounds that are distracting or
difficult to read from
Always be consistent with the background that
you use
Graphs - Good
Use graphs rather than just charts and words
– Data in graphs is easier to comprehend & retain
than is raw data
– Trends are easier to visualize in graph form
Always title your graphs
Graphs - Bad
January February March April
Blue Balls 20.4 27.4 90 20.4
Red Balls 30.6 38.6 34.6 31.6
Graphs - Good
Items Sold in First Quarter of 2002
100
90
80
70
60
Blue Balls
50
Red Balls
40
30
20
10
0
January February March April
Graphs - Bad
100
90
90
80
70
60
Blue Balls
50
Red Balls
40 38.6
34.6
30.6 31.6
30 27.4
20.4 20.4
20
10
0
January February March April
Graphs - Bad
Minor gridlines are unnecessary
Font is too small
Colours are illogical
Title is missing
Shading is distracting
Spelling and Grammar
Proof your slides for:
– speling mistakes
– the use of of repeated words
– grammatical errors you might have make
If English is not your first language, please
have someone else check your presentation!
Conclusion
Use an effective and strong closing
– Your audience is likely to remember your last words
Use a conclusion slide to:
– Summarize the main points of your presentation
– Suggest future avenues of research
MINIMIZE
Keep slides counts to a minimum to maintain a
clear message and keep the audience attentive
Clarity
Avoid being fancy by using a font style that is
easy to read
Simplicity
Use bullets or short sentence, summarize the
information on the screen to have your
audience focus on what the speaker is saying
than on reading the slide
Visuals
Use graphics to help in your presentation but
not to many to distract the audience.
Consistency
Make your design uniform. Avoid having
different font styles and backgrounds
Contrast
Use light font on the dark background or vice
versa.
Questions??
