In case you have attended a PowerPoint presentation, then you might have been a victim of ‘Death by PowerPoint.’ This usually happens because speakers have a tendency of typing their whole speech onto the very slides, along with proceeding to actually read them to you, or they might even change slides with the same regular monotony by using quite a similar layout that contains only the pictures and text changing. This has been known as the freight train effect. Because just like the cars of a very long train are fun to watch in the beginning, they soon turn into a very monotonous rhythm that always threatens to put you to sleep. By changing the slides that look similar has the potential to have the same soporific result.
Do not forget to remember that you are the star and it is your slides that are backing the singers. Also, ask yourself if your presentation would be impossible to give if you were not in a position to show the slides. Obviously, it wouldn’t be at par, but your presentation should have the potential to be strong enough to stand on its own two feet. To learn about PowerPoint 2013 new updates, attend various training seminars to enhance your knowledge.
You can create the text of your presentation easily before you have even considered the possibility of the slide components. Numerous people have a tendency of creating their PowerPoint slides as they also create the speech of their pending presentation. This is surely the best way to fall into the undesirable trap of your PowerPoint taking over the stage. If each and every pointer is on the slides, you will obviously be tempted to simply read all the slides. More worse than this is that the presenter will read the slides while facing the screen rather than the audience.
The requirement to keep the number of slides you use to a minimum is also crucial. The best of the ways is to avoid the usual lulling freight train effect is to have fewer and necessary slides. The most useful guideline is to have a slide for every 3 – 5 minutes that you talk. You do not need to worry if you decide to talk for longer than 5 minutes without even moving on to a new slide.
You can ask yourself what type of slide adds to your presentation. And in case, you don’t have the reasons to show a slide, it’s simple, do not show it. Everything you aim to project on to the screen should be making your words clearer and easier to understand.