But why not look on the brighter side of life with Powerpoint?

Don McMillan is a great exponent of the funnier side of Powerpoint and his latest video (below) is absolute proof that there is definitely Life after Death By Powerpoint!

Enjoy!

Our experience is that this probably happens more than 9 times out of 10.

So that’s about 90% of PowerPoint presentations where the lack of PowerPoint presentation skills actually undermines the very presentations PowerPoint is supposed to enhance.

So why do people continue down this road to presentation anesthesia?  And can we divert at least some of them to a more enlightened, creative approach?

Here are seven PowerPoint presentation skills tips to help you on your way.

1. Do you really need to use PowerPoint?

If its not absolutely necessary to use PowerPoint in your presentation then …

STOP USING IT!

Next time you’ve a short presentation or talk to deliver, rather than immediately starting up PowerPoint to get the slides ready and using it again when you are delivering your presentation, think about what you want to say and how you might do that without using PowerPoint at all.

Check out our article on how to prepare a presentation to get some good tips on creating and structuring a presentation.  Then have a look at Tip 2 to see how to avoid using PowerPoint to prompt you.

2. Stop using PowerPoint as your prompt!

Once you know what you want to say, try and condense the words into a series of key phrases (prompts) that you can then refer to as you start to deliver the presentation.

Then put your prompts for the talk onto record cards (white sheets of cardboard roughly 6″ by 4″). Just like the photo on the right.

We use them all the time when training people in presentation skills.

By using these “prompt cards” instead of the PowerPoint you can eliminate one of the biggest problems with PowerPoint use today:-

Where the slides are there mostly as prompts for the presenter!

3. Ruthlessly reduce the number of PowerPoint slides

If you absolutely have to use PowerPoint during the presentation then use it as sparingly as possible.

Be ruthless in removing the unnecessary slides.

Use prompt cards for your prompts so remove any slides that might just be for your benefit.

Then review the set of slides AGAIN against your presentation and remove any more slides that you possibly can.

Be ruthless!

4. Use images in the PowerPoint slides whenever possible

Hopefully by now you’ll not be using PowerPoint slides as your prompts – so much of the text heavy bullet points will have disappeared.

But remember that ideally PowerPoint is a VISUAL aid that’s there to enhance your presentation – to help you get your message across and achieve your objectives.

Real visuals (ie Pictures) can help create feelings in the audience, can help make a complex process easier to understand etc.

So think carefully about opportunities you might have in your presentation to use pictures, graphs etc to compliment what you are saying and to help you get your message across.

5. Use headline summaries only for text slides in PowerPoint

If you must include some text in the presentation then pull out only the headline or summary information.

Keep to a maximum of 3 lines of headline text (summaries) on a slide and one slide title.  And make sure that each headline uses large fonts.  Aim to keep to 4 or 5 words maximum per heradline.

Try and include an image on the page as well to compliment the text.  But don’t use the clip art that comes shipped with PowerPoint.  Try a resource such as www.istockphoto.com or similar for photos.

6. Dont just use PowerPoint slides as your handounts

If you have to provide a set of handouts for your audience after the presentation then do so.

But it doesn’t need to be just copies of your PowerPoint slides.

Don’t constrain your presentation slides (if you’re using some) by having to include all the facts and figures that you might need to get across in your slides.

Keep the detail for the handouts and only have summary headline text on the slides.

7. Use hidden PowerPoint slides for the Q&A session

If you are likely to have questions either during or after the presentation then as part of your preparation you’ll probably spend some time brainstorming the likely questions and deciding how best to answer them.

So if you’ve the time, and only where appropriate, include one or more “hidden” slides that will help you answer some of the most difficult questions that you might get asked.

For example if you are talking about a process or a strategy in your presentation and have only covered things at a high level in your slides, then it might be useful to include a more detailed diagram of the contentious part of the process (for example) on a hidden slide that you can refer to ONLY if needed.

In summary

If you can then dont use PowerPoint at all.

If you have to use PowerPoint, then use it for the audience’s benefit and use it as sparingly as possible.

And remember it is supposed to be a VISUAL aid so use it for visual images and not just bullet points!

So why is it that with so much experience of bad PowerPoint presentations so many people still present as if they are there simply to run through someone elses badly composed PowerPoint slides?

Might it be that having seen so many bad presentations, many just think that these “terrible presentations” are simply a fact of business life and something that presenters are expected to produce and the rest of us endure!

Anyway, I dont have all the answers and it’s now late on Friday night – it’s been a long week … so a more light hearted look at PowerPoint is called for.

“Good Evening PowerPointers”

I said Good Evening PowerPointers!

(a response at last)

Thank You … at least you’re not all fully asleep yet

Dont worry …

You will be by the end because its now PowerPoint time!

Welcome to The PowerPoint Comedy Show

Firstly, my thanks to Max Atkinson for pointing out this YouTube video to me on his blog.  (I was looking for some video examples of bad PowerPoint.)

Thanks also to the Presenter / Comedian – Don McMillan (http://twitter.com/donmcmillan) for what is certainly one of the most entertaining presentations using PowerPoint badly that I have seen!

And here’s some of the points that Don was making …

1. Powerpoint slides are your prompts

When composing your powerpoint slides, remember that they are there for your benefit only.  Forget about the audience.

The PowerPoint slides are great prompts for what you have to say, so include as much of your presentation text as you want on them.  In fact, if you have any difficulty remembering what you want to say, then put every word of your speech on them – just to be on the safe side. That way, you can ensure that you wont forget anything on the day!

2. Have lots and lots of bullet points

• Bullet
• points
• are
• there
• for
• a
• purpose

- so use them and use lots of them especially if you want to kill off your audience before they can ask any questions!

3. Use the most outrageous colour schemes

Dont be grey add some real colour especially

those that can hardly be seen.

Its much better that way!

4. The more slides the better

Remember quality is inversly proportional to quantity.

So if you’ve nothing of any quality to say just make sure you use as many slides as possible.

5. Cram in as much information as possible

Confuse them … leave nothing out … and make sure that nobody (even yourself) can really understand the slides.

That way nobody is going to be stupid enough to ask you any questions … are they!

6. Animate everything you can

PowerPoint has lots of crazy animations that you can use to confuse your audience even more – so remember to use them.

And dont use them sparingly!

7. Choose your fonts to reflect your personality

Remember the types of fonts you use say a lot about you.

So express yourself liberally – use as many different fonts as possible!

Suffering from PowerPoint fatigue by now?

You should be!

Then why not spend a few more minutes listening to Doctor Don our PowerPoint therapist?

One final PowerPoint

Remember to tell the audience that you’ve finished

When you come to the end of your presentation and are just about to put up your 100th slide, your audience (if they are still in the room) are probably asleep.

So you need to be kind to them. And from a health and safety perspective its very important that you dont just leave the room with the audience still asleep in the darkness.

So turn up the volume as far as it will go for your final slide transition.  And remember to use the machine gun letter by letter display feature for your final bullet point .. to tell everybody that The End Has Arrived.  And if that doesn’t wake all of them up nothing will.

Then remember to put on the lights and leave quickly.

Got more examples of PowerPoint Comedy?

or just bad PowerPoint Presentations?

Then let us know in the Reply box below and I’ll try and include the best in some future articles.

What caught my attention though wasn’t the normally slick presentation that you come to expect from most of the Sky presenters.

It was the fact that I just couldnt make out what the Business Presenter was saying!  I’m quite interested in the Business News after all – especially given our livelihood is very much dependent on how quickly we can all drag ourselves and the country out of this recession!

So did I have too much to drink last night that I was still hungover and not fully alert?

Yes I did probably did have too much to drink last night – having watched Andy Murray beat Juan Martin Del Potro in a captivating tennis singles final in Montreal.

But both my hearing and my brain were working fairly normally by that time – after all it was more than 12 hours after the event!

So what was it?

More hurry less speed

The presenter was speaking too quickly.

She might have had a fixed time slot and had a lot to say – in fact she did have a lot to say. But she wasn’t able to communicate that to her audience.  (Or to me at least.)

Her voice lacked diction which meant that she tended to merge one syllable into the next. She was also speaking quickly which resulted in her merging one word into the next. And, because she didn’t want to pause at any time she also merged one sentence into the next.

The net effect was that she completed everything she wanted to say in her short time slot.

But myself, and probably many other viewers were none the wiser about what was happening in the world of business this afternoon!

So I switched over to the BBC.

Slow down when you present

Lots of people speed up when they present.  A bit like the Sky presenter really.  Much of this is down to nerves.

The problem is that if you speed up and your voice is not clear enough as a result, then the people you are presenting to are probably not going to fully understand what you are trying to say.  Not a good result really!

We’ve included a few voice exercises for presenters in an earlier article.  So, if you think this might be relevant to yourself, before you present next – try them out.

Clarity of voice and message

And try to remember that both the speed you are speaking at and your diction (how clear your words are) will potentially determine how well your audience hear what you have to say.

You might be presenting what is a well written, superbly structured and very persuasive presentation but if your audience can’t hear all the words you are speaking then there’s little chance that you are going to achieve your purpose.

A little more preparation and awareness of how you come across vocally however can make a significant difference to the impact you have on your audience.

Unfortunately however, at the start of a presentation, nerves can often be at their strongest and this can leave you rushing your words, speaking at a relative whisper or even being tongue tied. Learning some simple voice exercises however, can help you get overcome these obstacles.

How to project your voice & enhance presentation skills

Take a deep breath (from your abdomen) and count (out aloud) to 10 or as far as you can go without running out of breath.

Go on … do it now (assuming nobody else is in the room with you!)

1…2…3…4…5…6…7…8…9…10…11…12…14…15 ………

Now do it again and exaggerate the vowel sounds in the numbers as you count them to get your mouth moving.

Now put the radio (or TV) on and count once more over the background noise, without exaggerating the vowels AND without shouting.

You need to get used to breathing fully with your belly (abdomen) and using that breath to project your voice – so practise this a bit more.

Slow down the beginning of your presentation

When you are rehearsing your presentation – try this exercise with the first 30 seconds or so of the presentation:-

Read out the first few sentences AND drag out the vowel sounds of each of the words as you speak. It’ll feel like you’re speaking in slow motion.

Now read it out again normally and you’ll be more likely to separate words, use the vowels and slow your delivery.

Go on, give it a try!

Add energy and clarity to your voice

Now look at the three tongue twisters below and read each one out aloud.

• Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers
• She Sells Sea Shells on the Sea Shore
• Where’s the Peck of Pickled Peppers Peter Piper Picked?

When you were reading each of these tongue twisters out, did you manage to hear every word you spoke clearly?  If not, do the exercise again – and again until each and every word is being spoken clearly and distinctly.

Now turn on the TV/radio again and try the tongue twisters again and this time over the sound of the radio / TV or background music and remember NOT to shout.

When you next deliver a presentation

Just make sure that you have run through these simple voice exercises before you next have to present – and you will be more likely to come across with more confidence and clarity and be heard by all of the audience. Its all part of enhancing your presentation skills.

The ability to Engage with the presentation audience is a key skill that many presenters simply don’t possess. You might have a great presentation ready to deliver but if you cant really connect with the audience – engage with them – then you are unlikely to have a successful outcome.

But how do you engage with the audience? And is it a skill that can be developed?

The power of eye contact

When you’ve presented in the past, have you ever thought that your audience was like a sea of blank faces staring back at you? If  you have, then it’s probably because you were treating the audience as one body – as a mass of people, rather than individuals.

To start to treat the audience as individuals you need to look at them – individually.

This means you need to make eye contact with individuals in the audience.

People are often hesitant about using eye contact – they feel it may intimidate their audience. But it actually has the opposite effect – it draws people in and engages them more fully.

Some help making eye contact

To help develop confident, controlled use of eye contact, practise this exercise.

You will need to stand in the middle of a room – ideally without anyone else there – as they will probably put you off or think you’re a little strange!!

Start to tell a story – something like what you have done today from when you got up in the morning, travelled to work, went to lunch etc.

As you recite your story – focus on different objects in the room for about three seconds at a time. For example, you can look at the door, then a picture on the wall, then the light, a chair, a plant etc. Try and spend about 3 seconds of eye contact on each in turn.

What you are now doing is giving eye contact around the room in a controlled and purposeful way. This is what you need to do with your audience – to keep everyone interested and involved.

Practise making eye contact

By practising this exercise it will soon become a habit that you can then start to utilise in earnest and thus share your eye contact around your presentation audience.

You will look more in control and you will also start to see a response from the audience.

So try the exercise at home a few times first … and then at your next presentation at work, start to share the eye contact with the audience.

Just remember to look at their eyes as you look around the room – and NOT the door, the picture on the wall, the light, etc that you did in the exercise!!

The audience will make judgements about you even before you start to speak.  They will do this by way you come across and how you look.  They will continue to form opinions about you by the way you speak.

So the way in which you use your own personal resources  is going to have a large impact on the way your audience receives you.

First Impressions

First impressions are very important.

You need to look confident and look like you know what you are talking about right at the start of the presentation in order for your audience to take you seriously.

If you take time to ‘warm up’ into it you may well ‘lose’ your audience even before you’ve got to your key message.

Building rapport with the audience is an essential ingredient in making a good impact.  The more confident you feel, the easier it is to connect with your audience.

There are many ways you can generate this confidence by developing your delivery skills – the way you use your voice, body language and space so that you fully engage with your audience from the beginning right until the end of the presentation.

Speaking confidently

Speaking confidently is one of  key areas that you need to look at in order that you get your message across clearly.

It’s important to speak at the correct pace and not to rush, so you have to think about speaking a little more slowly than usual.

It’s also important to speak clearly – so that you don’t  slur your words together – as this will make you sound hesitant.

So, by speaking at the correct pace and pronuncing your words clearly – especially the ends of words, you will sound more confident and convincing to your audience.

See our article on how to speak with more confidence and clarity for some simple voice exercies you can try out yourself.

Sounding interesting

The ability to sound interesting is also really important because, although you might be passionate about what you are saying,  if this doesn’t come across well to your audience, then they wont be convinced.

To sound interesting and enthusiastic you need to use more expression in your tone of voice so that you avoid a monotone style.  You may also emphasise key words which will help to influence the overall meaning of your messages.

Injecting pauses into your speaking also helps to create an impact as well as helping you to control your speed so that you don’t race ahead too quickly making it hard for the audience to follow.

You can use all these techniques to help change the tone and dynamics of your presentation and this will help keep the interest of your audience throughout your presentation.

Looking confident

The ability to look confident is important especially as you might be feeling nervous which can unfortunatley have a rather negative impact on your overall presence.

The ways in which you use your posture, gesture and eye contact can ahelp you to control any bad habits created by nerves and create a much stronger presence.  Make sure that you are standing evenly on two feet with a strong but relaxed posture.

Take a few seconds before you start to speak to take in your audience.  This will help you feel more in control and more confident and you will be less likely to fidget or look uncomfortable.

Make sure that you also feel comfortable in the space that you are presenting, so that you look like you have ownership of the space and that you can move around appropriately.  It really helps if you can walk around the space before your presentation – before the audience arrive to help you get used to it.

Engaging with the audience

Eye contact is also very important to help you engage with your audience.

If you just stare at them blankly, you wont get the right connection with them.  So you need to use confident eye contact so that you really connect with individual members of the audience while you are speaking with them. See our article on how to make eye contact to engage your audience.

And although it might sound a bit daunting to look directly at audience members, it actually has the opposite effect and helps you to feel more confident.

Presentation stamina

It takes a lot of energy to speak in front of an audience, even if it’s just for 5 minutes.

So it’s important to use the voice and body language techniques we have discussed in this article and to practise them so that you build up your vocal stamina.  You don’t have to wait until your next presentation, you can practise the vocal and body language techniques on the telephone or in a meeting.

Once you are used to using these techniques you can rely on them to help you maintain the energy you need to keep your audience interested throughout your presentation no matter how long you are talking for.