Are You PowerPoint Savvy?

Many of us use PowerPoint regularly in our TCE courses, as well as in other training venues. In TCE, you most likely use the PowerPoint slides provided by our office. But there may be times you add your own slides or times you are making up a promotional or other presentation from scratch. As PowerPoint has become more widely used in business, research has been done to determine what techniques enhance presentations and what might detract from them.

Steve Williams, a discipleship specialist with LifeWay Christian Resources, has studied the use and trends of PowerPoint teaching and he offers some sound advice for presenters. Steve says, “People comprehend three times as much when they see an image." In other words, they not only remember it—they understand it! Isn’t that what our goal is in our training ministries?

To assist presenters, Steve has identified what he calls, “Seven Deadly Sins of PowerPoint.” He says these are mistakes that will “most assuredly kill your presentation faster than anything.” Here is an adaptation of Steve’s list (used by permission):

Deadly sin # 1 - Too little contrast - the result of using text and backgrounds of similar colors. Make sure there is enough contrast between them so text can be easily read. Note: color contrasts that look good on your monitor may not look as good projected on a screen. Try out your presentations with a projector to see how they look.

Deadly sin # 2 - Too many colors - for text and objects can result in a rainbow effect. Two text colors per slide are usually enough to look good and be readable. Three different text colors are enough for an entire presentation.

Deadly sin # 3 - Too much text - makes a slide look cluttered and hard to read. Use the five and 10 rule. Limit each slide to about five lines of text that can be read in about 10 seconds. Six lines are OK, seven if you have to ... but when you get beyond that you have too much text.

Deadly sin # 4 - Text that is too small - makes people have to strain to read it. This will distract them and cause them to miss hearing the point. Another good reason to test your slides projected on a large screen. If in doubt, make text larger.

Deadly sin # 5 - Too many bullets - makes a presentation predictable and boring. Bullets are great if used sparingly and wisely. Try using "unbullets" like pictures or placing text inside various shaped objects like ovals, rectangles or circles.

Deadly sin # 6 - Too many transition effects - can disorient the viewer. PowerPoint 2000 gives you 60 or 70 effects, but they shouldn't all be used in one presentation! Use a maximum of two to three different effects throughout your whole presentation.

Deadly sin # 7 - Using boring slides - can put the audience to sleep. Effective use of colors and graphic objects can add appeal to presentations and make people want to watch them.

Williams says, “By eliminating the seven deadly sins from your presentations, you will encourage your audience to focus on your message and learn more, and they won't think you started using PowerPoint yesterday."

Here at CMI, we appreciate so much the work that Pat Johann puts into our PowerPoint visuals for TCE and other training programs. She is frequently updating our visuals to make them as effective as possible.

We recommend that you implement these suggestions to update your own PowerPoint visuals or in creating your own presentations. Let’s strive for excellence, not only in our teaching, but also in our visuals!