Presenting with PowerPoint: 10 dos and don'ts
What Are the Most Important Dos and Don'ts for Effective PowerPoint Presentations?
By Jeff Wuorio | Reprinted with permission from Microsoft Small Business Center
Cherie Kerr knows how PowerPoint can be both provocative and persuasive in a business meeting. She's also aware that precisely the opposite can occur. "It can be the very best friend you have," says the public relations consultant. "But you have to use it right."
Kerr's two-sided view of Microsoft's presentation program mirrors a debate running through business and academia. While many embrace PowerPoint as a potent business tool, others contend it can confuse, distort, and even strangle communication when used poorly. But as Kerr points out, any discussion of PowerPoint's merits and pitfalls illustrates one thing above all: the importance of using the program to best advantage. For organizations seeking to equip their teams with the Microsoft 365 tools and training that make business communication more effective, eMazzanti Technologies works with businesses across New Jersey and the NYC metropolitan area to deploy and optimize the Microsoft productivity suite that supports everything from daily presentations to client communications.
Here are ten ways to use PowerPoint to help make your business look brilliant, not brainless.
What Presentation Principles Make PowerPoint Effective Rather Than Distracting?
The first five principles address the relationship between the speaker, the slides, and the audience — the fundamental dynamic that determines whether a PowerPoint presentation informs or numbs.
1. Hold Up Your End with Compelling Material:
PowerPoint's ease of use may be its own worst enemy. However engaging it can be to build eye-catching slides and graphics, PowerPoint isn't autonomous. The audience has come to hear you, not merely to stare at images on a screen. Build a strong PowerPoint program, but make sure your spoken remarks are no less compelling.
"PowerPoint doesn't give presentations — PowerPoint makes slides," says Matt Thornhill, president of Audience First, a business that offers presentation training. "Remember that you are creating slides to support a spoken presentation."
2. Keep It Simple:
The most effective PowerPoint presentations are simple — charts that are easy to understand and graphics that reflect what the speaker is saying. Some authorities suggest no more than five words per line and no more than five lines per individual slide.
"Don't gum up the works with too many words and graphics," Kerr says. "Do you really need to have everything up on the screen?"
3. Minimize Numbers in Slides:
PowerPoint's strength is conveying ideas concisely. That's hard to do through a haze of numbers and statistics. The most effective PowerPoint displays don't overwhelm viewers with figures — instead, leave detailed numbers for handouts distributed at the presentation's end. If you want to emphasize a statistic, consider a graphic or image to convey the point.
"When I was talking about the prevalence of Alzheimer's patients, I used a photograph of an old woman rather than just throwing up a number on the screen," Kerr says.
4. Don't Parrot PowerPoint:
One of the most prevalent and damaging habits is to simply read the visual presentation to the audience. Not only is that redundant — short of using the clicker, why are you even there? — it makes even the most visually appealing presentation boring. PowerPoint works best with spoken remarks that augment and discuss, rather than mimic, what's on the screen.
"Even with PowerPoint, you've got to make eye contact with your audience," says Roberta Prescott of The Prescott Group, a communications consulting firm. "Those people didn't come to see the back of your head."
5. Time Your Remarks:
A speaker's comments that coincide precisely with the appearance of a fresh slide splits the audience's attention. A well-orchestrated program brings up a new slide, gives the audience a chance to read and digest it, then follows with remarks that broaden and amplify what's on the screen.
"It's an issue of timing," Kerr says. "Never talk on top of your slides."
What Practical Techniques Improve Visual Impact and Audience Engagement?
The second five principles address the visual and logistical decisions that distinguish polished presentations from problematic ones.
6. Give It a Rest:
Experienced PowerPoint users aren't bashful about letting the screen go blank on occasion. Not only does this give the audience a visual break, it's effective for focusing attention on discussion, Q&A, or more verbally-centered exchanges where slides are a distraction rather than a support.
7. Use Vibrant Colors:
A striking contrast between words, graphics, and the background conveys both message and emotion effectively. Muted or low-contrast color combinations reduce readability and diminish visual impact, particularly in rooms with variable lighting.
8. Import Outside Images and Graphics:
Don't limit your presentation to what PowerPoint offers natively. Outside images, photographs, and video add variety and visual appeal.
"I often have one or two very short video clips in my presentations," says New York technology consultant Ramon Ray. "It helps with humor, conveys a message and loosens up the crowd."
9. Distribute Handouts at the End:
No speaker wants to be presenting to an audience that's busy reading a summary of her remarks. Unless it is imperative that people follow a handout during the presentation itself, wait until you're done to distribute them.
10. Edit Ruthlessly Before Presenting:
Once you've finished drafting your slides, assume you're one of the people in the audience as you review them. If something is unappealing, distracting, or confusing, cut it. Never lose the perspective of the audience — chances are good that your overall presentation will be stronger for every element you remove.
Jeff Wuorio is a writer and journalist. This article originally appeared in the Microsoft Small Business Center and is reprinted with permission.
FAQ: Effective Business Presentations with PowerPoint
Q: How many slides should a typical business presentation contain?
A: A common guideline is one slide per minute of planned speaking time — a 20-minute presentation would contain approximately 15-20 slides, accounting for a few minutes of Q&A. However, slide count matters less than content density per slide. A 30-slide presentation with one clear idea per slide often communicates more effectively than a 10-slide presentation where each slide contains a paragraph of text. The most practical test: if you can cover a slide's content in under two minutes of natural speaking, the density is probably appropriate. Slides that require more than two to three minutes to discuss typically contain too much information and should be divided or simplified.
Q: What is the most common PowerPoint mistake in business presentations?
A: Reading slide text verbatim to the audience is consistently identified as the single most damaging presentation habit. It simultaneously communicates that the audience cannot read, that the presenter has not internalized their material, and that the slides could simply be emailed rather than presented in person. The underlying issue is usually over-reliance on slides as a safety net — presenters load slides with complete sentences because they plan to read them rather than speak naturally. The solution is treating slides as visual punctuation for spoken remarks rather than as speaker notes. Bullet points on slides should be three to five words that prompt the presenter's spoken elaboration, not complete thoughts that require no additional commentary.
Q: How does slide design affect audience retention of presentation content?
A: Research on multimedia learning, including work by educational psychologist Richard Mayer, consistently shows that people learn better from words and pictures together than from words alone — but only when the visual and verbal content are genuinely aligned. Slides containing large amounts of text that the presenter reads compete with their own spoken content, splitting audience attention between reading and listening and reducing retention of both. High-contrast visuals that illustrate rather than duplicate what is being said improve retention. Simple charts and graphs that reveal a single insight outperform complex visualizations that require explanation. The principle is redundancy reduction: slides should add visual information, not repeat spoken information in text form.
Q: When is it appropriate to use animation and transitions in PowerPoint?
A: Animation and transitions work well when they serve a specific communication purpose: revealing information sequentially to prevent the audience from reading ahead, showing a process or change over time, or emphasizing a specific element of a complex diagram. They become counterproductive when used for decorative purposes — spinning text, random transitions, and excessive movement distract from content and signal that the presenter prioritized entertainment over substance. A useful test: if removing the animation or transition would make the slide less clear or less effective at conveying the point, keep it. If removing it would make no difference to comprehension, remove it.
Q: What Microsoft 365 tools complement PowerPoint for more effective business presentations?
A: Several Microsoft 365 tools extend PowerPoint's capabilities meaningfully. PowerPoint Designer uses AI to suggest professional slide layouts automatically, reducing the time required to achieve visually clean slides. Speaker Coach provides real-time and post-practice feedback on pace, filler word usage, and spoken delivery. Microsoft Teams integrates directly with PowerPoint for virtual presentations, including the Presenter Coach feature and audience reaction tools. OneDrive and SharePoint enable real-time collaboration on presentations before they are finalized. For organizations presenting data regularly, Power BI provides dynamic data visualizations that can be embedded in PowerPoint slides, replacing static charts with live-updating visuals.
