1. Basic rules for making
Powerpoint Presentations
Some tips to make your
presentations presentable

2. Basic rules for making
Powerpoint Presentations
Some tips to make your
presentations presentable

3. Connect with Audience
• Who is your audience?
• Relevance
• Appropriate Knowledge

4. Keep it simple
• Make bulleted points easy to read and
understand.
• Use concise wording.
• Bullets are focal points – The presenter
provides elaboration.
• Keep font size large.

5. Bullet points
• Generally, left-justify bullets
• Easy to follow
• Neat

6. Background
• Stick to a single background
• It is the stage for your information

7. Use Contrasting Colors
• Light colors on dark
background.
• Dark colors on light
background.

8. Contrast
• Contrast is important
• Light text on a semi-dark background
• The eye is attached to the light

9. Graphics and Style
• Graphics or Style – keep it simple
• The medium is not the message
• The information is the message

10. Clip Art & Graphics
• A few excellent graphics are better than
many poor ones.
• Use sparingly!

11. No Information Overload
• Too much information will overload audience
capacity to understand and remember
• Rule of Four- Group items by 4
• Example- a table with 12 Items should be
displayed in 3 groups of 4

12. Follow the Rule of Four
Don’t list:
more
than
four
items
like
this
column
here
If necessary:
make
groups
of
4 items
make
groups
of
4 items

13. Proximity
Viewers group elements into units, which they
can attend to and remember
Words that move together are understood to
belong together
Labels that are closer to object are seen as
belonging together

14. Words compatible with image
• Blue, Red,
Green, or Yellow
• Blue, Red,
Green, or Yellow

15. Fonts
• Employ only a few - stick to familiar fonts
• Stay away from gimmicky fonts unless for a
theme.
• Keep type sizes consistent.
• DON’T USE ALL CAPS.

16. Perceptual Differences
• Attention is drawn to large perceptual
differences
• Different colors, font sizes, styles will draw
attention
• Emphasis on important points, graphics etc.

17. Perceptual Differences
• Use Bold, italics, or a change in color for
emphasis
• Two properties must differ by a large enough
proportion, or they will not be distinguished.
• Typically applies to font styles and colors, and
backgrounds that interfere

18. Do’s and Don'ts

19. Do
Use visually simple fonts

20. Do
vary font for emphasis or to
group words together

21. Don’t
Avoid Text Overload
Having too much text on the screen can defeat
the purpose of using PowerPoint. The slides begin
to look like a jumble of text, making slides difficult
to read and unrecognizable from each other.
People will either try to read everything or copy
everything down or they will lose interest. List
only the key points. If you have more info to
include use more slides or create handouts.

22. Don’t
Don’t underline because words that
contain letters like g, p, y will get
cut off

26. Your Assignment
Make a Powerpoint

27. Your Assignment
The slide should contain
examples of the following
elements

28. Your Assignment
1. Background
Contrast
2. Word Transitions
3. Object transitions
4. Bullet Points
5. Word amount
6. Background
7. Font
8. Graphics
9. Lists
10.Font effects (bold,
underline, italics,
etc)
See Handout

29. Your Assignment
Alternate a “good” example
with a “bad” example.”
E.g.
Slide 1: Clear Background
Slide 2: Busy Background

30. Your Assignment
1. Upload it to Slideshare
2. Embed it on your Webpage