How to create clean PowerPoint slides!
PowerPoint willingly lends itself to showing information, indeed, lots of information: charts, bullet lists, tables, infographics, images and dense blocks of text. It’s a versatile bit of kit, but that’s almost its downfall. As we all know, less is more, especially when it comes to data on slides. More is, in fact, exhausting for your audience to process.
There’s only 1 tip you need:
Slides jammed full of charts, graphs or dense blocks of text is hard work, and guaranteed to make hearts sink. Presentations should not be hard work: they should be enlightening, stimulating, engaging and fun.
Keep it clean
One of the simplest ways to transform your presentations from heart-sink to happy is to keep your slides clean of unnecessary words and data.
TIP 1: Make one, simple statement on each slide and use the remaining “space” for a visual that explains and clarifies. And that’s it. No more tips.
Don’t be tempted to “use the space” by filling it with graphs; no-one will be impressed with your excel skills if they’re asleep. And most certainly don’t fill the slide with words. If there are some words that need saying, then say them out loud. Your audience can read in their own time, but they’ve come to the presentation to hear from you.
Remember: don’t be daunted by open spaces on your slides: embrace the minimalist aesthetic and let less be more. Clean slides rule. Your audience will thank you for it…
You may find these further blogs useful for other ways to clean up your PowerPoint slides:
7 ways to avoid bullet points (try these simple design alternatives)
Visual information in PowerPoint
10 Design Ideas for PowerPoint slides
Presentation structure advice
The skill of honing one message per slide relies on having a strong presentation structure. It isn’t a case of splitting your 9 bullets over 9 slides. You need to think about the purpose of your presentation, and what you want your audience to do and know/remember. Read the blog link to get deeper into this approach.
