I know I've written on this topic before, however recent experience forces me to put pen to paper (digit to keyboard?) again. We are all very familiar with the oft repeat quote that "a picture paints a thousand words" and I cannot understand why this sound advice seems to get thrown out of the window (along with common sense, the baby and the bath water) once PowerPoint comes into the picture (no pun intended).

Microsoft did a wonderful job in creating PowerPoint (and I fully acknowledge that the trademark for this product belongs to them). PowerPoint is a "business graphics" package (stress on "graphics") and I wish people would use it as that and not as a "word processor with big fonts".

There are a few really important points to make, right up front:

1. Supporting graphics are for the benefit of your audience
They are not there to keep you on track, because you've not rehearsed enough or forgotten what comes next for some other reason. Most slides I see are really speaker's notes, of little value to the audience.

2.    Slides and handouts are different things
You can't make these two elements of a presentation ‘multi-task', they simply end up doing neither task well. If you're going to use slides produce images that support your performance well. You'll find that they have little value as handouts. A handout is a different document.

3. Slides should be meaningless until they are presented
The total message is a closely united combination of your spoken words and the supporting graphics. You may choose to lead with the words, the graphic, or give each equal billing. For example, you may say something like: “…and so the question becomes, ladies and gentlemen, why is it that 80% of our customers prefer this product over this product?” while showing images of the two products when saying the word "this". The two images on their own are meaningless — they need the words to bring them to life.

4. Complex slides should build
You can create complex arguments and images if you build them point by point, over a period of time. You should never have to use a laser pointer to highlight material. If you want to focus attention on a particular area of the slide, do so with a build, or custom animation, so you make that part of the slide stand out.

5. No bullet points
Pictures make a much bigger impact and are easier to associate with the message. Many people believe that simultaneously showing and saying the same words reinforces the memorising process. This is totally incorrect, and brings me nicely to my next point.

6.    If you want to SAY it, don't SHOW it (and vice versa)
If you want to say a particular word, don't show it on your slides. Likewise, if it's on the slides, don't say it on stage. This really forces you to think and is an excellent discipline in making really high impact slides.

Lesser known features of PowerPoint
(from Microsoft Office 2003 onwards)


1. The F5 Key: Most people already know that the F5 key is the short cut key for starting a slide show from the first slide. However, quite often during the editing process it's useful to be able to start a show from the current slide — and you can achieve this with Shift + F5.

2. Jumping to a particular slide: Faced with less time than you originally planned, how do you get through your slides quickly, without making it look as though you're skipping any? If you've memorised your slide numbers you can skip to any slide by typing the slide number and pressing ‘return' (or enter). The slide show will jump straight to that particular slide. Suppose, to save time, you decide to skip the six slides after number 16. When you've finished talking to slide 16, you say a few words linking to the content of slide 23 and type ‘2' and ‘3' on the keyboard and then hit ‘return'. The slide show jumps straight from slide 16 to slide 23.

3. Custom animation: Few presenters use this standard and very useful feature. You can access it via the menu options Slide Show > Custom Animation. It provides many useful and engaging ways of bringing movement to individual elements of PowerPoint slides. I encourage you to play around with the many options until you get used to them.

This may seem a lot to think about — and you're right. Too many speakers are lazy and use graphics as substitute scripts — simply reading them out loud. This is disrespectful to the audience and is a sure way to drive people to distraction and boredom in equal measure. Don't expect to be invited back.

Work hard and do the job properly. Treat your audience as you would like to be treated yourself.

Good slides support a speaker's vocal presentation and have the following characteristics:

• They are visually entertaining
• They are not obvious
• They don't rely on words
• They build a picture over time

That's it folks for this week - as usual, your comments welcomed and appreciated, particularly with reference as to what you'd like to hear about. I do get quite a few e-mails by the way, and I read them all, so please don't feel shy about getting in contact.

Best wishes for the coming week.

Chris Davidson
Editor, Professional Speakers Journal
editor@professionalspeakersjournal.com