Power Point

[clifford_thornton]

What is a good measure of text density for a series of slides?

I am only semi-versed in this stuff, and would like to make a thirty-minute presentation count.

Thanks!

[Aggie87]

If by points u mean bullets, I wouldn't go more than 4 per slide. Charts with 5+ bullets lose their impact, IMO.

[J Larsen]

I try to keep it down to four. Five is pushing it, IMO, but sometimes it is hard to avoid. Certainly if it is five or more, there should be some way to characterize some of the points as sub-points of others, which helps the viewer understand the organization of the argument and makes the slide less overwhelming.

Also, some people don't like slides that merely summarize what is being said (I am not one of those, I think it helps people focus especially if the material is difficult). So you might want to consider not making bullet-point slides, which tend to fall into this category, and instead make demonstratives that visually illustrate the material.

[Aggie87]

Busy:

About right, IMO:

Edited April 7, 2008 by Aggie87

[user0815]

i agree with what has been said by the other posters here ... more than 4 bullets per slide is overkill.

i would also like to add ... if you do not have that much experience with this kind of presentations it might be a good idea to ask a good friend of yours to serve as a guinea pig and participate in a test run of your presentation ... calculating the presentation time and testing this calculation is very important.

and ... regarding the actual design of your power point slides ... keep it simple ! ... you don't have to use all the colors, every font and all the effects - although i have to admit it's great fun to play around with all this effects. :rsmile:

[BFrank]

Agg has good examples. Keep it simple for sure.

Make sure that you don't read your slide presentation. It's OK to have bullets as a summary of your speech, but if you're just reading what's on the screen, that's a real turn-off.

[sidewinder]

Put in a few good visuals too - always has more impact than just bullet points and people tend to remember them. 'Picture worth 1000 words' etc.

[king ubu]

whoah, all you populists and simplicists... but lollipops for everyone, yes! I fully agree!

[Brad]

Also, the more points the smaller your font will have to be and I think it will stand out more if it's easier to read.

[Dan Gould]

Put in a few good visuals too -

How 'bout this one:

[clifford_thornton]

Thanks, folks.

I am certainly all for simplifying my slides, which are pretty full/heady.

The visuals may actually be the hard part, unless any of you guys are hyper-aware of how to do screen shots on a mac.

[sidewinder]

Put in a few good visuals too -

How 'bout this one:

Definitely. That's for the graveyard shift 1pm post-lunch slot to wake up the punters