PowerPoint default formatting is begging you to use bullet points in your presentation.
The thing about bullet points is that they’re not attractive. They’re not visually stimulating. But they’re set up as a default way to organize information on your slides, which makes them very easy to use.
If you or someone you know is seeking help to break a bullet point habit, Melissa Milloway posted a great slide deck on Slideshare with some great alternatives to bullet points.
[slideshare id=53843754&doc=presentationtips-151012192141-lva1-app6892]
If you’re not quite ready to break your habit, here are two simple ideas that may help you better engage your audience:
Animate your Bullet Points
When you dump all of your information on your slide at once, your audience will simply read all of your content (and they’ll probably miss out on all the brilliant things you have to say because the brain can’t process two things – reading and listening – at the same time).
Instead of turning the fire hose on your audience by giving them all your information at once, why not hold something back? Take your time, finish your thought, then share a little more information when you’re ready to move on to the next point.
Eliminate “sub-bullets”
It’s not your fault that it’s so easy to put everything you intend to say right in the slide. In fact, audiences have become accustomed to the outline-style format of bullet points and sub-bullet points.
But seriously, if everyone else jumped off a bridge, would you do it too? Sub-bullets are generally the narrative part of your presentation. They clutter up your slide, they overwhelm your audience with information, they again put you in a position in which your audience will be reading instead of listening to you (if your audience is even able to read the small font on your slide), and they’re just more work to put them into a presentation.
Reserve the real estate on your slide for key points and you’ll have less cluttered slides, you’ll have more of the audience’s attention, and you can use a font size that even the people in the back of the room will be able to read.
There you have it, two easy tips to improve your slide design without needing to be a graphic designer.
Know someone whose slides could benefit from an easy make-over? Pass this link along!
