Have you worked in an office environment in the last twenty five years? Then the chances are that you have probably been unlucky enough to sit through or even make at least one painfully long and boring PowerPoint presentation! Let me tell you that I feel your pain, and through the medium of this Hub, I hope to eradicate long, exhaustingly dull PowerPoint presentations from all existence.

Microsoft PowerPoint is a popular, easy to use tool for creating slide shows and presentations. It is an easy way to organise meetings, lessons and provides an attractive way to present your key points during a presentation or demonstration. But how can it be used effectively?

The biggest pitfall is the very nature of a power point presentation. A visual display of any kind will naturally draw the human eye - this usually leads to the person giving their presentation not to their audience, but the presentation itself. Combine this with vast quantities of information crammed into each slide and you have a recipe for a snoozing audience. How can this situation be remedied?

This hub offers good advice to ensure your power point presentation engages the audience and will help you to get the most from this oft-misused tool. There are a few 'golden rules' to bear in mind when creating your power point presentation;

• Know your audience - What is the intended purpose of your presentation? Is it to inform, to entertain, maybe to make a sale? You must decide if your presentation should be light-hearted or more formal as this will dictate the content of your slide and the colours, any clip art or templates you may use.
  
• The purpose of your power point presentation will also dictate the length of your slide show. If you are making a business PowerPoint presentation aimed at potential investors for example, this will need to be substantially longer and more professional than a fun and light hearted presentation on the subject of 'fashion for your cat'.

• Do your research - Please bear in mind that PowerPoint presentations do not deliver themselves and the level of human involvement in this process is most important. Ensure you know you topic inside out to avoid any awkward questions.
  
• Practise your presentation as many times as you feel necessary and make sure you time it before presenting it to your audience. Writing a power point presentation is as much about what YOU say as what your slides say, if not more so.
• Keep it simple - The main downfall of many a power point presentation is that they are either too long or so full of information that the audience cannot possibly take everything in, or both. Remember that the human brain is only capable of digesting so much information at any one time and an information overload will lead to few of your key points being absorbed by the audience.
  
• The Presenters University makes a wise suggestion of sticking to what they call the '666' rule when compiling and designing your slides. This means not more than six words per bullet point, six bullet points per slide and no more than six slides in a row. Keep your colour scheme and fonts simple too, so as not to detract from the information you are trying to put across.

• Choose your text wisely - Utilise the previously mentioned 'rule of six' and avoid long sentences. Remember that the power point presentation is only an aid and does not constitute the presentation itself. The person giving the presentation should expand on the basic information contained in your slides should this be required.
  
• Large font sizes denote more important information, fancy fonts and all-capitalised words are more difficult to read and should be avoided. Remember that nothing is more pointless than an unreadable visual aid.
  
• Ensure your PowerPoint presentation has a conclusion or summary of your key messages. By doing so you ensure that your most important points are clarified and more likely to be remembered.
• Be consistent - Consistency is key to a professional power point presentation. Stick to the same colour scheme and font family throughout as well as consistent images and transitions. There are a large variety of templates to choose from and it's important to ensure that your choice provides consistency and readability for your audience.
• Graphic images and clip art - these should be used in moderation. Images should be used to balance, enhance and compliment your text - too many images will overwhelm your text so a good rule of thumb is to not use more than two graphics for each slide. A flash power point presentation is not necessarily the best way to communicate your ideas.
  

Bear in mind the words of a Microsoft executive who said recently that the most interesting PowerPoint presentation he'd ever heard contained not one bullet point. It seems then maybe a little confusing that whilst the program's major benefits lie in the creation of visual aids and images, when so many of the standard templates encourage list after list of bullet points!

Sticking to these rules will help you to overcome the hurdles a powerpoint presentation can present. A flash power point presentation may satisfy your artistic side, but by keeping your slides short and sweet you will hold your audiences attention much more effectively and they are much more likely to take in the information you are giving.

Remember that the power point presentation should be a visual aid for your audience rather than a verbal crutch for the presenter and by fully researching your topic well in advance you won't even feel like you need that crutch. By sticking to a few key points you will ensure the effective absorption of your key information by your audience in addition to the fact that they will not come away from your presentation bored, tired and having not learned a thing.

There is a huge amount of further reading that can be done on this subject and I have recommended a few popular choices below. If reading isn't really your thing then you can always choose to educate yourself with the aid of a DVD. PPT (PowerPoint) is a valuable tool if used correctly but when used ineffectively, provides a superb aid to an afternoon nap!

Thanks for taking the time to read this Hub. If you enjoyed it then why not take a look at some of my other hubs or leave a comment?

What is a Content Management System

Energy Efficient Light Bulbs - CFLs and LEDs

Wind Power - Your Own Green Energy Plant