Have you ever attended a presentation where a set of PowerPoint slides was used that had such a small font that you could not read it? Did the presenter get lost in the clutter and end up reading the slides to the audience? I think we have all had that experience. The real question is whether or not your attention was focused or did you miss out on what may have been very valuable information because the slides were difficult to see and the speaker became confused by his own slides. There are simple rules that will enable anyone to be an effective creator of simple and powerful PowerPoint slides.

The art of creating a powerful PowerPoint presentations that reach your audience and communicate the information that you want to is a simple process. The questions that need to be addressed are how long is the presentation and what is the age of the target audience. It is assumed that the content of your presentation is of interest and that there is sufficient content to fill your time allocation. An easy way to remember the basic guideline is with the numbers 10 – 20 – 30.

The ten (10) is for the number of PowerPoint slides that are to be used in a twenty (20) minute presentation. the thirty (30) is the font size that is visible to most audiences without straining. When in doubt use a font size that is at least half of the age of your target audience. If you are going to speak at a rest home or some civic organizations it is sometimes best to go to a forty (40) point font.

For different times simply scale the 10 – 20 – 30 rule to accommodate your allocated time slot. For instance 15 – 30 – 30 works for a half our presentation and 25 – 50 – 30 is perfect for a 50 minute presentation. Be sure and choose a background that is pleasing to the eye and use bullet points that keep you on task during your presentation.