Are we there yet?

Now that we are about two years into the presentation revolution to transform text-laden PowerPoint slides into visually effective slides, it is time to take a checkpoint. My official revolution result-o-meter shows an improved awareness of the need to reduce text on slides, but insufficient direction and expertise on how to reach the goal.

The goal of this revolution is to enable all presenters to create "An effective presentation that includes PowerPoint slides when appropriate". The focus is on seeing the presentation as a whole, with PowerPoint as the effective visual aid.

Many presenters realize the need to get away from reading slides to an audience and are attempting to improve the situation. When critiquing presentations, I see a range of attempted improvements, including the act of haphazardly inserting irrelevant photos or clip art, simply eliminating 50% of the text on slides, and organizational policies that limit the number of slides in a presentation, irrespective of the presentation. These attempts at improvement have mixed results.

I hear presenters lament their frustration at the time investment required to create effective slide presentations and search for appropriate photos. It takes time and commitment to create a good PowerPoint presentation and I find presenters getting drowned in the details of aesthetics for each slide while losing sight of the purpose of the presentation. It also takes more rehearsal to effectively present from text-light slides because the presenter is not simply reading to the audience. Lazy presenters push back on the need for more rehearsal and I have no sympathy for such laziness. Presenters should be willing to invest some time in rehearsal before taking the stage.

Here is what I have seen over the past year and the gaps that I see still need to be addressed as we continue supporting the revolution for visually effective slides.

Firstly, too many presenters simply duplicate a document onto the slide. One client put the complete workbook from a full-day workshop onto his slides. No wonder he complained that his workshop audiences are in snoozeville by 10 AM. I also see Excel worksheets on slides, usually demonstrating the details of the prior quarter's earnings, losses or some other mind-numbing statistics.

Secondly, not enough presenters rehearse. Many presenters don't run through the presentation at least once. I cringe when I critique a presentation and hear the speaker say "I realize that we are coming up to time here, and I still have 20 slides to discuss. Take it as your homework and let me know if there are any questions". A single rehearsal with an eye on the clock will reveal at least 60% of the problems that a presenter can expect during the presentation.

Thirdly, in our attempt to correct the initial problem and get away from text laden slides, I see some presenters have created a new problem which I term "Let's worship my slides together". Some slide presentations are works of art. Clear, high resolution, well balanced photos meticulously assembled into a stunning display of artistic creativity. In fact, the presenter is often so impressed with the slide show that he constantly points to the slides almost if he is worshipping the slides. "Let's worship my slides together" problem obfuscates the real reason for the presentation in the first place, which is to communicate a message to your audience.

The reasons we see these presenters make these mistakes are:
1. Lack of training. Presenters don't have a process to follow to craft a presentation. One process which presenters can follow is laid out in my book "Dodging the Bullet Points", and there are other repeatable processes as well. Without a repeatable process, presenters feel pressure to display PowerPoint slides even if there is no benefit to having slides, and follow haphazard approaches that result in data-dumps.

2. Lack of exemplars. Presenters have so few examples of good presentations to observe and learn from. As audiences we have endured so many poor PowerPoint presentations that most people have come to expect text-laden slides as the norm. The general population has been trained to quietly submit to boring presentations like Pavlovian dogs. When the lights get dimmed, a boring presenter takes the stage and in the audience we settle in for a quiet nap.

3. The significant time investment required to create an effective PowerPoint presentation. Clients complain at the difficulty and expense of finding and selecting high resolution photos. It is much faster to just type text into PowerPoint and show it on a projector. For example, if you are a mid-level manager and will make a fifteen minute presentation to your peers at a company event, are you willing to invest up to twenty hours into searching and selecting the perfect photos, and then rehearsing? Other mid-level managers presenting on such an agenda are likely to use text-laden slides and in this case, I would advise this mid-level manager to consider not using PowerPoint at all. This presenter is better served by investing ten hours creating and rehearsing a compelling speech than creating a half-baked visual presentation, because she will stand out as being the best presenter on this agenda.

If I had a magic wand - appropriately named the "Pow'Rful Wand" - I would wave it to achieve the following Pow'Rful Results for all presenters. I would train presenters and audiences to ask more effective questions. Our presentations will improve when we ask better questions.

This is my wish list for all presenters.

Wish #1. Follow a repeatable process when you create a presentation. Do not start off your creative process by opening PowerPoint and selecting "Click here to insert text". You are already going in the wrong direction if you start creating your presentation by opening PowerPoint.
Here are the correct steps to follow when creating a presentation that includes PowerPoint.
a. Ask yourself these question, and write down the answers to keep you on track while crafting your presentation "What am I trying to achieve in this presentation?" "How do I want my audience to think or act differently as a result of my presentation"?
b. Once you have your goal written down, you can select points and supporting details that meet your goals.
c. Build your speech around your answers and finally build a PowerPoint slide show to drive home the points in your speech that benefit from visual aids.
d. Rehearse your presentation and you are ready to go.

Wish #2. Structure your presentation. Have an opening, body and conclusion to your presentation. Do not aimlessly present facts and end with a slide that says "Thank you" or "Q&A". Create an interesting opening, discuss your points in the body of your speech, take questions, and then end your presentation on time with a well-rehearsed and polished closing, which may include a call to action.


Wish #3. Use PowerPoint only when appropriate. We have come to expect PowerPoint slides in every presentation, whether needed or not. When purchasing a Bic Mac, I half-expect the server to say "Do you want a slide deck with that?".
Contrary to popular belief, most presentations do not require PowerPoint. The value of PowerPoint is in the visual display of information. If your message will be clearer by using a visual display of information, then use PowerPoint. For example, if you are pointing out the lights on the Eiffel Tower then PowerPoint is appropriate. If you are discussing the impact of standardized cubicles on employee morale, then a personal or anecdotal story is more suitable than a PowerPoint slide.


Wish #4. Rehearse. Time your presentation and adjust accordingly. I am currently working with a client who refuses to time his rehearsal. We are working together as he prepares for a 2o minute presentation and have whittled down his slide deck to 67 slides. After each marathon rehearsal I ask "How long do you think that took?" His answer "About 10 minutes". My "Pow'Rful Wand" will magically force every presenter to rehearse his or her presentation at least once, and record the time that elapsed during the presentation.

Wish #5. Record every presentation, to see what your audience sees. Use a camcorder and watch yourself present. I once saw on a recording that I blocked the view of an important slide while making a point in my presentation. I was oblivious to the fact and the audience did not point it out to me. The video tape doesn't lie and I learned to not block my audience's view in future presentations.

Wish #6. Join a Toastmasters club. Take advantage of the opportunity to gain inexpensive skills in public speaking.

Wish #7. Invent a revolutionary way to search photographs and reduce the amount of time it takes to select the right photo that is just perfect for my slide.

Are we there yet? Not yet. We are making good progress and as more and more presenters take the slide to set the example demonstrating the benefits of the visual revolution, the higher we will raise awareness. Awareness is the first step towards making the changes that we want to see in all presentations that use PowerPoint. Every presenter who takes just an hour to answer the questions listed above will be a dramatically better presenter.


As a community of concerned presenters, I believe that the visual revolution is benefiting audiences all over the world. Many blogs, books and articles are now available for presenters to learn from and people are asking "Isn't there a better way to use PowerPoint". We have not yet reached the tipping point, but we are definitely headed in the right direction now. And I am proud to be a supporter of this revolution towards visually effective PowerPoint slides.

Living with Gremlins

I operated the slideshow for a speaker at our Toastmasters District Contest last week. We took the expected steps that all prudent presenters take:

1. Rehearse with the slideshow before the live presentation.
2. Check, double check and triple check that the PowerPoint is working correctly, that the laptop is plugged in and not on battery power, that all screensavers are disabled, yada, yada,...
3. Test that the projectors are working.
4. Leave the laptop on a black slide, ready to switch to the next slide when the slide show is advanced.

Murphy says "Something will go wrong at the worst possible moment". I couldn't believe this. The cable to the projectors was laid under the stage. The projectors flickered as speakers used the stage. When my colleague got up to speak and stood on the suspect location on the stage, the cable disconnected from the projectors - resulting in the end of the slide show.

Can you believe it? I don't know if the cable chafed through, merely became loose, or was cut in half by an invisible chainsaw. The net result was the same. All of our preparation was blown in one instant because with the cable running under the stage we could not troubleshoot during the presentation.

You never know what gremlin will creep into your presentation. All that you can do is be prepared to speak-on, sans your slideshow.

Reading slides

Yesterday I attended a workshop on SDI and the Relationship Awareness Theory. With my degree in Psychology, and having taken more personality type tests than I can remember, I found the Relationship Awareness Theory to deliver pragmatic results. The Strength Deployment Inventory impressed me as a valid instrument. I am a Green-Blue which means that I first analyze, then nurture relationships.

We had 100 participants. Slides were up with directions on how to complete the activities. It was impossible to read the slides while the presenter was talking and 99 other people were shuffling papers, mumbling and assisting neighbours. I found that just as Prof. John Sweller confirmed in his study - we cannot focus on interpreting text on slides while someone is telling us the same information. I was reading the text, but could not interpret it with the noise.

This is just a not so gentle reminder. Do not put text on your slides and then read it to the audience. Put photos on your slides and speak your story. If you have an activity, then show the steps on your slides with animated slides so that your participants can see what is expected.

Pointless PowerPoint

Does your agenda for your slideshow contain these words or similar generic ones?

- Service Overviews
-Technology
-Vendor samples
-Strategy
-Competition
-Future

If so, then print out your slide and take a deep look. Ask yourself "What is the purpose of this slide?" If you think that your audience is gaining value from this slide, then repeat the previous sentence.

Your text needs to be specific. Make clear points with your text. Do not use generic words because no-one can walk away with a memorable impression of "Technology". If your presentation includes a discussion of the whizz-bang-super-deluxe mousetrap, then put a photo of your mousetrap on the slide and tell your story of how it helps customers.

"What is the purpose of this slide?" is the question that keeps us on the straight and narrow path to presentation success. Answer this question on every slide.

Jaw-droppingly bad powerpoint

Just when I think I have seen the worst PowerPoint Presentation imaginable, someone, somewhere, sets out to prove me wrong.

Barry Flanagan at Public Speaking for Geeks list examples of what the few of us enlightened PowerPoint Presenters are all working to avoid. Thanks to Barry for uncovering these disasters and sharing them.

Shake your head in disgust at the incompetence of presenters who put together presentations such as these.

Then post your comment below on how you think these presentations can be rescued.

Illogical Insanity

Do you have slides in your PowerPoint Presentation that you gloss over, ever time you present your slideshow? Even a photo can detract from your presentation if you constantly flip through it and never stop to build your message with this slide. All slides in your presentation must support the main message you are communicating.

We just got back from purchasing a new vacuum cleaner. Our first stop was my favorite electronics store. I won't mention the name, but it was not the Best place to Buy a vacuum cleaner. We experienced illogical insanity in the store which reminded me of pointless slides in a presentation.

Among the 14 available vacuum cleaners, we selected one that suits our needs. We did not see any new vacuums on the shelf, only the dirty demo model. We took it off the shelf to make sure it is light enough to carry up our stairs. After my lovely wife hunted down a youngster posing as a salesperson, we asked if he had one in stock.

After looking at the same shelf that we did, he reached the same conclusion that we did - no new vacuum cleaners on the shelf of the desired model. He promised to order one and we could pick it up next week. We said "Sure - perfect timing".

He went off and returned to tell us that this model of vacuum cleaner is on back order with no estimated date of delivery. We may have to wait months if we ordered this model from him. We thanked him for his trouble and decided to look for a vacuum cleaner in a competitor's store.

Then he put the dirty demo model back on the shelf, ready for the next customer to go through the process of selecting this model and finding out that new vacuum cleaners are not available for purchase. I have heard that doing the same thing over and over again, each time expecting a different result, is the definition of insanity. Well, our salesperson qualifies. His actions were completely illogical. Why not take the model off the shelf? Why not put on a label "OUT OF STOCK"? Who knows.

As presenters, we cannot allow slides to remain in our presentations if these slides do not add value or support our main message. If you cannot provide your audience with a story, or example to support your slide, then remove it from your slideshow. Do not repeat your performance with the next audience, and expect a different result.

The "Hard Slides"

We all know that some topics lend themselves to showing photos on slides instead of text.

For example, when you are telling a story and making a point about the statue of Liberty, you can put up a photo of Lady Liberty and have instant audience recognition. This is dead easy for experienced presenters like myself and fellow members of the Powerful Presentations Alliance. (Although most presenters still resort to a 200 word description of Lady Liberty in 10 point font and then read the description to the audience - shudder!!)

Some slides are more challenging. For example, when you convey statistics to your audience you may tend to display all the statistics that you have. If you try to convey too much detail, your result will be that you convey no detail to your audience. These are the "Hard Slides"

Craig Strachan recently posted a fabulous blog entry to help you when creating the "Hard Slides". Check it out. I could not have written a better entry myself :)

Color on Slides

As I have said before, plain dark text on a light background is the best option for slides. Black text on a white background has served us well in printed media for generations. Why mess with a winning formula?

Today I realized again that common sense is not that common. I saw slides with shades of flourescent yellow through green. I was suprised at how hard it is to read text in this color.

Please, please stand out from the crowd and use your common sense. Keep your fonts and color simple. Put your energy into delivering a memorable presentation with stories and photos.

Presentation Dragon

What is your enemy during your presentation? Notice that I said "What", not "Who is your enemy?"

Your enemy is not the heckler in the room or the A/V crew. Your enemy is the dragon called sameness. Sameness in your slides is your worst PowerPoint enemy.

If you have the same monotonous tone when you speak and the same level of energy then your audience will become numb to your message. You must add variety to your presentations with audience interaction activities and stories and so on.

In your slides text is the root cause of sameness. Line after boring line after boring slide of bullet points numbs your audience. Who can remember what you said on slide 32 as you read slide 65 to your audience? No-one. Not even you.

Overcome sameness in your slides by designing each slide to be unique and memorable. Use high-resolution photographs, limited colour and place slide components assymetrically.

Review your latest slideshow. With this knowledge, how can you slay the dragon of sameness in your PowerPoint slideshows?

Judging slides

People who have missed a presentation often ask for a copy of my slides. I gladly send the slides over, but my slides have little meaning outside of my presentation. This is because my slides are visual aids to my presentation and not a document of my presentation. Above is a sample slide from a presentation I gave this week.

Your PowerPoint slides must also support your presentation. Your slides must not be your presentation. You should make the impact on your audience through the photos on your slides, your examples and stories.

Put the details that support your presentation in a report and make it available to your audience before or after the presentation. Do not put your detailed statistics on your slides.

You are the presentation. This means that you tell personal stories, give examples and answer audience questions in your presentation style and with your unique knowledge. Your presentation should be different from my presentation, even if we use the same set of slides.

Take a look at the slides you typically create. Are they 90% (or 100%) text? If so, then chances are that I can read your slides to your audience, just as well as you can, and either of us could bore the audience to tears. Act as Judge, Jury and Executioner. Judge your slides, convict yourself if appropriate, and cut the text out of your slides to support YOUR Unique Presentation.

Red Flags in your slideshow

When you are presenting with PowerPoint, monitor what you say. If you find yourself using any of these terms, then you need to review your slides and make changes. Why do you have these slides on the screen if you make excuses with these phrases?

- I am just flipping through this slide quickly
- We already covered this slide in previous discussions
- You can't read this slide, but the text says ...
- You can't really see this picture, but this is really a picture of ...

And the ultimate excuse - This slide is a continuation of the list from the previous slide. What !! Not only do you have a list of bullet points, you are even continuing your list onto multiple slides.

From today commit to listening what you say when you present with PowerPoint. Are you making excuses for your slideshows? If so, then fix your slides and stop making excuses. Your audience deserves it.

Photos in Juxtaposition

When you want to show contrast follow Al Gore's example and put the photos in juxtaposition.

Here are the "before" and "after" photos of this morning's snowstorm in South Windsor CT.

These photos clearly show that our weather forecasters overestimated the accumulation. We had predictions of 8 to 14 inches of snow. Instead, we received 5 inches.

You can use photos such as these to support your points in your presentation such as "Overestimating accumulation leads to false alerts and costs overallocation of resources for snow removal".

Where can you take personal photos and use them in your presentation? Take many photos with your digital camera and build up a library so that you have access to personal photos for your PowerPoint presentations.

Good place to consider bullet points

Yes, you read the title correctly. There is a at least one instance where you can use bullet points effectively in your slide show.

No, I am not smoking my socks. Contrary to the Pow'rFul Philosophy advocated in Dodging the Bullet Points, where I warn all presenters to avoid bullet points, I recently saw one slide with bullet points. (Of course, the rest of the presentation had a ka-billion bullet points as well to encourage MEGO - Mine Eyes Glaze Over).

You can use bullet points to list the accomplishments of an award recipient. For example, when presenting an award, you may say:

"Joe Soap is receiving the Dubious Darwin award today because he:
* Was chief cook from 1987 to 1999
* Had three mistresses while chairman of the International Censorship board
* Served in congress from 1999 to 2003
* Member of Toastmasters International since 1965
* Daredevil from 2003 until last week (Thanks to $10 of gas only filling 1/2 of his jump bike tank)
* 16 marriages and 15 unexplained disappearances of spouses

There is no reason for you to memorize these facts, and there is no reason for the audience to take home a handout of these facts. Your purpose with this slide and information is to show that Joe Soap deserves this award. That's it. Your purpose with this slide is to make your point and go forward. Once you have established Joe's eligibility for the award and presented the award, you can move on to the next slide.

You should enhance this slide with a personal story about the recipient. Tell any story that you and the recipient were involved in, so that your audience has some picture to take home with them - perhaps the night last week where Joe's jump bike ran out of gas on the jump ramp? Even a poorly told story is better than no story at all. You can also show a personal photo of Joe and his 16 wives - This will be a striking image that no one will forget.

There you have it. This is the only instance I have ever found where Bullet Points are appropriate on a slide show.

Till next time, keep Dodging those Bullet Points.

How much fun can you have with your clothes on?

Today's mail delivered my copy of Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds. My first impression was that it looks thinner than the 230 Pages.

I have just paged through the book. WOW!!!!. This is one awesome book, and much better than I could have imagined.

Guy Kawasaki shows the foreword as an hilarious slide presentation. These 15 slides capture exactly what followers of the Pow'rFul Philosophy and Dodging the Bullet Points readers believe. Over 90% of presentations SUCK.

I wish I could show you some of the fabulous slides in Presentation Zen. You will have to just take my word for it, until your copy arrives - if you are a presenter you need Presentation Zen. Don't leave home for your next presentation without Garr's book.
(Disclaimer - I don't make anything if you purchase Presentation Zen. I just want you to know that you should own this book)

Teaming up to Put your audience first

Do you present before or after other speakers at the same event? If so, then implement this tip from my mentor - Darren LaCroix. Darren passed this on to me in a recent e-critique. I would never have thought of this tip and I hope this tip also adds huge value to you.

Contact the other speakers who will present at the event. Explain what you will present in your message and discuss what the other speakers will present in their messages. See how you can work together and create a better experience for your audience. Remember that all presenters are on the platform to improve the audience's condition and if you take an extra step to work with your fellow presenters for the event, you improve your audience's condition.

Darren's tip is a great example of Audience Advocacy. Speakers working together for the benefit of the audience is sign of speaker maturity that we should all strive for.

Now think - When how can you implement this tip for your next speech? Do you have a Toastmasters club meeting this week? Do you realize how much your speeches will stand out if you talk to the other speakers at this meeting and support each other's messages in your speeches? Try it, and post you comment on the results.

Photo Headings

When should you not use photos? When the same photo is on the heading for all of your slides. The purpose of photos on your slides is to create distinct and memorable presentations. When all of your slides have the same photos in the heading and only text on the slides, you are no longer meeting the objective.

How can you get around this? Treat the heading as part of the real estate available to you to create a unique presentation. Don't let a standard heading used across your presentation stifle your creativity and detract from your unique presentation.

On a different topic, I have added new Podcasts to my site. Check them out.

Predisposition of the eye is to move from left to right

Our eyes have a predisposition to move from left to right, according to Jerry Weissman in "Presenting to Win - The Art of Telling Your Story". This is from the field of Perception Psychology.

Jerry writes on page 118 and 119 "Next time you watch a well-directed movie or television drama, notice how the characters move across the screen. Most often, the sympathetic characters, the heroes and heroine’s with whom the audience identifies, move from the left side of the screen to the right, flowing with the natural movement of the eye. By contrast, the unsympathetic characters, the villains whom the audience dislikes, move from right to left, fighting against the eye’s natural flow."

''In the theatre, directors incorporate the same approach with actors on the stage; protagonists to move toward the right and antagonists to move toward the left.''

This means if you want to be liked by your audience, move from their left to their right should the opportunity arise during your presentation. Do not move from the right to the left, unless you want to go against the grain.

He provides insightful recommendations to position bar charts in PowerPoint Presentations. Always stack the highest bar on the right, if you want to show how your company has higher revenues/ratings than your competition. Our eye goes up and to the right, showing your company at the peak of the chart.

Do yourself a favor and get a copy of Jerry's book for your library.

Making someone else's slides

How do you create a slide show from someone else's report?

I was in the situation where a manager gave me a monthly report and asked that I present it to his managers in the form of a slide show. To make things worse, his managers insist on a standard PowerPoint template for all of these presentations. Any wonder why their monthly meetings want to make you poke out both you eyes?

Well, now, this is 180 degrees against the Pow'Rful Philosophy. I advocate that presentations be planned and then prepared. Creating slide shows to convey a monthly report are exactly why slide shows look like monthly reports. This is called "Presentation as documentation" syndrome. It is contagious, I believe based on the number of presentations we see like this.

What would you do in this situation? How do you convert a monthly report to a slide show in 2 hours, so that it does not look like a report?

This situation is like an architect designing a low-income housing scheme where all the houses look similar. Then asking the painters to fill in the blanks. Is it a surprise when the result is that all the houses look similar with a small variety in the paint colors?

All that I could with these constraints was to reduce the amount of text on the slides. The Pow'Rful Process supports good communication with PowerPoint, but with a standard template, prescribed number of slides, and a few hours to prepare, the cause is already lost.

I am reminded of The Dam Busters movie. Outside a science Lab in the UK during the war the sign at the gate said "The impossible we do immediately. Miracles take a little longer" I can only do so much with a PowerPoint Presentation under these circumstances...

What is wrong with most Presentations?

Here is a short clip from a recent presentation at a Toastmasters conference. Listen to what the audience endures in most PowerPoint Presentations.

You can avoid these problems by planning your presentation, reducing the amount of text on the slides and limiting or eliminating transitions. In short, follow the Pow'Rful Process laid out in "Dodging the Bullet Points" and your audience will herald you as a hero.

Categorizing Presentations by time invested

You can categorize a PowerPoint Presentation by the amount of time invested to prepare it. For example, normally, presenters invest the exact amount of time it takes to type up the slides. No time for planning or thinking. Just a solid data dump that leads to bullet points and reading you slides to the subjected audience.

The Pow'Rful Philosphy subscribes to a 1:1 Ratio. One hour of preparation for every minute allotted on the stage. I believe that you will be hard-pressed to make a poor presentation with this amount of preparation.

I contend that your audience can usually estimate the time you invested in your presentation from the amount of text on the screen.

What do you think? What other categories do you place PowerPoint Presentations in?

Tips for PowerPoint Presentations

Here are the top PowerPoint Mistakes to avoid, presented by Kesselman-Jones, Inc. (A communications firm specializing in conference & event management).

This is my summary of the mistakes from the article. To view the original article, click here.
1. What looks great on your laptop monitor, may not look great on a 12 foot screen from 70 feet away. Test your slides in the room.
2. Don't use the whizzing whistles and flying text in slides just because you can. Be consistent and conservative when designing slides.
3. Clarify and communicate the point of your slides to your audience as a presenter. Don't read your slides to the audience.
4. Send a backup of your slides ahead of time so that you will not be flustered and instigate panic when your laptop/projector/remote presenter/(insert other tech gremlin here) doesn't co-operate.

Part 2- What images are suitable for business Presentations?

Continuing on from yesterday's post - What visuals are appropriate for business presentations?

Line drawings and simple tables are appropriate. For example, if you need to show an audience a table of 3 columns and 3 rows, you can put it on a slide. I believe 3 rows and 3 columns is the most that you should put on a slide, otherwise it becomes too complex for easy comprehension.

To engage your audience, you can put up a visual with a vertical and horizontal line. They form 4 quadrants which you can use to ask questions such as "In which quadrant do you think your slides fall?" High content - low volume. Low content - low volume. Low content - high volume or High content - high volume. Then you can ask your audience in which quadrant they think slide shows should be, and why.

This simple quadrant is a fantastic way to engage your audience and invoke discussion, not necessarily to classify slide shows.

Save the Screen Savers

I recently watched a slideshow where the screen saver switched on after the prescribed time of inactivity. This played havoc with the presentation because the presenter would cover a point, and while elaborating on the points she made, the screen saver would activate. Each time the colorful swirls appeared, they sucked in audience attention like a newly formed black hole.

To deactivate the screen saver and continue with the presentation, the presenter had to go backward or forward in the slideshow. Each time it interrupted the flow of the presentation.

My advice is to change the settings on your laptop so that the screen saver is inactivate. Then you can control your presentation as you desire.

Also, run your laptop off the power supply and not off batteries during your presentation. Your power saving settings may become active during your presentation which may disrupt your flow.

When to not use PowerPoint

Have you ever wondered about whether to use PowerPoint, or not, for your presentation? What criteria do you use to help you decide?

Today I presented a speech, and decided to present without slides. Why, you ask? Well, it was a small audience in a conference room, every person received handouts and the audience could easily see the charts I was referring to. Presenting without PowerPoint turned out to be a good decision in this situation. If the audience was over 20 people, then I would have used PowerPoint.

Please post your comments. When do you use PowerPoint, and when not? What helps you decide?

CNN is in the background as I work tonight. My heart goes out to the folk in California affected by the wildfires. 500,000 people evacuated. The magnitude of the disaster is mind-boggling.

More tips for The Pow'Rful Process

Today I had the privilege of critiqueing a number of slideshows. Here are tips that I can share.

1. It's OK to retell another persons story to make a point, as long as you give appropriate credit. A speaker explained his definition of a Paradigm Shift by telling a Stephen Covey story. - Unruly kids and a despondent father are on a train. Fellow passengers get tired of the kids, and tell the father to control the kids. He says "I know they are out of control today, but you see, their mother died this morning, and we don't know what we are going to do without her". Wow. This is still a powerful story although it is not a personal story from the speaker, and many of us have heard it before. It is was appropriate for this setting.

2. Don't put Dilbert cartoons on slides, for at least, but perhaps not limited to the following reasons. It is difficult to read the text from the back of the room. What do you do while your audience is reading the cartoon? Stand and smile? You are forcing audience attention to the cartoon, and taking all attention off you.

3. Find a buddy to video tape your presentation from the back of the room. Then watch it. Can you interpret your tables, charts, processes and data-packed slides from this distance? If you can't then don't expect your audience to. No further comment. (This technique has potential for use as a tool for torture i.e. forcing presenters to endure their own slide shows)

4. Put "before" and "after" photos in juxtaposition. For example, make your left-hand image "This is me at 200 pounds" and your right-hand image "This is me weighing 400 pounds". Displaying both images on the screen at the same time instantly conveys a large portion of your meal, I mean message...

Throwing stones

Have you searched the Internet lately looking for tips and techniques to improve your PowerPoint presentations? I happened to search today and was astonished at the number of sites complaining about bad PowerPoint presentations, but without offering practical advice on how to address the complaints.

We all know (or should know by now!) that excessive text, transitions and special effects on slides nauseates audiences. Yet despite the sites that throw stones at these practises, I did not find many sites advocating principles to avoid these practises. It seems that in cyberspace, as in real life, people find it easier to throw stones than to be part of a solution.

And you? Are you willing to be part of the solution and take the time to learn how to craft slides and present effectively with PowerPoint, or are you one of the stone throwers? I dare you to take up the challenge and be part of the solution with well-thought out slides that communicate effectively.

Lest I fall into my own trap, below are practical tips to reduce the volume of text and special effects on your slides. These are only some of the strategies described in my new book Dodging the Bullet Points:

1. Follow the 10/20/30 Rule from Guy Kawasaki - no more than 10 slides in a 20 minute presentation and no smaller than 30 point font.
2. Replace text with images wherever possible.
3. Do not read your slides to your audience.
4. Less is more. Use only the transitions and special effects that you need to use. No more than what is essential.

That's it. You are now armed to present with Pow'R.

Planning, Preparation and Photos put Power in PowerPoint

Today I presented a speech from the Toastmasters Successful Club series at my home club - CIGNA Lunchtime Toastmasters. This is a scripted speech from Toastmasters International and I took some liberties with the presentation instead of just reading the script.

I created a slideshow for my presentation using, of course, Microsoft PowerPoint. I followed the 5.5 steps laid out in Dodging the Bullet Points because it these are the correct steps to follow when presenting with PowerPoint.

Afterwards, I completed the final 1/2 step of the Pow'Rful process with a review of the presentation. If you follow the results of my research, you know that bullet points and text on slides are bad, bad, bad. Well, not having bullet points or text on your slides forces you to prepare better. You are forced to present your speech because you cannot rely on the slides as a crutch. Ideally, you only have photos on your slides, which means that you speech has to bring the presentation to life. Although powerful supporting props, photos on slides don't communicate your message. You communicate your message.

No text on the slides means that you have to put more planning and preparation into the presentation. The slides take more time to create and you will invest more time rehearsing your presentation.

The payoff for your planning and preparation is huge. Believe me. As I presented today I again experienced the joy of knowing that high-quality photos set the right atmosphere for my message and all eyes were on me because there was so little text for the audience to read. This is also known as a Pow'Rful Presentation.

Bottom line: Look at the slides that you plan to use in your next PowerPoint Presentation. How much text do you have? How can your replace 75% of your text with photos that get your point across? How many bullet points do you have? How can you remove them, while increasing the effectiveness of your communication at the same time with a photograph?

Remember - "Planning, Preparation and Photos put Power in PowerPoint". Not bullet points. Keep on Dodging the Bullet Points, my friends.