I’ve studied several philosophies regarding PowerPoint presentations. There are extremists who teach a slide should have no more three words. (Really) Some say a slide should never, ever include data that could be given as a handout. There are entertainers who believe every presentation should be an animated production comparable to Fantasia.

Forget it. If you are in a corporate environment and are expected to present quarterly results, you present quarterly results. You can’t turn a quarterly report into a blockbuster video—-well, you could, but is that really necessary?

Your presentation should look good. It should follow a general look appropriate to the situation.

Most importantly, your audience should get the point of each and every slide within a second or two of seeing it. Period. If your audience must read a long paragraph, digest a dozen bullet points or interpret a graph with a hundred data points, you need to simplify the slide.

The point of PowerPoint is to get your point across. Right?

Chris Reich, Author of TeachU’s Business Talk Blog
Chris@TeachU.com