PowerPoint Skills to Pay the Bills

Neville Hobson recently had an informative post on using PowerPoint more effectively. Hobson is right in stating that using a PowerPoint presentation effectively is one of the things many business people just don’t do well. I agree, and I’m sure anyone who’s given or sat through a painful presentation will too.
Of all the useful tips, I think the best on the list are Keep it Simple and Less is More:

• Keep it simple. Use the Coherence Principle to remind you that jamming every fact you can find into a presentation does not make it more persuasive and can actually dilute and subvert your message.
• Less is more. Less text makes your point more sharply. Less animation and fewer transitions keep your audience�s attention focused on the substance so that when you do use animation appropriately to accentuate important points, the points are actually emphasized rather than lost in the flash.

Utilize PowerPoint as a tool for your presentation, not as your primary means of communicating with your. If your presentation has substance, simple points emphasized with PowerPoint will resonate more clearly with the audience.