Today I want to focus on the content, or the visible slides of your deck, for your presentation.  Here are some dos and don’ts for your deck presentation.

First let’s cover the don’ts:

• Don’t use a font any smaller than 24 pt. Having too many words is really boring;
• Don’t read from the slide. Most people can read the slide, really boring;
• Don’t have more than two to three lines on any one paragraph. Having too many words is really boring;
• Don’t have all written slides. You may want to add a picture or two. Pictures always tell a story. Words are really boring; and
• Don’t have too many slides in your deck. If you know your content, then you can talk through the slides with pictures.

Now, let’s talk about the dos:

• Use animation as a background when appropriate. Find a training video on YouTube;
• You may want to incorporate feedback through a couple of questions. The website, slido.com, has a free, three-question format that’s in real time, that your audience can access from their phone to answer your questions. I find most people want to give you feedback. Find a training video on YouTube;
• I’ve added several great slides to my PowerPoint through the “morph” setting, which is under the “transitions” tab. It takes some work, but is well worth it. Find a training video on YouTube;
• I use the Logitech “spotlight” to advance each slide. This is more than a pointer and/or slide advancer. When used correctly, you can set any slide to advance to any other slide based on the Q&A portion of the presentation. Find a training video on YouTube; and
• Under the same “transitions” tab, I also use the “wipe” setting to go to the next slide. This allows you to show what looks like a long slide on your presentation, without a page turn. It’s really seamless. I would usually cut a picture in half, and show each half on both slides, which makes it look like a continuous page during the presentation. Again, find a training video on YouTube.

I’ll end this with the most important advice I know to give you on presenting over the web:

• Be engaging;
• Be yourself;
• Practice, practice, practice; and
• Everyone’s hearing you, but are they listening?

As always…

My two cents.