subject: 10 Common Powerpoint Mistakes That Hinder A Great Presentation [print this page] When you stepped into the meeting room, the light is dimmed, the audience is silent, the only sound you can hear is your speaking and clicks, have you expected what would happen next? The audiences start nodding, meditating and praying? No, they are sleeping! Do you want to see this take place? Then you need to be know of such 10 common PowerPoint mistakes to make a great PowerPoint presentation.
PowerPoint mistake 1: Bad knowledge on your topic
It would be ashamed when some audience asked you a question however, you don't know the answer. Therefore make sure you are really completely ready before you go. Use key words and phrases and include only important information to help keep the audience focused and interested.
PowerPoint mistake 2: Poor fonts choices
You should always keep in mind the "easy to read" rule. The font size would be better if big enough for a large group of people to see clearly, therefore it ought to be at least 24. Use easy reading fonts like Arial and New Times Roman for the slides and remember to embed the fonts you used in PowerPoint file.
PowerPoint mistake 3: Using the wrong background
A background having too many colours would distract the audience's attention. Therefore it is a good idea to limit the colours and be aware of the contrast of text on the background.
PowerPoint mistake 4: The slides are not your presentation
You need not to write all of the information on the PowerPoint slides and read word by word. You should only write the bullets for the essential ideas on the slides and explain it in detail during presentation.
PowerPoint mistake 5: Too much information
Sometimes you might feel it's hard to explain one thing clearly, so that you might jump here and there to talk about all you learn about it. However the audience could get puzzled. The proper thing needs to be using no more than 4 points to explain one topic so that the audience might follow up.
PowerPoint mistake 6: Annoying animations and sound effect
A PowerPoint without any animation or audio effect could be boring, but on the other hand, too many would distract the audience's attention. Design your presentation with the " less is more" philosophy. Don't let your audience suffer from animation overload.
PowerPoint mistake 7: Too many slides
Generally it could be better if you give info as detailed as possible. But for a PowerPoint presentation, period is fixed which means you have to be concise on the topic. A PowerPoint presentation with 10 - 12 slides would be the best.
PowerPoint mistake 8: Spelling and grammar check
Do not make this "simple" error. You need to check the spelling and grammar while you are making the PowerPoint files. Pay attention to the name and professional nouns for they may have uncommon spellings.
PowerPoint mistake 9: Hardware malfunctions
Due to the various PowerPoint versions, the PowerPoint you made could not play in the conference room or some effects might be dropped. An easier way is to make a video version as backup. Use Moyea PPT to Video Converter to save your PowerPoint presentation as video while keeping all the original elements.
PowerPoint mistake 10: Where is the audience?
It is best to remember your audience throughout presentation. Take full control of your audience so that they should concentrate their own attention on YOU not the PowerPoint. Therefore control your voice, say clearly, loudly and not too fast. The most crucial is that speak to your audience, not the screen!
