What Are the Key Elements of a PowerPoint Presentation?

• Microsoft PowerPoint, the slideshow and presentation component of the Microsoft Office Suite, offers a way for people to assemble and broadcast information to an audience filling a board room, watching from across the country or reading from printed handouts. PowerPoint's traditional slide-by-slide format translates to information being "chunked" into pieces and placed in order to tell a story or show a logical flow of information.

Text

• While it's possible to do an entire PowerPoint presentation without text or words, it is unlikely. Almost every PowerPoint slide template sets up the presenter with text boxes, such as titles, bullets and subtitles. Text will take up the largest percentage of "real estate" on most slides, providing information ranging from anything such as annual report sales data to information on how employees can best perform their jobs. Text on a PowerPoint slide may be short phrases in bullet form, a long paragraph, captions under an image or a combination. Just as if a presenter was reading from index cards on a dais, PowerPoint offers a way to streamline pesky cards and get the words on the screen.

Graphics

• There are no hard and fast rules about how much text to put on a slide, but to give audience members a visual break, elements of graphics are ideal. Illustrating slide points and data with options such as photographs and charts breaks up the heavy text and reinforces the information. Giving the audience a quick view of a pie chart, for example, may help them understand the 10 slides about where a company has spent its money over the past quarter. PowerPoint offers a collection of in-program stock art called clip art, including professional photographs and sketch-like images.

Formatting

• Formatting a PowerPoint presentation is essential. Transforming the slideshow from a collection of words and pictures on a screen to a fluid, branded presentation may seem overwhelming, but taking advantage of PowerPoint's formatting options makes it quick. Give all the slides a common background by using the software's slide master. Formatting the background once in the slide master (such as adding a texture or a company logo) allows you to change all of the slides one time instead of touching each one individually, leaving room for error. Slides should also be formatted for best audience accessibility. Increase text size so it fills up the slide, improving readability for people even in the back of the room. Format the colors of the slides so they make reading easier (dark text on a light background, for example) instead of competing with each other.