Whenever someone opens slideshows during events or online meetings, my mind goes “Oh no! Another presentation. I am going to be bored to death.”

I always believe slideshows should complement the speaker. However, the majority of the time it has become a distraction. So, I revisited a few presentation videos of Steve Jobs(I am a big fan of his presentations) to study what made his speech outstanding.

Here are a few points that can help prepare your slideshows

Plan

In your presentation, you should know what you intend to say. Your presentation should have a takeaway for your audience. So, visualize the journey and outline the presentation before trying to put together slides.

Many love story tellers. So, script your presentation to follow a screenplay with start, middle and climax. Your audience should enjoy the current slide and at the same time they should be eager to know what comes next.

Simplicity

Have very minimal words on your slide. When you display four bullet points, the attendees tend to read that first and wait for you to complete what have you to say.

So, make sure to display one simple title or word in your slide. The audience should know what you are conveying at that moment. The slide should help the flow of information to your attendees.

Avoid Paragraphs

This is a big no-no. People have come to listen to what you have to say. Not, to read the slides. Save the notes for yourself and not to be displayed on the screen,. Many software have notes to be displayed only to the presenter.

Simple facts or Big graphics with minimal display is what will be preferred.

Design

Pay attention to the design of the slides. Avoid dressing up your presentation with flashy themes and fonts. As mentioned earlier, stick to simple design.

Things to focus on design are fonts, images, alignment, colors and background.

Remember slides are part of the presentation and not the main part. The focus should be on you and the content. They have come to listen to you and gain something at the end.

The aim of your slideshows should be to support your statements not steal the center of attention.