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Before getting into specific Power Point tips, let's cover some basics on making a presentation--Power Point or not:

1. Your goal is to communicate. It is not to show off how much clip art you can cut and paste or how much text you can cram into a slide. Use only 2 to 4 fonts, maximum. Go easy on the colors.
2. Limit all slides to about 5 lines of text--use slides to accent, not document, your presentation.  Less is more.
3. The Prime Directive: Keep It Short and Simple. Try to pace yourself at 3 minutes per slide.
4. Don't read your slides to the audience. This insults them. And bores them. And makes you look bad.

See our course: How to Give a Winning Presentation

Power Point Tip #1
Power Point does organizational charts. However, this does not mean you should make a mondo chart that shows every unrelated position in your company just because PowerPoint allows you to do so. Keep the chart minimal in size and scope, so people don't have to strain to read it.

Power Point Tip #2
Use graphs to show trends. Make your graphs clutter-free for maximum impact. Go for the "clean" look.

Power Point Tip #3
Power Point has a huge clipart gallery. Ignore it. Everyone else is using this same boring clip art.

Power Point Tip #4
Power Point has different "views" to allow you to check your work. It pays to become familiar with these. Outline view is a good place from which to plan your overall presentation. Once you have your main ideas in place, you may find it easiest to work from the Slide Sorter View.

Power Point Tip #5
Feel free to experiment with Power Point--the undo button keeps screwups from being permanent until you save.

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Power Point Templates

See the selection of free Powerpoint templates, backgrounds and artwork at
http://presentationtree.com/freetemplates.php

Power Point Tip #6
When editing text in Power Point, remember that text is not "text characters" (as in Word 97), but "text objects."  When you format the object, you format all the "text" in it.  Ditto for moving, copying, and deleting.   However, you can edit and insert inside an object. Just watch where the object handlers and your cursor are.

Power Point Tip #7
You can specify line and paragraph spacing in Power Point the same way you do in Word. Highlight the text you want to format and select the Format drop down menu.

Power Point Tip #8
You can add texture to objects. Use the Format drop down menu.

Power Point Tip #9
Don't forget Power Point's text tools: Find, Replace, Spelling, and AutoCorrect. You can also replace fonts globally.  Power Point has a Style Checker to help you put the final polish on your presentation.

Power Point Tip #10
You may wish to add special effects, but do so without getting carried away. You can use slide transitions (people like these), animation (the order in which, and the manner in which objects appear on the slide), and sound effects. Check out the action settings dialog box in the Slide Show drop down settings.

Power Point Tip #11
Action buttons allow you to move easily from one slide to another, start and stop music, or perform some other function with one click.

Power Point Tip #12
Media clips, video clips, and animated charts can add pizzazz, as long as you don't try to use these features as substitutes for good content.

Power Point Tip #13
You can try out a slide show, and even hide slides to see what your presentation will be like without them. Try the options in the Slide Show drop down menu.

Power Point Tip #14
You can turn your screen black at any time during a presentation. To do so, Go to the Pointer Popup menu, and select Screen then Black Screen.  You can even use the pen tool to write on the black screen.

Power Point Tip #15
You can use other applications to build your Power Point content (e.g., a Word outline, an Power Point chart, etc.)

MY BEST Power Point Tip:

Buy a book on Power Point or Microsoft Office. You can find books and tapes by clicking on the software link at the top of this page. This tip is not a cheap sales trick. The reason I suggest you buy a book is I could list at least 1500 Power Point tips and the Internet is just is not the format for that. The capabilities of this program go far beyond what those unfamiliar with it could dream of. It is truly a masterpiece of a program.