# Slide Presentations

1. **Create a short URL (bit.ly, tiny.cc, etc.) for your Google Slides presentation that you can easily memorize.**
   * this is so you can walk up to someone else's computer and type in the public URL without logging into Google
2. **No more than six words on a slide. EVER.** There is no presentation so complex that this rule needs to be broken. ( [Seth Godin](http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/01/really_bad_powe.html) )
   * you may actually have to break this rule ... but challenge yourself to stick to this rule
3. **Make one point per slide.** Make your point, allow your audience to digest it, then move on together in sync with them. Several points on a slide inevitably result in your audience moving at a different pace to you, because they can only listen and read for a few short seconds. Why be in conflict with your presentation materials when you don't have to? Give each key message room to breathe. ([Ned Potter](https://www.ned-potter.com/blog/an-alternative-to-seth-godins-5-rules-to-create-amazing-powerpoint-presentations))
4. **No more bullets.** Bullet points ruin slides. They're fine for documents, but you're not making a document in PowerPoint. ([Ned Potter](https://www.ned-potter.com/blog/an-alternative-to-seth-godins-5-rules-to-create-amazing-powerpoint-presentations))
5. **No dissolves, spins or other transitions.**
6. **Use professional stock photo images.** ( [Seth Godin](http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/01/really_bad_powe.html) )
   * don't use low resolution images
   * Make slides that reinforce your words, not repeat them. Create slides that demonstrate, with emotional proof, that what you’re saying is true not just accurate. Talking about pollution in Houston? Instead of giving me four bullet points of EPA data, why not read me the stats but show me a photo of a bunch of dead birds, some smog and even a diseased lung? This is cheating! It’s unfair! It works. ([Seth Godin](http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/01/really_bad_powe.html))
   * [find out where to find royalty free images here](https://benjohansen.gitbook.io/musictech/appendix/software-suggestions#bitmap-photography)
7. **Use big fresh fonts.** Font size 24 is the absolute minimum you should ever use in slides. If you need more you're trying to fit too much on one slide. Either ditch some text or cascade it across two slides. Non-standard fonts (which is to say, fonts which don't appear in the Office Suite) can, if chosen carefully, increase the impact of your presentation. Typography is underrated. ([Ned Potter](https://www.ned-potter.com/blog/an-alternative-to-seth-godins-5-rules-to-create-amazing-powerpoint-presentations))
8. **Don’t hand out print-outs of your slides.** They don’t work without you there.
   * Create a written document. A leave-behind. Put in as many footnotes or details as you like. Then, when you start your presentation, tell the audience that you’re going to give them all the details of your presentation after it’s over, and they don’t have to write down everything you say. Remember, the presentation is to make an emotional sale. The document is the proof that helps the intellectuals in your audience accept the idea that you’ve sold them on emotionally. IMPORTANT: Don’t hand out the written stuff at the beginning! If you do, people will read the memo while you’re talking and ignore you. Instead, your goal is to get them to sit back, trust you and take in the emotional and intellectual points of your presentation. ([Seth Godin](http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/01/really_bad_powe.html))
9. **Make yourself cue cards.** Don’t put them on the screen. Put them in your hand. Now, you can use the cue cards you made to make sure you’re saying what you came to say. ([Seth Godin](http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/01/really_bad_powe.html))
   * also note that I will have a clicker available for your presentation

If you would like some more tips, here are some optional resources:

* David Phillips' [“How to Avoid Death by PowerPoint”](https://baylor.box.com/s/5frz9jbkt1pwov5am0r8icifsmaybxlo)
  * make headings small because larger fonts draw eyes away from the content of the page
* Gary Chapman's ["Thoughts on Using PowerPoint Effectively"](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/thoughts-using-powerpoint-effectively-etuokwu-ifeanyi-julian)
* [The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs](http://bearcat.baylor.edu/record=b3530150~S10) by Carmine Callo
