10 Rules for Smart-Looking Presentations

Mom always said not to judge a book by its cover, but the fact remains that most folks are going to judge the quality of your presentation by the quality of your visuals. If you can't assemble a great PowerPoint slideshow, your employees, partners, or investors will get hung up on graphical glitches and pay little attention to what you're saying.

You don't have to be Picasso with PowerPoint, but knowing some basic design rules will definitely help. For the most part, all the important rules follow from the two key principles of consistency (from slide to slide and across your text and graphics) and readability (so it's easy on the eyes no matter where in the room someone is sitting).

Recently, I ran across this excellent set of PowerPoint tips on SlideShare:

• Use thicker lines for visibility
• Use the same line width everywhere in your presentation or it looks like a ransom note
• Use shapes instead of lines for readability and visual interest
• Line everything up on a grid
• Use size to convey importance; don't vary box sizes just to accommodate larger text labels
• Don't spam the slide with lots of different graphic styles
• Don't use more than three unique colors
• Use primary colors
• Use bright backgrounds -- don't put text or graphics against grey or black
• Don't use very similar colors -- they all look the same on a projector

• For Winning Presentations, Be Steve Jobs, Not Mark Zuckerberg
• Improve Your PowerPoint Presentations, Reduce Complexity the Army Way
• 5 Ways to Build a Better PowerPoint Presentation

Dave Johnson

View all articles by Dave Johnson on CBS MoneyWatch »
Dave Johnson is editor of eHow Tech and author of three dozen books, including the best-selling How to Do Everything with Your Digital Camera. Dave has previously worked at Microsoft and has written about technology for a long list of magazines that include PC World and Wired.

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