Microsoft created Word and PowerPoint for a reason. A Word document and a PowerPoint presentation are not the same thing.
They serve two different purposes!
And yet, every day, I see people making their slides as packed and dense as any report or standard operating procedures.
It’s a bad practice.
You force the audience to choose. The audience will either listen to you and forget the slide, or—what is more likely—they will start reading the slide. And when they start reading, you have another problem and it is one that you cannot control.
People will not look at the same things at the same time. They will be all over the place while you continue speaking. Some people will look at the images or graphs; some will start reading the text; some fast readers will be on the fourth point while you are still talking about the first point.
And people cannot read one thing and listen well to another at the same time.
Keep the slides in your PowerPoint presentation simple!
For most slides, the audience should be able to grasp the message in a few seconds and then get back to you. The slide should support what you are saying.
Can your PowerPoint presentation occasionally have a complex slide?
Yes.
🔹 If you want to show a complex slide to convey the idea that something is complex (a manufacturing process, for example) without going into the details, that is fine. Just make it clear to the audience that the purpose of the slide is to give a general impression of the subject, not the details.
🔹 If you intend to go through the slide then (a) bring elements in one by one with a simple animation to keep the audience with you, (b) interact with the slide and (c) spend the necessary time on the slide.
Remember, a PowerPoint presentation should be used to support what you are saying. The audience should be able to understand most slides in three or four seconds and then get back to listening to you.
