Guidelines for Using Slideshow in Your Presentations
Slideshow presentations often accompany oral presentations. The presentation aid can help with speech organization and delivery, but only when designed and delivered effectively. Remember, the slideshow should complement your speech content. Below are some guidelines to help you use slideshows effectively.
- Set aside some time to prepare your slides and to look at the options available to you. You can incorporate different backgrounds, fonts, layouts, graphs, clip arts, transitions between slides and sound effects into you slides. Take time to play with the options until you feel comfortable with them. Be intentional with your selections. Avoid features that are too distracting, noisy, or difficult to read. For example, spinning text on a slide can distract your audience when it is displayed too long.
- Get some practice setting up you slideshow on the classroom computer. Speak to your professor about access to the classroom for your practice session. The Speaking and Writing Center also offers spaces to rehearse your speech. The spaces are equipped with a computer and presentation clicker to help with your practice run. Having a slideshow presentation and knowing how to use it are two different things.
- Come a few minutes early the day of your presentation to make sure that all the equipment you need and have reserved ahead of time are in good working order. For example, if your slideshow has audio or video, make sure everything runs properly and can be heard throughout the room. Having the equipment, knowing that it works and knowing how it works are three different things. You need to do all three when giving your presentation.
- It’s good idea to send a digital copy of your slides to yourself, but this shouldn’t be your only plan. The system may be slow or it may be down. If there is a problem have a plan to fall back on. Some examples include a flash drive, a personal computer with appropriate cord, and printouts of your slides.
- Do not include too many slides. Remember this rule: There must be an optimal balance between using it merely as a backdrop on the one hand, and letting the slides overwhelm your entire presentation. I have seen instances where students merely used it as a backdrop, and worse yet, assume that the audience understands it merely because it is there. Refer to it when you use it, but don’t read directly word for word from your overhead. Another related problem is that of using slides as a substitute for verbal transition between ideas. Just because the new slide has a title, don’t just assume that reading the title constitutes a smooth transition into a new idea.
- You also need to think of not overwhelming the audience with too many visuals, words and sounds. Each slide should contain one main idea, with bullet points, rather than full sentences on the slide. A nice transition between slides helps to increase the look of professionalism, but when it gets overdone with sounds that are irrelevant and noisy, the effect is distracting. You want the slides to enhance, rather than hinder the audience’s comprehension of your main points. To achieve this goal, you may want to limit the number of slides to around five for six for a ten minute speech. Hamilton (1996) suggests this rule of thumb for the maximum number of slides: Length of speech/2 +1=Maximum number.
- Feel free to incorporate other forms of visual aides too. Just because a slideshow presentation is required for the class, it may not preempt you from using other presentation aids, such as artifacts or the white/blackboard (confirm with your instructor). Research shows that in educational settings use of different forms of audio visuals enhance retention. Again, think of a balance between using only one form of presentation aid and many forms. You don’t want to distract, but you do want to create visual and sensory interest.
- In summary, play with, experiment, enjoy slideshow and practice giving it using different formats. Every speech is different, so what’s right for one speech, speaker and audience may not be the best for another.
Remember to also check with your instructor to confirm the slideshow requirements for your assignment.