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10 Tips for Effective Slide Presentations

Research requires communication. In addition to publication of papers in journals, a frequently used form of communication is an oral presentation illustrated with graphs or figures, usually made at conferences and scientific meetings, to funding agencies, at departmental reviews, or when teaching a subject.

Today, oral presentations rarely involve the use of blackboards/whiteboards or diagrams drawn by the speaker with chalk or marker. Presentations are made using overhead transparencies, 35-mm slides, or shown directly as computer screen presentations. The most common software used for making slides, for either a 35-mm or an on-screen presentation, are Microsoft PowerPoint and Harvard Graphics.

To keep the audience engrossed in the presentation, it is important to make slides that are visually attractive, easy to read and understand, and effective in helping the speaker drive home his/her message to the audience. In this article, you will learn 10 tips for slide presentation. These tips will help you to create effective slides and avoid the mistakes usually made while preparing them.

Carefully select the font and its style to improve legibility

Font selection: When selecting a font for the text on your slides, it is preferable to choose a non-serif font. This will improve the legibility of your slide, particularly for audience members seated at a distance.

Fonts can be broadly divided into 2 types: serif and non-serif. Serif fonts have small details at the end of the strokes that make up the letters. Examples of serif fonts are Garamond, Times New Roman, and Courier. Non-serif or sans-serif fonts do not have those details and hence have a cleaner appearance. Examples of non-serif fonts are Arial, Helvetica, and Verdana.

When selecting a font for a slide presentation, it is better to choose a non-serif font as it appears more legible from a distance and makes it easier for the viewer to read the slide.

Create a clear slide	Written in Verdana, 18-point size
Create a clear slide	Written in Garamond, 18-point size

As you can see from the above example, text made with a non-serif font in a large point size appears more legible. This difference is enhanced in on-screen presentations.

Font size: Avoid the temptation of using a small font size to accommodate a lot of information on a single slide. There is no point in putting information on a slide when your audience is unable to read it. Remember the following points for font size:

a.	The heading should be in a larger point size than the main body of the text (usually between 40–46 points).
b.	The font size of the main body of the text should be 28–34 points. A smaller font size could be used if essential, but avoid using fonts smaller than 24 points.

Choose system fonts: When the slides will be used for an on-screen presentation, it is preferable to select a "system" font for the text. This is particularly important if the presentation will be made using a different computer from the one used for creating the presentation. If the computer used for the presentation does not have the same fonts as the one on which the presentation was created, the text may appear distorted when presented.

Font style: Multiple font styles such as bold font, underlining, or italics are confusing to the viewer when used simultaneously on the same slide. Use only one of these text styles to highlight the most important fact on a slide.

Make text brief and precise for greater effectiveness

When the main body of the slide is being created, the following points need to be kept in mind while writing the text. This will make for a more effective presentation.

	When writing the text on each slide, remember not to write entirely in capital letters as viewers take longer to read such sentences. Use either sentence case (only the first letter in the sentence is capitalized) or title case (the first letter of each word is capitalized, except for joining words like conjunctions and prepositions).
	Avoid abbreviations unless the abbreviation used is standard and you are sure your audience will understand it perfectly the first time it is used.
	Avoid punctuation. Slides are used in a presentation to reinforce or highlight or illustrate what you say. It is permissible therefore, to omit punctuation marks from the text.
	Use phrases not sentences. As a follow up of the previous point, remember that it is permissible to use a short phrase rather than a complete sentence. For example, instead of writing "After the transplant, the patient was biopsied at weekly intervals" you could just write "Weekly biopsy post-transplant."
	Be brief. In an oral presentation, unlike in a printed paper, you do not have to provide a detailed description of the experimental methods.
	Put only salient points on the slide. You should not "read off" a slide while making a presentation. Neither should your audience. The slide should contain, point-wise, just enough information for the audience to use as a focus and memory guide, while they listen to you elaborate on the topic.
	Prepare slides specifically for the presentation. Slides prepared by scanning or photocopying a printed document are usually not legible enough (font size is too small) and often not effective enough for an oral presentation.

Design your slides to be clear and legible to even the furthest viewer

When preparing slides for a presentation, always remember that the room where you will be making the presentation will be big. Maybe even very big! As a result, the audience at the back of the room will have difficulty viewing your slides, unless you have taken the trouble to make your slides for the back benchers.

You can make slides that are clear to even the remotest viewer in the room by following the points below:

	Restrict the number of lines per slide: not more than 6–8 lines.
	Restrict the number of words per line: not more than 7 words.
	Leave adequate space between lines: please remember that too much space is as bad as too little. Leave enough space to make it easy for the slide to be read at a distance.
	Use subheadings wisely: while it is important to break up the information into manageable portions, too many bullet points or subheadings on one slide can make it visually confusing. It would be better in such cases to make separate slides for each subtopic.

Do not fall off the edge

A common mistake made by a person preparing a slide presentation is to think that the projected slides will look the same as they do on the computer screen while being prepared. But this is not the case. You must keep the following points in mind:

	When a slide is projected, it gets stretched, particularly at the edges, as the width of projection screens is typically greater than the height. Information too close to the edge of the slide can get distorted by this stretching. Remember, therefore, to leave a clear margin of at least 2 cm around the text and title on each slide.
	The bottom one-third of the slide is often not visible to the people at the rear, so try to leave the lower one-third of the slide free.
	Although they look square after mounting (50 × 50 mm), 35-mm slides are actually longer (36.3 mm) than they are wider (24.5 mm). Your slides will, therefore, look better if they are horizontally oriented.

Use restraint when using color

Slides form the visual component of your talk and serve to focus the viewer's attention on the topic. Your slides must be not only legible, clear, and concise but also visually appealing. An important factor for this is your choice of color. Keep the following points in mind in order to use color effectively:

	Do not use too many colors, especially for the text component. Do not use more than 3 colors on any one slide.
	Use contrasting colors to enhance text legibility: a light colored text (white/yellow) on a dark background (blue/green) is very effective.
	Try to avoid using multi-colored or shaded backgrounds. Although they look pretty, they can interfere with text legibility.
	Do not use red letters on a green background (or vice versa); red-green color blindness is fairly common.

Standardize your slides to make your presentation more viewer-friendly

As you make your presentation, you will keep moving from one slide to the following one. The audience has to adapt to the changes in information from one slide to the next within a short span of 1–2 minutes per slide. It becomes even more difficult and confusing for them if, in addition to changing information, they also have to take in changes in the design of the slide. It is much easier to standardize the appearance of your slides if you use a template. Some software programs have the facility of creating a customized template using a slide master which sets the font and design format for the entire presentation.

A standardized slide is less confusing for the audience, as

	the title is located in the same place, is in the same font and same case, and is the same size in all slides
	the text is in the same font, in the same size, has the same type of bullets, and is formatted in the same way in all slides
	all slides have the same background
	the logo or other design is the same and is located in the same place in all slides

Use appropriate graphs and figures to illustrate your talk

All presentations have illustrations. These may be photographs or photomicrographs, graphs, tables, or other figures. They serve the purpose of conveying your data to the audience in a way that is easier to grasp than multiple lines of text. Keep the following points in mind when preparing figures and graphs:

	Illustrate your presentation liberally: figures, graphs, and photographs convey more information, more easily.
	Choose the appropriate graph for the data.
	Do not let the graph or figure reach the very edge of the slide: see point 4 above. If necessary, make 2 graphs or figures.
	Do not put too much data on one slide: it will be confusing for the audience. Also, since you will probably use a smaller font size to get all the data in, it will not be clearly visible to the people at the back.
	Restrict yourself to not more than 2 graphs or figures per slide.
	Keep legends concise. You will be explaining the graphs or summarizing the tables in your talk, so keep the legends brief.
	Avoid using graphs drawn for journal publication: they appear unclear and the text is usually not legible. Like text slides, graphs or figures should be created specifically for use in an oral presentation.

Ensure that your photographs are in focus, correctly magnified, and easy to understand

If you plan on illustrating your talk with photographs or photomicrographs, you must remember to do the following:

	Make sure the photograph shows exactly what you are going to be referring to in what you say. For example, if you are talking about the Sumatran orangutan, but your photograph shows only a forest (no orangutan), your audience will be so busy searching for an orangutan in the photograph that they will not pay any attention to what you are saying!
	When using photomicrographs, make sure the correct magnification has been selected.
	Try to put the feature you want to show close to the center of the slide, so your audience doesn't have to spend time searching for the feature.

Do not neglect the first and last slide

The first and last slides of your talk are often prepared cursorily, as the researcher feels they do not contain any "important" information, unlike the rest of the talk. Nothing could be more wrong than this assumption!

The first slide is the title slide. It informs the audience about the topic of the presentation and lets them know who were the people who worked on this project, and where they did the research. When making this slide, you should

	Spend a little time and create a crisp, informative title for your presentation.
	Use a large font size, i.e., 44–48 points.
	Write the names of the researchers who worked on this project, in a smaller font size (40–44 points), usually below the title. You can, of course, play around with the positions of the title and names relative to each other, depending on how you choose to design the slide.
	Write the name of the institute(s) where the research was conducted below the researchers' names.
	Place logos or other design items appropriately.
The last slide of your talk should not be neglected. A punchy last slide leaves your audience alert and interested, ready to ask questions and contribute to an exciting discussion session. You can make your last slide a strong one, by mentioning the single most important fact you have discovered, by suggesting a new direction for future research, or by highlighting a controversial fact you have uncovered. You could also choose to go with a conventional, low-key last slide. Conventional closing slides
	Just say "Thank-you!"
	Provide a list of references.
	Provide a list of collaborators.
	Are used for "Acknowledgements," where the speaker acknowledges advice/guidance from colleagues, funding agencies, or institutional support.

10.

Remember to check the following before an oral presentation

The delivery of the presentation is as important as the creation of the slides. A little time spent in checking the following points helps you avoid common mistakes and increases the effectiveness of your presentation.

	Proofread your slides carefully. Get a colleague to proofread them as well; they may pick up mistakes that you have overlooked.
	Check the order of your slides. Make sure the slides are arranged in the correct order, so that the sequence in the slideshow matches what you are saying.
	Always preview your talk at the venue. This is especially important if 35-mm slides are being used. When you preview your talk at the venue you will know how clear your slides are to the audience at the rear, whether your 35-mm slides have been inserted in the carousel the right way up, and whether the person projecting your slide understands your cue requesting the next slide.
	Rehearse your talk repeatedly. A well-rehearsed talk flows smoothly, without any stops or "errs…" from the speaker. After you have rehearsed with your peers, you should try and rehearse with a person who is NOT an expert in your field, as this will help you judge how clearly and effectively you have made your presentation.

Conclusion

Oral presentations are a very effective way of communication, used frequently by researchers to present their work. They are usually supplemented by visual aids in the form of 35-mm slides or on-screen computer slide shows. Care needs to be taken to make the slides both visually appealing and informative in order to keep the audience's interest alive.

Badly made slides, which are visually dull, in which the text or illustrations are not legible to the audience, or which contain too much information to be easily understood can easily ruin a talk which is otherwise excellent. The points covered in this article will help researchers create good slides to supplement and reinforce their oral presentations.

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