Business And Microsoft^® PowerPoint^®
Go Hand In Hand

It’s tough to do business today without having someone in the organization that is really good at creating PowerPoint presentations. Learn how to effectively create a PowerPoint presentation and you’ll always have a job.

The University of Chicago agrees. They recently started requiring all of their MBA applicants to create a PowerPoint presentation as part of their applications. Knowing how important it is for business students to know how to create a PowerPoint presentation, more schools will likely jump on that bandwagon.

So if MBA students today have to create PowerPoint presentations just to get into school, MBA grads entering the job market three years from now will either raise the bar for PowerPoint presentations in the workplace or they’ll spend a majority of their days wondering how the CEO of the company got to where he is without being able to create a PowerPoint presentation worthy of his title.

Either way, it’s time for the business world to start taking some PowerPoint lessons. Enroll in a class. Do the free PowerPoint tutorials that come with the product. Find free PowerPoint lessons online. There are so many ways to learn how to create professional PowerPoint presentations.

While it is easy to learn PowerPoint, it’s no longer acceptable to have just a basic knowledge of PowerPoint. PowerPoint presentations created by a beginning user are often dull and disorganized. It often becomes apparent that the speaker spent more time trying to create a PowerPoint presentation than practicing the delivery.

A stellar PowerPoint presentation, ironically, goes almost unnoticed. An individual who can efficiently create a PowerPoint presentation has time to practice her delivery so she won’t spend the entire presentation simply reading PowerPoint slides.

When a person takes the time to really learn PowerPoint, she can create a PowerPoint presentation that looks professional and captures the audience’s attention. Rather than focusing on poor graphics or clumsy use of PowerPoint slides, the audience hears the content of the PowerPoint presentation.

Here are some do’s and don’ts to consider when creating PowerPoint presentations for business:

Don’t use a different transition on every slide—It might be fun to show what you learned in your first two free PowerPoint lessons. However, adding different transitions throughout your PowerPoint presentation is, at best, distracting. At worst, dizzying. So, to avoid annoying your audience, use transitions sparingly when creating PowerPoint presentations.

Don’t try to be too creative with font size and type—When creating PowerPoint presentations, you might be tempted to use the mediocre font design tools. Unless you’re an optometrist hoping to drum up some business when people can’t read your slides, please refrain.

Don’t type your speech into PowerPoint word-for-word—Consider this job security. If you can create a PowerPoint presentation that says what you have to say better than you can say it yourself, why would the audience need you? It’s always more captivating to hear it from your mouth.

Don’t throw pictures in just to have pictures—Pictures are a great way to augment your PowerPoint presentation. But, don’t put an outline of a fish jumping out of water just because you went fishing yesterday. Pictures that don’t add to your PowerPoint presentation detract from your PowerPoint presentation.

Don’t overuse silly-looking bullets—It seems the free PowerPoint tutorials brainwash people into thinking that using arrows as bullets is cool. It’s not.

Don’t try to squeeze 50 words onto one slide—When creating PowerPoint presentations, less is more. The less the audience has to read, the more they will like you.

Do use short sentences—Create a PowerPoint presentation using short sentences or, better yet, phrases. Your job as the presenter is to fill in the details.

Do use font colors and sizes that are legible—Why create a PowerPoint presentation that no one can read?

Do use basic shapes rather than arrows as bullets—Basic shapes like squares, circles, and lines work really well as bullet points. No matter what you learn in your free PowerPoint tutorial, stick with what works.

Do practice your presentation—Creating PowerPoint presentations does not excuse anyone from practicing their delivery. Respect your audience. Practice your speech.

Do check your spelling—This should go without saying, but when you create a PowerPoint presentation, please use the spell-check function.

Do create a custom background if possible—Templates are great, but they get old. If you can create a custom design or hire a designer to create a PowerPoint presentation for you, you can reuse the graphics when you create PowerPoint presentations yourself.

Do use images and pictures when applicable to the content—When used appropriately, pictures and images can help you make your point. Search online for free PowerPoint lessons on how to effectively use pictures in your presentations.

Those are just a few pieces of advice to consider when creating PowerPoint presentations. There are free PowerPoint tutorials and inexpensive or free PowerPoint lessons online. Take advantage of these now and start creating PowerPoint presentations that will impress any audience … as well as the MBA grads you’ll soon be working with!