• Overview
• Learning Materials
  • Creating a PowerPoint File
    • Open A New Document
    • Choose and Apply a Design
    • Add New Slides
    • Select and Apply Slide Templates
    • Add Text To Slides
    • Use Text Effectively
    • Insert Objects Onto a Slide
    • Insert a Picture Onto a Slide
    • Add A Chart To A Slide
    • Add A Table To A Slide
    • Use Content Effectively
    • Draw On Slides
    • Add Notes To A Slide
    • Add Slide Transitions
    • Add Animation to Text and Objects
    • Use Movement Effectively
    • Add Hyperlinks to a Slide
    • Add Action Buttons
    • Use Links Effectively
    • Add Narration to a Presentation
  • Delivering a Presentation
  • Distributing a Presentation
• What's Next
• Index

Use Text Effectively

Don’t overload slides! One of the biggest design mistakes made is including too much text on a presentation slide.

The purpose of a slide in a presentation should be to give your audience the most important points of information. The purpose of a slide should NOT be to give detailed information or complete sentences, nor should a slide be used as a set of lecture notes for the instructor. If you need to deliver a lot of text content, consider using Notes Pages or another form of document handout.

Use the Rule of Sixes. According to the “rule of sixes” effective presentation slides should include no more than six bullets per slide and no more than six words per line. These, of course, are rules of thumb, but if your slides routinely have ten bullets or your font size falls below 18 point, your presentation is probably not as effective as it could be.

Choose fonts for legibility. San serif fonts, like Ariel and Helvitica, read better on screen. Don't use a font size smaller than 18 point.

Try the floor test. The “floor test” is an informal way to check the readability of slides. Print out a slide page and place it on the floor at your feet. Is everything legible? Does each point stand out?

Use text formatting to support information hierarchy. Format text consistently from slide to slide and in a way that supports the hierarchy of your information. For example, slide titles should be in the largest font used. Sub-bullets should be in a smaller font size than main bullets.