Color is a strategic tool, not a decoration

Everyone thinks they like colorful slides, but the presentation creator needs to use color with discipline. The primary role of color is to highlight the differences in types of information. You may want to color one line of a text slide in red because you want to emphasize that point over all others. You may want to use different color bars on a bar graph to distinguish between the categories. Every color should have a purpose. It might be a minor point, but there should be a reason.

Don't decorate!!! Remember added bells and whistles divert the audience from the message your slide is meant to convey.

Below is a powerful use of color. The chart shows that the Ecology Division of the Mud Green Slime Production company doesn't share the Mud Green values. In fact the Ecology Division shares the environmental values of the outside environmental regulators that monitor the company's environmental performance . The slide also shows that the key to better environmental compliance is to "mix the shades of green," that is give the environmental office some training in "mud green" culture and give the other offices some environmental training.

The 40 word rule

Yes it is somewhat arbitrary, but text slides should have 40 words or less, including the title. It is impossible for the audience to listen to you and read your slide with more than 40 words. As a result they will do both poorly.

During my class on presentation techniques it is not uncommon for students to generate all text slides with 70 or 80 words. We edit them down to 40 words without losing content.

Perhaps the key is to recognize that you don't need complete sentences or paragraphs on a text slide. The words on your slide are cues for you to talk about various points. You can amplify each point with your voice. Use your pointer to highlight the bullet point you want to talk about and add the detail with your voice. In other words the text slide is like a table of contents for the audience with much of the detail in your oral presentation.

No cheating! While 40 is a somewhat arbitrary number, every presentation creator needs this discipline.