boring presentation 101

What Makes a Good Presentation? How to Make a PowerPoint 101

Clémence Daniere

Table of contents

How to create a powerpoint presentation, presentation tips and tricks.

• Create a Video to Share Your Slides After Your Presentation 

Subscribe to TechSmith’s Newsletter

Microsoft PowerPoint, Google Slides, and other slide presentations have become an absolutely essential part of any presentation.

They’re easy to use, offer a great way to combine images, video, and text, and require almost no training.

So, why are so many presentations so boring?

All the elements are there for creating effective, eye-catching, and engaging presentations, but so often we’re forced to sit through slide after slide of overcrowded, hard-to-read text and fuzzy (or non-existent) images.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to make your presentations dazzle with just a few easy tips.

Your slide deck has the power to add to or take away from the overall effectiveness of your presentation. Learning how to make a presentation more interesting requires skillful collaboration between the strength of your content and knowing how to make your slides look good. 

So, before you open PowerPoint, let’s go through some basics.

Less is more

Less is more with slide content.  

Your slides should not be stuffed with content, especially text-heavy content. Incorporating bullet points helps your audience follow your message without getting distracted by trying to read the slide.

Use engaging slide designs

You don’t have to start from scratch with every presentation! Chances are, you are not a graphic designer so why not use the templates that have been created by professionals ? 

Using presentation templates can help you make PowerPoint slides, Google slides, or slides for other platforms as well without spending too much time trying to create a professional look. 

You can easily find templates online through Slidesgo and Slidescarnival for Google Slides and for PowerPoint. Each of these platforms offers themes within their software as well. 

All you’ll need to do is make minor adjustements to the design!

Be on-brand

Using consistent branding is an easy way to build familiarity and trust with your audience. If you have an established brand in place be sure to use it when building your slides.  

The colors and fonts used in your design should always adhere to your brand standards without deviation. 

If you don’t have a brand guide to work from, select a specific color palette, using color theory to ensure the message of your presentation is not counteracted by your color choices. 

Stick with just a few colors, and go the same route with fonts. Only choose a few to use, and avoid overly scripted options as they are difficult to read on screen.

Use visual aids

Visuals make a huge difference in your presentations. But there are a few rules to follow.

Stick with high-quality images. Adding images to your slides that are blurry, pixelated, or otherwise low in quality is an easy way to quickly disengage with your audience.

If you don’t have access to high-quality branded photos, use sites like Unsplash and Shutterstock .

Plus, adding screenshots can make your presentation more interesting than stock photos. 

Add screenshots to your presentations with Snagit

Snagit makes it easy to capture and edit the perfect screenshot!

Share data analytics or upcoming project plans by taking a simple screenshot. Screenshots are the perfect addition to your presentations.

Third-party tools like Snagit are made just for that. You can add callouts , arrows , and other tools that draw your audience’s attention . 

For a more fun visual, use GIFs to highlight some key points.

GIFs are a great middle-ground option between static images and videos. They can be used effectively to drive home a specific point or to highlight a specific piece of data.  

Visuals always help with memorability and GIFs usually include a touch of humor and personality – both qualities that help information stick.

You can make your own GIFs using Snagit so that they are perfectly catered to your presentation.

We live in a video world. Embedding videos directly into your slides can play a role in creating an interesting presentation. 

Videos can be an easy way to show a tutorial or demonstrate a process. Whatever your presentation is about, there are videos you can make or outsource that will support your point.

However, using too many videos can take away the impact your own content has. Try to stick to three or fewer videos in one presentation. 

According to Forbes , thirty to sixty seconds is ideal for a presentation video.

You want your visual aids to support your presentation, not take over it. The focus of your presentation should still be you and the value you are bringing to your audience!

For your presentation to shine, you need to combine storytelling, authenticity, and visual aids.  

Basically, it’s all about what you say and how you say it.

Tell a story 

Often times when we think about how to make an effective presentation, we focus on the visuals. We add animations and transitions, hoping that will keep our audience engaged. 

If most of your attention and time is spent on design, you are missing out on a key element that is crucial for making presentations interesting – the story. 

The best presentations draw in their viewers with a relatable narrative, but the narrative also helps the presentation to gain memorability as well. 

You should be spending a large portion of your preparation time crafting your content – the actual information you will be sharing and how you will be sharing it. It doesn’t matter how good your slide designs are if they aren’t supporting compelling content. 

You don’t have to weave an epic tale for your presentation, but if you are looking to make your presentation interesting you need to incorporate some storytelling aspects, like personal connection and impact.

To achieve your purpose, you’ll need an outline. That way, your purpose is kept at the center of your presentation and you follow a familiar structure. You need to make sure that you have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Just like a regular story!

Presentations that are interesting from beginning to end take the audience on a journey. Steer away from reciting facts and from long tangents. Find a middle ground that’s personable and informative!

To create an interesting presentation, be sure you structure your content in a way that makes it easy to tell the story and provide your audience with a journey that is relevant and memorable. 

Be authentic and engaging

A key point that often gets forgotten when preparing presentations? YOU are the presentation.  

Leslie Chamberlain , Senior Director, Customer Education explains on The Visual Lounge Podcast :

“What it comes down to. Whenever you’re doing any kind of presentation, whether you’re doing it on a video, whether you’re doing it in front of folks in person, it comes down to your audience is building the relationship with you. Your slides, your images are not the presentation. You are the presentation. So as you go forward to present, be true to yourself, speak from your heart, and enjoy every minute of it.”

Lean into the parts of your personality that best serve the presentation’s purpose. Tell personal stories, speak in the same manner you normally do, and be open. Public speaking is always a little daunting, but with confidence, you can achieve anything!

Your body language should be easygoing, so try to use natural hand gestures and smile. Make sure to maintain eye contact with audience members. It will create a bond between you and them, which will increase their confidence in you.

Your energy is contagious. To make your presentation more interesting, you’ve got to bring the right energy. 

High-energy presenters get more engagement from their audiences while coming in with low energy is a surefire way to destroy any hope of engagement, regardless of how good a story you have crafted with your presentation’s content. 

Memorize your content rather than relying on reading your slides, and be sure to use different speeds and volumes throughout the presentation to make it more interesting, draw attention to specific points, and present authentically.

And don’t forget to use organic visuals in your presentation to support your purpose and drive home the information you’re sharing. 

Create a Video to Share Your Slides After Your Presentation 

To wrap it up, you can make a video of your presentation. That way, you’ll be able to use it again in the future without going through the hassle of presenting over and over.

To do so, you can simply video record your screen and your camera. With Snagit, you can do so easily and use some fun tools like Screen Draw to direct attention to certain parts of your slides. 

Record and share your presentation with Snagit

Snagit makes it easy to record your screen, camera, and audio for the perfect presentation setup!

Once you’re done recording and making simple edits, send the video as a link through Screencast. Hit the Share Link button to create a unique link to your video. Then, send it out to anyone who might’ve missed your presentation!

This is also a great way to get feedback on your presentation before it happens. Record a mock-up presentation using Snagit, and send it to your team for honest, constructive criticism. That way, your presentation will be so much better when the day comes!

Additional Resources

Email will never die. here’s how to make it better, information overload is real: here’s how to manage it, how to create a training manual: steps and tools that make it easy.

Michael Aragon

• March 18, 2019
• business , presentation , presentations

Related Categories

Related courses, free resources.

7 PowerPoint Tips to Banish Boring Presentations

You know it and I know it: PowerPoint is boring.

Why? Because the minute we sit down to create a PowerPoint presentation, we forget everything we know about engagement and persuasion .

How do you make a PowerPoint presentation interesting?

It starts with the realization that attention is the only currency that matters. You need to hook your audience’s attention the moment you begin—and you can’t let go for even a second.

Fortunately, it’s not as difficult as you might think. And in this post, I’ll walk you through 7 PowerPoint tips to make your presentations more effective, so you can banish boring presentations forever.

PowerPoint Tip 1: Think Visual

The #1 most common mistake in PowerPoint presentations—and the reason they’re so boring—is that that we create them for us rather than our audience.

And the temptation is real. If you’re afraid of forgetting an important point, you’ll want to put every word into your slideshow.

But your PowerPoint slides aren’t notecards to keep your presentation on track. They aren’t for you at all. They’re for your audience.

The slides are a supplement to your speech, not a transcript . Their job is to capture your viewers’ attention and clarify your points. And to do that, you need to create a slideshow that’s visual, not textual.

Here is how to make your PowerPoint presentation more visual:

Use text sparingly. You may have a slide with only 1 word, or no words at all. After all, less is more with PowerPoint presentations.

Be liberal with images and graphs. Use them as illustrations for your main points or to add another layer of meaning to your message. And don’t be afraid to let them fill up the screen—with no words at all.

Use videos for pacing and engagement. Videos are especially engaging. They can capture people’s attention at the beginning of your presentation and reengage them after a slow or boring section. They can also be used to transition from one part of your presentation to a dramatically different part, since they create a natural break.

Don’t try to be cute. Visuals should support your presentation. And yes, they may be entertaining, but they should never distract or interfere with the readability of your slides. At all costs, avoid creating slides like this :

Of course, there may be times when visuals won’t work, and that’s okay. In some video sales letters , for example, the words are your visuals.

But even in a purely text-based presentation, you need to think about how it looks. Don’t put too many words on a single slide. Provide lots of white space. Give your audience just one thought at a time, so they stay engaged.

PowerPoint Tip 2: Think “Brand”

Whether it’s your company’s brand or your personal brand, you want to have a recognizable style.

When people see your presentations, they should know it’s yours—because the color and style scream you .

Apple is a good example of this. They’re the masters of “distinctive minimalism,” and everything they do reflects that.

You can pull any 2 slides from their presentations—often even years apart—and they still look like they belong to the same presentation.

Notice the trademark simplicity in this slide from an old Steve Jobs presentation.

And here’s Tim Cook years later. The slides are almost identical.

But how do you make sure you are creating your own well-branded presentation?

Don’t copy other brands’ designs. Your brand should be distinctive. Your presentations should be too. Stick with your brand’s fonts, colors, and unique style.

Design your slides to reflect your brand’s personality. If your brand is bold, go bold in your design. If your brand is understated, go simple. The point is to stay true to your own branded look and feel.

PowerPoint Tip 3: Create a Quality Layout

To create recognizable presentations, you need to develop a high-quality layout that can become your signature style .

A good layout involves everything we’ve talked about so far. It includes the way you come across visually and your branded fonts, colors, and personality. But it’s strategic as well—because you want the layout of every slide to look like you .

To do that, you need to decide in advance how you’re going to handle different design elements, and then stay consistent.

For example, the presentation below could be laid out any number of ways. It could have a traditional layout, like this:

Here, the text primary text box is at the top of each slide, with a secondary text box at the bottom. Images are centered with a yellow border that keeps them from bleeding into the blue background.

But if your brand is more modern, you might choose a more artsy layout, like this:

Now, both of these layouts can work. While most designers would agree the second version is “better,” in reality, the right choice is the one that aligns with your brand and works with the information you’ll be presenting. Here, the image is placed in the background and text is minimized. With this layout, slides are more engaging—less predictable.

What’s more important is that you create a PowerPoint layout that’s attractive to your audience. Then stick with it—don’t jump from one style to another.

And you can do that in several ways:

Use white space to your advantage. White space is the unfilled space between elements on the page (or in this case, the slide). It keeps things from feeling crowded and helps you keep your audience focused on what matters. White space is your friend. Embrace it.

Use animated transitions and multimedia sparingly. Animations can be classy or cheesy—and overdone, they’re usually irritating. An effective use of animation is to show one sentence or bullet point at a time. Avoid garish transitions that could become distracting.

Clip art is almost always a no-no.

Please. No.

Keep your layout simple. Every slide should have just one focal point.

Use gifs sparingly. Movement attracts attention, and gifs move nonstop. The problem is, they can distract people from your main message. So if you use gifs, don’t leave them up while you’re sharing important information. Show them, then move to the next slide while you talk.

PowerPoint Tip 4: Use a Template

Once you’ve settled on a good design for your presentation, turn it into a template. Then create a few variations for the different types of information you’ll present—say, a layout for lists, another for text with an image, and yet another for charts.

For example, this presentation by Edureka! has 3 primary layouts that keep everything looking consistent.

This is the primary template, which has text above and below a graphic:

This is the template for introducing new subtopics:

And this is the template for discussions, case studies, and examples:

Templates can make your life much easier. Instead of reinventing the wheel every time you need to create a presentation, you can simply pull out your template. With the design work already done, you can focus on the content—so you’re sure your presentation will be interesting.

PowerPoint Tip 5: Create Flow

In a strong presentation, every idea leads to the next. There should be no “stops” or awkward transitions. That’s true for your speech and for your PowerPoint slides.

Every slide should bring your audience closer to your final slide—or call to action.

Of course, flow is nebulous. It’s hard to create it, but easy to spot when it’s missing. While there aren’t many hard-and-fast rules to ensure flow, there are several things you can do to make it easier.

Know your goal. It’s a lot easier to lead people to a place when you know what that place is. Every slide should bring your audience closer to your final slide—or call to action.

Edit content to fit your template. Don’t depart from your template. If an image doesn’t fit, edit the image. If your text doesn’t fit on the screen, break it up and create extra slides. To make a PowerPoint presentation attractive, you need to embrace the boundaries of your template.

Create transition slides. If you need to transition smoothly from one subtopic to another, create transition slides to bridge the gap.

PowerPoint Tip 6: Test Your Hardware

If you’re presenting live—whether on a webinar or at an event—make sure your technology will work.

Nothing’s worse than apologizing to the audience for 15 minutes because your slide show isn’t loaded and ready. Always have a back-up plan.

For presentations, have your laptop or tablet ready. Make sure your PowerPoint is already open—just in case.

For webinars, do some dry runs to make sure the internet and your hardware and software work.

PowerPoint Tip 7: Use Presenter View

Finally, use PowerPoint’s Presenter View when delivering your presentation.

Presenter View lets you to view the entire presentation—along with any notes you’ve written to yourself—while the audience sees only your finished slides.

PowerPoint’s presenter view lets you see the final slides PLUS presenter notes.

If PowerPoint doesn’t prompt you to select Presenter View when you start your slideshow, you can find the option in the “SlideShow” tab. To find it after you’ve begun the slideshow, look for 3 dots below the main slide view—you can click on them to bring it up.

Use Presenter View to write notes to yourself. This is how you can avoid using your slides as index cards. Add prompts, tips on movements or gestures, or specific stats and numbers that you didn’t want to include on your slide.

Meanwhile, your audience just sees the slides flowing seamlessly, and you look like a genius, pulling stats and figures seemingly from thin air.

Pull up the appropriate slide if someone asks a question. In many cases, questions relate to one of the slides in your presentation. When that happens, find the slide in Presenter View before you put it on the screen—rather than forcing your audience to watch as you flip through the entire stack.

Final Thoughts

PowerPoint can be your best friend or your worst enemy. So many people use it badly that it’s almost synonymous with boring.

In fact, there’s even a political party focused on removing PowerPoint from business presentations.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

With a little thought and time, you can make effective PowerPoint presentations that grab your audience’s attention.

Make PowerPoint your friend: Keep it simple. Keep it focused. Keep it visual. And people will be excited that you’re the one giving the next presentation.

Latest Posts

2 Ways to Take Back the Power in Your Business: Part 2

12 Facebook Ad Metrics Worth Your Attention

2 Ways to Take Back the Power in Your Business: Part 1

Subscribe to the dm insider newsletter.

Marketing Skills

Digital Advertising Content Marketing Email Marketing Search Marketing Social Media Marketing Copywriting Ecommerce Marketing Analytics & Data Community Management Optimization & Testing

Marketing Topics

Google Facebook Instagram YouTube Email LinkedIn Twitter Pinterest TikTok Influencer/Affiliate

Customer Value Journey Stages

Awareness Engagement Subscription Convert Excite Ascend Advocate Promote

Agencies & Consultants

Become A Partner Find a Partner

Newsletter Blog Podcast Case Studies

Certifications Workshops M3 Mastermind Traffic & Conversion Summit

About Us Our Process Our Faculty Our Partners Our Coaches Testimonials Careers  Work with Us Events

Legal & Info

Support FAQ Privacy Policy Terms & Conditions  Contact Us

© 2023 All Rights Reserved. Powered by DigitalMarketer.

4 Reasons Your Presentation Is Boring (& How To Fix It)

Hrideep barot.

• Presentation , Public Speaking

Being able to deliver a powerful, convincing, and impactful presentation is crucial to any aspiring presenter. Presentations have the ability to change the hearts and minds of those listening. However, the risk is that if your presentation is boring, you could alienate the very audience you are trying to convince.

Several factors make presentations dull and unappealing to the people listening. Not having a proper structure, having too much content presented in a visually unappealing way will lead to an unengaged audience. Tackling these four issues will significantly improve any presentation.

To avoid a disastrous presentation, you need to be charismatic in your delivery and have an impressive presentation to back up your claims. If you have received negative feedback in the past, from either friends, family, or co-workers, don’t be disparaged, there might just be hope for you yet.

4 Reasons Why Your Presentation Is Boring

If your goals are to be the most engaging presenter at the meeting and you have a boring presentation, no one will care. Let’s establish what the four reasons why a presentation might be boring are.

1. No Presentation Structure

If your presentation does not have the right structure, you risk losing your audience. Structuring your presentation’s content inefficiently will lower your audience’s information retention rate. Without proper structure, you will be more prone to duplicate your verbal presentation in your slides. Without a general framework, you will inevitably lose focus and veer off track. The less focus your presentation has, the harder it will become for you as the presenter to deliver your message effectively.

2. Too Much Content

Suppose you have over-prepared your slide deck with an abundance of information. Your audience won’t find this very impressive. On the contrary, your audience will find it difficult to absorb all the information you are presenting. Having a mountain of text on each slide will cause your audience to lose focus, and their minds will start to drift to other places.

3. Visually Unappealing

People retain information more quickly if there are visual stimulants. Presentations with bad graphic designs and layouts will not entice the persons sitting in your presentation to pay attention to the information you present to them. More often than not, a presentation’s success hinges on its visual appeal.         

4. Unengaging Content

Suppose your slides’ content does not have a solid point that you are trying to convey. In that case, your audience won’t care enough to pay attention when you give a presentation that includes content that does not pertain to the relevant information that the audience expects to hear about will often lead to failure.

There is no such thing as an uninteresting topic, only dull presentations. Your presentation needs to incorporate various elements for it not to feel tedious. The lack of videos, images, music, or other visual design spice, will often leave an audience wanting more.

4 Ways To Improve Your Presentation

Now that we have recognized some of the elements that make a presentation boring, we can now look towards fixing them. Recognizing which area of your presentation might be lacking is crucial if you seek to leave a lasting impact on your audience. You might have to incorporate one or more of these solutions into your presentation to achieve your desired results.

1. Structure Your Presentation

Fixing your presentation’s structure is a simple enough task. There are seven structures most presenters utilize that we can look to for guidance.

Cause And Effect

Using this framing device, you can create a narrative around the topic at hand by underscoring the logic you use to back up your theory or idea.

Chronological Order

This framework is probably the most straightforward way to get an audience to understand and follow what you are trying to convey. Start at the top and work your way through to the end of the events.

Opportunities, Benefits, And Numbers

This structure focuses on identifying opportunities with the topic being discussed, how those opportunities would benefit the audience, and provide the audience with empirical data to validate the benefits.

Problems, Solutions, And Benefits

This structure works best when the presenter tries to persuade the audience by laying out the facts of the matter, how to solve the issue, and why it would be beneficial to do so.

Topic, Who Cares, And What Can We Do?

This framework aims to tug at the audience’s heartstrings by convincing them that they should care about what is being discussed and what they can do to make a meaningful impact.

The Situation, Problems, And Solutions

Most presenters find this structure the most appealing and versatile design. Simply outline the case, identify issues as they present themselves, and then resolve the problems.

2. Reduce Unnecessary Content

A simple way to make any presentation more appealing is to reduce unnecessary content. But which content should you remove? After all, you spent so much time and energy on your presentation. Surely everything is too important to remove?

Here are some suggestions you can make use of to lessen your presentation’s size and refocus your audience on the meaning behind the slides.

Singular Points

Try and make your point on a single slide. If you have more than a few issues to address in a list of things, move them to their own slides.

Remove Excess Words

Less is more. If you have large text bodies on your slides, people will attempt to read them before moving onto the next slide. If it’s in your presentation, it must be important. If your audience is spending all of their time reading your slides, they won’t have any time to listen to what you have to say.

Refrain From Technical Speak

Always assume there might be someone in your audience that does not understand all technical terms that you might use in your industry daily. Try connecting with your audience by using terminology that they would appreciate.

Don’t Duplicate information

Only add information to your slides that support what you are saying. It should not be your words verbatim. If your talk is written out entirely on your slides, then there would be no reason for you to present in the first place.

3. Creative Visual Design Elements

Incorporating the right design elements into your presentation doesn’t just make the information easier to consume. It also makes the points your trying to make more impactful.

Here are a few design choices you can make the next time you create a presentation.

Use Less Distracting Transitions And Animations

The animation should only be used to draw your audience’s attention to a specific point. Slides that are over-engineered with elaborate animations might have the opposite effect that you are trying to achieve.

Simplify Data Visually

Finding a way to simplify complex data and graphs will help your audience better understand what is presented to them.

Easy To Read Font

Ensuring your presentation utilizes fonts that are easy to read will help clarify what you are trying to convey. The less time your audience spends on deciphering the text, the more time they spend listening to you.

Overuse Of Different Colors

Using the entire color spectrum to make your presentation seem more exciting sounds like a good idea on paper, but it is terrible in execution. Try limiting the colors you use in your presentation to three or four different colors and use contrasting colors to emphasize talking points.

4. Create Engaging Content

If you want to keep your audience focused on your presentation, consider using content that invites your audience into the conversation. Use photos, videos, and questions to make your audience feel like they are as much a part of the presentation as you are.

Presentations today can be more than just a boring person in a suit standing in the front of the conference room talking at people who would rather watch paint dry. Exciting presentations can shape public perception and bring about meaningful change to address the issue society faces today. It is our responsibility to ensure we make our presentations as impactful as we possibly can.

Enroll in our transformative 1:1 Coaching Program

Schedule a call with our expert communication coach to know if this program would be the right fit for you

8 Ways to Rise Above the Noise to Communicate Better

How to Negotiate: The Art of Getting What You Want

10 Hand Gestures That Will Make You More Confident and Efficient

• [email protected]
• +91 98203 57888

Get our latest tips and tricks in your inbox always

Copyright © 2023 Frantically Speaking All rights reserved

Kindly drop your contact details so that we can arrange call back

Select Country Afghanistan Albania Algeria AmericanSamoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Colombia Comoros Congo Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Honduras Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Rwanda Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands South Africa South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Tajikistan Thailand Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Wallis and Futuna Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe land Islands Antarctica Bolivia, Plurinational State of Brunei Darussalam Cocos (Keeling) Islands Congo, The Democratic Republic of the Cote d'Ivoire Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Guernsey Holy See (Vatican City State) Hong Kong Iran, Islamic Republic of Isle of Man Jersey Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Lao People's Democratic Republic Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Macao Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Mozambique Palestinian Territory, Occupied Pitcairn Réunion Russia Saint Barthélemy Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan Da Cunha Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Martin Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Sao Tome and Principe Somalia Svalbard and Jan Mayen Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tanzania, United Republic of Timor-Leste Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, U.S.

Blog > 6 Tips to turn your boring slides into stunning presentations

6 Tips to turn your boring slides into stunning presentations

01.18.22   •  #design #tips #powerpoint.

Recall those conferences or meetings where you were forced to sit through slide after slide of hard-to-read and overcrowded text with nebulous or no images. Didn’t you feel claustrophobic or overwhelmed? Now, let’s do a reality check! Even though we all abhor a distracting, boring, and cluttered presentation, when it comes to crafting our own, do we really ace it? Well, most of us fail to prepare winning slides despite putting in lots of effort and investing tons of hours. Do you know that you don’t have to be an experienced and professional graphic designer to add a spark to your slideshows? Yes, you heard it right! You can make your monotonous slides dazzle with just a few easy tips. So, let's take a bit of a deeper dive into the blog!

1. Structure and Organize Your Presentation Aptly

According to research studies, the information presented in a structured format is retained 40% more accurately by the audience than unstructured information. Craft your presentation in a simple and logical way so that you can stay on topic while presenting, and your audience can easily grab the key message. The structure of your presentation depends on several factors, such as the settings where you will be delivering your speech, whether you need any visual assistance, how knowledgeable your audience is on the given subject, etc.

• What is the objective of your presentation?
• Who is your audience?
• What key message do you want your audience to take home?

Pro Tip: You can choose pre-designed PowerPoint templates to give a logical flow to the information and a professional touch to the overall presentation.

2. Less is more

Many presenters put everything they know about the topic on the slides for the sake of making the presentation information-rich. But the truth is, too much information in the form of bullet points or long paragraphs will only make your slides look cluttered and difficult to comprehend, drifting off the audience in a few minutes. Keep in mind that the audience is more likely to be enlightened, engaged, and influenced if you provide them meaningful information with fewer words.

• Slides stuffed with too many images do more harm than good to your presentations. If you need to include multiple images, rather than putting them all in one slide, put one on each side.
• Use the fewest characters and words on slides to tell your story. Provide handouts or do follow-up emails if you want to furnish longer information.
• Keep titles and subtitles short.

Pro Tip : Your slides should not be a data/information dump; instead, they must be an aid to support your key points.

3. Power Your Slides with the Right Visuals

You will be surprised to know that the average attention span of humans (8 seconds) is shorter than a goldfish’s (9 seconds). So, to grab their attention really quick and keep them hooked to your slideshow without getting distracted, include the right visuals, and you are all set to deliver a gripping presentation. Moreover, adding visuals save you valuable time compared to writing out a whole bunch of text and increases your credibility as a presenter.

People tend to grab the information quickly and remember it for longer if it is presented in a visually appealing manner. Research also confirms that in comparison to plain text, visuals are processed 60,000 times faster. So, if you really want the linguistically diverse, neuro-diverse, and culturally diverse audience to get more out of your presentation, use high-resolution and good-quality visuals that reinforce and complement the core message. Depending on your presentation, you can include graphs, images, icons, videos, charts, infographics, screenshots, memes, or GIFs.

Pro Tip : Visuals do make a great impact if they are formatted properly, perfectly match with the slide content, and evoke the right emotion.

4. Keep the Formatting (Color and Font) Simple Yet Engaging

Your presentation acts as an ambassador of your brand. Misaligned text boxes, wrong line spacing, and other formatting mistakes may undermine your key message. In a nutshell, a poorly-formatted presentation can put your company’s/brand’s reputation at stake. So, take time to format your slides properly and give them a professional touch before you present them in front of the intended audience.

• Leave adequate white space around the text to give it clarity and an uncramped look. But refrain from double spacing errors.
• Use the right size and color of fonts to improve the readability of the content. Avoid using multiple font colors.
• For increasing comprehension, use contrasting color palettes for text and background.
• Keep the design consistent in all the slides.

5. Make it Audience-Centered and Interactive

• Include only relevant and meaningful points.
• Avoid using jargon or technical language.
• Add a title to each slide to make your audience understand what the slide is all about.
• Make your slides interactive by adding questions, polls, surprising facts, and other icebreaking elements to keep the audience active.
• Allow the audience to ask questions and share their feedback to increase their participation and make your presentation a two-way communication.

6. Include a powerful Call-to-Action

End your presentation with an effective call-to-action (CTA) that guides the audience about what to do with the information you have shared and encourages them to take the right action.

• Choose the CTA that closely matches the purpose/objective of your presentation.
• The CTA should not be complicated and confusing; it should be concise and clear. For example, “Download Now,” “Subscribe Today,” etc.
• If you want to elicit a strong response from the audience, your CTA must be enthusiastic. For example, “plan your dream vacation today,” “buy now and get 60% off,” etc.

The bottom Line

The above tips will help you create a truly amazing presentation, but you can achieve success only if you deliver it with confidence. It is important to prepare thoroughly and practice a lot to deliver a unique experience to the audience. In addition, to avoid your slideshow from being a “snoozefest,” make your narration exciting and lively. Also, make sure you speak neither too slow nor too fast/loud.

Related articles

About the author.

Ashish Arora

Ashish Arora is the Co-Founder of SketchBubble.com , a leading provider of result-driven, professionally built presentation templates. Travelling the world to gather new creative ideas, he has been working in the digital marketing space since 2007 and has a passion for designing presentations. You can also find him on Twitter or LinkedIn .

Get 1 Month for free!

Do you want to make your presentations more interactive.

With SlideLizard you can engage your audience with live polls, questions and feedback . Directly within your PowerPoint Presentation. Learn more

Top blog articles More posts

Family Feud – PowerPoint Quiz Template

5 ways to insert PDFs into PowerPoint

Get started with Live Polls, Q&A and slides

for your PowerPoint Presentations

The big SlideLizard presentation glossary

Internal communication.

Internal communication is particularly important for corporate communication. It communicates important information from leadership to staff so that they can do their jobs in the best possible way and work processes run well.

Open Questions

In contrast to closed questions, the answer to open questions can be more detailed and creative. You can convey more information.

Learning on Demand

Learning on Demand means that the content is available extactly when it's needed by the learner

External Communication

External communication is the exchange of information between two organisations. For example, it can be an exchange with customers, clients or traders. Feedback from a customer also counts as external communication.

Be the first to know!

The latest SlideLizard news, articles, and resources, sent straight to your inbox.

- or follow us on -

We use cookies to personalize content and analyze traffic to our website. You can choose to accept only cookies that are necessary for the website to function or to also allow tracking cookies. For more information, please see our privacy policy .

Cookie Settings

Necessary cookies are required for the proper functioning of the website. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information about the number of visitors, etc.

How to avoid delivering a boring presentation

• Post author: Trevor Lee
• Post published: 3 February 2022
• Post category: Articles / Presenting Tips

Boring Presentation – ‘Death by Powerpoint’!

We’ve all experienced a boring presentation!

So how can you avoid delivering a boring presentation?

Here are some thoughts and ideas:

Immediately engage your audience

Your audience will be making a decision within the first 30 seconds of your presentation as to whether they think you are worth paying attention to so you need a dynamic and exciting start.

So why do many presenters start by fiddling around with the clicker, making excuses for their voice, trying to crack a joke, checking if everyone can hear them or mumbling along about nothing in particular?

Launch straight in with a bold statement, a thought provoking observation or stat, a prop or image. Use your voice and body language to create a positive, audience engaging environment right from the start.

Slides are boring

Or at least having too many can be. Do you actually need slides? If you do then be a ruthless editor and ensure each slide earns its place in your presentation.

Words on slides are really boring

Why oh why do so many presenters feel it necessary to fill their slides with so many words? As an audience member I don’t want your script on screen, I want the odd word that reminds or prompts me as to what you are talking about. So start with one word per slide and add others only if necessary.

Do you really need a slide template?

Bigger companies and organisations seem to deem it necessary to have a slide ‘template’ which usually means their logo, name and some fancy colour scheme or subtle (or not so subtle ) background on every single slide!

It’s as though they are paranoid that between slides you as an member of the audience will completely forget who they are!

Templates make slides look identical to each other – and guess what – constant repetition is boring!

So ditch the templates and be creative!

Put on a show

Like it or not a presentation is a performance. You want to be memorable. Your audience may not remember all or even most of the detail of your presentation but you do want them to remember you.

Ditching the slides or supporting them with props will make you more memorable – and a presentation with props is rarely boring!

I do a presentation called ‘5 top sales tips’ – I don’t use slides instead I use an old suitcase full of props to illustrate the 5 tips. It’s amazing how many people mention the suitcase long after the presentation. How many people remember your presentations?

Use your best presenter

Many presentations are executed by senior people within an organisation. Rarely are they the best presenters often because the higher their seniority the less inclined they feel the need to prepare and practice.

Your best experts or most senior people are not always your best presenters. If you were the CEO or Chairperson of a football club you wouldn’t take a crucial penalty would you? Of course not. It would be taken by the club’s best penalty taker. So find out who the best presenter in your company or organisation is and let them do the presentation.

Don’t use A4 notes

Presenters who turn up with A4 notes send out one of two messages : ‘I haven’t prepared for this so I need a script’ – ‘I don’t know anything about this so I need a script.’

There is a often a link between the size and length of notes and boring presentations. Generally speaking the more notes the speaker has the more boring the presentation. I would recommend a couple of postcards for your prompt words.

Make it fun

If the first reaction of your audience is ‘Oh no not another PowerPoint presentation’ then aim to make your presentation an enjoyable experience for everyone. Too many presentations are too serious in both their content and delivery.

Prepare well and Practice

Good preparation and some practice will make you feel more confident when delivering. That confidence in itself will make you more engaging and thus reduce the opportunity to be seen as boring.

If you need help preparing and delivering engaging presentations that get results please give me, Trevor Lee, a call on 07785 390717 or email me via [email protected] .

For more presenting tips and advice check out my website : trevorjlee.com

To find out how more about how I can help your teams deliver confident, impactful, memorable and action inducing presentations please visit my Presentation Training page

If your team need inspiring and re-energising  please visit my Sales Training page

Before you book any training or coaching with me it is important for you to be sure that I’m the right person for you or your team so let’s have a 15-20 minute informal no obligation no fee chat on Zoom. Simply click here: Trevor Lee 15 minute meeting

My podcast Better Presentations More Sales  features an array of global guests sharing every Monday great presenting and sales advice, tips and ideas.

Check out my book:  ‘ 12 Business Lessons from Running an Ultra Marathon ‘ – all proceeds go to Children’s Hospice South West 

Here are links to the evergreen webinar versions of the presenting and sales skills  sessions I ran in January and February 2023:

• Win that Sales Pitch
• Be that Confident Presenter
• 7 Quick Sales Wins
• Presentation Flying Start

Please Share This Share this content

• Opens in a new window

You Might Also Like

How to deliver a 20 minute event Presentation

How to deliver an engaging presentation

Win your next Sales Pitch

DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE GUIDE NOW

Click on the guide name that you would like, you can select any number, and then press Download

Grow Sales Select… Grow Sales

Awesome Presentations Select… Awesome Presentations

Win More Sales Pitches Select… Win More Sales Pitches

404 Not found

How To Rescue Your Boring Presentation with 7 Simple Fixes

1. You're talking too fast

2. there's too much on your slides.

• Feature only 1-3 lines of text.
• Make use of engaging visual imagery where possible.
• Include only the key takeaways for your audience. There's no point adding a lot of detail, because nobody will remember it!

3. Your content isn't useful to the audience

• Lack of preparation. No matter how great your expertise, it takes time and hard work to write a useful presentation. Your audience will know if you try to wing it.
• Not meeting the audience's needs. Your topic needs to help solve a problem your audience has. If your content isn't relevant, why should they listen?
• Not matching the audience's knowledge level. Different crowds have different levels of education and knowledge. If you go too high brow or dumb things down, you'll lose them.
• It's old news. If the audience feels they've heard it all before, they're bound to switch off.

Improve Your Presentation Skills

If you'd like to learn more about delivering presentations, why not take a look at how we can help?

Boost your presentation skills with our online courses. RRP from US$0 – limited time offer just US$0.00

4. There's too much jargon

5. it's too long.

• Repeat the same information over and over.
• Labour a point the audience already understands.
• Go off on tangents that aren't useful.

6. It's dull and drab

• Humour and jokes, especially in the opening and conclusion of your presentation when the audience is most receptive.
• Multimedia content like pictures, video and slides, which can make things more dynamic and interesting.
• A personal touch, such as sharing your own relevant experiences and difficulties. The more personality and colour you put in, the better you can engage your audience.

7. The audience doesn't trust you

• Who you are.
• Your general level of education and professional experience, if helpful.
• What makes you an expert in the topic at hand.
• If you can make a good impression with your charm and humour, even better. But the most important thing is to show that you are worth listening to.

Get into a new groove

More articles on presentation skills.

Write for us on the ZandaX blog

ZandaX Blog Contents

Want to see them all? Click to view a full list of articles in our blogs.

Back to Guides

How to make a boring presentation interesting, “this will be the dullest presentation ever”.

Tom’s dreading his next department meeting at the University. He’s been asked to share a  stakeholder analysis  over Zoom with 70 people. It’s important but potentially super-dull. “I could imagine the bored faces,” Tom says, “as I try to present the Miro board.”

Instead, Tom picks up his deck of  Storyteller Tactics . He goes to the Recipe cards and mixes up  Stories that Explain  and  Stories that Convince . And then… 

First slide: a big, fat puzzling statement. 

It’s a classic  Story Hook . 

• Question (which invites us to stick around for the answer) 
• Unexpected (“Wait, the US army? What’s that got to do with us?”) 
• Knowledge (I’ve drawn a lesson from their mistake)

Tom’s next slides create a rich visual story ( Movie Time ). The desert camouflage worn by US soldiers in Iraq didn’t work. Dark coloured guns and equipment stood out against the light fabric. So the army spent billions designing a universal camo – a mix of light and dark pixels. It was supposed to work everywhere. It actually worked nowhere. 

One soldier told his bosses that the camo was great – if you were trying to hide yourself against an old lady’s sofa. Look closely at this photo!

It was a brilliant  Rolls Royce Moment  in the presentation: a vivid, relatable example that told you everything you needed to know about the failed project. Tom also raised an instant laugh. Never underestimate the power of humour to make your story stick (see  That’s Funny )

And then Tom gives his audience the moral of his story: this is what happens when you don’t engage with your stakeholders. “What goes for the US army goes for our organisation too. So here’s what we’ve done about it…” 

Tom goes into his stakeholder analysis. Without revealing any commercial confidences, it’s a good overview. Tom shows four examples of stakeholders, and how they split on a Power/Interest matrix (yes, that’s a  Workshop Tactic !). 

Then he zooms out to show how he mapped 140 more stakeholders (that’s a  Data Detective  tactic). 

He’s careful not to put too much text on screen at one time (that’s a  Show and Tell  tactic ) , so his audience stays focused on what he’s saying. After all, he’s the star of this show.

Tom’s presentation got what he needed: awareness and reassurance. People knew he’d done the analysis and why it mattered. The subtext of his presentation: “I’ve done the hard graft, so you don’t have to. Any questions, come and find me. Otherwise, trust my judgement.” 

Within minutes, Tom’s phone is pinging with praise. “Brilliant, you really got my attention”, “Well done Tom, you should teach us all how to present like that” and “Someone’s been watching TED talks!” 

That’s what stories can do for your next presentation.

Storyteller Tactics I used to write this blog:

Emotional Dashboard : highlight the fear and boredom surrounding Tom’s task.

Five Ts ’: start the story at the moment of greatest tension.

Happy Ever Afters : Tom was anxious but gained respect by the end. Nice.

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Let us know what thoughts or questions you have about this guide so we can improve it.

If you leave us your email, we'll let you know if we update this guide based on your feedback.

PRESENTATION POWER Blog

Boring presentations

Do you want the audience to experience your presentation as truly boring?

If you really want to bore an audience, follow these ten tips below.

I promise you, your audience will be sure to fall asleep!

• Lack of interest in the audience: Don’t waste valuable time learning about your audience or adapting your presentation to the specific group. Also, do not try to assess your audience’s level of knowledge. It's best to repeat information that your audience already knows as often as possible. On the other hand, it is also good to hopelessly overburden the audience with new information. Both will result in immense boredom. Never consider what your audience might find interesting - you are the expert here. The audience will just have to adjust to your presentation.
• Phrases at the beginning and end of the presentation: Begin every presentation with the following words: "I am glad to be allowed to give this presentation today!" Or even better: "I was asked to make this presentation about XYZ." Next, read the table of contents from the agenda slide. This guarantees a boring start to your presentation. The conclusion is essential too. Always end with: "Thank you for your attention. I am happy to answer any questions." The more flowery phrases you use in these sentences, the better!
• Poor structure: Structureless presentations increase creative chaos! Don’t think about what you want to achieve with your presentation. Also, try to discuss as many topics as possible. Inserting a lot of unordered information in your presentations will make your audience see how much you think about. Trust your audience to filter out the important points from your presentation - disorientation always causes boredom.
• Long story short: Talk as much and as quickly as possible about your topic. This proves that you have a lot of detailed knowledge and can set up a full-length program. But that's all you can do, because your audience will soon be unable to follow you.

84% of presentations are boring!

Wall Street Journal

• No audience contact: Do not look or talk to your audience, that would only cause irritation. Hold a monologue instead. Your slides are well designed. That's why you should look frequently at the slides, reading as much as possible from them. The more you turn to the slides, the sooner your audience can play with their mobile phone without being disturbed.
• Take it seriously: Take yourself and the presentation situation extremely seriously. Avoid every trace of relaxation. Do not show any pleasure in the topic or presentation. This is the only way to be professional. What’s more, this also allows your audience and listeners to get bored again.
• Theory instead of examples: If possible, only use dry theory. Finally, you want to convince your audience that you have expertise. Stories and anecdotes only distract from your topic!
• Only use PowerPoint: Don’t try any experiments. Do not think about whether any other presentation media might make more sense for your presentation. Your audience is used to PowerPoint, and knows what to expect.
• Boring role models: Find the most boring role models possible. You will find a multitude of speakers who give boring PowerPoint presentations. Imitate their slide and presentation style as faithfully as possible.

Finally, the good news: If you bore your audience with a presentation, you are in good company. According to a Wall Street Journal study, 84% of all presentations are boring.

Tips on how to inspire your audience can be found here.

Anne-Christiane Schneider wishes you an exciting presentation.

Upcoming courses

Über Anne-Christiane Schneider

Anne-Christiane Schneider brings out her students’ presentation skills through positivity and persistence. Her course of study at an acting school has given her a sharp eye for noticing where there is room for improvement when it comes to performing and presenting. The joy she brings to coaching different people from different industries shows clearly in her work.

• Presentation training for companies
• LinkedIn Site
• Testimonials
• Presentation coaching

Angela Merkel and the power of emotions

10 things you can learn from Barack Obama

Basic recipe for convincing presenting!

• +41 (0)76 240 73 06
• E-mail [email protected]
• You can reach me Mon-Fri: 9.00 - 17.00
• Datenschutz

PHILADELPHIA, MAY 9-10 PUBLIC SPEAKING CLASS IS ALMOST FULL! RESERVE YOUR SPOT NOW

• Public Speaking Classes
• Corporate Presentation Training
• Online Public Speaking Course
• Northeast Region
• Midwest Region
• Southeast Region
• Central Region
• Western Region
• Presentation Skills
• 101 Public Speaking Tips
• Fear of Public Speaking

Add Enthusiasm to a Boring Presentation Using These 5 Tips

Enthusiasm and Energy is the absolute, most-important skill in public speaking. If you take only one piece of advice about public speaking, make sure that it is this pearl of wisdom.

If you focus on this one simple thing, the number of times you say “uhm” won’t matter. In addition, if you focus on this one thing, your gestures and not knowing what to do with your hands won’t matter. If you focus on this one thing, then the occasional loss of train of thought won’t matter. In fact, if you focus on this one simple thing, you can break just about every rule that public speakers are supposed to abide by, and you will still win over your audience.

Enthusiasm and Energy Make a Boring Speech More Interesting.

This one simple rule has transformed countless mediocre speakers into good speakers, scores of good speakers into great speakers, and numerous great speakers into world-class speakers.

This simple rule that can make or break a speaker is… ENTHUSIASM.

Delivering a Boring Speech Is a Choice. However, Enthusiasm Is Also a Choice.

That’s right, if you have a little excitement in your talk and a spring in your step, people pay attention. Your audience will have just about as much excitement about your talk as you do, and no more. So, if you want to win over your audience, add a sparkle of enthusiasm.

One of my mentors told me that there are two rules to live by in the world of professional speakers. She said, “Rule number one is to never speak on a topic that you yourself are not enthusiastic about. Rule number two is that if you ever violate rule number one, fake it ’til you make it.”

Frank Bettger in his book How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling said it a different way. He said, “If you act enthusiastic, then you’ll be enthusiastic.”

I like to explain it a little differently. In my experience, there is no such thing as a boring topic. There are only boring speakers. So, no matter what you are speaking about, your audience will never be more excited about it than you are.

Nervousness Can Actually Be Perceived as Enthusiasm.

For those of us who get nervous in front of groups, it’s even easier. When we are nervous, we often cut out preambles and get right to the point. (We want to get it over with.) In addition, our rate of speech typically speeds up. We also tend to move around a lot more. In many cases, we may move our hands around more than normal. Well, when we are excited about something, we do the exact same things.

Years ago, when I was a sales manager, I was often amazed at the number of times that a brand new salesperson without a lot of product knowledge and absolutely no experience could close sale after sale while my more seasoned people were struggling. The more times I went on sales calls with these new people, the more I started to notice a pattern. New salespeople are often nervous. So when they walk into an office on a sales call, they tend to cut right to the chase. They also generally talk faster because they are afraid they’ll forget something. They have a tough time sitting still because of the nervousness, so they move around a lot.

I noticed that these symptoms of nervousness worked to the advantage of these new salespeople. Their customers perceive the salespeople as being extremely enthusiastic about what they were selling. I would imagine that these potential buyers were saying things to themselves like, “If this person believes so much in this product, it must be good.”

We as speakers can also use our nervousness to our advantage. When we turn that pent up nervousness into energy and enthusiasm, our audience can’t help but be energized as well.

Five Turnkey Ways to Add Enthusiasm and Energy to Any Presentation

There are about five key things that a speaker can physically do at any time to insert energy into his or her presentation.

• Speed Up : Many people think that speaking fast is bad, but in reality, a person who speaks quickly is inserting energy and enthusiasm into his or her presentation. Walk faster, talk faster, and move faster.
• Increase Your Volume : Speak up just a little louder than normal, and you’ll get noticed. If you have a naturally quiet temperament, then you might need to stretch yourself to increase your volume.
• Move More : Move your feet more and gesture more to increase your energy. Most of us speak with our hands when we talk with someone one-on-one. Do the same thing in front of a group.
• Gesture Bigger : The bigger the room is, the more exaggerated your gestures will need to be. Small gestures portray timidity and shyness. Big gestures portray confidence and competence. Bigger gestures add enthusiasm.
• Change your Tone or Emphasis : When you come to a word or concept that is important, punch out the information with power. Place emphasis on important words. Place less emphasis or pause on concepts when appropriate.

Act Enthusiastic And You’ll Be Enthusiastic

If you do any of these five things in your speech, you will be perceived as an above-average speaker. If you do all five of these things, your audience will LOVE YOU! Your enthusiasm as the speaker is what makes you exceptional. That is if your energy level is high! Act enthusiastic when you speak, and you will be enthusiastic.

Podcasts , presentation skills | presentation skills

View More Posts By Category: Free Public Speaking Tips | leadership tips | Online Courses | Past Fearless Presentations ® Classes | Podcasts | presentation skills | Uncategorized

• Skip to primary navigation
• Skip to main content
• Skip to footer

Laura M. Foley Design

Cheat Death by PowerPoint!

How to fix a boring presentation

August 24, 2015 by Laura Foley 3 Comments

Do boring presenters set out to be that way? Do they wake up in the morning and say to themselves, “Gee, I hope I can get someone in the room to fall asleep during my presentation today!” or “I want to over-complicate my presentation so the investors don’t know whether or not to fund me.” Of course they don’t. The thing is, boring presenters don’t see themselves as being boring. They think that by providing volumes of information they’re being helpful and entertaining. Here’s what they could be doing better.

Show less stuff on slides

People often want to show everything they know about a subject on their slides. They create process diagrams with lots of different shapes, colors and lines. They include tables with 20 rows and 10 columns of data. They load their slides up with bullet points.

You know what? The audience isn’t going to be able to process all that information. Especially while the presenter’s talking. They’ll will either be interpreting the slides or listening to the presenter. They can’t do both simultaneously.

Don’t read off the slides

Do you know anybody who reads off the slides while presenting? Irritating, right? It exhibits a lack of preparation, that the presenter didn’t take the time to memorize his speech. And somebody who reads slides isn’t reading the audience. He can’t see if people are nodding in agreement, looking puzzled, or starting to doze off!

People who read slides can also seem like they don’t know what they’re talking about because they’re relying on the slide to tell them what to say.

Finally, if the presentation reads like a book, then why do presenters waste people’s time by meeting with them in person? Why not just send the PowerPoint file instead?

Simplify the message

Classroom lectures can be complicated because it is assumed that people have come to benefit from the presenter’s expertise. Hopefully they’re taking notes and most likely the slides will be available to them to remind them of what was said. But a presenter who’s trying to persuade or to sell needs to keep his message focused and simple.

Many times, a presentation is a so-called “ foot in the door .” It’s the first introduction between speaker and audience and is meant to lead to more in-depth meetings and follow-up. Therefore, a presenter doesn’t have to present exhaustively on his subject. Chances are, the audience isn’t going to remember most of the statistics and data anyway, just the main points of the presentation.

Be enthusiastic!

Even a presentation on the most interesting subjects can seem boring when delivered by a speaker who speaks in a monotone and stands perfectly still. So more presenters should try to act more real, as if they were having a conversation with a close friend. They should change the tone of their voices, move around, make gestures, smile. They should get excited about their presentation!

My favorite course in college was entomology. The professor would cavort at the head of the classroom, doing praying mantis imitations and telling funny, interesting stories. Who knew bugs could be so entertaining! The class could have been a drag, but this professor made it exciting. His enthusiasm was absolutely contagious.

If more speakers would make these simple changes, then perhaps we’d all have to put up with fewer boring presentations!

Share this:

• Certification
• International Partners
• Our Clients
• GSA Contracts
• Pike's Peak Award
• Train-the-Trainer Boot Camp
• Beyond Basics—the Art of Training
• Interactive Virtual Trainer
• Instructional Design
• Making MS Teams Interactive
• Microlearning
• Presentation Skills
• Performance Consulting
• Creating Effective Assessments
• Rapid Design for Virtual Training
• Virtual Presentation Skills
• Making Zoom Interactive
• Introduction to Performance Consulting
• Producing for Webinars
• Better Virtual Meetings
• Creative Training Techniques Conference
• Spring Fling Virtual Upskilling Event
• Team Training
• Virtual Training & E-Learning
• Trainer Blog
• Free Webinars
• Case Studies
• Free Guides
• Music & Media
• Trainer Kits

PowerPoint 101: Ditch the Boring Bullet Points

Did you know PowerPoint has been around for 27 years? Just like you, it has experience and knowledge, and just like you, it has to up its game during presentations or people will tune out.

So, how do you avoid “PowerPoint puke?”

• First of all, says Becky Pike Pluth, president and CEO of The Bob Pike Group, be visual . Get rid of boring bullet points and design your slides in a way that won’t put your participants to sleep. “Think of your PowerPoint like a billboard,” she says. With billboards, the rule of thumb is six words or less, and the messaging is smart without trying to be too clever.  Besides, if you share line after line of information on a slide, people are going to read the copy rather than listen to you, and you might be tempted to read the information out loud (and talk TO your slides rather than your audience). Your slides aren’t a teleprompter. They’re simply a tool for you to introduce a point.
• Another rule of thumb with billboard advertising is to keep it simple. This is also true with PowerPoint slides. Keep it to one key idea per slide if possible. The purpose of a slide is to serve as a visual aid—to ENHANCE the message. Ask yourself: What’s the main point, and why does it matter? Stay focused.    
• When you do use copy, use big font, don’t use dark colored text on dark backgrounds or light colored text on light backgrounds, and NEVER use blue text on a red background (this is basically a headache waiting to happen!). When possible, use black on white or white on black. 
• During a presentation, you have the opportunity to create something memorable and eye-catching. Take advantage of that. If you can “show rather than tell,” do it! Use images, graphics, video clips, or charts and graphs. Make sure, though, that the visuals reinforce what you want to say and aren’t just there as filler. Do the visuals help illustrate an example or story? Will they help people remember what you’re saying? According to Psychology Today, visual cues help us retrieve and retain information . According to their research, “The outcomes on visual learning make complete sense when you consider that our brain is mainly an image processor—much of our sensory cortex is devoted to vision—not a word processor. In fact, the part of the brain used to process words is quite small in comparison to the part that processes visual images.”
• This might seem like common sense, but don’t stand right in front of the screen. After you introduce yourself, move to the left of the screen.
• Always be ready with a Plan B in case of technical difficulties (bring print-outs or props along  “ just in case ” ).  

Most importantly, prepare well in advance and practice, practice, practice. When you really KNOW YOUR TOPIC and you ’ re able to present your ideas clearly and persuasively, that packs more of a powerful punch than anything else. Bottom line? The best visual is you—sharing all of that valuable information. 

Sign up for a Presentation Skills Workshop! 

Never miss a post! Get blogs and more delivered directly to your inbox.

• Creative Training Techniques® Conference
• Crash Courses
• Professional Certification

Monthly E-Newsletter

Stay connected to what’s going on in the training industry.

• Privacy Policy
• Return Policy
• Cancellation Policy

10800 Lyndale Avenue South - Suite 151 - Bloomington, MN 55420

50 ways to annoy, bore or simply lose your presentation audience – Part 1

Jul 03, 2022 by maurice decastro in bullet point , general , presentating training , presentation skills , presentation tips.

Most of us have been part of a presentation audience. Every presenter’s job is to capture and keep their audience’s attention, interest, and curiosity. The mediocre presenter believes that their role is to simply inform and engage their audience. That is a healthy starting point but on its own, it’s not enough. Your presentation audience want and deserve more, much more.

Among a very long list of things your presentation audience want from you are your:

– Energy

– Passion

– Insight

– Knowledge

– Perspective

– Authenticity

Sometimes, the best way to connect emotionally as well as intellectually with a presentation audience is to understand what they don’t want.

Here are just 10 of the 50 ways to annoy, bore or simply lose your presentation audience.

I’m mindful of not sharing all 50 of them in one article as I wouldn’t want to lose, annoy or bore you!

Using too many bullet points

The moment a presentation audience sees a list of bullet points their hearts sink.

Bullet points are a signpost that they need to brace themselves for a long, boring presentation.

Solution – Use images instead!

Inflicting ‘Death by PowerPoint’

Death by PowerPoint is something every presentation audience has experienced. It’s broader than the bullet point phenomenon. Imagine a slide fraught with text, numbers, charts, or data. A slide crammed with data is annoying and unnecessary.

Solution – One idea per slide; no more. Don’t clutter slides; less is more.

Forgetting the purpose and power of visuals

The mediocre presenter believes that their slides are their presentation. PowerPoint, Keynote , Google Slides or any other visual aid software is not your presentation. High-quality presentation software can help your presentation audience receive your content more effectively. This software exists to help rather than replace you as a presenter.

Solution – Remember that your audience have come to hear you, not to see your slides. If visuals don’t add significant value to your audience, don’t use them.

Poor preparation

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin

Solution – Prepare, prepare, prepare.

‘Winging it’

Some presenters believe that ‘winging it’ is their way of improvising. This may work for you but it’s not fair to your audience. It’s highly likely that your audience will see that you are unprepared, and they won’t thank you for it.

Solution – Don’t rely on your charm or talent. Do the work.

Poor content

In a previous article, ‘ Presentation Content – make sure yours is compelling’ I wrote:

‘The prerequisite to a brilliant presentation, before focusing on delivery, is to ensure that your message is supported by rich, relevant and rewarding content.’

The primary purpose of any presentation is to share information with your audience. Disorganised, boring or irrelevant content is the fastest way to annoy, bore or lose your audience.

Solution – Make your presentation content rich and compelling

Having no clear intention

How do you want your audience to feel?

If you don’t have a very clear answer to that question, it’s highly unlikely that you will feel it yourself.

If you don’t feel it the moment you begin to craft and deliver your presentation your audience won’t either.

There are two types of presenter. The mindful minority understand the power of intention.

Solution – Set a clear and meaningful intention for how you want your audience to feel emotionally.

Having no clear objective

What do you want your audience to do when you have finished presenting?

If you don’t have a very clear answer to that question, it’s highly likely they won’t do anything at all with the information you share with them.

Solution – Set a clear and meaningful objective for exactly what you want your audience to do at the end of your presentation. Make sure you tell them.

Having no clear message

What is your message?

What is the one thing you want your audience to take from your presentation when they return to their car or desk?

If your audience could ‘Tweet’ the content of your presentation with one, clear message what would they ‘Tweet’.

If you don’t know the answer to that question your presentation will probably be forgotten in a heart beat.

Solution – Set a clear, rich and compelling message. Make sure that everything you share supports it and don’t forget to repeat it.

Not internalizing your message

‘The mediocre presenter believes that they can run through their presentation a couple of times beforehand and if it makes sense to them then it will be fine for their audience.

The Mindful Presenter does everything they can to make their content a part of themselves and so they spend many hours rehearsing.

Not memorising, just rehearsing.

They know their content inside and out and leave no stone unturned in ensuring that everything they have crafted to say and the way they say it will be of significance to their audience.

Mindful presenting is about internalising our message.’

Solution – Own your message – Internalise your message. Practice the verbal and non-verbal expression of your presentation.

Watch out for part 2 of ‘50 ways to annoy, bore or simply lose your presentation audience’, coming soon.

If you need help ensuring you never lose, bore or annoy your presentation audience:

– Book yourself onto a powerful  public speaking course .

– Invest in some really good one to one  public speaking coaching .

– Get yourself some excellent  presentation training

Photo by Sander Sammy on Unsplash

• Connect Now

Share this article

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share on LinkedIn

To join one of our workshops or lean more, complete our enquiry form or call us on +44 (0)20 7666 3453 and we can get connected.

• Our Approach
• The Benefits
• Public Speaking Courses
• Presentation Training
• The Complete Mindful Presenter
• One-to-One Public Speaking Coaching
• Coaching Development Package
• What Our Clients Say
• The Truth Series
• Our Podcast
• Style Review
• Mindful Selling 4D
• Mindful Leadership

Blog Sign Up

Recent posts.

• 10 Reasons to Join Our Next Public Speaking Masterclass
• 4 types of presentation energy: Survival, Safety, Shallow & Smart
• 12 Public Speaking & Presentation Tips For Q&A Success
• 10 Novel public speaking ideas from unexpected sources
• 7 Steps to Tap In To Your Presentation Genius
• Bullet Point
• Communication Skills
• Mindful Selling
• Mindfulness
• Presentating training
• Presentation Skills
• Presentation Tips
• Public Speaking
• Sales Skills
• Storytelling
• virtual presentation
• Virtual Presentations
• Who are you?
• Learning Centre
• Presentation Skills Review
• Our Clients
• Testimonials
• Presentation Skills Training
• Public Speaking Coaching London
• Public Speaking Anxiety Course
• Phone: +44 (0)20 7666 3453
• Email: [email protected]
• Address: Mindful Presenter Ltd 86-90 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4NE

Sign up for our newsletter and download your free guide to authentic public speaking.