8 Mistakes Made When Presenting
With PowerPoint
and How to Correct Them

1. My PowerPoint presentations use every sound, clip art, and animation available.



2. My PowerPoint presentation IS the presentation!



3. My PowerPoint presentation enhances my points, is clear, clean, and concise, and my audiences walk away with a clarified message.

From the audience’s perspective, answer c is the better choice.

Let’s take a look at some common mistakes made when presenting using PowerPoint and how to correct them.

Mistake #1 - The Projected Image on the Screen Is
My Comfort Blanket!

Solution: Set up your computer so that it is facing you; this way you can be facing your appreciative audience and you don’t have to look at or read from the screen. The last thing the audience wants to see is the back of your head. What you are seeing on your computer screen is the same image that is projecting onto the screen behind you. At all costs, you want to make eye contact with your audience in order to engage them in your presentation.

Mistake #2 - Leaving a Slide on the Screen Keeps the Audience’s Attention!

Solution: A slide should only be on the screen as long as you are talking about related material – somewhere between 30 seconds and two minutes.

Tip: To blank out a screen just press the “B” key and it will turn the screen black; pressing “W” will turn the screen to white. This only works when you are viewing a show. If you pressed the “B” or “W” key, press it again and the screen will illuminate.

(Value-added hint: research has shown that audiences will remember your presentation best if they are allowed an opportunity to digest a new slide for a few seconds before you start speaking – especially if the visuals are complex.)

Mistake #3 - I Have To Go Through My Slide Show in a Linear Fashion – i.e., Slide #1 Followed by Slide #2 and So On!

Solution: You can navigate through your presentation however you like; i.e., slide #1 goes first, slide #2 goes second, etc. But, if you want slide #23 to follow slide #1, just press “2” and “3” on the numeric key pad followed by “enter” and PowerPoint will automatically go to slide #23 in your presentation. This will only work when you are in the View Show mode. This also is another good reason to print your slides as Handouts because the printout will have the slide numbers on them. I usually print my slides in handout form, 6 slides to a page.

Mistake #4 - It is Unfortunate That PowerPoint Doesn’t Provide a “Pen”* Function to Use While Presenting!

Solution: For those of you who like the “John Madden approach”**, you can press Ctrl “P” while presenting and a John Madden-style pen will come on the screen. Hold the left mouse key down while moving your pen around the screen and you too can analyze the “play”. To make this work, go to the Tools pull down menu and go to Slide Show and choose your pen color (make sure it contrasts and compliments the background color of your slide).

* The “pen” function allows you to write on your screen while you are presenting.

** John Madden, a famous football announcer on television, is known for using a pen on the screen to show how a football play occurred.

Mistake #5 - Audiences are Wowed By All the Animations and All the Transitions I Use!

Solution: Less is more (see my complimentary article 12 Mistakes Made When Creating PowerPoint Slides and How To Correct Them). I recommend if the audience has a copy of your presentation that they can look at while you are presenting, show all the material on a slide at one time without any animations – the audience already knows what’s coming next. On the other hand, if the audience will not receive a copy of your presentation as a handout, you should use some animation – again less is more!

Mistake #6 - The Room’s Lighting Won’t Have an Impact on My Slides’ Visibility!