At the office, I get called into helping out on a lot of presentations. Usually, I can just show up with my Mac and Keynote, apply a template and make an instant (and quick) impact (upgrade) to their presentation.

That’s great, because it adds the “sizzle.” But most people don’t start with a good “steak.”

It seems like the most common presentation no-no’s are:

• Too many sentences on a slide
• Too many words in a bullet-point
• Full paragraphs! (seriously? how can someone read that AND pay attention to you?)
• Too few images (a picture is worth…)
• Too many transition variations (more is not always better)

I thought I’d post two of the most helpful (and short) articles I’ve found on how to improve your presentations:

“20 Tips to Improve Your Presentations” (Epson.com)

“The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint” (Guy Kawasaki)

… the only other tidbit I’d add to these articles is this:
If you’re using transitions, try to pick ones that help tell the story. Your presentation should have a theme and as few words as possible on each slide. So you might need to break a concept up across a few slides. If so, you can use a transition that “moves” the presentation from slide to slide to help tell the story.

For example, Keynote has a great transition where the screen splits in half and the next slide approaches through the background. This is a GREAT transition to use when you have a slide that talks about a concept and want to go into more detail on the next slide. — It helps “tell the story.”