I think everyone in business has been in this situation: trying, and failing, to pay attention during an important but overly boring presentation due to powerpoint overload.

Here is my advice if power-point must be used:

1: Close Outlook

Close Outlook when you are showing PowerPoint slides. Otherwise, email alerts pop up.

2: Slideshow Mode

Always use the slideshow mode: it makes your slides easier to see.

3: Standing in projector beam

Always avoid standing in the projector beam, as it is distracting.

4: Bullets as hooks

Think of the bullets on your slides as hooks. By that I mean that the bullet should remind you of your talking points but also incite curiosity in your audience. Use questions, alliteration (repetition of consonants) or juxtaposition of ideas to intrigue the audience. For example:

· Why Automate Processes?
· License to Fail
· Magnet Markets
· Customers: Faithful or Fickle?
· Plan or Wing It?
· Tragedy or Triumph?

5: Use more images

Incorporate images and negative visual space. Break up all the linear text on your slides with stories, examples, images & metaphors. Otherwise, you are not engaging your audience’s right hemisphere, the brain’s center of imagination. That’s when our minds start to drift, in spite of the fact that the data may be important for us to learn and understand. Use more imagery coupled with metaphor. The image search engine that I use is image.google.com. You can save the image files you find to your hard drive and insert them into PowerPoint. Use files that are between 30 – 100K for good clarity without bloating your PowerPoint file.

6: Simplify text

Most PowerPoint slides are loaded with way too much text. Distill your slides down into simple bullet points with 4 or 6 words per bullet max. Instead, think of the bullets as hooks.

Trim, trim, trim and never read from powerpoint!