Use them smartly
Here are 3 simple ideas that clever presenters use to significantly increase the impact of their visual aids:
1. Change
2. Reveal
3. Blank
1. Change
It is a very good idea to buy or borrow a slide changer. They can be a little expensive, but using one gives you the freedom to move away from your computer and interact with the audience. Dynamic presenters routinely use them.
Avoid using the laser pointer function, however. Using a laser pointer makes you and your audience focus on minor details of your visual aids when they should be concentrating on your main message and you ought to be making consistent eye contact with them.
2. Reveal
If you give everything on your slides to the audience at once, then they will stop concentrating on you and just read your slide deck. Instead, build interest by adding information in stages. For example, first, show diagrams without titles and ask the audience to guess what they represent. Then, add labels in the next slide.
3. Blank
It is not necessary to use slides throughout all of your presentation. In fact, it is often highly effective to turn off your slides and speak directly to the audience without any distractions from background images. The easiest way to do this is to use the blank function in your presentation software. In the case of PowerPoint, press “B” when you are in slideshow mode to do this.
