PowerPoint Tips & Tutorials

Highlight important words

Slides with lots of text on them are hard for audiences to comprehend quickly. There's simply too much information. Either people listen to the presenter and ignore the slide, or more likely (and worse), they read the slide and ignore the presenter.

The brain simply has difficulty listening to one set of words while reading another set. Also, studies show that people tend to skim what they read on screen (as opposed to what they read on paper); therefore, they miss many of the words.

The best solution is to put fewer words on a slide. It's easy to divide one slide into three, for example. Another important technique is to edit ruthlessly, removing any unnecessary words.

However, if you feel that you need to put a lot of text on a slide, you can help your audience get the most out of it by highlighting key words. Here are two techniques.

Use a different color for key words

An easy technique is to use a different color for key words. People quickly get the point by skimming these words. Simply select the key words and choose another color by clicking the Font Color button on the Formatting or Drawing toolbar. (In 2007, use the minitoolbar's Text Fill button or the Text Fill button in the WordArt Styles group of the Format tab that appears when you select the text.)

Animate a filled rectangle behind the words

Another method is to use custom animation to display a filled rectangle behind the key words. Follow these steps:

1. Choose Rectangle from the Drawing toolbar. (In 2007, choose Insert tab> Shapes> Rectangle.)
2. Drag across some key words to cover them with the rectangle.
3. Remove the outline and specify the fill of the rectangle. The color needs to be a strong contrast from the text, yet show up against the background. To remove the outline, use the Line Color button on the Drawing toolbar and set it to No Line. To change the fill color, use the Fill Color button on the Drawing toolbar and choose an appropriate color. (In 2007, on the Format tab, use the Shape Outline button in the Shape Styles group, and choose No Outline. Use the Shape Fill button and choose an appropriate color.)
4. Choose Slide Show> Custom Animation. (In 2007, choose Animations> Custom Animation.)
5. Choose Add Effect> Entrance> Wipe. You can choose any entrance animation you want, but keep it mild. A Fade animation is also nice.
6. Set the parameters for the animation at the top of the Custom Animation task pane. For Wipe, set it to wipe From Left. I used Fast for the Speed setting. I left the On Click setting so that I could control the timing as I was speaking.
7. Right-click the rectangle, and choose Order> Send to Back. (In 2007, right-click and choose Send to Back.)
8. Test the animation in Slide Show view.

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