Five Golden Rules of PowerPoint

I think most of us have heard the expression "death by PowerPoint," yet despite our awareness of how excruciatingly painful a bad PowerPoint presentation can be, many of us still make them. Whether it's CME presentations, rep training programs, or marketing strategy pitches, we've all seen the eye-glazers.

A lot has been written on how to create a good PowerPoint presentation. Here are my top five things to keep in mind:

1. Make sure that your presentation has a point and a structure, and that each slide supports both.
2. Avoid clutter. Neither the presentation nor the slide should be cluttered. (Unless, of course, the clutter is a prop for the point.) Use only a few fonts, colours and layouts.
3. Allow only one key message per slide. The message should be clear and any text or imagery on the slide should support it.
4. Use the slide to augment and reinforce what you're saying, not to reiterate it. Don't duplicate what you're saying on the slide. People read faster than you talk.
5. Create handouts from the notes section, not the slides. This helps keep your slides crisp and focused. Besides, you can actually put more information in the notes sections than you ever could on the slide itself.

Do you have a golden PowerPoint rule, or set of rules? Share them with us. Leave a comment or drop me a note.

Unravelling Project Details

I'm a big advocate of spending a little bit of time up front on a project before starting in on the 'real work.' This involves making sure that my understanding of a project accurately reflects the vision and needs of the client, as well as ensuring that I have everything I need to get rolling once I sit down to the task. There are few things worse than getting my head into a project only to discover that I'm missing a key piece of information. This almost always results in delays and frustration.

Over the years I've developed a shopping list that I go through with my clients. The list varies a bit by type of project, but the major categories are always the same:

• A written brief, project description or summary of deliverables. The name will vary depending on the client and the type of work, but it's purpose is the same. It clearly defines the details of the project. For advertising and marketing work, it should also provide a rationale for the project and key background information. If your client doesn't provide one, create it yourself and have your client sign-off on it.


• Context. Find out if the piece is part of a larger program. If it is, ask about the goal of the program and how your projects fits into it.


• References and support material. Before you start a project, be clear if you are responsible for finding references and support material, or if your client will be providing them. I have some clients who provide me with an outline and all the references needed to write the project, and other clients who give me a topic and expect me to do all the legwork. Most fall somewhere in between.


• An internal style guide. This is especially important for manuscripts and marketing materials. If your client doesn't have an internal style guide, ask if they have a sample of a similar project that you could use as a guideline. For marketing projects, also ask for a brand guide that includes commonly-used headlines, taglines, sign-offs etc.


• Timelines. Don't get caught by surprise. For example, be clear if the delivery date from your client is their project completion date or your delivery for the first draft. Also make sure that your timeline builds in adequate time for research, writing, review and revisions (client, medical/regulatory, PAAB, etc), translation and layout.


• Finally, for projects going through PAAB, pertinent PAAB history. Ask the client if they've had any significant discussions with the PAAB in past over content, context, or support materials.

I usually go through this list verbally with my clients. Some topics, like PAAB history, is best done in conversation anyway. I then confirm my needs in a follow-up e-mail, indicating the date I need the materials by.