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Imagine this: you’ve spend hours preparing the right words and the perfect power point. You’ve sacrificed sleep to memorize and practice removing the ahs and ums.

The big day comes. You begin and less than 3 minutes into the presentation, one of the executive attendees interrupts you with, “What’s the bottom line?” Another executive chimes in with, “Skip to your best slide.”

Now what do you do? You can’t think of anything to say now that your perfect order was interrupted. How do you handle this situation–or avoid it from happening in the first place?

The most exceptional presentations happen when you are present. Focusing on your memorized content means ignoring your audience. Follow these 5 simple steps to avoid this disconnect in the future.

Start with an intro that gives the audience the bottom line within 90 seconds. For example, “by the end of this presentation, you will know… “

Talk to the audience instead of the PowerPoint. Yes, your audience is reading the slide when you first put it up. That’s alright. Give them time to read it. Read in your head along with them. When you want to speak–face your audience. Make eye contact. You are the presentation; the PowerPoint is only an aid.

Prepare 2 presentations: overview and detail. If you can ask ahead of time what the audience prefers, then that’s even better. If you can’t, then start with an overview presentation, and let them ask you for the detail. If you haven’t got the detail to the level you are being asked, then say, “I prepared an overview due to time limits, and I’ll be happy to speak with you offline to cover more detail.”

Prepare for their questions instead of yours. Most presenters know if the audience will have hostile questions, if someone will play devil’s advocate, if most of the group will be afraid to ask questions, etc. Think about what the audience really wants to know. If you get no questions, say, “A question I’m often asked is… “

Watch your audience for body language. You know you’ve got them if the phones aren’t in hand, they are making eye contact, etc. You know you’re losing them if they start to shift in their seats, pick up their phones to check email, etc. Watch, and comment directly. If you’re losing them, say, “I get the feeling this isn’t the exact information you were looking for. Is there another approach I should be taking?”

Bottom line, being present with your audience means you’re having a conversation with them, not reciting or reading a power point.

PowerPoint is a powerful business tool but only if it is used to its best advantage. Matt Thornhill, President of Audience First, a Midlothian, VA business that offers presentation training says, “PowerPoint makes slides; it doesn’t give presentations. Remember that you are creating slides to support a spoken presentation.” With that in mind, here are eight things you can do to create powerful slides to support your presentations.

1. Keep it simple. Don’t use too many words or too many graphics. Figures and numbers do not translate well on screen. Refer to figures and numbers in your handouts where they can be digested more thoroughly, later. If you need to emphasize a statistic in PowerPoint, consider using a graphic or image to convey the point.

2. Use fonts judiciously. Use the same font for your entire slide set and use no more than two complementary fonts (i.e. Ariel and Arial Bold). Regardless of what font style you choose, be sure the text can be seen in the back of the room. A font size of no less than 24 pt should be used for general text. For titles or headings, use 36 to 44 points

3. Use color well. A white or light background with black or dark text works best. A screen image with a dark background and light text will wash out, but dark text on a light background will maintain its visual intensity.

4. Don’t use cheesy or tired clip art. If you found your image in the clipart library that came with PowerPoint, your audience has seen it 1000 times. Use outside images and graphics for variety and visual appeal.

5. Limit bullet points and text. The best slides may have no text at all. Remember the slides are meant to support the speaker, not make the speaker superfluous. Well designed slides are worthless without the presentation that accompanies them; you’ll know you have achieved this when someone who missed your presentation asks you for your slides and later tells you they had no idea what the point of the presentation was.

6. Use bullet points properly. Bullet point should never contain full sentences. Use bullet points to deliver key ideas. Remember the 6 x 6 rule: bullet points should have no more than six words and there should be no more than six bullet points on the screen.

7. Have a visual theme. Similar to the library of clip art available in PowerPoint, it’s probable that your audience has seen every template which is available through the program. Go online to find other PowerPoint designs that are available or create your own with a simple background and color scheme.

8. Avoid movement of slide elements. While moving text or graphics around on the slide may look like fun, it’s very distracting to the audience. Avoid the “build” animation feature unless it is imperative that your points be revealed slowly.