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I recently remarked to a colleague that I’ve seen a PowerPoint presentation malfunction of one sort or another at virtually every conference or meeting I have attended. Too often a simple step could have prevented a disastrous result, and this couldn’t be more true for PowerPoint fonts. If you’ve ever spent hours preparing a presentation with thoughtfully selected fonts only to see many of your fonts suddenly change at the moment of truth — when you’re on stage and presenting — then you’ve encountered the PowerPoint font trap.

It’s far more serious than just an aesthetic issue. The wrong font can change word wrapping, table spacing, and the overall readability and professional look of the presentation you worked so hard on. Fortunately, it’s an easy problem to prevent.

Why does this happen? The maddening font problem is caused by the simple fact that the computer you’re presenting on does not have the same fonts installed as the computer on which the presentation was prepared. Windows tries to substitute a similar font, but often the results are far from acceptable. The PowerPoint font problem can crop up in all versions of Powerpoint, including PowerPoint 2007.

Here’s how to font-proof your next presentation:

• Alternative #1: Choose “Safe” Basic Fonts: If you stick to basic fonts that are likely to be installed on any computer (such as Times New Roman, Arial, Symbol, Courier New), you’re very likely, though not absolutely guaranteed, to be safe. (I’ve seen some computers where some popular fonts had been removed.) This is surely the fastest and easiest approach, though you’ll sacrifice some pizzazz by using unexciting and overused fonts.

• Alternative #2: Embed Fonts into Your Presentation: When you embed the fonts you’ve used into your presentation, they’ll travel with your presentation and display no matter what fonts are (or are not) installed on the computer it’s being displayed with. To embed the fonts into your presentation in PowerPoint 2007, follow these steps:

1. Select the Office Button (at the top left of the PowerPoint window)
2. Select the PowerPoint Options button, which lies along the bottom margin of the window that opens when you press the Office Button
3. Select Save in the list of options that appears on the left of the PowerPoint Options window
4. Now check the Embed Fonts in File box and select the second sub-option, Embed all characters. This is the safest option and ensures that you’ll have ALL of the characters of all of the fonts in your presentation on any computer, a safeguard I highly recommend in case you or a colleague wants to further edit the presentation.

If you’re using PowerPoint 2003, select File > Save As…, then select Save Options from the Tools menu at the top of the Save As… dialogue box and check the Embed True Type Fonts box.

For PowerPoint 2000, select File > Save As…, then select Embed True Type Fonts from the Tools menu at the top of the Save As… dialogue box. (In PowerPoint 2000 you’ll need to specify this every time you save a new presentation.)

• Alternative #3: Package Your Presentation for CD: In PowerPoint 2007 and 2003, use the Package for CD feature. In PowerPoint 2000, use the Pack and Go wizard. The Package for CD feature assembles and packages your presentation and related graphics, videos and fonts for distribution. For PowerPoint 2007, follow these steps:

1. Select the Office Button (at the top left of the PowerPoint window)
2. Select the Publish option
3. Select Package for CD

I never underestimate the importance of peace of mind when giving a presentation and it’s often the little things that bite. Font-proof your PowerPoint presentations and rid yourself of at least one worry…and potential landmine.

Timing is everything when it comes to delivering an effective presentation. After having to tolerate a presentation that included a slide deck so large it blocked out the sun and a presenter who thought it was acceptable to run 24 minutes over his allotted time, I felt compelled to write this post.

The last thing I’d want is for your colleagues to suffer the same fate as I when you next present at a team meeting. So if you want to stay on track, keep your team happy and deliver an efficient and professional presentation, then read on…

The Golden Rules of an Effective Presentation
3 things distinguish great from grim when it comes to effective presentations: timing, content and delivery.

This post is all about timing.

The 60:40 Rule

Let’s assume you have a 20 minute slot to deliver your presentation. 30% of your presentation time should be taken up by the Q&A. This is where you field questions and gather audience reaction. Your audience will evaluate the effectiveness of your presentation based upon how well you handle your Q&A. If you run out of time, then you miss the opportunity to enhance your credibility and reduce any negative evaluation of your presentation.

Another 10% will be taken up by natural pauses and transitions between visual aids. That leaves you with 12 minutes to deliver your presentation – 60% of your total allotted time.

Think 130

If you were reading from a script to an audience for 12 minutes then your presentation is likely to be around 1500 words in length, about 4 pages of A4. This is based upon the fact that we typically speak at a rate of roughly 130 words per minute.

Power Point – how much is too much?
Many see the task of delivering a business presentation as one large data bombardment with bullet after bullet of information crammed onto each slide and miniature helicopters swooping across the screen dropping statistics into an already confusing spreadsheet.

Stop this silliness and keep your slides simple.

Each slide should contain a simple and to the point headline. Underneath the headline, no more than 3 bullet points that act as a visual cue for your audience, so they know what to expect from you without having to read it on the screen. After all, what’s the point in being there if all your information is contained within your slides.

Now to the part where you fall off your chair.

1 for 2

If you are speaking for 12 minutes (remember it’s still a 20 minute presentation), then the maximum number of slides in your deck should be 6. That’s right, no more than 1 slide every 2 minutes.

You’ve still got to factor in a 45 second introduction, which may require a slide in itself and a 45 second conclusion, which may also require its own slide.

3 Rules for Efficient Presentations

The 60/40 Rule – Plan to present for 60% of your time, the rest for Q&A and contingency

Think 130 – Every minute equates to approximately 130 words spoken. Plan for more and you plan to fail.

1 for 2 – You should have no more than 1 slide for every 2 minutes of talk time

Nobody will ever thank you if you run over your allotted time and everyone will thank you if you finish a minute earlier.

In the next post I’ll share a powerful formula for making your content engaging and coherent.

Do Visual Presentations Work?

Visual presentations can be effective if they are adapted to the limitations of the human brain. The typical presenter must modify their writing skills to blend whole brain thinking into the formula. By doing this you can create an effective visual presentation.

What Happens in the Human Brain During a Presentation?

Most business tools that are used to create visual presentations focus solely on left brain activities. They tend to be extremely complex, displaying many statistics and graphics, overloading the left brain capacity.

The human working memory operates on two channels, an auditory and visual channel. Most people would think that a visual presentation would utilize solely the visual channel. However, this is not true. Anytime text is displayed on the screen, both the auditory and visual channels are used. The visual channel sees the information, but the auditory channel sounds out the words.

The Executive Presentation

Over 99% of executives either prepare their own visual presentations or have an internal administrative assistant perform the preparation for them. Less than 1% actually enlists the external services of a visual presentation professional that understands how audiences receive, process, and stores the information that they take in. With these statistics in mind, it is understandable that many visual presentations are not ranked as excellent.

To transform writing skills into persuasive visual presentation skills, you must obtain a complete understanding of why audiences respond negatively to visuals. To be successful, you must develop a broad set of design techniques and sensory communication skills.

Education is Key

Those that are not educated in the way the human brain works do not target their presentations to work with these characteristics in a positive way. Working toward giving your audience what they need and expect from a presentation in a manner that allows whole brain communication to be engaged elicits much more positive and successful results.

Learning to incorporate both left brain and right brain characteristics into a presentation will make a world of difference in your results. Acquiring and implementing the knowledge of the brain’s channels that are used and being cautious not to overload one channel will keep your audience engaged.

You Can Become an Excellent Presenter

While employing the services of an educated presentation professional can dramatically improve persuasive presentation results, learning the skills and employing them yourself will improve not only the prepared visuals but the overall delivery of the presentation. In this way you can avoid the pitfalls that cause audiences to respond negatively to visual presentations. You will engage the entire brain participation and appeal to both the analytical and sensory perception to produce an overall excellent presentation. This will be well received, processed, and retained by your audience members. It will also produce the kind of measurable results that you are hoping for, causing you to become a more efficient, effective, and confident presenter.