Did You Know? Bullets Are Boring!
From How to Do Everything with PowerPoint 2007
By Ellen Finkelstein
As a result of some well-publicized criticism and the personal experience of millions of audience members, bulleted text has the reputation for being boring.
As soon as people see a slide with nothing but bulleted text, they imagine a long presentation containing nothing but lines and lines of text following bullets, and they tune out quickly.
How can you avoid creating presentations of bulleted text?
Remember that your presentation is really what you say, not the PowerPoint slides. Contrary to tradition, the slides don’t need to contain a short version of everything you say.
You can remove bullets and the hanging first line indent to create simple, blocked text.
By using this procedure on the slide master, you can easily create a presentation that doesn’t use bullets.
By saving this presentation as a template, you can ensure that all of your presentations based on that template have no bullets. What a thought!
What do you put on your slides, if not bulleted text? Here are some possibilities:
Use the slide title area to enter a complete sentence summarizing your main point, and omit the bulleted text. Instead, add an image, use some text as a graphic, or just leave the title alone on the page. (Don’t be afraid!) You can place the title placeholder in the middle of the slide, or even at the bottom.
Instead of bulleted text, use only three to four words that elicit your message very simply. If you want, you can add an image.
Use images only, perhaps as metaphors for what you are saying. For example, if you’re talking about a difficult project, place an image of an uphill path or a rocky road.
For example, here is some text from WebMD.com that I wanted to use in a presentation:
"TM was compared with progressive muscle relaxation as a means of controlling stress in older African Americans with high blood pressure. Of the 197 men and women (out of 213) who completed the screening, the reductions in blood pressure in the TM group were significantly greater than those in the progressive muscle relaxation group. TM reduced systolic blood pressure by more than 10 points and diastolic pressure by more than 6 points (compared with a 5 point reduction for systolic and a 3 point fall for diastolic with progressive muscle relaxation). High blood pressure (hypertension) is defined as systolic blood pressure—the top number—averaging 140 mmHg or greater, and/or diastolic blood pressure—the bottom number—averaging 90 mmHg or greater."
(Source: “Treating Hypertension Naturally’” by Carol Sorgen; http://www.webmd.com/content/article/61/71419)
I could have broken up this content into bulleted text, but instead I created the simple slide that you see here. The rest I explained verbally.
Using fewer words focuses more attention on you, the presenter.
Your audience spends less time reading and more time listening.
About the author
Ellen Finkelstein is the author of How to Do Everything with PowerPoint 2007 (and editions on previous versions). This book thoroughly covers all PowerPoint features, as well as best practices, design concepts, content techniques, delivery tips, and more. It includes a companion web site with free downloads. Her latest book is PowerPoint for Teachers: Dynamic Presentations and Interactive Classroom Projects, which shows teachers how to use PowerPoint to improve educational outcomes in the classroom. She publishes the free PowerPoint Tips Newsletter monthly, available at www.ellenfinkelstein.com, where you can go to find many excellent tips and techniques.
