Help yourself by helping your audience

When we use list of bullet points in a presentation, we normally write down all the points at once. Here is an example.

I attended a presentation today wherein the presenter presented 20 slides like these. As a rule, I discourage using bullet points but there are situations when bullets work. If you have to use them then avoid putting all the points at once. Use animation and make the bullets appear one by one. So when you talk about the first law of motion, the first bullet is only visible. When you move to the second law, then the second bullet appears and so on. Click here to find out how to do this.


Why? Because when such a slide appears, the audience starts reading it. At the same time the presenter it talking about point 1. There is a clash. Do I read all points or listen to the presenter? I am reading point 2 while the presenter is still taking about point 1.


As a presenter you want them to listen to you, make sure you do not put all points at once. Either use animation as discussed above or break the slides into multiple slides. A slide with 3 bullets becomes 3 slides with one bullet each. Much easier for your audience and for you.