Control Your PowerPoint

Here's the uncomfortable truth: your PowerPoint deck isn't helping you communicate—it's sabotaging you. Every slide packed with bullet points, every presentation that reads like your speaker notes, every moment you spend clicking through endless animations while your audience checks their phones is a moment you've lost control of your message.

PowerPoint was designed to support your presentation, not become it. When you treat your slides like a teleprompter, you're inviting your audience to tune out. They'll read ahead, multitask, and disengage completely. Your job isn't to narrate slides—it's to command attention, deliver value, maintain control over every second of your interaction.

The most powerful presenters understand this fundamental truth: slides serve the speaker, not the other way around. When you master these 11 principles, you'll reclaim control of your presentations and transform them from information dumps into opportunities for influence.

Less Is More

Strip away everything unnecessary. Your slides should breathe, not suffocate your audience with walls of text. Research on cognitive load theory proves that our brains can only process limited information simultaneously. When you overload slides with content, you're literally working against how human memory functions. Guy Kawasaki championed this approach for good reason—it works.

Ask the Right Question

Before adding any slide, pause. Ask yourself: "Why am I using this slide?" The answer must always center on your listener, never your convenience. If you can't articulate how each slide serves your audience's understanding, delete it.

Design Around Your Audience

Every slide decision should reflect your listeners' expectations, knowledge level, experience. Consider your program objectives, time constraints, room size, participant count. Your slides aren't about you—they're about making your message stick with the people who need to hear it.

Focus on Key Points

Design slides around ideas you want your audience remembering long after you've left the room. Not every detail deserves a slide. Not every thought needs visual representation. Choose the moments that matter most, then build slides that amplify those moments.

Make It Big, Bold, Brilliant

Size matters. Your slides must be visible from the back row, readable by everyone, regardless of room dimensions. Bold fonts increase visibility. Brilliant colors capture attention while improving retention. If someone can't read your slide from across the room, you've already lost control of their attention.

Choose Simple Typefaces

Stick with Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica. These fonts prioritize readability over style, ensuring your message comes through clearly. Fancy fonts might look creative, yet they often reduce comprehension. Your audience shouldn't struggle to decode your typeface choices.

Master the Bullet Point

Limit bullet points to six per slide with four words maximum per bullet. This constraint forces clarity while preventing cognitive overload. Your bullets should prompt your talking points, not replace them.

Use Builds Strategically

Complex charts need builds. Reveal information systematically, explaining each segment before moving forward. This approach prevents overwhelm while ensuring comprehension. Your audience can follow your logic instead of getting lost in data density.

Save Details for Handouts

Your slides highlight key points. Your handouts contain supporting details. Never confuse these roles. When you respect your listeners' request for detailed information, provide it separately. This separation maintains control over pacing while satisfying information needs.

Avoid Software Overkill

Clicking every few seconds means you're working too hard. Smooth presentations flow naturally without constant interruption. Excessive animations distract from your message while suggesting you don't trust your content to hold attention on its own merit.

Always Have a Backup

Technology fails. Projectors malfunction. Wifi disappears. Prepared presenters maintain control regardless of circumstances. Your backup plan might involve printed slides, alternative presentation methods, even presenting without visual aids entirely. The show must go on—with you firmly in command.

Taking control of your PowerPoint presentations isn't about perfecting slides—it's about perfecting your relationship with them. When you follow these principles, your slides become invisible supporters rather than obvious crutches. Your audience focuses on you, your message, your value. That's where real influence happens.

Stop letting PowerPoint control your presentations. Start using it as the support tool it was designed to be. Your audience will notice the difference immediately.

Research on cognitive load theory demonstrates that well-designed presentations significantly reduce mental effort while improving comprehension and retention: https://www.innerdrive.co.uk/blog/tracking-powerpoint-attention/