Here are 3 reasons why it's not usually a good idea to use your PowerPoint slides as handouts (physical or electronic) to your audience:
1. If you’re printing your handouts, in order to make them readable, you have to print no more than 2 to a page – which is a lot of ink, paper and expense to print.
2.
Your slides should not contain all your information so using slides as handouts
won't make much sense without your voiceover. (If your slides do
contain all your information, then why do we need you? You could just send
everyone your slides to read themselves).
3. If you hand out or email all the slides, people tend to skip ahead during your presentation which can interfere with the order in which you want to reveal information and distract them from listening to you.
Instead, if you want to have a handout, here are some options for creating one that is separate from your slides:
·
Include
key ideas and highlights summarized from your presentation
·
Add
extra content, tips or answers to frequently asked questions
·
Make
it a worksheet that they can fill in
·
Leave
plenty of white space for them to write their own notes as they listen to your
presentation.
·
Add
your contact info on every page so they can contact you after the presentation
if they’d like more information
© Gilda Bonanno LLC - Gilda Bonanno serves as a trusted advisor to executives and entrepreneurs to transform their communication, presentation and leadership skills. She has worked with companies on 4 continents, from Chicago to Shanghai and Rio to Rome. The instructional videos on her YouTube channel have received over 2 million views and her e-newsletter has reached subscribers in over 45 countries since 2008. For other articles or to receive Gilda's e-newsletter, visit www.gildabonanno.com