For most people, writing presentations can be rather a daunting prospect that is likely to take up a lot of precious time. The very fact that you're considering using presentation software such as PowerPoint (or Keynote for Apple users) is good news on the writing front. PowerPoint was not designed for words but for visuals such as photos, drawings, charts, numbers and even embedded media such as short videos.

Sure, you still need some words in the form of a talk or speech to accompany your presentation slides, however, the number of words in your actual PowerPoint presentation should be kept to a minimum.

Many speakers forget to consider their audience. What information should be shared with your audience, what would interest them? What is the key message, or what are the key points, that you, as the speaker, want to communicate? Your aim should be to keep the audience engaged to the end of your presentation while also leaving time at the end for a Q&A session.

Help on preparing a PowerPoint

We've put together some tips on how to prepare a PowerPoint presentation that you can download on the right. One of our professional writers has written a post on her three golden rules for presentations: PowerPoint Presentations - What NOT to Write.