Beyond Bullet Points
Bullet points don’t work, but visuals such as charts and diagrams do.
There are a few major problems with using bullet points in a PowerPoint presentation.
First, the audience can read the bullet points faster than the presenter can read aloud.
Second, because the audience is able to read the bullet points, and because bullet points serve as a summary of a presentation’s content, the audience don’t feel they need to listen to the presenter. People can’t read silently and listen at the same (think about reading a book when somebody disturbs you), so the audience block out the presenter.
Third, bullet points aren’t memorable. People aren’t good at remembering long lists – and so your message is forgotten.
This PowerPoint presentation with video presenter will launch in full screen mode, and demonstrate clearly what’s wrong with bullet points.
You need to relearn what you think you know about PowerPoint.
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8 Comments to Beyond Bullet Points
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Chris Tobin, MD EMEA, BayerI was impressed by how quickly you turned mine, and my colleagues’, fairly mundane slide shows into exciting and motivating presentations. I also appreciate the coaching that you gave to one of the team who was quite nervous. You did a great job. Thank you.
#1
Sudheer
4:21 pm, September 29th, 2009
Could you please sent the “Beyond Bullet Points” PPT to my mail address. I was very much impressed with this power point. I don’t want video. Just PPT. Thank you.
#2
Joby Blume
4:59 pm, September 29th, 2009
Sudheer, I’m glad that you liked the material.
I’m afraid that we don’t send out these slides. We do make a lot of material content available for free on our site – including a host of slides and templates – but we don’t give out much of the material we use in our training sessions. We are running a business, after all.
Perhaps you could direct people who you think might want to see them to our website?
#3
Nur Alam
10:35 am, December 12th, 2009
I am greatly impressed by ur power point presentation. I request u don’t provide videos. Just power point Slides. Thank you.
#4
Joby Blume
3:05 pm, December 18th, 2009
Nur, we need to show videos because PowerPoint doesn’t work ‘natively’ in web browsers. Also, there are some slides we don’t want to “give away” to the entire world. We like to share (a lot), but we are running a business too.
We’ll try to keep offering as many slides as possible, and hope to see you back at m62.net shortly.
#5
Ben
10:43 pm, March 6th, 2010
Agree re remove of the old style bullets. This is much more interesting
#6
Eric Pye
9:57 pm, March 12th, 2010
Flippin’ bloody *Brilliant*!!
A client of mine I’m teaching on Monday turned me on to you guys. M62 is a real buzzword around their locale.
You confirmed everything I’ve known about PPT slides and definitely have re-ignited a passion for teaching Powerpoint again.
Thanks for the insight.
Eric Pye
E. Pye & Associates
#7
Jessica Pyne
11:06 am, March 15th, 2010
Thanks for the comment Ben – this is what we believe in! Take a look at our visualisation section for more ideas of what to include in slides rather than bullet points.
#8
Jessica Pyne
11:08 am, March 15th, 2010
Thank you for the kind words, Eric. Glad to hear that your passion has been re-ignited! If there is anything you would like to see on our website, please do not hesitate to get in touch.