In consulting and companies presentation software like Microsoft Powerpoint is a crucial tool  most of the times abused.

Creating an effective presentation is a complex task that should be approached with intelligence and method

Some tips:

• Start in advance and be prepared: presenting is a difficult task by itself if you’re not used to so avoid not knowing the things you’re going to speak about. Take your time to prepare yourself on what you are going to say
• Take your time to prepare the slide set, imagining first the storyboard on paper and then start putting them on PC. To do this, simply use a piece of paper divide into 6 parts and start writing the “flow”
• Explode an “agenda” of presentation starting from the storyboard and use this as a guide
• Avoid the “do and think at same time” approach: is not effective and doesn’t help you to focus on key messages
• Think of focused messages: the less the slides, the more attention you’ll get and the more you will look comfortable with your speech.
• Get consistent data to support your key messages. This means taking time to analyze, but is not wasted time, since helps in anticipating questions and getting confident with arguments
• Check your spelling and grammar using the spell checking tool
• Data are important, but clear statements are better: get messages first and have data to support them
• If you need to present numbers, try to stick them in a graphic way
• Adapt language to forecasted audience: one size, again, doesn’t fit all
• Use titles to summarize slide content: ideally from the “action title” at the top you should be avle to get the key message
• Be consistent with style: avoid too much colors and use same bullets and punctuation everywhere
• Create graphs with a consistent flavor: prepare a worksheet on your favorite program and make there graphs with same colors and look
• Always reference data either at the end of the slide or in the presentation