The following PowerPoint templates are provided for campuswide use. These four options are designed to provide flexibility for presenters.

Template Silver&Gold Logo Left.ppt
Template Green Logo Left.ppt
Template Silver&Gold Logo Right.ppt
Template Green Logo Right.ppt

For those who wish to use only the title slide, followed by blank slides, the following four options are available.

Title Slide Silver&Gold Logo Left.ppt
Title Slide Slide Green Logo Left.ppt
Title Slide Silver&Gold Logo Right.ppt
Title Slide Green Logo Right.ppt

Creating effective PowerPoint presentations. We’ve all sat through horrid PowerPoint presentations and know how painful they can be to an audience. Here are some ideas and resources to help you avoid inflicting bad PowerPoint on your audiences.

In his free ebook book Really Bad PowerPoint (and how to avoid it), marketing and presentation guru Seth Godin writes: “The three tasks that most people set out for a PowerPoint are in direct conflict with what a great presentation should do. … When you show up to give a presentation, people want to use both parts of their brain. So they use the right side to judge the way you talk, the way you dress and your body language. Often, people come to a conclusion about your presentation by the time you’re on the second slide. After that, it’s often too late for your bullet points to do you much good.

To help you avoid “death by PowerPoint,” we offer the following five tips from Godin on creating effective PowerPoint slides.

• No more than six words on a slide EVER. There is no presentation so complex that this rule needs to be broken.
• No cheesy images. Use professional stock photo images. (If you’re looking for Missouri S&T images, help yourself to some at our online Flickr Photo Library.)
• No dissolves, spins or other transitions.
• Sound effects can be used a few times per presentation, but never use the sound effects that are built into the program.
• Don’t hand out print-outs of your slides. They don’t work without you there.

We would add a sixth recommendation to Godin’s list: Use the PowerPoint template as your title slide only. Getting the university’s name out there is important (that’s why it’s on the title slide) but your audience came to hear your presentation, not a marketing message from Missouri S&T. For effective presentation, keep the rest of your slides blank and background-free.

Free PowerPoint resources. For more information on creating effective PowerPoint, we recommend the following resources:

• Free ebook: Really Bad PowerPoint (and how to avoid it) (PDF), by Seth Godin:
• Slideshare slideshow: Death By PowerPoint, by Alexei Kapterev.
• What Is Good PowerPoint Design?, by presentation designer and author Garr Reynolds.