Does A PowerPoint Presentation Hinder Your Speech?

A recent study revealed that PowerPoint Presentations are one of the most widely used business communication tools. As slides allow you to conveniently incorporate images and text at a single place, so it becomes easier to enhance understandability of your opinion. However, it is also equally true that PowerPoint is one of the most abused techniques for presentations.

Several people complain PPT presentations for hindering oral speech and distracting audience’s mind from the point of relevance. It is assumed that presence of images, flash, graphics and other such informational elements in slides takes your idea to the back seat, thus, negating the true essence of presentation. At times, it is even said that a speaker tends to get confused while trying to adjust between the slide show and script.

Having said all that, let’s take a pause here to analyze as to whether PowerPoint presentations hinder your speech or if these are random baseless conceptions.

Without being biased, it is to be accepted here that amongst these negatives, what populace fails to understand is, such problems are only an after-effect of their inability in making the right use of PowerPoint. This is because properly designed slides can serve as an amazing tool for conveying your message in a way that the audience does not only find valuable, but also enjoys.

Alongside this, instead of being a hindrance, PPT presentations can prove to be a reliable support system for your oral speech, provided you have made the best use of in-built tools and tricks defining the quintessence of good slide designs. For your reference, we are going to highlight necessary details in the following text.

• As for the integrated tools, you must have heard of speaker notes. Written in white space available just below the slide space, these notes can be your reference material just in case you forget a specific point during the course of presentation. So, speech is supported not hindered.

• Secondly, it is difficult at times to verbally explain an idea in front of a gathering. The situation turns even worse if the audience is of intellectual mindset. Under such situations, slides are a definite savior. These let you explain an idea diagrammatically, with comparison charts or with the help of animated stories, thus making the whole experience effortless.

• Basically, PowerPoint has the ability to oversimplify things to an extent that it becomes easier to express your argument and relate with audience. So, you can obviously benefit from presentations on that front.

On the whole, PowerPoint can be a support system as far as you know how to use it in your favor.