The biggest mistake made when someone gives a presentation is starting PowerPoint straight away to begin on it. In this way you begin a presentation that is mainly a cheat sheet for yourself. Slides that are full of text and that mainly serve to help the speaker remember their story.Additional problems with slides that are full of text:

• they tempt the speaker to read out the text literally
• as a result they tire the audience
• they thus take attention away from the speaker
• they are above all boring and lacking in inspiration

The primary objective of using slides when giving a presentation is to give the audience the opportunity to understand your story better. The slides must be supportive of the message you are telling. And so with every slide you have to ask yourself: 'Does this slide help my audience or does this slide help me to remember the story better?' In the latter case you had better leave the slide out.

So wait to use PowerPoint when you have to give a presentation until you have clearly written down your story. Use a sheet of paper for that, to draw and write what you want to tell. Then look and look again at the order of the sheets. Only when you have created a clear storyline can you begin with PowerPoint.