Banish bullets – prove you’re a pro! [@NolanHaims video]

You’ve probably heard that if you base most slides on bullet points, you’ll bore people. (Making you and your message less effective.)

But what can you do instead?

Well, below is a great 45-second clip of ideas for you:

That’s from design expert and Microsoft PowerPoint MVP Nolan Haims. I love how he uses Morph transitions to walk you through 3 options to improve your bullet points:

• Increase the space between the points (so they look less like a “wall of text”).

• Greatly reduce the number of words in each point.

• Change the points into “callouts” that label a picture.

You might think those improvements are just too hard. (After all, they get more and more time-consuming as you look down that list.)

But wait. That works in your favour! Why? Because nearly all presenters feel that way, which means they leave their bullet points just as they are.

So, if you improve your slides (using any of the 3 options above), you’ll stand out – for all the right reasons!

In fact, there’s a 4^th option you can add to the ones listed above. Namely, you can “chunk” your bullet points by replacing them with shapes.

And I’ve some good news for you: PowerPoint can even do much of that work for you. To see how, check out this 5-minute clip, which starts where the last one left off:

Over to you

As you saw, banishing bullets from your slides needn’t be very hard. So why not give it a go for you next presentation? (I’d love to hear how you get on!)

Also check out

• Slide makeover: 5 steps to replace boring bullets with audience awe

• How to rock at webinars – 9 concrete tips to keep people engaged

• Stand out when you speak (F!RST framework – part 4)

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