Powerpoint Tips
Keep your slides simple. Resist the temptation to put your entire presentation on the slides. Highlight your main points as anchors to what you are going to say. (A good rule of thumb is max 5 points per slide and max 5 words per point.) Use fewer slides rather than more. If you must display a complex visual concept, build it gradually on screen rather than throwing up a detailed image that is too complex to grasp. You may want to echo it in printed materials for the audience.
Font size and style: Assuming you have kept to the rule of max 5 points per slide and max 5 words per point, your font size should be large enough to read from the back of the room. You'll be surprised how large this has to be. Avoid all-caps and italics except for emphasis on a portion of text.
Get to the presentation site early. If you are running your own presentation, check out where your computer will go, what the transition to your computer image will be from the previous speaker / event, etc. If someone else is cueing your slides, rehearse with them, or at least agree exactly how the cueing will work. If you are also running keypad polling, a slide projector, video etc., co-ordinate when and how these will be integrated into your presentation. (Ask the technical people for their advice and assistance. They are experienced professionals who would love to help you look good.)
Check out your show on the presentation projector ahead of time.
Iron out resolution syncing issues ahead of time, i.e. make sure that your computer image: (a) projects at all, and (b) is adjusted properly.
Color combinations, font styles and sizes, graphics, etc. that look fine on a desktop monitor may not have the same impact
on a data projector. For example, silver balls on a dark blue background might look battleship grey when projected. A crisp
Kelly green becomes bilious, graphics are so busy as to be unintelligible, text colors wash into each other.
Arrange with audio visual not to show your computer screen to the audience until it is 'set' at our first slide. The audience
does not need to be distracted by you navigating around Windows and PowerPoint. (see also #7)
By the way, this is NOT the time and place to review and edit a presentation that someone else has built for you. You can do that off-line without taking up everyone's time.
Know what keys toggle your graphics image to your projector. Most computers have a three-way toggle: internal only, external only, and both. The key to use is usually marked on the keyboard with an image of a monitor or "LCD" and is pressed in combination with function key.
Turn off your screen saver or power management. Otherwise, if you stay on one slide too long, your computer will go to the screen saver or a blank screen in the middle of your presentation.
If you must work live in front of your audience to set up your presentation, memorize a few hotkeys to minimize the visual "noise" to which you subject your audience, e.g. Ahead of time, drag your PowerPoint file onto your desktop to create a shortcut icon. At presentation time, double click on this icon, and F5 to start your slide show ("Look Ma, no mousing"). PgDn to advance to the next slide and PgUp to go back within your presentation, "W" for a blank white image, "B" for a blank black image.
What image does your screen go to after your last slide? Avoid the situation whereby clicking on your last slide pops you into desktop mode PowerPoint, or to a blank screen with "Press Esc to return to PowerPoint" on it. If you don't want to leave your last content slide up, go to a general slide (e.g. your opening title slide, a slide saying "Questions?", a pleasing picture etc.). There may be an option for the technical people to go to a 'logo' slide.
If you are going to use a laser pointer, do so sparingly. Do not keep the light dancing endlessly across the slide like a crazed bumblebee. Consider using your mouse if you want to maintain a 'pointer' on some part of your slide. Otherwise, keep the mouse off the screen.