Thinking beyond PowerPoint training wheels: Enhancing presentations for depth and engagement 

Many students enter my courses with weak PowerPoint skills, influenced by instructors who impose a five-bullet, five-word slide limit and demand a term paper in Speaker’s Notes. This article highlights why the 5x5 “training wheels” and excessive notes approach is amateurish and ineffective. Meanwhile, I don’t fault the students. Institutions and instructors often presume prior knowledge, bypassing crucial training. Consequently, almost everyone has PowerPoint, but nearly no one knows how to use it.

Recognizing ineffective training

A heads up for students: A clear sign of an instructor’s limited PowerPoint skills is when they require 5x5 training wheels plus a term paper in the Speaker's Notes. Be careful about adopting these limitations because you'll likely graduate without the ability to create effective presentations for the workplace.

Where 5x5 works

The 5x5 training wheels (and its big sibling, the 7x7) offer beginners a simple way to learn slide design and avoid text overload. Yet, the rigid structure limits effective presentations' depth, engagement, and situational adaptability. College students and professionals should outgrow these training wheels to develop skills for adapting their approach to each unique context.

Building better slides

Effective presentations often require a mix of text, visuals, data, and narrative tailored to the content's demands and the audience's needs. Different applications and contexts will require different approaches to developing a PowerPoint presentation.

Fortunately, the basic PowerPoint Master Slide and Layout framework provides a simple approach to building well-structured and powerful presentations, even for those who lack basic graphic design training. By learning the fundamental features of PowerPoint, a presenter can embrace the right approach for the situation, convey full ideas, maintain audience interest, and achieve better communication outcomes.