optimal number of slides in a powerpoint presentation

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How to Choose the Right Number of Slides for a Powerpoint Presentation

Last Updated: June 24, 2024 References

Choosing the Right Number of Slides Based on Design Choices

Using time to determine the right number of slides, moving beyond formulaic answers to finding the right number of slides.

This article was co-authored by wikiHow Staff . Our trained team of editors and researchers validate articles for accuracy and comprehensiveness. wikiHow's Content Management Team carefully monitors the work from our editorial staff to ensure that each article is backed by trusted research and meets our high quality standards. There are 10 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 222,393 times. Learn more...

• Keep the presentation about you, not the slideshow. [2] X Research source The slides are there to support what you have to say. They should be just one part of your presentation, not the whole thing.

• Go through your entire presentation and ask yourself if you really need a given slide. If the answer is no, or if you find you can deliver the info verbally instead, eliminate it.

• If your presentation ended well before the time limit you’ve been given, try to extend the amount of time you spend on each slide, or add extra slides to expand on the info introduced in the presentation.
• Solicit advice from family and friends during your practice presentation. If they feel there are too many or too few slides, or if they feel certain sections of the presentation felt rushed or slow, adjust your presentation to correct these deficiencies.

• One well-known formulation for PowerPoint presentations is the 10/20/30 rule. This rule dictates that you should use about ten slides for a twenty minute presentation, and each slide should utilize thirty point font. In other words, each slide should be about two minutes in length. [8] X Research source Perhaps the 10/20/30 rule works for you. If it does not, don’t feel as if you’re using the wrong number of slides.
• Others argue that an average slide should be onscreen for no more than two minutes, and can be onscreen for as little as 15 seconds. [9] X Research source

• If, on the other hand, you’re in a more intimate environment and can control the lighting, you might be inclined to utilize a greater number of slides. As always, however, don’t feel obligated to use many slides just because you can.

Community Q&A

• If your slide has embedded video, or you aren’t using one slide for each point of your presentation, you can spend longer on each slide. [11] X Research source Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Treat each slide on its own merits. If one slide needs to be onscreen for two minutes, so be it. If it needs to be onscreen for ten seconds, that’s fine too. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• If you have a slide with no pictures but several bullet points, each of which you intend to talk about for fifteen to twenty seconds, you might spend well over a minute on that slide. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

• When you take all of these factors (detail, technicality, audience size and awareness, etc.) into consideration, you can see that the only short answer to "how many slides should I use" is: "it depends." Thanks Helpful 3 Not Helpful 0

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• ↑ http://www.virtualsalt.com/powerpoint.htm
• ↑ http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2006-06-01/how-to-powerpoint-like-a-pro
• ↑ http://www.shutterstock.com/blog/7-design-tips-for-effective-beautiful-powerpoint-presentations
• ↑ http://www.mrmediatraining.com/2011/03/10/the-five-most-common-powerpoint-mistakes/
• ↑ http://www.free-power-point-templates.com/articles/how-many-slides-for-a-30-minute-presentation/
• ↑ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/media/ppt/20071016041310_686.ppt

About This Article

1. Break complex slides into several simple slides. 2. Include audio and video support only as needed. 3. Time your presentation. 4. Match the number of slides to the subject matter. 5. Tailor to your audience. Did this summary help you? Yes No

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How Many Slides to Use for a 5, 10, 15+ Minute Presentation?

Presentations—they're a part of life. One of the first things you may wonder about when you're assigned a presentation is how long it needs to be. You may also wonder how many minutes per slide.

Unfortunately, that question doesn't have a simple answer. But in this guide, I'll help you to work out how many slides you need for presentations of different lengths . I'll also include some tips to help you with presentation timing and delivery. 

Jump to content in this section:

How Many Slides for a 5-Minute Presentation?

How many slides for a 10-minute presentation, how many slides for a 15-minute presentation, how many slides for a 20-minute presentation, how many slides for a 30-minute presentation, how many slides for a 45-minute presentation, how many slides for a 1-hour presentation, how many powerpoint slides per minute, how to make your presentations better, learn more about presentation preparation, find a template for your next presentation, the top source for premium presentation templates.

Let's start with the answer to a common question: how many slides for a 5-minute presentation? 

While 5-minute presentations may not be the norm (let's face it, that's a pretty short presentation slot), sometimes that's all the time you've got. Typically, you might do a 5-minute presentation at a weekly stand-up or similar meeting. 

Can a Presentation Be Too Short? 

If your presentation lasts less than ten minutes, then it is considered a short presentation. It isn't bad to have a short presentation as long as you're able to deliver the message you're supposed to correctly.

But if you’re unable to deliver your message, then your presentation is too short.

For short presentations, it's best to limit the number of slides. In fact, you probably won't want more than 10 slides. And you could get away with fewer.

Here are five tips to make an effective short presentation:

Only put essential information in your presentation. This means that any unnecessary information should be left out. This means that your slides should be brief and concise.

Context is important, so just because you are taking out unnecessary information doesn’t mean that you should leave out context. You want everyone to be able to understand what you are talking about.

3. Series of Three

Try using the series of three. This helps people remember your topic better. You do this by breaking your topic into three main ideas. This makes your presentation more concise.

4. Use Stories

People relate to stories more than facts. So, try to use stories to get your main point across in a relatable or entertaining way.

5. Bare Minimum

You should keep your presentation minimal. They should look good but also not have a ton of information on them.

For example, if you’re wondering how many slides are in a 5-minute presentation, The answer is you should have only five slides. That’s about one minute per slide. The general rule is 1-2 minutes per slide.

So, if a 5-minute presentation is short and sweet, how many slides do you need for a 10-minute presentation? There are a couple of answers to this question. 

One option is to keep the number of slides similar (no more than 10) and spend longer discussing key points. 

But another option is to have more slides, ideally no more than 20. Then decide how much time you want to spend on each slide. As before, it's good practice to stick to one main point per slide. 

Get more PowerPoint presentation tips in How to Use PowerPoint (Ultimate Tutorial Guide) .

As you start to increase the length of your presentation, the issue of the number of slides becomes less important. So, when thinking about how many slides for a 15-minute presentation, you can include more slides. You could perhaps use as many as 30. 

But you don't have to. You can also stick with a smaller number of slides and spend more time talking about key points . In other words, adjust the verbal part of your presentation without changing much else. 

If you do decide to go for more slides, you can move beyond the bare-bones approach. That means besides having slides for your main talking points, you can include slides for supporting points, too.

Once your presentation starts getting a bit longer, the question of how many slides you need for a 20-minute presentation gets more complex. Guy Kawasaki believes the ideal presentation has 10 slides, lasts 20 minutes, and has no font smaller than 30 points. That's his 10/20/30 rule.

Here are some tips for a 20-minute presentation:

1. Go Longer

With 20 minutes, you can go longer. Some recommend 20 slides for a 20-minute presentation, with an allocation of a minute of speaking time per slide. 

2. Spend Time on Slides

But it's not always necessary to have a set time per slide . Just spend more time on the slides where you've got more to say. With longer presentations, include a brief introduction and conclusion to make your presentation even more polished. 

3. Use Charts and Graphs

A 5-minute presentation can have a pretty simple design. As presentations get longer, it's important to think about ways to hold your audience's attention. This is a good time to illustrate key points with graphics, photos, charts, and graphs. They'll give your audience images they'll remember long after you end your presentation.

The same principles apply when considering how many slides for a 30-minute presentation. If you used 30 slides for a 15-minute presentation, you'll likely feel more comfortable with more slides for a longer presentation slot. In that case, add more slides for sub-points.

But if you prefer a minimalist approach, that's OK, too.  Stick to the main talking points and spend more time talking about each one. See our public speaking guide for more presentation tips:

Once your presentation slot gets longer, you'll probably want to have a LOT more slides. When planning how many PowerPoint slides for a 45-minute presentation, it's unlikely that you're going to stop at 10 or 15 slides.

As always, well-designed slides will help hold your audience's attention.

So, what about the number of slides for a 1-hour presentation? This is a pretty long presentation slot. There's a good chance your audience's attention will wander. Here are some tips for longer presentations:

1. Make a Choice

As advised for presentations 20 minutes and above, you've got the choice to add more slides for supplementary points. Or you can speak much longer about the key points. And you'll need to keep slide design appealing to give your audience something to focus on.

2. Make it Interactive

There's another option, though. Even if you've got a 1-hour presentation slot, you don't have to fill the whole thing with your own voice. Instead, make it interactive by getting the audience involved throughout. You can also leave plenty of time for a Q&A session at the end. 

3. Plan a Break

An hour can be a long time to sit and listen to a person speak. If you're working on a longer presentation, scheduling a break not only gives your audience a chance to stretch and move around. It also gives you a fresh chance to capture their attention when they come back.

Another question people often ask is how many PowerPoint presentation slides per minute you should have for a typical presentation. Again, this question doesn't have a simple answer. 

The number of slides you need per minute may depend on your topic. If it's simple, a few slides might do, while a more complex topic might need more slides. 

Another factor is your speaking rate. The average person speaks at 150 words per minute . If you speak faster than that, you'll cover more slides in a minute than someone who speaks more slowly.

Match your slides to your material. Even long presentations can hold attention if the topic is interesting enough. 

A notable example is Mary Meeker's Internet Trends  (Source: TechCrunch ). This runs over 100 slides. It makes good use of graphs and charts. Learn how to do this for your own presentations in our infographics creation guide . 

Instead of focusing on how many PowerPoint presentation slides per minute you need, there are other ways to improve your presentation. 

For example,  focus on what your audience needs . Choose the presentation length that's right for your subject and the occasion. Here are a couple of examples:

An executive presentation is usually short and focused. So, you'll get straight to the point and may only need a few slides.

In contrast, a keynote speech or lecture is usually longer. Spend more time painting a picture or telling a story. 

Use templates to give your presentations a harmonious and attractive look without having to do the design work yourself. Human beings are very visual. Attractive slides will subtly enhance the appeal of your presentation. 

When designing your slides, avoid walls of text , which are a real turnoff.  Keep your slides uncluttered. It'll be easier for the audience to focus on them.

Finally, practice your presentation so you know your speaking rate and get the timing right for moving from slide to slide. This will help you deliver an appealing presentation, no matter how long it is.

If you want to learn more about preparing presentations, check out the articles below:

I've shared some example presentation templates throughout this guide. You can find even more stunning templates for your next presentation in the following presentation template guides:

Make sure your slides pop with an attractive design template. If design isn't your strong point, there's no need to worry. Envato Elements has a great offer you can take advantage of today. Download as many PowerPoint presentation templates for your 5-minute presentation as you want all for one low price.

To find the perfect PowerPoint slide design, select Presentation Templates from the onscreen search box. You'll find thousands of templates. Use the on-site filtering tools to find the perfect one for your next presentation.

Find Presentation Templates

These PowerPoint slide designs are professionally created and well supported to allow you to create virtually any kind of presentation you want.

Plus, Envato Elements now has AI-assisted search . So, you can find the presentation template you need even more quickly.

Download Your Next Presentation Template and Get Started!

We've just discused questions such as how many minutes per slide and how many slides are needed for various timeframes. As we've learned, the number of slides per timeframe can vary per speaker. But it's important to plan your presentation to fit the time allotted.Remember, for a head start on creating the perfect visual identity for your presentation, download unlimited PowerPoint template s from Envato Elements. 

Now it's over to you now to get started on creating the perfect slides for your next presentation.

Editorial Note : This tutorial was originally published in February of 2019. It's been completely reviewed for accuracy and relevancy by Sarah Joy .

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How Many PowerPoint Slides Should You Use in a Presentation?

Instead, you want to figure out what you want to say first . Then, after you have designed a great presentation, go back and figure out what visual aids you will need to better make your key points. The main rule of thumb is to provide only the number of slides that you absolutely need and absolutely no more than that.

So in this session, I’m going to cover a few examples for the right number of slides needed in short presentations, the long presentation, the best way to give corporate presentations.

The Max Number of Slides for a 15-Minute Presentation (or Less.)

Instead, especially for short talks, the first thing you want to do is make a list of the most important items that need to be covered in your presentation. Then, rank these items based on their list of importance. As you go down the list, you should notice that the level of importance for each item drops exponentially as you go down the list. So, instead of covering all of the items, just cover the three (or five) most important items in your presentation.

On your first slide, give an overview of all of the points. Just list them out for the audience so they can see what you will be covering. Then, create a separate slide for each of the three (or five) main points. Finally, on your last slide, just copy the content from your first slide and your introduction now becomes a nice conclusion as well.

By the way, for most business presentations, if you can deliver the important things in a 10-minute speech, you will be loved. If you require a 30-minute presentation time, the audience will like you about three times less.

For more details about how to design presentations or to use our helpful online presentation generator click here.

What If You Have an Hour-Long Talk? How Many Slides Do You Need?

Start with an introduction slide with an overview of all five bullet points. On your internal slides, just cover the single main idea for each bullet. You will have five internal slides. Then, end with your summary slide with the main concepts one more time. This repetition of the main concepts will increase the audience’s retention of the material. For the more seasoned presenter, you can use just three main bullet points but add an extra relevant story to each point. The more that you use this technique the easier you will find it to fit your content into the correct presentation length.

For instance, if you find yourself rushing at the end without enough time to finish, you can give fewer details in your stories. If you finish early, you can add more details into your examples and stories.

For a 60-minute presentation, use five bullet points and seven slides . This time insert a couple of different stories as evidence of each bullet point. I like to use the “bad example/good example” technique. On each of the internal slides, give your audience an example of yourself or someone else who did the opposite of the point. Then, follow up with a good example.

The “Bad Example/Good Example” Technique.

If I were to use the technique to prove the point that you need seven slides for an hour presentation, I could use the following…

Bad Example : A few years ago, I went to a three-day seminar where the presenter taught about how to market to universities. On the first morning, his team gave each of us a three-ring binder with hundreds of pages. I was actually pretty excited as I scanned the binder. It was full of a ton of great information. During the first hour, the speaker gave us over 50 great tips and techniques. In the next hour, he covered another 50. He did this over and over for two and a half days. Because I am a public speaking

However, a better example is…

Good Example : A few weeks ago, a long-time client asked me to design a custom workshop for his team. He had a team who were working on a project that had been discontinued. So, he wanted to help the team members have an easier time getting rehired elsewhere in the company. We created a short class for them on how to do well in a job interview. I started by making a list of the most important items they would likely want to know. Art the top of the list was how to reduce nervousness. I spent the first few minutes covering details on how to do this. Second, I gave them a simple process to help them answer questions with credibility. Finally, I gave them a list of questions they would likely be asked. I could have covered hundreds of other tips. However, these were the things that would give them the most bang-for-their-buck.

How Many Slides for a Longer Presentation

Basically, if you design a 120-minute PowerPoint presentation, start by creating two 60-minute presentations. Then, just insert a short break in between each session. When I created the two-day Fearless Presentations ® class, I didn’t start with two days of content. On the contrary, I started with an outline of the “most important” items just like what I suggested you do in your 15-minute presentation.

Here is the list that I started with:

• How to Reduce Public Speaking Fear.
• Designing Short Impromptu Speeches.
• How to Create a Presentation that Is Easier to Deliver.
• Adding Energy and Enthusiasm to Boring Topics.
• Ways to Add Impact and Interactivity to a Presentation.

If I wanted to, I could deliver the entire content of this speech in an hour-long keynote. I’d just need to insert a few examples for each point. That is pretty easy. However, if I want to turn the list into a 2-day seminar, that is pretty easy as well. I’d start with the first point, “How to Reduce Public Speaking Fear.” This becomes the topic of a new one-hour presentation. I use the same technique. “What is the most important thing I can teach the audience about reducing nervousness? What is the second most important thing? And the third thing?”

Basically, the entire two-day class is just a collection of five shorter presentations. In my entire slide deck, I use about 30 different slides in two full days.

The Guy Kawasaki 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint

Guy Kawasaki created an interesting PowerPoint rule for entrepreneurs coming to him for venture capital. He calls it his 10/20/30 PowerPoint Rule . This general rule is what he requires presenters to use when they come to him for help. Basically, he noticed that presenters spend too much time blathering about unimportant things. So, he gave them a guide and set time limits for each presenter.

• 10 PowerPoint Slides
• 20-Minute Presentation
• 30 Point Font

Obviously, he created these criteria for a certain type of presentation. However, his logic is sound. In fact, the only thing I might argue with him about is the 10 slides rule. Kawasaki says, “Ten is the optimal number of slides in a PowerPoint presentation because a normal human being cannot comprehend more than ten concepts in a meeting.”

Let me reiterate that. A normal human being cannot comprehend. He doesn’t say retain. The average person can comprehend more information than he or she can retain. For instance, if I read an entire book on accounting, I might comprehend all of the content. However, because the book covers so many concepts, I’m likely to retain only a few. Knowing this, reduce your number of slides and you will increase retention of your important points.

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The ideal number of slides for an hour-long presentation, and other thoughts on preparing slides, comparing two recent presentations, the right number of slides, font size and bulleted lists, avoiding laundry lists, argument overview slide, a good essay makes for a good presentation.

These past two weeks, I gave two presentations — a keynote at an internal writers conference at SAP, and a keynote at an internal writers conference at Amazon. (Sorry that I can’t post the recordings.) Both presentations filled an hour time slot. Because I’ve been in presentation mode this past month, especially preparing slides, I’d like to share some thoughts I have about how to create slides for presentations.

Hands-down, the best advice for creating slides is Guy Kawasaki’s 10-20-30 rule of PowerPoint , which says you should have just 10 slides , your presentation should last no more than 20 minutes , and your font should be no less than 30 points .

I have aspired to follow Kawasaki’s slide rule for a number of years, but one fear always gets in the way: if I have just 10 slides, what if I run out of things to say after 20 minutes? I mean, usually I have to fill an hour presentation slot, right? In order to guard against running out of time, I have a tendency to add more and more slides, helping me remember points I want to make and ensuring I don’t end early.

With my first keynote presentation, I unfortunately had 50 slides (and got through about 40 of them during the presentation). (Granted, many were “sub-slides,” but they were still slides.) For my second presentation, I had only 14 slides (and got through them all). I felt the second presentation went better than the first.

Here’s the problem with having too many slides: the slides lock you into a fixed, rigid presentation order. The more slides you have, the more locked in you are to a fixed set of topics in a predefined order — which may or may not be the right order you want while presenting. With 50+ slides, you won’t have the freedom and flexibility to flow in a more natural way. The more slides you have, the more fixed the order becomes. Instead of a crutch, these slides become a cast that restricts your movement.

The absolute best presentation I’ve ever attended was by David Crystal at UA Europe , and he had no slides at all. He simply had a stool where he occasionally sat, and he spoke for about an hour and a half. It was the most mesmerizing presentation I’ve ever attended, and much of it focused on grammar (and stories about the origins of language). Crystal is the author of some 100+ books on language , and after the presentation, it was clear to me that he was a complete language genius.

I once gave a 20-minute presentation with no slides at all (at a WordPress conference), and I felt a bit naked. It wasn’t a great presentation, but it didn’t tank either. At some point, I’d like to develop the ability to present with just a few slides. I think such a presentation would resemble that of a stand-up comedian or other performer (like the Moth). I don’t have stage performer skills, so I doubt the slide-less presentation will ever be something I pull off. Still, I think as a general rule, the fewer slides one has, the more knowledge and experience the presenter has. Lots of slides is a red flag that the presenter isn’t an expert.

Until I can go slide-less, I have compromised at what I feel is the ideal number of slides for an hour-long presentation: about 15 slides (including the title and conclusion slides). Kawasaki says to limit the number of slides to 10 because no one can retain any more than 10 ideas in an hour, and though I don’t know what data supports this, I generally agree. I bumped my estimate up from 10 to 15 because Kawasaki’s ideal time of 20 minutes seems too short for the hour-long time slot.

Limiting the number of slides to 15 provides the perfect balance between flexibility and structure. You can pursue your ideas in a more freeform, natural way without being locked into a fixed, rigid order that might not fit the idea journey of your presentation.

You might object and say that if you practice your presentation enough, the slides can exactly match the idea journey you want to tell. Hence, you wouldn’t be locked into a structure you don’t want — instead, the slides would help you follow that desired structure.

Well, maybe. But I’ve given about 90 presentations, and it never seems to work out that way for me. Consider the analogy of a conversation. You want to have talking points that allow you to move about in a more freeform way, not necessarily a rigid order in which each topic must be spoken. If you imagine yourself having a conversation with the audience (rather than presenting a presentation), the talking points idea has more merit.

Another Kawasaki principle is to limit the font to no less than 30 points. This is also key. When I see slides with extensive bulleted lists, I cringe. While these bulleted lists might prompt the presenter with details to say, what ends up happening is the presenter more or less reads the slides and presents the presentation rather than telling a story.

Whenever you present a slide with text, the first thing the audience does is tune you out and start reading the text. As an audience member, it’s impossible not to — the screen is huge and directly in front of you.

If you reveal the bulleted list point by point, it has the same effect as flashing multiple, separate slides on the screen: It locks the presenter into a fixed order that potentially interrupts the natural flow of the story.

Ideally, I think good slides should be idea diagrams or visual sketch notes that demonstrate your ideas. Some presenters just put photos from Flickr on their slides to generally depict an idea, but I like more purposeful concept diagrams that might have multiple ideas going on. For example, like this:

Or like this:

Granted, some font on these slides is less than 30 points, but you don’t see extensive bulleted lists here.

For my second presentation slides , I tried to include about 3 stories per slide depicting concept diagrams like this. My thought was that I could glance at the pictures, and each picture would trigger 3 points to cover for the topic. I could cover the 3 stories/points in whatever order I wanted, so I wasn’t locked into a fixed outline. It more or less worked.

I also had slide notes in the presenter view that I could fall back on, but these presenter notes are challenging to read while speaking, and I think most presenters end up ignoring them. Pictures that trigger thought without interfering with one’s language-speaking functions work much better (for me anyway).

I use The Noun Project and Illustrator to create my concept diagrams, as it allows me to more easily manipulate different objects into the slides I want. The images aren’t spectacular, and they’re mostly black and white, but they aren’t embarrassing either, and I have fun making them. I end up exporting these artboards into my presentation. Each artboard is basically a slide in my presentation.

I use RevealJS for my presentations (and have been for the past several years). RevealJS is an HTML/CSS/JS framework that lets you code your slides with simple HTML syntax. For my second presentation, I put the SVGs as slide backgrounds , leaving ample room on the sides to allow for visibility even when the slide show is not in full screen. This worked quite well.

I also put each RevealJS slide presentation into its own GitHub repo. This makes it easy to update the slides. Kawasaki doesn’t say anything about RevealJS, PowerPoint, Google Slides, or Keynote. It really doesn’t matter which tool you use. (I just added some tool-related details here in case you were curious.)

I’ve given many presentations that turn out to be laundry lists of points — a format I regret. This was the problem with my first keynote presentation. After highlighting a trend, I started listing a number of points that could provide solutions to the challenge. These “laundry list” topics tend to be on a lower-level than topics that provide a fuller, richer argument throughout.

Here’s an example of what I mean by a laundry list. In my first presentation, my argument overview was this:

Technology is getting simpler on the front-end for end-users But the code underneath is becoming increasingly specialized/complex Tech writers are generalists, not specialists To provide value in specialist contexts, tech writers must exploit the gaps These gaps are (1) doc tools/processes, (2) understanding user feedback/experiences, and (3) information usability

Then within the “(3) information usability” section, I covered these points:

Give users a map Make information discoverable as needed Ensure harmony across all docs Reduce and distill to its essence Confirm to genre expectations Reduce language complexity Iterative design of docs

Can you see how the presentation just devolved into a laundry list of points rather than focusing on a more focused idea journey? The laundry list comes into focus with the “(1)”, “(2)”, “(3)” points in the last bullet, followed by the 7 bullets later. When I was a composition teacher, I docked student essays for presenting similar laundry lists of ideas rather than going in depth with one point.

For my second presentation, I decided to chop out this laundry list of ideas and instead focus more singularly on my trends argument. So my argument overview was as follows:

Technology is getting more specialized/complex. This complexity drives up the value of technical knowledge, making it more prized than writing skills. To handle the complexity, technical writers must play increasingly collaborative roles with engineers to create documentation

And that’s it. No laundry list at all. I instead spent much more time developing, supporting, and exploring each of these parts of my argument.

Speaking of arguments, I also recommend putting up an “Argument Overview” slide right after your intro hook slide (which usually comes after your title slide). In other words, after you introduce the relevance of your topic, present the audience with your overall argument, so they know where you’re going and what you’re arguing for.

Many presentations will omit this argument overview. When they do, I find myself wondering what the presenter’s overall point is, if they even have one, or if they just have a collage of lots of little ideas. People can often take 10-15 minutes working their way up to some point, which they articulate in fuzzy ways.

I think a good presentation mirrors the elements of an essay:

• relevance hook
• argument/thesis

Many other essay elements might be reflected as well.

Kawasaki says to limit your presentation to 20 minutes. His main scenario isn’t presenters at a conference but rather presentations from startups to venture capitalists (VCs), and he doesn’t really give much reason here for the 20-minute length except to sarcastically say that if you have a Windows machine, it will take 40 minutes to troubleshoot the display. My guess is that VCs are executive types who have a lot of questions and don’t want to be lectured at extensively.

For too many presentations I’ve given, I’ve filled the entire time slot, without leaving any time for questions. This has been a mistake, in part due to having too many slides in the first place. For my second keynote, I spoke for only about 40 minutes and then let Q&A dominate the remaining 20 minutes. Although as an audience member I sometimes dislike listening to other audience members ask questions, I do like to ask my own questions.

Further, very few people can sit patiently listening to a lecture for an hour without engaging with more interactive dialogue. My brain isn’t wired to listen to lectures this long, and neither are many other people’s. You have to be pretty interesting to retain my attention for a full hour in an engaging way.

Probably the biggest reason, though, is that the purpose of a conference is not to present lectures — it’s to confer . You come together to confer with other people, and so you need this space to allow time to discuss your ideas.

What if no one has any questions, and you’re done 20 minutes early? Won’t that feel like you didn’t fill the time, that you short-changed what you promised?

If no one asks questions, it might mean you didn’t make a real argument in your presentation, but instead focused on something everyone already agrees on.

Coming back to the essay comparison, a good presentation focuses on an argument. And an argument must be something that people can take different sides on. If everyone already agrees on the position you’re taking, why bother making it in the first place? Are you already telling people something they already know?

I realize that many presentations at conferences are more information-based rather than argument-based, and people come to “learn” rather than to “debate,” but I’d counter that almost every topic has areas of controversy or uncertainty, and I like to see someone taking a position and defending it with evidence. This shows my bias towards the essay format, as I think good essays reflect this focus as well.

At any rate, if you’ve focused on some argument that people can disagree about, then ending 20 minutes early for Q&A should be ideal, as you will have set the stage for a lively discussion — which is one draw to these gatherings in the first place. You’re setting up the discussion and then allowing for the audience to engage in critical thinking.

Additionally, note that as a presenter, you can also be the one to ask questions. A good teacher doesn’t just lecture to students for 20 minutes and then ask them what questions they have. The teacher asks challenging questions to students and invites them to engage. Why can’t presenters at conferences do the same?

A good essay and a good presentation share many similarities. For many presentations I give, I’ll often write out the content as a blog post or essay before hand. For example, for my second keynote presentation, my Tech comm trends - take two post was the essay form of the post. The essay was about 8,000 words, which is about right for an hour-long presentation. For my first keynote, the essay was an earlier version of the same trends topic .

If the essay doesn’t have a good shape and focus (no idea journey, no story arc, no argument, no evidence, no analysis of opposing views, no interesting questions, etc.), then the presentation will probably lack life as well.

The absolute best advice for any presentation is to structure the idea journey as a story. I don’t mean to pepper in anecdotes everywhere (though that is actually great advice). I mean presentations should follow the general story arc. You have some sort of goal, and you encounter challenges to that goal. The bulk of your work is in getting through these challenges, until you finally come to some realization or conclusion. This flow aligns perfectly with the essay format.

Although I’m not a professional presenter and I lack more training and polish, in the presentations I’ve given over the years, fewer slides work better than more slides. Overall, if I can shape the essay right in the first place, it usually eliminates most of the problems with presentations. That’s why I spend about 90% of the time writing the essay first, and then in the last couple of weeks create the slides.

About Tom Johnson

I'm an API technical writer based in the Seattle area. On this blog, I write about topics related to technical writing and communication — such as software documentation, API documentation, AI, information architecture, content strategy, writing processes, plain language, tech comm careers, and more. Check out my API documentation course if you're looking for more info about documenting APIs. Or see my posts on AI and AI course section for more on the latest in AI and tech comm.

If you're a technical writer and want to keep on top of the latest trends in the tech comm, be sure to subscribe to email updates below. You can also learn more about me or contact me . Finally, note that the opinions I express on my blog are my own points of view, not that of my employer.

© 2024 Tom Johnson

How Many Slides Can You Have in MS PowerPoint? (A Guide to the Maximum)

Creating a presentation can be a daunting task, especially when youre using Microsoft PowerPoint.

Knowing the limitations of your tools can make the process of creating a presentation much easier.

Well also provide tips for creating and using PowerPoint slides, what you can do if you need more slides, and what file types you can use.

Short Answer

It depends on the content of the presentation and the purpose of the presentation.

What is Microsoft PowerPoint?

PowerPoint features a wide range of tools and features to create dynamic presentations.

All of these features make PowerPoint a great tool to create engaging and professional-looking presentations.

What is the Maximum Number of Slides in PowerPoint?

When it comes to creating a presentation in Microsoft PowerPoint, there is no definitive answer to the question of how many slides can you have.

For example, the latest version of PowerPoint, PowerPoint 365, allows you to create up to 100 slides in a single presentation.

For example, if you have more detailed slides with more text, images, and other elements, your presentation may only include around 20 slides.

Different Types of Slides in PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint offers a variety of slides to choose from, depending on the type of presentation you are creating.

Finally, you can create slides with animations or transitions to make the presentation more dynamic.

Benefits of Using PowerPoint

Not only can PowerPoint help create a stunning presentation, but it also provides tools to help users organize their content and keep track of their progress.

This makes it possible for users to collaborate with others, review changes, and provide feedback.

Additionally, PowerPoint allows users to save their presentations in the cloud, making them easily accessible from any device.

Tips for Creating and Using PowerPoint Slides

1. Establish a clear purpose Before you begin creating your presentation, establish a clear purpose and topic. This will help you determine how many slides you need and the content that should be included on each one.

4. Use animations Animations can help bring your slides to life and make them more interesting. However, it is important to use animations judiciously and only when necessary.

What Can You Do if You Need More Slides?

However, if you find yourself needing more slides than the program allows, there are a few things you can do to work around the limitation.

The first option is to break up your presentation into multiple presentations.

This allows you to create multiple slides within a single slide.

Finally, you can also make use of third-party add-ons or extensions to increase the number of slides you can create in PowerPoint.

With the right tools and an eye for creativity, you can create an unlimited number of slides in your PowerPoint presentation.

What File Types Can You Use?

When creating a presentation in Microsoft PowerPoint, users have the freedom to choose from a variety of file types, depending on the needs of their project.

PPT is the older version and is still supported by older versions of PowerPoint, although it cannot be used with the newer versions.

Final Thoughts

With its range of templates, backgrounds, and layouts, users can create professional-looking slides with ease.

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How many slides should I have in my PowerPoint presentation?

When you’re planning out your next big presentation, it can be hard to know what the slide count sweet spot is. How many slides to put in a presentation, to keep your audience’s attention, is a much bigger question than it may seem.

We’d love to tell you there’s a simple answer, but if you really want to create a persuasive argument, there are a few variables to consider when planning the number of slides in your presentation. And despite what other articles spout, it has nothing to do with time.

We bet you’ve heard a few conflicting theories on this subject, so we thought it was about time we weighed in. You might’ve heard  Guy Kawasaki ’s 10/20/30 rule. This rule states that the “perfect” presentation has ten slides, lasts for 20 minutes, and uses a 30pt font. Or you might’ve read that every minute you speak equates to one slide on display behind you. You might even have uncovered some more formulaic and intricate theories than those, where x = the perfect number of slides. To reach x, you simply divide the number of people in the audience by how many seconds you have to speak, times that by how many steps between your house and the venue, to the power of your height in centimetres. If you’ve already worked your way through a series of varying opinions, you might currently be crying out “just tell me how many damn slides I need!”

Just tell me how many damn slides I need! You

While a lot of these theories are rooted in intelligent thinking and, sometimes, even science, we can’t get on board. They’re just too damn limiting. The people behind the theories were probably trying to over-simplify this complicated question, just to give you an answer. But do you want any answer? Or do you want the right answer?

The right answer is: you’re thinking about presentations wrong.

Do you think Jack Kerouac, Graham Greene, or Dan Brown ever sat down to write with the sole intention of landing on 432 pages? No, they had stories to tell, and it didn’t matter how many pages they took to tell them.

What makes you so different from  Kerouac ?

How many slides until there’s purpose?

You’re writing a presentation with a purpose. There’s a change you want to make, and your task is to convey your message persuasively, to inspire everyone that hears it to want the same change. Your purpose is not to fill exactly 20 minutes with exactly ten slides. It takes as many slides as it takes.

No, we’re not just going to leave you with that. We’re not trying to lose friends, clients and beloved readers.

We understand that presentations do often have a time limit, and that limit is one we have to consider when writing. But that limit needs to influence the number of ideas you try to convey, not dictate how many slides go into your presentation to convey these ideas. Because that’s what we’re really talking about here: ideas. For a shorter presentation, you’re going to need to be cut-throat with your editing. To trim the excess, until all that’s left is the most impactful, delicious centre piece. 

That doesn’t mean, if you have the freedom of time, you should use it to reel off every idea you’ve ever had. But you can allow yourself the luxury to layer linked ideas that all point towards one conclusion. To build a nest of ideas. And to support those ideas with facts, figures, previous successes, as well as other people’s ideas.

Only once you’ve written your detailed narrative structure, or your full script , if that’s how you feel most comfortable, should you even start to think about PowerPoint slides.

Give your ideas room to breathe

Each of your ideas deserves its time to shine. A dramatic pause works to let an impactful sentence sink in, giving the audience a moment to consider the gravity of the spoken word. Uncluttered slides have the same effect. If you try to include too many ideas on one slide, none of them are going to be understood, or remembered. 

If you’re just starting out in the world of persuasive communications, a good rule to follow is:  one idea, one slide . This will allow each idea to have its moment, without competing with any of the other ideas. This will also mean, visually, you’ll have more opportunity to enhance your message. With more slide real estate to play with, you can create presentation designs that hammer your ideas home, rather than confuse the situation further.

The journey of an idea:

• introduce it
• let it sink in

and signal the introduction of the next idea with a brand-new slide.

This is a great guide, for those lacking confidence, to use as a starting point. It is not a rule.

What counts as an idea?

Now, this is a much more complicated question, and one that will change for every presentation. In our role as guides in this scenario, we want to give you a tangible answer to your query, not simply introduce more questions, and more confusion, into the mix. After all, if your presentation is tomorrow and your search was the result of extreme desperation and maybe a little too much wine, well, you’re probably not reading this anymore because you’ve already poured said wine over your laptop in frustration. But if you are still with us, you’re probably really keen to get an answer right about now.

Frustration and confusion are not our goals. We just respect you too much to lie to you. We trust that you’ve caught on to the general theme that there are many considerations that go into the slide count of any presentation that comes through the Hype Presentations studio doors. Now that we’ve addressed that, we can give you a template to help you along your way.

If you’ve read any of our other  storytelling blogs , you already know that every story – this includes your presentation – needs a beginning, middle and end . Let’s break down a very basic structure, and accompanying slide count, for these three key sections.

This is where you set the scene, pique the audience’s interest, give them a clue as to what’s in it for them, and establish common ground. It might look something like this:

• Title slide : give your audience something exciting to look at, as they’re waiting for the presentation to begin. One slide.
• Agenda: lay out the journey they’re about to go on, and why it will be worth their while. One slide.
• Current situation : describe the landscape as it currently stands, making sure everyone is on the same page before you set off. No man left behind. One slide.

This is where we get into the real juicy bit of storytelling. And it’s also where all hope you had of squeezing a definitive slide count out of us will come tumbling down. 

A persuasive argument needs to acknowledge your audience’s challenges, and propose a solution to each one of them. Your audience might have one challenge, they might have 50, which is where the ambiguity kicks back in. Each challenge needs its own slide, and each solution does too. 

If your audience does have 50 challenges, try to find common themes between them, so you can address them as a cohesive group, all under one idea umbrella. Human beings find patterns comforting, so they’ll appreciate the bundling, as well as the reduced slide count.

Appealing to emotion, by showing you have the answer to your audience’s problems, is just one part of landing a persuasive argument. You also need to apply to logic and establish credibility. Again, this could take one slide, or it could take nine, but here is some general guidance:

• Case studies: one case study per slide.
• How it works: if the technology, service, or process you’re proposing is simple, showing your audience how it works may only take one slide. However, if it’s complicated, you’ll need to break it into component parts and tell this story across multiple slides. Remember, it’s about clarity and comprehension. It takes as many slides as it takes for the information to be processed.
• About you: audiences don’t care that much about how you were formed, or where your CEO worked before he came to be with you. Edit your company information down to what actually matters to them, and what will establish credibility in their eyes. If you’ve won awards that prove your innovations are the best in your field, show them the accolades. If the technology partner you work with is exclusive to you, let them know. The most effective ‘About us’ sections are one or two slides at the most. Avoid the company timeline, at all costs.

To close, you’re going to want to sum your key points up in one slide. Just a gentle reminder of the immense benefits they will receive by working with you.

And finally, your end slide should be, as the name suggests, one slide with a powerful call to action. To find out more about how to leave a lasting impression on every audience you encounter,  take a look at this article .

Even if you’re still pulling your hair out, desperately grasping for a simple number, hopefully these guidelines have given you some food for thought.

And now we’re going to complicate the already-fuzzy rules we’ve put in place. 

At Hype Presentations, we never look at the number of slides.

Give a shit, that’s what we say. Slide count doesn’t mean a damn thing. Sometimes we spread one message across five slides, because that’s how you get the animation to work seamlessly. Complicated navigation often requires duplicating slides, so that you don’t confuse PowerPoint as to where action came from. In contrast, we can present really complicated messaging on just one slide by using animation builds to break up the story, instead of a series of slides. There are so many variables. All we’re trying to say is, stop worrying yourself about slide count. 

However, some things, to do with slide count, you should worry yourself about:

Bad advice  

This is a call back to some of those other articles you likely stumbled across in your search. If you’re basing your presentation on hitting exactly one minute per slide, you’ve already lost your audience and you’re not even stood in front of them.

If you’re basing your presentation on hitting exactly one minute per slide, you’ve already lost your audience and you’re not even stood in front of them.

Are all ideas created equal? No. Does your audience care about everything you have to say in equal measure? No. Even if you’ve taken the “so what?” test, and all your messages have passed and are providing value to them, they’re not going to appreciate you skipping over important parts of the solution because the clock is ticking. 

Take time to explain the ideas with the greatest impact, and appreciate your audience’s intelligence enough to assume they’ll understand what an award means, without you describing it for a minute, just because the rule says so.

Do you need slides at all? 

Pick your jaw up off the floor. Just because we create next-level presentations day in, day out, and we absolutely bloody love PowerPoint, doesn’t mean we’re going to lead you astray. Sometimes, you just don’t need the support that slides bring. 

Slides are not there to remind you, as presenter, what your key talking points are. If you’re one of the – terrifyingly few – people who practice adequately ahead of a big presentation, you won’t need your memory jogged anyway. 

Slides are not there to tell the whole story for you. The slideshow is not the presentation. The words coming out of your mouth are what the audience came to hear. You are the star of your own presentation.

Before you start closing your laptop down in celebration, let’s take a step back and talk about why you (probably) do need slides.

What are slides for, anyway?

When  designed  and animated correctly, slides enhance your spoken message so that it’s easier to understand, easier to remember, and more persuasive. You and your slides are a team. There are some things that a visual can just do better than you can. Take, for example, a chart. You could spend half an hour painting a word picture of a chart you saw once. Or you could whack an impactful piece of data vis up on the screen and move on.

So, back to the original question you never even asked:

When might you not need slides?

If you only have five minutes to influence that desired change in the minds, hearts, and actions of your audience, an emotional and well-told story, spoken directly from your heart, without the dilution of technology or the fumbling of a slide clicker, could be the best way to get your message across. No distractions, no gimmicks, just authenticity. 

In this instance, it wouldn’t matter how many slides are in your presentation, they’re never going to be more impactful than your honesty and vulnerability.

In this short amount of time, your audience is unlikely to suffer from information overload and forget any of your messages, so you don’t need the slides for their ability to enhance memory. They’re unlikely to lose the train of your narrative, so you don’t need the slides as visual guidance. And if your story is told right, speaking to their challenges, and wrapped up in a situation that’s personal to them, you won’t need the persuasive powers of PowerPoint either.

But, nine times out of ten, a PowerPoint can only better your spoken messaging. Fact.

Nine times out of ten, a PowerPoint can only better your spoken messaging.

Extra time means extra slides 

And not just because of the extra ideas. If you’ve been asked to speak for a long time, firstly ask yourself if it’s really necessary. Can your audience concentrate for that long? Could the session be split into smaller chunks? Is it even going to be valuable for them? Do you have that many relevant ideas?

If it turns out to be necessary, there are some extra slides you’re going to want to add to your deck. Consider adding regular breaks (one slide per break), recaps (one slide per recap), even quizzes (one slide per question-answer combo) to keep your audience engaged, check understanding, and give them a chance to stretch their legs.

And, with the freedom of time, comes the opportunity to use other people’s voices to enhance your own. Consider adding relevant quotes, audio clips, or videos from recognisable people who support your message. Of course, you could animate these elements onto your slide with a click, but if you’re not that confident using PowerPoint, creating a new slide for each is an easier option.

When we’re deciding what the most impactful way to tell a client’s story is, we bring brilliant minds from each department together to throw ideas around, consider workarounds for each limitation, and push ourselves to deliver the best solution for each client. And not once do we say “But is that the right number of slides?”

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How Many PowerPoint Slides Does a Presentation Need?

Maybe you’ve been in this situation: A colleague is giving a presentation. While he’s talking, you’re shown a huge number of slides; the information literally flies past you. While you’re still thinking about the third slide, he’s already moved on to slide seventeen. Or vice versa: A 60-minute presentation is supported by a few short slides. It’s difficult to follow the presentation and keep track of information because there is basically no visual support.

Neither of these two presentations makes much of an impact. And the presenter doesn’t necessarily do himself any favors either. This shows that choosing the right number of slides in presentations is pretty important.

Presenting with PowerPoint: How many slides are ideal?

First of all: there’s no magic number. Nobody can tell you, “A new slide every two minutes is the secret to success.”  Every presentation is unique. Every presenter has his or her own goals and needs. And, every presentation situation is different.

So, although it’s ultimately up to you to decide on the right number of slides for your presentation, there are a few guidelines you can follow.

Seven rules for choosing the right number of slides for your presentations

Quality over quantity.

Presentation slides should never be a constant flow of data and text. Your audience should be listening to you, not reading. When everything you say is also presented on your slides, it becomes pretty redundant.

A good presentation slide should provide an overview of the key points or augment them with audio-visual material. It should support the presentation, not become it. Keep it clear and brief.

Portion out your information

We’ve become used to everything coming to us quickly and automatically. But communicating information doesn’t always work like that. Compare it to a good meal. Instead of piling it all up and eating it in one bite, savoring every bite is a much more enjoyable experience.

And that’s exactly how you should communicate information during your presentation. It’s “more appetizing” and “easier to swallow” for the listener if it’s portioned out. Just because you have enough space on a slide for several important points doesn’t mean you have to use them all. Distribute important points over several slides to emphasize their importance and focus the audience’s attention on them.

For example, if you are referring to a product range, don’t list product A, product B and product C on one slide, but create a single slide for each. These can then be enhanced with pictures or keywords. This of course increases the number of your presentation slides, but it maximizes their impact.

As much as necessary, but as little as possible

This is where efficiency really comes into play. It’s all about making sensible cuts. Slides can and should support a presentation. They can provide a guideline, provide additional visual information or simply relax the presentation a bit. As already mentioned, text should not play too much of a role on your slides.

Always question the purpose of material, such as pictures or graphics, and how useful they are for your presentation. Ger rid of anything that seems superfluous or unnecessary or that can be communicated verbally.

What is useful and what can be cut is of course up to you to decide! Although a cartoon or caricature might not be relevant to your topic, it could be a fun way to loosen things up.

Also keep in mind that the number and detail of your slides will affect hoe flexible you can be during the presentation. You are locked into your slides and their content, and the more of them you have, the less chance you have to diverge from them. This can help if you are feeling a little shaky or nervous. But keep this in mind if you’re someone who likes a bit of leeway and to talk freely.

• Practice makes perfect!

We love telling kids to practice things they don’t feel confident about. So why don’t we that ourselves? A great way to see if a presentation works is to run through it at least once in advance – kind of like a dress rehearsal.

Doing this in front of friends or family can provide you with valuable feedback. But even alone in front of a mirror or with an imaginary audience can work. You’ll quickly see where the problems lie, whether you have enough time and whether the slides fit into the presentation.

If you find that your presentation is finished faster than planned, you can add additional information and slides. If, on the other hand, you had problems completing the presentation within the allotted time and couldn’t discuss individual slides or had to skip them, it’s time to make some cuts.

Naturally, the pace at which you speak plays a big role. Those who speak quickly can cover lots of slides in a short time. If you speak slowly, you will of course achieve less. Ideally, you should speak at a pace that is comfortable for the listeners and allows them to follow the presentation. Again, this takes practice! No matter how quickly or slowly you speak, you should be able to present your slides comfortably.

Less is more

Some presenters like to keep a few slides “on ice” just in case there is time left or they feel they haven’t covered everything. This is an option but not really recommended. If the extra slides in your presentation are skipped over, the audience can easily feel that you’re cutting things short and they’re missing something that may be important.

On the other hand, there are also presenters who opt for a minimalist approach to their slides to allow for flexibility or to simplify their presentation. Even this can be irritating or distracting to the audience, as they’re not getting enough visual content.

There should be neither too many nor too few slides. Obviously, this is easier said than done. What is important and what is unimportant, what is helpful and what impedes your presentation is ultimately your decision. Trust your instincts and rely on your expertise.

There’s always an x factor!

Another reason why there is no patent solution for the perfect presentation is that there are so many variables that can affect a presentation. Factors such as topic, audience and location should always be taken into consideration when it comes to the scope and structure of slide presentations.

Things to keep in mind:

• The topic. The number of slides that are required and helpful in presentations depends greatly on the topic. For example, pictures or graphics are best suited if you want to explain technical processes, discuss building progress or new products, or present business figures and statistics. It makes little sense to cut down on relevant content just to keep the number of slides low. If your topic is a bit dry, visual material can help keep your audience interested. If your topic relies more on verbal explanations and your slides are there to provide some visual guidance, it wouldn’t make sense to add slides.
• The audience. Who your audience is plays a factor in how many slides you need. Here’s an example: You probably won’t need slides that explain and illustrate technical terms when presenting to an audience of experts in that field. But, if you’re communicating the same content to non-experts or an inexperienced audience, you will definitely need the visual material to clarify and simplify these same technical terms.

The room. The best presentation slide is not worth much if the audience can’t see it. Bad lighting an/or poor sight lines may prevent important content from being effectively communicated. This can be frustrating for both you and your audience. If you know the room isn’t well let or half your audience may not be able to see your presentation, think about investing less work in the slides and focusing more on the oral presentation. On the other hand, a room that offers excellent technical equipment can be a major asset, allowing you to add more audio-visual material, such as background music, to your presentation.

Trust your own expertise!

This point summarizes something fundamental; opinions are everywhere. Even something as seemingly innocuous as the optimal number of slides for a presentation is open for debate.  There’s a wealth of advice from experts on how many slides are right for presentations.

Don’t forget that none of these expert opinions were formed with your exact presentation style and topic in mind. And the recommendations often vary widely. While some recommend 40 slides in ten minutes, others recommend just two slides in ten minutes. In the end, you are the expert; you know how many slides you need.

This also applies to the time spent on each slide during the presentation. Not all slides are created equal – some need less time, some need more. It always depends on the structure and content of the slide. Don’t worry if you spend several minutes on one slide, but only seconds on another – that’s perfectly fine.

Expert opinions: helpful, but not mandatory

You can of course reference well-known presentation methods if you feel more confident using a given guideline. But make sure it fits and works with your presentation. Here are some well-known methods for slide presentations:

10/20/30 – The Kawasaki method:

Perhaps the best known and most commonly used method is the 10/20/30 rule by Guy Kawasaki. It specifies that ten slides be used in a 20-minute presentation. A font size of at least 30 should be used for text. This equals to about two minutes per slide – a standard rule for presentations. This method can be great for beginners or inexperienced speakers. However, it’s not an iron-clad rule and can be adapted to fit your needs.

The Pecha Kucha method:

The Pecha Kucha method is becoming more popular. The method comes from Japan and translates to “constantly talking”. Pecha Kucha is based on very rigid guidelines regarding time and the number of slides. A Pecha Kucha presentation contains 20 images. Each image is shown for exactly 20 seconds. The speaking time amounts to exactly 6 minutes and 40 seconds. The clear, simple rhythm seems to be what makes this method so successful. Here too, feel free to adapt the rigorous rules for yourself.

The Lessig method:

The Lessig method is basically a speed slideshow. This interesting presentation technique uses a large number of slides with a fast transition between slides. It allows 15 seconds (or even less) per slide, which is about four slides per minute. Due to the fast changes, the audience has little chance to drift off and is drawn into the presentation. Of course, the spoken part of the presentation needs to be perfectly synchronized with the slides. This requires practice and can make the method pretty challenging for the presenter, especially beginners.

 The Takahashi method:

The Takahashi method follows a similar principle as the Lessig method. Again, the slides only appear for a few seconds at a time. The special feature: all slides contain only one or a few words in a large font. They’re meant to underscore what the presenter is saying. Like the Lessing method, the audience’s attention is key. This method provides the presenter with key points which can make presentation tools, such as index cards unnecessary. Of course, this method is not recommended for presentations that require images, graphics or other similar visual material.

As you can see, there are many different approaches and ideas. Which method is the right one for you? The answer is up to you. It’s your presentation after all. If one of these methods and its defined guidelines works well for you, use it! Otherwise, pick and choose what you like from it and adapt it to your presentation.

Other useful PowerPoint tips:

• Your preparation should never start with your slide presentation – this should be one of the final steps. Many presenters take the opposite approach and design their presentation around their slides. This creates a false focus – the slides aren’t the focus, the presentation is. Prepare your content first and then decide how to present it in a meaningful way.
• When timing your presentation, remember to leave some room for questions, discussion or other delays. 80% of your time should be given to your actual presentation. If you take longer than planned and exceed your time, you’ll notice your audience quickly becoming restless and disinterested. If you finish a bit earlier, that’s ok. Never try to stretch the presentation unnecessarily by adding something or jumping back to a point in the presentation. Allow time to focus on your audience’s questions and comments.
• Expect the unexpected and be flexible. You may find that your audience is already pretty familiar with some of your content. If this happens, keep the presentation moving and focus more on other points. You may also need more time for questions or clarifications. This is normal during a presentation. Don’t let it throw you off balance.
• Take time to check whether all the technical equipment is working and familiarize yourself with the settings and operations. This is especially true if you work with embedded video or audio.
• Don’t give the slide presentation too much importance! Research shows that 90% of the impression a presenter makes depends on the way he or she speaks, particularly their voice and body language. It might be worthwhile to spend more preparation time on your delivery than on text and slides.
• Slide presentations are now so common in meetings that speakers feel obligated to use them. They really do offer wonderful possibilities and can be an asset to both the speaker and the audience. But this is not always the case. Not every topic needs audio-visual support via a slide presentation. And not every speech benefits from it either. Unless you’ve been explicitly told to use one, don’t feel you need to use a slide presentation if you don’t think it works for your topic.

A final word of advice:  

The biggest stumbling block in presentations is usually not the slide presentation itself, but the uncertainty of the presenter. Your listeners have probably given presentations themselves and are familiar with the challenges. They’ll most likely be forgiving of a few slides too many or too few. Stay poised and be yourself. A perfect but lifeless presentation often makes less of an impact than one with personality and a few rough edges.

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Ideal Number of Slides for a 5, 10 and 15-Minute PowerPoint Presentation

How many slides for a 10 minutes presentation are needed? At first glance, it seems straightforward to answer the question; but when you face it, you realize that it is not that simple. If you want to be focused, efficient, and pay enough attention to the details, the number of slides is critical. Knowing the exact number of slides, and planning everything to perfectly fit your time slot gives you extra confidence during your presentation.

Here, I’ll show you how many slides you have to prepare for 5, 10, and 15-minute presentations.

Table of contents

• How many slides for a 5-minute presentation?
• How many slides for a 10-minute presentation?
• How many slides for a 15-minute presentation?
• How to automatically time your slides?

How to prepare to present with a timer?

• Tips for creating a short presentation

How Many Slides for a 5-Minute Presentation?

The short answer: 5 slides that are 1 minute long would be perfect. You could even add more slides, but you’ll get less time to spend on each slide.

Preparing a 5-min presentation is extremely difficult. It gets more arduous when you have less time to present since you have to select the most important details to cover your topic clearly and thoroughly.

Although 5 minutes is short for a presentation, you can present an efficient report on one topic if you omit fillers. It is enough to consider the limit of time, keep an organized structure, and capsulize the most helpful information for your presentation.

How many slides for a 5-minute presentation are sufficient?  To find the answer to this question, first you need to have a good understanding of the following points:

• What the topic and its needs are,
• How the information should be organized.

However, pay attention that the fewer number of slides, the better. We do not mean fewer than five slides, but we cannot recommend using more than six slides as well.

Notice that nobody will listen to your speech if they cannot read your text. So, decrease your text as much as possible. You can choose to include only the basics in your text.

On the other hand, you have less time to talk about the topic, so you should concentrate on the necessary words and make your speech as precise as possible. Remember that doing a lot of practice is recommended because:

• It helps you to keep the track of your scenario throughout the presentation
• It would be best if you matched the slides and text with your speech
• You should end your presentation in just 5 minutes.

If you’re short on time, we can help. You can take advantage of the many well-designed templates available on our website. They are great options to help you organize your slides and text. Check out our collection of PowerPoint templates and use them to create your slides within minutes!

How Many Slides for a 10-Minute Presentation?

The short answer: Anywhere between 10 slides of 1 minute each to 20 slides of 30 seconds each are ideal for a 10-minute presentation. Since you have ample time, be sure to go into more detail. Remember, a boring 10-minute presentation can feel like 30 minutes for your viewer! So be sure to keep your presentations interesting and engaging.

Ten minutes mean more time to cover more details of your topic. If in a 5-min presentation, you are forced to tell your story using a small number of words, a 10-minute presentation gives you more room to plan your slides and speech. So, what should you do with your time? How many slides for a 10-minute presentation are perfect?

To answer the former question, we have to say you have the following choices:

• Decide to go for a similar number of slides (around ten slides) and dedicate your time to discuss necessary points.
• Use more slides and determine the time you need to spend on each one.

Our typical answer to the latter question is to create 10-20 slides. It’s up to you to choose the exact number. However, note that each person, on average, speaks 120 to 160 words per minute. So, you have enough time to use 1200 to 1600 words in a 10-minute presentation.

When you determine the time you spend on each slide, you can decide on the exact number of slides for your 10-minutes presentation. However, choose 20 slides if only you can finish each one in 30 seconds. Remember that every word counts, so pick them carefully to support the main idea of your presentation.

While thinking of how many slides you need for a 10-minute presentation, you should also decide on the perfect font size. The correct size for fonts makes your slides perceptible and not troublesome. Moreover, use bullets and numbers to organize your text but overdoing them may not have the effect you are looking for.

We think that it would be better for everyone, even experienced presenters, if they get access to well-designed 10-min presentation templates. Check out our page and benefit from tons of our professional PowerPoint templates.

How Many Slides for a 15-Minute Presentation?

The short answer: Anywhere between 10 slides to up to 30 slides of 30 seconds each are perfect. We recommend an average of 20-25 slides if you have a lot to cover. However, 15 mins can take a toll on your audience, so be sure to make your presentations as engaging as possible.

There is a plausible relationship between how much time you have to present and how many slides you need. Accordingly, the importance of the number of slides decreases when the length of your presentation increases.

You are the person who decides on everything but recall the two options we mentioned earlier: 1. spending your time talking more about critical points, or 2. increasing the number of slides. These are also applicable to your 15-minute presentation.

How many slides for a 15-minute presentation are needed? Our answer is that you can use more, perhaps as many as 30, although you’d better not to go for a number much greater than a 10-min presentation.

If you prefer to stick to the standard, it is 10 to 20 slides on average. You may wonder, this is similar to our answer to the question,  how many slides for a 10-minute presentation . The reason is that it is only a matter of time increased.

Nonetheless, a 15-min presentation gives you greater freedom to step forward and do something more. You cannot, for example, create slides for your supporting facts in a 5- or 10-minute presentation; however, you have enough space to include them in a 15-minute presentation.

Don’t forget that our services come in handy whenever you need help creating presentations! No matter how experienced you are, you can create professional-looking slides using our high-quality templates.

How to automatically time your slides ?

It is not difficult to time your slides; you can set a specific time for each slide so that your presentation keeps the expected pace. As the time limit is critical, you should use the PowerPoint Transitions tab to ensure you complete your presentation in time.

So, if you want to set a time for each slide to run to the one, complete the following steps:

• Choose the slide for which you are going to specify the timing.
• Select the  Transitions  tab.
• Find the  Timing  group.
• Find the  Advance Slide  and go to the next step.
• Select the  After  check box, and enter your desired number of minutes or seconds.

Now, you have made the slide move automatically after the given time. You can also use  Apply to All  button to use the same speed time for all the slides.

Note:  If you choose no timing, slides will advance by clicking the mouse.

There is only one way to get prepared for a successful presentation, and that is: Rehearse! It doesn’t matter that it is a 5, 10, or 15-minute presentation; you must do as much rehearsal as needed before presenting.

Practice makes perfect, so rehearse as much as you can. For example, you can practice the following:

• Take time differences into account when tailoring your speech.
• Record yourself. Which one do you prefer, video or tape?
• Watch or listen to your tape or video. This way, you can enhance your speech.
• Peer feedback is also helpful. Remember that your family members and friends can also give you practical advice.

In this way, you can prepare your presentation as perfectly as possible.

Tips for Creating a Short Presentation

It is not all about, for example,  how many slides for a 10-minute presentation . There are other ways you can use to present much better. Here are some tips:

What does your audience want? The answer to this question creates your presentation focal point – the audience’s needs. It would help if you even decided on the presentation length based on your subject and the occasion.

How appealing is your presentation? Try to improve the appearance of your slides. Stunning designs will be sure to impress your audience and managers. You do not have to do design work; use templates! It helps you give your presentations a unified and appealing look.

Some tips like the following ones may also be helpful for you:

• Each slide should have a lot of white space. It gives the presentation an organized, convenient layout.
• A mix of images and text is preferable to display the content.
• Use readable fonts and try to keep them compatible.
• It is better to break the messy slides into multiple ones.

Creating a presentation is an art, but it is not difficult for you now. You not only found out how many slides for a 5, 10, and 15-minute presentation are sufficient, but you also know that you should pay attention to other details. However, if you are still out of ideas or need any help, you can use our well-designed templates to create the desired slides for your presentation.

At SlideBazaar, we help you create engaging and memorable presentations. Choose from our collection of professional templates or opt for our custom design services for a personalized touch. Your presentations deserve to be elevated to new heights, and we’re here to help you achieve just that!

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How Many Slides to Use in a Presentation? 5 Tips

There’s nothing worse than a presentation that goes over time or poorly-designed slides that cram too much information onto the screen at once.

While there are a lot of things that can dictate how many slides to use in a presentation, key factors include how long you have to speak, what content you are presenting, and the visual nature of the content. (Some speakers don’t need slides at all to keep audiences engaged!)

Here, we’re breaking down common presentation times with a guide for how not to overload slides, and use them well—no matter what type of talk you are giving.

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How Many Slides for a 5 Minute Presentation?

When it comes to short presentations, you probably want to keep the number of slides to a minimum. Think about the venue here in particular. How many people are you presenting for?

Often short presentations might be for a small group or on a small screen. That’s a major consideration when it comes to how many slides you need for a 5-minute presentation.

For most speakers that comes down to 5 to 10 slides, up to 2 per minute of speaking time .

• Design for screen size. If you’ll be presenting on a desktop or laptop screen, ensure that text is large enough to read for people standing or sitting a few feet away.
• Practice your timing. Five minutes might seem like a long time until you start talking.
• Put one point on each slide. (That’s probably all you’ll have time for.)
• Include a call to action at the end for the audience. This might include anything from an email address to answer a question or provide feedback to taking a survey or visiting a website.
• Don’t include a questions slide unless you will actually have time to take questions at the end of a short presentation.

How Many Slides for a 10 Minute Presentation?

With a 10-minute you have a little more flexibility in terms of slide count.

With more time, you can vary pacing and might have time to take questions at the end of the talk. (Your slide count will be less if you cut time from your presentation to answer questions.)

For a 10-minute presentation, you’ll probably end up creating 10 to 20 slides, but don’t feel like you have to move through two slides per minute. It really depends on the complexity of the information you are talking about.

Record your presentation as you run through it. Did you finish on time? And were you able to see each slide long enough to understand it during the natural flow of the presentation before moving on to the next one?

• Include plenty of white space for an organized, easy to read design.
• Use a mix of images and text to keep the visual flow moving.
• Use legible fonts that are consistent from slide to slide.
• If a slide looks cluttered, break the content into multiple slides.
• Don’t go crazy with bullets. The goal of each slide is to present an idea, not serve as notes for you.

How Many Slides for a 15 Minute Presentation?

There’s a fairly logical relationship between the time you have to present information and how complicated the content is. The number of slides you need for a 15-minute presentation might not be that much different than at 10 minutes.

That’s because what’s on each slide might need to sit with the audience a little longer. You need to leave a chart on the screen long enough for the audience to understand it. A photo, on the other hand, can flash up and go away quickly and still be understood.

Carefully consider your presentation topic and then use this recommendation as needed: Allow for 20-30 slides for a 15-minute presentation .

• Pick a theme for each slide: Image or text? Don’t expect the audience to “read” both on every slide.
• Use image based slides to connect a short text point (or no text at all) to an idea the audience can see.
• Use text-based slides without images for more complex information or to show bullet points, charts or numbers.
• You don’t have to have a new photo and image for each slide. Use the same image and change the text if you need to. Or don’t use an image at all. Nice typography is pretty awesome.
• Include more detailed information in the notes area for you as you are giving the presentation or to the audience to download and print later.

How Many Slides for a 30 Minute Presentation?

Once you get into the territory of longer presentations, you might want to use slides of varying types – some that are super quick and others that stay visible longer – to get different points across and fit the conversational flow.

This varying approach can be interesting for the audience but might require a little math and planning on your part to determine the exact right number of slides.

Start with this formula for a 30-minute presentation :

• 4 minutes: Amount of time for opening and closing (1 slide each)
• 2 minutes: Time for each point in your presentation (1 slide per point)
• 1 minute: Time for each sub-point in your presentation (1 slide per sub-point)
• 3 minutes: Deep dive for one or two key takeways (1-2 slides)
• Flash slide (quick on and off the screen): For transitions between large topic areas or polling the audience to keep them engaged

Now you can look at your content and do a few quick calculations to get a rough idea of how many slides you might need. For a 30-minute presentation with 5 points with two subpoints each and a takeaway, that’s in the neighborhood of 20 slides.

How Many Slides for a 45 Minute Presentation?

For longer presentations, pace and energy are key. Some presenters can go through an exceptional number of slides because of the way they speak.

Seasoned speakers, often giving a presentation that they’ve done a lot of times, can average 5 slides per minute. These are fast-paced quick hit images that really keep the audience thinking and engaged. It’s a fun style but can be difficult to pull off.

A more moderate estimate is 1 to 2 slides per minute at a varying pace. That’s what you commonly see in corporate presentations and talks. (The content is often complex as well.)

• Consider location with longer presentations. Will the slides be projected on a large screen? Design for that environment.
• Include mixed media clips if appropriate in longer presentations. Varying formats can keep the audience interested.
• Use a design theme for a consistent look and feel for the entire presentation.
• Don’t let slides sit on the screen for too long. Mix it up with a new photo even if the content theme hasn’t changed much. Once you set an expectation for the audience with visuals, you don’t want them to check out.
• Make the most of the top half of the slides. If you are in a big room, sometimes the lower portion is obscured for some audience members. Even if you need to use more slides to keep content toward the top, do it.

May 7, 2024

How many slides do I need for my presentation?

How many slides for a 10 minute presentation and the 3-2-1 rule for presentations

The 3-2-1 rule for presentations

Co-founder, CEO

Preparing for a presentation can be a daunting task for anyone. If you are presenting to an important client, a large audience, or a group of classmates, it can feel like it's impossible to figure out where to start.

However, with some planning and preparation (and help from wonderful blog posts like this one!), you can go into your presentation with confidence and deliver your message effectively. So don't worry, we've got you covered!

Here are some tips to help you determine how many slides you need for your presentation, based on the length of time you have to speak.

How many minutes per slide for a presentation?

A general guideline is to allocate approximately 2 minutes per slide. This means that for a 10-minute presentation, you should aim for around 5 slides, plus or minus 1 to 2 slides. Try the calculator below or read the 3-2-1 Rule for presentations for a more in-depth guide on how to budget the number of slides for your next presentation.

How many slides for a presentation? (Calculator)

Here is a calculator that can help you budget how many slides you will need for your presentation depending on the time you need to present for. Just type in how long your presentation needs to be in minutes, and it will give you a suggestion for the number of slides.

While this is a simple calculation, the number of slides in your presentation can vary widely depending on the complexity of the content, the type of presentation, and the goal of the presentation.

For example, a slide deck for an 18 minute TED talk might only have a few slides with very little text, while the slide deck for a ~18 minute research presentation might have 30 slides (although many of them could be backup slides in an appendix).

Here are some additional rules for thinking about the number of slides in a presentation: 

• When using this calculator, enter the amount of "presentation" that you will be actively presenting. Don't worry about time that will be spent in discussion or Q&A
• If you are presenting data, try to reduce the complexity of the presentation itself and put most of the charts and data in an appendix.
• If you are creating a presentation as a 'leave-behind' that can stand by itself, you should aim for the higher end of these recommended ranges. If you are creating a presentation that is a visual aid for you to tell a story, you should aim for the lower end of these ranges.

Follow the "3-2-1 Rule" for presentations

While every presentation is different, and everyone's presentation style is different, the 3-2-1 rule is a good rule of thumb to plan the overall structure of a presentation. This applies whether you are a management consultant advising Fortune 500 CEOs or if you're a student making a high school presentation.

Here are the three components of the 3-2-1 Rule:

• THREE takeaways for your audience
• TWO minutes to present a slide
• ONE idea per slide

As you create the outline for a new presentation or revise an existing presentation, you should ask yourself:

• What are the 3 things that I want my audience to remember from my presentation when I am done talking (or they are done reading)?
• How many slides will I have to make these points? Divide the time of your presentation by 2 to get a general idea for how many slides you will need in your presentation
• What is the main idea for each slide? A common refrain among professional consultants is that you should be able to understand the story of a slide deck just by reading the slide titles

Regardless of the length of the presentation, you should always start the planning or revision process by thinking about the key points that you want your audience to take away (that's the whole point of a presentation, really!).

Then, if you are making a 10 minute presentation, you probably need 5 slides plus or minus 1 to 2 slides depending on the style of presentation or depth of content. If these are slides to start a conversation, you probably need fewer. If these are slides to present your takeaways from a research project, you may need more (and maybe some backup slides in an appendix, too).

From there, write out the key idea for each slide. One great way to do this is to make the key idea of the slide the slide title itself. Then, you should be able to read all of the slide titles one after another and make sure that they deliver a cohesive story.

If you need a quick way to get started, try using an AI presentation maker to generate the first draft of your presentation.

How many slides do I need for a 5 minute presentation?

If you are making a 5 minute presentation, your goal should be for your audience to only remember one or two key ideas, so you should have 2 or 3 slides max.

• For work: Try to create 1 slide with your main idea, along with 1 or 2 backup slides that can present supporting data like a data visualization, customer quotes, or an execution plan.
• For sales: Try to create 1 slide to focus your discussion, along with 1 or 2 backup slides that can help answer customer questions.
• For school: Try to create 1 slide for each key point in a story or research idea and make sure the key points can tie themselves together in a conclusion.
• For storytelling: Try to create one slide with a poignant story, quote, or data point to help your audience remember the key message from your presentation. Then, you may also want to have 1 or 2 slides to build up to the idea or present conclusions from that idea.

How many slides do I need for a 10 minute presentation?

In a 10 minute presentation, you should aim for 5 slides, plus or minus 1 to 2 slides. Here are some suggestions based on the type of presentation:

• For work: Create 2 or 3 primary slides to present your key points (e.g., a framework slide, a key data visualization, or a plan of action), and 2 to 3 additional slides with supporting data or examples.
• For sales: Create 3 main slides that highlight the benefits of your product or service (e.g., problem statement, customer story, value proposition), and 2 additional slides for testimonials or data to help support the conversation if your customer wants to dive deeper on a specific topic.
• For school: Create 2 or 3 main slides for your key arguments or findings, and 2 to 4 additional slides for evidence or further explanation. A book report, for example, could have a slide with a plot summary and another slide with the key themes in the story.
• For storytelling: Create 3 main slides that build a narrative arc (introduction, rising action, conclusion), and 2 additional slides for impactful quotes or visuals. The key slides for a TED talk might be an image to tell a captivating story, a slide to present a shocking statistic, and end with a story about a hopeful new project to solve a key problem.

How many slides do I need for a 15 minute presentation?

For a 15 minute presentation, aim for 7 slides, plus or minus 1 to 2 slides. Here are some suggestions based on the type of presentation:

• For work: Create 3 primary slides to present your key points (e.g., a framework slide, a key data visualization, or a plan of action), and 4 to 5 additional slides with supporting data or examples.
• For sales: Create 3 main slides that highlight the benefits of your product or service (e.g., problem statement, customer story, value proposition), and 3 to 4 additional slides for testimonials or data to help support the conversation if your customer wants to dive deeper on a specific topic.
• For school: Create 3 main slides for your key arguments or findings, and 3 to 4 additional slides for evidence or further explanation. A book report, for example, could have a slide with a plot summary, a slide with the key themes in the story, and a final slide with how those themes apply to your life.
• For storytelling: Create 4 main slides that build a narrative arc (introduction, rising action, climax, conclusion), and 3 to 4 additional slides for impactful quotes or visuals. The key slides for a TED talk might be an image to introduce a captivating story, a slide to present a memorable statistic, a slide to with a story about a hopeful new project, and a slide with the results to-date.

How many slides do I need for a 20 minute presentation?

For a 20 minute presentation, aim for 10 slides, plus or minus 1 to 2 slides. Here are some suggestions based on the type of presentation:

• For work: Create 3 primary slides to present your key points (e.g., a framework slide, a key data visualization, or a plan of action), and 6 to 7 additional slides with supporting data or examples.
• For sales: Create 4 main slides that highlight the benefits of your product or service (e.g., problem statement, customer story, value proposition, evidence), and 5 to 6 additional slides for testimonials or data to help support the conversation if your customer wants to dive deeper on a specific topic.
• For school: Create 4 main slides for your key arguments or findings, and 5 to 6 additional slides for evidence or further explanation. A book report, for example, could have a slide with a plot summary, a slide about a key moment/decision in the story, a slide with the key themes in the story, and a final slide with how those themes apply to your life.
• For storytelling: Create 4 main slides that build a narrative arc (introduction, rising action, climax, conclusion), and 4 to 5 additional slides for impactful quotes or visuals. The key slides for a TED talk might be an image to introduce a captivating story, a slide to present a memorable statistic, a slide to with a story about a hopeful new project, and a slide with the results to-date. One thing to note here is that the length of a storytelling slide deck does not need to get much longer for 15, 20, or 30 minute presentations.

How many slides do I need for a 30 minute presentation?

At 30 minutes and above, it becomes increasingly likely that you won't be expected to present for 30 minutes straight, and the "presentation" itself becomes more of a conversation aid that can support a back-and-forth discussion about a topic.

For these types of presentations, you should calculate how much time is going to be used in a "single-sided" presentation and how much time will be used in discussion. If you expect 10 minutes of your 30 minute presentation (or more) to be a discussion, you should refer to the section on "How many slides do I need for a 20 minute presentation?"

If you think you will need to present for a full 30 minutes, here is our recommendation for the number of slides you need, based on the type of presentation.

For a general 30-minute presentation, aim for 15 slides, plus or minus 2 to 3 slides.

How many slides do I need for a 45 minute presentation?

45 minutes is a long time for a one-sided presentation, so it's more likely your presentation will be used to facilitate a back and forth conversation (which may use slides as support to make a strategic decision), or present an in-depth look at research data and conclusion (which may use slides with in-depth data analysis).

For these types of presentations, you should calculate how much time is going to be used in a "single-sided" presentation and how much time will be used in discussion. If you expect half of the time to be a discussion, you should refer to the section on "How many slides do I need for a 20 minute presentation?"

If you think you will need to present for 45 minutes, here is our recommendation for the number of slides you need, based on the type of presentation.

For a general 45-minute presentation, aim for 20 slides, plus or minus 3 to 5 slides.

How many slides do I need for a 60 minute presentation?

60 minutes - one hour - is a very long time for a one-sided presentation. For these types of presentations, you should calculate how much time you expect to give a "single-sided" presentation and how much time will be used in discussion or Q&A. 

If you expect half of the time to be a discussion, you should refer to the section on "How many slides do I need for a 30 minute presentation?"

If you think you will need to present for 60 minutes, here is our recommendation for the number of slides you need, based on the type of presentation.

For a 60-minute presentation, aim for 25 slides, plus or minus 3 to 8 slides.

How should I create slides for my presentation?

Staring at a blank page when you need to create a dozen slides for your presentation can be a nerve-wracking experience. One of the best ways to get a quick start on your next slide deck is to use AI to speed up your workflow.

To get started, install the Plus AI add-on. Enter a prompt or an existing text block (e.g., an article, a blog post, a document), and then ask Plus AI to generate a first draft of your presentation.

From there, you can use Plus AI's editing, rewriting, remixing, and design features to apply the perfect finishing touches on your deck to make it yours!

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The 10-20-30 Rule: Guy Kawasaki on PowerPoint

You’ve just been asked to give a project update to your colleagues at next week’s lunch-hour seminar.

Quick… How many slides will you use? How much text can you put on them? How long should you speak — the whole hour, or less?

Don’t know? Guy Kawasaki, a famous author and venture capitalist, has the answers and they may surprise you.

What is the 10-20-30 Rule for PowerPoint?

Guy Kawasaki framed his 10-20-30 Rule for PowerPoint as:

• 10 slides are the optimal number to use for a presentation.
• 20 minutes is the longest amount of time you should speak.
• 30 point font is the smallest font size you should use on your slides.

You can read his pitch here , and you can see his pitch below (or here ):

What I Love About the 10-20-30 Rule for PowerPoint

If everyone were to follow this advice, the overall quality of business presentations everywhere would improve dramatically. If you stop reading now and follow this advice religiously, I wouldn’t complain too much.

#1: 10 Slides Constrains the Presenter to Choose Wisely

Sure, 10 may seem like an arbitrary number, but putting a limit on the number of slides you are allowed is a valuable constraint. Most people probably have 20, or 30, or 100 slides for a 1-hour presentation. Trimming this number down to 10 forces you to evaluate the necessity of each and every slide. Just like every element of your presentation, if the slide isn’t necessary, it should be cut.

It also encourages a presenter to design wisely. Often a single well-designed diagram eliminates the need for 5 bullet-point slides.

#2: 20 Minutes is Long Enough to Communicate Something Big

“ Often a single well-designed diagram eliminates the need for 5 bullet-point slides. ”

Just like the constraint on the number of slides, a constraint on your speaking time will force you to edit mercilessly. Trim the sidebar jokes. Trim the gratuitous “I’m happy to be here” pleasantries. Trim the stories which aren’t essential to conveying your message. Trim the details that only 5% of the audience cares about — send them out via email later. When you are able to trim all the extras, you can communicate with precision and concision.

Martin Luther King Jr. only needed 17 minutes to share his dream. What makes you think you need more?

#3: 30-Point Font Guarantees Readability

Unless you have a very large audience and a very small projector screen (it has happened to me), 30-point font should be readable by everyone in your audience.  Bigger is probably better, but this is a sensible lower threshold to adopt.

While a 30-point font still allows you to put too many words on a slide, at least your audience will be able to read them.

What I Hate About the 10-20-30 Rule for PowerPoint

There are very few strict rules for public speaking, and these don’t qualify. Here’s a few reasons why you should consider them guidelines, but not rules.

#1: Every Situation is Unique

First, remember Guy Kawasaki’s context for the rule: 1-hour presentations from entrepreneurs to venture capitalists. He’s a successful venture capitalist, so let’s assume his rule is perfect for that scenario.

But does this scenario match your next presentation? If not, then be careful about applying the wisdom to your personal situation.

#2: There’s no Perfect Number of Slides

“ Develop your content first , and then add slides as necessary. ”

“How many slides should I have?” is one of the most frequent questions I hear. Somebody asks it every time I deliver my PowerPoint design course.

The wrong answers are numerous:

• You should always have 10 slides
• You should always have one slide per minute
• You should always have one slide per major point
• You should have no more than 5 slides

The right answer is: How many slides do you need ?

How many slides are necessary for you to convey your message in an effective and memorable way? It might be zero. It might be one. It might be 200. It depends heavily on the nature of your content, the message you are delivering, and the complexity of your slides.

Develop your content first , and then add slides as necessary.

#3: There’s no Perfect Duration to Speak

The 20 minute suggestion assumes a 1-hour time slot. So, the rule is really saying that you should speak for one-third of your allowed time and leave two-thirds for Q&A . That’s not a bad guideline. In fact, it’s a very good general guideline .

But, it depends. Maybe the format of your event just doesn’t allow for Q&A within or after the presentation. Maybe you are doing a product demo which takes 10 minutes, and you’ve only got a 12-minute time slot. (That’s cutting it close!) Maybe the conference is running 35 minutes behind and you are the last speaker of the day. Or, maybe your audience is better served by a 1-minute speech and a 59-minute Q&A.

Consider the needs of your audience, and choose the best presentation format that will meet those needs.

#4: There’s no Perfect Font Size

30-point font might be an optimal size, but it might be too small or too large. The optimal size depends on several factors:

• how much text is on your slides (aim for less!)
• the contrast between the text and background colors
• the lighting in the room
• the distance between your audience and the screen
• the quality of the projector
• the vision of your audience
• the time of day (Is your audience tired? Have they been looking at slides all day?)

If you have any doubts, go large.

#5: Size Matters, but Quantity Matters More

To be blunt, it doesn’t matter what the font size is as long as your audience can easily read the words. It is, however, much more important to take a step back from your slides and assess whether the words you’ve got are necessary at all. Neither you nor your audience should be reading lengthy passages of text from your slides. Your audience should be listening to you, and the slides are just visual aids.

#6: If Everybody’s Following the Rules, Maybe You Shouldn’t

One of the strengths of Guy Kawasaki’s advice is that, if you follow it, you are likely to stand out from your peers in a good way. They are probably using too many slides, speaking too long, and putting too much small text on the slides. Standing out as a speaker is a good thing.

But, maybe your colleagues are disciples of Guy Kawasaki. Maybe the 10-slide, 20-minute briefing is commonplace, and your corporate template is set to 30-point font. That’s when the environment is ripe for doing something different. Don’t just change it up for the sake of doing so, but watch for an opportunity where presenting without slides or presenting with 200 makes sense, and go for it.

The Verdict

I applaud Guy Kawasaki’s efforts to use his influence to improve the presentation status quo . He has reached many people with his message; if you are still reading this article, then he’s reaching you too. Overall, the impact of his rule has inched us collectively in the right direction.

But… the 10-20-30 Rule shouldn’t be viewed as a strict rule. (And, for the record, I don’t think Guy Kawasaki views it a strict rule either.) It’s a sound guideline which you should always consider, but make your choices based on your audience, your message, and your own personal style.

Your Thoughts?

What’s your verdict on the 10-20-30 Rule? Should it be embossed onto the surface of every digital projector in the world?

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27 comments.

I love that you explored both perspectives on Guy’s rule. My answer on the 10/20/30 rule would the classic “it depends”. I have day long workshops with no slides, and webinars that have tons… like you said it’s all about your message, your audience, and what is authentic for you.

Cheers, @amandafenton

GREAT. Thank you.

I have been a fan and follower of Guy for almost 30 years and appreciate the clarity and confidence of his speaking and ideas. He knows his stuff, he knows he knows his stuff, and he is generally correct.

You additional comments Andrew help bring the message home. I like that you challenge him a bit (there is no right number of slides).

Thank you for sharing this.

On a side note, I ready many blogs, tweets, and posts on public speaking. Yours is the best. Clearly. Even better than mine (and I do not often say that!)

Since my “presentations” are actually sermons, 20 minutes would be a stretch (because of the teaching nature of a sermon) but I love the idea of being concise and to the point. Awesome thoughts from Guy and you!

Good article (and of course Guy’s rule is a good preliminary rule for Power Point use, especially for VC pitches). That said, there are a couple of further issues about Power Point that need to be highlighted. 1. When you’re asking audiences to look at Power Point, you’re asking them to do 2 things at once (pay attention to the speaker and read slides). Most of us have a very hard time doing that effectively. So you’d better have a very good reason to ask people to look at slides. Word slides — especially word slides that are essentially speaker notes — are a highly ineffective use of Power Point because they drain too much of the audience’s attention. Pictures, an occasional graph, and very limited use of words that make one big point, can work. I recommend Garr Reynolds’ Presentation Zen as the best book on slides and their uses and abuses. The fact is that the vast majority of business slide decks are speaker notes OR reports that would be better as a leave-behind, and so abuse the audience’s attention. We need to respect, not abuse, our audiences. 2. The research on attention spans suggest that they last about 22 minutes. John Medina, in his great book Brain Rules, suggests that he’s found (among his college students) that attention span is down to 10 minutes. What most people don’t understand about attention span is that it doesn’t mean that the audience is gone never to return. Rather, it means that the audience needs a quick break. As Medina points out, often a pause, a question, a breath, a stretch, or a joke is enough to refresh the attention span (even of college students). So don’t exaggerate what the effect of the limited attention span is. 3. Finally, no one should hide behind the old chestnut that Power Point improves retention. There is simply no good evidence of that. Slides are best used to present pictures with emotional impact. We remember things well that have an emotional impact on us. We don’t remember lists, facts, data, or information well at all.

Thanks Andrew for posting this! I am sure the community of Office users over on Facebook would love to hear your thoughts. You should share your knowledge of Powerpoint with the community over on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Office

Cheers, Bryn MSFT Office Outreach Team

I almost went nuts when I started reading this post, thinking it was all “Pro Guy”, until I saw that you examine both sides of the argument. Good call.

I stand by my belief that there is no “correct” method of presenting. Aside from Guy’s there is the Lessig, Garr Reynolds, and Takashi, just to name a few. All have interesting and effective elements of presentation design.

I often hear people say that X number of slides are too many, or too few, or that X size font is too big (really?). If it’s presented effectively, you can’t say a presentation has too few or too many slides. It’s ALL how you present.

Great post.

Jon Thomas Presentation Advisors

In addition to the above rule of 10-20-30, let me add a “0 rule”. The zero rule indicates that a Powerpoint presentation should not have any errors like spelling mistakes,wrong pronunciations, mistakes in sentence constructions etc..

I agree with most of this. I certainly found Guy’s 10-20-30 rule true as an entrepreneur. As a public speaker, I recently gave a 45 slide presentation in 10 minutes for a 1 hour session. 1 idea per slide or 1 idea for multiple slides, clicked through quickly to make the point.

I think I just found a new addiction! I really enjoy the review style on here and the clarity. I’ll be back for more speaking tips for sure.

Thank you all for a lively discussion on the appropriate use of slides in presentations. For me, I like slides that “show”, and speakers who “tell”. As others have stated, slides should be used as support material or visual sparkle. Save the bullet-heavy points for the handout. If a picture truly is worth a thousand words, any attempt at adding words to it may actually lessen its impact. In the art world, we always hear that “less is more”, which I believe is Guy Kawasaki’s message: Be a brutal editor, not just with the images you use, but also with your “script”. I think everyone appreciates tightly organized presentations that offer real value.

The knowledge of the 10-20-30 rule would help teachers all around the world to keep their audience awake. When the autor writes about exceptions it shows that he knows what he is writing about. I think that every rule has some exceptions.

Thanks for that informative article.

I think the 10 – 20 – 30 rule is a good clue for people who have not made any presentations. 10 slides, 20 minutes for speaking and the 30 – point font are good advices for beginners. But it should be only an advice. The amount of the slides is dependent on your theme and which information the presenter wants to transport. Of course 200 slides are too much for a 20 minutes presentation, but there isn’t a rule. Also there shouldn’t be a rule for a time limit. The time which the presenter needs you cannot set on 20 minutes exactly. For some topics you need more time to transmit it to your audience and to go more into the deep. The 30-point font rule makes sense only the whole audience can read the text on your slide. Exactly as the time of speaking and the amount of the slides the font size is dependent on some factors like Andrew said. Finally I think the most important is that you could transport your message in an interesting and informing way.

Hi Andrew, I think that kind of rule is a very helpful thing to plan your presentations properly. There are allways things to improve and you allways can do it better but that way of presentation would be a great improvement for many people. You would prevent many really bad presentations and have solid ground to start without doing bad. But printing it on the projector wouldn´t help. When you don´t know the rule and read it there you get nervouse becase than you know what you did wrong bevore and what you are doing wrong in the next minutes. Best regards, Matthias

Dear Andrew, For me the 10-20-30 rule sounds really good. The best thing is that you can remember it very easily. Everybody should think about this rule before making a presentation, but of course you have to adapt the rule on the situation. But even if the rule would be written down on the projector people won’t use it, I think most of the people know what a good presentation should look like, but knowing the facts does not necessary mean that the presentation looks like it should in the end…

The 10-20-30 rule for powerpoint offers a great chance to improve presentations. Thinking about the rules in general, they may be a great help, but in many cases the presenter should optimize the presentation by attending the special thematic. The most important point that i personally get out of the rules is to look extremely on the number of slides to not to confuse the audience. I often can’t get the information of the slides as being a listener myself if there are to much of them. All in all the rules will help me for my future presentations and i will try it as soon as possible. All the best Adschmal

The 10-20-30 Rule is a good guideline for presentations, but in my opinion every presentation is unique and has its own rules. For example: the audience, the facilities or the topic. This could be very different and this is the reason why I think that everybody who makes a presentation should coordinate this parameters to reach the goal.

I think that the 10-20-30 rule is a good “reference point” for everyone, who has to do (to prepare) a presentation. But at least every presenter has to know how many slides and how much time he/she needs for the presentation. All in all, the presentation should (must) contain all the important and necessary points of the topic.

I think Kawasaki’s rule is a very good guideline, which can give the right hint to people with less experience in doing presentations. You can look critical on the 20 minuites rule, because that would really depend on the audience and the situation. But the important questions, that everybody should ask oneself after preparing a presentation, are: Is every information necessary? Are the slides readable? Are the slides a assistance or do they make the front-person worthless.

I usually try to have an average talking time of 2 minutes per slide, too. That in combination with almost blank slides really helps to keep the audience’s interest on oneself.

Everyone has to find the best strategy for himself, but Kawasaki gives us the right approach to do so.

best regards, Chris

What’s your verdict on the 10-20-30 Rule?

I think this 10-20-30 Rule is good for beginners, who don’t know what is really important. This rule is very useful for presentations at school or for short business meetings. If you have the purpose to teach something 20 minutes is less time and you are only able to give the audience an overview of a topic.

Should it be embossed onto the surface of every digital projector in the world?

No, how I explained in Question 1 it isn’t good for every kind of presentation. In some cases it is excellent, but sometimes your need mor than 10 slides, or less time than 20 minutes. I think you can’t say that there is a general rule for a presentation in the course slides number and time. It really depends on the topic, available time and purpose.

thank you for this good advices! It is perfect for me to prepare for my next presentation and will allow me to just focus on the important points and the message I want to deliver….

Rock on…

I would underline and accept the 10-20 in the 10-20-30 Rule, as it is important (to be able) to focus on the main things, which stands for the 10, and 20 minutes should be enough to explain even complex relations/models/etc. – but I do not agree with the 30, as you might not know how big the audience or the room in which you are giving your presentation is. Because of that I think that you cannot generalize what font size you should have. But I would still keep the 30 in the rule, which should show the maximum amount of words in one slide.

All in all I would say that the 10-20-30 Rule is a good advice for beginners, but definitely needs some adaptions on the presenters needs.

my verdict on the 10-20-30 rule is that i find it a nice rule to work with. 10 slides are on the one side a little to few , but on the other side you have to chose carefully what you put in your slides fpr your presenation. in 20 min you can put a lot of inforamtion and you can also chose carefuly what you say. Idon´t think that is should be embosed on every projector because when everybody uses this 10-20-30 rule than will not be necesary

My verdict I think it`s a good opinion to make good presentation. It´s very comfortable for the audience if they can read the point fond. Your presentation isn`t going confuesed if you have only slides and the audience doesn`t drift oft if you speak only 20 minutes.

should it be emassed on to the surface of every digital projector in the world?

No i don`t think so. I think it`s an good guideline to make good presentation`s but you have to distinguish what presentation you have. If you have to give a presentation in a meeting or something like this, than this a really good rules but for a lecture with an audience of experts i think this not the right way.

for my opinion the 10 – 20 – 30 rule is quiet good stuff to make a presentation. Probably the most people made fails in this points. On the other hand i would like to say that when you have to hold a 60 min presentation you can´t talk only 20 minutes have a 40 minutes discussion. But this rules are good to help you to were a grood presenter!

A good base for the preparation of a presentation. Thank you for this interesting article.

I’m glad that Guy got everyone thinking about WHAT they are presenting on screen. But his formula still gives far too much text on screen!

The 20 is obsolete if you are contracted to speak for 45-60 minutes. I’ll let you know what I come up with.

Recent Tweets

The 10-20-30 Rule: Guy Kawasaki on PowerPoint http://t.co/3GHrnzuSVI via @6minutes — @wisnurdi Aug 22nd, 2015

The 10-20-30 Rule for PowerPoint presentations http://t.co/799nM1ara4 via @6minutes @GuyKawasaki http://t.co/F1xL83MuZQ — @gregreeder Aug 24th, 2015

10 20 30 Regeln för powerpoint. Bra eller dålig? http://t.co/Sa5lZQBSPg — @hakanfleischer Aug 24th, 2015

Good tips to use in presentations. Guy Kawasaki http://t.co/SWQWrEVvuk — Morris Gellman TM (@tmastersarg) Sep 1st, 2015

The 10-20-30 Rule: Guy Kawasaki on PowerPoint http://t.co/HA8pBnwAjk via @6minutes — Tawn Gillihan (@tgillihan) Sep 4th, 2015

10 20 30 Rule for PowerPoint: Useful or Useless? http://t.co/c2igyLyknj — @MichaelAlbert Sep 4th, 2015

The 10-20-30 Rule: Guy Kawasaki on PowerPoint https://t.co/8sIPS4I3Mk — @Present_2016 Nov 3rd, 2015

The 10-20-30 Rule: Guy Kawasaki on PowerPoint https://t.co/BODPNzRugx — @geraldo3 Jan 19th, 2016

@Sandrafobia well I like the 10/20/30 rule, but only as a guide and it’s just an opinion 😊 https://t.co/1wQwih1m3J — @xurxosanz Feb 7th, 2016

dear Client, the 10-20-30 rule DOES apply to you. it applies to EVERYONE using PowerPoint. not kidding on this. https://t.co/St1c4weAmJ — @johnfoster Apr 5th, 2016

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Presentation Training Institute

A division of bold new directions training, how long should your powerpoint really be.

You have just been asked to give a presentation to your colleagues.  You are preparing to put together a Powerpoint presentation when you are faced with an important decision: How long should your Powerpoint presentation be?  You want to be sure you include all of the necessary information but you don’t want your audience to fall victim to complete and utter boredom.  When creating a Powerpoint presentation you can’t go wrong with the “10-20-30 Rule.â€Â  Here is a breakdown of this rule:

10 slides are the optimal number to use for any presentation.

20 minutes is the longest amount of time you should speak.

30 point font is the smallest font size you should use on your slides.

The quality of your business presentation will dramatically improve by following this general rule of thumb and here’s why:

10 Slides Forces the Presenter to Choose Wisely

It might not seem like a lot, but trimming your presentation to just 10 slides is a valuable constraint.  Most people have between 30-50 slides for a 1-hour presentation and many of the slides are filled with unnecessary content.  By limiting your slides to just 10, you are forced to evaluate the necessity of each slide and just like every other part of your presentation, if it isn’t necessary it shouldn’t be included! Selecting fewer slides also encourages the presenter to design their presentation wisely, keeping it clear and concise.

20 Minutes is Ample Time to Illustrate Your Point

Much like the constraint on the number of slides, cutting down on your speaking time forces you to do plenty of editing.  You can trim out the silly jokes and the “I’m so happy to be here’s.â€Â  Cut back on the details and only include the information that the audience actually cares about.  When you get rid of all the additional fillers, you focus on what is truly important and deliver a presentation with precision.

30 Point Font Guarantees Readability

It is critical that your slides be readable from a distance.  You might have the best material in the world but if audiences can’t read it, it does no good.  Bigger is probably better, but at the very minimum 30-point font should be readable by everyone in your audience.

It’s important to remember that there is not a “one size fits all†rule when it comes to presentations.  Every presentation is unique but the “10-20-30 Rule†should act as a basic guideline.  If your topic is more complex and absolutely requires the use of a few more slides, don’t hesitate to include what you deem necessary.  Likewise, if you just absolute CANNOT deliver your presentation in less than 30 minutes, take the time you need.  Just remember that it is important to edit your presentation and get rid of any material that is not necessary.  Audiences will appreciate it and you will be more apt to deliver a meaningful presentation.

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Follow the 10-20-30 Rule for Killer Presentations

A vc offers dead-simple guidance to save himself from a tsunami of terrible pitches..

You've probably endured plenty of terrible presentations in your time, but maybe you think that up in the higher echelons of Silicon Valley, entrepreneurs have really nailed the art of the pitch. 

Nope. As early Apple employee-turned-investor Guy Kawasaki bluntly puts it, "Most of these pitches are crap." Even top-tier entrepreneurs pitching elite VCs can't seem to make an engaging set of slides. 

You might conclude from this fact that crafting a compelling presentation is incredibly hard, requiring subtle artistry and exceptional skill. Once again, nope. Kawasaki insists that all you have to do to not torture your audience with any persuasive presentation is follow his classic 10-20-30 rule . 

10 slides 

"Ten is the optimal number of slides in a PowerPoint presentation, because a normal human being cannot comprehend more than 10 concepts in a meeting," Kawasaki insists. "If you must use more than 10 slides to explain your business, you probably don't have a business."

What should those 10 slides contain if your presentation is an investment pitch? Kawasaki helpfully offers a list of the 10 points that venture capitalists actually want you to cover. 

20 minutes 

TED Talks are 20 minutes for a reason -- that's how long you can reasonably expect an audience to pay attention. Exceed this hard limit at your peril. Even if you have an hour to present, actually click through slides for 20 minutes, Kawasaki insists. Use the rest of the time for setting up your tech before and taking questions after. 

30-point font 

What's wrong with small fonts (besides the fact that you are presenting to humans, not eagles)? "The majority of the presentations that I see have text in a 10-point font. As much text as possible is jammed into the slide, and then the presenter reads it," Kawasaki reports. 

The result is that the audience quickly catches on to what you are doing and simply reads ahead of you. This is boring and renders you superfluous. More important, though, it also reveals that you haven't learned your material by heart. Using bigger fonts will force you to use fewer words, and that will make you actually think through and memorize your key points, improving your presentation. 

Will these three rules instantly turn your pitch to gold and win you millions in investment? Obviously not. No amount of presentation savvy is going to save you if your idea is terrible. But, on the other hand, even an excellent idea can easily die because of terrible presenting. 

Keep to the 10-20-30 rule and you'll at least give yourself the best possible shot of winning over your audience. 

A refreshed look at leadership from the desk of CEO and chief content officer Stephanie Mehta

Privacy Policy

How Many Slides For Presentations (10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 Minutes)

You should limit your presentations to one slide per minute at a maximum. Try to include the least amount of slides while trying to get your message across in a concise while still complete manner.

An alternative rule is the “10/20/30 Rule,” which suggests that a good presentation will limit itself to 10 slides, last 20 minutes in length, and include a font size no smaller than 30 points.

PowerPoint presentations can be overwhelming to the point that they put off people from learning new material and discourage them from taking in the presented information.

The purpose of this article is to help people make their presentations more exciting and easier to follow and discover how many slides are generally needed so you can time your presentations accordingly.

Of course, all of the below points are just suggestions and the number of slides that you will use for your own presentation will of course depend on the content as well your target audience.

How many slides for a 10-minute presentation?

How many slides for a 15-minute presentation, how many slides for a 20-minute presentation, how many slides for a 30-minute presentation, how many slides for a 40-minute presentation, how many slides for a 50-minute presentation, how many slides for a 60-minute presentation.

A 10-minute presentation would require no more than 10 slides. It’s much better to start with too few than too many, so users will likely appreciate the shorter list of bullet points. Your goal is to provide the right amount of information for your audience to understand the topic without overwhelming them.

If you are just giving an overview of something that you want the audience to remember in 10 minutes or less, then this is probably enough. Keep your slides simple and keep them limited to two-three bullet points per slide.

A 15-minute presention should have a maximum of 15 slides. This is the right amount of information for audiences to grasp without feeling overwhelmed or bored. If you can give this type of presentation in 10 minutes or less, it’s even better.

During a 15 minute presentation. These slides should be able to cover the basics of your topic, but if you try to make it too complicated, your audience will lose interest, and you will end up wasting their time.

A 20-minute presentation should require no more than 20 slides. On average, you should only be using 5-7 bullet points on each slide. You can also include one or two images on each slide to help facilitate understanding.

If you are giving an overview of something that you want the audience to remember in 20 minutes or less, this might be the perfect time to follow the 10/20/30 rule. This concept should relate to the audience or is a key part of your speech or presentation.

A 30-minute presentation would require no more than 30 slides. You can use 5-7 bullet points per slide or 8-10 bullet points if the presentation is necessary to convey ideas in great detail. If you are including lots of images and charts to help illustrate your point, then reduce the amount of bullet points used.

It’s a good idea to follow this rule because too many slides can make it challenging to keep track of all the points you are trying to make, and your audience will be more likely to lose interest in what you’re saying or miss important ideas as they go by quickly. It’s also easier for people to focus on your presentation when it’s broken up into smaller sections.

On 30 minute presentations, it is a good idea to leave a few minutes for Q&A. This will allow your audience to ask questions about things they didn’t understand or missed in the part of the presentation. It also gives your audience a reason to get involved in the session.

For a 40 minute presentation, you should try to keep it to 40 slides maximum, you can dole out some information in detail and leave a bigger chunk of time for Q&A. People will stay attentive when the material is broken up into smaller segments.

You should keep in mind that different people respond to different mediums and will better understand an idea when it’s presented to them in a way they are accustomed to receiving information (i.e. some people benefit from text and others from images, some people need the material broken up into small pieces while others prefer a long, steady stream of information).

It will also depend on the type of presentation you are doing. If it’s a demonstration or special event, then more slides are better (and less time per slide is good). If you’re there to present statistics, research, comparison charts, etc., fewer slides with more information per slide would be best.

A 50-minute presentation should include no more than 50 slides. You can have more slides than this if you have a very engaging visual presentation with limited amounts of information per slide.

Similar to a 40-minute presentation, a 50-minute presentation can allow you to go into a lot of detail in some places and remain at a high level. You should also feel free to leave out certain information if it is not essential in a particular presentation’s overall scheme of things.

As a general rule of thumb, experienced public speakers or subject matter experts are the ones who feel the most comfortable holding longer presentations and sessions, which allows them to go into greater detail in certain areas.

If you’re new to this kind of work, it might be best to keep your presentations between 30 and 40 minutes and leave the rest of the time slot open for questions from the floor.

A 50-minute presentation would require no more than 20-25 slides, as the only purpose they serve here would be just as a reminder for the speaker to stay on point as he conveys the story to the audience.

A 60-minute presentation should include no more than 60 slides. If you have a very engaging visual presentation with limited amounts of information per slide, you can have more slides than this.

If the presentation is going to be more interactive, then it’s better to cut down on the number of slides and instead focus on how much each slide will contribute to the overall story you’re telling. You must also leave plenty of time for a Q&A session at the end. 

The number of slides for a presentation varies. While too many can bore your audience, not enough will leave them wondering what you’re talking about.

Your slides can serve as visual reminders of your talk and also help you maintain a narrative flow in your presentation. You must know what you want to accomplish with each slide, how long it will take to read the text and absorb information from a chart or graph and how much time you have for Q&A.

Remember that slides can and should be used as visual aids, not as the main point of the presentation. The speaker needs to convey that information, not just read it from their slides.

Related Posts:

60 Effective PowerPoint Presentation Tips & Tricks (Giant List)

Here's a PowerPoint presentation tips and tricks guide that takes you through how to make a good PowerPoint presentation.

The best PowerPoint presentations shouldn’t be remembered. Instead, they should fall into the background to support you and the message you’re trying to get across.

Unlike good PowerPoint presentations , bad PowerPoint presentations are a distraction. You may remember them, but not in a good way.

You’ve seen them before. They might have millions of lines of text. Or a disjointed flow to the slides. Even worse, some slides feature ugly photos and poor design that detract from the message you’re trying to get across. That can even hurt your credibility as a professional or speaker.

This article will take you from finding your initial topic to learning how to make a great PowerPoint presentation. Our guide covers everything in between so that you learn how to present a PowerPoint like a pro.

These Microsoft PowerPoint presentation tips and guidelines are organized into sections. So cut straight to the advice you need and come back when you’re ready for the next steps.

Guide to Making Great Presentations (Free eBook Download)

Also, download our Free eBook: The Complete Guide to Making Great Presentations . It’s the deepest resource for learning effective presentation skills for a PPT.

This eBook covers the complete presentation process. It takes the PowerPoint tips and tricks you learn in this article further. Learn how to write your presentation, design it like a pro, and prepare it to present powerfully. It’s another great source for presentation design tips.

Master PowerPoint (Free Course): 15 Essential Tips

This article is full of helpful tips so you can build a powerful presentation. You can also find more PowerPoint tips in this video lesson:

To learn even more about how to make a PowerPoint look good, review the huge list of tips below.

What Makes a PowerPoint Presentation Effective?

Knowing how to use PowerPoint and work within it quickly is helpful. But more important is making a good presentation that hits all your goals. A great PowerPoint presentation is:

• Prepared to Win . Research, plan, and prepare your presentation professionally. It helps you deliver an effective message to your target audience.
• Designed Correctly . Your visual points should stand out without overwhelming your audience. A good PowerPoint visual shouldn’t complicate your message.
• Practiced to Perfection . Rehearse your timing and delivery so that your points land as practiced with a live audience.
• Delivered With Poise . Present with a relaxed inner calm and confident outward projection. Give your audience warmth, excitement, and energy.
• Free From Mistakes . Avoid typos, cheesy clip art, and mistakes like reading directly from your slides.

Consider this your all-inclusive guide to how to make a good presentation. We’ll look at preparing your presentation and explore how to design it in PowerPoint. Plus, we’ll cover how to practice and nail your delivery successfully come presentation time.

We’ll also address what not to do in these tips for PowerPoint presentations—so you can sidestep any big mistakes. Now let’s dig into these tips for effective PowerPoint presentations.

Killer Presentation Preparation Tips to Get Started Right

Before even opening PowerPoint, start by addressing these things. These Microsoft PowerPoint tips and tricks will ensure that you’re prepared for your presentation:

1. Know Your Stuff

Your presentation isn’t about your slides alone. It’s about the message you want to get across. Before filling in stats, facts and figures, think about the narrative that’ll be discussed, why, and in what order.

2. Write It Out

Start in a Word or Google doc, and storyboard or script the entire presentation. This will give you an idea of how the information presented will flow and how viewers will see it in sequence. Learn the complete writing process .

3. Highlight What’s Most Important

A presentation covers the most crucial pieces only. Whatever you’ve been working on that led to this—a paper, a work project, a new product design—doesn’t need to be shared in its entirety. Pick key points and put the rest in an “Appendix” to refer to during the Q&A session at the end.

4. Know Your Audience

How you talk to a room full of medical professionals should be different from the way you address a room full of young entrepreneurs. Everything, in fact, is different: your topic selection, the language you use, the examples you give to illustrate points. The little bits of humor you include should be tailored specifically with your target audience in mind.

Understand your audience’s needs to create a successful PowerPoint presentation. Customize your content to meet their specific requirements.

5. Rehearse! (Yes, Already)

It’s never too early to get used to the rhythm of your presentation and take note of points you want to emphasize. While saying it out loud, you’ll start to develop a “feel” for the material. You’ll notice that some things work well, while others don’t and might need to be worked around.

6. Rewrite After You Rehearse

As you’re rehearsing your presentation, you’re bound to stumble over sections that don’t quite flow naturally. Instead of reworking your delivery, it might be time to consider the content and rewrite the areas that served as stumbling blocks.

“Editing is hard. ‘It’s good enough,’ is a phrase wannabes use. Leaders take editing seriously.” – Anthony Trendl

The most important part of creating a great presentation is the writing stage. The second most important stage is rewriting.

7. Share With a Friend

If the stakes are high for your presentation, it’s never too early to get feedback from those that you trust. Here’s an article that helps you collaborate as a team on a PowerPoint presentation. Get PowerPoint design tips from those that you trust when you collaborate.

Simple Tips to Design Your PowerPoint Presentation Better

Second only to you (the information you bring and how you present it) is your PowerPoint slides. If not designed well, a PowerPoint can be disengaging or distracting (regardless of the content quality). Here are some presentation design tips to make sure this doesn’t happen to you:

8. Keep Your Slides Simple

This is one of the most important PowerPoint presentation tips to follow when designing your slides. Keep in mind that less is more (effective.) A cluttered slide is distracting. It causes confusion for an audience: Which part of the slide should I focus on? Should I read the slide or pay attention to the presenter?

A simple, visually appealing slide will engage your audience, keeping them on track with your main points. Here’s an example of a simple slide that serves its purpose perfectly:

Minimalist slide templates like Nook can help you resist the urge to clutter your slides.

9. Limit Words on Your Slides

Piggybacking on the last point, less is more effective. If possible, avoid bullets altogether. Otherwise cut them to just a few simple words. The audience should be listening, not reading.

10. Use High-Quality Photos and Graphics

One of the most important tips for quality PowerPoint presentations is to use high-quality photos and graphics.

Earlier in this tutorial, you saw Envato Elements, an all-you-can-download service with PPT tips inside of templates. Those pre-built designs are a beginner’s best friend. They’re even better when paired with Elements’ unlimited library of stock photos .

People are more likely to take you seriously if your presentation is visually appealing. Users view attractive design as more usable. Similarly, they’ll view a more attractive PowerPoint as more effective.

11. Use Accurate and Relevant Charts and Graphs

Charts and graphs can also be distracting if they’re not used right. Make sure your information design is simple and clean so that the audience doesn’t spend the entire time trying to decipher what your X axis says. Learn more about PPT data presentation .

12. Use High-Quality, Fresh Templates

Have you seen the old PowerPoint template that looks like worn paper and uses ink splashes? Yeah, so has your audience. Templates can be distracting if they’re too basic or if the design feels dated. You need one with great design options.

Costs are always a concern. But when you use Envato Elements, you’ve got everything you need to create a great PowerPoint presentation . That’s thanks to the incredible all-you-can-download subscription package.

The best PowerPoint tips and tricks can hardly compare to the value of using a template while building your presentation.

On Envato Elements, there are thousands of PowerPoint design templates that are ready to use. Instead of designing a presentation from scratch, start with a template! Just add your specifics to the placeholders.

Templates like Galaxi are impressively designed and waiting for your slide specifics.

The best PowerPoint design tips save you time. And there’s no tip more powerful than this one: use a pre-built template . It helps you master how to present a PowerPoint without spending all your time in the app.

13. Choose Appropriate Fonts

Fonts are an important part of engaging your audience. Fonts and typography choices have a subconscious effect on viewers. They can characterize your company’s presentation and brand either positively or negatively. Make sure that you’re choosing fonts that are professional and modern.

14. Choose Color Well

Like font choice, colors cause specific subconscious reactions from viewers. Choosing an outdated color combination for your presentation will render it ineffective.

Below is an example of the Popsicle PowerPoint template , which has a modern presentation color choice:

The Popsicle PowerPoint template highlights how harmonized color palettes can create beautiful slides.

15. Clean + Simple Formatting Makes All the Difference!

We’ve got a full tutorial on how to make a good presentation slide . Give it a read through and review the accompanying video. Just remember, less is more. The focus is you and your message , not your slides.

16. Make Sure All Objects Are Aligned

A simple way to create a well-designed presentation is to make sure all items on a slide are intentionally aligned. To do this, hold down Shift and select all the objects you want to include. Then choose Arrange in the options bar and apply Alignment Type .

17. Limit Punctuation

This isn’t the place for exclamation points. Emphasize your points (while speaking). Don’t enlist punctuation to do this for you. (Leave these at home!!!)

18. Avoid Over-Formatting Your Points

This PowerPoint presentation tip is simple. There’s no need to have every word of every bullet point capitalized, or to have all your bullet points in title case. If possible, drop bullets altogether. Again, the simpler, the better!

Limit your text formatting, including reducing the use of bullets, underline, and other effects. Compare the before example on the left to the revised version on the right.

19. Combine Information With Graphics in PowerPoint

One of the most powerful presentation skills for PPT is using infographics. With the right type of visuals, slides come to life and reduce the text in favor of graphics.

Infographics help combine information with graphics. It’s easier to explain complex ideas when you use visual formats that are intuitive.

Practice Presentation Tips: Rehearse, Rehearse, Rehearse!

Delivery is probably more important than the actual content. Here’s how to become more aware of your own unique ticks, and how to present like a polished pro:

20. I’ll Say It Again, Rehearse!

Just do it. Again and again. Experiment with pauses, gestures, and body language. Practice around one hour for every minute of your speech.

21. Practice With a Timer

Consistency is key to an effective PowerPoint presentation. The timing should be similar (ideally the same) each time you rehearse. This one will especially pay off when it’s time to present in front of your audience.

22. Slow It Down

Many of the best speakers today intentionally speak slowly. You’ll have the chance to emphasize, appear more thoughtful, and make your information easier to digest.

23. Pause More Often

Like the prior tip, pausing more often allows your main points to be emphasized and gives time for information to sink in. You need to let key points breathe a little before rushing into the next section.

24. Record Yourself

Use your phone’s voice recorder. Assess and critique yourself. Consider:

• Are your pauses too short or too long?
• Are you speaking slowly enough? Too slow?
• When you’re nervous, does your voice get high like the mice in Cinderella?

It’s always weird to hear your own voice recorded; don’t stress it. Use this as a time to adjust.

25. Choose Three Focal Points in the Room

If you stare at the same spot (or even creepier, the same person) the entire time, your presentation will be ineffective (and awkward.) People will be distracted by you, wondering what you’re staring at.

Try this: pick three points in the room (typically: left, center, right). Take time to direct your delivery toward each physical focal point in the room. Also, focus on the center when making your primary points.

26. Vary Your Sentence Length

This makes you sound more interesting, and it’s easier for your audience to follow. Think short and punchy. Or go long and complex for dramatic effect.

27. Modulate!

Don’t speak in monotone for your whole presentation. Be conscious of raising and lowering your voice tone. Otherwise, people will tune you out, and you’ll come across like the teacher in Charlie Brown.

28. Practice in Front of a Mirror

What you look like is as important as how you sound. Pretend you’re having a normal conversation, and allow your hands to move with your speech to emphasize your points. Just don’t get carried away! (I’m thinking Brene Brown or President Obama , not your Aunt Jamie after a few gin and tonics.)

29. Use “Present Mode” When Rehearsing

When you finally are ready to hit the Present button in PowerPoint, make sure you use the Present Mode option. This allows you (and only you) to view extra notes about each slide—just in case you forget something!

30. Practice With New Audiences

If possible, try doing a few real live test runs as a webinar or even at a local Toastmasters organization to get some feedback from a live audience.

31. Engage the Audience by Asking Questions

There’s no reason that a presentation should be one-sided. Why not invert the format and ask your audience a question?

To learn how to create a slide that kicks off a Q&A, use this article . These PowerPoint design tips help you create an engaging and exciting discussion.

Helpful Tips to Step Up and Deliver Come Presentation Time

When the actual day arrives, there are only a few last PowerPoint presentation tips and guidelines to keep in mind:

32. Take a Deep Breath

Deep breathing is proven to relieve stress. It’s simple, and it’ll help you remain calm and in the moment, even up to the last minute before starting.

33. Lighten Up Your Mood

Tell yourself a joke or watch a funny video clip. Do this before the presentation, of course. Research concludes that happy people are more productive. More productive is more focused and able to perform better.

34. Remind Yourself to Take It Slow

When we’re stressed or nervous (or both), we tend to speak faster. Consciously, take yet another deep breath and remind yourself to take it slow!

35. Read the Room

Every presentation room has a temperature. It’s your job as a speaker to gauge it and tailor your presentation to it.

Here’s a great example. Layoffs are coming at a company, and you’re asked to speak to an audience. Even if the audience isn’t personally affected by the actions, you’ve got to consider the morale of the workforce.

Skilled speakers have a knack for reading the energy of the room and adjusting their presentation on the fly.

The last thing that group will want to hear is how strong the economy is and why the company is the best place to work. That doesn’t mean that you’ve got to align to their uncertainty, but don’t go too far against the grain while presenting.

Robert Kennedy III is a master of bringing energy and aligning a speech to the audience. Here’s his advice for adjusting:

“It can be hard to wake up a “dead” crowd but go for it. Most of all, don’t take their energy personally. Focus on serving them with every bit of your fiber then leave empty.”

36. Fake It ‘Til You Make It!

Go forward with confidence. If you act confident, you’ll start to feel more confident. Move slowly with grace, speak clearly, smile, wear something nice. You’ll appear confident to all attendees (no matter how you feel internally).

PowerPoint Presentation Tips and Tricks to Help Avoid Mistakes (What Not to Do)

Most importantly, focus on what you can do to make your presentation better. There are a few important things not to do that we’ve got to address. Here are a handful of PowerPoint presentation tips and tricks to help you avoid missteps.

37. Stop With the Sound Effects

Sound effects are distracting and outdated. In most cases, avoid them. Add audio or music to your presentation to inject interest or highlight an important point, but it’s something to take extra care with. If you insert audio, then make sure your use really connects with your audience and has a fresh approach. Otherwise, it’s best to leave it out.

38. Don’t Use Flashy Slide Transitions

Again, this is distracting and outdated. Use transitions and subtle animations in your PowerPoint presentation. But you need to take care and do it right .

39. Beware of Clip Art

This PowerPoint presentation tip shouldn’t even have to be said. But please, please don’t use clip art. Use professional graphics instead.

40. Don’t Be Afraid to Be Afraid

The fear of public speaking is a real one. Many beginners think that if they’re feeling nervous that a presentation won’t go well or succeed. That might lead them to cancel the presentation.

Here’s a tip from expert Sandra Zimmer, who leads The Self-Expression Center on conquering your fears before you take the stage:

“Get out of your head and into your body. I do this through a grounding exercise that really works to calm nerves and bring you present in the moment.”

If you think that public speaking fears aren’t normal, you might never give your award-winning presentation. So don’t be afraid to be afraid, and acknowledge it’s part of the process!

41. Don’t Read Directly During Your PowerPoint Presentation

If you spend your entire presentation looking at the screen or your note cards, you’re sure to lose your audience’s attention. They’ll disengage from what you’re saying, and your presentation will fall flat.

Reading from your paper or screen also makes it look like you’re not prepared. Many people do it, but no one should. As a general rule, only present something you know well and have, at least mostly, memorized the main points of.

42. Don’t Miss Out on PowerPoint Customizations

Many new PowerPoint users often make significant mistakes when using Envato Elements designs.

The best way to see how to make a good presentation PPT is to start with designs from others. That means using a template, but that doesn’t mean you can’t customize them!

Don’t forget that PowerPoint templates are infinitely customizable. Think of them as guides with built-in presentation design tips.

To see more presentation tips that show you what not to do, make sure to check out our guide .

Work in PowerPoint More Effectively (Tips & Tricks to Level Up Your PPT Skills)

These PowerPoint tips will help you get the most out of the application to level up your next presentation. Let’s dive in.

43. Use the Visual Guides

When you’re designing your next PowerPoint presentation, it helps to create a sense of visual rhythm. Slides that have objects aligned and centered are more likely to resonate with an audience.

44. Use a Few Animations (Tastefully)

Animations in effective PowerPoint presentations are a slippery slope. We’ve all sat through presentations where there were so many objects in motion that it was easy to lose focus on the key ideas in the presentation.

But that’s why animations get an unfairly bad reputation. Use animations to create motion and hold an audience’s attention. Use them sparingly and on key elements on your slide, and you’ll capture that attention properly.

45. Stage Key Content With Animations

You just learned that animations should avoid being distracting. But there’s an important principle to using animations properly. It’s called staging content.

Staging content means that the content appears step by step. There’s nothing worse than overwhelming an audience with all your content at once. But when you stage content, bring it on step by step.

Take it from presentation pro Suzannah Baum :

“If you’re sharing a slide with lots of different points on it, using the animation to reveal those points one at a time is a way to keep the presenter’s content flowing smoothly.”

For more animation presentation tips and tricks, follow our guide .

46. Add a Video to Your PowerPoint

When you’re sharing a big idea in your presentation, it helps to share your perspective from a few different angles. Adding a video to supplement your content can do just that. Luckily, it’s easy to add and embed a YouTube video in your next PowerPoint presentation.

47. Add Charts & Graphs

Charts and graphs can help you tell stories with data. It’s easy for an audience to zone out when you throw a big data table or set of statistics at them.

instead, convert those to charts and graphs. Try out our tutorial to learn how to edit those graphs.

48. Build Your Own Infographics With SmartArt

Earlier in this tutorial, we gave you one of my favorite PowerPoint design tips: use infographic templates.

Here’s another. One of my favorite PowerPoint features is SmartArt, which allows you to build infographics right inside the app.

You don’t have to use another graphic design app like Photoshop or Illustrator to add visuals. Instead, try out SmartArt to help you build graphics that are easy to update.

49. Use Presenter View

Remember that when you use the PowerPoint, you’ re the presentation. The slides are just there to reinforce what you’ve got to say and support your speaking points.

That’s why I always recommend using Presenter view. More often than not, you’re going to have several displays. Presenter view shows your content on your screen, while your presentation is displayed on another screen.

50. Track Your PowerPoint Changes

One of my favorite PowerPoint design tips is to collaborate. Those who know you best will suggest compelling changes that are sure to help you succeed.

As you start collaborating on your presentation, it helps to keep track of proposed and included PowerPoint changes. Use this article to track changes made by others.

10 More Advanced PowerPoint Tips & Tricks

Really need to wow an audience with a good PowerPoint presentation? Give these tips a try to make an unforgettable impression:

51. Engage With an Interactive Quiz

A good PowerPoint presentation gets your audience involved. One of the best PowerPoint tricks is to do that with a quiz. By engaging audiences, a quiz makes your slides memorable.

By adding trivia, you’ll see how to present a PowerPoint in a way that people will love. Channel your inner game-show host today. MIDTEST is a  good PowerPoint presentation  with quiz slides.

52. Illustrate With Custom Image Masks

One of the top PowerPoint tips is to illustrate your slides. But you can go beyond simple, rectangular images on each slide.

The Burte template is full of  PowerPoint tricks , including custom image masks. Image masks shape photos into unique works of art. And thanks to premium templates, you can style photos just like this. Masks overlay your photos onto geometric shapes, instantly elevating your style.

53. Print Handouts With Extra Notes

Wonder how to give a good presentation PPT that audiences will remember? Give them a piece of it to take home.

PowerPoint makes it easy to print handouts with room for notes on the page. This way, audiences can keep copies of your slides, along with their own notes. This is the perfect way to ensure everyone engages with and retains your content.

54. Make Bulk Edits With Master Slides

When you think about how to present a PowerPoint, consider your branding. That means keeping your logo front and center in the eyes of an audience. But if you’re working with a lengthy slide deck, this could seem daunting.

That’s where master slides come in. They’re common in premium layouts, and they’re a leading example of presentation skills for PPT. Master slides let you make bulk edits fast.

55. Shrink File Sizes for Sharing

Many of the top presentation tips involve making your slides more accessible. Often, that involves sharing them with audiences online.

You’ll often find that email clients and cloud services limit the size of files that you share. This can be a problem with large PPT slide decks. But there are a few quick steps you can take to reduce PPT file size. Cut graphics, scale down photos, and more.

56. Map Processes With Flowcharts

As you consider how to do a good PowerPoint presentation, think of ease of understanding. After all, you’re trying to explain something to your audience.

The  Flowcharts in Infographics  template seamlessly illustrates ideas and processes. A flowchart maps out a process in a visual way. Instead of resorting to endless narration, try a quick illustration like this. It saves you time and effort, and your audience is sure to thank you.

57. Use Brand-Specific Colors

Using presentation skills for PPT helps form an association between your message and branding. There’s no better way to do that than with your brand colors.

PowerPoint makes it easy to change color themes, adding your brand colors and logo to each slide. This is one of the top PowerPoint tricks for marketing presentations.

58. Build Social Media Posts in PPT

A good PowerPoint presentation doesn’t have to be shared through a projector. Use the app and templates to build amazing illustrations to use anywhere.

A template like Soffee helps you learn how to present a PowerPoint easily with a pre-built design.

Try using PowerPoint to create social media posts. It helps you engage with your audience, with no need to design custom layouts from scratch.

59. Be Industry-Specific

One of the top presentation tips in 2024 is to be industry-specific. That means avoiding generic layouts and choosing something more customized.

This offers two key advantages. First, you save time by having layouts built for you. Second, you gain design inspiration for your specific topic. Themed templates are truly the best of both worlds.

The Medical and Health template is a good PowerPoint presentation with a set theme.

60. Design for Online (Virtual) Sharing

Last but not least in our list of PowerPoint tips comes virtual presenting. More and more often, slides will be shared with online audiences around the globe.

Why not design your slides for that very purpose? And then learn how to share flawlessly with a global team? It’s one of the top presentation tips for 2024. Embrace it today.

More Great PowerPoint Tutorial Resources

We’ve built a resource for Microsoft PowerPoint that you’re sure to want to try. It includes countless PowerPoint tips and tricks. It’s called How to Use PowerPoint (Ultimate Tutorial Guide) and has all the PowerPoint design tips you need.

Discover More Top PowerPoint Template Designs From Envato Elements for 2024

You’ve just seen our favorite powerful PowerPoint presentation tips and guidelines to help you improve your speaking. We’ve also mentioned Envato Elements, an incredible all-you-can-download source for top PowerPoint designs .

Here are five of the best PowerPoint templates that you can use to create your best presentation yet:

1. Galaxi PowerPoint Template

Blast off to success with the help of this PowerPoint template! Think of the pre-built slide designs as pro PowerPoint design tips. They’re built by professional graphic designers. All the popular and modern slide styles that are perfect for your next presentation. Use Galaxi’s five styles and 30 designs to create a great presentation.

2. Masmax PowerPoint Template

We selected templates for this article that match the PowerPoint tips and tricks provided. Masmax fits the bill perfectly across its 234 unique slide designs. These slide designs are sure to align with the latest in design expectations.

3. STYLE Multipurpose PowerPoint Template V50

Style is subjective, but we can all agree that this template is stunning! The light and airy slide designs are built with fashion-focused designs in mind. But that doesn’t mean that it’s not perfect for most presentations. When learning to present a PowerPoint, remember that templates can be customized to suit your purpose.

4. Peachme Creative PowerPoint Template

Peachme has image-focused slides with splashy designs. The slides are colorful and perfect for a modern presentation. Don’t worry about remembering all the PowerPoint design tips because they’re included in the pre-built slides. Use Peachme’s designs for your presentation today.

5. Buizi Office Building Rent PowerPoint Template

Buizi markets itself as a real estate focused template. It’s ideal for that purpose because of the minimal, image-focused slide designs. But that also makes it a perfect choice for presentations in many fields.

We’ve just scratched the surface of PowerPoint design tips with these five options. Here are many more, bundled inside of the best roundups on Envato Tuts+:

How to Build a Good PowerPoint Presentation Quickly (In 2024)

You’ve already seen effective presentation skills PPT techniques. But you may be wondering exactly how to do a good PowerPoint presentation. It only takes a few clicks. Let’s learn how in just five steps.

For this mini-tutorial, we’ll use the Enjoy PowerPoint Template from Envato Elements. You’ll see that it’s a beautiful template that helps you learn how to present a PowerPoint by giving you every object and layout you need.

Let’s get started:

1. Choose Your Slides

As you can see, a template like Enjoy has dozens of unique slides inside. The key to how to give a good presentation PPT is to choose only the slides that you need.

One of the best PowerPoint tricks is to start by selecting slides you wish to use from your template.

In PowerPoint, scroll through the sidebar on the left to view different slide layouts. Right-click and choose Delete to remove unwanted designs. Plus, you can click and drag slide thumbnails to reorder them in the deck.

2. Add Text

Consider how to do a good PowerPoint presentation without investing a ton of time. That’s where premium templates come in.

One of our top presentation tips when working with a PPT is to lean on the pre-built text boxes for your content.

To add custom text, simply click and select the contents of any text box on your slide. Then, type in your own words. Repeat as needed throughout your slide deck.

3. Customize Fonts

With text selected, it’s easy to customize fonts on each slide. Find the Font section on PowerPoint’s Home tab. From there, you’ve got a variety of dropdown options.

Another of our top tips for presentation tricks is to use a custom font setting in your template.

Click to change the font, font size, and more. You can also use the buttons on the left to add bolds, italics, and more.

Need more custom font styles? As an Envato Elements subscriber, you’ve got instant access to thousands of custom fonts . Use them in your presentation with ease.

4. Insert Images

Slides like this one contain an image placeholder. That’s another advantage found only with premium templates. These make adding images a breeze.

Add images to your PPTX template for more visually interesting slides.

To get started, find an image file stored on your computer. Then, drag and drop it over the placeholder. PowerPoint will import it, sized and scaled for a perfect fit.

5. Change Colors

One of the top effective presentation skills is changing shape colors. This helps you control the look and feel of each slide.

With a shape selected, find the Shape Format tab on PowerPoint’s ribbon. Then, click on the Shape Fill dropdown. You’ll see a color chooser menu appear. Click on any thumbnail to apply it to the shape or browse through the Gradient and Texture options.

Start Putting These PowerPoint Presentation Tips & Tricks Into Use Today!

Learning to write, design, and present a PowerPoint presentation is an invaluable skill, no matter where you use it. If you’re a good communicator of important messages, you’ll never go hungry.

Luckily, improving PowerPoint presentations isn’t as hard as it seems. Follow these tips for PowerPoint presentations to design and deliver with greater confidence.

Remember: Less is more (effective) . Use PowerPoint presentation templates for better design and more effective visual impact. And you can customize a PPT template quickly , with the right workflow.

Related Articles

The Only 10 Slides You Need in Your Pitch

I am evangelizing the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint. It’s quite simple: a pitch should have ten slides , last no more than twenty minutes , and contain no font smaller than thirty points . This rule is applicable for any presentation to reach an agreement: for example, raising capital, making a sale, forming a partnership, etc.

• Ten slides. Ten is the optimal number of slides in a PowerPoint presentation because a normal human being cannot comprehend more than ten concepts in a meeting—and venture capitalists are very normal. (The only difference between you and venture capitalist is that he is getting paid to gamble with someone else’s money). If you must use more than ten slides to explain your business, you probably don’t have a business.
• Twenty minutes . You should give your ten slides in twenty minutes. Sure, you have an hour time slot, but you’re using a Windows laptop, so it will take forty minutes to make it work with the projector. Even if the setup goes perfectly, people will arrive late and have to leave early. In a perfect world, you give your pitch in twenty minutes, and you have forty minutes left for discussion.
• Thirty-point font . The majority of the presentations that I see have text in a ten-point font. As much text as possible is jammed into the slide, and then the presenter reads it. However, as soon as the audience figures out that you’re reading the text, it reads ahead of you because it can read faster than you can speak. The result is that you and the audience are out of synch.

I hope this helps you create a winning pitch deck for your startup. If you’re interested in this template, you’re probably an entrepreneur. Please check out my podcast, Remarkable People , to learn from remarkable entrepreneurs such as Steve Wozniak (Apple), Melanie Perkins (Canva), Suzy Batiz (Poo Pourri), Steve Wolfram (Mathematica), and Melissa Bernstein (Melissa and Doug).

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About the author: guy kawasaki.

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46 Comments

Very good points. Sometimes less is more, especially when you are trying to get important points across and increase your credibility.

I fully subscribe to this logic…just find it interesting that were you to convert this excellent info-graphic to slides it would equal approximately 15 slides.

Your presentation is meant to support the message you’re communicating, not obscure it. I can’t agree with the thought ” a normal human being cannot comprehend more than ten concepts in a meeting “. Using more than ten slides to explain for my business may not break my standard level.thanks

Very good simple and pragmatic tool useful in various domains. I see many applications for NGOs either with policy makers or donors. We need more of those to help them integrate private sector good practices, and hence gain in professionalism, impact and coherence.

Why is this not the template used for Shark Tank?

HA! This is the exact same template used for Shark Tank, minus the deck / linear format. Otherwise, all these topics are the key focal points of their discussions.

Loved this article especially the part about “using a Windows laptop, so it will take forty minutes to make it work with the projector” .. hehehe!

I love this article. However, this comment ( his comment ) is unnecessary and distracting – it could have been eliminated and the article would be even stronger. I’ve been burned enough times with projectors and Apple computers that I rigorously avoid them – a personal choice. Yet, I wouldn’t have injected my bias about Apple into this article if I was wrote it. In ‘ The Art of the Keynote Guy says ‘ Don’t denigrate the competition ‘ – good advice. Apparently Microsoft is the competition. He should follow his own counsel.

And the reality is it’s true you wouldn’t spend 40 minutes trying to get it to work with an apple. You’d realize immediately you don’t have the right adapter that’d be that.

I didn’t get past the first line because the phrase is “in a pinch” not “pitch”.

Peggy is this a joke? The author is referring to a sales pitch. There’s no such thing as a “sales pinch.” He’s not referencing your phrase.

Only one slide is missing… Defensibility & IP. Every good pitch has some sort of moat. Trade secrets, patents, exclusivity agreements, etc. Investors want to have some sort of competitive advantage and protections.

Same goes for sales pitches.

Brian – wouldn’t that would be in the Underlying Magic?

Dave – Not really. The underlying magic is your “model”; what are you doing differently to address the need in the market?

As an investor, you want exclusivity in the market to that magical way of addressing the need. That means you have a legal way to defend the IP (e.g. patents, copyrights, etc.). With those elements your execution in fulfilling the need becomes less important, and thereby reduces investor risk, because in the end we can then license the IP to someone who can.

How would someone protect a big idea let’s say as example the idea of Facebook. A network idea. A big idea, but one that could be grabbed and replicated. How do you protect “the idea” even from those angel investors you are pitching to? Do you ask investors to sign anything before you pitch? I am stuck at this very fundamental starting point.

I agree. This is where I am stuck. My business model and idea are based around a network sales concept and exclusive market niche (a huge niche). How do I protect that? Do I need to protect this idea, even from presenting to investors? How do you protect a network concept, for instance how would you have protected the idea of Facebook going in to present the concept to investors? Is stealth, speed of execution, launch and quick scaling the only ways?

@Briand and Dave, What I recall from the book, Underlying Magic refers to differentiation; which can take the form of IP, unfair advantage or innovative resource/model.

Great Article. I completely agree with Guy, the attention span of most people is max 20 minutes after which the human mind has moved on. the slides may be more than 10 but really your message is only heard in the first 15 to 20 minutes. Lol so agree with the 40 minutes set up time :) that is something we see all the time..

Great article! nice to read. is there any example or presentation, if you have please share with us.

I would add use of pictures and graphs along with text in the presentation. Pictures catch great deal attention and they communicate well. I would also add presenter’s voice pitch and connecting with audience while presenting.

Guy’s 10 slides are clearly structured as a pitch presentation format for investors. Having now been on both sides of the table, I can confidently say they are an effective template / discipline for getting your story focused on the essential check list of questions that investors will have, for keeping their attention, and for whetting their appetites to want to learn more .. and potentially attracting a champion in the process. With a strong leader taking command of the presentation, these guidelines work well for improving your batting average attracting $. As Mark Twain said, “If I had more time I’d have made it shorter”. If that was ever more true, it’s with investors who are barraged daily with deals.

Love the 10/20/30 philosophy and am rewriting an article => video to follow. Some of the comments make me a bit concerned though.

some wat to relavent about internation affairs of nationality inthe antise social group….!!!!

What is your take on the PechaKucha format of 20 x 20 – 20 slides , 20 seconds each? In a world of decreasing attention spans do you think this format has the ability to add a bit more Zing and Energy to a presentation? Allows more time for Q & A then too.

This is very, very helpful to me in creating my pitch.

This is realy helpful I using the same in my studies here in Kenya

Thank you GK, I used it. I raised capital for my young company.

Very good simple and pragmatic tool useful in various domains. well elaborated design and understandable.

Funny thing is, I am using Canva for a project presentation in a Strategic Sales class and this was the first useful article I found to help me get a start on it.

I can agree with this as someone who make many pitch decks. I like the idea of 10, but it is not feasible as there is no consumer insight, media quotes, simple marketing plan, etc. Yes. there should be 10 topics, but that does not mean 10 slides as some topics do take multiple slides, even if just a media coverage quote on a slide to introduce a topic.

Guy Kawasaki pitch deck are very small but very helpful for startup, however have a look this one pitch deck, https://goo.gl/QaCrPT it have 450+ slides cover all the topics of every pitch. 6 categories template such as marketing, sales, investor, startup,

I think it’s interesting that “Exit Strategy” is a stupid question. Perhaps what Guy is saying is the “Underlying Magic” is the exit strategy?

I really like the book The art of start 2.0. He explains in simple words and its easy to understand. I recommend the book!

I agree with Guy’s thoughts. In addition: Make up a deck. Show it to a friend. Then 2 days later ask them what it said. Tweak the deck so that the viewer is left with 3 or 4 most important bullets. These should be very much akin to the notions in the Elevator Pitch.

Does anyone have any good examples of anyone using this format? It would be nice to see this applied.

People invest in people so my pitch decks, based on Guy’s approach, have the team slide in position #2. The 3-4 key individuals are listed as follows:

Joe Shmo Head of Engineering Cal Berkeley – MS Computer Science Previously VP Engineering @ Lightning Networks (acquired by Cisco) Driving product development

I don’t make a big deal about the CFO and never use “R&D” in the pitch. VC’s early on dictate who the CFO is, and one VC told me years ago that “research is done in universities, not with my money”

Limit of 10 slides enforces you to be concise, to see and display a core of the project. And it is critical to be understandable for audience. When you don’t spend additional time of investors, they see that you respect them. So they will respect you.

I’m looking for a pitch deck for a veterans non-profit.

Hello every body,

I’m a senior counselor for entrepreneurship and business in knowledge-based as well as normal habitant civil services. In my opinion, the very pre-condition for any good presentation is good idea with tested de-coupled sub-phases of the business. The investor and his/her venture capitalist is plausibly expert to capture the subject.

If you don’t have a great and sizable business idea don’t expect that you will win with any trick such 10/20/30. These rules are suitable for great-idea owners.

One of my ask for pitch deck. Your advise on pitch deck relief me from the pressure.But when i started to do the pitch deck , it takes 3 hours to complete and i made only 8 slide. I realized that i am weak at PowerPoint presentation. Can you release a course on power-point? Thank You

Valuable help for all our startups.

The article is very well written; short but useful. Thanks for sharing such a useful piece of content.

Guy, I love this format and I push it on all the entrepreneurs I coach. As I’m prepping to give a presentation and share it though, I see that the infographic form is actually impossible to present in PPT. Text is too small and formatting isn’t right. Seems like the infographic needs a little rework to be most useful!

Very well written article. Thanks for sharing such a useful piece of content.

Beautiful Article, Guy! Short and to the point and explained your points with proper justification. Rhyming concept 10/20/30 too.

Minimalism at its finest. 10 slides felt a bit less at first but the infographic made things very clear.

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Show the slide number and total number of slides on every slide

PowerPoint can automatically add numbers to your slides, but it can't automatically show a count (such as "slide 2 of 12"). You have to do that manually. This article describes how.

On the View tab, in the Master Views group, click Slide Master , and then click the slide master thumbnail.

On the Insert tab, in the Text group, click Text Box , and then drag to draw the text box on the slide master where you want the slide number to appear all slides.

With the cursor still in the text box, on the Insert tab, in the Text group, click Slide Number .

In the text box, place your cursor before the <#> , and then type Slide .

If you don’t know the total number of slides in your presentation, and you want an easy way to find out, do the following:

On the View tab, in the Presentation Views group, click Normal .

Note:  Because this procedure adds slide numbers to the slide master, the slide numbers can't be deleted from or edited in individual slides and they won't appear in the Header and Footer dialog box.

Vote for this feature

If you want PowerPoint to be able to include the total number of slides, please send us your feedback to help us prioritize new features in future updates. See How do I give feedback on Microsoft Office? for more information.

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Microsoft 365 Life Hacks > Presentations > How to work on a group presentation

How to work on a group presentation

Working in a group can be a great way to tackle complicated tasks or share unique knowledge. When it comes to illustrating your team’s results to an audience, it can be tricky to navigate how to pace your presentation and who gets to speak, among other factors. Check out these tips for how to start a presentation speech, how to conclude a group presentation, and everything in between.

How to do a group presentation

Some people thrive working in groups , while others prefer to tackle projects by themselves. Balancing all these differing personalities is one of the key skills to ensuring that your presentation goes smoothly:

Tell your story with captivating presentations

Powerpoint empowers you to develop well-designed content across all your devices

Designate roles and presenting order to team strengths

The clearest way to do set presentation roles, and the order of these roles, is to set them early in the process and based upon the strengths of your group members. Designate roles based on certain skillsets and to keep from duplicating efforts. For example, having one or two people work exclusively on designing your PowerPoint presentation can streamline the process. Depending on how long your presentation is, you can assign everyone on your team three to five slides to discuss.

The importance of practicing

In addition, it helps to rehearse your presentation multiple times to iron out any kinks and build confidence. Practice your presentation together as a group so everyone can be prepared in front of your audience. Here, communication is key, scheduling regular meetings and clearly delegating tasks ensure everyone is on the same page.

How to start a group presentation speech

Just like the rest of your presentation, it helps to have just one person speak at a time. Assign the role of introducer to someone on your team. You can also choose to designate someone as the narrator who can both start the presentation, introduce team members, and finish in the conclusion.

Ensure that they clearly state the purpose of your presentation and provide an overview of what you’ll cover. You can also start with a compelling hook or an intriguing question to grab the audience’s attention. Introduce each member of your group and their roles and expertise to establish credibility and cohesion.

How to conclude a group presentation

At the end of your presentation, it helps to summarize the key points of your presentation and reiterate your main message so that your audience can retain as much information as possible. End with a strong closing statement or call to action to leave a lasting impression on your audience. Thank them for their time and invite further discussion or questions.

Mastering the art of group presentations requires effective collaboration, enough time for preparation, and a confident delivery. Play to your group’s strengths, give everyone plenty of time to speak, and value everyone’s contributions equally. Check out more tips for how to create an effective presentation , how to make group projects go smoother , or how to connect with virtual audiences .

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