PowerPoint Tips

When thinking of bad experiences when viewing PowerPoint slides in the past, I feel it comes down to the presenter reading the text straight from the slides and the slides having excessive and sometimes irrelevant information. The articles about what is a good and what is a bad PowerPoint presentation reinforced these ideas as well as gave light into more specific details about what attracts viewer's and how to make a PowerPoint presentation that will inform and keep the audience engaged. After reading through the articles, I have come to a consensus of the five most important tips for making a good PowerPoint presentation. My first two were stated above already.
1.) Do not read straight from the slides. Have the basic idea on the slide then have cue cards with the more specific data that you will iterate.
2.) Keep the slides simple. Too much writing will distract and bore the viewer. Solid visual aids are important as well. Seth Godin the author of one of the articles even suggests that you should never use more than six words on a slide.
3.)Use high quality graphics. Do not use animations or elementary visual aids. The use of actual photographs gives the PowerPoint a much more professional feel.
4.)The color scheme is important. Cool colors such as blue and green work well for backgrounds while warm colors such as red and yellow are good for the text.If in a adequately lighted room a white background with dark text is ideal.
5.)Fonts are important. Sans Serif fonts are the best for PowerPoint presentations, because they are easier to read and work well for less text.