I was reading Seth Godin’s – ebook on making memorable presentations and was struck by his first do (or do not) …. depending upon how you would word the next sentence.

Have not more than six words on a slide.

What can you convey with 6 words? What will the audience take away with those 6 words?

Where do you put all those fancy bullets? Or is this is a silver bullet for super presentations? Ok – I will give you this – it was a lousy pun.

In that ebook he also says – avoid giving your slides to your audience as a keepsake or to take to the boss. The slides go when you do. In which case if I ever come to the gold standard of slide making – I will never be able to display it on the web as that shining example of an excellent presentation.  Drat!

In any case I am atleast 50 words over the gold standard today and god willing I shall see a day when my presentations too are 6 words or less per slide.