Presentation Design Best Practices

Parents sit far from the screen in a lit Main Hall — dense slides fail even when the content is good.

James Okonkwo reviews NorthgateOpenDay.pptx before print: no slide lists all five English, Mathematics, Science, Humanities, Arts departments with long paragraphs. Each slide gets one idea, high contrast, and at most two font styles.

Open a finished slide in Slide Show on the actual projector if you can. Squint test: can you read the title from the back row?

The 6×6 rule is a practical ceiling, not a law:

• At most six bullet lines per slide (fewer is better)
• At most six words per line when you can shorten without losing meaning

If you need more detail, split into two slides or move paragraphs to speaker notes.

Bad: one slide with twelve lines about every tour, lunch, parking, and enrolment step.

Better: slide A — tour times; slide B — how to apply; slide C — contact details.

Light grey text on a white background disappears on a projector. Dark text on a light background — or white text on a dark theme variant — reads from the back of the Main Hall.

James Okonkwo checks:

• Title text is bold and at least 28 pt
• Body text is at least 24 pt for parent audiences
• Accent colour is used for one highlight per slide, not every bullet

A theme already picks a heading font and body font. That is enough for NorthgateOpenDay.pptx.

Avoid a third decorative font "for fun", ALL CAPS for whole paragraphs, and underlining (looks like a hyperlink). Stick to Bold for emphasis and leave italics for book titles only.

Design Ideas can suggest layouts — but always reduce bullet count after accepting a layout. AI layouts often cram too much text.

Parents cannot read an A4 page of text in ten seconds while listening to Dr. Helen Marsh. Keep six short lines on the slide. Paste the full paragraph into speaker notes.

If a slide has eight long bullet paragraphs, split into two slides with shorter bullets — do not shrink font to 12 pt so everything fits.

Before Saturday 14 March 2026, James Okonkwo opens each slide and asks:

• 1One idea? — If the title mentions two topics, split the slide.
• 26×6? — Count lines and words; trim or move to notes.
• 3Contrast? — Squint at Slide Show; text should still be obvious.
• 4Fonts? — Only theme heading + body, plus bold where needed.
• 5Photos? — One strong image beats a grid of tiny thumbnails.

Example — Fix weak contrast: Yellow subtitle text on the white Ion theme is hard to read. Pick Design → Variants — a darker variant — or change the title colour to the theme dark accent. More yellow or italics does not fix contrast; a Push transition does not either.