When presenting, what’s the perfect number of slides?
- Too many, and we force our audience to watch us read lots of words to them
- But too few, and they might forget/miss some of our messages
The obvious answer to ‘how many?’ is ‘it depends’.
It depends on your presenting style, your audience, the presentation, etc.
But it’s often useful to have a general guide as to how many slides you might use. For example mine is this:
- Duration of presentation divided by 3 = number of slides
- This number of slides divided by 2 = number of questions I’ll ask, to build interaction
For example: if I’m doing a 60-minute presentation:
- I expect 20 slides (60 minutes divided by 3), and
- I expect to ask 10 questions (20 slides divided by 2)
These numbers are never exactly right. But, for my presenting style, they’re a useful guide.
And so if, after my prep, I realise I’ve got 37 slides – I’ll probably need to start culling them quickly! If I’ve only got two slides, I might need a few more.
Given your presentation style, your audiences, your presentations… what would you guess your likely number of slides/questions might be?
Action Point
- Create your rules: slides = minutes divided by X, etc.
- Apply these numbers to your next presentation (remember: they’re just a guide)
- If need be, add/remove slides or questions