Harvard Business Review Guides Ultimate Boxed Set (16 Books)

Use the Right Number of Slides

How many slides should you have? That depends on your audience, the technology you’re using, the setting you’re in, your own sense of pacing, and how comfortable you are with a clicker. Some presenters could spend an hour on three slides; others could go through 200 or more and you’d never know it.

Consider these slide-count variables as you’re creating your presentation.

No slides

If you need to make a very personal connection with your audience or you’re delivering a short talk in a casual environment, go without slides. They don’t work in every situation. As Andrew Dlugan says in his “Six Minutes” blog about public speaking, presenters shouldn’t use slides in a commencement speech, a eulogy, a wedding toast, ...