What is the 5 by 5 rule in PowerPoint?

Why is the 5X5 rule important?

What is the 5 by 5 rule in PowerPoint? You have used PowerPoint many times for presenting your school project for a certain subject or the design and plans of the company you are working at. The thing is, PowerPoint has some basic rules that you should know of in order to create the simplest yet effective presentation you can. 

Suppose it is your first time using this application. In that case, it can be quite difficult for you to create a suitable and efficient presentation, a presentation that everyone will enjoy listening to and watching. Trust me, if you don’t have a suitable presentation, audiences will not be eager to listen to the rest of the presentation, and they will be bored. 

Recommended article: What should a good PowerPoint presentation include?

These rules include simplicity, 5X5 rule PowerPoint, less but efficient information, etc. These rules are explained as follows:

Keywords must be included in each slide, not the whole information.

Let me tell you something. When you are presenting, as the information you include in your PowerPoint becomes less, the audience will retain more information, which is pretty obvious. The human mind is not capable of seeing one thing and hearing another at the same time in most cases. In other words, when audiences are focusing on the information in your PowerPoint, they will not be able to hear what you are saying because their focus is somewhere else. 

Do you want to shift your focus? It is pretty easy; you just need to include needed keywords and brief information on each slide and then give your explanation. This way, you are making the audience focus on your voice.

Simplicity is the key (5 by 5 rule)

As mentioned in the first rule, you should include keywords and brief information. If you want to have a good slide, the audience should get the idea/essence by looking at the slides and listening to what you say. 

What is the 5 by 5 rule in PowerPoint
What is the 5 by 5 rule in PowerPoint?

5/5/5 rule PowerPoint

You should include the following items:

  • At each slide, you can only have five lines. 
  • You should not write more than five words in each line.
  • If you are using bullet points, you should only add five bullet points. 

It is important to mention that the above rules are the ideal ruler you can apply in your PowerPoint. However, some people may have other ideas, but it is a general rule you can use. The main objective of these rules is to cut down the amount of information you write on each slide.

5/5/5 rule PowerPoint example

Do you think that the audience can see your texts?

The whole point of making a PowerPoint is to make sure that everyone will be able to see the content and all the text. Having small texts in the PowerPoint won’t help the audience sitting at the back of the class or the room, and the audience will be distracted easily by small things, trust me.

Recommended article: Standard font size for PowerPoint presentation

To prevent such cases, you should change the size of texts (the ideal size is 24 ) and also only use four colors on each slide. Spacing between each line, there should be a spacing of 1.2 inches (almost 3 cm). I believe that these numbers will be a great help in showing your content to all audiences.

Using images in presentations

Never forget to add images to your content. It is shown that graphics and images have a greater impact on remembering the content you are presenting to the audience. I am not talking about any image. The image you are using should be completely associated with the content.

By doing so, we are making sure that the audience will keep their eyes on the presentation, and nothing will distract them.

Recommended article: How to make an effective PowerPoint Presentation?

Important note: The whole idea of using images is about creating your own image or taking new ones on your own. If you are using images for presentation at university, conference, seminar, or any other institution, you better prepare your own images. If not, the images must be added along with the source, and all information related to this image should be stated. To add the source, you can use the “Speaker Note” section, and you can access it by clicking on the “Note” that is located at the bottom of the PowerPoint. 

Recommended article: How to Cite Pictures in PowerPoint

Check the Slides Time to Time

If you want to make sure that everything is in order on the projector and big screens, such as colors, sizes, and formats, you should never forget to check and review your PowerPoint after it is finished. Also, you need to check it a couple of times during the preparation, and you will be able to save a lot of time.

Do you have a big screen at your home, such as an HD TV? Or do you have access to the conference room? Great! Plug your laptop in and test your PowerPoint. This way, you will know what your problems are. 

Practice is that last step.

The presentation of this PowerPoint may be significantly important for the place you are working at to increase your salary or for the subject you study to increase your grade, etc. (here, the work and schools are considered because these are the places where PowerPoint is mostly used). The point is you will be required to practice your PowerPoint continuously in order to fully grasp what you put in the PowerPoint. Try to give a presentation at home before the real one.

Whether this presentation is for your school or work, you should make sure that you are delivering the material of your presentation effectively, without making the audience lose their interest in you and your presentation. You should also try to practice this situation in which a number of audiences are in front of you and listening to your presentation. Trust me, a presentation in front of an audience can be hard for most people sometimes.

More resources

In this article, you found out What is the 5X5 rule in PowerPoint? WriteMyEssay247 offers a wide range of services to help you get your PowerPoint done.

[wpseo_address id=”0″ hide_name=”false” hide_address=”false” oneline=”false” show_state=”true” show_country=”false” show_phone=”true” show_phone_2=”true” show_fax=”true” show_email=”true” show_url=”false” show_vat=”false” show_tax=”false” show_coc=”false” show_price_range=”false” show_logo=”false” show_opening_hours=”false” hide_closed=”false”]
Back to top button