Give the slide and the speaker different jobs
A slide should help people follow the point you are making at that moment. Your spoken explanation can provide the context, reasoning, and transitions that make the point meaningful. When both carry the same full sentences, the audience has to choose between reading and listening. When the slide offers too little, they may struggle to understand a number, diagram, or unfamiliar term before you move on.
Start by writing the one idea you want the audience to take from each slide. Then ask what they must see to grasp it. That might be a short claim, a comparison, an image, or a few labeled steps. Use your voice to explain how you reached the point and why it matters. The goal is not to remove all text; it is to make every visible element useful while you are speaking.
Put information on the slide when people need to inspect it
Show information that is difficult to hold in memory or understand only by hearing it. A chart, product screenshot, process diagram, or pair of contrasting examples gives the audience something concrete to examine. Names, technical terms, and exact figures may also belong on the slide when getting them right matters to the discussion. Label these elements clearly enough that people can tell what they are looking at without decoding a legend or searching for the point.
Imagine you are presenting a proposed change to a three-step workflow. Put the three steps on the slide, perhaps with the step being changed visually emphasized. Say aloud what currently causes friction, how the proposed change addresses it, and what question remains open. The visible structure gives listeners a place to anchor your explanation; it does not need to contain your entire account of the problem.
If an element cannot be read comfortably from the back of the room or on a small shared screen, consider simplifying it. You might show the relevant portion of a complex chart first and keep the full version for later reference. Reducing what is displayed can make the evidence easier to inspect, provided you do not hide context that changes its meaning.
Say the reasoning, story, and connective tissue aloud
Speech is well suited to information that unfolds in sequence: why you chose an example, what surprised you, how one idea leads to another, or which trade-off you want the audience to consider. These details often make a presentation engaging, but placing them in dense paragraphs can turn the slides into a document you read aloud.
For example, a slide titled “Fewer steps make the form easier to complete” could show a simple before-and-after sequence. Your explanation can describe where people tend to pause, why two fields were combined, and what still needs testing. If you are tempted to add each of those sentences to the slide, ask whether listeners need to reread them to understand the visual. If not, keep them in your speaking notes.
Transitions deserve the same treatment. You can say, “That solves the first problem, but it introduces a new question,” rather than making a separate slide just to announce the transition. A brief verbal bridge helps the audience follow your argument while reserving screen space for ideas that benefit from being seen.
Separate presentation slides from reference material
Some details matter but do not need to appear during the talk. Definitions, full tables, methodology notes, and answers to likely follow-up questions can live in speaker notes or a clearly identified appendix, depending on how you plan to share the presentation. This keeps the main sequence focused without discarding useful information.
If the slides must make sense without you—for example, if colleagues will review them afterward—add enough context to preserve their meaning. A descriptive slide title and a short caption may help more than a paragraph of narration. You can also prepare a separate written summary when the audience needs a detailed record. A presentation slide and a reference document serve different reading situations; one file does not always have to do both jobs.
Use a quick test before you present
Review each slide and ask three questions: What should people notice first? What will I explain aloud? What might they need to check later? If you cannot answer the first question quickly, the slide may have too many competing elements. If you have nothing to explain, the slide may simply repeat your script. If an essential detail appears only in your speech, consider whether seeing it would help the audience follow along.
Finally, practice with the slides visible. Notice where you pause to let people read and where a visual needs more explanation than you expected. If you find yourself saying, “Ignore most of this,” simplify the slide. If you repeatedly point to something that is not there, add a label or visual cue. Let the slide hold what the audience needs to see, and let your voice guide them through what it means.
