presentation skills pdf notes

Information Services Division

Planned Service Outage

Service unavailable.

Please be advised that this service is currently unavailable. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused by this necessary interruption of service.

• SUGGESTED TOPICS
• The Magazine
• Newsletters
• Managing Yourself
• Managing Teams
• Work-life Balance
• The Big Idea
• Data & Visuals
• Reading Lists
• Case Selections
• HBR Learning
• Topic Feeds
• Account Settings
• Email Preferences

What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation

• Carmine Gallo

Five tips to set yourself apart.

Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don’t underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice — a lot).

I was sitting across the table from a Silicon Valley CEO who had pioneered a technology that touches many of our lives — the flash memory that stores data on smartphones, digital cameras, and computers. He was a frequent guest on CNBC and had been delivering business presentations for at least 20 years before we met. And yet, the CEO wanted to sharpen his public speaking skills.

• Carmine Gallo is a Harvard University instructor, keynote speaker, and author of 10 books translated into 40 languages. Gallo is the author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman  (St. Martin’s Press).

Partner Center

• Top Courses
• Online Degrees
• Find your New Career
• Join for Free

What Are Effective Presentation Skills (and How to Improve Them)

Presentation skills are essential for your personal and professional life. Learn about effective presentations and how to boost your presenting techniques.

At least seven out of 10 Americans agree that presentation skills are essential for a successful career [ 1 ]. Although it might be tempting to think that these are skills reserved for people interested in public speaking roles, they're critical in a diverse range of jobs. For example, you might need to brief your supervisor on research results.

Presentation skills are also essential in other scenarios, including working with a team and explaining your thought process, walking clients through project ideas and timelines, and highlighting your strengths and achievements to your manager during performance reviews.

Whatever the scenario, you have very little time to capture your audience’s attention and get your point across when presenting information—about three seconds, according to research [ 2 ]. Effective presentation skills help you get your point across and connect with the people you’re communicating with, which is why nearly every employer requires them.

Understanding what presentation skills are is only half the battle. Honing your presenting techniques is essential for mastering presentations of all kinds and in all settings.

What are presentation skills?

Presentation skills are the abilities and qualities necessary for creating and delivering a compelling presentation that effectively communicates information and ideas. They encompass what you say, how you structure it, and the materials you include to support what you say, such as slides, videos, or images.

You'll make presentations at various times in your life. Examples include:

Making speeches at a wedding, conference, or another event

Making a toast at a dinner or event

Explaining projects to a team 

Delivering results and findings to management teams

Teaching people specific methods or information

Proposing a vote at community group meetings

Pitching a new idea or business to potential partners or investors

Why are presentation skills important? 

Delivering effective presentations is critical in your professional and personal life. You’ll need to hone your presentation skills in various areas, such as when giving a speech, convincing your partner to make a substantial purchase, and talking to friends and family about an important situation.

No matter if you’re using them in a personal or professional setting, these are the skills that make it easier and more effective to convey your ideas, convince or persuade others, and experience success. A few of the benefits that often accompany improving your presentation skills include:

Enriched written and verbal communication skills

Enhanced confidence and self-image

Boosted critical thinking and problem-solving capabilities

Better motivational techniques

Increased leadership skills

Expanded time management, negotiation, and creativity

The better your presenting techniques, the more engaging your presentations will be. You could also have greater opportunities to make positive impacts in business and other areas of your life.

Effective presentation skills

Imagine yourself in the audience at a TED Talk or sitting with your coworkers at a big meeting held by your employer. What would you be looking for in how they deliver their message? What would make you feel engaged?

These are a few questions to ask yourself as you review this list of some of the most effective presentation skills.

Verbal communication

How you use language and deliver messages play essential roles in how your audience will receive your presentation. Speak clearly and confidently, projecting your voice enough to ensure everyone can hear. Think before you speak, pausing when necessary and tailoring the way you talk to resonate with your particular audience.

Body language

Body language combines various critical elements, including posture, gestures, eye contact, expressions, and position in front of the audience. Body language is one of the elements that can instantly transform a presentation that would otherwise be dull into one that's dynamic and interesting.

Voice projection

The ability to project your voice improves your presentation by allowing your audience to hear what you're saying. It also increases your confidence to help settle any lingering nerves while also making your message more engaging. To project your voice, stand comfortably with your shoulders back. Take deep breaths to power your speaking voice and ensure you enunciate every syllable you speak.

How you present yourself plays a role in your body language and ability to project your voice. It also sets the tone for the presentation. Avoid slouching or looking overly tense. Instead, remain open, upright, and adaptable while taking the formality of the occasion into account.

Storytelling

Incorporating storytelling into a presentation is an effective strategy used by many powerful public speakers. It has the power to bring your subject to life and pique the audience’s curiosity. Don’t be afraid to tell a personal story, slowly building up suspense or adding a dramatic moment. And, of course, be sure to end with a positive takeaway to drive your point home.

Active listening

Active listening is a valuable skill all on its own. When you understand and thoughtfully respond to what you hear—whether it's in a conversation or during a presentation—you’ll likely deepen your personal relationships and actively engage audiences during a presentation. As part of your presentation skill set, it helps catch and maintain the audience’s attention, helping them remain focused while minimizing passive response, ensuring the message is delivered correctly, and encouraging a call to action.

Stage presence

During a presentation, projecting confidence can help keep your audience engaged. Stage presence can help you connect with your audience and encourage them to want to watch you. To improve your presence, try amping up your normal demeanor by infusing it with a bit of enthusiasm. Project confidence and keep your information interesting.

Watch your audience as you’re presenting. If you’re holding their attention, it likely means you’re connecting well with them.

Self-awareness

Monitoring your own emotions and reactions will allow you to react well in various situations. It helps you remain personable throughout your presentation and handle feedback well. Self-awareness can help soothe nervousness during presentations, allowing you to perform more effectively.

Writing skills

Writing is a form of presentation. Sharp writing skills can help you master your presentation’s outline to ensure you stay on message and remain clear about your objectives from the beginning until the end. It’s also helpful to have strong writing abilities for creating compelling slides and other visual aids.

Understanding an audience

When you understand your audience's needs and interests, you can design your presentation around them. In turn, you'll deliver maximum value to them and enhance your ability to make your message easy to understand.

Learn more about presentation skills from industry experts at SAP:

How to improve presentation skills

There’s an art to public speaking. Just like any other type of art, this is one that requires practice. Improving your presentation skills will help reduce miscommunications, enhance your time management capabilities, and boost your leadership skills. Here are some ways you can improve these skills:

Work on self-confidence.

When you’re confident, you naturally speak more clearly and with more authority. Taking the time to prepare your presentation with a strong opening and compelling visual aids can help you feel more confident. Other ways to improve your self-confidence include practicing positive self-talk, surrounding yourself with positive people, and avoiding comparing yourself (or your presentation) to others.

Develop strategies for overcoming fear.

Many people are nervous or fearful before giving a presentation. A bad memory of a past performance or insufficient self-confidence can contribute to fear and anxiety. Having a few go-to strategies like deep breathing, practicing your presentation, and grounding can help you transform that fear into extra energy to put into your stage presence.

Learn grounding techniques.

Grounding is any type of technique that helps you steer your focus away from distressing thoughts and keeps you connected with your present self. To ground yourself, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and imagine you’re a large, mature tree with roots extending deep into the earth—like the tree, you can become unshakable.

Learn how to use presentation tools.

Visual aids and other technical support can transform an otherwise good presentation into a wow-worthy one. A few popular presentation tools include:

Canva: Provides easy-to-design templates you can customize

Powtoon: Animation software that makes video creation fast and easy

PowerPoint: Microsoft's iconic program popular for dynamic marketing and sales presentations

Practice breathing techniques.

Breathing techniques can help quell anxiety, making it easier to shake off pre-presentation jitters and nerves. It also helps relax your muscles and get more oxygen to your brain.  For some pre-presentation calmness, you can take deep breaths, slowly inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth.

While presenting, breathe in through your mouth with the back of your tongue relaxed so your audience doesn't hear a gasping sound. Speak on your exhalation, maintaining a smooth voice.

Gain experience.

The more you practice, the better you’ll become. The more you doanything, the more comfortable you’ll feel engaging in that activity. Presentations are no different. Repeatedly practicing your own presentation also offers the opportunity to get feedback from other people and tweak your style and content as needed.

Tips to help you ace your presentation

Your presentation isn’t about you; it’s about the material you’re presenting. Sometimes, reminding yourself of this ahead of taking center stage can help take you out of your head, allowing you to connect effectively with your audience. The following are some of the many actions you can take on the day of your presentation.

Arrive early.

Since you may have a bit of presentation-related anxiety, it’s important to avoid adding travel stress. Give yourself an abundance of time to arrive at your destination, and take into account heavy traffic and other unforeseen events. By arriving early, you also give yourself time to meet with any on-site technicians, test your equipment, and connect with people ahead of the presentation.

Become familiar with the layout of the room.

Arriving early also gives you time to assess the room and figure out where you want to stand. Experiment with the acoustics to determine how loudly you need to project your voice, and test your equipment to make sure everything connects and appears properly with the available setup. This is an excellent opportunity to work out any last-minute concerns and move around to familiarize yourself with the setting for improved stage presence.

Listen to presenters ahead of you.

When you watch others present, you'll get a feel for the room's acoustics and lighting. You can also listen for any data that’s relevant to your presentation and revisit it during your presentation—this can make the presentation more interactive and engaging.

Use note cards.

Writing yourself a script could provide you with more comfort. To prevent sounding too robotic or disengaged, only include talking points in your note cards in case you get off track. Using note cards can help keep your presentation organized while sounding more authentic to your audience.

Learn to deliver clear and confident presentations with Dynamic Public Speaking from the University of Washington. Build confidence, develop new delivery techniques, and practice strategies for crafting compelling presentations for different purposes, occasions, and audiences.

Article sources

Forbes. “ New Survey: 70% Say Presentation Skills are Critical for Career Success , https://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2014/09/25/new-survey-70-percent-say-presentation-skills-critical-for-career-success/?sh=619f3ff78890.” Accessed December 7, 2022.

Beautiful.ai. “ 15 Presentation and Public Speaking Stats You Need to Know , https://www.beautiful.ai/blog/15-presentation-and-public-speaking-stats-you-need-to-know. Accessed December 7, 2022.

Keep reading

Coursera staff.

Editorial Team

Coursera’s editorial team is comprised of highly experienced professional editors, writers, and fact...

This content has been made available for informational purposes only. Learners are advised to conduct additional research to ensure that courses and other credentials pursued meet their personal, professional, and financial goals.

PDF presentations: How to present a PDF effectively.

Easily include PDF documents in presentations. Learn how to present PDF files and convert them into Microsoft PowerPoint slideshows.

Learn how to present a PDF in a way that can engage your audience and share your ideas effectively, no matter what tools you have available. You may have to share information from a PDF document when you’re getting ready to give a presentation at work or school. But what’s the best way to display a PDF if you want to keep your audience interested? Read on to learn two ways to give an engaging and eye-catching PDF presentation.

How to present a PDF.

You have a few options for presenting your PDF slideshow. PDF presentation mode is available on most PDF editing software but not necessarily in a PDF viewer. You can also, of course, convert your PDF to a PowerPoint presentation. The simplest way to present your PDF is to share your screen or project the view of your PDF from a free PDF viewer. Check out the instructions for these various methods below.

Option 1: Use PDF presentation mode.

If you use PDF presentation mode, you won’t have to convert your PDF and worry about formatting issues. You will also have preference options as you learn how to put a PDF in presentation mode. Follow these steps:

• Open your PDF in Adobe Acrobat .
• Select File > Preferences > Full Screen View to select options for your presentation.
• Select View > Full Screen.

The options will allow you to decide things like whether you will time your slides and which transitions you want between slides. You can also use a similar process with Preview on your Apple device.

How to present a PDF document

With Adobe Acrobat online services, it’s fast and easy to convert PDFs into PowerPoint presentations. Simply follow these three steps:

• Navigate to Acrobat online services and launch the Convert PDF to PowerPoint tool.
• Drag and drop your PDF file into the converter or click Select A File to locate it.
• Download your presentation once the converter has finished.

You can now open the slideshow as you would any ordinary PowerPoint presentation. And as a bonus, you can edit the text, images, and formatting directly in PowerPoint.

Option 3: Present a PDF using a PDF reader window.

The easiest way to include a PDF file in your presentation is simply by using your PDF reader . Most video call applications let you share your screen and display the PDF to others. If you’re at an in-person meeting, you can also project the PDF reader onto a screen.

To share your screen with your PDF reader in a call, you’ll need to follow these steps:

• Open your PDF in your PDF reader, and leave it open.
• Begin your video call.
• Select the screen-sharing option.
• Select the PDF reader as the screen you’d like to share.

Although letting others see your PDF reader may be easy, it isn’t always the most optimal way to give a presentation. It can be slow to scroll through the pages of the PDF file — plus, depending on the orientation, you may also not be able to display an entire page while keeping text at a legible size.

Why create PDF presentations vs. other methods?

PDF slideshows have several advantages. You might be creating a presentation from a PDF as your original document. In that case, there’s no need to complicate your process and convert your PDF into another format. Unlike other presentation methods like PowerPoint, you can present your PDF on any device. PDF presentations also tend to use less storage. Additionally, since one of the main purposes of a PDF is to retain the formatting, you can trust that your fonts and structure will remain stable for your presentation.

What is PDF presentation mode?

PDF presentation mode is the simplest option for presenting a PDF. It doesn’t require converting your file or downloading extra software. It allows you to present your PDF in full screen and use your keys to toggle between pages. You can create transitions between your pages and even time your slides. One limitation of PDF presentation mode is that it doesn’t support videos.

Can I see my notes in PDF presentation mode?

While putting your PDF in full-screen presentation mode shows your slides neatly, it doesn’t show your presenter notes separately on your personal device. If you need to have notes on hand, you can always print them out or give yourself concise notes as reminders on the slides themselves. If you have converted a PowerPoint presentation to a PDF, your notes won’t be lost. They’ll be available for you to look at under Options > Publish > Notes pages.

Tips to help improve your PDF presentation skills.

Presenting in front of a group, large or small, can sometimes feel daunting. Here are some quick tips to improve your PDF presentation skills:

• Make your slides visually appealing. Color and images help with visual appeal. Visuals will help keep your audience engaged.
• Keep your slides simple. If you stick to one idea per slide, it will be easier for everyone to follow.
• Don’t crowd your slides with text. Offer text only to remind your audience of the key points of your presentation. Avoid using full sentences in the slides. Your audience is there to listen to you, not to read your slides.
• Rehearse your presentation until it feels natural to give it. It will be easier for your audience to learn if you seem comfortable during your presentation.

More resources on PDFs.

PDF is one of the most relied-upon formats in professional settings, so using it directly for a presentation will be very convenient. Now that you’ve learned how to present a PDF effectively, here are more resources to work with PDFs:

• Learn how to get the most out of a presentation appendix .
• Learn how to compress a PowerPoint .
• Learn how to make a PDF interactive .
• You can also convert a PDF to Google Slides and present from there.

Explore what more you can do with Adobe Acrobat online services to easily convert, edit, and sign PDFs - and more.

• Study Guides
• Homework Questions

SCS Paper C Assignment Summer 2024 [15090]

• Communications