Presentations-whether they’re for business or for school, they’re a part of life. One of the first things you may wonder about when you’re assigned a presentation is how long it needs to be. You may also wonder how many PowerPoint presentation slides to use per minute.
Unfortunately, that question doesn’t have a simple answer. But in this guide, I’ll help you to work out how many slides you need for presentations of different lengths. I’ll also include some tips to help you with presentation timing and delivery.
How Many Slides for a 5-Minute Presentation?
While 5-minute presentations may not be the norm (let’s face it, that’s a pretty short presentation slot), sometimes that’s all the time you’ve got. Typically, you might do a 5-minute presentation at a weekly stand-up or similar meeting.
Tips for Creating a Short Presentation
For short presentations, it’s best to limit the number of slides. In fact, you probably won’t want more than 10 slides. And you could get away with fewer. I’ve even seen people do 5-minute presentations with a single, well-designed slide.
The short time slot means you’ll have to make your presentation snappy and get straight to the point. That’s because you’ll have to cover a couple of slides every minute. That gives you 30 seconds on average to spend on each slide.
For best results, stick to one main point per slide. There really isn’t time to do more. It’s good practice anyway, which is why I’ll say it over and over during this guide.
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How Many Slides for a 10-Minute Presentation?
So, if a 5-minute presentation is short and sweet, how many slides do you need for a 10-minute presentation? There are a couple of answers to this question.
One option is to keep the number of slides similar (no more than 10) and spend longer discussing key points.
But another option is to have more slides, ideally no more than 20. Then decide how much time you want to spend on each slide. As before, it’s good practice to stick to one main point per slide.
How Many Slides for a 15-Minute Presentation?
As you start to increase the length of your presentation, the issue of the number of slides becomes less important. So, when thinking about how many slides for a 15-minute presentation, you can include more slides. You could perhaps use as many as 30.
But you don’t have to. You can also stick with a smaller number of slides, and spend more time talking about key points. In other words, adjust the verbal part of your presentation without changing much else.
If you do decide to go for more slides, you can move beyond the bare bones approach. That means besides having slides for your main talking points, you can include slides for supporting points, too.
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