Almost every PowerPoint presentation uses bullet points, and almost everyone thinks they are boring. Many experts say they should be band from every being used. I think they have a purpose and if used wisely, they can help get a message across. But when you use bullet points you should make a point of improving them and give your audience a reason to smile when they see the bullet point, instead of going into deep PowerPoint depression.
Bullet points can be so much more than dots. Bullet points can be pictures, special characters, silhouettes, and drawings. In this blog I will show you the basics of changing from the dreaded “Dot”, to something a little bit more eye catching.
Everyone that has ever worked with PowerPoint knows that PowerPoint opens with a title sheet, and the next slide to be inserted by default is the “Title and Content” slide. And the content starts with a bullet point. Microsoft knows how important the bullet point is for organizing you thoughts, your presentation and for getting your audience to follow your presentation. Bullet points are a great way to be reminded of the next topic you want to talk about. The problem is that many presenters put down complete sentences or even paragraphs after the bullet points. And even worse, they read them. You think, “Oh no, has our school system got so bad that we have to be read to, like we did back in kindergarten”.
First of all, a bullet point should be limited to one to five words that get the overall message across, not go into detail of what the presenter is going to say. As a presenter you should never read your PowerPoint presentation. And never turn around, with your back to the audience and start reading the presentation. If you look at the screen, it should be to get your audience to look at the screen. When you look at the screen it should tell your audience that this slide is important and I want you to look at it.
Now back to bullet points. When the default slide is presented, you double click in the text box and start typing. Every time you hit the return key on the keyboard a new bullet point is added. Once you get your thoughts on the slide in the default bullet point layout, it is time to start working the magic.
Put the mouse curser in front of the text or you can highlight the bullet points you want to change. The program will not let you put your mouse curser in front of the bullet point. On the Home tab, under the Paragraph group you will find the Bullets icon. Click the down arrow next to the icon. At the bottom of the drop down window is Bullets and Numbering… , Click on Bullets and Numbering… A dialog window opens. At the bottom right corner of the window you will see two important buttons; the Picture button and the Customize button. First I will explain the Picture button.
Click on the Picture button. A new windows dialog box opens, the Picture Bullet window. Microsoft has preloaded lots of small little icons, which truthfully are not much better than the “Dot”. But they did do something great, they added the Import button at the bottom left corner. Click the Import button and the Add Clips to Organizer dialog window opens to “My Picture” files. Now select one of your favorite pictures and click Add at the bottom right corner of the window. The picture is added to the Picture Bullet dialog window. Now you have to highlight the picture. When selected, the picture will have a blue frame around it. Now click OK.
The picture automatically resized to the size of the text and you now have some eye catching bullet points. One of the problems is that you cannot change the color of the picture when it is used as a bullet point, so change the color of the picture prior to adding the picture to the Picture Bullet dialog window.
If you want to change the bullet point after you changed it to a picture, you will notice that the Bullet icon in the Paragraph group, in the Home tab, will not be highlighted when you put your mouse cursor in the text. But you still can use the Bullet drop down menu. Just click on the bullet point that you would like to change and then click on the Bullet icon’s drop down menu, and you can go back into Bullets and Numbering.
Now lets change the bullet point to a customized symbol. Once again click in the bulleted text box or highlight the bullet point you would like to change. Click on the Bullet icon drop down arrow under the Paragraph group in the Home tab. Click on Bullets and Numbering… Now click on Customize, in the bottom right corner. The Symbol dialog window opens. You can use any of the symbols as a bullet point. I like to click on the drop down box next to Font:, and go to Wingdings, Wingdings 2 or Wingdings 3. Click on the symbol you like and then click OK. In the Bullets and Numbering dialog window click OK again. Now the symbol is the bullet point. If you change Themes for your background, the symbols may change color.
You can also change the color of symbols when they are used as bullet points. Once again put the mouse cursor in front of the text or highlight the text you want to change. In the Home tab, under the Paragraph group, click on the Bullet icon’s drop down arrow. Click on Bullets and Numbering at the bottom of the window. In the left corner of the Bullets and Numbering dialog window you can change the Size and the Color. When you inserted a picture, the size was automatically set to the text size. You can change the size here. Increase or decrease the sixe. Click on the drop down arrow next to color and select your desired color. Click OK. And wah-la, the bullet point symbol changed size and color.
Now NO MORE excuses for boring bullet points in PowerPoint.
Gerald Kruse is a trainer, author and speaker on PowerPoint, for both PowerPoint and PowerPoint for MAC. His latest book is “Power Talk with PowerPoint”, a step-by-step instructional guide for beginners to intermediates on how to set up a presentation and tips on how to have an unique presentation. His book can be purchased on Amazon.
