Presentation Tips
If you are giving a presentation or job talk for the first time, you should schedule a time to give a practice talk with me and/or the group to solicit feedback.
Random Advice
Giving an effective and accessible scientific presentation requires a lot of practice to get right. Here are some general, high-level tips for giving effective presentations:
Always strive for ensuring maximum understanding for the audience. People want to leave feeling like they learned something, and the vast majority of talks are way too technical. When in doubt, make it more accessible.
Remember that you are telling a story. Tell the reader what you plan to show them, why it matters, and then repeatedly return to these points.
Number your slides in the bottom corner to make it easier for people to ask questions.
Confirm that all font sizes are large enough that people in the back of the room can read them. When in doubt, go bigger.
Less is more when it comes to content on a slide. Rarely, if ever, should you have more than two plots on a slide, and keep the text to the bare minimum. People are not good at both reading and listening, and you want them to listen to you first and foremost. tl;dr: only one idea per slide.
Don't show large tables of data in a PowerPoint presentation.
Whenever you display a plot, walk the audience through the axes and how to read the plot in detail before discussing the results.
Do not include a cliché outline slide (e.g. "Introduction", "Results", "Conclusion").
Include any relevant references at the bottom of the slide in small (but legible) font.
In general, don't use too many animations other than the "appear" or "disappear" animations, which can be useful for ensuring that a given slide doesn't have too much information to digest at any given time.
Be careful of speaking too fast when presenting.
If you don't know the answer to a question, don't try to fake it. Simply state that you're not sure but you'd be happy to look into it and get back to person asking the question.
Ensure that your images are crisp. Make sure that you have disabled image compression in PowerPoint under "File > Options > Advanced > Image Size and Quality," and ensure the default resolution is set to "High fidelity."
Have backups of everything so you're prepared if and when things go wrong. Have a backup copy of the presentation on a USB drive. Have a spare set of batteries for your clicker.
For public presentations that aren't part of an examination setting, don't waste much time making many "backup slides." You'll hardly ever need to use them. You should be able to effectively answer questions through conversation.
If you ever plan to export images from a PowerPoint on Windows, follow the instructions below to ensure they are high-resolution. The default is terrible.
Adjacent Software
The following toolkits may be useful for you: