Why You Should Stop Putting Too Much Text in Your PowerPoint (And What to Do Instead)

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been on both sides of this. When I’m making a PowerPoint I want all my bullet notes on the screen so I don’t forget to say anything. Then, when I’m sitting in a long and boring presentation I’m like “why does this person have so much crap on their slideshows?”

Nothing is worse than those early morning meetings though, when you’re sitting in a conference room, coffee in hand, trying your best to stay awake. The lights are dimmed down just enough to tease your brain into thinking about your bed, the projector is whirring to life…and then a massive wall of text appears on the screen.

The presenter clears their throat. “So…as you can see on the slide…”

And then they proceed to read every single word out loud.

I don’t know about you, but by slide three, I’m scrolling on my phone under the table. By slide five, I’m mentally planning dinner and which wine I have in the fridge and if I should stop and get one on the way home. By slide ten, I’ve entered a state of existential dread, wondering how much longer this can possibly last.

Sound familiar? Yeah…me too.

But here’s the thing: it’s not just boring, it’s actually ineffective. Neuroscientists have found it’s nearly impossible for your audience to read and listen at the same time. When you overload your slides with text, you’re setting people up to fail, no matter how smart or interested they are in whatever you’re talking about.

Why your brain can’t multitask like you think

People love to brag about multitasking, and wear it like some kind of badge of honor. “I’m great at multitasking!” they say while texting, watching TV, and half-listening to their friend tell a story.
But here’s the secret they probably don’t want you to know: multitasking is mostly a big fat lie wrapped in a nice red bow.

Our brains aren’t actually doing multiple things at once, they’re just switching back and forth really fast, which also drains mental energy and makes everything harder. Fantastic, no?

When you ask your audience to read a slide while you talk over it? Their brains go into overload, they’re using one part of their brain to process written language and a different part to process spoken language.
Trying to do both at the same time makes them worse at both, not better at remembering whatever point you’re trying to hit home.

Instead of absorbing the message, they end up missing key points or forgetting what you said entirely.

In one study, researchers found that people retained way less information from presentations when slides were text-heavy. Their brains just couldn’t keep up, which is no fault of theirs.

So if you’re cramming tons of words onto your slides thinking “I don’t want them to miss anything!”…you might be making it harder for them to remember anything at all.

Why do we overload our slides anyway?

Most of us, myself included, do it because we’re scared.
Scared we’ll forget what to say without it written out, scared the audience won’t take us seriously if it looks “too simple”, and scared we’ll miss something important.

So we fill the slides with everything. Every fact, every quote, every stat, every bullet point, even photos, gifs, and memes.

We treat the slide like our safety net or our personal teleprompter. But the problem is, when you turn your slide into a transcript, you lose the audience.
They’re busy reading ahead while you’re talking, or zoning out because they’ve already seen the punchline (yeah, don’t put jokes on your slideshows either).

Your slides shouldn’t be your script, they should be your visual support system.

How to design slides people will actually watch

The good news is you don’t have to be a professional designer to make great slides (thank god). You just need to shift your mindset from “how much can I fit?” to “how little do they need?”

Here’s how to do it:

1. Keep text short and simple

Aim for no more than 6 words per line and 6 lines per slide, use large, readable fonts, and stick to key phrases, not sentences.

If someone can read your slide in under 5 seconds? You’re doing it right.

Remember: less is more. You’re the storyteller, the slide is just backup and pretty picture to give them something to look at instead of staring at you.

2. Use visuals instead of words

Humans process visuals 60,000 times faster than text (I don’t think that’s a real statistic, just something that floats around the interwebs unattributed to any real studies). Okay, I don’t know the real numbers, but it’s definitely faster, we’re more wired to respond to images, icons, charts, and diagrams.

Whenever possible: swap your bullet points for a photo or graphic, turn data into a simple chart instead of a table, and try to use icons to represent key ideas.

Not a designer? Me neither (in case you can’t tell from all my AI generated images), but no problem. I swear by Canva Pro for creating polished slides even if you have zero design skills. They’ve got drag-and-drop templates that make it (almost) impossible to mess up!

3. Think “billboard,” not “article”

Imagine you’re driving past your slide at 60 mph. Can you read it and understand the message in 3 seconds?

That’s the goal.

Your slide isn’t a document or a handout, and it’s certainly not the written version of what you’re saying. It’s supposed to be a visual cue that anchors your audience to your message.

4. Tell the story out loud, not on the slide

If your entire talk is written on the slide…why are you there? You’re wasting your own time.

Your audience can read faster than you can talk. If you’re reading slides word-for-word, you’re not adding value, you’re competing with the screen, and I got bad news for you, the screen will always win.

Instead, let the slide set the stage, you fill in the details. You guide the audience’s attention, and you create the experience.

“But what if I need to include more info?”

Sometimes you do need to present complex data or detailed steps. In that case:

Provide a handout with the full information, or send a follow-up email with the details, or you can include a QR code linking to additional resources.

Your live presentation should focus on clarity, not completeness. You can give them the extra info after you’ve made your main points stick.

People remember how you made them feel, not how much they read

At the end of the day, no one walks out of a presentation saying, “Wow, those bullet points were amazing.”

They remember how you made them feel.
Did you energize them or inspire them, or make them care about something?

Slides can’t do that alone, slides are just your backup dancers. You’re the headliner, don’t forget.

And when you step into that role, presentations stop feeling like chores and start feeling like conversations.

The next time you build a deck…

Cut half the words you think you need, double or triple the font size, swap a paragraph for a photo, and practice speaking with the slide, not reading it.

Your audience will thank you, you’ll thank yourself, then you’ll send me a nice email and thank me for the tips.
Who knows, you might even start looking forward to giving presentations instead of dreading them.