Ideal Number of Slides for a 5, 10 and 15-Minute PowerPoint Presentation
How many slides for a 10 minutes presentation are needed? At first glance, it seems straightforward to answer the question; but when you face it, you realize that it is not that simple. If you want to be focused, efficient, and pay enough attention to the details, the number of slides is critical. Knowing the exact number of slides, and planning everything to perfectly fit your time slot gives you extra confidence during your presentation.
Here, I’ll show you how many slides you have to prepare for 5, 10, and 15-minute presentations.
Table of contents
- How many slides for a 5-minute presentation?
- How many slides for a 10-minute presentation?
- How many slides for a 15-minute presentation?
- How to automatically time your slides?
- How to prepare to present with a timer?
- Tips for creating a short presentation
- Conclusion
How Many Slides for a 5-Minute Presentation?
The short answer: 5 slides that are 1 minute long would be perfect. You could even add more slides, but you’ll get less time to spend on each slide.
Preparing a 5-min presentation is extremely difficult. It gets more arduous when you have less time to present since you have to select the most important details to cover your topic clearly and thoroughly.
Although 5 minutes is short for a presentation, you can present an efficient report on one topic if you omit fillers. It is enough to consider the limit of time, keep an organized structure, and capsulize the most helpful information for your presentation.
How many slides for a 5-minute presentation are sufficient? To find the answer to this question, first you need to have a good understanding of the following points:
- What the topic and its needs are,
- How the information should be organized.
However, pay attention that the fewer number of slides, the better. We do not mean fewer than five slides, but we cannot recommend using more than six slides as well.
Notice that nobody will listen to your speech if they cannot read your text. So, decrease your text as much as possible. You can choose to include only the basics in your text.
On the other hand, you have less time to talk about the topic, so you should concentrate on the necessary words and make your speech as precise as possible. Remember that doing a lot of practice is recommended because:
- It helps you to keep the track of your scenario throughout the presentation
- It would be best if you matched the slides and text with your speech
- You should end your presentation in just 5 minutes.
If you’re short on time, we can help. You can take advantage of the many well-designed templates available on our website. They are great options to help you organize your slides and text. Check out our collection of PowerPoint templates and use them to create your slides within minutes!
How Many Slides for a 10-Minute Presentation?
The short answer: Anywhere between 10 slides of 1 minute each to 20 slides of 30 seconds each are ideal for a 10-minute presentation. Since you have ample time, be sure to go into more detail. Remember, a boring 10-minute presentation can feel like 30 minutes for your viewer! So be sure to keep your presentations interesting and engaging.
Ten minutes mean more time to cover more details of your topic. If in a 5-min presentation, you are forced to tell your story using a small number of words, a 10-minute presentation gives you more room to plan your slides and speech. So, what should you do with your time? How many slides for a 10-minute presentation are perfect?
To answer the former question, we have to say you have the following choices:
- Decide to go for a similar number of slides (around ten slides) and dedicate your time to discuss necessary points.
- Use more slides and determine the time you need to spend on each one.
Our typical answer to the latter question is to create 10-20 slides. It’s up to you to choose the exact number. However, note that each person, on average, speaks 120 to 160 words per minute. So, you have enough time to use 1200 to 1600 words in a 10-minute presentation.
When you determine the time you spend on each slide, you can decide on the exact number of slides for your 10-minutes presentation. However, choose 20 slides if only you can finish each one in 30 seconds. Remember that every word counts, so pick them carefully to support the main idea of your presentation.
While thinking of how many slides you need for a 10-minute presentation, you should also decide on the perfect font size. The correct size for fonts makes your slides perceptible and not troublesome. Moreover, use bullets and numbers to organize your text but overdoing them may not have the effect you are looking for.
We think that it would be better for everyone, even experienced presenters, if they get access to well-designed 10-min presentation templates. Check out our page and benefit from tons of our professional PowerPoint templates.
How Many Slides for a 15-Minute Presentation?
The short answer: Anywhere between 10 slides to up to 30 slides of 30 seconds each are perfect. We recommend an average of 20-25 slides if you have a lot to cover. However, 15 mins can take a toll on your audience, so be sure to make your presentations as engaging as possible.
There is a plausible relationship between how much time you have to present and how many slides you need. Accordingly, the importance of the number of slides decreases when the length of your presentation increases.
You are the person who decides on everything but recall the two options we mentioned earlier: 1. spending your time talking more about critical points, or 2. increasing the number of slides. These are also applicable to your 15-minute presentation.
How many slides for a 15-minute presentation are needed? Our answer is that you can use more, perhaps as many as 30, although you’d better not to go for a number much greater than a 10-min presentation.
If you prefer to stick to the standard, it is 10 to 20 slides on average. You may wonder, this is similar to our answer to the question, how many slides for a 10-minute presentation. The reason is that it is only a matter of time increased.
Nonetheless, a 15-min presentation gives you greater freedom to step forward and do something more. You cannot, for example, create slides for your supporting facts in a 5- or 10-minute presentation; however, you have enough space to include them in a 15-minute presentation.
Don’t forget that our services come in handy whenever you need help creating presentations! No matter how experienced you are, you can create professional-looking slides using our high-quality templates.
How to automatically time your slides?
It is not difficult to time your slides; you can set a specific time for each slide so that your presentation keeps the expected pace. As the time limit is critical, you should use the PowerPoint Transitions tab to ensure you complete your presentation in time.
So, if you want to set a time for each slide to run to the one, complete the following steps:
- Choose the slide for which you are going to specify the timing.
- Select the Transitions tab.
- Find the Timing group.
- Find the Advance Slide and go to the next step.
- Select the After check box, and enter your desired number of minutes or seconds.
Now, you have made the slide move automatically after the given time. You can also use Apply to All button to use the same speed time for all the slides.
Note: If you choose no timing, slides will advance by clicking the mouse.
How to prepare to present with a timer?
There is only one way to get prepared for a successful presentation, and that is: Rehearse! It doesn’t matter that it is a 5, 10, or 15-minute presentation; you must do as much rehearsal as needed before presenting.
Practice makes perfect, so rehearse as much as you can. For example, you can practice the following:
- Take time differences into account when tailoring your speech.
- Record yourself. Which one do you prefer, video or tape?
- Watch or listen to your tape or video. This way, you can enhance your speech.
- Peer feedback is also helpful. Remember that your family members and friends can also give you practical advice.
In this way, you can prepare your presentation as perfectly as possible.
Tips for Creating a Short Presentation
It is not all about, for example, how many slides for a 10-minute presentation. There are other ways you can use to present much better. Here are some tips:
What does your audience want? The answer to this question creates your presentation focal point – the audience’s needs. It would help if you even decided on the presentation length based on your subject and the occasion.
How appealing is your presentation? Try to improve the appearance of your slides. Stunning designs will be sure to impress your audience and managers. You do not have to do design work; use templates! It helps you give your presentations a unified and appealing look.
Some tips like the following ones may also be helpful for you:
- Each slide should have a lot of white space. It gives the presentation an organized, convenient layout.
- A mix of images and text is preferable to display the content.
- Use readable fonts and try to keep them compatible.
- It is better to break the messy slides into multiple ones.
Conclusion
Creating a presentation is an art, but it is not difficult for you now. You not only found out how many slides for a 5, 10, and 15-minute presentation are sufficient, but you also know that you should pay attention to other details. However, if you are still out of ideas or need any help, you can use our well-designed templates to create the desired slides for your presentation.
