Flip Over Paper

Flip charts are an excellent tool for making business presentations and also for teaching children. Instead of buying new flip chart boards every time you run out of paper, you can simply purchase new flip chart papers and replace the old ones.

Basically, flip charts are just large sheets of paper. You can use them similar to a whiteboard and use a marking pen two write and draw on it. However, unlike a whiteboard, you don’t have to discard what you have already written on a flip chart paper when you run out of space to write new things. That way, you will have a physical record of the things you have written on it. This can be great for some specific purposes and can be even better than regular digital presentations for that reason. Read this article to know more about flip chart papers so that you can make the right choices when you are shopping for them.

Four ways to get the most out of flip chart pads

There are a lot of benefits that come with using flip chart pads for presentation. However old school a flip chart pad might feel, it is a really effective way to communicate with your audience. Having something that you can write and draw on when you are talking gives you more freedom to visualise your ideas without anything getting in between, like a mouse or a keyboard. As flip chart papers are inexpensive, you can use them to display draft reports and edit them as your discussion progresses. Here are a few ways that can help you improve the use of flip chart pads.

Use colours wisely

Adding a bit of colour to your flip chart presentations is a really great idea. However, it is a double-edged sword. If you use too much of it, your presentations can look really bad. So, what is the right balance when it comes to using colours in a flip chart? Well, one rule to follow is not to use more than four colours on the same page. Furthermore, you can try to follow the same colour palette for the entire length of the presentation. This will give a very professional feel to your presentation using flip charts. Also, too many colours can be distracting to the viewers.

Too much text can be overwhelming

If you want to keep your presentation attractive and straightforward, you should limit the amount of text in it. One rule that is true for all kinds of presentations is that you should only use text for bullet points. Don’t use flip charts to write entire paragraphs of texts. And even when you are using bullet points, keep it to a maximum of nine points. Nine lines of text are not just an arbitrary number. Experiments show that most people can remember up to nine lines of text in their short-term memory without any difficulty. And they tend to forget the rest of it.

Implement borders

Instead of using the entire area of chart paper, you should try to limit the workspace by using borders. This border can be like a real box that you draw inside the flip chart paper or an imaginary line that you never cross while writing on the paper. In either case, the use of borders can make your presentations visually appealing. If you want to make it a bit better, try adding shadows to the border. This will make your workspace look three dimensional by giving it a raised appearance from the paper that you are working on.

Use pictures

Sometimes pictures can speak louder than words. Therefore, use pictures generously and strategically. Let the pictures simplify your job of explaining the concepts. There are two ways to add images to the presentation. One way is to blend the pictures with the layout of the text. However, this is a little tricky, and you will need to plan out both the image and text before designing the presentation. The easier way is to keep pictures and text as separate blocks. That way, the layout of the picture does not affect the layout of the text, and you can design them independently.