How many words per slide is too many?

It’s one of the most common questions about slides, and the honest answer is: it depends. That isn’t much help the night before, so here are sensible ranges, warning signs and a reliable way to cut a wordy slide.

First, ask how the deck will be used

The right amount of text depends on whether someone will be speaking alongside the slides.

Presented decks are shown on a screen while you talk. The audience is listening to you and glancing at the slide. Here, less text is almost always better, because reading a busy slide and listening to you compete with each other.

Reading decks are sent to people to read on their own, such as a report deck sent before a meeting, a leave-behind after a pitch or a submission for a course. These need more text, because there’s no speaker to fill the gaps.

Many problems come from mixing the two: a reading deck put on a screen and presented, word for word. If you need both, it’s usually worth making two versions, or keeping the presented slides light and putting the detail in speaker notes or an appendix.

Rough ranges for presented slides

These aren’t strict rules, but they’re good starting points for a deck you’ll present:

Slide type	Suggested text
Title or section slide	A few words
Key message slide	One short sentence
Slide with a chart or image	A headline plus a short label or two
List slide	A headline and three to five short lines
Dense slide (use sparingly)	Around 30 to 40 words in total

Word limits work best alongside limits on slides and time. The 10/20/30 rule is one well-known way to set all three.

If a presented slide goes well beyond about 40 words, treat that as a sign to look again. It doesn’t automatically mean the slide is wrong. A detailed definition or a short quotation can justify more. But it usually means the slide is doing a job your voice should be doing.

Warning signs your slide has too much text

You don’t need to count words to spot a problem. Look for:

• Full paragraphs. If there’s a paragraph on the slide, the audience will try to read it and stop listening to you.
• Bullets that wrap onto two or three lines. Each bullet should be a short phrase. A long bullet is a sentence in disguise.
• More than five or six bullets. Long lists are hard to follow on screen. Split them, or group them.
• Small text to make it fit. If you’ve reduced the font size to squeeze content in, the slide is carrying too much.
• You’d read it aloud. If your plan is to read the slide to the audience, they’ll get there before you, and both of you will be bored.

How to cut a wordy slide

Here’s a method that works for almost any text-heavy slide.

1. Write the point as a headline

Decide what the one thing is that you want people to take from this slide. Write it as a full sentence at the top. For example, instead of the title “Survey results”, use “Most students prefer evening classes”.

2. Keep only what supports the headline

Go through each line and ask: does this help prove or explain the headline? If not, remove it from the slide. It might belong on another slide, in your notes or nowhere.

3. Turn sentences into phrases

Cut each remaining line down to its essential words.

• Before: “We found that the majority of respondents indicated that they would prefer classes to be held in the evening.”
• After: “Majority prefer evening classes”

Your spoken words supply the rest.

4. Move the detail to speaker notes

Everything you removed but still want to say goes into the speaker notes. This makes cutting feel safe: the content moves from the screen to your voice.

5. Consider a visual

Some text is data in disguise. A list of percentages might work better as a bar chart, and a list of steps as a diagram.

6. Split if you need to

If the slide still feels crowded, it might be two slides. Two clear slides beat one dense one.

A before-and-after example

Here’s an illustrative slide from a college project on campus food:

Before (about 60 words):

Findings: Our survey of hostel students found that many students skip breakfast because the mess timings are too early. Students also said the menu is repetitive and there are limited healthy options. Many students said they would pay a little more for better quality. The canteen is also overcrowded at lunchtime.

After (13 words on the slide):

Mess timings are the main reason students skip breakfast

• Timings too early
• Repetitive menu
• Few healthy options

The points about paying more and lunchtime crowding move to their own slides, or into the notes if they’re less important to the argument.

What about reading decks?

If your deck will be read without you, you’ll need more words. Even then, keep each slide focused on one point, use a clear headline, break text into short paragraphs or lists and keep the font large enough to read comfortably. A reading deck that’s well structured is still much easier to take in than a document squeezed onto slides.

The short answer

For a presented slide, aim for a headline and a few short phrases, and treat anything above roughly 40 words as worth a second look. Put the detail in your notes and your voice. For more on making slides easier to read, see font size rules for readable slides. If an old deck has grown wordy over the years, how to refresh an old presentation helps you cut it back.