PowerPoint 101: The 7x7 Rule

PowerPoint 101 is an ongoing series about designing better PowerPoint presentations.

Quick answer: The 7×7 Rule is a simple PowerPoint guideline that limits slides to seven lines of text with no more than seven words per line. It’s designed to reduce clutter, improve readability, and help audiences focus on one key idea per slide.

A simple rule for streamlining presentations

PowerPoint is an amazing tool. It can be used to create everything from stunning, movie-quality animations, to simple, effective slides that communicate a single key idea. But too often, people treat slides like pages in a book: they cram in bullet point after bullet point, layered over hard-to-read charts and pixelated images.

So whether you are a beginner who is still learning the best way to create slides, or an experienced hand looking to enhance your skills, an easy way to test new strategies and refine your approach is to apply some rules to your slide creation. In the past, we’ve talked about the 10-20-30 Rule and the 5-5-5 Rule, and today we’re going to share another popular rule for designing effective PowerPoints: the 7x7 Rule.

What is the 7x7 Rule for PowerPoint?

The 7x7 Rule says that, for each slide in your presentation, you should use no more than:

• 7 lines (or bullets) per slide

• 7 words (or fewer) per line

Easy, right? But why does a rule like this even exist? What’s the purpose of following these sorts of guidelines, rather than simply designing slides intuitively?

Why the 7x7 Rule helps you make better presentations

Perhaps the most common mistake that people make when designing PowerPoint presentations is putting too much information onto a single slide.

In general, the best practice is to keep each slide focused on a single topic, with the minimum number of words needed to make your point. For people who are deeply familiar with the story they are telling in a PowerPoint, it can be easy to think that every piece of information is essential, and that leaving things out does a disservice to your offering and leaves the audience without a full picture of the topic. That’s because including too much information makes it harder for the audience to follow and retain your information.

The 7x7 Rule is a simple method for keeping your information concise, and it helps to ensure that each slide is focused on a single key point.

When (and how) to use the 7x7 Rule

The 7x7 Rule tends to work best when you are editing down to that amount of information, rather than trying to fill in the blanks to get to 7 lines and 7 words.

One way that we have found effective is to start by writing out everything you want to say in your presentation. Next, you should break those points down and choose one key message for each slide. From there, it’s a simple step to edit the longform information down to 7x7.

Remember, 7x7 is the maximum amount of content you want to include on a slide, not a goal to try and reach. If you are consistently using all 7 words and 7 lines, you may end up missing out on the value that the rule really offers.

A note on following rules in PowerPoint

Presentation rules like the 7×7 Rule exist for a reason: they provide simple guardrails that make slides easier to read and ideas easier to follow. Used thoughtfully, they’re an effective way to test clarity and keep content focused.

At the same time, rules work best when they’re part of a broader presentation toolkit. Our belief is that content should guide design, as opposed to adding content just to fill a gap.

Typography, layout, hierarchy, and structure all influence how information is perceived on a slide. Understanding how these elements work together gives you more flexibility, and more options, as your presentations become more complex.

If you’re looking to expand your toolkit beyond the 7x7 Rule , these resources explore other key presentation tools:

Presentation Typography 101 – How font choice, hierarchy, and spacing affect slide readability

The 5/5/5 Rule in PowerPoint – Another widely used guideline, and how it compares to the 7×7 Rule

How to Make PowerPoint Slides Look Professional – Practical ways to improve clarity beyond text rules

Presentation Design 101 – Core design principles that connect layout, storytelling, and structure.

About the author

Kyle Kartz is the Creative Director of Storytelling at VerdanaBold. He is an expert copywriter and strategist, with experience driving major campaigns for global brands in multiple industries. He is passionate about communications, the outdoors, and cooking.