17 PowerPoint Presentation tips to Make more innovative Slideshows [+ Templates]

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creating a incredible PowerPoint presentation is a ability that any expert can advantage from. The problem? It’s definitely smooth to get it wrong. From poor colour choices to difficult slides, a horrific PowerPoint slideshow can distract from the tremendous content you’re sharing with stakeholders to your team.

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That’s why it’s so crucial to learn how to create a PowerPoint presentation from the floor up, starting with your slides. Even in case you’re acquainted with PowerPoint, a refresher will assist you make a extra attractive, professional slideshow. Permit’s get started out.

i really like to think about Microsoft PowerPoint as a take a look at of basic expert abilities. To create a passing presentation, I need to illustrate design skills, technical literacy, and a experience of personal style.

If the presentation has a hassle (like an unintended font, a broken link, or unreadable text), then I’ve likely failed the take a look at. Despite the fact that my spoken presentation is properly rehearsed, a awful visible enjoy can damage it for the audience.

expertise approach nothing with out a good PowerPoint presentation to again it up. For starters, seize your series of unfastened PowerPoint templates below.

no matter your subject matter, a hit PowerPoints rely on 3 main elements: your command of PowerPoint’s layout equipment, your attention to presentation techniques, and your devotion to consistent style. Right here are a few simple recommendations to help you start learning every of these factors, and bear in mind to test out the additional resources at the lowest of this publish.

the way to Make a PowerPoint Presentation

A presentation is made from a couple of slides, and now which you recognise a way to make one, you can delve deeper into PowerPoint’s competencies.

1. Open a clean presentation again or begin from one you’ve already created.

in case you’ve already created a presentation, double-click the icon to open the prevailing record. In any other case, open Microsoft PowerPoint, click document within the top left corner, and click New Presentation. From there, you may observe the activates to set up a brand new presentation.

2. Choose a subject matter or create your personal.

Microsoft offers integrated topics and colour versions to help you design your slides with a cohesive appearance. To pick from these pre-built issues, pick out the report tab again, pick New, choose one of the alternatives, and click Create.

in any other case, you could use PowerPoint elements, your design experience, and your logo’s color palette to make your own “subject matter.”

3. Create a diffusion of slides for special purposes.

You don’t want to give the equal precise slide, simplest with exclusive content on it. This will bore your target audience. Ensure that you create a couple of versions, accommodating a number of the not unusual makes use of for slides. At minimal, you will need:

  • A title slide
  • An schedule or desk of contents slide
  • A slide that introduces the speaker
  • various content slides (create exceptional layouts thinking about what type of multimedia you may use)

4. Use the replica Slides function to save you time.

there is no cause to create those designs again and again once more. Now which you have some to draw from, you may without a doubt replica them before inputting your content material. Right here’s how to try this:

  • on the left pane, proper-click the thumbnail of the slide you need to copy.
  • select duplicate Slide from the pop-up menu.

this can mechanically add a duplicate of this slide to the presentation. From there, you may customise it for your wishes.

5. Upload transitions for your slides (non-obligatory).

achieved nicely, transitions can upload a little little bit of motion and showmanship for your presentation. PowerPoint has numerous transitions built in on the way to pick out from.

To access them, select the Transitions tab from the top ribbon. From there, you can select a transition for it to preview in your display. To personalize it similarly, click on impact alternatives and play with the functions to locate something that suits your liking. To cast off a transition, select Transitions and click None.

6. Add animations for your slides (elective).

Like transitions, animations can add motion, reveal records, and help you underscore the points you need to hit during your speech. To animate an detail, follow those steps:

  • choose the detail you need lively by clicking on it.
  • select Animations from the top ribbon.
  • you will have the choice to choose from several effects displayed in the ribbon.
  • Clicking on one will come up with a preview.
  • To customize the animation, choose effect options.
  • To put off an animation, click None within the ribbon.

a number of the ways to personalize animations consist of:

  • On click on
  • With preceding
  • After preceding
  • duration
  • delay

those describe how you want the effect to behave, so play around with them until you locate an impact that fits your liking.

you may also have the option to move animations round as you edit your slides via clicking at the Animation Pane button, then reordering the animations in the listing that pops up.

7. Store your presentation.

click on document and shop, ensuring to specify which folder or destination you need your PowerPoint to be stored.

8. Run your presentation.

it is always desirable to do a tribulation run to make sure that your slides are set up properly and your animations fireplace the manner you count on them to.

to give your PowerPoint, visit the Slide show tab and click on Play from start. The slide will cover your complete screen, blocking off out your laptop and PowerPoint software program. That is so your target audience (in this example, you for the trial run) is only focused at the visible factors of your presentation.

nine. Develop the slides.

while you’re performed with one slide and want to reveal the following in your sequence, click on your mouse in presentation mode. This may enhance the slide.

PowerPoint style

1. Don’t let PowerPoint determine how you use PowerPoint.

Microsoft desired to provide PowerPoint customers with loads of tools. But this does not mean you should use them all. Here are a few key things to look out for:

  • make sure that the preset PPT themes complement your desires earlier than you adopt them.
  • try to break out from using Microsoft office’s default fonts, Calibri and Cambria. The use of these two typefaces can make the presentation appear underwhelming.
  • experts ought to in no way use PPT’s action sounds. (Please keep in mind your audience above non-public choice).
  • PowerPoint makes bulleting automatic, however ask your self: Are bullets certainly appropriate for what you need to do? Sometimes they’re, but no longer always.
  • current PPT defaults consist of a small shadow on all shapes. Eliminate this shadow if it’s now not honestly wished. Also, don’t go away shapes in their default blue.

2. Create custom slide sizes.

while you generally can get away with the default slide size for most shows, you may need to regulate it for larger presentations on weirdly sized shows. In case you want to do this, right here’s how.

  • within the top-left nook, pick record.
  • pick web page Setup.
  • type the height and width of the historical past you need, and click adequate.
  • A talk container will seem. Click Scale if you want to additionally resize your content material, or Don’t Scale in case you don’t. We propose clicking Don’t Scale, then manually adjusting minor format troubles.

Tip: you could avoid a headache with the last step in case you resize your slides before you add any items to them. Otherwise, the dimensions of your gadgets will become skewed.

powerpoint presentation: resize slide

three. Edit your slide template design.

often, it’s plenty less complicated to edit your PowerPoint template earlier than you begin — this way, you do not must design every slide by hand. Right here’s the way you do that.

  • pick View inside the pinnacle navigation.
  • click master.
  • within the drop-down, click on Slide master.
  • Make any adjustments you like, then click near master inside the pinnacle ribbon. All current and future slides in that presentation will use that template.

powerpoint presentation: editing the master

four. Write text with your target market in thoughts.

A enormous part of a PowerPoint’s content is text. Tremendous replica could make or smash your presentation, so evaluating your written work from some extraordinary angles should make you appear greater persuasive. Thinking about how your text is received differentiates desirable presenters from the quality.

Typography:

Many humans underestimate the affect of typeface, but selecting the proper font is vital — the belief of your font type ought to influence your target audience’s influence of you. The right font is an opportunity to bring steady emblem personality and professionalism.

a few fonts are seen as smooth and professional, but this does not mean they’re dull. A common mistake is wondering your font is not “thrilling” sufficient, that can lead you to select a font that distracts from your basic message. We suggest sticking to easy serif and sans-serif fonts. Keep away from script fonts because of capability clarity troubles.

powerpoint presentation: types of fonts

That said, you may nevertheless use amusing and whimsical fonts — carefully. Offsetting a amusing font or large letters with some thing more professional can create an engaging presentation.

principally, make certain you are consistent so your presentation looks the equal during every slide. That way, your target audience doesn’t come to be distracted by way of too many disparate fonts. Take a look at out this case from HubSpot’s organisation profile templates:

powerpoint presentation: consistent slides

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5. Ensure all your objects are well aligned.

Having well aligned objects in your slide is the key to making it look polished and expert. You could manually try to line up your pix … However we all know how that typically works out. You are trying to make certain all of your gadgets cling out in the middle of your slide, but while you drag them there, it nonetheless would not look pretty proper. Eliminate your guessing recreation and let PowerPoint work its magic with this trick.

here’s how to align more than one gadgets:
  • pick all objects through retaining down Shift and clicking on they all.
  • pick set up in the top alternatives bar, then select Align or Distribute.
  • choose the kind of alignment you want.

powerpoint presentation: aligning objects

right here’s the way to align gadgets to the slide:
  • pick all objects with the aid of conserving down Shift and clicking on they all.
  • pick out set up within the pinnacle alternatives bar, then pick Align or Distribute.
  • pick Align to slide.
  • pick out set up inside the pinnacle alternatives bar again, then select Align or Distribute.
  • choose the form of alignment you’d like.

powerpoint presentation: aligning objects

PowerPoint layout

6. Use “layout object” to higher manage your items’ designs.

layout menus will let you do great adjustments that otherwise appear not possible. To do that, proper-click on on an object and choose the format object option. Right here, you could excellent-song shadows, regulate shape measurements, create reflections, and lots extra. The menu so as to pop up looks as if this:

powerpoint presentation: format object pane

despite the fact that the main alternatives can be observed on PowerPoint’s format toolbars, search for entire manage within the format window menu. Other examples of alternatives to be had include:

  • Adjusting textual content inside a form.
  • growing a herbal attitude shadow in the back of an item.
  • Recoloring pictures manually and with automatic alternatives.

7. Take benefit of PowerPoint’s shapes.

Many customers don’t understand how bendy PowerPoint’s shape gear have come to be. In aggregate with the increased format options released by using Microsoft, the ability for appropriate design with shapes is with no trouble to be had. PowerPoint offers the person with a bunch of tremendous form alternatives beyond the conventional rectangle, oval, and rounded rectangle patterns.

today’s shapes encompass a pretty useful clever Shapes feature, which permits you to create diagrams and float charts in no time. Those gear are specifically valuable while you do not forget that PowerPoint is a visual medium. Paragraphing and bullet lists are dull — you could use shapes to help explicit your message more truly.

8. Create custom shapes.

while you create a form, proper click and press Edit factors. By using enhancing factors, you may create custom shapes that healthy your particular need. As an example, you may reshape arrows to in shape the dimensions you like.

powerpoint presentation: editing points

any other alternative is to mix shapes together. To accomplish that, select the two shapes you’d like to work with, then click on form format within the top ribbon. Faucet Merge Shapes.

You’ll see a ramification of options.

  • combine creates a custom form that has overlapping quantities of the two previous shapes reduce out.
  • Union makes one completely merged form.
  • Intersect builds a form of most effective the overlapping sections of the 2 previous shapes.
  • Subtract cuts out the overlapping portion of one shape from the opposite.
  • Fragment will break up your form into exclusive components relying on in which they overlap.

via using these tools in place of looking to edit factors exactly, you may create appropriately measured custom shapes.

9. Crop photographs into custom shapes.

except developing custom shapes in your presentation, you can additionally use PowerPoint to crop present pics into new shapes. Right here’s how you do this:

  • click on the photograph and select picture layout within the alternatives bar.
  • choose Crop, then Crop to form, after which pick your favored shape. Ta-da! Custom-shaped images.

powerpoint presentation: cropping an image into a custom shape

10. Gift web sites inside PowerPoint.

subculture says that if you want to show a website in a PowerPoint, you should simply create a hyperlink to the web page and spark off a browser to open. For laptop customers, there’s a higher option.

third birthday celebration software program that integrates fully into PowerPoint’s developer tab may be used to embed a website without delay into your PowerPoint the use of a everyday HTML iframe. One of the excellent equipment is LiveWeb, a third-birthday celebration software program that you could installation in your PowerPoint application.

by way of using LiveWeb, you don’t have to interrupt your PowerPoint, and your presentation will stay fluid and natural. Whether you embed a whole web site or only a YouTube video, this will be a super 0.33 birthday celebration development. To install the upload-on, easy head to the LiveWeb website and comply with the instructions.

sadly, Mac users don’t have a comparable alternative. A terrific 2nd preference is to take screenshots of the internet site, hyperlink in thru a browser, or embed media (consisting of a YouTube video) by means of downloading it at once on your computer.

11. Try using GIFs.

GIFs are looped lively snap shots used to talk a temper, idea, information, and much greater. Users add GIFs to PowerPoints to be funny or speedy demo a procedure. It is clean to feature GIFs to your slides. To achieve this, sincerely comply with those steps:

  • down load and shop the GIF you need.
  • go to the slide you need the GIF on.
  • go to the domestic tab, and click on both Insert or photo.
  • From the photo drop-down menu, pick photo from file.
  • Navigate to in which you stored your GIF and pick it. Then, select Insert.
  • it’s going to play mechanically the instant you insert it.

PowerPoint system

12. Keep it easy.

PowerPoint is an extraordinary tool to aid your presentation with visual data, pictures, and supplemental factors. Because of this your PowerPoint have to now not be your whole presentation. Your slides — regardless of how creative and delightful — shouldn’t be the big name of the show. Hold your text and images clear and concise, the usage of them handiest to supplement your message and authority.

if your slides have dense and cluttered data, it’ll each distract your target market and make it more likely that you may lose their interest. Not anything for your slides ought to be superfluous! Preserve your presentation persuasive by retaining it easy. There are a few methods to try this:

  • limit bullet points and textual content.
  • avoid paragraphs and lengthy charges.
  • maintain “white area” or “negative area”.
  • preserve possibilities, graphs, and statistics tremendous fundamental.

thirteen. Embed your font documents.

One consistent problem presenters have with PowerPoint is that fonts appear to change when presenters move from one laptop to another. In truth, the fonts are not converting — the presentation laptop just doesn’t have the equal font files mounted. If you’re the usage of a pc and offering on a laptop, then there may be a easy workaround for this problem.

right here’s the trick: when you save your PowerPoint report (handiest on a computer), you should click on report, then alternatives, then open up the save tab. Then, pick the Embed fonts inside the document test field below preserve constancy when sharing this presentation. Now, your presentation will maintain the font file and your fonts will no longer alternate while you move computers.

The macOS PowerPoint version has a similar function. To embed your fonts on a Mac, do the subsequent:

  • Open up your presentation.
  • on the top bar, click on PowerPoint, then click options.
  • below Output and Sharing, click on keep.
  • underneath Font Embedding, click on Embed fonts inside the record.

14. Shop your slides as a PDF file for backup functions.

in case you’re nevertheless frightened of your presentation displaying up in a different way while it’s time to give, you ought to create a PDF model simply in case. This is a superb option if you’ll be offering on a different laptop. If you also run into an issue where the imparting laptop doesn’t have PowerPoint established, you could additionally use the machine viewer to open up the PDF. No pc will ever give you trouble with this report type.

The handiest caveat is that your GIFs, animations, and transitions won’t transfer over. However since the PDF will best paintings as a backup, no longer as your number one reproduction, this need to be k.

To save your presentation as a PDF document, take the following steps:

  • visit document, then click on store as …
  • within the pop-up window, click report layout.
  • A drop-down menu will seem. Pick PDF.
  • click Export.

you can also visit file, then Export, then choose PDF from the report layout menu.

15. Embed multimedia.

PowerPoint lets in you to both hyperlink to video/audio documents externally or to embed the media at once to your presentation. You ought to embed those documents if you could, however if you use a Mac, you can not sincerely embed the video (see notice underneath). For computers, outstanding reasons for embedding are:

  • Embedding allows you to play media at once to your presentation. It’ll appearance lots greater expert than switching between home windows.
  • Embedding also manner that the report stays inside the PowerPoint presentation, so it ought to play commonly without extra work (besides on a Mac).

observe: macOS users of PowerPoint need to be greater careful about using multimedia files.

in case you use PowerPoint for Mac, then you’ll continually need to carry the video and/or audio record with you inside the identical folder as the PowerPoint presentation. It’s great to simplest insert video or audio files once the presentation and the containing folder have been stored on a portable force of their everlasting folder. Also, if the presentation could be performed on a windows laptop, then Mac customers need to make sure their multimedia documents are in WMV layout. This tip receives a piece complex, so in case you need to use PowerPoint efficaciously, recall using the same working machine for designing and supplying, regardless of what.

16. Carry your own hardware.

between working systems, PowerPoint is still a bit jumpy. Even between differing PPT variations, matters can alternate. One way to fix those problems is to make certain which you have the right hardware — so simply deliver along your own laptop while you’re providing.

if you’re first-rate worried approximately the one of a kind systems you might have to use, then add your PowerPoint presentation into Google Slides as a backup option. Google Slides is a cloud-based totally presentation software with the intention to show up the same way on all operating systems. The only thing you need is a web connection and a browser.

To import your PowerPoint presentation into Google Slides, take the subsequent steps:

  • Navigate to slides.Google.Com. Ensure you’re signed in to a Google account, ideally your very own.
  • beneath start a new presentation, click the empty container with a plus sign. This can open up a blank presentation.
  • go to file, then Import slides.
  • A dialog box will arise. Faucet upload, then click on pick out a record out of your device.
  • choose your presentation and click Open.
  • select the slides you’d like to import. In case you need to import all of them, click on All inside the higher proper-hand nook of the dialog container.
  • click Import slides.

powerpoint presentation: importing slides into google slides

when I tested this out, Google Slides imported everything perfectly, together with a shape whose factors I had manipulated. This is a great backup choice to have if you’ll be supplying across exceptional working systems.

17. Use Presenter View.

In most presentation situations, there will be each a presenter’s display and the principle projected display in your presentation. PowerPoint has a first rate device called Presenter View, which may be discovered within the Slide show tab of PowerPoint. Protected in the Presenter View is a place for notes, a timer/clock, and a presentation display.

powerpoint presentation: using presenter view

for lots presenters, this tool can assist unify their spoken presentation and their visual aid. You by no means need to make the PowerPoint appear like a stack of notes which you’re analyzing off of. Use the Presenter View choice to help create a greater natural presentation.

seasoned Tip: on the begin of the presentation, you must additionally hit CTRL + H to make the cursor disappear. Hitting the “A” key will carry it again in case you want it!

Your next superb PowerPoint Presentation starts offevolved here

With style, design, and presentation approaches below your belt, you can do plenty greater with PowerPoint than just shows to your customers. PowerPoint and comparable slide programs are flexible equipment that must no longer be forgotten. With a notable template, you could be for your manner to growing presentations that wow your audience.

Editor’s note: This submit was initially published in September 2013 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.

powerpoint slides

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