how to do a professional presentation with powerpoint

10 PowerPoint Tips for Preparing a Professional Presentation

Use these Microsoft PowerPoint tips to avoid common mistakes, keep your audience engaged, and create a professional presentation.

Professional presentations are all about making an impact. Your slides should look the part. Once you know what makes a presentation look professional, you can customize any half-decent PowerPoint template or create your own custom slides.

Our PowerPoint tips will help you avoid common mistakes, keep your audience engaged, and create a professional presentation, in form and content.

PowerPoint Slide Design

The design can leave a first and lasting impression. Give it a professional touch to win your audience's trust and attention.

1. Carefully Compose Your Slides

Don't copy and paste slides from different sources. You don't want your presentation to look like a rag rug. What you're aiming for is a consistent look. This will help your audience focus on the essential; your speech and the key facts you're highlighting on your slides.

To that end, use a basic template or make your own . PowerPoint comes with a wide selection of professional PowerPoint presentation templates , but you can also find free ones online.

PowerPoint Tip: When you open PowerPoint, note the search field at the top. One of the suggested searches is "presentations". Click it to see all of PowerPoint's default presentation templates. Choose a category on the right to narrow down your search.

Pick an easy to read font face . It's hard to get this right, but these professional-looking Google fonts are a safe bet. Unless you're a designer, stick to a single font face and limit yourself to playing with safe colors and font sizes.

If you're unsure about fonts, refer to "The 10 Commandments of Typography" shown below for orientation.

Carefully select font sizes for headers and text. While you don't want to create a wall of text and lose your audience's attention, you do want them to be able to read what you've highlighted. So make your fonts large enough.

PowerPoint Tip: PowerPoint offers several different slide layouts. When you add a new slide, choose the right layout under Home > New Slide . To switch the layout of an existing slide, use Home > Layout . By using the default layouts, you can make coherent design changes across your presentation anytime you want.

Leave room for highlights, such as images or take home messages. Some elements should stand out. So try not to bury them in background noise but give them the space they need. This could be a single quote or a single image per page with nothing but a simple header and a plain background.

Decorate scarcely but well. If you have good content, you won't need decoration. Your template will be decoratively enough.

Note: Restrict the room your design takes up, and don't ever let the design restrict your message.

2. Use Consistency

Consistently use font face and sizes on all slides. This one goes back to using a template. If you chose a professional presentation template, the designer would have taken care of this aspect. Stick to it!

Match colors. This is where so many presentations fail. You might have chosen a funky template and stuck to the designer's color profile, then you ruin it all with ugly Excel charts .

Take the time to match your visuals to your presentation design.

Text and Background Colors

A poor choice of colors can ruin your presentation.

3. Use Contrast

Black text on a white background will always be the best, but also the most boring choice . You're allowed to use colors! But use them responsibly.

Keep it easy on the eyes and always keep good contrast in mind. If you're color-challenged, use one of the many online tools to select a good looking color palette. Or just use a template and stick to its default colors.

PowerPoint Tip: Use PowerPoint's Design menu to quickly change the font and color palette of your entire presentation using preset design layouts.

4. Apply Brilliance

Carefully use color to highlight your message! Colors are your friends. They can make numbers stand out or your Take Home Message pop.

Don't weaken the color effect by using too many colors in too many instances . The special effect only works if used scarcely. Try to limit pop colors to one per slide.

Make a brilliant choice: match colors for design and good contrast to highlight your message . Use a professional color palette, to find which color will work best with your theme. Use The 10 Commandments of Color Theory shown below to learn more about colors:

Text on PowerPoint Slides

K eep I t S traight and S imple. That means...

• Keywords only on your slides.
• Absolutely no full sentences!
• And never read your slides , talk freely.

Remember that your slides are only there to support, not to replace your talk! You want to tell a story, visualize your data, and demonstrate key points. If you read your slides, you risk losing your audience's respect and attention.

PowerPoint Tip: Afraid you'll lose your train of thoughts? Add notes to your slides. Go to View and under Show click Notes to make them show up under your slides while editing. When starting your presentation, use PowerPoint's presentation mode (go to Slide Show and under Monitors , check Use Presenter View ), so you can glance at your notes when needed.

6. Take Home Message

Always summarize your key point in a Take Home Message. Ask yourself, if your audience learned or remembered one single thing from your presentation, what would you like it to be? That's your Take Home Message.

The Take Home Message is your key message, a summary of your data or story. If you're giving an hour-long presentation, you might have several Take Home Messages. That's OK. Just make sure that what you think is key, really matters to your audience.

Make your Take Home Message memorable. It's your responsibility that your audience takes home something valuable. Help them "get it" by making your Take Home Message stand out, either visually or through how you frame it verbally.

Presentation Visuals

Images are key elements of every presentation. Your audience has ears and eyes, they want to see what you're talking about, and a good visual cue will help them understand your message much better.

7. Add Images

Have more images in your slides than text. Visuals are your friends. They can illustrate your points and support your message.

But do not use images to decorate! That's a poor use of visuals because it's just a distraction.

Images can reinforce or complement your message. So use images to visualize or explain your story.

Use a sufficient image resolution. Your visuals might look good on your desktop, but once blown up by a projector, low-resolution images will make your presentation look anything but professional. So choose a resolution that matches the projector's resolution. If in doubt, don't go below a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels (XGA) and aim for 1920 x 1080 pixels (FullHD).

Always maintain your image's aspect ratio. Nothing looks more awkward than a distorted image. Whatever you do, don't stretch images. If you have to resize them, do so with the aspect ratio intact, even if that means dropping slightly above or below your target resolution.

PowerPoint Tip: Need a visual, but don't have one at hand? PowerPoint is connected to Bing's library of online images you can use for your presentations. Go to Insert and under Images select Online Images . You can browse by category or search the library. Be sure to set a checkmark for Creative Commons only , so you don't accidentally violate copyrights.

Note: Yes, a picture is worth a thousand words. In other words, if you don't have time for a thousand words, use a picture!

PowerPoint Animations and Media

In animations, there is a fine line between a comic and a professional impression. But animations can be powerful tools to visualize and explain complicated matters. A good animation can not only improve understanding, it can also make the message stick with your audience.

8. Don't Be Silly

Sparingly use animations and media. You should only use them in one of two cases:

• To draw attention, for example, to your Take Home Message.
• To clarify a model or emphasize an effect.

Embed the media in your presentation and make sure it works in presentation mode. Testing your presentation at home will save you time and avoid embarrassment.

Target Your Presentation Content

Your target, i.e. your audience, defines the content of your presentation. For example, you cannot teach school kids about the complicated matters of the economy, but you may be able to explain to them what the economy is in the first place and why it is important.

9. Keep Your Audience in Mind

When you compile your PowerPoint presentation, ask yourself these questions:

• What does my audience know?
• What do I need to tell them?
• What do they expect?
• What will be interesting to them?
• What can I teach them?
• What will keep them focused?

Answer these questions and boil your slides down to the very essentials. In your talk, describe the essentials colorfully and use your weapons, i.e. text, images, and animations wisely (see above).

Note: If you fail to hit the target, it won't matter how ingenious your design is or how brilliantly you picked colors and keywords. Nothing matters more than your audience's attention.

10. Practice Your Presentation Like a Professional

A well-practiced and enthusiastic talk will help you convince your audience and keep their attention. Here are some key points that define a good talk:

• Know your slides inside out.
• Speak freely.
• Speak with confidence, loud and clear.
• Speak at a steady pace, better too slow than too fast.
• Keep eye contact with your audience.

Bonus: Implement the 10/20/30 Rule

The 10/20/30 rule is a concept brought forward by Guy Kawasaki:

It’s quite simple: a PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points.

A similar concept is PechaKucha , a storytelling format limited to 20 slides and 20 seconds per slide, i.e. less than seven minutes to conclude the presentation.

Now there's a challenge! Telling your story succinctly, might help you get through to some of the busiest and most distracted people on the planet.

One Final PowerPoint Presentation Tip

I've shown you how to think through your entire presentation, from choosing a design to speaking to your audience. Here's a mind trick: never try to interpret the looks on your listeners' faces. Chances are, you're wrong. Just assume they're focused and taking notes.

You've done your best to create a professional PowerPoint presentation that will help your audience focus on the content and learn new things. The looks on their faces aren't doubt or confusion. It's focus! Well, d'oh! Obviously, you're the expert, and they're the learners. If you can get into this mindset, you can relax and perform at your best.

17 PowerPoint Presentation Tips From Pro Presenters [+ Templates]

Published: April 26, 2024

PowerPoint presentations can be professional, attractive, and really help your audience remember your message.

If you don’t have much experience, that’s okay — I’m going to arm you with PowerPoint design tips from pro presenters, the steps you need to build an engaging deck, and templates to help you nail great slide design.

Download Now

Buckle up for a variety of step-by-step explanations as well as tips and tricks to help you start mastering this program. There are additional resources woven in, and you’ll find expert perspectives from other HubSpotters along the way.

Table of Contents

How to Make a PowerPoint Presentation

Powerpoint presentation tips.

Microsoft PowerPoint is like a test of basic professional skills, and each PowerPoint is basically a presentation made of multiple slides.

Successful PowerPoints depend on three main factors: your command of PowerPoint's design tools, your attention to presentation processes, and being consistent with your style.

Keep those in mind as we jump into PowerPoint's capabilities.

Getting Started

1. open powerpoint and click ‘new.’.

A page with templates will usually open automatically, but if not, go to the top left pane of your screen and click New . If you’ve already created a presentation, select Open and then double-click the icon to open the existing file.

10 Free PowerPoint Templates

Download ten free PowerPoint templates for a better presentation.

• Creative templates.
• Data-driven templates.
• Professional templates.

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

Creating PowerPoint Slides

3. insert a slide..

Insert a new slide by clicking on the Home tab and then the New Slide button. Consider what content you want to put on the slide, including heading, text, and imagery.

• Finally, PowerPoint Live is a new tool that enables you to do more seamless presentations during video calls and may be a better overall match for doing presentations remotely. Check out this video:

11. Try Using GIFs.

12 Free Customizable Resume Templates

Fill out this form to access your free professionally-designed templates, available on:

• Microsoft Word
• Google Docs
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Google Slides

15. Embed multimedia.

PowerPoint allows you to either link to video/audio files externally or to embed the media directly in your presentation. For PCs, two great reasons for embedding are:

• Embedding allows you to play media directly in your presentation. It will look much more professional than switching between windows.
• Embedding also means that the file stays within the PowerPoint presentation, so it should play normally without extra work (except on a Mac).

If you use PowerPoint for Mac it gets a bit complicated, but it can be done:

• Always bring the video and/or audio file with you in the same folder as the PowerPoint presentation.
• Only insert video or audio files once the presentation and the containing folder have been saved on a portable drive in their permanent folder.
• If the presentation will be played on a Windows computer, then Mac users need to make sure their multimedia files are in WMV format.
• Consider using the same operating system for designing and presenting, no matter what.

16. Bring your own hardware.

Between operating systems, PowerPoint is still a bit jumpy. Even between differing PPT versions, things can change. The easiest fix? Just bring along your own laptop when you're presenting.

The next easiest fix is to upload your PowerPoint presentation into Google Slides as a backup option — just make sure there is a good internet connection and a browser available where you plan to present.

Google Slides is a cloud-based presentation software that will show up the same way on all operating systems.

To import your PowerPoint presentation into Google Slides:

• Navigate to slides.google.com . Make sure you’re signed in to a Google account (preferably your own).
• Under Start a new presentation , click the empty box with a plus sign. This will open up a blank presentation.
• Go to File , then Import slides .
• A dialog box will come up. Tap Upload.
• Click Select a file from your device .
• Select your presentation and click Open .
• Select the slides you’d like to import. If you want to import all of them, click All in the upper right-hand corner of the dialog box.
• Click Import slides.

When I tested this out, Google Slides imported everything perfectly, including a shape whose points I had manipulated. This is a good backup option to have if you’ll be presenting across different operating systems.

17. Use Presenter View.

In most presentation situations, there will be both a presenter’s screen and the main projected display for your presentation.

PowerPoint has a great tool called Presenter View, which can be found in the Slide Show tab of PowerPoint. Included in the Presenter View is an area for notes, a timer/clock, and a presentation display.

For many presenters, this tool can help unify their spoken presentation and their visual aid. You never want to make the PowerPoint seem like a stack of notes that you’re reading off of.

Use the Presenter View option to help create a more natural presentation.

Pro Tip: At the start of the presentation, you should also hit CTRL + H to make the cursor disappear. Hitting the “A” key will bring it back if you need it.

Your Next Great PowerPoint Presentation Starts Here

Now that you have these style, design, and presentation tips under your belt, you should feel confident to create your PowerPoint presentation.

But if you can explore other resources to make sure your content hits the mark. After all, you need a strong presentation to land your point and make an impression.

With several templates to choose from — both in PowerPoint and available for free download — you can swiftly be on your way to creating presentations that wow your audiences.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in September 2013 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Don't forget to share this post!

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Blog Beginner Guides How To Make a Good Presentation [A Complete Guide]

How To Make a Good Presentation [A Complete Guide]

Written by: Krystle Wong Jul 20, 2023

A top-notch presentation possesses the power to drive action. From winning stakeholders over and conveying a powerful message to securing funding — your secret weapon lies within the realm of creating an effective presentation .  

Being an excellent presenter isn’t confined to the boardroom. Whether you’re delivering a presentation at work, pursuing an academic career, involved in a non-profit organization or even a student, nailing the presentation game is a game-changer.

In this article, I’ll cover the top qualities of compelling presentations and walk you through a step-by-step guide on how to give a good presentation. Here’s a little tip to kick things off: for a headstart, check out Venngage’s collection of free presentation templates . They are fully customizable, and the best part is you don’t need professional design skills to make them shine!

These valuable presentation tips cater to individuals from diverse professional backgrounds, encompassing business professionals, sales and marketing teams, educators, trainers, students, researchers, non-profit organizations, public speakers and presenters. 

No matter your field or role, these tips for presenting will equip you with the skills to deliver effective presentations that leave a lasting impression on any audience.

Click to jump ahead:

What are the 10 qualities of a good presentation?

Step-by-step guide on how to prepare an effective presentation, 9 effective techniques to deliver a memorable presentation, faqs on making a good presentation, how to create a presentation with venngage in 5 steps.

When it comes to giving an engaging presentation that leaves a lasting impression, it’s not just about the content — it’s also about how you deliver it. Wondering what makes a good presentation? Well, the best presentations I’ve seen consistently exhibit these 10 qualities:

1. Clear structure

No one likes to get lost in a maze of information. Organize your thoughts into a logical flow, complete with an introduction, main points and a solid conclusion. A structured presentation helps your audience follow along effortlessly, leaving them with a sense of satisfaction at the end.

Regardless of your presentation style , a quality presentation starts with a clear roadmap. Browse through Venngage’s template library and select a presentation template that aligns with your content and presentation goals. Here’s a good presentation example template with a logical layout that includes sections for the introduction, main points, supporting information and a conclusion: 

2. Engaging opening

Hook your audience right from the start with an attention-grabbing statement, a fascinating question or maybe even a captivating anecdote. Set the stage for a killer presentation!

The opening moments of your presentation hold immense power – check out these 15 ways to start a presentation to set the stage and captivate your audience.

3. Relevant content

Make sure your content aligns with their interests and needs. Your audience is there for a reason, and that’s to get valuable insights. Avoid fluff and get straight to the point, your audience will be genuinely excited.

4. Effective visual aids

Picture this: a slide with walls of text and tiny charts, yawn! Visual aids should be just that—aiding your presentation. Opt for clear and visually appealing slides, engaging images and informative charts that add value and help reinforce your message.

With Venngage, visualizing data takes no effort at all. You can import data from CSV or Google Sheets seamlessly and create stunning charts, graphs and icon stories effortlessly to showcase your data in a captivating and impactful way.

5. Clear and concise communication

Keep your language simple, and avoid jargon or complicated terms. Communicate your ideas clearly, so your audience can easily grasp and retain the information being conveyed. This can prevent confusion and enhance the overall effectiveness of the message. 

6. Engaging delivery

Spice up your presentation with a sprinkle of enthusiasm! Maintain eye contact, use expressive gestures and vary your tone of voice to keep your audience glued to the edge of their seats. A touch of charisma goes a long way!

7. Interaction and audience engagement

Turn your presentation into an interactive experience — encourage questions, foster discussions and maybe even throw in a fun activity. Engaged audiences are more likely to remember and embrace your message.

Transform your slides into an interactive presentation with Venngage’s dynamic features like pop-ups, clickable icons and animated elements. Engage your audience with interactive content that lets them explore and interact with your presentation for a truly immersive experience.

8. Effective storytelling

Who doesn’t love a good story? Weaving relevant anecdotes, case studies or even a personal story into your presentation can captivate your audience and create a lasting impact. Stories build connections and make your message memorable.

A great presentation background is also essential as it sets the tone, creates visual interest and reinforces your message. Enhance the overall aesthetics of your presentation with these 15 presentation background examples and captivate your audience’s attention.

9. Well-timed pacing

Pace your presentation thoughtfully with well-designed presentation slides, neither rushing through nor dragging it out. Respect your audience’s time and ensure you cover all the essential points without losing their interest.

10. Strong conclusion

Last impressions linger! Summarize your main points and leave your audience with a clear takeaway. End your presentation with a bang , a call to action or an inspiring thought that resonates long after the conclusion.

In-person presentations aside, acing a virtual presentation is of paramount importance in today’s digital world. Check out this guide to learn how you can adapt your in-person presentations into virtual presentations . 

Preparing an effective presentation starts with laying a strong foundation that goes beyond just creating slides and notes. One of the quickest and best ways to make a presentation would be with the help of a good presentation software . 

Otherwise, let me walk you to how to prepare for a presentation step by step and unlock the secrets of crafting a professional presentation that sets you apart.

1. Understand the audience and their needs

Before you dive into preparing your masterpiece, take a moment to get to know your target audience. Tailor your presentation to meet their needs and expectations , and you’ll have them hooked from the start!

2. Conduct thorough research on the topic

Time to hit the books (or the internet)! Don’t skimp on the research with your presentation materials — dive deep into the subject matter and gather valuable insights . The more you know, the more confident you’ll feel in delivering your presentation.

3. Organize the content with a clear structure

No one wants to stumble through a chaotic mess of information. Outline your presentation with a clear and logical flow. Start with a captivating introduction, follow up with main points that build on each other and wrap it up with a powerful conclusion that leaves a lasting impression.

Delivering an effective business presentation hinges on captivating your audience, and Venngage’s professionally designed business presentation templates are tailor-made for this purpose. With thoughtfully structured layouts, these templates enhance your message’s clarity and coherence, ensuring a memorable and engaging experience for your audience members.

Don’t want to build your presentation layout from scratch? pick from these 5 foolproof presentation layout ideas that won’t go wrong. 

4. Develop visually appealing and supportive visual aids

Spice up your presentation with eye-catching visuals! Create slides that complement your message, not overshadow it. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words, but that doesn’t mean you need to overload your slides with text.

Well-chosen designs create a cohesive and professional look, capturing your audience’s attention and enhancing the overall effectiveness of your message. Here’s a list of carefully curated PowerPoint presentation templates and great background graphics that will significantly influence the visual appeal and engagement of your presentation.

5. Practice, practice and practice

Practice makes perfect — rehearse your presentation and arrive early to your presentation to help overcome stage fright. Familiarity with your material will boost your presentation skills and help you handle curveballs with ease.

6. Seek feedback and make necessary adjustments

Don’t be afraid to ask for help and seek feedback from friends and colleagues. Constructive criticism can help you identify blind spots and fine-tune your presentation to perfection.

With Venngage’s real-time collaboration feature , receiving feedback and editing your presentation is a seamless process. Group members can access and work on the presentation simultaneously and edit content side by side in real-time. Changes will be reflected immediately to the entire team, promoting seamless teamwork.

7. Prepare for potential technical or logistical issues

Prepare for the unexpected by checking your equipment, internet connection and any other potential hiccups. If you’re worried that you’ll miss out on any important points, you could always have note cards prepared. Remember to remain focused and rehearse potential answers to anticipated questions.

8. Fine-tune and polish your presentation

As the big day approaches, give your presentation one last shine. Review your talking points, practice how to present a presentation and make any final tweaks. Deep breaths — you’re on the brink of delivering a successful presentation!

In competitive environments, persuasive presentations set individuals and organizations apart. To brush up on your presentation skills, read these guides on how to make a persuasive presentation and tips to presenting effectively . 

Whether you’re an experienced presenter or a novice, the right techniques will let your presentation skills soar to new heights!

From public speaking hacks to interactive elements and storytelling prowess, these 9 effective presentation techniques will empower you to leave a lasting impression on your audience and make your presentations unforgettable.

1. Confidence and positive body language

Positive body language instantly captivates your audience, making them believe in your message as much as you do. Strengthen your stage presence and own that stage like it’s your second home! Stand tall, shoulders back and exude confidence. 

2. Eye contact with the audience

Break down that invisible barrier and connect with your audience through their eyes. Maintaining eye contact when giving a presentation builds trust and shows that you’re present and engaged with them.

3. Effective use of hand gestures and movement

A little movement goes a long way! Emphasize key points with purposeful gestures and don’t be afraid to walk around the stage. Your energy will be contagious!

4. Utilize storytelling techniques

Weave the magic of storytelling into your presentation. Share relatable anecdotes, inspiring success stories or even personal experiences that tug at the heartstrings of your audience. Adjust your pitch, pace and volume to match the emotions and intensity of the story. Varying your speaking voice adds depth and enhances your stage presence.

5. Incorporate multimedia elements

Spice up your presentation with a dash of visual pizzazz! Use slides, images and video clips to add depth and clarity to your message. Just remember, less is more—don’t overwhelm them with information overload. 

Turn your presentations into an interactive party! Involve your audience with questions, polls or group activities. When they actively participate, they become invested in your presentation’s success. Bring your design to life with animated elements. Venngage allows you to apply animations to icons, images and text to create dynamic and engaging visual content.

6. Utilize humor strategically

Laughter is the best medicine—and a fantastic presentation enhancer! A well-placed joke or lighthearted moment can break the ice and create a warm atmosphere , making your audience more receptive to your message.

7. Practice active listening and respond to feedback

Be attentive to your audience’s reactions and feedback. If they have questions or concerns, address them with genuine interest and respect. Your responsiveness builds rapport and shows that you genuinely care about their experience.

8. Apply the 10-20-30 rule

Apply the 10-20-30 presentation rule and keep it short, sweet and impactful! Stick to ten slides, deliver your presentation within 20 minutes and use a 30-point font to ensure clarity and focus. Less is more, and your audience will thank you for it!

9. Implement the 5-5-5 rule

Simplicity is key. Limit each slide to five bullet points, with only five words per bullet point and allow each slide to remain visible for about five seconds. This rule keeps your presentation concise and prevents information overload.

Simple presentations are more engaging because they are easier to follow. Summarize your presentations and keep them simple with Venngage’s gallery of simple presentation templates and ensure that your message is delivered effectively across your audience.

1. How to start a presentation?

To kick off your presentation effectively, begin with an attention-grabbing statement or a powerful quote. Introduce yourself, establish credibility and clearly state the purpose and relevance of your presentation.

2. How to end a presentation?

For a strong conclusion, summarize your talking points and key takeaways. End with a compelling call to action or a thought-provoking question and remember to thank your audience and invite any final questions or interactions.

3. How to make a presentation interactive?

To make your presentation interactive, encourage questions and discussion throughout your talk. Utilize multimedia elements like videos or images and consider including polls, quizzes or group activities to actively involve your audience.

In need of inspiration for your next presentation? I’ve got your back! Pick from these 120+ presentation ideas, topics and examples to get started. 

Creating a stunning presentation with Venngage is a breeze with our user-friendly drag-and-drop editor and professionally designed templates for all your communication needs. 

Here’s how to make a presentation in just 5 simple steps with the help of Venngage:

Step 1: Sign up for Venngage for free using your email, Gmail or Facebook account or simply log in to access your account. 

Step 2: Pick a design from our selection of free presentation templates (they’re all created by our expert in-house designers).

Step 3: Make the template your own by customizing it to fit your content and branding. With Venngage’s intuitive drag-and-drop editor, you can easily modify text, change colors and adjust the layout to create a unique and eye-catching design.

Step 4: Elevate your presentation by incorporating captivating visuals. You can upload your images or choose from Venngage’s vast library of high-quality photos, icons and illustrations. 

Step 5: Upgrade to a premium or business account to export your presentation in PDF and print it for in-person presentations or share it digitally for free!

By following these five simple steps, you’ll have a professionally designed and visually engaging presentation ready in no time. With Venngage’s user-friendly platform, your presentation is sure to make a lasting impression. So, let your creativity flow and get ready to shine in your next presentation!

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How to Design a Professional PowerPoint Presentation

Our series of tips on presentation design outlined some generic rules and ideas that you can live by to create better, more professional presentations. Today we want to follow that up by taking you through the actual process of designing a presentation from start to finish.

We’ll break down every step of the design process, from choosing colors and images to using whitespace properly. After reading through this you should be all set to design your own beautiful presentation slides that will put your coworkers to shame.

Using a pre-built PowerPoint template can be a good starting point for many people (we collected some of the best PowerPoint templates for you!). But if you’re wanting to design your own from start-to-finish, you’re in the right place!

How Does Unlimited PowerPoint Templates Sound?

Download thousands of PowerPoint templates, and many other design elements, with a monthly Envato Elements membership. It starts at $16 per month, and gives you unlimited access to a growing library of over 2,000,000 presentation templates, fonts, photos, graphics, and more.

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A Word About Content

I usually make a big deal about content preceding design, and presentations are no exception. Ideally, you’ll have the topic and much or all of the content outlined before you even think about design. This will in every way shape the appearance of your design, which is why working from pre-built templates isn’t always the best move (though generic templates can and do work great in some circumstances).

The reason that I bring this up is that I don’t really have an actual presentation in mind for this project. I’ll be running with a basic theme, but the textual information will be entirely placeholder copy. Your image, font, color and layout selection shouldn’t necessarily match mine but instead reflect the topic and content you’re working with.

Choosing A Color Scheme

Before I even open Photoshop (yes, I design PowerPoint/Keynote slides in Photoshop and drop them in), I want to find a color scheme on which to base my entire design. When I need to quickly find several colors that go together I usually start with Adobe Color CC . Not only is it a great way to build your own color schemes, it’s an outstanding source to find schemes built by others that you can just grab for your projects.

As luck would have it, I liked the very first color scheme I saw upon opening Color. This scheme was featured on the home page and looked like a great place to start for our presentation design.

Now, if you wanted to get everything exactly right, you could make a list of the RGB or Hex values, but I prefer a quicker, more direct route. What I usually do is snap a screenshot of the color scheme, paste it into my document and stretch it across the canvas on its own layer for easy access. This way I can quickly activate the layer, eyedropper the color I want, then hide the layer and get back to work. It’s a bit like having a palette of colors to dip your paintbrush in.

Designing Your Cover Slide

Now that we have a color scheme, the design work is going to be much simpler. One trick that designers often use in presentations is to leverage the color scheme as heavily as possible. If you’re new to design, you’ll likely think that this is too easy, too plain or even that it’s cheating somehow, but trust me, it’ll be much more attractive and professional than that horrid Microsoft clipart library you love so much.

To start, simply grab one of your colors from the scheme you chose and flood the background of your slide with it (I chose #631c25). Good job, there’s your background. Don’t freak out. It’ll look great. Now let’s throw in some typography.

Choosing a Font

Font choice is a major issue for non-designers. The tendency is to think that most fonts are “boring” and to look around for something exciting and fun. This inevitably leads to the use of Comic Sans or some other equally hideous font.

Unless you’re an elementary school teacher, your presentations should never look like this. Instead, why don’t you try one of those “boring” fonts to see if you can come up with something you like.

Combining fonts can be a tricky task and can take a trained eye to pull off. Fortunately, font designers have already created collections that work well together and if you’re not a designer, they make it easy to pull off great typography. The trick is to just stay in a family. Again, I know this sounds lame, but it works really well if you make sure the two styles you choose are very different.

For instance, I chose a Helvetica Bold Condensed and a Helvetica Light for my cover slide. Notice how different the fonts are from each other in terms of thickness. Choosing two styles that are relatively close causes visual confusion and should be avoided as a general rule of thumb. Instead, what you want is contrast and plenty of it.

Alignment and Layout

Notice a few things about the way I set up this slide. First, I used a strong left alignment for the text. As I say in just about every design article I write, center alignment should be a last resort, not a first. It tends to be the weakest text alignment that you can choose, having a hard edge increases readability considerably (notice that book pages aren’t center-aligned).

Also, notice the generous whitespace that I used. Remember that you don’t have to eat up every inch of space. Giving your text room to breathe helps your layout immensely and gives the design a clean look.

Adding an Image

At this point you might be wondering why you wasted your time reading so I could give you such plain advice. The truth is, most people that create presentations could improve them by 100% from following the advice above. However, I realize minimalism may be too extreme for some folks so let’s throw in an image to make it look nice.

Since our text is on the left, I wanted to find something a little heavy on the right. The general theme that I’ll go for is “City photos” assuming I had some sort of architecture or city-centric presentation to give. Again, you’ll have to choose iamges relevant to your own topic.

I grabbed this Flickr Creative Commons image from photographer Ben Spreng .

Now, if we just made this image our background, the text would become unreadable and we would be ditching our color scheme. What we’re going to do instead is set it on top of the colored slide and set our blending mode to Overlay. Then throw your opacity to around 45%.

As you can see, this helps the slide look much more interesting but keeps the text and colors fairly intact. It’s a simple solution that adds a lot of interest to an otherwise plain design.

Adding Content Slides

The cover may seem like it’s only a tiny part of the battle, but you’ve actually already set the tone for the entire presentation. You’ve got your theme, color scheme and fonts already in place. Now you just need to set up a few different layouts for your content.

The thing to keep in mind is to keep everything extremely simple, and that includes the level of content that you include. Apart from design, these are just good presentation tactics that you’ll learn in every public speaking class. Filling your slides with everything you’re going to say makes you unnecessary. You could just email everyone the slides and shut up.

Instead, the slides are merely meant to be a visual aid. Show a slide with your overall topic or main point, then speak the rest, without reading. Nothing is worse than watching a guy read his note cards word-for-word for thirty minutes, except perhaps watching a guy turn his back to the audience so he can actually read his slides out loud to you the whole time! You may laugh, but I’ve seen it happen folks.

For our first content slide, we’ll grab another Flickr photo and set it to the bottom portion of our slide at full bleed. Then we’ll set the top to another color from our scheme and toss in some text using the same exact formatting that we used on the cover.

See how this closely resembles the theme we’ve already established while still looking significantly different? This is they key to good presentation design: cohesiveness without redundancy.

Now for our third slide, we can simply do the inverse of the second slide with a new color and a new image .

Adding Informational Elements

It would be nice if every slide ever presented could work in a full bleed image, but the truth is that this simply isn’t practical. It will often be the case that you’re presenting graphical information or some other item that isn’t necessarily a photo.

My advice here is to try to stick as close to your theme as possible. For the slide below I flooded the entire background with a solid color from our original scheme and made a quick 3D graph with white columns (I drew a few flat boxes in Illustrator and applied a 3D effect).

As you can see, this slide is very information-focused and yet it doesn’t sacrifice the aesthetics and simplicity we’ve already established.

You’re All Set

From here you might come up with one or two more alternate slide designs and then rotate between them for the duration of your speech. The result is a presentation that is beautiful, very readable and highly professional. The bonus is that the simple, straightforward design will probably result in less work than a clip-art-filled horror show.

Most of the time, great design doesn’t mean being particularly artistic or knowing how to create amazing complex layouts. Instead, it’s about presenting information in an attractive and user-friendly way. With this goal in mind you realize that you’re probably trying way too hard if your end result is ugly. Try cutting out half or more of the elements on one of your slides and giving what’s left a strong left or right alignment with plenty of whitespace.

I hope this article has convinced you to abandon that clip art gallery once and for all. The benefits of clean, minimal design in presentations are clear: the information is easier to take in and the end result is more professional than the mess of information you typically see in presentation slides.

Of course, if you’re looking to get started quickly, flick through our collection of the best PowerPoint templates to find a beautiful set of pre-made designs!

How-To Geek

8 tips to make the best powerpoint presentations.

Want to make your PowerPoint presentations really shine? Here's how to impress and engage your audience.

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Table of contents, start with a goal, less is more, consider your typeface, make bullet points count, limit the use of transitions, skip text where possible, think in color, take a look from the top down, bonus: start with templates.

Slideshows are an intuitive way to share complex ideas with an audience, although they're dull and frustrating when poorly executed. Here are some tips to make your Microsoft PowerPoint presentations sing while avoiding common pitfalls.

It all starts with identifying what we're trying to achieve with the presentation. Is it informative, a showcase of data in an easy-to-understand medium? Or is it more of a pitch, something meant to persuade and convince an audience and lead them to a particular outcome?

It's here where the majority of these presentations go wrong with the inability to identify the talking points that best support our goal. Always start with a goal in mind: to entertain, to inform, or to share data in a way that's easy to understand. Use facts, figures, and images to support your conclusion while keeping structure in mind (Where are we now and where are we going?).

I've found that it's helpful to start with the ending. Once I know how to end a presentation, I know how best to get to that point. I start by identifying the takeaway---that one nugget that I want to implant before thanking everyone for their time---and I work in reverse to figure out how best to get there.

Your mileage, of course, may vary. But it's always going to be a good idea to put in the time in the beginning stages so that you aren't reworking large portions of the presentation later. And that starts with a defined goal.

A slideshow isn't supposed to include everything. It's an introduction to a topic, one that we can elaborate on with speech. Anything unnecessary is a distraction. It makes the presentation less visually appealing and less interesting, and it makes you look bad as a presenter.

This goes for text as well as images. There's nothing worse, in fact, than a series of slides where the presenter just reads them as they appear. Your audience is capable of reading, and chances are they'll be done with the slide, and browsing Reddit, long before you finish. Avoid putting the literal text on the screen, and your audience will thank you.

Related: How to Burn Your PowerPoint to DVD

Right off the bat, we're just going to come out and say that Papyrus and Comic Sans should be banned from all PowerPoint presentations, permanently. Beyond that, it's worth considering the typeface you're using and what it's saying about you, the presenter, and the presentation itself.

Consider choosing readability over aesthetics, and avoid fancy fonts that could prove to be more of a distraction than anything else. A good presentation needs two fonts: a serif and sans-serif. Use one for the headlines and one for body text, lists, and the like. Keep it simple. Veranda, Helvetica, Arial, and even Times New Roman are safe choices. Stick with the classics and it's hard to botch this one too badly.

There reaches a point where bullet points become less of a visual aid and more of a visual examination.

Bullet points should support the speaker, not overwhelm his audience. The best slides have little or no text at all, in fact. As a presenter, it's our job to talk through complex issues, but that doesn't mean that we need to highlight every talking point.

Instead, think about how you can break up large lists into three or four bullet points. Carefully consider whether you need to use more bullet points, or if you can combine multiple topics into a single point instead. And if you can't, remember that there's no one limiting the number of slides you can have in a presentation. It's always possible to break a list of 12 points down into three pages of four points each.

Animation, when used correctly, is a good idea. It breaks up slow-moving parts of a presentation and adds action to elements that require it. But it should be used judiciously.

Adding a transition that wipes left to right between every slide or that animates each bullet point in a list, for example, starts to grow taxing on those forced to endure the presentation. Viewers get bored quickly, and animations that are meant to highlight specific elements quickly become taxing.

That's not to say that you can't use animations and transitions, just that you need to pick your spots. Aim for no more than a handful of these transitions for each presentation. And use them in spots where they'll add to the demonstration, not detract from it.

Sometimes images tell a better story than text can. And as a presenter, your goal is to describe points in detail without making users do a lot of reading. In these cases, a well-designed visual, like a chart, might better convey the information you're trying to share.

The right image adds visual appeal and serves to break up longer, text-heavy sections of the presentation---but only if you're using the right images. A single high-quality image can make all the difference between a success and a dud when you're driving a specific point home.

When considering text, don't think solely in terms of bullet points and paragraphs. Tables, for example, are often unnecessary. Ask yourself whether you could present the same data in a bar or line chart instead.

Color is interesting. It evokes certain feelings and adds visual appeal to your presentation as a whole. Studies show that color also improves interest, comprehension, and retention. It should be a careful consideration, not an afterthought.

You don't have to be a graphic designer to use color well in a presentation. What I do is look for palettes I like, and then find ways to use them in the presentation. There are a number of tools for this, like Adobe Color , Coolors , and ColorHunt , just to name a few. After finding a palette you enjoy, consider how it works with the presentation you're about to give. Pastels, for example, evoke feelings of freedom and light, so they probably aren't the best choice when you're presenting quarterly earnings that missed the mark.

It's also worth mentioning that you don't need to use every color in the palette. Often, you can get by with just two or three, though you should really think through how they all work together and how readable they'll be when layered. A simple rule of thumb here is that contrast is your friend. Dark colors work well on light backgrounds, and light colors work best on dark backgrounds.

Spend some time in the Slide Sorter before you finish your presentation. By clicking the four squares at the bottom left of the presentation, you can take a look at multiple slides at once and consider how each works together. Alternatively, you can click "View" on the ribbon and select "Slide Sorter."

Are you presenting too much text at once? Move an image in. Could a series of slides benefit from a chart or summary before you move on to another point?

It's here that we have the opportunity to view the presentation from beyond the single-slide viewpoint and think in terms of how each slide fits, or if it fits at all. From this view, you can rearrange slides, add additional ones, or delete them entirely if you find that they don't advance the presentation.

The difference between a good presentation and a bad one is really all about preparation and execution. Those that respect the process and plan carefully---not only the presentation as a whole, but each slide within it---are the ones who will succeed.

This brings me to my last (half) point: When in doubt, just buy a template and use it. You can find these all over the web, though Creative Market and GraphicRiver are probably the two most popular marketplaces for this kind of thing. Not all of us are blessed with the skills needed to design and deliver an effective presentation. And while a pre-made PowerPoint template isn't going to make you a better presenter, it will ease the anxiety of creating a visually appealing slide deck.

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How to Create a Powerful PowerPoint Presentation

A simple design, few words, and straightforward visuals are keyto how to create a powerful PowerPoint presentation. It's a powerful tool for making presentations when used correctly. Common mistakes include too many words on a slide, multiple colors and fonts, and complicated visuals. All of this becomes distracting to the audience that won't help make your point or persuade people.

Keep Your PowerPoint Presentations Super Simple

How to Create Powerful PowerPoint Presentations Built on Brain Science Principles

PowerPoint presentations can be a powerful tool for communicating your ideas, but they can also be boring and forgettable. You need to understand how the brain works to create presentations that engage your audience and make a lasting impression.

This blog post will explore some brain science principles you can use to create more effective PowerPoint presentations.

1. Keep it visual.

The human brain is wired to process visual information much faster than text. Studies have shown we can process images in as little as 13 milliseconds. You need to use visuals in your presentations to get your message across quickly and effectively.

Here are some tips for using visuals effectively in your presentations:

• Use high-quality images and graphics.
• Make sure your visuals are relevant to your topic.
• Use visuals to break up text and make your presentation more visually appealing.

2. Use storytelling.

Stories are a powerful way to engage the brain and make information memorable. When you tell a story, you activate the same parts of the brain that are used when we experience something ourselves. This makes stories a great way to connect with your audience emotionally and help them remember your message.

Here are some tips for using storytelling in your presentations:

• Start with a strong focus statement to grab your audience's attention.
• Use personal anecdotes and examples to illustrate your points.
• Think of your PowerPoint as the "Bones" of your story.
• End with a memorable call to action.

3. Keep it concise.

The human brain has a limited capacity for attention. This means that you need to keep your presentations concise and to the point. Avoid overloading your slides with text and visuals.

Here are some tips for keeping your presentations concise:

• Focus on the most essential points.
• Use no more than six bullet points and no more than six words per bullet
•  Create headlines (or assertion statements) to make your points clear and easily understood.
• Avoid using jargon and technical terms.

4. Use repetition.

Repetition is a powerful way to help your audience remember your message. However, you don't want to repeat the same thing repeatedly. Instead, try rephrasing your key points differently throughout your presentation.

Here are some tips for using repetition effectively in your presentations:

• Use a consistent message throughout your presentation.
• Use different visuals and examples to illustrate your key points.
• Summarize your key points at the end of your presentation.

5. End with a bang.

The last thing your audience will remember is the ending of your presentation. So make sure to end on a strong note. Summarize your key points, reiterate your call to action, and leave your audience with something to think about.

By following these brain science principles, you can create PowerPoint presentations that are more engaging, memorable, and effective.

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How to Make a PowerPoint Presentation (Step-by-Step)

• PowerPoint Tutorials
• Presentation Design
• January 22, 2024

In this beginner’s guide, you will learn step-by-step how to make a PowerPoint presentation from scratch.

While PowerPoint is designed to be intuitive and accessible, it can be overwhelming if you’ve never gotten any training on it before. As you progress through this guide, you’ll will learn how to move from blank slides to PowerPoint slides that look like these.

Table of Contents

Additionally, as you create your presentation, you’ll also learn tricks for working more efficiently in PowerPoint, including how to:

• Change the slide order
• Reset your layout
• Change the slide dimensions
• Use PowerPoint Designer
• Format text
• Format objects
• Play a presentation (slide show)

With this knowledge under your belt, you’ll be ready to start creating PowerPoint presentations. Moreover, you’ll have taken your skills from beginner to proficient in no time at all. I will also include links to more advanced PowerPoint topics.

Ready to start learning how to make a PowerPoint presentation?

Take your PPT skills to the next level

Start with a blank presentation.

Note: Before you open PowerPoint and start creating your presentation, make sure you’ve collected your thoughts. If you’re going to make your slides compelling, you need to spend some time brainstorming.

For help with this, see our article with tips for nailing your business presentation  here .

The first thing you’ll need to do is to open PowerPoint. When you do, you are shown the Start Menu , with the Home tab open.

This is where you can choose either a blank theme (1) or a pre-built theme (2). You can also choose to open an existing presentation (3).

For now, go ahead and click on the  Blank Presentation (1)  thumbnail.

Doing so launches a brand new and blank presentation for you to work with. Before you start adding content to your presentation, let’s first familiarize ourselves with the PowerPoint interface.

The PowerPoint interface

Here is how the program is laid out:

• The Application Header
• The Ribbon (including the Ribbon tabs)
• The Quick Access Toolbar (either above or below the Ribbon)
• The Slides Pane (slide thumbnails)

The Slide Area

The notes pane.

• The Status Bar (including the View Buttons)

Each one of these areas has options for viewing certain parts of the PowerPoint environment and formatting your presentation.

Below are the important things to know about certain elements of the PowerPoint interface.

The PowerPoint Ribbon

The Ribbon is contextual. That means that it will adapt to what you’re doing in the program.

For example, the Font, Paragraph and Drawing options are greyed out until you select something that has text in it, as in the example below (A).

Furthermore, if you start manipulating certain objects, the Ribbon will display additional tabs, as seen above (B), with more commands and features to help you work with those objects. The following objects have their own additional tabs in the Ribbon which are hidden until you select them:

• Online Pictures
• Screenshots
• Screen Recording

The Slides Pane

This is where you can preview and rearrange all the slides in your presentation.

Right-clicking on a slide  in the pane gives you additional options on the slide level that you won’t find on the Ribbon, such as  Duplicate Slide ,  Delete Slide , and  Hide Slide .

In addition, you can add sections to your presentation by  right-clicking anywhere in this Pane  and selecting  Add Section . Sections are extremely helpful in large presentations, as they allow you to organize your slides into chunks that you can then rearrange, print or display differently from other slides.

The Slide Area (A) is where you will build out your slides. Anything within the bounds of this area will be visible when you present or print your presentation.

Anything outside of this area (B) will be hidden from view. This means that you can place things here, such as instructions for each slide, without worrying about them being shown to your audience.

The  Notes Pane  is the space beneath the Slide Area where you can type in the speaker notes for each slide. It’s designed as a fast way to add and edit your slides’ talking points.

To expand your knowledge and learn more about adding, printing, and exporting your PowerPoint speaker notes, read our guide here .

Your speaker notes are visible when you print your slides using the Notes Pages option and when you use the Presenter View . To expand your knowledge and learn the ins and outs of using the Presenter View , read our guide here .

You can resize the  Notes Pane  by clicking on its edge and dragging it up or down (A). You can also minimize or reopen it by clicking on the Notes button in the Status Bar (B).

Note:  Not all text formatting displays in the Notes Pane, even though it will show up when printing your speaker notes. To learn more about printing PowerPoint with notes, read our guide here .

Now that you have a basic grasp of the PowerPoint interface at your disposal, it’s time to make your presentation.

Adding Content to Your PowerPoint Presentation

Notice that in the Slide Area , there are two rectangles with dotted outlines. These are called  Placeholders  and they’re set on the template in the Slide Master View .

To expand your knowledge and learn how to create a PowerPoint template of your own (which is no small task), read our guide here .

As the prompt text suggests, you can click into each placeholder and start typing text. These types of placeholder prompts are customizable too. That means that if you are using a company template, it might say something different, but the functionality is the same.

Note:  For the purposes of this example, I will create a presentation based on the content in the Starbucks 2018 Global Social Impact Report, which is available to the public on their website.

If you type in more text than there is room for, PowerPoint will automatically reduce its font size. You can stop this behavior by clicking on the  Autofit Options  icon to the left of the placeholder and selecting  Stop Fitting Text to this Placeholder .

Next, you can make formatting adjustments to your text by selecting the commands in the Font area and the  Paragraph area  of the  Home  tab of the Ribbon.

The Reset Command:  If you make any changes to your title and decide you want to go back to how it was originally, you can use the Reset button up in the Home tab .

Insert More Slides into Your Presentation

Now that you have your title slide filled in, it’s time to add more slides. To do that, simply go up to the  Home tab  and click on  New Slide . This inserts a new slide in your presentation right after the one you were on.

You can alternatively hit Ctrl+M on your keyboard to insert a new blank slide in PowerPoint. To learn more about this shortcut, see my guide on using Ctrl+M in PowerPoint .

Instead of clicking the New Slide command, you can also open the New Slide dropdown to see all the slide layouts in your PowerPoint template. Depending on who created your template, your layouts in this dropdown can be radically different.

If you insert a layout and later want to change it to a different layout, you can use the Layout dropdown instead of the New Slide dropdown.

After inserting a few different slide layouts, your presentation might look like the following picture. Don’t worry that it looks blank, next we will start adding content to your presentation.

If you want to follow along exactly with me, your five slides should be as follows:

• Title Slide
• Title and Content
• Section Header
• Two Content
• Picture with Caption

Adding Content to Your Slides

Now let’s go into each slide and start adding our content. You’ll notice some new types of placeholders.

On slide 2 we have a  Content Placeholder , which allows you to add any kind of content. That includes:

• A SmartArt graphic,
• A 3D object,
• A picture from the web,
• Or an icon.

To insert text, simply type it in or hit  Ctrl+C to Copy  and Ctrl+V to Paste  from elsewhere. To insert any of the other objects, click on the appropriate icon and follow the steps to insert it.

For my example, I’ll simply type in some text as you can see in the picture below.

Slides 3 and 4 only have text placeholders, so I’ll go ahead and add in my text into each one.

On slide 5 we have a Picture Placeholder . That means that the only elements that can go into it are:

• A picture from the web

To insert a picture into the picture placeholder, simply:

• Click on the  Picture  icon
• Find  a picture on your computer and select it
• Click on  Insert

Alternatively, if you already have a picture open somewhere else, you can select the placeholder and paste in (shortcut: Ctrl+V ) the picture. You can also drag the picture in from a file explorer window.

If you do not like the background of the picture you inserted onto your slide, you can remove the background here in PowerPoint. To see how to do this, read my guide here .

Placeholders aren’t the only way to add content to your slides. At any point, you can use the Insert tab to add elements to your slides.

You can use either the Title Only  or the  Blank  slide layout to create slides for content that’s different. For example, a three-layout content slide, or a single picture divider slide, as shown below.

In the first example above, I’ve inserted 6 text boxes, 3 icons, and 3 circles to create this layout. In the second example, I’ve inserted a full-sized picture and then 2 shapes and 2 text boxes.

The Reset Command:  Because these slides are built with shapes and text boxes (and not placeholders), hitting the  Reset button up in the  Home tab  won’t do anything.

That is a good thing if you don’t want your layouts to adjust. However, it does mean that it falls on you to make sure everything is aligned and positioned correctly.

For more on how to add and manipulate the different objects in PowerPoint, check out our step-by-step articles here:

• Using graphics in PowerPoint
• Inserting icons onto slides
• Adding pictures to your PowerPoint
• How to embed a video in PowerPoint
• How to add music to your presentation

Using Designer to generate more layouts ideas

If you have Office 365, your version of PowerPoint comes with a new feature called Designer (or Design Ideas). This is a feature that generates slide layout ideas for you. The coolest thing about this feature is that it uses the content you already have.

To use Designer , simply navigate to the  Design tab  in your Ribbon, and click on  Design Ideas .

NOTE: If the PowerPoint Designer is not working for you (it is grey out), see my troubleshooting guide for Designer .

Change the Overall Design (optional)

When you make a PowerPoint presentation, you’ll want to think about the overall design. Now that you have some content in your presentation, you can use the Design tab to change the look and feel of your slides.

For additional help thinking through the design of your presentation,  read my guide here .

A. Picking your PowerPoint slide size

If you have PowerPoint 2013 or later, when you create a blank document in PowerPoint, you automatically start with a widescreen layout with a 16:9 ratio. These dimensions are suitable for most presentations as they match the screens of most computers and projectors.

However, you do have the option to change the dimensions.

For example, your presentation might not be presented, but instead converted into a PDF or printed and distributed. In that case, you can easily switch to the standard dimensions with a 4:3 ratio by selecting from the dropdown (A).

You can also choose a custom slide size or change the slide orientation from landscape to portrait in the Custom Slide Size dialog box (B).

To learn all about the different PowerPoint slide sizes, and some of the issues you will face when changing the slide size of a non-blank presentation,  read my guide here .

 B. Selecting a PowerPoint theme

The next thing you can do is change the theme of your presentation to a pre-built one. For a detailed explanation of what a PowerPoint theme is, and how to best use it,  read my article here .

In the beginning of this tutorial, we started with a blank presentation, which uses the default Office theme as you can see in the picture below.

That gives you the most flexibility because it has a blank background and quite simple layouts that work for most presentations. However, it also means that it’s your responsibility to enhance the design.

If you’re comfortable with this, you can stay with the default theme or create your own custom theme ( read my guide here ). But if you would rather not have to think about design, then you can choose a pre-designed theme.

Microsoft provides 46 other pre-built themes, which include slide layouts, color variants and palettes, and fonts. Each one varies quite significantly, so make sure you look through them carefully.

To select a different theme, go to the  Design tab  in the Ribbon, and click on the  dropdown arrow  in the  Themes section .

For this tutorial, let’s select the  Frame  theme and then choose the third Variant in the theme. Doing so changes the layout, colors, and fonts of your presentation.

Note: The theme dropdown area is also where you can import or save custom themes. To see my favorite places to find professional PowerPoint templates and themes (and recommendations for why I like them), read my guide here .

C. How to change a slide background in PowerPoint

The next thing to decide is how you want your background to look for the entire presentation. In the  Variants area, you can see four background options.

For this example, we want our presentation to have a dark background, so let’s select Style 3. When you do so, you’ll notice that:

• The background color automatically changes across all slides
• The color of the text on most of the slides automatically changes to white so that it’s visible on the dark background
• The colors of the objects on slides #6 and #7 also adjust, in a way we may not want (we’ll likely have to make some manual adjustments to these slides)

Note: If you want to change the slide background for just that one slide, don’t left-click the style. Instead, right-click it and select Apply to Selected Slides .

After you change the background for your entire presentation, you can easily adjust the background for an individual slide.

Inside the Format Background pane, you can see you have the following options:

• Gradient fill
• Picture or texture fill
• Pattern fill
• Hide background

You can explore these options to find the PowerPoint background that best fits your presentation.

D. How to change your color palette in PowerPoint

Another thing you may want to adjust in your presentation, is the color scheme. In the picture below you can see the Theme Colors we are currently using for this presentation.

Each PowerPoint theme comes with its own color palette. By default, the Office theme includes the Office color palette. This affects the colors you are presented with when you format any element within your presentation (text, shapes, SmartArt, etc.).

The good news is that the colors here are easy to change. To switch color palettes, simply:

• Go to the  Design tab in the Ribbon
• In the Variants area, click on the  dropdown arrow  and select  Colors
• Select  the color palette (or theme colors) you want

You can choose among the pre-built color palettes from Office, or you can customize them to create your own.

As you build your presentation, make sure you use the colors from your theme to format objects. That way, changing the color palette adjusts all the colors in your presentation automatically.

E. How to change your fonts in PowerPoint

Just as we changed the color palette, you can do the same for the fonts.

Each PowerPoint theme comes with its own font combination. By default, the Office theme includes the Office font pairing. This affects the fonts that are automatically assigned to all text in your presentation.

The good news is that the font pairings are easy to change. To switch your Theme Fonts, simply:

• Go to the  Design tab  in the Ribbon
• Click on the  dropdown arrow  in the  Variants  area
• Select  Fonts
• Select  the font pairing you want

You can choose among the pre-built fonts from Office, or you can customize them to create your own.

If you are working with PowerPoint presentations on both Mac and PC computers, make sure you choose a safe PowerPoint font. To see a list of the safest PowerPoint fonts, read our guide here .

If you receive a PowerPoint presentation and the wrong fonts were used, you can use the Replace Fonts dialog box to change the fonts across your entire presentation. For details, read our guide here .

Adding Animations & Transitions (optional)

The final step to make a PowerPoint presentation compelling, is to consider using animations and transitions. These are by no means necessary to a good presentation, but they may be helpful in your situation.

A. Adding PowerPoint animations

PowerPoint has an incredibly robust animations engine designed to power your creativity. That being said, it’s also easy to get started with basic animations.

Animations are movements that you can apply to individual objects on your slide.

To add a PowerPoint animation to an element of your slide, simply:

• Select the  element
• Go to the  Animations tab in the Ribbon
• Click on the  dropdown arrow  to view your options
• Select the  animation  you want

You can add animations to multiple objects at one time by selecting them all first and then applying the animation.

B. How to preview a PowerPoint animation

There are three ways to preview a PowerPoint animation:

• Click on the Preview button in the Animations tab
• Click on the little star  next to the slide
• Play the slide in Slide Show Mode

To learn other ways to run your slide show, see our guide on presenting a PowerPoint slide show with shortcuts .

To adjust the settings of your animations, explore the options in the  Effect Options ,  Advanced Animation  and the  Timing  areas of the  Animation tab .

Note:  To see how to make objects appear and disappear in your slides by clicking a button,  read our guide here .

C. How to manage your animations in PowerPoint

The best way to manage lots of animations on your slide is with the Animation Pane . To open it, simply:

• Navigate to the  Animations tab
• Select the  Animation Pane

Inside the Animation Pane, you’ll see all of the different animations that have been applied to objects on your slide, with their numbers marked as pictured above.

Note: To see examples of PowerPoint animations that can use in PowerPoint, see our list of PowerPoint animation tutorials here .

D. How to add transitions to your PowerPoint presentation

PowerPoint has an incredibly robust transition engine so that you can dictate how your slides change from one to the other. It is also extremely easy to add transitions to your slides.

In PowerPoint, transitions are the movements (or effects) you see as you move between two slides.

To add a transition to a PowerPoint slide, simply:

• Select the  slide
• Go to the  Transitions tab in the Ribbon
• In the Transitions to This Slide area, click on the  dropdown arrow  to view your options
• Select the  transition  you want

To adjust the settings of the transition, explore the options in the  Timing  area of the Transitions tab.

You can also add the same transition to multiple slides. To do that, select them in the  Slides Pane  and apply the transition.

E. How to preview a transition in PowerPoint

There are three ways to preview your PowerPoint transitions (just like your animations):

• Click on the Preview  button in the Transitions tab
• Click on the little star  beneath the slide number in the thumbnail view

Note:  In 2016, PowerPoint added a cool new transition, called Morph. It operates a bit differently from other transitions. For a detailed tutorial on how to use the cool Morph transition,  see our step-by-step article here .

Save Your PowerPoint Presentation

After you’ve built your presentation and made all the adjustments to your slides, you’ll want to save your presentation. YOu can do this several different ways.

To save a PowerPoint presentation using your Ribbon, simply:

• Navigate to the  File tab
•  Select  Save As  on the left
• Choose  where you want to save your presentation
• Name  your presentation and/or adjust your file type settings
• Click  Save

You can alternatively use the  Ctrl+S keyboard shortcut to save your presentation. I recommend using this shortcut frequently as you build your presentation to make sure you don’t lose any of your work.

This is the standard way to save a presentation. However, there may be a situation where you want to save your presentation as a different file type.

To learn how to save your presentation as a PDF, see our guide on converting PowerPoint to a PDF .

How to save your PowerPoint presentation as a template

Once you’ve created a presentation that you like, you may want to turn it into a template. The easiest – but not technically correct – way, is to simply create a copy of your current presentation and then change the content.

But be careful! A PowerPoint template is a special type of document and it has its own parameters and behaviors.

If you’re interested in learning about how to create your own PowerPoint template from scratch, see our guide on how to create a PowerPoint template .

Printing Your PowerPoint Presentation

After finishing your PowerPoint presentation, you may want to print it out on paper. Printing your slides is relatively easy.

To open the Print dialog box, you can either:

• Hit Ctrl+P on your keyboard
• Or go to the Ribbon and click on File and then Print

Inside the Print dialog box, you can choose from the various printing settings:

• Printer: Select a printer to use (or print to PDF or OneNote)
• Slides: Choose which slides you want to print
• Layout: Determine how many slides you want per page (this is where you can print the notes, outline, and handouts)
• Collated or uncollated (learn what collated printing means here )
• Color: Choose to print in color, grayscale or black & white

There are many more options for printing your PowerPoint presentations. Here are links to more in-depth articles:

• How to print multiple slides per page
• How to print your speaker notes in PowerPoint
• How to save PowerPoint as a picture presentation

So that’s how to create a PowerPoint presentation if you are brand new to it. We’ve also included a ton of links to helpful resources to boost your PowerPoint skills further.

When you are creating your presentation, it is critical to first focus on the content (what you are trying to say) before getting lost inserting and playing with elements. The clearer you are on what you want to present, the easier it will be to build it out in PowerPoint.

If you enjoyed this article, you can learn more about our PowerPoint training courses and other presentation resources by  visiting us here .

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17 Tips On How To Make A Professional PowerPoint & Google Slides Presentation

A PowerPoint presentation is a fantastic tool for communicating vital information. Even though people think it’s simple to put all your content together and make a presentation, arranging and preparing the template and design takes time to ensure it is impactful and professional. But do you know how to make a professional PowerPoint & Google Slides presentation?

An engaging presentation goes beyond simply exchanging information; it connects with the audience . It must transport the listener on a journey, induce emotions, and leave an unforgettable impression. Let’s dig deeper and understand how to make a PowerPoint look professional.

What Is A Professional Presentation?

A professional presentation is a well-structured and effectively delivered communication that conveys information, ideas, or proposals in a business or formal context. 

It typically adheres to specific standards and practices to effectively engage and inform the audience. As a result, such presentations can be diverse, and they may be necessary to complete job interviews , provide sales pitches to potential clients, or present project proposals to top management. 

Let’s discuss the best tips on how to make a PowerPoint look professional.

How To Make A Professional PowerPoint Presentation? 

Making a professional PowerPoint and Google Slides presentation might be a hectic task. It needs your time to create amazing professional presentations and at the same time ensure you include all the key things. We have compiled a list of the best tips for you, which you can also use as a checklist. We have bisected the tips into three categories to make it easier for you to grasp. 

The three categories for tips for professional looking PowerPoint are as follows:

• Content and Slide Tips
• Presentation Design Tips
• Delivery Tips

Content And Slide Tips On How To Make A Professional PowerPoint

Follow the steps below on how to make a PowerPoint look professional:

• Start with a title slide
• Add an agenda slide
• Logically arrange the middle slides
• Include a call-to-action slide at the end of your presentation
• Conclude with key takeaways

1. Start With A Title Slide

An eye-catching first slide serves as an introduction to your subject. To make it clear to read across the room, place the title of your presentation in huge letters in the middle of the slide. You can also include your name and title on the slide, depending on the type of presentation. 

One of the most underrated and important presentation tips – On the title slide, keep the background simple to avoid drawing attention away from you while you speak. 

2. Add An Agenda Slide

List what the audience can anticipate. Label your slide with “Presentation Agenda,” or as “ Meeting Agenda ,” or a phrase to that effect. List the key lessons you want your audience to take away from the presentation. It not only makes it easier for your audience to follow along, but it also clarifies your main objective. Let’s discuss another tip on how to make a professional PowerPoint.

3. Logically Arrange The Middle Slides

Identify the presentation’s beginning, middle, and end for more clarity. Make a list of the facts you want to provide and essential points you want your audience to take away from your presentation. Take what you’ve written and arrange the ideas in an outline so that each idea leads naturally into the next. 

For instance, if you’re making a persuasive presentation, you might begin by providing background information on the subject and then discuss potential solutions before concluding by outlining actions an audience member can take to contribute.

4. Include A Call-To-Action Slide At The End Of Your Presentation

The next tip on how to make a professional PowerPoint is to include a CTA. After you finish your presentation, inform your audience of the next steps. After reviewing the key points of your presentation, provide a list of actions your audience may take to advance the project. So that your audience has several options for what to do next, try to come up with some concrete ideas.

5. Conclude With Key Takeaways

Summarize your important points so your audience will remember them. Start the last slide with a header at the top that reads “Takeaways” or “Key Points.” Make a final list of bullet points containing the most crucial information you have covered. 

Emphasize your previous presentations’ key ideas and speak them aloud to your audience. In this manner, your presentation will leave a lasting effect on the audience, making them more likely to recall what you say.

Content forms the foundation of any presentation. But, if not designed correctly, it can lead to a boring presentation. That’s where an impactful design for a presentation comes into the picture. Now, let’s discuss design tips for professional looking powerpoints.

Design Tips On How To Make A Professional PowerPoint

Now that you know some content and slide-related tips, let’s read about the top design-related tips on how to make a PowerPoint look professional:

• Write content for your audience
• Select readable fonts
• List the important points in brief bullets
• Aim to have about 10 slides
• Make your presentation background & Theme consistent
• Use “Format Object”
• Use PowerPoint Shapes and SmartArt
• Include relevant graphics and multimedia
• Reuse your slides

1. Write Content Considering Your Audience

Your content is the king. What you write and present in your presentation can make or break it. You have to consider your audience and write content that relates to them. What’s the point of writing in a way that’s hard for your audience to comprehend?

Let’s say your target audience is freshers you hired recently, and your presentation includes multiple industry jargon that is difficult for them to understand. Senior professionals in the company can clearly understand this jargon, but your freshers might find it difficult. Hence, your content tone and style need to align with your targeted audience.

This way, you will also boost your audience’s participation and engagement. Now, let’s consider other tips on how to make a professional PowerPoint. 

2. Select Readable Fonts

Keep your fonts large and sans-serif so your audience can read them clearly. Keep your content between 28 and 40 points because small fonts might be difficult to see from a distance. Choose Proxima Nova or Arial rather than Times New Roman or another serifed font to show your content because sans-serif is more straightforward to read on a screen. 

Bold, italicize, or highlight the words you want to stand out as particularly important. Throughout the slide, change the font size. For instance, the slide’s headline should be larger than the body content.

READ MORE: Best Presentation Fonts

3. List The Important Points In Brief Bullets

Another tip on how to make a professional PowerPoint is to use bullet points. Your slides will be easier to follow if they have pointers. Paragraphs on a slide can be very intimidating, and your audience could choose to read them rather than pay attention to you. Keep your slide to a bulleted list of essential phrases or terms rather than writing out every word you plan to speak. Keep your slides to a maximum of six bullet points, each with a maximum of six words.

4. Aim To Have About Ten Slides

More than 10 concepts at once will be difficult for your audience to recall. Count your slides once you’ve organized your data to check if you have 10 or fewer slides. If you have more than 10, review the content once more to see if you can squeeze anything onto one slide. 

Decide which ideas need to be covered the most, and eliminate anything that doesn’t seem appropriate or doesn’t fit the style of your presentation. Now, Let’s discuss another tip on how to make a professional PowerPoint.

5. Make Your Presentation Background & Theme Consistent

Keeping the same straightforward theme and style for each slide can help you create professional PowerPoint presentations. You can make a background in PowerPoint or explore PowerPoint backgrounds from SlideUpLift. Use easy-to-read layouts that don’t draw attention away from the text or graphics you want to use.

Consistency in your background images and themes shows professionalism. This subconsciously attracts your audience and leaves a good impression.

6. Use “Format Object”

You must have used multiple objects in your slides, but there are chances that not all the objects are as per your requirements. You may need to alter a few things in your objects to align them properly with your overall presentation and good formatting. 

You can simply change your objects using the “Format Object: feature. Just right-click on the object you want to edit and choose the “Format Object” feature. Now, you can change the object’s size, add reflections, and even alter the text or content.

7. Use Powerpoint Shapes And SmartArt

The next tip on how to make a professional PowerPoint is using Shapes and SmartArt. Do you know PowerPoint provides multiple Shapes and SmartArts to help you create better presentations? In your slides, you can easily insert different shapes, like rectangles, circles, ovals, etc.. You can use these shapes to create various diagrams to showcase your content effectively.

Similarly, SmartArts also enhances your presentation’s visual appeal by providing you with multiple graphics options. These are pre-built in MS PowerPoint , and you can modify them as per your requirements. 

Using Shapes and SmartArts gives you more control over making professional presentations, as you can make changes to meet your requirements.

8. Include Relevant Graphics

Select charts and photos of the highest quality to highlight your content. You should use visuals only if they are essential to the argument you are attempting to make. You can use illustrations, PwerPoint images , infographics , graphs, or chart diagrams to display facts or make your point more obvious. You can also add GIFs and embed videos to your presentations.

This is a very crucial tip on how to make a professional PowerPoint. To avoid making your presentations appear cluttered, ensure all the images are the same size and resolution, and arrange them in the same spot on each slide. Charts and graphics that are challenging to interpret should have captions. Make one image on a slide stand out by giving it a different hue from the rest of the presentation.

Once you have the content, your PowerPoint presentation is all set, and it’s designed to create impact. How you create impact and engage the audience depends entirely on how you deliver presentations.

9. Reuse Your Slides

Another tip on how to make your Google Slides look professional is Reusing slides. It is a very potent way to breeze through your presentation and, in the process, make sure that the overall visual consistency of your design is improved. This will save you time when creating new slides again. It is greatly important as it offers ways through which a very polished and professional look can be maintained across your presentations.

If you are designing the slides, maybe save them as templates. This will permit you to replicate the slide framework and yet customize the content as necessary for different presentations. However, you can use your presentation software to create Master Slides that will enable you to build your own themes and ensure not just design consistency but also content consistency is adhered to across all presentations within your organization.

Delivery Tips On How To Make A Professional PowerPoint

The way you deliver your PowerPoint slides can either make or break your overall presentation. Let’s see some tips on how to make a PowerPoint look professional:

• Keep your transitions simple
• Practice your presentations out loud
• Practice in front of the crowd

1. Keep Your Transitions Simple

Adding Animations and transitions draws attention away from the material. While adding animations to your slideshow may seem creative to make it stand out, doing so might add a lot of extra time and distract the audience. Have the slides change as soon as the mouse clicks, rather than having the text fly in or the slides animate. Provide the information quickly and simply to make your presentation look stronger and more formal.

2. Practice Your Presentation Out Loud

The best tip on how to make a professional PowerPoint is to practice your presentation. Run the complete presentation to increase your confidence. After practicing your presentation a few times, you’ll feel much more at ease giving it. Practice as if you were presenting to a group of people; raise your voice to the appropriate pitch and volume.

Ensure the slides flow together by practicing clicking through them as you speak. Go back and change your slides to make any necessary corrections if you encounter issues. Consider recording your speech to see or listen to it later. You will be able to identify what needs to change as a result.

3. Practice In Front Of A Crowd

Request some early feedback to determine the success of your presentation. Take a group of friends or coworkers and walk them through the full presentation. When you’re done, ask them what they thought of the presentation and whether any points you tried to express confused them. Asking them questions you anticipate your audience will have will allow you to practice providing succinct responses.

Now that you have more than ten tips on how to make your Google Slides look professional, knowing how to present your ideas professionally is also vital.

How To Professionally Present Your Ideas?

Check out the below tips on how to make a professional PowerPoint and deliver it in an effective way:

• Choose the right time
• Incorporate Brevity
• Encourage Engagement from the audience
• Incorporate An emotional connection
• Use Visual tools
• Use Images and graphics

1. Choose The Right Time

One of the most important professional PowerPoint presentation tips is timing. Choosing the right time slot is very important when giving a presentation. If you have the option to determine your presentation timetable, it would be preferable to select a mid-morning time slot. People’s attention is better captured in the morning.

2. Incorporate Brevity

The best tip on how to make a professional PowerPoint is to incorporate brevity. Typically, audiences have a limited attention span. When given lengthy materials to read, people rapidly become bored. Be direct if you want people to pay attention and continue to listen. Avoid including unrelated material because this will just make the presentation longer.

3. Encourage Engagement From The Audience

Keeping the audience interested in what you say is a difficult task. You can engage them and get them involved in the topic by making a good first impression in the first 30 seconds. You can also keep them engaged by injecting humor as you change the slides.

4. Incorporate An Emotional Connection

A good tip on how to make a professional PowerPoint is using an emotional connection. Any professional presentation must emotionally engage the audience, much like in advertising. When communicating your message, use feelings. By doing this, you give the visual aids a human face and make your point more understandable to the audience. Encourage them to act by awakening their emotions.

5. Use Visual Tools

Most people learn best visually. Presenters must know that their audience needs visual aids to grasp their words. Make sure that you use visuals to support your claims. The audience will understand your message more clearly if they can visualize it.

6. Use Images And Graphics

Using Graphics and images is a great practice on how to make a professional PowerPoint. They support you admirably as you give your speech. Charts and other complex data points can make visualizations difficult to design. To ensure precise and easy-to-understand details, you can create simple templates. However, if you find it difficult to create to-the-point, detail-oriented graphics, and templates that create an impact, you can outsource your presentations. 

Why Should Organizations Outsource Their Presentations To Specialists?

We discussed the best tips for professional looking PowerPoints. Now, let’s consider why to outsource presentation creations. Here are some reasons on how to make your slides look professional by outsourcing presentations:

• Improving presentations for external clients
• Assisting graphics team
• Saves Manual efforts and time
• Cost saving
• Elevating design excellence
• To support your marketing team with presentations

ALSO READ: Why Consultants Choose to Outsource Presentations ?

1. Improving Presentations For External Clients

Your PowerPoint presentation acts as a virtual handshake with your clients, making it an important factor in determining how they will perceive you or your company. For this reason alone, many professionals choose to outsource their external presentations.

2. Assisting Graphic Team

Your devoted graphic team is constantly creating different types of visual content. Your in-house designers probably already have their hands complete with daily design work. When this happens, outsourcing presentation design seems appealing because it relieves your graphic team’s workload and frees them up to succeed in their primary duties. 

3. Saves Manual Efforts And Time

Save your team from stressing about how to make a professional PowerPoint. The possibility of saving time motivates professionals to choose presentation outsourcing. As anybody who has struggled with slides knows, creating an engaging PowerPoint presentation takes time. By delegating the creation of presentations to external professionals, professionals can free up their time to work on more essential duties or, better yet, to thoroughly rehearse and perfect their message.

4. Cost Saving

Consulting firms might cut costs by outsourcing presentations to specialists. Outsourcing presentations to an agency costs less than hiring an internal presentation designer . This saved money can be utilized toward other essential business objectives while reducing labor expenditures.

5. Elevating Design Excellence

True masters of their trade are presentation designers who work professionally. Their knowledge spans more than just visuals; it also includes the complex art of slide layout and the crucial components that turn a presentation from good to spectacular. 

For instance, our team at SlideUpLift is proud of its design and presentation services after working with businesses from a variety of industries throughout the world. When creating excellent PowerPoint presentations, this abundance of knowledge is priceless.

Beyond improving aesthetics, the goal is to use this knowledge to make visually striking presentations that instantly connect with your audience. Hence, save your team’s efforts learning how to make a professional PowerPoint.

6. To Support Your Marketing Team With Presentations

Presentations are in high demand, particularly among marketing consultants. They have to unite their staff, discuss their marketing strategy with the rest of the organization, and win new clients for their enterprises. PowerPoint presentations are a fantastic tool for all of this! 

An intelligent marketing presentation can improve communication inside and outside your firm; outsourcing is the best option. In today’s competitive landscape, outsourcing presentations to professionals gives firms a strategic advantage. 

Outsourcing is appealing due to its time efficiency, access to cutting-edge equipment, brand consistency, new ideas, scalability, and cost savings. By consulting with you, outsourcing presentation companies can make compelling presentations that create a lasting impression on the audience.

How To Make A Professional PowerPoint With Templates From SlideUpLift?

The ability to generate professional-looking slides is a skill that may take your message to new heights in the dynamic world of presentations. SlideUpLift.com has materials and tools to assist you in every aspect of creating presentations:

• Suppose you want to create presentations but need a starting point. In that case, you can download any template from our 40,000+ PowerPoint and Google Slides themes collection. Just download the template you like and change the content as you need.
• If you don’t want to make changes to the templates, you can ask us to customize them through our custom slides service. You can expect fast delivery within 1 Business Day.

If you need multiple presentations every week, you can try our Presentation Services .

Check out our best professional templates below and learn how to make your PowerPoint look professional:

Detailed 30-60-90 Day Plan

Learn how to make a professional PowerPoint with this template. It covers the first 90 days of work and is strategically divided into 30-day intervals. For each 30 days, managers and professionals can lay out their tasks and set realistic goals.

It serves as a compass, guiding managers to set the course for their team or department. By presenting strategic plans and objectives for the first 90 days, managers can ensure alignment with the broader organizational goals.

Executive Summary

Pre-designed slides in the template provide an organized framework for showcasing executive summary including corporate objectives, financial summaries, and project updates. This adaptable template can be utilized in various business settings, such as showcasing milestones, initiatives, trends, reports, or proposals.

Customer Journey

Learn how to make a professional PowerPoint with this template. It helps businesses in understanding the different stages and touchpoints customers encounter when interacting with their brand. Moreover, It also enables businesses to identify more areas for improvement and gain a detailed understanding of the customer journey.

You can use this for marketing, sales, customer support, and product development teams. This tool is valuable for companies across various sizes and industries who want to enhance the customer experience.

Business Review Dashboard

Learn how to make PowerPoint look professional with this template. It is highly effective for professionals who need to present and analyze corporate data. You can create professional presentations that effectively communicate complex business information, like revenue models, gross profit, customer satisfaction, and sales on a quarterly basis.

This dashboard is suitable for business professionals, managers, executives, product developers, sales professionals, and analysts. Moreover, It facilitates informed decision-making and supports tasks such as data analysis, financial reporting, and performance evaluations .

Company Timeline

This template helps track the annual progress of a company. It features a clear and visually appealing timeline that allows users to compile and visualize the evolution of a project or the business itself.

Learn how to make a presentation look professional with this template. It has a customizable annual schedule, enabling users to track their business’s development effectively. It is ideal for HR, sales, and marketing professionals.

Presentations are crucial for professionals to host meetings and influence their team members and stakeholders. This blog taught you how to make a professional PowerPoint and Google Slides presentation that attracts your audience. We discussed the best tips to consider while creating presentations and shared the best professional templates from SlideupLift .

How do you get ready for your first professional presentation?

With thorough preparation, you can confidently deliver a polished and impactful presentation. Begin by thoroughly researching your topic and understanding your audience’s needs and expectations. Organize your content logically, creating a clear structure with a compelling introduction, main points, and a strong conclusion. 

How to make a professional PowerPoint?

Some tips for professional PowerPoint presentations include:

• Focus on clear content organization
• Use a consistent and appealing design template
• Incorporate high-quality visuals
• Practice your delivery to ensure a smooth and engaging presentation
• Keep slides concise and avoid clutter to maintain audience interest and understanding.

What are the key elements of a professional-looking presentation?

A professional-looking presentation typically includes well-structured content, visually appealing slides, clear typography, cohesive design elements, and effective use of visuals.

What are some effective strategies for effectively rehearsing and delivering a professional presentation?

Effective rehearsal involves practicing your presentation multiple times, focusing on your tone and pacing, and anticipating questions from the audience.

What Are The Best Tips On How To Make A Professional PowerPoint?

These are the top 10 PowerPoint tips for preparing a professional presentation:

• Add key takeaways and include CTA at the end
• Do not have more than 10 slides
• Add a consistent presentation background
• List important points in bullets
• Include relevant graphics
• Keep simple transitions
• Practice your presentations loudly and in front of the crowd.

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Home Blog Presentation Ideas 23 PowerPoint Presentation Tips for Creating Engaging and Interactive Presentations

23 PowerPoint Presentation Tips for Creating Engaging and Interactive Presentations

PowerPoint presentations are not usually known for being engaging or interactive. That’s often because most people treat their slides as if they are notes to read off  and not a tool to help empower their message.

Your presentation slides are there to help bring to life the story you are telling. They are there to provide visuals and empower your speech.

So how do you go about avoiding a presentation “snoozefest” and instead ensure you have an engaging and interactive presentation?  By making sure that you use your slides to help YOU tell your story, instead of using them as note cards to read off of.

The key thing to remember is that your presentation is there to compliment your speech, not be its focus.

In this article, we will review several presentation tips and tricks on how to become a storytelling powerhouse by building a powerful and engaging PowerPoint presentation.

Start with writing your speech outline, not with putting together slides

Use more images and less text, use high-quality images, keep the focus on you and your presentation, not the powerpoint, your presentation should be legible from anywhere in the room, use a consistent presentation design, one topic per slide, avoid information overwhelm by using the “rule of three”.

• Display one bullet at a time

Avoid unnecessary animations

• Only add content that supports your main points

Do not use PowerPoint as a teleprompter

• Never Give Out Copies of the Presentation

Re-focus the attention on you by fading into blackness

Change the tone of your voice when presenting, host an expert discussion panel, ask questions, embed videos, use live polling to get instant feedback and engage the audience.

• He kept his slides uncluttered and always strived for simplicity
• He was known to use large font size, the bigger, the better.
• He found made the complex sound simple.

He was known to practice, practice, and keep on practicing.

Summary – how to make your presentation engaging & interactive, fundamental rules to build powerful & engaging presentation slides.

Before we go into tips and tricks on how to add flair to your presentations and create effective presentations, it’s essential to get the fundamentals of your presentation right.

Your PowerPoint presentation is there to compliment your message, and the story you are telling. Before you can even put together slides, you need to identify the goal of your speech, and the key takeaways you want your audience to remember.

YOU and your speech are the focus of this presentation, not the slides – use your PowerPoint to complement your story.

Keep in mind that your slides are there to add to your speech, not distract from it.  Using too much text in your slides can be distracting and confusing to your audience. Instead, use a relevant picture with minimal text, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

This slide is not unusual, but is not a visual aid, it is more like an “eye chart”.

Aim for something simpler, easy to remember and concise, like the slides below.

Keep in mind your audience when designing your presentation, their background and aesthetics sense. You will want to avoid the default clip art and cheesy graphics on your slides.

While presenting make sure to control the presentation and the room by walking around, drawing attention to you and what you are saying.  You should occasionally stand still when referencing a slide, but never turn your back to your audience to read your slide.

You and your speech are the presentations; the slides are just there to aid you.

Most season presenters don’t use anything less than twenty-eight point font size, and even Steve Jobs was known to use nothing smaller than forty-point text fonts.

If you can’t comfortably fit all the text on your slide using 28 font size than you’re trying to say and cram too much into the slide, remember tip #1.4 – Use relevant images instead and accompany it with bullets.

Best Practice PowerPoint Presentation Tips

The job of your presentation is to help convey information as efficiently and clearly as possible. By keeping the theme and design consistent, you’re allowing the information and pictures to stand out.

However, by varying the design from slide to slide, you will be causing confusion and distraction from the focus, which is you and the information to be conveyed on the slide.

Technology can also help us in creating a consistent presentation design just by picking a topic and selecting a sample template style. This is possible thanks to the SlideModel’s AI slideshow maker .

Each slide should try to represent one topic or talking point. The goal is to keep the attention focused on your speech, and by using one slide per talking point, you make it easy for you to prepare, as well as easy for your audience to follow along with your speech.

Sometimes when creating our presentation, we can often get in our heads and try to over-explain. A simple way to avoid this is to follow the “ Rule of Three ,” a concept coined by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle.

The idea is to stick to only 3 main ideas that will help deliver your point.  Each of the ideas can be further broken into 3 parts to explain further. The best modern example of this “Rule of Three” can be derived from the great Apple presentations given by Steve Jobs – they were always structured around the “Rule of Three.”

Display one sentence at a time

If you are planning to include text in your slides, try to avoid bullet lists, and use one slide per sentence. Be short and concise. This best practice focuses on the idea that simple messages are easy to retain in memory. Also, each slide can follow your storytelling path, introducing the audience to each concept while you speak, instead of listing everything beforehand.

Presentation Blunders To Avoid

In reality, there is no need for animations or transitions in your slides.

It’s great to know how to turn your text into fires or how to create a transition with sparkle effects, but the reality is the focus should be on the message. Using basic or no transitions lets the content of your presentation stand out, rather than the graphics.

If you plan to use animations, make sure to use modern and professional animations that helps the audience follow the story you are telling, for example when explaining time series or changing events over time.

Only add engaging content that supports your main points

You might have a great chart, picture or even phrase you want to add, but when creating every slide, it’s crucial to ask yourself the following question.

“Does this slide help support my main point?”

If the answer is no, then remove it.  Remember, less is more.

A common crutch for rookie presenters is to use slides as their teleprompter.

First of all, you shouldn’t have that much text on your slides. If you have to read off something, prepare some index cards that fit in your hand but at all costs do not turn your back on your audience and read off of your PowerPoint.  The moment you do that, you make the presentation the focus, and lose the audience as the presenter.

Avoid Giving Out Copies of the Presentation

At least not before you deliver a killer presentation; providing copies of your presentation gives your audience a possible distraction where they can flip through the copy and ignore what you are saying.

It’s also easy for them to take your slides out of context without understanding the meaning behind each slide.  It’s OK to give a copy of the presentation, but generally it is better to give the copies AFTER you have delivered your speech. If you decide to share a copy of your presentation, the best way to do it is by  generating a QR code  for it and placing it at the end of your presentation. Those who want a copy can simply scan and download it onto their phones.

Tips To Making Your Presentation More Engaging

The point of your presentation is to help deliver a message.

When expanding on a particularly important topic that requires a lengthy explanation it’s best to fade the slide into black.  This removes any distraction from the screen and re-focuses it on you, the present speaker. Some presentation devices have a built-in black screen button, but if they don’t, you can always prepare for this by adding a black side to your presentation at the right moment.

“It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.”

Part of making your presentation engaging is to use all the tools at your disposal to get your point across. Changing the inflection and tone of your voice as you present helps make the content and the points more memorable and engaging.

One easy and powerful way to make your presentation interactive is experts to discuss a particular topic during your presentation. This helps create a more engaging presentation and gives you the ability to facilitate and lead a discussion around your topic.

It’s best to prepare some questions for your panel but to also field questions from the audience in a question and answer format.

How To Make Your Presentation More Interactive

What happens if I ask you to think about a pink elephant?  You probably briefly think about a pink elephant, right?

Asking questions when presenting helps engage the audience, and arouse interest and curiosity.  It also has the added benefit of making people pay closer attention, in case they get called on.

So don’t be afraid to ask questions, even if rhetorical; asking a question engages a different part of our brain. It causes us to reflect rather than merely take in the information one way. So ask many of them.

Asking questions can also be an excellent way to build suspense for the next slide.

(Steve Jobs was known to ask questions during his presentations, in this slide he built suspense by asking the audience “Is there space for a device between a cell phone and a laptop?” before revealing the iPad) Source: MacWorld SF 2018

Remember the point of your presentation is to get a message across and although you are the presenter, it is completely fine to use video in your PowerPoint to enhance your presentation.  A relevant video can give you some breathing time to prepare the next slides while equally informing the audience on a particular point.

CAUTION: Be sure to test the video beforehand, and that your audience can hear it in the room.

A trending engagement tool among presenters is to use a live polling tool to allow the audience to participate and collect immediate feedback.

Using a live polling tool is a fun and interactive way to engage your audience in real-time and allow them to participate in part of your presentation.

Google Slides has a built-in Q&A feature that allows presenters to make the slide deck more interactive by providing answers to the audience’s questions. By using the Q&A feature in Google Slides, presenters can start a live Q&A session and people can ask questions directly from their devices including mobile and smartphones.

Key Takeaways from one of the best presenters, Steve Jobs

He kept his slides uncluttered and always strove for simplicity.

In this slide, you can easily see he is talking about the battery life, and it uses a simple image and a few words. Learning from Jobs, you can also make a great presentation too. Focus on the core benefit of your product and incorporate great visuals.

Source: Macworld 2008

SlideModel.com can help to reproduce high-impact slides like these, keeping your audience engagement.

He was known to use large font sizes, the bigger, the better

A big font makes it hard to miss the message on the slide, and allows the audience to focus on the presenter while clearing the understanding what the point of the slide is.

He found made the complex sound simple

When explaining a list of features, he used a simple image and lines or simple tables to provide visual cues to his talking points.

(This particular slide is referencing the iMac features)

What made Steve Jobs the master of presentation, was the ritual of practicing with his team, and this is simple yet often overlooked by many presenters.  It’s easy to get caught in the trap of thinking you don’t need to practice because you know the material so well.

While all these tips will help you create a truly powerful presentation , it can only achieve if applied correctly.

It’s important to remember when trying to deliver an amazing experience, you should be thoroughly prepared. This way, you can elevate your content presentation, convey your message effectively and captivate your audience.

This includes having your research cited, your presentation rehearsed.  Don’t just rehearse your slides, also take time to practice your delivery, and your tone.  The more you rehearse, the more relaxed you will be when delivering. The more confident you will feel.

While we can’t help you with the practice of your next presentation, we can help you by making sure you look good, and that you have a great design and cohesiveness.

You focus on the message and content; we’ll focus on making you look good.

Have a tip you would like to include?  Be sure to mention it in the comments!

Like this article? Please share

Audience, Engaging, Feedback, Interactive, Poll, Rule of Three, Steve Jobs Filed under Presentation Ideas

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2 Responses to “23 PowerPoint Presentation Tips for Creating Engaging and Interactive Presentations”

Very great advices!

Greetings ! A compact composed communication for the host to have an impact -VOICE

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Simple Steps to Make a PowerPoint Presentation

Last Updated: April 28, 2024 Fact Checked

Creating a New PowerPoint

Creating the title slide, adding a new slide, adding content to slides, adding transitions, testing and saving your presentation.

This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Darlene Antonelli, MA . Darlene Antonelli is a Technology Writer and Editor for wikiHow. Darlene has experience teaching college courses, writing technology-related articles, and working hands-on in the technology field. She earned an MA in Writing from Rowan University in 2012 and wrote her thesis on online communities and the personalities curated in such communities. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 4,325,138 times. Learn more...

Do you want to have your data in a slide show? If you have Microsoft 365, you can use PowerPoint! PowerPoint is a program that's part of the Microsoft Office suite (which you have to pay for) and is available for both Windows and Mac computers. This wikiHow teaches you how to create your own Microsoft PowerPoint presentation on a computer.

How to Make a PowerPoint Presentation

• Open the PowerPoint app, select a template and theme, then like “Create.”
• Click the text box to add your title and subtitle to create your title slide.
• Click the “Insert” tab, then “New Slide” to add another slide.
• Choose the type of slide you want to add, then add text and pictures.
• Rearrange slides by dragging them up or down in the preview box.

Things You Should Know

• Templates make it easy to create vibrant presentations no matter your skill level.
• When adding photos, you can adjust their sizes by clicking and dragging in or out from their corners.
• You can add animated transitions between slides or to individual elements like bullet points and blocks of text.

• If you don't have a Microsoft Office 365 subscription, you can use the website instead of the desktop app. Go to https://powerpoint.office.com/ to use the website version.
• You can also use the mobile app to make presentations, though it's easier to do this on a computer, which has a larger screen, a mouse, and a keyboard.

• If you don't want to use a template, just click the Blank option in the upper-left side of the page and skip to the next part.

• Skip this step if your selected template has no themes available.

• If you're creating a PowerPoint presentation for which an elaborate title slide has been requested, ignore this step.

• You can change the font and size of text used from the Home tab that's in the orange ribbon at the top of the window.

• You can also just leave this box blank if you like.

• You can also click and drag in or out one of a text box's corners to shrink or enlarge the text box.

• On a Mac, you'll click the Home tab instead. [1] X Research source

• Clicking the white slide-shaped box above this option will result in a new text slide being inserted.

• Title Slide
• Title and Content
• Section Header
• Two Content
• Content with Caption
• Picture with Caption

• Naturally, the title slide should be the first slide in your presentation, meaning that it should be the top slide in the left-hand column.

• Skip this step and the next two steps if your selected slide uses a template that doesn't have text boxes in it.

• Text boxes in PowerPoint will automatically format the bulk of your text for you (e.g., adding bullet points) based on the context of the content itself.
• You can add notes that the Presentation will not include (but you'll still be able to see them on your screen) by clicking Notes at the bottom of the slide.

• You can change the font of the selected text by clicking the current font's name and then clicking your preferred font.
• If you want to change the size of the text, click the numbered drop-down box and then click a larger or smaller number based on whether you want to enlarge or shrink the text.
• You can also change the color, bolding, italicization, underlining, and so on from here.

• Photos in particular can be enlarged or shrunk by clicking and dragging out or in one of their corners.

• Remember to keep slides uncluttered and relatively free of distractions. It's best to keep the amount of text per slide to around 33 words or less. [2] X Research source

• Slide content will animate in the order in which you assign transitions. For example, if you animate a photo on the slide and then animate the title, the photo will appear before the title.
• Make your slideshow progress automatically by setting the speed of every transition to align with your speech as well as setting each slide to Advance . [3] X Trustworthy Source Microsoft Support Technical support and product information from Microsoft. Go to source

• If you need to exit the presentation, press Esc .

• Windows - Click File , click Save , double-click This PC , select a save location, enter a name for your presentation, and click Save .
• Mac - Click File , click Save As... , enter the presentation's name in the "Save As" field, select a save location by clicking the "Where" box and clicking a folder, and click Save .

Community Q&A

• If you save your PowerPoint presentation in .pps format instead of the default .ppt format, double-clicking your PowerPoint presentation file will prompt the presentation to open directly into the slideshow view. Thanks Helpful 5 Not Helpful 0
• If you don't have Microsoft Office, you can still use Apple's Keynote program or Google Slides to create a PowerPoint presentation. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

• Your PowerPoint presentation (or some features in it) may not open in significantly older versions of PowerPoint. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 2
• Great PowerPoint presentations avoid placing too much text on one slide. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

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• ↑ https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=DBDCE00C929AA5D8!252&ithint=file%2cpptx&app=PowerPoint&authkey=!AH4O9NxcbehqzIg
• ↑ https://www.virtualsalt.com/powerpoint.htm
• ↑ https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/set-the-timing-and-speed-of-a-transition-c3c3c66f-4cca-4821-b8b9-7de0f3f6ead1#:~:text=To%20make%20the%20slide%20advance,effect%20on%20the%20slide%20finishes .

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Blog – Creative Presentations Ideas

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Creating Impactful Slides: PowerPoint Chart Improvement Tips

As a slide designer, I frequently work on enhancing charts to make them more impactful for business presentations. Today, I want to share several practical chart improvement tips on how to creatively customize your PowerPoint graphs for a more professional look.

Chart Improvement 1: Broadening Bars

The first step in upgrading a bar chart  I usually do is adjusting the width of the bars . The default width proposed by PowerPoint or Excel often makes the bars appear too narrow. Since these bars are crucial for conveying information in PowerPoint presentations, I make them wider for better visual presentation of underlying data values. 

To do this, I simply right-click on a bar, select ‘Format Series’, and then adjust the Gap Width. A good rule of thumb is to aim for a Gap Width of around 70-80%. This simple adjustment makes a significant difference in how your bar chart in PowerPoint is perceived.

Chart Improvement 2: Enhancing Clarity with Data Labels

Another data chart area worth customizing, after adjusting the bar widths are the data labels . The default location of data values is not always optimal. They may be too small or not visible. In my example placing these data labels inside the bars can significantly improve readability. Thanks to wider bars, we now have a space to embed numbers inside. This positioning, close to the bar ends, conveniently shows the value. 

To ensure they stand out, I increased the font size to 20 and adjusted the color to white for better contrast against the colored background. Depending on the font used, making these labels bold can further improve visibility. This makes your bar chart in PowerPoint not only more readable but also more visually engaging.

Chart Improvement 3: Simplifying Your Bar Chart, Removing Unnecessary Information

A key part of making a slide more readable is removing unnecessary elements . For instance, if the vertical axis (Y-axis) is providing practically the same information as data labels, then simply delete it. You will not lose information because it’s mentioned inside bars. 

Alternatively, you can keep only the axis and remove the bar data labels. You don’t need to have the same data expressed twice. 

This step, along with removing gridlines, contributes to a cleaner and more focused bar chart in PowerPoint, ensuring that the viewer’s attention is solely on the data being presented.

Chart Improvement 4: Tailoring the Graph Legend

The final touch I usually do in optimizing a bar chart in PowerPoint is adjusting the legend’s position . The legend placement depends on your presentation context. 

If your audience is already familiar with presented data categories, the legend can be placed in a less prominent position e.g. on the right side or under the data chart. However, for newcomers who seek first to learn what data categories you present, I recommend placing the legend where they see it first. For example at the top of the bar chart in PowerPoint or from the left side. This ensures an immediate understanding of what each bar represents, enhancing the overall effectiveness of your presentation.

Legend position can be adjusted either from chart options or manually by moving it.

Conclusion: Enhance Your PowerPoint Bar Charts for Audience Engagement

To sum up, customizing a bar chart in PowerPoint for better clarity involves several key steps:

• widen the bars (applying the 80-20 rule)
• enhance data value visibility
• eliminate unnecessary elements – axis data if they are already expressed other way
• choose the legend’s position based on your audience’s familiarity

By following these simple yet effective tips, you can transform a standard chart into a more engaging and informative visual tool for your business presentations. Explore more practical tips on how to ensure the slide reading flow is natural and easy to follow.

Watch the movie with full instructions here:

Explore another article related to bar chart design, where I share how to effectively address the common mistakes in PowerPoint chart design .

Follow our  YouTube channel  if you want to see more of such guides, and  subscribe to the newsletter  to get more design tips and slide inspiration.

Author: Peter Zvirinsky, slide design trainer and the founder of infoDiagram Reach out to Peter on  LinkedIn  or via his  slide design & training  website.

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Chief Diagram Designer, infoDiagram co-founder View all posts by Peter Z

A simple guide to slideshows

Learn what slideshows are, how they’re used, common features, and how to choose a slideshow maker. Get started creating your own slideshows today with Microsoft PowerPoint.

What is a slideshow?

What are slideshows used for.

Meetings and presentations

Slideshows are most frequently used to create professional presentations for business meetings, conferences, and educational purposes. A  slideshow program  allows people to organize content, include visuals, and enhance the overall impact of their message.

Visual storytelling

Because slideshows sequentially display engaging visuals, text, and other multimedia, they’re a strong way to tell a cohesive and compelling narrative from start to finish.

Content creation

Slideshows give content creators a versatile and efficient way to organize information, increase visual appeal, and communicate effectively across different contexts.

Photo and video sharing

Slideshow makers are popular for creating photo and video presentations, especially for events like weddings, birthdays, and vacations. People can add transitions, music, and captions to fully bring the photo-sharing experience to life.

Training and tutorials

Slideshows help break down complex information into digestible chunks with the support of visuals and text, making them ideal for instructional materials, tutorials, and training modules.

Collaborative projects

In collaborative settings, teams use slideshow makers to create joint presentations or reports. The best slideshow makers enable multiple contributors to add their content simultaneously, which helps ensure a cohesive and unified presentation.

What are the features of a slideshow creator?

Slideshow creators vary in what they offer but ideally include:

A library of templates, themes, and images.

If you’re not a designer, this feature is huge. Simply browse the options available in your slideshow maker library to create a polished, professionally designed presentation in a flash. Be sure to confirm that access to the library is free and the images are approved for unrestricted usage.

Audio and video compatibility.

Keeping your audience engaged is key to any successful slideshow presentation. To mix things up, being able to add a multimedia element—like a song or a video clip—will help people stay focused and interested.

Presentation tools.

Handy presenter tools go a long way toward making your slideshow experience seamless. For example, straightforward slide navigation, slideshow keyboard shortcuts, pen and highlighter markup, and adjustable resolution settings.

AI assistance.

With AI revolutionizing content creation, using a slideshow maker that has AI capabilities will enhance efficiency and innovation. Depending on the slideshow app you have, creating an entire slideshow could be as easy as a quick prompt, like “Make a presentation about the benefits of sustainable fashion that has 15 slides.” 

Animations.

Like audio and video, animations give your audience a bit of sensory surprise that can capture their attention. 

Slide transitions.

Add some pizzazz to how you change slides with visual effects like fading, wiping, and zooming. 

Screen recording.

Being able to record your screen in a slideshow maker is helpful when giving an instructional talk, software demonstration, and other types of presentations that require visual aids.

A place to put speaker notes.

Having somewhere to jot a few notes down will help remind you of everything you want to cover as you present.

Different viewing options.

Looking at different views—for example, a presenter view, an audience view, and a high-level view of slide order—is useful when organizing your slideshow’s structure and understanding and preparing for what you’ll see versus what your audience will see.

How do I choose the right slideshow maker?

When choosing a slideshow maker, keep the following questions in mind to make sure you get the most for your money:

Is it scalable with your business?

As your organization grows and changes, it’s important to have flexible technology that adapts to new needs. Having certain features—such as cloud-based collaboration, compatibility with other work apps, and a mobile app—will help ensure that no matter how your business changes, the slideshow maker is up to the task. This also applies to pricing plans. Consider choosing a slideshow app that has a subscription plan (so the software is always up to date), volume-based pricing, or enterprise-level pricing.

Does it have a variety of visual elements?

It’s pretty much a given that a slideshow maker will allow you to add images, but think outside the JPEG box—what other visual elements are available to you? Features like preset themes, free templates, SmartArt, a built-in clip art library, shape tools, background styles, 3D models, and charts and graphs provide diverse ways to switch up how a slideshow looks without relying solely on adding your own images.

Is it easy to use?

You could have the most feature-rich slideshow maker on the market, but if it isn’t easy to use, you probably won’t use it. Or you will, but you’ll be frustrated, waste valuable time, and have difficulty convincing people you work with to use it. As you research slideshow makers, look for videos that show the apps’ interfaces in action to help you decide if they’re intuitive and will have a shorter learning curve.

Does it have collaboration and sharing options?

Because making a slideshow is often a collaborative effort, it’s worthwhile to find a slideshow creator that was designed with this in mind. Pick one that offers editing controls and commenting, as well as the ability to work on a slideshow at the same time as someone else. Having a cloud-based slideshow maker will be key here. You’ll not only save yourself time but also keep things simple by not having multiple versions of the same slideshow.

Explore more about slideshows and slideshow makers

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Frequently asked questions

How do i make a good slideshow.

Making a good slideshow in PowerPoint is easy:

Plan what you’d like to include in your slideshow.

Launch your slideshow creator.

Choose the theme you’d like.

Import media.

Add text, music, and transitions.

Record, save, and share your slideshow.

Learn more about how to make a slideshow .

How do I add music to a slideshow?

To add music to a slideshow, first make sure that you’re using a slideshow maker with music compatibility. In PowerPoint, follow these steps:

Open your PowerPoint presentation and select the slide where you want to add music.

Click on the Insert tab in the ribbon menu.

Click on the Audio button and select Audio on My PC.

Browse to the folder on your computer where the audio file is located and select it.

Click on the Insert button.

How do I record a slideshow?

The steps for recording a slideshow in PowerPoint will vary depending on the version that you own. Get help with slideshow recording based on your version. 

What types of files can I add to a slideshow?

File compatibility in PowerPoint includes the use of JPEGs, PNGs, TIFFs, GIFs, PDFs, MP3s, WAVs, MIDIs, MPEG-4 Videos, and Windows Media Videos.  

How do I share my slideshow?

To share your PowerPoint slideshow, follow these steps:

Open your presentation and click Share at the top right of your screen.

If your presentation isn't already stored on OneDrive, select where to save your presentation to the cloud.

Choose a permission level, like Anyone with a link , or maybe just people in your company. You can also control if people can edit or just view the doc. 

Select Apply.

Enter names and a message.

Select Send.

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Tips for Giving a Powerful Interview Presentation

Covid-19 has overturned the hiring process, with most companies opting for virtual interviews rather than face-to-face ones. A recent hiring trend is the emerging popularity of interview presentations among hiring managers. Statistics show that  76% of hiring managers find attracting the right candidates their greatest challenge . So how do you find the right fit for your company among the hundreds of job applications? The best option is to give candidates an opportunity to pitch their skills through a presentation. 

From the perspective of a candidate, this is a make-or-break moment. A well-crafted and unique presentation could be the key to landing your dream role, but a shoddy one can easily bring down your chances. If you are reading this, you are most likely looking for tips to create a presentation that will help you stand out from the crowd. You have come to the right place. 

Read on for tips to avoid ‘death by powerpoint’ and ace that interview presentation round.

What is an interview presentation?

You probably know what an interview presentation already is. For the unversed, an interview presentation, as the name suggests, is a presentation that has to be put together on a particular topic as part of an interview or recruitment process. An interview presentation could range from being a simple one focused on pitching why you think you would be the best fit for the role to solving a specific business dilemma. In some cases, you may even be expected to create a blind presentation wherein you would only be given a limited amount of time to prepare. However, the expectations for any kind of presentation remain the same.

As mentioned earlier, interview presentations help the employer to find a candidate who stands out from the crowd and also fits into their company culture. It also helps interviewers to assess a wide range of skills such as communication skills, industry knowledge, attention to detail, creativity, organizational skills, ability to engage with the audience, and much more. A successful presentation will put these skills on display and help your potential employer understand if you have what it takes to be a part of their organization.

From doing adequate initial research to nailing the delivery, there are several steps involved in ensuring your presentation goes well. 

Researching the Company and the Role

Consider your process of preparing for an interview presentation like that of painting a picture. You will naturally be starting with a blank canvas. Doing proper research about your potential employer and the role that you have been shortlisted for is the first brush stroke toward creating your masterpiece. 

Your initial research should be centered around the industry vertical that the company is a part of, the key players in the industry, and the ranking of the company within the industry. 

How to:  A simple Google search will help you in finding this information. 

Why:  Not only does this help you understand your role in the company better, but it also helps you structure your presentation accordingly. This will also help you to answer any questions that emerge during/after the presentation with much more clarity.

Once you are done with the initial research, the next step is to look further into the company’s core values and mission. Also, look at the company’s past successes and read up on their performance.

How to:  A company’s core values are often stated on its website. If not, take a look at their social media channels. To know more about the company, look at the case studies on its website and the news and PR articles.

Why:  Having a clear understanding of the core values and the current standing of the company not only demonstrates your enthusiasm but also helps you to determine the direction of your presentation.

In some cases, candidates are privy to information regarding who would be part of the interview panel. If you are not, you could figure it out on your own by doing quick research about the team members and who is most likely to be a decision-maker. Either way, ensure that you take a look into their job profiles, their background, and their career progression.

How to:  Most professionals are on platforms like LinkedIn, and you can find relevant information about them there.

Why:  Knowing your audience will help you customize your presentation accordingly and also give you an idea about their expectations.

Planning and Organising Your Content

You have painted the background of your portrait. What next? The next logical step is to plan and organize the content in your presentation. A well-structured presentation is crucial to preventing ‘death by powerpoint’ and nailing the interview. Start by determining what you would like to convey and how you would like to do it. Setting clear objectives will ensure your presentation doesn’t deviate from the topic. Now you are ready to structure the content of your slide deck.

As with most content, your presentation will require an introduction, body, and conclusion.

Introduction:  Keep in mind that you will never get a second chance to make a first impression. The opening of your presentation should hook the audience and intrigue them. However, also be careful not to make it too long and to keep it as short and precise as possible. 

Body:  This is where the majority of your content regarding the topic goes in. Try to back up your arguments with statistics or real-life examples to ensure credibility. You could also draw references from the core values of the company, if relevant.

Conclusion:  A conclusion is as important as an introduction. Neatly wrap up what you discussed during the presentation and summarise the main points to jog the memory of your interviewers. You can also use the conclusion to highlight your profile and show them why they should hire you.

Designing your presentation

Humans are visual creatures; we remember 80% of what we see. Paying attention to the visual appeal of your presentation is a great way to engage the audience during your interview.

While designing an engaging presentation, choose a simple template and legible font. But how to stand apart from the rest when everyone shortlisted for the interview is using the same Powerpoint or Google Slides templates? One thing that you could do is to use a free online presentation maker to ensure that yours is unique from the other candidates. These editing tools also offer custom fonts and designs that can’t be found anywhere else, helping you stand out.

Here are a few top tips to keep in mind while designing your presentation for the interview.

Consistency is key:  Try to incorporate the company theme into your presentation. Every company has a different brand identity, and hence it is important to spend some time researching the brand colors, fonts, and imagery they use. Keep it consistent throughout the presentation.

Create visually-appealing slides:  Try to make your slides look aesthetically pleasing but not too crowded with information. Do not shy away from using lots of white space or bullet points. Also, ensure that the text is easy to read and maintain a contrast between the background and the text.

Use high-quality images:  Images act as visual cues and are a great way to draw attention. However, pixelated images will leave a bad taste in the mouths of your interviewers. Thus, always try to use images that have a high resolution.

Use legible font:  While choosing a font for your presentation, use one that is clear and legible. Illegible fonts will make it difficult for the interviewers to read the text on your slides.

Rehearsing and practicing your presentation

Practice indeed makes a man perfect, and it’s a good idea to practice your presentation over and over again. Job interviews are nerve-wracking, and practicing your presentation beforehand will help you gain confidence and avoid  common presentation mistakes . Here are a few tips to keep in mind while rehearsing.

Firstly, practice speaking in front of a mirror so that you can see yourself from the point of view of an interviewer. You can also practice in front of your friends or family to get feedback.

Moreover, remember to time yourself to ensure that you do not exceed the time limit given to you. Running over time doesn’t leave a good impression!

Delivering your presentation

You have come to the end of the process of painting your masterpiece. All that requires now is the pièce de résistance, in other words, the delivery of your stunning presentation. All the work that has gone into creating your presentation would mean nothing if the delivery is not up to the mark. A few tips for nailing a good delivery are:

• Ensure that you speak slowly and clearly with confident and open body language.
• Maintain eye contact with the interview panel.
• Engage with the audience by addressing any questions or concerns that they may have. 

For more details on impressing your audience with your presentation, check out these  creative presentation ideas . 

Create a winning presentation with Powtoon today

To nail your interview every time, use Powtoon, a free presentation maker. With Powtoon, you gain access to amazing presentation templates that will help your own presentation stand apart from the average Powerpoint presentation. The templates have been designed by expert designers making it easy for non-designers to create beautiful presentations in minutes. 

Create a  Powtoon account  today and get ready to use the presentation maker to create stunning designs, animations, and video presentations.

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How to Loop a PowerPoint Presentation?

Table of Contents

PowerPoint presentations are a go-to for clear and informative content delivery. But what if you want your presentation to run on repeat, like at a kiosk or digital sign? The good news is, that PowerPoint has a built-in feature to loop your slideshow, ensuring your message stays on display without interruption. 

This blog post will guide you through the simple steps to set your presentation on a loop, keeping your audience engaged and informed around the clock.

What is PowerPoint Looping?

Normally, in a PowerPoint presentation, you have to manually move from one slide to the next by pressing keys on the keyboard or clicking buttons on a mouse or presentation remote.

However, when you enable looping in PowerPoint, the presentation progresses automatically from one slide to the next without requiring manual input. This eliminates the need for the presenter to interact with the computer or mouse during the presentation.

With PowerPoint looping, you can also set each slide to display automatically for a specified duration, determined by you. Once the preset time elapses, the next slide seamlessly appears. Additionally, upon reaching the final slide, the slideshow automatically starts over from the beginning.

Why Do You Need to Loop Your Slideshow in PowerPoint? 

There are several reasons why you might want to loop your slideshow in PowerPoint:

• Unattended Presentations: Looping is ideal for situations where the presentation runs without a presenter. This could be at a kiosk, trade show booth, or in a waiting room. Looping ensures the information is continuously displayed for viewers to come and go as they please.
• Automated Playback: Looping allows for a hands-off presentation experience. Once started, the presentation progresses automatically, freeing you up to greet attendees or answer questions.
• Self-Paced Learning: Looping can be useful for self-paced learning environments. Viewers can revisit slides or take breaks without needing someone to control the flow.
• Continuous Engagement: Looping keeps the audience engaged with a constant stream of information. This can be beneficial for displaying menus, directions, or other ongoing updates.

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How to Make a PowerPoint Presentation loop?

Ready to loop your presentation? Here’s how it’s done:

Step 1:  Open your PowerPoint and head over to the “Slide Show” tab.

Step 2:  Click the button that says “Set Up Slide Show.” A new window will pop up.

Step 3:  Under “Show options,” find the magic checkbox that says “Loop continuously until ‘Esc’.” Check that box to make your presentation run on repeat.

Step 4:  Want to control how long each slide shows? Look for the option “Automatically advance slides” and check it. Then, use the up and down arrows to set the display time for each slide.

Step 5:  Once you’re happy with the settings, click “OK” to save them.

Step 6: Time to loop! Go back to the “Slide Show” tab and click “From Beginning” (or “From Start”). Your presentation will start playing and keep going until you press the “Esc” key.

How To Loop a PowerPoint SlideShow from Selected Slides?

PowerPoint lets you loop a customized selection of slides, creating engaging presentations that run unattended. This eliminates the need for manual slide changes while maintaining audience interest. Here’s how to loop specific slides:

Step 1:  Select Slides: In the Slide Sorter view, hold “Shift” and click the first and last slides you want to loop.

Step 2:  Enable Looping: Go to the “Slide Show” tab and click “Set Up Show.” Check the box for “Loop continuously until ‘Esc'” and choose “Show slides” from the dropdown menu. Select “From” and enter the slide number where your loop should begin.

Step 3:  Create Custom Show (Optional): For easier access, name your looped sequence as a “Custom Show” within the “Set Up Show” dialog.

Step 4:  Start Looping: Navigate back to the “Slide Show” tab and choose “Custom Slide Show” to launch your looped presentation.

Closing Thoughts

Looping your PowerPoint presentation is a simple yet powerful technique that unlocks a variety of use cases. By following these steps, you can ensure your message runs continuously, keeping your audience informed and engaged, whether it’s at a kiosk, trade show booth, waiting room, or any other scenario that demands unattended playback. 

• No design skills required
• 3 presentations/month free
• Don’t need to learn a new software

Frequently Asked Questions

My presentation has animations and transitions. will they loop as well.

Absolutely! When you loop your presentation, animations and transitions will also repeat continuously, regardless of the looping method you choose.

Does looping affect animation timing?

There’s a possibility. Looping might affect how your animations play out, especially if they have specific timings set. To avoid any hiccups, be sure to thoroughly test your looped presentation. This will ensure your animations sync smoothly with the slide transitions.

Can I loop specific slides in my PowerPoint presentation?

Yes! PowerPoint gives you the flexibility to loop a selected group of slides, creating engaging presentations that run unattended.

How do I stop or pause a looped slideshow in PowerPoint?

Need a break? Simply press the “Esc” key on your keyboard to interrupt the looped slideshow at any time.

Can I customize the duration of each slide in a looped PowerPoint presentation?

Yes, you can! PowerPoint allows you to adjust the slide transition settings for each slide. This lets you control how long each slide displays, creating a tailored and dynamic looping experience.

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Create a blank presentation

Open PowerPoint.

Select one of the Blank Presentation and start typing. 

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Select File > New .

Double-click a theme in the gallery to create a presentation in that theme. Or search for more templates.

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