how to make an amazing keynote presentation

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10 Expert Tips to Create and Deliver a Killer Keynote Presentation

So you’ve got a keynote presentation coming up, and you’re hitting the books to make sure you’re armed with the best plan possible. Besides taking notes from all the greats on TED, you’re reading up about a message structure that works, and looking for the perfect template.

While it seems like you’ve got your bases covered, like all things in life, there’s always a way to streamline the planning process.

According to Aaron Weyenberg , the UX Lead for TED and a self-professed “master of slide decks,” and the wizards behind Apple’s presentation slides , there are a number of tricks of the trade that you can rely on to create a rocking keynote presentation .

Below are some of our favorites. And to easily create a professional-looking presentation , sign up for Piktochart . It’s free and it allows you to make beautiful visuals without being a graphic designer.

1. Do your slides last

While most keynote speakers will typically build their presentation around the structure of a template, Weyenberg says that “building your slides should be the tail end of developing your presentation.” Before working on your slides, you should put together your main message, structure, supporting points – then practice and time your presentation. The reason for this, he says, is that the presentation needs to be strong enough to stand on its own. Approaching a keynote like this requires a shift in thinking.

While a beautiful set of slides is imperative to your presentation, it should not be central to it.

Weyenberg said it best: “The slides are just something you layer over [the presentation] to enhance the listener experience.”

Observe these 2017 Google I/O keynotes, especially CEO Sundar Pichai’s – the role of the slides are to support what the speaker is saying – not the other way around.

2. Get creative with photos

Often times, presenters will be far too literal or cheesy with their image choice. Weyenberg suggests to use images that are simple, yet punchy – and pairs nicely with your spoken words. He says to look for photos that are:

• Related to your keynote’s concept
• Are not complex in terms of composition

3. Simplify charts and graphs

While most presenters will simply drop an image of their charts and graphs into their deck, Weyenberg points out that it might be a bit “unsightly.” If you need to use data to back a point that you’re making, you should make the extra effort to make it more attractive – and this can be done by recreating it in your presentation maker .

There are a couple benefits to doing this:

• It will make your presentation seem consistent and well-thought out
• You’ll have control over colors, typography, and more.

4. One theme per slide

According to the designers of Apple presentation slides, less is certainly more. Trying to cram too many ideas on one slide can only work to your detriment. Beyond ideas, the same goes for statistics.

Let’s play a little game: For the following idea, how many slides would you use? “The developer program is incredibly vibrant. We have over six million registered developers. Demand for this show has never been greater. We sold out in just over a minute [71 seconds].”

While the average person might think that 6 million and 71 seconds would belong on the same slide and be short and sweet enough, let’s compare it with what Apple’s CEO Tim Cook did.

He only leveraged two slides: The first said “6 million,” and the second: “71 seconds. Sold out.”

5. Create a visual experience with data

Taking a leaf again from Apple’s presentation book, once you’ve gotten the hang of having just one stat per slide – you should also make it as visual as possible.

One data point per slide, combined with it being visually interesting – is sure to be memorable.

6. Practice Really Makes Perfect

Imagine the late Steve Jobs, a legendary keynote presenter, still rehearsed for months before a presentation. According to Brent Schlender , one of the co-authors behind the Steve Jobs biography “Becoming Steve Jobs,” Jobs would rehearse and prepare “exhaustively” for all of his public appearances.

Despite being a natural on the stage, Jobs never would wing it, he came to the show well prepared.

“I once spent an entire day watching him run through multiple rehearsals of a single presentation, tweaking everything from the color and angle of certain spotlights, to editing and rearranging the order of the keynote presentation slides to improve his pacing,” remembers Schlender.

While you may not be a perfectionist like Jobs, you are likely also not nearly as good of a presenter as he is – so practice really makes perfect in this case.

7. Tell A Consistent Story

Circling back to Weyenberg’s tips – he suggests that in a good slide deck, every slide should feel “like part of the same story.” Think of your deck like a story – every slide should feel cohesive to the big picture message you’re trying to communicate – as opposed to random ideas juxtaposed together.

You can do this by:

• Using the same or similar typography, colors, and imagery across all slides
• Using presentation templates can help with maintaining the same look and feel

8. Less is more

We explored the less is more concept earlier in the article by suggesting you keep to one idea per slide. The same can be applied to text.

When it comes to creating slides for your next keynote, the cardinal sin is a slide with ample text that is verbatim of your spoken presentation.

What this does is encourage people to keep their eyes on your slides instead of listening to you.

Weyenberg also points out that a text-heavy slide forces the brain to multitask between focusing on what it’s reading and hearing – which is quite difficult and will compromise your presentation.

9. Consider topic transitions

While you want to make your slides look like a cohesive unit, you want to also keep in mind that making every slide look the same may be boring. Weyenberg suggests to:

• Create one style for the slides that are the “meat” of the message
• Then create another style for the slides that are transitioning between topics

For example, if your overall slides have a dark background with light text, you can use transitional slides that have a light background with dark text. This way, they’ll still feel like they’re from the same presentation family without being completely uniform.

10. Tell a captivating story

It is fitting that our final tip comes from likely the greatest keynote presenter of all time. The late and great Steve Jobs had the ability to captivate and inspire his audience with his talks, and that’s because he was a very good storyteller. And that’s the golden leaf that you can take from Jobs’ book today.

Always aim to tell a captivating story.

One example is perhaps when he introduced the iPod: “In 2001, we introduced the first iPod. It didn’t just change the way we all listen to music. It changed the entire music industry.” Listen to Steve Jobs weave a story about the digital music revolution when unveiling the iPod.

Bonus Round: Tips From Piktochart Designers  

• Always remember that your audience is sitting far away . So ensure that your title font size is large enough to be seen from a distance, and that your body text is no smaller than 20px.
• Use only two colors for your entire presentation – a primary and secondary color. If you must use a large color palette, your maximum choice should be up to five colors.
• Make sure that there is enough white space throughout your presentation . This will give your content room to breathe. Less is definitely more in this case.
• Emphasize only one object per slide – whether it’s an image, statistic, quote. This will make sure your audience stays focused.

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15 Keynote Tutorials To Make Sublime Presentations [2022]

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By Nikolay Kaloyanov

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We have already mentioned Keynote as one of the best presentation software on the market for Mac users. It has everything needed for the success of your presentations – great practicality and a superior interface which is Apple’s trademark. On top of that, Keynote is free to use.

But how exactly should you make standout presentations? In this article, you will find out with the help of our 15 Apple Keynote tutorials .

1. Getting started with Keynote

Every software journey starts with a “manual” of how to use it, and in this Keynote tutorial, you will understand what Apple Keynote is, what this software package offers, and goes over some of the most used features available – such as the basic templates, the main menus, and the visual hierarchy of the app. What you will learn is how to replace images, add texts, and some other basic tasks which is quite helpful for someone inexperienced with the program.

2. How to create a presentation in Keynote?

Learning how to make a presentation in Keynote is crucial before you advance to the next stages. So, in this Keynote beginner tutorial, you will learn how to create a presentation from scratch. You will see how to add themes, change the background color, add a gradient, insert a slide number, and other cool stuff. It’s definitely worth checking it out, especially if you’re a complete newbie.

3. How to Format Text in Keynote?

Knowing how to format text is pivotal in any presentation software, and Keynote is no exception. In this Keynote text formatting tutorial, you will see how to align text, how to add a different color style, change the font, and play around with the font weight, font size, and other key patterns. Luckily, the app is very intuitive, and you’ll get used to modifying the fonts easily.

4. How to Add and Edit Images in Keynote?

As an Apple software, Keynote is perfectly optimized for editing images. In this Keynote tutorial, you’ll learn how to add images, change the background, align different images on the canvas, and so much more. While the video guide is considered old now (the video is published in 2010), the concept is still considered unique even today.

5. How to Add a Video in Keynote?

Adding videos is crucial if you want to grab the attention of your audience. In fact, it raises audience awareness a lot! In this Keynote tutorial, you will learn how to embed a YouTube video in Keynote within a couple of seconds and then check its size or even add a shape. So cool!

6. How to Make Charts in Keynote?

Creating charts in Keynote is not just possible, but it’s quite a lovely experience! In this Keynote chart tutorial, you will learn how to create a chart in Numbers (Apple’s version of Excel and Google Sheets), and then transfer it to the presentation software, where you can modify it in any style you like. You can pick between 2D and 3D, animated Keynote charts, and even make your chart colorful.

7. How to Create a GIF in Keynote?

Animated GIFs add value to your presentation and make it look more interactive. While adding GIFs to Keynote is possible and easy, there is something else you can do – create a GIF from Keynote. In this video tutorial, you will learn how to make a cool GIF using Keynote, and use it for your presentation or other designs.

8. How to Make Infographics in Keynote?

Keynote is a powerful presentation app because it has many functionalities but, more importantly, it focuses on great looks. In this Apple Keynote tutorial, you will learn how to manage proportion, pick the right size of the infographics, group objects, and some more useful techniques that you can apply to your works.

9. How to Use Presenter Notes in Keynote?

PowerPoint and Google Slides users know them as “Speaker notes,” but in Keynote, they’re known as Presenter Notes . In this Keynote tutorial, you will learn how to show presenter notes and add some while “on the go.” Topher Morrison will also give you some practical advice on how to use them correctly so you don’t forget your thoughts during the presentation.

10. Intermediate Keynote Tutorial

If you have stepped up your game, then it may be time for some of the more advanced Keynote tutorials. What you will learn from this video is how to create animations in Keynote, make transitions, and even remove backgrounds (which is very useful). You will also learn how to add links to slides and insert shapes to make flashy designs. Last but not least – you’ll see how to customize your Keynote toolbar.

11. How to Collaborate in Keynote?

We all have to admit that Keynote can’t rival Google Slides in terms of collaboration, but it doesn’t mean it’s impossible. In this Keynote tutorial, you will see how to make your presentation shareable and how to do it properly, so you can collaborate with your peers on Keynote presentations without issues. All the progress is saved in iCloud Drive, and you can check the changes in real-time.

Read more : Keynote vs Google Slides comparison

12. How to Create a Poster in Keynote?

Who would suppose you can create beautiful posters with Keynote? Well, we do! In this Keynote poster tutorial, you will learn how to quickly come up with a poster design without spending too much time. The guide itself is simple, but it will teach you how to make slides vertical and where to find icons. On top of that, you will also see how to align objects.

13. How to Make a Dynamic Background in Keynote?

That is arguably the most interesting Keynote tutorial on our list, as it will show you how to add a dynamic background. You can find a couple of different options, which you will learn to customize to get the results that you wish. We have to admit Jesse has been quite creative with his explanations, but the guide was very helpful, too!

14. Keynote for iPad Guide

We cannot make a Keynote article without mentioning iPads. It’s simply impossible. In this Keynote for iPad tutorial, you will learn all the basic (and not so basic) skills to operate well on the Apple tablet. You’ll learn how to change fonts, create transitions, and print your presentations, but also collaborate and AirDrop, create passwords, add soundtracks, and other useful things that you can do.

15. How to Present Keynote Slides in Zoom?

Learning how to stream a live presentation in Zoom has become a very crucial skill to acquire these days, so it’s no surprise that many presentation programs are adapting to use it. In this Keynote live streaming tutorial, you will learn how to pair it well with Zoom and present it in a virtual meeting.

Final words

Keynote is a great presentation software. It has an amazing UX design, and it can help you craft masterpieces. While some argue it’s not as feature-rich as PowerPoint, learning it can give you everything you need.

If you find our content useful, you can check some of the other articles:

• Keynote vs PowerPoint: Presentation Software from Different Worlds
• 30 Free Marketing Presentation Templates with Modern Design
• How to Start and End a Presentation: 10 Practical Tips to Grab Attention and Make an Impact

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Nikolay Kaloyanov

Nikolay is a copywriter with vast experience in Technology, Marketing, and Design. When he isn't playing with words and crafting texts, he watches sports and asks questions. He is a funny person...until you put him on a diet.

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17 Presentation Techniques For A Great Keynote

• Presentation design /
• Public speaking

How much time do you take to design your presentation? Days? Weeks? Where do you get your inspiration from and how do you find the right design elements? Wouldn’t it be fantastic if you could create a remarkable keynote presentation in a day or two? I think anyone can do it, if they pay attention to the following presentation techniques and manage to combine them in a way that helps them put the right ideas in the right context.

Also read:  7 Things To Improve In Your Keynote Speech Presentation

Achieving presentation flow is a challenging task. Not everyone has a knack for design. So pay attention to each of these ideas, both the simpler ones and the more complex, and make your own combo to improve delivery and convince your audience.

1. Visuals are your friend

Using different types of visuals can be a great way to help your audience remember and react. Photos, illustrations, icons, symbols, sketches, figures, and diagrams are much more easy for the brain to retain than words. Think of a company logo for example – how many times has your brain recognized the logo even before you remembered the name of the brand?

Another great thing about using imagery is that it makes you more charismatic. It seems that speakers are seen as more charismatic when otherwise identical speeches contain more imagery . Here’s a great example – a former US president’s inaugural address was rewritten to create low and high imagery versions in an experiment. The audio recordings of the two speeches were played for the participants to the study who were randomly assigned. After listening to the speech, they provided ratings on various summary leadership measures. The result? The speech with high imagery was attributed to a more charismatic person.

2. Keep the presentation short and to the point

Thousands of psychological, neurobiological and social science studies have been conducted on how humans “pay attention.” The famous Microsoft “study” claimed that the human attention span went from 12 seconds on average in 2000 to just 8.25 seconds in 2015, which is shorter than that of a goldfish. What most of these studies concluded is that, most of the time, we don’t pay attention. It’s just how our brain works.

Keep your presentation short and sweet and, more importantly, simple. Even if your ideas are complex, you need to find a way to help your audience focus and follow your speech. Make sure your slides are not too busy if you want the audience to listen to you instead of reading slides.

3. The rule of three

This is a rather well-known technique that’s based on the fact that people tend to only remember three things. When you design the flow of your presentation, work out what the three messages that you want your audience to take away are. Then, structure your presentation around them, using the right design elements to separate the three.

The same rule can be applied to an individual slide –  it’s recommended that you use a maximum of three points on a slide. Make sure that they aren’t bullet points or presenter notes. Those should not be on the screen when you’re doing a keynote speech. If Google’s CEO does not  use bullet points , neither should you.

Also read:  5 Pro Tips For Giving Better Presentations

4. Focus on telling stories instead of throwing numbers

Even if you have a technical or scientific topic to present, you still need to tell a story. That is the essence of a keynote speech, to be memorable, emotional, compelling. And that means storytelling.

Tell stories and anecdotes to help you illustrate your ideas and your research. This will definitely make your presentation more effective and memorable. In a UCLA study , students were asked to recall a series of speeches they had heard. Only 5 percent remembered any individual statistic, while 63 percent remembered the stories presented in those speeches.

“Things are not what they seem.” It’s that to get people to sit on the edge of their chair or to get them involved in your story, the audience has to constantly discover something new.

Howard Suber, UCLA

5.  Know what slide is coming next

Memorizing every single word in a presentation is not a good idea. That’s why you shouldn’t have chunks of text altogether. But knowing what slide comes next is a must. Even if you are an amazing speaker and you’ve been really busy so you’ve had the presentation made for you, go through it at least once before.

It helps to build trust and keep the audience engaged when you say “On the next slide [Click] you will see…”, rather than than act confused when the next slide appears. It will also help with the flow of the presentation.

6. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse

Practice is key for public speaking. Many experts say that rehearsal is the biggest single thing that you can do to improve your performance. This technique will make you so comfortable with the presentation content that you won’t need notes or prompts and you’ll appear conversational but knowledgeable.

Perform your presentation out loud at least four times. You can try something different each time: one in front of your friends or colleagues, one alone and one in front of a real scary audience, for good measure. You should also try to do a video recording of a rehearsal. It will help you spot improvement points, from how you are standing, if you are jangling keys, to how well your presentation is structured.

Also read:  Use These Presentation Apps To Rehearse Anywhere

7. Have an emergency plan

This does not include running off the stage. But it is a well known fact that something is bound to go wrong. It’s either the projector, the lights, the audio, the laptop, the fonts, etc. It’s always good to have a back-up plan. This way you won’t be blindsided, stressed and confused in case something goes off track. A useful tip is to check out the presentation room beforehand, so that you know what could go wrong.

Murphy’s kit: Have a printed out set of slides, data stick of your presentation and a laptop with your slides on it.

8. Involve the audience

One of the most powerful presentation techniques is inviting the audience in and have them contribute in some way. This will get them emotionally invested and it will differentiate you from inexperienced, nervous speakers.

Plan a inclusion of the audience in your presentation somewhere. It can be a slide with a question, a game or just an empty slide to help you connect with people and re-gain their full attention. Here are some ideas for audience activities–from a simple show of hands, to requests for brief personal input, to role playing and games, to small group exercises- and their merits:

The show of hands is good for polling the audience and gaining real-time feedback. It lets audience members know where they stand with respect to the group.Brief personal input reveals the diversity of experience in the room.Role playing and games are excellent for practicing sales situations and interpersonal responses.Group exercises allow participants to learn from each other.

9. Don’t read off the slides word for word

Please. Your audience is surely capable of doing that for themselves. They don’t need you to be standing in front of them reading off the screen.

Build your presentation in a way that it provides context for your speech, with visual elements and clear, simple ideas. Use your slides as outlines or conversation points that you build on, just like you would in a normal discussion. Experienced speakers often use slides to add a quick parenthetical note to something they’re saying to the audience.

10. Find the right speed

Most people go too fast. Mostly because they’re nervous or they’re pressured by the time constraints of the format. It’s really easy to rush through your content and speak very quickly, especially if you’re panicked. But it’s much easier for an audience to engage with your content and remember something if your delivery falls into a natural rhythm. Pace yourself and remember to punctuate your speech with pauses to emphasise key points.

Here’s a great exercise shared by Sims Wyeth , who learned it from Marian Rich, a voice and speech teacher in New York who worked with many famous actors to help them improve their vocal presence.

“The exercise will teach you that your voice is a wind instrument, and you must have ample air in your lungs to play it well.

Mark a paragraph / in this manner / into the shortest possible phrases. / First, / whisper it / with energetic lips, / breathing / at all the breath marks. / Then. / speak it / in the same way. / Do this / with a different paragraph / everyday. / Keep your hand / on your abdomen / to make sure / it moves out / when you breathe in / and moves in / when you speak.

Before you whisper each phrase, take a full bellyful of air and then pour all the air into that one phrase. Keep your throat open, and don’t grind your vocal chords. Lift your whisper over your throat. Pause between phrases. Relax. Then, take another full breath and whisper the next phrase. Whisper as if you were trying to reach the back of the room.

Once you’ve whispered the paragraph, then go back to the start and speak it in a conversational way, but again, pour all the air into each phrase and honor the silence between phrases. I can’t stress that enough. Take your own sweet time at the forward slashes.”

If you’re more of a slow talker, with a constant calm rhythm, you might run the risk of boring the audience. Keep people awake and interested by learning to increase your speaking speech without losing articulation and thought clarity. Start by learning what makes you slow. Record a one-minute monologue on tape and use a stopwatch or second hand; listen for the following types of slow spots.

11.  Include some humor

Humor can be one of the most powerful techniques for giving a great keynote presentation. You can use it in the beginning to relieve the tension in the room and help ease the transition into the bulk of the content. Appropriate humor that’s true to you let’s your audience get a sense of your personality and makes for a memorable presentation.

If you’re not a natural punster, do not despair. Anything can be learned. Here are a few techniques you can try:

Exaggeration: “Then I talked to a woman whose voice was so high only the dog could hear it.”Puns: “Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut off? He’s all right now.”Self-deprecation: “And then, even though I knew it was too hot to eat, I bit into the pizza anyway. Because, clearly, I am an idiot.”Wordplay: “She brought me a plate of french fries instead. At least I thought they were French because they had an attitude and wore berets.”References: “Do. Or do not. There is no try.” – Yoda

12. Follow Guy Kawasaki’s 10-20-30 rule

Guy Kawasaki wrote that a presentation “should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points”. Although this was meant for entrepreneurs creating pitch decks, it’s a useful pointer for keynote speeches as well, especially from a design point of view.

Opt for a legible font and type size. Don’t use eccentric fonts that will make it impossible to make out the actual words. Stick to standard, easy-to-read fonts, preferably sans-serif (fonts such as Arial or Helvetica).

13. Pause from time to time

Both in your speech and in your presentation, white space is an important component. Whitespace is a fundamental building block of good design. Its one of the first thing any visual designer is taught. However, to many speakers it is simply a waste of space that could be used to better promote their message or express an additional idea.

Speech pauses allow you to punctuate your spoken words, giving your listeners clues as to when one phrase, one sentence, or one paragraph ends, and the next begins. Brigitte Zellner notes that pauses “participate in rendering human communication more intelligible. (…) In other words, pauses “stick out like sore thumbs”, and thus may occupy “beacon” positions in speech, serving to structure the entire utterance for both speaker and listener.”

14. Try some icebreakers

Why not reference some fun facts? Or have audience members introduce themselves? The most effective keynotes are both informative and enjoyable at the same time.

“For the brain to remember, presenters must deviate from a pattern in some significant way.”

Carmen Simon, co-founder of Rexi Media

Although not everyone is comfortable with icebreakers it doesn’t hurt to try one or two and see how they work for your keynote. Here are some different icebreaker ideas.

15. Make it thematic

Another out of the box idea is to make the most of an upcoming or recent event/holiday/movie release etc. and create a thematic presentation. Go for a memorable appearance, costume and all, and a well-designed presentation to accompany your speech. Get the audience to remember your presentation by connecting it to something they like or even dislike. The emotional connection will help spark a valuable conversation and it will increase the chances of people remembering your ideas.

Connections among elements in memory can make a real difference. Art Markman uses the analogy of a bowl of peanuts in his book Smart Thinking. He says that if you take peanuts out one at a time, you get three peanuts when you reach into the bowl three times. But, if you pour caramel over the peanuts, then when you pull one out, you get a whole cluster. After you draw from the bowl three times, you may have gotten almost all of the peanuts out. Memory functions in a similar way. By encouraging connections among the key points in your talk, you help pour caramel over the peanuts in memory and increases the amount that people remember from what you present.

16. Stay connected

Make sure you have an offering for the gods of social media. A tweetable bit on a slide, a hashtag to connect online and to encourage comments and debates or a website with online resources. Connect this technique with the one on involving the audience and you’ll get online engagement as well as offline.

Your “tweetables” should resonate with the audience and to do that they need to be catchy. Use strong verbs and keep it short. Think about what you want your audience to take away from your presentation.

17. Share your slides after the event

It’s nice to build a long term relationship with your audience. After all, they will be the ones ensuring your the growing reach of your ideas. Sharing your slides is a great way to help them recall the content of your presentation. It’s also a great way to encourage engagement after the event so don’t forget to include the date, time and title of the presentation as well as your contact details.

Let them know that you’ll be making the slides available from the very beginning of the presentation so that they don’t feel the need to spend too much time taking notes instead of watching you. But don’t share your slides before the presentation otherwise you’ll spoil the show and give people an excuse to leave without watching.

What are some other powerful presentation techniques that work for you?

If you’re looking to step up your public speaking game, check out these 10 easy steps to becoming a keynote speaker!

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Pro Speakers on How to Give a Perfect Keynote Presentation

Updated: January 13, 2021

Published: November 03, 2020

Two years ago, I was asked to give a presentation about my HubSpot article on emotional marketing . It was by far the most exhilarating and nerve-wracking experience of my professional life.

I don’t necessarily hate public speaking. However, leading up to the event, I felt the full responsibility of not only delivering a good presentation but also teaching the audience valuable , actionable information — and that was very intimidating.

I wanted to do a good job, and I wanted to be a good teacher.

Therein lies the importance of keynote presentations : to be effective, they should be educational and entertaining. Do you have a keynote presentation in your future? Read on for some advice from professional speakers.

First, what is a keynote presentation? Glad you asked.

You may also be tasked with a keynote presentation in order to secure funding, make a sale, or update stakeholders or executives. Whatever stage you find yourself on, delivering a keynote presentation is an important responsibility as a public speaker.

How to Give a Perfect Keynote Presentation, According to the Experts

I spoke with four professional speakers on how to deliver a near-perfect presentation. Here are five pieces of advice they shared.

1. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.

When it comes to public speaking, practice quite literally makes perfect. Every expert I spoke with mentioned how frequently they rehearse their presentations.

“However much you think you need to rehearse, rehearse 10 times more than that. When you show up to a concert, you expect that the musicians know their songs, and you certainly don't want the first time they try to play it to be right there on stage. You owe your audience and the folks hiring you to speak the same respect,” said Melanie Deziel , international keynote speaker and founder of StoryFuel . (She received this advice herself from Michael and Amy Port at Heroic Public Speaking .)

Provided by Melanie Deziel

As more presentations and events become fully virtual, the likelihood of technical difficulties also grows. Rehearsing your content can help you weather any interruptions or last-minute changes.

Rehearsal not only leads to content mastery; it allows freedom in your presentations. “The more you rehearse and become comfortable with the content, the freer you'll be to take chances, experiment, and truly focus on your delivery, rather than trying to remember what comes next,” shared Deziel.

How do these experts recommend practicing your presentations? “[Use] a mirror,” said Olivia Scott , keynote speaker and founder of Omerge Alliances . “I take the time to see how I'm being received, I look at my body posture, and I look at everything to make sure that I feel good about what I'm delivering. This isn’t exactly a tool or technology, but it's a way to practice and rehearse.”

Additionally, consider asking friends, family, and trusted colleagues to listen to your practice runs and provide feedback on your presentation.

2. Ask for feedback.

Speaking of feedback, expert orators know to ask for it on a regular basis — from friends, peer groups, mentors, audience members, and clients. “Find a support crew and connect with other speakers in the industry,” mentioned Karen Hopper , keynote speaker and data strategist at M+R. Hopper personally recommends Shine Bootcamp , which provided her with lifelong friendships, helpful feedback, and a priceless education about public speaking.

Provided by Karen Hopper

“We help each other with feedback on our pitches, topics, outlines, and presentations, and we celebrate each others' wins,'' said Hopper. “ ... It’s well worth surrounding yourself with people who will cheer for you and who will give you honest feedback — the fastest way to get better is to ruthlessly seek out that feedback.”

Clients can also be an incredibly helpful source of feedback. If you’re asked to speak at an event or conference, consider asking the people who hired you. “I ask my client for their reaction immediately after every presentation. It’s important to know how they felt, and whether the presentation achieved their goals. Every time my client is happy, that’s my most successful presentation,” said Jeff Toister , keynote speaker, author, and customer service expert.

Lastly, the best feedback often comes from the source — in this case, your audience. Whether you ask questions during your presentation (which we’ll discuss next) or ask for feedback following your presentation, it’s never a bad idea to know what your audience thought about your keynote.

Feedback may look different if giving a remote keynote presentation, but it's still possible.

“It’s been a creative challenge to adapt a talk I'd hoped to give in person to work in a virtual environment. It's much harder to tell how your talks are received online, without being able to see nodding and note-taking and hear laughter and clapping. But all the feedback I have received [over email] indicated that my talk successfully changed the way many people are thinking about their content idea generation process, and that was the ultimate goal of the talk: to change how people think ,” shared Deziel, referring to her recent keynote at Content Marketing World 2020.

3. Engage your audience.

Nobody likes being talked at . Sure, delivering a keynote presentation involves you doing most of the talking, but it doesn’t have to be a one-way conversation. Many of the experts I interviewed encouraged some sort of audience engagement or interaction to enhance your presentation.

“People love to be involved in a presentation. Rather than explain a concept to my audience, I find a way to have them experience it,” said Toister. “For example, when I share how multitasking hurts productivity and causes us to make more errors, I have the audience try a brief multitasking exercise so they can experience the problem themselves.”

Did you know that audience engagement levels drop considerably (14%) if a presenter does most of the talking, versus if the audience talks just as much? Moreover, 64% of people believe that a presentation with two-way interaction is much more engaging than a one-way presentation.

Presentation engagement also takes practice — just like your presentation content itself. “ ... Entertainment comes from the performance itself: the way in which you deliver that content and the energy you bring to that delivery. This is a separate skill you need to practice. Work with a coach, watch back recordings of yourself to identify opportunities to improve your craft, and watch videos of top-notch comedians, poets and other speakers to see what you can learn from them,” encouraged Deziel.

Lastly, as important as engagement is, don’t let technology stand in the way. While smartphones and polling software can make audience interaction easier, they can also get in the way of you connecting with your audience. “I prefer to just have people stand up, raise their hand, or clap to participate in the poll. It gets the audience moving, and I don’t have to worry about WiFi connections or whether the polling software is working,” said Toister.

4. Prioritize your content as much as the delivery.

While entertaining and interacting with your audience is helpful and exciting, it shouldn’t take precedence over your presentation content itself. “Nearly all of what the audience can learn from you comes from the content: the stories you tell, the examples you share, the facts you cite and the other information you explain. Carefully crafting those materials and testing it out ensures that the audience will get the information they were promised from your session,” said Deziel.

Tools like PowerPoint, Keynote, Google Slides, and Canva can help you hone your content and develop a story within your presentation. A 2018 Prezi study (another presentation tool option) showed that 90% of people believe a strong narrative makes for a more engaging, interesting presentation. Data can help form arguments and explain facts, but stories stay with your audience long after your time on stage.

Storytelling is yet another way to engage with your audience, especially by evoking emotions like humor. “It’s entertaining to ask questions, saying, ‘Can anyone relate to this? Has anyone ever had this type of experience before?’ and then getting them involved with some laughter around those experiences. Laughter always helps,” said Scott, who presented at INBOUND 2020 .

Hopper, who was also a Breakout Speaker at INBOUND 2020, agreed: “Don't be afraid to be funny or drop in jokes — there are studies that show that laughing actually helps your brain retain information better, so not only will your audience have a good time laughing with you, but they'll also get more out of your presentation. It’s a win-win!”

5. Focus on the audience.

Finally, everyone can agree that public speaking is either revered or feared. If you relate to the latter and find yourself nervous when giving presentations, turn your focus on the audience.

“Speakers easily get nervous when they focus on themselves and worry too much about their own performance. Focusing on your audience first takes the nerves away and redirects your attention to making sure your audience gets something of value from your keynote,” shared Toister.

That’s the goal of a keynote presentation — to provide value to your audience. Regardless of what story you’re telling, what tools you’re using, or how you’re engaging the crowd, as long as you deliver a presentation that inspires your audience to think differently — even for 30 minutes — you’ve given a perfect keynote presentation.

Note: HubSpot Marketing teams reserve the right to use guest blog author’s likeness across our content as we see fit, including but not limited to HubSpot’s social media channels.

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Apple keynote: how to make an interactive presentation..

Although we have all heard of Powerpoint as a powerful tool for presentations, I believe that after using the Apple keynote, I have also learned that it can be used to create impressive and engaging presentations.

In this story I’m going to show you how we can create and Deliver a Killer Keynote Presentation using Keynote

Set it up correctly :

Start Keynote, then choose a Theme . Choosing an appropriate theme can save you time and effort in redefining styles, backgrounds, and image formatting.

Planning your content :

The Slide is the core component of Keynote, so it’s best to view your interactive piece as a series of small, slide-sized chunks. If you want to tell an interactive narrative, you’ll want to write it one slide at a time in words, images, video, or short animations.

Create your content :

The first page will be a title slide , so write a good welcome text ,Also use simplify charts and graphs to present your data,Always try to put points in further interactive way so that viewer can understand and grasp the slides veritably and fluently. it'll also helps to make the bystander always stick with the slide.

Short animations :

• On the slide, click to select the object you want to animate.
• In the Animate sidebar, click the Animate tab.
• Click Add an Effect, then select an animation.
• To set animation options such as the duration and direction of the animation, use the controls that appear.(Start Transition,Delay)

A Good Animation can help make a PowerPoint presentation more dynamic, and help make information more memorable. The most common types of animation effects include entrances and exits. You can also add sound to increase the intensity of your animation effects.

Presentation experts recommend using animations and sound effects sparingly. Animation can be useful in making a presentation more dynamic, and help to emphasize points, but too much animation can be distracting. Do not let animation and sound take the focus away from what you are saying.

Present it! :

Go ahead — press Play and test out your presentation. Everything should work as you’d expect, and you can press Escape to exit. Save your Presentation to iCloud, then open it on your iPad, and everything will work just the same there.

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Posted on November 16, 2023

You have some great tips. I also appreciate the paragraph about using sounds and animations sparingly. It never fails when I introduce Keynote to students, that their first presentation has sounds and animations for everything. Thank you for sharing, Keynote is one of my favorite apps.

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Posted on November 22, 2023

There's nothing like a great, well-thought-out Keynote. Thanks for sharing your step-by-step guide.

Posted on November 30, 2023

Another great tips would be to use purposeful animation. If your an explaining how gravity work, using the anvil composition to have an object (or even the word GRAVITY) fall for the sky and land in a smoke dust deliver a message out the topic. And you are right to use is sparingly, use it to gain focus, to surprise you listener.

Great topic and explanation!

Posted on December 01, 2023

Hi Satyajit

Who doesn't love keynote? Thank you for the reminders on creating a presentation. You will have to share one you have created!

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A Guide To Creating Amazing Keynote Presentations

A great keynote presentation is a great blend of intriguing storytelling and tech savviness. Realizing that an engaging keynote presentation that holds your audience spellbound from the first slide to the last slide certainly exceeds just having charismatic speaking skills.

There are some insider techniques for achieving amazing keynote presentations. With these techniques you can capture the attention of your audience, keep them listening and have them focused on your entire presentation. Let’s look at some of these techniques in greater detail.

1. Less is always more: Don’t jampack your presentation

Many people feel that having a great presentation is more about littering your presentation with a sea of words, a multitude of slides and all that. To get an amazing keynote presentation, you must embrace this weird fact: less is always more .

Therefore in your exuberance to overwhelm your audience with information, avoid the temptation to jampack your presentation.

This is because naturally as humans, our attentiveness is inversely proportional to time . What this mathematically means is that, the longer your keynote presentation, the lesser the attention your audience give you.

So when you stuff your presentation with tonnes of slides, carbo-loaded the night before so you can talk all day, thinking you are fully set to mesmerize your audience – the yawns of your tired audience midway through your presentation will generate such a powerful tornado that it’ll throw you off stage.

A remarkable study – the Microsoft study – revealed that the average attention span of humans has dropped down from 12 seconds in 2000 to a meager 8.25 in 2015. It is yet on the decrease.

Who would you blame it on? Sorry, but impatience is a virtue in the twenty-first century and not everyone is blessed with the courtesy of waiting to hear you out completely.

2. A captivating story flavors your presentation with an engrossing enchantment

Storytelling is an ancient human activity. It’s literally part of our DNA. It’s how we learn best. ( Image Source )

It is crucial for your keynote presentation to present an enchanting story that grips the attention of your audience. Yes, we are not saying your presentation should have that engrossing charm of a Steven Spielberg movie but at least let it tell a compelling story.

Spice things up with that emotional flavor, connect to the very fabrics of your audience’s feelings, burrowing deeply into their hearts. This is one of the surest ways to a memorable keynote presentation.

This brings a powerful adhesion to your presentation, getting your audience stuck. Let every slide be properly aligned with the central plot of the presentation. Let there be consistency in the colors as well. The typography and the imagery should harmoniously follow across all slides. Also, let your templates match themselves and affectionately complement each other to increase the overall visual allure of the presentation.

3. Get the graphs (charts) lovely and simple

KISS – Keep it simple smartypants. ( Image Source )

The eyes are closer confidants of the brains that the ears, that is why your brains appear to listen more the eyes. What you see appeals more than what you hear. Hence your keynote presentation must sufficiently have this “ocular appeal” – it should be more engaging to the eyes.

While you feed the ears of your audience with the words, the visuals should deliciously feed their eyes as well. Make sure to add great graphs, charts, and diagrams as well with a great aesthetic seasoning to them. Get them lovely and creative too.

Fortunately, keynote lavishes you with very easy means to create beautiful graphs and very appealing graphs. The “Charts” feature on the toolbar allows you bring in interactive as well as 2D or 3D charts.

In all these, try to keep things simple. At times simplicity is the hardest thing to attain in our keynote presentations. Not everyone in your audience is an MIT professor, so don’t stretch their brains too hard.

If the imagery gets too complicated and comprehensive, it is a big turn off for your listeners. You would be applauded with mass yawning and disinterest.

4. Spice things up with some humor

Make em laugh! Image Source

According to the infamous Great Gatsby Quote: a little party never killed nobody . Neither does a little humor – a little humor never killed nobody too. Humor is one of the most powerful ingredients of a great keynote presentation so long the right measurement (quantity) is used.

A nice sense of humor helps to perfume the room with a sense of conviviality enabling your audience to free up themselves a bit.

This turns down the temperature of the tension in the room even making you more relax with the boisterous response from the audience to some of your well-timed little jokes.

A bulk of presentation not accentuated (at some calculated intervals) with humor makes your presentation look like some very formal doctoral thesis making your audience psychologically strained.

This way they would struggle to sustain their attentiveness throughout your presentation. However, ensure the humor is appropriately measured and it doesn’t get excessive.

Otherwise, it would look like the hall was sprayed with gallons of laughing gas, significantly distracting your audience from the main message your keynote presentation is trying to portray.

By the way, if you’ve never seen the “Procrastination Ted Talk” – well this takes the cake as the all-time funniest presentation.

5. Never read off the slides verbatim

This man is reading his slides directly off the screen. DON’T DO THIS! And while we’re here – LOOK AT ALL THAT TEXT!!!. ( Image Source )

This is a big abomination many people are guilty of. They religious read verbatim from the slides. This is boring and more like a preschool where you are teaching your audience how to read the alphabets.

Standing in front of the screen and reading off the slides verbatim violently murders the vigor and energy of your presentation, quickly extinguishing the enthusiasm in your audience.

Rather deploy your slides as conversation points which you would be building on just like an outline for your speech. This way your slides present the visual context for you to talk on.

Most of the experience speakers don’t risk reading word for word from the slides rather they deploy swift parenthetical notes on the ideas they are buttressing to the audience.

6. Always have an emergency plan

The future is miserably opaque, no one can accurately see what would happen the next minute. Therefore it always makes sense to be one step ahead preparing for any ugly eventuality.

One hideous truth that adorns great presentation speakers is their understanding that something is sure to go wrong. It could be the lights, it could be the projector, the laptop or as trivial as the fonts.

It doesn’t mean you have a beef with Mother Fate, but anything can simply skid off the plan. Therefore you should always have an emergency plan in place.

This doesn’t necessarily imply that you cowardly abandon your presentation racing athletically off stage when things go wrong. Therefore also arm yourself with a backup plan, preparing for just anything. This way you are positively praying for the best while preparedly expecting the worst.

7. Lastly, never underestimate the importance of practice

One of the most historical adages our civilization can boast of is practice makes perfect. It has been said over the centuries but it has not lost an ounce of its truthfulness. You definitely need to practice for your keynote presentation just as effortfully as you would for your public speaking.

Even if you can speak to a live billion audience with no drop of sweat or anxiety, you must endeavor to practice. If possible rehearse and perform your presentation say three times – even trying different test audiences.

This would generally improve your general performance, getting you physically and psychologically switched on for that amazing keynote presentation.

About the Author: Lotus Felix is the Senior Content Strategist at Flawless Content Mill . With an astonishing capacity to sell with words, Lotus wouldn’t find it impossible writing a deaf man into buying a radio. Content to him is what the rosary to the Pope: HIS THING! Feel free to reach out via [email protected] .

We really want you to be able to take your presenting skills to the next level. Here are some bonus tips to really take all that hard work you put into your presentation and even get more bang for your buck.

1. Keep it to 1 idea per slide

By keeping your ideas to 1 per slide you will have a central focus point and your audience is more likely to remember what you are talking about. This not only helps with your audience remembering your key ideas, but this will also help you with organizing your thoughts throughout your presentation. Remember that your audience is seeing all your information for the first time. Your focus is to make the information easily digestible in small, concise portions.

2. Keep it to 1 minute per slide

Although your slides may vary slightly in length it is good to have slides that are not overwhelming. It also makes it easy for you to quickly determine the duration of your presentation by simply counting up the number of slides.

For example, if you are doing an hour-long webinar. You know that if you have about 45 slides, you’ll most likely present for 45 minutes and you have 15 minutes left over for Q&A or anything additional. However, it is important to practice your presentation and time yourself to adjust accordingly. The key point is that you want engaging slides that keep your audience paying attention the whole time.

3. Try to have your presentation recorded

This can be very beneficial if you have the time and resources to do it. As we mentioned earlier there are so many reasons you will benefit from practicing your presentation that you will do yourself a favor by going through the extra work of filming or recording yourself.

If you’re doing a webinar, some webinar services (like GotoWebinar) have recording features. All you have to do is to remember to press the “Record Webinar” button during the webinar. After the webinar is over you’ll be able to download the video files. Another option is to have someone record the webinar for you using screen capture software. If you’re using Mac, you can easily use Quicktime to record the webinar. Here’s how:

• Open Quicktime
• Go to File > New Screen Recording
• Click the red record button
• Click on the screen that you want to record. Basically, just tap once anywhere on your screen.
• When you’re done click the black square in your taskbar to stop the recording
• Save the file and give it a name

If you are presenting in front of a live audience, then bring a tripod and use your phone to record your presentation. If you have a better video camera with higher resolution feel free to use that. However, iPhones are great for everyday recording of both video and audio.

Although recording on the day of your presentation can be a useful tip for growing your skills as a presenter it is always wise to do this before your big day. Many people find that they are able to work on their tone, timing and body language quite easily after they actually see themselves on film or hear themselves on a recording.

4. Put your presentation on slideshare.net

When you’re done presenting, it can’t hurt to upload your presentation to Slideshare.net . Slideshare.net is a great way to get more eyeballs on your presentation and on your brand. It can also drive some traffic to your website. Finally, you can link back to your website from Slideshare.net and doing this can also help with your SEO efforts.

5. Put your presentation on YouTube

This takes a bit more effort because you’re going to want to include audio with your slideshow. If you’ve recorded your live presentation then this can be a bit easier. Otherwise, you’re going to have to get some video editing software and edit in your audio and make it match the timing of your slide presentation.

YouTube is a great search engine to get some traction for a particular topic. This simple step of uploading your presentation may help you end up getting a lot of views, comments, and more visitors to your website. It’s definitely worth testing to see if it helps with your particular good, service or business. Here is a list of video editing software we recommend:

• Screenflow (Mac) – Easy learning curve, great video output and relatively inexpensive. Lifetime free trial, however, any video you export will have a watermark. The paid version (without watermark) starts at $129. You can download it here .
• Camtasia (Mac and PC) – Camtasia was originally a screen recording software but now has video editing capabilities. Has a 30-day free trial. $249 to purchase.
• Adobe Premiere (Mac and PC) – This is the video editing software that the professionals use. It comes as a subscription based software for only $21 a month. It is not too difficult to get the hang of. Adobe offers a 7-day trial before you’re charged for the software.

iMovie for Mac is free, however, we’ve found that is is too simplistic and not very intuitive for new users. Regardless of what program you use, be sure that you are outputting content with the highest resolution possible as YouTube will compress your video again when you upload it. Be sure to add lots of keywords and be very descriptive when you upload your video to YouTube. The better you describe your video the more likely it is that Google will drive users to your video when they are searching for relevant information.

6. Post your presentation to Facebook

If you have turned your presentation into a YouTube video, you might as well share it on Facebook with your audience. You’d be surprised how well this works for stirring up business for some folks. Depending on what you do for a living, this is a great way to remind your friends and professional network of what you do or what new projects you are working on which can help generate more business.

7. Post your presentation to Linkedin

Linkedin is becoming Facebook for professionals, meaning more people are spending time on Linkedin and staying on the platform throughout the day. Posting your presentation content to Linkedin is a no-brainer. People will cruise by and check out your profile from time to time and you’ll get more eyeballs on your presentations.

8. Create a blog post around your presentation

If you’ve managed to upload your presentation to either YouTube or Slideshare.net, you’re able to embed either the YouTube video or the Slideshare presentation to a blog post. It’s an easy way to get a bit more traffic from the search engines. If you have the time and money you can transcribe your audio so you can publish the text of your presentation as the blog content. Remember, search engines read words.

9. Put Your Name, Email and Phone Number On Each Slide

This last step you can use at your discretion. If you’re presenting for a big brand, you probably should leave this information off. However, if you’re a real estate agent or a small business this may be crucial for you. The opportunity cost here is that you will have to decide how important it is to have your pertinent contact information on each slide at the expense of detracting from the aesthetics of your presentation.

At a minimum make sure your beginning and ending slides have all the relevant contact information unless your brand you are working with is a household name. Now you have enough powerful tools, suggestions and ideas to go out and create powerful, impactful and memorable presentations that will make you a great presenter.

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Presentation Guru

13 pro tips to ace your keynote presentations.

If you are one of those 588 million Apple users worldwide , own a Mac and use iPhone and iCloud; then you’re no stranger to the Apple ecosystem and its own exciting presentation software called Keynote. However, you still might not know how to use several tools that can make your presentation appealing. For students and teachers, Keynote should be a go-to presentation  tool because the iOS version gives you a desktop experience that rivals can’t compete.

Before coming to the questions you need to ask when editing presentation content , we are sharing some fantastic features of this popular PowerPoint alternative you might now know. For the next time you’re on stage for any presentation, make sure that you incorporate these sixteen keynote tips and create a killer slide deck to impress the people you are presenting to and stand out among all the presenters.

1) Use a Pre-Built Template Design

Image courtesy of https://www.dummies.com

If you are worried about your upcoming presentation assignment and you are out of ideas, then don’t hesitate to choose keynote presentation templates. Using the pre-built Keynote templates will save your time as you don’t need to download PowerPoint or third party templates. Apple has designed its own range of templates with a powerful and aesthetic feel. Since Keynote software application is designed by Apple, you’re not going to find similar template designs on Windows or any other operating system.

Also, they give you a quick start to create an eye-catching presentation as you get your hands on numerous layouts, tools, and elements to use quickly. It’s a plus point because most of the themes and templates in third party apps have been used in countless projects. You can always check out this article for some alternative powerful presentation formats .

The appealing themes and tools can help you to develop a consistent story. It is important to choose a template that fits with your story.

Bear in mind that minimalism is the new trend. If you don’t know how to create your first Keynote presentation professionally, go for minimal and modern templates that you can easily manage. You’ll find numerous Apple Keynote templates with a clean outlook and elegant aesthetic. A simple skewed photo in the middle of the screen with plenty of white space on the right and left gives you enough room to combine decorative elements with elegant typography.

You can design your own template design or customized supportive slides. If you simply want to add new slides in a template, make sure that they match with the original keynote presentation that you selected on your own.

2) Customize Your Toolbar

Image courtesy of https://24slides.com/presentbetter

If you go for a head-to-head comparison of PowerPoint vs Keynote , you will know that navigating the workspace in Keynote isn’t hard. But a lot of times, the default toolbar does not have the feature we frequently use in our presentation, and you have to go to the menu bar to pick the desired tool, which makes things hectic for you.

Now you don’t have to open your menu bar again and again. Simply go to view and select the customize toolbar option and a box will appear where you can drag and drop your frequently used option. For example, if you find yourself repeatedly using charts, add a slide, and adjust image options, then you may want to add them. The best thing about a customized toolbar is that you can always undo it and return to the default settings.

3) Choose A Set Of Icons & Stick To It

A common mistake that most students do is using multiple different icons and symbols in their presentation. It is advisable to use a single set of icons matching with your theme and stick to them throughout. Apple has terrific icons that you can play with. According to presentation experts, when we use the same set fonts and illustrative elements, our entire presentations look cohesive even though you use different designs in each slide.

While this point makes sense, you have to be careful about the selection of icons. Make sure that the combination of a collection of icons wide enough to cover the essential needs of your topic. If you have limited content and the topic is more self-explanatory, then you don’t even need icons. Enlarged bold fonts are enough.

4) Pick Your Font Pair

Image courtesy of https://24slides.com/presentbetter/first-keynote-presentation/

It looks like the easiest and fun task, but it is not. Why? Because the font you choose can impact the readability factor. And what is the whole point of presenting to an entire bunch of people if they can’t read what you are showing to them? Not only this, but the fonts you use also leave different impressions on your audience. Some fonts are professional while some are funny and even scary-looking.

Therefore, select clear and comprehensible font sizes. It is recommended to use easy-to-read standard fonts like Helvetica or Cambria. But if you really want to add some decorative element in your presentation, then pair your standard font with Freestyle Script or Lobstor font, which best matches with its look.

5) Use Text To A Minimum

Image courtesy of https://elements-preview-images.imgix.net

Now you’ve selected the appropriate fonts; it is essential to make sure that you put less text in your slides regardless of the presentation software you use. If your presentation is about a research paper and you don’t know how long an abstract should be,  then don’t worry. You don’t need to add paragraphs. Nobody wants their audience to read out the screen.

If they start reading, then there will be no reward for them to listen to you. Therefore, you should avoid adding extra information and additional features because it will only make your slide look wordy and messy. You are up on the stage to speak, and the people sitting in front of you want to listen.

6) Make Visuals Your Friend

Image courtesy of https://elements-cover-images-0.imgix.net/

You must have heard that a picture speaks louder than words. Imagine your presentation slides as pure audiovisual material. Adding imagery in your presentation is top tip for creating an engaging virtual presentation . It makes it more appealing and increases the recall rate of the audience. Always use images and illustrations that can reinforce the message and help the listeners understand the main points. The right pictures can tell their own story and, this way, you don’t need to put much effort into explaining your position.

With Keynote, you can customize your slide by playing with images. Simply drag the image from your Mac and drop it on your presentation screen. Another way is to go to your toolbar, click photos, and select the image from your photo gallery and drag it on your slide.

7) WOW The Crowd With Animated Effects

Image courtesy of https://tr3.cbsistatic.com

Who doesn’t like animations? In fact, they bring liveliness in your content, and they are powerful enough to add consistency to your story and make it more captivating. If you want to add animation as you move from the current slide to the next slide, click on the ‘Animate’ button, and you’ll see some options on your screens. The four options are;

• appear and move,
• object effects,
• flip, spin, & scale,
• text effects.

If you need these effects on any object or picture, then click on it and choose the animate option from your toolbar. You have the option to adjust the color, delay, duration, and more of your chosen effect.  

8) Use Text Boxes

Image courtesy of https://static.makeuseof.com

If you own a Mac, then you probably know that Keynote presentation software is preinstalled in Mac and is free to use. To use features available on Keynote and make your presentation beautiful, you don’t need to be a graphic designer. For example, you can use the textbook option from the toolbar, and this way, you can give particular space to essential points on your slide. You can also use textbox when you have less space, or you don’t want to increase the size of your text from the rest of the body text.

Textbox allows you to make important points, and statistics pop out from the slide without the need to increase the text size or make it bold. As long as the text is placed in a textbox or highlighted with a different color, it will be viewed as crucial information.

9) Add Catchy Illustrations

If you want to add the magic of creativity in your presentation, add unconventional illustrations and infographics. They are powerful and add an intuitive sense of informality to your presentation. You can even add comments and illustrations drawn by your hand on your iPad with Apple Pencil.

10) Don’t Be Afraid To Try Colors

Image courtesy of https://discussions.apple.com

The biggest myth is to stick with a single color, or your presentation will look like a clown. With Apple Keynote, you will get versatile presentation templates that are not based on one or two colors. The premium themes have unique modern texture designed with larger color palettes. The best thing about the color palettes is that the colors are vibrant, with huge color mixing options. You can create your customized color palette, just like the toolbar.

All you have to do is open the ‘Color Picker’ and create your own color scheme for your project. In case you are out of ideas, choose a default color palette from the list and try it.

11) Edit The Slide Or Change The Look

You can change the whole outlook of your presentation if you feel that the design and the content are a mismatch. You can discard your old theme at any time and pick a new one. Just click on the document button and go on the change theme option. The good thing is that while changing your theme, you have the opportunity to keep the customizations you’ve made previously. For example, if you don’t want to change the theme but keep the text color, then click on ‘keep your style changes.’ Moreover, if you feel like going back to your old theme, then you can always undo it. You have both options.

12) iCloud Keynote

Image courtesy of https://cms-assets.tutsplus.com

Now you can work on your presentations on any Apple device. With Apple Keynote presentations, you get the ability to store and edit your slides on other Apple devices. To do this, you need to open your Mac and sign in to iCloud. As soon as you enter your Apple ID and password, your Mac will be connected to iCloud, where you can save every data, including documents, photos, contacts, and Keynote presentations. This means that you can create your original Keynote presentation on Mac continue editing on your iPhone while lying on your bed.

13) A Lot Of Practice

Image courtesy of Ben Stanfield/Flickr

Last but not least, good things take time. If you consider yourself as an experienced speaker, then let us tell you that even the renowned keynote presenters prepare for a speech months before . So, if you rehearse exhaustively, your chances of success would increase immensely. Practicing allows you to deliver the content in an interesting and helps you to pick the right clothing, gestures, hand movement, and even the time of appropriate intervals.

Don’t just read your presentation. You are big enough to understand that your audience is capable of reading, and that’s why you shouldn’t be reading the slide for them. Your presentation should provide you with a context filled with visual aid and illustrative elements. Take your presentation as an outline and build your arguments around it, just like you do in casual daily conversations.

It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t read the content at all. But identify the right speed. It shouldn’t be very high or shallow. If you are reading out fast, it doesn’t mean that you are confident, but it means that you are nervous or lack presentation skills. Experienced speakers take regular pauses to emphasize the main points. And if you’re struggling, remember there are some amazing online apps to help you deliver killer speeches and presentation.

The Bottom Line

Apple users now have the opportunity to take their presentations to a new level with this fantastic Keynote presentation software. You don’t need to waste your money on buying online templates. Now, you’ve finally learned that Keynote is easy to use, start working on your upcoming presentations and amaze your audience.

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Melissa Calvert

Latest posts by melissa calvert ( see all ).

• 13 Pro Tips To Ace Your Keynote Presentations - 3rd August 2020

free ppt templates

9th August 2020 at 2:52 am

thx for your share, these are all good advice, for starters, try using templates to quickly create a beautiful presentation, we have made a lot of professional and customizable presentation templates, ready to download and use.

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6 Tips and Tricks for Amazing Keynote Presentations on Your Mac

If you use Keynote on your Mac, take note of these essential tips and tricks to make your Keynote presentations stand out.

Keynote is the simplest way to make a beautiful presentation on your Mac. If you pick a template you like and let the defaults do the trick, you'll most likely end up with something you're proud of. However, you've got a lot more options than just the basics.

When using Keynote, you can easily transition between different slides. On top of that, you can jump around however you feel necessary—along with much more. Here, you'll learn the best Keynote tips for making amazing presentations in macOS.

1. Master Keynote's Slide Transitions

Transitions and animations are the two biggest reasons to use Keynote for making a presentation. To add a transition effect, select the slide from the slide navigator on the left. From the top-right corner of the window, click on the Animate tab.

Then, select the Action option, and you'll see a big blue Add an Effect button.

When you click on it, you'll be able to select from more than a dozen effects. In the example below, we've used the Confetti effect.

Once you select a transition, you'll be able to define the duration, the direction, and the start time.

2. Animate Individual Objects on the Slides

Keynote lets you control exactly when and where your objects show up. You can animate these by going to Animate > Build In > Add an Effect .

Click the Preview button to see how it looks. If you want to animate multiple objects together or one after the other, select all of them when defining the Build In effect.

When multiple objects are involved, click the Build Order button from the bottom of the sidebar. Here, you can define the order in which the objects appear on the screen.

3. Master Magic Move

Magic Move lets you directly move an object from one slide to another, with complete control over the animation.

First, place the objects on the slides the way you want. From the Slide Navigator , duplicate the slide by using the Command + D shortcut.

Now, change the position of the objects on both slides. The first slide will have objects in the default state. In the second slide, position the elements where you want them to end up.

Select the first of the two slides (not both), and from the sidebar, click on the Animate tab. From the Add an Effect section, choose Magic Move .

Preview it, and you'll instantly see a smooth animation going from one slide to another. Keynote takes care of the transition and animation automatically. But if you want, you can change the duration, match it with text instead of objects, and define when to start the transition.

4. Edit Your Slide Layouts

If you're working on a big presentation, you'll probably want your styling to be consistent. To achieve this, you can use the feature that lets you edit your slide layouts—which will allow you to define layouts and designs you use frequently.

Finding this feature in Keynote is simple. On your Mac keyboard, hold the Control button and click on a slide with your trackpad. Then, choose Edit Slide Layouts from the context menu.

After selecting Edit Slide Layouts , you can adjust numerous areas of your Keynote slides. For example, you can include a title and photo—along with several other things.

When you're finished, hit the blue Done button at the bottom, and you'll have something that better fits your needs.

If you aren't a big fan of the presentation layouts in Keynote, you can always consider picking from various Keynote alternatives .

5. Customize Your Toolbar

The more you use Keynote on your Mac, the more you'll figure out what does and doesn't work for you. You'll also probably notice that you use some tools more frequently than others. Having easy access to these is a good idea if you'd like to work more efficiently when creating your presentations.

Customizing your toolbar in Keynote is quite straightforward. When using the app on your Mac, you'll first need to go to the View menu from the macOS menu bar and choose Customize Toolbar located at the bottom of the dropdown.

A pop-up window will appear; here, you'll see a huge range of icons and other things you can move around. Moving these is the same as if you wanted to change icons on your iPhone or iPad; you can drag and drop the features you most frequently use.

When you're done customizing your toolbar, you can click the Done button in the bottom right-hand corner.

Keynote isn't the only way you can customize on your Mac . You can change several areas on your computer—color schemes, icons, and sounds, to name a few.

6. Use Action Buttons for Shapes in Keynote

As you create your presentations in Keynote, you might want to use shapes for several reasons. You can use them to create graphics , and they're also handy for breaking up your text—among numerous other things. One of the app's best hidden features lets you turn any shape into more of an interactive button.

You can use the action options for shapes in Keynotes to jump to a different slide. But that's not all; they're also handy for opening web pages and even ending the presentation.

First, you'll need to add a shape to your Keynote presentation. You can do this by selecting Shape from Keynote's toolbar at the top.

Choose the shape you want to add to your presentation and select it. After that, use the Command + K keyboard shortcut.

Expand the dropdown menu, and you can choose whether you want your shape to link to a slide, a website, or something else.

After choosing the purpose of your shape in Keynote, complete the remaining steps that your Mac prompts you to do. You can then use your shape to supercharge how your presentation functions.

Get More Advanced With Keynote Presentations on Your Mac

If you use a Mac to create your presentations, you might want to use Keynote for several reasons. Its interface is user-friendly, and you have plenty of customization options. On top of that, the app makes it easy for you to move around to different slides and various other things—giving you more control over what you're trying to do.

Now that you've read these tips, you should have a better understanding of how you can improve your presentations and wow your audience. You've learned all about adding effects, skipping to different slides, and more.

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How to Make a “Good” Presentation “Great”

• Guy Kawasaki

Remember: Less is more.

A strong presentation is so much more than information pasted onto a series of slides with fancy backgrounds. Whether you’re pitching an idea, reporting market research, or sharing something else, a great presentation can give you a competitive advantage, and be a powerful tool when aiming to persuade, educate, or inspire others. Here are some unique elements that make a presentation stand out.

• Fonts: Sans Serif fonts such as Helvetica or Arial are preferred for their clean lines, which make them easy to digest at various sizes and distances. Limit the number of font styles to two: one for headings and another for body text, to avoid visual confusion or distractions.
• Colors: Colors can evoke emotions and highlight critical points, but their overuse can lead to a cluttered and confusing presentation. A limited palette of two to three main colors, complemented by a simple background, can help you draw attention to key elements without overwhelming the audience.
• Pictures: Pictures can communicate complex ideas quickly and memorably but choosing the right images is key. Images or pictures should be big (perhaps 20-25% of the page), bold, and have a clear purpose that complements the slide’s text.
• Layout: Don’t overcrowd your slides with too much information. When in doubt, adhere to the principle of simplicity, and aim for a clean and uncluttered layout with plenty of white space around text and images. Think phrases and bullets, not sentences.

As an intern or early career professional, chances are that you’ll be tasked with making or giving a presentation in the near future. Whether you’re pitching an idea, reporting market research, or sharing something else, a great presentation can give you a competitive advantage, and be a powerful tool when aiming to persuade, educate, or inspire others.

• Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist at Canva and was the former chief evangelist at Apple. Guy is the author of 16 books including Think Remarkable : 9 Paths to Transform Your Life and Make a Difference.

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We hate generic boring training videos as much as you do, and we won’t ever release a video unless it has actionable learning and is fun to watch.

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Bullet Points in Presentations Suck. Unless…

The Speaker’s Journey

Whether your goal as a speaker is to persuade colleagues in a meeting room, deliver a webinar, be a great podcast guest, or walk a giant stage as an industry thought leader, your journey begins with developing the confidence to stand up and share your message .

Create Magical Audience Experiences Based on Your Values

Part two of your journey is to build your on-stage persona around your purpose and values. Crafting an audience experience that’s a reflection of why you do what you do, putting more of you  into your content and your performance.

Our Presentation eXperience Design (PxD) course will teach you exactly how to do this.

Learn how to build your on-stage persona around your purpose and values. Crafting an audience experience that’s a reflection of why you do what you do, putting more of you  into your content and your performance.

Learning how to be a better public speaker will change your life.

“Speaking changed my life. It improved my confidence and communication skills, I found life-long friendships with other speakers, and I met my wife. All because I chose to fight the fear and get on stage. I believe wholeheartedly that anyone can become a great speaker , and that you too will see a profound impact on your life by following the voices of wisdom on Be the Keynote.” — Be the Keynote founder, Oli Gardner

“I refused to speak for years because I was suffering – as many do – from imposter syndrome. I was terrified of someone in the audience, during a Q&A session, asking the question “How do you know?” and that I wouldn’t be able to defend my position. In the six years that followed, travelling the world speaking to crowds from 6 to 6,000 I’ve never once been asked a question like that. Speaking changed my life. It improved my confidence and communication skills, I found life-long friendships with other speakers, and I met my wife. All because I chose to fight the fear and get on stage. I believe wholeheartedly that anyone can become a great speaker , and that you too will see a profound impact on your life by following the voices of wisdom on Be the Keynote.” — Be the Keynote founder, Oli Gardner