how to make powerpoint presentation more creative

27 Super Hidden PowerPoint Tips and Tricks Only The Pros Know!

Ausbert Generoso

Ever felt like your PowerPoint presentations could use a little magic? You’re not alone. Whether you’re a seasoned presenter or just getting started, there’s a world of PowerPoint tips and tricks waiting for you. In this guide, we’re diving into the nitty-gritty of Microsoft PowerPoint to uncover 30 hidden gems that’ll transform the way you create and deliver slides.

From making your designs pop to streamlining your workflow, these PowerPoint hacks are designed for real-world impact. No jargon, just practical insights that’ll have you presenting like a pro in no time.

Let’s cut through the noise and get straight to the good stuff – your next presentation is about to level up. Ready? Let’s get started.

27 PowerPoint Tips and Tricks That Put The Power in PowerPoint

1. Morph Transition for Seamless Animation

What’s it for:  Elevate your presentation by seamlessly animating objects and creating smooth transitions between slides. Morph transition is your key to a dynamic and visually engaging storytelling experience, allowing you to captivate your audience effortlessly. 

How to do it:

• Position the same object in different parts on multiple slides
• Select all slides, and go to the Transitions tab.
• Choose “Morph” as the transition effect.

2. SVG Image Integration

What’s it for:  Did you think SVG’s only work for websites and professional photo editing tools? They do, too, in PowerPoint! Import high-quality Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). Maintain image clarity, resize without loss, and enhance your presentations with crisp logos and icons. 

• Save your chosen SVG on your device.
• Click on the Insert tab.
• Choose “Pictures” and select your SVG file.
• Adjust the size without compromising image quality.

3. Designer Feature for Quick Layouts

What’s it for:  Effortlessly create professional-looking slides with the Designer feature. Receive instant layout suggestions based on your content, saving time and ensuring your presentation looks polished. 

• Select a slide.
• Go to the Design tab and click Designer on the far right along the ribbon.
• Select through ready-made slide designs for instant layouts.

4. Insert 3D Models

What’s it for:  Amp up your presentations with manipulable 3D models, adding a dynamic dimension. Whether it’s showcasing products or visualizing data, 3D models bring your slides to life. 

• Click on the “3D Models” dropdown and proceed to Stock 3D Models.
• Search for a 3D model of your choice and insert.
• Manipulate and customize as needed.

5. SmartArt Graphics for Visual Hierarchy

What’s it for:  Convey complex ideas with visual hierarchy using SmartArt graphics. These graphics offer a structured and visually appealing way to organize information, making your content more digestible. 

• Go to the Insert tab.
• Select “SmartArt” and navigate through the available categories.
• Select a graphic template that fits your presentation needs.
• Enter your content and customize as needed.

6. Eyedropper Tool for Color Matching

What’s it for:  Maintain a cohesive design by using the Eyedropper tool to pick colors from images or elements within your presentation. Ensure consistency and professional aesthetics in every slide. 

• Select the editable, native PowerPoint object you wish to customize.
• Go to the Shape Format tab and click on the Shape Fill dropdown.
• Select “More Fill Colors…” and click the eyedropper icon to begin color appropriating.

7. Record and Insert Audio

What’s it for:  Infuse personality into your presentation by recording audio directly within PowerPoint. Ideal for adding voiceovers, explanations, or personal touches that enhance audience engagement. 

• Click on “Audio” and choose “Record Audio.”
• Record your audio and insert it into the slide.

8. Presenter Coach for Rehearsing

What’s it for:  Elevate your presentation skills with Presenter Coach. Receive valuable feedback on pacing, filler words, and more, refining your delivery for a confident and impactful performance. 

• Click on the Slide Show tab.
• Choose “Rehearse with Coach” to start practicing.

9. Hyperlink Navigation for Seamless Transitions

What’s it for:  Streamline your presentation flow by implementing Hyperlink Navigation. This trick allows you to create clickable links within your slides, enabling effortless transitions between related content or external resources, enhancing the overall navigational experience. 

• Select the text or object you want to hyperlink.
• Right-click and choose “Hyperlink” or use the Ctrl+K shortcut.
• Specify the destination, whether it’s another slide, a website, or a file, to create a seamless navigational experience.

10. Alt Text for Accessibility

What’s it for:  Improve accessibility by adding descriptive alternative text to images and objects. Ensure inclusivity for visually impaired individuals, making your presentation accessible to a wider audience. 

• Right-click on the image or object.
• Choose “Edit Alt Text” and enter a descriptive text.

11. Slide Zoom for Dynamic Navigation

What’s it for:  Elevate your presentation’s navigation with Slide Zoom, offering the flexibility to jump to specific slides during a presentation without adhering to a linear sequence. This dynamic feature ensures a more engaging and tailored audience experience. 

• Set a master slide where you’d like to put your “mini slides” altogether.
• Navigate to the Insert tab > Zoom dropdown > Slide Zoom.
• Select the slides you want to link onto your master slide and insert.

12. Live Captions and Subtitles

What’s it for:  Foster inclusivity by enabling live captions and subtitles in multiple languages. This feature enhances accessibility, making your presentation more engaging and comprehensible for a diverse global audience. 

• Go to the Slide Show tab.
• Select “Always Use Subtitles” and choose your language.

13. Password Protection for Security

What’s it for:  Safeguard your presentation’s sensitive content by adding a password. This security measure ensures that only authorized individuals can access and view the information, adding an extra layer of protection. 

• Navigate to the File tab.
• Select “Info” and click on “Protect Presentation.”
• Choose “Encrypt with Password” and set your password.

14. Animation Painter for Consistent Animations

What’s it for:  Maintain a polished and consistent look throughout your presentation by using the Animation Painter. Copy and apply animations across different objects with ease, ensuring a cohesive visual experience. 

• Select the object with the same, desired animation as the others.
• Go to the Animation tab.
• Click on “Animation Painter” and apply to other objects.

15. Linked Excel Charts for Real-Time Updates

What’s it for:  Integrate linked Excel charts for real-time updates in your PowerPoint presentation. Any modifications made to the linked Excel file automatically reflect in your slides, ensuring data accuracy. 

• Copy your Excel chart.
• In PowerPoint, use “Paste Special” and choose “Microsoft Excel Worksheet Object.”

16. Custom Slide Sizes

What’s it for:  Tailor your presentation to various screen dimensions by customizing slide sizes. This feature, accessible through the Design tab, ensures your content fits seamlessly across different display settings. 

• Navigate to the Design tab.
• Click on the “Slide Size” dropdown and choose “Page Setup”.
• Change “Slide sized for” to Custom.

17. Grid and Guidelines for Precision

What’s it for:  Achieve precise object alignment with gridlines and guides. This feature, essential for creating visually polished and organized presentations, ensures your content is visually appealing and professionally structured. 

• Go to the View tab.
• Check the “Grids” and “Guidelines” toggles for display options and customization.

18. Slide Master for Consistent Design

What’s it for:  Establish a cohesive presentation design by utilizing the Slide Master. This time-saving feature enables you to set consistent layouts, fonts, and colors throughout your presentation. 

• Click on “Slide Master” to access and customize master slides.

19. Quick Access Toolbar Customization

What’s it for:  Streamline your workflow by personalizing the Quick Access Toolbar with your most-used commands. This customization ensures quick access to essential tools, enhancing efficiency during presentation creation. 

• Click on the dropdown arrow on the Quick Access Toolbar.
• Select “More Commands” to customize your toolbar.

20. Ink Annotations for Handwriting

What’s it for:  Personalize your presentations with a touch-enabled device using ink annotations. This feature allows you to draw or write directly on slides, adding a unique and handwritten touch to your content. 

• Go to the Draw tab and click on Draw to begin drawing.
• Choose “Ink to Text” or “Ink to Shape” for handwriting annotations.

21. Crop to Shape for Image Customization

What’s it for:  Unleash your creativity by utilizing the Crop to Shape feature, allowing you to create custom image shapes. This adds a distinctive flair to your presentation, providing a visually dynamic and engaging experience. 

• Select the image.
• Navigate to the Picture Format tab.
• Click on “Crop” and choose “Crop to Shape.”
• Select the shape you want your image to have as frame.

22. Slide Show Recording with Narration

What’s it for:  Capture your entire presentation, including narration and animations, by recording a self-running slideshow. This feature is invaluable for sharing presentations with a wider audience, ensuring a consistent and engaging delivery. 

• Click on “Record Slide Show” and choose recording options.

23.  Dynamic Color Scheme Switch for Vibrant Slides

What’s it for:  Infuse energy into your presentation by dynamically switching color schemes. This handy trick allows you to quickly experiment with various color palettes, giving your slides a vibrant and fresh appearance in just a few clicks. 

• Explore different color options by selecting “Colors” and experimenting with the available palettes. Instantly transform the look of your presentation to match your desired mood and style.

24.  Smart Alignment and Distribution for Pixel-Perfect Precision

What’s it for:  Attain pixel-perfect precision in your presentation design with the Smart Alignment and Distribution trick. This technique allows you to not only align objects with accuracy but also evenly distribute them horizontally, ensuring a polished and visually appealing layout. 

• Select the objects you want to align.
• Navigate to the Format tab.
• Click on “Align” to access options like Align Left, Center, or Right for precise alignment.
• Further refine your layout by choosing “Distribute Horizontally,” ensuring equal spacing between objects and achieving a professional design.

25. Insert Online Videos

What’s it for:  Seamlessly integrate online videos directly into your presentation. This feature eliminates the need for external players, offering a smooth and immersive viewing experience for your audience. 

• Click on the “Video” dropdown and select Online Movie.
• Paste the video link and your video should be embedded onto your PowerPoint slide.

26. Embed Fonts for Portability

What’s it for:  Ensure consistent visual appeal on any device by embedding fonts in your presentation. This is particularly useful when sharing your work with others who may not have the same fonts installed, enhancing portability. 

• Go to the File tab.
• Select “Options” and go to the Save tab from the window popup.
• Check “Embed fonts in the file” as well as “Embed all characters”.

27.  Text Transformation

What’s it for:  Uncover the elegance of text transformation with the Shape Format trick. This hack allows you to access a myriad of text transformation designs, offering a swift and sophisticated way to elevate the visual appeal of your presentation. 

• Select the text you want to transform.
• Navigate to the Shape Format tab.
• Click on “Text Effects” and explore the “Transform” options for a variety of stylish text designs. Instantly apply a transformation that suits the tone and style of your presentation.

5 Critical Best Practices to Implement These Pro PowerPoint Tips and Tricks for a Technically Proficient Presentation

Enhance the technical brilliance of your presentation by focusing on these crucial best practices:

1.  Streamlined Font Selection

• Practice:  Limit your font styles to a maximum of three per slide.
• Why:  Simplifying fonts enhances readability, maintains visual consistency, and prevents distraction, ensuring your message is clear and impactful.

2.  High-Resolution Images

• Practice:  Source HD images from reputable free resource websites like Freepik or Unsplash .
• Why:  High-resolution images prevent pixelation, ensuring clarity and professionalism. Crisp visuals contribute to a visually appealing presentation.

3.  Cohesive Color Palette

• Practice:  Stick to a consistent color palette throughout your slides; use the eyedropper tool for precise color matching.
• Why:  A unified color scheme enhances visual harmony, reinforces brand identity, and elevates the overall aesthetics of your presentation.

4.  Efficient Data Visualization

• Practice:  Use charts and graphs for data-driven slides, choosing appropriate chart types for different data sets.
• Why:  Visualizing data through charts improves comprehension, making complex information more accessible and engaging for your audience.

5.  Transitions with Purpose

• Practice:  Apply slide transitions judiciously. Choose transitions that complement the content and avoid excessive animations.
• Why:  Subtle transitions maintain audience focus, while excessive animations may distract from the core message.

Final Thoughts

In presentation-making, technical practices harmonized with thoughtful design is the key to delivering an impactful message. Whether it may be as simple as considering font choices, to incorporating high-resolution visuals, you do not only get to enhance the aesthetics but also ensure your audience’s undivided attention.

Remember, a technically proficient presentation is not just a showcase of information, but also one that leaves a rather immersive experience for those who will see. But at the end of the day, it comes down to your delivery. So, no sweat! You’re doing amazing, rockstar!

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12 Easy Steps to Make a Presentation Creative (+ Examples)

Learn how to make a presentation creative without PowerPoint, and draw inspiration from creative presentation examples by industry and use case.

Dominika Krukowska

9 minute read

Short answer

How can I make a presentation more creative?

• Start with captivating cover videos
• Add chapters for smooth navigation
• Weave in personalization using dynamic variables
• Enhance storytelling with animations
• Highlight key points using subtle visual cues
• Engage with interactive elements
• Showcase ideas using vibrant images
• Sprinkle in video narrations
• Wrap up with a smart CTA

Boring presentations can damage your brand’s image

Boring presentations can feel like those endless meetings where one person monopolizes the conversation. You know, the ones where you’re zoning out, doodling on the side of your notes, just waiting for it to end so you could move on to something more engaging.

That's the disconnect your audience experiences when faced with a boring presentation.

What’s even worse is that when your presentation is dull, it doesn't just bore your audience—it subtly suggests that you or your brand might be, well, kind of boring too .

The good thing is that with the right tweaks and insights, every presentation holds the potential to be memorable.

In this post, we're diving deep into the heart of what makes a presentation creative. We'll explore the mistakes that lead to forgettable slides and the strategies to elevate your content.

By the end, you’ll have all it takes to transform your presentation from mundane to magnetic and have your audience engage with it from the first click to the last.

Let’s go!

What makes a presentation boring?

A boring presentation is a mix of repetitive designs and long chunks of text without a human touch. When slides come off as too generic or overly complex, or they swing between being too predictable or hard to grasp, they lose their spark.

Add in a lack of visuals, real stories, or interaction, and you've got a recipe for audience disinterest.

To truly engage, a presentation should blend interaction, emotion, and content that is relevant to the audience.

How to make a presentation creative step-by-step

Modern presentations are more than just slides—they're experiences. Gone are the days of static bullet points; today's audience craves engagement, interactivity, and a touch of the unexpected.

Let's explore how to make your presentation more creative step-by-step:

1) Add videos to break up text

Videos can set the tone, explain complex ideas, or simply entertain. By strategically placing them at key moments where you feel energy might dip, you make sure your audience remains engaged, and your message is reinforced.

Whether it's a real-life testimonial, a product demo, or a fun animation, videos can breathe life into abstract concepts, making them tangible and relatable.

And, there’s science behind it too: presentations with a video on the cover slide see 32% more engagement . But the magic of videos doesn't stop at the cover. Presentations sprinkled with videos throughout held people's attention 37% longer and even boosted the click-through rate on calls-to-action by 17%.

2) Create a non-linear flow

Who said presentations have to be a straight line? Let's mix it up! By linking slides, you're handing the remote to your audience. It's like those 'choose your own adventure' books from our childhood.

Group your slides into themes or create chapters and let them pick what they want to see next. It's a fun, interactive way to keep them on their toes and engaged.

3) Use personalization for creating tailored stories

You know those emails that greet you by name and make you feel all special? Imagine bringing that warmth to your presentations using dynamic variables.

By integrating with your CRM, you can fetch specific data about your audience and weave it into your slides. This simple trick can make your audience feel like the content was crafted specifically for them, creating a deeper connection.

If you’re making a presentation to showcase your product, you can even use dynamic variables to create a mock-up with your prospect’s name and logo on it to make your deck stand out.

4) Use narrated design

Scrollytelling is where the magic of scrolling meets the art of storytelling. It's an interactive content experience that weaves text, images, videos, and animations into a captivating narrative.

Instead of static slides, scrollytelling guides readers through a story, allowing them to control the pace. It breaks down complex content into bite-sized chunks, enhancing engagement and retention.

Our founder, Itai Amoza, wanted everyone to enjoy this dynamic content experience. So, he joined forces with visualization expert Prof. Steven Franconeri to weave scrollytelling into Storydoc.

Thanks to their partnership, we have dedicated storytelling slides in Storydoc, like the narrator slide you can see below , designed to make content both clear and captivating for all.

5) Tell stories with videos

Videos have this unique power to turn complex ideas into simple, engaging stories. A video might break down a tricky process into fun, easy-to-follow narrative, or give us a peek into real-life examples or experiences.

It's all about making your content feel alive, relatable, and super easy to understand. Because, let's face it, everyone's a sucker for a good story.

Here's a great example of a storytelling video:

6) Use roadmap and timeline slides

Ever tried reading a long-winded description of a company's journey or a product's development process? Yawn, right?

Now, imagine swapping that snooze-fest with a vibrant roadmap or timeline. Instead of slogging through paragraphs, you get a fun, visual play-by-play.

Picture a colorful line showing a startup's journey from a garage brainstorm to its first big sale.

Or a playful timeline marking the stages of turning a wild idea into a bestselling product. It's like turning a history lesson into a comic strip—way more fun and a whole lot clearer!

You can see what it looks like below:

7) Direct attention using animations

Ever been to a theater where the spotlight focuses on the main act? That's what animations do for your presentation.

Whether it's a cheeky arrow pointing out a fun fact, a grand entrance animation for a new idea, or using grayed-out content to highlight a key point, animations are your stage directors.

They ensure your audience's eyes are exactly where you want them to be, soaking in all the important bits.

Here's a great example:

8) Add interactive calculators

Who said numbers have to be boring? With interactive calculators, you're turning math into a fun game . Let your audience punch in numbers and see real-time results.

Whether they're calculating potential savings, ROI, or just playing around, it's an engaging and creative way to make your points tangible. It's like turning your presentation into a hands-on workshop.

9) Use AI-generated images

Instead of sifting through countless stock photos, thanks to the magic of AI, you can have an image that's tailor-made for your slide in seconds.

Storydoc presentation maker lets you generate any image directly in your deck - just give the AI assistant a short description and you’re good to go.

What's great is that you always get an image that matches your topic to a tee. No more "that'll do" compromises. Plus, think of all the time you save when you don't have to hunt for the right picture or take it yourself.

Here's a short video showing how it works:

10) Pop into the presentation with video bubble narration

Imagine if, during a presentation, a mini version of you could pop up, share a quick tip, or clarify a point. That's video bubble narration in a nutshell.

It's like having a friendly guide accompanying your audience, ensuring they get the most out of your content. It adds a creative personal touch, making your presentation feel like a cozy chat between friends.

11) Use before-and-after to show transformation

There's something magical about witnessing a transformation. Just think about the buzz online when someone shares a 'before and after' of a design revamp, weight loss journey, or how they helped a client grow their business.

With a before-and-after slide , you're giving your audience that 'aha!' moment. Even if you can't see their reactions in real-time, you can bet they're sliding back and forth, captivated by the change.

Whether it's showcasing a product's impact, a website redesign, or a process improvement, it's a visual treat that makes your message more powerful.

Here's an example of a before-and-after slide:

12) Close with a smart CTA

The grand finale of your presentation deserves a touch of flair. Instead of a simple 'Thank you' slide, imagine ending with an interactive live chat prompt or a calendar invite for a follow-up. It's like the encore at the end of a concert, giving your audience a chance to engage further.

These smart CTAs aren't just functional; they're creative extensions of your narrative. By integrating them, you're not just concluding your presentation; you're opening doors to new conversations and possibilities.

Here's a great example of a smart CTA:

3 presentation opening ideas

Kicking off a presentation with a bang can set the tone for everything that follows. Here are 3 captivating ways to grab your audience's attention right from the get-go:

Dive into a story: Begin with a personal anecdote or a relatable tale. It's like inviting your audience around a campfire, setting the stage for a memorable narrative.

Pose a thought-provoking question: Challenge your viewers with a question that gets their gears turning. It's an instant engagement booster, making them active participants.

Share a startling statistic: Drop a number that makes jaws drop. When you hit them with a fact that's hard to ignore, you've got their undivided attention.

Want more insights on crafting the perfect presentation opener? Check out our article on how to start a presentation people read to the end .

3 presentation closing ideas

Wrapping up a presentation is just as crucial as the opening. It's your final chance to leave a lasting impression. Here are 3 best ways to ensure your audience walks away inspired:

Circle back to the start: Revisit your opening story or statement, bringing your narrative full circle. It's a neat way to tie everything together and reinforce your key message.

End with a Call-to-Action: End with a captivating personal video message or a lively animation. It's a unique way to engage, surprise, and guide your audience on what's next.

Share an inspiring quote: Leave them with words that resonate. A powerful quote can sum up your message and linger in their minds long after.

Here's an example of a presentation with a personal video message at the end:

Hungry for more tips on crafting the perfect presentation finale? Read our blog post on how to end a presentation and get people to act .

Best tools for making creative presentations

Crafting creative presentations is an art, and like any artist, you need the right tools to bring your vision to life. Here's a curated list of platforms that are pushing the envelope in presentation design:

Storydoc : Beyond traditional slides, Storydoc offers interactive web stories. It's not just about displaying content; it's about creating experiences. With dynamic visuals and interactive elements, your audience is in for a treat.

Pitch : Collaboration is Pitch's forte. Designed for teams, it offers real-time editing, customizable templates, and a sleek interface. It's where ideas transform into visually stunning stories.

Genially : From animated presentations to responsive infographics, Genially provides tools that make your content come alive on the screen.

Beautiful.ai : Automated design assistance is its claim to fame. Feed in your content, and watch as the tool intuitively crafts slides that are both coherent and captivating.

Canva : A versatile design platform, Canva boasts a variety of templates for presentations, graphics, and more. Its drag-and-drop interface ensures even design novices feel like pros.

Visme : Tailored for visual storytelling, Visme offers a rich library of assets. Think dynamic charts, data widgets, and a suite of animations that turn your data into visual narratives.

Creative presentation templates

Ever felt the weight of the cursor blinking on an empty slide, almost taunting you to come up with something creative?

It's like being handed a stage with an eager audience, but the script is yet to be written. That initial step can be the hardest, but what if you had a little nudge in the right direction?

Creative presentation templates can help you shape your story in a way that stands out in a sea of monotony. Think of them as the paint-by-numbers kits, where the structure is set, but the colors and flair? That's all you.

Grab one and see for yourself.

Hi, I'm Dominika, Content Specialist at Storydoc. As a creative professional with experience in fashion, I'm here to show you how to amplify your brand message through the power of storytelling and eye-catching visuals.

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• Communication

Guide to Making Great Presentations (Free eBook Download)

Also, download our Free eBook: The Complete Guide to Making Great Presentations . It's the deepest resource for learning effective presentation skills for a PPT.

This eBook covers the complete presentation process. It takes the PowerPoint tips and tricks you learn in this article further. Learn how to write your presentation, design it like a pro, and prepare it to present powerfully. It's another great source for presentation design tips.

Jump to content in this tip:

• Know Your Stuff
• Write It Out
• Highlight What’s Most Important
• Know Your Audience
• Rehearse! (Yes, Already)
• Rewrite After You Rehearse
• Share With a Friend
• Keep Your Slides Simple
• Limit Words on Your Slides
• Use High-Quality Photos and Graphics
• Use Accurate and Relevant Charts and Graphs
• Use High-Quality, Fresh Templates
• Choose Appropriate Fonts
• Choose Color Well
• Clean + Simple Formatting Makes All the Difference!
• Make Sure All Objects Are Aligned
• Limit Punctuation
• Avoid Over-Formatting Your Points
• Combine Information With Graphics in PowerPoint
• I’ll Say It Again - Rehearse
• Practice With a Timer
• Slow It Down
• Pause More Often
• Record Yourself
• Choose Three Focal Points in the Room
• Vary Your Sentence Length
• Practice in Front of a Mirror
• Use “Present Mode” When Rehearsing
• Practice With New Audiences!
• Engage the Audience by Asking Questions
• Take a Deep Breath
• Lighten Up Your Mood
• Remind Yourself to Take It Slow
• Read the Room
• Fake It ‘Til You Make It!
• Stop With the Sound Effects
• Don’t Use Flashy Slide Transitions
• Beware of Clip Art
• Don't Be Afraid to Be Afraid
• Don't Read Directly During Your PowerPoint Presentation
• Don't Miss Out on PowerPoint Customizations
• Use the Visual Guides
• Use a Few Animations (Tastefully)
• Stage Key Content With Animations
• Add a Video to Your PowerPoint
• Add Charts & Graphs
• Build Your Own Infographics With SmartArt
• Use Presenter View
• Track Your PowerPoint Changes
• Engage With an Interactive Quiz
• Illustrate With Custom Image Masks
• Print Handouts With Extra Notes
• Make Bulk Edits With Master Slides
• Shrink File Sizes for Sharing
• Map Processes With Flowcharts
• Use Brand-Specific Colors
• Build Social Media Posts in PPT
• Be Industry-Specific
• Design for Online (Virtual) Sharing

Master PowerPoint (Free Course): 15 Essential Tips 

This article is full of helpful tips so you can build a powerful presentation. You can also find more PowerPoint tips in this video lesson:

What Makes a PowerPoint Presentation Effective?

Knowing how to use PowerPoint and work within it quickly is helpful. But more important is making a good presentation that hits all your presentation goals. A great PowerPoint presentation is:

• Prepared to Win . Research, plan and prepare your presentation professionally. It helps you deliver an effective message to your target audience.
• Designed Correctly . Your visual points should stand out without overwhelming your audience. A good PowerPoint presentation visual shouldn't complicate your message.
• Practiced to Perfection . Rehearse your timing and delivery so that your points land as practiced with a live audience.
• Delivered with Poise . Present with a relaxed inner-calm and confident outward projection. Give your audience warmth, excitement, and energy.
• Free from Mistakes . Avoid typos, cheesy clip art, and miscues like reading directly from your slides.

Consider this your all-inclusive guide of how to make a good presentation PPT. We’ll look at preparing your presentation, how to design it in PowerPoint. Plus, we'll explore how to practice and nail your delivery successfully come presentation time. 

We’ll also address what not to do in these tips for PowerPoint presentations—so you can sidestep any big mistakes. Effective presentation skills PPT tips are all you need to become a great presenter.

If you're struggling with making a well-designed presentation, then a  great PPT theme  can help you achieve the creative and  professional results you're looking for . 

Now let's dig into these tips for effective PowerPoint presentations.

Killer Presentation Preparation Tips - To Get Started Right

Before even opening PowerPoint, start by addressing these things. These Microsoft PowerPoint tips and tricks will ensure that you're prepared for your presentation:

1. Know Your Stuff

Your presentation isn’t about your slides alone. It’s about the message you want to get across. Before filling in stats, facts and figures, think about the narrative that'll be discussed, why and in what order. It's a must as you learn how to give a good presentation PPT.

2. Write It Out

Start on a Word or Google doc. Storyboard or script the entire presentation. This will give you an idea of how the information presented will flow, and how viewers will see it in sequence. Learn the complete writing process: 

3. Highlight What’s Most Important

A presentation covers the most crucial pieces only. Whatever you’ve been working on that lead to this—a paper, a work project, a new product design—doesn’t need to be shared in its entirety. Pick key points and put the rest in an “Appendix” to refer to during the Q&A session at the end.

4. Know Your Audience

How you talk to a room full of medical professionals should be different from the way you address a room full of young entrepreneurs. Everything, in fact, is different. Your topic selection, the language you use, the examples you give to illustrate points. The little bits of humor included should be tailored specifically with your target audience in mind. 

Understand your audience's needs to create a successful PowerPoint presentation. Customize your content to meet their specific requirements : 

5. Rehearse! (Yes, Already)

It’s never too early to get used to the rhythm of your presentation and take note of points you want to emphasize. While saying it out loud, you’ll start to develop a “feel” for the material. You'll notice that some things work well, while others don’t and might need to be worked around.

6. Rewrite After You Rehearse

As you're rehearsing your presentation, you're bound to stumble over sections that don't quite flow naturally. Instead of reworking your delivery, it might be time to consider the content and rewriting the areas that served as stumbling blocks.

"Editing is hard. 'It's good enough,' is a phrase wannabes use. Leaders take editing seriously." - Anthony Trendl

The most important part of creating a great presentation is the writing stage. The second most important stage is  rewriting.

7. Share With a Friend

If the stakes are high for your presentation, it's never too early to get feedback from those that you trust.

Here's an article that helps you collaborate as a team on a PowerPoint presentation. Get PowerPoint design tips from those that you trust when you collaborate.

Simple Tips to Design Your PowerPoint Presentation Better

Second only to you (the information you bring and how you present it) is your PowerPoint slides. If not designed well, a PowerPoint can be disengaging or distracting (regardless of the content quality). Here are some presentation design tips to make sure this doesn’t happen to you:

8.  Keep Your Slides Simple

This is one of the most important PowerPoint presentation tips to follow when designing your slides. Keep in mind that less is more (effective.) A cluttered slide is distracting. It causes confusion for an audience: Which part of the slide should I focus on? Should I read the slide or pay attention to the presenter? 

But, a simple, visually appealing slide will engage your audience, keeping them on track with your main points. Here's an example of a simple slide that serves its purpose perfectly:

9. Limit Words on Your Slides

Piggybacking on the last point—less is more effective. If possible, avoid bullets altogether. Otherwise cut them to just a few simple words. The audience should be listening, not reading.

10. Use High-Quality Photos and Graphics

One of the more important tips for quality PowerPoint presentations is to use high-quality photos and graphics.

Earlier in this tutorial, you saw Envato Elements, an all-you-can-download service with PPT tips inside of templates. Those pre-built designs are a beginner's best friend. They're even better when paired with Elements' unlimited library of stock photos .

People are more likely to take you seriously if your presentation is visually appealing. Users view attractive design as more usable. Similarly, they'll view a more attractive PowerPoint as more effective. 

11. Use Accurate and Relevant Charts and Graphs

Charts and graphs can also be distracting if they’re not used right. Make sure your information design is simple and clean so that the audience doesn’t spend the entire time trying to decipher what your X axis says. Learn more about PPT data presentation in the following article:

12. Use High-Quality, Fresh Templates

Have you seen the old PowerPoint template that looks like worn paper and uses ink splashes? Yeah, so has your audience. Templates can be distracting if they're too basic or if the design feels dated. You need one with great design options. 

Costs are always a concern. But when you use Envato Elements, you've got everything you need to create a great PowerPoint presentation . That's thanks to the incredible all-you-can-download subscription package.

On Envato Elements, there are thousands of PowerPoint design templates that are ready to use. Instead of designing a presentation from scratch, start with a template! Just add your specifics to the placeholders.

The best PowerPoint design tips save you time. And there's no tip more powerful than this one: use a pre-built template . It helps you master how to present a PowerPoint without spending all your time in the app.

Learn how to make a good PowerPoint presentation attractive with the help of the best templates below. You'll see PowerPoint tips packaged inside of templates by talented designers.

13. Choose Appropriate Fonts

Fonts are an important part of engaging your audience. Fonts and typography choices have a subconscious effect on viewers. They can characterize your company's presentation and brand either positively or negatively. Make sure that you're choosing fonts that are professional and modern!

14. Choose Color Well

Like font choice, colors cause specific subconscious reactions from viewers. Choosing an outdated color combination for your presentation will render it ineffective. 

Below is an example of the Popsicle PowerPoint template , which has a modern presentation color choice:

15. Clean + Simple Formatting Makes All the Difference!

We've got a full tutorial on how to make a good presentation slide . Give it a read through and review the accompanying video. Just remember less is more. The focus is you and  your message , not your slides.

16. Make Sure All Objects Are Aligned

A simple way to create a well-designed presentation is to make sure all items on a slide are intentionally aligned. To do this hold down Shift + select all the objects you want to include. Then choose Arrange in the options bar and apply  Alignment Type .

17. Limit Punctuation

This isn't the place for exclamation points. Emphasize your points (while speaking). Don’t enlist punctuation to do this for you. (Leave these at home!!!)

18. Avoid Over-Formatting Your Points

This PowerPoint presentation tip is simple. There’s no need to have every word of every bullet point capitalized, or to have all your bullet points in title case. If possible, drop bullets altogether. Again, the simpler the better!

19. Combine Information With Graphics in PowerPoint

One of the most powerful presentation skills for PPT is using infographics. With the right type of visuals, slides come to life and reduce the text in favor of graphics.

Infographics  help combine information with graphics. It's easier to explain complex ideas when you use visual formats that are intuitive. Learn how with the help of 30 templates in the article below:

Practice Presentation Tips: Rehearse, Rehearse, Rehearse!

Delivery is probably more important than the actual content. Here's how to become more aware of your own unique ticks, and how to present like a polished pro:

20. I’ll Say It Again - Rehearse

Just do it. Again and again. Experiment with pauses, gestures, and body language. Practice around one hour for every minute of your speech.

21. Practice With a Timer

Consistency is key to an effective PowerPoint presentation. Timing should be similar (ideally the same) each time you rehearse. This one will especially pay off when it’s time to present in front of your audience!

22. Slow It Down

Many of the best speakers today intentionally speak slowly. You’ll have the chance to emphasize, appear more thoughtful, and make your information easier to digest.

23. Pause More Often

Like the prior tip. Pausing more often, allows main points to be emphasized and for information to sink in. You need to let key points breathe a little before rushing into the next section.

24. Record Yourself

Use your phone’s voice recorder. Assess and critique yourself. Consider: 

• Are your pauses too short or too long? 
• Are you speaking slowly enough? Too slow? 
• When you’re nervous does your voice get high like the mice in Cinderella? 

It’s always weird to hear your own voice recorded; don’t stress it. Use this as a time to adjust.

25. Choose Three Focal Points in the Room

If you stare at the same spot (or even creepier, the same person) the entire time, your presentation will be ineffective (and awkward.) People will be distracted by you, wondering what you're staring at. 

Try this: pick three points in the room (typically: left, center, right). Take time to direct your delivery toward each physical focal point in the room. Also, focus on the center when making your primary points.

26. Vary Your Sentence Length

This makes you sound more interesting and it's easier for your audience to follow. Think short and punchy. Or go long and complex for dramatic effect.

27. Modulate!

Don't speak in monotone for your whole presentation. Be conscious to raise and lower your voice tone. Otherwise, people will tune you out, and you'll come across like the teacher in Charlie Brown.

28. Practice in Front of a Mirror

What you look like is as important as how you sound. Pretend as though you're having a normal conversation and allow your hands to move with your speech—emphasizing your points. Just don’t get carried away! (I’m thinking Brene Brown or President Obama , not your Aunt Jamie after a few gin and tonics.)

29. Use “Present Mode” When Rehearsing

When you finally are ready to hit the Present button in PowerPoint, make sure you use the Present Mode option. This allows for you (and only you) to view extra notes about each slide—just in case you forget something!

30. Practice With New Audiences!

If possible, try doing a few real live test runs as a webinar or even at a local Toastmasters organization to get some feedback from a live audience.

31. Engage the Audience by Asking Questions

There's no reason that a presentation should be one-sided. Why not invert the format and ask your audience a question?

To learn how to create a slide that kicks off a Q&A, use our article below. These PowerPoint design tips help you create an engaging and exciting discussion.

Helpful Tips to Step Up and Deliver Come Presentation Time

When the actual day arrives, there are only a few last PowerPoint presentation tips and guidelines to keep in mind:

32. Take a Deep Breath

Deep breathing is  proven to relieve stress. (Source: the NHS Website) It’s simple and it'll help you remain calm, and in the moment, as well. Even up to the last minute before starting.

33. Lighten Up Your Mood

Tell yourself a joke or watch a funny video clip. Do this before the presentation, of course. Research concludes that happy people were more productive. (Source: Fast Company) More productive is more focused and able to perform better.

34. Remind Yourself to Take It Slow

When we're stressed or nervous (or both), we tend to speak faster. Consciously, take yet another deep breath and remind yourself to take it slow!

35. Read the Room

Every presentation room has a temperature. It's your job as a speaker to gauge it and tailor your presentation to it.

Here's a great example. Layoffs are coming at a company, and you're asked to speak to an audience. Even if the audience isn't personally impacted by the actions, you've got to consider the morale of the workforce.

The  last  thing that group will want to hear is how strong the economy is and why the company is the best place to work. That doesn't mean that you've got to align to their uncertainty, but don't go too far against the grain while presenting.

Robert Kennedy III is a master of bringing energy and aligning a speech to the audience. Here's his advice for adjusting:

"It can be hard to wake up a "dead" crowd but go for it. Most of all, don't take their energy personally. Focus on serving them with every bit of your fiber then leave empty."

36. Fake It ‘Til You Make It!

Go forward with confidence. If you act confident, you'll start to feel more confident. Move slowly with grace, speak clearly, smile, wear something nice. You’ll appear confident to all attendees (no matter how you feel internally). 

Learn more about how to overcome your fears, reduce your anxiety, and become a more confident speaker in these Envato Tuts+ tutorials: 

PowerPoint Presentation Tips and Tricks to Help Avoid Mistakes (What Not to Do)

Most importantly, focus on what you can do to make your presentation better. There are a few important things not to do that we've got to address. Here are a handful of PowerPoint presentation tips and tricks to help you avoid missteps.

37. Stop With the Sound Effects

Sound effects are distracting and outdated. In most cases avoid it.

Add audio or music  into your presentation to inject interest or highlight an important point, but it's something to take extra care with. If you insert audio, then make sure your use really connects with your audience and has a fresh approach. Otherwise, it's best to leave it out.

38. Don’t Use Flashy Slide Transitions

Again, this is distracting and outdated. Use transitions and subtle animations in your PowerPoint presentation. But you need to take care and do it right: 

39. Beware of Clip Art

This PowerPoint presentation tip shouldn’t even have to be said. But please, please don't use clip art. Use professional graphics instead.

40. Don't Be Afraid to Be Afraid

The fear of public speaking is a real one. Many beginners think that if they're feeling nervous that a presentation won't go well or succeed. That might lead them to cancel the presentation.

Many of the best PowerPoint tricks don't use the app at all! Here's a tip from expert Sandra Zimmer who leads The Self-Expression Center on conquering your fears before you take stage:

"Get out of your head and into your body. I do this through a grounding exercise that really works to calm nerves and bring you present in the moment."

If you think that public speaking fears aren't normal, you might never give your award-winning presentation. So, don't be afraid to be afraid and acknowledge it's part of the process!

41. Don't Read Directly During Your PowerPoint Presentation

If you spend your entire presentation looking at the screen or your note cards, you're sure to lose your audience's attention. They'll disengage from what you're saying, and your presentation will fall flat.

Reading from your paper or screen also makes it look like you’re not prepared. Many people do it, but no one should. As a general rule, only present something you know well and have, at least mostly, memorized the main points of.

42. Don't Miss Out on PowerPoint Customizations

Many new PowerPoint users often make significant mistakes when using Envato Elements designs.

The best way to see how to make a good presentation PPT is to start with designs from others. That means using a template, but that doesn't mean you can't customize them!

Don't skip PowerPoint templates as you learn how to use PowerPoint effectively. Think of those templates as guides with built-in presentation design tips.

Be careful with the visuals you insert, or with adding flashy effects. Here are some great uses of creative ideas that you can pack your PowerPoint presentation with to be more effective: 

To see more presentation tips that show you what  not  to do, make sure to check out our guide below.

Work in PowerPoint More Effectively (Tips & Tricks to Level-Up Your PPT Skills)

These PowerPoint tips will take you directly inside of PowerPoint. They'll help you level up your next PowerPoint presentation. Discover useful tips to enhance the success of your Microsoft PowerPoint presentations . Let's dive in.

43. Use the Visual Guides

When you're designing your next PowerPoint presentation, it helps to create a sense of visual rhythm . Slides that have objects aligned and centered are more likely to resonate with an audience .

44. Use a Few Animations (Tastefully)

Animations in effective PowerPoint presentations are a slippery slope. We've all sat through presentations where there were so many objects in motion that it was easy to lose focus on the key ideas in the presentation.

But that's why animations get an unfairly bad reputation. Use animations to create motion and hold an audience's attention. Use them sparingly and on key elements on your slide and you'll capture that attention properly. 

45. Stage Key Content With Animations

You just learned that animations should avoid being distracting. But there's an important principle to using animations properly. It's called staging content.

Staging content means that the content appears step-by-step. There's nothing worse than overwhelming an audience with all your content at once. But when you stage content, bring it on step-by-step.

Take it from presentation pro Suzannah Baum :

"If you’re sharing a slide with lots of different points on it, using the animation to reveal those points one at a time is a way to keep the presenter’s content flowing smoothly."

For more animation presentation tips and tricks, follow our guide:

46. Add a Video to Your PowerPoint

When you're sharing a big idea in your presentation, it helps to share your perspective from a few different angles. Adding a video to supplement your content can do just that. Luckily, it's easy to add and embed a YouTube video in your next PowerPoint presentation.

Learn how to add a video to your presentation in the quick tutorial below:

47. Add Charts & Graphs

Charts and graphs can help you tell stories with data. It's easy for an audience to zone out when you throw a big data table or set of statistics at them. 

instead, convert those to charts and graphs. Try out the tutorial below to learn how to edit those graphs.

48. Build Your Own Infographics With SmartArt

Earlier in this tutorial, we gave you one of my favorite PowerPoint design tips: use infographic templates.

Here's another. One of my favorite PowerPoint features is SmartArt, which allows you to build infographics right inside the app.

You don't have to use another graphic design app like Photoshop or Illustrator to add visuals. Instead, try out SmartArt to help you build graphics that are easy to update. 

49. Use Presenter View

Remember that when you use the PowerPoint,  you' re the presentation. The slides are just there to reinforce what you've got to say and support your speaking points.

That's why I always recommend using Presenter view. More often than not, you're going to have several displays. Presenter view shows your content on your screen while your presentation is displayed on another screen .

50. Track Your PowerPoint Changes

One of my favorite PowerPoint design tips is to collaborate. Those who know you best will suggest compelling changes that are sure to help you succeed.

As you start collaborating on your presentation, it helps to keep track of proposed and included PowerPoint changes. Use the article to track changes made by others with the help of this tutorial:

10 More Advanced PowerPoint Tips & Tricks

Really need to wow an audience with a good PowerPoint presentation? Give these tips a try to make an unforgettable impression:

51. Engage With an Interactive Quiz

A good PowerPoint presentation gets your audience involved. One of the best PowerPoint tricks is to do that with a quiz. By engaging audiences, a quiz makes your slides memorable.

By adding trivia, you'll see how to present a PowerPoint in a way that people will love. Channel your inner game-show host today.

52. Illustrate With Custom Image Masks

One of the top PowerPoint tips is to illustrate your slides. But you can go beyond simple, rectangular images on each slide.

Image masks shape photos into unique works of art. And thanks to premium templates, you can style photos just like this. Masks overlay your photos onto geometric shapes, instantly elevating your style.

53. Print Handouts With Extra Notes

Wonder how to give a good presentation PPT that audiences will remember? Give them a piece of it to take home.

PowerPoint makes it easy to print handouts with room for notes on the page. This way, audiences can keep copies of your slides, along with their own notes. This is the perfect way to ensure everyone engages with and retains your content.

54. Make Bulk Edits With Master Slides

When you think about how to present a PowerPoint, consider your branding. That means keeping your logo front and center in the eyes of an audience. But if you’re working with a lengthy slide deck, this could seem daunting.

That’s where master slides come in. They’re common in premium layouts, and they’re a leading example of presentation skills for PPT. Master slides let you make bulk edits fast. You can make a change to a master slide, and see it reflected throughout your slide deck. Learn how with our full tutorial:

55. Shrink File Sizes for Sharing

Many of the top presentation tips involve making your slides more accessible. Often, that involves sharing them with audiences online. 

You’ll often find that email clients and cloud services limit the size of files that you share. This can be a problem with large PPT slide decks. But there are a few quick steps you can take to reduce PPT file size. Cut graphics, scale down photos, and more.

56. Map Processes With Flowcharts

As you consider how to do a good PowerPoint presentation, think of ease of understanding. After all, you’re trying to explain something to your audience.

A flowchart maps out a process in a visual way. Instead of resorting to endless narration, try a quick illustration like this. It saves you time and effort, and your audience is sure to thank you.

57. Use Brand-Specific Colors

Using presentation skills for PPT helps form an association between your message and branding. There’s no better way to do that than with your brand colors.

PowerPoint makes it easy to change color themes, adding your brand colors and logo to each slide. This is one of the top PowerPoint tricks for marketing presentations.

58. Build Social Media Posts in PPT

A good PowerPoint presentation doesn’t have to be shared through a projector. Use the app and templates to build amazing illustrations to use anywhere.

Try using PowerPoint to create social media posts. It helps you engage with your audience, with no need to design custom layouts from scratch.

59. Be Industry-Specific

One of the top presentation tips in 2024 is to be industry-specific. That means avoiding generic layouts and choosing something more customized.

This offers two key advantages. First, you save time by having layouts built for you. Second, you gain design inspiration for your specific topic. Themed templates are truly the best of both worlds.

60. Design for Online (Virtual) Sharing

Last but not least in our list of PowerPoint tips comes virtual presenting. More and more often, slides will be shared with online audiences around the globe.

Why not design your slides for that very purpose? And then learn how to share flawlessly with a global team? It’s one of the top presentation tips for 2024. Embrace it today.

Where Can You Find the Best PowerPoint PPT Templates for 2024?

Want to make a good PowerPoint presentation? This article has so many PowerPoint presentation tips and tricks that you're sure to succeed. Before we dive into our massive list of presentation tips, we want to share our favorite resource. They show you how to do a good PowerPoint presentation with less work.

On Envato Elements, you'll find thousands of designs that show you how to present a PowerPoint . That's because they're built with the best designs that already have the work done for you. They're sure to show you how to use PowerPoint effectively.

Find Presentation Templates

If you're a rookie presenter learning effective presentation skills for PPT, a template is the best resource. They give you ideas for how to present your content with pre-built designs. Build a good PowerPoint presentation with less work than ever before.

Best of all, Envato Elements gives you more resources for good PowerPoint presentations with stock photos, graphics, and more. These help you use our top PowerPoint tricks at no extra cost. Effective presentation skills PPT designs help you race up the learning curve. Learn how to create with Envato Elements .

More Great PowerPoint Tutorial Resources

We've built a resource for Microsoft PowerPoint that you're sure to want to try. It includes countless PowerPoint tips and tricks. It's called  How to Use PowerPoint (Ultimate Tutorial Guide)   and has all the PowerPoint design tips you need.

These tutorials will help you get started quickly. Start mastering PowerPoint's powerful presentation design tools today: 

Discover More Top PowerPoint Template Designs From Envato Elements for 2024

You've just seen our favorite powerful PowerPoint presentation tips and guidelines to help you improve your speaking. We've also mentioned Envato Elements, an incredible all-you-can-download source for top PowerPoint designs .

Here are five of the best PowerPoint templates that you can use to create your best presentation yet:

1. Galaxi PowerPoint Template

Blast off to success with the help of this PowerPoint template! Think of the pre-built slide designs as pro PowerPoint design tips. They're built by professional graphic designers. All the popular and modern slide styles that are perfect for your next presentation. Use Galaxi's five styles and 30 designs to create a great presentation.

2. Masmax PowerPoint Template

We selected templates for this article that match the PowerPoint tips and tricks provided . Masmax fits the bill perfectly across its 234 unique slide designs. These slide designs are sure to align with the latest in design expectations.

3.   STYLE - Multipurpose PowerPoint Template V50

Style is subjective, but we can all agree that this template is stunning! The light and airy slide designs are built with fashion-focused designs in mind. But that doesn't mean that it's not perfect for most presentations. When learning to present a PowerPoint, remember that templates can be customized to suit your purpose .

4.  Peachme Creative PowerPoint Template

Peachme has image-focused slides with splashy designs. The slides are colorful and perfect for a modern presentation. Don't worry about remembering all the PowerPoint design tips because they're included in the pre-built slides. Use Peachme's designs for your presentation today.

5. Buizi - Office Building Rent PowerPoint Template

Buizi markets itself as a real estate focused template. It's ideal for that purpose because of the minimal, image-focused slide designs. But that also makes it a perfect choice for presentations in many fields.

We've just scratched the surface of PowerPoint design tips with these five options. Here are many more, bundled inside of the best roundups on Envato Tuts+: 

How to Build a Good PowerPoint Presentation Quickly (In 2024)

You’ve already seen effective presentation skills PPT techniques. But you may be wondering exactly how to do a good PowerPoint presentation. It only takes a few clicks. Let’s learn how in just five steps.

For this mini-tutorial, we’ll use the Enjoy PowerPoint Template from Envato Elements. You'll see that it's a beautiful template that helps you learn how to present a PowerPoint by giving you every object and layout you need.

Let's get started:

1. Choose Your Slides

As you can see, a template like Enjoy has dozens of unique slides inside. The key to how to give a good presentation PPT is to choose only the slides that you need.

In PowerPoint, scroll through the sidebar on the left to view different slide layouts. Right-click and choose Delete to remove unwanted designs. Plus, you can click and drag slide thumbnails to reorder them in the deck.

2. Add Text

Consider how to do a good PowerPoint presentation without investing a ton of time. That’s where premium templates come in.

To add custom text, simply click and select the contents of any text box on your slide. Then, type in your own words. Repeat as needed throughout your slide deck.

3. Customize Fonts

With text selected, it’s easy to customize fonts on each slide. Find the Font section on PowerPoint’s Home tab. From there, you've got a variety of dropdown options.

Click to change the font, font size, and more. You can also use the buttons on the left to add bolds, italics, and more.

Need more custom font styles? As an Envato Elements subscriber, you've got instant access to thousands of custom fonts . Use them in your presentation with ease.

4. Insert Images

Slides like this one contain an image placeholder. That’s another advantage found only with premium templates. These make adding images a breeze.

To get started, find an image file stored on your computer. Then, drag and drop it over the placeholder. PowerPoint will import it, sized and scaled for a perfect fit.

5. Change Colors

One of the top effective presentation skills PPT ideas is changing shape colors. This helps you control the look and feel of each slide.

With a shape selected, find the Shape Format tab on PowerPoint’s ribbon. Then, click on the Shape Fill dropdown. You’ll see a color chooser menu appear. Click on any thumbnail to apply it to the shape or browse through the Gradient and Texture options.

Learn How to Make Great Presentations (Download This Free eBook)

Take the PowerPoint tips you learned in this article further with our eBook: The Complete Guide to Making Great Presentations ( grab it now for FREE ) . 

It'll help walk you through the complete presentation process. Learn how to write your presentation, design it like a pro, and prepare it to present powerfully.

Start Putting These PowerPoint Presentation Tips & Tricks Into Use Today!

Learning to write, design, and present a PowerPoint presentation is an invaluable skill, no matter where you use it. If you’re a good communicator of important messages, you’ll never go hungry.

Luckily, improving PowerPoint presentations isn't as hard as it seems. Follow these tips for PowerPoint presentations to design and deliver with greater confidence.

Remember: Less is more (effective) . Use  PowerPoint Presentation Templates  for better design and more effective visual impact. And you can customize a PPT template quickly , with the right workflow. 

Here's a showcase of simple, modern PowerPoint templates to start with:

Again, one of the most important tips for using PowerPoint is to focus your time on the content.   To do that, you'll want to outsource the work of designing your PowerPoint slides to the talented designers at Envato Elements. Go check out  top templates from Envato Elements  to explore options.

Editorial Note:  This post was originally published in December of 2015. It's been comprehensively revised to make it current, accurate, and up to date by our staff-- with special help from Andrew Childress and Sarah Joy .

Microsoft 365 Life Hacks > Presentations > How to create an inspirational PowerPoint presentation

How to create an inspirational PowerPoint presentation

Creating an inspirational PowerPoint presentation involves more than just putting together slides; it’s about crafting a moving story that resonates with your audience and leaves a lasting impact. See how you can elevate your material to truly call your audience to agree with you or ask for action.

What is an inspirational presentation?

Easy and effective PowerPoint tools make it simple to assemble a compelling slideshow. You can choose from creative templates , make animated shorts , or implement video clips via Clipchamp .

However, PowerPoint works the best when you imbue it with a narrative that has the power to captivate. Whether you’re trying to motivate and uplift your audience, offer encouraging advice, or ask them to act or change their perspective, an inspirational presentation carries the same motivational speaking skills as a sales pitch.

Therefore, the key to a successful inspirational presentation is to deliver a clear, impactful message that is both engaging and memorable. Structure your presentation as a narrative, with a clear beginning, middle, and end. To elevate the storytelling qualities of your presentation, introduce a conflict or challenge and describe the journey of overcoming it. While not every topic that you choose to inspire others will involve a conflict, an inspirational presentation will nonetheless conclude with a resolution that leaves your audience inspired.

Tell your story with captivating presentations

Powerpoint empowers you to develop well-designed content across all your devices

How to inspire others with your presentational skills

Any good presentation begins with a strong outline . The outline of your presentation should adhere to your goals:

• To persuade people to share your point of view.
• To present something new or give a new perspective on something old.
• To inspire, motivate, and call for action or change.

Keep these goals in mind when you begin outlining. Start your outline with a strong theme that aligns with the message you want to convey. This should be relevant to your audience and your objectives and serve as the backbone of your presentation in guiding the narrative and supporting your message.

Use motivational quotes and visuals

Sprinkle your presentation with quotes from leaders and famous thinkers that align you’re your theme. Pair these quotes with compelling visuals to enhance their impact. Keep in mind that in a presentation that uses visual aids, these quotes are the “icing on the cake” of the message you’re trying to convey; they can serve as powerful reminders of the key points you want your audience to remember.

Share success stories

Incorporating success stories that are related to your topic can convey a sense of success to your audience. Stories of achievable potential can provide examples on how the concepts or strategies you’re sharing can help benefit your audience. This can make otherwise abstract ideas more tangible—and therefore achievable.

Engage your audience

Audience interaction—in the form of quizzes, can make your presentation more memorable. Include questions to ponder, prompt discussions, or incorporate quick activities that reinforce the message. This engagement makes the experience more dynamic and personal for the audience, increasing the impact of your presentation.

Brush up on presentation skills

The key to an inspirational presentation is to balance the use of visual aids and public speaking skills. This can be easier said than done, of course—which is why it’s vital to learn how to practice your presentations , incorporate humor and wit into your speech, or overcome the fear of public speaking that plagues an estimated 73% of the population.

Creating an inspirational presentation requires thoughtful preparation, a balance of visual aids and speaking, as well as a creative approach. By following these guidelines, you can develop a presentation that not only informs but also inspires and motivates your audience.

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9 Tips for Making Beautiful PowerPoint Presentations

Ready to craft a beautiful powerpoint presentation these nine powerpoint layout ideas will help anyone create effective, compelling slides..

How many times have you sat through a poorly designed business presentation that was dull, cluttered, and distracting? Probably way too many. Even though we all loathe a boring presentation, when it comes time to make our own, do we really do any better?

The good news is you don’t have to be a professional designer to make professional presentations. We’ve put together a few simple guidelines you can follow to create a beautifully assembled deck.

We’ll walk you through some slide design tips, show you some tricks to maximize your PowerPoint skills, and give you everything you need to look really good next time you’re up in front of a crowd.

And, while PowerPoint remains one of the biggest names in presentation software, many of these design elements and principles work in Google Slides as well.

Let’s dive right in and make sure your audience isn’t yawning through your entire presentation.

1. Use Layout to Your Advantage

Layout is one of the most powerful visual elements in design, and it’s a simple, effective way to control the flow and visual hierarchy of information.

For example, most Western languages read left to right, top to bottom. Knowing this natural reading order, you can direct people’s eyes in a deliberate way to certain key parts of a slide that you want to emphasize.

You can also guide your audience with simple tweaks to the layout. Use text size and alternating fonts or colors to distinguish headlines from body text.

Placement also matters. There are many unorthodox ways to structure a slide, but most audience members will have to take a few beats to organize the information in their head—that’s precious time better spent listening to your delivery and retaining information.

Try to structure your slides more like this:

And not like this:

Layout is one of the trickier PowerPoint design concepts to master, which is why we have these free PowerPoint templates already laid out for you. Use them as a jumping off point for your own presentation, or use them wholesale!

Presentation templates can give you a huge leg up as you start working on your design.

2. No Sentences

This is one of the most critical slide design tips. Slides are simplified, visual notecards that capture and reinforce main ideas, not complete thoughts.

As the speaker, you should be delivering most of the content and information, not putting it all on the slides for everyone to read (and probably ignore). If your audience is reading your presentation instead of listening to you deliver it, your message has lost its effectiveness.

Pare down your core message and use keywords to convey it. Try to avoid complete sentences unless you’re quoting someone or something.

Stick with this:

And avoid this:

3. Follow the 6×6 Rule

One of the cardinal sins of a bad PowerPoint is cramming too many details and ideas on one slide, which makes it difficult for people to retain information. Leaving lots of “white space” on a slide helps people focus on your key points.

Try using the 6×6 rule to keep your content concise and clean looking. The 6×6 rule means a maximum of six bullet points per slide and six words per bullet. In fact, some people even say you should never have more than six words per slide!

Just watch out for “orphans” (when the last word of a sentence/phrase spills over to the next line). This looks cluttered. Either fit it onto one line or add another word to the second line.

Slides should never have this much information:

4. Keep the Colors Simple

Stick to simple light and dark colors and a defined color palette for visual consistency. Exceptionally bright text can cause eye fatigue, so use those colors sparingly. Dark text on a light background or light text on a dark background will work well. Also avoid intense gradients, which can make text hard to read.

If you’re presenting on behalf of your brand, check what your company’s brand guidelines are. Companies often have a primary brand color and a secondary brand color , and it’s a good idea to use them in your presentation to align with your company’s brand identity and style.

If you’re looking for color inspiration for your next presentation, check out our 101 Color Combinations , where you can browse tons of eye-catching color palettes curated by a pro. When you find the one you like, just type the corresponding color code into your presentation formatting tools.

Here are more of our favorite free color palettes for presentations:

• 10 Color Palettes to Nail Your Next Presentation
• 10 Energizing Sports Color Palettes for Branding and Marketing
• 10 Vintage Color Palettes Inspired by the Decades

No matter what color palette or combination you choose, you want to keep the colors of your PowerPoint presentation simple and easy to read, like this:

Stay away from color combinations like this:

5. Use Sans-Serif Fonts

Traditionally, serif fonts (Times New Roman, Garamond, Bookman) are best for printed pages, and sans-serif fonts (Helvetica, Tahoma, Verdana) are easier to read on screens.

These are always safe choices, but if you’d like to add some more typographic personality , try exploring our roundup of the internet’s best free fonts . You’ll find everything from classic serifs and sans serifs to sophisticated modern fonts and splashy display fonts. Just keep legibility top of mind when you’re making your pick.

Try to stick with one font, or choose two at the most. Fonts have very different personalities and emotional impacts, so make sure your font matches the tone, purpose, and content of your presentation.

6. Stick to 30pt Font or Larger

Many experts agree that your font size for a PowerPoint presentation should be at least 30pt. Sticking to this guideline ensures your text is readable. It also forces you, due to space limitations, to explain your message efficiently and include only the most important points. .

7. Avoid Overstyling the Text

Three of the easiest and most effective ways to draw attention to text are:

• A change in color

Our eyes are naturally drawn to things that stand out, but use these changes sparingly. Overstyling can make the slide look busy and distracting.

8. Choose the Right Images

The images you choose for your presentation are perhaps as important as the message. You want images that not only support the message, but also elevate it—a rare accomplishment in the often dry world of PowerPoint.

But, what is the right image? We’ll be honest. There’s no direct answer to this conceptual, almost mystical subject, but we can break down some strategies for approaching image selection that will help you curate your next presentation.

The ideal presentation images are:

• Inspirational

These may seem like vague qualities, but the general idea is to go beyond the literal. Think about the symbols in an image and the story they tell. Think about the colors and composition in an image and the distinct mood they set for your presentation.

With this approach, you can get creative in your hunt for relatable, authentic, and inspirational images. Here are some more handy guidelines for choosing great images.

Illustrative, Not Generic

So, the slide in question is about collaborating as a team. Naturally, you look for images of people meeting in a boardroom, right?

While it’s perfectly fine to go super literal, sometimes these images fall flat—what’s literal doesn’t necessarily connect to your audience emotionally. Will they really respond to generic images of people who aren’t them meeting in a boardroom?

In the absence of a photo of your actual team—or any other image that directly illustrates the subject at hand—look for images of convincing realism and humanity that capture the idea of your message.

Doing so connects with viewers, allowing them to connect with your message.

The image above can be interpreted in many ways. But, when we apply it to slide layout ideas about collaboration, the meaning is clear.

It doesn’t hurt that there’s a nice setting and good photography, to boot.

Supportive, Not Distracting

Now that we’ve told you to get creative with your image selection, the next lesson is to rein that in. While there are infinite choices of imagery out there, there’s a limit to what makes sense in your presentation.

Let’s say you’re giving an IT presentation to new employees. You might think that image of two dogs snuggling by a fire is relatable, authentic, and inspirational, but does it really say “data management” to your audience?

To find the best supporting images, try searching terms on the periphery of your actual message. You’ll find images that complement your message rather than distract from it.

In the IT presentation example, instead of “data connections” or another literal term, try the closely related “traffic” or “connectivity.” This will bring up images outside of tech, but relative to the idea of how things move.

Inspiring and Engaging

There’s a widespread misconception that business presentations are just about delivering information. Well, they’re not. In fact, a great presentation is inspirational. We don’t mean that your audience should be itching to paint a masterpiece when they’re done. In this case, inspiration is about engagement.

Is your audience asking themselves questions? Are they coming up with new ideas? Are they remembering key information to tap into later? You’ll drive a lot of this engagement with your actual delivery, but unexpected images can play a role, as well.

When you use more abstract or aspirational images, your audience will have room to make their own connections. This not only means they’re paying attention, but they’re also engaging with and retaining your message.

To find the right abstract or unconventional imagery, search terms related to the tone of the presentation. This may include images with different perspectives like overhead shots and aerials, long exposures taken over a period of time, nature photos , colorful markets , and so on.

The big idea here is akin to including an image of your adorable dog making a goofy face at the end of an earnings meeting. It leaves an audience with a good, human feeling after you just packed their brains with data.

Use that concept of pleasant surprise when you’re selecting images for your presentation.

9. Editing PowerPoint Images

Setting appropriate image resolution in powerpoint.

Though you can drag-and-drop images into PowerPoint, you can control the resolution displayed within the file. All of your PowerPoint slide layout ideas should get the same treatment to be equal in size.

Simply click File > Compress Pictures in the main application menu.

If your presentation file is big and will only be viewed online, you can take it down to On-screen , then check the Apply to: All pictures in this file , and rest assured the quality will be uniform.

This resolution is probably fine for proofing over email, but too low for your presentation layout ideas. For higher res in printed form, try the Print setting, which at 220 PPI is extremely good quality.

For large-screens such as projection, use the HD setting, since enlarging to that scale will show any deficiencies in resolution. Low resolution can not only distract from the message, but it looks low-quality and that reflects on the presenter.

If size is no issue for you, use High Fidelity (maximum PPI), and only reduce if the file size gives your computer problems.

The image quality really begins when you add the images to the presentation file. Use the highest quality images you can, then let PowerPoint scale the resolution down for you, reducing the excess when set to HD or lower.

Resizing, Editing, and Adding Effects to Images in PowerPoint

PowerPoint comes with an arsenal of tools to work with your images. When a picture is selected, the confusingly named Picture Format menu is activated in the top menu bar, and Format Picture is opened on the right side of the app window.

In the Format Picture menu (on the right) are four sections, and each of these sections expand to show their options by clicking the arrows by the name:

• Fill & Line (paint bucket icon): Contains options for the box’s colors, patterns, gradients, and background fills, along with options for its outline.
• Effects (pentagon icon): Contains Shadow, Reflection, Glow, Soft Edges, 3-D Format and Rotation, and Artistic Effects.
• Size & Properties (dimensional icon): Size, Position, and Text Box allow you to control the physical size and placement of the picture or text boxes.
• Picture (mountain icon): Picture Corrections, Colors, and Transparency give you control over how the image looks. Under Crop, you can change the size of the box containing the picture, instead of the entire picture itself as in Size & Properties above.

The menu at the top is more expansive, containing menu presets for Corrections, Color, Effects, Animation, and a lot more. This section is where you can crop more precisely than just choosing the dimensions from the Picture pane on the right.

Cropping Images in PowerPoint

The simple way to crop an image is to use the Picture pane under the Format Picture menu on the right side of the window. Use the Picture Position controls to move the picture inside its box, or use the Crop position controls to manipulate the box’s dimensions.

To exert more advanced control, or use special shapes, select the picture you want to crop, then click the Picture Format in the top menu to activate it.

Hit the Crop button, then use the controls on the picture’s box to size by eye. Or, click the arrow to show more options, including changing the shape of the box (for more creative looks) and using preset aspect ratios for a more uniform presentation of images.

The next time you design a PowerPoint presentation, remember that simplicity is key and less is more. By adopting these simple slide design tips, you’ll deliver a clear, powerful visual message to your audience.

If you want to go with a PowerPoint alternative instead, you can use Shutterstock Create to easily craft convincing, engaging, and informative presentations.

With many presentation template designs, you’ll be sure to find something that is a perfect fit for your next corporate presentation. You can download your designs as a .pdf file and import them into both PowerPoint and Google Slides presentation decks.

Take Your PowerPoint Presentation to the Next Level with Shutterstock Flex

Need authentic, eye-catching photography to form the foundation of your PowerPoint presentation? We’ve got you covered.

With Shutterstock Flex, you’ll have all-in-one access to our massive library, plus the FLEXibility you need to select the perfect mix of assets every time.

License this cover image via F8 studio and Ryan DeBerardinis .

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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.

Do not use PowerPoint as a Teleprompter

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.

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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HUGH CULVER

Author, speaker, coach, 10 easy ways to make any powerpoint presentation awesome.

Updated to Speaking on May 3, 2023.

This post was updated in 2023.

It was 20 minutes before lunch, my client was frantically looking at the clock, and the audience was squirming. We had suffered through endless forgettable PowerPoint slides and were all hoping for a merciful end. That’s when the presenter announced, “I see I’m running out of time, so I’ll just hurry through my last 30 slides.”

We’ve all suffered through slide shows with long lists of unreadable bullets, unnecessary YouTube clips, and overuse of graphics. Instead of holding our attention and making their point even stronger, each slide distracts the audience with more content they don’t need. Bad slides are agnostic. You can use PowerPoint, Keynote, Prezi, Google Slides, or hold up a piece of paper – it’s all a distraction if you don’t do it well.

Done well, a thoughtfully prepared slide deck can be the perfect slide dish for your full meal presentation. Done poorly and your audience will feel like they made one too many trips to the buffet table. This post will help you do it well.

For the first years of my speaking career, I presented with 35mm slides. You know, the photographs framed by cardboard that got jammed in the projector? That was me – hauling out the projector, clicking in the carousel, and praying that tonight it would all work. I soon learned that the more slides I showed the less the audience listened to me. So I cut back on the slides. I also noticed that when I switched to a black screen (see #9) the audience turned all their attention to me. So I practiced fading to black whenever I told a story or had an important point to make.

How I started

When I switched to PowerPoint I suddenly had a candy shop full of treats to sweeten my presentations with. And I started making all the same mistakes again: too many slides, too much content on each slide, and too distracting. After every presentation I always do a quick debrief – what worked, what needs to change? And slowly I developed a checklist for slide presentations.

I have shared with checklist with hundreds of speakers to help put the spotlight on them. Some were designing a new speech, some were preparing for a webinar and others needed slides to back up a video presentation. In every case, this checklist made their presentation better. They sold more products, got more referrals, and, in most cases, spent a lot less time working on their slide deck.

If you’ve ever struggled to create interesting slides or worry your slides are too wordy or you have too many of them, this will help.

Here are my 10 easy ways to make any PowerPoint presentation awesome.

1. Build your slides last

This might be the most important rule on the list. Don’t build your slide deck until you build your presentation.

You could be tempted to start monkeying with slides early in your speech writing process – after all, it’s a fun way to procrastinate from all that hard thinking – don’t. Building your slide deck before you build your presentation is like building a road before you know where it’s going.

Your slides are there to ADD to a well-designed speech, not to replace it.

2. Don’t try to replace you

People come to hear you. If you are launching your service on a webinar, they want to know how this solution has helped you and whether is it right for them. If you are delivering a keynote speech or workshop, they want a glimpse into your solutions that can help move them forward in their work or in life.

Fancy transitions, superfluous video clips, and endless bullet points will get your audience’s attention, but take their attention off of you. Every time you hit the clicker the audience leaves you and goes to the screen.

Your goal for every presentation is to deliver the goods, not the slides.

3. Use a consistent theme

We are easily distracted and confused. That’s why brands always anchor advertising on their unique colors, fonts, slogan, or a jingle. They know that consistency in their brand theme builds recognition and puts more attention on the message. You should do that with your slides.

Start with a simple, white background and san serif fonts.

A consistent, simple theme helps your audience focus on the content of each slide. Watch TED talks that have gone viral to see how simple a slide theme can be, like the ones by Dan Pink The puzzle of motivation (30M views), and Shawn Achor The happy secret to better work (25M views).

4. More images, less text

Want to quickly reenergize a tired slide deck? Make your images larger ( in this post I share where to get free images ) and reduce the text size. Remember, the theme in this post is that you are the presentation, not your slides.

Your brain can process images 60,000 times faster than text. When you use images (and less text) you allow your audience to process the image without distracting them away from your powerful story, or making a critical point. Like subtle mood music in the background of a dramatic movie scene, images can augment and enhance what you are saying without stealing the show.

5. One story per slide

When I started using PowerPoint I would have 60 to 80 slides for a 60-minute speech. It was a lot of work to prepare each deck and when I was deep into the speech I would sometimes forget where I was and have to jump forward a couple of slides.

Then it became 30-35 slides and I could breathe easier, knowing that fewer clicks meant less to worry about. As my confidence grew it became 10-12 slides and each slide became a key part of storytelling or point-making—they had to earn their place.

I might use a slide as a backdrop to a story or for a short list that supports a lesson I’m delivering. Either way, it’s always on ‘story’ per slide. If I don’t need a slide, I fade to black (#9).

But, I always stick to one story per slide.

6. Reveal one bullet at a time

This is an easy one – reveal one bullet at a time. The function of bullets is to reinforce (not replace) what you are delivering. That’s why they need to be short (see the 2/4/8 rule, below). A good bullet point is complete on it’s own, but much better when combined with a live presentation of it. Here’s an example from a list of (very wordy) time management strategies:

• Infrequent visits to your Inbox give you more time for deep work
• time blocking allows you to protect time for important work
• the Pomodoro technique can help you focus with fewer distractions

A better list – like one you might use on a PowerPoint slide – would be:

• visit your Inbox less often
• block time for important work
• the Pomodoro technique helps you focus

To reveal one bullet at a time in PowerPoint, right-click on your text box, select Custom Animation > Add Entrance Effect and then choose the effect you want. In Keynote, click Animate > Build in and choose the effect you want.

7. Leave the fireworks to Disney

It’s great that you know how to turn text into flames and make images spin with the click of your mouse – but leave those fireworks to Disney. Your job is to make your content the star of the show. Every time you haul the audience’s attention away to some animation you lose a truckload of opportunity to help them.

Your slides can still be amazing and helpful, but that should always be secondary to your primary purpose of helping people. Simple transitions, clean, san serif fonts, and large, attractive graphics trump PowerPoint tricks, every time.

8. The 2/4/8 rule

When I am advising other speakers I often don’t know their topic—certainly not as well as they do. So I rely on certain rules I have developed over many years. For slide decks, I use my 2/4/8 rule. Here’s how it goes…

• about every 2 minutes I have a new slide (that’s 30 slides for a 60-minute speech),
• no more than 4 bullets per slide, and
• no more than 8 words per bullet.

Just like any recipe, you can mess with the ingredient a bit. If your content is more technical, you might need more slides. Sometimes I need 5 or 6 bullets. I use the 2/4/8 rule to remind me that slides are there to support what I have to say, not replace me.

9. Fade to black

The last time I was shopping for a car, I noticed the salesperson had a clever technique. While he asked how I liked the car and if I had any questions, he kept his sales offer face-down on the table. Because there were no other distractions, he had my full attention. And when it was time to reveal his offer, it was much more dramatic (so was the price!) Use the same technique with your slides.

When you fade to black you regain your audience’s attention. For example, after I present a solution, I’ll fade to black while I expound on how to apply that solution in my audience’s work/life. When I’m finished, I turn black off and go to the next point. Or if I’m halfway through a story I’ll fade to back before the punchline so I know I have everyone’s attention.

It’s no different than a close-up scene in a movie—the director wants you to focus only on the speaker. Note that if you are shopping for a slide remote, be sure that yours has the black screen feature.

10. When in doubt, delete

This might be the most advice I can leave you with. When in doubt, delete it.

There is a weird attraction to more. Authors add more pages thinking it makes the book more valuable. Sales people who talk too much miss the opportunity to ask for the sale. And presenters add more slides thinking it will make them look better. Wrong.

When you are doing the final edits on your slide deck, the ultimate question you should be asking about each slide is, “Will it make my speech better?” If not, dump it.

Remember, nobody will miss what isn’t there. Also fewer slides allows you more time for side stories, spontaneous thoughts or even time for Q&A.

Remember this…

I’ve said it numerous times in this post, but it’s worth repeating. You are the show, not your slides. More slides means more time your audience is not paying attention to you. Fewer (and better) slides means you have more time to build rapport, share memorable stories, explain your solutions and motivate your audience to action. You are there for a reason. Now go and deliver.

One last thing. Spend the $80 and pack a remote (with spare batteries.) Nothing’s worse than watching a speaker repeatedly lean over, hunt for the right key, and then peck away to advance the slides.

If you enjoyed this article, here is more about presentation skills:

How the experts create world-class PowerPoint Slides (and you can too) PowerPoint Primer – the only 3 slides you’ll ever need How to add video to PowerPoint and Keynote like a pro

Slide by  Nathan Anderson  on  Unsplash

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How to make the best Powerpoint presentation + real examples!

July 1, 2023

Ever sat through a PowerPoint presentation and thought, "Wow, that was mind-blowing"? Yeah, us either. But, let's face it, we've all been there—either on the giving or receiving end of a less-than-stellar presentation. It's high time we changed that narrative. Creating your best PowerPoint presentation isn't just about throwing together a bunch of slides – it's an art. It’s about telling a story that captivates, informs, and even entertains your audience. 

A new age is upon us, and it’s time to explore the ins and outs of what makes a PowerPoint presentation not just good, but great. From nailing your content and story flow to the nuances of design and delivery, we've got you covered. So, whether you're gearing up for that crucial sales pitch or prepping for an all-important investor meeting, buckle up! Your presentation skills are about to go from mundane to magnificent.

Your Presentation Should Tell a Story

When it comes to creating a killer PowerPoint presentation, it all starts with the story. You heard that right! Not the fancy animations or the snazzy graphics (though they do have their place), but the story. It’s the backbone, the foundation, the heartbeat of your presentation.

Think about how you feel when you watch your favorite TV show or read a book you can’t put down. Good storytelling takes us to another place, where the rest of the world slips away and the story steps into the forefront. Great presentations can do the same thing if the presenter can harness the power of storytelling. 

There are also plenty of science-backed reasons to prioritize good storytelling. One article by Lani Peterson for Harvard Business Corporate Learning says, “Scientists are discovering that chemicals like cortisol and dopamine are released in the brain when we’re told a story. Why does that matter? If we are trying to make a point stick, cortisol assists with our formulating memories. Dopamine, which helps regulate our emotional responses, keeps us engaged.“ More engagement; more impactful presentations.

So, how do you nail down a storytelling strategy that sticks? Let’s break it down.

Craft Your Narrative

First, identify your core message. What’s the one thing you want your audience to remember when they walk out of the room? This is your North Star, guiding every aspect of your presentation. If you’re having trouble with this step, ask yourself, “Why am I giving this presentation?”

Understand Your Audience

Who is your audience? Tailor your story to resonate with them. Are they tech-savvy millennials or industry veterans? Your story should speak their language. Presentations that skip this step will miss out on a crucial opportunity to connect with the audience. And if you can’t connect with them, then what’s the point? One solution is to focus on understanding the needs, challenges, and aspirations of your audience. That way, you’ll be able to address their specific pain points and interests.

Create a Structured Flow

Like any good story, your presentation needs a beginning, middle, and end. Start with an introduction that hooks, follow with content that informs and engages, and conclude with a memorable takeaway. If you need ideas on how to start your presentation, see this guide with 12 ideas for hooking your audience from the very start .

Find Inspiration

Look to the pros! Ever read an article by Andy Raskin or April Dunford ? These folks know their stuff when it comes to strategic narratives. Dive into their work for some inspiration on how to weave a compelling story in your presentation. Just like we’ve all been through our fair share of boring presentations, most likely you’ve experienced a presentation that left an impression. Ask yourself why it was so impactful–you might be able to draw from their expertise!

Change the Narrative

Say you’re working on a sales deck. Instead of going with the typical problem-solution story structure, Andy Raskin has a different take on it:

Start with a big, relevant shift in the world. “We are living in a new era” type of statement. This will grab the attention, but also create some urgency for the prospect.

Then you move on to show that there will be winners and losers in this new era. The ones who act on this shift will have more probability of winning. In other words, “what I am about to offer you is crucial for winning in this new era.”

Now that you have set the stage, you can “tease the promise land” as Andy calls it. This is not where you show your product features. This is simply a teaser about this new future state and what to expect if you react to this shift in the market.

Then, you highlight the “Old world vs New world” to show the contrast, and how old methods do not work in this new era.

And finally, you provide real-life stories to support your claims. These could client case studies, article snippets, industry updates - anything that adds credibility to everything you just said.

Voilà, you’ve got yourself a story arc! This is a simple and straightforward way to craft a story that connects.

Nail Your Story First

Remember, at the end of the day, your presentation is more than just a collection of slides, but rather a vessel for storytelling. It’s not just about what you say, but how you say it. A well-crafted story can transform your presentation from a mere transfer of information to an impactful, memorable experience. So, take the time to nail your story, and you’re already halfway to creating your best PowerPoint presentation. Your audience will thank you!

Embracing Professional Design for Impactful Presentations

When you've nailed your narrative, the next crucial step in crafting your best PowerPoint presentation is design. This stage is where your story gets visually translated, elevating it from a mere script to an engaging, compelling experience.

The Role of a Presentation Agency

Not everyone possesses an innate talent for design, and that's perfectly fine. This is where a presentation design agency can become an invaluable asset. These presentation experts act as the alchemists of your PowerPoint, transforming basic slides into visually stunning and strategically aligned pieces of art. However, be selective when you choose who to work with. There is a big difference between a "meh" designer vs a “wow” designer when it comes to preparing well-crafted presentations.

Simplifying Complexity

One of the critical talents of a presentation design agency is their ability to distill complex concepts into simple, digestible visuals. An overcrowded slide can quickly lose your audience's attention, but a well-designed one can convey your message succinctly and effectively. Not only that, presentation experts can remove the complexity of creating great slides by designing the best presentation templates for your needs, making the process easier for you in the end.

"We have been using SLIDES™ services for our corporate PowerPoint template, and the PPT template is so well done and easy to use that we all feel like we now have PowerPoint superpowers creating new presentations in no time with stunning look!"

Jérôme neuvéglise, product owner qoqa, creating visual harmony.

Consistency in your presentation’s visual elements - such as color schemes, typography, and imagery - is essential. A presentation design agency ensures that these elements work in harmony, creating a unified and professional look that enhances your overall narrative. The best presentation layouts are those created by experts who know how to make your brand stand out.

Visualizing Ideas Effectively

Presentation agencies excel in translating your ideas into impactful visuals. They ensure that your graphics, charts, and images aren't just visually appealing but also contribute significantly to the telling of your story. After all, why spend so much time honing your story if your visuals fall flat?

When to Opt for Professional Presentation Design

We know that deciding to outsource is a tough call, and you want to make sure your resources are well spent. Here are a few things to consider before seeking out help from a presentation agency:

High-Stakes Presentations

For presentations that can have a significant impact on your business - such as those in sales, partnerships, or investment pitches - professional design isn't just a luxury, but a necessity. These are the scenarios where the expertise of a presentation design agency can make a substantial difference. 

Stripe’s CEO Patrick Collison said in a recent podcast:

 “My intuition is that more of Stripe's success than one would think is down to the fact that people like beautiful things and for rational reasons. Because, what does a beautiful thing tell you? It tells you the person who made it really cared, and you can observe some superficial details, but probably they didn’t only care about those and did everything else in a slapdash way. So, if you care about the infrastructure being holistically good, indexing on the superficial characteristics is not an irrational thing to do.“

Oftentimes in presentations, we ignore how we are making people feel with our slides. Think about this quote next time you’re preparing your slides.

Overcoming Skill and Time Constraints

If you're not well-versed in design or if time constraints are tight, opting for professional help is a wise decision. This not only ensures quality but also frees you up to concentrate on refining and rehearsing your presentation. This guide shows 18 of the most common presentation mistakes people make, and gives tips on how to avoid them.

In essence, professional design is about giving your presentation the visual edge it needs to not just capture but also maintain your audience's attention. By considering the services of a presentation design agency, you're ensuring that your presentation is not just seen, but also remembered and appreciated.

Mastering the Art of Delivery

Alright, you’ve got a gripping story and a set of stunning slides. But wait! There’s still a crucial piece of the puzzle left – your delivery. This is where the rubber meets the road. Remember, no matter how dazzling your slides are, they can’t rescue a lackluster delivery. 

More Than Just Slides

First things first, let’s get one thing straight: people aren’t just buying into your PowerPoint. They’re buying into you – your ideas, your enthusiasm, your conviction. Your slides are merely a tool to complement your narrative, not the other way around. Your slides are never the star of the show. It's you. It sure is harder to improve your delivery compared to your slides. But it will be the best investment of your life.

The Human Connection

At its core, a great presentation is about making a connection with your audience. It’s about storytelling, not just through words on a slide, but through the way you present them. Your tone, your body language, your ability to engage – all these elements combine to create a compelling delivery.

Know Your Story Inside Out

Your first step should be to know your story like the back of your hand. This doesn’t mean memorizing your script word for word but being familiar enough with your content to speak confidently and fluidly about it.

Rehearse, Then Rehearse Some More

Practice might not always make perfect, but it sure does make confidence. Rehearse your presentation multiple times. This will help you iron out any kinks in your delivery and help you manage those pesky nerves.

When our founder Damon gave his first keynote presentation, he experienced some technical issues that would throw off any professional speaker. But since he had rehearsed his speech so well, he knew it inside out. And he could handle the mishap with calm, make some jokes about it, and then get back to his talk when the tech decided to work again.

Engage With Your Audience

Remember, a presentation is a two-way street. Engage with your audience, ask questions, and encourage participation. This interaction makes your presentation more memorable and impactful. The former product manager at Netflix , Gibson Biddle, shared this great example:

“In a virtual setting you need to double-down on engagement tactics. Today, I use Google Slides plus Slido to do real-time polling, word clouds and to answer questions. It makes the experience incredibly interactive to the extent that I now have an equal NPS for virtual and in-person presentations.”

Body Language Matters

Your body language speaks volumes. Maintain eye contact, use gestures to emphasize points, and move around if possible. This non-verbal communication can significantly enhance the impact of your delivery.

In today’s increasingly digital world, we also have to think about virtual presentations and how to put our best foot forward through a screen. An awkward camera angle or a weird background can be a distraction to your audience, so shift your focus to a flattering camera angle, solid camera quality, and a neutral background. 

Authenticity is Key

Be yourself. Your audience can tell when you’re putting on a façade. Authenticity breeds trust and connection, which in turn makes your message more persuasive.

Investing in Yourself

Finally, investing in your delivery skills is investing in yourself. Whether it’s through public speaking courses, professional coaching, or simply seeking feedback from peers, improving your delivery skills is invaluable. Remember, a great delivery can elevate a good presentation to a great one. So, give your delivery the attention it deserves, and watch as you transform from a presenter to a storyteller, captivating your audience one slide at a time.

Final Thoughts

So, there you have it – the roadmap to creating a PowerPoint presentation that’s not just good, but outstanding. It all starts with crafting a compelling story, enhanced by visually striking and well-thought-out design, and brought to life through engaging and authentic delivery. Remember, your best PowerPoint presentation will feel like more than just a collection of slides to your audience. This is a powerful storytelling tool, and you are the storyteller.

The key takeaway? Invest time and effort into each aspect of your presentation. Understand your narrative, collaborate with design professionals if needed, and hone your delivery skills. It’s this combination of content, design, and delivery that transforms a standard presentation into an unforgettable experience.

In the end, what sets a great PowerPoint presentation apart is the ability to not just share information but to tell a story that resonates, inspires, and persuades. Whether you’re pitching to potential clients, investors, or sharing insights with your team, remember that the most impactful presentations are those that connect with the audience on a deeper level. So go ahead, create, deliver, and captivate.

Your audience is waiting.

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Why bad slides kill good ideas - and how to avoid it

Presentation design

11 Simple Tips to Make Your PowerPoint Presentations More Effective

Written by Jamie Cartwright @cart_writing

After all, the skills needed to create good PowerPoint presentations —strong design, appropriate branding, concise content, well-placed visuals, and proofread copy—are the same skills that make or break a digital marketing campaign. I like to treat Microsoft PowerPoint as a test of basic marketing skills. To create a passing presentation, I need to demonstrate design skills, technical literacy, and a sense of personal style.

If the presentation has a problem (like an unintended font, a broken link, or unreadable text) then I’ve probably failed the test. Even if my spoken presentation is well rehearsed, a bad visual experience can ruin it for the audience. Expertise means nothing without a good presentation to back it up. Strong digital marketing requires a similar kind of attention to multiple forms of communication. Often, we think we need expert designers and writers to present our company in a professional light.

The truth is that PowerPoint enables non-experts to become strong presentation marketers, by providing user-friendly tools with little training needed. All you need is to learn how to let PowerPoint help you. Here are eleven key tips to get started.

No matter your topic, successful PowerPoint shows depend on three main factors: your command of PPT’s design tools , your attention to presentation processes , and your devotion to consistent style . If you can do all three effectively, you’ll find that your PowerPoint presentations won’t be the only pieces of your marketing toolkit improving!

Good style is the hardest and most important skillset to master. It’s more than design; it defines your vision for PowerPoint. Here's how to beef up your styling:

1) Keep a Natural Style

Human eyes aren’t used to seeing brilliant, out-of-this-world visual movement. Good presentations aim to comfort the viewer, not amaze. When you choose an overall style, try to envision your PowerPoint slides as one or many real objects. Imagine canvases, tabletops, landscapes, and shadow boxes. Here is an example of a stylized, blank PowerPoint Slide canvas:

Then, imagine how you would arrange real text within these various media. You don’t need to constrain yourself to two-dimensional space (i.e. surfaces), but just remember, that real people don’t live in outer space… So, don’t take us there unless you need to.

2) Don’t Let PowerPoint Decide How You Use PowerPoint

Microsoft aimed to provide PowerPoint users with a lot of tools. This does not mean you should use them all. For example, professionals should never use PPT’s action sounds (please consider your audience, above personal preference). You should also make sure that preset PPT themes complement your needs before you adopt them. Consider it a mistake if your audience recognizes a PowerPoint theme as a preset. Be creative; don’t be a poser. Here are three key things to look out for:

• PowerPoint makes bulleting automatic, but ask yourself: Are bullets actually appropriate for what you need to do? Sometimes, but not always.
• Recent PPT defaults include a small shadow on all shapes. Remove if not actually needed. Also, don’t leave shapes in their default blue.
• Try to get away from using Microsoft Office’s default fonts, Calibri and Cambria. Using these two typefaces can make the presentation seem underwhelming.

Presentation Process Tips

If you keep good style, then you don’t have to be an expert PPT designer. But you must know how to handle solid presentation process preparation.

3) Embed Your Font Files

One constant problem presenters have with PowerPoint is that fonts seem to change when presenters move from one computer to another. In reality, the fonts are not changing—the presentation computer just doesn’t have the same font files installed. If you’re using a PC and presenting on a PC, then there is a smooth work around for this issue. (When you involve Mac systems, the solution is a bit rougher. See Trick #4.) Here’s the trick. When you save your PowerPoint file (only on a PC), you should click Save Options in the "Save As…" dialog window. Then, select the Embed TrueType fonts check box and press OK. Now, your presentation will keep the font file and your fonts will not change when you move computers (unless you give your presentation on a Mac).

4) Save Your Slides as JPEGs

In PowerPoint for Mac 2011, there is no option to embed fonts within the presentation. Which means that unless you use ubiquitous typefaces like Arial or Tahoma, your PPT is likely going to encounter font changing on different computers.

The most certain way of avoiding this is by saving your final presentation as JPEGs, then inserting these JPEGs onto your slides. If you do not utilize actions in your presentation, then this option works especially well. If you do want action settings, you can also choose save partial portions of your PPT slides as JPEGs and overlay other elements on top.

On a Mac, users can easily drag and drop the JPEGs into PPT with fast load time. The compromising factor here is that if your PPT includes a lot of JPEGs, then the file size will increase, so make sure you can manage!

5) Embed Multimedia

PowerPoint allows you to either link to video/audio files externally or to embed the media directly in your presentation. You should embed these files if you can, but if you use a Mac, you cannot actually embed the video (see note below). 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).

Note : Mac OS users of PowerPoint should be extra careful about using multimedia files.

If you use PowerPoint for Mac, then you always will need to bring the video and/or audio file with you in the same folder as the PowerPoint presentation. It’s best to only insert video or audio files once the presentation and the containing folder have been saved on a portable drive in their permanent folder. Also, if the presentation will be played on a Windows computer, then Mac users need to make sure their multimedia files are in WMV format. This tip gets a bit complicated, so if you want to use PowerPoint effectively, consider using the same operating system, no matter what.

6) Bring Your Own Hardware

Between operating systems, PowerPoint is still a bit jumpy. Even between differing PPT versions, things can change. One way to fix these problems is to make sure that you have the right hardware you need to always use your own portable computer.

7) 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 2010 (or 2011 for Mac). 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 use a crutch. Use the Presenter View option to help create a more natural presentation:

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!

Design Tips

8) utilize the format menus.

Format menus allow you to do fine adjustments that otherwise seem impossible. To do this, right click on an object and select the "Format" option. By doing this, you can fine-tune shadows, adjust shape measurements, create reflections, and much more. Here's the menu that will pop up:

Although the main options can be found on PowerPoint’s format toolbars, look for complete control in the format window menu. Examples include:

• Adjusting text inside a shape.
• Creating a natural perspective shadow behind an object.
• Recoloring photos manually and with automatic options.
• Putting an object in a very precise location when PowerPoint auto-positions an object to align with another object or margin.

9) Use and Change PowerPoint’s Shapes

Many users don’t realize how flexible PowerPoint’s shape tools have become. In combination with the expanded format options released by Microsoft in 2010, the potential for good design with shapes is readily available. Unlike professional design programs like Adobe Creative Suite or Quark, PowerPoint provides the user with a bunch of great shape options, beyond the traditional rectangle, oval, and rounded rectangle patterns.

Today’s shapes include a highly functional Smart Shapes function, which enables you to create diagrams and flow charts in no time. These tools are especially valuable when you consider that PowerPoint is a visual medium. Paragraphing and bullet lists are boring—utilize shapes to help express you message more clearly.

10) Create Custom Shapes

When you create a shape, right-click and press Edit Points. By editing points, you can create custom shapes that fit your specific need. For instance, you can reshape arrows to fit the dimensions you like.

Another option is to combine two shapes together. When selecting two shapes, right-click and go to the Grouping sub-menu to see a variety of options. Combine will create a custom shape that has overlapping portions of the two previous shapes cut out.

Union makes one completely merged shape. Intersect will build a shape of only the overlapping sections of the two previous shapes. Subtract will cut out the overlapping portion of one shape from the other. By using these tools rather than trying to edit points precisely, you can create accurately measured custom shapes.

11) Present Webpages Within PowerPoint

Tradition says that if you want to show a website in a PowerPoint, you should just create link to the page and prompt a browser to open. For PC users, there’s a better option.

Third party software that integrates fully into PowerPoint’s developer tab can used to embed a website directly into your PowerPoint using a normal HTML iframe. One of the best tools is LiveWeb, a third-party software developed independently.

By using LiveWeb, you don’t have to interrupt your PowerPoint, and your presentation will remain fluid and natural. Whether you embed a whole webpage or just a YouTube video, this can be a high-quality third party improvement.

Unfortunately, Mac users don’t have a similar option, so a good second choice is to take screen shots of the website, link in through a browser, or embed media, such as a YouTube video by downloading it to your computer.

With style, design, and presentation processes under your belt, you can do a lot more with PowerPoint than just presentations for your clients. PowerPoint and similar slide applications are flexible tools that should not be forgotten.

For small design jobs not worthy of a graphic designer’s time (e.g. calls-to-action, small web graphics), consider having a free staffer use PowerPoint to do the job. Or if you’re in need of more social media content, try uploading a few good presentations to SlideShare as free resources. With the eleven tips I offer here and a little practice, PowerPoint can be a powerful tool you won’t want to stop using.

Jamie Cartwright is the Inbound Marketing Intern at Weidert Group . A senior at Lawrence University, Jamie studies human communication, anthropology, and social marketing.

Originally published Dec 10, 2013 10:00:00 AM, updated November 07 2023

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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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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!

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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!

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A poor choice of color or font style can bring down the quality of your presentation. In fact, a well-formatted image can distract the audience. All you need is to understand the tonality of your presentation topic along with the audience you want to address.

Here is a list of 10 ‘powerful’ PowerPoint tips straight from the desks of experts to make your point.

10 Expert PowerPoint Tips

You can easily design a presentation with a default PowerPoint template . Will it stand out from the crowd? To make an impact, check these tips and include them in your presentation idea.

1. Stop using default PowerPoint features

Microsoft has done a commendable job by creating PowerPoint for years now. The more advanced the version is the better features we can find. Refrain from using the default elements on your slides. Instead, check these pro tips to make a difference.

• A preset PPT theme is good to go only if matches your needs. Else, avoid adding themes to your PPTs.
• Forget default fonts such as Cambria or Calibri. Go for unique fonts to make your presentation overwhelming and visually appealing.
• Avoid using PPT action sounds. It’s juvenile and does not attract the attention of a mature audience.
• Bulleting comes automatically. Check whether you need default bullets on the points you want to discuss.

2. Custom slides make an impact

Usually, the default template PowerPoint is good to go for general presentations. They possess a default size that might not fit your requirements. The elements you want to add might not adjust well and get distorted in the process. To customize a slide, follow these steps.

• Go to the top left corner of PowerPoint and select ‘File’.
• Select the option ‘Page Setup’ and put in the dimensions as per your requirement. Click OK.
• PowerPoint will display a dialogue box with multiple options. Choose ‘Scale’ if you want to add a customized size to your content. You can choose ‘Don’t Scale’ if you want to avoid the hassle of resizing and adjusting the minor layout changes manually.

Remember, the last step helps you avoid your presentation elements getting skewed.

3. Slide template editing

Edit your PowerPoint slide adjusting templates before you start designing your presentation. Doing so will help you get a slide template design ready in the beginning. You will not have to repeatedly do the same for every slide. Here is how you can do it.

• Select the option ‘View’ in the top navigation panel.
• Choose ‘Master’ and get a dropdown menu.
• Choose ‘Slide Master’ on that menu to make the necessary changes. Select ‘Close Master’ located at the top ribbon. Your present and future slides will use the edited template.

4. Contextual text

A wide choice of words justifies the context of your presentation well. Choose the right font for a better understanding of a target audience. It also conveys your professionalism and the brand’s personality. Experts suggest sticking to Sans Serif or Simple Serif. Don’t go overboard with exciting font choices and make sure the text is readable. The font size goes hand in hand with the typeface. The mix of large, medium, and small font sizes will impart a professional point of view. The audience will connect well with the message you want to convey.

5. The Alignments of Objects

How about the aesthetics of your PowerPoint slides? It comes from the proper alignment of the objects you have added on each slide. Lining up images or graphs gives a professional look. It also works as an eye candy for the audience.

Achieving a well-aligned slide is an easy task. Here is what you need to do.

• Select all elements by pressing the ‘Shift’ key and clicking on them.
• Choose ‘Arrange’ present on the top menu options bar and select ‘Align or Distribute’.
• Once done, select the type of alignment you need on your chosen slide.

6. ‘Format Object’ for Better Control of Designs

The latest versions of Power points add exceptional features to format the objects you have added to your slides. You can make finer adjustments to the objects.

• Choose an object on your slide and right-click.
• Select the ‘Format Object’ option.
• Find the different options popping up on the right-side window menu like adjusting shape measurements, fine-tuning shadows, creating reflections, etc. You can also adjust texts inside an object, recolor photos manually or automatically, and create natural shadows too.

7. Cropping images into desired shapes

Apart from using the excellent custom shape feature, you can crop images on the design slides and give them a desired shape. Check these simple steps.

• Select an image on a slide and choose ‘Picture Format’ available in the option menu at the top.
• Select ‘Crop’ and then the sub-option ‘Crop to Shape’. You will get myriads of options from a dropdown menu. You can also add a custom shape to your images.

8. Contrast image, background, and text color

If you are using an image in the background, make sure the color of your text is in good contrast. Unclear text color will hinder readability and cause trouble for an audience. The thumb rule is to contrast the colors. For instance, use light text color for a darker background and vice versa. If you can’t find out what color to use, use a PowerPoint shape to highlight your text color. Make sure the text box is a little transparent to let the background image flow well with the content.

9. Mock-ups

Charts, diagrams, screenshots, or schematic presentation elements become crucial factors for your story. Your PowerPoint presentation becomes more fluidic when you use mock-ups. What are these elements? Consider an example. You want to make the audience pay attention to a flowchart. Try using a digital projector image where you can paste the flowchart.

This tip will automatically dictate the slide’s importance and the audience will pay more attention. The slide will also look craftier than a normal schematic one. Remember to check the dimensions of your flowchart. It should size down and become unclear for the sake of adding a mock-up.

10. Visual data representation

The last but crucial tip is to represent important data in a visually more-pleasing mode. How will you do that? Use visual formats of representing data. For instance, use a doughnut graph to represent data. It has been proved that an audience perceives data better in a visual representation than in a numerical method.

Bard graphs, doughnut charts, and other visual data representation modes with a good color combination will make the message clearer. This step is important as it creates a good impression on an audience’s mind. You can smoothly transition from one slide to the other by ensuring the audience has perceived what you have explained in a previous slide.

Bonus PowerPoint Presentation Tips

Develop an outline of a presentation right at the beginning. It helps an audience to understand the course of your presentation. When there are multiple slides, it is possible that the target audience might lose the trail. Hence, create a welcome slide, add a menu slide, and end your presentation with a summary slide. Wrap your presentation with a summary to make an impact.

Wrapping up

Follow these ten tips to make your PowerPoint online presentation more aesthetic to a target audience. Focus on the elements you want to add and balance them with the message you want to deliver. Understand the demography of the audience and prepare your presentation accordingly. Show less and talk more to connect well and explain your topic.

FAQs – PowerPoint Presentation Tips

1. why should you add a summary slide at the end of your presentation.

A summary slide allows you to deliver a concise form of your presentation. The audience will also recall what they have perceived during the process and relate.

2. What is the 5-second rule for PowerPoint presentations?

The 5-second rule dictates that an audience should get the context of a slide within five seconds. Your slides should be simple enough to convey the message clearly and help the spectators understand the context.

3.  Is it ok to use GIFs in PowerPoint?

Gifs add a brilliant visual element to your PowerPoint presentation when used tactfully. These looped images help you communicate an idea, a mood, or even information. Don’t go overboard with gifs as they can distract the audience.

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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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How to Enhance a Powerpoint Presentation

Enhancing a PowerPoint presentation can transform it from a simple slide deck into an engaging and effective communication tool. If you’re looking to make your presentations stand out, here are some tips and techniques to elevate your PowerPoint game.

Here’s the quick and dirty about how to upgrade your powerpoint presentations:

• Use Bold Visuals: Integrate striking images and graphics to make your slides visually compelling.
• Employ Animations Sparingly: Use subtle animations to highlight key points without distracting your audience.
• Practice Storytelling: Craft your presentation as a narrative to make it more relatable and memorable.
• Integrate Real-Time Demos: Show live demonstrations or real-time examples to illustrate your points effectively.
• Optimize for Mobile Viewing: Ensure your slides are easily readable on mobile devices for remote or on-the-go viewers.
• Use Consistent Branding: Apply your company’s branding consistently to maintain a professional look.
• Provide Handouts: Offer printed or digital handouts with detailed information to complement your presentation and serve as takeaways.

Start with a Strong Foundation

The first step in enhancing your PowerPoint presentation is to start with a solid foundation. This means organizing your content in a logical flow and ensuring your main points are clear. Begin with an outline to structure your presentation, then use this outline to guide your slide creation. A well-structured presentation helps keep your audience engaged and ensures that your message is conveyed effectively.

Design with Your Audience in Mind

Consider who will be watching your presentation. Tailor your design choices to your audience’s preferences and expectations. For a corporate audience, you might opt for a more professional and polished look. If your audience is more creative or informal, you can afford to be a bit more playful with your design. Knowing your audience helps you make better choices about colors, fonts, and overall style.

Use High-Quality Images and Graphics

Visuals are a powerful tool in any presentation. They can break up text, illustrate points, and keep your audience’s attention. Use high-quality images and graphics to make your slides more visually appealing. Websites like Unsplash and Pexels offer free, high-resolution images that can be used to enhance your slides. Additionally, ensure that your images are relevant to your content and support the points you are making.

Keep Text Concise

One of the most common pitfalls in PowerPoint presentations is overcrowding slides with text. Keep your text concise and to the point. Use bullet points to break up information and make it easier to digest. Aim for no more than six bullet points per slide, and try to limit each bullet point to a single line of text. This helps keep your audience focused on your key messages.

Choose Consistent Fonts and Colors

Consistency in fonts and colors helps create a cohesive look for your presentation. Choose a color scheme that aligns with your brand or the theme of your presentation. Stick to two or three fonts throughout your slides to maintain a professional appearance. Use larger font sizes for headings and smaller sizes for body text, but ensure everything remains readable from a distance.

Incorporate Animations and Transitions Wisely

Animations and transitions can add a dynamic element to your presentation, but use them sparingly. Overusing animations can be distracting and may detract from your message. Choose subtle transitions and animations that enhance your presentation rather than overwhelm it. For instance, using a simple fade transition between slides can be effective without being distracting.

Utilize Charts and Graphs

Charts and graphs are excellent tools for presenting data clearly and effectively. They can simplify complex information and make it more accessible to your audience. When using charts and graphs, ensure they are easy to read and understand. Label all axes and data points clearly, and choose the right type of chart for your data. For example, use pie charts for percentages and bar graphs for comparisons.

Engage with Multimedia

Incorporating multimedia elements like videos and audio clips can make your presentation more engaging. Videos can illustrate points more vividly, while audio clips can add an auditory element to your slides. Ensure that any multimedia you include is relevant and enhances your presentation. Also, be mindful of the technical aspects—test your multimedia elements before your presentation to avoid any glitches.

Practice Good Slide Hygiene

Good slide hygiene involves ensuring that your slides are clean and clutter-free. Avoid overcrowding slides with too much information or too many elements. Use whitespace effectively to give your content room to breathe. This makes your slides easier to read and more visually appealing. Also, check for any typos or errors before presenting to ensure everything looks professional.

Rehearse Your Presentation

Finally, practice makes perfect. Rehearse your presentation multiple times to get comfortable with the flow of your slides and the timing of your delivery. Practicing helps you identify any areas that need adjustment and ensures you are prepared to deliver a confident and engaging presentation.

By following these tips, you can enhance your PowerPoint presentation and create a more engaging and effective communication tool. Whether you’re presenting in a corporate boardroom or a creative workshop, these techniques will help you captivate your audience and convey your message with impact.

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7 things i wish i’d known before i made my first powerpoint presentation.

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The slide master saves time and aids consistency, you can remove image backgrounds, cropping images is surprisingly easy, powerpoint has a presenter view, the designer feature instantly professionalizes your slides, the selection pane makes animating much easier, useful keyboard shortcuts.

As with many Microsoft 365 programs, PowerPoint can take some getting used to. Here are seven things I've learned over the years which, had I known about them earlier, would have saved me a lot of time and helped me hit the ground running with slick, professional slides.

In this article, I'll talk about the features available to Microsoft 365 subscribers in the PowerPoint desktop app. Some of these tools are accessible in the web-based version of the program, but—as with all Microsoft 365 programs—the app offers the best flexibility.

One of my main PowerPoint bugbears is seeing slides with different layouts and color schemes, so when I'm creating a slideshow, I like to make sure my viewers don't have the same experience. The best way to ensure your slides are consistent is by using the Slide Master —and doing so will also save you lots of time.

You can use the Slide Master on a blank PowerPoint presentation or a Microsoft template. However, if you have already amended some slides in the Normal view (such as font colors), some changes you make in the Slide Master will not apply to these slides.

In the View tab on the ribbon, click "Slide Master."

You will then see a new Slide Master tab on the ribbon, and your thumbnail pane on the left of your screen will change to a new view.

The top slide thumbnail is the master slide, and all related layouts are displayed underneath. Any formatting changes you make to the top slide—such as font colors, borders, or images—will be duplicated in the remaining slides. In this example, I've added a green border to the slide's text area and changed the title font to blue. I have also moved the slide title area to the right and added a small image to the left, and you can see all these changes applied to the other slide thumbnails below.

You can also make changes to specific slide types. For example, if I wanted the title layout slide to have a yellow background, I would move down to the second thumbnail in the screenshot above and change that slide layout only.

When you have made all the necessary changes, click "Close Master View" in the Slide Master tab, or "Normal" in the View tab.

Then, in the Normal view, to add a new slide, click the "New Slide" drop-down option in the Home tab and choose from the newly designed layouts.

If you have a busy slide with lots of objects, your image backgrounds can take up some valuable space. Instead, you can edit the images to keep the foreground only —as a result, your slide will appear less cluttered to your audience, and you're keeping only the focal point of your photos.

First, upload your image to PowerPoint. To do this, in the Insert tab on the ribbon, click "Pictures," and then choose the appropriate location.

Now, with your image selected, head to the Picture Format tab, and click "Remove Background."

PowerPoint will then attempt to identify which parts of your picture are the foreground and which parts are the background, keeping the former and removing the latter. The part it intends to remove will be highlighted in purple.

If you're happy with which parts of your picture are to be removed, click "Keep Changes" in the Background Removal tab. However, sometimes, PowerPoint's background recognition might not work perfectly well, as in my screenshot above. In this case, I would click "Mark Areas To Remove," and use the freehand pen to tell PowerPoint where the rest of the background is. Each time I click and then unclick, the image will update accordingly.

If you make any mistakes when drawing out your area, simply press Ctrl+Z (undo) to bring back the part you just removed. Luckily, you don't have to be perfectly accurate with where you draw your areas to remove—this process is satisfyingly intuitive.

When you're done, click "Keep Changes."

You will then see the new image with only the foreground retained. Simply select, copy (Ctrl+C), and paste (Ctrl+V) the image if you want to use it somewhere else in your presentation.

Is your image too big? Or do you just want to make the background smaller? PowerPoint lets you do this in just a few clicks.

Select your uploaded image and, in the Picture Format tab, click the "Crop" drop-down arrow. You will then see five options.

• Crop —Clicking this option will place black handles around the edge of your picture, which you can then drag to cut out the necessary parts of your photo (see the screenshot below).
• Crop To Shape —If you click this button, you'll see a choice of shapes that you can select to change your image shape without distorting its ratio. Some shapes will let you adjust their dimensions, but others (such as the oval) will be a set cropping shape.
• Aspect Ratio —If you need your image to be a certain aspect ratio (the image's height versus its width), click "Aspect Ratio," and choose one of the set parameters.
• Fill —This lets you resize the image so that the entire picture area is filled. This is only applicable if you have already changed the image cropping.
• Fit —Finally, this option lets you resize the image so that it displays in full within the picture area. Again, this will only work if you have already cropped the picture.

Whichever cropping option you choose , simply click anywhere away from the image once you're happy, and your amendments will apply to your pic. Press Ctrl+Z to undo this, or click the Crop icon again to revert the image to its original shape or amend the dimensions.

If you're presenting your PowerPoint on a projector or screen, when you press F5, you will automatically see the Presenter View on your primary screen and the slideshow on the other. In this screenshot, the Presenter View is on the left (my laptop screen), and the slideshow is on the right (my second screen).

The Presenter View is great for showing you what the next slide or animation will be, but the best use of this tool is the notes section. When preparing your presentation (before you press F5), click "Notes" under a given slide, and type some comments into the area that appears.

Then, when you press F5, you'll see these notes in the Presenter View.

While you can use Excel's many templates to help you choose your slide layouts, I prefer to use the Designer tool , mainly because it designs your slide based on what you type.

Open a blank PowerPoint presentation and head to your title slide. Then, in the Home tab on the ribbon, click "Designer." You'll then see some nice designs appear in a sidebar on the right, which you might choose to click through to find a suitable layout.

But wait! Don't jump straight into a design. First, try typing a title into your first slide—in our example, we'll type Technology—and see how the design suggestions change to suit your theme.

Add a sub-heading to your title slide, and see the design suggestions update again. Once you see an appropriate design, simply click your choice. When you create new slides, the rest of the presentation will be designed to match your title slide.

If you have lots of objects—such as images and text boxes—on one slide, it can sometimes be confusing which object is which when adding and organizing your animations. In my screenshot below, you can see that the images are labeled with random numbers, so identifying the individual pictures and their animations can be difficult.

Instead, I find that naming the objects individually makes this process a lot clearer. In the Home tab on the ribbon, click the "Select" drop-down arrow, and choose "Selection Pane." You'll then see the Selection Pane appear on the right, listing all the objects on that particular slide.

From here, you can rename the objects by double-clicking the placeholder names and typing your preferred object name.

Now, when you reopen the Animation Pane via the Animation tab on the ribbon, you'll find it much easier to organize your animations.

Do you have only a few hours to create your PowerPoint presentation? There are many keyboard shortcuts you can use in PowerPoint , but speed up the process by learning and using these handy ones:

Whether you're a PowerPoint newbie or a power user, hopefully, some of these tips will make your life a little easier. As well as these hints, there are some other traps you might fall into when creating your presentation, so make sure you avoid making these common PowerPoint mistakes .

• Microsoft PowerPoint

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Choose the perfect visual from our extensive photo and video library . Search and find the ideal image or video using keywords relevant to the project. Drag and drop in your project and adjust as needed.

Incorporate 3D illustrations and icons into all sorts of content types to create amazing content for your business communication strategies. You won’t see these 3D designs anywhere else as they’re made by Visme designers.

When you share your Visme projects, they’ll display with a flipbook effect . Viewers can go from page to page by flipping the page like a digital magazine. If you don’t want the flipbook effect, you can disable it and share as a standard project.

Remove the background from an image to create a cutout and layer it over something else, maybe an AI-generated background. Erase elements of the image and swap them for other objects with AI-powered Erase & Replace feature.

Create scroll-stopping video and animation posts for social media and email communication. Embed projects with video and animation into your website landing page or create digital documents with multimedia resources.

With Visme, you can make, create and design hundreds of content types . We have templates for digital documents, infographics, social media graphics, posters, banners, wireframes, whiteboards, flowcharts.

Design and brainstorm collaboratively with your team on the Visme whiteboard . Build mind maps and flowcharts easily during online planning and strategy sessions. Save whiteboards as meeting minutes and ongoing notes for projects.

Edit your images , photos, and AI image-generated graphics with our integrated editing tools. On top of the regular editing features like saturation and blur, we have 3 AI-based editing features. With these tools, you can unblur an image, expand it without losing quality and erase an object from it.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How can i get better results with the ai presentations maker.

Like any AI generator from a text tool, the prompt is everything. To get better results with the AI Presentation maker, you need better prompts. Write the prompt to be as detailed as possible. Include all the content topics you want the presentation to cover. As for style elements, there’s no need to include it in the prompt. Focus on choosing the style that you like from the Chatbot suggestions. Try to select the style that already features the color palette and shapes that you like. AI will change icons and photos based on text it generates.

How many AI Presentations can I generate?

Visme AI Presentation Maker is available in all plans and works on a per-credit basis. Every free account gets 10 credits, Starter accounts get 200, Pro gets 500 and Enterprise is unlimited. Every design generation costs 2 credits and usage of other AI tools costs 1 credit.

Is the Visme AI Designer a third-party API?

No, Visme AI Presentation maker was developed in-house and is a unique tool. However, it does use third-party APIs: ChatGPT and Unsplash.

Are the AI-generated presentations I make copyright-free?

All designs you create with AI Presentation are copyright and royalty-free. You can use them both for personal and commercial use without any problems.

What can Visme AI Designer do?

Visme’s AI design generator can:

• Generate full designs for various content types, including presentations, documents, printables, and social media graphics. Click here to view the full list of document, printable, and social media graphics subcategories.
• Follow your instructions for the text you want in your projects, although not word for word.
• Adapt photos and icons to complement the generated text.
• Create charts, graphs, and tables.
• Handle one project at a time.
• Include animations in projects only if the selected style features animation.
• Generate designs with a maximum length of 10 pages.

What can’t Visme AI Designer do?

Visme’s AI design generator can’t:

• Generate infographics, charts/graphs, whiteboards, web graphics, videos, or GIFs.
• Reproduce your text verbatim.
• Customize based on your specifications for color, shapes, graphics, and design style. Select a style that already resembles what you want in your project, and you can manually edit all design elements in the Visme editor.
• Create or modify diagrams, data widgets or infographics.
• Crawl external websites and gather information from them.
• Handle multiple projects at once.
• Generate designs more than 10 pages in length.

Free PowerPoint Templates

Unlock the full potential of your presentations with our vast collection of free PowerPoint templates from FPPT, all tailored to be fully compatible with Microsoft PowerPoint. Browse through thousands of free slide templates, from business and finance themes to creative and modern designs, ensuring you find the perfect match for your presentation's tone and style.

Featured Free Presentation Templates

Artificial Intelligence PowerPoint Template

Behavioral Psychology PowerPoint Template

Common benefits of using free powerpoint templates & pre-made slide design for presentation.

• Save time & efforts. Focus in your presentation content
• Ensure compatibility across different versions of PowerPoint
• Easily convert your PowerPoint slides to Google Slides, Keynote and OpenOffice.
• Impress your audience with catchy slides & photos and PowerPoint themes with great backgrounds.

Our free PowerPoint backgrounds and presentation templates are very easy to customize and edit for your presentation needs. Using Microsoft PowerPoint (but now also in Google Slides), you can easily create engaging presentations with our free PowerPoint templates & slideshow templates.

Free Biotecnology PowerPoint Template

Free Influencer PowerPoint Template

Free Business PowerPoint Template

Under this section, you can get immediate access to some of the free PPT templates for PowerPoint available in our catalog. Alternatively, you can browse the entire design templates collection using the top menu or search by keyword. Serious presenters often want to keep their presentations minimalist in terms of design, but this catalog has a variety of free presentation templates and backgrounds available. Get access to thousands of modern presentation templates, backgrounds and free PPT templates, and creative slide templates with abstract designs. If you need help finding a suitable PPT template for your presentation project, contact us and we will help you.

Our PPT slides are 100% free for commercial and education presentations, but if you are looking for professionally-designed free slides templates, ready for business presentations, check out these visually appealing PowerPoint templates for PowerPoint and Google Slides.

Best Free PowerPoint templates & Presentation Slides

Free Logistics PowerPoint Template

Workplan Timeline Template for PowerPoint

Blue & Brown PowerPoint Template

Blue Corporate PowerPoint Template

Free Focus PowerPoint Template

We will send you our curated collections to your email weekly. No spam, promise!

Meet your AI presentation maker.

Get the power of generative AI right inside your Beautiful.ai workspace. DesignerBot is a powerful creative partner that designs slides quickly, helps brainstorm ideas and generates text and images in a snap. All you have to do is ask, and watch DesignerBot generate a unique deck for you in seconds.

Create AI presentations and slides automagically

Get a jumpstart to your story with the power of AI presentations. Let DesignerBot build your presentation for you - complete with professional slides, content, charts and images.

Get your first draft, fast

Never stare at a blank slide again. Just describe the presentation you are looking for, and let DesignerBot design slides for you.

Create slides from text in seconds

Once your AI presentation is generated, use Beautiful.ai’s Smart Slide templates to make edits quickly. Add flow charts, infographics, Venn diagrams, XY plots and more to adapt the presentation to your content.

Creative writing made easy

Unblock your writer’s block with DesignerBot. You can summarize, expand text or rewrite it in a different tone. You can even ask it to write your paragraph in a different language!

Generate images from text

Convert your ideas into art by asking DesignerBot to generate an Al image with a detailed search prompt. Describe the image style, tone, and even mood to get interesting results. Eg. synth wave style illustration of Los Angeles

Let context shape your presentation

AI without context isn’t very intelligent or effective. Adding context to your prompt will accurately guide DesignerBot to give relevant results specific to your ideas, and your data. Now you can add additional text-based documents, pdfs or webpage urls to your prompt design, and watch DesignerBot transform them into a stunning presentation, in seconds.

Transform your workflow

Summarize lengthy transcripts, visualize complex documents, generate stunning slides with ai, end writer’s block with fast content creation.

Brainstorm content ideas for your slides by using generative AI. Discover all the ways DesignerBot can help your creative workflow.

Summarize text

Extract key ideas from your paragraph and generate short form text. Change text 'to be shorter' and watch DesignerBot work its magic.

Expand your ideas

No need for copywriting skills. DesignerBot can help you write long form content on virtually any topic. Change text 'to be longer' and voila!

Change the tone

Need your text to have a more professional or more playful tone? We’ve got your back - select ‘Change Tone’ and choose the tone you’d like to try out.

Customize your text

Rewrite freely with a custom prompt. Try a new language or come up with inventive phrases. Just type ‘Write this in Spanish’ for example.

Get creative with AI-generated images

Transform your ideas into creative images. Simply type in a prompt and watch DesignerBot generate a unique image to compliment your slide (eg. an oil painting of a dog drinking coffee in an office).

Scale presentations with DesignerBot

Use DesignerBot for drafting out pitch decks, investor decks, company meetings, and marketing plans in minutes. It can help teams brainstorm ideas and iterate quickly - so your company can scale productivity easily.

Start creating AI presentations today