how to make powerpoint presentation more interactive

How to Make an Interactive PowerPoint Presentation: An Expert Guide (Free Downloadable Playbook)

Zhun Yee Chew

Are your PowerPoint presentations lacking impact and failing to engage your audience? You’re not alone. I experienced that before. I used to spend hours carefully crafting the perfect PowerPoint presentations only to be met with disinterested faces.

In a world where attention spans are getting shorter, traditional PowerPoint presentations often struggle to hold the interest of the audience. So here’s the hard truth: unless you adapt and embrace interactivity in your PowerPoint presentations, your valuable hard work and content run the risk of getting lost in presentations.

Fret not, as in this comprehensive guide, we will share with you expert tips on how to make an interactive PowerPoint presentation through interactive animations, transitions, hyperlinks, quizzes, games, and many more.

And perhaps the sweetest part of the deal is that you will also have access to a downloadable playbook of 60+ pages with a wealth of tutorials, templates, cheat sheets, resources and tools to elevate your PowerPoint skills from average to extraordinary through interactive PowerPoint presentations.

Are you prepared to impress those who once found your presentation dull? If your answer is a resounding ‘yes,’ then let’s begin.

What is an Interactive Presentation?

What is an interactive powerpoint presentation.

Interactive PowerPoint presentations are simply PowerPoint presentations that are made interactive to convey information in a more dynamic and engaging manner.

Creating an interactive PowerPoint presentation involves deciding if you want to make your slide content interactive or if you want your audience to interact with your slides. 

Interactive PowerPoint presentations can generally be divided into two main dimensions: interaction with slide content through interactive elements and fostering interaction with the audience.

Interaction with Slide Content:

In the first dimension, PowerPoint presentations are made interactive through enhancing the slides content with interactive elements, usually native to PowerPoint. 

We will cover interactive elements including:

• Transitions
• Interactive data visualization
• Annotations. 

They function to enhance slide interactivity through adding movement to static objects, enabling non-linear slides navigation, as well as adding a dynamic touch to data and information presentation. 

Audience Interaction:

In the second dimension, PowerPoint presentations are made interactive through interaction between the presenter and the audience, usually with the help of PowerPoint add-in tools. We will cover: 

• Assessments
• Brainstorming
• Collaborative multimedia uploading

Once you have decided which strategy you would like to use, you can then follow  these step-by-step guide  and the following expert tips to turn your PowerPoint slides into an interactive experience!

Benefits of an Interactive Presentation

The fact that you are still reading this suggests that you don’t need further convincing on the benefits of interactive PowerPoint presentations. 

However, if you do, here are some quick statistics:

68% of individuals hold the belief that interactive presentations have a greater potential for being remembered. Webinar Care

This means that a simple action of making your PowerPoint slides interactive has a profound impact on how your presentation is received by the audience. From our years of experience creating interactive PowerPoint presentations, they generally: 

• Increases  engagement , motivation and knowledge  retention . 
• Result in better  impression  and more impactful messaging being conveyed.
• Allow presenters to better tailor their content or offerings to the audience or clients because they can gather  real-time feedback .
• Open up room for  creative   storytelling  and showcases.

Interactive Puzzle PowerPoint Templates

Master the tricks to turn your PowerPoint into an interactive experience today!

Expert Tips on How to Make an Interactive PowerPoint Presentation – Before Presenting

1. add animations, but use them judiciously.

The first and most straightforward way of making your PowerPoint presentations interactive is through adding animations to your slides. However, so many people use PowerPoint animations the wrong way. PowerPoint animations are more than just making bullet points or images appear or fly in during your presentation.

Remember, using animations excessively in your PowerPoint presentation will only reduce the appeal and professionalism of your slides. The key is to use them judiciously and purposefully. Before you hit the “Animations” tab, ask yourself, “Does this animation enhance the message I want to convey to my audience?”  

2. Add 3D PowerPoint Animations Using PowerPoint Native 3D Stock Elements

Did you know that PowerPoint has free animated 3D elements you can use? We recommend you to try them up to instantly upgrade your presentation from ordinary to extraordinary. 

❓ How?  Simply go to Insert > 3D models > stock 3D models > animated models. And you will find a wide range of free 3D models ranging from food and animals to plants and characters, and many more. You can also select different animation scenes by heading to the Animations tab.

3. Add Animations With Triggers for Visual Excitement

You can take your PowerPoint animations up a notch by incorporating combining animations with triggers to create interactive pop-ups with extra information . These on-click pop-ups are valuable when presenting a map or when you want to explore specific aspects of an object or topic in more detail. You can also use these pop-ups as markers to alert the audience to exciting elements within different parts of the slide, as such: 

❓How? To create on-click pop-ups in your PowerPoint slides, first add shapes that will become clickable buttons, one to “open” the pop-up and the other to “close” the pop-up. Then, add text boxes with extra information you want to show, as well as entrance and exit animations. Combine the animations with “triggers” to activate the animations when the open or close buttons are clicked on. 

For a more detailed tutorial on this pop-up animation, download our Interactive PowerPoint Playbook  below. 👇

4. add non-linear slide transition.

A quick way to add interactivity to your PowerPoint slides is by using PowerPoint transitions. The first we want to discuss is PowerPoint Zoom. PowerPoint Zoom enables you to zoom in and out of and navigate to specific sections or slides on click, anytime during your presentation.

To  access the PowerPoint Zoom feature : click on Insert in the  PowerPoint ribbon  >  Zoom  > then choose  Slide ,  Section , or  Summary   Zoom . Each of these PowerPoint Zoom option serves slightly different functions:

• Slide Zoom: zooms into specific slides
• Section zoom: zooms into specific sections
• Summary Zoom: creates a summary slide for the different slides or sections in your PowerPoint presentation for easy navigation.

❓ How? To  set up PowerPoint slide zoom , select the starting slide where you wish to implement the Zoom effect. Next, click  Insert  >  Zoom  >  Slide Zoom . Here, you can pick the specific slide or slides you want to zoom in on. Click the Insert button, and thumbnails of the chosen slides will be added to your current slide.

Alternatively, for a more manual setup process, you can also set up a navigation menu at the beginning of your presentation that allows the audience to jump to different sections or slides using hyperlinks.  Read more in the Hyperlinks section below. 

5. Add PowerPoint Morph

Like PowerPoint Zoom, PowerPoint Morph empowers presenters to create dynamic transitions that elevate the visual storytelling in their presentations. But PowerPoint Morph brings storytelling to a whole new level and adds a layer of intrigue to your slides by simulating object transitions or evolution across slides. It functions similarly to animations but offers a smoother and more organic visual experience, without the need for complex setup steps. 

Personally, we think the outcomes generated by PowerPoint Morph are more professional and polished-looking as compared to traditional animations. And if you are looking for a more advanced-looking presentation, try this 3D morph animation In PowerPoint .

We’d also like to share with you the numerous applications of PowerPoint Morph contributed by our colleagues and PowerPoint professionals at ClassPoint:

• Moving background
• Rotating wheel
• Rotating cogs
• Photo gallery
• Slide Zoom with Morph
• Creative reveal
• Parallax effect
• Continuous slide transition
• Phone frame
• Movie frame

Gain access to free templates for all these PowerPoint Morph applications and effects by downloading our Interactive PowerPoint Playbook. 👇

6. add hyperlinks – they can link to so many more places than just websites.

Much like PowerPoint Zoom, hyperlinks enable presenters to create interactive menus and navigation structures, allowing audiences to jump to specific slides or sections effortlessly. However, while PowerPoint Zoom primarily focuses on creating a visual and interactive overview of content within a single presentation, hyperlinks extend this capability to connect with external resources, web content, or even additional PowerPoint files. 

There are a few ways you could add hyperlinks to your PowerPoint presentation to transform  it into an interactive experience effortlessly: 

4 Ways You Can Add Hyperlinks to PowerPoint: 

• Slide Transition : You can navigate to specific slides in a non-linear manner by simply inserting a hyperlink into your current slide. Head over to Insert > Link > This Document and select the slide you want to link to. You can apply hyperlinks to text, shapes, or pictures. 

• Interactive Navigation Menu : Adding an interactive navigation menu at the beginning of your presentation allows clear navigation between different slides and sections in your presentation. Head over to Insert > Link > This Document and select the slides you want to link to.

• Action Buttons : With hyperlinks, you can also create Action Buttons in your PowerPoint presentations to make your PowerPoint slides behave like interactive web pages, allowing users to navigate, explore, and engage with the content in a dynamic and user-friendly manner. Head over to Insert > Action Buttons and choose from the selection.

• Embedded Content : You can also hyperlink your PowerPoint slides to embedded content like PDFs, spreadsheets, and even web pages. Simply click Insert > Object and select the file you would like to embed in your PowerPoint slides. This way, you can remove the hassle of toggling between various files or windows during your presentation.

Expert Tips on How to Make an Interactive PowerPoint Presentation – When Presenting

1. turn your powerpoint slides into interactive quizzes.

The traditional way to add interactive quizzes to PowerPoint is through an unfavorable process of combining complex animations with triggers and hyperlinks. Let’s be honest, it takes an eternity! Even though PowerPoint offers an extensive range of presentation tools, it does not have audience interactivity built at its core. 

The good news is, audience interactivity can actually be effortlessly achieved with the various PowerPoint add-ins as listed below: 

We will get to polls and games in a bit. For now, let’s show you how you can turn your PowerPoint slides into an interactive quiz in a just a few clicks with PowerPoint add-ins like  ClassPoint , which offers a wide range of interactive quizzes from  Short Answer  and  Word Cloud , to Multiple Choice questions.

How to Create An Interactive Quiz in PowerPoint In A Few Clicks

Once you have downloaded ClassPoint, you will have a suite of additional interactive quiz features added to your PowerPoint ribbon. 

To turn  your PowerPoint slide  content into interactive  quizzes, simply  click on any of the interactive quiz features and add them to your slide. Enter PowerPoint Slideshow mode and you can start the quiz immediately. 

2. Run Gradable Assessments inside PowerPoint

With the versatile PowerPoint add-in,  ClassPoint , you can also create assessments and collect real-time responses right inside PowerPoint. This is wonderful news for teachers! All you have to do is set up  interactive Multiple Choice questions  and enable  Quiz Mode . 

ClassPoint’s Quiz Mode introduces an  automatic grading  feature to your Multiple Choice questions within PowerPoint presentations created with ClassPoint. This feature not only automates the grading process but also includes automatic star ratings, the option to select difficulty levels, and provides a quiz summary along with an exportable quiz report, making it the perfect tool for classroom formative assessments in PowerPoint!

3. Incorporate Annotations During Slideshow

Another unique way to interact with your PowerPoint slides is through the use of annotations. With annotations, you as the presenter can interact with your slides to draw your audience’s attention to specific details, highlight key points, and tell a more coherent story. 

There are 3 ways you could use annotations in PowerPoint: 

• PowerPoint Draw Tab:  To utilize the PowerPoint Draw Tab, click on the “Draw” tab in your PowerPoint ribbon and begin annotating anywhere on your slides using built-in features like the pen, highlighter, and Ink to Shape. However, please note that PowerPoint Draw only allows annotation in Edit mode.

• PowerPoint Pen Tools:  Another option for native PowerPoint annotation tools that permit annotation during slideshow mode can be found by clicking the pencil icon located in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen during a presentation. You can use the pen, highlighter, or laser tools to annotate any part of your slides during the presentation.

• ClassPoint  Toolbar:  The ClassPoint toolbar serves as an enhanced, free alternative to PowerPoint’s existing pen tools. It offers a broader range of additional annotation features, including text boxes, shapes, spotlight effects, fully customizable pens and highlighters, and more. This enables you to transform your PowerPoint slides into a creative canvas that will captivate your audience throughout your presentation.

4. Run Ice Breakers and Brainstorming Sessions in PowerPoint

The uses of interactive PowerPoint add-ins like  ClassPoint  are not only limited to teaching and learning. Give your PowerPoint meetings and presentations a strong start with a collaborative and dynamic brainstorming experience.

You can enhance your PowerPoint presentations and turn them into an interactive brainstorming experience by incorporating  Word Cloud  in PowerPoint, inviting participants to instantly contribute ideas, keywords, or concepts. This allows everyone to dynamically visualize emerging trends and interesting ideas.

❓ How? To start a brainstorming session in PowerPoint, click on the “Word Cloud”  button in your PowerPoint ribbon once you have downloaded ClassPoint to add the “Word Cloud” feature in your PowerPoint slides. Then enter PowerPoint slideshow mode to start brainstorming! 

5. Add Draggable Slide Objects (And Why It’s Better than Animations!)

Similar to animations, draggable objects allow you to interact with your slide objects freely during slideshow mode, except than you can do so with full control of where you want the slide elements to go!

This dynamic presentation feature adds an element of visual interest that captures your audience’s attention and can be a valuable tool for explaining complex ideas. Moreover, it has the potential to serve various purposes, such as revealing hidden information or acting as a movable marker to indicate your position on the slide content. You can also use it for group drag-and-drop activities, such as matching, categorizing, sorting, and more. You can either perform these actions yourself to provide a visual explanation or engage your audience by letting them instruct the movement of images and text on the slide.

❓ How? Draggable objects is a unique tool that is possible inside PowerPoint with the use of the add-in ClassPoint. Download ClassPoint, free PowerPoint add-in, the select any shape, image, illustration, or text on your slide to become draggable by clicking on “Draggable Objects” in your PowerPoint ribbon, and toggling “Drag enabled” on the side panel.

In slideshow mode, click on the draggable objects hand from the ClassPoint toolbar at the bottom of your screen to start dragging your slide objects around!

6. Create Playable Games In PowerPoint (Without Animations or Hyperlinks)

Much like interactive quizzes, PowerPoint games add a layer of interactivity and fun to PowerPoint presentations. However, what sets PowerPoint games apart is their ability to introduce competition through gamification. 

Here are  3 ways  you can instantly gamify your PowerPoint slides with  gamification elements :

• Set Up a Point and Reward System : Define how your participants can earn stars and points, and  award stars  to them when they have accomplished a goal during your presentation. 
• Add  Levels and Badges  to PowerPoint : Every game benefits from having levels and badges, and your PowerPoint game is no exception. You can create a simple game within PowerPoint by incorporating  questions  into your slides and defining the points and scores needed to progress to higher levels. When it comes to badges, you have the creative freedom to tailor them to your audience. For example, in an educational setting, badges can be skill-focused, while in a social gathering, they can take the form of fantasy characters that participants aspire to collect
• Add a  Leaderboard  to PowerPoint : Leaderboards are essential to keep track of scores or points during a PowerPoint game. You can of course create a manual leaderboard using PowerPoint’s tables and hyperlinks, but an easier and more straightforward way of implementing a leaderboard in your PowerPoint is using add-ins like  ClassPoint  and  Vevox .

With these fundamentals of gamification in place, you are now ready to create fun and exhilarating games in PowerPoint. 

Here is a full walk-through on  how you can create a PowerPoint game  in a few simple steps. 

If you are an educator, this  free trivia PowerPoint template and these 5 interactive PowerPoint game templates tailored for the classroom will be useful for you.

Expert Tips on How to Make an Interactive PowerPoint Presentation – After Presenting

1. run real-time polls in powerpoint.

Think of a memorable presentation you have attended? Did it use live polls? We bet it did! Live polling are especially helpful after a PowerPoint presentation to gather feedback for future improvement.

Traditional poll tools require presenters to switch between tabs during presentation. Thanks to PowerPoint add-ins such as  ClassPoint ,  Mentimeter  and  Poll Everywhere , this is no longer the case. And by eliminating the need to switch between different applications or tabs, the presentation experience becomes more fluid and engaging.

2. From Static to Interactive Data Visualisation

Incorporating interactivity through data visualization after a presentation concludes is a potent strategy for enhancing audience engagement and comprehension. Once the primary content delivery is complete, you can transition into a dynamic display of data or feedback you have gathered from your audience using interactive charts, graphs, or infographics.

This approach empowers your audience to explore the information at their own pace, dig deeper into specific data points, and ensure a two-way communication between the presenter and the audience. Whether it’s zooming in on specific trends, toggling between different data sets, or going through feedback, interactive data visualization encourages active participation and a deeper connection with the presented information. 

We recommend the following 2 ways to display data into your presentation:

• Insert tables, charts and graphs, and add a touch of interactivity through animations.

Below is a list of 10 PowerPoint animations most suitable for different kinds of graphs and charts: 

• Embed a website with data you want to go over. I’m not talking about a link that leaves PowerPoint for your default browser, but an actual embedded browser that loads your websites without leaving PowerPoint! Plus you can insert the page as a picture into your slide and start annotating on it!

Now that you have a collection of strategies and tips at your disposal, you are better prepared to leave your old and dusty PowerPoint toolkit behind and embrace these refreshing ideas. Whether your ultimate aim is to create a captivating classroom experience, deliver a memorable business pitch, or simply wow your friends and peers during  PowerPoint nights , don’t forget to: 

• Add animations, but use them sparingly.
• Make use of non-linear transitions and storytelling. 
• Turn simple transitions into stunning visual experience with PowerPoint Morph.
• Make creative use of polls, quizzes and games. 
• Make your presentation human with Bitmoji.
• Build anticipation with interactive presentation tools like annotations and drag and drop.
• Try out these 160 fun PowerPoint ideas for your next presentation!

To read more about Interactive PowerPoint Presentations, you can download our Interactive PowerPoint Playbook, which includes comprehensive guides, tutorials on various interactive PowerPoint presentation methods, cheat sheets, and a wide range of resources for mastering the art of creating interactive PowerPoint presentations.

About Zhun Yee Chew

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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

Thank You ?

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How to Give an Interactive PowerPoint Presentation in 2023

Presenting online is tough, yes. You can’t really connect with your audience. You often don’t even know whether those mute faces listen to you at all.

That’s why it’s important to go the extra mile and make your presentation interactive. 

But that’s easier said than done, right?

Being for 7 years in the game of interactive presenting, I’d like to share some of my tips on how to activate your audience , create meaningful interaction, and facilitate it during your talk.

Get inspired by these (or some of these) tips for delivering a  truly interactive PowerPoint presentation.

• Play music or do some chit-chat while waiting
• Welcome people and properly introduce the topic
• Explain how people can interact with you
• Involve the audience from the very start
• Re-engage your audience every 5-7 minutes
• Use polls to trigger a discussion
• Take advantage of Zoom’s interactive features
• Simplify your slides: One idea/visual per slide
• Play around with virtual backgrounds
• Use breakout sessions for peer-to-peer learning
• Turn tedious numbers into a quiz
• Invite a sidekick
• Run mid-way Q&A sessions
• Give your audience something tangible to leave with
• Run a short feedback survey at the end

1. Play music or do some chit-chat while waiting

Often it takes a couple of minutes before everybody jumps on a call. While you’re waiting for the rest of the crew to join, you can play some music in the background to set the mood and talk to the people who have already tuned in. “Has anyone discovered a good recipe lately?” or, “Did you do anything cool this weekend?”

You can share music during your Zoom call easily by clicking the ‘ Share computer sound ‘ checkbox.

As people are joining, you can also prompt them to turn on their cameras and unmute themselves for the time being, so that you can all see and talk to each other.

💡 Use icebreaker polls to strike up conversations while you’re waiting for others.

2. Welcome people and properly introduce the topic

Once everybody’s aboard, welcome your participants warmly, thank them for joining you, and tell everyone what you will be talking about today. You can even add an agenda slide to your presentation so you map out the whole session to your audience in advance. In the virtual environment, it’s even more important to navigate people through the talk.

3. Explain how people can interact with you

Always check that everyone understands the technical side of things – otherwise, people may not know how to interact with you. Tell them what tools you’re going to use during the presentation and explain how they can use them.

It’s all about setting the right expectations: Do you want your participants to share comments via Zoom or Webex chat? Sure, tell them that. Explain how Webex or Zoom reactions work in case not everyone is familiar with them. If you expect verbal input from your participants, ask them to use the ‘Raise hand’ feature, so you can call on them if they want to contribute.

Are you going to use live polls throughout your presentation? Explain how people can vote in a poll or contribute with their ideas.

4. Involve the audience from the very start

Now that you’ve made it clear to your audience that you want and expect them to actively participate in the upcoming session, it’s time to give it a trial run.

Start a conversation with them right off the bat. For instance, I was recently a guest at an online fireside chat series called ‘Living Online’, run by our former Head of Education and a great moderator, Zuzana.

Before she dived into the topic, she collected insights from the audience. She ran a series of polls, asking people, “How much has the online world changed your life?” or, “What helps you find a balance between the real and the online world?”

This way, she made the talk more about the audience, as opposed to just streaming information one way (while making sure people are familiar with the tech).

5. Re-engage your audience every 5-7 minutes

Keep the momentum and motivate your audience to “talk” to you throughout your presentation. Even if it is just in a non-verbal way.

We recommend using live polls or other forms of interaction every 5-7 minutes to pull people back in and involve them in a conversation.

Prepare several poll questions for your audience beforehand, and spread them out throughout your talk.

Is there a content-heavy part of your presentation that might be tough for your audience to process? At the end of it, use a rating poll to ask your audience how well they understood.

Are you about to propose an argument? Before you do, ask your audience what their viewpoint on the topic is first. (You can use live polls here too.)

Take inspiration from our Head of Internal Comms, Silvia, who – before giving a word to our CEO Peter who’d walk us through September highlights – began by using a word cloud to source highlights from the team.

6. Use polls to trigger a discussion

Live polls are invaluable for collecting real-time input from your audience. You can use that input effectively for starting a discussion.

For example, during our latest strategy meeting with our Brand team, I really needed to know whether the strategy points I presented to my team made sense, and I wanted to build up a discussion around them.

After each of the three presented areas, I ran a rating poll: “On a scale of 1-6, how important is this area in order to achieve our goals?”

When votes came in, I commented on the results and whenever there were votes lower than 6, I asked: “Okay, who put 5/4? Can you please share your thoughts with us?”

This really changed the game for me, because I collected some invaluable insights from my colleagues that would otherwise have remained uncovered. Very often, people don’t share until you nudge them a little.

Read also: 7 Interactive Poll Ideas for Your PowerPoint Presentation

7. Take advantage of interactive features

Encourage your participants to ‘Raise hand’, use emoji reactions, or chat. Your meeting participants are probably not going to use them heavily unless you encourage them to do so.

I often use emoji reactions for fast feedback: I ask people to press thumbs up as an indication that they understand or agree, or to express that they like something with a clapping emoji or the heart symbol.

8. Simplify your slides: One idea/visual per slide

Make sure your slides are visually appealing. When listening to someone speak online, the last thing you want is to read huge bodies of text on slides. So don’t copy-paste the whole script of your speech. Use just one idea, one sentence, one topic, or one number per slide.

Where appropriate, support what you’re saying with an image, a graph, a gif, or even a meme. Do you want to show a video during your presentation? Make sure it’s really short because a video, no matter how entertaining, is yet another piece of content your audience consumes passively.

9. Play around with virtual backgrounds

Using a virtual background when presenting online can save the day if you need to quickly hide a messy kitchen or any trespassing relatives.

But, there’s more to it. You can tie it to the topic of your presentation and thus strengthen the message you’re trying to convey. For example, ever since our CEO Peter used climbing El Capitan as a metaphor for our company strategy, he uses an El Cap photo as his virtual background as a reminder for all of us that we still have a mountain to climb.

Need another great use of a virtual background? Pick a funny picture and use it as an icebreaker. For example, in several meetings, I put up a picture of a naked man chasing a wild boar, and believe me, there’s no better icebreaker !

People usually laugh and ask me why I picked this very image – it’s priceless to start a meeting with a smile on people’s faces!

Read also: 18 Best Virtual Icebreakers For Your Zoom Meetings

10. Use breakout sessions for peer-to-peer learning

This tactic is magic, especially with longer presentation types such as during all-company meetings, workshops, or training.

Propose a discussion topic or a challenge. Give your audience 1-2 minutes to think about it, before splitting them into smaller groups so that they can share their thoughts together and brainstorm solutions.

This is a great interactive exercise that helps you break the monotonous flow of one-way content broadcast and allow for some peer-to-peer learning.

You can also collect the learnings of your audience to include them in the presentation. For example, you can run an open text poll where you collect everybody’s key learnings and then display them on the screen. Let’s say you have asked your audience to discuss your company priorities. Try a word cloud such as: “Submit which priorities you discussed in your group.”

11. Turn tedious numbers into a quiz

Presenting company updates or business results can get quite tedious and your audience may easily start zoning out.

Turn it around and present your numbers in a form of a quiz .

For instance, before you reveal the number, say something like: “Before we look at the numbers, why don’t you guys have a guess at how well we did?” Then run a poll with multiple options and wait for your participants to cast their votes.

You can use this technique on multiple occasions. Our CEO, Peter, usually does this at our end-of-year all-hands meetings when he presents our business results such as revenue, sales, or a number of Slido events.

12. Invite a sidekick

Virtual presenters are superheroes that need to juggle multiple tools. And every Batman needs Robin. Consider inviting another speaker to deliver the presentation with you.

It will freshen up your talk and break the stereotype of only one speaker talking. On top of that, she/he can also help you with technicalities such as keeping an eye on the chat or troubleshooting any technical issues.

You can take turns in presenting the content or even give your presentation in the form of a conversation between the two of you. This way, it’ll be even easier for you to involve your audience in the talk, as they’ll be joining what already feels like an ongoing discussion.

Having a sidekick is invaluable if you’re running a Q&A round at the end of your presentation – they can help you manage questions from the audience.

13. Run mid-way Q&A sessions

Always make sure to leave space for Q&A – answering questions from the audience is one of the most important engagement points. Your participants will have a chance to dive deeper into the topic of your talk, and eventually, learn much more from your presentation.

Don’t wait until the end, but review the questions as they come in and take the most relevant ones continuously throughout your presentation (e.g. after each content block). If there are any outstanding questions, address them in the Q&A round at the end.

For example, during our recent product event , our Project Managers, Juraj Pal, Martin Srna, and Mario Ceselka, ran several Q&A rounds after each product announcement that they made. (Almost 350 questions came in! This is why it’s priceless to have a sidekick.)

They also encouraged people to use upvotes, so the most popular questions can jump to the top and be answered with priority.

14. Give your audience something tangible to leave with

As you move towards the end of your talk, it’s good practice to reiterate the main message of your presentation to give your participants one concrete takeaway to remember.

You can make the ending interactive as well: Ask your audience to think about what they’ve just heard, then run a poll asking your audience: “What are you taking away from this presentation?” or, “What one thing resonated with you the most during this presentation?”

15. Run a short feedback survey at the end

Don’t forget to ask your audience for feedback. We’re always ready to rate our Uber drives or meal deliveries in order to help improve the experience. Why should presentations be any different?

Feedback is the best way for you to learn and find out what you can do better next time. Combine classic star rating with an open text poll so your participants can write more elaborate comments as well.

Two to three questions will suffice – you don’t want to wear your audience down with too long a survey (plus, you’ll boost the response rate!). Here’s an example that you can use:

• How would you rate today’s presentation? (Rating)
• What did you like most about this presentation? (Open text)
• Is there anything that could be improved? (Open text)

Over to you

Actively involving your audience in your content is key if you want to make your online presentation more interactive and engaging.

Using polls, quizzes, and collecting questions from your audience is one of the easiest ways to create more interaction during your talk.

With Slido for PowerPoint , you can add polls to your presentation and present seamlessly – all from one place. Watch this video to see how Slido for PowerPoint works. Click below to try it.

Add live polls directly to your PowerPoint presentation.

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18 Ways to Make Your Presentation More Interactive

November 10, 2017 - Dom Barnard

It can be difficult to hold your audience’s attention for the entire presentation. According to a  Prezi study , half of the respondents said they did something other than listen during a co-worker’s presentation, including:

• Sending a text message (28%)
• Checking emails (27%)
• Falling asleep (17%)

An interactive presentation is much more likely to keep your audience’s attention and build rapport with them, and there are a few simple ways to achieve this, from live polling to asking questions throughout.

This article explores several different effective strategies for making the audience feel fully involved in your presentation and keeping your audience’s eyes away from their smartphones.

Why involve your audience?

Listening to a presentation for any length of time can be a difficult process. If you don’t involve the audience, they’ll start to play with their phones, talk to colleagues and generally lose track of what you are saying. Once this happens and you start seeing that the audience would rather be somewhere else, you’ll start feeling anxious and might try to speed up the presentation.

To engage a  large audience  fully, the presentation needs to be energetic, purposeful and staged, as if it is a direct conversation between both you and your audience. That way, they’ll absorb your ideas and insights and they’ll have learnt something in an enjoyable way.

1. Plan from the audience’s perspective

Before you start  writing your presentation , think about these points:

• What are the most interesting parts in my topic?
• How much will the audience know about my topic? What level do I target it at?
• Which members of the audience will most likely be disinterested?
• How can I help them learn and understand my topic?
• What is the size of the audience?

You can do this by researching the event or conference, investigating other speakers at the event and even contacting the organisers to find out more about the demographic.

By asking these questions about your audience and identifying answers, you are starting to think about your audience’s interests and needs. Remember, the aim is to give the impression that your presentation has been planned according to your audience’s specific interests.

2. Use an easy-to-follow structure

When building your presentation, focus on giving it a structure which people can easily follow. Start by introducing the core concepts and goals, then elaborate on the various points in a bit more detail, draw logical conclusions and leave your audience with a clear takeaway message. You want to flow naturally from one part to the next like you are telling a big story chapter by chapter.

3. Get the audience immediately involved

You audience will come to your presentation in a range of different moods. Try using a simple ice-breaker to re-energise them and get them focussed on your presentation.

For example, ask people to stand up and introduce themselves to their neighbours, or have them identify two or three questions they would like to hear addressed during your presentation. By starting with an ice-breaker, you show your audience that your talk will be interactive and require their participation.

4. Ask the audience questions during your presentation

The audience’s attention drops to zero after just 10-15 minutes of your presentation. To get their attention back, take a break from your presentation from time to time and interact with your audience. Ask for their questions and answer them during your presentation. This will help clear up any confusion the audience might have.

When planning your presentation, identify opportunities in your material for your audience to ask questions. If you’re not comfortable breaking the flow of your presentation, mention that you’ll be taking  questions at the end  so the audience can prepare some questions.

Asking rhetorical questions as you move through your presentation involves your audience by stimulating their own thought processes. This technique also helps move between sections of your presentation as it establishes a clear transition from one point to another.

If you’re comfortable with taking questions throughout your presentation, use a tools such as  Slido , which allows your audience to ask questions anonymously at any time, so even shy people can participate in the discussion.

Example of what can go wrong with audience interaction

Audience interaction:

Watch how the presenter tries but initially fails to get the audience to interact with the presentation. Notice how he encourages them to get involved and eventually they do join in.

5. Use storytelling to make it more memorable

Since our early ancestors, stories have always been a huge part of human culture and civilisation. Storytelling is the most universal way to captivate your audience’s attention, no matter where they are from or what they do for a living.

Stories are much more engaging and memorable than lists of facts and figures, but you wouldn’t think so looking at the majority of presentations (particularly academic ones).

People automatically tune in when you  start telling your story  because they want to know what happens next. A popular storytelling technique is when you present the status quo and then reveal an improved path to that end goal.

Think of your presentation as one arching narrative. As we mentioned earlier, give it the proper structure with a clear beginning, middle and end. Introduce conflict and provide a powerful resolution that reinforces your key messages.

6. Use non-linear presentation software

Instead of flipping through slide after slide, you can show the relationships between your ideas and give your audience the “big picture” view of your topic. Try letting your audience drive the presentation by laying out all of your main points, and then let them choose which topics they want to go to. Your audience will get a truly custom presentation based on their interests, which they will appreciate and more easily remember.

Prezi, shown above, is a popular non-linear presentation tool.

7. Add in a short video

Billions of hours of YouTube are consumed each month and advertisers have identified videos as having a high  retention rate  for users. However very few presentations ever use videos to engage with their audience.

Find a short video clip that reinforces your story or explains a concept better than words can. You can either embed the video directly into your presentation software or include a link to an external website. Just make sure you test your method on the day of the presentation and have a backup on a USB just in case you need it.

8. Invite people onto the stage

If you’re preparing a particularly long presentation, consider having other people to come on stage and talk for a bit. This will help you narrate the story and make the whole presentation more interactive.

Steve Jobs never pulled off the entire presentation by himself; he always invited several speakers, including designers, partners, and other executives, to help him introduce their latest product. Of course, this technique should always be arranged with your colleagues in advance.

9. Poll the audience

Polls are similar to quizzes in that they engage the audience during the presentation. Polls encourage participants to think not only about your questions but also about their answers. Moreover, live polls help create mental breaks, so your audience can regain attention and stay focused throughout your presentation.

By including everyone in answering the question, you also create a group experience that leaves the audience feeling like they all have been part your presentation.

10. Use (appropriate) humour

Some of the best speeches and presentations in the world feature plenty of humour. No matter the subject, a great speaker will use natural charisma, humour and language to convey their points and get the crowd excited about what they are saying.

A great example of building rapport with the audience through the use of humour is Barrack Obama talking about the government building Iron Man.

Another example is when  Morgan Spurlock  offers individuals the opportunity to buy the rights to name his TED talk—which he refers to again at the end, where he reveals the title. He peppers the entire presentation with humorous commentary that nonetheless supports his point.

Create relevant jokes or find a way to bring out the humour in your subject, and your audience will be much more engaged and more likely to remember your words.

11. Practice your delivery, again and again

Practicing is the most important part of delivering an interactive presentation. You’ll need to practice where to use live quizzes, when to accept questions, which points to emphasise with body language and many more. There are several options for practicing:

Practice Presentation Skills

Improve your public speaking and presentation skills by practicing them in realistic environments, with automated feedback on performance. Learn More

• In front of a mirror  – great for seeing and improving your body language, however it can be distracting to what you are saying.
• To friends or colleagues  – a useful way to get feedback on your presentation, try and action the feedback straight away to improve on it. You can also give the person some key areas to focus their feedback on if you believe you are weaker in those areas.
• Virtual reality  – practice in realistic  public speaking environments , whether it be in a virtual conference room or boardroom. Receive feedback on your speech with voice analysis technology.

With all three of these, you’ll want to work on your tone of voice, accent, pauses between sentences and facial expressions. The most important thing is to talk slowly and loudly enough to be heard and understood clearly.

A list of the best presentation skills courses you can practice with:

• Presentation Skills Training Courses

12. Try and relate to the audience

Make comparisons to events from everyday life that most people are more than familiar with. By making things look simple, not only will you help your audience get a better understanding of the subject by enabling them to visualize the information more clearly, you will also draw a connection between you.

After all, you are all just regular people with similar experience, you just happen to be performing different roles at the moment.

13. Strong body language (position, posture and gesture)

Non-verbal communication plays a large part in how we construct meaning, so it makes sense to consider how to use it in your presentation. You can make things more interesting for your audience by using  your body language  to enhance what you’re saying.

Body language goes beyond reinforcing your messaging – it’s useful from a biological standpoint. As discussed in her  body language TED talk , Amy Cuddy’s research found that using ‘assertive’ body language released testosterone and reduced cortisol in both men and women, thereby increasing confidence and decreasing stress.

An effective presenter pays close attention to the physical relationship with her/his audience. If you stand hidden behind an overhead projector or stand too far away from your audience, they will not develop a bond with you and this will limit the effectiveness of your presentation.

Your posture will also dictate levels of audience involvement. If you’re too relaxed and sit slumped in a chair to deliver your talk, the audience might drift away. Find a comfortable but purposeful position in relation to your audience and adopt an upright sitting or standing posture that allows for movement and gesture.

Audiences respond well to the physical energy and enthusiasm being conveyed by a presenter, and thus the use of clear and controlled gestures will greatly enhance your presentation. Gestures that are open and reach out to your audience serve to extend your presentation to them and thus help them feel more involved.

Examples of good body language:

• Use hand gestures when delivering key points
• Use calm, deliberate movements when highlighting certain information
• Keep arms and legs uncrossed

14. Maintain eye contact with all sections of the audience

Making eye contact is one of the most  powerful techniques  for involving your audience. If used well, eye contact can serve to make your address much more personal and thus more effective. If eye contact is avoided, the presenter can appear to be nervous and unconvincing.

It is important to share eye contact with all members of a small audience or all sections of a large audience. Avoid making eye contact with just the people you know, taking particular care not to deliver your entire presentation to the person who’s assessing your work. Remember that you will need to involve the whole audience if you are to make an effective presentation.

If you are nervous, eye contact can be very difficult to establish and maintain. Remember that some eye contact is better than none and that you should try to build your confidence over time.

15. Use live quizzes to better understand your audience

Live quizzes are a great way to understanding your audience better get them engaging with the material.

For example, if you’re giving a presentation on autonomous vehicles, you could ask questions such as:

• When do you think autonomous vehicles will become mainstream?
• Are you concerned by safety issues?
• If someone is injured or killed by the car, who is to blame?

These will surely create some interesting results which you, as the presenter, can talk about and discuss.

16. Use physical props if possible

You don’t need to be giving a product demo to use props during your presentation. Props are a great way to help the audience visually picture what you are talking about. While talking through your presentation, you can refer to the prop at certain points to highlight your point or make it clear to the audience.

Kenny Nguyen  does this will in his TEDx talk on ‘The Art of Saying No’. He refers to the “sword of yes” and “shield of no.” Naturally he picks up a sword and shield from the table to help demonstrate his points.

Another great example is when  Jill Bolte Taylor  brings a real human brain on stage during her TED talk to explain to what happened to her when she had a stroke. She touched the audience with this demonstration and left the audience in complete awe.

17. Extend your usual vocal range

Your tone of voice, your volume, and other vocal aspects affect how people listen and hear your message.

Julian Treasure’s  TED talk on ‘How to speak so that people want to listen’ is all about this, and at the end offers several tips ‘in our toolbox’ for how to master the use of voice, from changing your speaking pace to speaking in a different pitch.

Get feedback from a friend or colleague to see what works best for you.

18. Use language and literary techniques

Your use of language has a huge influence on the way you engage your audience. It’s important to use language your audience understands and is familiar with.

Avoid using language that is too formal or informal, too technical or too simplistic depending upon the nature of your talk and the knowledge base of your audience. Pitching your presentation at the right level can be a challenge but it is very effective for making the audience feel involved.

There are various  literary techniques  you can use, such as the Power or Three, to give greater impact to your message.

Involving your audience is essential to making an impact. Your presentation should pull them in, get their attention and stimulate their thoughts and understanding. This can be done in a number of ways.

The way that you plan your presentation will be critical in terms of using language and ideas that your audience will understand. You must also ensure that there is sufficient time for questions and discussion. The way that you deliver your presentation should create a bond with your audience.

Your use of eye contact, body language, spoken words and energy should  communicate effectively  and enthusiastically with all areas of the room, thus ensuring that the audience receives positive messages about you and your material.

Interactive PowerPoint | How to Make One in 3 Easy Steps (+Free!)

Anh Vu • 19 April, 2024 • 10 min read

To make PowerPoint interactive, you need to add polls, word clouds, or quizzes to get your audience excited and involved in your presentation.

A PowerPoint presentation with interactive elements can result in up to 92% audience engagement.

This interactive PowerPoint guide will help you make one easily and 100% free.

Overview of Interactive PowerPoint

Get started in seconds..

Sign up for free and build your interactive PowerPoint from a template.

Table of Contents

Creating interactive powerpoint in ahaslides, creating interactive powerpoint within powerpoint, tip #1 – use an ice breaker, tip #2 – end with a mini-quiz, tip #3 – try variety, tip #4 – space it out, tip #5 – allow anonymity.

• AhaSlides Alternatives
• More Interactive PowerPoint ideas

Frequently Asked Questions

You can import your PowerPoint presentation in one go to AhaSlides. After that, fit it with interactive slides in which your audience can contribute to a spinner wheel , word clouds , brainstorming sessions, and even an AI quiz !

🎉 Learn more: Extension For PowerPoint

Here’s how it works…

How to Create Interactive PowerPoint

Sign up for Free

Get a free account with AhaSlides in seconds. It’s free forever without requiring credit cards.

Import your PowerPoint

On a new presentation, click the ‘Import’ button to upload a PDF, PPT or PPTX file. Once uploaded, your presentation will be separated into its PowerPoint questions slides in the left column.

Add Interactive Slides

Create an interactive slide in your presentation. Place a poll, word cloud, Q&A, quiz, or any interactive slide type into your presentation when you want interaction. Hit ‘Present’ when you’re ready to present the presentation and let your audience interact with it live.

Don’t want to switch tabs? Easy! You can create fun interactive experiences within PowerPoint using the AhaSlides add-in .

Here’s how to make it:

Get AhaSlides add-in

Open PowerPoint, click ‘Insert’ -> ‘Get Add-ins’ and search for AhaSlides.

Add AhaSlides

On a new presentation, create a new slide. Insert an AhaSlides from the ‘My Add-ins’ section (you’ll need to have an Aha account).

Choose an interactive slide type

Create an interactive slide in your PowerPoint presentation. Place a poll, word cloud, Q&A, quiz, or any interactive slide type into your presentation when you want interaction. Click ‘Add this slide’ to add the AhaSlides to PowerPoint. Your audience can interact with it when you move to this part.

Still confused? See this detailed guide in our Knowledge Base .

5 Tips for Making a Great Interactive PowerPoint

All meetings, virtual or otherwise, could be done with a quick activity or two to break the ice. This could be a simple question or a minigame before the real meat of the meeting gets underway.

Here’s one for you. If you’re presenting to an online audience from all over the world, use a word cloud slide to ask them ‘How do you say hi in your native language?’ . When the audience responds, the most popular answers will appear larger.

💡 Want more icebreaker games? You’ll find a whole bunch of free ones right here !

There’s nothing that does more for engagement than a quiz. Quizzes are greatly underused in presentations; flip the script to raise engagement.

A quick 5 to 10-question quiz can work at the end of a section to test what your audience has just learned, or as a fun sign-off at the end of your interactive PowerPoint presentation.

On AhaSlides, quizzes work the same way as other interactive slides. Ask a question and your audience compete for points by being the fastest answerers on their phones.

Let’s face facts. Most presentations, through lack of creative thinking, follow the exact same structure. It’s a structure that bores us senseless (it even has a name – Death by PowerPoint ) and it’s one that could really use a kick of variety.

There are currently 19 interactive slide types on AhaSlides. Presenters looking to avoid the dreaded monotony of the standard presentation structure can poll their audience, ask an open-ended question, gather ordinal scale ratings, elicit popular ideas in a brainstorm , visualise data in a word cloud and so much more.

Check out how a variety of interactive slides could work for your presentation. Click below to dive into an interactive presentation on AhaSlides 👇

While there’s certainly a lot more room for interactivity in presentations, we all know what they say about having too much of a good thing…

Don’t overload your audience by asking for participation on every slide. Audience interaction should just be used to keep engagement high, ears pricked up, and information at the forefront of your audience members’ minds.

With that in mind, you might find that 3 or 4 content slides to each interactive slide is the perfect ratio for maximum attention .

Have you ever wondered why you’re getting muted reactions even with a premium presentation? Part of the social psychology of crowds is the general unwillingness, even amongst confident participants, to speak up in front of others on a whim.

Allowing audience members to anonymously respond to your questions and suggest their own can be a great remedy for that. Just by giving your audience the option to provide their names, you’ll likely receive a higher level of engagement from all types of personalities in the audience, not just introverts.

Of course, you can add more slides to PowerPoint, PowerPoint quizzes, Q&A slides in PowerPoint or Q&A images for ppt… in any way you like. But, it would be much easier if your presentation was on AhaSlides.

Were you Looking for more Interactive PowerPoint ideas?

With the power of interactivity in your hands, knowing what to do with it is not always easy.

Need more interactive PowerPoint presentation samples? Luckily, signing up for AhaSlides comes with unlimited access to the template library , so you can explore lots of digital presentation examples! This is a library of instantly downloadable presentations chock full of ideas for engaging your audience in an interactive PowerPoint.

Or, be inspired with our interactive PowerPoint templates for free !

Why did Microsoft buy PowerPoint?

How can you make slides more interesting, what are the top interactive activities to do in a presentation.

There are lots of interactive activities that should be utilised in a presentation, including live polls , quizzes , cloud brainstorming , creative idea boards or a Q&A session

Tips to Engage with Polls & Trivia

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How to Create an Interactive PowerPoint Presentation

content creator

Helen Colman See full bio →

PowerPoint presentations are one of the most popular educational resources nowadays. Having been so for quite some time, they might look a bit old-fashioned and not as engaging as we would like. However, there’s a surefire way to make them much more dynamic – create interactive slides.

In this article, you’ll learn what interactive elements you can add to your PPT presentation, how to do this in PowerPoint step by step, and how to keep the audience’s attention by making the learning experience even more exciting and interactive with iSpring Suite. Let’s get started.

What Makes a PowerPoint Presentation Interactive?

3 Ideas for Interactive PowerPoint Presentations

An Easier Way to Create Interactive Learning Materials

There are many ways to make your presentation interactive. Some require only PowerPoint functionalities, while others require a different tool or a PPT add-in. Here are some of the most common ways to add interactivity to your PPT slides:

• PowerPoint triggers and animations
• Multimedia: visual content, audio files, web pages, and videos
• Interactive software simulations
• Mini games  
• eLearning interactions
• Interactive quizzes
• Interactive role-play simulations

3 Ideas for Making Presentations Interactive with PowerPoint

PowerPoint lets you create lots of learning content that will keep your audience engaged, by using functionalities like on-click interactions, pop-up menus, and tests with branching scenarios. Here we’ll show you how to do that and ways to make this process even easier and more effective.

Check out a demo that includes some of these content types:

Follow our step-by-step guides to create one of these content types for your interactive presentation.

Idea #1: PowerPoint triggers for on-click interactions

One of the ways to make your slide interactive is to add a clickable button (trigger) that activates something. For example, it can launch one or more animations simultaneously. See how it works below:

To build such on-click interaction, you’ll need to add animations. Follow these steps:

1. Pick a background image, insert it into your PPT slide, and stretch it so that it fills the slide completely.

2. Add an object that will become the clickable button. This can be an image or a simple shape.

3. Select this object on the slide and click on Format → Selection Pane . Double-click the highlighted object and rename it to Open button .

4. Create two new slide objects (and rename them): a text box and another button. This button will close the pop-up.

5. Open the Selection Pane and select the Open and Close buttons, along with the textbox . Simply hold down the Left Ctrl key and click each of the needed items:

Now go to Animations → Add Animation → Entrance: Fade and then Add Animation → Exit: Fade .

7. To see the entire list of animations on this slide, click on Animation Pane . Here’s how it should look:

8. Now it’s time to set up triggers. Select the Entrance animations for the Close button and the textbox, then click on  Trigger → On Click of and select the Open button shape. What this will do: when the Open button is clicked, the textbox and the Close button will appear.

9. Now repeat the previous step but trigger the exit animations of the same objects by clicking on Close button . Once this has been done, you should see the following in the Animation Pane :

10. There’s one minor thing left to do: when you click the Open button, it should disappear, and when you hit the Close button, it should appear again. How do you make this happen? Simply move the Open button animations under corresponding triggers like this:

And that’s it, your interaction is ready. If you want to enhance the pop-up with visuals, like an image or another textbox, follow the same process and add their animations to the existing triggers.

Idea #2: Single-slide interaction with pop-ups

This second idea expands on the previous one: you can add several slide buttons that will activate pop-ups on the screen. Here’s what it looks like:

To design this type of interaction, you’ll need to create the interaction from the previous idea (or build a new one by following our guide) and then follow the steps below:

1. Create a set of objects for the second pop-up. If you need the same buttons, simply select an object you created earlier, then hold down Left Ctrl and drag it to a different position on the slide – and you’ll get an identical copy. You can also repeat this step with other objects.

2. Then, open Selection Pane and rename the new objects.

3. Now, animate the second pop-up. Press and hold Left Ctrl , then select objects in Selection Pane and add two sets of Fade animations:

4. Trigger the new animations using the same logic from the previous idea. Once finished, Animation Pane should look like this:

5. Your interaction is almost ready. All you still need to do is fix this issue:

As you can see, two pop-ups can now be opened at the same time and it doesn’t look good. To fix this, you need to set your animations so that when you click on “Open button 1,” the second pop-up button disappears, and vice versa. And make them appear again when either of the “Close buttons” is clicked. Here’s what your animation pane should look like:

Now, your interaction should work like this:

And that’s it, your interaction with several pop-up menus is ready!

Idea #3: A quiz with branching scenarios

Another way to make your slides interactive is to add a quiz with clickable answer options. You can also make the test progress differently for each student, depending on the option they select: if the answer is correct, they proceed to the next question; if not, they go to the info slide to dive deeper into the topic. Or you can make it so that a learner receives feedback after each answered question.

Below, you’ll learn the basics of building quizzes and branching scenarios in PowerPoint, which you can further use for creating all sorts of tests – the essentials are the same.

1. Create the title page of the quiz. Add a background image, then type the title of your quiz and its description.

2. Move on to the next slide to add a question and answer options. For the answer options, you can simply use text blocks ( Insert → Text Box ) or shapes ( Insert → Shapes ). You can also add an image if you wish.

Add other question and answer slides for your test in the same way.

3. Create the correct answer slide after your first question. Add a congratulatory message, such as: “Well done!” or “That’s correct!” or “Correct!” Below the message, add a button that will take the learner to the next question.

4. Create the incorrect answer slide. Repeat the same process as in the previous step but add a different text (and an image, if you use them).

If you want to make knowledge checks even more insightful for learners, you can provide them with feedback on each incorrect answer.

Add correct and incorrect answer slides after each question slide.

5. Set navigation for your quiz. Link the correct and incorrect answer options to the relevant feedback slides. Click on the answer text box, then go to the Insert tab and select Hyperlink . In the opened window, select Place in This Document and select the necessary slide.

Then add a hyperlink to the button on the feedback slides. You’ll need to do the same for each slide because feedback slides should lead to a new question every time.

Once you’ve finished setting up navigation, your quiz is ready. If you want to learn more about this topic, read our article on how to make a quiz in PowerPoint .

PowerPoint isn’t designed for creating interactive slides. Yes, it’s possible to do this, but it requires a great deal of time and effort. So if you’re planning to develop such educational content regularly, consider using one of the 23 best PowerPoint add-ins . Some of them, like iSpring Suite , are built for this sort of task and empower you to create better content in less time.

iSpring Suite works as a PowerPoint add-in and provides you with templates and smart functions for designing advanced learning content quickly and easily. You can design interactions, quizzes, educational simulations, and many other content types. Then, you can upload them to your learning management system (LMS) or your online storage (iSpring Cloud) and share them with your learners.

Let’s see how to make your slides interactive using iSpring Suite. Download a 14-day free iSpring Suite trial and follow the steps below to put theory into practice.

Interactions

Open the iSpring Suite tab and go to Interactions. There are 14 interaction templates, such as an FAQ, a timeline, and a diagram. Select one of them, fill it with texts and multimedia, and that’s it – your interaction is ready!

Watch this video to see the interaction development process from A-Z.

And here’s an example of an interaction created in iSpring Suite. It took us only 2 minutes to design it, while a similar interaction in PowerPoint took us at least an hour to create because we had to set up all of the triggers, animations, etc.

Just as with interactions, iSpring Suite has 14 ready-made question templates that you only need to fill with text and multimedia.

Here’s how. Open iSpring Suite, then go to Quizzes and click on Graded Quiz . Then, select a question type and fill it with information. If you wish, you can also add advanced settings, like time limits, the number of attempts allowed, and others.

See the entire routine in our tutorial video:

There’s no need to add separate feedback slides because feedback is already built into each question slide. You can customize it and add reinforcement information.

By the way, even if you don’t have an LMS, you can still share the test with your learners and track their progress – iSpring Suite has a special online storage space for that and the tool will email you the quiz results of your learners.

Here’s an example of a quiz created with iSpring Suite:

Role-play simulations

Role-plays scenarios or educational simulations are one of the most engaging educational activities in online learning. While most interactive tools require programming to create this content type, iSpring Suite enables you to create educational sims easily – even if you have no IT background.

Simply go to Role-Play and click on New Role-Play . Select New Scene . Pick a character and a background image from the library of ready-made content. Add texts. Then repeat the process with other scenes, connect them by dragging an arrow from one scene to another, and that’s it! Your sim is ready.

If you want to dive deeper into this topic, read our in-depth article on role-plays , their types with examples, and a guide and tips on creating them. It’s written by Clark Aldrich, the world’s most experienced designer of educational simulations.

And here’s an example of a role-play that Clark Aldrich created with iSpring Suite:

Now, let’s recap some highlights from this article. Here are the key takeaways.

Can you make a PowerPoint presentation interactive?

Yes, you can add interactive elements to your PPT presentation either by using PowerPoint alone or with additional tools, like iSpring Suite.

What are the interactive features of PowerPoint?

PowerPoint lets you create triggers and animations that make your presentation more interactive.

How do I make my PowerPoint presentation more engaging?

Consider adding interactions, quizzes, triggers, and animations to your presentation to make it more dynamic, engaging, and participatory.

So, these are several ways you can create engaging presentations with PowerPoint only and with other tools (check out this list of the 12 best interactive presentation software tools ). If you want to save time and effort while creating much more engaging and interactive presentations, courses, and assessments, check out iSpring Suite .

Get started with iSpring Suite for free during a 14-day trial period.

Also read:   How to Convert PowerPoint to MP4 Video on Windows & macOS

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Helen Colman

She enjoys combining in-depth research with expert knowledge of the industry. If you have eLearning insights that you’d like to share, please get in touch .

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20 Ways to Create an Interactive Presentation That Stands Out

Written by: Chloe West

When you’re putting together a presentation, you want it to be engaging. Whether you’re presenting it live or embedding it on your website, you want to keep your audience entertained.

The best way to do that is by creating an interactive presentation that holds audience's attention and even allows them to participate.

Sitting in a boring presentation where the speaker simply talks at their audience can make eyes glaze over and cause the speaker to lose their listener.

Adding interactivity to your presentation is the best way to spice up your speech, engage your audience and stand out from other presenters. The best part is, it doesn't have to be more work!

With these 17 ways to create an interactive presentation, you’ll be sure to grab your audience’s attention and keep them entertained throughout the entire presentation.

Here’s a short selection of 10 easy-to-edit job presentation templates you can edit, share and download with Visme. View more templates below:

• An interactive presentation is a dynamic type of presentation that supports increased engagement and interactions with the audience.
• Try integrating media techniques like video clips, audio narratives, music, and interactive quizzes.
• Involve your audience by polling them, encouraging movement, getting them to ask questions, letting them lead the direction, and asking them to share with a hashtag for social interactions.
• Play with non-linear and other creative transitions, animations, and even props.
• Include animated data visualizations and stories to enrich the interactivity in your presentation.

Before we jump right in, let’s explain what an interactive presentation is

What is an Interactive Presentation

An interactive presentation is a dynamic type of presentation that supports increased engagement and interactions with the audience. It involves using interactive elements to create a more personal and engaging experience with your audience.

Whether you’re doing a live or pre-recorded presentation, there are various interactive tools for presentations and interactive ways to present information. It could be as simple as embedding audio and video in your presentation. Or, it could take the form of using charts, surveys, navigation, transitions, hyperlinks, hotspots and other elements in your presentation.

If you ever wondered how to make a presentation interactive, this is your opportunity to try out a variety of techniques. Implement one or two ideas first and see how it fits with your brand guidelines.

Remember that any interactivity you add to your presentations must make sense with the rest of the content, otherwise, it could be distracting instead of engaging.

If using Monday.com , create and share your presentation and collaborate easily inside your workspace using our account integration. Also, take advantage of our wide range of integrations to boost productivity.

Here’s how to make an interactive presentation

1 Start your interactive presentation with an icebreaker.

The first step is creating a rapport with your audience. You can do this by helping them to get to know you a little better and get to know each other as well.

The way you go about this will depend on the size of your audience. If you’re presenting in a small group setting or workshop, you can easily go around the room and have everyone share a bit about themselves.

However, if you’re speaking with a crowd or at a conference with a larger audience, it would make more sense to simply have your audience introduce themselves to a neighbor or two before you dive in.

You could ask the audience to answer a question out loud or to their neighbor, ask them to prepare a few questions about your topic or a list of things they'd like to learn or put together a fun icebreaker game.

Visualize the icebreaker question on a slide using text animations. Your Visme editor offers a variety of eye-catching movements for your textual content. Choose from options like typewriter, rise up, ease in and more.

Here are just a few icebreaker games you can choose from for your next interactive presentation. Also, read this article on how to start your presentation and 12 ways to keep your audience hooked.

2 Use video clips in a slide or two.

You don’t have to be the only one talking during your presentation. Videos are one of the most effective interactive learning tools for presentations.

Embed a video into one of your slides to switch up your audience’s focus. With Visme's animated presentation software , you can easily embed a YouTube or Vimeo video into your slide for your audience to view on their own or for you to feature during your interactive slideshow. Here's how you can do that.

Simply go to the Media tab in the left sidebar of your Visme editor and click on Insert Video.

Add a video from anywhere, your computer or your phone. Download the Visme iOS app and add videos to your presentations in minutes. Edit your presentation effectively by resizing, placing into shapes, trimming with the timeline editor and selecting playback settings.

Sharing video clips can be a great way to further emphasize your argument by bringing in other opinions or even to just add a break for your audience during longer presentations. You can also share a video of yourself demonstrating how to do something.

If you’re embedding the slideshow on your website, adding a video to a slide or two allows your audience to take a break from reading and jump into a different way of consuming your content.

There are so many other types of content you can embed into your presentation with Visme as well, like quizzes, surveys and more!

3 Add Animated Icons

Create interactive slides with unique touches like animated icons. Using vibrant design elements like beautiful icons that move your audience’s attention to the areas you want them to notice. Also, using icons instead of text offers white space for the viewer to feel a sense of balance on the slide.

Here’s how to do it:

Choose a slide where you’d like to add an animated icon. In terms of options, you have two; use the native, animated icons or animate static icons with the animation tools.

On the left toolbar, click on graphics and select the icons you want. The animated ones are at the bottom next to the animated illustrations, customizable characters, avatars and 3D arrows.

Place the icon and click on the Animate button on the top right. Select the style of animation and duration for each icon and ensure everything is balanced and not overdone. You might not need more than one or two repetitions for each icon.

4 Add Pop-Ups with Extra Info

A great way to inspire your audience to interact with your presentation is to add popups with extra info using hotspots. This is how you can do it.

Click on a text, shape or object you’d like to add a popup and hotspot to and click on the Actions button on the top right. Add an action and choose the function; it can be another slide, or a popup that you can design from scratch.

Add visual hotspots as markers for the audience to know there is something special going on.

Watch this video to learn how to create interactive pop up effects in Visme

Make your popups more interesting by using AI-generated graphics prompted by your visual brand guidelines.

5 Make your interactive presentation non-linear.

Not every slideshow you create needs to simply flow from slide to slide. Get creative with it and see if it makes sense to add in a non-linear flow. So, what exactly is a non-linear presentation?

When you create links between slides so you can click around different areas of your presentation, you’re putting together a non-linear presentation.

You’re not going from slide one to slide two to slide three, and so on. Instead, you’re creating an interactive way for you and your audience to jump around your presentation.

You can create a table of contents page and link it to the slides that start each section. If your presentation is embedded, this allows your audience to navigate in their own preferred order.

It also gives your presentation a different edge from the regular flow, and can keep readers intrigued about what’s coming next.

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6 Have a Q&A session.

Want to get the audience involved? Ask them questions! This is a must-have interactive tool for presentations.

It’s also one of the most popular ideas for interactive presentations.

While many presenters always plan to host a Q&A at the end of their presentation for the audience to ask questions , it can go both ways.

You can easily put together a few slides where you’re asking your audience questions throughout your presentation. Before you move onto the next section, ask your listeners what they think first.

Don’t make it intimidating, like a pop quiz. A simple “What do you think about..?” can work wonders.

You can also take several breaks throughout your presentation to give the audience a chance to ask you questions. If you had them write down a few things they want to make sure they learn from you at the beginning of the presentation, this is a great time to ask.

7 Create an interactive quiz.

Take it a step further and actually create a quiz in your interactive presentation. This engaging presentation idea works well for both live and embedded presentations.

In Visme, you can link elements in your slide together so that one element appears when another element is clicked. So ask your audience a question, gather their answers and then click to expose the correct answer.

If you’re embedding the presentation, make sure you include a button that says something like “Click to see if you’re right!” so that your viewer knows they’re able to interact with the slide.

While you don’t necessarily want to use this as a way to sneakily check if your audience has been paying attention, it can be a fun way to gauge expertise in your audience and understand how much information you should cover.

Struggling to generate content for your quiz? Use Visme’s AI writer to generate high-quality content for your presentation, quiz or other aspects of your presentation.

8 Add a Flipbook Effect

Add another dose of interactivity for the audience’s viewing experience by using Visme’s flipbook effect . Mixing a physical “flipping” action with a digital document or presentation makes it easy for the audience to swipe from slide to slide. It’ll also create an emotional association with magazines and books, these are generally positive associations.

All presentations made with Visme, when shared via a live Visme link, will be viewable as a flipbook. You can turn the option and off in the sharing settings.

Flipbook isn’t just available for presentations, any document and even whiteboard can be shared as a digital flipbook. All your audience has to do is swipe and the slides/pages will flip like a magazine.

Like Kimberly Barrett, Wellbeing Consultant at Ameritas says, “You can do everything within Visme, you don’t have to use multiple tools to get something completed and delivered. Everything is just in one place, and it’s all-encompassing.”

9 Bring props along to your interactive presentation.

Want to really grab your audience’s attention? Want to really grab your audience’s attention? Props are also useful interactive tools for presentations.

Bringing props along with you to help you demonstrate and visually tell your story can be a great way to keep people watching and listening.

The first thing to keep in mind when deciding which props to help convey your story is that they need to be relevant. Don’t bring random props that are interesting but are a huge stretch to fit in with your content.

Instead, bring props that intrigue your audience but still make sense with the information you’re sharing.

Here’s a great example of a prop that definitely secured the audience’s full attention. Bill Gates released a swarm of live mosquitos into the audience during his TED Talk on Mosquitos, Malaria and Education.

Sanitary? Maybe not. Attention getting? You bet.

10 Tell your audience a story.

One of the most interactive ways to present information is storytelling. It’s an undeniable strategy for drawing your audience into your presentation. Even if your topic covers a lot of data, facts and statistics, your speech doesn’t have to be dry.

There are many different ways to incorporate stories into your presentation effectively.

A good story helps to create an immersive effect , bringing your audience in and making them feel like they’re a part of your presentation. It taps into their emotions, causing them to hang onto your words, making your presentation much more memorable in the long run.

Here's a great example of a presentation filled with data that still hooks the audience in with great storytelling.

11 Add an audio narrative.

You don’t have to speak the entire time. Much like videos, audio and sounds are helpful interactive tools for presentations.

In fact, sometimes, it can be nice to give yourself a break and pre-record some of your slides. This is also a great strategy to include for embedded presentations.

With Visme’s presentation maker , you are able to upload audio files that play in your slideshow. You can also record your own audio directly inside the Visme editor.

Some Visme users even create pre-recorded webinars using the software.

Adding audio into an embedded slideshow can be a great way to create an interactive presentation experience. You can add music or sound effects to slides to make them stand out. Or you can add an audio narrative that talks about your slide content in even more depth than your slide design allows.

12 Poll your audience.

Looking for other activities for presentations to keep your audience engaged?  Get your audience involved in your presentation by polling them. Give them multiple choice options to see which one is the most popular. Ask them to raise hands.

You can even use a polling software and have your audience input their answers via their smartphone and watch the results come in live on your screen.

Have fun with it. Ask your audience about their favorite football team, which ice cream flavor they’d choose between vanilla and chocolate and more. This is a great way to do icebreakers, as well as break up your presentation with some mindless fun.

Of course, you can also have polls relevant to your presentation topic . Consider all of the ways you can use a poll in your next interactive presentation.

13  Include discussion questions.

If you’re still searching for how to make a PowerPoint presentation interactive , consider adding discussion questions in. You can break your audience into small groups to discuss your questions or simply have them discuss it briefly with their neighbor.

Seminar presentations are the perfect setting for discussion questions, and this can also work well if you’re putting on a presentation to a group of people that are sitting at tables.

All you need to do is put a discussion question up on the board and ask your audience to go around their table with their answers. This creates an interactive environment with very little effort on your part.

14  Encourage movement in your audience.

Another way to create an interactive environment is by encouraging movement within your audience.

This can be as simple as taking an intermission during a longer presentation or giving your audience a few minutes to get up and stretch their legs.

Other methods include asking your audience yes or no questions and having them answer by raising their hands or standing up, having your audience move to different seats and introduce themselves to new neighbors, or calling people up on stage to participate.

15  Get your audience asking questions.

As I mentioned earlier in this post, having your audience take time at the beginning of your presentation to list out their questions on your topic is a great idea.

It’s a proven technique to make your PowerPoint presentation interactive.  

Several times throughout your presentation, take a pause to ask for audience questions. Allow your listeners to ask questions about the slides you’ve already covered and the ones that may be coming up.

Getting your audience to ask questions, and letting them know that there will be several opportunities to do so, is a great way to ensure they continue to pay attention, take notes and write down potential questions throughout. Make sure you set some time aside at the end of your presentation for the rest of their questions.

Worried that people won’t speak up? Have a few allies in your audience that start the question asking.

No, this is not sneaky or shady. Sometimes people need a bit of encouragement, and asking a friend that you know will be attending to start off the questions can help.

16  Let your audience decide the direction.

Again, your presentation doesn’t have to be linear. You can have a slide setup with your four (or however many you have) main points and ask your audience which one they want to hear first, second and so on.

This makes it fun for the audience because they actually get to participate in the order of your presentation.

While this means you need to be extra prepared for whatever route your presentation may take, it creates a fun, interactive setting that your audience will remember for years to come.

Try a unique presentation structure like this, or one of these seven that your audience is sure to love.

17  Share a hashtag for social interaction.

If you’re speaking at an event that already has a branded hashtag, encourage your audience to tweet about your presentation using that hashtag. If you’re hosting a standalone presentation, come up with your own hashtag for your audience to use.

Your viewers can then share tidbits from your presentation as well as use the hashtag to ask questions for you to monitor and answer throughout.

Not only does this help to get your audience engaged, but it even helps to get their audiences engaged, learning about who you are, and interested in your content and presentation.

18  Add music to your interactive presentation slides.

Create a different ambiance by adding background music to your slides. Or get your audience pumped for new and exciting information with a pop song transition.

With Visme, you can easily upload audio files, including music clips, so that you can create an interactive experience for your audience. Your entire presentation doesn’t have to be centered around the sound of your voice. Adding in a music clip is a great way to refocus your audience on your content.

Plus, it can be a nice added touch in an embedded presentation.

19  Play with transitions and animations.

There are so many different ways to animate your slides , each more exciting than the next. You can animate different elements in your slides, like in the animated slideshow below.

You can also create seamless transitions between your slides by having each one of your elements slide in on its own, like in the presentation example below. To see the effect in action, click on the arrow buttons to transition to the next slide.

You can even add animated graphs and charts to your presentation slides . Animation should be fun, and toying with different ideas can make for great interactivity.

This is actually a big mistake that most people make while creating a presentation. If you're using a software like PowerPoint, you might go overboard with all the different options you have. Use a tool like Visme so you can access handpicked, proven animation and transition styles, like in the examples shown above.

Just remember to be consistent with your animations and transitions. Keep the same look and feel throughout your entire presentation rather than a million different animation types.

20  Use data visualization in your interactive presentation.

Last, but certainly not least, use data visualization to showcase your information in an engaging and easy-to-understand format.

Whether you’re a data expert, business leader, or trainer, interactive data visualization is a staple. It’s one of the most interactive ways to present information, especially when detailing with figures and statistics.

Data visualization can be anything from a chart or graph that visually represent actual statistics and numbers to an icon or graphic that represents words.

Visualizing your points can be a great way to argue your point, and creating charts, graphs and other figures helps your audience digest your content that much quicker and more easily.

Plus, Visme offers tons of ways to visualize data within your presentation slides.

Choose from one of our many data visualization tools, such as animated charts , graphs and data widgets, to start visualizing your facts and figures in a more interactive format.

Once you’re satisfied with how your presentation looks, you can share it online using a live link or download it in multiple formats, such as PPTX, PDF, PNG, JPG, MP4 and more. Also you track the performance (views, unique visits, average time spent and completion) of your presentation using Visme analytics .

Interactive Presentation FAQs

Q. why is interactive content better.

Interactive content is more effective because it grabs attention and provides an engaging and immersive experience that keeps users hooked on your content. This attribute makes it a brilliant strategy for educating your audience, increasing audience participation, boosting engagement, and improving their overall learning experience.

According to a DemandGen report , up to 90% of marketers admit interactive is effective in educating buyers but other marketers use it for lead generation (58%), brand awareness (57%) and conversion (49%).

Q. What Is the Best Interactive Presentation Tool?

There are many interactive presentation tools out there. Visme is the best, primarily because it offers a user-friendly interface, a full suite of animation and interactive tools, multiple customization options, an extensive library of templates and much more.

You can access animated 2D and 3D graphics, icons, illustrations and special effects that level up your visual content, as well as, animated enter and exit effects for your text and other design elements.

In addition, you can create a clickable menu or interactive table of contents, ink slides, pages or content blocks to objects on your canvas, and create hover effects or clickable pop-ups that reveal information when users take action.

The best part? Visme offers a variety of interactive templates and ready-to-use graphics that help users save time and create high-quality presentations quickly.

Q. Which Type of Presentation Is the Most Interactive?

When it comes to interactive presentations, there are several types that can be quite effective.

However, one of the most interactive types of presentations is one that involves the audience directly in the discussion and allows for active participation.

This can be achieved by using interactive presentation examples and tools such as videos, live polls, quizzes, Q&A sessions, interactive games, and hands-on activities. By engaging with the audience in this way, presenters can create a memorable experience that not only educates but also entertains.

Q. How Do I Make My Presentation Stand Out?

There are a few things you can do to make your presentation more memorable.

First, make sure you have a clear and concise message you want to convey to your audience. This will help you stay focused and avoid getting sidetracked during your presentation.

Next, use visuals like images, graphs, and charts to help illustrate your points and break up the text on your slides. Don't be afraid to use humor or storytelling as well, as these can help engage your audience and make your presentation more entertaining.

You can also consider adding animations and interactive elements to your presentation to make it more engaging. Interactive elements, such as quizzes, polls, or games, can also help to engage your audience and keep them interested in what you're saying.

Animations can be used to bring your content to life and keep your audience's attention focused on the screen. For example, you can use animations to highlight key points or to add a bit of visual interest to your slides.

Finally, practice your delivery and try to be confident and enthusiastic when you present. This will help you connect with your audience and leave a lasting impression.

Q. Are Interactive Presentations More Effective?

Interactive presentations can be more effective than traditional, static presentations because they engage the audience and keep them interested throughout the presentation.

When the audience is hooked, they become active learners and are more likely to retain the information.

Interactive presentations can also be customized to meet the specific needs and interests of the audience, making them more relevant and impactful.

Overall, incorporating interactive elements into a presentation can help to create a more dynamic and memorable experience for the audience.

Q. Is an Interactive Presentation Different From Interactive Content?

Yes, an interactive presentation and interactive content are two different things.

An interactive presentation is a type of content that conveys engaging information using multimedia elements such as videos, animations, and interactive graphics.

Interactive content, on the other hand, refers to any type of content—such as quizzes, polls, and games— that requires your audience to participate actively rather than consume the information passively.

Visme: The Best Interactive Presentation Software

Before now, you were probably thinking of which option you would use for your presentation to engage your audience. Before now, you were probably thinking of which option you will use for your presentation to engage your audience or how to make presentations interactive.

So now you see? Your next presentation doesn’t have to be boring and predictable. By incorporating these interactive presentation ideas , your audience will be engaged and their phones will be put away.

Visme offers tons of interactivity features right within our presentation software . Sign up and create a free account today to start trying them out. And if you’re running out of time, you can use AI Presentation Maker to create your presentation in minutes.

Beyond presentations, Visme offers an all-in-one visual content platform. You can use our infinite online whiteboard to brainstorm and build projects collaboratively, create marketing material, schedule and share it on social media right from the editor and access tons of design elements and tools to create powerful content.

Try Visme today and make your presentations interactive, entertaining and successful.

Did you find this article helpful? Which interactive presentation feature is your favorite? Let us know your thoughts and questions in the comments below!

Put together beautiful interactive presentations with Visme

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About the Author

Chloe West is the content marketing manager at Visme. Her experience in digital marketing includes everything from social media, blogging, email marketing to graphic design, strategy creation and implementation, and more. During her spare time, she enjoys exploring her home city of Charleston with her son.

How to make interactive PowerPoint slides for eLearning

• Written by: Hannah Harper
• Categories: PowerPoint design , Effective eLearning
• Comments: 27

Want to build some interactivity into your PowerPoint slides? Here are two easy entry-level ways that you can turn your PowerPoint slides into dynamic and interactive material for eLearning.

How to hyperlink in PowerPoint

Hyperlinks sound a lot more complicated than they actually are. They work like any button or box on a website. By clicking that box you’re sent to another page. So from the ‘Search’ button on Google to the ‘Buy it now!’ on Amazon – you’re already pretty familiar with them.

But did you know you can build them into PowerPoint presentations? In the same way that you can link round a web page, you can link round a presentation.

The advantages of this are that your presentation is no longer linear. You can skip out whole sections and focus on the bits that are relevant. During a test you can link back to the theory for a recap. You can create easily navigable menus just like website home pages.

So how do you create such wizardry?

It’s probably best to hyperlink objects within your presentation. Technically you can hyperlink almost anything in PowerPoint: text (down to a single letter), pictures, objects etc. but it’s best to stick with what looks familiar to your audience (so that’s going to be boxes, arrows, and buttons).

Once you’ve chosen your element, right click and choose the option Link .

A pop-up window will appear and on the left hand side you want to choose the option Place in This Document . A list of your slides will then appear.

Choose the one you want to link to, hit OK and you’re sorted.

Remember – you can use hyperlinks in PowerPoint in all sorts of ways to navigate around your presentation. It might help to think of it like a web page instead of a presentation. A potential starting point is creating a clickable menu for your slides – find out how by using our guide .

If you’ve got a complicated PowerPoint presentation, your hyperlinks might get overwhelming. It can be difficult to know which slides are hyperlinked and where those links go. Our incredible, free add-in BrightSlide has a super useful tool for getting your links in order. Under the BrightSlide tab  select  Review  (under File & Master ), then click Hyperlinks > Tag Hyperlinks With Comments .

It does what it says on the tin, every hyperlink in your deck will have a comment attached telling you where that link goes. Download BrightSlide here !

Using triggers in interactive PowerPoints

The wonderful thing about triggers, is triggers are wonderful things! They, much like a hyperlink, are applied to a specific element on your slide, and you can add an animation so that something happens when you click that object. Think of this like an internal hyperlink on your slide. You’re staying within the slide itself, but you can click things and have them change in any order – the person viewing the presentation has control.

This can be really useful for building quizzes where your participants have multiple choice questions to answer.

So first of all make your elements (the list of possible answers). Animate them so they appear as you want, then add a Font Color  animation. Choose green for the right answer and red for the incorrect answer (if you’re going for the typical look).

Next go to the Animation tab at the top of the PowerPoint window and make sure you have your Animation Pane open. In the Animation Pane click on one of the  Font Color animations – you’ll then see at the top of the Animation tab that you have the word Triggers .

Click on this and you’ll see that you get the option On Click Of . When you select that, you’ll see that all the elements on your slide are listed. Click on the one that matches your element and there you have it. When you play your slide in show mode you’ll be able to click it and the answer will change colour according to whether it’s right or wrong.

Interactive PowerPoint: Taking it further

You should be able to do a lot in PowerPoint with just hyperlinking and triggers. I’ve given you a few very simple ways to use both of these tools, but as you start to use them for yourselves, you’ll see how many different uses they have.

There will inevitably be things that you want to do that are just beyond the limits of PowerPoint. But there are some great pieces of software that plug into your PowerPoint and give you that option of building more sophisticated interaction. Learn more about PowerPoint triggers in this blog post . Google Slides user? Learn how to create an interactive presentation in Google Slides.

Have any SOS interactivity needs? Post a comment below and we’ll try and sort you out!

Hannah Harper

Principal consultant, related articles, how to get the most out of powerpoint and pdfs.

• PowerPoint design

This article is dedicated to the bit hitting combination of PowerPoint and PDFs, and three particular use cases that will have these two giants working together in perfect harmony: how to convert PowerPoint to PDF on Windows and macOS, how to convert PDF to PowerPoint, and how to insert a PDF into PowerPoint.

Masking effects in PowerPoint: Stencils and animation

Masking effects are a great way to jump-start your image slides in PowerPoint. They not only look great, but also serve many a practical purpose. We've come up with a few ideas for creative ways to combine masking and animation in your presentation.

Masking effects in PowerPoint: Creating stencils

• Comments: 10

Having lots of image slides in a presentation can be great, but sometimes they don't do the heavy-lifting they ought to with your message. Using shapes as stencils to create masking effects in PowerPoint is a really easy and effective way to make your image slides stand out, and communicate something more. Here are three ideas you can try

Thanks Hannah for these tips and suggestions!

Thank you so much for taking the time to create this tutorial. I was chuffed to be able to create interactive buttons by following your instructions. 🙂

Loved your instructions. Made it easy to accomplish what I needed. Excited about exploring more options.

Thanks, great tips. Do you have any tips on embedding video and if possible, overlaying the video with text, pics etc?

It’s great to see you all having a go at interactivity in PowerPoint! Keep experimenting – maybe try playing round with some triggers. We’ve got a great tutorial for that too: https://www.brightcarbon.com/blog/powerpoint-triggers-make-something-happen/

And Lee, you can insert a video like you insert a picture in PowerPoint (just navigate to the’Insert’ tab) here’s a great tool for checking to see what formats work for you: https://www.brightcarbon.com/resources/powerpoint-help/video-embedding-tool-for-powerpoint/

I think this may be beyond powerpoint’s capabilities, but I didn’t know about triggers, either! So I’ll ask: is there any way that the program can keep track of the things a client clicks?

I.e. I want to show a slide for three seconds with an image. The next slide will come up with a set of five choices. I want the client to click on a choice, for the choice to be recorded, and then the next slide shows, regardless of the answer chosen.

I am pretty sure it doesn’t do this, but maybe? If powerpoint doesn’t, can you think of a program that does?

Sounds like an interesting project!

About 90% of that is possible in PowerPoint: you can do everything apart from record the answer. In the Transitions tab you can set your slide to come up for three seconds and advance automatically (uncheck ‘On Mouse Click’). This will them move to the next slide (with your five options). You can then make your five options hyperlinks (if you’re not sure how, just follow the instructions above), and these will navigate the user to a slide of your choosing (they can all be the same).

But if reporting the answer is important, I can recommend a programme called Articulate Storyline: it’s what lots of people use to build out full eLearning decks. You can download a trial version for 30 days if you want to try it out. When you publish in Articulate you can get results reported, the only catch is that you’ll need to upload it to a Learning Management System (or LMS), for the results to be reported to a specific location.

I hope this helps!

I don’t know if this is even possible…

I want to create an interactive calendar using jpeg images. Imagine a preK class using a pocket chart every day, adding that day’s date picture.

So using a trigger button the jpeg image would appear for that day, using a hyperlink you could go to another activity (song, months of the year review, etc.)

But can you tell the program to save today’s jpeg image so tomorrow you only add that day’s and so on?

(sorry, my email address was wrong in the first comment)

This article was excellent with detailed instructional pics. I’m interested in creating free response quiz and also a multiple choice to create a trigger for puzzle piece and melting candle timer. Qtns 1. How to know whether the free response is correct and hyperlink to that’s it slide? Is there a way to use visual basic for this kind of quiz? 2.How to create melting candle timer like word for word worm APP? 3. How to make trigger for multiple choice game where the correct answer will appear on the screen and player must assemble the puzzle pieces before the candle timer melts? 4. Is it better to create free response quiz separate fro multi choice. It should also trigger the puzzle piece to appear after a response is written. HOW to ensure silly answers are not accepted?

I am an experienced producer of powerpoint presentations. I teach languages and use PP to display pages that show objects that play a sound when they are clicked on. They work great on my laptops and students benefit from them. However the study centre’s computers reject any unauthorised software file saving. I cant solve this problem without admin clearance. So I am hoping that there is a way to make my ppp files interact and perform online just like the stand alone version. Any suggestions anybody ?

Hello from France !

First of all, thanks a lot for writing this complet tutorial. But here is my problem : after seeing Prezi, Powerpoint seems so platonic and past history now… But my boss doesn’t want to use Prezi, so here I am to found new options and new ways about using this tool. Can you help me on this ? I’m looking about more animated features.

Thank you again for triggers and hyperlink, I’ll surely use it soon.

Hi Benjamin.

We’re not totally convinced by Prezi .

If you just want to make stuff that looks really cool, check out the Morph functionality in PowerPoint 2016 .

Hi Benjamin, If you want to still have some of the benefits that you get from Prezi you can try Slide Navigator interactive and animated PowerPoint templates. The website is http://www.slidenavigator.com . Hope that helps.

I like this webpage, it is informative and concise. I published a website some years ago explaining how to make PowerPoint interactive for the college where I work. The problem I have found is the fear of PowerPoint and even more fear of trying to make the presentation interactive. Those who are interested seem to get a mental block once they see the work involved. I have felt for a long time that PowerPoint can go a long way to help in training and education when interactive.

I completely agree that interactive PowerPoints can go a long way to help in training and education when interactive. It is a lot of work. There is a website that helps to reduce the amount of work in making an interactive PowerPoint presentation called http://www.slidenavigator.com . I think it can really help college professors.

Or PowerPoint’s new Zoom functionality, if you are using 365. Probably easier.

One word of advice about making things interactive. You have to disable the slide forward clicking in the advanced animation selection. If this is not disabled the slide will advance to the next one. The check box has to be clicked and then you will only be able to move to the next slide or open up other hidden on the slide using the hyperlink. Other presentation programmes from other software organisations such as Libre and Open Office don’t have this disabling function which makes PowerPoint that much more powerful.

Thank you for the great info. Once I build this awesome document how Can I save it so my audience will only see the first page and then navigate using my links?

You can indeed! You need to highlight all your slides and then go to the Transitions tab at the top of the PowerPoint ribbon. On the right-hand side you’ll notice two ‘Advance Slide’ options (On Mouse Click and After 00:00.00]. The ‘On Mouse Click’ option should be checked. If you uncheck it here, the slide won’t advance, and you’ll only be able to navigate using the hyperlinks you’ve added!

You can then save it as a standard .pptx file, or you can save it as a PowerPoint Show file (.ppsx) if you just want your audience to launch the presentation (without seeing the edit view).

I hope this does the trick for you!

Hi Hannah, I’m a bit late to the party here, but am trying to save an interactive ppt. as an interactive PDF for upload to a training Sharepoint. However when the PDF launches it also has the option to scroll through all the pages, rather than only progressing via hyperlinks – how do I do set this up to only be able to move on via links?

I am designing quizes for pre-schoolers using powerpoint slides. I have created hyperlink of a text box to another slide. When I do a right click the textbox, it opens up to a list of options. I have to select open hyperlink. How to bypass this step? Is there anywhere to click on the text box and open up to another slide directly?

Thanks for these tutorials. It really enhances my skills in designing PowerPoint presentations.

Quite hapy with built in annimations but looking for different ready made Aware of companies like Envato but just want to buy animationsd (advance)

Thank you so much, this is great

When creating an interactive e-learning, how would you handle transitions to the next slide? Is there a way to set triggers for that as well (like clicking on an image that says “next”?)

How do I make shapes that my audience can click and drag around. I want them to virtually be able to complete a jigsaw puzzle.

Nice. I like this post very much.

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The video animation looks AWESOME! Thank you sooooo much. I am very happy and proud with the result; this video is really convincing. Really really well done. Elodie Maurer SES

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10 Ways To Make Interactive And Engaging Presentations In PowerPoint

Professionals across the spectrum will stand by the fact that compelling presentations can be an important force of influence at the workplace. Many people at the same time also struggle to make presentations in an effective and engaging way. 

How can one tackle this problem?

One tactic seasoned presenters use – make the presentations more interactive!

During a presentation, the audience tends to pay more attention if they know that at some point it will turn interactive. Audience participation is key to the success of any presentation. So next time you create a presentation bear in mind these 10 tips to make it more interactive.

Remember, the goal is audience engagement and active listening. The key to a successful presentation is understanding that the presentation should complement your speech, not be gimmicky and not be the point of focus. Make use of our Google Slides Themes to create presentations in a fraction of time. Here are a few tips: 

• Icebreakers are always the safest way to start the session
• Use Audio/Visuals in Your Presentation
• People love a good story
• Use Transitions and Animations Smartly
• One Slide, One Topic
• Live polling Keeps the audience engaged
• Surprise Them!
• Use hashtags, spread the word
• Add a reflection at the end

1. Icebreakers are always the safest way to start the session

This is universal to any form of interaction, not just limited to presentations. Building a rapport with the audience is key to presenting successfully.

This can be achieved either through a round of personal introductions or if the audience is larger, there are numerous ice breaker games that can be used.

The objective here is to get your audience’s undivided attention. By using an ice breaker, you set the tone for the rest of the presentation.

2. Use Audio/Visuals in Your Presentation

Audio-visuals in a few slides are bound to get the audience’s attention. Use your own video or embed one from YouTube.  

Embed a video into one of your slides to draw your audience’s attention. This also serves as a break for you from speaking. Videos give them a break from monotony.

3. Questions 

The easiest way to engage the audience is by asking questions. Some presenters prefer to do it at the end of the presentation and then there are those who prefer to have it at various points during the session to gauge the audience’s subject understanding.

Asking questions to the audience also makes them feel important, builds trust, and radically increases engagement levels.

4. People love a good story

Many say that humans are wired for stories and it could not be more true when it comes to presentations. Even dense numbers and statistics can be made accessible via good storytelling. 

A story well told can create an immersive effect. It can make the audience feel they are witnessing something important unfold. Tap into their psyche, their emotions, make the presentation memorable to them.

5. Use Transitions and Animations Smartly

Make your presentations visually appealing. You can do this by animating, transitioning, and morphing techniques. Use transitions intelligently and make these relevant and deeply linked to your content as opposed to just adding gimmicks. But make sure the look and feel throughout the presentation are consistent.

6. One Slide, One Topic

The primary objective of a presentation should be to keep your audience paying attention to your speech. To draw their attention, use one topic per slide. Don’t go overboard! While it is easy to create the presentation, it also helps the audience keep pace with you. Keep the content light so the audience can ask questions and interact as you go along.

7. Live polling Keeps the audience engaged

One of the most popular go-to tools by presenters is live polling. It encourages the audience to participate and give real-time feedback. It is also a fun and interactive means.

You could either use multiple choice questions or use polling tools online eg Mentimeter.

8. Surprise Them!

Presentations can get boring, especially for people with a short attention span. Interactive presentations are an active experience. To ensure total attention hide small pieces of interesting information within the presentation itself. It could be a video, or audio or new information. Hide infographics and let the audience track them. People are never bored when it comes to tracking for new or additional information. This helps you keep them engaged while also allowing them to learn something new.

9. Use hashtags, spread the word

We live in an age where most of our time is spent staring at a screen. Chances are it will be the same during presentations as well. People would be on Facebook or Instagram or tweeting their thoughts through Twitter. Some may even be conducting their business through their smartphone.

Capitalize on this by creating presentation-centric hashtags and encouraging your audience to share news and updates about it. It is just smart marketing; word of mouth, event promotion and social interaction all act parallelly for the same event.

Such hashtags encourage people to create and engage in discussions about your presentation through other social domains. While it promotes your event, you can also view responses and customer opinions through relevant tags.

10. Add a reflection at the end

While ice-breakers are key to a good start, reflective questions make sure the presentation receives a good ending. A reflective question gives you an idea of the audience’s take-away from the presentation while encouraging them to share their feedback and inputs.

Reflective questions can be asked verbally or in the form of an interactive slide at the end of the presentation.  

These ten tips will enable you to create an interactive, informative, and engaging presentation. Implementing these tips will certainly take you a long way and ensure that your presentation isn’t just another snooze fest. Happy Presenting!

You can browse through our collection of PowerPoint Templates & Google Slides Templates to create stunning presentations. Here are a few examples of presentation templates:

Source: Timeline Animation By SlideUpLift

Source: Quiz Animation By SlideUpLift

Source: BarCode Template  By SlideUpLift

Now you don’t have to scour the web to find out the right templates. Download our PowerPoint Templates from within PowerPoint. See how ?

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How to Make an Interactive PowerPoint: Comprehensive Guide

In today's digital age, presentations have evolved beyond static slides. Interactivity is the name of the game, ensuring engagement, retention, and a memorable experience for the audience. Whether you're an educator, a business professional, or a student, making your PowerPoint presentation interactive can elevate it to the next level. In this guide, we'll walk you through the steps to create an interactive PowerPoint presentation and introduce you to a game-changing tool: the AI PowerPoint generator by Smallppt.

1. Understanding the Importance of Interactivity

Engagement: Interactive elements keep the audience engaged, ensuring they pay attention throughout the presentation.

Retention: Interactive presentations can enhance memory retention, making your content more memorable.

Flexibility: Interactivity allows for non-linear presentations, letting the presenter jump to different sections based on the audience's responses.

2. Basic Steps to Make Your PowerPoint Interactive

Hyperlinks: One of the simplest ways to add interactivity. Link text or images to other slides, documents, or even websites.

Action Buttons: These are built-in buttons that can take you to the next slide, the previous slide, the last slide viewed, and more.

Trigger Animations: Set animations to play when a specific object on your slide is clicked.

Interactive Charts and Tables: Use these to display data in an engaging manner, allowing viewers to interact with the information.

3. Advanced Techniques for Enhanced Interactivity

Embedding Multimedia: Incorporate videos, audio clips, and even interactive quizzes to make your presentation stand out.

Zoom for PowerPoint: This feature lets you easily jump to and from specific slides, sections, and portions of your presentation in any order.

Morph Transition: This can smoothly animate objects across slides, giving a sophisticated look to your presentation.

4. The Power of AI in Enhancing Interactivity

Smallppt's AI PowerPoint Generator: This tool can analyze your content and suggest areas where interactivity can be added, saving you time and ensuring optimal engagement.

Customization: The AI tool allows for customization based on the audience's preferences and needs.

Continuous Learning: The more you use the AI generator, the better it gets at understanding your style and preferences, making suggestions even more tailored over time.

5. Tips for a Successful Interactive Presentation

Test Your Presentation: Before presenting, always test the interactive elements to ensure they work as intended.

Keep It Relevant: While interactivity is great, ensure that every interactive element you add serves a purpose and enhances the presentation's message.

Seek Feedback: After your presentation, gather feedback to understand which interactive elements were most effective and which ones might need tweaking.

Making your PowerPoint presentation interactive is not just a trend; it's a powerful tool to make your content more engaging and memorable. With the basic and advanced techniques outlined above, coupled with the power of Smallppt's AI PowerPoint Generator, you're well on your way to creating presentations that captivate your audience from start to finish. Remember, in the world of presentations, interactivity is the key to engagement. Embrace it, and watch your content come to life!

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60 Effective PowerPoint Presentation Tips & Tricks (Giant List)

Here's a PowerPoint presentation tips and tricks guide that takes you through how to make a good PowerPoint presentation.

The best PowerPoint presentations shouldn’t be remembered. Instead, they should fall into the background to support you and the message you’re trying to get across.

Unlike good PowerPoint presentations , bad PowerPoint presentations are a distraction. You may remember them, but not in a good way.

You’ve seen them before. They might have millions of lines of text. Or a disjointed flow to the slides. Even worse, some slides feature ugly photos and poor design that detract from the message you’re trying to get across. That can even hurt your credibility as a professional or speaker.

This article will take you from finding your initial topic to learning how to make a great PowerPoint presentation. Our guide covers everything in between so that you learn how to present a PowerPoint like a pro.

These Microsoft PowerPoint presentation tips and guidelines are organized into sections. So cut straight to the advice you need and come back when you’re ready for the next steps.

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.

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:

To learn even more about how to make a PowerPoint look good, review the huge list of tips below.

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 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 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 mistakes like reading directly from your slides.

Consider this your all-inclusive guide to how to make a good presentation. We’ll look at preparing your presentation and explore how to design it in PowerPoint. Plus, we’ll cover 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. 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.

2. Write It Out

Start in a Word or Google doc, and 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 led 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 you include 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 rewrite 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?

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:

Minimalist slide templates like Nook can help you resist the urge to clutter your slides.

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 most 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 .

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.

The best PowerPoint tips and tricks can hardly compare to the value of using a template while building your presentation.

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.

Templates like Galaxi are impressively designed and waiting for your slide specifics.

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.

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:

The Popsicle PowerPoint template highlights how harmonized color palettes can create beautiful slides.

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 and 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!

Limit your text formatting, including reducing the use of bullets, underline, and other effects. Compare the before example on the left to the revised version on the right.

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.

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. The 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 your main points to be emphasized and gives time 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 of raising and lowering 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 you’re having a normal conversation, and allow your hands to move with your speech to emphasize 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 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 this article . 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. It’s simple, and it’ll help you remain calm and in the moment, 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 are more productive. 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 affected by the actions, you’ve got to consider the morale of the workforce.

Skilled speakers have a knack for reading the energy of the room and adjusting their presentation on the fly.

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).

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 them. Add audio or music to 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.

Here’s a tip from expert Sandra Zimmer, who leads The Self-Expression Center on conquering your fears before you take the 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 forget that PowerPoint templates are infinitely customizable. Think of them as guides with built-in presentation design tips.

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

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

These PowerPoint tips will help you get the most out of the application to level up your next presentation. 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.

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 our tutorial 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 this article to track changes made by others.

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. MIDTEST is a  good PowerPoint presentation  with quiz slides.

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.

The Burte template is full of  PowerPoint tricks , including custom image masks. 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.

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.

The  Flowcharts in Infographics  template seamlessly illustrates ideas and processes. 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.

A template like Soffee helps you learn how to present a PowerPoint easily with a pre-built design.

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.

The Medical and Health template is a good PowerPoint presentation with a set theme.

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.

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.

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.

One of the best PowerPoint tricks is to start by selecting slides you wish to use from your template.

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.

One of our top presentation tips when working with a PPT is to lean on the pre-built text boxes for your content.

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.

Another of our top tips for presentation tricks is to use a custom font setting in your template.

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.

Add images to your PPTX template for more visually interesting slides.

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 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.

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.

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Become a PowerPoint pro: 7 must-know tips and tricks

Microsoft’s PowerPoint is extremely popular in schools, universities, and the corporate world, but it has never been as popular with home users. Not surprising since it’s all about creating presentations, something a private person doesn’t have to do very often.

So, if you suddenly find yourself needing to make a PowerPoint presentation and have no idea how to make it good, rest assured that you aren’t alone and there’s hope for you.

Microsoft Office 365 Home

These days, PowerPoint is more than just a basic slideshow—it can be used to create video presentations with voice-over narration, and it even has an AI-based helper called Designer that gives suggestions on how to make your presentation better.

Here are several smart tips and tricks you can use to improve your PowerPoint presentations and come off as a pro.

1. Customize Quick Access

Have you noticed that PowerPoint—and the other apps in Microsoft 365 for that matter—have a small, narrow toolbar at the very top of the application window? By default, you’ll find shortcut buttons for toggling Auto Save and basic actions like Save, Undo, Repeat, etc.

This nifty toolbar also comes with some app-specific actions that you may or may not use frequently. In PowerPoint, for example, there’s a shortcut to start slideshows from the beginning.

This toolbar is called Quick Access and you can actually customize what actions show up here. You can add frequently used actions while removing the ones you never use.

This can make it easier to find important functions that you would otherwise have to rummage around the ribbon to find.

To customize Quick Ass, select File > Options and then Quick Access Toolbar . The box on the right shows the actions currently on it and their order. The box on the left has all the available actions you can add.

Select an action you want in Quick Access and click on Add . To change the order, highlight the action you want to move and use the the arrow buttons on the right side of the window.

2. Use custom themes and templates

PowerPoint comes with a bunch of ready-made templates for presentations, which have also been themed.

A theme is a collection of settings for typography, colors, and effects that make it easy to maintain a consistent style across presentations. A template is a theme plus ready-made content that makes it easier to make a particular type of presentation again in the future.

For example, a company may have a theme that defines the colors and fonts employees should use in presentations, plus a number of templates for product presentations and quarterly reports.

A template may have a number of ready-made slides with images, charts, and everything else already laid out. When you create a new presentation from a template, you will find these individual page templates in New slide in either Start or Insert .

Creating your own custom theme

New themes can be added at any time as long as you have a presentation open—even if it’s a blank presentation.

Select the Design tab and click on the small down arrow with a dash over it on the right side of the Variants section. This shows the four categories of settings you can designate for a theme.

Select Colors > Customize Colors… and the Create new theme colors dialog box will open. A complete set of theme colors includes two pairs of text and background colors (dark/light, to be used either for dark text on a light background or vice versa), six spot colors used for graphic elements, and two colors for hyperlinks. Enter a name at the bottom and click Save when you are done.

If you also want to change the font, select Fonts > Customize Fonts… and you’ll be able to designate a Heading font and a Body font . I recommend a neutral, easy-to-read font for both.

Under Effects , you can choose the style of effects but there’s no way to customize or create a completely new effect. Under Background Styles , you can select Format Background… to tweak backgrounds.

When you’re done, go to the Themes section of the Design tab and click the down arrow with a line above it, then select Save Current Theme… to save your new theme. Give it a name and save and your new theme will appear among the available themes in the Design tab of all presentations.

Create your own custom templates

To create a new PowerPoint template, you can start from either a blank presentation or an existing template. Don’t add any content of your own yet. Instead, go to the View tab and click on Slide Master .

Start by changing the theme of your new template, under the Themes button. If you created your own theme as described above, it will normally be at the top of the list of available themes.

PowerPoint uses the term layouts for slide templates. Click on the Insert Layout button to create a new slide template.

New layouts are automatically given a header and a footer, but you can remove them if you wish (either by selecting and deleting the elements manually or via checkboxes in the Slide Background tab).

To delete an existing layout, right-click on it in the list and select Delete Layout or select it in the list and press Backspace.

To add new design elements to a layout, click the Insert Placeholder button in the ribbon and select the element type you want. You can then position and resize it, and change the placeholder text for it.

If you want to make per-layout changes, make sure to select that layout in the list before tweaking. For example, you can change a layout’s color theme or switch between the four background formats.

When you’re happy, save the template by selecting File > Save As and changing the format to Powerpoint Template (*.potx) . Templates can be stored either locally on your computer or in OneDrive—and since the theme is included, you can freely share the template with others.

3. Link to Excel data

If you’re making a presentation with figures in tables or charts, you can make your life easier by linking PowerPoint to Excel.

To do this, start by copying a chart in Excel, then switching over to PowerPoint and navigating to the Home tab in the ribbon. Select Paste > Paste Special… , then choose the Paste Link option, select Microsoft Excel Chart Object and finish by clicking OK .

A linked chart, table, or other Excel object can be instantly updated with up-to-date information as the data in the Excel document changes, all without having to copy and paste all over again.

To update the Excel object, right-click on it in PowerPoint and select Update Link . PowerPoint will retrieve the latest data to be reflected in the Excel object. This makes it easy to build a data-heavy report in PowerPoint that can be kept up-to-date with zero hassle.

4. Edit and apply effects to images

Basic slide editing in PowerPoint isn’t difficult, but there are a few tricks you can learn to make your slides both behave the way you want them to and do new things you may not have realized were possible.

For example, did you know that PowerPoint has built-in editing features that can change brightness, contrast, and sharpness of images?

Select an image in a slide and the Picture Format tab will open. Here you’ll find several adjustments you can make:

• Corrections alters brightness, contrast, and sharpness
• Color applies color filters
• Artistic Effects stylizes the image (but apart from the useful Blur effect, most of these feel pretty old-fashioned)
• Transparency makes the image more or less transparent
• Picture Styles can format the image in various ways (e.g., frame, shadow, rounded corners, perspective, etc.)

One thing you’ll notice when you add an image is that PowerPoint automatically generates alternative text—that is, descriptive text that gets read aloud for users with visual impairments. You can set this text to whatever you want, and it’s nice that Microsoft has thought about accessibility in this way.

5. Fill a shape with an image

PowerPoint makes it easy to fill a vector graphic shape with an image instead of just a solid color or gradient.

Create the shape as you want it, then make sure it’s selected before navigating to either the Home or Figure Format tabs in the ribbon. Select Shape Fill > Picture… , then select From a File to pick an image that’s saved on your computer.

If you aren’t satisfied with the positioning of the image in the shape, you can open the Picture Format tab and select Crop > Crop to resize and move the image in relation to the shape, allowing you to center it at a different point and even zoom in or out.

6. Incorporate audio and video

These days, PowerPoint isn’t just for presentations on screen or with a projector—it’s increasingly common to export finished presentations as videos to be sent to recipients, uploaded to the web, embedded in mobile apps, and more.

To make such presentations more vivid and interesting, you can record voice-over audio and/or video from a connected webcam to be placed on top of slides. You can find these features in the Record tab, where PowerPoint has also placed the Export to Video function.

The export function allows you to set the video resolution as well as how long each slide will display in the video.

More on this: How to turn a PowerPoint presentation into a video

7. Get AI help with Designer

Designer is the new name for Design Ideas, a feature that has been around since PowerPoint 2016 and uses machine learning to analyze the content of presentations and suggest improvements.

You can find it as a button in the Home and Design tabs, with Designer itself appearing in a column on the right.

This feature continuously analyzes your presentation and displays a list of suggested changes for the current slide. If you don’t like any of the suggestions, you can click on See More Design Ideas at the bottom and it will generate additional suggestions.

How attractive and useful are the suggestions? Well, it varies. When I tested it myself, they’ve rarely been results that I could use straight away—but the suggestions were helpful in that they gave me several great ideas that I hadn’t thought of myself.

For example, in the image above, you can see a suggestion for a color filter on a photo that looks like it could work really well with bright text and maybe a little blur.

Further reading: PowerPoint keyboard shortcuts worth knowing

This article originally appeared on our sister publication PC för Alla and was translated and localized from Swedish.

Author: Anders Lundberg , Contributor

Anders writes news, reviews and buying guides that touch most categories of consumer tech.

Recent stories by Anders Lundberg:

• How to master Excel: From beginner to pro
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How to Make an Interactive PowerPoint in 3 Easy Steps

Why Interactivity?

It's important for engagement. The more you allow your audience to participate and listen to them, the more they'll be engaged with your material and listen to you, right back.

How to go from PowerPoint to Interactive Slide Deck

To make any PowerPoint deck interactive, you can use Slides With Friends to give prompts and get responses from your audience, while still using the slides you created in PowerPoint. So whether you're looking to run a live poll of your conference audience, do an icebreaker before you start, build a wordcloud during your talk, or just get feedback from your audience members, this is the tool for you.

It's easy to do!

Step 1 - Get this interactive deck

To copy, you'll first need to create an account on Slides With Friends by clicking "Create free account". You can create the account and copy the deck for free, but the PowerPoint upload itself is a premium feature.

Once you've got an account, copy this sample deck: Interactive PowerPoint Deck Template . It's a template that you can add your own PowerPoint slides into. We'll walk you through how to customize it for your own slides!

Step 2 - Add your PPT slides to your deck

Note, to upload your PowerPoint, you'll need an upgraded account first. Here's details on our pricing and how to upgrade to unlock this premium feature.

Complete your PowerPoint deck, save it, then add it to the deck you copied! Here's how:

• Head to your account and open the sample deck you copied
• Click "Import" to upload your .ppt, .pptx, or .pdf slide deck presentation.
• Select "replace" — this will remove the sample imported slides, and replace them with your own.
• Drag your file into the upload box. The fewer slides you have, the quicker it will be to upload.

Step 3 - Add interactions

Once you've got your PPT slides in your presentation, you can now add the interactive portions.

Each interaction is added like a new slide to your deck. So for instance, if you want to add a Poll question to a PPT slide, this would be a new slide that you would place directly after your static PowerPoint slide.

Add these interactions by opening the "+" button in the top menu, and selecting what type of interactive slide you want to add. Here are the options of all the interaction types you can add:

‍ Multiple Choice Question: A slide that asks a question and supplies a set of answers that your players can choose between. You can show who guessed what, and the correct answer(s), optionally after each question. These slides are best for surveys, trivia questions, quizzes, polls, and anywhere else there are a fixed set of responses.

Text answer question:   A slide that asks a question but doesn't give answer options to choose from, instead your audience types their response. The system will determine if a response is correct or incorrect by comparing it to the answer(s) you have input.

User Vote: An Apples to Apples or Cards Against Humanity style interaction. Give a prompt or ask a question, and players send in responses. Then they can vote for their favorite, from all the other player's responses.

Answer roundup: If you've hidden the correct answers from the any previous multiple choice or text answer questions, you can display them all in a row with this slide.

Score summary: Show the leaderboard! Display those with the highest scores so far. You can set how many players to show in a row.

Pass the mic: Display each participant's avatar, one at a time in a random order, to give them a chance to speak. You can set how many players you'd like to go through — from everyone in the game to just one person.

Picture share: Players can upload or take images with their phones. The slide will then show a however many images you selected that it display, in random order, one at a time. Think of it like photo show & tell.

Wordcloud: Players can send a word or short phrase, and it will pop up on your display screen. They can tap on words from others to make those words larger. The end effect is a cloud of words with the most popular words appearing larger.

Rating: Allow participants to select from a set of pre-determined rating options, from Likert scores, to agree / disagree, to Emoji faces.

Poll slide: Allow participants to select from up to 6 answer options that you've type in. Then display the responses in a graph, donut chart, or by player name.

Last thing — Try it out!

It's time to see how everything works!

Start an event and join in yourself using your phone to scan the QR code. You'll be able to see how the event will look to your players, how your PPT slides look on the phone, and send responses to see how everything works.

Watch the video for an in-depth tutorial:

You can watch the video, or simply follow the steps below.

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How to Make Your PowerPoint Presentations More Engaging with Interactivity

Incorporating interactive tools into your presentations is a transformative step that goes beyond the conventional approach. By doing so, you add layers of depth and engagement that resonate with your audience on a whole new level. These interactive elements encompass a wide array of features and functionalities, each of which has the potential to elevate your presentations significantly. In this article, we will embark on an exploration of these interactive PowerPoint tools, unraveling their unique capabilities, and showcasing how they can profoundly enhance your presentations, leaving a lasting impact on your audience.

What is an interactive PowerPoint?

An interactive PowerPoint presentation elevates the standard slideshow experience. Instead of being a passive observer, you become the conductor of your presentation. A mere click – be it on text, images, or any other component – and behold, it springs to life! Want to see a video? Click! And there it is. Fancy some cool animations? Click! They're dancing right before your eyes.

So, it's like you're the boss of your own presentation journey. No more sitting through endless slides in a fixed order. You're in control, exploring content your way. It's like a choose-your-own-adventure book but with PowerPoint!

Interactive presentations can be effectively employed in various scenarios:

Training: Revolutionize corporate training sessions by incorporating gamification techniques, enhancing engagement, and enriching the learning process.

Education: Elevate your teaching methodology by involving students in active participation during lectures, utilizing interactive presentations as valuable formative assessment tools.

Events: Enhance the excitement factor at events by empowering the audience to participate actively through interactive presentations.

Conferences: Boost the energy levels and provide opportunities for every participant to express their views and insights during conferences.

Benefits Of Interactive PowerPoints

Let's explore the advantages of utilizing interactive presentations for your future work-related presentations:

Enhanced Engagement: Interactive presentations act as a magnet for your audience's attention. They're like the colorful threads weaving a captivating tapestry of knowledge. When attention wanes, these presentations reignite focus, ensuring everyone is on the same page.

Fun-Fueled Learning: Remember how exciting it was to participate in games and team activities? Interactive presentations bring that same joy into learning. They break the monotony, encourage teamwork, and spark innovation. Participants step away from their seats, forming bonds that transcend the digital realm.

Information Imprinted: Distractions often sneak into any presentation. That's where interactivity works its magic. Videos, audios, and other engaging elements act as spotlight-stealers, ensuring your audience retains key information effortlessly.

Tailored Experience: Interactive presentations offer a personalized journey through knowledge. Like a skilled guide, they adapt to individual needs and preferences. It's a teaching method that respects the diverse ways we learn.

How to Create Interactive PowerPoint Presentations?

Creating interactive PowerPoint presentations can significantly enhance engagement and captivate your audience. Here's a step-by-step guide to help you make your presentation more interactive:

Step 1: Start Your Presentation

Begin by creating a presentation. You can either start from scratch or use interactive PowerPoint templates as a foundation. Customize the templates to suit your content.

Step 2: Incorporate Multimedia

Enrich your presentation with multimedia elements such as images, videos, or GIFs. In PowerPoint, go to the Insert tab and add multimedia from your device or search online. Use PowerPoint's editing tools to ensure these visuals align with your slides.

Step 3: Include Hyperlinks

To provide additional information or resources, add hyperlinks to your slides. Insert a shape, image, or text.

Select the object and then right click to open the context menu. Click on “Link” to open the Link menu.

Choose "Place in this document" and select the slide you want to link to.

Step 4: Apply Transitions and Animations

Enhance visual appeal and engage your audience by adding transitions and animations. Select a transition from the Transitions tab to see a preview, and apply it to one or all slides.

For animations, click on an object, go to the Animations tab, and choose an animation type.

You can also customize the animation order in the Animations Pane.

Step 5 : Utilize Annotations

Annotations are a powerful tool for audience engagement. Access the Draw tab to annotate your slides freely. This feature even includes advanced options like "Ink to Shape".

Remember, the key to creating a successful interactive presentation is to strike a balance between these features. While it's tempting to use all of them simultaneously, simplicity is often more effective. Ensure that your interactive elements don't overwhelm your audience, keeping the overall experience easy to follow and engaging.

An example of Interactive Presentation:

Let's explore a fantastic way to add interactivity to your slides by incorporating clickable triggers. These triggers can activate various actions, such as launching animations or revealing additional content. Here's how you can create this engaging feature:

Step 1: Begin by selecting a background image and inserting it into your PowerPoint slide. Adjust its size to cover the entire slide.

Step 2 : Next, add an object that will serve as your clickable button. This can be an image or a simple shape.

Step 3: Click on the object you've just added, then navigate to the Shape Format tab and select the Selection Pane. Double-click on the highlighted object and rename it as "Open button".

Step 4: Create two additional slide objects and rename them: one as a text box and the other as a button that will close the pop-up.

Step 5: Access the Selection Pane again and select the "Open" and "Close" buttons, along with the textbox. You can do this by holding down the Left Ctrl key and clicking on each item.

Step 6: Now, let's apply animations to these objects. Go to the Animations tab and add an Entrance and Exit animation  (e.g., Fade) to all the buttons: Open, Close and Text

Step 7: To view the complete list of animations for this slide, click on Animation Pane. Your animation sequence should resemble the desired effect.

Step 8: Let's now establish the sequence and triggers. To make our Entrance animation work as intended, we want the Close button and text to appear when we click the Open button. To achieve this, simultaneously select the text and Close button in the animation pane while holding down the Left CTRL key.

Step 9: Next, navigate to the "Trigger" option in the Animations tab and choose "On Click of" > "Open button".

Step 10: Similarly, for the Exit animation, we aim to make the Open button and text disappear upon clicking the Close button. In the animation pane, select the Open button and text, then configure the trigger accordingly.

Step 11 : This is how your setup should look:

Now let’s try viewing our interactive presentation by clicking on F5 to start the presentation.

By following these steps, you can enhance your presentation's interactivity. Feel free to combine these techniques with other features to create even more engaging presentations. Remember, the more you engage with your audience, the more effectively you can convey your message during your presentation.

Resonating Reminder:

Here are some tips to keep your presentation engaging and interactive.

Use Hyperlinks: Enhance navigation with clickable links for a seamless journey through your content.

Multimedia Integration: Enrich your presentation with images, videos, and audio to captivate and educate.

Interactive Quizzes : Engage your audience with quizzes, polls, and surveys for real-time feedback.

Consistent Design: Maintain a polished look with a cohesive design theme throughout.

Branching Scenarios: Create interactive storytelling with non-linear paths and decision-based interactions.

Free Alternative to Microsoft PowerPoint — WPS Presentation

WPS Office serves as an excellent Microsoft Office alternative, offering powerful replacements for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. In particular, its presentation tool is outstanding, featuring a vast library of downloadable templates that can elevate your presentations to an interactive level. It also offers a wide array of interactive tools, including hyperlinks, multimedia integration (audio, video, and images), quizzes, polls, and design consistency features, ensuring a dynamic and engaging presentation experience. Even if you're not ready to fully transition from Microsoft Office, WPS Office seamlessly integrates with it, allowing you to harness the strengths of both office suites.

How to Download WPS Office ?

Step 1: To download WPS Office, head over to WPS Office official website on your browser, and then click on the Download button.

Step 2: Once the file has been downloaded, load the file on your system to begin the installation process.

Step 3 : Follow the instructions to complete the installation. And done! You’re all set to use WPS Office on your system.

Steps to edit Presentation in WPS

Step 1: To initiate the editing process, the first step is to download WPS Office. Visit the official WPS Office website for the download.

Step 2: Launch the WPS Office application after it has been downloaded.

Step 3: Once you've opened WPS Office, select "Slides" from the Side Bar, and create a new Presentation, by clicking the orange “+ Blank” icon.

Step 4: Refine your presentation effortlessly by utilizing the assortment of editing tools offered in WPS Presentation!

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Q1. Can Google Slides be interactive?

Yes, Google Slides can be interactive. You can set them up to generate interactive tasks for students to carry out or to use for information learning. A more fascinating and dynamic learning experience is made feasible by this feature. Google Slides is a flexible educational tool since it allows teachers and students to construct interactive projects. Hence, Google Slides has your back, no matter if you are a teacher hoping to develop an interactive lesson plan or a student looking to present your thoughts more effectively.

Q2. What software is used to create interactive presentations and animations?

Prezi is one of the best online presentation tools available. It allows you to design animated content seamlessly incorporated with video footage, creating a dynamic and engaging presentation experience. Prezi Design lets you create all sorts of graphics, animate objects, filter images, and customize your presentation to your liking. This versatility makes Prezi an excellent option for developing interactive presentations and animations, supplying a range of features to amplify your overall presentation experience.

Revolutionizing Presentations with Interactive Features

In this article, we discovered the art of crafting interactive PowerPoint presentations and highlighted their significance in  PowerPoint. However, what sets WPS Office apart is its seamless facilitation of this process. With its extensive collection of ready-made templates and cutting-edge AI capabilities, WPS Office redefines interactivity in presentations. Don't miss out on the opportunity to elevate your presentation game – download WPS Office now!

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15 years of office industry experience, tech lover and copywriter. Follow me for product reviews, comparisons, and recommendations for new apps and software.

How to Make Presentations in PowerPoint More Interactive

Melissa Chua

June 2, 2020

70% of business professionals believe that presentations are key to succeeding in the workplace—but the same proportion also found slides-based presentations to be boring and ineffective. Microsoft even estimates that poor PowerPoint presentations are wasting as much as $250 million per day!

So how do you make PowerPoint presentations better? 

By making them more interactive. 

People are likelier to pay attention if they know that they’ll be asked to participate at some point. So the next time you plan a presentation, keep in mind these 7 interactive presentation ideas to keep your audience engaged and actively listening. 

(While we’ll be giving some specific guidance on how to execute them in PowerPoint, all of these tips can be used on any platform or in any presentation—whether it’s to a team of four, or an auditorium of hundreds.)

1. Break the ice

Jump-start people’s interests with a fun ice breaker that sets the right mood for your presentation. We’ve compiled a list of 20 ice breaker activities you can conduct on Pigeonhole Live that seamlessly integrate into your PowerPoint slides for fuss-free execution. 

If your audience consists of colleagues, we recommend Appreciation Time and Never Have I Ever—they’re great ice breakers for strengthening office relationships and helping people get to know each other better in an exciting, non-cheesy way.

2. Get people moving

Attention span plummets to zero after a mere 10 minutes. If you notice your audience dropping off, try using physical activity as a way to refocus attentions and wake them up, literally. 

• Schedule regular stretch breaks—you can even appoint someone in the audience to be the “instructor” to lead the activity. 
• Play Where Do You Stand? by asking your audience a question like “How familiar are you with today’s topic?” or “How much do you agree with this statement?” and getting them to move to a side of the room based on their answer. 
• Use throwable mics during Q&A sessions or throughout your presentation as a way to keep people on their toes—you can reach for something as simple as a plushie, or invest in something fancier like a custom-printed Catchbox with your company logo. 

3. Conduct live polls and surveys

Live polls and surveys are some of the best ways to engage audiences, and there are tons of ways you can use them to make your presentations fun and memorable. 

• Run a poll at the beginning to get people thinking and aligned on your topic right from the start. For example, if your topic is on sustainability, poll the audience on how eco-conscious they believe they are on a daily basis. 
• Use it just before you reveal a statistic to test what people’s assumptions are (the competitive ones in the audience will love seeing if they’re right, too). 
• Conduct surveys to collect ideas and get input. For example, if your presentation is on team performance or sales targets, you can survey your audience on what incentives would best raise their motivation. 

Our platform offers flexible formats like multiple-choice polls, open-ended questions, and word clouds with live results, which you can integrate into your PowerPoint slides without interrupting your presentation flow.

4. Say almost nothing in your slides 

People can’t read and listen at the same time—this is referred to Cognitive Load Theory, which basically means that multi-tasking overloads the brain’s processing capacity and inhibits its ability to retain information. 

In other words, the more you fill your PowerPoint slides with words, charts, and bullet points, the less likely your audience is paying attention to you. 

According to Professor Sweller , the founder of Cognitive Load Theory, "PowerPoint can backfire if the information on the screen is the same as that which is verbalised, because the audience's attention will be split." So spend less time on your PowerPoint slides and more time rehearsing your presentation if you want to capture your audience’s attention. 

5. Use audio and visual media 

Visuals have been found to increase audience engagement by as much as 94% , so be sure to use them strategically—while keeping in mind Cognitive Load Theory. 

If you’re presenting key data, try to visualise it instead of leaving it solely in table form, and add animations where appropriate. You can animate your charts directly in PowerPoint using the Animations > Animation Pane tab. 

You can also consider adding appropriately humorous memes, GIFs, and videos from YouTube or Vimeo, all of which you can embed in your PowerPoint slides using Insert > Video > Movie Browser or Movie from File . 

6. Allow for anonymous questions

Anonymity has been shown to improve response rates and increase truthfulness , so providing your audience with a means for anonymous engagement will encourage them to participate in your presentation. 

Our live Q&A feature gives your audience the option to submit questions anonymously and upvote the questions they want answered. This way, questions will get to be addressed by priority and relevance, not on a first-come-first-served basis, and Q&A time will no longer be hogged by the most outspoken people in the group. 

7. Inject some gamification 

Want people to pay attention to your presentation? Give them a stake in it. 80% of learners  say they are more likely to be productive if what they were doing incorporated game-like elements, and over 60% would find leaderboards and increased competition motivating. 

Here are some ideas to incorporate gamification into your PowerPoint presentation:

• Conduct a quiz at the end of your presentation that summarises your key takeaways. Consider ranking the winners and giving out mini-prizes at the end to really ramp up attentiveness.
• Throw some misspelled or incorrectly used words in your slides and get people to identify them. 
• Insert the company mascot throughout your slides, and every time it appears, everyone has to raise their hands. The last one to do so each time gets a point, and the one with the most points at the end has to dance the Macarena. 

Making your PowerPoint presentations more interactive is a sure-fire way to hold attentions, ramp up engagement, and boost retention, so don’t squander the opportunity to inspire your audience—and maybe gain some insight from them in the process. 

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Quick Links

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 .

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7 Ways To Make Your Presentations More Interactive

Published Jun 19, 2023

What presentations do you have coming up? Maybe you’re presenting new promo ideas to a long-time client. Or perhaps you’re taking a deep dive during an internal meeting. Whatever presentations are on your calendar, you can take them to the next level by making them more interactive.

During a standard presentation, you may stand at the front of the room and click through slides. But in an interactive one, you can transform attendees from passive listeners to active participants. Elizabeth Perry, the content marketing manager at BetterUp, says about 90% of people admit to daydreaming during presentations, which can impact comprehension. You can help grab and retain their attention with an engaging presentation. We share Perry’s thoughts on how to do this in this issue of PromoPro Daily .

1. Start with a fun icebreaker. Depending on the type of presentation you’re giving, you may want to kick things off with a simple icebreaker. Perry says doing so can help everyone relax, set the tone and encourage participation in what’s to come.

2. Tell a story. Perry recommends introducing your talk with a personal anecdote and use it to create a framework for your presentation. This can create a rapport with your audience, helping them relate to you through empathy or shared experience.

3. Keep them engaged with a quiz. Maybe you quiz participants on the history of promo or the most popular products. Perry says apps like Kahoot are great for adding an interactive quiz because people can join in on their smartphones.

4. Encourage Q&A. Many presenters save time at the end for questions, but it’s more engaging to invite discussion throughout the presentation. The information will be fresher in their minds, Perry says, and a moment of conversation helps break up the presentation.

5. Show the promo in action. Instead of talking about a specific promo, let your audience touch and feel the item. This kind of hands-on interaction can make a more significant impact than words alone, Perry says.

6. Remember to move. Moving around the room is a simple way to keep people engaged in what you’re saying. This can be especially helpful if you’re presenting to a large group because you can speak directly to different sections of the audience.

7. Send a post-presentation survey. This provides your audience with one last chance to share their thoughts or concerns with you, Perry says. You can also use the feedback to learn what you can improve before your next presentation.

By making your presentations more interactive, you can help build stronger connections and create a memorable experience. If you’re taking the time to meet with prospects, clients or employees, make the most of your time by trying out some of the interactive methods above.

Compiled by Audrey Sellers

Source : Elizabeth Perry is the content marketing manager at BetterUp.

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The pressure to close deals can lead some salespeople down a slippery slope of miscommunication. Some may bend the truth to land the deal, while others might pressure prospects to buy when they’re not ready. These tactics might occasionally lead to quick wins, but they can also damage trust and hurt relationships. On the flip […]

4 Ways To Increase Your Average Deal Size

How often do you try to increase your average deal size? Many sales reps focus instead on closing as many deals as possible, regardless of size. They may prioritize quantity over quality, chasing after low-value opportunities that yield quick wins but don’t boost their revenue potential. However, by learning how to increase your average deal […]

6 Tips For Leading Multigenerational Teams

Today’s workplaces are more diverse than ever before, with five generations working together. From baby boomers to Gen Z, many promo companies resemble a generational melting pot. Each group brings unique perspectives and work styles. How can leaders leverage all this talent? The answer: There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Whether you’re a seasoned promo leader or […]

How To Use Sales Psychology To Close More Deals

Why do some people buy promo from you, but others don’t? Many factors are undoubtedly at play, including sales psychology. This is essentially an understanding of how buyers think, along with what influences their decisions. When you know what makes your prospects tick, you can craft the most effective sales pitches and connect with them […]

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‘heartbreak and triumph’: the origins of wlc, as told by the women who created it.

Next week in Nashville, the most innovative, ambitious and successful women in promo will converge for the 20th annual PPAI Women’s Leadership Conference. Having grown into a signature event for the Association, it would be easy to take WLC for granted, but 20 years ago it was just an idea.  It took a handful of […]

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Barbie Honors Women Athletes With One-of-a-kind Dolls, Dolly Parton Releases Wine Line

1. Mattel Creates Dolls Honoring Women Athletes In April, Mattel introduced a Barbie doll honoring Olympic gold medal-winning figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi. The following month, the company unveiled nine one-of-a-kind dolls celebrating groundbreaking female athletes from around the world, including American tennis legend Venus Williams and Canadian soccer star Christine Sinclair, the sport’s greatest international […]

Nice Guys Finish First: How Radar Promotions Has Grown 900% Since 2020

Every distributor has heard that you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket. But when that basket is one of the largest nonprofit organizations in the United States, with more than 2,600 branches across the country, Ryan Paules can’t help but load up. The CEO and “Chief Swag Officer” of Los Angeles-based Radar Promotions […]

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Share slides in Microsoft Teams meetings with PowerPoint Live

PowerPoint Live in Teams gives both the presenter and audience an inclusive and engaging experience, combining the best parts of presenting in PowerPoint with the connection and collaboration of a Microsoft Teams meeting.

When you’re the presenter, you have a unique view that lets you control your presentation while staying engaged with your audience, seeing people’s video, raised hands, reactions, and chat as needed.

And if you’re an audience member, you can interact with the presentation and personalize your viewing experience with captions, high contrast slides, and slides translated into your native language.

Here’s how it works:  

Tip:  Are you an audience member? Jump down to learn more about how you can interact during the presentation.

Presenter view

Present your slides

If you're in PowerPoint for the web, select Present > Present in Teams .

Your slides will appear in the Teams meeting, with your Notes next to them.

Navigate through the slides

Use the navigation arrows to go forward and backward.

Use the thumbnail strip to jump ahead or backwards.

Select Go to slide to see a grid view of all slides in the presentation. Select one to jump to it.

Stay connected to the audience

One of the benefits of using PowerPoint Live to present instead of sharing your screen is that you have quick access to all your meeting tools you need to engage with the audience and to read the room in one view. This is especially true if you’re presenting from a single screen.

Turn Chat on or off to view what your audience is saying.

See audience reactions and raised hands in real-time.

Change the Layout of your presentation and choose how your live camera feed appears in your presentation, like Standout or Cameo . It helps the audience read your non-verbal cues and keeps them engaged.

Use the Laser pointer , Pen , Highlighter , or Eraser to clearly reference items on your slides.

Audience view

As an audience member, you’re able to personalize your experience without affecting anyone else. Try these options to find what works best for you:

Note:  If presenters don't want people to be able to independently navigate through a PowerPoint file they are sharing, use the  Private view  toggle to turn it off.

Click any hyperlink on slides to get more context right away.

Interact with videos on slides to adjust the volume or jump to a timestamp and consume it at your own pace.

Use a screen reader to get full access to the slide content.

Switch to a high contrast view to make the slides easier to view if you have low vision. Select More options > View slides in high contrast .

Your viewing experience will be at a higher fidelity, letting you see crisp text and smooth animations. PowerPoint Live also requires significantly less network bandwidth than typical sharing, making it the best option when network connectivity is a problem.

Independent magnifying and panning

You can zoom in and pan on a presentation slide without affecting what others see. Use your mouse, trackpad, keyboard, touch, or the Magnify Slide option as applicable. 

To zoom in or out on a slide, do any one of the following: 

Hover over the slideshow and pinch or stretch on trackpad.

Pinch or use the stretch touch gesture (on a touch-enabled device).

Press the + or – keys.

Hover over slide, hold down Ctrl key and scroll with mouse wheel.

In the More Actions menu, click the + or – buttons.

To pan around your slide, do any one of the following:

Press the arrow keys.

Click and drag using a mouse.

Click and drag on a trackpad.

Use one finger to touch and drag (on touch-enabled device).

When done zooming and panning, press  Esc to reset your screen.   

Important: 

PowerPoint Live is not supported in Teams live events, CVI devices, and VTC devices.

If you're using Teams on the web, you’ll need Microsoft Edge 18 or later, or Google Chrome 65 or later, to see the presenter view.

Presenter view is hidden by default for small screen devices but can be turned on by selecting More options below the current slide and then Show presenter view (or by selecting the sharing window and then pressing Ctrl+Shift+x).

Meetings recordings won’t capture any videos, animations, or annotation marks in the PowerPoint Live session.

When you share from Teams, the PowerPoint Live section lists the most recent files you've opened or edited in your team SharePoint site or your OneDrive. If you select one of these files to present, all meeting participants will be able to view the slides during the meeting. Their access permissions to the file outside of the meeting won't change.

If you select Browse and choose to present a PowerPoint file that hasn't been uploaded to Teams before, it will get uploaded as part of the meeting. If you're presenting in a channel meeting, the file is uploaded to the Files tab in the channel, where all team members will have access to it. If you're presenting in a private meeting, the file is uploaded to your OneDrive, where only the meeting participants will be able to access it.

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A girl rides a skateboard while walking her dog. The girl is wearing a purple sweatshirt, baggy jeans and boots. She has expressive, round brown eyes and a look of determination. The background is an out of focus park and the girl is in a 3d illustrated animation style.

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