14 PowerPoint Presentation Tips for Building More Creative Slideshows [+Templates]

14 PowerPoint Presentation Tips for Building More Creative Slideshows [+Templates]

PowerPoint Tips: Style Step 1: Don’t let PowerPoint decide how you use PowerPoint. Step 4: Make sure all of your objects are properly aligned. Select "Align to Slide." PowerPoint Tips: Design Step 5: Get more control over your objects' designs using "Format" menus. To do this, right click on an object and select the "Format" option. Here's how you do that: Click on the image and select "Format" in the options bar. PowerPoint Tips: Process Step 10: Embed your font files. Step 11: Save your slides as JPEGs. In PowerPoint for Mac 2011, there is no option to embed fonts within the presentation. Use the Presenter View option to help create a more natural presentation.

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powerpoint-presentation-tips

I like to think of Microsoft PowerPoint as a test of basic marketing skills. To create a passing presentation, I need to demonstrate design skills, technical literacy, and a sense of personal style.

If the presentation has a problem (like an unintended font, a broken link, or unreadable text), then I’ve probably failed the test. Even if my spoken presentation is well rehearsed, a bad visual experience can ruin it for the audience. Expertise means nothing without a good presentation to back it up.

No matter your topic, successful PowerPoints depend on three main factors: your command of PowerPoint’s design tools, your attention to presentation processes, and your devotion to consistent style. Here are some simple tips to help you start mastering each of those factors, and don’t forget to check out the additional resources at the bottom of this post.

PowerPoint Tips: Style

Step 1: Don’t let PowerPoint decide how you use PowerPoint.

Microsoft wanted to provide PowerPoint users with a lot of tools. But this does not mean you should use them all. Here are some key things to look out for:

  • Make sure that preset PPT themes complement your needs before you adopt them.
  • Try to get away from using Microsoft Office’s default fonts, Calibri and Cambria. Using these two typefaces can make the presentation seem underwhelming.
  • Professionals should never use PPT’s action sounds. (Please consider your audience above personal preference).
  • PowerPoint makes bulleting automatic, but ask yourself: Are bullets actually appropriate for what you need to do? Sometimes they are, but not always.
  • Recent PPT defaults include a small shadow on all shapes. Remove this shadow if it’s not actually needed. Also, don’t leave shapes in their default blue.

Step 2: Create custom slide sizes.

While you usually can get away with the default slide size for most presentations, you may need to adjust it for larger presentations on weirdly sized displays. If you need to do that, here’s how.

  1. In the top-left corner, choose “File.”
  2. Select “Page Setup.”
  3. Type the height and width of the background you’d like, and click “OK.”
  4. A dialogue box will appear. Click “OK” again.
  5. Your background is resized!

Tip: Resize your slides before you add any objects to them or the dimensions of your objects will become skewed.

Change-Size-of-Background-PPT-2

Step 3: Edit your slide template design.

Often, it’s much easier to edit your PowerPoint template before you start — this way, you don’t have design each slide by hand. Here’s how you do that.

  1. Select “Themes” in the top navigation.
  2. In the far right, click “Edit Master,” then “Slide Master.”
  3. Make any changes you like, then click “Close Master.” All current and future slides in that presentation will use that template.
Change-Slide-Master-1

Step 4: Make sure all of your objects are properly aligned.

Having properly aligned objects on your slide is the key to making it look polished and professional. You can manually try to line up your images … but we all know how that typically works out. You’re trying to make sure all of your objects hang out in the middle of your slide, but when you drag them there, it still doesn’t look quite right. Get rid of your guessing game and let PowerPoint work its magic with this trick.

How to align multiple objects:

  1. Select all objects by holding down “Shift” and clicking on all of them.
  2. Select “Arrange” in the top options bar, then choose “Align or Distribute.”
  3. Choose the type of alignment you’d like.
Align-to-Object

How to align objects to the slide:

  1. Select all objects by holding down “Shift” and clicking on all of them.
  2. Select “Arrange” in the top options bar, then choose “Align or Distribute.”
  3. Select “Align to Slide.”
  4. Select “Arrange” in the top options bar again, then choose “Align or Distribute.”
  5. Choose the type of alignment you’d like.
Align-to-Slide

PowerPoint Tips: Design

Step 5: Get more control over your objects’ designs using “Format” menus.

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

powerpoint_format_menus

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

  • Adjusting text inside a shape.
  • Creating a natural perspective shadow behind an object.
  • Recoloring photos manually and with automatic options.

Step 6:…

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