powerpoint tips and tricks for business presentation

That said, you can still use fun and eccentric fonts — in moderation. Offsetting a fun font or large letters with something more professional can create an engaging presentation.

Above all, be sure you're consistent so your presentation looks the same throughout each slide. That way, your audience doesn't become distracted by too many disparate fonts. Check out this example from HubSpot’s company profile templates:

Interested in this presentation template? Download it for free here.

5. 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.

Here’s how to align multiple objects:

• Select all objects by holding down Shift and clicking on all of them.
• Select Arrange in the top options bar, then choose Align or Distribute .
• Choose the type of alignment you'd like.

Here’s how to align objects to the slide:

• Select Align to Slide .
• Select Arrange in the top options bar again, then choose Align or Distribute .

6. Use "Format Object" to better control your objects' designs.

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

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.

7. Take advantage of PowerPoint's shapes.

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

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

8. Create custom shapes.

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

Another option is to combine two shapes together. To do so, select the two shapes you’d like to work with, then click Shape Format in the top ribbon. Tap Merge Shapes .

You’ll see a variety of options.

• Combine creates a custom shape that has overlapping portions of the two previous shapes cut out.
• Union makes one completely merged shape.
• Intersect builds a shape of only the overlapping sections of the two previous shapes.
• Subtract cuts out the overlapping portion of one shape from the other.
• Fragment will split your shape into different parts depending on where they overlap.

By using these tools rather than trying to edit points precisely, you can create accurately measured custom shapes.

9. Crop images into custom shapes.

Besides creating custom shapes in your presentation, you can also use PowerPoint to crop existing images into new shapes. Here's how you do that:

• Click on the image and select Picture Format in the options bar.
• Choose Crop , then Crop to Shape , and then choose your desired shape. Ta-da! Custom-shaped photos.

10. Present websites within PowerPoint.

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

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

By using LiveWeb, you don’t have to interrupt your PowerPoint, and your presentation will remain fluid and natural. Whether you embed a whole webpage or just a YouTube video, this can be a high-quality third party improvement. To install the add-on, simple head to the LiveWeb website and follow the instructions.

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

11. Try Using GIFs.

GIFs are looped animated images used to communicate a mood, idea, information, and much more. Users add GIFs to PowerPoints to be funny or quickly demo a process. It's easy to add GIFs to your slides. To do so, simply follow these steps:

• Download and save the GIF you want.
• Go to the slide you want the GIF on.
• Go to the Home tab, and click either Insert or Picture .
• From the Picture drop-down menu, choose Picture from File .
• Navigate to where you saved your GIF and select it. Then, choose Insert .
• It will play automatically the moment you insert it.

PowerPoint Process

12. keep it simple..

PowerPoint is an excellent tool to support your presentation with visual information, graphics, and supplemental points. This means that your PowerPoint should not be your entire presentation. Your slides — no matter how creative and beautiful — shouldn't be the star of the show. Keep your text and images clear and concise, using them only to supplement your message and authority.

If your slides have dense and cluttered information, it will both distract your audience and make it much more likely that you will lose their attention. Nothing in your slides should be superfluous! Keep your presentation persuasive by keeping it clean. There are a few ways to do this:

• Limit bullet points and text.
• Avoid paragraphs and long quotes.
• Maintain "white space" or "negative space".
• Keep percentages, graphs, and data super basic.

13. Embed your font files.

One constant problem presenters have with PowerPoint is that fonts seem to change when presenters move from one computer to another. In reality, the fonts are not changing — the presentation computer just doesn’t have the same font files installed . If you’re using a PC and presenting on a PC, then there is a smooth workaround for this issue.

Here’s the trick: When you save your PowerPoint file (only on a PC), you should click File , then Options, then open up the Save tab. Then, select the Embed fonts in the file check box under Preserve fidelity when sharing this presentation . Now, your presentation will keep the font file and your fonts will not change when you move computers.

The macOS PowerPoint version has a similar function. To embed your fonts on a Mac, do the following:

• Open up your presentation.
• On the top bar, click PowerPoint , then click Preferences .
• Under Output and Sharing , click Save .
• Under Font Embedding , click Embed fonts in the file.

14. Save your slides as a PDF file for backup purposes.

If you’re still scared of your presentation showing up differently when it’s time to present, you should create a PDF version just in case. This is a good option if you’ll be presenting on a different computer. If you also run into an issue where the presenting computer doesn’t have PowerPoint installed, you can also use the system viewer to open up the PDF. No laptop will ever give you trouble with this file type.

The only caveat is that your GIFs, animations, and transitions won’t transfer over. But since the PDF will only work as a backup, not as your primary copy, this should be okay.

To save your presentation as a PDF file, take the following steps:

• Go to File , then click Save as …
• In the pop-up window, click File Format.
• A drop-down menu will appear. Select PDF .
• Click Export .

You can also go to File , then Export , then select PDF from the file format menu.

15. Embed multimedia.

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

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

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

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

16. Bring your own hardware.

Between operating systems, PowerPoint is still a bit jumpy. Even between differing PPT versions, things can change. One way to fix these problems is to make sure that you have the right hardware — so just bring along your own laptop when you're presenting.

If you’re super concerned about the different systems you might have to use, then upload your PowerPoint presentation into Google Slides as a backup option. Google Slides is a cloud-based presentation software that will show up the same way on all operating systems. The only thing you need is an internet connection and a browser.

To import your PowerPoint presentation into Google Slides, take the following steps:

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

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

17. Use Presenter View.

In most presentation situations, there will be both a presenter’s screen and the main projected display for your presentation. PowerPoint has a great tool called Presenter View, which can be found in the Slide Show tab of PowerPoint. Included in the Presenter View is an area for notes, a timer/clock, and a presentation display.

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

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

Your Next Great PowerPoint Presentation Starts Here

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

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

Don't forget to share this post!

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Top 12 PowerPoint Tips and Hacks for Flawless Presentations

Saikat Basu

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We’ve all seen our fair share of bad PowerPoint presentations . We can all agree that for a PowerPoint presentation to impress, it needs time and attention to detail.

So how can you ramp up your PowerPoint productivity in the shortest time possible?

That’s where we come in. For starters, follow our proven PowerPoint tips and tricks for business presentations , which are sure to make an impact.

Step up your PowerPoint game

Download our print-ready shortcut cheatsheet for PowerPoint.

1. Keep it simple

Keep your slides simple. It’s the visual backdrop to what you are going to say.

The most recommended PowerPoint tip for your productivity is called simplicity . You may be tempted by the graphical razzmatazz of beautiful images, background, and charts. At the end of the day, PowerPoint is a background visual aid for your talk. It is not the talk.

PowerPoint has lots of bells and whistles. But you don’t have to use them all. For instance, your content may not need the much-maligned bullet points - you can just use one key point per slide instead.

That’s why…

2. Reduce the text

Less is more when it is about the text on your slides.

The average reading speed on a screen is around 100 - 150 words per minute. Too much information on the slide is a distraction and an inattentive audience will lose the message you are trying to convey.

Don’t give them too much to read. Use high-quality pictures and eye-catching graphics instead.

To make information digestible, expert slide designers recommend you write one key idea per slide that is summarized by a clear headline.

Tip: Exploit white space. Create more space between your text, paragraphs, and graphics on your slide.

3. Plan your content first

Think about the message you want to convey and use it to write an outline.

As PowerPoint is such a visual medium, it is easy to get sidetracked with the visuals. So it’s important to chalk out what you want to say and in what order even before you open PowerPoint.

Your slides will come together quickly with the help of PowerPoint design options and you can even choose the right templates if you know your stuff inside out. 

Tip: Use brainstorming tools like mind maps, flowcharts, and even storyboards to sketch your content flow.

4. Use PowerPoint Designer for ideas

PowerPoint makes an intelligent guess by looking at the words on your slide and suggests high-quality artwork to complement it. You can pick one of the creative layouts or go back to your own design.

Tip: PowerPoint Designer can also turn lists, processes, or timelines into beautiful graphics too.

5. Use PowerPoint templates

Start with a template to break through any creative blocks.

PowerPoint templates are meant to be the starter plugs when inspiration deserts you or you are design-challenged. PowerPoint ships with a set of readymade templates and there are more available online. Pick one to begin.

Tip: Manpreet Kaur, the head of Corporate Communications at Mercer also suggests you use templates for mining ideas for your own presentation.

Whenever you receive any PowerPoint presentation from any of your clients, business partners, or sellers, make it a point to add them to any folder as a stock for templates for future reference. You can leverage these templates to find inspiration for any icon idea, layout, idea presentation, and number representation on the slides.

6. Edit the Slide Master

To open the Slide Master view, go to the View tab on the Ribbon and select Slide Master .

The first slide on the top is the Slide Master. Any changes to the Slide Master will be applied to all the slides in the presentation.

The Slide Master view also shows all the slide layouts used in PowerPoint. You can also use these Layout Master slides to control the appearance of any group of slides that share a common layout.

Tip: Make changes to the Slide Master before you start filling a presentation with the content.

7. Use PowerPoint Shapes for visuals

PowerPoint Shapes is the most powerful graphical tool in your control.

The multifaceted Shapes feature on the Ribbon gives you infinite ways to use PowerPoint like an illustration program. Look beyond the commonplace rectangle, oval, and rounded rectangle patterns.

Every shape is editable. You can customize any PowerPoint shape and create your own custom designs. They can be formatted with colors, 3-D effects and shadows too.

Tip: Most default shapes are overused. So, you can use your own custom shapes to add interest to a key point or a slide. For instance, you can turn a chevron into a more interesting arrow to illustrate the flow of a process.

8. Choose the right fonts

Choose the right fonts that are modern and pleasing.

It’s well established that fonts have a cognitive impact on how your audience will take in the information.

Sans-serif fonts are preferred for their smooth typefaces. But your typography choices will be influenced by the theme of the content. An artsy presentation can be more liberal with fonts that are decorative.

Also, to create contrast, you can use a technique called font-pairing where two complementary fonts are combined. For instance, use a serif font for titles and pair it with a sans-serif font in the body.

Tip: Want a free font library? Head over to Google Fonts and the collection of 916 free licensed fonts.

9. Use visual metaphors for your data

Visuals help everyone get the context behind data at a faster rate.

Business executives are used to spreadsheets . But that doesn’t mean they will like it in a presentation. Arresting illustrations are far better than bullet points and shoddy SmartArt.

We have talked about shapes and using high-quality photos before. But what if you have to analyze dry data?

Use visual metaphors or analogies to bring out the scale and relationships in the data. Executives can look up numbers, but the right use of an analogy can bring out the context behind it.

For instance, the evolution of man can be used to show the growth of a startup over time.

Tip: When stuck for ideas take inspiration from the best infographics on Slideshare and Pinterest. Infographics are designed to pack a lot of information in a small space.

10. Customize your slides for different audiences

Save yourself a lot of time by reusing your slides for different audiences.

This somewhat lesser-known PowerPoint tip uses a feature called Custom Slideshow to filter what you want your audience to see. Maybe, you want to hide some sensitive information for a lower level of executives while revealing it to those higher up. You do not have to create different slideshows for these two groups.

Create a custom show in five steps.

• On the Ribbon, go to Slide Show > Custom Slide Show , and then select Custom Shows .
• Click the New button in the Custom Shows dialog box. 
• In the Define Custom Show box , choose the slides that you want to include in the custom show, and then hit Add .
• You can change the order of the slides with the arrow keys.
• Type a name in the slideshow name box, and then click OK .

  Tip: You can also create hyperlinked custom shows that you can jump to from your primary PowerPoint show.

11. Rehearse Your Presentation

Prepare your presentation according to the time allotted.

No PowerPoint tip is useful if you cannot fit the number of slides and the time you take to present them in the schedule. PowerPoint helps you rehearse your presentation before you do it. With the Rehearse Timing feature, you can tweak your delivery according to the time on hand.

A helpful Microsoft Support video walks you through the process.

Tip: Use the timer to check if you're spending too much or too little time on one particular slide. Maybe, explaining the data in a better way can shorten the time.

12. Make your PowerPoint presentations accessible

Go to File > Info > Check for Issues > Check Accessibility

Sharon Rosenblatt, Director of Communications at Accessibility Partners stresses the importance of making presentations more inclusive.

Always use the accessibility checker, and not just if your slideshow is being shared with someone you know has a disability, but you never know where files get sent to.

PowerPoint is all about visuals so it’s more important to finetune the little things that can help make the message easily understood by people who have accessibility challenges.

Tip: Microsoft details the best practices for making all PowerPoint presentations accessible .

The bottom line: Get to the point fast

When you are presenting to busy people, you have to cut the clutter but not lose the message. A successful presentation is about brevity and speed.

A business presentation is also a decision-making tool. So make sure you are presenting the information your audience wants to know. And nothing more.

Yes, they do take some work. But with the help of these PowerPoint tips and tricks, you can start and finish any presentation without losing your sleep.

Want more PowerPoint tips? Then check out these other PowerPoint features that will level up your presentations. Or try taking GoSkills top-rated PowerPoint certification course .

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Saikat is a writer who hunts for the latest tricks in Microsoft Office and web apps. He doesn't want to get off the learning curve, so a camera and a harmonica claim an equal share of his free time.

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

23 PowerPoint Presentation Tips for Creating Engaging and Interactive Presentations

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Display one bullet at a time

Avoid unnecessary animations

• Only add content that supports your main points

Do not use PowerPoint as a teleprompter

• Never Give Out Copies of the Presentation

Re-focus the attention on you by fading into blackness

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Best Practice PowerPoint Presentation Tips

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

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

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

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

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

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

Display one sentence at a time

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

Presentation Blunders To Avoid

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

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

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

Only add engaging content that supports your main points

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

“Does this slide help support my main point?”

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

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

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

Avoid Giving Out Copies of the Presentation

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

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

Tips To Making Your Presentation More Engaging

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

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

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

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

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

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

How To Make Your Presentation More Interactive

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Key Takeaways from one of the best presenters, Steve Jobs

He kept his slides uncluttered and always strove for simplicity.

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

Source: Macworld 2008

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

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

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

He found made the complex sound simple

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

(This particular slide is referencing the iMac features)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Like this article? Please share

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

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

Very great advices!

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

Thank You ?

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PowerPoint Ninja

The PowerPoint Ninja Blog covers practical PowerPoint topics, tips, and tricks. 

• Bullet Point Therapy
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• PowerPoint 2007
• PowerPoint 2010
• Presentation Books
• Presentation Delivery
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• January 2013
• October 2012
• February 2012
• December 2011
• November 2011
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Jan 14 2013

• Choose Your PowerPoint Fonts Wisely

Indie chose wisely. Can you?

When picking fonts for presentations or corporate PowerPoint templates, you need to be careful which fonts you choose. You may hate Microsoft’s default fonts (e.g., Arial), but if you’re considering using another font you’ll want to make sure it’s a commonly installed font . Why? When people go to view your file on their computers and they don’t have the same font, PowerPoint will substitute another font which may not be the exact same size or style as your original font (12 pt in one font can be smaller or larger in another font). As a result, all of your copy and labels may end up being misaligned or text-wrap in places you didn’t anticipate . In other words, your nicely designed slides can turn into an unintelligible, sloppy-looking mess simply because the computer you’re presenting on doesn’t have the right font.

In most cases, a non-standard or custom corporate font isn’t going to cause problems internally because theoretically everyone at your company should have the corporate font installed. However, I’ve still seen problems with custom corporate fonts when your IT team fails to install these fonts on all new computers or re-imaged computers. When it comes to setting up a new computer or re-imaging an existing computer (i.e., restoring a computer to its default state typically after a bad crash or virus), fonts aren’t going to be the highest priority for IT. If you have both PCs and Macs at your workplace, it’s also common to run into font compatibility problems because PCs and Macs don’t share all the same fonts (e.g., PCs don’t have the Helvetica font by default).

PCs don’t have Helvetica by default like Macs. No, Arial and Helvetica are not the same.

While it can be an occasional problem for internal computers, it can be a serious problem when presenting on external computers or sharing PowerPoint files outside of your company. In my current role as an analytics evangelist, I’m not always presenting from my own computer. My company, Adobe, has its own set of corporate fonts, which is both good and bad. The corporate fonts are unique, clean, and professional. However, they can trip up employees when they present on external computers or share slides with another company.

In general, I’ve avoided using custom fonts because of the problems they create. I do use them from time to time, but I’ve learned to be very careful with them. At one industry event, I inserted a couple of slides from another co-worker into my slide deck. After joking about being the PowerPoint Ninja at the beginning of my presentation, I noticed to my horror that the inserted slides used the corporate font. I noticed it because all of the labels on one slide were a jumble of text (see below). Not only was I embarrassed, but the slide failed to communicate effectively to my audience. This experience highlights the importance of always checking what your slides look like on a different machine before presenting–something I failed to do and paid the price.

On the left, I’ve zoomed into part of the slide which is using the right custom font. On the right, you see what PowerPoint substituted when the computer didn’t have the same font. The substituted font messed up the text in several spots. Don’t make the same mistake!

If you present or share slides externally, here are some options for avoiding font problems:

• Use your own computer: If you’ve used several custom fonts, you can insist on presenting from your own machine. In some cases, this may not be an option at a conference where the audio/visual team wants to standardize the hardware being used or at an organization that doesn’t allow outside computers (security precautions).
• Provide custom fonts: If you need to present your slides on an external computer, you can provide the custom fonts along with your presentation. You then need to hope the audio/visual team for the event installs them, which can be a low priority for a very busy team. I’ve found you need to follow up prior to presenting to make sure the fonts are installed because it is a minor step that is frequently overlooked. Consider zipping the fonts and PPTX file together so it’s more obvious that they’re required. If you just want to share your presentation with people at another organization, you typically don’t burden them with installing a font on their computers ( even though it’s easy ). In addition, they may not be able to install fonts due to IT security restrictions.

It’s simple to convert any custom text into an image, which removes font compatibility issues. You should only notice a small difference between the text and image.

• Embed custom fonts: In PowerPoint, you have the option of embedding custom fonts . One drawback to this approach is that it can significantly inflate the size of the PowerPoint file. Sharing large files can be unwieldy and you may need to use Dropbox or some other file sharing tool. Most people don’t know that they can embed custom fonts or may view it as a hassle and skip the extra step in the process, risking how their presentations are seen by others.
• PDF your slides: If you’re just sharing your slides, you can PDF your slides which will retain whatever fonts were used in the slides. However, if you PDF your presentation it will lose all its animations, which may not be a viable option.
• Avoid custom fonts: If you’re presenting externally on a different computer or know you’ll be sharing the PPTX file externally, you might decide to avoid using any custom or corporate fonts. While this may freak out the brand nazis at your organization, the most important thing is to communicate your message effectively. Brand considerations (especially at the font level) should be secondary to the message in my mind.

We all get tired of Microsoft’s default fonts–Times New Roman, Arial, etc.–but you need to be careful when choosing fonts, especially if they are included in a corporate PowerPoint template. You can’t assume because a font is available on your computer that other people have the same font. Other software products besides Microsoft products also install fonts on your machine. For example, Myriad Pro is a non-Microsoft font that is installed if you use certain Adobe products (Adobe Reader 7 & 8). While a font might be common among your team or department (because you use the same applications), it might not be shared across your company or outside of your company.

Unfortunately, if you want to be safe with fonts, you need to take a less exciting, lowest-common-denominator approach, which means limiting yourself to just widely-available Microsoft Office fonts . While I’m sick of Times New Roman and Arial, I’ve enjoyed using Calibri, which was introduced with Windows Vista and Office 2007. Before you decide on what fonts to include in your corporate presentation template, consider reviewing the following Microsoft Office font lists:

Office 2003 Pro fonts

Office 2007 Pro fonts

Office 2010 fonts

Choose your fonts wisely

If you have a font that isn’t on one of these lists, then you have a custom/non-standard font. Depending on your presentation and audience, custom fonts may not be an issue. If you’re only going to present on your machine and aren’t going to share the slides, it doesn’t matter what font you use. However, it’s important to think ahead so you can avoid unnecessary font-related surprises that can interfere with how effectively your content communicates. Choose wisely and good luck!

Tags: custom fonts , Fonts

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Oct 08 2012

• PowerPoint Design Principle #3: Contrast

Have you ever sat through a PowerPoint presentation and the presenter had to apologize to the audience for not being able to read text on the slide? That’s what I experienced on my business trip. Often it is due to the font size being too small, but just as frequently it can be caused by sloppy color contrast . While the most common application of contrast in PowerPoint is color, contrast can be created by having different object shapes, object sizes, font types, font sizes, alignment, etc. The principle of contrast is dependent upon the surrounding elements being noticeably different from the focal point . Contrast fails when the difference is too subtle or weak.

There are lots of different ways of showing contrast besides color.

The Projector Curve Ball

I’d like to share three common scenarios where poor color contrast can ruin PowerPoint slides. I’ll start by sharing the two contrast-related mistakes I witnessed on my recent business trip along with a third one I’ve seen on several occasions.

Gradient steps or blends

When you have a process or flow diagram, it’s common to color the objects with different gradients – going from light to dark. Problems occur on the side with the lighter gradients if you’re using a light text color consistently across all of the objects . The light font will have good contrast against the darker gradients, but against the light gradient it can become ineligible, especially when you throw the projector brightness wildcard into the mix.

As you can see below, the light gradient with light text was too difficult to read even with the text shading. Unfortunately, the presenter had to pause and explain to the audience what the label was on the first object when he realized it couldn’t be read. If you’re using gradients, you either want to ensure you start darker on the light side or have darker text on the lighter objects (switching to lighter text on the darker objects).

This is the picture I took with my iPhone when I spotted this contrast issue. On the far left, the text was impossible to read because the white text didn’t contrast with the light gray object.

On a laptop screen, the text on the left is still legible, but once it is projected then the white text doesn’t stand out enough to be read against the light gray object. Either the background color on the object needs to be darker or the text needs to be darker — more contrast is required!

When using a PowerPoint template with a white background, you should avoid using certain colors for text. I’ve found that green or light green are not handled very well by a lot of projectors . There’s probably some technical reason for this, but I’ve learned over the years that this particular color is problematic. In the presentation below, the title of the slides and key metrics were in a lime green color. While it looked okay on a laptop screen, it became almost invisible when projected onto a screen. As a result, the presenter had to explain the purpose of each slide to the audience and verbally highlight key metrics that couldn’t be seen.

Be careful about the text colors you choose, especially for key text such as slide titles or data points. I would recommend never using green text due to how unreliable it can be with some projectors. If you’re using a template with a white background, use only dark colors for text.

Here’s another snapshot I took with my iPhone. This meeting was actually before the previous one, and the disruption to the presentation was more dramatic.

The lime green was visible on a laptop screen, but disappeared when projected. Not good if it’s used for the slide title or a key metric.

Colors on a dark background

My last real-world example comes from the Sunday school teacher at my church who uses PowerPoint presentations for her gospel lessons. She has a tendency to use red or blue text on a black background, which causes the text to be washed out and almost indistinguishable from the dark background . If you’re using a template with a dark background, don’t use standard colors such as blue, green, or red because most projectors struggle to project those colors with the same vibrancy as what you see in your laptop screen. If you’re using a dark background, always try to use light colors that will stand out when projected. Don’t be tricked by your laptop or desktop screen that the colors will display the same way when they’re projected.

Okay, no iPhone snapshot for this one so I’ve tried to reproduce what happened. While the colored text looks vibrant on your laptop (left), it can appear washed out when projected (right).

Don’t make your presentations hard to read; use appropriate levels of contrast for your text. There’s nothing wrong with black text on a light background or white text on a dark background. I know it might be a little boring but better boring than baffling (it seemed to work for Steve Jobs ). If you’d like to get creative with your text try a different font or more expressive language—but don’t use font colors that won’t provide enough contrast.

You can also run into color contrast problems with other parts of your presentation besides text. For example, I was saddled with a corporate template (white background) which used a light faded orange color for its bullets. What might have looked stylish on the designer’s laptop, failed in execution. Simply because a brand designer failed to consider how the light-colored bullets would look on most projectors, hundreds of employees were communicating less effectively with their bullets (except for a rogue PowerPoint ninja who edited his version of the corporate template to include bold orange bullets). Be kind to your audiences and remember the PowerPoint design principle of contrast!

Tags: brightness , color contrast , contrast , design principle , projectors

Jul 23 2012

• Tips for Removing the Background from Images in PowerPoint 2010

Remove the background from one picture so it can be layered on top of another. (c) Thinkstock

When you use images in your presentations, you might run into scenarios where you want to combine two images. In order to achieve the desired effect you may need to remove the background of one image so that it can sit in front of another image. In a past blog post , I explained how to do this in PowerPoint 2007. You can still use that approach in PowerPoint 2010 (Select image > Format > Color > Set Transparent Color). However, Microsoft offers you a new and useful option in PowerPoint 2010 to actually edit and remove the background of an image. Continue reading “Tips for Removing the Background from Images in PowerPoint 2010”

Tags: background , images , PowerPoint 2010 , transparent

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May 07 2012

• How Recover an Unsaved PowerPoint 2010 File

Ooops. I just closed the PPTX file I was working on that I hadn’t saved in a few hours. (c) iStockphoto / Thinkstock

You’ve been working tirelessly on a presentation. The creativity is flowing, you’re in a groove, and you’re masterfully pulling together what will be an epic PowerPoint presentation. For whatever reason as you juggle various files on your desktop, a part of your brain cramps up and you accidentally close (without saving) your presentation . This may never have happened to you, but it has happened to me a few times, including last Friday. Continue reading “How Recover an Unsaved PowerPoint 2010 File”

Tags: autorecover , PowerPoint 2010 , recover , unsaved

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Mar 27 2012

• 10 Ways to Spot a Lame Corporate PowerPoint Template

Rise up against bad PowerPoint templates! (c)Thinkstock

If you work at a company with more than 100 people, you probably have an official corporate PowerPoint template. If you work in a company with more than 1,000 people, you probably don’t know the designer who created your presentation template. There’s a good chance that the graphic designer who created your PowerPoint template doesn’t use PowerPoint on a regular basis — in fact, they probably detest PowerPoint and never touch the presentation software other than to make sure the template looks okay every time the corporate branding is updated. Continue reading “10 Ways to Spot a Lame Corporate PowerPoint Template”

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How-To Geek

8 tips to make the best powerpoint presentations.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Related: How to Burn Your PowerPoint to DVD

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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• 10 PowerPoint Tricks For Wow-Worthy Presentations - GoToWebinar

10 PowerPoint tricks for wow-worthy presentations

As a business professional, you’ve probably dabbled in the art of PowerPoint. And if you host webinars regularly, I’m sure you’ve picked up a few tricks to spice up your presentations and make them more engaging too.

Whether you’re a PowerPoint newbie or an emerging pro, here are 10 cool PowerPoint tips and tricks you’ll want handy for your next presentation.

POWERPOINT BASICS EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW

1. Don’t settle for the basic, built-in PowerPoint templates

PowerPoint templates make your lives easier. Templates mean you don’t have to design everything from scratch. Just select your layout, add your content, make a few edits here and there, and you’re done. So why not use the basic templates in PowerPoint? In case you’ve forgotten what they look like, here’s a refresher:

Millions of people have used these templates in their presentations. If you don’t want your presentation to look like a copy-paste, stay away from the built-in templates.

The good news is there are other free and premium templates out there beyond the ones Microsoft provides. In fact, at 24Slides.com , you can download premium templates for free. These PowerPoint designers understand the psychology behind effective presentations, and you can borrow from the best.

2. Use Format Painter to save time

Format Painter does one thing and one thing only: it saves you time. Tons of it, in fact. Here’s where you find this nifty time-saver on your PowerPoint ribbon:

If you’ve ever tried copy and pasting one element’s format to many other elements on the same slide, or on 100 other slides, you know how time-consuming the process is.

Without Format Painter, formatting elements goes something like this:

• Format one element and remember all the different settings.
• Format the second element and then try to remember all the settings from the first element.
• Look at the clock and realize you’ve wasted 10 minutes.

With Format Painter, however, all you do is:

• Click the first element.
• Hit Format Painter.
• Click the second element.

That’s it! If you want to copy the first element’s format and paste into more than one element, just double-click Format Painter and click each element you want to format one by one. When you’ve formatted all the elements, hit ESC on your keyboard. It’s that easy.

POWERPOINT ANIMATION TRICKS

3. Animate a flowchart to make it come alive

Flowcharts are a great way to display complex information. However, you may not want to show an entire flowchart at once. Instead, you want each point to appear at the right time so you can discuss each point verbally.

Here’s how you animate a flow chart in PowerPoint:

• Click the first element, point, or process in your flowchart. Then select an animation from the Animations tab.
• Define each element’s animation and timing settings.
• You can also open the Animations Pane to view and adjust your animation settings.
• Repeat steps 1 and 2 for all elements in your flowchart. Make sure you preview the whole flowchart animation and edit as necessary.

4. The Zoom feature for Office 365 subscribers

If you have an active Office 365 subscription, you can use the Zoom feature on the insert tab. As you can see in the screenshot below, there are three Zoom options:

• Summary Zoom
• Section Zoom

The Zoom feature is great when you want to jump from one section or slide to another. Let’s say you want to go from Slide 10 to Slide 55. In a regular PowerPoint presentation, you’d have to go through slides 11 to 54. But with Zoom, you can instantly go from slide 10 to 55 before your audience has a chance to lose interest. Of course, you’d have to plan ahead and know which slide you want to skip to.

The Summary Zoom feature creates a summary slide which is similar to a ‘table of contents’ for your slides. You can insert this summary slide anywhere you want, it doesn’t have to be the first slide in your presentation.

The Section Zoom feature allows you to jump from one section to another, while the Slide Zoom feature allows you to jump to any slide in your presentation.

EVEN MORE POWERPOINT TRICKS FOR ADVANCED USERS

5. Use a video background for your slides

We’ve all used background images on PowerPoint, but did you know you can also use a video as a background?

Simply drag and drop your video on to your slide and resize it to cover the entire slide. If you’re short on video, go to Coverr.co for free stock videos.

If your video is only a few seconds long, and won’t last the length of your slide’s discussion, just loop it. To loop your video:

• Click the video to access the Video Tools menu, then click the Playback tab.
• Check Loop Until Stopped.

With your video background in place, you can add shapes, texts, or any other elements you want to use as your slide’s foreground.

6. Make global changes to your presentation

Editing your slides one by one is super time-consuming. If you want to change your entire presentation’s look, go to the Design tab and choose from the available themes in the Themes section.

However, if you want more control over the colors and fonts, go to the Variants section (still in the Design tab). Click the drop-down to display color and font settings.

You can play around with the different settings – you can use custom colors and fonts to your heart’s content – to achieve the look you want for your presentation.

Lastly, if you want to add a logo, company tagline, or website address to all slides, go to View > Slide Master. To insert elements you want to appear on all your slides, simply click on the Insert tab and insert the elements you want to appear globally.

7. Embed fonts in your presentation

Make sure your custom or branded fonts are in PowerPoint. If your fonts aren’t installed on the computer you use to run your presentation, PowerPoint will automatically replace your font with a default font and mess up your alignment and the overall look of your presentation.

Here’s how you do it:

• Go to File > Options > Save.
• Go to the section, ‘Preserve Fidelity when sharing this presentation’ then tick on the ‘Embed fonts in the file’ box.
• You’ll have two options here. You can either (1) embed only the characters used in the presentation, or (2) you can embed all characters if you want other people to edit the file too.
• Hit the OK button.

8. Create your own icons in PowerPoint

You can download free icons from sites like IconStore.co or even from 24Slide’s Template site (you’ll find icons in the ‘Other’ category).

If you have an Office 365 subscription, you can insert an icon straight from your PowerPoint ribbon. Go to Insert > Icons and browse hundreds, if not thousands, of free icons.

But when you want to use something unique — and you have the time and the creativity — you can do it on PowerPoint using Shapes.

To begin, go to Insert > Shapes. If you have two or more shapes, click on them and the following options will appear in Drawing Tools > Merge Shapes: Union, Combine, Fragment, Intersect and Subtract.

Play around with the different options and let your creativity run wild. You’ll soon have a library of your own unique icons which you can then use in your presentations.

9. Work with multiple images on a single slide

Working with multiple images on one slide is tricky if you’re manually moving, reshaping, and resizing each image by hand. Luckily for you, PowerPoint has a powerful trick.

Hit CTRL+A on your keyboard to highlight all the images. Now you can access the hidden Picture Tools menu. Click on Format > Picture Layout and select the layout you want to use.

Once you’ve selected your layout, your images will be converted to a SmartArt graphic. Now you can rearrange your images. However, it will still behave like a SmartArt graphic.

To disable SmartArt properties, you need to re-convert the graphic back to Shapes. Simply click the graphic to access the SmartArt Tools menu, click on Design > Convert > Convert to Shapes.

POWERPOINT PDF Tricks

10. Save your PowerPoint presentation as a PDF

Sometimes you may want to preserve your PowerPoint format and layout and have it viewed as a PDF. You have two easy ways to do it:

• Option 1. Go to File > Save As. Choose the location where you want to save your file. In the Save as type drop-down, choose PDF.
• Option 2. Go to File > Export > Create PDF/XPS Document.

Final Thoughts

There are hundreds of tricks you can do on PowerPoint. But the 10 PowerPoint tricks covered in this article will help you improve your presentation design skills. You can finally bid adieu to ‘death by PowerPoint’ and start wowing your audience with your awesome presentations.

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• Presentation Tips

Top 10 tips and tricks for creating a business presentation!

Slidesgo is back with a new post! We want your presentations and oral expositions to never be the same again, but to go to the next level of presentations. 

Success comes from a combination of two main ingredients: a  presentation template suitable for the topic and a correct  development of the spoken part . 

For templates , just take a look at the  Slidesgo website, where you are sure to find your ideal design. For  tips and tricks on how to make a presentation , our  blog contains a lot of information, for example, this post. 

We have focused these  tips on   business presentations , so that, no matter what type of company or product, you can leave everyone speechless. Let's get down to business then!

What is a business presentation?

10 good tips and tricks for business themes.

A business presentation provides key information about a company or a product that a company works on. There are different approaches to business presentations, depending on the purpose of the presentation: a pitch deck to introduce a startup and get funding, the visual support of a company meeting, or a project proposal to be implemented. 

Beyond the structure,  what business presentations seek is to generate a good impression on the audience and obtain the expected positive results (inform, sell, gain funding, etc.). 

But how do we achieve the expected results? Don't worry, success is within your reach. 

So, as we told you at the beginning, we have decided to group in this post some  tips to revolutionize your business presentations . Take note for your next presentation, we assure you that they will be very useful! 

1. Presentations as visual support

2. Show credibility

People tend to pay more attention if they see that the other person is an expert in what they are talking about. Show that there is no one who knows the company or product so well and everyone will trust your word 100%. It is also important to know the type of audience that will be present during the presentation, to know how you should approach your speech. 

3. Punctuality

It is advisable to arrive well in advance, for the sake of the attendees, but above all for your own sake. If you are there a while before, you can peacefully prepare everything you need for the presentation: loudspeakers, computer, projector...

4. First impressions are everything

5. Who is behind the presentation?

To convey closeness to your audience, you can tell a brief personal or even brand story about your product, to show the human side behind the business. Keep it short, but interesting. The storytelling technique is really helpful for this purpose. If you want to know more about this, you can read a post on our blog about  how to use storytelling in presentations .

6. Convey emotion

Content is important, but how you present that content is also important.  Body language , the way you speak (you can give it a little touch of humor that will connect with your audience), or  making eye contact  can help you get your words further. Related to this, clothing is a relevant element. If you wear clothes that make you feel comfortable and self-confident, the job will be done, as you will convey confidence to the audience. 

7. Interaction with the audience

Make all attendees feel part of the presentation so that they do not see the presentation as a monologue but as something more interactive. Asking rhetorical questions or speaking in the first person plural in a generalized way can be helpful. "I know we've all felt that way at one time or another." "As you were wondering...".

8. Make important statements

You must be ready for anything your audience asks you and know how to get out of their questions. At the same time, you should also be prepared in case no one asks you anything so that during the Q&A time there is no awkward silence. You can use phrases like "one thing you may still be wondering about is..."

10. The epic ending

Just as you started big, end on a high note. After the Q&A, you can mention a shocking fact, show a video or close with a question on the air. The important thing is to make it "epic". 

And now it's time for our epic ending to this post. We know that if you apply these tips and combine them with a Slidesgo template, there will be nothing stopping you in business presentations. Success is just around the corner! 

Do you find this article useful?

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No matter if it's been ages since you last stepped into a classroom or just a long time ago―there’s probably a particular learning experience you often find yourself thinking about. Maybe it was a passionate teacher who kept the whole class engaged, or perhaps a classmate who lent you a hand with a tricky topic. Positive classroom experiences do leave a lasting mark on us, so it makes perfect sense that people leading a classroom aim to create the finest possible learning setting. In this article, we’ll share some tips to help you turn a regular classroom into a positive space.

How to create a word cloud in Google Slides

There are many ways to improve your Google Slides presentation. From choosing the right font to finding the right template, good presentations keep an audience engaged and convey a message in a clear way.Knowing how to visualize data in a slideshow is one of those actions that have a huge impact on the success of a presentation. At the end of the day, plain data fails to motivate decisions as effectively as clear insights do. This is when powerful visual tools like word clouds step in. Let us tell you all about them. 

How to create a word cloud in PowerPoint

In the age of information, showing data has become as important as collecting it. Those who are able to turn big amounts of data into easy-to-understand ideas, are the ones pushing the game forward.At the end of the day, plain data fails to motivate decisions as much as clear insights do. That’s where powerful visual tools such as word clouds step in. We’re here to tell you all about them.

How to Use the Presenter View in Google Slides

Google Slides, like PowerPoint, has different presentation modes that can come in handy when you’re presenting and you want your slideshow to look smooth. Whether you’re looking for slides only, speaker notes or the Q&A feature, in this new Google Slides tutorial, you’ll learn about these and their respective settings. Ready? Then let’s explore the presenter view! 

Top 15 PowerPoint Tips and Tricks for Engaging Presentations

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Unleash Your Inner Slide Jedi!

PowerPoint is a powerful and the most trusted tool for creating presentations and visual aids that can help you effectively communicate your message. However, it's essential to prevent common hitches that can lower the impact of your presentation. In this blog post, we will share 15 best PowerPoint tips and tricks to help you create engaging and effective presentations that captivate your audience from start to finish. 

Top15 Powerpoint Tips and Tricks

A good PowerPoint presentation is really important because it serves as a visual aid that enhances the significance of your message. It provides a platform for organising and presenting information in a clear, concise, and engaging manner. 

1. Keep it Simple and Concise

One of the most crucial PowerPoint tips is to keep your slides simple and uncluttered. The main aim here is to deliver a message as easily as possible. Do not insert a lot of content, especially long paragraphs. Minimalistic content Simplicity allows your audience to focus on your key message without distractions. Keep pointers or short phrases to highlight your main points, keeping the text concise and easily readable.

2. Use High-Quality Visuals 

Another helpful Powerpoint tips and tricks is to focus on the visuals. Apart from content, there should also be a visual theme throughout the presentation in order to keep it captivating. There are several enticing templates available on Microsoft PowerPoint. Making use of the 'Arrange' feature ensures the proper alignment of objects. Avoid generic stock images that don't add value to your content. 

3. Know Your Audience 

This is one of the most important PowerPoint presentation tips. It is important to resonate with your audience, and in order for that to happen, curate your presentation according to the audience's knowledge of the subject. Meaning prepare your presentation according to the subject knowledge base inherited by the audience. Do not go all rocket science with a topic for a beginner-level audience. Customise it to be more engaging and intriguing. 

4. Emphasise Key Points with Infographics

One of the cool PowerPoint tricks is the glory of infographics. The addition of infographics is a useful way to illustrate complex information in a visually attractive and easy-to-understand form. Utilise charts, graphs, and diagrams to showcase data, statistics, or processes. Infographics make your content more engaging and memorable, enabling your audience to grasp information quickly.

5. Embed Your Fonts

An informative PowerPoint tip is to embed fonts that are downloaded from a third-party source. The simple reason behind this is PowerPoint tends to replace foreign fonts with default fonts if not downloaded. This will completely change the layout of your presentation. To embed fonts, go to Files<Options<Save<Preserve Fidelity when sharing this presentation<Embed fonts in the file.

6. Track Changes

Following our list of PowerPoint tips and tricks is the track changes feature. Turning on the Track Changes features ensures a smooth collaboration among team members. It is a way to keep a record of all activities that occurred on the slides. One can also leave comments alongside slides for their teammates to make edits for a perfect presentation. 

7. Choose Suitable Slide Transitions

One of the best PowerPoint presentation tips is to use smooth transitions between slides. One can use transitions to create seamless and professional transitions that guide your audience's attention. It is completely up to the user to manage the slide transition, but using too many can create distraction. You may more effectively manage the amount of information you provide to your audience at once by employing a couple for each slide. Explore our blog on Google slide hacks to help you create impactful and memorable presentations that captivate your audience.

8. Optimise Font Choices and Consistency

The choice of font has a big impact on how readable and visually appealing your presentation is overall. Select readable typefaces that are easy to see at a distance. To guarantee a unified and professional appearance, stick to a font scheme of no more than two or three throughout your presentation. One of the most basic yet powerful PowerPoint tips.

9. Leverage Color Contrast 

In order to ensure readability and visual impact, colour contrast is crucial. Choose contrasting colours for the backdrop and text to make the content easy to read. Refrain from employing eye-straining colours that clash or are extremely bright. A carefully considered colour scheme improves the overall appearance and aids in efficiently communicating your message. Isn't it among the cool PowerPoint tricks? 

10. Make the Presentation More Convenient

Next on our list of PowerPoint tips and tricks is convenience. The convenience PowerPoint provides is that one can easily convert the Berenstain into a PDF document. Professionals who are unable to attend your event in person may occasionally express interest in your presentation. Next, you can send the files by email or post this PDF for download on a website. Additionally, you may export your presentation as a video that viewers can see whenever it's convenient for them.

11. Incorporate Audio and Video

Your presentation's degree of engagement can be raised by including audio and video components. As one of the creative PowerPoint tips and tricks, one can make smart use of them to support writing or offer instances from real-world situations. On the other hand, pay attention to file sizes and make sure the video and audio are excellent and pertinent to your subject.

12. Rehearse and Time Your Presentation

Perfectionism is attained with practice. Practice your presentation several times to make sure you deliver it smoothly and on schedule. Despite being one of the common PowerPoint presentation tips, maintaining your audience's interest and making sure you cover all the important issues without rushing are dependent on timing. Explore more by pondering our blog on PowerPoint presentation tips to get your aims and ideas across to the audience smoothly.

13. Utilise Speaker Notes

Speaker notes are an invaluable tool to help you stay on track during your presentation. They act as a script or outline, reminding you of key points, transitions, and supporting details. Utilise speaker notes to maintain a confident and organised delivery, ensuring you cover all essential aspects of your presentation.

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14. Utilise a Remote Control

If at all feasible, move your slides forward with a remote control. This gives you the freedom to walk about, interact with the audience, and keep eye contact. Using a remote control gives your presentation a more dynamic and engaging delivery overall. Isn't it one of the cool PowerPoint tricks?

15. Seek Feedback for Continuous Improvement

One of the most important PowerPoint tips and tricks is not to be hesitant to ask for criticism of your presentation. Feedback offers insightful viewpoints and useful insights that assist you in identifying areas that require further development and improvement. Accept helpful criticism to improve your presenting abilities and produce future presentations that are even more captivating and powerful.

Incorporating these 15 best PowerPoint tips and tricks will empower you to create engaging and effective presentations that captivate your audience. By keeping your slides simple, utilising high-quality visuals, and maintaining a consistent design, you can deliver a memorable presentation that effectively communicates your message. Lastly, explore our webstory on the top 8 presentation tools for students to get introduced to some life-changing presentation tools that will boost your creativity and imagination.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Powerpoint Presentation Tips and Best Practices

(Note: S uitable for users of PowerPoint 2016, 2019, 2021, and PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 . )

Understand the dos and don’ts of effective PowerPoint design that adheres to best practice guidelines.

PowerPoint Presentation Tips and Design Explained

PowerPoint is a presentation application that helps us communicate our thoughts and ideas to an audience. It’s designed to assist the presenter, not to be a replacement for the presenter. However, simply ‘slapping’ together a few slides and adding some text and a couple of images doesn’t quite cut it in 2022.

PowerPoint has evolved in leaps and bounds over the last few years. No longer are we stuck with creating long, linear slide decks full of bulleted lists and text, inflicting ‘Death by PowerPoint’ on our audience.

Modern slide design tells a story. It allows the viewer to choose their own path through the presentation. We use animation sparingly and effectively. We think about color, font, and accessibility. We choose images over text and consider our audience before we begin our design.

The latest versions of PowerPoint (365, 2016, 2019, 2021) contain many new features to help us build a truly awesome PowerPoint presentation. However, the ‘rules’ with regard to effective design remain the same as ever. By knowing and employing a few basic best practice principles, we can create an attractive, modern presentation that communicates our message effectively.

1. What is the Goal?

2. know your audience, 3. create an outline, 4. decide on visuals.

• 5. Text. Less is More

6. Use Readable Fonts

7. be mindful of color, 8. design for wide screen, 9. be consistent with style.

• 10. Animation. Less is More

11. Consider Templates

12. end with action points.

Related reads:

How to Wrap Text in PowerPoint

How to Add a Watermark in PowerPoint

How to Add a Hyperlink to a PowerPoint

Best Practice Guidelines

Best Practice Guidelines give us a framework from which to work within. Much like a blueprint, we can follow these rules to ensure we are designing our slide deck in the best way for our audience.

Before we begin, it’s important to establish the goal of the presentation, as this will affect how we design our slides. What are we hoping to achieve? Is this a Sales pitch to a potential client? Are we trying to sell a product or service? Is this an internal presentation for our team? Work out what the goal is prior to creating slides.

For example, if this is a sales pitch to a potential client, it’s important to get to the relevant points quickly. Identify early where you see problems and then offer solutions. This helps get ‘buy-in’, and the client understands how we can benefit their organization. If we present data in charts, ensure the charts are simple to read and communicate key metrics important to that client.

It’s also worth thinking about how to end the presentation. Do we want our audience to take action on something? Do we want to encourage them to follow us on social media? Or maybe we need them to go to a website and register for a newsletter. Maybe we want them to think about certain key points and provide feedback at a later time. Remember to include clear calls to action.

Establishing who we are presenting to is vital. Different audiences will require different slide designs. For example, if we are presenting to a board of CEOs and stakeholders, we need to ensure the presentation is professional, business-like, focused on key metrics, and establishes our brand. Whereas, if we are putting together a presentation for our local tennis club, we can afford to be more relaxed with the design.

Our audience determines how we design a presentation. It affects the types of images we use, which fonts and colors we use, and the messaging we work into the slides.

The environment also plays a key role. Will they be in a meeting room viewing the presentation on a projector? Will they be sitting next to you at your desk? Will they be receiving an email copy of the presentation? Will the presentation be on large screens at an event? For example, if we present in a large auditorium, we must ensure that even the people at the back can see everything. We need to consider font size, font style, contrast, and the types of images we use.

NOTE : Many times, organizations will have their own PowerPoint template to use for all company presentations. Templates ensure that every presentation is consistent, uses branded colors, and contains items like the company logo. We should always ensure that we are working within our organization’s branding guidelines when designing.

Try and establish these three key factors:

• Who will be watching?
• What’s important to them?
• What’s the environment?

An outline is similar to a storyboard. We can plan out our slides ahead of time to establish flow, presentation length, and timings.

An outline can be something as simple as drawing out slides in a notepad and jotting down the key points to cover, or we can use PowerPoint to create a ‘wireframe’. A wireframe is simply a plan of how each slide will look and what content is to be included.

Establishing what needs to be included from the start means that we are less likely to forget to include important information, and we can plan our slide deck more effectively.

Visual elements are a huge part of PowerPoint. The phrase ‘a picture speaks 1000 words’ is true, with most people remembering infographics, charts, and other images over bulleted lists of text. It’s important to think about the types of visuals to include in the presentation ahead of time. Do we want to use photos? What about charts? Are we going to use icons? What about video?

We can use multiple types of visual elements in our presentations, and we need to think about what will convey our message best. Also, think about the tone of the presentation and match any visual elements to that.

Color and font style are also very important. If company-branded colors do not restrict us, we need to think about the color palette of our presentation and ensure we use a selection of colors that complement one another.

If you struggle with color, the Canva Color Wheel is a great free tool for finding complementary colors based on a starting color.

5. Text. Less is More.

When it comes to text, less is definitely more. One mistake many presenters make is adding everything they want to say to the slide. Too much text renders the presenter redundant. PowerPoint is designed to be a presentation aid, not the entire presentation.

An audience should be focused on the presenter. Powerpoint can list some brief, key talking points, but the presenter should speak most of the information. If we have a ‘wall of words’ on a slide, it’s very difficult for the human brain to read and listen at the same time.

A good guide to stick to is ‘The Rule of 5/5/5’. No more than 5 words per line, no more than 5 lines per slide, and no more than 5 text-heavy slides in a row. Keep text to a minimum and break up text-based slides with images, charts, and other visuals.

Font selection is incredibly important, and not all fonts are created equally.

Over the years, I’ve seen many presentations ruined by crazy font choices. For business presentations, it’s best to stick to well-established, easy-to-read fonts: Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Verdana, and Times New Roman are some of the most popular.

With that said, using the same font throughout the entire presentation can make our slide deck look a little stale and boring. Don’t be scared to use more than one font style, although try and stick to three or less. If we are going to use more than one font in the presentation, we should ensure that the fonts are from the same font family to keep things looking consistent and tied together.

For example, we might use Lato font for the majority of the text in the presentation, Lato Black for the headings, and Lato Light for text boxes and sub-headings.

Stick to fonts that are easy to read even when the font size is relatively small.

A great website for finding complimentary font pairings is Fontjoy .

Suggested reads:

How to Change PowerPoint Slides to Portrait

How to Change Slide Size in PowerPoint

How to Save PowerPoint as Video

Color can make or break a presentation. Choose the wrong colors, and at best, the presentation will look unprofessional and, at worst, will give people a headache.

We need to think about our color choices carefully. Choose high-contrast colors like white text on a dark background or dark text on a light background.

In PowerPoint 2021, we can choose between two slide sizes: Standard (4:3) and Widescreen (16:9).

Always design for widescreen! If we create a slide deck using the standard size and someone with a widescreen opens the presentation, PowerPoint needs to scale the presentation up, which can lead to problems, distortion, and misaligned objects. It’s much easier for PowerPoint to scale a presentation down.

• Click on the Design tab.
• From the Customize group, click Slide Size .
• Choose Widescreen from the menu.

It’s important that all slides in a deck look like they are part of that presentation. They should have a consistent look and feel. One of the best ways of tying slides together is to use color.

Choose a color palette of complementary colors and use them consistently throughout the presentation. Sticking to just a few colors prevents the presentation from looking like a rainbow.

In PowerPoint 2021, we have a great utility called ‘Eyedropper’, which helps us copy colors from one object to the next, ensuring that we are picking the exact same color every single time. If we have an image on our slide, we could use the eyedropper tool to pick a specific color from the image and then use that color to fill another shape or icon.

We could even use the colors in an image to help build our own color palette.

10. Animation. Less is More.

Much like text, when it comes to animation, less is more.

How many presentations have you seen where the author has been a bit too enthusiastic with their animation effects? Text boxes fly in from the top, bullet points spin in from the left, and images pulsing in different colors. It’s enough to make anyone go crazy.

Animation when used correctly can really elevate a presentation and emphasize important points. Animation can also make our presentation look slick and modern. The key point here is ‘when used correctly’. The animation should enhance and not distract.

The rule here is to try and stick to less than three different animation effects in the presentation. Subtle animation tends to work better than something more dynamic and ‘in your face’.

For example, if we have a list of bullet points and we want to speak about the first one before the next one is visible to the audience, we might add a ‘fade in’ animation to the bullets. The second bullet point will subtly fade in and won’t give anyone in the audience a seizure.

Templates give us a head start when creating a PowerPoint presentation. Instead of staring at a blank presentation, not knowing where to start, we could choose a template from PowerPoint’s template gallery and have a lot of the hard work done for us.

PowerPoint 2021 has hundreds of in-built templates available to use for free. All templates are divided into categories, and if we are looking for something specific, we can use the search bar.

• Click on the File tab.
• Click on New .
• In the templates section, type the search term into the search bar.

PowerPoint templates include pre-made slides, images, shapes, sample text, colors, fonts, and effects. Every element of the template can be customized to use your own colors and images.

If we can’t find a template that suits our needs, there are many websites that offer free and paid PowerPoint templates for download.

For free templates, check out Slides Carnival

For beautiful, high-quality paid templates, check out Envato Elements.

We always want to make sure we end our presentations on a high. Leave the audience with action points or a task to complete.

For example, we might want our audience to provide feedback or get their opinion on the topic discussed. Or maybe we need them to complete a survey. Maybe we want to get them to follow us on social media, or we want them to complete an exercise. Whatever the action points, provide all the details at the end.

Sometimes, it’s worth mentioning at the beginning of the presentation that there will be some calls to action at the end. This can prevent people from zoning out or not paying attention if they know they will be required to do something at the end.

If we want to direct the audience to a specific website, we can utilize the QR Code add-in for PowerPoint 2021 so they can scan it with their phone.

How to Make a Flowchart in PowerPoint

How to Link Excel to PowerPoint

How to Add Slide Numbers in PowerPoint

Please visit our free resources center for more high-quality PowerPoint and Microsoft Suite application guides.

Ready to dive deep into PowerPoint? Click here for basic to advanced PowerPoint courses with in-depth training modules.

Simon Sez IT has been teaching PowerPoint and other business software for over ten years. You can access 160+ IT training courses for a low monthly fee.

Deborah Ashby

Deborah Ashby is a TAP Accredited IT Trainer, specializing in the design, delivery, and facilitation of Microsoft courses both online and in the classroom.She has over 11 years of IT Training Experience and 24 years in the IT Industry. To date, she's trained over 10,000 people in the UK and overseas at companies such as HMRC, the Metropolitan Police, Parliament, SKY, Microsoft, Kew Gardens, Norton Rose Fulbright LLP.She's a qualified MOS Master for 2010, 2013, and 2016 editions of Microsoft Office and is COLF and TAP Accredited and a member of The British Learning Institute.

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10 Cool PowerPoint Tips and Tricks You (Probably) Didn’t Know About

PowerPoint is a versatile tool capable of many amazing tasks. It has lots of great features but unfortunately, most users aren’t even utilizing half of the software’s capabilities.

Today, we’re going to change that. In this guide, we share some of the best PowerPoint tips and tricks for doing cool things with the presentation maker.

You’ll learn cool tricks like inserting QR codes in PowerPoint slides, converting presentations to videos, removing the background of images, and much more.

These PowerPoint tips will not only allow you to design presentations more easily but they will also help impress your audience. Let’s dive in.

2 Million+ PowerPoint Templates, Themes, Graphics + More

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

Ciri Template

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Third-Party PowerPoint Templates

We wanted to start the list with a bit of an obvious but important tip: Use third-party PowerPoint templates!

Microsoft PowerPoint comes with a set of default templates pre-packaged with the software. These free templates are pretty good but they have been used by everyone, over and over again, to the point that anyone could immediately recognize which template you’re using by looking at the slide design.

The worst part is that it will allow your audience to tell how little effort you’ve put into designing the presentation.

What most users don’t realize is that you can download templates from third-party marketplaces and use them to create unique presentations. These templates are made by professional designers and they will immediately make your slideshows look ten times better.

You can check out our best PowerPoint template collection for some inspiration.

Use ChatGPT to Write the Slides

ChatGPT is an AI tool that revolutionized the way we work and made our everyday tasks so much easier and simpler. Now, you can use it to write the slides of your presentations. Here’s how it works:

First, go to the ChatGPT website and start a new chat. Create an account if you don’t have one already. It’s free!

Now ask ChatGPT to write the slides of your presentation. Give it as many details as you can. Specify the topic, how many slides your presentation has, ask it to include quotes and statistics, break down information into bullet points, etc.

Once it generates the copy, you can simply copy and paste the text directly into your slideshow. Make any adjustments as necessary.

You can take this a step further and use AI art generators to create unique illustrations, icons, and infographics for your presentation. Midjourney and DALL-E are some of the top tools you can use for this task. Just be mindful of their copyright policies if you plan on using the images for commercial projects.

This tip is not exclusive to PowerPoint. But if designing presentations is part of your job, it will make your life so much easier. Don’t be afraid of the AI tools, learn to take advantage of them.

Experiment With Color Schemes

Colors play a key role in every presentation. It helps set the mood and tone of your slideshow and has a huge impact on the success of your presentation.

As you know, there are psychological effects behind the colors you use. With the right colors, you can evoke emotions in your audience to make each slide in your presentation more impactful.

Experiment with different color schemes for your presentation designs. You can use a tool like Color Hunt to find beautiful color palettes for your slideshows. But always keep in mind to pick colors that are appropriate for your topic, audience, and your brand.

Contrast Is Key

Speaking of colors, you can also use them to create a strong contrast between the content and the background. For example, using a dark color for typography on a light background will highlight the text much more effectively. Or you can use colored shapes to bring attention to specific parts of a slide.

The same can be said about fonts. Using unique fonts will go a long way to help create contrast in your presentation. Check out our guide on choosing fonts for PowerPoint to learn more.

Take Advantage of Add-Ins

PowerPoint has a built-in store full of add-ons (or add-ins as it’s called in the software). And it’s one of the most underused features of PowerPoint.

This store is filled with amazing third-party tools that can supercharge your work and slideshows. There are hundreds of tools in this store you can install and use for free.

Explore the PowerPoint Add-Ins store and see what you can find. One of our favorites is the tool for adding QR codes to slides directly from the slide editor. We’ll explain it more in the next tip.

Add QR Codes In Slides

Using QR codes in PowerPoint presentations has two great benefits. One, it will make things much easier for you to share links, apps, and resources with your entire audience. Two, it will encourage the audience to engage and interact with your presentation.

Normally, you have to use online tools or apps to generate QR codes. But you can use a PowerPoint add-in to create QR codes directly from the slide editor.

Simply go to Insert > Get Add-ins and search for the Personalized QR Code Generator.

After installing the QR code tool, you can instantly generate QR codes and embed them into your slides to share links. The free version of this plugin will leave a small watermark in the QR code but it’s barely visible. Using QR codes is much cooler and more effective than sharing links as plain text.

Design Cool Image & Text Masks

Image masking is a popular effect used in graphic design for making photos and images appear more creative. With image masks, you can give unique shapes to images rather than boring and old square shapes. You can use it to make your slides look more interesting.

We found a simple YouTube tutorial that shows you how to design liquid image masks in PowerPoint.

You can also use text masks to create cool typography effects in PowerPoint. And yes, there’s a YouTube tutorial for that too. Try using these effects in your next presentation.

Instantly Remove Image Backgrounds

Have you been using Photoshop to remove the backgrounds of images? Well, now you don’t have to. Because PowerPoint has a tool that lets you get rid of image backgrounds with just a few clicks. Here’s how it works.

Select an image in your slideshow and go to the Picture Format tab then select the Remove Background option on the top-left side.

This tool will automatically make a selection of the background. If it clips into areas of the main object, use the Mark Areas tool to fix the selection. Then click the Keep All Changes button to finish.

Now you have a PNG-style JPG image without a background.

Design Posters & Flyers

PowerPoint can be used to create many cool things than just presentations. You can use it for simple graphic designs, such as posters and flyers.

You can use pre-made PowerPoint poster templates to easily make posters or flyers in vertical layout using the app. We also have a step-by-step guide on how to make posters in PowerPoint . Check them out to learn more.

This can be a huge money-saver when you have to design a quick poster for a project and don’t have access to software like Photoshop.

Export to Video & PDF

If you want to share your presentation with a wide audience, one of the best ways to do that is to convert your presentation into video format. That way, your audience will be able to watch your presentation even if they don’t have access to Microsoft PowerPoint software.

PowerPoint has a built-in function to help you with that process. Go to the File menu and select Export. From there you can choose the Create a Video option to convert your entire presentation into a video.

It’s perfect for creating video content for YouTube, online courses, and schools too. You can also export your presentation in PDF format or even turn it into a Word document.

In Conclusion

These are just a few of the cool PowerPoint tips and tricks we’ve found to be quite interesting. It’s surprising how much you can do with an app like PowerPoint. If you want to learn more cool PowerPoint tricks, be sure to check out our other guides.

Start with 7 tips for finding the perfect PowerPoint template . Also, read our 10 pro PPT tips guide. And our how to give a fun presentation guide has some useful tips too.

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What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation

• Carmine Gallo

Five tips to set yourself apart.

Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don’t underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice — a lot).

I was sitting across the table from a Silicon Valley CEO who had pioneered a technology that touches many of our lives — the flash memory that stores data on smartphones, digital cameras, and computers. He was a frequent guest on CNBC and had been delivering business presentations for at least 20 years before we met. And yet, the CEO wanted to sharpen his public speaking skills.

• Carmine Gallo is a Harvard University instructor, keynote speaker, and author of 10 books translated into 40 languages. Gallo is the author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman  (St. Martin’s Press).

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• TECHNOLOGY Q&A

5 advanced PowerPoint tips for awesome presentations

Q. I've been using Microsoft PowerPoint for years, but I feel like there's so much more I could be doing with it. Do you have any tips that could help even an experienced PowerPoint user?

A. Almost 35 years after it was first released, the application known today as Microsoft PowerPoint continues to be a go - to presentation software for accountants worldwide. Yet many of those users, even ones who regularly make presentations, haven't scratched the surface of PowerPoint's real power.

Think of PowerPoint as a guide companion. You are sharing your expertise on a certain subject, and PowerPoint is there to help you drill home the details. Keep in mind that your attendees need to pay attention to what you're saying, not to flashy images or extensive text on the screen.

For the greatest success, keep your presentations clean and consistent and follow these general best practices that even the best and brightest among us still ignore:

• Use a theme to ensure consistency.
• Limit the on - screen content.
• Avoid excessive animations.

With the proper principles in place, you can make the most of PowerPoint's many features. The following five tips may help in that process. To watch them in action, download this sample PowerPoint file with short, non - narrated videos of each tip.

1. Create a master slide

Some of us, myself included, have been guilty of building one decent slide and simply duplicating it over and over to create an entire presentation. This creates a lot of extra work when you want to go back and change the font or adjust your logo positioning on all the slides. We've got to stop doing this.

Using PowerPoint's master slide section allows you to be consistent throughout your entire presentation. Apply your logo, set your font sizes and colors, and create background styles all in one place. If you need to make a change later, one simple edit to the master slide will update your entire deck. This is much better than the old copy/paste route.

Master slide can be accessed by going to Master Views > Slide Master , which will take you to the Ribbon shown in the screenshot below.

As you get comfortable with the master slide, you can build out a fully personalized template of master slides for all layout options.

2. Use the Selection Pane to manage multiple boxes

Even if you follow my advice and keep your presentations minimal, you'll still probably have some trouble with items overlapping on your slide. This can make editing a pain. The Selection Pane tool is much easier to use than trying to click at just the right angle to get to that object box.

To access the Selection Pane, click any item on your slide, then select the Picture Format (or Shape Format ) Ribbon on the top menu. From there, you can choose Selection Pane from the Arrange group, as shown in the screenshot below.

This tool is great for testing animations and hiding elements you don't need at the moment. By clicking the small eyeball on the right side, you can temporarily hide an object from view. You can also rename objects by double - clicking the name on the right, or simply use the pane to easily select the item that you need.

3. Make super smooth transitions with the Morph tool

OK, I know I've preached simplicity and minimalism already, but some animations and transitions are acceptable and can even improve your delivery and your audience's attention span.

Morph transitions are more than just a "slide in from right" option. They allow you to dynamically move individual objects on the slide in whatever way you'd like, and even animate multiple objects simultaneously.

To get started, create a slide containing the objects you want to "morph" and duplicate it. After that, select the second (duplicate) slide, click Transitions , then Morph , as shown in the screenshot below. Select Effect Options and choose the words, characters, or objects that you would like to animate. Move the items you want to animate to where you'd like them to end up, and you're done.

Be sure to check your slideshow after doing this, to ensure the morph effect has worked as you expected. If done correctly, this can really add something special to your presentation. It takes some time to fully grasp, but once you give it a shot, you'll be hooked on the Morph.

4. Dive deeper with the Zoom option

Much like the Morph transition, the Zoom tool adds awesome dynamics to your presentation if used properly. I tend to use the Slide Zoom option and think of it as a "learn more" button. This method allows me to have a slide that acts as an overview slide with multiple subjects. As slides advance, PowerPoint will zoom into the slide thumbnail as if zooming into a deeper layer of the slide.

To use the Zoom tool (not to be confused with the videoconferencing application), select a slide you would like to use to add slide thumbnails. Under the Insert ribbon, select Zoom and then choose Slide Zoom , as shown in the screenshot below.

On the ensuing prompt, select the slides you would like to embed a thumbnail of into the main slide and then arrange as desired.

If you are familiar with using Sections in PowerPoint, the Section Zoom option is a simple way to approach using this feature. This can really help a slideshow feel like a fluid learning experience.

5. Fine-tune your presentation with Presenter Coach

No one around to provide feedback on your presentation? The Presenter Coach is available in the online version of PowerPoint, provided you are using a compatible browser (i.e., Microsoft Edge version 15 or later, Chrome version 52 or later, or Firefox version 52 or later). Once you have access to the Presenter Coach, it can help you with everything from your delivery to your timing.

Each time you rehearse, you'll get a report with your summary information about your presentation and suggestions to help you improve for the next time. These can include things like "try to avoid using filler words," or "try adding more context to your slide rather than reading the screen."

To access the Presenter Coach, go to the Slide Show ribbon and select Rehearse with Coach , as shown in the screenshot below.

My advice is to practice your presentation once alone and then rehearse it again with the Presenter Coach turned on. After you read the Presenter Coach report and make adjustments to your presentation as needed, go through it one more time. Odds are you'll notice a great improvement over when you started.

As an additional tip, if you are like me and like to stand up and pace the room, use Presenter Coach on the Office mobile app, as shown in the screenshot below. This will give you the freedom to walk around and ensure the coach hears you loud and clear.

I hope these tips help you to get more out of PowerPoint. Remember to keep your slide decks precise and clean.

Byron Patrick, CPA/CITP, CGMA , is general manager at Botkeeper.

Submit a question Do you have technology questions for this column? Or, after reading an answer, do you have a better solution? Send them to [email protected] . We regret being unable to individually answer all submitted questions.

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