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Presentation Skills 101: A Guide to Presentation Success

Getting the perfect presentation design is just a step toward a successful presentation. For the experienced user, building presentation skills is the answer to elevating the power of your message and showing expertise on any subject. Still, one can ask: is it the same set of skills, or are they dependable on the type of presentation?

In this article, we will introduce the different types of presentations accompanied by the skillset required to master them. The purpose, as always, is to retain the audience’s interest for a long-lasting and convincing message.

Table of Contents

The Importance of Presentation Skills

Persuasive presentations, instructional presentations, informative presentations, inspirational presentations, basic presentation skills, what are the main difficulties when giving a presentation, recommendations to improve your presentation skills, closing statement.

Effective communication is the answer to reaching business and academic goals. The scenarios in which we can be required to deliver a presentation are as diverse as one can imagine. Still, some core concepts apply to all presentations.

 We define presentation skills as a compendium of soft skills that directly affect your presentation performance and contribute to creating a great presentation. These are not qualities acquired by birth but skills you ought to train and master to delve into professional environments.

You may ask: is it really that evident when a presenter is not prepared? Here are some common signs people can experience during presentations:

• Evasive body language: Not making eye contact with the audience, arms closed tightly to the body, hands in pockets all the time.
• Lack of interest in the presenter’s voice: dull tone, not putting an effort to articulate the topics.
• Doubting when asked to answer a question
• Irksome mood

The list can go on about common presenter mistakes , and most certainly, it will affect the performance of any presented data if the lack of interest by the presenter is blatantly obvious.  Another element to consider is anxiety, and according to research by the National Institute of Mental Health, 73% of the population in the USA is affected by glossophobia , which is the fear of public speaking, judgment, or negative evaluation by other people.

Therefore, presentation skills training is essential for any business professional who wants to achieve effective communication . It will remove the anxiety from presentation performance and help users effectively deliver their message and connect with the audience.

Archetypes of presentations

Persuasive presentations aim to convince the audience – often in short periods – to acquire a product or service, adhere to a cause, or invest in a company. For business entrepreneurs or politicians, persuasive presentations are their tool for the trade.

Unless you aim to be perceived as an imposter, a proper persuasive presentation has the elements of facts, empathy, and logic, balanced under a well-crafted narrative. The central pillar of these presentations is to identify the single factor that gathered your audience: it could be a market need, a social cause, or a revolutionary concept for today’s society. It has to be something with enough power to gather critiques – both good and bad.

That single factor has to be backed up by facts. Research that builds your hypothesis on how to solve that problem. A deep understanding of the target audience’s needs , concerns, and social position regarding the solution your means can offer. When those elements are in place, building a pitch becomes an easy task. 

Graphics can help you introduce information in a compelling format, lowering the need for lengthy presentations. Good presentation skills for persuasive presentations go by the hand of filtering relevant data and creating the visual cues that resonate with what your audience demands.

One powerful example of a persuasive presentation is the technique known as the elevator pitch . You must introduce your idea or product convincingly to the audience in a timeframe between 30 seconds and less than 2 minutes. You have to expose:

• What do you do 
• What’s the problem to solve
• Why is your solution different from others 
• Why should the audience care about your expertise

For that very purpose, using engaging graphics with contrasting colors elevates the potential power of your message. It speaks professionalism, care for details, and out-of-the-box thinking. Knowing how to end a presentation is also critical, as your CTAs should be placed with care.

Therefore, let’s resume the requirements of persuasive presentations in terms of good presentation skills:

• Identifying problems and needs
• Elaborating “the hook” (the element that grabs the audience’s attention)
• Knowing how to “tie” your audience (introducing a piece of information related to the hook that causes an emotional impact)
• Broad knowledge of body language and hand gestures to quickly convey your message
• Being prepared to argue a defense of your point of view
• Handling rejection
• Having a proactive attitude to convert opportunities into new projects
• Using humor, surprise, or personal anecdotes as elements to sympathize with the audience
• Having confidence
• Be able to summarize facts and information in visually appealing ways

You can learn more about persuasive presentation techniques by clicking here .

In the case of instructional presentations, we ought to differentiate two distinctive types:

• Lecture Presentations : Presentations being held at universities or any other educative institution. Those presentations cover, topic by topic, and the contents of a syllabus and are created by the team of teachers in charge of the course.
• Training Presentations : These presentations take place during in-company training sessions and usually comprise a good amount of content that is resumed into easy-to-take solutions. They are aimed to coach employees over certain topics relevant to their work performance. The 70-20-10 Model is frequently used to address these training situations.

Lecture presentations appeal to the gradual introduction of complex concepts, following a structure set in the course’s syllabus. These presentations often have a similar aesthetic as a group of professors or researchers created to share their knowledge about a topic. Personal experience does tell that course presentations often rely on factual data, adequately documented, and on the theoretical side.

An example of a presentation that lies under this concept is a Syllabus Presentation, used by the teaching team to introduce the subject to new students, evaluation methods, concepts to be learned, and expectations to pass the course.

On the other hand, training presentations are slide decks designed to meet an organization’s specific needs in the formal education of their personnel. Commonly known as “continuous education,” plenty of companies invest resources in coaching their employees to achieve higher performance results. These presentations have the trademark of being concise since their idea is to introduce the concepts that shall be applied in practice sessions. 

Ideally, the training presentations are introduced with little text and easy-to-recognize visual cues. Since the idea is to summarize as much as possible, these are visually appealing for the audience. They must be dynamic enough to allow the presenter to convey the message.

Those key takeaways remind employees when they revisit their learning resources and allow them to ruminate on questions that fellow workers raise. 

To sum up this point, building presentation skills for instructional presentations requires:

• Ability to put complex concepts into simpler words
• Patience and a constant learning mindset
• Voice training to deliver lengthy speeches without being too dense
• Ability to summarize points and note the key takeaways
• Empathizing with the audience to understand their challenges in the learning process

The informative presentations take place in business situations, such as when to present project reports from different departments to the management. Another potential usage of these presentations is in SCRUM or other Agile methodologies, when a sprint is completed, to discuss the advance of the project with the Product Owner.

As they are presentations heavily dependent on data insights, it’s common to see the usage of infographics and charts to express usually dense data in simpler terms and easy to remember. 

Informative presentations don’t just fall into the business category. Ph.D. Dissertation and Thesis presentations are topics that belong to the informative presentations category as they condense countless research hours into manageable reports for the academic jury. 

Since these informational presentations can be perceived as lengthy and data-filled, it is important to learn the following professional presentation skills:

• Attention to detail
• Be able to explain complex information in simpler terms
• Creative thinking
• Powerful diction
• Working on pauses and transitions
• Pacing the presentation, so not too much information is divulged per slide

The leading inspirational platform, TEDx, comes to mind when talking about inspirational presentations. This presentation format has the peculiarity of maximizing the engagement with the audience to divulge a message, and due to that, it has specific requirements any presenter must meet.

This presentation format usually involves a speaker on a stage, either sitting or better standing, in which the presenter engages with the audience with a storytelling format about a life experience, a job done that provided a remarkable improvement for society, etc.

Empathizing with the audience is the key ingredient for these inspirational presentations. Still, creativity is what shapes the outcome of your performance as people are constantly looking for different experiences – not the same recipe rephrased with personal touches. The human factor is what matters here, way above data and research. What has your experience to offer to others? How can it motivate another human being to pursue a similar path or discover their true calling?

To achieve success in terms of communication skills presentation, these inspirational presentations have the following requirements:

• Focus on the audience (engage, consider their interests, and make them a part of your story)
• Putting ego aside
• Creative communication skills
• Storytelling skills
• Body language knowledge to apply the correct gestures to accompany your story
• Voice training
• Using powerful words

After discussing the different kinds of presentations we can come across at any stage of our lives, a group of presentation skills is standard in any type of presentation. See below what makes a good presentation and which skills you must count on to succeed as a presenter.

Punctuality

Punctuality is a crucial aspect of giving an effective presentation. Nothing says more about respect for your audience and the organization you represent than delivering the presentation on time . Arriving last minute puts pressure on the tech team behind audiovisuals, as they don’t have enough preparation to test microphones, stage lights, and projector settings, which can lead to a less powerful presentation Even when discussing presentations hosted in small rooms for a reduced audience, testing the equipment becomes essential for an effective presentation.

A solution for this is to arrive at least 30 minutes early. Ideally, one hour is a sweet spot since the AV crew has time to check the gear and requirements for your presentation. Another benefit of this, for example, in inspirational presentations, is measuring the previous presenter’s impact on the audience. This gives insights about how to resonate with the public, and their interest, and how to accommodate your presentation for maximum impact.

Body Language

Our bodies can make emotions transparent for others, even when we are unaware of such a fact. Proper training for body language skills reduces performance anxiety, giving the audience a sense of expertise about the presented topic. 

Give your presentation and the audience the respect they deserve by watching over these potential mistakes:

• Turning your back to the audience for extended periods : It’s okay to do so when introducing an important piece of information or explaining a graph, but it is considered rude to give your back to the audience constantly.
• Fidgeting : We are all nervous in the presence of strangers, even more, if we are the center of attention for that moment. Instead of playing with your hair or making weird hand gestures, take a deep breath to center yourself before the presentation and remember that everything you could do to prepare is already done. Trust your instincts and give your best.
• Intense eye contact : Have you watched a video where the presenter stared at the camera the entire time? That’s the feeling you transmit to spectators through intense eye contact. It’s a practice often used by politicians to persuade.
• Swearing : This is a no-brainer. Even when you see influencers swearing on camera or in podcasts or live presentations, it is considered an informal and lousy practice for business and academic situations. If you have a habit to break when it comes to this point, find the humor in these situations and replace your swear words with funny alternatives (if the presentation allows for it). 

Voice Tone plays a crucial role in delivering effective presentations and knowing how to give a good presentation. Your voice is a powerful tool for exposing your ideas and feelings . Your voice can articulate the message you are telling, briefing the audience if you feel excited about what you are sharing or, in contrast, if you feel the presentation is a burden you ought to complete.

Remember, passion is a primary ingredient in convincing people. Therefore, transmitting such passion with a vibrant voice may help gather potential business partners’ interest.  

But what if you feel sick prior to the presentation? If, by chance, your throat is sore minutes before setting foot on the stage, try this: when introducing yourself, mention that you are feeling a bit under the weather. This resonates with the audience to pay more attention to your efforts. In case you don’t feel comfortable about that, ask the organizers for a cup of tea, as it will settle your throat and relax your nerves.

Tech Skills

Believe it or not, people still feel challenged by technology these days. Maybe that’s the reason why presentation giants like Tony Robbins opt not to use PowerPoint presentations . The reality is that there are plenty of elements involved in a presentation that can go wrong from the tech side:

• A PDF not opening
• Saving your presentation in a too-recent PowerPoint version
• A computer not booting up
• Mac laptops and their never-ending compatibility nightmare
• Not knowing how to change between slides
• Not knowing how to use a laser pointer
• Internet not working
• Audio not working

We can come up with a pretty long list of potential tech pitfalls, and yet more than half of them fall in presenters not being knowledgeable about technology.

If computers aren’t your thing, let the organization know about this beforehand. There is always a crew member available to help presenters switch between slides or configure the presentation for streaming. This takes the pressure off your shoulders, allowing you to concentrate on the content to present. Remember, even Bill Gates can get a BSOD during a presentation .

Presentations, while valuable for conveying information and ideas, can be daunting for many individuals. Here are some common difficulties people encounter when giving presentations:

Public Speaking Anxiety

Glossophobia, the fear of public speaking, affects a significant portion of the population. This anxiety can lead to nervousness, trembling, and forgetfulness during a presentation.

Lack of Confidence

Many presenters struggle with self-doubt, fearing that they may not be knowledgeable or skilled enough to engage their audience effectively.

Content Organization

Organizing information in a coherent and engaging manner can be challenging. Presenters often grapple with how to structure their content to make it easily digestible for the audience. Artificial Intelligence can help us significantly reduce the content arrangement time when you work with tools like our AI Presentation Maker (made for presenters by experts in presentation design). 

Audience Engagement

Keeping the audience’s attention and interest throughout the presentation can be difficult. Distractions, disengaged attendees, or lack of interaction can pose challenges.

Technical Issues

Technology glitches, such as malfunctioning equipment, incompatible file formats, or poor internet connectivity, can disrupt presentations and increase stress.

Time Management

Striking the right balance between providing enough information and staying within time limits is a common challenge. Going over or under the allotted time can affect the effectiveness of the presentation.

Handling Questions and Challenges

Responding to unexpected questions, criticism, or challenges from the audience can be difficult, especially when presenters are unprepared or lack confidence in their subject matter.

Visual Aids and Technology

Creating and effectively using visual aids like slides or multimedia can be a struggle for some presenters. Technical competence is essential in this aspect.

Language and Articulation

Poor language skills or unclear articulation can hinder effective communication. Presenters may worry about stumbling over words or failing to convey their message clearly.

Maintaining appropriate and confident body language can be challenging. Avoiding nervous habits, maintaining eye contact, and using gestures effectively requires practice.

Overcoming Impersonal Delivery

In virtual presentations, maintaining a personal connection with the audience can be difficult. The absence of face-to-face interaction can make it challenging to engage and read the audience.

Cultural and Diversity Awareness

Presenting to diverse audiences requires sensitivity to cultural differences and varying levels of familiarity with the topic.

In this section, we gathered some tips on how to improve presentation skills that can certainly make an impact if applied to your presentation skills. We believe these skills can be cultivated to transform into habits for your work routine.

Tip #1: Build a narrative

One memorable way to guarantee presentation success is by writing a story of all the points you desire to cover. This statement is based on the logic behind storytelling and its power to connect with people .

Don’t waste time memorizing slides or reading your presentation to the audience. It feels unnatural, and any question that diverts from the topic in discussion certainly puts you in jeopardy or, worse, exposes you as a fraud in the eyes of the audience. And before you ask, it is really evident when a presenter has a memorized speech. 

Build and rehearse the presentation as if telling a story to a group of interested people. Lower the language barrier by avoiding complex terms that maybe even you aren’t fully aware of their meaning. Consider the ramifications of that story, what it could lead to, and which are the opportunities to explore. Then, visualize yourself giving the presentation in a natural way.

Applying this technique makes the presentation feel like second nature to you. It broadens the spectrum in which you can show expertise over a topic or even build the basis for new interesting points of view about the project.

Tip #2: Don’t talk for more than 3 minutes per slide

It is a common practice of presenters to bombard the audience with facts and information whilst retaining the same slide on the screen. Why can this happen? It could be because the presenter condensed the talk into very few slides and preferred to talk. The reality is that your spectators won’t retain the information you are giving unless you give visual cues to help that process. 

Opt to prepare more slides and pace your speech to match the topics shown on each slide. Don’t spend more than 3 minutes per slide unless you have to introduce a complex piece of data. Use visual cues to direct the spectators about what you talk about, and summarize the principal concepts discussed at the end of each section.

Tip #3: Practice meditation daily

Anxiety is the number one enemy of professional presenters. It slowly builds without you being aware of your doubts and can hinder your performance in multiple ways: making you feel paralyzed, fidgeting, making you forget language skills or concepts, affecting your health, etc.

Meditation is an ancient practice taken from Buddhist teachings that train your mind to be here in the present. We often see the concepts of meditation and mindfulness as synonyms, whereas you should be aware that meditation is a practice that sets the blocks to reach a state of mindfulness. For presenters, being in the here and now is essential to retain focus, but meditation techniques also teach us to control our breathing and be in touch with our body signals when stress builds up. 

The customary practice of meditation has an impact on imagination and creativity but also helps to build patience – a skill much needed for connecting with your audience in instructional presentations.

Having the proper set of presentation skills can be quite subjective. It goes beyond presentation tips and deepens into how flexible we can be in our ability to communicate ideas.

Different presentations and different audiences shape the outcome of our efforts. Therefore, having a basic understanding of how to connect, raise awareness, and empathize with people can be key ingredients for your career as a presenter. A word of advice: success doesn’t happen overnight. It takes dedication and patience to build communication skills . Don’t condition your work to believe you will be ready “someday”; it’s best to practice and experience failure as part of the learning process.

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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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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.

Quick Links

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.

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

What is the 555 rule in powerpoint, how can i improve my ppt, how can i improve my powerpoint presentation skills over time, what is the golden rule of ppt, how to start a presentation.

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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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• 50 tips on how to improve PowerPoint presentations in 2022-2023 [Updated]

While PowerPoint helps create a compelling presentation, a business meeting or a lecture can easily turn boring if the information is less engaging or distracting. This post acts as a guideline on how best to improve PowerPoint presentation and make your message remembered by any audience, whether business owners, students or even homemakers. Plus, you will also learn the easiest ways to make a better PowerPoints presentation without it taking forever and convey the content in the best possible way by presenting it with maximum impact. So let’s get down to it!

Create a memorable opening slide

Your presentation’s opening slide resembles a book cover. You choose whether to open and read the book based on what you see. The same often holds true for PowerPoint slides. To make better PowerPoint slides that immediately catch the audience’s attention, you should always make sure the opening slide contains an intriguing headline and a noticeable image.

These tips will help you create a perfect opening slide:

• Come up with a catchy headline.
• Keep your ppt slides tidy.
• Impress with sophisticated colors and images.

Remember, for your PowerPoint slides makeover to get the desired results, your slides have to be designed following the best practices.

Keep your presentation simple

Do you often find yourself typing, “how to improve my presentation,” but can’t seem to get a definitive answer? The answer could be a PowerPoint slide makeover. Too much text on a PowerPoint makes the presentation forgettable, hard to pay attention to, confusing, and overwhelming.

To improve PowerPoint presentation:

• Ensure that your slides don’t have too many words.
• Go for a PowerPoint redesign where a striking image is teamed with a simple but clear message.
• Use the 1-6-6 ppt presentation redesign rule to include not more than six bullet points and six words per slide.

Pros usually improve PowerPoint presentation by limiting the words on the slides to allow the audience to listen to you and not focus more on reading. So instead of using complete sentences in your ppt redesign, use short forms that improve your memory. That way, a presenter can focus on each specific point and make it easier for the audience to comprehend which point in the ppt slides is being covered.

Present one idea per slide

If you want to craft a powerful PowerPoint like a pro, the first tip is to have only one idea per slide. But why is it necessary to have one main point per slide?

The first reason is to improve PowerPoint presentation. Your slides should not read like a textbook or novel. Otherwise, you might redo the whole thing or get a PowerPoint slide makeover. So let’s uncover more reasons why you should have only one idea per slide.

• The audience will focus on a single idea that prevents them from getting confused or overwhelmed by the slides.
• It allows the presenter to give more details orally, which motivates students to attend class.
• It prevents giving out too much information that dilutes the central message in the slides.

If you are worried about the low word count in your slides, go for a PowerPoint redesign and add impactful imagery or visual aids. Ensure each point is consistently structured and there is a clear transition in all slides.

Relevance and quality of content are key

There is plenty to consider when making a PowerPoint slide makeover. However, the relevance and quality of the content are among the top factors. The text has to be supported by relevant and quality images to ensure the presentation exudes professionalism.

In addition, PP slides created specifically for students must be aimed at improving learning. Some quick tips to ensure your slides are relevant and of decent quality are:

• Before presenting the content, ensure it engages the audience.
• Maintain quality by ensuring a slide is not full of text.
• Use structure to keep the content organized.
• If it does not fit in a single line, chances are high it is not relevant.

Ensure your slides don’t have too much information, as it reduces relevance. Since the human brain process images faster than text, convert any long paragraphs into appropriate visual formats.

Eliminate unnecessary text

The first step to improve PowerPoint is removing unnecessary text that might reduce the white space and make the slide look uncluttered. If the text is too much, your audience will focus more on reading the slides than what you want to say.

Don’t know how to make your slides simple? Use these tips:

• Remove any content that is not intended for your audience.
• Any phrases that are not clear should be eliminated.
• Be brief and clear.
• Only add two to three sentences on each slide.
• Replace words with visual elements.

No need to cram everything into a single slide redesign. Instead, include main phrases that help you remember what you want to talk about and ensure the listeners absorb the information you are conveying.

Always use one story per slide

The correct way to improve PowerPoint presentation is to use one story per slide. That way, your ppt slides won’t overwhelm your audience with too much information. Moreover, if you improve a ppt redesign, it will also prevent the presenter from diverting away from the main topic. Besides, people don’t attend lectures to read the ppt slides. But rather to hear you speak because you are an expert in that subject matter.

When you include only one story in a ppt redesign, it gives the audience a chance to:

• Concentrate on what you are saying.
• Quickly digest the information.
• Use the texts on the ppt slides to support your verbal presentation.

The story is what helps you focus on the central message and drive the point home. But even if you put a single story in each slide, ensure there is a great transition to avoid confusing the listeners. Also, make sure the story is consistently structured and doesn’t generalize the subject under discussion.

Use white space to make texts more readable

Using white space to your advantage is another way to improve PowerPoint presentation. How? With a good redesign, you will improve the readability of the text and add a professional effect to your slides. Without white space in a redesign, the information on your slides becomes disorganized, hard to read, and showcases clutter.

We all know that cluttered PowerPoint presentation slides are unattractive. But how do you know you need white space in your PowerPoint presentation slides? If you try to add white space but run out of space, your slides could probably benefit from less content and a redesign.

To improve PowerPoint presentation and make your redesign effective, consider active and passive white space and micro and macro white space. Overall, the type of white space to use to improve your redesign is determined by:

• User research
• The message being conveyed
• User interface design

White space is also crucial in directing the audience to focal points and helps improve specific text parts. So play around with the number of white spaces to improve your ppt redesign and shine the spotlight on specific points. If you are still wondering, “how do I redesign my presentation?” try improving the white or negative space.

Rework text-heavy PPT screens

Most people, especially in formal presentations, focus on making text-heavy slides. This often bores the audience and results in a disastrous presentation. Such a case leads a presenter to wonder, “how do I improve my presentation.” Ensure your slides are not loaded with text, as it reduces the chances of the audience paying attention to what you have to say.

Instead, the audience will be busy reading the heavy text screens, which reduces learning or understanding of the information. If you have heavy text slides and urgently need to enhance PowerPoint presentation, here are three tips to help you change them into impressive slides:

• Change data into graphs, charts, diagrams, or appropriate visual elements.
• Use infographics to showcase step-by-step procedures.
• Use different shapes to show the relationship between subjects or items.
• Convert long texts into bullets.

Finally, remove all text irrelevant to the central message and include only short phrases.

Visualize data

Do you have a lot of data in text format and want to change it to improve your slides? Visualize that data to enhance PowerPoint presentation. For complex data that can be compared, consider changing it into a graph format. This helps to reduce heavy text usage and makes the information easier to comprehend.

Wondering, “how do I improve my presentation through data visualization?” Use these tips:

• Go for visual elements that tell a story.
• Tweak the elements to make them easier to comprehend.
• Always opt for visual consistency.
• The headers for graphs and charts should be simple.
• Use one color to represent one type of data.

Data visualization is a great option for those who want to improve PowerPoint presentation. It makes it easier to convey a lot of information and still uses limited space. It also allows the audience to comprehend complex data.

Use original PowerPoint presentation templates

Looking at the same old PowerPoint template slides can make a fascinating topic boring. That’s why if you wish to make better PowerPoint slides, you must use original templates from trustworthy sites. For example, Microsoft PowerPoint has original template slides that you can use to create a great visual experience for the audience.

But why do you need original ppt template slides?

• To access a wide range of ppt redesign choices.
• To make it easy to create professional and visually appealing ppt presentations.

And the best part is that you don’t have to be an IT pro to use the ppt template slides.

Overall, original ppt template slides improve the redesign and give you confidence in the work you are presenting. They also eliminate the time-wasting factor of looking for and arranging the ppt redesign slides from scratch. When you redesign a PowerPoint template, the slides are already prepared and laid out for you. Adding fancy fonts, graphics, and relevant photos helps to improve your PowerPoint slides makeover even more.

These template examples can provide some inspiration:

Remember, even after you improve the slides and have a ppt template at your disposal, you can still create custom slides. So take advantage of all the great features such as themes, shapes, and editing tools to improve a ppt redesign and give it a professional look.

Don’t let PowerPoint decide how you use it

If you allow the default settings of PowerPoint to dictate how you will create and present your slides, you are more likely to come up with a less creative piece. Instead, opt to improve your PowerPoint presentation with a ppt redesign.

Consider PowerPoint as a blank canvas but keep the design simple. That way, you won’t get overwhelmed by what to do or, worse, end up with a confusing ppt slide. Listed below are important tips to use when creating PowerPoint slides.

• Make better PowerPoints when dealing with macro details or concepts.
• Balance the text and image appropriately to avoid losing the audience’s attention.
• Make the message in the ppt slide clear and clutter-free.

After PowerPoint slides makeover, ensure that the content or concept is easy to absorb. Remember, there is no one-size-fits-all approach, and PowerPoint slides are effective for a large audience of around 20 people.

Create a new PPT presentation for a template or blank page

When you start a project in PowerPoint, you have to create a new presentation. This can either be from a ppt template or blank slides. You can also opt to open a previously made or an existing presentation and edit it to improve PowerPoint. The great part about making professional ppt slides is that you can work with the same presentation without making several changes.

Using a predesigned ppt presentation or template is also advantageous and time-saving. This is because ppt templates have custom formatting options that allow you to save designs. This, in turn, reduces the need to start a new ppt project from scratch. With a ppt template acting as the foundation, each presentation will inherit:

While ppt templates come with the material you can recycle for future presentations, they are often harder to modify. In such a case, it’s better to consider a PowerPoint redesign and start with a blank presentation.

Use slide master to edit your PPT slide template design

Knowing how to redesign a slide template is a great skill for anyone who wants to improve PowerPoint presentation. Editing a template allows the user to make the necessary changes that translate to an effective ppt presentation.

When you redesign your favorite ppt template or one that you really love, it creates custom designs that are clean and professional-looking. So how do you edit a PowerPoint template?

• First, pick a suitable ppt template.
• Add the number of ppt slides that fit the content elements you want to include.
• Adjust the ppt fonts and color.
• Remove the ppt slides you don’t need to make the redesign process easier.

The trick with good ppt slides redesign is to use the slide master placed under view and ensure the slides grouping fits what you want. Note that while the slide master is open, any changes you make to one ppt slide affect the entire pack.

Use duplicate slides to save time

Are you asking yourself, “how do I redesign my presentation without spending a lot of time doing it?” Use duplicate ppt slides! Using slides from a previous presentation eliminates the need to redesign the entire PowerPoint lecture.

The duplicate slide and copy-paste are some methods used to create duplicate ppt slides. The easiest method to duplicate ppt slides is to use the copy and paste method. For this ppt procedure to work, follow these steps:

• Start by right-clicking the ppt slide you want to duplicate.
• Select “copy” from the menu.
• Move it to a specific section on the ppt slide.

The duplicate technique involves opening the ppt slides show and selecting the sliding thumb from the slide you wish to duplicate. Then, when you right-click on any of the ppt slides, a menu will appear, allowing you to click on the duplicate slide option.

Select the right font

Font can make or break your PowerPoint presentation. When chosen right, it will improve PowerPoint presentation. Unfortunately, most presenters make the mistake of choosing a fancy font to add visual appeal to the content. That is a big mistake. When it comes to professional presentation, stick to a standard-looking font that doesn’t detract from the main message.

Some of the standard fonts that give slides a professional and clean look while making the text readable include:

• Times New Roman

You don’t even need to download these fonts as they are accessible in all PowerPoint slides. So if you are still wondering, “which is the easiest way to redesign my presentation,” the answer is to use the appropriate font. Comic Sans and Mistral should be avoided, and using fonts like Forte sparingly is better. Serif and Helvetica are great for headers.

Make sure you use the proper font size

Your content font size greatly impacts how the audience perceives the information you are presenting. For example, it can affect navigation speed, the amount of content included in a single slide, and a reader’s experience. That’s why presenters who ask, “how do I improve my presentation?” are often advised to check the font size.

But which font size is appropriate for a PowerPoint presentation?

• Larger than 18 points improve readability.
• For titles, the font size is between 36 and 44.
• For text, maintain a range of between 24 and 36.
• Use a font size of 18-20 when adding explanatory text to a diagram or graph.

Overall, use a big enough fit to ensure anyone sitting at the back of the room can clearly see the slides’ contents.

Settle on specific style and color to use in a redesign

Thanks to its numerous features, PowerPoint has become the go-to option for making professional and impactful presentation redesign. That’s why when considering a PowerPoint slide makeover, style and color are some of the first things you should look into. For your redesign to improve, you can choose a specific style, color, and design with themes. To create consistency and improve the redesign, use the same style or design in all the slides.

Use the following tips to improve the style and color of your redesign:

• Experiment with different ppt theme styles before settling on a specific one.
• Mix and match color, effects, and font until you get a unique ppt look that fits your presentation.
• Customize the themes to fit the style and color you want.

Using themes makes it easier to get clues on the general style, design, and color you wish to have. But for a ppt redesign, go further and customize the themes by modifying the color, font, background styles, and effects.

Avoid PPT templates with too many colors

One of the things you should do when you want to improve PowerPoint presentation is to use different colors to your advantage to inspire your audience. Unfortunately, ppt templates with too many colors distract and fail to drive the message home.

But the right color combination evokes the right emotions that lead to enjoyment of the PowerPoint presentation. For example:

• Blue shows trust, peace, and confidence.
• Yellow portrays optimism and happiness.
• Red shows passion and grabs attention.
• Green is associated with nature and the environment.

When selecting a ppt template with the right colors, consider the following:

• Your brand or that of the company you are representing.
• Niche or industry.

So if you need to improve PowerPoint presentation redesign quickly, use colors that are easy on the eyes and look harmoniously together. Use ppt templates with complementary color schemes when you want to draw attention to a specific point or data.

Stick to using basic coloring

Color themes are a powerful thing that can easily improve PowerPoint presentation. You can use colors to emphasize specific information or draw attention to a specific element in a slide. Yes, if you are a pro, you can use more than two colors in a slide, especially when giving an informative PowerPoint presentation. However, if you are giving a formal presentation to adults, stick to basic coloring.

Young kids will enjoy bold and vibrant colors in a presentation. However, when dealing with adults, consider using neutral hues. Besides considering your target audience, what else should you do when it comes to colors?

• Use color to create contrast.
• Use colors to make information pop and direct the train of thought.
• Take advantage of complementary and monochromatic color schemes.
• Brighter or vibrant colors balance dark backgrounds.

Don’t use more colors than needed in one slide, as it affects balance and creates confusion. On the other hand, the right colors improve PowerPoint presentation and deliver excellent results.

Contrast in a presentation is essential

One of the most effective ways to improve PowerPoint presentation is through contrast. It draws the eye towards something specific. Colors help to show contrast in slides and draw the viewer to something specific.

But when choosing to use different colors as a way to create contrast, remember that some of your viewers might have color blindness issues. While there are different types of contrast, including shape, shade, color, and size, here are the top tips for creating contrast:

• Black and white provide the strongest contrasts.
• The colors in the background and foreground should be different.
• The colors in the slides should be 30% lighter than what you see on your laptop.

The display for your slide, whether a laptop or projector, and even the room you will be giving the presentation might alter the color and brightness. So check the colors in dark and light to see the contrast difference.

In PPT, images are more powerful than words

Our brains process images faster than text. That’s why visuals or images will be a good option for when you need to improve PowerPoint presentation. Besides, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by text in a ppt redesign.

On the other hand, images add visual appeal to the ppt slides, improve concertation and engagement. Having fewer texts and more images in slides also applies to academics and scientific ppt presentations.

But how many images are too many in ppt? Pros tend to combine beautiful images with text. However, it’s better to have more relevant images than text to redesign the ppt and make the content engaging. We are not just talking about pictures but also infographics, animations, and GIFs added to ppt.

Incorporating images in ppt slides has the following advantages:

• Saves time by preparing the ppt slides.
• Reduces boredom or dullness associated with class PowerPoint presentations.
• Helps to make complex concepts presented in a ppt redesign easy to comprehend.

Overall, the best PowerPoint slides makeover is rich in memorable imagery.

Use high-resolution clip art for your PPT redesign

Adding clip art is one of the things that can spice up a PowerPoint presentation. Instead of having ppt slide after slide, clip art breaks the monotony of the text and adds a striking visual effect to the PowerPoint redesign presentation. It also allows the presenter to showcase additional information not included in the PowerPoint slides. The advantages of adding clip art to a ppt redesign include:

• Helps get rid of using too many words.
• Keeps the audience’s attention.
• Improves the information in the ppt redesign and makes it memorable and engaging.

While, in some cases, outdated clip art makes your redesign presentation look unprofessional, it’s a great PowerPoint slide makeover if only it’s of high quality and can be scaled without distortion. So support your ppt redesign text with clip art as it assists the audience in visualizing the words.

Add meaningful visuals and interactions

Want a PowerPoint slides makeover to ensure your presentation makes a lasting impression? Add meaningful visuals and interactions. Most times, what differentiates a great PowerPoint presentation from a bad one is the content and visuals.

High-quality, relevant images make a presentation more visual. The trick is not to get carried away with the number of visuals included in a single slide. Instead of subjecting your audience to one boring slide after another, make a PowerPoint redesign and create an interactive presentation. How?

Tailor the presentation redesign to suit a wide range of audiences without having to edit the slides beforehand. When it comes to visuals and interactions in a redesign, stick to these three principles:

• Less is more.
• Consistently use high-resolution and quality images.
• Treat each slide as a special visual object.

Not all visuals will fit your message or the redesign you want. So choose correctly and avoid those with too many focal items, color, and contrast.

Align elements properly

Icons, shapes, and images are the most common elements in a PowerPoint presentation. Keeping these crucial elements properly aligned showcases professionalism in ppt and helps to grab the audience’s attention. It also keeps the ppt slides organized and makes it easier to convey the main message effectively.

Here are some tips to help you align elements like a PowerPoint redesign expert:

• Always select the object you want to align.
• Use ppt redesign guides are a reference to align objects correctly.
• For ppt redesign, have the option to align two or more objects.
• In a ppt redesign, you can align left, right, center, top, or bottom.

When you choose a specific position, for instance, to align the center if it’s two or more objects, they will be aligned vertically but centered on the ppt slides. For users who want a ppt redesign, aligning the text is another way to go. This involves tweaking the text placed inside the ppt text box.

Include a good background picture to improve your slides

Are your slides lacking a unique look? The simplest step to improve a ppt redesign is to include a background picture that will improve your PowerPoint presentation and clarify the message. A good background photo will personalize your PowerPoint presentation redesign and take it to the next level.

Here are five tips to help improve and select a great background image for a redesign:

• Go for a photo with a high resolution.
• Avoid choosing small photos as they will be distorted if the slide size is bigger.
• Ensure the picture makes it easier to see the text in the slides.

If the background image obscures the text, improve PowerPoint presentation redesign by adjusting the transparency or fine-tuning the text percentage. If you want to use that same background image in all the slides, don’t forget to select the “apply all” option when redesigning.

Incorporate interactive mockups

Don’t be fooled into believing that screenshots and diagrams can improve PowerPoint presentation. They add too much information to a slide and, in turn, make the presentation boring and visually unappealing. A quick way to improve a PowerPoint redesign is to use interactive mockups.

Even if you don’t have exceptional design skills, a mockup is a great way of ensuring your presentation makes a lasting impression. 3D mockups are also unique and a great tool for conveying your message. In case you feel stuck and require a unique way to make better PowerPoints, consider these tips:

• Use screenshots to create unique mockups.
• Copy the screenshots on a blank ppt slide.
• Edit and crop the image to hide unnecessary elements.
• Ensure the changes made on your mockups are duplicated in all the slides.

It’s optional to use PowerPoint hyperlinks to create interactive mockups. However, always test the mockup on different platforms such as laptops and mobile phones to ensure the font size is not affected regardless of the medium used.

Add relevant images to the redesign

Creating a redesign with engaging presentation slides that summarize the key points and capture attention is not easy. That’s why most professional presenters add pictures to improve PowerPoint presentation slides. But in a formal setting or when presenting complex or scientific information, most people don’t add photos to improve the redesign. However, that’s a mistake because it reduces the overall success of your redesign and PowerPoint presentation.

Before you add a specific visual aid to the redesign, consider its purpose. For example, apart from assisting in ppt redesign, use visual aids to:

• Summarize information.
• Reduce the total words to be included in redesign slides.
• Improve and enforce the points being talked about in the redesign.
• Make a stronger impact.
• Engage your audience and capture their attention.

While there are many benefits of using pictures in a ppt redesign, avoid cluttering them as it will make your work look unprofessional. So if you are asking yourself, “which is the ideal way to improve my presentation slides?” use these redesign tips:

• Use images consistently in all ppt redesign slides.
• Go for pictures that tell a story and improve the ppt slides.
• Incorporate photos that improve understanding of the ppt slides.
• Prioritize clarity and simplicity in your ppt redesign.

Adjust and format images appropriately in a redesign

PowerPoint has numerous effective features that can help correct a picture. That means you can play around with color, resizing, saturation, and even apply artist effects. This is a great option for anyone looking for “quick ways to fix my PowerPoint presentation.” What’s to love about PowerPoint redesign is that it ensures no non-destructive editing for adjusting photos.

If you realize that you have made a mistake in your PowerPoint presentation redesign, you can quickly reset, remove any changes, and get your original image. The editing and redesign option allows you to format your photo to ensure it holds the audience’s attention. Some of the tips that you can use to make your photo better and redesign your slides include:

• Sharpen the image to refine edges and correct slightly blurry images in the presentation redesign.
• Use brightness and contrast to improve the pictures and the redesign.
• Scale an image to fit your redesign slides.

Crop any parts of the images that you don’t want to appear on the redesign slides.

Use graphs to increase understanding of content

Graphs come in handy when ppt data is too large or complicated to be represented in the text. Graphs are a great tool when you need to “fix my PowerPoint presentation” or redesign the project because they can help showcase trends or similarities between two variables. The benefits of incorporating graphs in a PowerPoint presentation include:

• Improve comprehension of data added in the ppt redesign.
• Improve the visual interpretation of any complex numerical to be included in a ppt redesign.
• Highlight and improve the interpretation of salient features of the ppt data.
• Showcase relationships that may not be that obvious when viewing the ppt redesign.
• Improve comparison of a different set of data.

While a specific presentation may call for different types of graphs, all of them work to enhance PowerPoint presentation. Graphs improve focus and allow the audience to concentrate on one salient point. That’s why a presenter should create graphs with one clear message that is simple to understand and find meaning in presented data. Graphs also allow a user to back up their claims.

Modify graphs to suit the data in the presentation

Did you know that one great way to improve PowerPoint presentation is by enhancing the appearance of a chart? To improve it, override the default graph format and edit. However, if not used correctly, graphs can be distracting. So to improve a redesign, keep each graph simple and easy to comprehend.

That way, the audience won’t get confused or spend much time deciphering what the graph from your redesign means. For large data, convert it to graphs but follow these redesign tips to ensure you improve the slides’ visual aid:

• To improve a redesign, you have to choose a specific graph presentation that tells a story.
• The elements included in the graphs should not be distracting but improve the redesign and PowerPoint presentation.
• To improve a redesign, use colors to highlight the key message.
• To improve a redesign, use different colored lines to improve and contrast two items or variables.

Another trick to improve a ppt redesign is adding titles to your graphs with information you want the audience to remember. Then, for a simple PowerPoint slides makeover, apply the simple formatting commands that adjust the font size, color, and style.

Add bulleted lists to organize ideas

Writing, whether in an academic or professional setting, must be clear, concise, and organized. Bullet points can help to organize ideas. For example, to use them to “redesign my presentation and improve it,” list out key points or items from the PowerPoint presentation.

This is mostly because even in a PowerPoint presentation , the audience might scan your content instead of reading it line by line. A bulleted list will break up long blocks of text, improve it, and motivate your audience to read the information.

But for bullet points to be effective in a ppt redesign, you should do the following:

• To improve the ppt redesign, keep bullets short in order to motivate the reader to move through the presentation.
• To improve the ppt redesign, the bullets must be brief and act as mini headlines.
• Bullets should be formatted the same way as the text in the PowerPoint presentation.

Since bullet points should be thematically related to the text, you might wonder how they can help redesign or improve PowerPoint presentation. A bulleted list in a ppt redesign breaks up long blocks of texts into digestible chunks and keeps the audience reading down the slides.

Make the slides pop with the 2/4/8 rule

One of the quickest ways to enhance PowerPoint presentations or give a PowerPoint redesign a fresh look is to use the 2/4/8 rule. To improve your redesign, you should not spend more than 2 minutes on a slide. Moreover, a single slide should not have more than four bullets. Finally, a bullet point should not have more than eight words.

This powerful rule is popular among professional presenters. So to help you out, here are some pointers for the 2/4/8 rule that can help improve a redesign:

• Ensure that 2 minutes are enough to inform the audience about the key points.
• The four bullet points should highlight the main points.
• Adding only eight words per line to every slide ensures the audience doesn’t get bored.

The 2/4/8 rule works to ensure that your slides are not cluttered. It also shows that there is no need to squeeze all the information into a single slide. Instead, it helps supplement the short words with a lengthy verbal presentation

Replace long bullet lists with pictures

Replace a long bulleted list with a high-quality image. Combining graphics and information to create infographics is another great way to achieve an impactful PowerPoint slide makeover.

Since the infographic accommodates varying font types, font sizes, color contrasts, and imagery, it eliminates monotony and adds visual appeal. So which is the correct way to add infographics to PowerPoint slides? Follow these tips:

• Use data visualization to turn lengthy data in slides into fascinating pictures.
• Opt for a ppt slides redesign to play with different shapes and diagrams.
• In your ppt redesign, include icons to improve the overall look.
• Use vector graphics that can be customizable per your preference to improve the ppt redesign.

While bullets in a ppt redesign were meant to break long blocks of text and make paragraphs easier to digest, sometimes they fail to create a fascinating visual aid. But when replaced with a picture or infographic, your message becomes memorable and works to enhance PowerPoint presentation.

Make use of PowerPoint redesign presentation examples

If you want to improve your PowerPoint presentation by always ending up with a blank page, find appealing and relatable redesign examples online. The redesign samples will act as guidelines and inspiration for your next project. With a redesign example to follow, you will know which colors to use and what to include to ensure your PowerPoint slides makeover is a success. The trick is to use online redesign examples from reputable sites. When looking at examples, follow these tips:

• Go for redesign examples that capture your attention and note which areas you focus more on.
• Use the redesign example to check how the slides have been customized and use that aspect to create your pieces.
• Use the redesign sample to determine whether the PowerPoint presentation is image-heavy or text-heavy or combines the two approaches.

It’s often best to combine text and images in equal proportion to help give PowerPoint presentation redesign in a conversational style.

Improve the layout

Did you know that you can improve clarity with layouts? This is simple but important to help improve PowerPoint presentation. When the layout has too much content, including a chart, text, and picture, in a single redesign or slide, the audience often gets confused. That’s why when it comes to a perfect redesign, avoid complex layouts and stick to simple ones.

Not all PowerPoint slides will be equal. However, when it comes to ppt redesign, here are essential tips that result in a great layout:

• Always limit the number of items you add in a single slide layout.
• Ensure every text added to the layout is readable.
• Don’t overfill the entire layout.
• For a stunning redesign, leave white space between each element.

Use placeholders in the slide layout to set a good position for texts, images, graphs, and other visual elements. You can also create custom layouts and save them within the chosen ppt template.

Use shapes to redesign a winning PPT presentation

Are you fond of asking, “how do I redesign my presentation?” Shapes can enhance your PowerPoint presentation. Using other format options, PowerPoint shapes will elevate your slides and add a visual appeal to the content.

What’s even greater is that you don’t have to stick to using common shapes such as rectangles, circles, and ovals. Instead, opt for sleek shapes that transform your ppt presentation.

Shapes can help you create simple or even complex ppt illustrations that will showcase your professionalism. But what’s so great about shapes, and what are their benefits in PowerPoint redesign?

• PPT shapes can be resized without getting distorted or losing image quality.
• PPT shapes offer immense flexibility.
• PPT shapes come in a variety of sizes, from large to small.
• PPT shapes are great for creating flowcharts, illustrations, and other basic diagrams.

Use the rule of thirds to improve PowerPoint slides

Anyone looking for a quick way to improve PowerPoint presentation should use the rule of thirds. It offers an easy way to make attractive slides that capture attention. The rule of thirds is based on the principle of dividing the slides into nine equal parts with two horizontal and vertical intersections.

Based on the rule, you should keep important visual elements in your redesign within the intersections. To use the principle effectively to redesign slides, follow these tips:

• Use the guide feature in PowerPoint to draw four lines on the slides and improve your redesign.
• Both the vertical and horizontal lines should divide your images into thirds and make the redesign better.
• In the redesign, ensure the lines intersect at four points, also known as the power points.

Note that even if your image has several elements, the viewer’s eye will be focused on the power points. Therefore, when you need to improve PowerPoint redesign and achieve maximum impact, place the key elements in the power points.

Add GIFs to your PowerPoint slides

Is your ppt presentation missing a wow factor that can appeal to a target audience? Are you asking yourself, “how do I fix my PowerPoint presentation and make it less boring? Insert a GIF into your ppt slides. A well-placed GIF makes the ppt presentation entertaining, which appeals to a younger audience. The ppt slides redesign can also add humor and capture attention.

Most people might refrain from adding GIFs to PowerPoint presentations because they believe it requires special skills or tools. However, inserting a GIF into ppt slides is just like adding an image. The steps include:

• Download a GIF.
• Open PowerPoint slides.
• Insert a picture.
• Choose the location where you placed the downloaded GIF.
• Insert the GIF in a specific position in the ppt slides.

Depending on the device you are using or the version of PowerPoint, you may choose clip art or picture instead.

Make slides advance automatically

PowerPoint allows users to improve their presentation with special effects. For example, you can create slides that advance automatically using the autoplay feature. This eliminates the need to keep clicking a slide whenever you want to move to the next one.

For a presentation, having an automatic advance feature shows professionalism and that you are well prepared. On the other hand, clicking a slide during a PowerPoint presentation can be distracting and cause you to lose flow or rhythm.

If you want an effective PowerPoint slide makeover, consider creating a slide show that advances automatically. But before setting the advance option, consider the following:

• Have you practiced beforehand to ensure your slides advance with your speech?
• Do you want to focus on the audience instead of looking at the slides?

A self-advancing PowerPoint slide would fit your needs if you answered yes to any of these questions.

Use animations wisely

Animation can improve PowerPoint presentation. It’s also a go-to option for anyone who wants to make better PowerPoints. While adding animation to ppt slides is risky, especially if it’s distracting, it will often improve the presentation redesign.

The trick is to use animations that complement your ppt message. That way, the audience understands what the animation represents, eliminating misunderstandings. If you want to incorporate animations as a way to improve PowerPoint, consider these tips:

• Use animation as a tool to help your audience connect with the message in the ppt.
• Use eye-catching animations to break the monotony of the ppt text and capture attention.
• For long ppt presentations, use animations to engage the audience and prevent fatigue.
• Use animations to draw attention to key points or new terms in the ppt.

While animations are great for presentations, they can only be effective if kept simple. So avoid using several animations in a single slide and use them consistently.

In PPT, it’s better to keep transition effects at a minimum

Animation and slide transition effects have a poor reputation among many professional PowerPoint presenters because they can distract the audience. However, simple animations and quick slide transitions can add meaning and improve PowerPoint presentation or redesign. But before you include a transition and animation into your slide as a way to “improve my presentation redesign,” consider the following:

• Context and relevancy.
• Whether the ppt redesign presentation involves complex or simple data.
• Which points need more attention and can help improve the ppt redesign.

If you fail to use transition effects or animations, your PowerPoint presentation can appear boring. Adding only one or two animation effects is a great PowerPoint slide makeover. This ensures that the effects of the redesign don’t overpower the message.

PPT slide transitions also add professional impact and draw attention to important data. When appropriately customized, you can use the effects to control the speed at which the PowerPoint slides appear on the screen.

Change slide size to fit your presentation

PowerPoint usually has two common slide sizes: 16:9 and 4:3. The first size is ideal for ppt presentations that involve a modern projector. However, 4:3 is great when you are using an old model device. But what if I want to redesign my presentation? Are these the only slide sizes appropriate for ppt? Of course, not.

You can customize the slides to fit the size you want. This is often an option if 4:3 and 16:9 are unsuitable for the ppt redesign. But before you customize the size of your slides, here are some tips to consider:

• 4:3 is great for creating multipurpose ppt content to be printed or shown across different platforms.
• 16:9 is great for high visual ppt content.
• Use 4:3 when the ppt slides are not going to be projected on the LCD screen.

It would be best if you also educated yourself on the ppt aspect ratio. For instance, the 4:3 aspect ratio is 1024×768 pixels, ideal for smaller ppt slides and screens.

When in doubt, dump the slides

Thanks to PowerPoint, it’s possible to have a ppt redesign that creates engaging content. However, sometimes even after looking at several examples, you can find out that your presentation is still dull. For example, if you have tried several times to improve PowerPoint presentation, but the result is slides that will bore the audience, then dump the whole project and start over.

The main aim of a PowerPoint presentation is to hook the audience on the message you are conveying and make them understand it. That is, if your ppt redesign does not have the necessary elements to hook the audience from the word go, it’s best to trash it. To make your next PowerPoint redesign a success, adhere to these tips:

• Replace large chunks of texts in ppt with stunning visual elements.
• Use animations, clip art, and GIFs sparingly in ppt.
• Instead of adding text in ppt, think like an editor and delete what can be omitted.

Finally, be consistent with font size, color schemes, font types, and bullets used in any ppt redesign.

Now that you know how to create a perfectly-balanced presentation, let’s find out how to present it to your audience in the best possible way. These tips will be especially relevant for teachers, lecturers, and presenters.

Present PPT material in short phrases

Presenting the material in short phrases rather than full sentences is another way to improve PowerPoint redesign. It ensures you don’t focus more on reading from ppt slides as it’s an ineffective way to teach. Instead, adding only a few short phrases to improve PowerPoint presentation allows you to focus on one idea and make the topic easier for the audience to understand.

The benefits of shorter phrases in a PowerPoint presentation redesign are as follows:

• It leaves less room for your audience to focus more on what is written on the ppt slides.
• It allows your audience to focus on your thoughts, explanation, and insights on the subject discussed in the ppt redesign.
• It lets the audience know and focus on the main point presented in the ppt redesign.

To improve PowerPoint presentation at any time, stick to short phrases that do not exceed 30 words or one line. Emphasize the short phrases with bold or bigger font sizes.

Include verbal explanations for pictures/graphs

It’s without a doubt that visual aids improve PowerPoint presentation redesign. PPT slides increase an audience’s understanding of the topic. That’s why pictures and graphs are great for anyone asking themselves, “how do I fix my PowerPoint presentation redesign.”

But without a verbal explanation, it can be challenging to comprehend the information in the ppt redesign presentation. So to give PowerPoint slides makeover, accompany visual aids with verbal explanations. Adding verbal explanations in ppt redesign slides is important because:

• A real-time ppt presentation allows the audience to ask questions about the visual aids used in the redesign.
• It enables your audience to assimilate the content better and freely discuss any doubts.
• It allows the lecturer or presenter to give real-time answers to any relevant question asked.

Simplicity in the verbal explanation is key in assimilating the message and a great way to improve a redesign or a PowerPoint presentation.

Don’t make the audience read the information on the slides

It’s hard for people to concentrate on what you are saying and still read the content on the slides. So if you want to make better PowerPoint presentation, don’t make your audience read the slides. Instead, allow them to listen to you and digest the information you have given in the redesign.

When the audience reads the slides, there is a high chance that they will not listen attentively. This reduces the concentration and retention of relevant information. It also beats the purpose of PowerPoint slide makeover. Besides, listening makes it easier for the audience to take notes and remember the key points in the redesign. When making a redesign, instead of allowing your audience to read the slides on their own, consider these four tips:

• At the beginning of the PowerPoint presentation, tell the audience what to expect.
• Elicit conversation to prevent the audience from focusing on the slides.
• Use the redesign to open with a story that ties to the topic to captivate your audience.
• Blackout the screen to ensure you are not competing with the PowerPoint redesign slides.

Fade to black when speaking

In search engines, the phrase “redesign my presentation” is commonly asked by presenters who want to be pros. However, one answer that is often overlooked but can easily improve PowerPoint presentation is the fade-to-black effect.

It’s often considered a transition that prevents the audience from concentrating too much on the slides. Instead, it allows the listeners to focus on the presenter. If fade-to-black is a new concept to you, check out the tips below:

• Use the fade-to-black effect to carry and improve your narrative.
• Fade-to-black provides room to pause and move on to the next slide.
• Use fade-to-black to get undivided attention and connect with the audience.

The chances are high that you have not been using the fade-to-black effect in your presentation. However, we recommend you try it because you are definitely missing out on a big opportunity that can enhance PowerPoint presentation.

Use PowerPoint slides to boost note-taking skills

One efficient way to make better PowerPoint presentation slides is to ensure your lectures improve note-taking skills. How?

With PowerPoint slides that summarize the subject or topic under discussion, students will have all it takes to improve and make good notes. In addition, learners will be able to follow what the lecturer is saying to understand key points given in the ppt slides.

The key to improving note-taking skills is to do it when the professor is not talking, decreasing information retention and learning. If a professor realizes that students focus more on taking notes than listening, they might have to do a PowerPoint redesign. For starters, ensure the ppt slides don’t have too much text that takes too much time for students to write down. When presenting your ppt slides, promote active listening by:

• Repeating the main points stated in the ppt slides.
• Asking questions to help learners focus on what is being said in the ppt slides.
• Don’t cover what is not included in the ppt slides.
• Don’t speak too fast or often point at the ppt slides.

And last but not least, take breaks or pauses between ppt slides to allow students to catch up and not miss any crucial information.

Give PowerPoint slides before the lecture

Do you sometimes see a specific student struggle to understand your ppt presentation? The solution might lie in the PowerPoint slide makeover. Most professors are used to presenting the slides during the actual lecture. This is because some students will not attend class if given the ppt slides before the lesson. However, there are numerous advantages to making the ppt slides available before the lecture.

• The ppt slides act as a guide for note-taking.
• When you improve a ppt redesign, it allows your audience to add information that was verbally discussed during class.
• PPT redesign increases student participation and concentration.

PowerPoint slides given before class allow the audience to gauge which sections they might find difficult to comprehend and ask relevant questions. However, if your students don’t attend class after getting the slides and you ask yourself, “how do I fix my PowerPoint presentation?” we recommend considering the quality of the slides. Ensure the slides don’t divulge every important detail. That way, you leave room for a verbal presentation to fill in the blanks and explain the subject matter further.

Use PowerPoint slides structure to complement lectures

Every teacher has used PowerPoint slides to improve lectures. But some of the teachers end up creating the slides in a dull way that makes students bored. However, the appropriate use of PowerPoint slides can be a great teaching tool as long as it follows a logically sound structure. This is another great tip to improve PowerPoint presentation redesign.

So how do you structure slides and improve PowerPoint presentations?

• As a way to improve the ppt slides, include the outline view to help you get a quick overview of the content
• Ensure slides from the ppt redesign include the table of contents to ease navigation
• Combine ppt slides into collapsible and expandable sections

The trick to improve PowerPoint slides is to make the presentation just like any other narration. Ensure the ppt redesign has an introduction, body, and conclusion. Besides, you can also give the PowerPoint presentation slides to students before class to enhance understanding and memory.

Wrapping up

PowerPoint presentations can be a great tool to get information across, demonstrate your expertise, projects, and accomplishments, as well as supplement a lecture. However, slides have to be created using best practices to get you the result you want.

Observance of a few simple principles will help you easily make effective PowerPoint presentations in 2022:

• Design your PowerPoint slides in one style. Use font, color, and shapes to create a visual hierarchy.
• Arrange elements so that everyone can immediately read the most important message.
• Highlight key elements with color, shape, or layout. Create a contrast or color spot.
• In the text, try to highlight the most critical phrases. This can be done using the color, thickness, or size of the text.
• Choose flat icons and simple shapes instead of 3D elements and rendered details.
• Use the built-in alignment tools (ruler, guides, and grid in PowerPoint).
• Copy slides and elements instead of re-creating them. An excellent PowerPoint presentation design is the reproduction of items, colors, and other objects.

In case you’re not good at slide design, don’t worry. SlidePeak can help you ensure each slide of your PowerPoint presentation looks professional and grabs your audience’s attention from the first line.

#ezw_tco-2 .ez-toc-widget-container ul.ez-toc-list li.active::before { background-color: #ededed; } Table of contents

• Presenting techniques
• Keynote VS PowerPoint
• Types of presentations
• Present financial information visually in PowerPoint to drive results

8 rules of effective presentation

How to make a presentation interactive

The biggest trends in graphic design for presentations in 2022/2023

21 Ways To Improve Your Presentation Skills

Published: April 07, 2023

You know the feeling of sitting through a boring presentation. A text distracts you. A noise outside pulls your gaze. Your dog begs for attention. By the time the presentation ends, you question why you needed to sit and listen in the first place.

Effective presentation skills can stop you from boring an audience to oblivion. Delivering strong presentations can help you stand out as a leader, showcase your expertise, and build confidence.

Table of contents:

• Presentation skills definition
• Importance of presentation skills
• How to improve presentation skills
• Effective presentation skills
• Presentation skills for executives

Presentation Skills Definition

Presentation skills include anything you need to create and deliver clear, effective presentations to an audience. This includes creating a compelling set of slides , ensuring the information flows, and keeping your audience engaged.

Speakers with strong presentation skills can perform the following tasks:

• Bring together different sources of information to form a compelling narrative
• Hook audiences with a strong beginning and end
• Ensure audiences engage with their content through questions or surveys
• Understand what their audience wants and needs from their presentation

Importance of Presentation Skills

At some point in your career, you will present something. You might pitch a startup to a group of investors or show your research findings to your manager at work. Those in leading or executive roles often deliver presentations on a weekly or monthly basis.

Improving your presentation skills betters different aspects of your working life, including the following:

Communication: Improving your presentation skills can make you a better communicator with your co-workers and friends.

Confidence: 75% of people fear public speaking. By working on your presentation skills, you can gain confidence when speaking in front of a crowd.

Creativity: You learn to understand how to use imagery and examples to engage an audience.

Management: Presentations involve pulling together information to form a succinct summary, helping you build project and time management skills.

How To Improve Presentation Skills

1. create an outline.

Before designing slides and writing a script, outline your presentation. Start with your introduction, segue into key points you want to make, and finish with a conclusion.

2. Practice, Practice, Practice

Almost 8 in 10 professionals practice their presentations for at least an hour. So, practice your presentation in the mirror or to a close friend.

3. Start With a Hook

When presenting, grab your audience with a hook. Consider starting with a surprising statistic or a thoughtful question before diving into the core information.

4. Stay Focused on Your Topic

You might want to cover everything under the sun, but information overload can overwhelm your audience. Instead, stay focused on what you want to cover. Aim for key points and avoid including unnecessary details.

5. Remember To Introduce Yourself

At the beginning of the presentation, introduce yourself. Kill any tension in the room by mentioning your name, your role, and any other helpful details. You could even mention a fun fact about yourself, putting the audience at ease.

6. Work on Your Body Language

55% of people look to nonverbal communication when judging a presentation. Straighten your back, minimize unnecessary gestures, and keep your voice confident and calm. Remember to work on these aspects when practicing.

7. Memorize Structure, Not Words

You might feel better knowing exactly what you want to say. But skip the script and stick to memorizing the key points of your presentation. For example, consider picking three to four phrases or insights you want to mention for each part of your presentation rather than line-by-line memorization.

8. Learn Your Audience

Before crafting a killer outline and slide deck, research your audience. Find out what they likely already know, such as industry jargon, and where they might need additional information. Remember: You're presenting for them, not you.

9. Reframe Your Anxiety as Excitement

A study conducted by Harvard Business School demonstrates that reframing your anxiety as excitement can improve performance. For example, by saying simple phrases out loud, such as “I’m excited,” you then adopt an opportunity-oriented mentality.

10. Get Comfortable With the Setting

If you plan to present in person, explore the room. Find where you’re going to stand and deliver your presentation. Practice looking into the seats. By decreasing the number of unknowns, you can clear your head and focus on the job.

11. Get Familiar With Technology

Presenting online has unique challenges, such as microphone problems and background noise. Before a Zoom presentation, ensure your microphone works, clean up your background, test your slides, and consider any background noise.

12. Think Positively

Optimistic workers enjoy faster promotions and happier lives. By reminding yourself of the positives — for example, your manager found your last presentation impressive — you can shake off nerves and find joy in the process.

13. Tell a Story

To engage your audience, weave storytelling into your presentation — more than 5 in 10 people believe stories hold their focus during a presentation. Consider ways to connect different parts of your slides into a compelling narrative.

14. Prepare for Questions

At the end of your presentation, your audience will likely have questions. Brainstorm different questions and potential answers so you’re prepared.

15. Maintain Eye Contact

Eye contact signals honesty. When possible, maintain eye contact with your audience. For in-person presentations, pay attention to each audience member. For online ones, stare at your camera lens as you deliver.

16. Condense Your Presentation

After you finish the first draft of your outline, think about ways to condense it. Short and sweet often keeps people interested instead of checking their phones.

17. Use Videos

Keep your audience’s attention by incorporating video clips when relevant. For example, videos can help demonstrate examples or explain difficult concepts.

18. Engage With Your Audience

Almost 8 in 10 professionals view presentations as boring. Turn the tide by engaging with your audience. Encourage audience participation by asking questions or conducting a live survey.

19. Present Slowly and Pause Frequently

When you get nervous, you talk faster. To combat this, remember to slow yourself down when practicing. Place deep pauses throughout your presentation, especially when transitioning between slides, as it gives you time to breathe and your audience time to absorb.

20. Start and End With a Summary

A summary at the start of a presentation can pique your audience’s interest. One at the end brings everything together, highlighting key points your audience should take with them.

21. Ask for Feedback

You will never deliver the perfect presentation, so ask for feedback. Talk to your managers about where you could improve. Consider surveying your audience for an unbiased look into your presentation skills.

Effective Presentation Skills

Effective presentation skills include communicating clearly, presenting with structure, and engaging with the audience.

As an example, say a content manager is presenting a quarterly review to their team. They start off with a summary. Their introduction mentions an unprecedented 233% growth in organic traffic — numbers their team has not seen in years. Immediately, the presenter grabs their team’s attention. Now, everyone wants to know how they achieved that in one quarter.

Alternatively, think of an entrepreneur delivering their pitch to a group of investors. They start with a question: How many of you struggle to stay awake at work? They then segue into an exciting product designed to improve the sleep quality of working professionals. Their presentation includes videos demonstrating the science behind sleep and surprising statistics about the demand for their product.

Both examples demonstrate effective presentation skills. They incorporate strong attention grabbers, summaries, and attempts to engage the audience.

Think back to strong presentations you viewed as an audience member. Ask yourself: What made them so memorable, and how can I incorporate those elements into my presentations?

Presentation Skills for Executives

Presentations take up a significant portion of an executive’s workload. Executives regularly showcase key company initiatives, team changes, quarterly and annual reviews, and more. Improving your presentation skills as a leader can help with different parts of your job, such as:

Trust: Delivering great, effective presentations can build trust between you and your team.

Confidence: Most people dread presentations — so a strong presenter projects the confidence needed by a leader.

Emotional intelligence: A great presentation taps into the audience’s perspectives, helping executives improve their emotional intelligence .

Expertise: Presentations help executives display their subject-matter expertise, making employees safe in their hands.

Delegation: At times, executives might need to pull information from different sources for a presentation — improving their ability to delegate as managers.

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6 presentation skills and how to improve them

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What are presentation skills?

The importance of presentation skills, 6 presentation skills examples, how to improve presentation skills.

Tips for dealing with presentation anxiety

Learn how to captivate an audience with ease

Capturing an audience’s attention takes practice. 

Over time, great presenters learn how to organize their speeches and captivate an audience from start to finish. They spark curiosity, know how to read a room , and understand what their audience needs to walk away feeling like they learned something valuable.

Regardless of your profession, you most likely use presentation skills on a monthly or even weekly basis. Maybe you lead brainstorming sessions or host client calls. 

Developing effective presentation skills makes it easier to contribute ideas with confidence and show others you’re someone to trust. Although speaking in front of a crowd sometimes brings nerves and anxiety , it also sparks new opportunities.

Presentation skills are the qualities and abilities you need to communicate ideas effectively and deliver a compelling speech. They influence how you structure a presentation and how an audience receives it. Understanding body language , creating impactful visual aids, and projecting your voice all fall under this umbrella.

A great presentation depends on more than what you say. It’s about how you say it. Storytelling , stage presence, and voice projection all shape how well you express your ideas and connect with the audience. These skills do take practice, but they’re worth developing — especially if public speaking makes you nervous. 

Engaging a crowd isn’t easy. You may feel anxious to step in front of an audience and have all eyes and ears on you.

But feeling that anxiety doesn’t mean your ideas aren’t worth sharing. Whether you’re giving an inspiring speech or delivering a monthly recap at work, your audience is there to listen to you. Harness that nervous energy and turn it into progress.

Strong presentation skills make it easier to convey your thoughts to audiences of all sizes. They can help you tell a compelling story, convince people of a pitch , or teach a group something entirely new to them. And when it comes to the workplace, the strength of your presentation skills could play a part in getting a promotion or contributing to a new initiative.

To fully understand the impact these skills have on creating a successful presentation, it’s helpful to look at each one individually. Here are six valuable skills you can develop:

1. Active listening

Active listening is an excellent communication skill for any professional to hone. When you have strong active listening skills, you can listen to others effectively and observe their nonverbal cues . This helps you assess whether or not your audience members are engaged in and understand what you’re sharing. 

Great public speakers use active listening to assess the audience’s reactions and adjust their speech if they find it lacks impact. Signs like slouching, negative facial expressions, and roaming eye contact are all signs to watch out for when giving a presentation.

2. Body language

If you’re researching presentation skills, chances are you’ve already watched a few notable speeches like TED Talks or industry seminars. And one thing you probably noticed is that speakers can capture attention with their body language. 

A mixture of eye contact, hand gestures , and purposeful pacing makes a presentation more interesting and engaging. If you stand in one spot and don’t move your body, the audience might zone out.

3. Stage presence

A great stage presence looks different for everyone. A comedian might aim for more movement and excitement, and a conference speaker might focus their energy on the content of their speech. Although neither is better than the other, both understand their strengths and their audience’s needs. 

Developing a stage presence involves finding your own unique communication style . Lean into your strengths, whether that’s adding an injection of humor or asking questions to make it interactive . To give a great presentation, you might even incorporate relevant props or presentation slides.

4. Storytelling

According to Forbes, audiences typically pay attention for about 10 minutes before tuning out . But you can lengthen their attention span by offering a presentation that interests them for longer. Include a narrative they’ll want to listen to, and tell a story as you go along. 

Shaping your content to follow a clear narrative can spark your audience’s curiosity and entice them to pay careful attention. You can use anecdotes from your personal or professional life that take your audience along through relevant moments. If you’re pitching a product, you can start with a problem and lead your audience through the stages of how your product provides a solution.

5. Voice projection

Although this skill may be obvious, you need your audience to hear what you’re saying. This can be challenging if you’re naturally soft-spoken and struggle to project your voice.

Remember to straighten your posture and take deep breaths before speaking, which will help you speak louder and fill the room. If you’re talking into a microphone or participating in a virtual meeting, you can use your regular conversational voice, but you still want to sound confident and self-assured with a strong tone.

If you’re unsure whether everyone can hear you, you can always ask the audience at the beginning of your speech and wait for confirmation. That way, they won’t have to potentially interrupt you later.

Ensuring everyone can hear you also includes your speed and annunciation. It’s easy to speak quickly when nervous, but try to slow down and pronounce every word. Mumbling can make your presentation difficult to understand and pay attention to.

6. Verbal communication 

Although verbal communication involves your projection and tone, it also covers the language and pacing you use to get your point across. This includes where you choose to place pauses in your speech or the tone you use to emphasize important ideas.

If you’re giving a presentation on collaboration in the workplace , you might start your speech by saying, “There’s something every workplace needs to succeed: teamwork.” By placing emphasis on the word “ teamwork ,” you give your audience a hint on what ideas will follow.

To further connect with your audience through diction, pay careful attention to who you’re speaking to. The way you talk to your colleagues might be different from how you speak to a group of superiors, even if you’re discussing the same subject. You might use more humor and a conversational tone for the former and more serious, formal diction for the latter.

Everyone has strengths and weaknesses when it comes to presenting. Maybe you’re confident in your use of body language, but your voice projection needs work. Maybe you’re a great storyteller in small group settings, but need to work on your stage presence in front of larger crowds. 

The first step to improving presentation skills is pinpointing your gaps and determining which qualities to build upon first. Here are four tips for enhancing your presentation skills:

1. Build self-confidence

Confident people know how to speak with authority and share their ideas. Although feeling good about your presentation skills is easier said than done, building confidence is key to helping your audience believe in what you’re saying. Try practicing positive self-talk and continuously researching your topic's ins and outs.

If you don’t feel confident on the inside, fake it until you make it. Stand up straight, project your voice, and try your best to appear engaged and excited. Chances are, the audience doesn’t know you’re unsure of your skills — and they don’t need to.

Another tip is to lean into your slideshow, if you’re using one. Create something colorful and interesting so the audience’s eyes fall there instead of on you. And when you feel proud of your slideshow, you’ll be more eager to share it with others, bringing more energy to your presentation.

2. Watch other presentations

Developing the soft skills necessary for a good presentation can be challenging without seeing them in action. Watch as many as possible to become more familiar with public speaking skills and what makes a great presentation. You could attend events with keynote speakers or view past speeches on similar topics online.

Take a close look at how those presenters use verbal communication and body language to engage their audiences. Grab a notebook and jot down what you enjoyed and your main takeaways. Try to recall the techniques they used to emphasize their main points, whether they used pauses effectively, had interesting visual aids, or told a fascinating story.

3. Get in front of a crowd

You don’t need a large auditorium to practice public speaking. There are dozens of other ways to feel confident and develop good presentation skills.

If you’re a natural comedian, consider joining a small stand-up comedy club. If you’re an avid writer, participate in a public poetry reading. Even music and acting can help you feel more comfortable in front of a crowd.

If you’d rather keep it professional, you can still work on your presentation skills in the office. Challenge yourself to participate at least once in every team meeting, or plan and present a project to become more comfortable vocalizing your ideas. You could also speak to your manager about opportunities that flex your public speaking abilities.

4. Overcome fear

Many people experience feelings of fear before presenting in front of an audience, whether those feelings appear as a few butterflies or more severe anxiety. Try grounding yourself to shift your focus to the present moment. If you’re stuck dwelling on previous experiences that didn’t go well, use those mistakes as learning experiences and focus on what you can improve to do better in the future.

Tips for dealing with presentation anxiety 

It’s normal to feel nervous when sharing your ideas. In fact, according to a report from the Journal of Graduate Medical Education, public speaking anxiety is prevalent in 15–30% of the general population .

Even though having a fear of public speaking is common, it doesn’t make it easier. You might feel overwhelmed, become stiff, and forget what you were going to say. But although the moment might scare you, there are ways to overcome the fear and put mind over matter.

Use these tactics to reduce your stress when you have to make a presentation:

1. Practice breathing techniques

If you experience anxiety often, you’re probably familiar with breathing techniques for stress relief . Incorporating these exercises into your daily routine can help you stop worrying and regulate anxious feelings. 

Before a big presentation, take a moment alone to practice breathing techniques, ground yourself, and reduce tension. It’s also a good idea to take breaths throughout the presentation to speak slower and calm yourself down .

2. Get organized

The more organized you are, the more prepared you’ll feel. Carefully outline all of the critical information you want to use in your presentation, including your main talking points and visual aids, so you don’t forget anything. Use bullet points and visuals on each slide to remind you of what you want to talk about, and create handheld notes to help you stay on track.

3. Embrace moments of silence

It’s okay to lose your train of thought. It happens to even the most experienced public speakers once in a while. If your mind goes blank, don’t panic. Take a moment to breathe, gather your thoughts, and refer to your notes to see where you left off. You can drink some water or make a quick joke to ease the silence or regain your footing. And it’s okay to say, “Give me a moment while I find my notes.” Chances are, people understand the position you’re in.

4. Practice makes progress

Before presenting, rehearse in front of friends and family members you trust. This gives you the chance to work out any weak spots in your speech and become comfortable communicating out loud. If you want to go the extra mile, ask your makeshift audience to ask a surprise question. This tests your on-the-spot thinking and will prove that you can keep cool when things come up.

Whether you’re new to public speaking or are a seasoned presenter, you’re bound to make a few slip-ups. It happens to everyone. The most important thing is that you try your best, brush things off, and work on improving your skills to do better in your next presentation.

Although your job may require a different level of public speaking than your favorite TED Talk , developing presentation skills is handy in any profession. You can use presentation skills in a wide range of tasks in the workplace, whether you’re sharing your ideas with colleagues, expressing concerns to higher-ups, or pitching strategies to potential clients.

Remember to use active listening to read the room and engage your audience with an interesting narrative. Don’t forget to step outside your comfort zone once in a while and put your skills to practice in front of a crowd. After facing your fears, you’ll feel confident enough to put presentation skills on your resume.

If you’re trying to build your skills and become a better employee overall, try a communications coach with BetterUp. 

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Elizabeth Perry, ACC

Elizabeth Perry is a Coach Community Manager at BetterUp. She uses strategic engagement strategies to cultivate a learning community across a global network of Coaches through in-person and virtual experiences, technology-enabled platforms, and strategic coaching industry partnerships. With over 3 years of coaching experience and a certification in transformative leadership and life coaching from Sofia University, Elizabeth leverages transpersonal psychology expertise to help coaches and clients gain awareness of their behavioral and thought patterns, discover their purpose and passions, and elevate their potential. She is a lifelong student of psychology, personal growth, and human potential as well as an ICF-certified ACC transpersonal life and leadership Coach.

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How to make a great presentation

Stressed about an upcoming presentation? These talks are full of helpful tips on how to get up in front of an audience and make a lasting impression.

The secret structure of great talks

The beauty of data visualization

TED's secret to great public speaking

How to speak so that people want to listen

How great leaders inspire action

Presentation Skills: 50 Tips & Examples to Improve Yours

If you’re looking for practical strategies that you can use on your presentation today, then you’ll love this article.

Inside, you’ll get access to:

– A presentation skills “checklist” infographic – A complete guide breaking down proven strategies, word-for-word formulas, expert tips and examples to help you dramatically improve your presentation skills

But first, I’d like to start with a very quick, 3-point introduction.

(Hint: when you finish reading it, you’ll know why presentation skills are crucial to your success).

There are three tiny things you need to know about presentation skills before we jump into strategies and tactics:

1) What are presentation skills?

Presentation skills are your ability one to deliver presentations that educate, engage, or entertain your audience.

2) Why we give presentations

According to the california state university employee development center , we usually of give presentations to:, inform persuade educate, for instance:, inform -> “abc engineering: q4 sales results” persuade -> “xyz marketing: how we help you x3 your conversions” educate -> “10 advanced seo techniques from the pros”, 3) why bad presentation skills have hidden costs, it’s because they’re the difference between getting what you want (educating people, persuading them to do something, closing a deal, etc)…., …or nothing at all., let me give you an example: a prospective client, let’s call him joe, schedules a meeting with your company because he’s looking for an agency that will handle his yearly event activities., the current supplier isn’t up to par so joe wants to find a new company to make events that help him look good and bring more traffic to his store., joe has an annual budget of  $100,000 dollars (not bad, eh). you get in the meeting room. you make your presentation., “we are a professional team of event experts”., it’s about you, your history, services, clients you used to work with, and some case studies., joe is feeling a bit bored because you’re not actually showing him what you can do to help him design better events.  you’re not tying your services to specific benefits he’s looking for (like increasing his customer footfall by 20% within 3 months)., basically , your pitch is bad., wanna know what happens next, joe is going to meet with other event agencies that know how to sell themselves and communicate on the value they’re bringing to the table., he’ll chose the best one., the one that solves his problems., the one that is best positioned to help him get what he wants ., and it won’t be you., he’ll be thinking “if that guy can’t put a solid pitch together, he won’t be able to handle my events in a way that satisfies me”., you lost 100,000 bucks., the lesson here, good presentation skills are the difference between getting what you want, or nothing at all., 50 proven ways to dramatically improve your presentation skills, click here to enlarge, lay out the foundations, 1. anticipate. seriously., [tweet “if your presentation is important to you, then act like it is.”], when i asked ed from clear preso what was his #1 advice for improving presentation skills, here’s what he said:, “do not leave it till the last minute to craft your message. do not create the sides the night before the presentation or go out there without having rehearsed. if the presentation matters to you, then put in some serious time and effort, or don’t bother at all”., ed fidgeon-kavanagh, chief presentationist at  clear preso, 2. be audience-centered (hfd), “when people encounter you, they ask themselves four questions that determine your likeability or “l-factor”. first, they seek friendliness. then, they ask themselves if you are relevant to them. next, they ponder whether you have empathy for them. finally, they ask themselves if you are ‘real’ — that is, authentic and honest”., tim sanders ,  sales & leadership keynote speaker, author of the likeability factor, if you want your audience to like you, learn as much as you can about them, specifically:, where are they from what’s their age range what do you have in common have they had any bad news recently what do they fear what do they want (aka what are their key motivators), bottom line : be precise, not random. find out the h opes, f ears and d reams (hfd) of your audience and plan to communicate with that unique group only, no other., how to identify your audience’s hopes, fears and dreams, 3 proven strategies to identify what your customers want, additional ways to learn more about your audience:, quora (check out questions + best answers related to your topic) amazon (read reviews about products/services/topics related to yours) udemy (see what people are saying about courses related to your topic) google  (instant results and related searches to identify what people are looking for), 3. define your goal, [tweet “if you can’t explain in one sentence what the goal of your presentation is, you don’t have one.”], “if you want results, you need to start by setting goals. when your goals are set, you need to find out how to best achieve them”., michael aagaard,  via content verve, crucial, especially when trying to build effective presentations that convey a powerful message., here’s an example:, if you’re trying to build a relationship with a prospective client (to be able to sell your products), your goal isn’t to make a creative presentation. your goal is to show your client you + your products are perfectly positioned to solve their problems., answer this question:, why are you making this presentation (aka why do you wanna talk to them)., get an order of $10,000 today build a relationship with them (so two years from now they wanna purchase from you), bottom line :  have one goal.  set your smart goals before you write a single word., 4. identify your audience’s motivation level, the way we’re going to think about your audience today is rooted in this guy named b.j. fogg who famously came up with the behavior model :, let me simplify that for you:, for a person to perform a target behavior (aka help you reach your goal) he must be sufficiently motivated and have the ability to perform the behavior., which is why you really need to understand  what stage of the buying cycle your audience members are in ., answer these questions:, has your audience heard of your company/product before are they intending to make a purchase do they have all of the information they need to make an informed decision what fears / anxieties could be holding them back, bottom line : knowing the context helps you to determine your choice of words and level of information, but also to structure your delivery and motivate your audience., map out a crystal-clear message, 5. build your core message, [tweet “you can have the best product but if you can’t communicate well about it, you have nothing. “], your core message is the #1 thing you wanna your audience to remember., the most critical one. the one they can’t miss. if they remember one thing, they’ll remember you., use this formula to build your core message:, action verb + who + what, show these shanghai-based consultants how my company can help them get more leads . motivate my directory board to increase the marketing budget . convince the prospect to sign that contract today ., bottom line : you core message must be articulated around a) helping you reach your goal and b) giving your audience what they want., 6. craft your elevator speech, [tweet “your elevator speech answers this question: why should i listen to you “], effective elevator speeches include:, benefits the word you are geared toward solving your audience’s problems, use these elevator pitch builder formulas:, today, i am going to teach you about [ result they care about ], today, you will get / discover  [ outcome ], if you agree to meet with us, you will [ result they care about ], if you read that presentation, you will [ result they care about ], today, you will discover the 5 strategies we’re using to triple our conversions . today, i am going to teach you  the 3-step process i used to double my website traffic in 2 months . if you agree to meet with us, you will learn how to launch events that increase footfall and instantly separate you from the competition ., bottom line :  your elevator speech must be angled toward helping your audience do do/get/discover something that benefits to them., 7. break down your core message in small bits, answer these questions:, what are the top 5 big reasons that will motivate my audience members to do what i want what messages will drive them toward my goal, if you don’t know, ask your actual customers why they’ve decided to work with you (aka what they like about you)., 8. backup everything with data (supportive points), [tweet ““in god we trust, all others must bring data.””], if you want people to trust you, make sure to provide research, data-rich points that prove what you’re saying (aka case studies, statistics, testimonials, money-back guarantees…), don’t say: we’ve helped companies increase their sales. say: we’ve has helped bryan from abc marketing to increase their sales by 34% in two months., rule of thumb : opinions are bullshit. do research .  n o opinions unchecked. , build a powerful structure, 9. treat your presentation as if it were a movie, [tweet “treat your presentation as a movie: set up a conflict that needs to be resolved.”], when asked what she thinks a great presentation advice is, graphic designer  elly whiley  had this to say…, “treat your presentation as if it were a movie., have a solid introduction that will intrigue your audience, a climatic middle where you raise problems and/or questions and finally a powerful conclusion where you answer and resolve everything raised and leave the audience with something to think about.”, elly whiley ( via canva ), the most effective presenters use the same techniques as great storytellers again and again. they remind people of the status quo (i.e. your audience’s pain points)… and then reveal the path to a better way., let’s illustrate this with one of my favorite example:.

10. Use PRD and PCR frames to tell stories

[tweet “”a story is a series of actions that overcome obstacles in order to achieve a goal””], let’s take a quick look at how the harvard business review editor bronwyn fryer describes what a story is :, “essentially, a story expresses how and why life changes., it begins with a situation in which life is relatively in balance : you come to work day after day, week after week, and everything’s fine. you expect it will go on that way., but then there’s an event —in screenwriting, we call it the “inciting incident”—that throws life out of balance . you get a new job, or the boss dies of a heart attack, or a big customer threatens to leave., the story goes on to describe how, in an effort to restore balance, the protagonist’s subjective expectations crash into an uncooperative objective reality”., story : balance + something happens (that throws life out of balance) + how to restore balance, the prd frame, p roblem : the current situation for your audience. do you suffer from/sick of being… r elief : it can change . it doesn’t have to be that way/there’s a solution… d ream : your solution. imagine if you could…how your life would be if you could…, the  pcr frame, p rotagonist : climate change / small farmers providing food to restaurants c onflict : how climate change affects the growing season” r esolution :  policies that are or should be in place or discussion about how people in other regions are mitigating the effects of climate change on local resources.  source ., tweet these story frame techniques –, 11. each slide has one message, idea, goal, one slide = one idea, one message, one core point, when asked what was his # 1 advice to build effective presentations skills, haiku deck co-founder adam tratt had this to say:, “the first is focus on one idea at a time. we do this by limiting the number of words you can put on a slide., less is more. remember, your audience can either listen to you, or ready your slide. avoid loading up your presentations with too many words”., adam tratt . co-founder at h aiku deck ., to help you be laser-focused on  your message,  use this formula every time you’re building a slide:, the purpose of this slide is to [ fill the blank ], for example: the purpose of this slide is to [ show that our sales grew by 16% this year ] the purpose of this slide is to [ demonstrate that our app features are the best in the market ], craft your irresistible content , here are 4 ways to craft attention-grabbing headlines that’ll motivate your audience to keep reading., [tweet “5 times as many people read advertising headlines than copy.”], if advertisers haven’t done some selling in their headlines, they’ve wasted 80% of their clients’ money. david ogilvy ., headlines have two purposes:  grab your audience’s attention + motivate them keep them reading., powerful headlines have four qualities:, 1) self-interest (focused on your audience) 2) news (teach them something) 3) curiosity (get them want to know more) 4) ultra-specific (aka use figures), 12. craft powerful headlines using the “brain dump” method, you’re gonna make a couple of subject lines and start filling them in.  for instance, your slide is about the weight-loss problem., let’s start writing:, subject 1: how to write lose weight  (sucky) subject 2: how to write lose weight effectively  (meh)  subject 3:  5 best-ever weight-loss secrets from thin people   (good) subject 4:  3 things experts won’t tell you about weight-loss   (catchy), bottom line : practice, practice, practice. write as many subject lines as needed. review them later, pick the best one (ask friends or colleagues if you’re unsure)., 13. steal your headlines from amazon, for example, let’s say i want to figure out some good headlines for copywriting services i have., the first step is to slap the term “copywriting” into amazon and see what comes up:, browse through the best ranked book titles., book title: “copywriting: a beginner’s blueprint. how to write amazing copy that compels readers to take action without selling your soul.”, headlines we can make out of this book title:, learn how to write amazing copy that compels readers to take action, right now., you don’t have to sell your soul to write amazing copy that sells, tweet this headline building tip –, 14.use these 7 attention-grabbing headline starters, new now here’s announcing presenting introducing look , source:  ca$hvertising, for example:, our powerful new seminar teaches marketers the power of persuasion to drive people into a buying frenzy now you can stop worrying about your traffic announcing the hottest new lobster roll from cali presenting the easiest way to engage your customers here’s why our digital marketing services are a great fit for you look it’s that easy, tweet these proven headline starters –, 15. use “lenses” to write headlines, copywriter neville medhora came up with the concept of lenses to write headlines that appeal to a specific audience.  lenses work especially well for sales presentations . there are three types of “lenses” you can instantly apply to your headlines:, “competitive” lens : “dominate the search results, and leave page 2 of google for your competitors”., “benefit driven” lens:  “80% faster than any other internet provider”., “inspirational” lens:  “what if you could learn the exact system to rank a website that generates traffic, sales & customers 24/7”, check out neville’s video to dig deeper into the lenses concept:.

Resources for your headlines:

Portent  (headline generator) title generator (headline generator) internet marketing course (headline generator) over 139 formulas, from +30 different online author  (aka joanna wiebe’s supreme guide to writing amazing headlines fast), 16. avoid the me-too syndrome (here’s how), [tweet “nobody cares about you, people care about what you can do for them.”], the problem with 80% of business presentations and sales pitches, let’s take a look at this really bad example:, can you spot what’s wrong with this spam email, well, i’ll tell you:, the me-too syndrome aka the number of time it’s about them vs. the number of time it’s about me., here’s the breakdown:, them (aka “i”; “us”, “our”): 15, me (aka “you”): 11, me-too score: 58% (15/26), to avoid the me-too syndrome, make sure me-too score is under 50%, but more importantly… don’t talk about you, talk about what you can do for them., how will you improve their business how will you educate them on a specific topic they’re interested in how will your skills/services/products will make their life better, don’t be like that dumb chris who says:, if you’re interested in hearing what we can do for you…, instead, say this:, we have closely analyzed your website and based on this, we believe there are two challenges you’re looking at:the first is x, the second is y. we’ve done a lot of work on x and y. in fact, we’ve already helped abc firm to grow their traffic by 200% the last 6 months. we’d love to help you do the same., 17. be ultra-specific, if i asked you right now, “what makes your company different”, what would you say 90% of us would something like this: “we provide premium services” or “we’re a great team of professional people”. yeah, i like to breathe oxygen too., be specific., don’t say:, how to improve your finance quickly and claim back your freedom., 18. apply the svo principle, sentences that have a subject-verb-object order are more readable than those that don’t. source ., the technique was recommended by the american concrete institute., the american concrete institute recommends the technique., 19. write to a friend, [tweet “write for the ear, not the eye. old adage.”], there’s nothing worse than getting junk content from another  me-too company that rambles on and on about how amazing they are., but on the other hand, when you read something that’s written to you – like a personal note – you’ll devour every word. because you’ll want to know what’s in it for you., bottom line : act as your audience members are your best friends (think, how would i write to name of friend)., 20. use questions, rhetorical — interesting, aren’t they, 21. hit specific emotions, you know which emotions you want them to feel at every paragraph (anger, curiosity, relief, happiness)., learn how to identify the emotions you want to evoke + find out the perfect matching words., 22. do not overwhelm them, keep it simple., [tweet “79% of people scan read, rather than read every single word.”], no, your audience doesn’t need to know everything. prioritize and focus truly brings value to them aka here’s what we really do that’s gonna make a meaningful impact on your life / business / sexuality / happiness., bottom line : every word must earn its place on the slide, seriously., 23. do the chimpanzee brain test, read out loud every single sentence in your deck and ask yourself:, is it easy to understand or not, if the answer is no, shorten the phrase or break it down in smaller pieces., bottom line : you don’t need complex words or perfect grammar. don’t make them think and express only one though in a sentence. use your next sentence to say the next thing., 24. apply the 6×7 rule, “remember, your audience can either listen to you, or read your slides. avoid loading up your presentations with too many words”., adam tratt. co-founder at haiku deck ., your audience should be listening to you, and not reading slides. plus, you should be looking at them while speaking (not reading slides)., no more than 6 lines per slide no more than 7 words per line source, design your stunning presentation, 25. customize your deck size, learn how (and why) to do that here ., 26. prepare your opening slides, here’s the deal, your opening slides have two targets:, assure your audience they’re in the right place (aka your core topic), remind them what they’re going to hear (which is gonna hook them because they want to get the answer), left side cover shows you the result you’ll get by reading the deck: learn 100 marketing growth hacks right side cover shows you the result you’ll get by reading the deck: learn facts about the spine you probably didn’t know, how to create a brilliant cover slide in 5 minutes, 27. each content slide has 3-4 elements, image source, headline to grab the attention, sub-headlines give you more information and further, illustration : to get your attention and to illustrate the point more fullyspee, copy : to convey the main selling message of the slide, download your free, professional-looking template here, 28. use visuals, many folks out there urge you to use visuals, few tell you why you should., so here’s why:, we process visuals 60,000 times faster than text., 40% of learners respond better to visual information than text alone., people who use visual aids are 43% more persuasive than those who don’t ., here’s my go-to-list of breathtaking, free-to-use photography resources:, gratisography  (crisp, fun, humorous visuals) death to the stock photo  (as the first one) startup stock photos  (genuine looking pics) pexels (lots of themes, beautiful photo) unsplash  (stunning nature related visuals) little visuals  (as unsplash) pic jumbo  (urban-related pictures), learn how to design  attention-grabbing cover slide  here., 29. build a powerful color theme, [tweet “color accounts for 85% of the reason why someone decides to purchase a product.”], so, what’s the bottom line, color sell products. make sure the colors you chose are:, strongly associated with your organization (color increases brand recognition by up to 80%), aligned with your audience’s characteristics. find out how to align your colors with your consumer’s backgrounds here , page 6 and 7., complementary: colors opposite each other on the color wheel., create your winning color themes:, colorcode colour lovers adobe kuler  ♥ the basics of color theory (fun, interactive article), 30. use icons, this post shows you how to integrate icons in your presentation slides. here are great icon resources:, flaticon freepik  ♥ icon finder the noun project, 31. steal like an artist, you don’t have to start building a presentation from scratch., instead, do what i’m doing:, create a folder on your desktop and title it “swipe file.” anytime you see a beautiful design or great copy, just add it to your swipe file.  set up individual folders or labels (e.g. “great cover slides”, “headlines”, etc). pretty soon, you’ll have a repository of inspiration that you can tap into when you are working on your own presentations., here’s how my personal swipe file looks like:, amazing sources of design inspiration:, dribbble graphic river note & point slideshare  ♥ the 3-step process to hack slide design, 32. choose the right typography, people are more likely to engage in a given behavior the less effort it requires ( source ), helvetica is apple’s office font. amazing, isn’t it,  for free and creative font options, check out:, the 10 most popular typefaces used by the top 100 u.s newspapers the top 10 fonts web designers love (free and paid) dafont font squirrel  ♥ fonts2u fonts fabric, 33. use the crap principle, there are not a hundred but one principle of design that i want you to get under your belt., the crap principle: contrast, repetition, alignment, proximity., contrast is all about making things stand out. it can be achieved using three major tactics:  manipulation of space (near / far, empty / filled), color choices (dark vs. light / cool vs. warm) and text (typography style / bold vs. narrow)., repetition , for instance making a headline and a sub-message the same color, makes scanning your deck much easier. repetition helps you create a cohesive look to your presentation., alignment . newspapers use this to great effect. aligning a whole bunch of elements with one another makes them scan faster. alignment makes things easier to read., proximity means that things are associated with one another. let me explain that for you: the closer things are, the more they are associated the farther they are away from one another, the less they are associated., 34. make closing slides, repeat your agenda aka your deck’s plan to remind the audience of what they just got. in the final slide confirms that the presentation is over., thank you contact information, “according to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. number two is death. death is number two. does that sound right” jerry seinfeld, deliver like a boss, [tweet “you only have 7 seconds to make a great first impression”], it takes only seven seconds for us to judge another person when we first meet them , says linda blair, clinical psychologist. which leads us to the following question:, what is the best way to start a presentation and make a killer opener, well, to succeed, three things must happen:, 1) get them to pay attention to you 2) answer the why should i listen to you question 3) give them a hint about the direction of your speech, here are 4 ways to craft a killer opener that’ll grab your audience’s attention (and improve your presentation and public speaking skills), 35. begin with a story, [tweet “your audience recalls only 10 to 30% of what they hear.”], “two years ago, my life changed forever. my wife kalcy and i welcomed our daughter leila to the world.”, the first 20 hours — how to learn anything | josh kaufman | tedxcsu, 36. make a provocative statement, “hey are you excited to be here are you ready to learn some stuff are you ready to get humped up and get excited, motivated if that’s you…you came to the wrong place because we’re not doing any of that today. we’re gonna learn actual stuff, usable, in the real word. and you’re gonna come away from here with things you can use, make money with”. oren klaff, you might want another example, am i right, check out will stephen’s amazingly provocative tedx intro:, x how to sound smart in your tedx talk | will stephen | tedxnewyork, “hear that that’s nothing which is what i, as a speaker at today’s conference, have for you all: i have nothing nada zip nothing smart nothing inspirational i have absolutely nothing to say whatsoever.”, like this presentation opener tip click here  to tweet it –, 37. use statistics/quotes in your opener, one of the best ways to start a speech, numbers and quotes , “46% of us small businesses feel they are being “sold to” instead of “spoken to” by other businesses “. “you only have 7 seconds to make a great first impression”. “before we get started i wanna tell you about a quote from a guy named adam nash: growth is important and all good companies take it seriously”.   growth hacking – neil patel – pioneers festival 2014, to find reliable statistics or quotes, head over to google and try these search strings:, site:edu + “your keyword” + “data”, site:edu + “your keyword” + “percent”, inurl:research + “your keyword” + “statistics”, “your keyword” + quote, 38. make a huge promise (gts formula), get your audience’s excited about what they’ll be able to do or know by the end of your speech., use the gts (give them something) formula:, you will get you will learn today, i’m going to show you [ statement that benefits your audience ]. by the end of this presentation, you will [ result they’re interested in ]., by the end of today’s presentation, you will join an elite group of speakers who can changes lives of their audience members for the better. you will learn secret techniques that only a few of the world’s best speakers are using and that’ll make every speech an outstanding one., people will listen because they really want to get what you promise., bottom line : don’t over-promise, ever., tweet this gts technique –, 39. share a plan, if your speech is longer than 30 minutes, give em a plan. a plan makes it easy for your audience to follow through aka see where you are at any point in time., “5 steps for financial freedom and you’re taking about 3: they know you’re at the middle of the speech”., command with your body, 40. stand facing the people you’re taking too, 41. use high-power poses, according to harvard business school professor amy j.c. cuddy , high-power poses decrease cortisol (“the stress hormone”) by about 25% and increase testosterone by about 19% for both men and women., nonverbal expressions of power and dominance are about expanding:, stretch out open up make yourself taller, seriously, set aside 15 minutes to watch this amazing tedx talk:, body language, the power is in the palm of your hands | allan pease .

Bottom line : Don’t use defensive postures such as arms crossed, hands in pockets, hands clasped behind or in front of your body. These postures limit your gestural ability and will make your audience close off as well.

42. use eye contact, eye contact is crucial in keeping you and your audience connected. here are two things you should do to keep them engaged:, spend a few seconds with each person you look at, for bigger lecture halls, use an m or a w pattern to spread eye contact throughout ( source )., 43. keep moving, “human beings are drawn to movement. if you move when you speak, you’ll get people’s attention., it can be especially effective to move toward the audience before making a key point, and away when you want to signal a break or a change of subject. you can also use space to reinforce your ideas. for example, if you’re presenting three issues, talk about each of them from a different physical position”., carole kinsey goman (via forbes)., convince with your voice, 44. use pauses to add expression and feeling to  your speech, [tweet “pausing is to speaking as punctuation is to writing.”], look, pauses are super important because they:, reduce the overall rate of speaking, give the audience time to reflect + absorb what you’re saying, tell your listeners you are moving from one thought to the next, here are a few tips from the presentation coach diane windingland :, pause before you speak, look at your audience first, pause before and after important/difficult words or concepts, pause after changing visual, pause before and after a punch line ( e.g take my wife….please),  plus, when saying something important, speak slowly., slowness implies what you’re going to say is extremely important—so important that they need time for it to sink in. plus, a clear speech is easier to understand., 45. use a conversational tone, verbal presentation skills are crucial to your success and there are two things you should do to increase engagement with your audience:, first, use the words “you” and “i”  so your audience relates with what you’re telling them., do you reme mber the last time you….[client problem]. i understand that. you know that feeling when… [bad situation]. i think it’s crazy, don’t you you ’re stuck in [bad situation], you ’re dealing with… [problem]… i feel your pain. let me be honest with you, if you ’re serious about [benefit they want]…, second, you can also use rhetorical questions:, pretty sneaky, isn’t it you guys know what i’m talking about, right, 46. use sensory phrases, using sensory phrases while you’re presenting will help you get your audience to feel something:, does it feel like…. can you imagine… let me show you… let me tell you… you don’t need to…, if you’re like me you’ll love to get your brain juice going with concrete examples., check out these lists of emotion, trigger words and phrases:, 47. eliminate filler words (aka the dreaded “um”), since being kids, we’ve been conditioned to answer questions immediately.  and that’s why we’re using filler words such as “uh”, “um”, “well”, “like”… that make us look dumb and unprepared., here are a few ways eliminate these words from your vocabulary:, video or audio record yourself: find out just how bad it really is. if you’re aware of it, you can work on it, don’t speak while looking at your notes (look at your notes, look up and then speak), be silent while you are trying to come up with the right word, apply the pta formula : pause, think, answer, tweet this filler words elimination technique –, 48. apply the sdt principle.

Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass. Anton Chekhov

The SDT (aka Show Don’t Tell) principle has one purpose: enable your audience  to experience the story through action, words, senses, and feelings.

Here’s a kickass example from zendesk  customer service software:, bottom line : get your audience to picture what you’re telling them.,  great resources on body language techniques:, your hand gestures are speaking for you  (with pictures), the secrets of body language: why you should never cross your arms again, amy cuddy: your body language shapes who you are  (ted talk), 49. avoid the lecture (here’s why), “for the first 5-10 minutes of a typical 50 minute lecture a student remembers a high proportion of the information presented, after which the proportion of information preserved rapidly declines. students typically retain 70% from the first 10 minutes of lecture, and 20% from the last 10 minutes . source ., yup… our brains don’t pay attention during a lecture., “research has shown that the lecture, aka “a dump of information”, is quite literally the worst way to receive content. we cannot retain, interact, or engage with it. the research of james hartley and ivor davies revealed that in the first seven minutes of a lecture, all were engaged. shortly after that window of time, attention dropped and plateaued for the next forty minutes., don’t make the mistake of doing a brain dump. ponder how to create small moments between 7-10 minute chunks of content that allow the audience to stop, pause, and think for a while. avoid the lecture”, bryan kelly (via bryan paul kelly), 50. rehearse, when asked what he thinks the most costly presentation mistake is, scott schwertly  of ethos3  had this to say…, “rehearse. embrace the mindset that every presentation requires a number of rehearsals. if your boss wants you to present on a piece of subject matter you have never seen before, it requires a minimum of 7-8 rehearsals. back in 1981, jerry seinfeld practiced 200 times for his comedy bit on the tonight show with johnny carson., if you think practicing your presentation 2x the night before and 1x the morning of your talk will make you succeed, you are dead wrong.”, scott schwertly , ceo of ethos3, here are two effective ways to rehearse your speech:, audio record yourself: it will help you assess which phrases sound good and which just look weird. don’t forget to listen for filler words and heck out the time., get feedback. grab a friend or a colleague and ask him: what can i improve what’s your favorite element of the speech, it’s time to put your new presentation skills into action , it’s no secret that effective presentation skills can skyrocket your success – a new job, a boost for your business, or even fund raising for your startup., no wonder why 90% of american people are saying communicate skills are most important for their children to get ahead in the world today ., some years back, when i was just starting to get serious about building persuasive presentations and pitches, i scoured the web for checklists that would help me remember all these new things that i was learning., i found nothing, other than seamless list of tips like “arrive early” (duh), “be entertaining” or “tell stories”., i felt frustrated, and that’s why i decided to create this piece of content., i believe this infographic would be a great little addition to keep on your own computer desktop. whenever you build or deliver a presentation….just check out the list to make sure you’re on track., hope you’ve enjoyed and learnt., additional resources you’ll love, pptpop’s best resources : a hand-curated list of articles, templates, and life-changing books that will help you become a better you, faster than anyone else., make a killer sales presentation : my personal blueprint to designing high-converting sales decks form scratch., [tweet “how to hack your presentation skills [infographic] “], join pptpop, if you join pptpop, you’ll get one or two monthly emails where i share crazy-effective advice designed  to help you craft irresistible pitches and presentations that hook. and sell. a lot. no fluff. no b.s. click that fat blue button to subscribe., recommended for you.

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How to give better PowerPoint presentations and improve your slides to keep an audience engaged

• You can improve your PowerPoint presentations by both improving your presentation skills and making better use of the program. 
• To create a more compelling PowerPoint presentation, you can use tricks like animated charts, a background soundtrack, or embedded fonts. 
• Here are 17 tips for making cleaner slides, speaking more effectively, and using little-known PowerPoint tools for smarter presentations.

Microsoft PowerPoint remains the most common platform to create and deliver presentations. 

No matter what your content, you can make a more compelling presentation when you've toned some common presentation skills and also mastered some of PowerPoint's lesser-known features.

How to make a better PowerPoint presentation

Here are nine ways to get more out of PowerPoint and create a killer presentation. 

Start your presentation instantly 

Few things look as unprofessional as fumbling around trying to start your presentation in the PowerPoint app. But you can skip all that by setting your presentation to start instantly.

1. When your PowerPoint deck is complete, click "File" and "Save As."

2. In the Save As dialog box, change the "Save as" type to "PowerPoint Show" and store it somewhere easy to find, like your desktop. 

3. When you're ready to start the presentation, double-click this icon, and the deck will launch instantly in presentation mode, without needing to open the PowerPoint application. 

Create an animated chart

You can format any kind of chart so each segment animates individually. This can help you call attention to specific parts of the chart as you discuss it. Add a chart in the usual way, then:

1. Click the "Animations" tab in the ribbon and then click "Animation Pane."

2. In the ribbon, click "Add Animation."

3. Choose the kind of animation you want to apply to the chart. 

4. Right-click the effect in the Animation Pane and then, in the menu, choose "Effect Options."

5. In the Properties box, choose the "Chart Animation" tab and then change "Group chart" to "By Category" and click "OK."

Align your graphics

PowerPoint lets you add objects — shapes, lines, arrows, text boxes, and other elements — to the screen, but getting them aligned can be tricky. You might appreciate knowing you can perfectly align any elements on the screen with just a couple of clicks. 

1. Press and hold the Shift key.

2. While continuing to hold Shift, click each item on the screen that you want to align. If you click an element by accident, click it again to de-select it. Release the Shift key when they're all selected.

3. Click the "Home" tab in the ribbon.

4. In the ribbon, click "Arrange" and then, in the "Position Objects" section, choose an alignment to arrange or distribute the objects neatly on the screen. 

Embed your fonts for portability

If you're using special fonts in your presentation and you try to open the deck on a computer that doesn't have those fonts installed, PowerPoint will substitute a local font, sometimes with disastrous results. You can avoid that problem by embedding the font in the deck, making the presentation fully portable (and possible for other people to share and edit the deck as well).

1. Click the "File" tab in the ribbon and then choose "Options."

2. In the PowerPoint Options dialog box, choose "Save" in the navigation pane on the left.

3. In the section called "Preserve fidelity when sharing this presentation," click "Embed fonts in the file" and then select "Embed all characters."

Blank the screen to keep all eyes on you

It seems inevitable: For whatever reason, you find yourself needing to discuss a topic that's not directly related to the slide on the screen. That's when the deck can become a distraction, with your audience's eyes focused on a pie chart when you're answering an unrelated question. PowerPoint has an easy solution: Press the B key to blank the screen — it'll turn black until you press B again or move to the next slide. If you prefer, press W to turn the screen white. 

Easily jump between sections of your deck

Not every presentation is linear, and you might prefer to jump back and forth from sections of your deck to a common "table of contents," so you can tackle the presentation in any order. This can be handy, for example, if you're using a deck for training or education. PowerPoint's Zoom feature is ideal for this.

1. Create a presentation and be sure to organize it into sections, ideally with title slides dividing each part of the deck.

2. Click the "Insert" tab in the ribbon.

3. Click "Zoom" and then click "Summary Zoom."

4. In the "Insert Summary Zoom" window, select the title slide or start of each section and then click "Insert."

PowerPoint will add a summary page to your deck. Now you can start your presentation here and click a section to go there. When that section is complete, PowerPoint will return you to the summary page. 

Preserve the presentation as a PDF

If you want to share your presentation with your audience, a PDF file is an easy way to preserve the formatting, make it easily printable, and prevent anyone from modifying your content. Just click the "File" tab in the ribbon, choose "Save As," and then select "PDF" as the "Save as" type. You can now share this PDF file quickly and easily. 

Zoom in for a closer look

During a presentation, you might realize that the audience can't clearly see a detail you want to focus on. That's ok — PowerPoint lets you zoom in with a couple clicks. 

First, make sure your presentation is set to Slide Show view. To zoom in, click on the magnifying glass in the lower-left corner of the presenter view. You'll see a zoom box appear — position it where you want to zoom, and click. Now the presentation will be zoomed in on the part of the screen you want to focus on. You can even click and drag to move around the screen while zoomed in. 

When you're done and want to zoom back out, either press the Escape key or the magnifying glass icon again. 

Add a musical soundtrack

You can easily add a musical score that plays in the background across all your slides. This is especially handy for "kiosk" presentations that run autonomously. 

1. Go to the slide where you want the music to begin and then click the "Insert" tab in the ribbon.

2. Click "Audio" and then click "Audio on my PC…"

3. Choose the track you want to play. 

4. In the ribbon, click "Play in Background."

Now, when you reach this slide, the music will start to play automatically and it will continue playing across slides until the track is over, then loop and play again.

Related coverage from  Tech Reference :

How to do a voiceover on a powerpoint presentation and add pre-recorded audio to your slides, the 48 best powerpoint keyboard shortcuts for making great presentations quickly and easily, how to add a border to slides in powerpoint, and give your slideshow a sleek design, how to compress a powerpoint file so that it loads faster and doesn't take up as much space, how to create a custom powerpoint template to use or share with others.

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• CONFIDENT PRESENTATION TIPS
• SUCCESSFUL PRESENTATION TIPS
• PRESENTATION DESIGN TIPS
• PUBLIC SPEAKING TIPS
• TIPS FOR SPEAKERS
• PRESENTATION VIDEOS
• 10 Ways to Improve Your PowerPoint Presentation Skills
• Presentation Tips You Should Know
• See How Easily You Gain Confidence With These Confident Presentation Tips

Preparing your next PowerPoint presentation doesn’t have to be too taxing. Yes, it’s true that the medium has its problems. But you can solve most of these problems with a little bit of care and attention. So, now’s the time, to be more choosy with the PowerPoint palette. And, importantly, now's definitely the time to take on board some simple PowerPoint presentation skills.

PowerPoint Presentation Skills For Every Event

Therefore, when you are ready to prepare your next PowerPoint presentation here are ten essential tips for better PowerPoint presentation skills. And, importantly, they're simple, effective and you don't need to be a whizz at PowerPoint to really get to grips with them.

Ten Essential Tips For PowerPoint

Ten tips to enhance your PowerPoint presentation skills.

Typeface . Choose a typeface that your audience can read on your presentation screen. Experiment with a serif Typeface such as Times New Roman and sans-serif typefaces such as Arial and Verdana (Format: Replace Font).

Font . You want your words to be readable by your audience—so, aim to use a font with a point size that is fully legible: 16 point or 18 point, perhaps (Format: Font). Of course, the fonts on this  RB results presentation could always be improved. But, visually it’s a good piece of work.

Colours . Your choice of typeface colour is also important (Format: Font: Color). That’s because some colours will be less visible to your audience than others. Greens and reds can be indistinct on a white background. Blues and blacks have more visibility. Therefore, don’t forget to consider your background colour scheme (Format: Background). The colour scheme on this  Whitbread results presentation is a good example.

Bullet Points . It’s often the bullet point list that creates most problems for your audience. Since there are either too many bullet points, too many words per bullet or just too many lists in a presentation. They work best when you want to summarise or signpost direction. So, this is what we’ve done. And, this is where we are going. Clearly the  Solitary 101 PowerPoint presentation has one clear message. But it’s totally let down by the bullet points.

Images . Aim to use images as effective visual metaphors in your presentation (Insert: Picture). This is because they will enhance and support your speech. But, do make sure that your pictures are big enough to fill the screen.

Video . Use video and audio files in your PowerPoint presentation when you have the opportunity (Insert: Movies and Sounds). Of course, it’s an ideal way to build interest and keep your audience engaged.

PowerPoint Presentation Skills For More Effective Presenting

Charts and graphs are key to many presentations (Insert: Chart). Remember to keep the charts big, without too much distracting detail. Don’t mix them with bullet points. Since doing it like that weakens their impact. So, try to use the “build” technique (Slide Show: Custom Animation). Your chart can build itself as you speak—based on rehearsed timings or your mouse click. It’s very effective. And for an example of something to avoid, you can always look at this Howard Weil PowerPoint presentation .

Special effects can make or ruin a presentation. Thus, try to be selective in your choice of PowerPoint effects (Slide Show: Animation Schemes and Slide Show: Slide Transition). Don’t allow the special effects to be more memorable than your message.

Talking . Avoid the temptation to look at your PowerPoint projection when talking. Because, each time you do so you lose eye contact with your audience. So, use the Fn F5 shortcut on your keyboard to toggle your notebook display and your projection display. Then, you can always glance at your notebook screen without losing audience contact.

Remember the  point, turn and talk  technique for PowerPoint. Point at the screen, turn to your audience and then make your point. That’s how you  point, turn and talk in your PowerPoint presentation.

Exciting Tools In PowerPoint

PowerPoint gives you some exciting tools for your presentation to be truly successful. PowerPoint’s visual and multimedia effects can be stunning. Just beware the trap presented by too many special effects and the standard text layouts. These PowerPoint presentation skills tips should help with your next presentation.

Improve Your PowerPoint Presentation Skills

Aim to boost your PowerPoint presentation skills with these tips.

• 1 Typefaces have to be legible!
• 2 Choose your font with your audience in mind.
• 3 Work with colours carefully.
• 4 Don't use too many bullet Points.
• 5 Use big powerful images.
• 6 Video works well.
• 7 Use charts and graphs to good use.
• 8 Be wary of  special effects.
• 9 Don't talk to your slides.
• 10 Practise the  point, turn and talk technique.

For more PowerPoint presentation skills tips you can always join a PresentPerfect TM   training course . And because you have the choice of either a scheduled course or your very own training course for your team, there’s plenty to consider. So, please don’t hesitate to get in touch when the time is right.

“Style that shows is only decorating.”

Sidney Lumet

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