do's and don'ts in creating powerpoint presentation

Do’s and Don’ts of PowerPoint Presentations | Creating Effective Powerpoint Presentations

In the modern business and academic landscapes, PowerPoint has become an essential communication tool. Though the software makes it simple to create sleek, visually appealing slides, crafting a truly effective PowerPoint requires strategy and finesse. This article will provide extensive tips and guidelines to help you create professional, polished presentations that fully engage audiences and clearly convey information. Therefore take a few minutes and check out what are the actual dos and don’ts.

do and don ts of powerpoint presentations

Table of Contents

Do’s of PowerPoint Presentations

Effective PowerPoint presentations are not just about creating slides; they are about engaging your audience and conveying your message with clarity. Here are the essential do’s to keep in mind –

Follow the 10/20/30 Rule

Coined by PowerPoint expert Guy Kawasaki, this formula ensures impactful presentations. Use no more than 10 slides, present for no longer than 20 minutes, and use a minimum font size of 30 points. This prevents slides from becoming cluttered and text-heavy, ensuring your audience can easily absorb the information.

Use High-Quality Graphics and Images

Visuals play a crucial role in capturing your audience’s attention. High-resolution images appear crisp and clear when projected, making your presentation more visually appealing. Use relevant photos, charts, and graphs, but avoid generic clipart. When using charts, ensure they are legible and avoid problematic red/green color combinations.

Maintain Consistent Style and Theme

Consistency in your presentation design is key to creating a polished, professional look. Stick to a single cohesive font style, color scheme, and layout. Avoid the temptation to overuse transitions or animations, as this can detract from your message’s clarity.

Practice and Time Your Presentation

Rehearse your presentation multiple times while timing yourself. This will help you refine your pacing and ensure a smooth flow of information. Adjust anything that needs modification to fit within the time limits without rushing or dragging.

Engage Your Audience

Your audience’s engagement is crucial to the success of your presentation. Keep them actively involved by maintaining eye contact, asking rhetorical questions, using humor, and limiting the time you spend facing the screen. Engaging your audience can help maintain their focus and interest.

Provide Handouts if Appropriate

Handouts can be valuable for your audience to take notes and reference details later. However, avoid the common mistake of simply printing your slides. Instead, use handouts to summarize key takeaways and essential information, helping your audience retain the most important points.

Arrive Early to Prepare

Arriving early at the presentation location allows you to meet attendees, check equipment, adjust the room setup, and get comfortably settled before starting. This preparation time ensures a smoother start and helps to reduce any pre-presentation jitters.

Check Equipment and Connectivity

Technical glitches can be a presenter’s worst nightmare. To avoid this, thoroughly test the projector, slides, microphone, pointer, Wi-Fi, and any other equipment or connectivity requirements ahead of time. Identifying and addressing technical issues in advance will help your presentation run smoothly.

Don’ts of PowerPoint Presentations

While knowing what to do is important, understanding what not to do is equally crucial. Here are the common pitfalls to avoid in your PowerPoint presentations –

Don’t Make Slides Too Text-Heavy

Each slide should convey its core point with a few bullet points or a short paragraph. Elaborate verbally rather than overwhelming your slides with dense blocks of text. Remember, your audience should listen to you, not read your presentation verbatim.

Avoid Complex Builds and Transitions

Fancy animations between slides may seem appealing but can end up being distracting and time-consuming. Stick to simple transitions like fades or wipes for a more seamless presentation experience.

Don’t Use Unreadable Color Schemes

Light text on dark backgrounds or busy backgrounds can make slides hard to read when projected. Opt for high-contrast color options to ensure readability.

Steer Clear of Clip Art

Cheesy or overused clip art can make your presentation look unprofessional. Instead, opt for original graphics or high-quality stock images that enhance the visual appeal of your slides.

Don’t Read Directly from Slides

Your slides should support your spoken words, not replace them. Speak conversationally and use slides as visual aids rather than reading bulleted lists word-for-word.

Don’t Overwhelm with Too Many Slides

Limit the number of slides in your presentation. For a 30-minute presentation, it’s recommended to keep it within 10-15 slides at most. More slides can make it challenging to delve into topics properly and maintain your audience’s engagement.

Don’t Go Over Time Limit

Rehearse and refine your presentation to ensure you stay within your allotted time. Use a timer to help you stay on track and make any necessary adjustments to avoid running too short or too long.

Don’t Forget Accessibility Needs

Make your presentation inclusive by ensuring text color contrast is suitable for those with color blindness. Add alt text for images to make your content accessible to all, and check for screen reader compatibility to accommodate individuals with visual impairments.

Final Verdict

With mindful planning, preparation, and presentation strategy, PowerPoint can elevate any presentation. Avoid common missteps like slide overload, distracting builds, and boring stock images. Instead, focus on simplifying topics, visualizing concepts, practicing delivery, and actively engaging your listeners. Following the dos and don’ts outlined above will allow your presentation and message to shine.

Q: What is the ideal font size for text in PowerPoint slides?

To ensure text remains clearly legible and readable in a projected presentation, use a minimum font size of 30 points. Larger font sizes of 44-54 points are ideal for titles and headers.

Q: Should you provide printed handouts of your PowerPoint presentation?

Handouts allow audience members to take notes and reference presentation details later on. However, simply printing all your slides as handouts results in people tuning out during the actual presentation. Instead, summarize key takeaways, facts, statistics, and conclusions on handouts.

Q: What file types work best for graphics and images in PowerPoint?

JPEG, PNG, and GIF files are optimized for PowerPoint. Ensure all images are high resolution so they appear crisp and not pixelated or distorted when projected.

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18 PowerPoint Dos and Don’ts

Presentation design /
Visual communication

While there are many who advocate for this new app and that great new program, Microsoft Office’s PowerPoint remains the lifeblood of many marketing presentations and documents. It’s our old friend who knows our needs and wants better than we know them ourselves, who’s always there for us in times of big campaigns and important reports.

For those looking to improve their presentations, these PowerPoint dos and don’ts will not disappoint – we’ve put all our research and experience into it to ensure that. If you’re just discovering PowerPoint’s endless capabilities, these tips will help you master it in no time.

We’ve also included some Pro Tips that might hold the answers to some of the questions you’ve been having. Let’s get started.

PowerPoint Dos

1. know your audience.

All marketing actions should start here. It’s the same for presentations, regardless of their intended purpose. Your information, design and style should be based on what your audience will understand and respond to.

Nancy Duarte, Principal of Duarte Design and author of “ Slideology ”, recommends asking 7 questions to know your audience and build an audience persona slide to place at the front of your presentation.

18 Powerpoint Dos and Don’ts - Seven Questions

Download this PPT template from Duarte Design

2. Create a structure

Things can quickly spiral out of control if you dive head on to designing the document, without a structure in place. Even if you’re creating a presentation to illustrate an existing piece of content, you’ll still need to tailor it to PowerPoint specifics regarding quantity of information, succession of ideas, verbal details used when presenting it etc.

If you’re halfway through the presentation and don’t remember what comes next, go back to your structure. This will help maintain a cohesive train of thought and message flow.

For instance, we usually start our presentation creation process by putting together a structure of the presentation, then we add content to fill-in the structure and, finally, we design the content.

3. Use keywords

This will help you convey a clear message and keep your audience’s attention. It’s also of great help to you when creating the flow of the presentation.

Start with the topic of your presentation, your principal keyword will derive from that and will most likely be comprised in the presentation title. The structure of your presentation will give you another set of keywords.

For example, this presentation starts with 2 main longtail keywords: search content and social content. If you browse through the presentation you’ll notice that certain keywords that are essential to the topic at hand are distributed recurrently throughout the presentation, such as: content marketing, social media, digital channels and content strategy.

Search Content vs. Social Content von SEMrush

4. Organize your information clearly

Be brief and clear. Don’t crowd your slides. Instead, opt for no more than 2-3 sentences per slide and keep in mind your keywords. Think of them more like statements than sentences.

Treat your slides like billboards .

If you’re using lists, 6 bullets/points per slide should cover it. Make sure to leave enough space between lines of text.

Limit the number of slides. A good case practice is using 20-30 slides or one slide per minute.

Use section divider slides; this will help break up content into memorable chunks.

5. Use a legible font

Opt for a legible font and type size. Don’t use eccentric fonts that will make it impossible to make out the actual words. Stick to standard, easy-to-read fonts, preferably sans-serif (fonts such as Arial or Helvetica). This will also minimize the risk of having your fonts substituted when sending to other people.

Titles should be at least 28 to 48 points, bulleted text or body copy at least 24 points. Only use caps in headlines and section titles, not in paragraphs.

do's and don'ts in creating powerpoint presentation

6. Ensure design consistency

Create a template based on your brand guidebook, using the company logos and colors. This will make it so much easier to create consistent presentations and maintain design unity across your work.

Create different layouts for different occasions, within the same template; this way, your presentations will be unified from a design point of view but still have original elements given by the different layouts used.

Featured Download: An Easy Guide To Repurposing Content

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7. Be smart about colors

If your brand book already has a color palette you’re all set. If you’re doing something different, you’ll want to make sure you’re using the appropriate colors: not too bright, high contrast, consistent. A color that looks good on your monitor does not necessarily look good on the big screen you’ll be using to present.

The relationships between the colors you’re using are also important. Limit the use of color to 2 to 4 colors/shades. Use colors that will stand out and will be easy on the eyes (dark backgrounds and light text is a good case practice.) Try Paletton to experiment with different combinations and see what would work best for what you have in mind.

Get inspired by this year’s Pantone color palette to design visually attractive presentations:

Presentation Design Tips – Pantone Best Colors To Use In 2017 from Visual Hackers

8. Use visual elements to illustrate your ideas

Graphs and charts can help show relationships, comparisons, and change. Illustrate your point by verbally discussing each element. Only include 1 to 2 images per slide. You can also use shapes to illustrate complex topics.

Make sure to use these visual graphics to enhance your message and increase understanding. Too much of anything can lead to over stimulating your audience and losing their attention.

9. Save, save, save

It’s best to prevent any technical mishaps and save your work every 5-10 minutes. Even though the program has an automatic save and recover function, there have been plenty of instances when it was too late or something went wrong. CTRL+S is your mantra.

10. End with a summary slide

It’s a good case practice to go through your key points and list the final benefits in a summary slide, at the end of your presentation.

The most important sections of your presentation are the beginning and ending. The beginning is when you will grab the attention of the audience. The summary ending will make it easier for them to remember your ideas.

Here’s an example from one of our clients’ presentations:

11. Keep your presentations well-organized

Store each presentation and its associated files in its proper folder, together with all the visual elements you’ve used.

12. Use animation and sound carefully

Like graphics, animations can be used to enhance your ideas. Abuse them, and you have information overload again. You can also integrate sounds into your presentation, if that’s something that supports your ideas or is needed.

For example, this animation emphasizes that the solution offered by the client is much faster and prevents higher losses:

13. Use transitions for a more dramatic impact

Transitions between slides can help your presentation make more of an impact. However, they can also be quite distracting. A good case practice is to keep transitions to a minimum and use the same transition or a variation of the transition.

Transitions can help when you want to break up content over several slides while still keeping a sense of continuity. Think of it as creating movie scenes rather than individual slides.

With the help of more complex animations and transitions, you can replicate modern effects you typically see on websites, such as parallax scrolling. This type of transition can help the narrative of your presentation and enhance it’s storytelling.

PowerPoint Don’ts

1. put everything on one slide.

It’s not as obvious as you might think. We’ve all done it, at one point. For those situations when there is still something to say, illustrate or include, take a step back and ask yourself “If I can’t see this slide and I can’t read off of it during my presentation, will I still be able to convey its essence?” And there you have your answer.

Only put the essence down. It’s recommended that you don’t use more than eight words per line or eight lines per slide. Start with creating the slides you want and then go back and edit them – remove all non-essential information, remove unnecessary words, and take out slides you can live without. Cut your presentation by as much as half to get to the core if it.

2. Overuse transitions, animations and sound

These effects are meant to be used scarcely, to increase the impact of one idea. They can become a distraction very quickly.

Keep your message front and center and spice up your presentation with enhancing elements at the end. Most presentations are just a visual aid; if you overload them, the audience will end up trying to read the slides and not paying attention to you.

3. Use hard-to-read color combinations and fonts

Stay away from red/green, brown/green, blue/black, blue/purple combinations. Instead, aim for a high contrast between background and text. Also, don’t use bright background colors that will strain your audience’s eyes.

You should also try not to use different colors and fonts on every single slide. Your template will help with this.

4. Use generic graphics and (very) stock photos

If you’re going to opt for visual elements, make sure they are well-designed and suited for your audience. Don’t use generic clipart you found on Google, that’s just offensive to your audience.

The same goes for stock photos that look the same and have been used by everyone. Chances are someone has seen or used that image as well, so instead of helping, it actually hurt your point.

5. Think the slides are for you

Too many people seem to think PowerPoint is just a speech handout. Your presentation is meant to help the audience follow you and to give the clues to organize the information you are sharing, it’s not a substitute.

Pro Tips and Tricks

Choose a story archetype to structure your presentationCreate custom slide sizes – for example, if you want to show a quick presentation to someone on your smartphone, you can create slides the size of your actual screenAlign objects to get a clean design – try this tool for slide proofingGet more control over objects’ designs using “Format” menus Create custom shapesCrop images into custom shapesEmbed your font files to make sure they don’t changeEmbed multimediaCompress images to reduce the size of the presentationUse Touch Bar shortcuts Use a black background for scientific presentations Convert vectors to editable shapes in PowerPoint

Whatever your choice of presentation creation program, remember that your ultimate goal is to convey a message. Follow the principles above and make sure everything you’re including in it supports your message and enhances it, without distracting the audience.

If you need help with creating a last-minute report or presentation, we’ve got just the team for you. Drop us an email and request a quote and we’ll make sure to help you deliver a successful presentation!

Image credit: Mind Blown – Liana Azwa via Behance.net

Are you ready to take your presentations to the next level?

Our team can help with everything from researching your project, writing the content, designing and building your slides, and even creating handouts.

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I really like it

That’s great! Thanks!

Thanks for the info. I really appreciate it

This is really great! It helps a lot!

Lol I love this but it could use some more donts

Thanks for the appreciation and feedback Mike. We’re actually working on an updated version of this article and it will have a few more Don’ts 😉

i agree more don’ts would help a lot

thanks for the insights. They are very helpful. I hope to benefit more in the future presentations

Great tips there Paula! Definitely gonna apply some of these to my upcoming presentations especially embedding visual media and adding touchbar shortcuts. I also found this article https://slideuplift.com/blog/powerpoint-hacks-you-did-not-know-for-effective-presentations/ helpful for some more dos and don’ts to create effective presentations.

Great tips for PPT makers. This certainly helps, will share the articles with my PPT design team. Thanks

Excellent article! Congratulations on the information. 57439559

Great PPT Dos and Don’t s

PowerPoint Presentations: Do’s and Don’ts

The problem

Picture this: You attend a meeting a work. The presenter pulls up their white PowerPoint slides cluttered with paragraphs and charts. They drone on about the gap between point A and point B on a complicated graph. Of course, you can see neither point A nor B so you trust that their gap estimate is correct…and significant. Significant enough to take six minutes to cover. You look at your watch. The meeting is nowhere near complete. Though you feel happy for this vacation from your desk, you cannot seem to focus on what the presenter is saying. Speaking of vacation, you think about the tropical destination ad you saw this morning. A beach vacation would be nice…

Does this situation seem all too familiar? For many businesspeople, this is a weekly, if not daily, occurrence. The cycle continues: bad presentation after bad presentation. None are memorable. Few are tolerable. Put bluntly, these presentations are inefficient, ineffective time wasters. Though the present PowerPoint presentation situation feels bleak, you can be the agent of a positive future.

To turn you into a positive agent, let’s cover the dos and don’ts of PowerPoint presentations.

Dos and Don’ts

Don’t confuse your PowerPoint with your presentation. Your presentation includes your speech aiming to reach a goal with your audience (i.e. persuade, inform, educate, etc.). YOU are your presentation. Whether you accept the fact or hide in the dark, YOU either make or break your presentation. PowerPoint, or any other presentation software, whiteboard, chalkboard, paper, etc., is a visual aid. An aid to you, the presenter. A tool for you to either harness or misuse.

Do use visual aids. Though PowerPoint is a tool, not the presentation, using this visual aid does not have to be a bad thing. Visual aids help listeners follow along and understand key points.

Don’t build your presentation based on your PowerPoint. Most presentation preparation should include determining an attention-grabbing opener and closer and appropriate and well-supported content, gathering your thoughts in an organized and easy-to-follow way, and practicing the presentation for extemporaneous delivery, full of great eye contact and expression. A small part of presentation preparation should include preparing a PowerPoint. Unfortunately, many presenters instead use their PowerPoints as notes from which to read. In a study, four hundred fifty-three frequent PowerPoint viewers (1-2 times daily) were asked for the major aspects of PowerPoint presentations that annoyed them most [1]. The most frequent answers were 1) reading word-for-word from slides (71.7%) and 2) including full sentences (48.6%) [1]. The lesson learned: your PowerPoint should not be a written version of your presentation.

Do focus on one message per slide. Putting more than one message on a slide causes the audience to choose which message to focus on and takeaway [2]. Instead, save yourself the slide space and choose one message for your audience per slide.

Don’t overcomplicate your slides. White space (aka “empty” space) on your slide is good. When your slides become too cluttered, the audience will, at best, have a difficult time following, at worst, give up trying to understand. What is too cluttered? For example, if a single slide has more than one chart or graph, the slide is too cluttered. A good rule of thumb is six components per slide, with a component being a single bit of information like a bullet point with text, an image, or a title [2]. David Phillips, a Swedish presentation guru, explained that including any more than six pieces of information forces your audience to use 500% more cognitive resources [2]. Being that humans are energy-savers, this loosely translates to, you will lose your audience’s attention .

Do be careful when using charts and graphs. Though data can be helpful in illustrating a point or backing up an argument, most charts and graphs are too complex to understand quickly. To combat this, presenters will add red lines, data labels, and different markings to clarify [3]. Instead of helping, these marks further clutter the content [3]. If you must use a graph or chart, try using contrast to focus in your audience on the key message. For example, make all the numbers in your chart a faint light gray except the number you wish to focus in on, which can be a solid dark black [2]. Or, to avoid complicated charts and graphs, pull out the significant statistic and write it as a bullet point or phrase.

Don’t use hard-to-read fonts. Stick to serif and sans serif typefaces and use 18-point font or larger [1]. Also, avoid using all uppercase letters. Lowercase letters are easier for your audience to read [1]. Make sure the most important content on your slide stands out due to contrast and also, size [2]. Use larger font sizes for your content, rather than your titles [2].

Do use dark backgrounds on your slides. As stated above, you are your presentation. However, when you stand next to a huge bright screen, the presentation becomes less about you and more about the slides [2]. The audience will be drawn to look at the PowerPoint instead of you. Instead, utilize adept presenter and well-known entrepreneur, Steve Jobs’ technique of dark backgrounds accompanied with minimalism in text and imagery [1].

There you have it. Just four dos and four don’ts for creating infinitely more effective, efficient, and even entertaining PowerPoint slides for your next presentation. This will help your audience focus on you and your message, rather than using your presentation time to plan their next vacation.

[1] Hamilton, C., Kroll, T. (2018) Communicating for Results: A Guide for Business and the Professions. (11 th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwpi1Lm6dFo

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRIcD7v-Vm8

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Slideshows are a quick, easy, and effective way to inject visual interest into a presentation. However, they can also be the kiss of death even for the most seasoned presenter. The key to a successful PowerPoint is to make sure your slideshow acts as a visual aid and not a visual distraction. It should also be used only to supplement what the presenter is saying. Here we will take a look at some of the do’s and don’ts of an effective PowerPoint presentation.

DO: Keep it Concise

The biggest mistake most people make when creating a slideshow is to paste all of their information verbatim onto the slides. Not only is this incredibly boring, but no one has the desire to read all of that text. The general rule of thumb is to limit yourself to five words per line and no more than five lines per slide.

DON’T: Use Special Effects

It can be tempting to add all of the bells and whistles to your PowerPoint but this often ends doing more harm than good. Transitions and sound effects can become the focus of attention, and this distracts the audience from your actual message. It’s best to leave out the fade-ins, fade-outs, wipes, checkerboards, dissolves, splits, and other special effects. Focus on your message and not these fancy add-ons.

DO: Look Up!

Even if you are referencing the information on your slides, you should still look up and maintain eye contact with your audience. This is important for engagement.

DON’T: Read the Slides

Your audience can read on their own and the last thing they want is for you to read every word to them. Your slides should only be used to support your oral presentation, not as a script.

DO: Use Bullets and Numbered Lists

People process information better when it’s organized into parts. Break down your information into sections and then break those down into smaller subsections. Make sure the information flows in an orderly fashion and is easy to understand. Progressively released bullets (that pop up one at a time) can be useful for helping the audience keep track of where you are and they also prevent them from reading ahead.

DON’T: Use Standard Clipart

The clipart included with PowerPoint has been so overused that it shows a lack of creativity and can really downplay your slideshow. You are better off sticking with a simple design and avoiding graphics but if you do choose to add graphics, go with high-quality photographs or custom graphics that will enhance your message.

DO: Use Data Sparingly

Creating a slide with significant amounts of data can overwhelm your audience. It is more beneficial to add contextual information that your viewers can more easily understand that dense, data-focused slides.

6 dos and don’ts for next-level slides, from a TED presentation expert

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Want to prevent yawns and glazed-over eyes? Before you deliver your next speech, pitch or address, learn how to create exceptional slides by following these rules (with real before-and-afters).

Slides are an expected and crucial part of most speeches, presentations, pitches and addresses. They can simplify complex information or messages, showcase relevant images, and help hold an audience’s attention. But quite often, the best slides aren’t those that make people sit up and comment on how good they are; instead, they’re the ones that people take in without really noticing because the content is effortlessly conveyed and matches the speaker’s words so well.

These days, showing high-quality slides is more important than ever. “We’re living in a visual culture,” says Paul Jurczynski , the cofounder of Improve Presentation and one of the people who works with TED speakers to overhaul their slides. “Everything is visual. Instagram is on fire, and you don’t often see bad images on there. The same trend has come to presentations.”

He says there is no “right” number of slides. However, it’s important that every single one shown — even the blank ones (more on those later) — be, as Jurczynski puts it, “connected with the story you’re telling.” Here, he shares 6 specific tips for creating the most effective slides. ( Note: All of the examples below were taken from the actual slides of TED speakers. )

1. Do keep your slides simple and succinct

“The most common mistake I see is slides that are overcrowded. People tend to want to spell everything out and cover too much information,” says Jurczynski. Not only are these everything-but-the-kitchen-sink slides unattractive and amateurish, they also divert your audience’s attention away from what you’re saying. You want them to listen to the words that you slaved over, not get distracted by unscrambling a jam-packed slide.

“The golden rule is to have one claim or idea per slide. If you have more to say, put it on the next slide,” says Jurczynski. Another hallmark of a successful slide: The words and images are placed in a way that begins where the audience’s eyes naturally go and then follows their gaze. Use the position, size, shape and color of your visuals to make it clear what should come first, second and so on. “You don’t just control what the audience sees; you have to control how they see it,” says Jurczynski.

BEFORE: Too crowded

After: easy to absorb.

2. Do choose colors and fonts with care

Colors and fonts are like the herbs and spices of your presentation. When used wisely and with intention, they’ll enhance your slides; but when tossed in haphazardly, they’ll make it an unappealing mess.

Let’s start with color. “Color is a key way to communicate visually and to evoke emotion,” says Jurczynski. “It can be a game changer.” Your impulse might be to pick your favorite hue and start from there, but he advises, “it’s important to use color with a purpose.” For example, if you’re giving a presentation about a positive topic, you’ll want to use bright, playful colors. But if you’re speaking about a serious subject such as gun violence or lung cancer, you’d probably go for darker or neutral colors.

While it’s fine to use a variety of colors in your presentation, overall you should adhere to a consistent color scheme, or palette. “The good news is you don’t need a degree in color theory to build a palette,” says Jurczynski. Check out one of the many free sites — such as Coolors or Color Hunt — that can help you assemble color schemes.

With fonts, settle on just one or two, and make sure they match the tone of your presentation. “You don’t have to stick to the fonts that you have in PowerPoint,” or whatever program you’re using, says Jurczynski. “People are now designing and sharing fonts that are easy to install in different programs. It’s been an amazing breakthrough.” Experiment. Try swapping a commonly used font like Arial for Lato or Bebas , two of many lesser known fonts available online. Most important: “Use a big enough font, which people often forget to do,” advises Jurczynski. Your text has to be both legible and large enough to read from the back of the room, he recommends — about 30 points or so.

BEFORE: Weak and hard-to-read font, muddy colors

AFTER: Strong font, color that’s striking but not jarring

3. Don’t settle for visual cliches

When you’re attempting to illustrate concepts, go beyond the first idea that comes to your mind. Why? The reason it appears so readily may be because it’s a cliché. For example, “a light bulb as a symbol for innovation has gotten really tired,” says Jurczynski. Other oft-used metaphors include a bull’s-eye target or shaking hands. After you’ve come up with your symbol or idea, he advises people to resist the lure of Google images (where there are too many low-quality and clichéd choices) and browse other free image sites such as Unsplash to find more unique visuals. One trick: If you do use stock, amp it up with a color overlay (as in the pic at the top of this article) or tweak it in some other way to counteract — or at least muffle — its stock-i-ness.

One potential source of pictures is much closer at hand. “If it fits the storyline, I encourage people to use their own images,” says Jurczynski. “Like one TED Talk where the speaker, a doctor, used photos of his experience treating people in Africa. That was all he needed. They were very powerful.” Major caveat: Any personal photos must support your speech or presentation. Do not squander your audience’s precious time by showing them a gratuitous picture of your children or grandparents — beautiful as they may be.

BEFORE: Fake-looking stock photo to illustrate teamwork

After: eye-catching photo of nature to illustrate teamwork.

4. Don’t get bogged down by charts and graphs

Less is also more when it comes to data visualization. Keep any charts or graphs streamlined. When building them, ask yourself these questions:

What do I want the audience to take away from my infographic?

Why is it important for them to know this?

How does it tie into my overall story or message?

You may need to highlight key numbers or data points by using color, bolding, enlarging or some other visual treatment that makes them pop.

Maps are another commonly used infographic. Again, exercise restraint and use them only if they enhance your talk. “Sometimes, people put a map because they don’t know what else to show,” says Jurczynski. He suggests employing labels, color schemes or highlighting to direct your audience where to look. He adds, if you have the skill or know an artist, “you may even consider a hand-drawn map.”

BEFORE: Yikes! What’s important?!? AFTER: The takeaway is clear

5. don’t be scared of blank slides.

It may seem counterintuitive, but at certain points in your speech or pitch, the best visual is … no visual at all. “At the beginning, I was not a fan of blank slides,” says Jurczynski. “But the more talks I’ve seen, the more a fan I am of them, because sometimes you want all the attention on yourself and you don’t want people distracted by what they see in the slides. Or, you might use them to give the audience a visual break from a series of slides. Or maybe you want to shift the mood or tempo of the presentation.”

The blank slide is the visual equivalent of a pause, and most stories could use at least one. And with blank slides, Jurczynski has one main “don’t”: “You cannot use white blank slides, because if you do, people will see it and think something is broken.”

6. Do remember to practice

The easiest way to figure out if your slides really work? Recruit a colleague, friend or family member, and run through your entire presentation with them. Sometimes, people can get so carried away with rehearsing their delivery and memorizing their words that they forget to make sure their slides complement and synch up with what they’re saying.

“Even if you have the best visual s in the world, you need to practice in front of someone else. Once you start practicing, you may see, ‘I’m talking about a sad story, but on the slide behind me, I have something funny and that doesn’t make sense,'” says Jurczynski. “Or, ‘Oh, this could be a good place for a blank slide.’”

About the author

Amanda Miller manages curation for partner events at TED.

business advice
data visualization
idea visualization
presentation literacy
public speaking

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Powerpoint Do’s and Don’ts

by Michelle Stevens

Believe it or not, but PowerPoint, the ever present presentation tool, has been with us for nearly three decades. As anyone who has ever sat through a particularly dull slide deck can attest, there is a fine art to building and exhibiting a compelling presentation that keeps an audience’s attention. Here are a few tips to make your next PowerPoint something special:

DO: Stay Concise

The biggest rookie PowerPoint mistake is to copy and paste all your information verbatim into the slides.

Not only is this incredibly boring, but no one is going to have the time or inclination to read a wall of text. Don’t turn a presentation into a book.

There’s no hard rule, but a good general principle is to limit yourself to five words per line and five lines per slide.

DON’T: Overdo the Special Effects

After years of updates, PowerPoint is extremely full featured at this point.

But, while it can be fun to play with all the bells and whistles, too often they just end up being distractions,

Avoid overusing animations, flashy transitions, jarring sound effects, busy backgrounds, unnecessary drop shadows, ornate fonts, or any other effect that doesn’t make your information clearer.

DO: Use Humor

Because the format is so well established and we’ve all seen thousands of them, even the best powerpoint presentations can struggle to engage audiences.

Don’t treat a presentation like an open mic night at the comedy club, but the occasional comic, snappy pun, or amusing anecdote will liven things up, make your arguments more memorable, and prevent monotony from setting in.

DON’T: Just Read the Slides

Your audience, presumably, can already read. They don’t want to have the words on the screen read back to them word for word. Your slides should support an oral presentation, not just reiterate it.

Know the material well enough that your bullet points will jog your memory of the finer details that need to be addressed.

DO: Look Up!

Even if you aren’t just reading from the slides and are just referring to them, you should still look up now and then to maintain eye contact with the audience– how else will you know if they are still awake?

DON’T: Rush

Give your audience ample time to read each slide, but don’t delay so long as to lose their attention.

Also, don’t start speaking as soon as the next slide loads. Give the audience a few moments to scan the slide and get ready to hear what you have to say about it.

Likewise, don’t hit the next slide as soon as you finish discussing the current one. Give readers time to digest the information, and check out the room to see if they look ready to move on.

DO: Be Bold and Direct

Use bold colors and sharp contrasts, not only because it will enhance legibility but because it imparts emotion and energy into your presentation.

Similarly, when it comes to fonts for presentations, bigger is almost always better. A point size of 18 is just about the bare minimum. Shoot for something closer to the mid to upper 20s. Also, bear in mind, sans serif fonts are considered more legible at big sizes.

DON’T: Over Rely on Clipart

Especially in creative fields, people will notice clip art that doesn’t quite fit. Pull images and video from the web that are highly relevant and help drive your point home in an appealing way.

DO: Save Handouts for the End

There’s some debate about this one. Some authorities believe following a handout will improve audience recall, but many believe it just pulls awareness away from the presenter.

Attendees already have the constant threat of smartphones to distract them. Don’t give them anything else that might overshadow the main event.

Be the center of attention at all times. Make your case and make it well, and then provide supplementary materials for people to look over at their leisure.

DON’T: Overuse Statistics

No one needs to see all the raw data that went into your presentation. They want you to synthesize that information for them.

Slides overloaded with too many facts and figures will be tuned out. Besides anyone who needs all the granular details will ideally be able to get them on your website or handout materials.

If you have a stat you think is vital to the story you are telling, try to at least format it in a visually interesting way like a simple chart or graph.

DO: Use Bullets and Numbered Lists

Humans process information better when it’s organized in discrete chunks. Take out information and break it down into major sections, and then break those down into subsections.

Information should flow in an orderly fashion and be extremely easy to understand and digest.

Progressively released bullet points (that pop up one at a time) can also be useful for helping the audience keep track of where you are in the presentation.

DON’T: Be Afraid to Take a Pause

You don’t have to run through your slides unceasingly. Some presenters prefer to leave questions to the end, but others allow questions at any time.

But, if a question arises that causes a digression, consider hitting the letter “B” on the keyboard. This will pause the presentation and clear the screen,

If you leave the current slide up many eyes will stay fixated on it even as you are discussing something totally different.

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Dos and Don’ts of Impactful PowerPoint Presentation Design

Ulfah Alifah

Published on August 6, 2021

Creating a PowerPoint presentation is something that every single person can do. Talking about the creation alone should not require too much effort and time because even the software alone provides default templates.

However, creating an impactful PowerPoint presentation design is not a job that everyone can do. Even experts can find it challenging to develop an impactful PowerPoint presentation design because there are many things that they should pay attention to.

Some of those things are minor details and miscellaneous items that you need to perfect, while others are the mistakes you need to avoid. Yes, we are not talking about big things, but little details that can bring massive change.

There are ten most common things that you need to pay attention to, but many presenters ignore them. And to assist you in learning about the ten dos and don’ts of impactful PowerPoint presentation design, we will help you here.

Here are the ten dos and don’ts of impactful PowerPoint presentation design, consisting of five dos and five don’ts.

Talking about dos and don’ts of impactful PowerPoint presentation design, we think it is better to start with what you should do first. Here are five on the list:

Start with pen and paper

How often do you directly open Microsoft PowerPoint after you get the instruction to create a PowerPoint presentation? Many people do this, even though that’s not the correct order in creating an impactful PowerPoint presentation design. We took this advice from Ravishankar Iyer’s LinkedIn post.

“So, what’s so wrong about that? Should I go out and eat first?” Well, if you are starving, we suggest you do that. But seriously, you should not go to Microsoft PowerPoint directly after you get the instruction or order to create a PowerPoint presentation if you want to make an impactful PowerPoint presentation design.

Instead, take some paper and pen, then draw or write the outline of the presentation first. No need to make it a detailed outline, but you should brainstorm your PowerPoint presentation design on that sheet of paper.

This way, you can easily recognize the points that need to stand out and things that you can eliminate from your PowerPoint presentation to make it more compact.

Show the audience visual proofs

Make sure always to put visual support in your presentation. We will always include this suggestion in every single article we make. Yes, even though the slide contains the title, make sure to put visual support in it so your audience will always find every slide you create interesting.

And, if you ever question why we should put visual support to help us explain our presentation, the answer is to make it less boring. Your audience’s attention is the thing that you want to maintain harvesting throughout the presentation!

Using visual support such as icons, illustrations, pictures, graphs, etc., is an excellent way to harvest your audience’s attention. There is a reason why our eyes are placed in front we use our visual sense the most to measure everything.

And it includes the measurement to ‘see’ whether your presentation is worth their attention or not. Once they think it is not worth their presence, they will switch their attention to their smartphone.

Change the color

Imagine doing a PowerPoint presentation in front of Republican Party members, and your slides are as blue as the sky. Wouldn’t it be awkward? Oh yes, changing the color to fit your audience’s preferences is as important as having them pay attention to it.

Of course, you don’t want them to pay attention to your slides because they aim to throw some tomatoes at them. That’s the kind of impact you don’t want to get for your impactful PowerPoint presentation design.

But don’t you know that many presenters ignore it? A lot of presenters still pay little to no attention to the color palette of their PowerPoint presentations. One of the main reasons is that many people still think changing the whole color of their presentation design is hard work.

No, the fact that you can easily do it without changing the colors one by one. What you need to do is to click the Design tab and click the Variants group. Go to Colors and choose Customize Colors. You will then be directed to a dialog box to select between 12 current color themes.

“But I don’t like any of those colors.” Easy, edit the color themes, click the drop-down arrow and enter any color combination you like.

Consider slide transition

You may be able to arrest your audience’s attention while explaining things with your impactful PowerPoint presentation design. But as soon as you move to your next slide, you feel like your audience forgets about what you presented on the last slide, and thus make your presentation not as impactful as you thought.

That little gap in between slides is the main reason for this weirdness. When that area is left blank, your audience will see it as a reset point.

But how to prevent their attention from wandering around in between slides? The thing you need is called ‘transition.’ Yes, it is just as easy as adding a slide transition from the animation toolbar. But the thing you need is more than just fading in-fading out slides.

You can also add a simple transition even without putting animations to your slides. In this case, the weapon you can use is called a ‘question.’ A good question, such as “how to solve this problem?” or “what kind of answer we can expect?” will work wonders to ferry your audience’s thoughts into the next slide.

Make sure to put relevant questions before transitioning to the next slide to guide the audience moving from one slide to another.

Review with slide sorter views

And one of the most important yet most ignored dos, in this case, is to review the whole presentation slides. We know that checking is not the favorite part of creating an impactful PowerPoint presentation design, but this sure will give a massive boost to your final product.

There is an easy way to review your slides to view them using a sorter view. This option will give you a birds-eye idea of the whole presentation, so you can see the full preview of what you worked on. Better, you can also rearrange the slides to smoothen the flows.

Those things we said above, my buddies, are how you create impactful PowerPoint presentation design.

What not to do

While we have talked about what to do, we should also talk about what NOT to do to create an impactful PowerPoint presentation design. Like the dos, most of them are simple details that most people often ignore, but they will affect the impact of your presentation later.

After reading 10 Dos and Don’ts of Impactful PowerPoint Presentation Design, here are the things that you should double-check if you want to create an impactful PowerPoint presentation design.

Lonely graphs

This is one of the most common mistakes that presenters make. Putting a single graph without a clear explanation about what it is or what kind of information it can give us and stretching it to the whole slide is an amateur mistake.

We guarantee you, the time your audience sees a lonely graph in your presentation and they act as if they care about it, that’s the time you need to accept that your audience has lost their interest in your presentation since the beginning.

Nobody, and nobody, will clap on a single enormous graph in one slide without any explanation. If you want to keep things simple, at least explain what the bars are talking about.

Unreadable fonts & putting a novel inside your slides

Come on, even though the focus of the presentation is you, don’t torture your audience with unreadable fonts in the slides. Worse is when you put the whole novel in every single slide of your presentation.

Impactful PowerPoint presentation design is not about how fancy your fonts are or how many words you can put into your slides. Sometimes (or most of the time, maybe), simplicity is the gold.

We have the example of some simple PowerPoint presentation templates that still look classy and impactful without using too fancy fonts and putting novels in them.

Poor-quality images

This factor, this very factor, is how you can differentiate between a classy presenter and a ‘just a meh’ presenter. Quality speaks for itself, and in an impactful PowerPoint presentation design, of course, you have to put quality first.

The quality of your presentation and the quality of the supporting contents you use in it, whether it is images or videos. It is like, come on, getting free high-quality photos and videos is not that hard nowadays. It would be best if you had a little more effort to show your quality here.

Eye-burning contrast

While the three don’ts above might require you to learn about what’s good and what’s not, this one is challenging to be discovered. Instead, this factor is more about taste.

We are talking about choosing the right combination of colors in your slides, so your audience can see them more comfortably. It sounds simple, but not all presenters can do that.

10-seconds title transition

And the final thing that you need to avoid is putting an incredibly long transition effect between slides. We have talked above about the importance of keeping the attention of your audience intact.

Putting a too-long transition will break their focus, and we don’t want that. Keep things simple but beautiful, and you already have the most impactful PowerPoint presentation design you have ever made.

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The do’s and don’ts when giving a powerpoint presentation.

By Lauren Clarke

One of the most useful skills to have in life is the ability to stand on stage, in front of the audience and give a great presentation.

However, even experienced presenters tend to make the some rookie mistakes when giving a PowerPoint presentation.

To avoid making such mistakes, we have compiled some simple tips – the dos and the don’ts when giving a PowerPoint presentation.

Prepare, Prepare, Prepare

We cannot over-emphasise how important preparation is when giving a PowerPoint presentation. Know your topic that you are delivering, forwards and backwards. Write down the major points that you want to deliver to your audience on your slides as well as on your cue cards. By doing so, the chances of you digressing into other topics are very slim.

Start off your PowerPoint presentation with a catchy introduction to get your audience interested or even curious about your topic of presentation. Get them engaged and wanting to stay on to find out more about the rest of the topic that you will be presenting.

Once you have the audience’s attention, keep the momentum going by branching out from your introduction. Avoid reading and looking at your slides all the time and try to engage your audience by asking closed questions that require the audience to reply by a show of hands. You could also include your personal experiences relating to your topic of presentation; who does not like to listen to real life events! End your presentation with a great wrap-up and a summary of your presentation. Do include your contact details for those audiences who want to know more or have questions for you.

Another way to get organised for your presentation is by using Prezentt. Upload your slides and content and remember to share the link with your audience on the day of the presentation. By sharing your slides in real time with your audience, they will be more engaged in your presentation. Not only that, you will save countless hours of administration time and cost, and will effortlessly improve the interaction between you and your audience.

Posture and Body Language

How you present yourself in front of the audience says a lot about you and your personality. From your posture and body language, the audience will roughly know how dull and boring or how exciting and full of zest your presentation will be. Your body language is an essential tool of any public speaking.

Stand up straight, avoid slouching and regardless if you are using a microphone or not, always speak with clarity. Try to make eye contact with audience members during your presentation to increase audience engagement.

Pace Yourself

It is very common to have the moderator or event manager informing you on how long your presentation should be when giving a PowerPoint presentation. Normally, you will be informed prior to the presentation date as you will need to prepare your slides and get organised. With the time allocated to you, try to pace yourself and avoid pacing aimlessly. Eventually, the audience will focus on your movement instead of your presentation.

Do not speak so quickly that the audience cannot comprehend what you have just said, but don’t speak so slowly that your audience falls asleep or walks out of the room either!

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Ineffective Slides and Visuals

Poorly prepared slides can ruin a good PowerPoint presentation, so it is worth the time and effort in getting your slides right. The most effective presentation visuals do not have to be flashy, they just have to be brief and consistent.

Avoid cluttering your slides with text in tiny font sizes. It is a waste of time when your audience is not able to read your slides if you use font size 12 or when your slides contain too many words. Also, do not use animation like an animated emoji or a dancing clown, as it will only distract your audience.

Ignore the Audience

If you think that giving a PowerPoint presentation is all about you, you might need to rethink your priorities. Do not ignore the audience and always remember why they are there in the first place. Without the audience, you would end up giving your presentation to an empty room!

Ignoring the audience happens sometimes when speakers are afraid or have stage fright – they just want to get the presentation over and done with! They rush through the presentation and don’t deliver their message effectively. Pay attention to your audience and they will listen to you.

Read your Slides Out Loud

Have you ever seen an actor on stage performing while holding a script in his hand?

Ideally, a presenter won’t simply read out the entire presentation from their notes but you may find it useful to use Cue Cards, just in case you lose your chain of thought.

What you should not be doing is reading your slides out loud, word for word. You audience can read your slides clearly, so what is the point in giving a presentation to your audience if you are going to read your presentation from your slides? It sends a message to your audience that you are lazy in preparing your slides and you don’t really know your topic. If you are familiar with the flow and content of your presentation, you won’t be reading the slides.

In addition, if you’re simply reading the slides from your PowerPoint presentation, you’ll end up having your back facing the audience most of the time. This is a big mistake. The audience wants to see your face and not your back so this is very distracting. Remember that presentation slides are meant to improve your talk!

While there are plenty of other dos and don’ts when giving a PowerPoint presentation, this is a short list of the basic ones which you should be able to implement when giving your next presentation.

Remember that when giving any kind of presentation, it all comes down to one thing: valuing your audience and being worthy of their time. When you continue to focus on providing the best to your audience, you will find yourself giving a great presentation every single time.

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Designing PowerPoint Presentations: The Dos and Don’ts of Presentation Design

Monday, March 6th, 2023

No matter what your field of business is, if you spend time in the corporate world, you’ll have to accept that PowerPoint presentations are part of life. Some presentations are informative and helpful, while others feel tortuous, confusing, and ultimately a huge waste of time. And who wants that?

For many, it’s easier to say “Let’s just make a PowerPoint” than it is to say “Let’s make a great-looking, smooth PowerPoint.” That’s a shame, because a bad PowerPoint presentation is a liability. As a leading digital design firm , we’ve seen hundreds of PowerPoint presentations over the years, and we’ve fixed many of them.

Today, we are going to share with you some of the major design dos and don’ts for professional PowerPoint presentations.

Do: Consider How Your Presentation Will Be Viewed

Before you get started making your slides, think about how they are going to be presented. Will you be presenting it live at work? Are you presenting it over Zoom? Will you record it so that people can watch it asynchronously on their own time? Is it for internal use only, or will it be seen by a larger and more varied audience? Will you have to deal with tricky technology like lapel mics or unstable internet connections?

You should also consider your audience. Who are they? Will it consist of your colleagues or potential clients? Is your audience made up of your peers, or are people outside of your demographic? What is your audience’s background knowledge about your presentation topic?

Every aspect of your PowerPoint presentation should be tailored to your audience’s expectations and needs, so before you get past the title slide, think about how to reach your audience.

Don’t: Break the Master Slide

Many people don’t know how to use the master PowerPoint slide. The master slide is used to apply the same layout, fonts, styles, images, and placeholders to multiple slides in a PowerPoint presentation. A slide can have multiple layouts, which are visible in the layout panel of your PowerPoint window.

Unless you really know what you’re doing, leave the master slide alone and make changes to individual slides instead. When you make changes to the master slide, the changes are applied to the entire presentation. These changes can easily be broken when the file is transferred to another user, making it more complicated for other people to edit your slides.

Do: Stay Organized

Before you begin creating slides, have a clear idea of what to say and how to say it. This will help you organize your content and create a logical flow for the presentation. Creating an outline is a great way to keep your presentation organized; you can even repurpose it for your first slide so your audience knows what to expect.

Before you give your presentation, go over the organizational structure. As your presentation develops, it can be easy to lose sight of your original plans. Compare the finished product to your outline. Does it meet the objectives you created when you were first organizing your presentation? Have you added too much? Are there irrelevancies you can cut? Are there places where you need to add more? Ask yourself these questions and make sure that your PowerPoint does exactly what you need it to do.

Don’t: Ignore The Review Panel

Spell Check isn’t the only proofreading feature included with PowerPoint! The “Review” tab has several features to improve your presentation. It automatically comes with a thesaurus, dictionary, commenting system, accessibility checker, and automatic translator. Be sure to check your slides as you go and make sure that everything looks correct!

Do: Be Consistent

When you’re creating a PowerPoint, use a consistent design throughout the presentation. There should be a consistent color palette, font, and layout for all slides.

Your company likely has a master template or preferred preset templates to use; if not, stick with a color palette and design scheme that is elegant, simple, and easy on the eyes. If you are making a presentation that represents your business, use branding whenever appropriate.

Don’t: Use Crazy Fonts

Some mistakenly think that to make a PowerPoint presentation memorable, they should use a “fun” font. Don’t do this!

Using a nonstandard font has many drawbacks. It can:

Make the presentation inaccessible to members of your audience
Detract from your company’s branding
Make your slides visually unappealing and difficult to read
Break the PowerPoint/ruin the formatting

Let’s say you’re using a Microsoft PC to design your presentation, and you choose the font “Jokerman.” You send the presentation to your colleague who uses a Mac. Suddenly your presentation doesn’t look at all like you wanted it to, because Macs don’t have that font installed as a default. Now your text boxes are out of alignment, your captions are the wrong size, and your titles are all over the place.

You could have avoided this by using a standard font. If you’re making a corporate PowerPoint, consult your company’s guidelines or see what fonts are used in other presentations. Stick to those.

Do: Keep Your Text Concise

Keep the text on your slides concise and to the point. Use bullet points and short phrases to make it easy to read. Too much text is distracting to your audience, taking their attention away from the important elements of your presentation. PowerPoint experts often say that you should have only 6 words per line and 6 lines per slide.

But what if you need to have a text-heavy presentation?

If that’s the case, there are things you can do to make it look good so it’s not overwhelming for your audience. Break your content into smaller sections to make it easier for your audience to skim and understand what they’re reading. Keep your paragraphs short, and use color and layout to break up your text. Use a limited palette of contrasting colors to separate subheadings from the main body of text, along with bold or strong styling for your subheadings.

Another trick is to play with line spacing. If you set your line spacing to 1.2-1.5 instead of 1, it adds a bit more space in between lines of text. This makes the presentation much easier to read!

Don’t: Overdesign

We frequently see people getting too enthusiastic about design elements on their slides. Unfortunately, it’s easy to go overboard and create slide decks that look fun… but are totally unprofessional. Instead, keep the design simple and consistent throughout the presentation.

Use a limited color palette and stick to a consistent layout for all slides. This will make your presentation look polished and professional. While animations and special effects may be tempting, you should avoid them for the most part.

Do: Use High Quality Images and Graphics

Images and graphics are a great way to convey information, but what looks good on your screen might look grainy or fuzzy when projected. Use high-resolution vector graphics and images that will stay sharp at any size to ensure that your presentation looks sleek when it’s blown up on the big screen.

While graphics and images are a great way to break up text, it’s important to use them appropriately. Too many images can be overwhelming and make your presentation look cluttered. This is especially true if you have the images arranged on top of each other. Modern editions of the PowerPoint software have guides, rulers, and image arrangement suggestions to help keep your slides neat and organized.

If you’re planning to use stock images, make sure that you are using free stock or that your company has a license for the stock you want to use. Nothing looks more unprofessional than a watermarked image– it shows that you didn’t take the time to find something you had permission to use!

Don’t: Use Memes

If your business is primarily online or you’re presenting virtually, you may be tempted to use memes in your presentation. Memes are funny, but not always appropriate for a business PowerPoint presentation. Memes are often used in a casual or informal setting and may not be perceived as professional in a business setting.

Using memes in a PowerPoint presentation may make the presentation appear less serious or credible. Memes might be irrelevant to the content of your presentation, or not understood by all the members of your audience. If you do have an appropriate meme that you want to use, you can– but think very carefully about why you want to use it.

Do: Keep It Simple

The best PowerPoint slide decks are simple; much sparser than the actual “meat” of the presentation. This is because slide decks are not the entire presentation! They are meant to be visual aids. The slides shouldn’t convey the total information available in the presentation. For example, if you’re describing sales trends, don’t include the textual description on the slide. Instead, dedicate that space to a clear graph that your audience can refer to as you are giving the presentation.

The cardinal sin of presentations is reading your slides aloud. Having the entire script on your slide will only distract the audience from what you’re saying.

They’ll react one of two ways:

They’ll try to read the slide in advance (instead of listening to what you’re saying)
They’ll play “catch up” the whole time, reading only half the slide before you’re ready to move on

Instead, keep your slides simple so that your audience can focus on what you are saying and follow along easily.

Don’t: Choose Colors Randomly

Color is an important part of your PowerPoint presentation. If your company has brand colors they want to use, stick to those. If you have artistic liberty to choose colors, pick colors that look good together and are easily legible. Highly saturated colors can be painful to look at, especially if you’re using yellow. Likewise, certain color color combinations, like yellow and white, are uncomfortable to look at.

Color can also be an accessibility issue; it is estimated that 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women are colorblind. In total, that’s about 4.5% of the world’s population. Certain color choices might look good to you, but be impossible to read for a colorblind colleague. Fortunately, there are lots of design tips and options for colorblind-friendly color palettes if this is a concern!

Do: Use The Notes Section

PowerPoint has several features that make it easier to give a seamless presentation. One of these is the notes that you can see when you present in Presenter View. The notes section (again, not the slides themselves) is the appropriate place to write out your script. If you’re presenting from behind your laptop or tablet, the notes will be visible to only you, and you won’t need notecards.

It also comes in handy for those who missed the presentation. If your colleagues want to review what you said or somebody else needs to give the presentation at another time, you can pass the presentation along to them and they’ll be able to see the notes.

Follow these tips for the most professional PowerPoints possible (short of having us do it, of course)!

If you want more advice, Matcha Design is here to help. Contact us today to find out more about how we can help your business!

About Matcha Design

Matcha Design is a full-service creative B2B agency with decades of experience executing its client’s visions. The award-winning company specializes in web design, logo design, branding, marketing campaign, print, UX/UI, video production, commercial photography, advertising , and more. Matcha Design upholds the highest personal standards for excellence and can see things from a unique perspective due to its multicultural background. The company consistently delivers custom, high-quality, innovative solutions to its clients using technical savvy and endless creativity. For more information, visit MatchaDesign.com.

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17 “Do’s” and “Don’ts” for Giving a Great Presentation

Public speaking is the #1 fear for a huge percentage of people . It’s above the fear of dying for many people. How can you think about giving a great presentation when you’re worried about even giving a basic presentation?

I’ve been doing public speaking events for over a decade, but it definitely wasn’t an easy journey. It’s hard to get comfortable talking in front of groups of 10 people, let alone a hundred or a thousand. Still, this is a skill that you can learn and even master with some study and practice.

Let’s look at some major “do’s” and “don’ts” for creating a great presentation.

11 “Do’s” for Giving a Great Presentation

1. believe that giving a great presentation is a learnable skill..

Giving a good presentation is a learnable skill. Even true introverts can give excellent presentations. In fact, introverted people actually tend to plan better presentations though they may be more afraid to give them. Extroverts are more likely to “wing it” but are more naturally comfortable being on a stage.

Both approaches have value, but both have their pitfalls. Learning to give a great speech isn’t like putting a hammer to a nail. It’s an organic process, and it takes time to get good at it. But, through practice and repetition, you can be an amazing presenter !

2. Prepare for the presentation!

It takes a tremendous amount of work to make something appear effortless. My general rule of thumb is to allocate 45-60 minutes of preparation time for every 5 minutes of speaking time . So, for an hour-long presentation, I may prepare 10-12 hours ahead of time.

One important question is whether script the entire speech. It depends on what you’re speaking about, but it’s generally advisable to not script 100% of your remarks. It’s good to rehearse but not “sound rehearsed.” Outline the presentation, make notes of any stories you want to tell and major points to drive home. But, it’s not critical that you script every single word.

You can also prepare by having great-looking slides that will impress your audience. That will give you more confidence going into the presentation.

3. When you’re with your peers, it’s ok to “speak your geek.”

Know your audience! If you’re speaking to a group of colleagues, you don’t need to “dumb things down.” It’s good to speak in layman’s terms with patients and audiences who are unfamiliar with your work. However, with peers, feel free to use technical jargon that’s widely understood.

4. Use stories to transform your communication.

Listeners will only remember data 5% of the time, but they’ll remember stories 60% of the time . That’s because stories are how we naturally communuicate ! Our brains are wired to think that way.

Listen to the podcast episode with Nancy Duarte to learn the formula for creating the most memorable story.

Every presentation is more memorable with stories. In fact, stories may be the only parts of your presentation that anyone remembers. One thing you can do is build a “story library” for yourself. Basically, that’s a collection of 10-20 stories that are memorable/impactful to you that you can pull out and use in a variety of different presentations when the need arises.

5. Develop a good “pre-talk ritual.”

Immediately prior to your presentation, what are you doing to get yourself ready to go up on stage? Some people like to “pump themselves up,” and others prefer to “calm themselves down.” I’m more of a calm-yourself-down kind of presenter.

If I’m presenting at a conference, for example, I like to sit in on the presentation right before mine and just listen. I shut my brain off and don’t think about my presentation at all. It’s helpful for me to be calm and just relax. Otherwise, I find that I “get in my head” too much and I start getting anxious.

I know other people that prefer to listen to some Rocky music and box an imaginary punching bag. Whatever your needs, pick a pre-talk ritual that helps you get in the right frame of mind so you can go out on that stage and crush it!

6. Follow the structure of a great presentation as outlined in Nancy Duarte’s podcast episode.

Jump to 19:52 to hear Nancy eloquently express the formula of a great presentation. This is backed by thousands of analyses from the greatest speeches in history.

7. Use repetition, familiar phrases, imagery, and metaphors to help transport the audience.

If you’ve ever listened to Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, you’ll hear him use a lot of references that would have been familiar to his audience. These references include Scriptures, hymns, and cultural references.

He also used repetition to great effect. The phrase “I have a dream” appears 8 times in his speech. That repetition made the speech more memorable and helped transport the audience to a new plane of comprehension.

8. Have the right level of emotional appeal to fit your audience.

Passion and emotion are good, but it needs to fit the “mood” of the audience to some degree. You’re probably not going to do well giving a eulogy if you’re yelling and pumping people up like it’s halftime at the Super Bowl.

Emotional appeals are good and can help audience members feel the weight of your words in a more high-impact way. Just make sure to “read the room” as you consider how to bring emotion into the presentation. Sitting in the presentation before yours can be a great way to gauge how the people in the room are feeling.

9. Use your presentation to translate to real growth in your business.

If you’re doing public speaking, what’s the point? That is, what value does the speaking engagement bring to your business? If you’re just in it to make money or get some experience, that’s fine as far as that goes. But, a speaking engagement could be more valuable in propelling your business growth forward.

Are you going to a conference ? You can network with other presenters and look for opportunities to collaborate. You could meet the attendees and perhaps earn some new clients.

Speeches can also help establish you as a thought leader. If your speech is being recorded, a great presentation can even be an opportunity for free promotion.

Whatever your plan, be intentional! If you get invited to speak at an event, take that opportunity and use it for real business growth!

10. Use a speaking coach.

I haven’t used a speaking coach before, but I’ve definitely been considering it since my interview with Nancy Duarte . Even the most seasoned veterans can benefit from coaching.

A good speaking coach can show you how to change your inflection, insert pauses and places to emphasize your points, and help you craft the structure of your speech. You might not be able to afford one when you’re first starting out, but it’s worth considering if you’re going to be doing public speaking on a regular basis.

11. Use data to support your presentation.

Data are important to support the validity and authority of your talk, but you’ve got to weave it effectively into the story structure. Don’t just spout random bits of data with no context. Offer the data as supporting evidence within your story narrative.

6 “Don’ts” for Giving a Great Presentation

1. don’t be the hero in your story..

Always be the guide in your story ! The audience is the hero. You don’t want to be Luke Skywalker! You want to be Yoda!! The hero is the lead character in the story. If you make yourself the hero, the audience who already thinks of themselves as the hero sees you as competition in the story.

If you play the guide instead, the audience looks to you to help them solve their problems. Always be the guide, not the hero!!

2. Don’t be afraid to speak “off the cuff” occasionally.

I don’t generally advise “winging it,” but sometimes a little extemporaneous speaking is called for. This is where the “story library” idea can come in handy. You may be able to tell the same story in a variety of settings and emphasize different aspects of the story each time. This strategy can give the feel of spontaneity but with the confidence of you generally knowing what you’re going to say.

3. Don’t create slides in a “linear fashion.”

When you’re creating a slide deck, don’t just do it in a linear fashion (e.g. slide 1, slide 2, etc). Start with the “guiding light” or main central point, and then every slide serves to drive home that central point. You should be constantly driving your audience towards that central point. All slides support that central point because it may be the only point your audience remembers.

4. Don’t read directly off the powerpoint slides.

I have gotten up and left in the middle of lectures when the lecturer was reading directly off the slides. It’s so boring! I can read faster than they talk. They aren’t saying anything new by the time I’m finished reading, so I’m ready to move on to the next thing.

Powerpoint slides are fine, and you can even use it as a sort of teleprompter, but just don’t read directly off it! Did you know you can hit the “B” button to turn your screen black or “W” to turn the screen white? Then, you could use the powerpoint as a teleprompter and the audience doesn’t see it.

Put one central point on each slide and use it as a way to jog your memory for what you want to say. You can have a couple of hundred slides with only one point or image per slide and it’s better than having 20 that are jam-packed with too much info.

5. Don’t use the podium as a crutch.

Move around the stage! It projects confidence and keeps the audience engaged. The best way to feel comfortable moving around the stage is spending a lot of time preparing the presentation beforehand. Then, you’ll feel more confident breaking away from the podium.

6. Don’t be so afraid of public speaking that you never give it a try!

Public speaking is a genuine fear for a lot of people, but it’s so much fun! You can do it! Just give it a shot!

Final Thoughts

Public speaking isn’t an innate talent, and it’s not limited to extreme extroverts and “naturally charismatic” people. Anyone can learn to be a public speaker. If you’re worried about how it’ll go, start small. Join the Toastmasters or similar club in your area. Get with a speaking coach. Read, study, and learn the tips and techniques of the best speakers.

Then, start looking for opportunities to speak to others. Start with yourself, your friends, and your family. Move up to local clubs and organizations, then gradually step it up from there. There’s so much value in being good at public speaking, and I think it’s worth it to step out in faith and try!

The DO’s and DONT’s of PowerPoint Animation

From a simple slide transition to complex builds, PowerPoint is capable of rendering a huge range of animations that can do almost anything. But most people have never even experimented with PowerPoint animations, let alone mastered the art.

So to get you started with this powerful (but advanced) PowerPoint feature, check out our list of the most important DO’s and DONT’s of PowerPoint animation.

What to do before adding animations

Before you even click on the Animations tab, start out by thinking about the presentation you are working on.

Start with questions like:

Who is the audience for this presentation?

What is the format? Is it online or in-person?

Does the content need animations?

The reason to start with some background is to help assess if you should even add animations, and if so, the best way to do it.

For example, if the audience is a board of directors, flashy animations may be seen as getting in the way of core content, or cause unnecessary challenges in a presentation that's more about the conversation than anything else. In this case, you might want to skip animations altogether.

If it's a virtual presentation, you may want to dial them back to their most basic format, as complex animations can render slowly over stream, causing your carefully plotted animations to look choppy and rough.

If your content is weighty and serious, animations might be seen as too lighthearted to be appropriate.

In each of these cases, a little upfront thinking can save a lot of time on the back end.

Now that you've decided if and how you want to use animations, let's get into some more detailed questions.

PowerPoint Animation DOs

Do start with slide transitions.

As we discussed in a previous article , slide transition effects are intuitively named to do just what they say – animations between slides. They are the first thing that will animate on your slide, and the first place most people should look when starting with PowerPoint animations, so it makes sense for them to be at the top of our list.

This oft-overlooked feature instantly adds polish and sophistication to your deck, even if you don’t animate anything else. We’re particularly fond of the fade transition for the way it subtly dissolves between your slides, even fading your first slide in. While this may not seem like much, try comparing a deck with a fade transition applied to every slide versus the same deck with no slide transition at all, and you’ll see that the stiff changes in the one without fades starts to feel more like clicking through the pages of a PDF compared to the polished feel the fade deck provides.

To apply slide transitions, simply click “Transitions” from the top menu, highlight the slides you wish to apply the transition to, and choose your effect.But be careful, a lot of the slide transitions can be heavy-handed and will make your audience weary if they have to view them on too many slides in a row.

If you want to take your slide transitions to the next level, check out our blog on the Morph animation .

DO punctuate with emphasis

PowerPoint animations are great for adding emphasis to important moments. In particular, choosing one “AHA” moment and giving it some punch will leave an impact on your audience, without the fatigue that comes with too much motion.

For example, if you have a slide with a main idea or key takeaway, you can remove any animation from the preceding slide, then animate in a word, phrase, or mark to subtly reinforce that “if you remember nothing else, take note of this.” Like any other design element, assigning drama to an object with PowerPoint animations lets you create moments of contrast.

DO add meaning with animations

Maybe your slide doesn't end with a bang, like an infographic meant to communicate some kind of flow and process. Instead of wowing them at the end, using movement or emphasis throughout a slide can add a layer of communication that you get to show, rather than explain. This can even sometimes free up superfluous text or other elements from cluttering your visual design. This is also a great example of visual storytelling, where the elements on your slide help communicate your message without explicitly saying something.

PowerPoint Animation DONTs

Don't overdo it.

Between this and our other blogs about PowerPoint animation, we’ve mentioned many times that it’s best to go easy on the number of animations and slide transitions you use. Another way to say this is that the animations you add should be very intentional: they should serve specific purposes within your design, rather than something you add purely for visual flair.

If you’re adding animations (or other design elements) because you are worried your audience might get bored, you’d be better off looking at your content rather than adding more things to look at. The act of simply keeping track elements flying in and out can tire your audience as much as anything else. A small bit of animation at the right moment will feel so much more considered, and leave a stronger, more confident impression.

DON’T let animation sabotage you

Imagine this: you worked hard animating the perfect slide. The animation is tasteful but impactful, you’ve even learned how to group objects on your slide together to cut down on the total amount of elements animating in. But then you hand the slide to a teammate to finalize the content, and they (accidentally) ungroup your text boxes. Now, your boss is giving a presentation with broken animations and none of the sizzle she wanted in the PowerPoint slides.

Essentially, think about who is working on the presentation and how it will be delivered before you get too bogged down in animations. If others will be working on the slides, you need to keep that in mind as you design your slides. If it’s printed, the printer will show your slide the way it looks in regular design mode, with all the elements sandwiched together. And if it’s a remote presentation, animation can appear choppy when shared over many of the popular online meeting platforms.

Each of these cases requires a different approach to using animation. So before you go too far, make sure you take the time to ask how the deck will be presented.

DON’T be afraid to experiment

We’ve spent a lot of time telling you a little animation goes a long way, which is absolutely true. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t click around and explore all the possibilities that PowerPoint animation offers. PowerPoint has a few animation tricks that, when mastered, can enrich your story beyond simply adding visual flair. Essentially, think about ways that PowerPoint animations can enhance your story, not just the visual appeal of your slides. But most importantly, practice and see what feels right, rather than peppering your team’s deck with new effects and seeing how they react in the moment.

PowerPoint animations are an essential storytelling tool

PowerPoint animations tend to be 1) never used or 2) overused. As a result, they are seen as ineffective and too often overlooked. But the fact is that adding some simple PowerPoint animations can be a great way to elevate any presentation into something that stands out. Used with care and intention, animations can also be a great way to help tell your story. So the next time you are designing some slides, try out a few of our PowerPoint animation DOs (and remove the DONT’s), and see for yourself just how much of a difference they can make.

Update (03/24): we’ve revised this article to add some new details on best practices for PowerPoint animations

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About the author

Danielle John is the founder of VerdanaBold. She has more than 25 years as an award-winning designer and creative lead, directing the visual expression and production of thousands of high-value new business pitches, C-level presentations and internal presentations for major global brands. When she's not busy at VerdanaBold, she can be found antique shopping and spending time with her husband and two kids.

The three steps in data storytelling: Visualize the data

The three steps in data storytelling: Shape the narrative

The three steps in data storytelling: Understand the audience

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15 Do’s and Don’ts for PowerPoint in the Classroom

PowerPoint is an amazing tool for teachers. It can help you inform, entertain and engage your students. However, not all PowerPoint presentations are created equal. Some will make you want to poke your eyes out and make an appointment for root canal for fun.

My first year of teaching (2002) the assistant principal handed me a box of chalk and a blackboard to use. I still have the chalk dust under my nails and up my nose. When the SMART Board became available in my school and I and could use PowerPoint about ten years ago I thought I’d died and gone to heaven!

And I proceeded to make some of the most awful presentations imaginable. My poor students! The more I learned the worse it became. A fellow teacher showed me animations. The next day I’m lucky a kid did not have a seizure as I presented jumping, disappearing, twirling words and pictures ad nauseam.

A few clear guidelines on what to do and what not to do when designing your presentations will vastly improve your results. Avoid glaring colors, walls of words and complicated graphs. Keep your slides clean, legible and a backdrop to your lecture.

Let me quickly dispel a couple of theories. NO ONE CAN MULTITASK. You can try and do two things simultaneously, but your brain can only do one thing at a time. Trying to multitask can actually hurt your brain, according to Forbes .

What this means is that students cannot listen to what you’re saying, read what’s on the PowerPoint, take notes, look at the pictures and make sure their hair looks good all at the same time.

The amount of stimuli a student is subjected to has a direct effect on their ability to absorb, understand and remember information. This is known as Cognitive Load Theory.

The primary motive of most teachers is to inform and incite learning. To do this in an effective manner requires having these ideas top-of-mind as we plan.

Let’s cover some caveats and guidelines for your PowerPoints.

Don’t do this…

1. No Death By PowerPoint

I don’t think anyone has actually died from a brutal PowerPoint, but your presentation surely will. An endless array of slides being clicked on as you drone on is not conducive to exemplary pedagogy. Even if you sing, dance and do a stand-up routine instead of droning the students will be distracted from your performance by what’s happening on the SMARTBoard.

2. No walls of text

Teachers are notorious for displaying one or more paragraphs of content on each slide. The idea is to give students something to take notes from. This can work; students will write what you have fed to them. They will fill their notebooks with ink.

There are two problems with this method. Number one, many students write word-for-word without without mentally computing the information. Secondly, their cannot focus on copying notes and listen to you at the same time.

Instead, try relegating just a word, phrase or question on the slide. Don’t speak while they write it down. Kids will have to listen to you in order to define the word or answer the question.

3. Too many visuals

This problem harks back to the Cognitive Load theory mentioned earlier. A slide that is too visually stimulating is often a bad idea. Can you occasionally create a slide filled with pictures, photos and colors? Yes, but include a simple slide before the busy one to allow content absorption, them follow up with the “popping” slide.

4. Small pictures, fonts, graphs or maps

I was guilty of this on a regular basis.

Me, “Class, according to the map where did the first battle take place?”

Class: “I can’t see the names on the map; it’s too small.”

Me. “No, it’s not, but if you can’t see come up to the front and look.”

Reality check, many students don’t wear their glasses. Also, we’re normally in the front near the presentation. Stand at the very back of the room to see what that view is like.

5. Too many bullet points

The purpose of bullet points is to succinctly display information. Too many bullet points defeats the whole purpose. It forces you to use a smaller font as well. Keep it down to three or four, or refer to the 25-word rule.

6. Reading from the PowerPoint

Don’t do this. It makes you redundant and superfluous. Think about when when your students a PowerPoint presentation as an assignment. What is it like when they present by simply reading what they wrote on each slide. Awful.

I have to assume you don’t need the notes on the slides as a cheat sheet. Most teachers know their content. A brief phrase is all you need to jar your memory as to what you wanted to say. If there are statistics or details to remember put them in the notes portion of the slide.

7. Glaring colors combos

Do you think that orange, yellow and purple work well together? Perhaps on a tie-dye shirt, but not for visual aids. It’s best to keep the color pallet crisp with contrasting dark and light. This makes for easy reading and no jarring distractions.

8. Intricate graphs

I think the slide above says it all.

Do this instead…

9. keep it streamlined and simple.

Think about a black cocktail dress; it’s simple but stunning. Your PowerPoints should be black cocktail dresses, or a tailored grey suit if you’re a man. They will be both visually appealing and, most importantly, effective teaching tools.

10. Keep it clear

Always look at your presentation through the eyes of a student. If there is ANY way to misread or misconstrue something they will.

I remember comparing the Civil War to a bad break up, trying to make connections for the kiddos. To illustrate the point of view of the south I asked them to imagine:

Imagine your significant other turned out to be the opposite of everything you ever wanted. S/he was a bully and wouldn’t let you see your friends. He pushed you around and took your money. So you break up.

Then the law tells you that you must reunite with this awful person and were forced to reunite with them. How would you feel?

Many of them had a lot to say about that. I congratulated myself for making a good connection for the kiddos. Until I read a student’s essay on the Civil War:

The North and south had bad marriage. It got physical. Even though they hated each other they couldn’t get a divorce. The law made them stay together. This was good because nobody had to pay child support.

Not exactly the results I was looking for. Clarity is a necessity.

11. Save the memes for Instagram

Anything that can distract kids will. One photo or picture per slide will suffice. Memes and gifs should be kept to a minimum. I love a good gif and can’t help but use them sometimes. But it’s not good practice if your goal is a focused class.

12. Under 25 words

There’s an arbitrary rule in town, created by yours truly. No one slide should contain more than 25 words 90% of the time. Follow a concrete guide such as this and you’re sure to improve your slides.

13. Ask a question on each slide

Type a question on your slide and nothing else. I mentioned this above as one way to utilize a presentation. It could be the same question on every slide.

For instance, when I taught the Roaring Twenties each slide had a different change that took place during the decade. The question on every slide was: It this a political, economic or social change? Students were learning content and reviewing key social studies terms.

Another example are the MAIN causes of World War I. For each cause there is one word on the slide: Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism and Nationalism. The question for each was the same: How would this cause a war?

14. Add a short video

Enhance your presentation with a short video whenever possible. Find one that reiterates what you are teaching or hones in on one aspect of the lesson. It’s good for differentiation, reinforces content and breaks up the PowerPoint. Be sure to ask at least one question about the video so that students actually have to pay attention.

15. Try using one picture for your background

This is quick, easy and effective. Instead of scrounging around for appropriate photos and pictures for every slide find a nice one and use it as your background. Then create a text box for your question or phrase for each slide. This helps to ensure that there’s not too much text, because you want most of the background picture to show.

I know some of these suggestions are controversial. Maybe you’re yelling at your screen as you’re reading this.

“Are you kidding me? If it weren’t for my funny and engaging PowerPoint presentations my students would be asleep or on their phones!”

That’s fine. Just remember why you’re creating the presentation; to reinforce learning. If you create your PowerPoints looking at it through your students’ eyes the presentations will rock!

Teach and Thrive

A Bronx, NY veteran high school social studies teacher who has learned most of what she has learned through trial and error and error and error.... and wants to save others that pain.

Create a presentation

Create a presentation in powerpoint for the web.

Your browser does not support video. Install Microsoft Silverlight, Adobe Flash Player, or Internet Explorer 9.

With PowerPoint for the web running in your web browser, you can:

Create presentations that include images, videos, transitions, and animations.

Get to your presentations from your computer, tablet, or phone.

Share and work with others, wherever they are.

If you're using the desktop version of PowerPoint on a Windows PC, see the PowerPoint Quick Start .

If you're using the desktop version of PowerPoint on a Mac, see Office for Mac Quick Start Guides and PowerPoint for Mac Help .

Create, open, and name a presentation

Go to powerpoint.office.com .

Select New blank presentation , open a Recent file, select one of the themes , or start with a presentation template .

To name the presentation, select the title at the top and type a name.

If you need to rename the presentation, select the title and retype the name.

Add a slide

Select the slide you want your new slide to follow.

Select Home > New Slide .

Select Layout and the you type want from the drop-down.

When working in PowerPoint for the web, your work is saved every few seconds. You can select File > Save a Copy to create a duplicate copy in another location.

Or choose File > Download As to save a copy to your device.

Use Download a Copy to save the presentation to your computer

When you're online, AutoSave is always on and saves your changes as you work. If at any time you lose your Internet connection or turn it off, any pending changes will sync as soon as you’re back online.

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Microsoft 365 Life Hacks > Presentations > Five tips for choosing the right PowerPoint template

Five tips for choosing the right PowerPoint template

The design or template you choose can greatly influence the success of your presentation, either capturing your audience’s attention or leaving them disengaged. To make a lasting impression on your audience, utilize these five tips when selecting your PowerPoint presentation template.

How do you choose a template in PowerPoint?

The initial step in creating your PowerPoint presentation is choosing the appropriate design. To effectively select the best PowerPoint template for your presentation, there are several components you should consider. These components include the following:

1. Consider your audience

The first component you should consider is your audience. Is the presentation intended for a formal setting, such as in a business context, or will it be delivered in a more informal gathering? Are the viewers going to review the slides virtually , in-person, or will they be viewing the presentation independently? What are the demographics of your audience? It’s crucial to contemplate your audience before outlining your presentation, as they significantly influence your design choices. For example, if you are delivering a business-oriented presentation, you might choose a more conservative design, while a more informal presentation may call for a bolder and more captivating template.

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2. Select a template with appropriate layout options

The layout plays a crucial role in determining how your content is delivered, read, and ultimately comprehended by your audience. When you assess presentation templates, ensure that the layout options align with the nature of your content. Ask yourself, ‘Will this format enhance the readability and comprehension of my content for my audience? Is it the most efficient way to convey my information?

3. Choose a design that fits your style

You’ll feel most comfortable presenting when your presentation feels like yourself. Make you presentation an extension of your personal style and brand, that effectively complements your aesthetic preferences. Whether you prefer minimalism and clean lines or a striking, vibrant presentation filled with animation, select a design that aligns with your style and creates cohesive visuals.

4. Find a template that reflects your message

Outside of aesthetics, your template should reflect the core message of your presentation. If your content is data-heavy, opt for a template with clear charts and graphs. For a storytelling presentation, choose a template that incorporates visuals and storytelling elements. Ensuring your template and message aligns strengthens your presentation’s storytelling .

5. Consider the length of your presentation

The duration of your presentation should be incorporated in your template decision making. Longer presentations may benefit from a clean and organized template that aids in maintaining audience attention. Shorter presentations, on the other hand, provide room for more creative and visually striking templates. Consider the pacing and structure of your content in relation to the template to optimize your audience’s engagement.

The key to an effective PowerPoint presentation template is extensively considering the context of your presentation. Know who your audience is, what your message is, the length of your message, and how the content should be presented. When you consider these elements, you can ensure your presentation will resonate with your audience, with your intended impact. For more ways to improve your next presentation, learn more presentation tips .

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Do’s and Don’ts of PowerPoint Presentations | Creating Effective Powerpoint Presentations

Do’s of PowerPoint Presentations

Follow the 10/20/30 Rule

Use High-Quality Graphics and Images

Maintain Consistent Style and Theme

Practice and Time Your Presentation

Engage Your Audience

Provide Handouts if Appropriate

Arrive Early to Prepare

Check Equipment and Connectivity

Don’ts of PowerPoint Presentations

Don’t Make Slides Too Text-Heavy

Avoid Complex Builds and Transitions

Don’t Use Unreadable Color Schemes

Steer Clear of Clip Art

Don’t Read Directly from Slides

Don’t Overwhelm with Too Many Slides

Don’t Go Over Time Limit

Don’t Forget Accessibility Needs

Final Verdict

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18 PowerPoint Dos and Don’ts

PowerPoint Dos

2. Create a structure

3. Use keywords

4. Organize your information clearly

5. Use a legible font

6. Ensure design consistency

7. Be smart about colors

8. Use visual elements to illustrate your ideas

9. Save, save, save

10. End with a summary slide

11. Keep your presentations well-organized

12. Use animation and sound carefully

13. Use transitions for a more dramatic impact

PowerPoint Don’ts

2. Overuse transitions, animations and sound

3. Use hard-to-read color combinations and fonts

4. Use generic graphics and (very) stock photos

5. Think the slides are for you

Pro Tips and Tricks

Image credit: Mind Blown – Liana Azwa via Behance.net

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PowerPoint Presentations: Do’s and Don’ts

The problem

Dos and Don’ts

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Presentation Training Institute

DO: Keep it Concise

DON’T: Use Special Effects

DO: Look Up!

DON’T: Read the Slides

DO: Use Bullets and Numbered Lists

DON’T: Use Standard Clipart

DO: Use Data Sparingly

6 dos and don’ts for next-level slides, from a TED presentation expert

Want to prevent yawns and glazed-over eyes? Before you deliver your next speech, pitch or address, learn how to create exceptional slides by following these rules (with real before-and-afters).

1. Do keep your slides simple and succinct

BEFORE: Too crowded

2. Do choose colors and fonts with care

BEFORE: Weak and hard-to-read font, muddy colors

AFTER: Strong font, color that’s striking but not jarring

3. Don’t settle for visual cliches

BEFORE: Fake-looking stock photo to illustrate teamwork

4. Don’t get bogged down by charts and graphs

BEFORE: Yikes! What’s important?!? AFTER: The takeaway is clear