powerful presentation backgrounds

This simplistic presentation example employs several different colors and font weights, but instead of coming off as disconnected, the varied colors work with one another to create contrast and call out specific concepts.

What I like: The big, bold numbers help set the reader's expectations, as they clearly signify how far along the viewer is in the list of tips.

10. “Pixar's 22 Rules to Phenomenal Storytelling,” Gavin McMahon

This presentation by Gavin McMahon features color in all the right places. While each of the background images boasts a bright, spotlight-like design, all the characters are intentionally blacked out.

What I like: This helps keep the focus on the tips, while still incorporating visuals. Not to mention, it's still easy for me to identify each character without the details. (I found you on slide eight, Nemo.)

11. “Facebook Engagement and Activity Report,” We Are Social

Here's another great example of data visualization in the wild.

What I like: Rather than displaying numbers and statistics straight up, this presentation calls upon interesting, colorful graphs, and charts to present the information in a way that just makes sense.

12. “The GaryVee Content Model,” Gary Vaynerchuk

This wouldn‘t be a true Gary Vaynerchuk presentation if it wasn’t a little loud, am I right?

What I like: Aside from the fact that I love the eye-catching, bright yellow background, Vaynerchuk does a great job of incorporating screenshots on each slide to create a visual tutorial that coincides with the tips. He also does a great job including a visual table of contents that shows your progress as you go .

13. “20 Tweetable Quotes to Inspire Marketing & Design Creative Genius,” IMPACT Branding & Design

We‘ve all seen our fair share of quote-chronicling presentations but that isn’t to say they were all done well. Often the background images are poor quality, the text is too small, or there isn't enough contrast.

Well, this professional presentation from IMPACT Branding & Design suffers from none of said challenges.

What I like: The colorful filters over each background image create just enough contrast for the quotes to stand out.

14. “The Great State of Design,” Stacy Kvernmo

This presentation offers up a lot of information in a way that doesn't feel overwhelming.

What I like: The contrasting colors create visual interest and “pop,” and the comic images (slides 6 through 12) are used to make the information seem less buttoned-up and overwhelming.

15. “Clickbait: A Guide To Writing Un-Ignorable Headlines,” Ethos3

Not going to lie, it was the title that convinced me to click through to this presentation but the awesome design kept me there once I arrived.

What I like: This simple design adheres to a consistent color pattern and leverages bullet points and varied fonts to break up the text nicely.

16. “Digital Transformation in 50 Soundbites,” Julie Dodd

This design highlights a great alternative to the “text-over-image” display we've grown used to seeing.

What I like: By leveraging a split-screen approach to each presentation slide, Julie Dodd was able to serve up a clean, legible quote without sacrificing the power of a strong visual.

17. “Fix Your Really Bad PowerPoint,” Slide Comet

When you‘re creating a PowerPoint about how everyone’s PowerPoints stink, yours had better be terrific. The one above, based on the ebook by Seth Godin, keeps it simple without boring its audience.

What I like: Its clever combinations of fonts, together with consistent color across each slide, ensure you're neither overwhelmed nor unengaged.

18. “How Google Works,” Eric Schmidt

Simple, clever doodles tell the story of Google in a fun and creative way. This presentation reads almost like a storybook, making it easy to move from one slide to the next.

What I like: This uncluttered approach provides viewers with an easy-to-understand explanation of a complicated topic.

19. “What Really Differentiates the Best Content Marketers From The Rest,” Ross Simmonds

Let‘s be honest: These graphics are hard not to love. I especially appreciate the author’s cartoonified self-portrait that closes out the presentation. Well played, Ross Simmonds.

What I like: Rather than employing the same old stock photos, this unique design serves as a refreshing way to present information that's both valuable and fun.

20. “Be A Great Product Leader,” Adam Nash

This presentation by Adam Nash immediately draws attention by putting the company's logo first — a great move if your company is well known.

What I like: He uses popular images, such as ones of Megatron and Pinocchio, to drive his points home. In the same way, you can take advantage of popular images and media to keep your audience engaged.

And if you want more templates and examples, you can download them here .

PowerPoint Presentation Examples for the Best Slide Presentation

Mastering a PowerPoint presentation begins with the design itself.

Get inspired by my ideas above to create a presentation that engages your audience, builds upon your point, and helps you generate leads for your brand.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in March 2013 and has been updated for comprehensiveness. This article was written by a human, but our team uses AI in our editorial process. Check out our full disclosure to learn more about how we use AI.

Don't forget to share this post!

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Blog Beginner Guides How To Make a Good Presentation [A Complete Guide]

How To Make a Good Presentation [A Complete Guide]

Written by: Krystle Wong Jul 20, 2023

A top-notch presentation possesses the power to drive action. From winning stakeholders over and conveying a powerful message to securing funding — your secret weapon lies within the realm of creating an effective presentation .  

Being an excellent presenter isn’t confined to the boardroom. Whether you’re delivering a presentation at work, pursuing an academic career, involved in a non-profit organization or even a student, nailing the presentation game is a game-changer.

In this article, I’ll cover the top qualities of compelling presentations and walk you through a step-by-step guide on how to give a good presentation. Here’s a little tip to kick things off: for a headstart, check out Venngage’s collection of free presentation templates . They are fully customizable, and the best part is you don’t need professional design skills to make them shine!

These valuable presentation tips cater to individuals from diverse professional backgrounds, encompassing business professionals, sales and marketing teams, educators, trainers, students, researchers, non-profit organizations, public speakers and presenters. 

No matter your field or role, these tips for presenting will equip you with the skills to deliver effective presentations that leave a lasting impression on any audience.

Click to jump ahead:

What are the 10 qualities of a good presentation?

Step-by-step guide on how to prepare an effective presentation, 9 effective techniques to deliver a memorable presentation, faqs on making a good presentation, how to create a presentation with venngage in 5 steps.

When it comes to giving an engaging presentation that leaves a lasting impression, it’s not just about the content — it’s also about how you deliver it. Wondering what makes a good presentation? Well, the best presentations I’ve seen consistently exhibit these 10 qualities:

1. Clear structure

No one likes to get lost in a maze of information. Organize your thoughts into a logical flow, complete with an introduction, main points and a solid conclusion. A structured presentation helps your audience follow along effortlessly, leaving them with a sense of satisfaction at the end.

Regardless of your presentation style , a quality presentation starts with a clear roadmap. Browse through Venngage’s template library and select a presentation template that aligns with your content and presentation goals. Here’s a good presentation example template with a logical layout that includes sections for the introduction, main points, supporting information and a conclusion: 

2. Engaging opening

Hook your audience right from the start with an attention-grabbing statement, a fascinating question or maybe even a captivating anecdote. Set the stage for a killer presentation!

The opening moments of your presentation hold immense power – check out these 15 ways to start a presentation to set the stage and captivate your audience.

3. Relevant content

Make sure your content aligns with their interests and needs. Your audience is there for a reason, and that’s to get valuable insights. Avoid fluff and get straight to the point, your audience will be genuinely excited.

4. Effective visual aids

Picture this: a slide with walls of text and tiny charts, yawn! Visual aids should be just that—aiding your presentation. Opt for clear and visually appealing slides, engaging images and informative charts that add value and help reinforce your message.

With Venngage, visualizing data takes no effort at all. You can import data from CSV or Google Sheets seamlessly and create stunning charts, graphs and icon stories effortlessly to showcase your data in a captivating and impactful way.

5. Clear and concise communication

Keep your language simple, and avoid jargon or complicated terms. Communicate your ideas clearly, so your audience can easily grasp and retain the information being conveyed. This can prevent confusion and enhance the overall effectiveness of the message. 

6. Engaging delivery

Spice up your presentation with a sprinkle of enthusiasm! Maintain eye contact, use expressive gestures and vary your tone of voice to keep your audience glued to the edge of their seats. A touch of charisma goes a long way!

7. Interaction and audience engagement

Turn your presentation into an interactive experience — encourage questions, foster discussions and maybe even throw in a fun activity. Engaged audiences are more likely to remember and embrace your message.

Transform your slides into an interactive presentation with Venngage’s dynamic features like pop-ups, clickable icons and animated elements. Engage your audience with interactive content that lets them explore and interact with your presentation for a truly immersive experience.

8. Effective storytelling

Who doesn’t love a good story? Weaving relevant anecdotes, case studies or even a personal story into your presentation can captivate your audience and create a lasting impact. Stories build connections and make your message memorable.

A great presentation background is also essential as it sets the tone, creates visual interest and reinforces your message. Enhance the overall aesthetics of your presentation with these 15 presentation background examples and captivate your audience’s attention.

9. Well-timed pacing

Pace your presentation thoughtfully with well-designed presentation slides, neither rushing through nor dragging it out. Respect your audience’s time and ensure you cover all the essential points without losing their interest.

10. Strong conclusion

Last impressions linger! Summarize your main points and leave your audience with a clear takeaway. End your presentation with a bang , a call to action or an inspiring thought that resonates long after the conclusion.

In-person presentations aside, acing a virtual presentation is of paramount importance in today’s digital world. Check out this guide to learn how you can adapt your in-person presentations into virtual presentations . 

Preparing an effective presentation starts with laying a strong foundation that goes beyond just creating slides and notes. One of the quickest and best ways to make a presentation would be with the help of a good presentation software . 

Otherwise, let me walk you to how to prepare for a presentation step by step and unlock the secrets of crafting a professional presentation that sets you apart.

1. Understand the audience and their needs

Before you dive into preparing your masterpiece, take a moment to get to know your target audience. Tailor your presentation to meet their needs and expectations , and you’ll have them hooked from the start!

2. Conduct thorough research on the topic

Time to hit the books (or the internet)! Don’t skimp on the research with your presentation materials — dive deep into the subject matter and gather valuable insights . The more you know, the more confident you’ll feel in delivering your presentation.

3. Organize the content with a clear structure

No one wants to stumble through a chaotic mess of information. Outline your presentation with a clear and logical flow. Start with a captivating introduction, follow up with main points that build on each other and wrap it up with a powerful conclusion that leaves a lasting impression.

Delivering an effective business presentation hinges on captivating your audience, and Venngage’s professionally designed business presentation templates are tailor-made for this purpose. With thoughtfully structured layouts, these templates enhance your message’s clarity and coherence, ensuring a memorable and engaging experience for your audience members.

Don’t want to build your presentation layout from scratch? pick from these 5 foolproof presentation layout ideas that won’t go wrong. 

4. Develop visually appealing and supportive visual aids

Spice up your presentation with eye-catching visuals! Create slides that complement your message, not overshadow it. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words, but that doesn’t mean you need to overload your slides with text.

Well-chosen designs create a cohesive and professional look, capturing your audience’s attention and enhancing the overall effectiveness of your message. Here’s a list of carefully curated PowerPoint presentation templates and great background graphics that will significantly influence the visual appeal and engagement of your presentation.

5. Practice, practice and practice

Practice makes perfect — rehearse your presentation and arrive early to your presentation to help overcome stage fright. Familiarity with your material will boost your presentation skills and help you handle curveballs with ease.

6. Seek feedback and make necessary adjustments

Don’t be afraid to ask for help and seek feedback from friends and colleagues. Constructive criticism can help you identify blind spots and fine-tune your presentation to perfection.

With Venngage’s real-time collaboration feature , receiving feedback and editing your presentation is a seamless process. Group members can access and work on the presentation simultaneously and edit content side by side in real-time. Changes will be reflected immediately to the entire team, promoting seamless teamwork.

7. Prepare for potential technical or logistical issues

Prepare for the unexpected by checking your equipment, internet connection and any other potential hiccups. If you’re worried that you’ll miss out on any important points, you could always have note cards prepared. Remember to remain focused and rehearse potential answers to anticipated questions.

8. Fine-tune and polish your presentation

As the big day approaches, give your presentation one last shine. Review your talking points, practice how to present a presentation and make any final tweaks. Deep breaths — you’re on the brink of delivering a successful presentation!

In competitive environments, persuasive presentations set individuals and organizations apart. To brush up on your presentation skills, read these guides on how to make a persuasive presentation and tips to presenting effectively . 

Whether you’re an experienced presenter or a novice, the right techniques will let your presentation skills soar to new heights!

From public speaking hacks to interactive elements and storytelling prowess, these 9 effective presentation techniques will empower you to leave a lasting impression on your audience and make your presentations unforgettable.

1. Confidence and positive body language

Positive body language instantly captivates your audience, making them believe in your message as much as you do. Strengthen your stage presence and own that stage like it’s your second home! Stand tall, shoulders back and exude confidence. 

2. Eye contact with the audience

Break down that invisible barrier and connect with your audience through their eyes. Maintaining eye contact when giving a presentation builds trust and shows that you’re present and engaged with them.

3. Effective use of hand gestures and movement

A little movement goes a long way! Emphasize key points with purposeful gestures and don’t be afraid to walk around the stage. Your energy will be contagious!

4. Utilize storytelling techniques

Weave the magic of storytelling into your presentation. Share relatable anecdotes, inspiring success stories or even personal experiences that tug at the heartstrings of your audience. Adjust your pitch, pace and volume to match the emotions and intensity of the story. Varying your speaking voice adds depth and enhances your stage presence.

5. Incorporate multimedia elements

Spice up your presentation with a dash of visual pizzazz! Use slides, images and video clips to add depth and clarity to your message. Just remember, less is more—don’t overwhelm them with information overload. 

Turn your presentations into an interactive party! Involve your audience with questions, polls or group activities. When they actively participate, they become invested in your presentation’s success. Bring your design to life with animated elements. Venngage allows you to apply animations to icons, images and text to create dynamic and engaging visual content.

6. Utilize humor strategically

Laughter is the best medicine—and a fantastic presentation enhancer! A well-placed joke or lighthearted moment can break the ice and create a warm atmosphere , making your audience more receptive to your message.

7. Practice active listening and respond to feedback

Be attentive to your audience’s reactions and feedback. If they have questions or concerns, address them with genuine interest and respect. Your responsiveness builds rapport and shows that you genuinely care about their experience.

8. Apply the 10-20-30 rule

Apply the 10-20-30 presentation rule and keep it short, sweet and impactful! Stick to ten slides, deliver your presentation within 20 minutes and use a 30-point font to ensure clarity and focus. Less is more, and your audience will thank you for it!

9. Implement the 5-5-5 rule

Simplicity is key. Limit each slide to five bullet points, with only five words per bullet point and allow each slide to remain visible for about five seconds. This rule keeps your presentation concise and prevents information overload.

Simple presentations are more engaging because they are easier to follow. Summarize your presentations and keep them simple with Venngage’s gallery of simple presentation templates and ensure that your message is delivered effectively across your audience.

1. How to start a presentation?

To kick off your presentation effectively, begin with an attention-grabbing statement or a powerful quote. Introduce yourself, establish credibility and clearly state the purpose and relevance of your presentation.

2. How to end a presentation?

For a strong conclusion, summarize your talking points and key takeaways. End with a compelling call to action or a thought-provoking question and remember to thank your audience and invite any final questions or interactions.

3. How to make a presentation interactive?

To make your presentation interactive, encourage questions and discussion throughout your talk. Utilize multimedia elements like videos or images and consider including polls, quizzes or group activities to actively involve your audience.

In need of inspiration for your next presentation? I’ve got your back! Pick from these 120+ presentation ideas, topics and examples to get started. 

Creating a stunning presentation with Venngage is a breeze with our user-friendly drag-and-drop editor and professionally designed templates for all your communication needs. 

Here’s how to make a presentation in just 5 simple steps with the help of Venngage:

Step 1: Sign up for Venngage for free using your email, Gmail or Facebook account or simply log in to access your account. 

Step 2: Pick a design from our selection of free presentation templates (they’re all created by our expert in-house designers).

Step 3: Make the template your own by customizing it to fit your content and branding. With Venngage’s intuitive drag-and-drop editor, you can easily modify text, change colors and adjust the layout to create a unique and eye-catching design.

Step 4: Elevate your presentation by incorporating captivating visuals. You can upload your images or choose from Venngage’s vast library of high-quality photos, icons and illustrations. 

Step 5: Upgrade to a premium or business account to export your presentation in PDF and print it for in-person presentations or share it digitally for free!

By following these five simple steps, you’ll have a professionally designed and visually engaging presentation ready in no time. With Venngage’s user-friendly platform, your presentation is sure to make a lasting impression. So, let your creativity flow and get ready to shine in your next presentation!

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How to Give a Killer Presentation

• Chris Anderson

For more than 30 years, the TED conference series has presented enlightening talks that people enjoy watching. In this article, Anderson, TED’s curator, shares five keys to great presentations:

• Frame your story (figure out where to start and where to end).
• Plan your delivery (decide whether to memorize your speech word for word or develop bullet points and then rehearse it—over and over).
• Work on stage presence (but remember that your story matters more than how you stand or whether you’re visibly nervous).
• Plan the multimedia (whatever you do, don’t read from PowerPoint slides).
• Put it together (play to your strengths and be authentic).

According to Anderson, presentations rise or fall on the quality of the idea, the narrative, and the passion of the speaker. It’s about substance—not style. In fact, it’s fairly easy to “coach out” the problems in a talk, but there’s no way to “coach in” the basic story—the presenter has to have the raw material. So if your thinking is not there yet, he advises, decline that invitation to speak. Instead, keep working until you have an idea that’s worth sharing.

Lessons from TED

A little more than a year ago, on a trip to Nairobi, Kenya, some colleagues and I met a 12-year-old Masai boy named Richard Turere, who told us a fascinating story. His family raises livestock on the edge of a vast national park, and one of the biggest challenges is protecting the animals from lions—especially at night. Richard had noticed that placing lamps in a field didn’t deter lion attacks, but when he walked the field with a torch, the lions stayed away. From a young age, he’d been interested in electronics, teaching himself by, for example, taking apart his parents’ radio. He used that experience to devise a system of lights that would turn on and off in sequence—using solar panels, a car battery, and a motorcycle indicator box—and thereby create a sense of movement that he hoped would scare off the lions. He installed the lights, and the lions stopped attacking. Soon villages elsewhere in Kenya began installing Richard’s “lion lights.”

• CA Chris Anderson is the curator of TED.

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81 Impressive Free Presentation Backgrounds for Outstanding Presentations

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By Lyudmil Enchev

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5 years ago

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Update: May 19, 2022

A collection of free presentation backgrounds for any topic.

Nowadays, presentations need to look modern and eye-catchy in order to keep the audience’s attention from beginning to end. Believe it or not, the visual factor plays a huge role in engaging your viewers. In this collection of free presentation backgrounds , we’ve gathered high-quality graphics – ready to import into your PowerPoint, Google Slides, or Keynote presentations and resize according to your needs.

In this article you will find: Free Business Presentation Backgrounds Free Minimalist & Geometric Presentation Backgrounds Colorful Gradients & Artistic Free Presentation Backgrounds Free Technology Presentation Backgrounds Free Liquid Presentation Backgrounds Free Cute Presentation Backgrounds Free Vintage Presentation Backgrounds Free Paper Presentation Backgrounds Free Holiday Presentation Backgrounds Bonus Backgrounds

Do you want to check out The Best Presentation Software Options on The Market ?

Free Business Presentation Backgrounds

Business presentation backgrounds are slightly different than other types of backgrounds. Unlike more casual presentations, business presentations usually consist of a business-related stock photo – office space, formally dressed people, whiteboards, etc. Take a look at the backgrounds we’ve collected for your company presentation:

1. Blurred Office Interior Background

Blurred light photographs are great for business presentations where they can fit in any slide.

2. Light Corporate Interior Background

This blurred hallway interior image can ideally match a professional presentation.

3. Person Writing on Laptop Background

Workstation backgrounds complete your idea if they don’t distract. In this case, the person working on a laptop is positioned in the corner of the frame.

4. Modern Business Building Background

This background might be an amazing first slide. But even if used somewhere else, it will still do a great job, unless used in all slides.

5. Business Handshake Network Creation Background

An amazing background for corporate presentations that is perfect for teamwork, business communication, partners, or proposals slides.

6. Businessman in Office Modern Skyscraper Landscape Background

This background, although made as a photograph, can actually help you achieve the formal vibe you are looking for.

Free Minimalist & Geometric Presentation Backgrounds

Suitable for literally any kind of presentation, these minimalist presentation background designs come with attractive geometric shapes and pleasant color combinations. The graphics are highly modern right now, so your presentation will certainly impress with good taste and professionalism. The resources are also available in fully editable and resizable vector file formats.

7. Modern Geometric Background

Shapes are very pleasant for the eye. This background uses very “soft” colors, making it quite feminine and good-looking.

8. Black and White Geometry Background

Playing with black and white backgrounds is the best way to proceed if you want to accent the text. This one looks stylish and modern, and it will add a premium feel to your slides.

9. Simple Dark Geometry Background

Using two dominant colors in one background is a great combination. It shows great power and even a bit of provocation.

10. Fresh Squares and Circles Background

Utilizing different shapes and a few variants of blue is a good mix. A non-intrusive design for presentations.

11. Abstract Blue Lines Background

This abstract blue lines background fits the standard business practices of non-aggressive design.

12. Colorful Memphis Style Background

This Memphis-style background shines with its combination of minimalistic design combined with shapes all around the place.

13. Cool Modern Colors Background

If you had to pick one image to explain the term “technology”, that would probably be it.

14. Trendy Outline Shapes Background

A casual style background with simple shapes with playful colors plus trendy black strokes.

15. Neon Modern Shapes Background

Abstract geometry definitely has its place under the sun and is becoming a hot trend – your younger audience will love it!

16. Colorful Geometry Shapes Background

This colorful background is an amazing option for presentation design that aims to get more creative.

17. Modern Lines and Dots Background

This background with blue/purple colors and linear shapes is perfect for more creative presentations.

18. Minimalist Shapes Background with Pastel Gradients

The minimalist signature is easily recognizable and the use of pastel gradients “softens” the shapes.

19. Simplistic White-Grey Background

Light, neutral background with dots and lines that can be used in any presentation.

20. 4 Simple Style Backgrounds

Four simple backgrounds can be used for any purpose. You will find an orange, purple, red, and cyan background for your presentations.

21. Seamless Patterns Mega Bundle with 15 Free Geometric Pattern Backgrounds

A huge pattern designs bundle with over 1000 premium. Still, you have 15 free seamless patterns that you can use as backgrounds to lit up your presentations.

Colorful Gradients & Artistic Free Presentation Backgrounds

The delicate play with colors is very important when it comes to presentation background – it should be easy on the eyes and feel… right. This collection is everything you need if you are looking for a vibrant, colorful background for your presentation. Free gradient presentation backgrounds, watercolor backgrounds, and more artistic suggestions for your colorful slides.

22. Blue Tone Gradient Background

Gradient backgrounds make flat colors look more vibrant. The blue tones are quite relaxing and trustworthy.

23. 4 Artistic Texture Backgrounds

Textures can be attention-grabbing. Picking such background can create a more professional feeling.

24. Nice Warm Colors Gradient Background

Warm colors are typically better for cheerful presentations, as they “uplift” the mood.

25. Cool Cold Colors Gradient Background

If you have to come up with a presentation related to a marine topic, that’s your perfect choice.

26. Modern Blue Gradient Background

Blue and purple are two solid colors. Using this background gradient is perfect for business presentations.

27. Energetic Orange Gradient Background

A clean background with a vivid orange color gradient. Perfect for different energetic presentations.

28. Colorful Rainbow Gradient Background

Using a rainbow gradient is an amazing option for presentations dedicated to kids, or teenage audience.

29. Elegant Blury Bokeh Background

Stolen from photographers, the “bokeh” effect background makes presentations stand out.

You may also be interested in The Best Color Combinations to Try Now

Free Technology Presentation Backgrounds

Presentation background designs suitable for technology and business presentations. These backgrounds look high-tech and modern but still won’t steal away the attention of the viewer. Available in vector file formats which makes them fully editable and resizeable depending on your presentation style and dimensions.

30. Modern Technology Background

This high-tech background design is perfect for innovation and digital presentations.

31. Abstract Modern Tech Background

Abstract design with modern simple squares – an amazing option for high-tech presentations.

32. Abstract Futuristic Background with Honeycomb

This abstract and futuristic dark background is perfectly suitable for technical presentations.

33. Futuristic Technology Interface Background

Great technology background with minimalist, clean design that will fit any high-tech presentation.

Free Liquid Presentation Backgrounds

A selection of free presentation backgrounds with liquids and bubbles. Flat or 3D, these backgrounds are super immersive and certainly impressive. They will be the perfect addition to a wide array of presentation topics. You can get them completely for free as fully editable and resizable vector file formats .

34. Blue Liquid Background

The combination of dark blue and light blue is an amazing option for a presentation. An amazing option, especially for financial services.

35. Yellow Liquid Background

These cheeky shapes and colors are an amazing way to present something that can be qualified as everything but boring. Great for uprising sales, or summer theme for example.

36. Purple Liquid Background

Purple is a royal color and combined with a liquid design background it becomes even better for a modern-day classy presentation.

37. Monochrome Liquid Background

A perfect blend between using 3D forms and gradient colors. The blur effect and reflections are also attributed to the exquisite look of this background.

38. Modern Blue-Green Liquid Background

It’s an interesting, yet impressive background design. You can definitely stand out with this modern, blue-green liquid background.

39. Watercolor Background with White Blue and Purple

This background, in particular, doesn’t have a practical use in business presentations but it fits perfectly in artistic ones.

40. Liquid Shapes Monochrome Background

You’ll rarely come across a better realistic 3D background for medical presentations.

41. Modern Dark Liquid Background

Compared to a couple of the previous backgrounds, this dark liquid background is pretty standard and it can fit multiple presentation themes.

Free Cute Presentation Backgrounds

Cute backgrounds are often used for educational projects  – especially when presenting in front of kids. Smile-bringing designs will always win you emotional points, and it’s always a good idea to have a themed background or two just in case.

42. Cute Animal Background

In this background, you can find cute 2D animals all around the frame. At the same time, the central part is filled with white space, so you can add text there.

43. Colorful Pastel Color Pattern Background

These beautiful rounded shapes add the feeling of watercolor art and we can definitely catch the pattern design.

44. Space Rocket Child Background

If you’re about to teach a science class – that might be perfect. Well, unless you have university students.

45. Blue Pastel Sky and Clouds Background

It’s a simple blue background with white clouds. It can be used as a theme for a whole educational presentation.

46. Cute Doodle Frame Background

This beautiful cute doodles frame is also matched with a rainbow border vector and free text space in the center.

47. Green Park Illustration Landscape Background

There is nothing more suitable for educational presentation than a simple landscape illustration with trees, clouds and sun.

Free Vintage Presentation Backgrounds

Retro and vintage looks are quite modern right now, so no wonder people are choosing vintage looks for their presentations, as well. In this selection of free presentation backgrounds, you will find ornamental backgrounds, grudge backgrounds, worn-out materials, old paper effects, antique looks, damasks, etc. All are free to download in vector file formats – fully editable and scalable.

48. Ornamental Vintage Floral Background

Vintage backgrounds, especially floral are a very strong point if you’re coming with flower-related topics.

49. Vintage Frame Background

Frames are typically used in photography, so go for it if you have lots of pictures in your presentations.

50. Damask Pattern Vintage Background

Damask pattern is a specific vintage style which will not only look good, but also grab attention by being unique.

51. Grunge Texture Background

This grunge background focuses on the main picture, so it’s great for quizzes or presentations where there is one central topic.

52. Retro Grunge Texture Background

If you have a presentation related to Ancient times (especially Egypt), that’s your background.

53. Vintage Shapes Pattern Background

These vintage shapes are quite peculiar but you can use them for boring topics to give “life”.

54. Grunge Hearts Background

Another cool background design is the grunge hearts. It can be used for many presentations.

55. Old Paper Antique Texture Background

Old Paper can perfectly fit any slide related to the Middle centuries.

56. Blue Grunge Background

Another amazing grunge background that can be the greatest companion of any history-related presentation.

57. Vintage Paper Retro Background

Vintage paper can be an amazing background for any presentation for hand-made products.

Free Paper Presentation Backgrounds

Paper and cardboard textures give presentations a homey and hand-made feel. In this selection of free presentation backgrounds, you will see different paper textures. Adaptable for any presentation theme, these designs can be downloaded in vector file formats and edited in vector-based software.

58. White Paper Texture Background

Paper texture can be great for teachers who want a neutral background.

59. Package Paper Background

Package paper is great for presentations related to delivery services.

60. Simple White Paper Background

A simple white paper background that can fit any need.

61. Brown Paper Background

Another great background for delivery services presentations.

62. Paper Note Memphis Style Background

The combination of blank space and surrounding in Memphis Style makes this colorful background perfect to give a modern look to your presentation.

Free Holiday Presentation Backgrounds

Holiday backgrounds should not be used every day but they can be powerful triggers. Holiday presentations spark emotions which can be a good way to convey your message during festive periods. Let’s see some of the best free holiday backgrounds you can use for the occasion.

63. Christmas Decoration Photo Background

A marvelous Christmas concept background where you can add text on the left part of the slide and the Christmas elements are on the right.

64. White Simple Christmas Background

If you’re into texture and white backgrounds, this free Christmas photo is for you.

65. Cartoon Snowy Christmas Vector Background

This free vector background gives you the chance to edit details or add some more Christmas decorations.

66. Cute Christmas Background with Illustrations

The Christmas decorations are placed at the top and bottom of the background, so you have free space right in the middle.

67. Halloween Spider Web Background

A great combination of orange (the color associated with Hallowen) and spider web makes this vector background very straight to the point.

68. Flat Hallowen Vector Background With House

A flat illustration background with Halloween’s color palette and some standard “scary” motives.

69. Easter Egg Photo Frame Background

You can easily “catch” the Easter topic with the dyed eggs and the basket. The M&Ms are also an original idea to add flat shapes.

70. Watercolor Light Easter Vector Background

Watercolor Easter backgrounds look natural and beautiful. They can be a great addition to any Easter-related presentation.

71. Beautiful Landscape Thanksgiving Autumn Illustration Background

This illustration has the color palette of autumn which is also associated with Thanksgiving day.

72. Hand Drawn Thanksgiving Illustration Background

In the hand drawn thanksgiving illustration we can find the typical colors of autumn, plus the pumpkin and, of course, the Thanksgiving turkey.

73. Watercolor Thanksgiving Background

Watercolor art is very distinctive and for the “Thanksgiving” topic, it can create some beautiful results.

74. Thanksgiving Decoration Photo Background

The combination of a white background with green and brown leaves, plus pines and pumpkins enriches the image and adds contrast.

Bonus Presentation Backgrounds

A collection of high-resolution photos that impress with super high quality. These images show attention to detail but are still humble enough to keep the audience focused on your content. Attribution for using these images is not required, although it’s appreciated.

75. Clean Package Boxes Background

It’s a lovely background that is good for Christmas topics or any gift-related presentations.

76. Elegant Decoration Background Image

If you’re looking for a background for your wedding agency, you’re in the right place.

77. Pencils and Office Items Background

The elements in the background suggest you it is a perfect match for teachers and lecturers.

78. Simple Clean Background with a Book

Books are symbol of liberty and education. The background is great for science presentations.

79. Bridge Landscape Photography Background

Golden Gate bridge stands tall. So is the background which can be used for all kinds of presentations.

80. Sunset Background Image

Sunsets are proven to be stress-relieving, making this background suitable for meditation business presentations.

81. Monochrome Landscape Background

Skyscrapers, shady pinks, and overall – the perfect cosmetics presentation.

That’s it!

We hope this collection of free presentation backgrounds was useful to you. We hope it helps you make your next presentation super impressive and successful. If you’d like to see even more freebies, go ahead and have a look at these awesome suggestions:

39 Free Google Slides Templates For Your Next Presentation

• The Best Free PowerPoint Templates to Download in 2022
• How to Start and End a Presentation: 10 Practical Tips to Grab Attention

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Lyudmil Enchev

Lyudmil is an avid movie fan which influences his passion for video editing. You will often see him making animations and video tutorials for GraphicMama. Lyudmil is also passionate for photography, video making, and writing scripts.

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How to make a great presentation

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

The secret structure of great talks

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Home Best PowerPoint Templates Gallery

Best PowerPoint Templates Gallery

Download the best PowerPoint Templates , rated and selected by SlideModel.com users through our star rating system.

This selection of presentations is dynamically built over time through our users preferences and curated by editors.  You will find the most appealing templates for different purposes but always honoring users ratings and feedback of our content. This is a wonderful starting point for navigating our content, allowing the newcomers to experience our top of the line PowerPoint Templates.

Self Introduction PowerPoint Template

Introduce Company Profile PowerPoint Template

Go-To-Market PowerPoint Template

Business Case Study PowerPoint Template

Infographic PowerPoint

Multi Level Circular Organizational Chart Template

Invictus PowerPoint Template

Light Business PowerPoint Template

Light Bulb Idea PowerPoint Template

Scorecard Dashboard PowerPoint Template

Table of Content Slides for PowerPoint

Mission and Vision PowerPoint Template

Inertia PowerPoint Template

Thesis Presentation PowerPoint Template

RAG Project Status Dashboard for PowerPoint

Global Company Profile PowerPoint Template

Here you can find a collection of some of the best PowerPoint Templates. You can choose from a collection of the best slide templates to make your presentations for various purposes. Find the best PowerPoint templates for business or education, including topics such as Management, Science, Technology, Arts, Entertainment, and more. With thousands of creatively designed and ready-made presentation templates, you can browse and pick the most suitable template for your next presentation. These best slide templates for PowerPoint and Google Slides can boost your productivity in preparing a presentation and, at the same time, help convey a message to an audience with visually appealing slides.

Also, all presentation templates, slides, layouts, etc., that made it to our Best PPT Templates list are Mac and Windows-supported. You can also run them on Keynotes, Office365, and Google Slides. These templates come in different colors, styles, fonts, and font sizes, making them unique. The colors, icons, shapes, vector images, and other elements used for these templates are carefully selected, which you can change to your preferred color and edit to your desired text. To suit your preference, you can always add the content (heading, subheading, etc.) to these templates. It makes any of these templates personal, and your audience will pay more attention.

The Best PPT Templates help you save time, energy, and resources because they are 100% editable in Microsoft PowerPoint and Google Slides. Using the best presentation templates, you can make your presentation memorable by combining visually appealing slides and communicating your message efficiently.

Browse through a huge collection of PowerPoint templates curated from various well-crafted, visually appealing, downloadable, and editable templates to select the most suitable for your presentation. The collection of best slides comprises PowerPoint shapes, presentation diagrams, PowerPoint icons, infographics, illustrations & vector images, charts, and other essential elements.

All the curated best PPT templates and slides are professionally designed to meet today’s visual standards.

Best Business Presentations PowerPoint Templates

Searching for the perfect corporate look for your presentations can be a real challenge. If you don’t have design experience, trying to create something on your own can be time-consuming and might not look professional.

Our crew curated a broad selection of business presentation templates that work with Microsoft PowerPoint, Google Slides, and Keynote. These designs include eye-catching graphics to spotlight the most important parts of your company’s message and offer you the tools to create professional-quality reports, slides, and more.

Strategy Consulting PowerPoint Template

Employee Onboarding Presentation Template

Business Executive PowerPoint Slide Deck Template

Annual Marketing Plan PowerPoint Template

Best pitch deck powerpoint templates.

Be clear, persuade, and close business deals by elaborating your pitch decks with our selection of pitch deck PowerPoint templates. This selection of PPT templates lists a variety of styles with a distinctive corporate aesthetic, ideal for entrepreneurs who look for a quality combo of a professional look and engaging graphics. 

With concise designs, a clear layout of information, and eye-catching details built out of editable PowerPoint shapes, you cannot go wrong with these pitch deck templates.

Executive Pitch Deck PowerPoint Template

Carnival Pitch Deck PowerPoint Template

Creative Company Presentation Template

Modern Startup PowerPoint Template

What are the best powerpoint templates for business.

At SlideModel, we have numerous business PowerPoint presentation templates that you can use for maximum business productivity and proper dissemination of information to your audience seamlessly. Speed up the presentation design process by reusing 100% editable and customizable presentation templates.

Depending on the objective and type of presentation you are preparing, you can use business presentation slides like the Corporate Business Presentation Template or a Business Plan PowerPoint Template to prepare presentations for presenting to investors.

What is the best PowerPoint template?

Every business presentation template serves a specific purpose. At SlideModel, we seek to create the best PowerPoint templates that fit the user’s needs. Within our wide variety of templates, you will find the best PowerPoint presentations for different categories: Infographics Templates , Dashboard templates , PowerPoint Diagrams , PowerPoint backgrounds , Company Profile Templates , and Pitch Deck Templates , among others.

All presentations in our extensive gallery are 100% editable and compatible with Microsoft PowerPoint, Google Slides, and Keynote. Therefore, they can be used for multiple purposes and reused according to the presenters’ needs.

What makes a good PowerPoint presentation?

Making a good and engaging PowerPoint presentation requires the following procedures:

• Be sure to properly include PowerPal elements such as graphics, images, colors, etc.
• Avoid using (extended) sentences; instead, use short phrases.
• Be sure to add empty spaces in your presentation intentionally. This helps readability.
• Use complementary and contrasting colors
• Use a consistent background design with the help of PowerPoint theme colors.
• Avoid using more than 3 typefaces or font families.
• Limit the number of slides. Find out the ideal number of slides depending on the expected length of the presentation (e.g., find out how many slides for a 10-minute presentation)
• Add a concluding slide with the summarizing points
• Take advantage of the About us slide to include contact info in business presentations and proposals.

Where can I find the best free PowerPoint templates?

It is essential to emphasize eye-catching visual design in PowerPoint presentations. To create a professional PowerPoint presentation you need to spend more time on it. A nice ready-made template can help you finish your work quickly. So, to save time and effort, you can check our presentation templates at SlideModel. If you also want to save your budget, you can check out some of our free PowerPoint templates that can be easily downloaded and edited to suit your needs.

How can I download the best PowerPoint templates?

Get started by creating a SlideModel.com account , choose a plan that best suits your needs and download your PowerPoint template from our various presentations.

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Our annual unlimited plan let you download unlimited content from slidemodel. save hours of manual work and use awesome slide designs in your next presentation..

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How to Make a Beautiful PowerPoint Presentation: A Simple Guide

Ready to craft a beautiful and attention-grabbing powerpoint presentation we’ll walk you through slideshow design tips, show you some tricks to maximize your powerpoint skills, and give you everything you need to look really good next time you’re up in front of a crowd..

In this post, we’ll cover:

Key Elements of Winning PowerPoints

Illustrative, not generic, supportive, not distracting, inspiring and engaging, other considerations when creating a slideshow.

How many times have you sat through a poorly designed business presentation that was dull, cluttered, and distracting? Probably way too many. Even though we all loathe a boring presentation, when it comes time to make our own, do we really do any better?

The good news is you don’t have to be a professional designer to make professional presentations. We’ve put together a few simple guidelines you can follow to create a beautifully assembled deck.

We’ll walk you through some slide design tips, show you tricks to maximize your PowerPoint skills, and give you everything you need to look really good next time you’re up in front of a crowd.

And, while PowerPoint remains one of the biggest names in presentation software, many of these design elements and principles work in Google Slides, as well.

Let’s dive right in.

1. Use Layout to Your Advantage

Layout is one of the most powerful visual elements in design, and it’s a simple, effective way to control the flow and visual hierarchy of information. It’s also one of the most important elements to consider when thinking about how to make your PowerPoint look better.

For example, most Western languages read left to right, top to bottom. Knowing this natural reading order, you can direct people’s eyes in a deliberate way to certain key parts of a slide that you want to emphasize.

You can also guide your audience with simple tweaks to the layout. Use text size and alternating fonts or colors to distinguish headlines from body text.

Placement also matters. There are many unorthodox ways to structure a slide, but most audience members will have to take a few beats to organize the information in their head—that’s precious time better spent listening to your delivery and retaining information.

Try to structure your slides more like this:

And not like this:

Layout is one of the trickier PowerPoint design concepts to master, which is why we have these free PowerPoint templates already laid out for you. Use them as a jumping off point for your own presentation, or use them wholesale!

Presentation templates can give you a huge leg up as you start working on your design.

2. No Sentences

This is one of the most critical slide design tips. Slides are simplified, visual notecards that capture and reinforce main ideas, not complete thoughts.

As the speaker, you should be delivering most of the content and information, not putting it all on the slides for everyone to read (and probably ignore). If your audience is reading your presentation instead of listening to you deliver it, your message has lost its effectiveness.

Pare down your core message and use keywords to convey it. Try to avoid complete sentences unless you’re quoting someone or something.

Stick with this:

And avoid this:

3. Follow the 6×6 Rule

One of the cardinal sins of a bad PowerPoint is cramming too many details and ideas on one slide, which makes it difficult for people to retain information. Leaving lots of “white space” on a slide helps people focus on your key points.

Try using the 6×6 rule to keep your content concise and clean looking. The 6×6 rule means a maximum of six bullet points per slide and six words per bullet. In fact, some people even say you should never have more than six words per slide!

Just watch out for “orphans” (when the last word of a sentence/phrase spills over to the next line). This looks cluttered. Either fit it onto one line or add another word to the second line.

Slides should never have this much information:

4. Keep the Colors Simple

Stick to simple light and dark colors and a defined color palette for visual consistency. Exceptionally bright text can cause eye fatigue, so use those colors sparingly. Dark text on a light background or light text on a dark background will work well. Also avoid intense gradients, which can make text hard to read.

If you’re presenting on behalf of your brand, check what your company’s brand guidelines are. Companies often have a primary brand color and a secondary brand color , and it’s a good idea to use them in your presentation to align with your company’s brand identity and style.

If you’re looking for color inspiration for your next presentation, check out our 101 Color Combinations , where you can browse tons of eye-catching color palettes curated by a pro. When you find the one you like, just type the corresponding color code into your presentation formatting tools.

Here are more of our favorite free color palettes for presentations:

• 10 Color Palettes to Nail Your Next Presentation
• 10 Energizing Sports Color Palettes for Branding and Marketing
• 10 Vintage Color Palettes Inspired by the Decades

No matter what color palette or combination you choose, you want to keep the colors of your PowerPoint presentation simple and easy to read, like this:

Stay away from color combinations like this:

5. Use Sans-Serif Fonts

Traditionally, serif fonts (Times New Roman, Garamond, Bookman) are best for printed pages, and sans-serif fonts (Helvetica, Tahoma, Verdana) are easier to read on screens.

These are always safe choices, but if you’d like to add some more typographic personality , try exploring our roundup of the internet’s best free fonts . You’ll find everything from classic serifs and sans serifs to sophisticated modern fonts and splashy display fonts. Just keep legibility top of mind when you’re making your pick.

Try to stick with one font, or choose two at the most. Fonts have very different personalities and emotional impacts, so make sure your font matches the tone, purpose, and content of your presentation.

6. Stick to 30pt Font or Larger

Many experts agree that your font size for a PowerPoint presentation should be at least 30pt. Sticking to this guideline ensures your text is readable. It also forces you, due to space limitations, to explain your message efficiently and include only the most important points. .

7. Avoid Overstyling the Text

Three of the easiest and most effective ways to draw attention to text are:

• A change in color

Our eyes are naturally drawn to things that stand out, but use these changes sparingly. Overstyling can make the slide look busy and distracting.

8. Choose the Right Images

The images you choose for your presentation are perhaps as important as the message. You want images that not only support the message, but also elevate it—a rare accomplishment in the often dry world of PowerPoint.

But, what is the right image? We’ll be honest. There’s no direct answer to this conceptual, almost mystical subject, but we can break down some strategies for approaching image selection that will help you curate your next presentation.

The ideal presentation images are:

• Inspirational

These may seem like vague qualities, but the general idea is to go beyond the literal. Think about the symbols in an image and the story they tell. Think about the colors and composition in an image and the distinct mood they set for your presentation.

With this approach, you can get creative in your hunt for relatable, authentic, and inspirational images. Here are some more handy guidelines for choosing great images.

Tips on Making Beautiful PowerPoint Presentations

So, the slide in question is about collaborating as a team. Naturally, you look for images of people meeting in a boardroom, right?

While it’s perfectly fine to go super literal, sometimes these images fall flat—what’s literal doesn’t necessarily connect to your audience emotionally. Will they really respond to generic images of people who aren’t them meeting in a boardroom?

In the absence of a photo of your actual team—or any other image that directly illustrates the subject at hand—look for images of convincing realism and humanity that capture the idea of your message.

Doing so connects with viewers, allowing them to connect with your message. This is one way to learn how to make your PowerPoint stand out and ensure a dynamic presentation PowerPoint.

The image above can be interpreted in many ways. But, when we apply it to slide layout ideas about collaboration, the meaning is clear.

It doesn’t hurt that there’s a nice setting and good photography, to boot.

Now that we’ve told you to get creative with your image selection, the next lesson is to rein that in. While there are infinite choices of imagery out there, there’s a limit to what makes sense in your presentation.

Let’s say you’re giving an IT presentation to new employees. You might think that image of two dogs snuggling by a fire is relatable, authentic, and inspirational, but does it really say “data management” to your audience?

To find the best supporting images, try searching terms on the periphery of your actual message. You’ll find images that complement your message rather than distract from it.

In the IT presentation example, instead of “data connections” or another literal term, try the closely related “traffic” or “connectivity.” This will bring up images outside of tech, but relative to the idea of how things move.

There’s a widespread misconception that business presentations are just about delivering information. Well, they’re not. In fact, a great presentation is inspirational. We don’t mean that your audience should be itching to paint a masterpiece when they’re done. In this case, inspiration is about engagement.

Is your audience asking themselves questions? Are they coming up with new ideas? Are they remembering key information to tap into later? You’ll drive a lot of this engagement with your actual delivery, but unexpected images can play a role, as well.

When you use more abstract or aspirational images, your audience will have room to make their own connections. This not only means they’re paying attention, but they’re also engaging with and retaining your message.

To find the right abstract or unconventional imagery, search terms related to the tone of the presentation. This may include images with different perspectives like overhead shots and aerials, long exposures taken over a period of time, nature photos , colorful markets , and so on.

The big idea here is akin to including an image of your adorable dog making a goofy face at the end of an earnings meeting. It leaves an audience with a good, human feeling after you just packed their brains with data.

Use that concept of pleasant surprise when you’re selecting images for your presentation.

Setting Appropriate Image Resolution in PowerPoint

Want to learn how to make a PowerPoint look good? Though you can drag-and-drop images into PowerPoint, you can control the resolution displayed within the file.

All of your PowerPoint slide layout ideas should get the same treatment to be equal in size.

Simply click File > Compress Pictures in the main application menu.

If your presentation file is big and will only be viewed online, you can take it down to On-screen , then check the Apply to: All pictures in this file , and rest assured the quality will be uniform.

This resolution is probably fine for proofing over email, but too low for your presentation layout ideas. For higher res in printed form, try the Print setting, which at 220 PPI is extremely good quality.

For large-screens such as projection, use the HD setting, since enlarging to that scale will show any deficiencies in resolution. Low resolution can not only distract from the message, but it looks low-quality and that reflects on the presenter.

If size is no issue for you, use High Fidelity (maximum PPI), and only reduce if the file size gives your computer problems.

The image quality really begins when you add the images to the presentation file. Use the highest quality images you can, then let PowerPoint scale the resolution down for you, reducing the excess when set to HD or lower.

Resizing, Editing, and Adding Effects to Images in PowerPoint

PowerPoint comes with an arsenal of tools to work with your images. When a picture is selected, the confusingly named Picture Format menu is activated in the top menu bar, and Format Picture is opened on the right side of the app window.

In the Format Picture menu (on the right) are four sections, and each of these sections expand to show their options by clicking the arrows by the name:

• Fill & Line (paint bucket icon): Contains options for the box’s colors, patterns, gradients, and background fills, along with options for its outline.
• Effects (pentagon icon): Contains Shadow, Reflection, Glow, Soft Edges, 3-D Format and Rotation, and Artistic Effects.
• Size & Properties (dimensional icon): Size, Position, and Text Box allow you to control the physical size and placement of the picture or text boxes.
• Picture (mountain icon): Picture Corrections, Colors, and Transparency give you control over how the image looks. Under Crop, you can change the size of the box containing the picture, instead of the entire picture itself as in Size & Properties above.

The menu at the top is more expansive, containing menu presets for Corrections, Color, Effects, Animation, and a lot more. This section is where you can crop more precisely than just choosing the dimensions from the Picture pane on the right.

Cropping Images in PowerPoint

The simple way to crop an image is to use the Picture pane under the Format Picture menu on the right side of the window. Use the Picture Position controls to move the picture inside its box, or use the Crop position controls to manipulate the box’s dimensions.

To exert more advanced control, or use special shapes, select the picture you want to crop, then click the Picture Format in the top menu to activate it.

Hit the Crop button, then use the controls on the picture’s box to size by eye. Or, click the arrow to show more options, including changing the shape of the box (for more creative looks) and using preset aspect ratios for a more uniform presentation of images.

The next time you design a PowerPoint presentation, remember that simplicity is key and less is more. By adopting these simple slide design tips, you’ll deliver a clear, powerful visual message to your audience.

If you want to go with a PowerPoint alternative instead, you can use Shutterstock Create to easily craft convincing, engaging, and informative presentations.

With many presentation template designs, you’ll be sure to find something that is a perfect fit for your next corporate presentation. You can download your designs as a .pdf file and import them into both PowerPoint and Google Slides presentation decks.

PowerPoint Presentations FAQs

What is the 5 5 5 rule in powerpoint.

The 5 5 5 rule in PowerPoint is fairly simple: 5 lines per slide, each line with no more than 5 words, and make sure your presentation is no longer than 5 minutes.

How long should your PowerPoint be?

A PowerPoint can be as long as it needs to be, but some people—and the 5 5 5 rule—advise you to keep five minutes or shorter.

What is the easiest way to make a PowerPoint prettier?

Beyond using eye-catching imagery and colors, a pretty PowerPoint should also follow good design principles. You want the information to be organized, balanced, and easy to digest. It doesn’t matter how many appealing images you include are if the information is hard to internalize. Use appropriate fonts and shorts sentences to make sure the words are legible and don’t crowd the slides with too many elements.

License this cover image via F8 studio and Ryan DeBerardinis .

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3. Show it off

Let's create a powerpoint design, frequently asked questions, where can i find slide templates and themes that i can customize.

To find customizable slide templates and themes, you can explore the business presentations templates or search by PowerPoint templates . Once you find a template that resonates with you, customize it by changing its color scheme, add in your own photos, and swap out the font.

How do I use pre-made PowerPoint templates?

After you've chosen a PowerPoint template to use, customize it. Explore [design tips] on how to customize a deck that resonates with your brand while putting emphasis on the topic at hand. Play with other design elements, like photo shapes, to make each slide unique.

How can I make or edit my own custom PowerPoint templates?

Start from scratch by creating your own PowerPoint template . Follow tips for designs and business presentations so that your unique template is cohesive and relevant to your brand. Incorporate your brand's color scheme and graphics so that all your slides aren't text only.

What kinds templates can I get online for PowerPoint?

You can get PowerPoint templates that have modern designs, animated ones, or even hand-drawn art in each slide. The color schemes range from bold to subtle. Each template's slides are also organized based on what you may want to include in your presentation . You can use the template as a starting point and customize its specific details from theme.

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How-To Geek

8 tips to make the best powerpoint presentations.

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Microsoft Office vs. Google Docs, Sheets, Slides: Which Is Best?

Is the galaxy s23 ultra worth buying in 2024, 32 useful microsoft outlook keyboard shortcuts for emails, quick links, table of contents, start with a goal, less is more, consider your typeface, make bullet points count, limit the use of transitions, skip text where possible, think in color, take a look from the top down, bonus: start with templates.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Related: How to Burn Your PowerPoint to DVD

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Microsoft Office

120+ Best Free PowerPoint Templates (PPT) 2024

Not everyone can afford to buy premium PowerPoint templates to create their slideshows. But, that doesn’t mean you have to settle for a default template. There are dozens of incredible free PowerPoint templates to try out!

A great thing about the design community is that there are designers out there who willingly share their amazing work for free of charge, including gorgeous free PowerPoint templates.

To help you save some money, we scoured the web and handpicked a collection of the best free PowerPoint templates with modern and professional designs that you can use to make various types of presentations. Good luck with your presentation!

Just looking for a stylish free Powerpoint Template? No problem. Let’s dive into our collection of the best free PowerPoint templates!

2 Million+ PowerPoint Templates, Themes, Graphics + More

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

Business PPT Templates

Corporate & pro.

BeMind Minimal Template

Ciri Template

Pitch Deck Templates

Startup pitch deck.

Animated PPT Templates

Fully animated.

Explore PowerPoint Templates

What Type of Free PowerPoint Template Do You Need?

We’ve broken our collection down into different categories, so you can quickly find just the right PPT template for your project! Almost of all of these PPT templates are free, but at the start of each section you’ll see one or two premium ones, just so you have that option to choose as well.

• Professional PowerPoint Templates
• Business PowerPoint Templates
• Animated PowerPoint Templates
• Modern PowerPoint Templates
• Creative PowerPoint Templates
• Pitch Deck PowerPoint Templates
• Medical PowerPoint Templates
• Teacher & Education PowerPoint Templates
• Church & Christian PowerPoint Templates
• Infographic PowerPoint Templates

Free Professional PowerPoint Templates

Selfone – free professional presentation template.

Selfone is an amazing presentation template that features lots of useful slides with professional and modern designs. There are 32 unique slides in this template and it’s ideal for making various types of slideshows for businesses, brands, and creatives. It comes in PowerPoint, Keynote, and Google Slides formats too.

Free Consulting Presentation PowerPoint Template

This free PowerPoint template is great for creating presentations for consultants. It features a set of modern and stylish slides featuring image placeholders, shapes, and editable graphics.

Free Geometric Professional Presentation Template

The colorful geometric shapes are what make this PowerPoint template one of the best on our list. This template is also available in Google Slides and Keynote formats. And you can use the free version of the template to create a basic slideshow for your professional project.

Ash – Free Professional PowerPoint Template

Ash is a modern and stylish PowerPoint template featuring a dark color theme. This template is made with professionals in mind and it’s especially suitable for event and product presentations. The free version of the template can be used to create a simple presentation.

Free Artificial Intelligence PowerPoint Template

This free PowerPoint template is ideal for making professional presentations for showcasing startups, ideas, and products related to artificial intelligence. The template features 7 unique slides with creative charts, timelines, and more.

Free Tech Slides PowerPoint Presentation Template

You can use this PowerPoint template to design attractive slideshows for technology-themed presentations. It comes with 10 different slide layouts with gradient colors, editable shapes, and text. You can also download it in Google Slides format.

Hendrix – Free Dark Professional PowerPoint Template

Another free and professional PowerPoint template with a dark theme. This template comes in both PowerPoint and Google Slides versions. You can easily customize the slide layouts to create various types of presentations.

Pro Portfolio PPT Template

Every business needs a presentation template for showcasing their portfolio. This PowerPoint template is perfect for that task. It comes with 50 unique slides featuring a minimalist design that effectively highlights your portfolio in every slide. The template also includes editable vector graphics, infographics, and icons.

Aesthic – Free Multipurpose PowerPoint Template

It’s hard to believe that this PowerPoint template is free to download. The modern and unique design of this presentation gives it a truly professional look. It’s perfect for creating presentations for showcasing your portfolio, creative projects, and more.

Dolor – Free Professional Presentation Template

This free PowerPoint template also comes with modern and professional slide design. It uses a perfect combination of visuals and minimalism to create a very attractive slide layout. You can use it for free with your creative projects.

Kitulah – Free Dark Professional PowerPoint Template

The dark color theme of this PowerPoint template adds an elegant look to this entire presentation design. It’s perfect for creating slideshows for modern brands and startups.

DSGN – Free Lookbook Presentation Template

This free PowerPoint template comes with 90 unique slide layouts you can use to make slideshows for creative portfolios, photography, and fashion related presentations. The template is also available in 5 color schemes and it’s free to use with your personal projects.

Enable – Free Modern PowerPoint Template

Enable is a modern PowerPoint template featuring a set of minimal slide designs that are most suitable for making creative and business-related presentations. The template comes with an easily editable design and image placeholders for easily replacing the images.

Look – Free Fashion PowerPoint Template

Look is an elegant PowerPoint template that features a highly visual design that’s most suitable for making fashion and photography related presentations. The template includes 55 unique slides and comes in two different colors.

Free Creative Portfolio PowerPoint Template

If you’re looking for a stylish PowerPoint template to create a simple portfolio to showcase your work and services, this free template is perfect for you. It includes 20 unique slides that are designed to make highly visual slideshows filled with large images.

Project Proposal – Free Professional PowerPoint Template

This is a professional PowerPoint template you can use for free to create proposals for various client and freelance projects. This template includes 19 unique slides with an icon pack, illustrations, and much more.

Resume Presentation – Free PowerPoint Template

This minimal PowerPoint template is ideal for showcasing your portfolio and resume. It comes with 14 unique slides with editable vector graphics and image placeholders. The template is available in Google Slides version as well.

Free Modern Portfolio PowerPoint Template

Another free portfolio PowerPoint template with a set of creative slides. This template also includes 20 unique slides with editable layouts, image placeholders, icons, and much more.

Wagner – Free Multipurpose PowerPoint Template

Wagner is a multipurpose PowerPoint template that comes with a modern and stylish design that allows you to design all kinds of presentations. Each slide in the template is fully customizable and features editable vector shapes and elements as well.

Minimal – Simple Free PowerPoint Template

This minimal free PowerPoint template is perfect for crafting slideshow for presenting personal portfolio as well as creative agency presentations. The template is fully customizable as well.

Xara – Free PowerPoint Template

Xara is a modern PowerPoint template most suitable for making minimal slideshows for business and corporate presentations. It includes 9 unique slides with editable layouts, graphics, and charts.

Red White – Free PowerPoint Template

Red White is a modern free PowerPoint presentation template you can use to make slideshows for businesses, brands, and creatives. The template includes 30 unique slides with editable designs.

Free Business PowerPoint Templates

Free retro pixel business powerpoint template.

This is a free PowerPoint template that comes with colorful and creative slide designs inspired by retro-themed pixel graphics. It includes many stylish slide designs with dark color themes for creating attractive presentations for business meetings.

Free Geometric Shapes Marketing Plan for PowerPoint

This free PowerPoint template comes with a set of slides full of colorful geometric shapes and patterns. It’s designed with marketing agencies in mind and you can use it to create attractive marketing plans for your business meetings.

Free Content Strategy Meeting PowerPoint Template

Create the perfect presentation for your content strategy meetings with this free PowerPoint template. It includes many beautiful slide layouts featuring gradient color backgrounds and image placeholders. You can fully customize each slide to your preference.

Free Abstract Shapes Business PowerPoint Template

You can download this PowerPoint template for free to create modern business presentations. It has a set of minimalist slides featuring abstract shapes with rough textures.

Free Morph Business Plan PowerPoint Template

This free PowerPoint template comes with more than 40 slides featuring modern backgrounds and trendy content layouts. It’s especially perfect for creating business plan slide decks and presentations.

Free Company Profile Powerpoint Template

This free company profile PowerPoint template provides a comprehensive overview of your organization in a 20-slide presentation. Designed to showcase a brand’s identity, it covers the company’s journey, from establishment to its current successes, capturing its mission, vision, and values. With customizable slides, the template features a Presentation Agenda, Financial Reports, Business SWOT Analysis, Gantt chart, various graphical charts, and a Company Timeline.

Cranford – Free Business Presentation PPT

Cranford is a free PowerPoint template that includes a set of professional slide layouts. It’s most suitable for making modern business and agency slideshows. It comes in Google Slides and Keynote formats too.

Howard – Free Business PowerPoint Template

This PowerPoint template is also available in multiple formats. You can use it to create presentations for small businesses as well as corporate brands. There are 8 unique slides in this template.

Merville – Free Business PowerPoint Template

Merville is a free PowerPoint template that includes very professional-looking slides. It has highly visual slides with easily editable designs. The template is suitable for all types of business presentations.

Free Business Meeting PowerPoint Template

This is a creative PowerPoint template that comes with a set of beautiful slides. There are 24 unique slides in this template with editable graphs, timelines, mockups, and more. It’s available in Google Slides version too.

Free Creative Agency PowerPoint Template

This is a huge PowerPoint template that includes more than 100 different slides. Of course, the full version comes at a price. But if you scroll all the way down on the page, you’ll find a free version of the template that’s also pretty great for making a simple business presentation.

Free 2022 Marketing Plan Infographic PowerPoint Template

This is a must-have presentation template for marketing agencies and businesses. It includes creative infographic slides you can use to showcase your marketing plan and the performance of your campaigns. It includes 32 slides and it’s available in Google Slides format too.

Free Electric Scooter Company Profile PPTX

This free PowerPoint template is ideal for making company profiles. It’s especially perfect for making company profile presentations for startups and modern brands. The template includes 28 fully customizable slides with free icons and graphics.

Free Human Resource Meeting PowerPoint Template

This PowerPoint template comes with a set of professional slide designs you can use to create presentations for human resource meetings for all kinds of businesses. There are 24 unique slides included in this template and it comes in Google Slides format as well.

Free Gradient Corners Business PowerPoint Template

The elegant design of this PowerPoint template makes it a perfect choice for making business presentations. The template features 7 unique slides with colorful blue gradient corner designs.

Free Simple Business Executive PowerPoint Template

You can use this free PowerPoint template to make simple presentations for corporate brands and businesses. The template includes 8 editable slides with professional layouts. It comes in Google Slides version as well.

Digital Marketing Strategy PowerPoint Template

Using a creative and bold design in your PowerPoint slideshow is a great way to capture attention and make your presentation stand out. This beautifully designed PowerPoint template will help you achieve that goal. It comes with more than 40 slides that feature a unique design made specifically for marketing presentations. It’s also available in 2 different color themes.

Bara – Free Modern Business PowerPoint Theme

Bara is the perfect free PowerPoint template for creating business presentations. It features a modern design and comes with easily editable slide layouts. In addition, it’s available in Keynote version as well.

Clifton Free Business Presentation Template

This modern and free presentation template comes in multiple formats. You can use it to create a stylish presentation to promote business services, brands, and products as well.

Barnwell Free Business Presentation Template

Barnwell is a simple yet effective presentation template for creating business and agency slideshows. This template comes in multiple formats including PowerPoint, Keynote, and Google Slides.

Free Onboarding Meeting PowerPoint Template

This free PowerPoint template is perfect for creating a presentation for your new hire onboarding meetings. It includes 33 different slide layouts with easily editable designs. The template comes in the Google Slides version as well.

Free Multipurpose PowerPoint Presentation Template

You can use this PowerPoint template to design clean and minimalist presentations for various business meetings. It includes 27 different slide designs you can customize to your preference.

Free Construction & Real Estate PowerPoint Template

If you’re preparing a presentation for a construction project or a real estate property, this PowerPoint template will come in handy. There are 19 unique slides in this template made specifically with construction and real estate businesses in mind.

Future – Free Business PowerPoint Template

A simple and clean PowerPoint template for making professional and business presentations. This template comes with 25 unique slide layouts featuring minimalist designs. Each slide is fully customizable and features master slide layouts as well.

Business Plan Free Powerpoint Presentation

This free PowerPoint template is a great choice for making slideshows for presenting your business plans and strategies in meetings. It includes 20 unique slides. You’ll need to signup for a free account on the website to download the file.

SEO Proposal – Free PowerPoint Template

This creative PowerPoint template is designed specifically for digital markers and agencies. You can use this to craft an effective slideshow that wins over your marketing clients. It’s free to download and use.

Conference Pitch Deck PowerPoint Template

This is a pitch deck PowerPoint template featuring a set of slides made for designing slideshows for business and conference presentations. It includes customizable vectors, diagrams, shapes, and lots more as well.

Annul Report – Free Business PowerPoint Template

A free business PowerPoint template you can use to create annual report presentations for various projects and companies. This template includes 22 unique slides with easily customizable layouts.

Beexey – Free Business PowerPoint Template

Another modern PowerPoint template specially made for businesses and agencies. This template features 20 unique slides with icons, editable graphics, and animations.

Vision – Free Business PowerPoint Template

Vision is a modern PowerPoint template you can use to design business and corporate presentations. The free template comes in multiple styles and color versions, which you can download individually to your preference.

Casper – Free PowerPoint Presentation Template

Casper is a creative and minimalist PowerPoint template you can use to create presentations for startups and personal portfolios. The template includes 60 unique slides featuring transition animations, infographics, and more.

Minta – Business Free PowerPoint Template

Minta is a free PowerPoint template most suitable for making slideshows for presentations related to business and marketing. It comes with 21 unique and customizable slides in widescreen layout.

Business Report Free PowerPoint Template

Business Report is a professional PowerPoint template featuring 40 unique slides. The template is available in 5 color schemes and in both animated and static versions.

Annual Report – Free PowerPoint Template

Another great free PowerPoint template made specifically for making annual report presentations. It’s most suitable for corporate and business presentations. The template is free to use with personal and business projects.

Window – Free PowerPoint Template

Window is a creative and minimalist PowerPoint presentation template most suitable for startups and creative agencies. The template comes with 25 unique slides filled with stylish designs and its available in 5 pre-made color schemes.

Modern Business Free PowerPoint Template

This is a free PowerPoint template you can use to craft a slideshow for a modern small business or a startup. The template features 12 unique slides featuring retina-ready and beautiful designs.

Seattle – Simple PowerPoint Presentation Template

Seattle is a clean and simple PowerPoint presentation template that includes a set of unique slides featuring stylish graphics, shapes, and elements. You can easily customize the template to your preference as well.

Free Animated PowerPoint Templates

Shining – creative animated powerpoint template.

Shining is an animated PowerPoint template that comes with 30 unique slides. The slides are available in 5 different color schemes. It also features master slide layouts, animations, editable graphics, illustrations, and much more as well.

Lookbook – Free Pastel PowerPoint Template

Lookbook is a colorful free PowerPoint template that features a set of creative slides with attractive pastel colors. This template is perfect for showcasing professional and agency portfolios. All the slides can be easily customized to change colors as well.

Voodoo – Free Animated PowerPoint Template

VooDoo is a highly professional PowerPoint template that features more than 10 unique slide designs, which feature transition animations and much more. It’s also available in both light and dark color designs.

Dark Red – Free Elegant Black Powerpoint Template

This professional, yet free, PowerPoint template comes with an elegant color theme that effectively highlights its content. The template is free to download and can be customized to your preference.

Stasia – Free PowerPoint Template

Stasia is a creative and free PowerPoint template you can use with your creative and professional presentations. It comes with 13 unique slides featuring editable graphics, charts, and lots of other elements.

Free Modern PowerPoint Templates

Free modern & minimal powerpoint template.

You can download this PowerPoint template for free to make beautiful slideshows for company profile, portfolio, and various other professional presentations. It includes 30 unique slides with animations and transitions.

Slide Pro – Free Modern Presentation Template

The minimal and clean design of this presentation template makes it an ideal choice for modern brands and design agencies. The template has 30 different slides with editable graphics and image placeholders.

Free Project Proposal PowerPoint Presentation Template

Design professional-looking project proposals that win clients using this free PowerPoint template. It features 85 different slides with fully customizable layouts. The template includes transition animations as well.

UNCO – Simple Modern PowerPoint Template

This modern business PowerPointe presentation template comes with more than 60 unique slides filled with editable vector shapes, graphics, icons, and so much more for making attractive presentations for all kinds of businesses. The template also includes lots of charts and graphs you can use to visualize data and make more compelling arguments.

Pale Dawn – Free Modern Fashion PowerPoint Template

Pale Dawn is a very modern PowerPoint template you can use to craft presentations to promote fashion and lifestyle products. The template comes with lots of customizable slides in PowerPoint and Keynote formats.

Mass Media – Free Agency Presentation Template

This free PowerPoint template is made specifically for marketing and media agencies. The template includes 25 unique slide layouts featuring editable shapes, colors, and fonts. It’s available in Google Slides version as well.

Heimat – Free Modern Business Presentation Template

If you’re looking for a simple PowerPoint design with a minimal content layout, this template will come in handy. It lets you choose from 33 unique slides for crafting attractive presentations for showcasing projects and plans.

Born-Ink – Free Modern Event PowerPoint Template

Featuring 10 unique slide designs, this modern PowerPoint template will allow you to design effective presentations for creative agencies as well as fashion brands. The template is free to use with your personal projects.

XGDragon – Modern Presentation Template

This free template comes with lots of unique slide designs for promoting modern brands through creative design. The template is ideal for creating a lookbook-style presentation and it’s free to use with commercial projects.

Minimalistic – Free Clean PowerPoint Template

A highly minimalist and clean PowerPoint presentation that’s most suitable for making creative and professional slideshows. The template features an easily editable design, changeable colors, and editable vectors as well.

Air – Clean Free PowerPoint Template

Air is a minimal and free PowerPoint template featuring creative slides full of images and icons. It includes 60 different slides in Full HD resolution. All of the graphics and shapes in the template are also editable as well.

Neue Free Minimal PowerPoint Template

Neue is a free PowerPoint template with a minimalist design. This makes it a perfect choice for crafting creative and business presentations. The free versions of the template include multiple slides you can use with your personal projects.

TAHU – Free PowerPoint Presentation Template

This free PowerPoint template comes with a set of creative slides you can use to design professional and business presentations. It includes many different types of slides for crafting effective slideshows, including slides for showcasing services, timelines, portfolio, and more.

Clean – Free PowerPoint Presentation Template

Just as the name suggests, this free PowerPoint template features a minimal and clean design with lots of white space. It’s perfect for making professional slideshows with a content-focused design. The template is easily editable as well.

Duotone – Modern Free PowerPoint Template

Duotone is a modern and colorful PowerPoint template that features a set of attractive slides with a creative duotone color effect. This template is most suitable for making presentations for creative brands and professionals. It’s available in both PowerPoint and Keynote versions and includes 18 unique slides.

London – Minimal  Free PowerPoint Template

London is an elegant and a minimalist free PowerPoint template that comes with 21 unique slides with easy to customize drag and drop image placeholders. You can use this template to make all kinds of business and creative presentations.

Modern Minimal Free Powerpoint Template

This free PowerPoint template includes a set of creative slides featuring colorful designs. You can easily customize all the slides in the template however you like to change fonts, colors, and images as well.

Style – PowerPoint Presentation Template

Style is a PowerPoint presentation template designed for making lookbook-style slideshows for showcasing fashion designs. It’s perfect for promoting fashion catalogs. The template is free to use with your personal projects.

Free Creative PowerPoint Templates

Color fun – creative powerpoint template.

Just as the name suggests, this PowerPoint template comes filled with colorful slides that will allow you to design unique and cheerful presentations to showcase your products, designs, and ideas. The template includes 50 unique slides with unlimited color options to customize the design however you want.

FUN Tastic – Free Creative PowerPoint Template

This bright and colorful PowerPoint template offers a great set of slides for you to create more fun and entertaining presentation. It includes lots of creative slide designs in Full HD resolution. And you can customize them to your preference as well.

Free Neomorph PowerPoint Template

If you’re a fan of the Neomorphism design trend, this PowerPoint template is a perfect match for you. It features a bold slide design with shapes, buttons, and icons inspired by Neomorphic design. The free version of the template includes 10 unique slides.

GMTRY – Free Geometric Presentation Template

This free PowerPoint template features one of the most creative slide designs on our list. The creative use of geometric shapes to design its colorful and attractive slides is simply perfect. The template is free to use with personal projects.

Curato – Free Creative Portfolio PowerPoint Template

A bright and colorful PowerPoint template filled with shapes and styles. It’s perfect for showing off your best work in a portfolio. The template includes 37 unique slides with easily editable layouts.

Emotion Flashcard – Free Creative PowerPoint Template

This PowerPoint template comes with a set of creative and fun slides. It uses a lot of emoticons throughout the presentation to help you discuss emotions and mental health in a very creative way.

Kental – Free Minimal PowerPoint Template

Kental is another free PowerPoint template that comes with colorful slide design. All of the slides in this template features pastel colors and comes with master slide layouts as well. This template is most suitable for creative fashion and design presentations.

Free Giant Doodles Newsletter PowerPoint Template

Filled with lots of colorful doodles and illustrations, this PowerPoint template comes with 28 creative slide layouts you can customize however you like. It’s available in Google Slides version as well.

Free Creative PowerPoint Presentation Template

This is a free demo for a premium PowerPoint template. It includes several creative slides you can repurpose to create your own unique presentations.

Free Stylish Botanical PowerPoint Template

The nature-inspired botanical theme gives this presentation template a very unique look and feel. It’s perfect for creating presentations for modern fashion and lifestyle brands.

Colors – Stylish Free PowerPoint Template

Just as the name suggests, this free PowerPoint template comes with a beautiful set of slides filled with lots of colors. It’s ideal for making creative slideshows for event and entertainment related presentations as well as many others. And it includes 60 creative slides.

Happy Holi – Creative Free Powerpoint Template

Happy Holi is a beautiful and creative PowerPoint template that comes with a colorful set of slides. Despite being named after a festival, the slides in the template feature a multipurpose design you can use to craft business, creative, and many other professional presentations.

Every – Clean & Simple PowerPoint Template

Every is an elegant PowerPoint template featuring modern slide designs. It comes in both PowerPoint and Keynote file formats. Each template includes 15 unique slides in Full HD resolution.

Creative – Free Minimal PowerPoint Template

This minimalist PowerPoint template comes with a creative design making it a great choice for presenting your personal portfolios and professional work. The template features drag and drop image placeholders and editable objects.

Mifridix – Free PowerPoint Presentation Template

This free PowerPoint template comes with a beautiful and feminine slide design. Which makes it the perfect choice for crafting presentations for fashion brands, beauty products, and others.

BRONX – Free PowerPoint Presentation Template

Bronx is a creative PowerPoint presentation template that includes a modern and customizable design. You can use this template to create presentations with PowerPoint, Keynote, or even Google Slides.

Free Pitch Deck PowerPoint Templates

Free powerpoint pitch deck template.

You can use this PowerPoint template for making creative pitch deck slideshows. It includes colorful slides with cool illustrations and shapes to give each slide a unique look and feel. There are 19 unique slides and they come in Keynote format as well.

Sales Pitch Deck Free PowerPoint Template

Create a bold and professional pitch deck for your agency using this free PowerPoint template. It has 20 unique slides with free fonts and icon packs. The template is especially suitable for real estate agencies.

Free PowerPoint Pitch Deck Infographics

You can use this free PowerPoint template to showcase stats and data related to your product launches. It includes 32 infographic slides with various styles of layouts. They are all fully customizable.

Free Corporate Pitch Deck PowerPoint Template

This pitch deck presentation is made with corporate brands and agencies in mind. It features a set of professional slides with easily editable layouts. There are 20 unique slides in this template.

Free Business Opportunity PowerPoint Pitch Deck

You can create an attention-grabbing pitch deck to present your business ideas and startups with this free PowerPoint template. It features 12 unique slide layouts with beautiful gradient designs. And the template can be easily customized to your preference.

Pitch Werk Template

Pitch Werk is a creative PowerPoint template featuring a set of stylish slides made for modern startups. It includes more than 100 unique slides which are also available in 5 different premade color schemes. The template also comes with lots of useful elements such as pricing tables, device mockups, maps, and much more.

Sneakers Shop – Free PowerPoint Pitch Deck Template

If you’re working on a pitch deck for a sneaker startup or even an eCommerce store for a fashion product, this template is perfect for creating a winning presentation. It includes 32 unique slides.

Comersa Free Pitch Deck Presentation Template

Comersa PowerPoint template comes with a designed made specifically for crafting slideshows for business-related presentations. The template is available in PowerPoint, Keynote, and Google Slides versions as well.

Pitch Deck – Free PowerPoint Presentation Template

This is the perfect free PowerPoint presentation template you can use to create pitch decks for startups, creatives, and freelancers. The template includes 22 unique slides and it’s available both with and without slide animations.

Free Conference Pitch Deck Powerpoint Template

This free PowerPoint template is perfect for making a pitch deck for speeches and presentations you give at events and conferences. The template features a set of easily editable slide layouts with modern designs.

Free Medical PowerPoint Templates

Free mental health workshop powerpoint template.

You can create an effective presentation to promote good mental health in the workplace with this free template. It includes 22 unique slide layouts you can use to showcase the importance of maintaining good mental health and suggest your ideas in meetings.

Modern Medical PowerPoint Template

This PowerPoint template comes with 30 unique slides featuring clean and modern designs. It also lets you choose from 5 different premade color schemes for designing various styles of slideshows. It’s perfect for making presentations for all kinds of businesses and events.

World After Corona Virus – Free PowerPoint Template

If you’re working on a presentation to talk about the recent global pandemic, this template will help you design a more compelling slideshow. It includes 31 unique slide layouts with editable graphics and icons.

Free Mental Health Thesis Presentation Template

This is the perfect presentation template you can use to talk about mental health topics. It features 23 unique slides with easily editable designs. The template is also available in Google Slides version.

Free Medical Presentation Template

This is a multipurpose PowerPoint template you can use to create different types of presentations related to medicine and medical facilities. The template includes editable graphics and master slide layouts as well.

Medical – Free PowerPoint Template

If you’re working on a presentation for a medical related business or brand, this free PowerPoint presentation template will come in handy. The template includes 30 unique slides filled with plenty of image placeholders and graphics.

Clinical Case – Free Medical PowerPoint Template

This free and creative PowerPoint template comes in both PowerPoint and Google Slides versions. It includes 24 beautiful slide designs filled with colorful illustrations and content formatting.

Healthcare Center – Free Medical PowerPoint Template

Healthcare Center is a professional and free PowerPoint template designed for medical centers and healthcare businesses. The template includes 23 unique slide design you can use to create an effective presentation.

Free Teachers & Education PowerPoint Templates

Free social studies for elementary powerpoint template.

This educational PowerPoint template is designed for making presentations for educating social studies subjects. The template includes 35 different slides with colorful designs that will easily attract the attention of your students.

Free Elementary School PowerPoint Template

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Free Chinese Language Day PowerPoint Template

Use this free PowerPoint template to teach the Chinese languages to kids. It features a beautiful slide design filled with adorable illustrations and colorful shapes. There are 35 unique slides included in the template with fully editable layouts.

School Bundle – Free Education PowerPoint Template

If you’re looking for a creative PowerPoint template to grab the attention of your students during presentations, this free template is for you. It features a creative design across 15 different useful slide layouts.

Daniel’s Thesis – Free Education PowerPoint Template

This colorful and creative PowerPoint template is perfect for creating attractive presentations to showcase your thesis, assignments, projects, and much more. The template features 24 unique slides filled with colorful graphics, shapes, and elements.

Academy at the City – Free Education PowerPoint Template

A professional PowerPoint template for promoting your school, academy, and institutions. While the template is designed with education establishments in mind, you can use it to create business presentations as well. The template includes 24 unique slides.

Education – Simple PowerPoint template

This is a professional PowerPoint template that includes 30 unique slide designs. Each slide is also available in 5 different color schemes. It also features editable vector graphics, image placeholders, and icons for crafting entertaining presentations more easily.

Math Lesson – Free PowerPoint Presentation Template

This free and creative PowerPoint template is designed for teachers for making their lessons look more engaging and fun for students. The template comes packed with creative illustrations and graphics as well.

E-Learning – Free Teachers PowerPoint Template

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This free PowerPoint template comes with 12 unique and editable slides you can use to effectively showcase and present your thesis projects to an audience. The template is also available in Google Slides version as well.

Free Interactive Education PPT for Teachers

This PowerPoint template is designed with teachers in mind. It features 44 different slides you can use to create various educational presentations for classes. The slides are fully customizable and include graphs, charts, and infographics as well.

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A free PowerPoint template you can use to create a notebook-style presentation. Both teachers and students can use this template to create notes for classes and subjects. There are 30 slide layouts in this template.

Free English Language Grammar Rules PPT

Grammar can be a boring subject to talk about. But with this colorful PowerPoint template, you can present your lessons in a more entertaining way. It includes 41 unique slides filled with adorable illustrations.

Colorful Light Bulbs Free Education PowerPoint Template

This colorful PowerPoint template has lightbulbs all over the slides. You can use it to create presentations to teach various subjects and topics. There are 39 slides in this template. And it’s available in the Google Slides version as well.

Free Church PowerPoint Templates

Free christian church powerpoint template.

A beautiful presentation template made with churches in mind. It has 20 unique slide layouts with colorful and minimal designs. The template is ideal for showcasing your Christian Church projects.

Free Church Conference Powerpoint Template

A modern and elegant PowerPoint template designed specifically for making presentations for church events and conferences. The template comes with 23 slide layouts with easily editable designs and image placeholders.

Religion Lesson – Free PowerPoint Presentation

A free PowerPoint template designed for educating students and audiences on various religious topics. It can also be used to deliver religious speeches and presentations as well. It includes 17 unique slides. Even though the template features slide designs with multiple religions, you can easily replace the images of your choice as well.

Free Infographic PowerPoint Templates

8 free charts powerpoint templates.

This template includes 8 customizable charts infographics for you to use in your presentations. The template includes pie charts, bar charts, and infographics too. It’s also available in Excel format.

12 Free Infographics Slides for PowerPoint

There are 12 different infographic slides to choose from in this PowerPoint template. They are ideal for both business and research presentations. The template is free to use.

Free Internal Motivation Infographics PowerPoint Template

This free PowerPoint template includes 31 unique slide designs with infographics. They are designed for visualizing stats and information for motivating your teams and employees.

The Power of Feminism Infographics PowerPoint Template

You can use this free PowerPoint template to create attractive infographic slides to promote the power of feminism. It includes more than 30 unique slide designs. And you can customize them in Google Slides as well.

PPTx Infographics

This Powerpoint presentation template also includes 50 unique infographic slides. The slides are also available in light and dark themes as well as unlimited color options for customizing the shapes, text, and icons of the slides.

Epsilon – Free Business PowerPoint Template

Epsilon is a free PowerPoint template made for small businesses. You can use it to create powerful business presentations using its slides full of charts and graphs. The template can be easily customized with multiple color options and icons.

Free Business Infographics PowerPoint Template

This free PowerPoint template comes with lots of editable infographics you can use to visualize your data. The template includes 8 unique slide designs that are easily customizable. It’s also available in Google Slides version as well.

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Powerful and Effective Presentation Skills: More in Demand Now Than Ever

When we talk with our L&D colleagues from around the globe, we often hear that presentation skills training is one of the top opportunities they’re looking to provide their learners. And this holds true whether their learners are individual contributors, people managers, or senior leaders. This is not surprising.

Effective communications skills are a powerful career activator, and most of us are called upon to communicate in some type of formal presentation mode at some point along the way.

For instance, you might be asked to brief management on market research results, walk your team through a new process, lay out the new budget, or explain a new product to a client or prospect. Or you may want to build support for a new idea, bring a new employee into the fold, or even just present your achievements to your manager during your performance review.

And now, with so many employees working from home or in hybrid mode, and business travel in decline, there’s a growing need to find new ways to make effective presentations when the audience may be fully virtual or a combination of in person and remote attendees.

Whether you’re making a standup presentation to a large live audience, or a sit-down one-on-one, whether you’re delivering your presentation face to face or virtually, solid presentation skills matter.

Even the most seasoned and accomplished presenters may need to fine-tune or update their skills. Expectations have changed over the last decade or so. Yesterday’s PowerPoint which primarily relied on bulleted points, broken up by the occasional clip-art image, won’t cut it with today’s audience.

The digital revolution has revolutionized the way people want to receive information. People expect presentations that are more visually interesting. They expect to see data, metrics that support assertions. And now, with so many previously in-person meetings occurring virtually, there’s an entirely new level of technical preparedness required.

The leadership development tools and the individual learning opportunities you’re providing should include presentation skills training that covers both the evergreen fundamentals and the up-to-date capabilities that can make or break a presentation.

So, just what should be included in solid presentation skills training? Here’s what I think.

The fundamentals will always apply When it comes to making a powerful and effective presentation, the fundamentals will always apply. You need to understand your objective. Is it strictly to convey information, so that your audience’s knowledge is increased? Is it to persuade your audience to take some action? Is it to convince people to support your idea? Once you understand what your objective is, you need to define your central message. There may be a lot of things you want to share with your audience during your presentation, but find – and stick with – the core, the most important point you want them to walk away with. And make sure that your message is clear and compelling.

You also need to tailor your presentation to your audience. Who are they and what might they be expecting? Say you’re giving a product pitch to a client. A technical team may be interested in a lot of nitty-gritty product detail. The business side will no doubt be more interested in what returns they can expect on their investment.

Another consideration is the setting: is this a formal presentation to a large audience with questions reserved for the end, or a presentation in a smaller setting where there’s the possibility for conversation throughout? Is your presentation virtual or in-person? To be delivered individually or as a group? What time of the day will you be speaking? Will there be others speaking before you and might that impact how your message will be received?

Once these fundamentals are established, you’re in building mode. What are the specific points you want to share that will help you best meet your objective and get across your core message? Now figure out how to convey those points in the clearest, most straightforward, and succinct way. This doesn’t mean that your presentation has to be a series of clipped bullet points. No one wants to sit through a presentation in which the presenter reads through what’s on the slide. You can get your points across using stories, fact, diagrams, videos, props, and other types of media.

Visual design matters While you don’t want to clutter up your presentation with too many visual elements that don’t serve your objective and can be distracting, using a variety of visual formats to convey your core message will make your presentation more memorable than slides filled with text. A couple of tips: avoid images that are cliched and overdone. Be careful not to mix up too many different types of images. If you’re using photos, stick with photos. If you’re using drawn images, keep the style consistent. When data are presented, stay consistent with colors and fonts from one type of chart to the next. Keep things clear and simple, using data to support key points without overwhelming your audience with too much information. And don’t assume that your audience is composed of statisticians (unless, of course, it is).

When presenting qualitative data, brief videos provide a way to engage your audience and create emotional connection and impact. Word clouds are another way to get qualitative data across.

Practice makes perfect You’ve pulled together a perfect presentation. But it likely won’t be perfect unless it’s well delivered. So don’t forget to practice your presentation ahead of time. Pro tip: record yourself as you practice out loud. This will force you to think through what you’re going to say for each element of your presentation. And watching your recording will help you identify your mistakes—such as fidgeting, using too many fillers (such as “umm,” or “like”), or speaking too fast.

A key element of your preparation should involve anticipating any technical difficulties. If you’ve embedded videos, make sure they work. If you’re presenting virtually, make sure that the lighting is good, and that your speaker and camera are working. Whether presenting in person or virtually, get there early enough to work out any technical glitches before your presentation is scheduled to begin. Few things are a bigger audience turn-off than sitting there watching the presenter struggle with the delivery mechanisms!

Finally, be kind to yourself. Despite thorough preparation and practice, sometimes, things go wrong, and you need to recover in the moment, adapt, and carry on. It’s unlikely that you’ll have caused any lasting damage and the important thing is to learn from your experience, so your next presentation is stronger.

How are you providing presentation skills training for your learners?

Manika Gandhi is Senior Learning Design Manager at Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning. Email her at [email protected] .

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Change isn’t easy, but we can help. Together we’ll create informed and inspired leaders ready to shape the future of your business.

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How to Give a Good Presentation: 11 Top Tips for Killer Presentations

Written by: Orana Velarde

Giving a good presentation takes practice. Not everyone is born a natural public speaker, which is  why we’re here today.

In this article, we’ll give you some of the best tips for killer presentations. These are techniques used by all the best public speakers, and yes – even they had to practice to get this good.

If you need to give a presentation for work, be it a pitch about a new project or product idea, a quarterly marketing report, a product launch or as an industry expert in a summit, we’ve got you covered.

How to Give a Good Presentation [Presentation]

To learn more about our top 11 tips for giving a killer presentation, keep reading throughout this article. But for those of you who are skimmers, feel free to browse through this presentation rounding up our top tips.

How to Give a Good Presentation

Here’s a quick look at the 11 tips on how to give a good presentation. Plus, you’ll find a bonus resource you won’t want to miss, The Visme Presentation Guru Course.

• Rehearse What You’re Planning to Say
• Prepare Mentally, Emotionally and Technically
• Start Strong
• Follow the Outline You Practiced With
• Finish With Confidence
• Use a Storytelling Technique on Your Slides
• Keep Your Slides Short
• Use Templates
• Learn From Your Mistakes
• Keep Yourself Inspired for the Future

Let’s dive in.

1 Rehearse What You’re Planning To Say

Before you even give a good presentation, you need to prepare.

This part has two steps – to rehearse what you’re going to say and to prepare yourself mentally and emotionally. These two tips go hand in hand, but we’ll explain what each one is about individually.

Notice that we didn’t say “memorize your presentation.” There’s a big difference between memorizing a speech and practicing telling a story. The difference is that a memorized speech can end up sounding robot-like and practiced storytelling sounds effortless. 

You’ll be better off if you have at least a rough outline of your slides before you start rehearsing.

Section 1, Pause, Section 2, Pause, Repeat

Rehearse what you’re planning to say during your presentation by using a written outline, index cards, printed out versions of your presentation slides or whatever works for you.  

Practicing the spoken part of your Visme presentation is easy when you use the presentation notes feature . 

Separate your presentations into sections. The best way to do this is by topic. Try and keep all the sections about the same length, that way you can plan your pauses. 

Presenter’s Notes

Add presenter’s notes to your slides to help you along as you present. Visme makes this easy for you. As you go through each slide, you’re able to see the notes, what slide you’re on and what slide is next. There’s also a timer to help you pace each slide switch.

This tool will help if you can have a computer close by as you give the presentation. But if you are giving a presentation on a stage without a screen to help you, you’ll have to practice without notes. 

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How to Give A Good Presentation With Mnemonic Tools

Create some mnemonic tools into your presentation to help you remember what comes next. For some people, this comes as second nature and is easy. For others, it can become convoluted and cause you to overthink things. 

Try out a variety of different techniques until you find the one you feel the most comfortable and confident with.

Ask For Feedback

For better results and to know if you’re improving, record yourself or ask someone to watch you.  Ask them to give you honest feedback. Don’t accept feedback like “that was great.” Insist they go into the details. Offer them a pen and paper to take notes as you present.

You’ll notice as you practice and rehearse, that when you follow an outline, all the information you want to share is easier to remember. The TED talk below by Dr. Bolte Taylor was rehearsed 200 times and it’s one of the most famous TED Talks ever. 

You don’t need to practice that many times – just enough so it feels effortless. Needless to say, rehearsing is key to learning how to give a good presentation.

2 Prepare Mentally, Emotionally and Technically

It’s highly likely that you’ve already had to give presentations before, most probably at school. But let’s be honest, a classroom and a TED stage are a little different. So is an online summit via Zoom, which as you know are even more common now!

Let’s get one thing straight, though. We’re not talking about just any presentation here – we’re talking high stakes, high-quality presentations.

Preparing yourself mentally and emotionally for a weekly sales report meeting is not as important as doing so for one that will be in front of thousands of people and recorded for posterity.

This tip includes mental, emotional and technical preparation. Let’s focus on each one.

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Mental Preparation

While you’re rehearsing the outline and general speech for your presentation, notice the times when you feel like things flow and when they don’t. 

Why do you think that’s happening? 

If it flows well it’s because you feel comfortable with the content. You know what you’re talking about. You might even be passionate about it!

On the other hand, if you’re having trouble, maybe the content is still new to you. You might need to do a little more research to feel more knowledgeable about that topic. If you are unsure, you might completely forget what you had to say next during the presentation. 

That’s why rehearsing, adjusting and creating mnemonic cues will help.

Emotional Preparation

Not everyone needs to get emotionally prepared before a presentation. Conscientious rehearsing can usually be enough. But not everyone is the same. 

Many people that suffer from glossophobia or the fear of public speaking. Some have anxiety or social anxiety and just being close to that many people is difficult for them. Many successful speakers used to be riddled by fear before their first few presentations. 

Some of them still are, every single time. The difference is that they have learned how to manage their fear and lean into it. As soon as they step on the stage, the fear and anxiety melt away and all the rehearsing and practicing take over. 

To get emotionally prepared, you can try some mindfulness exercises and relaxation techniques. 

Wear clothes that make you feel powerful and confident. Try doing the power pose and high five some people before you go on stage. Sing your favorite song and have a little quick uplifting dance. 

Technical Preparation

You might be wondering what technical things you need to give a good presentation. It’s all in the details. 

Regardless if you’ll be speaking in a venue or an online summit, you have to test all technicalities.

If you’ll be speaking in a venue, visit the space and stand in the place where you’ll speak. Have a look around and pinpoint some elements or aspects that make you comfortable.

If there’s anything that bothers you, like a weird smell or a column in the middle of the room, think of ways to overcome that. 

Always ask to test the technical aspects in the room. Connect your computer or tablet to their system to check if your slides will look good with their setup. Also, test the audio. These detailed checks might not always be possible but it doesn’t hurt to ask.

If your presentation will be online, test all your tech beforehand. Locate a spot with the strongest wifi or hardwire your computer to the router.

Check your background and the lighting. Organize with housemates or family for some quiet time during the time of your presentation.

3 Start Strong

The day and time of your presentation have arrived! Now it’s time to shine.

Starting strong is a huge factor in achieving a good presentation. The first few seconds and minutes that you’re on stage will make a first impression on your audience . And yes, you can leverage that to your advantage!

How To Give A Good Presentation Through Impactful Body Language

The first thing people will notice is your body language. The way you carry yourself says a lot about how confident you are at that specific moment. If you prepared emotionally and mentally before your turn, then you’re as ready as you’ll ever be.

Watch the video below to learn about the power pose and how body language affects both you and your audience.

Make An Impressionable Statement

Starting a presentation with a joke, for example, can make the audience relate or feel more familiar with you. Letting them laugh a little will clear the air in the room and it’ll be easier to continue. 

Other opening techniques include:

• Be Provocative
• Incite Curiosity
• Shock the Audience
• Ask a Question
• Tell A Story

Use your first slide as a visual and impactful complement to start your presentation.

We have an article all about starting strong with plenty of inspiration. Check it out here – it’ll inspire you to think of new ideas for your presentation.

4 Follow The Outline You Practiced With

If you followed our tip above, you used an outline or a ‘section, pause, section’ technique to practice with. Maybe you even used some mnemonic tools or presenters’ notes. 

It’s time to put them all to use.

As long as you follow what you practiced you’re gold. This tip, as you can see, is a short one. It’s more of a reminder that the rehearsing step is more important than you might think at first. 

Only when you practice and rehearse a lot will you feel more comfortable when you present.

5 Use Props

Are you wondering how to give a good presentation with props? Good, that means you’re thinking creatively. Using props is a technique that not many consider when preparing for a presentation. 

Props can help not only to get the message across but also to serve as emotional support for the speaker! Just make sure it’s obviously a prop and not an emotional crutch.

A prop can be as small as a book, as big as a washing machine, or as weird as a preserved human brain. 

Of course, the prop must make sense with your presentation and topic. Not only that, but you must also practice with it. It’s important to be comfortable with your prop or props as you talk and switch slides. 

Actually, if you use props you might not need slides at all!

To get you inspired, watch this TED talk where Hans Rosling uses a washing machine as his prop.

6 Finish With Confidence

The end of the presentation is just as important as the beginning. You have to bring it all full circle. Knowing how to give a good presentation is like knowing how to structure a story, essay or article. The beginning and end are connected and must be relevant to each other.

For example, if you made a joke at the beginning, make the same joke but with a fun twist. If you made a provocative statement, close it up with a similar statement or question about it.

Closing Statement

Your presentation’s closing statement is a section in itself. Even if you do as we suggest above, the entire closing statement must be a conclusion of what you talked about during the entire presentation.

The last sentence you say will stay in your audience’s memory. At least until the next speaker takes the stage. If someone in your audience noted down your last sentence, you’ve hit the mark 100%.

Q and A Session – Yes or No?

Ending a presentation with a Q and A session is a bit iffy. If you ended your presentation with impact, a Q and A section can fizzle that out.

What you can do is ask the host to let the audience know that if they have questions, they can find you in the lobby for a conversation. For a digital summit, offer your Twitter handle where people can get in touch. 

In the case of webinars or instructional lectures though, Questions and Answers is a great idea. These can help familiarize you with the audience and make them more confident to work with you in the future. 

Consider the purpose of your presentation and make a decision according to what impact you’re looking to make.

Here's a great example of the chat section from Visme's webinars , where viewers make comments and ask questions throughout. In our webinars, we have someone help the presenter by gathering questions and ensuring everyone gets answers.

7 Use A Storytelling Structure

Moving on to the tips for the creation of your slides.  It’s important to remember the role your slides will play in your presentation. The audience’s attention should be on you, not your slides. These are meant to be complementary, not a crutch, nor even a text to follow.

With that said, this tip is the most important. It applies to your slides AND your spoken speech. They should both follow a storytelling structure that you and the audience will follow together.

Some of the most common storytelling structures are:

• Fact and Story – Go back and forth between facts and stories, or “what is” and “what could be.”
• The Explanation – Inform about a process or plan to fix something or to learn something new.
• The Pitch – Take your audience uphill over a hurdle and onto a positive resolution.
• The Drama – AKA “The Hero’s Journey,” this follows the plight of a main character from beginning to end.

You can also check out our quick video on how to structure a presentation like the experts to learn even more.

8 Keep Your Slides Short and Visually Balanced

There are two ways to design slides for a good presentation:

• As a standalone presentation
• As visual support, while you speak

Either way, you need to keep your slides short in text and visually impactful. For a visual support deck, the slides need even less text than a standalone presentation. 

If that idea worries you, and you have tons of information to share, you can always create a full-fledged informative PDF version of your deck to give your audience, investors or guests.

Here are some important things to remember when designing the slides for your presentation:

• The flow from start to finish
• Visual hierarchy
• Keeping the words to around 6 per slide
• Visual impact
• Balanced compositions

The 29 Best Presentation Layout Templates for 2020 [Plus Design Ideas]

9 Use Presentation Templates

Creating presentation slides doesn’t need to be difficult or a stressful affair. When you use a Visme presentation as a foundation, you’re on your way to being an expert on how to give a good presentation. 

To select a presentation template, you can either go for a topic-based template or a style based template. Both have their merits, you just need to figure out what’s easier for you. 

Topic-based templates are fully designed templates with color themes, graphics, images, icons, etc. You’d only have to adjust the content and maybe the colors and graphics. 

Style-based templates are better for those of you that need more freedom in terms of colors and visuals. The Visme slide library is full of layouts organized into categories that you can choose from. 

Presentation Templates

Ecommerce Webinar Presentation

Buyer Presentation

PixelGo Marketing Plan Presentation

Technology Presentation

Product Training Interactive Presentation

Work+Biz Pitch Deck - Presentation

Create your presentation View more templates

10 Learn From Your Mistakes

When the presentation is over and you feel like you just conquered the world, it’s not the end just yet. Celebrate the moment but remember, there will be more presentations in the future. 

If your presentation was filmed, watch the recording. If there was anyone in the audience that you can fully trust to be honest with their feedback, ask them for it. Take mental notes and the next time you’ll be even more prepared.

The secret sauce to know how to give a good presentation is to always keep learning the ways to improve.

11 Keep Yourself Inspired for Future Presentations

When you keep learning, you keep growing. This also applies to the art of giving good presentations. Follow well-known presentation experts like Nancy Duarte and Carmine Gallo. Read their book, their stories and their theories about giving good presentations. 

Watch famous speeches or TED talks to get inspired. Take notes of what you notice in those speeches that you think would suit your personality. You don’t want to copy how other people speak, but you can definitely be inspired!

Bonus: The Visme Presentation Guru Course

To top off your knowledge base for giving good presentations with killer slides, we present you with the Visme Presentation Guru Course .

How to Give a Good Presentation Every Time

As long as you’re prepared, your slides are well-balanced and your speech is rehearsed, you’re ready to give an impactful presentation.

Plus, never underestimate the power of templates! Check out the Visme slide library to visualize the possibilities. Take our presentation course and improve your abilities as a public speaker and slide creator.

Learn how to give a good presentation with all the resources Visme has in store for you. Sign up for a free Visme account today to get started.

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About the Author

Orana is a multi-faceted creative. She is a content writer, artist, and designer. She travels the world with her family and is currently in Istanbul. Find out more about her work at oranavelarde.com

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How to give a good presentation that captivates any audience

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What are the main difficulties when giving presentations?

How to create an effective presentation, after that, how do i give a memorable presentation, how to connect with the audience when presenting.

If you’ve ever heard someone give a powerful presentation, you probably remember how it made you feel. Much like a composer, a good speaker knows precisely when each note should strike to captivate their audience’s attention and leave them with a lasting impression.

No one becomes a great public speaker or presenter without practice. And almost everyone can recall a time one of their presentations went badly — that’s a painful part of the learning process.

Whether you’re working within a small creative team or a large organization, public speaking and presentation skills are vital to communicating your ideas. Knowing how to present your vision can help you pitch concepts to clients, present ideas to your team, and develop the confidence to participate in team meetings.

If you have an upcoming presentation on the horizon and feel nervous, that’s normal. Around 15-30% of the general population experience a fear of public speaking . And, unfortunately, social anxiety is on the rise, with a 12% increase in adults over the last 20 years . 

Learning how to give a good presentation can dismantle your fears and break down these barriers, ensuring you’re ready to confidently share your point of view. 

It’s the week before your presentation, and you’re already feeling nervous . Maybe there’ll be an important mentor in the room you need to impress, or you’re looking for an opportunity to show your boss your value. Regardless of your countless past presentations, you still feel nervous. 

Sharing your vision and ideas with any sized group is intimidating. You’re likely worrying about how you’ll perform as a presenter and whether the audience will be interested in what you offer. But nerves aren’t inherently negative — you can actually use this feeling to fuel your preparation.

It’s helpful to identify where your worries are coming from and address your fears. Here are some common concerns when preparing for an upcoming presentation:

Fear of public speaking: When you share your ideas in front of a group, you’re placing yourself in a vulnerable position to be critiqued on your knowledge and communication skills . Maybe you feel confident in your content, but when you think about standing in front of an audience, you feel anxious and your mind goes blank.

It’s also not uncommon to have physical symptoms when presenting . Some people experience nausea and dizziness as the brain releases adrenaline to cope with the potentially stressful situation . Remember to take deep breaths to recenter yourself and be patient, even if you make a mistake.

Losing the audience’s attention: As a presenter, your main focus is to keep your audience engaged. They should feel like they’re learning valuable information or following a story that will improve them in life or business.

Highlight the most exciting pieces of knowledge and ensure you emphasize those points in your presentation. If you feel passionate about your content, it’s more likely that your audience will experience this excitement for themselves and become invested in what you have to say.

Not knowing what content to place on presentation slides: Overloading presentation slides is a fast way to lose your audience’s attention. Your slides should contain only the main talking points and limited text to ensure your audience focuses on what you have to say rather than becoming distracted by the content on your slides.

Discomfort incorporating nonverbal communication: It’s natural to feel stiff and frozen when you’re nervous. But maintaining effective body language helps your audience stay focused on you as you speak and encourages you to relax.

If you struggle to incorporate body language into your presentations, try starting small by making hand gestures toward your slides. If you’re working with a large audience, use different parts of the stage to ensure everyone feels included. 

Each presenter has their own personal brand and style. Some may use humor to break the ice, while others might appeal to the audience’s emotional side through inspiring storytelling. 

Watching online presentations, such as TED talks, is an excellent way to expose yourself to various presentation styles and develop your own. While observing others, you can note how they carry themselves on stage and learn new ways to keep your audience engaged.

Once you’ve addressed what’s causing your fears, it’s time to prepare for a great presentation. Use your past experience as inspiration and aim to outshine your former self by learning from your mistakes and employing new techniques. Here are five presentation tips to help you create a strong presentation and wow your audience:

1. Keep it simple

Simple means something different to everyone.

Before creating your presentation, take note of your intended audience and their knowledge level of your subject. You’ll want your content to be easy for your intended audience to follow.

Say you’re giving a presentation on improving your company’s operational structure. Entry-level workers will likely need a more straightforward overview of the content than C-suite leaders, who have significantly more experience. 

Ask yourself what you want your audience to take away from your presentation and emphasize those important points. Doing this ensures they remember the most vital information rather than less important supporting ideas. Try organizing these concepts into bullet points so viewers can quickly identify critical takeaways.

2. Create a compelling structure

Put yourself in your audience member’s shoes and determine the most compelling way to organize your information. Your presentation should be articulate , cohesive, and logical, and you must be sure to include all necessary supporting evidence to strengthen your main points.

If you give away all of your answers too quickly, your audience could lose interest. And if there isn’t enough supporting information, they could hit a roadblock of confusion. Try developing a compelling story that leads your audience through your thought processes so they can experience the ups and downs alongside you. 

By structuring your presentation to lead up to a final conclusion, you’re more likely to keep listeners’ attention. Once you’ve reached that conclusion, you can offer a Q&A period to put any of their questions or concerns to rest. 

3. Use visual aids

Appealing to various learning styles is a great way to keep everyone on the same page and ensure they absorb your content. Visual aids are necessary for visual learners and make it easier for people to picture your ideas.

Aim to incorporate a mixture of photos, videos, and props to engage your audience and convey your key points. For instance, if you’re giving a presentation on anthropology subject matter, you could show your audience an artifact to help them understand how exciting a discovery must have been. 

If your presentation is long, including a video for your audience to watch is an excellent way to give yourself a break and create new jumping-off points for your speech.

4. Be aware of design techniques and trends

Thanks to cutting-edge technology and tools, you have numerous platforms at your disposal to create a good presentation. But keep in mind that although color, images, and graphics liven things up, they can cause distraction when misused.

  Here are a few standard pointers for incorporating visuals on your slides: 

• Don’t place blocks of small text on a single slide
• Use a minimalistic background instead of a busy one
• Ensure text stands out against the background color
• Only use high-resolution photos
• Maintain a consistent font style and size throughout the presentation
• Don’t overuse transitions and effects

5. Try the 10-20-30 rule

Guy Kawasaki, a prominent venture capitalist and one of the original marketing specialists for Apple, said that the best slideshow presentations are less than 10 slides , last at most 20 minutes, and use a font size of 30. Following this strategy can help you condense your information, eliminate unnecessary ideas, and maintain your audience’s focus more efficiently.

Once you’re confident in creating a memorable presentation, it’s time to learn how to give one. Here are some valuable tips for keeping your audience invested during your talk: 

Tip #1: Tell stories

Sharing an anecdote from your life can improve your credibility and increase your relatability. And when an audience relates to you, they’re more likely to feel connected to who you are as a person and encouraged to give you their full attention, as they would want others to do the same.

Gill Hicks utilized this strategy well when she shared her powerful story, “ I survived a terrorist attack. Here’s what I learned .” In her harrowing tale, Hicks highlights the importance of compassion, unconditional love , and helping those in need.

If you feel uncomfortable sharing personal stories, that’s okay. You can use examples from famous individuals or create a fictional account to demonstrate your ideas.

Tip #2: Make eye contact with the audience

Maintaining eye contact is less intimidating than it sounds. In fact, you don’t have to look your audience members directly in their eyes — you can focus on their foreheads or noses if that’s easier.

Try making eye contact with as many people as possible for 3–5 seconds each. This timing ensures you don’t look away too quickly, making the audience member feel unimportant, or linger too long, making them feel uncomfortable.

If you’re presenting to a large group, direct your focus to each part of the room to ensure no section of the audience feels ignored. 

Tip #3: Work on your stage presence

Although your tone and words are the most impactful part of your presentation, recall that body language keeps your audience engaged. Use these tips to master a professional stage presence:

• Speak with open arms and avoid crossing them
• Keep a reasonable pace and try not to stand still
• Use hand gestures to highlight important information

Tip #4: Start strong

Like watching a movie trailer, the first seconds of your talk are critical for capturing your audience’s attention. How you start your speech sets the tone for the rest of your presentation and tells your audience whether or not they should pay attention. Here are some ways to start your presentation to leave a lasting impression:

• Use a quote from a well-known and likable influential person 
• Ask a rhetorical question to create intrigue
• Start with an anecdote to add context to your talk 
• Spark your audience’s curiosity by involving them in an interactive problem-solving puzzle or riddle

Tip #5: Show your passion

Don’t be afraid of being too enthusiastic. Everyone appreciates a speaker who’s genuinely excited about their field of expertise. 

In “ Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance ,” Angela Lee Duckworth discusses the importance of passion in research and delivery. She delivers her presentation excitedly to show the audience how excitement piques interest. 

Tip #6: Plan your delivery

How you decide to deliver your speech will shape your presentation. Will you be preparing a PowerPoint presentation and using a teleprompter? Or are you working within the constraints of the digital world and presenting over Zoom?

The best presentations are conducted by speakers who know their stuff and memorize their content. However, if you find this challenging, try creating notes to use as a safety net in case you lose track.

If you’re presenting online, you can keep notes beside your computer for each slide, highlighting your key points. This ensures you include all the necessary information and follow a logical order.

Tip #7: Practice

Practice doesn’t make perfect — it makes progress. There’s no way of preparing for unforeseen circumstances, but thorough practice means you’ve done everything you can to succeed.

Rehearse your speech in front of a mirror or to a trusted friend or family member. Take any feedback and use it as an opportunity to fine-tune your speech. But remember: who you practice your presentation in front of may differ from your intended audience. Consider their opinions through the lens of them occupying this different position.

Tip #8: Read the room

Whether you’re a keynote speaker at an event or presenting to a small group of clients, knowing how to read the room is vital for keeping your audience happy. Stay flexible and be willing to move on from topics quickly if your listeners are uninterested or displeased with a particular part of your speech.

Tip #9: Breathe

Try taking deep breaths before your presentation to calm your nerves. If you feel rushed, you’re more likely to feel nervous and stumble on your words.

The most important thing to consider when presenting is your audience’s feelings. When you approach your next presentation calmly, you’ll put your audience at ease and encourage them to feel comfortable in your presence.

Tip #10: Provide a call-to-action

When you end your presentation, your audience should feel compelled to take a specific action, whether that’s changing their habits or contacting you for your services.

If you’re presenting to clients, create a handout with key points and contact information so they can get in touch. You should provide your LinkedIn information, email address, and phone number so they have a variety of ways to reach you. 

There’s no one-size-fits-all template for an effective presentation, as your unique audience and subject matter play a role in shaping your speech. As a general rule, though, you should aim to connect with your audience through passion and excitement. Use strong eye contact and body language. Capture their interest through storytelling and their trust through relatability.

Learning how to give a good presentation can feel overwhelming — but remember, practice makes progress. Rehearse your presentation for someone you trust, collect their feedback , and revise. Practicing your presentation skills is helpful for any job, and every challenge is a chance to grow.

Understand Yourself Better:

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Elizabeth Perry, ACC

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

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