Tips for More Effective PowerPoint Presentations

PowerPoint has been around for decades now, but there’s still an art to creating a dynamic presentation that not many people have mastered. Whether you’re a middle school teacher or a high-powered executive, here are just six tips for creating a PowerPoint presentation that your audience will love.

1. Embrace Uniformity

Give your slides a neat and professional appearance by formatting them all in the same way. For example, don’t adjust the margin widths for some pages and not others, and if your first slides have centered titles, all of them should have centered titles.

2. Stick to Basic Colors

Overly bright colors are used by presenters who don’t have faith in the value of their information. While the occasional red or yellow font is okay for emphasis, the majority of your text should be black on a white background.

3. Create A Narrative

All presentations should have a beginning, middle and end. Your beginning can be an introduction and/or overview of the topic; the middle can pose questions and offer solutions; the end should wrap everything up and summarize what the audience has learned.

4. Supersize It

Make your fonts one size bigger than you think they need to be. This will ensure that everyone in your audience can read your slides, even the people sitting in the back. If you need to test this, ask a friend to stand in the back of the room and read off your text like an eye exam.

5. Utilize Graphics

Graphics are important tools for visual engagement, so don’t skimp on things like pictures, graphs and charts. A good rule of thumb: If the information can be conveyed in an image instead of a paragraph, go with the image.

6. Break Up Your Text

Last but certainly not least, don’t force your audience to read your slides like a textbook. Use subheadings and bullet points to make your text easy to skim. Remember, they’ll also be listening to you while they’re reading your slides, so you don’t want their attention too divided.

These are just six things to keep in mind when putting together a PowerPoint presentation. If you need additional assistance, don’t be afraid to contact PowerPoint specialists like the ones at eSlide.com. They’ll help you create an engaging, informative presentation that will impress students and shareholders alike.

Published by Kidal Delonix (1201 Posts)

Kidal Delonix is a contributor to Mr. Hoffman's blog. The views and opinions are entirely his/her own and may not reflect Mr Hoffman's views.