three benefits of using ms powerpoint presentation

What Are Benefits of PowerPoint? A Comprehensive Guide

PowerPoint, a presentation software developed by Microsoft, offers a multitude of benefits for individuals and businesses alike. By following this quick overview, you’ll gain an understanding of how to utilize PowerPoint effectively and what to expect from its range of functionalities.

After completing the action of learning PowerPoint, you will be able to create visually appealing presentations that can enhance communication, engage audiences, and support your points with visual aids. You’ll also be able to customize your slides to reflect your brand or personal style.

Introduction

PowerPoint has become synonymous with presentations. Whether in a classroom, a boardroom, or at a conference, PowerPoint slides are the go-to for anyone needing to present information in a structured, engaging manner. So, why is this software so widely used and important?

For starters, PowerPoint allows users to compile and organize their thoughts in a way that’s visually appealing and easy to follow. It caters to various learning styles – from those who benefit from auditory explanations to visual learners who need graphs, charts, and images to understand a concept fully.

Not only is PowerPoint an excellent tool for education and business, but it’s also accessible. With a relatively low learning curve, almost anyone can pick it up and start crafting presentations. Its relevance spans across different sectors and age groups, making it a universally valuable skill to learn.

The step by step tutorial section will include PowerPoint in the title.

This section will guide you through the basic steps of creating a PowerPoint presentation from scratch.

Step 1: Open PowerPoint and select a theme.

Choose a theme that aligns with the purpose of your presentation.

Selecting a theme is the first step in creating a PowerPoint presentation. Microsoft offers a wide variety of built-in themes that you can choose from, each with its own unique design, color scheme, and font style. This ensures consistency and visual appeal throughout your presentation. You can also create a custom theme if you have specific branding or design requirements.

Step 2: Add new slides and content.

Create and populate your slides with text, images, and other media.

After selecting your theme, the next step is to add new slides. You can insert text boxes to add titles, bullet points, and detailed content. PowerPoint also allows you to include images, videos, and other multimedia elements to enrich your presentation and make it more engaging for your audience.

Step 3: Customize your slides.

Adjust the layout, colors, and fonts to suit your needs.

Customizing your slides is where you can really make your presentation stand out. You can move elements around, change the background color, and select fonts that reflect the tone of your message. PowerPoint provides tools for aligning objects, editing images, and applying various artistic effects to your content.

Step 4: Include transitions and animations.

Add visual effects to your slides and elements to make your presentation dynamic.

Transitions and animations can help your presentation flow smoothly from one slide to the next or emphasize important points. PowerPoint offers a range of effect options, from subtle fades to more elaborate movements. However, it’s important to use these judiciously to avoid distracting from the content itself.

Step 5: Rehearse and present.

Practice your presentation and prepare for the live show.

The final step is to rehearse your presentation using PowerPoint’s rehearsal features. You can time your slides, add speaker notes, and even record your presentation to review it later. When you’re ready, you can present live from your computer, or share your presentation with others through various platforms.

Additional Information

When using PowerPoint, one major tip is to focus on your message and use the software to enhance it, not overshadow it. Remember, your slides are there to support you, not the other way around. You should also consider the accessibility of your content—use high-contrast colors and large fonts to ensure everyone in your audience can easily read your slides.

Furthermore, bear in mind that PowerPoint presentations are not just for live audiences. They can be converted into video formats, shared online, or even printed as handouts, making your content versatile and reusable.

• Open PowerPoint and select a theme.
• Add new slides and content.
• Customize your slides.
• Include transitions and animations.
• Rehearse and present.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is powerpoint mainly used for.

PowerPoint is primarily used for creating and delivering presentations for educational, business, and personal purposes.

Can PowerPoint presentations be shared online?

Yes, PowerPoint presentations can be shared online through email, cloud services, or by converting them into video formats.

Is PowerPoint suitable for professional use?

Absolutely, PowerPoint is widely used in professional settings for meetings, conferences, and other business-related events.

Can you collaborate with others on a PowerPoint presentation?

Yes, PowerPoint offers collaborative features allowing multiple users to work on a presentation simultaneously.

Are there alternatives to PowerPoint?

There are several alternatives to PowerPoint, including Google Slides and Apple Keynote, each with their own unique features.

In conclusion, PowerPoint is a powerful tool that offers numerous benefits for creating and delivering presentations. Its ability to enhance visual impact, promote structure, and increase audience engagement makes it an essential skill for anyone looking to present information effectively.

While there are some drawbacks to be aware of, such as the potential for technical issues and the learning curve involved, the pros of using PowerPoint far outweigh the cons. With practice and creativity, PowerPoint can become an indispensable part of your communication toolkit.

Matthew Burleigh has been writing tech tutorials since 2008. His writing has appeared on dozens of different websites and been read over 50 million times.

After receiving his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science he spent several years working in IT management for small businesses. However, he now works full time writing content online and creating websites.

His main writing topics include iPhones, Microsoft Office, Google Apps, Android, and Photoshop, but he has also written about many other tech topics as well.

Read his full bio here.

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17 Advantages And Disadvantages Of PowerPoint

PowerPoint is a versatile and user-friendly multimedia presentation program compatible with most devices. It lets you make and share limitless presentations with ease. However, it comes with a fair share of disadvantages, like the complex features and tools, issues with performance on less powerful computers, and its price.

1. Available for All Major Operating Systems

2. abundant features, 3. widely accepted, 4. lots of themes and templates, 5. versatile interface, 6. relatively easy to use, 7. support various formats, 8. smooth integration with other office programs, 9. support add-in, 10. compare documents, 11. relatively easy to collaborate, 12. available mobile version, 13. password protection, 14. lack of innovation, 15. a bit complex to learn, 16. some performance issues on weak systems, 17. it’s relatively expensive, advantages and disadvantages of powerpoint – at a glance.

• PowerPoint is available on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android , and the web.
• PowerPoint has a rich set of features , including templates and themes.
• Even for beginners, PowerPoint is relatively easy to use .
• PowerPoint enables customization through a wide range of add-ins .
• PowerPoint simplifies collaboration with others by allowing easy sharing and editing of presentations.
• PowerPoint has limited innovation over its three-decade history, potentially making presentations feel dated.
• Learning to use PowerPoint’s features and tools can be complex for some users.
• PowerPoint may have performance issues on less powerful computers.
• Compared to alternatives, PowerPoint can be relatively pricey if purchased outright.

Advantages Of PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint is an excellent tool for presentations and more. Here are some of its key advantages:

PowerPoint is available for both Windows and macOS , as well as for mobile devices running iOS and Android. This makes it a convenient tool for creating presentations, regardless of what type of device you are using. You can also use PowerPoint for the Web in a web browser, making it even more accessible. Not a lot of presentation software offers such flexibility.

PowerPoint is the most feature-rich presentation software out there. It has everything you need to create a professional-looking presentation, including built-in templates, themes, and much more. Other presentation software simply cannot compete with PowerPoint in this regard.

PowerPoint is the most widely used presentation software, and it’s the industry standard tool for preparing presentations. People are generally familiar with how PowerPoint works, which makes it easy to use when giving presentations. It is also the most compatible presentation software , meaning that it can be opened and viewed on just about any device.

PowerPoint comes with a variety of built-in themes and templates that you can use to make your presentation look more professional. If you’re not a design expert, these templates can be a lifesaver. With just a few clicks, you can make your presentation look great without spending hours on design.

The interface of PowerPoint is also quite versatile. You can easily access all the needed features by using the toolbar options. Its interface is also customizable , so you can change it to suit your needs better.

PowerPoint is relatively easy to use , even if you’ve never used it before. Of course, it takes some time to learn all the features and how to use them effectively. However, you should be able to start creating basic presentations without much trouble.

You can open and edit presentations saved in various formats with PowerPoint. Some of the supported formats include pptx, ppt, gif, mp4, jpeg , and more. This is a convenient feature if you need to import or export presentations in variable programs. Other presentation software supports only a limited number of formats.

PowerPoint also integrates smoothly with other Microsoft Office programs, such as Word and Excel. This makes it easy to create presentations that include data from other Office programs. Moreover, PowerPoint files are supported by most online storage services, such as Google Drive and Dropbox, for seamless sharing.

PowerPoint also supports add-ins , which are small programs that add additional features to the software. There are a large number of add-ins available for PowerPoint that you can use to customize your presentations further.

The Review feature in PowerPoint allows you to compare two presentations side-by-side . This is a handy feature if you need to spot the differences between two versions of a presentation. It’s especially useful when you want to review the changes to your presentation made by someone else.

PowerPoint makes it relatively easy to collaborate with others on a presentation. You can easily share your presentation with others and allow them to view it or make changes by sharing a link. This is a convenient feature if you are working on a team project.

PowerPoint is also available in a mobile version , which allows you to create and edit presentations on the go. You can download the PowerPoint app for free from the App Store or Google Play to use on iOS or Android devices. This is a handy feature if you need to make last-minute changes to your presentation.

One of the features of the PowerPoint software that most users find useful is the password protection feature. This allows you to set a password for your presentation so that only those who know the password can open and view it. Most other presentation software does not include this component.

Disadvantages of PowerPoint

Now that we’ve looked at the advantages of PowerPoint, let’s take a look at some of its disadvantages:

It’s been around three decades since PowerPoint was first released, and in that time, it hasn’t seen a whole lot of innovation. This lack of innovation can make it feel dated compared to some of the newer presentation software options on the market. Some users find PowerPoint slides boring, as there is not much scope to create creative or interactive presentations.

The features and tools of PowerPoint can be a bit complex to learn , especially if you’ve never used the software before. It can take some time to get a grasp on how to use all the features effectively. And if you want to create more complex presentations, it may take even longer.

PowerPoint can also have some performance issues, especially on weak systems. The software can be a bit resource-intensive, so it may run slowly on older computers . Additionally, large or complex presentations may take longer to load and may not run as smoothly as you’d like.

If you want to purchase PowerPoint outright, it’s relatively expensive compared to some of the other presentation software options on the market. Google Slides offers many of the same features as PowerPoint, but it’s free to use.

PowerPoint is a widely used presentation software that is available for all major operating systems. It offers a large number of features and is widely accepted.  However, it can be a bit complex to learn and is relatively expensive. Despite these disadvantages, PowerPoint is still a popular choice for creating presentations.

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What Are The Benefits of Microsoft PowerPoint? (A Comprehensive Guide)

Microsoft PowerPoint is one of the most popular presentation programs available today, and for good reason.

This comprehensive guide will explore the many advantages of using Microsoft PowerPoint, from creating professional-looking presentations to easily sharing and collaborating with other users.

With its accessible templates and tools, PowerPoint makes it easy to create interactive presentations that will wow any audience.

Short Answer

Microsoft PowerPoint is a powerful presentation software that can be used to create engaging presentations for any purpose.

The main benefits of PowerPoint include its ability to help users create visually appealing slides, add animations and transitions to enhance the presentation, and use multimedia elements to bring the presentation to life.

Additionally, PowerPoint can help users organize their thoughts and ideas in an effective way, as well as make it easier to collaborate with others in a shared workspace.

What is Microsoft PowerPoint?

It is a powerful tool that can be used for a variety of purposes, from creating slideshows to multimedia presentations.

PowerPoint is an incredibly versatile program.

It offers users access to an extensive library of templates and tools, allowing them to create high-quality presentations quickly and efficiently.

PowerPoint is an easy-to-use program, making it accessible to users of any skill level.

It has a user-friendly interface and clear instructions, allowing even novice users to create professional-looking presentations in no time.

As a result, PowerPoint has become a popular choice for businesses, schools, and other organizations.

Benefits of Using Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint is an extremely powerful and versatile presentation software developed by Microsoft that can be used for a variety of purposes.

With its powerful features and ease of use, PowerPoint is an essential tool for businesses and schools worldwide.

One of the main benefits of using Microsoft PowerPoint is its ability to provide a professional-looking presentation.

The software also offers users access to an extensive library of templates and tools that can help them create high-quality presentations quickly and efficiently.

PowerPoint is designed to be user-friendly, and is very intuitive to use.

Even for those who are new to the software, it is easy to learn the basics and get started creating amazing presentations.

Finally, Microsoft PowerPoint is great for creating interactive presentations that engage audiences.

With PowerPoint, users can easily add animations, transitions, and other interactive elements to their presentations.

Additionally, PowerPoint presentations can be shared and accessed from anywhere with an internet connection, allowing users to collaborate on projects and share ideas with colleagues.

PowerPoint is also easy to use, and offers users access to an extensive library of templates and tools that can help them create high-quality presentations quickly and efficiently.

Professional-Looking Presentations

Microsoft PowerPoint is a powerful presentation software that can give businesses and schools access to a professional-looking presentation with ease.

With its vast selection of templates and tools, users can easily create high-quality presentations in no time.

With the ability to easily add images, text, audio, and video to a presentation, PowerPoint can create an engaging and professional-looking presentation in a matter of minutes.

With its powerful features and ease of use, Microsoft PowerPoint continues to be an essential tool for businesses and schools worldwide.

Ease of Use

Even first-time users can quickly get up to speed with PowerPoints simple layout and design tools.

Thanks to its ease of use, PowerPoint is a great choice for both novice and experienced users, making it the ideal presentation software for any project.

Creating Interactive Presentations

PowerPoint has a variety of tools that can be used to create interactive presentations.

For example, users can add animations, transitions, and sound effects to their slides to create a more engaging experience for their audience.

PowerPoint also makes it easy to add interactivity to a presentation.

The combination of these features makes Microsoft PowerPoint an invaluable tool for creating interactive presentations.

Accessible Templates and Tools

These templates and tools are designed to make the process of creating presentations easier and more efficient, which can be a great asset for businesses and schools.

Additionally, users can customize and edit templates to fit their needs, allowing them to create unique and eye-catching presentations.

Additionally, users can also add images, videos, and audio to their presentations, allowing them to add a unique and personal touch.

With this wide range of tools, users can create professional-looking presentations quickly and easily.

With the wide range of templates available, users can create attractive presentations that capture the attention of an audience.

Sharing and Collaboration

Microsoft PowerPoint is an invaluable tool for businesses and schools, offering users the ability to easily share and collaborate on presentations with colleagues and peers.

PowerPoint also provides users with an extensive library of templates and tools to help them create high-quality presentations quickly and efficiently.

This makes it easier to work together on projects, as everyone can see the same slides and add their own input.

Overall, Microsoft PowerPoint is an invaluable tool for businesses and schools, offering users the ability to easily share and collaborate on presentations with colleagues and peers.

Final Thoughts

Its ability to provide professional-looking presentations, its ease of use, and its ability to create interactive presentations that engage audiences make it a powerful tool for any organization.

Now that you know the benefits of Microsoft PowerPoint, why not take advantage of its power and create your own dynamic presentation today?

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Presentation Training Institute

A division of bold new directions training, the benefits of using powerpoint in presentations.

You are probably familiar with the phrase “death by PowerPoint†and may have even experienced it yourself. After all, most of us have sat through a presentation where the speaker bored us to death by reading directly from a cheesy slideshow. However, the fact is, when used appropriately, PowerPoint can be an effective tool for communicating your message. 

Microsoft PowerPoint is the most popular presentation tool used by teachers, professionals, and students worldwide. It offers a wide range of features and capabilities that make it easier to convey information and engage audiences. Here we will take a look at some of the benefits of using PowerPoint to craft engaging presentations. 

1. Visual Appeal

Research has shown that 65% of people are visual learners, meaning they need to see information in order to retain it. PowerPoint allows presenters to translate facts, data, and information into visual images that make it easier for the audience to understand. Furthermore, presenters can create visually appealing presentations with a variety of design templates, themes, and multimedia elements that help engage audiences and captivate their interest. 

2. Organization and Structure

Delivering a presentation in front of an audience can be nerve wracking and it’s easy for speakers to lose their place and get off track. PowerPoint provides a structured framework for the presenter to outline their content in a logical and organized manner. A well-designed slide deck can serve as a guide for presenters so they don’t have to worry about forgetting any of their main points. 

3. Audience Engagement

PowerPoint allows presenters to engage their audience through interactive elements such as quizzes, polls, and hyperlinks. These features encourage audience participation and make the presentation more dynamic and memorable. 

4. Explain Complex Information

PowerPoint makes it easier for the presenter to explain complex concepts through easily digestible visuals. For example, charts, graphs, and infographics act as visual representations of complex information. This helps avoid confusion and clarifies information in a way that audiences can easily understand. 

5. Boosts Presenter Confidence

Most people dislike public speaking so it can be helpful to have a PowerPoint as a guide for the presentation. This makes the presenter feel more relaxed and at ease knowing that they don’t have to worry about getting off track or forgetting their material.

What Are The Benefits of PowerPoint When Choosing A Presentation Platform

Table of contents.

PowerPoint is the most popular software for building presentations. It can be found as a part of Microsoft’s Office Suite and is often used for personal, business, and educational purposes . It would be fair to say that PowerPoint has dominated the presentation landscape for decades.

89% Of people still use PowerPoint presentations over competitor services. Presentation Panda

But why is this the case? As pres entation experts for over a decade , why is most of the work we do, done in Microsoft PowerPoint over Prezi, Google Slides, Canva and others? Read on as we explore, from first-hand experience, the reasons PowerPoint is our go-to platform.

So, What Are The Benefits Of PowerPoint Presentations?

1) it's a highly collaborative solution.

PowerPoint is super collaborative. Gone are the days when you have to huddle around one computer, one person working on your slides at a time. PowerPoint allows multiple people to access, edit and comment on a presentation, at the same time, on the same slides! All your team needs it access to the file and you’re golden.

2) Design Flexibility To Wow Audiences

You have full control over the appearance of your presentation design. PowerPoint offers the freedom and flexibility to create dynamic, engaging slides that capture your audiences attention. Feel free to take a look at some of the PowerPoint design ideas we suggest.

Missing that visual kick your PowerPoint desperately needs? Check out our PowerPoint presentation design portfolio.

3) You Can Work From Virtually Anywhere

The past couple of years have changed the working dynamic of many industries. Hybrid models are the new norm and with that, there is a demand for digital tools that have versatility. PowerPoint can be saved to the cloud and accessed from wherever you are. As long as you have a user license, you can work on your presentation virtually anywhere.

4) Export PowerPoint Slides In Different Formats

You aren’t limited to just .pptx. PowerPoint presentations can be exported in various formats. Looking to save space, export it as a .pdf and send it through email. Want to send individual slides? gif, .tif, .png or .jpg, among others have you covered. You can even export videos within PowerPoints as mp4 or windows media player. What we’re saying here is that there’s flexibility for all situations with PowerPoint Presentations.

5) Compatibility With Other Microsoft Office Programs

Considering they are all part of the same suite, you’re able to quickly and easily enrich your presentation with tables from word and charts from excel. We can create templates for you that can easily be modified for presentations to come.

6) It's Accessible For All Users And Purposes

Companies typically have the Microsoft office suite already loaded and licensed on their computers, so you’re already half way there. In addition, educational facilities acquire office so students and teachers can connect quickly and easily.

In addition, you’ll be able to be inclusive of a wider audience with presentation accessibility features . You can create presentations that capture your audience’s focus by catering to those who may have visual, hearing or any other impairments.

7) PPT Presentations Save Time

Hiring professional PowerPoint design services can save time. All one has to do is brief the agency with basic content, and the custom presentation is designed to good effect.

This frees up time for company personnel to focus on other tasks at hand. The design agency will take care of visuals, smooth animations, relevant charts, custom fonts, and color schemes.

Delivering World Class Presentation Design

The drawbacks of using a powerpoint presentation, technological issues are always a factor.

You can plan and rehearse your pitch as much as you want, if your HDMI, VGA or any other input device craps out, you’re in trouble. In addition, you’ll want to make sure the system you are planning to present on has access to the fonts and files within the deck. This can be said of all presentation platforms, but it’s important to note.

Presenters Rely Too Much On Their Slides

Presenters can have a tendency to lean on their slides a little too much. It doesn’t matter if you have a presentation that leaves a greater visual impact if you don’t know what you’re presenting! The ease of use builds confidence and a false sense of security. The story is what ultimately captivates your audience, the visual and audio cues are to bring the story to life.

Customization Can Be A Curse

Having a wealth of options at your disposal is disorientating and can often lead you astray. You start to dilute the point of the presentation in trying to get too creative. You start to ask:

• What Fonts Should I Use?
• I've seen so many image heavy presentations, is mine image heavy?
• Does This Slide Need A Video? Should It Be Interactive?

We know you want to dazzle your audience and give them information, but leave a little mystery for the delivery. Also, we recommend hiring a presentation design professional , it really does take this headache away.

So, What Are Our Final Thoughts On The Benefits of PowerPoint?

If we were building a presentation for you, we would recommend PowerPoint. It’s ease of use, flexibility and compatibility make it our presentation software of choice, every time. It’s viewed in the industry as the evergreen presentation leader and Microsoft PowerPoint has established itself a synonym for presentation software.

That being said, other presentation platforms shouldn’t be overlooked. Canva and Google slides are gaining traction. Either way, we are experts in all presentation platforms and create outstanding presentations, everytime!

Are You In Need Of A Custom Presentation? We Can Help

Now it’s about you! Are you in need of a fresh, engaging presentation that captures your audiences attention? Whether you need a clean up, a re-design or a completely custom build we have you covered. You can find our presentation packages and pricing options here . Want to speak to a geek, click the button below.

Author:  Content Team

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What Are Benefits of PowerPoint?

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Microsoft PowerPoint is an easy program to use and a powerful tool for giving a presentation. Whether your presentation needs a visual kick, tools for collaboration, easy access or the ability to share information beyond the initial meeting, PowerPoint is a good option. It can even help reduce speaking anxiety by drawing eyes away from the speaker and towards a screen. Just do not expect this technology to substitute for sound and dynamic speaking skills.

Visual Impact

Making your presentation more interesting through the use of multimedia can help to improve the audience's focus. PowerPoint allows you to use images, audio and video to have a greater visual impact. These visual and audio cues may also help a presenter be more improvisational and interactive with the audience. However, try not to overly rely on these sources as your message might get lost in the clutter.

Collaboration

PowerPoint allows you to work with other people in a collaborative manner. This is especially useful in office settings where teamwork is key. Multiple people can collaborate on and contribute to a presentation. By going to the "Review" tab at the top of the program and clicking the "New Comment" button, you can leave notes and reposition them on the screen for other team members to view. Comments can be an especially beneficial tool for clarification.

Content Sharing

Share your PowerPoint presentation with the world. Did someone miss your presentation? Have them view it online at a time that is convenient for them. You can upload your presentation to websites such as YouTube with everything featured in your work including all of the slides, commentary and transitions. All you have to do is go to "File," "Save and Send" and "Create a Video." The file will be saved in WMV format, which is capable of playback on Windows Media Player and can be uploaded to most video sites.

Flexibility

PowerPoint can be used in a number of different effective ways to communicate with your audience. Slides are completely customizable to fit your needs. Depending on your approach, you may want to have a presentation that is text-heavy, image-heavy or some combination of both. Text-heavy presentations are generally good if you are giving a lecture to a group within your company and want them to take notes. Image-heavy presentations can help to make your presentation more conversational in style since there only visual cues. Combining the two approaches gives listeners the benefits of both visual aids and notes.

• Microsoft: PowerPoint 2010 Features and Benefits
• University of Central Florida: Effective Use of PowerPoint

Author and blogger Kyle W. Bell has been writing since 2003. His work appears on Game Freaks 365 and Smashwords. Bell has a Bachelor of Arts in political science and a certificate in paralegal studies from Indiana University South Bend.

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The Effectiveness of MS PowerPoint: Take Your Presentation to the Next Level

It’s safe to say that everyone has had to prepare an MS PowerPoint presentation at least once. Nowadays, proficiency in PowerPoint is considered a fundamental skill. This tool is especially useful when it comes to giving speeches in school or at work.

Whether this is your first experience with MS PowerPoint or you just want to learn more about creating a professional and engaging presentation – this article by IvyPanda.com is for you! Here, we will:

• cover the best way to structure your presentation;
• give best PowerPoint presentation tips for students;
• share 7 excellent free templates.
• 🤔 Why Is Structure Important?
• 💡 How to Structure a Presentation
• 📜 Presentation Text Length
• 🎨 Design Tips
• ✨ 7 Free Templates
• 😃 Bonus Presentation Tips

🔗 References

🤔 your presentation’s structure: why is it important.

When you start working with MS PowerPoint, the structure is the most crucial thing to consider . Information that is presented logically is easier for the viewer to understand. Besides, if you accompany your presentation with a speech, a good structure will help you feel confident, stay on topic, and avoid awkward silence.

💡 How to Structure Your Presentation

A good presentation always has a message to deliver or a story to tell. It is usually divided into 3 parts: introduction, body, and conclusion . Let’s look at each of these parts in more detail.

Introduction

The introduction is singularly the most important part of your presentation. It sets the tone for the entire performance and captures the audience’s attention. Although the introduction takes only about 10-15 % of your speaking time, it should still be informative and include the following parts:

Title & Cover Page

The cover page is your first slide. Its main goal is to present all the necessary information about the topic and the presenter. A good cover page can also pique the audience’s interest in your subject and grab their attention. For that reason, investing time in creating a visually pleasing and informative title page is never a bad idea.

Want to know the best way to create your first slide? Check out these simple steps:

• Come up with a suitable title. Try to keep your title short but straightforward and descriptive. If you struggle to summarize the main idea in a title, you can use a subtitle to give further detail.
• Add some information about the speaker. Identify the group or person who’s going to present. Sometimes you may also need to include your student ID, department, or company’s name and logo.
• Pay attention to your cover page’s tone and aesthetics. A well-designed first slide conveys a sense of professionalism and shows how well you are prepared. To create a visually pleasing cover page, you don’t need to be a professional designer: you can simply use an MS PowerPoint template.

Table of Contents

Although a table of contents is optional, it’s a must if you want your presentation to look professional. It shows the audience what the presentation will consist of. In addition, a well-made table of contents makes the structure clearer.

Tracking the progress of the presentation is even easier if you add hyperlinks to your slides . It will allow you to refer back to the required slide faster when questions arise.

When you create a presentation, there’s always an objective : a point you want to prove or an idea you want to convey. Make sure you state your goals in the first couple of slides. It will let your audience know what to expect from your presentation and what they will learn from it.

Definitions

Sometimes you need to explain certain words that are unknown to your audience. Creating a slide with the definitions of new terms makes it easier for the listeners to follow your ideas. Make your explanations as simple as possible.

The main body is the most informative part of your presentation . It covers all the necessary aspects of your work and determines if your ideas will persuade the audience. 

One of the things you want to do while delivering your presentation is to ensure the body is well-organized. A good strategy is to structure the points according to one specific criterion. Here are some suggestions:

And here are some additional tips to help you create a well-structured main body for your presentation:

• Limit yourself to 3-5 points. If you mention more than five ideas, your audience may get lost, and it will be harder for them to follow your presentation. 
• Include smooth and clear transitions between your points. Transitions are another factor that contributes to your presentation’s success. You can use them for an enumeration or count your ideas as steps:

• Make sure your facts are accurate and understandable. It’s essential to have enough detail that you cover the topic comprehensively. And, of course, all your information needs to be credible.

A summary’s main objective is to outline your presentation’s main points. In this part, you can also suggest sources that can give your audience more information on the topic. Just make sure not to include anything that hasn’t been mentioned before.

The conclusion is a section that ties all the parts of your presentation together . Similar to the introduction, it should be short, straight, and to the point. Here are the best strategies that will help you create a great conclusion:

📜 Presentation Text Length: Importance & Strategies

Now that we’ve discussed the structure of your presentation, let’s look at the visual component. It’s vital to present information in a way that’s easy for the audience to digest. If this sounds like a daunting task, don’t worry: our tips will help you ace it.

The first rule is to avoid adding too much text to your slides . There are several reasons why you shouldn’t do that:

• It’s hard for the audience to read and listen simultaneously. If there’s too much text, they will stop listening to what you are saying and focus on reading instead.
• The audience starts taking notes. When people come to a watch presentation, they want to learn new things. There are chances that your audience will begin writing down everything that is on the screen because they will assume that the information is essential. It will make them even more distracted.
• As a result, the audience can’t catch up. When the listeners start to make notes, they may fail to notice when you switch to the next slide. It becomes more challenging for them to concentrate on the message and hear everything you say.

Naturally, you want to avoid this kind of situation. We’re going to share some of the best strategies to help you with that: keep reading!

Use Less Text

Using less text is the best strategy for preventing your audience’s confusion. So, how do you do that? Well, there are several ways:

• Limit each slide to one idea. This will help you use fewer words and organize your presentation better.
• Use bullet points to cover the components of each idea.
• Keep each bullet point to 1-2 lines.
• Limit the number of bullet points per slide to 4-6.
• Use simple words to describe your ideas.
• Limit the number of words you put on a slide. We recommend you not to use more than 30 words per slide.

Include Images

One of the best ways to get rid of extra text is to use images. Of course, you can’t include pictures on every slide, but there are times when illustrations are just what you need to save the day. If you decide to have images in your presentation, ask yourself:

If you answered “yes” to these questions, then go ahead and use an image to convey your idea. But be careful not to overuse illustrations: they may distract the audience.

🎨 How to Boost Your PowerPoint Design: 12 Best Tips

Now it’s time to talk design. The look of your presentation is another crucial factor that determines how well the audience gets your message. In this section, we’ve collected the most helpful presentation tips for students that will help you create a visually engaging presentation.

Font Tips for Your Presentation

The font is an element that adds character to your slides. Choosing the right font ensures that your presentation looks pleasing and professional. Here we have a couple of suggestions on how to decide on a suitable font:

• Choose font style depending on the purpose of your presentation.  There are 4 popular font styles: serif, sans-serif, script, and decorative. Each of them has unique characteristics that are worth considering.

Serif fonts have a more classic feel. They might be the best option if you are going for something simple. Sans-serif fonts are perfect if you are going for a more modern and round-looking design. As for script and decorative fonts, they are unique and stylized. You may want to use them for special purpose presentations.

• Use easily readable fort styles. Popular examples include Arial, Tahoma, Veranda, Garamond, and Times New Roman.
• Standardize the font. Make sure it’s the same throughout the slides.
• Mind the font size. Use size 40 points for the headings and 32 points for the subheadings. Don’t use a font size smaller than 24 for the content text.

Color and Contrast Tips

The choice of color may seem inessential, but it’s definitely worth considering when working on your presentation. To choose the perfect color scheme for your slides, keep several things in mind:

• Use harmonious colors. If you want to make your presentation visually pleasing, you can pick complementary, triadic, or tetradic colors with the help of the color wheel.
• Use a high-contrast color scheme. Sometimes there’s not enough contrast between the shades chosen for the text and the background. To be on the safe side, choose lighter colors for the text if you have a darker background and vice-versa. 
• Keep it simple. Even though using a variety of shades may be tempting, it’s still best to keep things simple and choose only primary colors. 

Animation Tips for Your Presentation

Now let’s turn our attention to animation. Animated elements can make your presentation more engaging or serve as a distraction. So, be wise when incorporating animation into your work. Here are some suggestions:

• Use subtle animation. For instance, you can make the points appear on the screen one after the other. It will give the audience more time to read and digest the information. 
• Make objects disappear. Effects such as removing separate elements from the slide can make your presentation more exciting.
• Don’t shy away from simple animation. Sometimes even the most common effects like zoom or fade can help emphasize a certain point. Besides, they are less distracting compared to more showy effects.
• Avoid using too much animation. An overabundance of visual effects will make your presentation too hard on the eyes and distract the audience.
• Don’t go overboard. Stick to a couple of animation effects throughout the whole presentation. 

✨ 7 Best Free Templates

If you are new to PowerPoint or don’t have much time to work on a layout, you can always use free templates. We’ve compiled our favorites in the list below. These templates will help you organize your content and ideas in a way that suits you best:

• Group project presentation (Berlin themes, widescreen) This group project template is designed with teamwork in mind. It’s perfect for you if you’re planning to delegate the parts of your presentation for different team members to complete. With this template, each member gets a set of slides with a coordinating sample chart, a table in a 16:9 format, and SmartArt.
• Rainbow presentation This template is perfect for creating an outdoor-oriented presentation. It is already formatted, so all you need to do is start editing.
• General Purpose Thin Style PowerPoint Template This template will help you create a presentable company profile. It includes editable text areas, infographic icons, and high-resolution replaceable images. 
• E-Learning Presentation Deck This presentation template focuses on internet education. It contains 20 slides for online education. It will help you introduce courses, teaching plans, and methods. 
• Social Media Map Users Free PowerPoint Template and Keynote This template shows a world map and social media results. It can be used in your report to visually present information regarding your research question or the data you’re using. 
• Product Design Template This template is created specifically for startups who wish to present their project and company profile. It includes 20 blue-themed slides and features such as SWOT analysis diagrams, pie diagrams, sales analysis charts, etc. 
• Member Profile Slides These are team introduction templates that include placeholders for text, data reports, and photos. This template is perfect for introducing one person. 

😃 Bonus Tips for an Effective Presentation

Finally, we want to share with you some additional tips for creating an excellent presentation in PowerPoint for students:

Thanks for reading our article! We hope our tips and strategies will help you create fantastic presentations. Feel free to share your thoughts and ideas in the comment section below.

• Parts of a Presentation: Oregon State University
• How to End Your PowerPoint Presentation with a Strong Close: Envato
• PowerPoint Presentation Guidelines: McGill University
• Part 2: Design Principles: Purdue Writing Lab
• Teaching with PowerPoint: Northern Illinois University
• Writing a PowerPoint Presentation: George Mason University
• PowerPoint Presentations: MIT Alumni Association
• Design Tips for PowerPoint: UNSW
• General Guidelines for PowerPoint Presentations: Virginia Tech
• Tips for Creative Effective PowerPoint Presentations: University of Nebraska–Lincoln
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What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of PowerPoint

Explore the Advantages and Disadvantages of PowerPoint in our latest blog. Discover how this popular presentation tool can enhance communication and engagement while also exploring potential pitfalls. Gain insights on harnessing its power for effective presentations and navigating its limitations for more impactful business and educational content.

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The average salary of a PowerPoint expert in the UK is £40,000 GBP per year, according to Talent.com . In this blog, you will get to know about the Advantages and Disadvantages of PowerPoint. Let's dive in deeper to learn how it can impact your presentations!  

Table of Contents        

1) Advantages of PowerPoint  

2) Visual appeal and aesthetic design  

    a) Easy to use and accessible  

    b) Efficient information organisation  

    c) Disadvantages of PowerPoint  

3) Conclusion       

Advantages of PowerPoint   

PowerPoint is a powerful software tool developed by Microsoft that enables users to create visually appealing and engaging presentations. It offers various functionalities and features that make it a popular choice for individuals and professionals who want to convey information effectively. Here, we will explore the Advantages of PowerPoint and how it can enhance your presentations. Let's dive into the benefits it offers:  

Visual appeal and aesthetic design   

One of the primary Advantages of PowerPoint is its ability to create visually appealing presentations. With a vast array of design templates, colour schemes, and graphical elements, PowerPoint allows you to add visual appeal to your slides. This visual enhancement can captivate your audience's attention and make your presentation more engaging.

Easy to use and accessible   

PowerPoint is known for its user-friendly interface, making it accessible to users of any level. Its intuitive design and straightforward navigation enable users to create presentations quickly and efficiently. Moreover, PowerPoint is compatible with various operating systems, ensuring broad accessibility across different devices.  

Efficient information organisation   

One of the significant Advantages of PowerPoint is its capability to organise information effectively. With features like bullet points, numbered lists, and hierarchical structures, you can present your ideas in a logical and organised manner. This helps your audience understand and retain the information more easily. 

Enhanced audience engagement   

PowerPoint offers various features to enhance audience engagement during presentations. Animations, transitions, and multimedia elements can make your slides dynamic and captivating. Additionally, interactive features like hyperlinks and embedded videos can encourage audience participation, making your presentation more memorable.  

Time-saving and convenience   

These templates offer professionally designed layouts and graphics, allowing you to focus on the content rather than spending hours on design. Furthermore, PowerPoint's autosave feature automatically saves your work, providing convenience and peace of mind. 

Versatility and compatibility   

PowerPoint's versatility is another key advantage that sets it apart as a presentation tool. It offers broad features and compatibility options that make it highly adaptable to different content formats and sharing platforms.  

a) Support for various media formats:  

PowerPoint provides support for a diverse range of media formats, allowing you to incorporate different types of content into your presentations. You can seamlessly integrate images, videos, audio clips, and charts, enhancing your slides' visual appeal and interactivity. You can create engaging and immersive presentations that resonate with your audience by leveraging these multimedia elements.   

The ability to incorporate various media formats in PowerPoint allows you to leverage different modes of communication. Visual elements, such as images and charts, can help illustrate complex concepts or data, making them more understandable and memorable. Videos and audio clips, on the other hand, can add a dynamic and interactive element to your presentation, allowing you to deliver information in a more engaging and captivating way.  

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b) File conversion and sharing options:  

Powerpoint Presentations can be easily converted to different file formats, offering flexibility in sharing and distribution. Whether you need to share your presentation with colleagues, clients, or a wider audience, PowerPoint enables you to save your slides in formats such as PDFs, video files, or even images. This versatility ensures that your presentation can be accessed and viewed on various devices and platforms, making it convenient for your audience to engage with your content.  

Converting your presentation to PDF format can be particularly useful when you want to share a finalised version of your slides while preserving the formatting and layout. PDF files are widely compatible, allowing anyone to view them using a PDF reader without the need for specific presentation software.  

In addition to PDF, Powerpoint Presentations can also be saved as video files. This format is ideal for situations where you want to share your presentation online, embed it on a website, or upload it to video-sharing platforms. By converting your presentation to a video, you can ensure a consistent playback experience across different devices and platforms.  

Furthermore, Powerpoint Presentations can be easily shared through various online platforms and cloud storage services. Whether you choose to use email, file-sharing platforms, or cloud storage solutions like OneDrive or Google Drive, PowerPoint's compatibility allows you to collaborate with others and share your presentations effortlessly.  

Collaboration and sharing options   

Collaboration is made easy with PowerPoint's sharing and collaboration features. Multiple users can work on a presentation at the same time, making it ideal for team projects or group presentations. With cloud storage and sharing platforms, such as OneDrive or SharePoint, you can share your Powerpoint Presentations with others, enabling seamless collaboration and feedback exchange.  

Professionalism and credibility   

PowerPoint's professional look and vibes contribute to the overall credibility of your presentation. The polished design and layout options help create a sense of professionalism, which can enhance your message's impact. By using PowerPoint, you can convey your ideas with authority and leave a lasting impression on your audience.  

Multimedia integration   

Incorporating multimedia elements is a breeze with PowerPoint. You can easily insert images, videos, audio clips, and animations into your slides, making your presentation more dynamic and engaging. Visual and auditory aids can significantly enhance the audience's understanding and retention of information.  

Presenter support and notes   

PowerPoint offers several features to support presenters during their delivery. The presenter view provides a helpful tool for managing your presentation, displaying speaker notes, and previewing upcoming slides. You can also add speaker notes to individual slides, ensuring that you don't miss any crucial points during your presentation.  

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Disadvantages of PowerPoint   

Overreliance on visuals   

While visuals can enhance a presentation, overreliance on them can be a disadvantage. When too much emphasis is placed on visuals, the audience may become distracted or miss essential information. It's crucial to strike a balance between visuals and textual content to ensure the message is effectively conveyed.  

Potential for information overload   

Powerpoint Presentations have the potential to overwhelm the audience with excessive information. Presenters may feel compelled to include every detail on the slides, leading to information overload. It's important to prioritise key points and keep the content concise and focused to prevent overwhelming the audience.  

Lack of interactivity   

PowerPoint is primarily a one-way communication tool, limiting interactivity during presentations. While you can incorporate interactive elements, such as hyperlinks or quizzes, the level of interaction is often limited. This can hinder audience engagement and participation, particularly in scenarios that require active involvement.  

Limited customisation options   

While PowerPoint provides various design templates, the customisation options may be limited compared to dedicated design software. Presenters seeking highly customised and unique designs may find PowerPoint's options somewhat restrictive. However, for most presentations, the available templates and customisation features are sufficient.  

Technical glitches and compatibility issues   

Technical glitches and compatibility issues can occasionally occur when using PowerPoint. File corruption, formatting inconsistencies, or software compatibility problems can disrupt the smooth delivery of your presentation. It's crucial to test your presentation on the actual equipment or platform to minimise the risk of technical difficulties.  

Dependency on the presenter   

Powerpoint Presentations often rely heavily on the presenter's ability to deliver the content effectively. A presenter who lacks public speaking skills or fails to engage the audience may negatively impact the overall effectiveness of the presentation. Developing strong presentation skills and practising delivering your presentation is important to ensure a successful outcome.    

Not suitable for all presentation types   

While PowerPoint is a versatile tool, it may not be the best choice for all presentation types. For instance, highly technical or data-heavy presentations may require more specialised software or tools that offer advanced data visualisation capabilities. It's important to assess the specific requirements of your presentation and choose the appropriate tool accordingly.  

Accessibility challenges   

Powerpoint Presentations may pose accessibility challenges for individuals with disabilities. Issues such as small font sizes, lack of alt text for images, or inadequate colour contrast can make it difficult for visually impaired or hearing-impaired individuals to fully engage with the content. It's important to follow accessibility guidelines and make accommodations to ensure inclusivity.  

Copyright and intellectual property concerns   

When using images, videos, or other media in Powerpoint Presentations, it's essential to respect copyright and intellectual property rights. Failure to obtain proper permissions or give proper attribution can lead to legal issues. It's crucial to use licensed or royalty-free media or obtain explicit permission from copyright holders before including them in your presentations.  

Risk of boring and monotonous presentations   

Powerpoint Presentations have earned a reputation for being boring and monotonous if not designed and delivered effectively. The reliance on bullet points and text-heavy slides can result in a lack of variety and engagement. It's important to employ storytelling techniques, incorporate multimedia elements, and vary the presentation format to keep the audience interested and attentive.  

Conclusion       

We hope you read this blog and understand the Advantages and Disadvantages of PowerPoint. PowerPoint's versatility and compatibility make it a powerful presentation tool. With support for various media formats and easy file conversion, it allows users to create engaging presentations and share them seamlessly. PowerPoint is a valuable resource for effective communication and impactful presentations.  

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Frequently Asked Questions

PowerPoint offers twelve common types of slides, including Title, Picture, Text, Agenda, and more, each designed for specific content and presentation purposes. 

The three main views in PowerPoint are Normal View for editing, Slide Sorter View for organising slides, and Slide Show View for presenting. 

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20 Advantages and Disadvantages of Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint is a powerful presentation software developed by Microsoft. It is one of the essential tools in the Microsoft Office suite, widely used by professionals, educators, and students for creating presentations. PowerPoint allows users to create visually appealing slideshows that can include text, images, videos, animations, and more.

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Advantages of PowerPoint

• Ease of Use : PowerPoint's user-friendly interface allows users to create professional-looking presentations quickly and easily, even with limited design skills.
• Visual Appeal : PowerPoint enables the creation of visually appealing slides using various design templates, themes, animations, and multimedia elements (like images, videos, and audio), enhancing audience engagement.
• Organization and Structure : It helps presenters organize their content logically through slide layouts, bullet points, and hierarchical structures, making complex information easier to understand.
• Customization : Users can customize slides extensively by adjusting layouts, fonts, colors, and backgrounds to match branding or presentation requirements.
• Integration : PowerPoint seamlessly integrates with other Microsoft Office products (such as Word and Excel), allowing easy import of data and content into presentations.
• Presenter Tools : It offers built-in presenter tools like presenter view, notes section, and slide navigation, enhancing the delivery and control of presentations during live sessions.
• Collaboration : PowerPoint supports collaboration by enabling multiple users to work on the same presentation simultaneously, whether through cloud-based platforms or shared network drives.
• Accessibility Features : It includes accessibility features such as screen reader support, text resizing, and alternative text for images, ensuring presentations are accessible to diverse audiences.
• Export and Sharing : Presentations can be easily exported to various formats (PDF, JPEG, etc.) for sharing or printing, facilitating distribution and archiving of content.
• Educational and Training Use : PowerPoint is widely used in education and training settings for delivering lectures, conducting workshops, and creating interactive learning materials.

Disadvantages of Microsoft PowerPoint

• Over-Reliance on Visuals : Presenters may rely too heavily on visuals, neglecting to provide sufficient context or explanation, which can lead to a superficial understanding of the content.
• Cognitive Load : Excessive use of animations, transitions, and multimedia elements can overwhelm the audience, detracting from the message and causing cognitive overload.
• Template Limitations : While templates can expedite slide creation, they may limit creativity and result in generic-looking presentations that fail to stand out.
• Technical Issues : PowerPoint presentations may encounter technical issues such as formatting inconsistencies, font compatibility problems, or crashes, especially with large files or complex animations.
• Text-Heavy Slides : Dense text on slides can be overwhelming and difficult to read, especially in large meeting rooms or virtual presentations, reducing audience engagement.
• Copyright Concerns : Users must be cautious about copyright infringement when using images, videos, or other media in presentations, as unauthorized use can lead to legal issues.
• Skill Requirements : Creating effective presentations requires skill in content organization, design principles, and effective communication, which not all users may possess.
• Lack of Interactivity : PowerPoint presentations are typically linear and passive, lacking interactivity and real-time collaboration features found in other presentation tools.
• Presentation Fatigue : Audiences may experience "PowerPoint fatigue" from repetitive use of the software, leading to disengagement and reduced retention of information.
• Misuse or Miscommunication : Poorly designed or hastily prepared presentations can convey misinformation, confuse audiences, or fail to achieve intended communication objectives.

What is Microsoft PowerPoint and Why people use Powerpoint to Create Presentations?

Microsoft PowerPoint offers a range of features that make it a preferred choice for creating presentations. Users can choose from a variety of professional slide design templates to enhance the visual appeal of their slides. The software allows for easy integration of multimedia elements such as images, videos, and audio to make presentations more engaging. Additionally, PowerPoint enables users to add enhanced visual effects and animations to their slides to capture the audience’s attention.

Overview of Microsoft PowerPoint Features

Microsoft PowerPoint provides users with tools to create dynamic and interactive presentations. These features include slide creation, formatting options, animation effects, and slide transitions, making it easy for presenters to customize their slides according to their needs.

Benefits of Using Microsoft PowerPoint

The benefits of using Microsoft PowerPoint include its user-friendly interface, wide range of templates, and seamless integration with other Microsoft Office applications. PowerPoint makes it easy to create professional-looking presentations with minimal effort, saving time and effort for presenters.

Common Applications of Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint is commonly used in business meetings, academic presentations, training sessions, and marketing campaigns. It serves as a versatile tool for conveying information effectively and engaging audiences through visually appealing slides.

Advantages of Using Microsoft PowerPoint for Presentations

One of the key advantages of using Microsoft PowerPoint is the availability of professional slide design templates. These templates help presenters create visually appealing slides that enhance the overall look of the presentation.

Professional Slide Design Templates

PowerPoint offers a wide range of pre-designed templates that users can customize to suit their presentation needs. These templates help maintain consistency in design and make it easier for users to create polished presentations.

Easy Integration of Multimedia Elements

Users can easily embed images, videos, audio files, and other multimedia elements into their PowerPoint presentations. This feature allows presenters to create dynamic and engaging slideshows that capture the audience’s attention.

Enhanced Visual Effects and Animations

PowerPoint provides a variety of visual effects and animations that users can apply to their slides to make them more dynamic and engaging. These effects help in emphasizing key points and transitions in the presentation.

Disadvantages of Using PowerPoint in Presentations

While Microsoft PowerPoint offers many advantages, there are also some disadvantages to using the software for presentations. These drawbacks include the potential for information overload for audiences, technical glitches in presentation delivery, and the dependency on technology for execution.

Potential Information Overload for Audience

Excessive text or cluttered slides can overwhelm the audience and distract them from the main points of the presentation. Presenters need to be mindful of the amount of information presented on each slide to avoid information overload.

Technical Glitches in Presentation Delivery

PowerPoint presentations are vulnerable to technical issues such as formatting errors, compatibility problems, and software crashes. These glitches can disrupt the flow of the presentation and affect the overall delivery.

Dependency on Technology for Execution

Presenters relying solely on PowerPoint for their presentations may face challenges if there are technical issues with the software or hardware. It is essential to have backup plans in place in case of technological failures during a presentation.

How to Maximize the Benefits of Microsoft PowerPoint

To make the most of Microsoft PowerPoint, users can optimize their presentations by utilizing custom templates and branding, using effective fonts and formatting, and incorporating infographics for data representation.

Utilizing Custom Templates and Branding

Creating custom templates that reflect the brand identity of the presenter or organization can help in creating visually consistent and professional-looking presentations. Branding elements such as logos, colors, and fonts can be incorporated into the slides to reinforce brand recognition.

Effective Use of Fonts and Formatting

Choosing appropriate fonts and formatting styles can greatly enhance the readability and visual appeal of the presentation. Consistent use of fonts, colors, and text formatting helps in creating a cohesive and polished look for the slides.

Incorporating Infographics for Data Representation

Infographics are a visual way to represent complex data and statistics in a clear and engaging manner. By incorporating infographics into PowerPoint presentations, presenters can make data-driven points more accessible and easily understandable for the audience.

Tips for Creating Engaging PowerPoint Presentations

Creating engaging PowerPoint presentations involves incorporating interactive elements, utilizing cloud storage for accessibility and collaboration, and captivating the audience with dynamic animations.

Engaging Your Audience with Interactive Elements

Adding interactive elements such as clickable buttons, hyperlinks, quizzes, or surveys can make the presentation more engaging and interactive for the audience. These elements encourage audience participation and enhance overall retention of information.

Utilizing Cloud Storage for Accessibility and Collaboration

Storing PowerPoint presentations on online cloud storage platforms allows for easy accessibility from any device with an internet connection. It also facilitates collaboration among team members who can edit, review, and share presentations in real-time.

Captivating Your Audience with Dynamic Animations

Using dynamic animations sparingly can help in highlighting key points, transitions, and visuals in the presentation. Carefully selected animations can make the content come alive and keep the audience engaged throughout the presentation.

Conclusion of Advantages and Disadvantages of Powerpoint

PowerPoint, as part of the Microsoft Office suite, offers numerous benefits and drawbacks for creating and delivering presentations. Its extensive range of design templates, animations, and transitions makes it a popular choice for crafting visually appealing presentations and marketing materials.

Users can integrate various types of media, including GIFs, images, and videos, to enhance engagement and convey information effectively. 

However, over-reliance on templates and multimedia can lead to presentations that prioritize aesthetics over content, potentially distracting audiences or causing information overload.

Despite these drawbacks, PowerPoint remains a powerful tool for creating professional presentations that can be shared easily via USB drives, cloud platforms, or online.

Its features, such as presenter tools and customizable slide layouts, provide flexibility for presenters to adapt to different audiences and presentation environments. By leveraging PowerPoint’s capabilities wisely, presenters can ensure their presentations are impactful, informative, and visually compelling, leaving a lasting impression on viewers.

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5 reasons why PowerPoint is so popular

PowerPoint still the most popular presentation software tool

29 million over 16s in the UK have, at some stage, created a presentation. Whether it was on the topic of class divides in George Orwell’s Animal Farm that they read at school, a complex client pitch at a leading law firm or anything in between. This accounts for more than half of the UK population. So it’s no surprise that there’s high demand for good quality presentation software and training.

And the most popular presentation tool of all is… you guessed it - PowerPoint. Acuity Training’s recent survey found that 37% of Brits have used PowerPoint at some stage, making it by far the most popular presentation software package available.

But what are the benefits of Microsoft PowerPoint? Why is it so popular? And will it soon be replaced by the likes of Google Slides, Microsoft Sway, Visme and Keynote? Let’s get into it.

Ben Richardson is the owner and director of Acuity Training.

Compatibility

One of the biggest reasons why PowerPoint became and has remained so popular over the years is thanks to its seamless compatibility with a vast array of devices and operating systems . PowerPoint presentations can be created, accessed and edited on both Windows and Apple products. They can also be easily shared and on various devices and platforms without losing their formatting or functionality. Users can transfer their presentations to smartphones , tablets , and even web browsers , enabling them to deliver their presentations anytime, anywhere.

Ease of use

PowerPoint's user-friendly interface makes it exceptionally easy to use, catering to both technical and non-technical users alike. The software's intuitive design and features give users the freedom to craft professional-looking presentations effortlessly. One of PowerPoint's standout characteristics is its drag-and-drop functionality. Users can simply select elements such as text boxes, images, shapes, and multimedia files and easily position them on slides with a simple click and drag. This eliminates the need for complex coding or advanced technical skills, allowing users to focus on content creation rather than technical intricacies. Its pre-designed layouts and templates do all of the hard work for you, allowing you to create professional looking decks with ease.

Visual messaging capabilities

Gone are the days of stuffed slides filled with bullet pointed lists or large chunks of text. When used well, PowerPoint’s SmartArt graphics are your best friend when it comes to creating appealing diagrams and flowcharts to make content that’s slick and easy to understand. While the built-in spell check and grammar correction features help with readability and cohesion. Research has consistently found that the human brain processes and understands visual information more efficiently and effectively compared to text alone, so PowerPoint’s visual capabilities are likely to play a significant role in enhancing retention of information in presentations.

Collaboration

PowerPoint's real-time co-authoring feature has transformed the way teams collaborate when making presentations. It allows multiple users to work on the same presentation simultaneously, regardless of their physical location. Users can add comments, make edit suggestions, and chat with one another on the slides themselves, making teamwork and collaboration a breeze. This is now more important than ever, with so many remote and hybrid workers needing to work together on projects with as little distribution as possible.

Professional spheres

In today’s professional landscape, PowerPoint experience and/or qualifications tend to be a prerequisite in a multitude of industries. From marketing to finance, education to healthcare, and beyond, proficiency in the software allows you to quickly and easily use any new company’s existing templates and layouts and to work effectively within their teams, whilst also adhering to brand guidelines.

There’s little question as to why PowerPoint is the most popular presentation software in the UK. And its position as one of the best presentation software tools is very well-deserved. Other presentation tools such as Google Slides and Visme have gained traction in recent years, and do have growing user bases. But time and time again, PowerPoint remains the go-to for so many of us, and it’s no surprise given its rich set of features, user-friendly interface, and reputable presence across many industries.

PowerPoint’s latest features

So what’s new in PowerPoint? Here are some of my favorite new features.

Power BI Features 

In March this year, Microsoft launched a new PowerPoint add-in that enables seamless integration with Power BI reports. With this update, users can effortlessly incorporate individual visuals into their reports, leveraging the Smart Insights tool to enhance the informational value of presentations. This has reportedly had a major impact on productivity amongst users, helping them to make their presentations more informative and engaging in far less time.

Agenda Wizard

One of PowerPoint’s latest features is Agenda Wizard. This allows you to quickly and easily generate agendas or numbered content table slides, as well as synchronizing any updates and changes to these with just the click of a button. You can also save these format layouts to reuse in the future, or choose from a range of pre-existing options.

What’s in store for the future of PowerPoint?

Earlier this year, Microsoft announced that it's planning on bringing AI to PowerPoint via a new "Copilot" feature. This should enable users to use natural language to instruct PowerPoint to create full presentations on a topic of their choosing. They’ve said this feature will even be able to use other documents as a reference for information and inspiration, much like tools such as ChatGPT and AI art generators.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, there have been some initial concerns about the role of AI in content creation. But Microsoft has emphasised that the Copilot feature has been specifically designed to collaborate with users, as opposed to replacing them. It’ll be fascinating to see how these features continue to complement our communication and content creation efforts going forward into 2024 and beyond, and to discover just what the future holds for presentation software tools as we know them.

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Ben Richardson is the owner and director of Acuity Training, which provides corporate IT application (Microsoft, Adobe, AutoCAD) training across the UK both online and in person.

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Using PowerPoint for Presentations

If you want to make visually captivating and professional-looking presentations, understanding PowerPoint and the benefits of PowerPoint is vital for you. Microsoft PowerPoint is a popular presentation tool used by students and professionals daily. 

Using PowerPoint has made communicating complex ideas and data easier and more engaging, thanks to its user-friendly interface and customizable presentation templates . While there are many benefits of powerpoint, it also has some drawbacks. This article examines what PowerPoint presentations offer and what they don’t. If you are still determining whether it is the right tool for your next presentation, we will help you decide.

What is Microsoft PowerPoint and How Does It Help Create Presentations?

Microsoft PowerPoint is a part of the Microsoft Office Suite developed by Microsoft Corporation. It is a widely used tool for making slideshows or presentations, including images, video, text, animation, and other multimedia elements. Users can use PowerPoint to effectively present their ideas and data to a broad audience in a simple and easy-to-understand manner.  It also helps in creating presentations real quick! So, let us see how it helps with the same: 

• Visual Appeal : Visual appeal is one of the main benefits of PowerPoint. Incorporating PowerPoint graphics , images, and multimedia elements facilitates the creation of visually appealing and engaging presentations in PowerPoint.
• Customization : One of the many benefits of PowerPoint presentations is the freedom to customize the template. It offers various customizable templates with different designs, tools, and effects that help the users or presenters to tailor their slides or presentations to the subject matter and audience.
• Multimedia Integration : To improve the quality and impact of the presentation, users can integrate multimedia elements in PowerPoint, like high-quality videos, audio, animations., etc.
• Audience Engagement : PowerPoint provides various tools and features, such as interactive polls and quizzes, to engage the audience and promote participation during the presentation.
• Accessibility : Accessibility is one of the advantages of PowerPoint that allows users to create presentations accessible to a broad audience, including those with hearing or visual impairments, through features such as closed captions and alternative text descriptions.

What Are The Top 10 Benefits Of Using PowerPoint For Presentation?

The benefits of using PowerPoint are not limited only to efficiently conveying ideas in a meeting, college or school presentations. Apart from students and business professionals, people in the creative field also use PowerPoint to create mood boards or to ideate any creative project. So, if you are wondering what are the benefits of using Microsoft PowerPoint then keep on reading: 

Offers Excellent Data Visualization

• Great Audience Engagement 

Create Visually Stunning Slides Quickly

Multiple interactive features, gives accessibility to different features, has various designs, and you can even create yours, highly collaborative tool.

• PowerPoint Presentations Can Be Saved In Various Platforms
• Helps To Communicate With The Audience Professionally

Offers Consistency To Each Slide

Great audience interaction.

PowerPoint Presentation Can Be Saved In Various Formats

Helps communicate with the audience professionally.

Now that we have discussed the advantages of Microsoft PowerPoint, let us jump onto seeing some of its disadvantages.

What Are The Disadvantages Of Using PowerPoint For Presentation?

Apart from the various benefits of Microsoft PowerPoint, it also has some disadvantages. Let us see some of the drawbacks of using PowerPoint for presentations: 

• Over-Reliance on Slides

Information Overload

• Files are not saved automatically
• Lack of originality
• Most features usually remain unexplored

Over Reliance on Slides

Files are not saved automatically, lack of originality, most features usually remain unexplored, when should i use powerpoint to create presentations.

Due to the diverse benefits of Microsoft PowerPoint, there are various instances when a user can use PowerPoint for Presentations. For example, when a user wants to present complex information or wants to include visual aids to support the information or wants to present to an audience that is not physically present or intends to propose an idea in a business meeting or conference. Here is a table showing how different professionals can use PowerPoint: 

Final Thoughts

Presenting visually appealing and engaging presentations can be achieved with PowerPoint. In addition to offering a wide range of design tools and features, it offers several communication tools that help presenters effectively communicate their ideas to a wide audience. 

However, apart from the benefits of a PowerPoint presentation, it’s imperative to remember that it also has disadvantages. The disadvantages include the potential for information overload, lack of originality, and the risk of disengaging the audience if not used appropriately. 

When choosing PowerPoint for a presentation, the decision should be based on the presentation’s goals and needs. In addition, the audience and the presenter should have their preferences taken into consideration.

Can I rely solely on PowerPoint to deliver an effective presentation?

How can i avoid information overload in my powerpoint presentation, can i use powerpoint presentations for remote presentations or online meetings, is it necessary to use templates for my powerpoint presentations, how can i ensure my powerpoint presentations are accessible to all audiences.

People Are Also Reading:

• PowerPoint Presentation Tips: How To Make A Good PowerPoint Presentation
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What are the advantages and disadvatages of PowerPoint

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PowerPoint is one of the most popular software for presentations. It is part of the Microsoft Office suite and can be used for personal, business, and educational purposes. Most known for its templates and easiness of use, PowerPoint had conquered the presentations game. 

From beginners to professional speakers, this software allows you to build your own presentations using text, images, video, audios, tables of data. There are a variety of animations and transitions that can help in delivering the presentation the way you want. 

We’ve been working for five years in Presentation Design, and most of our work is done using PowerPoint.

Even though I’ve been using it over the past 5 years, I’m learning something new every once in a while. I’m always looking to improve my process, do things differently or executing the wrong command. Some mistakes are good too, eh? I feel like PowerPoint is a tool which is overlooked by many people in the design industry. When I switch to other software, I’m thinking <<oh, I could have done this a lot faster in PowerPoint>>. I like order and precision. Through PowerPoint’s  grid and guides features, I’m able to satisfy these cravings of mine and create consistent and neat presentations.

Bogdan, Visual Hackers Designer

Advantages of PowerPoint

1. It can be used virtually anywhere

Put your presentation on a USB flash drive or in any cloud storage app and you will have your PowerPoint presentation at hand anytime. It is also included in standard professional settings, so with your user license, you can access your presentation from anywhere.

2. It is a collaborative solution

Work from home is now a normal thing to do. Tools that provide solutions for working together with your team even if you are in different locations are in high demand. PowerPoint adapted to this situation and with its online cloud storage, you can now work on presentations at the same time, or work on the same presentation without sending it to each other. 

3. You can choose to create your own design or use existing ones

PowerPoint offers you full control over your slides’ appearances. You have the freedom to customize your presentation with your own design. As it is easy to modify and play with the elements given by this software, you can create the perfect presentation for yourself. 

There are also templates already integrated into the software for visually appealing presentations and for those who want a quick and nice design. Furthermore, PowerPoint will give you design ideas with the images and elements you chose to have on slides.

If you customize the slides you have the Master Slide, it will help you set the fonts, images (logos), and other preferences for all the slides. The master slide is the top slide in the thumbnail pane on the left side of the window.

4. Multiple uses 

An adaptable and perceptive tool is how our founder described PowerPoint in a previous article. That is because this software is not only for presentations (even though it is most known for them), but also for other types of materials, such as flyers, marketing materials, gifs, videos, or CVs. We do PowerPoint infographics, our social media posts, and presentations for clients. 

89% of people use PowerPoint to create presentations.

Read more about how you can use PowerPoint:

PowerPoint is more than just a presentation tool

5. Export in different formats

With PowerPoint, you can export your materials in other formats than .pptx. We talked previously about all the types of materials you can create in this software and for them, it offers alternatives of saving you work. 

Presentations can be saved also in .pdf, this will reduce their size, videos can be exported as mp4 and for gifs, there is the specific option to save them as Animated gifs. Of course, there is also the option of saving a slide as .png or .jpg.

6. It facilitates an effective way of communication with the audience

Most of the time, PowerPoint is used for presenting to a larger audience (a few things have changed in 2020, but a zoom presentation looks just as good), as it is easier to be projected. Choose your communication style, do you want to rely more on images, text, or videos, all of them can be easily integrated into PowerPoint.

65% of the population are visual learners

7. You can insert multimedia formats

Visuals are the key in PowerPoint. Images and videos help you explain your idea better and in an engaging way in any presentation. There are some basic sounds that you can use or insert your own audio for the desired effect. 

Play with all the functionalities of this tool and use it to its maximum. 

8. Extremely efficient tool

Once you get familiar with the software, there are all kinds of features that you can use to become an expert in PowerPoint. We can even name 84 shortcuts that will change the way you use it and will also save you a lot of time.

Learn for yourself:

84 PowerPoint Shortcuts To Improve Your Presentation Game

9. It is accessible for all categories of users

Most of the time employees/staff have already the Microsoft license on their work computers, with PowerPoint included. Also, universities acquire the suite so students and teachers cand use reach out and use them.

Disadvantages of PowerPoint

1. High risk of technical issues

It can happen anytime, there are a lot of variables that intervene when you are about to use PowerPoint for presenting. Your computer can stop working, get an update right before you start, or lose power in the middle of the presentation. There is always the connectivity issue, do you use HDMI, VGA or do you have an adaptor. PowerPoint also has some specifics ada[ted for your computer, like fonts or videos, and if you don’t embed them or you don’t put them in a folder with the presentation they won’t work on somebody else’s computer.

2. Overuse of information 

After you accommodate with the software it becomes very easy to get lost in all the options you have. How much text is too much? Are there enough images? What font to use? How many fonts to use? By adding a lot of things you will lose sight of the purpose of the presentation. 

We know that there is a lot of important information you want to transmit, but leave some mystery for the delivery part. 

3. Predisposal to death by PowerPoint

PowerPoint presentations are very common in conferences, business meetings and universities, therefore your audience has seen quite a lot of presentations before yours. You need to catch your audience’s attention from the beginning with your presentation looks or with your way of presenting, otherwise, they will get bored and won’t listen to you present.  Make sure you put enough time into preparing your PowerPoint material, a good presentation with a fine speech will hit the target. 

Avoid templates as much as possible if you want to impress, or work on them and add your unique style to them. 

4. Presenters rely too much on slides 

Sometimes when you are too focused on preparing the slides you may forget to actually prepare to deliver the presentation and you will end up reading from the slides. The audience wants to hear more from the speaker than what is presented on the slides, otherwise they could have looked over the presentation themselves.

5. Overuse of presentations 

There are situations when you get so used to the tool that you will start making a presentation for everything. Every report or status will become easier to do in PowerPoint for you, but it won’t be that fun for your colleagues and will cost you time. 

We recommend using Powerpoint for all kinds of materials, not just presentations. This tool can give you freedom in design and also help you with predefined elements. 

If you want to make a presentation yourself, invest time, look for tutorials or just reach out to an agency to help you create the right presentation. 

Here’s When You Really Need A Presentation Design Specialist

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What Are the Advantages of a PowerPoint Presentation?

Microsoft PowerPoint is a powerful presentation software that has changed the way people present ideas and information to an audience. With just a few clicks and keystrokes, you can add graphics, text, audio, video and animation to a slide show. Customized presentations can be saved and modified as needed and used again as needs arise. If time, quality or convenience is a factor, PowerPoint has definite advantages over traditional visual aids.

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Educational Setting Advantages

Video of the Day

In the classroom, PowerPoint's ability to integrate sound, animation and video in a slide show can capture the attention of media and video-savvy students. Text in a PowerPoint is easier to read than notes jotted on a blackboard. Teachers can have greater flexibility in presenting lessons, which can be used repeatedly and modified as needed to different classes. During parents' night, teachers can create PowerPoint presentations to keep parents up-to-date with student work. Traditional flash cards of the past can be updated as PowerPoint slides and used for reinforcement. Interactive book reports created by students help bring their book reports to life.

Time Saving and Ease of Use

If you were to create a slide presentation with old-school visual aids such as chalkboards, overhead projectors or hand-drawn illustrations, it would be time consuming. PowerPoint's user-friendly functions can create slides in quick order for those who might not be creatively-inclined or who might not have even considered using visual aids in the past. Professionally-designed templates also save time by providing the initial "bones" of the slide show. Simply add text, graphics, forms or documents, plus a company logo, if desired and your PowerPoint presentation will have a cohesive look throughout.

Dissemination of Information and Sharing

PowerPoint has the ability to create a handout version of your slide presentation. Your print options are full-size slides or multiple pages on a page. This allows the audience to retain a hard copy of your information and draw upon it for future reference. The PowerPoint presentation can also be sent electronically via email for computer users who prefer to have a copy on their hard drive. PowerPoint presentations can be created as a collaborative effort via email with the reviewing and merging capabilities. Team members can work on slide shows and then email their revisions back to the creator of the PowerPoint project who can then merge any changes with the original presentation.

• Slideshare: Benefits of Using PowerPoint in the Classroom.
• Tuscaloosa City Schools: Using PowerPoint in the Classroom
• Microsoft PowerPoint: Team Up on PowerPoint Presentations
• Microsoft PowerPoint: Using Templates as a Starting Point.

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• Presentations

20 Key Microsoft PowerPoint Features (to Make Better Presentations) + Video

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Learn how to make better presentations with Microsoft's presentation app. Use these easy PowerPoint functions and features.

In this tutorial, you'll get 20 of my favorite PowerPoint features and PowerPoint tools to build great-looking presentations.

The Best Microsoft PowerPoint Features to Make Better Presentations in 2022 (Video)

Are you ready to start learning about the features of PowerPoint right now? Get a headstart on six of those features with this quick video:

You just learned about some of the top MS PPT features. Do you want to know more? Continue reading to discover a great source for PowerPoint templates and for details on how to use even more great PowerPoint features.

The Best Source for PowerPoint Templates (With Unlimited Use)

Envato Elements is the best place to find premium PowerPoint templates . For a low monthly fee, you become a subscriber. Once you become a subscriber, you get access to:

• high-quality and premium templates
• and much more

Explore PowerPoint Templates

Benefits and Features of PowerPoint (For 2022 Presentations)

What is the main purpose of Microsoft PowerPoint? It helps you tell stories in visual ways. This is done by the stunning presentation of content - words, images, charts, and more. It's a multimedia tool that helps you craft and share your ideas with the world. 

PowerPoint offers an array of customization features. Every visual element is under your control. Whether it's text styles, image shapes, or sleek animations, you're in the driver's seat. Whatever template you choose in PPT, you keep full creative control. It helps you bring your vision to reality.

PowerPoint functions and features also help you streamline your workflow. You don't have to make the same edits over and over. With features like Slide Master and copying, you can reuse designs again and again. This leaves you extra time to focus on creativity, without being bogged down in tedious edits.

PowerPoint is built for an audience. With robust collaboration and sharing features, you can work with a team to build slides. And you can share finished presentations in formats that work best for your broader audience. PowerPoint new features are added with each release of the app. If you're wondering about future upgrades, they'll download as you update PPT.

As you can see, PowerPoint features and benefits are countless! Let's dive in and explore twenty of the best that you should be using today. 

Guide to Making Great Presentations With PowerPoint  

Now, let's take a closer look at some of the MS PowerPoint features and tools you can use to become more efficient.

1. Build Infographics for Data

Words alone aren't enough to share data in interesting ways. To wow your audience, you need to use infographics. These are visuals that combine information and graphics together. They help you tell stories with data in creative ways.

Infographics are a hallmark of premium templates. They're one of the PowerPoint features and benefits that you'll find most helpful in creating modern, engaging slide decks. They may take the form of funnels, timelines, data bars, and much more. 

And when you've used a premium infographic PPT, built-in features give you unlimited control. In moments, you can click and drag to move the infographic into a new position on a slide. Or you can change out its colors by using the Shape Format > Shape Fill menu on PPT's ribbon. 

2. Start With a Built-in Layout

There are really two directions you can go when you're building out a new slide in Microsoft PowerPoint:

• Design the slide from scratch, dropping in individual placeholder boxes one after another, adding them one by one until you've got a slide.
• Try out a built-in layout that includes all the content boxes that you need from the beginning.

It's really a no-brainer to start your slide design with a pre-built layout. It's a time-saver, and it also improves the look of the presentation because all boxes and content are aligned neatly.

From the  Home  tab, choose a  Layout  from the menu option:

I think one of the reasons that presenters avoid layouts is that they want to customize the slide. There's nothing stopping you from taking a layout and tweaking it, moving boxes around as needed, or adding other content placeholders.

3. Use Slide Master View to Update Designs Consistently

Most of my favorite PowerPoint features not only save time, but also ensure that slides are consistent. It's a huge advantage if the logo is in the same spot on each slide, for example. 

Go to the  View  tab and choose  Slide Master.  Now, add something that you want to appear on each slide (like a logo or footer text) to the master:

When you return to Normal  view, you'll see the changes on each slide that uses the same master.

Again, it's all about making clean slide designs with consistency. Adjusting the slide master is a sweet spot of productivity and design excellence.

4. Layouts to Declutter Slides

Cluttered slide layouts are all too common in many PowerPoint decks. Sometimes, you've got little choice but to pack a lot of information onto a single slide. But it's a bad habit you should avoid.

A good rule of thumb is to use PowerPoint's Layout option. It's a drop-down menu found on the Home tab. If you find yourself with a messy slide, go here first. 

You'll see an array of different slide layouts - many with extra room for images and other contents. 

This is a subtle, yet effective way to declutter your slides. It helps coach you on cleaner, neater layouts that you can then apply in a single click.  

5. Use Someone Else's Presentation as a Starting Point

Picasso is credited for having said,

"Good artists borrow, great artists steal."

There's nothing wrong with using the hard work of others to build a great presentation.

That's exactly what Envato Elements   is for. Elements is an all-you-can-download subscription service made for every creative. For one flat rate, you'll get access to thousands of PowerPoint themes .

I use Envato Elements on every creative project that I work on. I always start browsing on Elements to get ideas for what I'm working on. With one of the PowerPoint templates, you've got a huge head start on creating a presentation.

The price of Envato is worth it for the PowerPoint themes alone. But for those who create presentations frequently, you benefit greatly from the stock photos, graphics, icons, and other assets that can really spice up a presentation.

Using one of these pre-built templates  isn't  stealing—it just feels like it because it makes it so easy. With Elements, you skip the hard work of designing everything from a blank slate.

6. Rearrange Slides for Effectiveness

Most presentations can become markedly better in just a few seconds by simply rethinking the order that your slides are sequenced. Over and over, I coach presenters to remember the  BLUF  principle: bottom line up front.

How many presentations have you sat through where the message was unclear? By the time you've sat through 30 minutes, you're so inundated with data that it can be hard to remember the point. Instead, give your conclusion up front and  then  share why you feel that way.

The best way to do this with PowerPoint is to switch to  Slide Sorter  view. There's no better way to have all your content in view at the same time. Switch to it by clicking on View > Slide Sorter.

When I switch to Slide Sorter view, I'm taking a long hard look to ensure that I'm not burying my conclusion. I'm building a story that makes sense sequentially. Drag and drop the slide thumbnails to reorder them in a concise and BLUF-friendly order.

7. Work With Design Ideas for Inspiration

Stuck in a rut trying to create a new slide design? It happens to us all. No matter how compelling your content, sometimes it's hard to know how best to arrange it on a slide. But this is also very important. You need a clear, coherent slide layout that's attractive and easy to read.

Fortunately, PowerPoint features and benefits can help you here! With built-in smart Design Ideas, PPT suggests new layouts for each slide in your presentation. Access the feature by going to the Design Ideas button on PPT's Home tab. 

When you click it, you'll see a sidebar open on the right side. On it, there are thumbnails featuring new layout ideas for your slide designs. To apply one, simply click on the thumbnail. In a flash, PowerPoint will rearrange your slide to match. 

8. Follow the Guides

Earlier versions of PowerPoint made it somewhat difficult to align things consistently on a slide. Now, the guides that you'll see pop up as you drag and drop objects help ensure that your objects are nice and neat.

In the screenshot below, you can see an example of what I mean. The small red arrows and dotted lines show how objects relate to each other, and you'll see them when an object is equidistant between them.

Keep an eye out for these helper lines when you're working in PowerPoint. Using them to align objects results in a cleaner slide.

9. Set Slide Sizes

The key consideration when setting slide size is to consider the size of the screen you'll present on. Some different types of screens have slightly different aspect ratios.

To change slide size, go to the  Design  tab and choose  Slide Size , then  Custom Slide Size.

Setting the size of your presentation is important. When you align the two, your presentation fills the screen or projector that you're using.

10. Format the Background

When you work in PowerPoint, it pays to make creative use of all space. This includes the empty space on your slide. In other words, it's the background. Formatting a PPT background helps you add creative colors and patterns to each slide. 

It also has a practical purpose. Adjusting slide backgrounds helps boost the readability of content on your slides.

To adjust slide backgrounds in PPT, find the Design tab, and then choose Format Background from the Customize group. A sidebar launches, with an array of options. You can choose from solid fills, or 3D gradient designs. You can even add pattern and image fills! Click on each of the bubbles to control these options. 

11. Resize Multiple Objects

As I mentioned earlier, I think consistency in slides is important for maintaining a clean look. If you've got multiple images that need to be the same size, there's an easy feature for doing just that.

A great example of this is when you've got several profile images that need to be resized consistently. To do this, start off by holding  Control  on your keyboard ( Command  on Mac) and click on all the images that should be resized.

Now, make sure that you're on the Shape Format  tab on PowerPoint's ribbon. Next up, find the  Size  area, type a number into one of the boxes, and press enter. All the images will be resized to the same size that you set in the box:

After you set a starting point on size, you can tweak it to get things perfect. The important thing is that you keep them all selected and tweak the size in lockstep.

12. Clean Up Tables Quickly

Data tables in PowerPoint are one of the most effective ways to present data. They're easy for your viewer to quickly glance at and understand numbers with an easy row-column view. 

As you start resizing and tweaking the look of a table in PowerPoint, it's likely that your rows and columns may become a bit disjointed or messy. I like to fix this with  Distribute Rows,  which evens up the sizes of the rows:

Highlight the rows, and then go to the  Layout  tab and click  Distribute Rows  to apply an easy fix to your rows.

13. Learn to Use SmartArt

Without a doubt, SmartArt is one of my favorite MS PowerPoint features. Think of this feature as the sweet spot between infographics and text-only diagrams.

Basically, SmartArt is a way to create flexible graphics that you can update right inside of PowerPoint. You don't need a separate app to build out your own graphics and charts.

SmartArt allows you to build out a variety of diagrams, such as hierarchies, processes, cycles, and more. Basically, you can build out a simple bulleted list, and the art adapts to include the points you add.

I'm all about doing as much as you can directly inside of PowerPoint. Features like SmartArt are a great bridge that cut out one more app like Illustrator or Photoshop from your workflow.

14.  Try a Theme Variant

What do you do when you get to the end of designing a presentation, and it just doesn't feel right?

The easiest solution might be to try a new  variant.  This simply tweaks the color scheme and style of the presentation. On the  Design  tab, click a different thumbnail from the  Variants  selection.

When you change a variant, it'll change the entire presentation's color scheme, as you can see below. One simple click is the easiest way to try an alternate style:

Changing the Theme Variant is yet another step you can use to quickly  and  consistently apply a new look to your presentation. You may not have time to redo the presentation from scratch, so try out a variant as an alternative.

15. Save Slides to Share

PowerPoint offers many great ways to save slides for sharing. Naturally, the default is the app's own .pptx format. This keeps the formatting that you build in. Your saved copy will include your animations, transitions, narrations, and much more.

When you share your slides, audiences can open them in their own copies of PowerPoint. 

But sometimes, you may need to share slides with a wider group. Maybe they don't have PowerPoint installed but want to read over your slides. Or they may be on a limited connection and don't need features like animations or web links. 

Here, it's a good idea to save your slides in PDF format. This option is widely readable, even on smartphones and other mobile devices.

To save slides for sharing, keep in mind what your audience needs. Then, go to File > Export inside PowerPoint. Choose  Create PDF/XPS  and select PDF on the pop-up menu.

Your slides are ready to share with the world! 

16. Align Objects

If you decide to add images or any object to your presentation, you should know about the align feature. The align feature is one of the key features of PowerPoint. When you use it aligns objects so that they line up.

To get all the objects to align properly, you’ll need to highlight the objects you want to align. Then click on the Shape Format tab. Next, in the toolbar, you’ll find the Align button. When you click on this button, a menu drops down. Choose an option depending on how you want your objects to align.

If you click Align Center , all your objects will be aligned in a straight line in the center of your screen.

17. Insert Shapes

If you want illustrations in your presentation, then you should know how to insert shapes. Inserting shapes is one of the features of MS PowerPoint.

To add a shape to your slide, click on the Insert tab. Then, in the toolbar, click on the Shapes button.

When you click on the Shapes button, a menu drops down with various shapes. Choose the shape you want. Next, click and drag your mouse to draw the shape.

18. Slide Transitions

To add some interesting effects to your presentation, the PowerPoint feature for you is slide transitions.

To add transitions, click on the Transitions tab. In the toolbar, a menu of effects appears such as Wipe and Split .

For even more effects, click on the Effect Options button. When you click on the Effect Options button, a menu drops down with more options.

19. Animations

Animations can also add interesting effects to your presentation. Animations is a PowerPoint feature that adds movement to objects on your slide.

To add animation, select an object. Next, click on the Animations tab. You'll see a display of various animations including Appear , Fade , Wheel , and more. Click on an effect to select it. Then click Effect Options to the right of the various animations to see a drop-down with more options for your selected animation.

After you've selected an animation and effects, you need to define the trigger. Under the Animation Pane option click the Trigger option. Select when you went the animation to appear from the drop-down.

20. Inserting a Video

If you want to add a video from a website to your presentation, you can hyperlink the video to the text on the slide.

Start by highlighting the text you want to hyperlink. Next, click on the Insert button. In the toolbar, you’ll see a Video button. When you click on the Video button, a menu pops up letting you choose to insert a video from the following locations:

• This Device
• Stock Videos
• Online Videos

Choose the option where your video is located. Then select the video from the window that appears.

5 Top Premium PowerPoint Templates From Envato Elements Trending for 2022

Premium Microsoft PowerPoint templates can you save you time. Here's a hand-picked list of the top five Microsoft PowerPoint Premium templates:

Streamo is a multipurpose minimal style template. This template comes with 35 slides. Everything in this template can be edited, including graphics.

Fiesta is a creative template with a colorful design. This template comes with 30 high-definition slides. Change the colors with the 50 color themes this template comes with.

3. Carnation

Carnation is a multipurpose template with stylish colors and a nature-themed design. This template comes with over 50 unique slides. Plus, you'll get infographics and icons.

Lolerei is a multipurpose template with a modern and professional-looking design. The nice-looking design of this template can work with any presentation topic. Also, this template comes with a picture placeholder, so you can drag and drop an image into the placeholder.

Flat PowerPoint is a creative premium template that comes with 50 slides. This template comes with 50 premade color themes. And if you want to use icons, this template comes with 30 slides full of icons.

Download Our New eBook on Making Great Presentations

We've got the perfect complement to this tutorial, which walks you through the complete presentation process. Learn how to write your presentation, design it like a pro, and prepare it to present powerfully. 

Download our new eBook:  The Complete Guide to Making Great Presentations . It's available for free with a subscription to the Tuts+ Business Newsletter.

Learn More About Microsoft PowerPoint

Don't stop now! There's plenty more to learn about Microsoft PowerPoint. I truly believe that building up your presentation skills is one of the most valuable steps you can take when you're trying to advance your career.

Check out some of the tutorials below to keep learning more about presentations with PowerPoint:

Save Time on Your Next PPT Project!

In this article, you learned the key features of PowerPoint and how to use the MS PowerPoint features. Then, put that knowledge to use on a premium presentation template.

Envato Elements has thousands of premium templates so that you can easily create an impressive presentation.

Editorial Note: This post has been updated with contributions from Sarah Joy and Andrew Childress . Andrew has added a video. Sarah and Andrew are freelance instructors for Envato Tuts+.

What are the Main Features of Microsoft PowerPoint?

By: Author Shrot Katewa

There are a lot of presentation programs out there. With all the options available, it can become rather tough to choose which is best for you. That is why the features of any software are so important. It can determine whether or not you use the software. With that being said, what are the features of Microsoft PowerPoint?

The most popular features of Microsoft PowerPoint are as follows: Animations, designs, being able to add images and videos, and also editing those images and videos. With PowerPoint, you can use all the features available to make presentations that really stand out and could help you boost your career or sign a client.

In this article, we are going to not only mention the main features of PowerPoint, but we are also going to share with you some of the most useful features of PowerPoint. Plus, we are going to talk a little bit about each of them.

So, if you have ever wondered what features PowerPoint has or what certain features are meant for and what they do, you have come to the right place. For everything that you need to know, keep reading.

A Quick Note Before We Begin – if you want to make jaw-dropping presentations, I would recommend using one of these Presentation Designs . The best part is – it is only $16.5 a month, but you get to download and use as many presentation designs as you like! I personally use it from time-to-time, and it makes my task of making beautiful presentations really quick and easy!

1. PowerPoint Design Ideas

First on this list and one of my favorite features of PowerPoint is the “ Design Ideas “. It can be found in the “ Design ” tab in PowerPoint. Once you are there you will see two separate sections. One section will be a theme and the other will be a different variant of that theme. These themes are for each slide.

PowerPoint’s Design Ideas automatically and instantly provides you will several design options for a particular slide based on the content that is present on the slide.

Design Ideas can help you save a good amount of time and make your slides look good. It is a great feature for those who perhaps want to improve the design of the slides but are not really great at creating designs.

It doesn’t always give the perfect design option, and sometimes you do need to play around with it a little bit to get a good design. But, most of the time, it doesn’t get the job done.

Design Ideas is a great feature that is unique to Microsoft PowerPoint and something that most other presentation programs do not have. But, other unique features presented in this article give a great advantage when using PowerPoint !

2. Animations

Microsoft PowerPoint animations allow you to emphasize certain points of your current slide. There are primarily 3 categories of animations in PowerPoint. You can select any object in your slide and animate it with these animations:

• Entrance Animation
• Emphasis Animation
• Exit Animations

Each animation category provides you with a huge list of additional options to choose from.

As the name suggests, entrance animation is a type of animation that will make a shape, text or any other element appear on a slide. Likewise, an exit animation can be applied when you want a certain element to disappear from the slide.

Note – If you are on the fence but interested in getting PowerPoint, check out this limited-time deal to get Office 365 1-year subscription for the lowest price on Amazon!

Emphasis animation can be used when you want to highlight or bring the attention of the audience members to a particular element on the slide.

Once you choose and apply the animations, you also get other options. You can select how long you want animations to last, when you want them to start, and when you want them to end. Microsoft was not shy when they gave us the number of features that they did regarding animations.

3. Slide Transitions

I have seen a lot of people confuse slide transitions with animations and vice versa. It is important to remember that they are completely different things.

Also Read – Difference Between Animations and Slide Transitions in PowerPoint!

While animation gives you the ability to animate elements within your slide, transitions give you the ability to change how slides change from one to another. This can have a significant impact on a slide’s first impressions.

Some of the most notable transitions are:

Other options include the ability to set the speed of your transition, change the dynamic of the transition, and much more. Again, Microsoft has added a lot of customizability over the last few years when it comes to transitions.

When using transitions, you can alter the entire feel of a presentation without changing its theme. I recommend taking your time and making sure that each transition doesn’t feel forced but feels natural to the presentation.

Sometimes an image can say a thousand words. With that in mind, it is easy to understand why adding images to your presentation can help you say more than you could while using words. Well, at least this is true in some cases.

If your presentation feels slightly boring, don’t be afraid to throw in an image every now and then. To be honest, most presentations require images anyway. Not only are they necessary, in some cases, they can also spice up your presentation.

When it comes to adding images, there are two main ways of doing this. You could either add an image via your PC or you can embed an image from somewhere else on the internet. Whatever best suits you, PowerPoint has you covered.

5. Merge Shapes

Microsoft PowerPoint allows you to merge shapes. This is because they understand that they might not always have the exact shape that you are looking for.

So, hopefully, merging shapes can help give you a uniform shape. I say “uniform” because if you cannot find a shape that you want to use, you could draw one. The problem is, this might not be the best option because freehand drawing can be difficult.

If merging shapes is still not giving you what you want, there is another option that you can use. These are known as “smart-art”. It can help you transform your presentation into something phenomenal.

Another great way of spicing up a presentation is to add videos to certain slides. As we discussed with images, a video can say a lot without having to use words. In fact, there are so many applications for using videos in your presentation. I guess the only limit would be your imagination.

Videos can be easily added from the storage on your PC. This might make the size of your presentation quite large. So, you might want to double-check the size of the video before inserting it into your presentation.

Again, this is one of my favorite features of PowerPoint. You can easily add videos to your presentation from Youtube. We are trying to keep each section brief so I can’t go into too much detail about the importance of being able to add videos from YouTube. However, there are a lot of reasons.

So, if you don’t have the video on your PC and you cannot find it on YouTube but you know where it is on another website, all you need to do is get the embed code for that video. This can often be done just by right-clicking on the video, copying the embed code, and then you can embed it into your presentation.

With the ability to add icons to your presentations, it just gives you some freedom to add a personal touch to the presentation. It is important to note that some versions do not come with the icons feature. However, if you have Office 365 you should always have the icons option.

If you do not have the option to use icons, you could technically use shapes and with some clever aligning skills, they could be turned into icons or at least used as such. You could also use icons found on the web. They would need to be saved to your PC as an image and then again, with some clever aligning skills, nobody would know the difference.

8. PowerPoint Notes for Presentation

When you are giving a presentation it is often difficult to constantly remember what you have to say. This is true even though you have the slide right in front of you. That is where the notes feature comes in. They can help you remember what to say for each slide which is a great way to stay on topic.

Your presentation can be set up in a way that the notes do not appear on the presentation but they still appear on your PC or Mac. Remember, most of the time the people who are viewing the presentation cannot see this. Otherwise, you can also hide your notes

The notes feature is not just there for you to remember what to say and a lot of people tend to overlook this. If you are working in a team, then using notes can help other employees or other people who are working on the presentation understand what’s happening on each slide.

9. Morph Transition

We have already talked about transitions earlier in the article. However, “Morph Transition” is by far one of the best ways to you make your slides give a great first impression. In fact, this creates a lasting impression as well!

By using Morph Transition, you can make actually make elements move between slides – a feature that gives a video-like feel to your PowerPoint slides!

It is important to remember that the slides where Morph Transition is used, need to have at least one element that has something in common between both the slides.

I shall soon be making a video to help you understand how the Morph Transition works in PowerPoint and how you can leverage this feature to take your PowerPoint presentations up a notch! (I will update it here once the video is created).

This is one of the most used features of PowerPoint. It is also one of the best features in terms of what you can do with it. Using charts in your presentations can help you illustrate data in an easy-to-understand way for your audience.

You can also link charts to external data sources. Most notably, you can link to excel sheets. The chart’s functionality in PowerPoint is so versatile you can even get your chart to be updated automatically in PowerPoint when the data gets edited in excel.

It is actually a rather simple process. All you have to do is link a chart to an external data set. This can be done from within PowerPoint so it is pretty much hassle-free.

11. Removing Background from Images

When you upload an image to your presentation, what if that image needs to be edited? What is the first thing that you would normally think you would do? You would probably go to an image editing program such as Photoshop, right?

With Microsoft PowerPoint, there is no need for that in most cases. Well, at least if you want to remove a background from your image , you could just use PowerPoint.

All you have to do is click on the drawing format ribbon and select “remove background”. It then works almost the exact same way as all other photo editing software. You will draw around the piece you want to keep or the piece you want to get rid of.

12. Video Editing (Basic)

Again, what if you upload a video to your PowerPoint presentation but you don’t want to show the whole video. maybe you just want to show some parts or cut some pieces out. What is the first thing you would do? Open up a video editing software right? Well, with PowerPoint you might not have to.

While PowerPoint is not the next Adobe premier, it does allow you to trim the video, cut portions of a video out, and finally add sound. It is a basic video editor.

Being able to use PowerPoint as a quick video editor adds to the convenience of PowerPoint. It also adds to your overall productivity because you don’t have to open and close program after program to get everything done.

13. Export PowerPoint as Video

Microsoft PowerPoint allows you to export entire presentations as videos. I know that you might be thinking why would this even be useful. Well, I alone can think of so many reasons why you would want to use this feature.

Not all presentations are designed to be given by a speaker. Actually, the main reason for a PowerPoint presentation is to get a point across to somebody. This could be your employer, colleague, client, or even the classroom.

If you don’t want to send somebody a presentation that they could edit or see the notes for and you just want them to watch it, this feature is for you. Why not export it as a video and give whoever you send the video to the ability to watch it at their own time, pause it at their own time, and take notes.

14. Add Audio Narration to your PowerPoint Presentation

This feature kind of feeds off of the previous one. You are not always going to be there to give a presentation as a speaker but you still want to iterate a lot of the points made in your slides. So, why not add audio narration to your presentation?

Doing this will allow you to send the presentation as a video to somebody and have the narration over it. So, technically, you would still be the speaker if it is you narrating the presentation.

This feature is Great for teachers who just want to give the classroom information in the most efficient way possible. In fact, with online learning becoming more relevant than ever in 2020, this feature has picked up in popularity.

This feature is also great for presentations that are designed to be given as instructional videos.

15. Adding Comments to Slides

The feature to add comments in PowerPoint is more about the person who reviews a presentation rather than the person who creates it. Some people get comments mixed up with notes but they are two different features that have two different applications.

If you need to review somebody else’s presentation, you can add comments to certain sections or slides of the presentation. This is so that they can understand your criticisms.

Also, if you are the person creating it and you want to add a comment, this can help the person who is reviewing the presentation to fully understand why you did what you did in certain slides.

Final Thoughts

The features mentioned in this article show why PowerPoint is still the leading presentation software. There is so much that you can do and honestly, it all makes every presentation different from the other.

If you take time to learn what each feature does, you could use them to make presentations that have a higher chance of captivating your audience, your classroom or even getting you one step closer to signing a contract with the new clients.

We have covered a lot of the features mentioned in this article. So, I highly recommend taking a little bit of time out of your day to read those articles.

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What Are Benefits of PowerPoint?

Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint is an easy program to use and a powerful tool for giving a presentation. Whether your presentation needs a visual kick, tools for collaboration, easy access or the ability to share information beyond the initial meeting, PowerPoint is a good option. It can even help reduce speaking anxiety by drawing eyes away from the speaker and towards a screen. Just do not expect this technology to substitute for sound and dynamic speaking skills.

Visual Impact

Making your presentation more interesting through the use of multimedia can help to improve the audience's focus. PowerPoint allows you to use images, audio and video to have a greater visual impact. These visual and audio cues may also help a presenter be more improvisational and interactive with the audience. However, try not to overly rely on these sources as your message might get lost in the clutter.

Collaboration

PowerPoint allows you to work with other people in a collaborative manner. This is especially useful in office settings where teamwork is key. Multiple people can collaborate on and contribute to a presentation. By going to the "Review" tab at the top of the program and clicking the "New Comment" button, you can leave notes and reposition.

Content Sharing

Share your PowerPoint presentation with the world. Did someone miss your presentation? Have them view it online at a time that is convenient for them. You can upload your presentation to websites such as YouTube with everything featured in your work including all of the slides, commentary and transitions. All you have to do is go to "File," "Save and Send" and "Create a Video." The file will be saved in WMV format, which is capable of playback on Windows Media Player and can be uploaded to most video sites.

Flexibility

PowerPoint can be used in a number of different effective ways to communicate with your audience. Slides are completely customizable to fit your needs. Depending on your approach, you may want to have a presentation that is text-heavy, image-heavy or some combination of both. Text-heavy presentations are generally good if you are giving a lecture to a group within your company and want them to take notes. Image-heavy presentations can help to make your presentation more conversational in style since there only visual cues. Combining the two approaches gives listeners the benefits of both visual aids and notes.

- What are some tips for creating visually impactful PowerPoint presentations?

Explore tips on using images, videos, and animations effectively to enhance visual appeal and engagement in your slides.

- How can I share my PowerPoint presentation online?

Explore different methods for sharing presentations online, including uploading to platforms like YouTube and creating shareable video files.

- How can I improve my presentation skills using PowerPoint?

Find practical tips and strategies for delivering engaging presentations, including techniques for public speaking and audience interaction.

Source: Chron

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