how to make a powerpoint presentation more creative

12 Easy Steps to Make a Presentation Creative (+ Examples)

Learn how to make a presentation creative without PowerPoint, and draw inspiration from creative presentation examples by industry and use case.

Dominika Krukowska

9 minute read

Short answer

How can I make a presentation more creative?

• Start with captivating cover videos
• Add chapters for smooth navigation
• Weave in personalization using dynamic variables
• Enhance storytelling with animations
• Highlight key points using subtle visual cues
• Engage with interactive elements
• Showcase ideas using vibrant images
• Sprinkle in video narrations
• Wrap up with a smart CTA

Boring presentations can damage your brand’s image

Boring presentations can feel like those endless meetings where one person monopolizes the conversation. You know, the ones where you’re zoning out, doodling on the side of your notes, just waiting for it to end so you could move on to something more engaging.

That's the disconnect your audience experiences when faced with a boring presentation.

What’s even worse is that when your presentation is dull, it doesn't just bore your audience—it subtly suggests that you or your brand might be, well, kind of boring too .

The good thing is that with the right tweaks and insights, every presentation holds the potential to be memorable.

In this post, we're diving deep into the heart of what makes a presentation creative. We'll explore the mistakes that lead to forgettable slides and the strategies to elevate your content.

By the end, you’ll have all it takes to transform your presentation from mundane to magnetic and have your audience engage with it from the first click to the last.

Let’s go!

What makes a presentation boring?

A boring presentation is a mix of repetitive designs and long chunks of text without a human touch. When slides come off as too generic or overly complex, or they swing between being too predictable or hard to grasp, they lose their spark.

Add in a lack of visuals, real stories, or interaction, and you've got a recipe for audience disinterest.

To truly engage, a presentation should blend interaction, emotion, and content that is relevant to the audience.

How to make a presentation creative step-by-step

Modern presentations are more than just slides—they're experiences. Gone are the days of static bullet points; today's audience craves engagement, interactivity, and a touch of the unexpected.

Let's explore how to make your presentation more creative step-by-step:

1) Add videos to break up text

Videos can set the tone, explain complex ideas, or simply entertain. By strategically placing them at key moments where you feel energy might dip, you make sure your audience remains engaged, and your message is reinforced.

Whether it's a real-life testimonial, a product demo, or a fun animation, videos can breathe life into abstract concepts, making them tangible and relatable.

And, there’s science behind it too: presentations with a video on the cover slide see 32% more engagement . But the magic of videos doesn't stop at the cover. Presentations sprinkled with videos throughout held people's attention 37% longer and even boosted the click-through rate on calls-to-action by 17%.

2) Create a non-linear flow

Who said presentations have to be a straight line? Let's mix it up! By linking slides, you're handing the remote to your audience. It's like those 'choose your own adventure' books from our childhood.

Group your slides into themes or create chapters and let them pick what they want to see next. It's a fun, interactive way to keep them on their toes and engaged.

3) Use personalization for creating tailored stories

You know those emails that greet you by name and make you feel all special? Imagine bringing that warmth to your presentations using dynamic variables.

By integrating with your CRM, you can fetch specific data about your audience and weave it into your slides. This simple trick can make your audience feel like the content was crafted specifically for them, creating a deeper connection.

If you’re making a presentation to showcase your product, you can even use dynamic variables to create a mock-up with your prospect’s name and logo on it to make your deck stand out.

4) Use narrated design

Scrollytelling is where the magic of scrolling meets the art of storytelling. It's an interactive content experience that weaves text, images, videos, and animations into a captivating narrative.

Instead of static slides, scrollytelling guides readers through a story, allowing them to control the pace. It breaks down complex content into bite-sized chunks, enhancing engagement and retention.

Our founder, Itai Amoza, wanted everyone to enjoy this dynamic content experience. So, he joined forces with visualization expert Prof. Steven Franconeri to weave scrollytelling into Storydoc.

Thanks to their partnership, we have dedicated storytelling slides in Storydoc, like the narrator slide you can see below , designed to make content both clear and captivating for all.

5) Tell stories with videos

Videos have this unique power to turn complex ideas into simple, engaging stories. A video might break down a tricky process into fun, easy-to-follow narrative, or give us a peek into real-life examples or experiences.

It's all about making your content feel alive, relatable, and super easy to understand. Because, let's face it, everyone's a sucker for a good story.

Here's a great example of a storytelling video:

6) Use roadmap and timeline slides

Ever tried reading a long-winded description of a company's journey or a product's development process? Yawn, right?

Now, imagine swapping that snooze-fest with a vibrant roadmap or timeline. Instead of slogging through paragraphs, you get a fun, visual play-by-play.

Picture a colorful line showing a startup's journey from a garage brainstorm to its first big sale.

Or a playful timeline marking the stages of turning a wild idea into a bestselling product. It's like turning a history lesson into a comic strip—way more fun and a whole lot clearer!

You can see what it looks like below:

7) Direct attention using animations

Ever been to a theater where the spotlight focuses on the main act? That's what animations do for your presentation.

Whether it's a cheeky arrow pointing out a fun fact, a grand entrance animation for a new idea, or using grayed-out content to highlight a key point, animations are your stage directors.

They ensure your audience's eyes are exactly where you want them to be, soaking in all the important bits.

Here's a great example:

8) Add interactive calculators

Who said numbers have to be boring? With interactive calculators, you're turning math into a fun game . Let your audience punch in numbers and see real-time results.

Whether they're calculating potential savings, ROI, or just playing around, it's an engaging and creative way to make your points tangible. It's like turning your presentation into a hands-on workshop.

9) Use AI-generated images

Instead of sifting through countless stock photos, thanks to the magic of AI, you can have an image that's tailor-made for your slide in seconds.

Storydoc presentation maker lets you generate any image directly in your deck - just give the AI assistant a short description and you’re good to go.

What's great is that you always get an image that matches your topic to a tee. No more "that'll do" compromises. Plus, think of all the time you save when you don't have to hunt for the right picture or take it yourself.

Here's a short video showing how it works:

10) Pop into the presentation with video bubble narration

Imagine if, during a presentation, a mini version of you could pop up, share a quick tip, or clarify a point. That's video bubble narration in a nutshell.

It's like having a friendly guide accompanying your audience, ensuring they get the most out of your content. It adds a creative personal touch, making your presentation feel like a cozy chat between friends.

11) Use before-and-after to show transformation

There's something magical about witnessing a transformation. Just think about the buzz online when someone shares a 'before and after' of a design revamp, weight loss journey, or how they helped a client grow their business.

With a before-and-after slide , you're giving your audience that 'aha!' moment. Even if you can't see their reactions in real-time, you can bet they're sliding back and forth, captivated by the change.

Whether it's showcasing a product's impact, a website redesign, or a process improvement, it's a visual treat that makes your message more powerful.

Here's an example of a before-and-after slide:

12) Close with a smart CTA

The grand finale of your presentation deserves a touch of flair. Instead of a simple 'Thank you' slide, imagine ending with an interactive live chat prompt or a calendar invite for a follow-up. It's like the encore at the end of a concert, giving your audience a chance to engage further.

These smart CTAs aren't just functional; they're creative extensions of your narrative. By integrating them, you're not just concluding your presentation; you're opening doors to new conversations and possibilities.

Here's a great example of a smart CTA:

3 presentation opening ideas

Kicking off a presentation with a bang can set the tone for everything that follows. Here are 3 captivating ways to grab your audience's attention right from the get-go:

Dive into a story: Begin with a personal anecdote or a relatable tale. It's like inviting your audience around a campfire, setting the stage for a memorable narrative.

Pose a thought-provoking question: Challenge your viewers with a question that gets their gears turning. It's an instant engagement booster, making them active participants.

Share a startling statistic: Drop a number that makes jaws drop. When you hit them with a fact that's hard to ignore, you've got their undivided attention.

Want more insights on crafting the perfect presentation opener? Check out our article on how to start a presentation people read to the end .

3 presentation closing ideas

Wrapping up a presentation is just as crucial as the opening. It's your final chance to leave a lasting impression. Here are 3 best ways to ensure your audience walks away inspired:

Circle back to the start: Revisit your opening story or statement, bringing your narrative full circle. It's a neat way to tie everything together and reinforce your key message.

End with a Call-to-Action: End with a captivating personal video message or a lively animation. It's a unique way to engage, surprise, and guide your audience on what's next.

Share an inspiring quote: Leave them with words that resonate. A powerful quote can sum up your message and linger in their minds long after.

Here's an example of a presentation with a personal video message at the end:

Hungry for more tips on crafting the perfect presentation finale? Read our blog post on how to end a presentation and get people to act .

Best tools for making creative presentations

Crafting creative presentations is an art, and like any artist, you need the right tools to bring your vision to life. Here's a curated list of platforms that are pushing the envelope in presentation design:

Storydoc : Beyond traditional slides, Storydoc offers interactive web stories. It's not just about displaying content; it's about creating experiences. With dynamic visuals and interactive elements, your audience is in for a treat.

Pitch : Collaboration is Pitch's forte. Designed for teams, it offers real-time editing, customizable templates, and a sleek interface. It's where ideas transform into visually stunning stories.

Genially : From animated presentations to responsive infographics, Genially provides tools that make your content come alive on the screen.

Beautiful.ai : Automated design assistance is its claim to fame. Feed in your content, and watch as the tool intuitively crafts slides that are both coherent and captivating.

Canva : A versatile design platform, Canva boasts a variety of templates for presentations, graphics, and more. Its drag-and-drop interface ensures even design novices feel like pros.

Visme : Tailored for visual storytelling, Visme offers a rich library of assets. Think dynamic charts, data widgets, and a suite of animations that turn your data into visual narratives.

Creative presentation templates

Ever felt the weight of the cursor blinking on an empty slide, almost taunting you to come up with something creative?

It's like being handed a stage with an eager audience, but the script is yet to be written. That initial step can be the hardest, but what if you had a little nudge in the right direction?

Creative presentation templates can help you shape your story in a way that stands out in a sea of monotony. Think of them as the paint-by-numbers kits, where the structure is set, but the colors and flair? That's all you.

Grab one and see for yourself.

Hi, I'm Dominika, Content Specialist at Storydoc. As a creative professional with experience in fashion, I'm here to show you how to amplify your brand message through the power of storytelling and eye-catching visuals.

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Author, speaker, coach, 10 easy ways to make any powerpoint presentation awesome.

Updated to Speaking on May 3, 2023.

This post was updated in 2023.

It was 20 minutes before lunch, my client was frantically looking at the clock, and the audience was squirming. We had suffered through endless forgettable PowerPoint slides and were all hoping for a merciful end. That’s when the presenter announced, “I see I’m running out of time, so I’ll just hurry through my last 30 slides.”

We’ve all suffered through slide shows with long lists of unreadable bullets, unnecessary YouTube clips, and overuse of graphics. Instead of holding our attention and making their point even stronger, each slide distracts the audience with more content they don’t need. Bad slides are agnostic. You can use PowerPoint, Keynote, Prezi, Google Slides, or hold up a piece of paper – it’s all a distraction if you don’t do it well.

Done well, a thoughtfully prepared slide deck can be the perfect slide dish for your full meal presentation. Done poorly and your audience will feel like they made one too many trips to the buffet table. This post will help you do it well.

For the first years of my speaking career, I presented with 35mm slides. You know, the photographs framed by cardboard that got jammed in the projector? That was me – hauling out the projector, clicking in the carousel, and praying that tonight it would all work. I soon learned that the more slides I showed the less the audience listened to me. So I cut back on the slides. I also noticed that when I switched to a black screen (see #9) the audience turned all their attention to me. So I practiced fading to black whenever I told a story or had an important point to make.

How I started

When I switched to PowerPoint I suddenly had a candy shop full of treats to sweeten my presentations with. And I started making all the same mistakes again: too many slides, too much content on each slide, and too distracting. After every presentation I always do a quick debrief – what worked, what needs to change? And slowly I developed a checklist for slide presentations.

I have shared with checklist with hundreds of speakers to help put the spotlight on them. Some were designing a new speech, some were preparing for a webinar and others needed slides to back up a video presentation. In every case, this checklist made their presentation better. They sold more products, got more referrals, and, in most cases, spent a lot less time working on their slide deck.

If you’ve ever struggled to create interesting slides or worry your slides are too wordy or you have too many of them, this will help.

Here are my 10 easy ways to make any PowerPoint presentation awesome.

1. Build your slides last

This might be the most important rule on the list. Don’t build your slide deck until you build your presentation.

You could be tempted to start monkeying with slides early in your speech writing process – after all, it’s a fun way to procrastinate from all that hard thinking – don’t. Building your slide deck before you build your presentation is like building a road before you know where it’s going.

Your slides are there to ADD to a well-designed speech, not to replace it.

2. Don’t try to replace you

People come to hear you. If you are launching your service on a webinar, they want to know how this solution has helped you and whether is it right for them. If you are delivering a keynote speech or workshop, they want a glimpse into your solutions that can help move them forward in their work or in life.

Fancy transitions, superfluous video clips, and endless bullet points will get your audience’s attention, but take their attention off of you. Every time you hit the clicker the audience leaves you and goes to the screen.

Your goal for every presentation is to deliver the goods, not the slides.

3. Use a consistent theme

We are easily distracted and confused. That’s why brands always anchor advertising on their unique colors, fonts, slogan, or a jingle. They know that consistency in their brand theme builds recognition and puts more attention on the message. You should do that with your slides.

Start with a simple, white background and san serif fonts.

A consistent, simple theme helps your audience focus on the content of each slide. Watch TED talks that have gone viral to see how simple a slide theme can be, like the ones by Dan Pink The puzzle of motivation (30M views), and Shawn Achor The happy secret to better work (25M views).

4. More images, less text

Want to quickly reenergize a tired slide deck? Make your images larger ( in this post I share where to get free images ) and reduce the text size. Remember, the theme in this post is that you are the presentation, not your slides.

Your brain can process images 60,000 times faster than text. When you use images (and less text) you allow your audience to process the image without distracting them away from your powerful story, or making a critical point. Like subtle mood music in the background of a dramatic movie scene, images can augment and enhance what you are saying without stealing the show.

5. One story per slide

When I started using PowerPoint I would have 60 to 80 slides for a 60-minute speech. It was a lot of work to prepare each deck and when I was deep into the speech I would sometimes forget where I was and have to jump forward a couple of slides.

Then it became 30-35 slides and I could breathe easier, knowing that fewer clicks meant less to worry about. As my confidence grew it became 10-12 slides and each slide became a key part of storytelling or point-making—they had to earn their place.

I might use a slide as a backdrop to a story or for a short list that supports a lesson I’m delivering. Either way, it’s always on ‘story’ per slide. If I don’t need a slide, I fade to black (#9).

But, I always stick to one story per slide.

6. Reveal one bullet at a time

This is an easy one – reveal one bullet at a time. The function of bullets is to reinforce (not replace) what you are delivering. That’s why they need to be short (see the 2/4/8 rule, below). A good bullet point is complete on it’s own, but much better when combined with a live presentation of it. Here’s an example from a list of (very wordy) time management strategies:

• Infrequent visits to your Inbox give you more time for deep work
• time blocking allows you to protect time for important work
• the Pomodoro technique can help you focus with fewer distractions

A better list – like one you might use on a PowerPoint slide – would be:

• visit your Inbox less often
• block time for important work
• the Pomodoro technique helps you focus

To reveal one bullet at a time in PowerPoint, right-click on your text box, select Custom Animation > Add Entrance Effect and then choose the effect you want. In Keynote, click Animate > Build in and choose the effect you want.

7. Leave the fireworks to Disney

It’s great that you know how to turn text into flames and make images spin with the click of your mouse – but leave those fireworks to Disney. Your job is to make your content the star of the show. Every time you haul the audience’s attention away to some animation you lose a truckload of opportunity to help them.

Your slides can still be amazing and helpful, but that should always be secondary to your primary purpose of helping people. Simple transitions, clean, san serif fonts, and large, attractive graphics trump PowerPoint tricks, every time.

8. The 2/4/8 rule

When I am advising other speakers I often don’t know their topic—certainly not as well as they do. So I rely on certain rules I have developed over many years. For slide decks, I use my 2/4/8 rule. Here’s how it goes…

• about every 2 minutes I have a new slide (that’s 30 slides for a 60-minute speech),
• no more than 4 bullets per slide, and
• no more than 8 words per bullet.

Just like any recipe, you can mess with the ingredient a bit. If your content is more technical, you might need more slides. Sometimes I need 5 or 6 bullets. I use the 2/4/8 rule to remind me that slides are there to support what I have to say, not replace me.

9. Fade to black

The last time I was shopping for a car, I noticed the salesperson had a clever technique. While he asked how I liked the car and if I had any questions, he kept his sales offer face-down on the table. Because there were no other distractions, he had my full attention. And when it was time to reveal his offer, it was much more dramatic (so was the price!) Use the same technique with your slides.

When you fade to black you regain your audience’s attention. For example, after I present a solution, I’ll fade to black while I expound on how to apply that solution in my audience’s work/life. When I’m finished, I turn black off and go to the next point. Or if I’m halfway through a story I’ll fade to back before the punchline so I know I have everyone’s attention.

It’s no different than a close-up scene in a movie—the director wants you to focus only on the speaker. Note that if you are shopping for a slide remote, be sure that yours has the black screen feature.

10. When in doubt, delete

This might be the most advice I can leave you with. When in doubt, delete it.

There is a weird attraction to more. Authors add more pages thinking it makes the book more valuable. Sales people who talk too much miss the opportunity to ask for the sale. And presenters add more slides thinking it will make them look better. Wrong.

When you are doing the final edits on your slide deck, the ultimate question you should be asking about each slide is, “Will it make my speech better?” If not, dump it.

Remember, nobody will miss what isn’t there. Also fewer slides allows you more time for side stories, spontaneous thoughts or even time for Q&A.

Remember this…

I’ve said it numerous times in this post, but it’s worth repeating. You are the show, not your slides. More slides means more time your audience is not paying attention to you. Fewer (and better) slides means you have more time to build rapport, share memorable stories, explain your solutions and motivate your audience to action. You are there for a reason. Now go and deliver.

One last thing. Spend the $80 and pack a remote (with spare batteries.) Nothing’s worse than watching a speaker repeatedly lean over, hunt for the right key, and then peck away to advance the slides.

If you enjoyed this article, here is more about presentation skills:

How the experts create world-class PowerPoint Slides (and you can too) PowerPoint Primer – the only 3 slides you’ll ever need How to add video to PowerPoint and Keynote like a pro

Slide by  Nathan Anderson  on  Unsplash

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Home Blog Presentation Ideas 23 PowerPoint Presentation Tips for Creating Engaging and Interactive Presentations

23 PowerPoint Presentation Tips for Creating Engaging and Interactive Presentations

PowerPoint presentations are not usually known for being engaging or interactive. That’s often because most people treat their slides as if they are notes to read off  and not a tool to help empower their message.

Your presentation slides are there to help bring to life the story you are telling. They are there to provide visuals and empower your speech.

So how do you go about avoiding a presentation “snoozefest” and instead ensure you have an engaging and interactive presentation?  By making sure that you use your slides to help YOU tell your story, instead of using them as note cards to read off of.

The key thing to remember is that your presentation is there to compliment your speech, not be its focus.

In this article, we will review several presentation tips and tricks on how to become a storytelling powerhouse by building a powerful and engaging PowerPoint presentation.

Start with writing your speech outline, not with putting together slides

Use more images and less text, use high-quality images, keep the focus on you and your presentation, not the powerpoint, your presentation should be legible from anywhere in the room, use a consistent presentation design, one topic per slide, avoid information overwhelm by using the “rule of three”.

• Display one bullet at a time

Avoid unnecessary animations

• Only add content that supports your main points
• Do not use PowerPoint as a teleprompter
• Never Give Out Copies of the Presentation

Re-focus the attention on you by fading into blackness

Change the tone of your voice when presenting, host an expert discussion panel, ask questions, embed videos, use live polling to get instant feedback and engage the audience.

• He kept his slides uncluttered and always strived for simplicity
• He was known to use large font size, the bigger, the better.
• He found made the complex sound simple.

He was known to practice, practice, and keep on practicing.

Summary – how to make your presentation engaging & interactive, fundamental rules to build powerful & engaging presentation slides.

Before we go into tips and tricks on how to add flair to your presentations and create effective presentations, it’s essential to get the fundamentals of your presentation right.

Your PowerPoint presentation is there to compliment your message, and the story you are telling. Before you can even put together slides, you need to identify the goal of your speech, and the key takeaways you want your audience to remember.

YOU and your speech are the focus of this presentation, not the slides – use your PowerPoint to complement your story.

Keep in mind that your slides are there to add to your speech, not distract from it.  Using too much text in your slides can be distracting and confusing to your audience. Instead, use a relevant picture with minimal text, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

This slide is not unusual, but is not a visual aid, it is more like an “eye chart”.

Aim for something simpler, easy to remember and concise, like the slides below.

Keep in mind your audience when designing your presentation, their background and aesthetics sense. You will want to avoid the default clip art and cheesy graphics on your slides.

While presenting make sure to control the presentation and the room by walking around, drawing attention to you and what you are saying.  You should occasionally stand still when referencing a slide, but never turn your back to your audience to read your slide.

You and your speech are the presentations; the slides are just there to aid you.

Most season presenters don’t use anything less than twenty-eight point font size, and even Steve Jobs was known to use nothing smaller than forty-point text fonts.

If you can’t comfortably fit all the text on your slide using 28 font size than you’re trying to say and cram too much into the slide, remember tip #1.4 – Use relevant images instead and accompany it with bullets.

Best Practice PowerPoint Presentation Tips

The job of your presentation is to help convey information as efficiently and clearly as possible. By keeping the theme and design consistent, you’re allowing the information and pictures to stand out.

However, by varying the design from slide to slide, you will be causing confusion and distraction from the focus, which is you and the information to be conveyed on the slide.

Technology can also help us in creating a consistent presentation design just by picking a topic and selecting a sample template style. This is possible thanks to the SlideModel’s AI slideshow maker .

Each slide should try to represent one topic or talking point. The goal is to keep the attention focused on your speech, and by using one slide per talking point, you make it easy for you to prepare, as well as easy for your audience to follow along with your speech.

Sometimes when creating our presentation, we can often get in our heads and try to over-explain. A simple way to avoid this is to follow the “Rule of Three,” a concept coined by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle.

The idea is to stick to only 3 main ideas that will help deliver your point.  Each of the ideas can be further broken into 3 parts to explain further. The best modern example of this “Rule of Three” can be derived from the great Apple presentations given by Steve Jobs – they were always structured around the “Rule of Three.”

Display one sentence at a time

If you are planning to include text in your slides, try to avoid bullet lists, and use one slide per sentence. Be short and concise. This best practice focuses on the idea that simple messages are easy to retain in memory. Also, each slide can follow your storytelling path, introducing the audience to each concept while you speak, instead of listing everything beforehand.

Presentation Blunders To Avoid

In reality, there is no need for animations or transitions in your slides.

It’s great to know how to turn your text into fires or how to create a transition with sparkle effects, but the reality is the focus should be on the message. Using basic or no transitions lets the content of your presentation stand out, rather than the graphics.

If you plan to use animations, make sure to use modern and professional animations that helps the audience follow the story you are telling, for example when explaining time series or changing events over time.

Only add engaging content that supports your main points

You might have a great chart, picture or even phrase you want to add, but when creating every slide, it’s crucial to ask yourself the following question.

“Does this slide help support my main point?”

If the answer is no, then remove it.  Remember, less is more.

Do not use PowerPoint as a Teleprompter

A common crutch for rookie presenters is to use slides as their teleprompter.

First of all, you shouldn’t have that much text on your slides. If you have to read off something, prepare some index cards that fit in your hand but at all costs do not turn your back on your audience and read off of your PowerPoint.  The moment you do that, you make the presentation the focus, and lose the audience as the presenter.

Avoid Giving Out Copies of the Presentation

At least not before you deliver a killer presentation; providing copies of your presentation gives your audience a possible distraction where they can flip through the copy and ignore what you are saying.

It’s also easy for them to take your slides out of context without understanding the meaning behind each slide.  It’s OK to give a copy of the presentation, but generally it is better to give the copies AFTER you have delivered your speech. If you decide to share a copy of your presentation, the best way to do it is by  generating a QR code  for it and placing it at the end of your presentation. Those who want a copy can simply scan and download it onto their phones.

Tips To Making Your Presentation More Engaging

The point of your presentation is to help deliver a message.

When expanding on a particularly important topic that requires a lengthy explanation it’s best to fade the slide into black.  This removes any distraction from the screen and re-focuses it on you, the present speaker. Some presentation devices have a built-in black screen button, but if they don’t, you can always prepare for this by adding a black side to your presentation at the right moment.

“It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.”

Part of making your presentation engaging is to use all the tools at your disposal to get your point across. Changing the inflection and tone of your voice as you present helps make the content and the points more memorable and engaging.

One easy and powerful way to make your presentation interactive is experts to discuss a particular topic during your presentation. This helps create a more engaging presentation and gives you the ability to facilitate and lead a discussion around your topic.

It’s best to prepare some questions for your panel but to also field questions from the audience in a question and answer format.

How To Make Your Presentation More Interactive

What happens if I ask you to think about a pink elephant?  You probably briefly think about a pink elephant, right?

Asking questions when presenting helps engage the audience, and arouse interest and curiosity.  It also has the added benefit of making people pay closer attention, in case they get called on.

So don’t be afraid to ask questions, even if rhetorical; asking a question engages a different part of our brain. It causes us to reflect rather than merely take in the information one way. So ask many of them.

Asking questions can also be an excellent way to build suspense for the next slide.

(Steve Jobs was known to ask questions during his presentations, in this slide he built suspense by asking the audience “Is there space for a device between a cell phone and a laptop?” before revealing the iPad) Source: MacWorld SF 2018

Remember the point of your presentation is to get a message across and although you are the presenter, it is completely fine to use video in your PowerPoint to enhance your presentation.  A relevant video can give you some breathing time to prepare the next slides while equally informing the audience on a particular point.

CAUTION: Be sure to test the video beforehand, and that your audience can hear it in the room.

A trending engagement tool among presenters is to use a live polling tool to allow the audience to participate and collect immediate feedback.

Using a live polling tool is a fun and interactive way to engage your audience in real-time and allow them to participate in part of your presentation.

Google Slides has a built-in Q&A feature that allows presenters to make the slide deck more interactive by providing answers to the audience’s questions. By using the Q&A feature in Google Slides, presenters can start a live Q&A session and people can ask questions directly from their devices including mobile and smartphones.

Key Takeaways from one of the best presenters, Steve Jobs

He kept his slides uncluttered and always strove for simplicity.

In this slide, you can easily see he is talking about the battery life, and it uses a simple image and a few words. Learning from Jobs, you can also make a great presentation too. Focus on the core benefit of your product and incorporate great visuals.

Source: Macworld 2008

SlideModel.com can help to reproduce high-impact slides like these, keeping your audience engagement.

He was known to use large font sizes, the bigger, the better

A big font makes it hard to miss the message on the slide, and allows the audience to focus on the presenter while clearing the understanding what the point of the slide is.

He found made the complex sound simple

When explaining a list of features, he used a simple image and lines or simple tables to provide visual cues to his talking points.

What made Steve Jobs the master of presentation, was the ritual of practicing with his team, and this is simple yet often overlooked by many presenters.  It’s easy to get caught in the trap of thinking you don’t need to practice because you know the material so well.

While all these tips will help you create a truly powerful presentation , it can only achieve if applied correctly.

It’s important to remember when trying to deliver an amazing experience, you should be thoroughly prepared. This way, you can elevate your content presentation, convey your message effectively and captivate your audience.

This includes having your research cited, your presentation rehearsed.  Don’t just rehearse your slides, also take time to practice your delivery, and your tone.  The more you rehearse, the more relaxed you will be when delivering. The more confident you will feel.

While we can’t help you with the practice of your next presentation, we can help you by making sure you look good, and that you have a great design and cohesiveness.

You focus on the message and content; we’ll focus on making you look good.

Have a tip you would like to include?  Be sure to mention it in the comments!

Like this article? Please share

Audience, Engaging, Feedback, Interactive, Poll, Rule of Three, Steve Jobs Filed under Presentation Ideas

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2 Responses to “23 PowerPoint Presentation Tips for Creating Engaging and Interactive Presentations”

Very great advices!

Greetings ! A compact composed communication for the host to have an impact -VOICE

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How to Make a Beautiful PowerPoint Presentation: A Simple Guide

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

In this post, we’ll cover:

Key Elements of Winning PowerPoints

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

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

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

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

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

Let’s dive right in.

1. Use Layout to Your Advantage

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

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

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

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

Try to structure your slides more like this:

And not like this:

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

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

2. No Sentences

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

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

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

Stick with this:

And avoid this:

3. Follow the 6×6 Rule

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

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

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

Slides should never have this much information:

4. Keep the Colors Simple

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stay away from color combinations like this:

5. Use Sans-Serif Fonts

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

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

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

6. Stick to 30pt Font or Larger

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

7. Avoid Overstyling the Text

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

• A change in color

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

8. Choose the Right Images

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

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

The ideal presentation images are:

• Inspirational

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

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

Tips on Making Beautiful PowerPoint Presentations

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Setting Appropriate Image Resolution in PowerPoint

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Resizing, Editing, and Adding Effects to Images in PowerPoint

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

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

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

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

Cropping Images in PowerPoint

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

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

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

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

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

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

PowerPoint Presentations FAQs

What is the 5 5 5 rule in powerpoint.

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

How long should your PowerPoint be?

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

What is the easiest way to make a PowerPoint prettier?

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

License this cover image via F8 studio and Ryan DeBerardinis .

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A step-by-step guide to captivating PowerPoint presentation design

november 20, 2023

by Corporate PowerPoint Girl

Do you often find yourself stuck with a lackluster PowerPoint presentation, desperately seeking ways to make it more engaging and visually appealing? If your boss has ever told you to "please fix" a presentation and you didn't know where to start, you're not alone. In this article, we'll walk you through a straightforward method to transform your PowerPoint slides into a visually captivating masterpiece. 

Let's dive right in! 

Clean up your slides 

The first step in this journey to presentation excellence is all about decluttering your slides and elevating their impact. Say goodbye to those uninspiring bullet points that often dominate presentations. Instead, focus on what truly matters – the key call-out numbers. By increasing the font size of these numbers, you ensure they take center stage, immediately drawing your audience's attention. 

To make those numbers pop, consider breaking the text after the numbers into the next line and adding a touch of color. The contrast created by pairing a dark color with a lighter shade, like dark teal and light teal or burnt orange with peach, can work wonders. This simple adjustment makes your data more engaging , enhancing the overall impact of your presentation. 

Add dimension with boxes 

Now, let's introduce an element of depth and organization to your slides. By adding boxes, you'll create a visually pleasing structure that guides your audience through the content. In the "Insert" menu, select "Table" and opt for a one-by-one table. Change the table color to a light gray shade, elongate it, and position it neatly to the left of your text. 

To improve readability and aesthetics, increase the spacing between text phrases. A small adjustment in the before spacing setting (setting it to 48) significantly enhances the visual appeal of your slides. 

Insert circles 

To further enhance the visual appeal and engagement of your slides, let's introduce circles. In the Insert menu, navigate to Shapes and choose the circle. Adjust the circle's height and width to 1.2, ensuring it complements your content seamlessly. Match the circle's shape fill color with the corresponding text color for a harmonious look. 

Avoid using colored outlines for the circles, as they may distract from the overall aesthetic. This simple addition of circles adds an element of visual interest to your presentation, making it more captivating. 

Choose icons 

Now, it's time for a touch of creativity. Selecting icons to complement your text can elevate the clarity and appeal of your slides. In the "Insert" menu, you can search for relevant keywords to find the perfect icon from PowerPoint's extensive library . 

For instance, if your text discusses investment portfolio yield, search for "growth" and choose an upward arrow growth icon. These icons add an extra layer of visual appeal and clarity to your content, making it more engaging and informative. 

Final touches 

To wrap up the transformation process, we come to the final touches that give your presentation a polished, professional finish. Align your icons with their corresponding circles and change the shape fill color to white. This simple adjustment creates a crisp, cohesive look that ties everything together seamlessly. 

In conclusion, by following these steps, you've embarked on a journey to enhance your PowerPoint presentation . These initial steps are just the beginning of your exploration into the world of design elements and styles that can cater to your specific presentation needs. The key to a stunning PowerPoint presentation lies in the details. By following these steps, you can turn a lackluster set of slides into a visually engaging and dynamic presentation that will captivate your audience. So, the next time your boss says, "Please fix," you'll know exactly where to start. Happy presenting! 

Related topics

27 Super Hidden PowerPoint Tips and Tricks Only The Pros Know!

Ausbert Generoso

Ever felt like your PowerPoint presentations could use a little magic? You’re not alone. Whether you’re a seasoned presenter or just getting started, there’s a world of PowerPoint tips and tricks waiting for you. In this guide, we’re diving into the nitty-gritty of Microsoft PowerPoint to uncover 30 hidden gems that’ll transform the way you create and deliver slides.

From making your designs pop to streamlining your workflow, these PowerPoint hacks are designed for real-world impact. No jargon, just practical insights that’ll have you presenting like a pro in no time.

Let’s cut through the noise and get straight to the good stuff – your next presentation is about to level up. Ready? Let’s get started.

27 PowerPoint Tips and Tricks That Put The Power in PowerPoint

1. Morph Transition for Seamless Animation

What’s it for:  Elevate your presentation by seamlessly animating objects and creating smooth transitions between slides. Morph transition is your key to a dynamic and visually engaging storytelling experience, allowing you to captivate your audience effortlessly. 

How to do it:

• Position the same object in different parts on multiple slides
• Select all slides, and go to the Transitions tab.
• Choose “Morph” as the transition effect.

2. SVG Image Integration

What’s it for:  Did you think SVG’s only work for websites and professional photo editing tools? They do, too, in PowerPoint! Import high-quality Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). Maintain image clarity, resize without loss, and enhance your presentations with crisp logos and icons. 

• Save your chosen SVG on your device.
• Click on the Insert tab.
• Choose “Pictures” and select your SVG file.
• Adjust the size without compromising image quality.

3. Designer Feature for Quick Layouts

What’s it for:  Effortlessly create professional-looking slides with the Designer feature. Receive instant layout suggestions based on your content, saving time and ensuring your presentation looks polished. 

• Select a slide.
• Go to the Design tab and click Designer on the far right along the ribbon.
• Select through ready-made slide designs for instant layouts.

4. Insert 3D Models

What’s it for:  Amp up your presentations with manipulable 3D models, adding a dynamic dimension. Whether it’s showcasing products or visualizing data, 3D models bring your slides to life. 

• Click on the “3D Models” dropdown and proceed to Stock 3D Models.
• Search for a 3D model of your choice and insert.
• Manipulate and customize as needed.

5. SmartArt Graphics for Visual Hierarchy

What’s it for:  Convey complex ideas with visual hierarchy using SmartArt graphics. These graphics offer a structured and visually appealing way to organize information, making your content more digestible. 

• Go to the Insert tab.
• Select “SmartArt” and navigate through the available categories.
• Select a graphic template that fits your presentation needs.
• Enter your content and customize as needed.

6. Eyedropper Tool for Color Matching

What’s it for:  Maintain a cohesive design by using the Eyedropper tool to pick colors from images or elements within your presentation. Ensure consistency and professional aesthetics in every slide. 

• Select the editable, native PowerPoint object you wish to customize.
• Go to the Shape Format tab and click on the Shape Fill dropdown.
• Select “More Fill Colors…” and click the eyedropper icon to begin color appropriating.

7. Record and Insert Audio

What’s it for:  Infuse personality into your presentation by recording audio directly within PowerPoint. Ideal for adding voiceovers, explanations, or personal touches that enhance audience engagement. 

• Click on “Audio” and choose “Record Audio.”
• Record your audio and insert it into the slide.

8. Presenter Coach for Rehearsing

What’s it for:  Elevate your presentation skills with Presenter Coach. Receive valuable feedback on pacing, filler words, and more, refining your delivery for a confident and impactful performance. 

• Click on the Slide Show tab.
• Choose “Rehearse with Coach” to start practicing.

9. Hyperlink Navigation for Seamless Transitions

What’s it for:  Streamline your presentation flow by implementing Hyperlink Navigation. This trick allows you to create clickable links within your slides, enabling effortless transitions between related content or external resources, enhancing the overall navigational experience. 

• Select the text or object you want to hyperlink.
• Right-click and choose “Hyperlink” or use the Ctrl+K shortcut.
• Specify the destination, whether it’s another slide, a website, or a file, to create a seamless navigational experience.

10. Alt Text for Accessibility

What’s it for:  Improve accessibility by adding descriptive alternative text to images and objects. Ensure inclusivity for visually impaired individuals, making your presentation accessible to a wider audience. 

• Right-click on the image or object.
• Choose “Edit Alt Text” and enter a descriptive text.

11. Slide Zoom for Dynamic Navigation

What’s it for:  Elevate your presentation’s navigation with Slide Zoom, offering the flexibility to jump to specific slides during a presentation without adhering to a linear sequence. This dynamic feature ensures a more engaging and tailored audience experience. 

• Set a master slide where you’d like to put your “mini slides” altogether.
• Navigate to the Insert tab > Zoom dropdown > Slide Zoom.
• Select the slides you want to link onto your master slide and insert.

12. Live Captions and Subtitles

What’s it for:  Foster inclusivity by enabling live captions and subtitles in multiple languages. This feature enhances accessibility, making your presentation more engaging and comprehensible for a diverse global audience. 

• Go to the Slide Show tab.
• Select “Always Use Subtitles” and choose your language.

13. Password Protection for Security

What’s it for:  Safeguard your presentation’s sensitive content by adding a password. This security measure ensures that only authorized individuals can access and view the information, adding an extra layer of protection. 

• Navigate to the File tab.
• Select “Info” and click on “Protect Presentation.”
• Choose “Encrypt with Password” and set your password.

14. Animation Painter for Consistent Animations

What’s it for:  Maintain a polished and consistent look throughout your presentation by using the Animation Painter. Copy and apply animations across different objects with ease, ensuring a cohesive visual experience. 

• Select the object with the same, desired animation as the others.
• Go to the Animation tab.
• Click on “Animation Painter” and apply to other objects.

15. Linked Excel Charts for Real-Time Updates

What’s it for:  Integrate linked Excel charts for real-time updates in your PowerPoint presentation. Any modifications made to the linked Excel file automatically reflect in your slides, ensuring data accuracy. 

• Copy your Excel chart.
• In PowerPoint, use “Paste Special” and choose “Microsoft Excel Worksheet Object.”

16. Custom Slide Sizes

What’s it for:  Tailor your presentation to various screen dimensions by customizing slide sizes. This feature, accessible through the Design tab, ensures your content fits seamlessly across different display settings. 

• Navigate to the Design tab.
• Click on the “Slide Size” dropdown and choose “Page Setup”.
• Change “Slide sized for” to Custom.

17. Grid and Guidelines for Precision

What’s it for:  Achieve precise object alignment with gridlines and guides. This feature, essential for creating visually polished and organized presentations, ensures your content is visually appealing and professionally structured. 

• Go to the View tab.
• Check the “Grids” and “Guidelines” toggles for display options and customization.

18. Slide Master for Consistent Design

What’s it for:  Establish a cohesive presentation design by utilizing the Slide Master. This time-saving feature enables you to set consistent layouts, fonts, and colors throughout your presentation. 

• Click on “Slide Master” to access and customize master slides.

19. Quick Access Toolbar Customization

What’s it for:  Streamline your workflow by personalizing the Quick Access Toolbar with your most-used commands. This customization ensures quick access to essential tools, enhancing efficiency during presentation creation. 

• Click on the dropdown arrow on the Quick Access Toolbar.
• Select “More Commands” to customize your toolbar.

20. Ink Annotations for Handwriting

What’s it for:  Personalize your presentations with a touch-enabled device using ink annotations. This feature allows you to draw or write directly on slides, adding a unique and handwritten touch to your content. 

• Go to the Draw tab and click on Draw to begin drawing.
• Choose “Ink to Text” or “Ink to Shape” for handwriting annotations.

21. Crop to Shape for Image Customization

What’s it for:  Unleash your creativity by utilizing the Crop to Shape feature, allowing you to create custom image shapes. This adds a distinctive flair to your presentation, providing a visually dynamic and engaging experience. 

• Select the image.
• Navigate to the Picture Format tab.
• Click on “Crop” and choose “Crop to Shape.”
• Select the shape you want your image to have as frame.

22. Slide Show Recording with Narration

What’s it for:  Capture your entire presentation, including narration and animations, by recording a self-running slideshow. This feature is invaluable for sharing presentations with a wider audience, ensuring a consistent and engaging delivery. 

• Click on “Record Slide Show” and choose recording options.

23.  Dynamic Color Scheme Switch for Vibrant Slides

What’s it for:  Infuse energy into your presentation by dynamically switching color schemes. This handy trick allows you to quickly experiment with various color palettes, giving your slides a vibrant and fresh appearance in just a few clicks. 

• Explore different color options by selecting “Colors” and experimenting with the available palettes. Instantly transform the look of your presentation to match your desired mood and style.

24.  Smart Alignment and Distribution for Pixel-Perfect Precision

What’s it for:  Attain pixel-perfect precision in your presentation design with the Smart Alignment and Distribution trick. This technique allows you to not only align objects with accuracy but also evenly distribute them horizontally, ensuring a polished and visually appealing layout. 

• Select the objects you want to align.
• Navigate to the Format tab.
• Click on “Align” to access options like Align Left, Center, or Right for precise alignment.
• Further refine your layout by choosing “Distribute Horizontally,” ensuring equal spacing between objects and achieving a professional design.

25. Insert Online Videos

What’s it for:  Seamlessly integrate online videos directly into your presentation. This feature eliminates the need for external players, offering a smooth and immersive viewing experience for your audience. 

• Click on the “Video” dropdown and select Online Movie.
• Paste the video link and your video should be embedded onto your PowerPoint slide.

26. Embed Fonts for Portability

What’s it for:  Ensure consistent visual appeal on any device by embedding fonts in your presentation. This is particularly useful when sharing your work with others who may not have the same fonts installed, enhancing portability. 

• Go to the File tab.
• Select “Options” and go to the Save tab from the window popup.
• Check “Embed fonts in the file” as well as “Embed all characters”.

27.  Text Transformation

What’s it for:  Uncover the elegance of text transformation with the Shape Format trick. This hack allows you to access a myriad of text transformation designs, offering a swift and sophisticated way to elevate the visual appeal of your presentation. 

• Select the text you want to transform.
• Navigate to the Shape Format tab.
• Click on “Text Effects” and explore the “Transform” options for a variety of stylish text designs. Instantly apply a transformation that suits the tone and style of your presentation.

5 Critical Best Practices to Implement These Pro PowerPoint Tips and Tricks for a Technically Proficient Presentation

Enhance the technical brilliance of your presentation by focusing on these crucial best practices:

1.  Streamlined Font Selection

• Practice:  Limit your font styles to a maximum of three per slide.
• Why:  Simplifying fonts enhances readability, maintains visual consistency, and prevents distraction, ensuring your message is clear and impactful.

2.  High-Resolution Images

• Practice:  Source HD images from reputable free resource websites like Freepik or Unsplash .
• Why:  High-resolution images prevent pixelation, ensuring clarity and professionalism. Crisp visuals contribute to a visually appealing presentation.

3.  Cohesive Color Palette

• Practice:  Stick to a consistent color palette throughout your slides; use the eyedropper tool for precise color matching.
• Why:  A unified color scheme enhances visual harmony, reinforces brand identity, and elevates the overall aesthetics of your presentation.

4.  Efficient Data Visualization

• Practice:  Use charts and graphs for data-driven slides, choosing appropriate chart types for different data sets.
• Why:  Visualizing data through charts improves comprehension, making complex information more accessible and engaging for your audience.

5.  Transitions with Purpose

• Practice:  Apply slide transitions judiciously. Choose transitions that complement the content and avoid excessive animations.
• Why:  Subtle transitions maintain audience focus, while excessive animations may distract from the core message.

Final Thoughts

In presentation-making, technical practices harmonized with thoughtful design is the key to delivering an impactful message. Whether it may be as simple as considering font choices, to incorporating high-resolution visuals, you do not only get to enhance the aesthetics but also ensure your audience’s undivided attention.

Remember, a technically proficient presentation is not just a showcase of information, but also one that leaves a rather immersive experience for those who will see. But at the end of the day, it comes down to your delivery. So, no sweat! You’re doing amazing, rockstar!

Find them useful? Save them, or share these PowerPoint tips and tricks with others to make their day!

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How to Design a Professional PowerPoint Presentation

Our series of tips on presentation design outlined some generic rules and ideas that you can live by to create better, more professional presentations. Today we want to follow that up by taking you through the actual process of designing a presentation from start to finish.

We’ll break down every step of the design process, from choosing colors and images to using whitespace properly. After reading through this you should be all set to design your own beautiful presentation slides that will put your coworkers to shame.

Using a pre-built PowerPoint template can be a good starting point for many people (we collected some of the best PowerPoint templates for you!). But if you’re wanting to design your own from start-to-finish, you’re in the right place!

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A Word About Content

I usually make a big deal about content preceding design, and presentations are no exception. Ideally, you’ll have the topic and much or all of the content outlined before you even think about design. This will in every way shape the appearance of your design, which is why working from pre-built templates isn’t always the best move (though generic templates can and do work great in some circumstances).

The reason that I bring this up is that I don’t really have an actual presentation in mind for this project. I’ll be running with a basic theme, but the textual information will be entirely placeholder copy. Your image, font, color and layout selection shouldn’t necessarily match mine but instead reflect the topic and content you’re working with.

Choosing A Color Scheme

Before I even open Photoshop (yes, I design PowerPoint/Keynote slides in Photoshop and drop them in), I want to find a color scheme on which to base my entire design. When I need to quickly find several colors that go together I usually start with Adobe Color CC . Not only is it a great way to build your own color schemes, it’s an outstanding source to find schemes built by others that you can just grab for your projects.

As luck would have it, I liked the very first color scheme I saw upon opening Color. This scheme was featured on the home page and looked like a great place to start for our presentation design.

Now, if you wanted to get everything exactly right, you could make a list of the RGB or Hex values, but I prefer a quicker, more direct route. What I usually do is snap a screenshot of the color scheme, paste it into my document and stretch it across the canvas on its own layer for easy access. This way I can quickly activate the layer, eyedropper the color I want, then hide the layer and get back to work. It’s a bit like having a palette of colors to dip your paintbrush in.

Designing Your Cover Slide

Now that we have a color scheme, the design work is going to be much simpler. One trick that designers often use in presentations is to leverage the color scheme as heavily as possible. If you’re new to design, you’ll likely think that this is too easy, too plain or even that it’s cheating somehow, but trust me, it’ll be much more attractive and professional than that horrid Microsoft clipart library you love so much.

To start, simply grab one of your colors from the scheme you chose and flood the background of your slide with it (I chose #631c25). Good job, there’s your background. Don’t freak out. It’ll look great. Now let’s throw in some typography.

Choosing a Font

Font choice is a major issue for non-designers. The tendency is to think that most fonts are “boring” and to look around for something exciting and fun. This inevitably leads to the use of Comic Sans or some other equally hideous font.

Unless you’re an elementary school teacher, your presentations should never look like this. Instead, why don’t you try one of those “boring” fonts to see if you can come up with something you like.

Combining fonts can be a tricky task and can take a trained eye to pull off. Fortunately, font designers have already created collections that work well together and if you’re not a designer, they make it easy to pull off great typography. The trick is to just stay in a family. Again, I know this sounds lame, but it works really well if you make sure the two styles you choose are very different.

For instance, I chose a Helvetica Bold Condensed and a Helvetica Light for my cover slide. Notice how different the fonts are from each other in terms of thickness. Choosing two styles that are relatively close causes visual confusion and should be avoided as a general rule of thumb. Instead, what you want is contrast and plenty of it.

Alignment and Layout

Notice a few things about the way I set up this slide. First, I used a strong left alignment for the text. As I say in just about every design article I write, center alignment should be a last resort, not a first. It tends to be the weakest text alignment that you can choose, having a hard edge increases readability considerably (notice that book pages aren’t center-aligned).

Also, notice the generous whitespace that I used. Remember that you don’t have to eat up every inch of space. Giving your text room to breathe helps your layout immensely and gives the design a clean look.

Adding an Image

At this point you might be wondering why you wasted your time reading so I could give you such plain advice. The truth is, most people that create presentations could improve them by 100% from following the advice above. However, I realize minimalism may be too extreme for some folks so let’s throw in an image to make it look nice.

Since our text is on the left, I wanted to find something a little heavy on the right. The general theme that I’ll go for is “City photos” assuming I had some sort of architecture or city-centric presentation to give. Again, you’ll have to choose iamges relevant to your own topic.

I grabbed this Flickr Creative Commons image from photographer Ben Spreng .

Now, if we just made this image our background, the text would become unreadable and we would be ditching our color scheme. What we’re going to do instead is set it on top of the colored slide and set our blending mode to Overlay. Then throw your opacity to around 45%.

As you can see, this helps the slide look much more interesting but keeps the text and colors fairly intact. It’s a simple solution that adds a lot of interest to an otherwise plain design.

Adding Content Slides

The cover may seem like it’s only a tiny part of the battle, but you’ve actually already set the tone for the entire presentation. You’ve got your theme, color scheme and fonts already in place. Now you just need to set up a few different layouts for your content.

The thing to keep in mind is to keep everything extremely simple, and that includes the level of content that you include. Apart from design, these are just good presentation tactics that you’ll learn in every public speaking class. Filling your slides with everything you’re going to say makes you unnecessary. You could just email everyone the slides and shut up.

Instead, the slides are merely meant to be a visual aid. Show a slide with your overall topic or main point, then speak the rest, without reading. Nothing is worse than watching a guy read his note cards word-for-word for thirty minutes, except perhaps watching a guy turn his back to the audience so he can actually read his slides out loud to you the whole time! You may laugh, but I’ve seen it happen folks.

For our first content slide, we’ll grab another Flickr photo and set it to the bottom portion of our slide at full bleed. Then we’ll set the top to another color from our scheme and toss in some text using the same exact formatting that we used on the cover.

See how this closely resembles the theme we’ve already established while still looking significantly different? This is they key to good presentation design: cohesiveness without redundancy.

Now for our third slide, we can simply do the inverse of the second slide with a new color and a new image .

Adding Informational Elements

It would be nice if every slide ever presented could work in a full bleed image, but the truth is that this simply isn’t practical. It will often be the case that you’re presenting graphical information or some other item that isn’t necessarily a photo.

My advice here is to try to stick as close to your theme as possible. For the slide below I flooded the entire background with a solid color from our original scheme and made a quick 3D graph with white columns (I drew a few flat boxes in Illustrator and applied a 3D effect).

As you can see, this slide is very information-focused and yet it doesn’t sacrifice the aesthetics and simplicity we’ve already established.

You’re All Set

From here you might come up with one or two more alternate slide designs and then rotate between them for the duration of your speech. The result is a presentation that is beautiful, very readable and highly professional. The bonus is that the simple, straightforward design will probably result in less work than a clip-art-filled horror show.

Most of the time, great design doesn’t mean being particularly artistic or knowing how to create amazing complex layouts. Instead, it’s about presenting information in an attractive and user-friendly way. With this goal in mind you realize that you’re probably trying way too hard if your end result is ugly. Try cutting out half or more of the elements on one of your slides and giving what’s left a strong left or right alignment with plenty of whitespace.

I hope this article has convinced you to abandon that clip art gallery once and for all. The benefits of clean, minimal design in presentations are clear: the information is easier to take in and the end result is more professional than the mess of information you typically see in presentation slides.

Of course, if you’re looking to get started quickly, flick through our collection of the best PowerPoint templates to find a beautiful set of pre-made designs!

11 Simple Tips to Make Your PowerPoint Presentations More Effective

Written by Jamie Cartwright @cart_writing

After all, the skills needed to create good PowerPoint presentations —strong design, appropriate branding, concise content, well-placed visuals, and proofread copy—are the same skills that make or break a digital marketing campaign. I like to treat Microsoft PowerPoint as a test of basic marketing skills. To create a passing presentation, I need to demonstrate design skills, technical literacy, and a sense of personal style.

If the presentation has a problem (like an unintended font, a broken link, or unreadable text) then I’ve probably failed the test. Even if my spoken presentation is well rehearsed, a bad visual experience can ruin it for the audience. Expertise means nothing without a good presentation to back it up. Strong digital marketing requires a similar kind of attention to multiple forms of communication. Often, we think we need expert designers and writers to present our company in a professional light.

The truth is that PowerPoint enables non-experts to become strong presentation marketers, by providing user-friendly tools with little training needed. All you need is to learn how to let PowerPoint help you. Here are eleven key tips to get started.

No matter your topic, successful PowerPoint shows depend on three main factors: your command of PPT’s design tools , your attention to presentation processes , and your devotion to consistent style . If you can do all three effectively, you’ll find that your PowerPoint presentations won’t be the only pieces of your marketing toolkit improving!

Good style is the hardest and most important skillset to master. It’s more than design; it defines your vision for PowerPoint. Here's how to beef up your styling:

1) Keep a Natural Style

Human eyes aren’t used to seeing brilliant, out-of-this-world visual movement. Good presentations aim to comfort the viewer, not amaze. When you choose an overall style, try to envision your PowerPoint slides as one or many real objects. Imagine canvases, tabletops, landscapes, and shadow boxes. Here is an example of a stylized, blank PowerPoint Slide canvas:

Then, imagine how you would arrange real text within these various media. You don’t need to constrain yourself to two-dimensional space (i.e. surfaces), but just remember, that real people don’t live in outer space… So, don’t take us there unless you need to.

2) Don’t Let PowerPoint Decide How You Use PowerPoint

Microsoft aimed to provide PowerPoint users with a lot of tools. This does not mean you should use them all. For example, professionals should never use PPT’s action sounds (please consider your audience, above personal preference). You should also make sure that preset PPT themes complement your needs before you adopt them. Consider it a mistake if your audience recognizes a PowerPoint theme as a preset. Be creative; don’t be a poser. Here are three key things to look out for:

• PowerPoint makes bulleting automatic, but ask yourself: Are bullets actually appropriate for what you need to do? Sometimes, but not always.
• Recent PPT defaults include a small shadow on all shapes. Remove if not actually needed. Also, don’t leave shapes in their default blue.
• Try to get away from using Microsoft Office’s default fonts, Calibri and Cambria. Using these two typefaces can make the presentation seem underwhelming.

Presentation Process Tips

If you keep good style, then you don’t have to be an expert PPT designer. But you must know how to handle solid presentation process preparation.

3) Embed Your Font Files

One constant problem presenters have with PowerPoint is that fonts seem to change when presenters move from one computer to another. In reality, the fonts are not changing—the presentation computer just doesn’t have the same font files installed. If you’re using a PC and presenting on a PC, then there is a smooth work around for this issue. (When you involve Mac systems, the solution is a bit rougher. See Trick #4.) Here’s the trick. When you save your PowerPoint file (only on a PC), you should click Save Options in the "Save As…" dialog window. Then, select the Embed TrueType fonts check box and press OK. Now, your presentation will keep the font file and your fonts will not change when you move computers (unless you give your presentation on a Mac).

4) Save Your Slides as JPEGs

In PowerPoint for Mac 2011, there is no option to embed fonts within the presentation. Which means that unless you use ubiquitous typefaces like Arial or Tahoma, your PPT is likely going to encounter font changing on different computers.

The most certain way of avoiding this is by saving your final presentation as JPEGs, then inserting these JPEGs onto your slides. If you do not utilize actions in your presentation, then this option works especially well. If you do want action settings, you can also choose save partial portions of your PPT slides as JPEGs and overlay other elements on top.

On a Mac, users can easily drag and drop the JPEGs into PPT with fast load time. The compromising factor here is that if your PPT includes a lot of JPEGs, then the file size will increase, so make sure you can manage!

5) Embed Multimedia

PowerPoint allows you to either link to video/audio files externally or to embed the media directly in your presentation. You should embed these files if you can, but if you use a Mac, you cannot actually embed the video (see note below). For PCs, two great reasons for embedding are:

• Embedding allows you to play media directly in your presentation. It will look much more professional than switching between windows.
• Embedding also means that the file stays within the PowerPoint presentation, so it should play normally without extra work (except on a Mac).

Note : Mac OS users of PowerPoint should be extra careful about using multimedia files.

If you use PowerPoint for Mac, then you always will need to bring the video and/or audio file with you in the same folder as the PowerPoint presentation. It’s best to only insert video or audio files once the presentation and the containing folder have been saved on a portable drive in their permanent folder. Also, if the presentation will be played on a Windows computer, then Mac users need to make sure their multimedia files are in WMV format. This tip gets a bit complicated, so if you want to use PowerPoint effectively, consider using the same operating system, no matter what.

6) Bring Your Own Hardware

Between operating systems, PowerPoint is still a bit jumpy. Even between differing PPT versions, things can change. One way to fix these problems is to make sure that you have the right hardware you need to always use your own portable computer.

7) Use Presenter View

In most presentation situations, there will be both a presenter’s screen and the main projected display for your presentation. PowerPoint has a great tool called Presenter View, which can be found in the Slide Show tab of PowerPoint 2010 (or 2011 for Mac). Included in the Presenter View is an area for notes, a timer/clock, and a presentation display.

For many presenters, this tool can help unify their spoken presentation and their visual aid. You never want to make the PowerPoint seem like a stack of notes that you use a crutch. Use the Presenter View option to help create a more natural presentation:

At the start of the presentation, you should also hit CTRL + H to make the cursor disappear. Hitting the "A" key will bring it back if you need it!

Design Tips

8) utilize the format menus.

Format menus allow you to do fine adjustments that otherwise seem impossible. To do this, right click on an object and select the "Format" option. By doing this, you can fine-tune shadows, adjust shape measurements, create reflections, and much more. Here's the menu that will pop up:

Although the main options can be found on PowerPoint’s format toolbars, look for complete control in the format window menu. Examples include:

• Adjusting text inside a shape.
• Creating a natural perspective shadow behind an object.
• Recoloring photos manually and with automatic options.
• Putting an object in a very precise location when PowerPoint auto-positions an object to align with another object or margin.

9) Use and Change PowerPoint’s Shapes

Many users don’t realize how flexible PowerPoint’s shape tools have become. In combination with the expanded format options released by Microsoft in 2010, the potential for good design with shapes is readily available. Unlike professional design programs like Adobe Creative Suite or Quark, PowerPoint provides the user with a bunch of great shape options, beyond the traditional rectangle, oval, and rounded rectangle patterns.

Today’s shapes include a highly functional Smart Shapes function, which enables you to create diagrams and flow charts in no time. These tools are especially valuable when you consider that PowerPoint is a visual medium. Paragraphing and bullet lists are boring—utilize shapes to help express you message more clearly.

10) Create Custom Shapes

When you create a shape, right-click and press Edit Points. By editing points, you can create custom shapes that fit your specific need. For instance, you can reshape arrows to fit the dimensions you like.

Another option is to combine two shapes together. When selecting two shapes, right-click and go to the Grouping sub-menu to see a variety of options. Combine will create a custom shape that has overlapping portions of the two previous shapes cut out.

Union makes one completely merged shape. Intersect will build a shape of only the overlapping sections of the two previous shapes. Subtract will cut out the overlapping portion of one shape from the other. By using these tools rather than trying to edit points precisely, you can create accurately measured custom shapes.

11) Present Webpages Within PowerPoint

Tradition says that if you want to show a website in a PowerPoint, you should just create link to the page and prompt a browser to open. For PC users, there’s a better option.

Third party software that integrates fully into PowerPoint’s developer tab can used to embed a website directly into your PowerPoint using a normal HTML iframe. One of the best tools is LiveWeb, a third-party software developed independently.

By using LiveWeb, you don’t have to interrupt your PowerPoint, and your presentation will remain fluid and natural. Whether you embed a whole webpage or just a YouTube video, this can be a high-quality third party improvement.

Unfortunately, Mac users don’t have a similar option, so a good second choice is to take screen shots of the website, link in through a browser, or embed media, such as a YouTube video by downloading it to your computer.

With style, design, and presentation processes under your belt, you can do a lot more with PowerPoint than just presentations for your clients. PowerPoint and similar slide applications are flexible tools that should not be forgotten.

For small design jobs not worthy of a graphic designer’s time (e.g. calls-to-action, small web graphics), consider having a free staffer use PowerPoint to do the job. Or if you’re in need of more social media content, try uploading a few good presentations to SlideShare as free resources. With the eleven tips I offer here and a little practice, PowerPoint can be a powerful tool you won’t want to stop using.

Jamie Cartwright is the Inbound Marketing Intern at Weidert Group . A senior at Lawrence University, Jamie studies human communication, anthropology, and social marketing.

Originally published Dec 10, 2013 10:00:00 AM, updated November 07 2023

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Microsoft 365 Life Hacks > Presentations > How to create an inspirational PowerPoint presentation

How to create an inspirational PowerPoint presentation

Creating an inspirational PowerPoint presentation involves more than just putting together slides; it’s about crafting a moving story that resonates with your audience and leaves a lasting impact. See how you can elevate your material to truly call your audience to agree with you or ask for action.

What is an inspirational presentation?

Easy and effective PowerPoint tools make it simple to assemble a compelling slideshow. You can choose from creative templates , make animated shorts , or implement video clips via Clipchamp .

However, PowerPoint works the best when you imbue it with a narrative that has the power to captivate. Whether you’re trying to motivate and uplift your audience, offer encouraging advice, or ask them to act or change their perspective, an inspirational presentation carries the same motivational speaking skills as a sales pitch.

Therefore, the key to a successful inspirational presentation is to deliver a clear, impactful message that is both engaging and memorable. Structure your presentation as a narrative, with a clear beginning, middle, and end. To elevate the storytelling qualities of your presentation, introduce a conflict or challenge and describe the journey of overcoming it. While not every topic that you choose to inspire others will involve a conflict, an inspirational presentation will nonetheless conclude with a resolution that leaves your audience inspired.

Tell your story with captivating presentations

Powerpoint empowers you to develop well-designed content across all your devices

How to inspire others with your presentational skills

Any good presentation begins with a strong outline . The outline of your presentation should adhere to your goals:

• To persuade people to share your point of view.
• To present something new or give a new perspective on something old.
• To inspire, motivate, and call for action or change.

Keep these goals in mind when you begin outlining. Start your outline with a strong theme that aligns with the message you want to convey. This should be relevant to your audience and your objectives and serve as the backbone of your presentation in guiding the narrative and supporting your message.

Use motivational quotes and visuals

Sprinkle your presentation with quotes from leaders and famous thinkers that align you’re your theme. Pair these quotes with compelling visuals to enhance their impact. Keep in mind that in a presentation that uses visual aids, these quotes are the “icing on the cake” of the message you’re trying to convey; they can serve as powerful reminders of the key points you want your audience to remember.

Share success stories

Incorporating success stories that are related to your topic can convey a sense of success to your audience. Stories of achievable potential can provide examples on how the concepts or strategies you’re sharing can help benefit your audience. This can make otherwise abstract ideas more tangible—and therefore achievable.

Engage your audience

Audience interaction—in the form of quizzes, can make your presentation more memorable. Include questions to ponder, prompt discussions, or incorporate quick activities that reinforce the message. This engagement makes the experience more dynamic and personal for the audience, increasing the impact of your presentation.

Brush up on presentation skills

The key to an inspirational presentation is to balance the use of visual aids and public speaking skills. This can be easier said than done, of course—which is why it’s vital to learn how to practice your presentations , incorporate humor and wit into your speech, or overcome the fear of public speaking that plagues an estimated 73% of the population.

Creating an inspirational presentation requires thoughtful preparation, a balance of visual aids and speaking, as well as a creative approach. By following these guidelines, you can develop a presentation that not only informs but also inspires and motivates your audience.

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10 Top Tips: How to Make More Engaging PowerPoint Presentations

When you make your presentation, you want the audience to pay attention. One way to do that is to have an engaging presentation. 

There are tips to follow to make your presentation more engaging. An engaging presentation is a more memorable one.

Keep reading to find out how to make engaging PowerPoint presentations. You’ll also learn how to save time when making your presentation.

10 Tips to Make a More Engaging PowerPoint Presentation

Here are ten tips to make a more engaging PowerPoint Presentation:

1. Create an Outline

Before you start considering your presentation design, create an outline. They're a big help if you’re wondering how to make engaging PowerPoint presentations.

Outlines give you the opportunity to plan out your slide contents. This means that you can plan the flow of your story and slides. You can also choose where your images will have the highest impact with an outline.

2. Use a Template

One of the most essential tips for making engaging PowerPoint presentations is using a premium template. Premium templates make creating engaging presentations quick and easy.

Envato Elements has thousands of premium templates to choose for your project. They even have themed presentation templates. For example, if your presentation topic is about health, they even have templates with a medical theme.

3. Add Animation

Use animation to make engaging presentations. You can add animation to text, objects, and images. Some premium presentation templates come with animations already built in.

4. Use Text Creatively

Envato Elements has more than presentation templates. They also have premium fonts that to use in your presentation. This means you can use a unique font that doesn't come with PowerPoint.

When you add fonts to your presentation, be consistent. For example, you should use the same font for the title for every slide. When you aren’t consistent, it makes your presentation look sloppy.

5. Use More Images, Less Text

You want your slides to add to your speech, not distract the audience. This is why it’s best not to have too much text.

When you've got too much text, your audience will be reading the slides instead of listening to your speech. When creating your engaging presentation, the goal is to have your slides serve as a visual aid.

6. Make It Interactive

A tip on how to make a presentation engaging is to make your presentation interactive. When you interact with your audience, they're more likely to remember the information you’re presenting and pay attention.

For example, make your presentation interactive by having a Q&A, telling a personal or funny story, or having your audience vote.

7. Add Humor

Before you consider adding humor to your presentation, you need to know your audience. You don’t want to offend your audience with your humor accidentally.

There are different ways to add humor to your presentation. Tell a joke at the start, use an anecdote, or use a funny image or audio.

8. Ask Questions

Asking questions makes presentations engaging because it allows your audience to be a part of your presentation. There are several ways to incorporate questions into your presentation.

• A rhetorical question builds intrigue and prompt the audience to think about your presentation topic.
• Poll questions engage your audience because the audience answers them and sees the results.
• What if questions don’t need a literal response but makes your audience focus on a specific topic.

9. Use Visuals

Images give the audience a mental picture of your topic or provoke an emotional response. When you use visuals, use high-quality photos and videos.

Besides engaging your audience, visuals benefit you. Pictures can help you not to go off-topic or even jog your memory.

Video can also be used to give you a break from talking. If you've got a short video that discusses one of your talking points, it can engage the audience and help you.

10. Use Smooth Transitions

Transitions inform your audience that you're moving on to the next topic. If you decide to use transitions, keep them between 0.5 to 3 seconds.

If a transition is too long, it can confuse the audience. You may not want to use visual transitions if you already have animations in your presentation. Instead, use verbal transitions. These are usually words used to connect one slide to another.

Top Source for Premium PowerPoint Presentation Templates (With Unlimited Use)

Envato Elements is the best source to find premium PowerPoint templates. It's a subscription service where you pay a low monthly fee and gain access to thousands of premium digital assets. These digital assets include Premium PowerPoint templates, fonts, images, and more.

If you’re thinking, why can’t I use a free template? Free templates aren’t as robust as premium templates. Professionals make every premium template look professional and stylish. When you use a premium template, you save time because all you need to do is add text and images to the template.

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Frequently Asked PowerPoint Questions (FAQ)

Here are some frequently asked PowerPoint questions:

1. How Do I Make a Final Q&A Slide?

Adding a Questions and Answers slide is a way to engage your audience. It’s also easy to create this slide. Add the slide after an important section or at the end of your presentation.

Here's a tutorial on how to add a Questions Final PowerPoint Slide:

2. How Do I Customize My Fonts?

To add a personal touch to your presentation without going overboard, a great way to do that is to add a custom font to your presentation.

Custom fonts allow you to add a unique touch to your presentation. Envato Elements makes it easy to try out fonts since they come with a subscription.

Here's an in-depth tutorial on how to add a custom font to your presentation:

3.  What Is a Morph Transition? How Do I Add It To My Presentation?

A Morph Transition allows you to move from one slide to another smoothly. You can add this transition effect to more than slides. Add it to text, shapes, pictures, and graphics.

Read this article to learn more about morph transitions:

4. How Do I Download a Premium PowerPoint Template?

Downloading a premium template is simple. To access the premium PowerPoint template, you’ll need to be an Envato Elements subscriber. Here’s an in-depth tutorial on premium PowerPoint templates:

5. How Do I Create a Magnifying Effect on an Image?

Use a magnifying glass effect if you want the audience to focus on a part of your presentation. This effect works well with graphics like maps. Read this article for a tutorial on how to create a magnifying effect in PowerPoint:

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You've just learned how to create an engaging PowerPoint presentation.

To review, one way to have an engaging presentation is to have well-designed and visually pleasing slides. An easy way to get a well-designed slide is to use a premium PowerPoint template.

For the best value for premium templates, sign up for Envato Elements today.

10 Expert Tips to Make Your PowerPoint Presentations More Engaging and Effective!

• Sathish Shanmugam
• January 8, 2023
• No Comments

PowerPoint presentations are an essential part of many business meetings, conferences, and even online classes. However, while PowerPoint can be a great tool to get your message across, it can also easily become boring and unengaging if not done right. Luckily, you can use plenty of tips and tricks to make your presentations more effective and engaging. 

Here are ten expert tips to help you create powerful and engaging PowerPoint presentations.

Table of Contents

1. Organize your content for maximum impact

Use 10-20-30 rule, use colors, shapes, and images effectively to draw attention, ensure design consistency, use visuals to support the narrative, benefits of using animation, things to consider when using animation, incorporate audio, video, and interactive elements, balance multimedia content with other elements, use charts and graphs to illustrate data points, understand the audience, utilize a logical structure, incorporate design templates and slideshows, prepare a script to help you stay on track, 8. consider using presentation platforms, 9. encourage audience participation, ask for feedback, review the notes, check the presentation, follow up with the audience.

Organizing content for PowerPoint presentations is important as it helps to keep the presentation focused and engaging. When organizing content, it is important to create an introduction, body, and conclusion that flow logically. Additionally, it is important to use visual cues such as headings and images to help the audience follow the presentation. Finally, it is important to use a consistent color palette, font, and style to help create a cohesive presentation that is visually appealing and easy to understand.

2. Choose an engaging visual design

When it comes to making a PowerPoint presentation engaging, visuals are key. Visual designs can help set the tone of your presentation and get your message across. Here are some tips on choosing an engaging visual design for your PowerPoint presentations .

The 10-20-30 rule for slideshows suggests that you should have no more than ten slides, 20 minutes of content, and 30-point font size. This is important because too many words or slides can be overwhelming and distracting. Instead, focus on the most important points and let visual elements do the work.

Consider using abstract shapes, large-high-quality photos, and vibrant colors to ensure that the visuals you choose are appealing and draw attention. Additionally, make sure that the visuals you choose are relevant to your message. For example, use visuals to show off its features if you’re discussing a product. You can also embed attractive QR codes with logos to provide more information on that product by linking to external resources.

To ensure that you keep your design consistent throughout the presentation, you must use similar colors and font sizes throughout. To make this easier, you can use dynamic presentation software or a template with hundreds of example slides that all follow the same design theme.

Visual design is an incredibly powerful tool for enhancing the narrative of a PowerPoint presentation. With the right elements, visuals can help to make a presentation more interesting and memorable for the audience. Visuals should be used strategically to support the narrative. Using visuals that reflect the presentation’s theme will help create a cohesive story that resonates with the audience.

Check out the video to learn about the core prinicple of visual design:

3. Enhance the presentation with animation

Animation can enhance a PowerPoint presentation by making it more visually engaging and helping control information flow.

•   Animation can add energy to static images and text and can also be used to add surprise elements that help make the content more memorable.
• Animations can help to draw your audience’s attention, making it easier for them to stay focused and remember the key points of your presentation. 
• It is important to use animations sparingly, as too many animations can detract from the main message of your presentation. So, make sure to use animation to control the presentation’s pace and keep the audience engaged.
• When adding animations, wait until you have added all the information and objects to the slides.
• Ensure that animations are visible and clear in a PowerPoint presentation to help the audience follow the content.
• Animations should also be used to keep the audience on track and help them to jump back into the topic at any time.

How to make animated powerpoint slide?

4. Include multimedia components

Including multimedia components in PowerPoint presentations is an effective way to make them more engaging. Multimedia combines different types of media, such as audio, video, animation, and images, which can help capture and maintain your audience’s attention.

Including multimedia components in Powerpoint presentations is quite easy. For example, you can crop images to fit shapes, play music in the background, embed YouTube videos , insert screenshots or screen clippings, remove background from pictures, combine shapes to create a custom shape, add sound effects to animations, etc.

Multimedia content can be a great way to bring your presentation to life, but it should not be the only element you use. While multimedia content can be eye-catching, too much of it can distract from the message you are trying to convey.

 Instead, try to use a mix of multimedia content, text, images, and diagrams that will help ensure that your presentation is visually appealing and informative. For example, if you have a video clip, don’t just rely on it to convey the message, but rather provide some additional information in the form of a text block or image that summarises the key points of the clip. This will provide context and help support the message you are trying to get across.

 Additionally, consider using multimedia content and other elements such as text, images, and diagrams to create a more interactive presentation. This will help keep the audience engaged and allow them to better understand the message you are trying to communicate.

5. Utilize data visualization and infographics

Utilizing data visualization and infographics in PowerPoint presentations can be beneficial for a few reasons. First, data visualization and infographics can help to illustrate complex concepts in an easy-to-understand way. Additionally, data visualization and infographics can help to make the content more engaging and visually appealing. Furthermore, data visualization and infographics can help ensure the audience can retain the information presented. Finally, data visualization and infographics can help to add a professional look to the presentation.

Charts and graphs are powerful tools to make your PowerPoint presentations more engaging and effective. Not only do they help to break up the presentation to make it easier for the viewers to digest, but they also allow you to provide a visual representation of complex data that is easy to understand.

Here are some tips on how to use charts and graphs effectively in your PowerPoint presentations:

• Choose the right type of chart or graph: You have to choose the right charts or graphs depending on your data. For example, bar graphs are better suited for categorical data, while pie charts are better for numerical data.
• Keep it simple: Avoid overloading your charts and graphs with too much information, as this can make them difficult to read. Stick to just one or two key points you want to illustrate, and choose colors and fonts that are easy to read.
• Label your axes: Make sure your x and y axes are clearly labeled so audiences can easily follow the data points.
• Make sure your data is accurate: Before you present it, double-check to ensure it is accurate and up-to-date. This will ensure that your conclusions are reliable.
• Use the right scale: When creating your chart or graph, make sure that the scale is appropriate. If the scale is too large or small, it can be difficult to interpret the data.

How to make good infographic?

 6. Create an effective structure and flow

Creating an effective structure and flow to make your PowerPoint presentation more engaging is key to captivating your audience. Here are a few ways to create a flow and structure for your PowerPoint presentation .

The first step is understanding your audience and what their needs are. Knowing your audience’s interests can help you tailor your presentation to be more engaging and interactive. Once you have a good idea of who you’re speaking to, create an outline that will focus on the important points of your presentation. You can use the best AI presentation maker to help you with this.

A logical structure helps to organize the information clearly and logically, making it easier for the audience to follow and understand. It also helps to keep the presentation focused and on track, preventing it from becoming disorganized or tangential. A logical structure can be achieved through the use of clear headings and subheadings and visual aids such as charts and diagrams to illustrate key points.

Use design templates and slideshows to keep the look of your presentation consistent and visually appealing. Ensure to align all objects with the grid to ensure your visuals are perfectly in line.

7. Rehearse and practice

Preparing and rehearsing your presentation allows you to get comfortable with the material and will help you convey your message in a more confident and engaging way.

Having a script for your PowerPoint presentation can be an invaluable tool to ensure that you stay on track and keep to the main points you want to make. In addition, by preparing a script, you can ensure that your presentation runs smoothly and is more engaging and effective.

Here are some tips to help you write an effective script:

• Start with an outline of your presentation. This will help you organize your thoughts and ensure you don’t forget any important points.
• Write down the main points you want to make. Think about what information you want to convey in each section and decide how to present it.
• Include visuals. Think about how visuals or diagrams can help illustrate your points.
• Make sure your language is clear and concise. Avoid jargon and long sentences.
• Keep it conversational. Speak to your audience as if you are having a conversation with them.
• Become familiar with it and make sure you don’t forget any important points
• Timing yourself is an important factor in creating a good PowerPoint presentation. It is important to allocate enough time to cover all the necessary information but not so much time that the presentation becomes tedious for the audience. When practicing, note how long it takes to go through each slide. This will allow you to adjust the length of the presentation as needed and ensure that it flows smoothly.

Presentation platforms offer a wide range of features to help you create an interactive, visually appealing experience for your viewers. Many of these platforms have built-in templates and tools that make it easy to customize the look and feel of your slides. They also provide interactive elements such as quizzes, videos, audio clips, and animations that can add life to your presentation and keep your viewers engaged.

Encouraging audience participation is key to making a PowerPoint presentation more engaging. There are several techniques that can be used to foster engagement with the audience during a PowerPoint presentation.

• Firstly, maintaining eye contact, smiling, and using dynamic gestures and facial expressions will help make your message more memorable and engaging.
• Secondly, hosting an expert discussion panel or inviting guest appearances on stage can add an extra layer of engagement for the audience.
• Thirdly, you can use props or tangible objects to demonstrate ideas and allow the audience to engage with them.
• You can ask questions to keep your audience engaged with your PowerPoint presentations. Questions help to build suspense for the next slide, engage the audience in real time, and make people pay closer attention. It also causes people to reflect rather than merely take in the information one way.
• You can use live polling tools to get real-time feedback.

Effective methods to engage an audience in a presentation

10. Follow-up and review

Following up and reviewing a PowerPoint presentation is important in ensuring that the presentation is effective and that the audience understands the main points. There are several ways to follow up and review a presentation:

Ask the audience for feedback on the presentation, including what they found most useful or interesting and what they would like to see more of in the future.

Go over the notes you made during the presentation to see if there are any areas you may have missed or could have explained more clearly.

Review the presentation and make any necessary edits or updates based on the feedback you received.

Follow up with the audience after the presentation to see if they have any additional questions or concerns and to address any issues that may have come up during the presentation.

Creating engaging and powerful presentations with PowerPoint doesn’t have to be daunting. With the right tips and tricks, you can create presentations that will grab and hold your audience’s attention. Try out some expert tips to take your PowerPoint presentations from boring to brilliant! You can also take the help of professional designers to help you out with the visual aspect of  your presentation.

At Graphically.io , we are your go-to for all your creative needs! Our global network of customers can enjoy unlimited, custom-designed graphics and illustrations for one flat rate. We are committed to delivering exceptional and affordable designs, always ready for when you need them, no matter how soon. We also offer video creation in our standard package at no extra cost that can capture and captivate the attention of your clients and potential customers.

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How-To Geek

6 ways to create more interactive powerpoint presentations.

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Quick Links

• Add a QR code
• Embed Microsoft Forms (Education or Business Only)
• Embed a Live Web Page
• Add Links and Menus
• Add Clickable Images to Give More Info
• Add a Countdown Timer

We've all been to a presentation where the speaker bores you to death with a mundane PowerPoint presentation. Actually, the speaker could have kept you much more engaged by adding some interactive features to their slideshow. Let's look into some of these options.

1. Add a QR code

Adding a QR code can be particularly useful if you want to direct your audience to an online form, website, or video.

Some websites have in-built ways to create a QR code. For example, on Microsoft Forms , when you click "Collect Responses," you'll see the QR code option via the icon highlighted in the screenshot below. You can either right-click the QR code to copy and paste it into your presentation, or click "Download" to add it to your device gallery to insert the QR code as a picture.

In fact, you can easily add a QR code to take your viewer to any website. On Microsoft Edge, right-click anywhere on a web page where there isn't already a link, and left-click "Create QR Code For This Page."

You can also create QR codes in other browsers, such as Chrome.

You can then copy or download the QR code to use wherever you like in your presentation.

2. Embed Microsoft Forms (Education or Business Only)

If you plan to send your PPT presentation to others—for example, if you're a trainer sending step-by-step instruction presentation, a teacher sending an independent learning task to your students, or a campaigner for your local councilor sending a persuasive PPT to constituents—you might want to embed a quiz, questionnaire, pole, or feedback survey in your presentation.

In PowerPoint, open the "Insert" tab on the ribbon, and in the Forms group, click "Forms". If you cannot see this option, you can add new buttons to the ribbon .

As at April 2024, this feature is only available for those using their work or school account. We're using a Microsoft 365 Personal account in the screenshot below, which is why the Forms icon is grayed out.

Then, a sidebar will appear on the right-hand side of your screen, where you can either choose a form you have already created or opt to craft a new form.

Now, you can share your PPT presentation with others , who can click the fields and submit their responses when they view the presentation.

3. Embed a Live Web Page

You could always screenshot a web page and paste that into your PPT, but that's not a very interactive addition to your presentation. Instead, you can embed a live web page into your PPT so that people with access to your presentation can interact actively with its contents.

To do this, we will need to add an add-in to our PPT account .

Add-ins are not always reliable or secure. Before installing an add-in to your Microsoft account, check that the author is a reputable company, and type the add-in's name into a search engine to read reviews and other users' experiences.

To embed a web page, add the Web Viewer add-in ( this is an add-in created by Microsoft ).

Go to the relevant slide and open the Web Viewer add-in. Then, copy and paste the secure URL into the field box, and remove https:// from the start of the address. In our example, we will add a selector wheel to our slide. Click "Preview" to see a sample of the web page's appearance in your presentation.

This is how ours will look.

When you or someone with access to your presentation views the slideshow, this web page will be live and interactive.

4. Add Links and Menus

As well as moving from one slide to the next through a keyboard action or mouse click, you can create links within your presentation to direct the audience to specific locations.

To create a link, right-click the outline of the clickable object, and click "Link."

In the Insert Hyperlink dialog box, click "Place In This Document," choose the landing destination, and click "OK."

What's more, to make it clear that an object is clickable, you can use action buttons. Open the "Insert" tab on the ribbon, click "Shape," and then choose an appropriate action button. Usefully, PPT will automatically prompt you to add a link to these shapes.

You might also want a menu that displays on every slide. Once you have created the menu, add the links using the method outlined above. Then, select all the items, press Ctrl+C (copy), and then use Ctrl+V to paste them in your other slides.

5. Add Clickable Images to Give More Info

Through PowerPoint's animations, you can give your viewer the power to choose what they see and when they see it. This works nicely whether you're planning to send your presentation to others to run through independently or whether you're presenting in front of a group and want your audience to decide which action they want to take.

Start by creating the objects that will be clickable (trigger) and the items that will appear (pop-up).

Then, select all the pop-ups together. When you click "Animations" on the ribbon and choose an appropriate animation for the effect you want to achieve, this will be applied to all objects you have selected.

The next step is to rename the triggers in your presentation. To do this, open the "Home" tab, and in the Editing group, click "Select", and then "Selection Pane."

With the Selection Pane open, select each trigger on your slide individually, and rename them in the Selection Pane, so that they can be easily linked to in the next step.

Finally, go back to the first pop-up. Open the "Animations" tab, and in the Advanced Animation group, click the "Trigger" drop-down arrow. Then, you can set the item to appear when a trigger is clicked in your presentation.

If you want your item to disappear when the trigger is clicked again, select the pop-up, click "Add Animation" in the Advanced Animation group, choose an Exit animation, and follow the same step to link that animation to the trigger button.

6. Add a Countdown Timer

A great way to get your audience to engage with your PPT presentation is to keep them on edge by adding a countdown timer. Whether you're leading a presentation and want to let your audience stop to discuss a topic, or running an online quiz with time-limit questions, having a countdown timer means your audience will keep their eye on your slide throughout.

To do this, you need to animate text boxes or shapes containing your countdown numbers. Choose and format a shape and type the highest number that your countdown clock will need. In our case, we're creating a 10-second timer.

Now, with your shape selected, open the "Animations" tab on the ribbon and click the animation drop-down arrow. Then, in the Exit menu, click "Disappear."

Open the Animation Pane, and click the drop-down arrow next to the animation you've just added. From there, choose "Timing."

Make sure "On Click" is selected in the Start menu, and change the Delay option to "1 second," before clicking "OK."

Then, with this shape still selected, press Ctrl+C (copy), and then Ctrl+V (paste). In the second box, type 9 . With the Animation Pane still open and this second shape selected, click the drop-down arrow and choose "Timing" again. Change the Start option to "After Previous," and make sure the Delay option is 1 second. Then, click "OK."

We can now use this second shape as our template, as when we copy and paste it again, the animations will also duplicate. With this second shape selected, press Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V, type 8 into the box, and continue to do the same until you get to 0 .

Next, remove the animations from the "0" box, as you don't want this to disappear. To do this, click the shape, and in the Animation Pane drop-down, click "Remove."

You now need to layer them in order. Right-click the box containing number 1, and click "Bring To Front." You will now see that box on the top. Do the same with the other numbers in ascending order.

Finally, you need to align the objects together. Click anywhere on your slide and press Ctrl+A. Then, in the Home tab on the ribbon, click "Arrange." First click "Align Center," and then bring the menu up again, so that you can click "Align Middle."

Press Ctrl+A again to select your timer, and you can then move your timer or copy and paste it elsewhere.

Press F5 to see the presentation in action, and when you get to the slide containing the timer, click anywhere on the slide to see your countdown timer in action!

Now that your PPT presentation is more interactive, make sure you've avoided these eight common presentational mistakes before you present your slides.

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10 PowerPoint Presentation Tips to Make More Creative Slideshows

A poor choice of color or font style can bring down the quality of your presentation. In fact, a well-formatted image can distract the audience. All you need is to understand the tonality of your presentation topic along with the audience you want to address.

Here is a list of 10 ‘powerful’ PowerPoint tips straight from the desks of experts to make your point.

10 Expert PowerPoint Tips

You can easily design a presentation with a default PowerPoint template . Will it stand out from the crowd? To make an impact, check these tips and include them in your presentation idea.

1. Stop using default PowerPoint features

Microsoft has done a commendable job by creating PowerPoint for years now. The more advanced the version is the better features we can find. Refrain from using the default elements on your slides. Instead, check these pro tips to make a difference.

• A preset PPT theme is good to go only if matches your needs. Else, avoid adding themes to your PPTs.
• Forget default fonts such as Cambria or Calibri. Go for unique fonts to make your presentation overwhelming and visually appealing.
• Avoid using PPT action sounds. It’s juvenile and does not attract the attention of a mature audience.
• Bulleting comes automatically. Check whether you need default bullets on the points you want to discuss.

2. Custom slides make an impact

Usually, the default template PowerPoint is good to go for general presentations. They possess a default size that might not fit your requirements. The elements you want to add might not adjust well and get distorted in the process. To customize a slide, follow these steps.

• Go to the top left corner of PowerPoint and select ‘File’.
• Select the option ‘Page Setup’ and put in the dimensions as per your requirement. Click OK.
• PowerPoint will display a dialogue box with multiple options. Choose ‘Scale’ if you want to add a customized size to your content. You can choose ‘Don’t Scale’ if you want to avoid the hassle of resizing and adjusting the minor layout changes manually.

Remember, the last step helps you avoid your presentation elements getting skewed.

3. Slide template editing

Edit your PowerPoint slide adjusting templates before you start designing your presentation. Doing so will help you get a slide template design ready in the beginning. You will not have to repeatedly do the same for every slide. Here is how you can do it.

• Select the option ‘View’ in the top navigation panel.
• Choose ‘Master’ and get a dropdown menu.
• Choose ‘Slide Master’ on that menu to make the necessary changes. Select ‘Close Master’ located at the top ribbon. Your present and future slides will use the edited template.

4. Contextual text

A wide choice of words justifies the context of your presentation well. Choose the right font for a better understanding of a target audience. It also conveys your professionalism and the brand’s personality. Experts suggest sticking to Sans Serif or Simple Serif. Don’t go overboard with exciting font choices and make sure the text is readable. The font size goes hand in hand with the typeface. The mix of large, medium, and small font sizes will impart a professional point of view. The audience will connect well with the message you want to convey.

5. The Alignments of Objects

How about the aesthetics of your PowerPoint slides? It comes from the proper alignment of the objects you have added on each slide. Lining up images or graphs gives a professional look. It also works as an eye candy for the audience.

Achieving a well-aligned slide is an easy task. Here is what you need to do.

• Select all elements by pressing the ‘Shift’ key and clicking on them.
• Choose ‘Arrange’ present on the top menu options bar and select ‘Align or Distribute’.
• Once done, select the type of alignment you need on your chosen slide.

6. ‘Format Object’ for Better Control of Designs

The latest versions of Power points add exceptional features to format the objects you have added to your slides. You can make finer adjustments to the objects.

• Choose an object on your slide and right-click.
• Select the ‘Format Object’ option.
• Find the different options popping up on the right-side window menu like adjusting shape measurements, fine-tuning shadows, creating reflections, etc. You can also adjust texts inside an object, recolor photos manually or automatically, and create natural shadows too.

7. Cropping images into desired shapes

Apart from using the excellent custom shape feature, you can crop images on the design slides and give them a desired shape. Check these simple steps.

• Select an image on a slide and choose ‘Picture Format’ available in the option menu at the top.
• Select ‘Crop’ and then the sub-option ‘Crop to Shape’. You will get myriads of options from a dropdown menu. You can also add a custom shape to your images.

8. Contrast image, background, and text color

If you are using an image in the background, make sure the color of your text is in good contrast. Unclear text color will hinder readability and cause trouble for an audience. The thumb rule is to contrast the colors. For instance, use light text color for a darker background and vice versa. If you can’t find out what color to use, use a PowerPoint shape to highlight your text color. Make sure the text box is a little transparent to let the background image flow well with the content.

9. Mock-ups

Charts, diagrams, screenshots, or schematic presentation elements become crucial factors for your story. Your PowerPoint presentation becomes more fluidic when you use mock-ups. What are these elements? Consider an example. You want to make the audience pay attention to a flowchart. Try using a digital projector image where you can paste the flowchart.

This tip will automatically dictate the slide’s importance and the audience will pay more attention. The slide will also look craftier than a normal schematic one. Remember to check the dimensions of your flowchart. It should size down and become unclear for the sake of adding a mock-up.

10. Visual data representation

The last but crucial tip is to represent important data in a visually more-pleasing mode. How will you do that? Use visual formats of representing data. For instance, use a doughnut graph to represent data. It has been proved that an audience perceives data better in a visual representation than in a numerical method.

Bard graphs, doughnut charts, and other visual data representation modes with a good color combination will make the message clearer. This step is important as it creates a good impression on an audience’s mind. You can smoothly transition from one slide to the other by ensuring the audience has perceived what you have explained in a previous slide.

Bonus PowerPoint Presentation Tips

Develop an outline of a presentation right at the beginning. It helps an audience to understand the course of your presentation. When there are multiple slides, it is possible that the target audience might lose the trail. Hence, create a welcome slide, add a menu slide, and end your presentation with a summary slide. Wrap your presentation with a summary to make an impact.

Wrapping up

Follow these ten tips to make your PowerPoint online presentation more aesthetic to a target audience. Focus on the elements you want to add and balance them with the message you want to deliver. Understand the demography of the audience and prepare your presentation accordingly. Show less and talk more to connect well and explain your topic.

FAQs – PowerPoint Presentation Tips

1. why should you add a summary slide at the end of your presentation.

A summary slide allows you to deliver a concise form of your presentation. The audience will also recall what they have perceived during the process and relate.

2. What is the 5-second rule for PowerPoint presentations?

The 5-second rule dictates that an audience should get the context of a slide within five seconds. Your slides should be simple enough to convey the message clearly and help the spectators understand the context.

3.  Is it ok to use GIFs in PowerPoint?

Gifs add a brilliant visual element to your PowerPoint presentation when used tactfully. These looped images help you communicate an idea, a mood, or even information. Don’t go overboard with gifs as they can distract the audience.

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Be prepared with ways to get your audience engaged and keep their focus. Whether that's relating to your audience, telling a joke or asking questions, actively driving engagement will make for a more effective presentation or speech. - Luke Feldmeier , Online Leadership Training - Career and Leadership Accelerator for Engineers

3. Create An Emotional Connection

Creating an emotional connection with the audience and involving them in your session fosters active participation, and ensures your audience stays engaged throughout. This also serves to enhance your presence and to create memories that stay with them long after your presentation ends. - Kristin Andree , Andree Group

4. Put Your Unique Take Front And Center

Do you have something unexpected to say about your topic? Something that goes against the mainstream opinion in your industry or is maybe even slightly provocative? If so, putting your unique take front and center in the title and the beginning of your talk and explaining or resolving it later keeps your audience engaged and interested. - Micha Goebig , Go Big Coaching & Communications, LLC

5. Remember That The Audience Doesn't Know Your Planned Speech

No one wants to see you fail as a speaker. Remember that the focus shouldn't be on whether or not you can recall verbatim every word of your planned speech. The focus should be on how to connect to your audience with a few key points using a combination of storytelling and facts. - Sheri Nasim , Center for Executive Excellence

6. Adapt Your Language To The Audience

Talk about something they are interested in or include elements that will keep them interested. Start by asking why your topic matters to each and every one of them. Use language adapted to the audience. Keep the key messages to two or three maximum. Show them what you think and why you care about the topic. - Isabelle Claus Teixeira , Business and Human Development Consulting Pte Ltd

7. Try To Incorporate An Element Of Surprise

Engagement is the key to keeping the audience's attention. Invite participation, tell stories, walk around, have visuals, include humor, raise your voice and ask questions. Think of a comedian who points at someone in the audience: "Hey, you with the red shirt?" Everyone pays attention. What element of surprise can you present? - Susan Jordan, MBA, MSODL, PCC , Sphereshift Coaching and Consulting

8. Know Your Audience

Doing research ahead of time to ensure you're providing the subject matter in a personalized manner will keep their attention. The topic will dictate the necessary vibe. Based on that, providing opportunities for the group to engage, such as shouting out a word, raising a hand, etc., will also help maintain their interest. - Lindsay Miller , Reverie Organizational Development Specialists

9. Use The Problem-Agitation-Solution Approach

Don't just give a presentation — share a story. It must be a story-audience fit though. Use the P.A.S. — problem-agitation-solution — approach. Start with introducing a problem, follow by agitating the problem via telling a relevant anecdote and conclude by offering a solution by giving an audience a clear, direct way to avoid the pain and learn the lesson. - Alla Adam , Alla Adam Coaching

10. Tell The Audience What They Need To Hear

Instead of trying to figure out what to say, figure out what the audience wants and needs to hear. This shift in perspective allows you to tailor your speech in a way that keeps audiences actively engaged because it's good content that they want to hear. - Robin Pou , The Confident Leader

11. Go All In

To command your audience's attention you have to get into the spirit of what you're teaching and go all in without second-guessing yourself. People want to be led, but they'll be unwilling to follow someone who isn't confident in what they are communicating. - Arash Vossoughi , Voss Coaching Co.

12. Use A Compelling Opening

Start your speech/presentation with a compelling opening that grabs the audience's attention. This could be a surprising fact, a relevant story or a thought-provoking question. This initial engagement can help you establish a strong connection with the audience and set the stage for a captivating presentation. - Moza-Bella Tram , Moza-Bella LLC

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13. Be Authentic

Connect deeply with your essence and purpose. Radiate authenticity. When you're centered in genuine passion and truth others feel it, creating an unspoken bond. It's not about performing; it's about being present and real and offering value from the heart. That's magnetic. - Anna Yusim, MD , Yusim Psychiatry, Consulting & Executive Coaching

14. Let Your Audience Talk

There is nothing worse than stealing everyone's craving for autonomy and speaking the whole time. The person who does the talking does the learning. So, give some autonomy to the audience. Let them talk. Even if it's thinking time and talking to themselves, or to their neighbor or table group. This gains trust and they will lean into what you have to say even more. - Alex Draper , DX Learning Solutions

15. Leverage Non-Verbal Cues

My top tip is to engage your audience through storytelling. A compelling narrative captures attention, evokes emotion and makes complex ideas more relatable. Additionally, use body language and eye contact effectively. These non-verbal cues can significantly enhance your connection with the audience. - Peter Boolkah , The Transition Guy

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How To Create a Slide Deck: Templates & Tips

Written by: Unenabasi Ekeruke

Wondering how to create slide decks that hit the mark? Look no further; you've come to the right place.

Whether you're pitching investors or making a keynote presentation, the quality of your slide deck matters a great deal.

Well-designed slide decks can pique your audience's interest and win them over.

In fact, about 91% of presenters swear beautiful slide decks boost their confidence during presentations.

In this article, we'll discuss what a slide deck is and how to create one. We've also included templates and helpful tips for creating powerful slide decks that leave a lasting impression.

In this video, we've also put together 13 presentation design tips for creating awesome slide decks.

Let's dive in!

Table of Contents

• What Is a Slide Deck

How To Make a Slide Deck in 5 Steps

10 slide deck templates for creating successful presentations, slide deck faqs, create attractive slide decks with visme, what is a slide deck.

A slide deck is a collection of slides used as visual aids during a pitch or presentation. Think of each slide as a single card in a deck with unique content, meanings, value and structure.

Like a deck of cards, you can queue up your slides to tell a story about a topic. Depending on your story's angle, tone and mood , you can shuffle your slides or eliminate some of them.

How you build your slide deck depends on these three things:

• The type of presentation you're making
• Who your audiences are
• What you want to accomplish or the message you're passing across

Slide decks like the one below are a valuable resource for entrepreneurs, marketers and businesspeople.

When used to pitch a startup or idea , a slide deck is also called a pitch deck . But you could call it a presentation deck when you're using it for other purposes like presenting a proposal in a professional or academic setting.

Slide decks help you present ideas in an organized format and aid delivery during presentations. Many presentation programs like Visme and PowerPoint let you add as many slides as you want to your deck. The best part is that you can design and customize your deck, making it look professional and attractive.

Create a stunning presentation in less time

• Hundreds of premade slides available
• Add animation and interactivity to your slides
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How you craft your slide deck can play a big role in the success of your presentation. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to create an effective slide deck.

Step 1: Build Your Deck Around Your Story

Want to up the value of your presentation? Start by focusing on your core message. Regardless of your presentation type, your slide deck outline should answer these key questions:

• What is the purpose of your presentation?
• What do you want your audience to understand or remember?
• What actions do you want them to take after listening to you?

Many people, including experienced presenters, tend to fill their slides with points that don't add value. This leaves the audience confused about whether to listen or read the slide.

Remember, the pitch deck should visually enhance your audience's learning experience. Once you weave your narrative around your main story, you can organize your supporting points around it. You're sure to engage your audience and drive your message across.

Dealing with busy execs who won't sit through your presentation? Use a startup one pager instead. It'll get their attention quicker and more efficiently. You can then secure a meeting to present your pitch deck.

Step 2: Use Premade Templates

Templates give you a creative head start. They provide consistency in design, layout and ideas. Visme has thousands of editable slide deck templates to help you create presentations quickly.

Here's how to customize your slide deck in Visme.

1. Select and Edit a Template

Each slide deck template in Visme has two or more slides. Feel free to add, remove or reorder slides to your deck as you proceed. Once your presentation structure is ready, pick out slides to edit and input your own content.

If you have an existing presentation in PowerPoint, you can import it and continue editing your slides in Visme.

2. Input and Edit Text

After you've selected your slides, add custom text to them. Our templates have built-in text placeholders. Click and drag the placeholder to change the text position. Or click each placeholder and highlight the block of text to edit it.

Type your text or paste the text you copied from elsewhere. Repeat the process throughout the rest of the slide deck.

Want to add more fun and personality to your text? Visme editor makes it easy for you to change font style, text color, size, style, direction and much more. Animate your text and add other special effects to make your text alluring.

3. Use High-quality Stock Images

High-quality images capture and convey abstract concepts like color and emotions. Upload images stored on your computer and use them in your design. Or select from Visme's rich library of free high-resolution images to find the perfect one for your slide deck.

4. Add Shapes, Icons and Animated Graphics

Use these elements to bring boring presentations to life. They are effective for creating minimalistic designs and explaining complex ideas.

Visme has a comprehensive library of more than one million shapes, icons , illustrations and animations . Click the graphics tab, select the asset, and add it to the slide. You can change the color, position and size of your design assets.

5. Add Data Visualizations

Use data visualizations to share statistics, financial and other numerical data in your presentation. You'll find bar charts, pie charts , graphs , timelines , flowcharts , maps and more in Visme.

Select the chart or graph and customize the title, color, data, legends and more.

6. Eliminate Unwanted Elements

Pre-built slide decks contain lots of placeholder content. They serve as a guide to help you create the perfect presentation. You don't have to use all of it.

Feel free to eliminate anything that isn't useful to your deck. Watch this video to learn more about creating beautiful slide deck presentations in Visme.

Step 3. Make Your Design Count

When preparing for your big day, invest as much time into your slide design as your content. What's in it for you? An engaging slide deck can draw in your audience and get them excited about what you have to offer.

Be Consistent

If your company has a brand guideline, apply your brand elements to the slides. But if you haven't got one, Visme helps create a strong and memorable brand identity .

Use the brand style guide template below to define your brand personality and ensure consistency.

After creating your logo, fonts and colors, you can save them in Visme's brand design tool . Your team members can easily create presentations in Visme and your brand theme will automatically appear on their designs.

Watch the video below to learn how to set up your branding kit in Visme.

Use the Right Font Pairing

Choosing the right font pairing and sizes can be a big deal, especially for non-designers. But getting it right can turn a boring slide deck into an appealing one.

Stick to two or three typefaces and assign distinct roles to each font —the more contrast between your fonts, the better.

For instance, you can use the same font for headings, another for the intro, another for the body and the fourth for quotes.

Use typefaces that connote your personality and style. If you're pitching art or design themes, incorporate classic and contemporary typefaces that connote creativity and elegance.

Not sure how to pair fonts? We've created this detailed guide to help you choose the right font combination for your designs.

Step 4: Incorporate the Right Visuals

Without a doubt, the human brain is wired for visuals . The mental capacity to process visual content far exceeds that of written and spoken words.

Attractive visual aids help you tell more compelling stories than text. Incorporating images, video animations and sleek transitions to break up static slides will get people's attention.

Bar charts that show patterns or trends can boost investors' confidence and convey excitement. The same goes for pie charts, which are great for comparing growth areas.

Use infographics to condense lengthy text into visuals that people can easily relate to. Luckily, Visme has the right tools for every job. With our infographic maker , you can easily translate your ideas into digestible graphics.

Step 5: Make Your Slide Deck Clear and Brief

One big mistake people make is that they want to keep adding content to their slide deck. They end up filling it up with tedious details irrelevant to their audience.

Remember, your slides are supposed to aid your presentation rather than contain every word you say. If you fill it with text, you could quickly lose your audience. They'll keep longing for the end and leave the room with little or no information.

To make your slide deck impactful, eliminate fluff. Keep it brief yet filled with key action points. Fit your information into three key blocks- a persuasive intro, a strong body and an actionable conclusion. You will have a more focused, shorter, and memorable presentation .

Whether you want to create slide decks for business, education, or nonprofits, Visme has everything you need. We have thousands of templates to help you create stunning slide decks you can be proud of. Here are our top 10 templates from each of these categories.

Template #1: HybCab Pitch Deck Presentation Template

Got a new business idea? Or do you want to scale your business? Get your investors pumped up with this Uber-inspired professional pitch deck template.

The editable 20-slide deck template covers every element of a winning pitch. It features a striking slide layout, a beautiful color scheme, and high-resolution photos and icons. The interactive data visualizations allow you to share compelling numbers that attract investors' interest.

Template #2: Buyer Presentation Template

Use this attractive slide deck template to win over clients for your real estate business. The simple and classy design makes it unique and impactful.

You'll find a lot of space to play around with colors, fonts and other design elements. Feel free to tweak the layout design, add compelling images of your properties, key stats and much more.

Template #3: BuffIT Pitch Deck Presentation Template

This template is a perfect pick for companies looking to pitch to customers or investors. Use this Buffer-inspired slide deck to share your key information like goals, traction, milestones, financial projection and more.

The consistent blue color theme and elegant styling provide a refreshing visual experience. Notice how charts, timelines and images are used to draw attention to critical data. You can add or remove slides, edit the content, and use your brand colors, fonts and logo to keep it on brand.

Template #4: Training Course Presentation Template

Bridge the skills gap in your organization with this training slide deck template. The template has a minimalistic design and seamlessly blends different shades of blue across all 13 slides.

The slides feature valuable elements and sections to help your audience retain the information better. You'll find quality icons, images, a chart, timeline, checklist and evaluation matrix.

Use this template to onboard new hires and get them in the mood for work. You can also use it to prepare training courses or introduce new policies and procedures.

Template #5: Coffee Lover Statistics Presentation

Here's another cutting-edge slide deck template for education, training and informational purposes. The coffee-themed presentation has a rich blend of white, brown and black color themes.

You can use it to highlight the benefits of a product with relevant statistics, charts and graphs to make it digestible. The text, icons and images are evenly spaced, making it easier for your audience to grasp key information.

Create the perfect slide deck with Visme's design collaboration feature. Team members can view, edit and leave feedback on your presentation in real-time. You can reply, resolve and delete comments till the design is top-notch.

Template #6: Nonprofit Report Presentation

Are you starting a nonprofit or growing an existing one? This editable slide deck presentation can serve multiple purposes.

You can use it to share what you and your volunteers have been up to in the past year. It's also helpful in building support for your charitable projects.

It features sections like executive summary, introduction, map of projects, number of incidences, cases, casualties and more. Use images, data visualizations and widgets from Visme's library to tell stories that pique your audience's interests.

#Template 7: Lesson Plan Presentation

With this slide deck template, you can build a learning trajectory for your students. It outlines what students need to learn, how lessons will be delivered, and how learning will be evaluated. You can also list resources needed by teachers and students, methods and assignment types.

Change the color, font and logo to fit your brand and your deck is ready for use.

Template #8: Creative Product Presentation

Weave a captivating narrative about your product with this slide deck template. The template has a dynamic layout, creating room for you to present any information.

It highlights key information like the product mockup, milestones and timelines, revenue projections, product pricing and more. Use this template to visualize the creation process for SaaS-based platforms, cloud solutions and tech products.

Template #9: Financial Report Presentation

Looking to communicate financial activities and performance within your company? This visual-rich slide deck template fits the bill. It contains bars, charts, and graphs, making your data easier to comprehend.

The dark background and bright-colored fonts and elements create the perfect visual contrast. Liven up your presentation with animated icons, illustrations and special effects. Also, incorporate hover effects and clickable pop-ups to make your slides interactive.

Template #10: Parenting Keynote Presentation

Use this appealing keynote presentation template to deliver a powerful presentation on parenting. This colorful slide deck can help you connect with other parents, teachers and child caregivers.

Utilize our crisp stock photos, icons and illustrations to make your audience engagement more rewarding.

Why Is It Called a Slide Deck?

The term slide decks date back to an old technology where slides were physically inserted into a carousel projector and projected on the wall or screen. These slides were shuffled like a deck of cards to create a presentation. Hence, the name "slide deck" has stuck with the modern age.

Today slide decks are created and projected digitally using software like Visme , PowerPoint, Google Slides and more.

What Is the Difference Between a Slide Deck vs. Powerpoint vs Presentation vs Pitch Deck?

A slide deck is a group of slides put together to tell a story. PowerPoint is a software application used to create slide decks or presentations. A pitch deck is a distinct type of slide deck used to pitch a solution, idea, or product when seeking financing from investors.

How Do You Make a Beautiful Slide Deck?

Whether you're sharing strategies or performance updates, you don't need to build your slide deck from scratch. Visme has a rich library of beautifully-designed slide decks that leaves a lasting impression on your audience.

Now you know what makes a slide deck great. It's time to create one for your business.

Visme presentation software and templates provide everything you need to create beautiful slide decks for any purpose. Our software has helped thousands of businesses and professionals nail their presentations.

Each template comes with pre-designed slides. You can replace your content and customize other design elements according to your preference. With Dynamic Fields , you're sure your personal, company and other critical information will be accurate and updated throughout your presentation in real-time.

Visme lets you download your slide deck in multiple formats or share online using a link . You can generate an embed code and paste it on your website or blog. From your analytics page , you can see who has viewed your presentation and other metrics.

Easily put together winning slide decks in Visme

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Design visual brand experiences for your business whether you are a seasoned designer or a total novice.

About the Author

Unenabasi is a content expert with many years of experience in digital marketing, business development, and strategy. He loves to help brands tell stories that drive engagement, growth, and competitive advantage. He’s adept at creating compelling content on lifestyle, marketing, business, e-commerce, and technology. When he’s not taking the content world by storm, Unenabasi enjoys playing or watching soccer.

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Category 9 minutes read

10 creative ideas for presentations

December 8, 2022

Ready to step up your presentation game? Let’s talk about creative ideas for presentations so you can deliver killer presentations every time. Whether you’re preparing a pitch deck for potential investors or onboarding new hires, you’ll need an engaging presentation to keep your audience interested. That’s right: even if you’re already a pro at public speaking, creative Powerpoint presentations can instantly upgrade your next meeting.

So, what’s the secret to creative presentations? You don’t have to spend hours on every slide, but you should design your slides to impact your audience. Well designed slides can add more power to your words, and they can make you feel more confident during presentations.

Why should you make presentations?

Creative ideas for presentations might not be easy to come by, but they’re important. Why? Presentations are all about storytelling. From business ideas to online classes, presentations offer a unique opportunity to inspire, educate, and persuade your audience.

At the same time, they’re an incredibly flexible (and cost-effective!) communication tool. Even if you’re using presentation design templates , you’ll have the flexibility to tweak the design based on your needs. This way, you can create presentations for different audiences—all while easily adding and removing information to pique your listeners’ interest.

Types of presentation slides

There are all kinds of creative ideas for presentations, but they ultimately serve a few similar purposes. Before diving into presentation design, you’ll need to choose the right slides. Remember: you need well designed slides to leave a lasting impact on your audience. Not only that, but your slides should be visually impactful, easy to understand, and convey key information in just a few words.

So, how can you choose the best slides for your next presentation? Here are some of the most common slides to inspire your presentation design.

Informative presentations

Informative presentations are educational, concise, and straight to the point. While other presentations might entertain or inspire their audience, informative presentations share information to educate their audience.

For example, you might create informative slides during an onboarding program. During new hire onboarding, HR needs to explain what benefits employees will receive, how to file complaints, where employees can find information, and other important hiring details.

Educational presentations

While informative presentations are typically used in the business world, educational presentations are usually used in academics. They’re a great communication tool for sharing ideas, detailing study results, or presenting a hypothesis.

In both in-person and online classrooms, teachers give educational presentations daily. Using beautiful presentation slides, eye-catching visuals, and fun design elements can help keep students interested while conveying key information.

Progress reports

Your business builds a new marketing strategy to achieve its long-term goals. After the newest marketing campaign starts driving results, it’s time to report on the campaign’s progress. Progress report presentations share updates, progress toward deadlines, collected data, and potential areas of improvement.

Inspirational presentations

One of the biggest examples of inspirational presentations? TEDTalks. During TEDTalks, motivational speakers inspire people to rethink their approach or change their behavior.

Most inspirational presentations aren’t as life-changing as TEDTalks, but they keep their audience engaged. For example, a company overview presentation might present information about a company, from its origins to values. Most importantly, it tells the company’s story to show listeners what the company stands for.

Infographic presentations

Whether you’re reporting marketing stats or presenting study results, infographics can be your MVP.

Simply put, an infographic is a multimedia graphic that helps you share information through beautiful designs. It’s an amazing tool for highlighting key statistics, visualizing data, and flexing your creative muscles to spark your audience’s curiosity.

Top 10 unique presentation ideas

Right, so let’s get to our creative ideas for presentations section. Most people tune out of presentations within the first 10 minutes . You need an engaging presentation that keeps your audience hooked, but finding creative ideas for presentations isn’t always easy.

The good news? Whether you’re presenting your master thesis or marketing analytics, it’s possible to create exciting presentations that don’t put your audience to sleep. Here are the best creative Powerpoint ideas to upgrade your next presentation.

1. Channel your inner minimalist

When it comes to unique presentation ideas, minimalism is one of the best ways to make an impact. The key to minimalist design is including just enough information and visual detail to keep your audience engaged. When done right, minimalist presentation slides can make your audience feel relaxed and focused.

2. Use a monochrome color palette

A monochrome color palette uses a single hue with different strengths. For example, you might create a presentation with different shades of orange. For the best results, change the background color to the palest shade, and use the strongest shade for the title. You can even make your photos match by adding an orange-tinted filter.

3. Tell an amazing story

If you want to leave a lasting impact on your audience, storytelling is the tool you need to create a memorable presentation. Sharing personal stories, whether they’re funny or inspirational, can help you connect with your audience and make your presentation more meaningful.

4. Make an impact with bold fonts

Want to draw your audience’s attention to the slide title? Use a bold, chunky font to make your title stand out (bonus points if your title is short, sweet, and straight to the point). The best presentation fonts are easy to read with minimal visual decorations and sharp corners.

5. Experiment with different textures

Mix up your presentation design with different textures, like scrunched paper or textile backgrounds. Here, you might experiment with different types of backgrounds to match your topic. For example, if you’re creating a back-to-school presentation , use notebook paper to match your student’s note-taking style.

6. Use a geometric background

A geometric background can add a pop of color to your presentation without distracting your audience. If you’re feeling bold, use dynamic titled polygons to create movement. Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a softer vibe, use circular backgrounds to infuse your slides with creativity.

7. Explain complex concepts with mind maps

Presenting study results? Reporting marketing stats? Instead of playing it safe with snore-worthy slides, keep your presentation fresh with mind maps. By creating mind maps, you’ll be able to showcase complicated information in a visually impactful way.

8. Engage your audience with questions

Make your presentation more interactive by asking questions to your audience. For example, to keep your slides minimal, try displaying only the question on the slide. Once the audience has pitched in their opinions and answers, you can click to the next slide to reveal the actual answer.

9. Stay on brand

Once you’ve captured your audience’s attention, you need a consistent design to keep everyone on the same page. When designing your slides, use your brand’s style guidelines to choose the right color scheme, font styles, and design elements.

10. Replace bullet points with fun design elements

Let’s face it: bullet points can get boring, especially if you’re using them on every slide. Instead of using the same design over and over, create fun slides by replacing boring bullet points with fun designs, like icons, stickers, and pictograms.

Apply creative ideas for presentations through Picsart

Now that we’ve learned all about creative ideas for presentations, it’s time to put that knowledge into practice. An amazing presentation can bring your story to life, helping you keep your audience engaged with pro-grade slides.

Even if you’re not a seasoned designer, you can add fun design elements, bold color palettes, and attention-grabbing visuals with Picsart. Here’s how to bring your creative vision to life with a professional slideshow.

On the web:

1. Open the Picsart Slideshow Maker and start a new project.

2. Choose the desired size for your slideshow. Then, click Upload to upload your own photo or video.

Or, you can explore photos and videos from the Picsart library.

3. After you’ve picked your favorite design, click Text on the left panel sidebar to add text to your slide.

4. To add music, click Audio to explore our library of #FreeToUse music.

5. Click the + button on the right panel sidebar to add a new slide.

6. When you’re finished, click Export , choose the image quality and file type, and download your slideshow.

1. Open the Picsart app and tap on the plus sign (+) to start a new project. 2. Scroll down to Video and choose Slideshow . Then, choose the pictures you’d like to include in your slideshow. Or, you can tap Search to explore the Picsart photo library. 3. After you’ve picked your photos, tap Next .

4. Choose your desired slideshow size and add transition effects to your slides. 5. Upgrade your slideshow with fun effects, music, text, and stickers to engage your audience.

Create at the Speed of Culture

Picsart is a photo and video editing platform and creative community. A top 20 most downloaded app worldwide with over 150 million monthly active users, its AI-powered tools enable creators of all levels to design, edit, draw, and share content anywhere. The platform has amassed one of the largest open-source content collections in the world, including photos, stickers, backgrounds, templates, and more. Used by consumers, marketers, content creators and businesses , Picsart tools fulfill both personal and professional design needs. Picsart has collaborated with major artists and brands like BLACKPINK, Taylor Swift, Lizzo, Ariana Grande, Warner Bros. Entertainment, iHeartMedia, Condé Nast, and more. Download the app or start editing on web today, and upgrade to Gold for premium perks!

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