Powerpoint presentations are one of the most effective tools you can use when in need of presenting a new project to your colleagues, or maybe you’re a student and have an exam or seminar.
Whatever the case, with this useful tool you can easily present your ideas, categorize them slide by slide, and make the whole experience visually pleasing to your audience. So, therefore, if you want to further upgrade your “game”, here are some useful tips on how to make it even more appealing, or if you never did one, here is how to.
Make Sure the Font Is Right
When making a presentation, you want to make sure the letters you use are in the appropriate font. Depending on the type of presentation, and the type of statement you want to make, the choice of the proper letter font. For more serious meetings, you’ll use maybe Ariel or Calibri, or when you have to highlight a newspaper article, Times New Roman is maybe more convenient. This also applies to school work and student projects. Another piece of advice we can give you when it comes to presentations is choosing the right background, meaning using the template which will emphasize the content the most. People often make the mistake of putting a dark template and not changing the color of the letters, often resulting in zero visibility of what they wrote. Avoid these amateur mistakes, and make sure the template is not distracting. Also, make sure to write less and say more, meaning make the sentences short. They are essentially there to summarize the most significant aspects, providing concise definitions rather than entire textbook passages.
Slide Master
The slide master feature is one of the most useful tools you can have on a presentation, as PowerPoint actually allows for several different options, like two separate columns, or maybe even a bulleted list. It allows for a better background, depending on the need. Sometimes you can use the two separate column features when you have to highlight the contrasting parallels between two things, or you can easily make it text/image as the feature also allows you to put one. This choice is more than beneficial for a presentation and a better visual presentation of your message. It will appear more professional and demonstrate you have put more work into it.
Make the Transition between Slides Smooth
In an attempt to make the PowerPoint presentation more appealing and more interesting, people often use different features like the jump or fly-in feature between slides. The transition might be useful when you are presenting in front of little children, who’ll find it amazing, but when it comes to serious projects in front of colleagues or students at college, avoid these as it seems unprofessional. Make sure it is smooth, meaning less flashy and more serious. This also applies to the use of sounds, animations, and other similar comic book-like features available. Although there is a place and time for them, overusing them will distract your audience from the content and make them focus on the animation instead. Therefore, be careful with these items and make sure to incorporate them into the presentation when necessary.
Make It Coherent
One thing to have in mind when making the presentation is being coherent. Meaning- the fewer slides the better, and make sure the content appears on the slide in a consistent fashion. PowerPoint allows for the appearance of lines slowly or gradually with every click of the mouse. This amazing feature is perfect for building audience anticipation and hiding parts of the text you are not going to refer to right away. This also means that every line has to be coherently linked to the previous, so if you are thinking of making a little digression, do not use this feature. Referring back to the previous phrase, if you have a lot of slides, your audience is likely to lose patience and focus, so try to condense all you want to convey into a few concise and effective slides.
Use this guide to help you orient yourself and navigate through your information in a non-distracting manner for those who are listening. PowerPoint has the feature of jumping from the front to the back and back again to the front, so there is no need for every single one of them when searching for that piece of text.
The text on your slides is there to remind you of the most important bits, therefore do not be the kind of guy who reads from the slides, especially as everyone else can do that in their head. The points you make are there to be like a little note to yourself, you are the one with the “actual” content, not the slides. We hope your presentation will be a true success.