what is the best format for a powerpoint presentation

Microsoft 365 Life Hacks > Presentations > How to Format Presentation Slides

How to Format Presentation Slides

Learn how to give your presentation slides a facelift so they captivate your audience.

Why is Presentation Design and Formatting Important?

A well-designed presentation can help you connect with your audience and gets your message across in an easily digestible manner. Great presentation design can impart a positive first impression and is more likely to draw in and engage an audience.

Pretend you’re attending a presentation and instead of formatted PowerPoint slides, each one is plain white with a lot of dark text that’s hard to read. And even though the background and text colors are the same, none of the text is lined up and multiple fonts are used. There are no transitions or title pages that help to differentiate between topics being discussed and you’re presented with slide after slide of confusing, jumbled text.

Tell your story with captivating presentations

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

Formatting slides in your presentation is what enhances the look of the slides and transforms them into something that complements the content and resonates with the audience.

What Else Should a Good Presentation Include?

While formatted slides can help to connect with the audience, a good presentation should also include:

• Well-written, concise content that clearly explains the problem that you’re trying to solve and the unique solution you’ve come up with.
• A great hook or emotionally compelling introduction.
• Visuals that support your message and aren’t too busy.

Most importantly, a good presentation should be efficient and engage with the audience. And that engagement can be found in the content as well as how the slides are formatted.

Tips for Creating & Formatting Presentation Slides

Before you start creating your PowerPoint presentation, make sure that your content is solid. Making an outline can help you keep information organized, clear, and concise before you put it into a presentation. The outline can also help you break down what information is shared on each slide to keep things from being overcrowded or wordy. Take a minute to consider your audience and the best ways to connect with them and present what you’re trying to share.

Once your content is finalized, you can get to work on creating and formatting your presentation slides.

How to Make a Slide

A PowerPoint presentation is sometimes known as a deck and is composed of different slides. When you’re putting your own deck together, you’ll certainly need to add slides and format them in different ways.

In order to make a new slide appear in your presentation, first select the slide that you’d like your new slide to follow. Then click Home and choose New Slide . From there, you can choose your desired layout , and start inputting content. The layout options in PowerPoint are great for keeping your text lined up and consistent through the deck. You can also rearrange, duplicate, and delete slides as necessary.

Formatting Your Presentation Slides

Once you’ve created your content or slides, it’s time to consider design and formatting. This is where you make choices about themes, templates, color schemes, and fonts.

If you don’t feel confident about your design abilities, you might want to try applying a template . This customizable option offers a variety of artistic skins that can give your deck a professional polish. There is even a range of downloadable templates available from Microsoft to suit any kind of presentation.

Don’t feel like you must use a template, though. Many users may prefer to use or create a theme to visually tie together their presentations. PowerPoint provides a variety of themes which include color schemes, backgrounds, fonts, and placeholder slides. In the Design tab, you can choose a theme that appeals to you or matches with your content. You can even try different color variations within the theme by selecting Variants . Each variant has built in options for colors, fonts, and background colors and styles that can help you format your slides and create a cohesive look throughout the deck.

There are a few things to keep in mind if you decide to eschew the suggestions made by PowerPoint:

• Consider the colors you’re using. There are definitely a few color combinations you should avoid .
• Choose fonts that are easy to read and make sure that your text isn’t too small to be read across a large room. You’ll also want to remember to keep the text on your slides relatively sparse, with no more than three bullet points per slide.

Using Visual Aids in Your Presentation

One way to break up the monotony of an all-text presentation is to use visual aids like charts, graphs, static images, gifs, and movies.

As with all other aspects of your deck, ensure that your visuals are easy to see and understand, and aren’t too wordy. Imagine trying to read a line graph with lots of muddy colors and small text from across a conference room. The goal of a visual aid is to make the presentation you’re giving more compelling and the information you’re sharing easier to understand.

Here are a few tips for adding visuals to your presentation:

• Make sure the images you use are of high quality and that they fit in your deck. They shouldn’t be distorted or pixelated, as this will distract from the content.
• All charts should be very easy to read and understand. If someone can’t immediately glean what information is presented, you may be trying to fit too much into a single chart.
• Don’t use more than one chart per slide unless it’s necessary. Keep it simple.
• If you’re including a brand or logo in your deck, make sure you’re adhering to that brand’s style guide .

A great way to get design ideas for slides in your presentation us to use the Designer feature in PowerPoint. It automatically generates design ideas for you to choose from based on the content of your slide. Designer detects when you’re using pictures, charts, and tables and gives you suggestions for arranging them on your slides in a cohesive layout that’s easy on the eyes. Designer can also help to format your lists and timelines into easy-to-read graphics and suggests relevant graphics to pair with keywords that it finds within your content.

Create a PowerPoint deck that stands out and resonates with your audience by formatting it in a professional manner. And don’t forget to prep for your presentation !

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• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Understanding PowerPoint File Formats

It’s possible to use PowerPoint for years without ever thinking about the various file formats that are available to you. By learning about PowerPoint’s file formats and options, however, you can do a much more effective job of creating presentations, backing them up, sharing them with colleagues, and protecting the information that they contain.

Ordinary PowerPoint Presentations

When you save a simple PowerPoint presentation, you give it a name, and PowerPoint adds the file extension .pptx. Your Sales Presentation file becomes Sales Presentation.pptx .

If your PowerPoint presentation contains one or more macros, PowerPoint will automatically detect their presence and save your presentation as a .pptm file. You can force PowerPoint to save a presentation that includes macros as a .pptx file, but PowerPoint won’t let you play the macros that you’ve included in your slide slow. So it’s best to let it save your file with the .pptm extension.

If you need to share your presentation with a colleague who is using an older version of PowerPoint, then save your slides as a .ppt file. PowerPoint 97 through 2003 cannot open and process .pptx or .pptm files.

If you’re using PowerPoint 2007 or newer, you should always save your work in .pptx format (or in .pptm format if you’ve used macros in your presentation). The options described below are additional ways to save your work. Be sure to save them first as ordinary .pptx or .pptm files before you save them in any of these other formats.

PowerPoint Shows

If you want to give your PowerPoint presentation to a friend or colleague, and you don’t want them to change anything, then save your presentation as a PowerPoint Show file. Your colleagues can display your slides, but they will be unable to change any part of your presentation.

There are three types of PowerPoint Shows: Save an ordinary presentation as a .ppsx file. If you’re using macros in your presentation, save it as a .ppsm file. If you’re sending your slide show to somebody who is using PowerPoint 97 through 2003, then create a .pps PowerPoint Show file.

Be sure to save your presentation as a plain vanilla (.pptx) file or as a macro-enabled (.pptm) file. If you’ve only saved the Show file, you won’t be able to make changes to your presentation.

PowerPoint Picture Presentations

Picture Presentations add an additional layer of protection to your work. To the casual observer, a PowerPoint Picture Presentation looks like an ordinary PowerPoint slideshow. But when you save your work as a Picture Presentation, each slide is converted to a simple image.

Slides contain text objects, image objects, animations, transitions, and many other special effects. By contrast, Picture Presentations contain only snapshots of your slides.

If somebody wants to copy your work, they can see each of the images and retype the text. They can even grab (and re-crop) the images. But they cannot capture any of the magic that is PowerPoint.

If you create a Picture Presentation, be sure to give it a unique name. If you only save the Picture Presentation .pptx file, you won’t be able to modify your presentation in the future.

Windows Media Videos

You can convert your PowerPoint presentation to an ordinary Windows Media Video (.wmv) file, and play it using the built-in Windows Media Player or any other video player. Your .wmv file can be enjoyed by any Windows or Mac user, even if they don’t have PowerPoint installed on their computer.

As always, don’t make your .wmv file the only version of your slideshow or you’ll be very disappointed when you want to make changes to the presentation.

Outline/RTF

PowerPoint lets you turn your slideshow into plain text. This is handy if you want to move some of the presentation’s text to your website or blog.

When you create a rich text format (.rtf) file, you save only the text. You lose all of the images, animations, slide-to-slide transitions, and other non-text objects.

It’s easy to save your presentation as a portable document format (.pdf) file. These .pdf files can be opened on any Windows, Mac, Unix/Linux, iOS, or Android device. The resulting file, however, is a static document. Don’t expect to see slides fade in and out. All of your animated objects will become static.

You can save your slides as an XML Paper Specification (.xps) file. That’s a fancy way to say that if you double-click your .xps file in Windows Explorer, the operating system will open your file using its built-in XPS Viewer.

The XPS format is ideal for sending your slideshow to users who have neither PowerPoint nor Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on their computers. As with the .pdf format above, .xps files have text and images, but no animation.

If you’re happy with this year’s Financial Results slideshow, and you want to create next year’s presentation using the same colors and fonts, then save your current presentation as a template, and use it over and over.

As you may have guessed, save your work as a .potx file for use in PowerPoint 2007 and newer, as a .potm file for a 2007 or newer macro-enabled presentation, and as a .pot file for use on PowerPoint 97 through 2003.

Office Themes and Backups

Because Microsoft PowerPoint is part of Microsoft Office, you can use two Office file types to make your PowerPoint work easier and safer.

You can save your presentation theme as an Office .thmx file. Future PowerPoint presentations, as well as Word documents and Excel spreadsheets, can use this Office theme to set their fonts and colors. This results in a consistent look and feel to all of the Office documents that you present to prospects and customers.

Autosave is built into most Office applications, including PowerPoint. If you experienced a power outage and hadn’t saved your PowerPoint presentation before you lost power, it’s possible that there’s a recent version of your slideshow in the Office Autosave library. If you click File , click Open , and click Recover Unsaved Presentation , you may be pleased by the information that PowerPoint saved for you.

The Bottom Line

There’s no need to memorize all of the PowerPoint file extensions and options that are available. But be sure that you’re including all of these files when you do your regular on-site and off-site backups. And bookmark this blog page so that you can return to it when you need to save or open a PowerPoint presentation in one of the less popular file formats.

• September 20, 2014

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Blog > How to structure a good PowerPoint Presentation

How to structure a good PowerPoint Presentation

08.09.21   •  #powerpoint #tips.

When creating presentations, it is particularly important that they are well organized and have a consistent structure.

A logical structure helps the audience to follow you and to remember the core information as best as possible. It is also important for the presenter, as a good presentation structure helps to keep calm, to stay on the topic and to avoid awkward pauses.

But what does such a structure actually look like? Here we show you how to best organize your presentation and what a good structure looks like.

Plan your presentation

Before you start creating your presentation, you should always brainstorm. Think about the topic and write all your ideas down. Then think about the message you want to communicate, what your goal is and what you want your audience to remember at the end.

Think about who your audience is so that you can address them in the best possible way. One possibility is to start your presentation with a few polls to get to know your audience better. Based on the results, you can then adapt your presentation a little. Use the poll function of SlideLizard and have all the answers at a glance. SlideLizard makes it possible to integrate the polls directly into your PowerPoint presentation which helps you to avoid annoying switching between presentation and interaction tool. You can keep an eye on the results while the votes come in and then decide whether you want to share them or not.

• an informative
• an entertaining
• an inspiring
• or a persuasive presentation?

Typical Presentation Structure

The basic structure of a presentation is actually always the same and should consist of:

Introduction

Make sure that the structure of your presentation is not too complicated. The simpler it is, the better the audience can follow.

Personal Introduction

It is best to start your presentation by briefly introducing yourself which helps to build a connection with your audience right away.

Introduce the topic

Then introduce the topic, state the purpose of the presentation and provide a brief outline of the main points you will be addressing.

Mention the length

In the introduction, mention the approximate length of the talk and then also make sure you stick to it.

The introduction should be no longer than two slides and provide a good overview of the topic.

Icebreaker Polls

According to studies, people in the audience only have an average attention span of 10 minutes, which is why it is important to increase their attention right at the beginning and to arouse the audience's interest. You could make a good start with a few icebreaker polls for example. They lighten the mood right at the beginning and you can secure your audience's attention from the start.

For example, you could use SlideLizard to have all the answers at a glance and share them with your audience. In addition, the audience can try out how the polls work and already know how it works if you include more polls in the main part.

Get to know your audience

As mentioned earlier, it is always useful to think about who your audience actually is. Ask them questions at the beginning about how well they already know the topic of your presentation. Use SlideLizard for this so that you have a clear overview about the answers. You can use both single- and multiple-choice questions or also open questions and display their results as a WordCloud in your presentation, for example.

Include a quote

To make the beginning (or the end) of your presentation more exciting, it is always a good idea to include a quote. We have selected some powerful quotes for PowerPoint presentations for you.

Present your topic

The main part of a presentation should explain the topic well, state facts, justify them and give examples. Keep all the promises you made earlier in the introduction.

Length and Structure

The main part should make up about 70% of the presentation and also include a clear structure. Explain your ideas in detail and build them up logically. It should be organized chronologically, by priority or by topic. There should be a smooth transition between the individual issues. However, it is also important to use phrases that make it clear that a new topic is starting. We have listed some useful phrases for presentations here.

Visualize data and statistics and show pictures to underline facts. If you are still looking for good images, we have selected 5 sources of free images for you here.

Focus on the essentials

Focus on what is most important and summarize a bit. You don't have to say everything about a topic because your audience won’t remember everything either. Avoid complicated sentence structure, because if the audience does not understand something, they will not be able to read it again.

Make your presentation interactive

Make your presentation interactive to keep the attention of your audience. Use SlideLizard to include polls in your presentation, where your audience can vote directly from their smartphone and discuss the answers as soon as you received all votes. Here you can also find more tips for increasing audience engagement.

Repeat the main points

The conclusion should contain a summary of the most important key points. Repeat the main points you have made, summarize what the audience should have learned and explain how the new information can help in the future.

Include a Q&A part

Include a Q&A part at the end to make sure you don't leave any questions open. It's a good idea to use tools like SlideLizard for it. Your audience can ask anonymous questions and if there is not enough time, you can give them the answers afterwards. You can read more about the right way to do a question slide in PowerPoint here.

Get Feedback

It is also important to get feedback on your presentation at the end to keep improving. With SlideLizard you can ask your audience for anonymous feedback through star ratings, number ratings or open texts directly after your presentation. You can then export the responses and analyse them later in Excel.

Presentation style

Depending on the type of presentation you give, the structure will always be slightly different. We have selected a few different presentation styles and their structure for you.

Short Presentation

If you are one of many presenters on the day, you will only have a very limited time to present your idea and to convince your audience. It is very important to stand out with your presentation.

So you need to summarize your ideas as briefly as possible and probably should not need more than 3-5 slides.

Problem Solving Presentation

Start your presentation by explaining a problem and giving a short overview of it.

Then go into the problem a little more, providing both intellectual and emotional arguments for the seriousness of the problem. You should spend about the first 25% of your presentation on the problem.

After that, you should spend about 50% of your presentation proposing a solution and explaining it in detail.

In the last 25%, describe what benefits this solution will bring to your audience and ask them to take a simple but relevant action that relates to the problem being discussed.

Tell a Story

A great way to build an emotional connection with the audience is to structure a presentation like a story.

In the introduction, introduce a character who has to deal with a conflict. In the main part, tell how he tries to solve his problem but fails again and again. In the end, he manages to find a solution and wins.

Stories have the power to win customers, align colleagues and motivate employees. They’re the most compelling platform we have for managing imaginations. - Nancy Duarte / HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations

Make a demonstration

Use the demonstration structure to show how a product works. First talk about a need or a problem that has to be solved.

Then explain how the product will help solve the problem and try to convince your audience of the need for your product.

Spend the end clarifying where and when the product can be purchased.

Chronological structure

When you have something historical to tell, it is always good to use a chronological structure. You always have to ask yourself what happens next.

To make it more interesting and exciting, it is a good idea to start by telling the end of something and after that you explain how you got there. This way you make the audience curious and you can gain their attention faster.

Nancy Duarte TED Talk

Nancy Duarte is a speaker and presentation design expert. She gives speeches all over the world, trying to improve the power of public presentations.

In her famous TED Talk "The Secret Structure of Great Talks" she dissects famous speeches such as Steve Jobs' iPhone launch speech and Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech. In doing so, she found out that each presentation is made up of 4 parts:

• What could be
• A moment to remember
• Promise of “New Bliss”

Related articles

About the author.

Helena Reitinger

Helena supports the SlideLizard team in marketing and design. She loves to express her creativity in texts and graphics.

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The big SlideLizard presentation glossary

A podcast is an audio or video contribution that can be listened to or viewed via the Internet. Podcasts can be used for information on specific topics but also for entertainment.

Slide Master

To create your own Template in PowerPoint it is best to use the Slide Master. After updating the Slide Master with your design, all slides (fonts, colours, images, …) adapt to those of the Slide Master.

Slide Layouts

PowerPoint has different types of Slide Layouts. Depending on which type of presentation you make, you will use more or less different slide layouts. Some Slide Types are: title slides, section heading slides, picture with caption slides, blank slides.

Eulogy Speech

A eulogy speech is given at a funeral. It is given by familiy members or friends of the deceased. The aim is to say goodbye and pay tribute to the person who has passed away.

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How to Make a PowerPoint Presentation (Step-by-Step)

• PowerPoint Tutorials
• Presentation Design
• January 22, 2024

In this beginner’s guide, you will learn step-by-step how to make a PowerPoint presentation from scratch.

While PowerPoint is designed to be intuitive and accessible, it can be overwhelming if you’ve never gotten any training on it before. As you progress through this guide, you’ll will learn how to move from blank slides to PowerPoint slides that look like these.

Table of Contents

Additionally, as you create your presentation, you’ll also learn tricks for working more efficiently in PowerPoint, including how to:

• Change the slide order
• Reset your layout
• Change the slide dimensions
• Use PowerPoint Designer
• Format text
• Format objects
• Play a presentation (slide show)

With this knowledge under your belt, you’ll be ready to start creating PowerPoint presentations. Moreover, you’ll have taken your skills from beginner to proficient in no time at all. I will also include links to more advanced PowerPoint topics.

Ready to start learning how to make a PowerPoint presentation?

Take your PPT skills to the next level

Start with a blank presentation.

Note: Before you open PowerPoint and start creating your presentation, make sure you’ve collected your thoughts. If you’re going to make your slides compelling, you need to spend some time brainstorming.

For help with this, see our article with tips for nailing your business presentation  here .

The first thing you’ll need to do is to open PowerPoint. When you do, you are shown the Start Menu , with the Home tab open.

This is where you can choose either a blank theme (1) or a pre-built theme (2). You can also choose to open an existing presentation (3).

For now, go ahead and click on the  Blank Presentation (1)  thumbnail.

Doing so launches a brand new and blank presentation for you to work with. Before you start adding content to your presentation, let’s first familiarize ourselves with the PowerPoint interface.

The PowerPoint interface

Here is how the program is laid out:

• The Application Header
• The Ribbon (including the Ribbon tabs)
• The Quick Access Toolbar (either above or below the Ribbon)
• The Slides Pane (slide thumbnails)

The Slide Area

The notes pane.

• The Status Bar (including the View Buttons)

Each one of these areas has options for viewing certain parts of the PowerPoint environment and formatting your presentation.

Below are the important things to know about certain elements of the PowerPoint interface.

The PowerPoint Ribbon

The Ribbon is contextual. That means that it will adapt to what you’re doing in the program.

For example, the Font, Paragraph and Drawing options are greyed out until you select something that has text in it, as in the example below (A).

Furthermore, if you start manipulating certain objects, the Ribbon will display additional tabs, as seen above (B), with more commands and features to help you work with those objects. The following objects have their own additional tabs in the Ribbon which are hidden until you select them:

• Online Pictures
• Screenshots
• Screen Recording

The Slides Pane

This is where you can preview and rearrange all the slides in your presentation.

Right-clicking on a slide  in the pane gives you additional options on the slide level that you won’t find on the Ribbon, such as  Duplicate Slide ,  Delete Slide , and  Hide Slide .

In addition, you can add sections to your presentation by  right-clicking anywhere in this Pane  and selecting  Add Section . Sections are extremely helpful in large presentations, as they allow you to organize your slides into chunks that you can then rearrange, print or display differently from other slides.

The Slide Area (A) is where you will build out your slides. Anything within the bounds of this area will be visible when you present or print your presentation.

Anything outside of this area (B) will be hidden from view. This means that you can place things here, such as instructions for each slide, without worrying about them being shown to your audience.

The  Notes Pane  is the space beneath the Slide Area where you can type in the speaker notes for each slide. It’s designed as a fast way to add and edit your slides’ talking points.

To expand your knowledge and learn more about adding, printing, and exporting your PowerPoint speaker notes, read our guide here .

Your speaker notes are visible when you print your slides using the Notes Pages option and when you use the Presenter View . To expand your knowledge and learn the ins and outs of using the Presenter View , read our guide here .

You can resize the  Notes Pane  by clicking on its edge and dragging it up or down (A). You can also minimize or reopen it by clicking on the Notes button in the Status Bar (B).

Note:  Not all text formatting displays in the Notes Pane, even though it will show up when printing your speaker notes. To learn more about printing PowerPoint with notes, read our guide here .

Now that you have a basic grasp of the PowerPoint interface at your disposal, it’s time to make your presentation.

Adding Content to Your PowerPoint Presentation

Notice that in the Slide Area , there are two rectangles with dotted outlines. These are called  Placeholders  and they’re set on the template in the Slide Master View .

To expand your knowledge and learn how to create a PowerPoint template of your own (which is no small task), read our guide here .

As the prompt text suggests, you can click into each placeholder and start typing text. These types of placeholder prompts are customizable too. That means that if you are using a company template, it might say something different, but the functionality is the same.

Note:  For the purposes of this example, I will create a presentation based on the content in the Starbucks 2018 Global Social Impact Report, which is available to the public on their website.

If you type in more text than there is room for, PowerPoint will automatically reduce its font size. You can stop this behavior by clicking on the  Autofit Options  icon to the left of the placeholder and selecting  Stop Fitting Text to this Placeholder .

Next, you can make formatting adjustments to your text by selecting the commands in the Font area and the  Paragraph area  of the  Home  tab of the Ribbon.

The Reset Command:  If you make any changes to your title and decide you want to go back to how it was originally, you can use the Reset button up in the Home tab .

Insert More Slides into Your Presentation

Now that you have your title slide filled in, it’s time to add more slides. To do that, simply go up to the  Home tab  and click on  New Slide . This inserts a new slide in your presentation right after the one you were on.

You can alternatively hit Ctrl+M on your keyboard to insert a new blank slide in PowerPoint. To learn more about this shortcut, see my guide on using Ctrl+M in PowerPoint .

Instead of clicking the New Slide command, you can also open the New Slide dropdown to see all the slide layouts in your PowerPoint template. Depending on who created your template, your layouts in this dropdown can be radically different.

If you insert a layout and later want to change it to a different layout, you can use the Layout dropdown instead of the New Slide dropdown.

After inserting a few different slide layouts, your presentation might look like the following picture. Don’t worry that it looks blank, next we will start adding content to your presentation.

If you want to follow along exactly with me, your five slides should be as follows:

• Title Slide
• Title and Content
• Section Header
• Two Content
• Picture with Caption

Adding Content to Your Slides

Now let’s go into each slide and start adding our content. You’ll notice some new types of placeholders.

On slide 2 we have a  Content Placeholder , which allows you to add any kind of content. That includes:

• A SmartArt graphic,
• A 3D object,
• A picture from the web,
• Or an icon.

To insert text, simply type it in or hit  Ctrl+C to Copy  and Ctrl+V to Paste  from elsewhere. To insert any of the other objects, click on the appropriate icon and follow the steps to insert it.

For my example, I’ll simply type in some text as you can see in the picture below.

Slides 3 and 4 only have text placeholders, so I’ll go ahead and add in my text into each one.

On slide 5 we have a Picture Placeholder . That means that the only elements that can go into it are:

• A picture from the web

To insert a picture into the picture placeholder, simply:

• Click on the  Picture  icon
• Find  a picture on your computer and select it
• Click on  Insert

Alternatively, if you already have a picture open somewhere else, you can select the placeholder and paste in (shortcut: Ctrl+V ) the picture. You can also drag the picture in from a file explorer window.

If you do not like the background of the picture you inserted onto your slide, you can remove the background here in PowerPoint. To see how to do this, read my guide here .

Placeholders aren’t the only way to add content to your slides. At any point, you can use the Insert tab to add elements to your slides.

You can use either the Title Only  or the  Blank  slide layout to create slides for content that’s different. For example, a three-layout content slide, or a single picture divider slide, as shown below.

In the first example above, I’ve inserted 6 text boxes, 3 icons, and 3 circles to create this layout. In the second example, I’ve inserted a full-sized picture and then 2 shapes and 2 text boxes.

The Reset Command:  Because these slides are built with shapes and text boxes (and not placeholders), hitting the  Reset button up in the  Home tab  won’t do anything.

That is a good thing if you don’t want your layouts to adjust. However, it does mean that it falls on you to make sure everything is aligned and positioned correctly.

For more on how to add and manipulate the different objects in PowerPoint, check out our step-by-step articles here:

• Using graphics in PowerPoint
• Inserting icons onto slides
• Adding pictures to your PowerPoint
• How to embed a video in PowerPoint
• How to add music to your presentation

Using Designer to generate more layouts ideas

If you have Office 365, your version of PowerPoint comes with a new feature called Designer (or Design Ideas). This is a feature that generates slide layout ideas for you. The coolest thing about this feature is that it uses the content you already have.

To use Designer , simply navigate to the  Design tab  in your Ribbon, and click on  Design Ideas .

NOTE: If the PowerPoint Designer is not working for you (it is grey out), see my troubleshooting guide for Designer .

Change the Overall Design (optional)

When you make a PowerPoint presentation, you’ll want to think about the overall design. Now that you have some content in your presentation, you can use the Design tab to change the look and feel of your slides.

For additional help thinking through the design of your presentation,  read my guide here .

A. Picking your PowerPoint slide size

If you have PowerPoint 2013 or later, when you create a blank document in PowerPoint, you automatically start with a widescreen layout with a 16:9 ratio. These dimensions are suitable for most presentations as they match the screens of most computers and projectors.

However, you do have the option to change the dimensions.

For example, your presentation might not be presented, but instead converted into a PDF or printed and distributed. In that case, you can easily switch to the standard dimensions with a 4:3 ratio by selecting from the dropdown (A).

You can also choose a custom slide size or change the slide orientation from landscape to portrait in the Custom Slide Size dialog box (B).

To learn all about the different PowerPoint slide sizes, and some of the issues you will face when changing the slide size of a non-blank presentation,  read my guide here .

 B. Selecting a PowerPoint theme

The next thing you can do is change the theme of your presentation to a pre-built one. For a detailed explanation of what a PowerPoint theme is, and how to best use it,  read my article here .

In the beginning of this tutorial, we started with a blank presentation, which uses the default Office theme as you can see in the picture below.

That gives you the most flexibility because it has a blank background and quite simple layouts that work for most presentations. However, it also means that it’s your responsibility to enhance the design.

If you’re comfortable with this, you can stay with the default theme or create your own custom theme ( read my guide here ). But if you would rather not have to think about design, then you can choose a pre-designed theme.

Microsoft provides 46 other pre-built themes, which include slide layouts, color variants and palettes, and fonts. Each one varies quite significantly, so make sure you look through them carefully.

To select a different theme, go to the  Design tab  in the Ribbon, and click on the  dropdown arrow  in the  Themes section .

For this tutorial, let’s select the  Frame  theme and then choose the third Variant in the theme. Doing so changes the layout, colors, and fonts of your presentation.

Note: The theme dropdown area is also where you can import or save custom themes. To see my favorite places to find professional PowerPoint templates and themes (and recommendations for why I like them), read my guide here .

C. How to change a slide background in PowerPoint

The next thing to decide is how you want your background to look for the entire presentation. In the  Variants area, you can see four background options.

For this example, we want our presentation to have a dark background, so let’s select Style 3. When you do so, you’ll notice that:

• The background color automatically changes across all slides
• The color of the text on most of the slides automatically changes to white so that it’s visible on the dark background
• The colors of the objects on slides #6 and #7 also adjust, in a way we may not want (we’ll likely have to make some manual adjustments to these slides)

Note: If you want to change the slide background for just that one slide, don’t left-click the style. Instead, right-click it and select Apply to Selected Slides .

After you change the background for your entire presentation, you can easily adjust the background for an individual slide.

Inside the Format Background pane, you can see you have the following options:

• Gradient fill
• Picture or texture fill
• Pattern fill
• Hide background

You can explore these options to find the PowerPoint background that best fits your presentation.

D. How to change your color palette in PowerPoint

Another thing you may want to adjust in your presentation, is the color scheme. In the picture below you can see the Theme Colors we are currently using for this presentation.

Each PowerPoint theme comes with its own color palette. By default, the Office theme includes the Office color palette. This affects the colors you are presented with when you format any element within your presentation (text, shapes, SmartArt, etc.).

The good news is that the colors here are easy to change. To switch color palettes, simply:

• Go to the  Design tab in the Ribbon
• In the Variants area, click on the  dropdown arrow  and select  Colors
• Select  the color palette (or theme colors) you want

You can choose among the pre-built color palettes from Office, or you can customize them to create your own.

As you build your presentation, make sure you use the colors from your theme to format objects. That way, changing the color palette adjusts all the colors in your presentation automatically.

E. How to change your fonts in PowerPoint

Just as we changed the color palette, you can do the same for the fonts.

Each PowerPoint theme comes with its own font combination. By default, the Office theme includes the Office font pairing. This affects the fonts that are automatically assigned to all text in your presentation.

The good news is that the font pairings are easy to change. To switch your Theme Fonts, simply:

• Go to the  Design tab  in the Ribbon
• Click on the  dropdown arrow  in the  Variants  area
• Select  Fonts
• Select  the font pairing you want

You can choose among the pre-built fonts from Office, or you can customize them to create your own.

If you are working with PowerPoint presentations on both Mac and PC computers, make sure you choose a safe PowerPoint font. To see a list of the safest PowerPoint fonts, read our guide here .

If you receive a PowerPoint presentation and the wrong fonts were used, you can use the Replace Fonts dialog box to change the fonts across your entire presentation. For details, read our guide here .

Adding Animations & Transitions (optional)

The final step to make a PowerPoint presentation compelling, is to consider using animations and transitions. These are by no means necessary to a good presentation, but they may be helpful in your situation.

A. Adding PowerPoint animations

PowerPoint has an incredibly robust animations engine designed to power your creativity. That being said, it’s also easy to get started with basic animations.

Animations are movements that you can apply to individual objects on your slide.

To add a PowerPoint animation to an element of your slide, simply:

• Select the  element
• Go to the  Animations tab in the Ribbon
• Click on the  dropdown arrow  to view your options
• Select the  animation  you want

You can add animations to multiple objects at one time by selecting them all first and then applying the animation.

B. How to preview a PowerPoint animation

There are three ways to preview a PowerPoint animation:

• Click on the Preview button in the Animations tab
• Click on the little star  next to the slide
• Play the slide in Slide Show Mode

To learn other ways to run your slide show, see our guide on presenting a PowerPoint slide show with shortcuts .

To adjust the settings of your animations, explore the options in the  Effect Options ,  Advanced Animation  and the  Timing  areas of the  Animation tab .

Note:  To see how to make objects appear and disappear in your slides by clicking a button,  read our guide here .

C. How to manage your animations in PowerPoint

The best way to manage lots of animations on your slide is with the Animation Pane . To open it, simply:

• Navigate to the  Animations tab
• Select the  Animation Pane

Inside the Animation Pane, you’ll see all of the different animations that have been applied to objects on your slide, with their numbers marked as pictured above.

Note: To see examples of PowerPoint animations that can use in PowerPoint, see our list of PowerPoint animation tutorials here .

D. How to add transitions to your PowerPoint presentation

PowerPoint has an incredibly robust transition engine so that you can dictate how your slides change from one to the other. It is also extremely easy to add transitions to your slides.

In PowerPoint, transitions are the movements (or effects) you see as you move between two slides.

To add a transition to a PowerPoint slide, simply:

• Select the  slide
• Go to the  Transitions tab in the Ribbon
• In the Transitions to This Slide area, click on the  dropdown arrow  to view your options
• Select the  transition  you want

To adjust the settings of the transition, explore the options in the  Timing  area of the Transitions tab.

You can also add the same transition to multiple slides. To do that, select them in the  Slides Pane  and apply the transition.

E. How to preview a transition in PowerPoint

There are three ways to preview your PowerPoint transitions (just like your animations):

• Click on the Preview  button in the Transitions tab
• Click on the little star  beneath the slide number in the thumbnail view

Note:  In 2016, PowerPoint added a cool new transition, called Morph. It operates a bit differently from other transitions. For a detailed tutorial on how to use the cool Morph transition,  see our step-by-step article here .

Save Your PowerPoint Presentation

After you’ve built your presentation and made all the adjustments to your slides, you’ll want to save your presentation. YOu can do this several different ways.

To save a PowerPoint presentation using your Ribbon, simply:

• Navigate to the  File tab
•  Select  Save As  on the left
• Choose  where you want to save your presentation
• Name  your presentation and/or adjust your file type settings
• Click  Save

You can alternatively use the  Ctrl+S keyboard shortcut to save your presentation. I recommend using this shortcut frequently as you build your presentation to make sure you don’t lose any of your work.

This is the standard way to save a presentation. However, there may be a situation where you want to save your presentation as a different file type.

To learn how to save your presentation as a PDF, see our guide on converting PowerPoint to a PDF .

How to save your PowerPoint presentation as a template

Once you’ve created a presentation that you like, you may want to turn it into a template. The easiest – but not technically correct – way, is to simply create a copy of your current presentation and then change the content.

But be careful! A PowerPoint template is a special type of document and it has its own parameters and behaviors.

If you’re interested in learning about how to create your own PowerPoint template from scratch, see our guide on how to create a PowerPoint template .

Printing Your PowerPoint Presentation

After finishing your PowerPoint presentation, you may want to print it out on paper. Printing your slides is relatively easy.

To open the Print dialog box, you can either:

• Hit Ctrl+P on your keyboard
• Or go to the Ribbon and click on File and then Print

Inside the Print dialog box, you can choose from the various printing settings:

• Printer: Select a printer to use (or print to PDF or OneNote)
• Slides: Choose which slides you want to print
• Layout: Determine how many slides you want per page (this is where you can print the notes, outline, and handouts)
• Collated or uncollated (learn what collated printing means here )
• Color: Choose to print in color, grayscale or black & white

There are many more options for printing your PowerPoint presentations. Here are links to more in-depth articles:

• How to print multiple slides per page
• How to print your speaker notes in PowerPoint
• How to save PowerPoint as a picture presentation

So that’s how to create a PowerPoint presentation if you are brand new to it. We’ve also included a ton of links to helpful resources to boost your PowerPoint skills further.

When you are creating your presentation, it is critical to first focus on the content (what you are trying to say) before getting lost inserting and playing with elements. The clearer you are on what you want to present, the easier it will be to build it out in PowerPoint.

If you enjoyed this article, you can learn more about our PowerPoint training courses and other presentation resources by  visiting us here .

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How to Structure a PowerPoint Presentation

Table of Contents

This is the main part of your presentation, which should keep the promises you made in the introduction. This is where you explain your topic and present all your information. 

Depending on the nature of your presentation, divide it into segments/points. Arrange your points in a logical order and then provide information to support each of them. There are many different ways to organize your key points, for example:

• Number your points according to their priority (1, 2, 3, …)
• Place the points in a time frame (past, present, future)
• Use narration (tell a story from beginning to end)
• Present the points with a problem-solution dynamic (state a problem, describe its impact, offer ways to solve the issue)

A good conclusion summarizes the key points you made or highlights what the audience should have learned. It clarifies the general purpose of your presentation and reinforces the reason for viewing it. Here are the slides you may want to include:

• Summary. List what goals your audience have achieved, what knowledge they got, and how this information can help them in the future.
• Conclusion. Here you can thank your audience for viewing the presentation.

Tips for Structuring a Presentation in PowerPoint

Now that you know which parts a typical presentation should consist of, let’s see how to structure it in PowerPoint. 

1. Combine slides into sections

When working with a large PowerPoint presentation (PPT), you can create sections that can be collapsed and expanded. This will help you keep presentation slides organized and facilitate navigation in editing mode. To do that, follow these steps:

• To shift a section, right-click on its name and use the Move Section Up and Move Section Down options.
• To collapse or expand a certain section, click on the collapse icon to the left of the section name. You can also minimize and maximize all sections at once by right-clicking on the section name and choosing Collapse All or Expand All .

As well, you can access these settings by choosing Slide Sorter under the VIEW tab.

This kind of segmentation is a great way to overview the logical flow of your slides all at once and see if there are any changes required. For example, you may decide to break one slide into two or three, or the other way around.

2. Use the Outline View

One other way to structure a PowerPoint presentation in the editing mode is to use Outline View . You can choose it from the VIEW tab.

This view doesn’t display sections, but it shows the title and main text of each slide, which can give you a quick overview of the presentation contents. Here you can go through the entire text and edit it instantly. You can also work with text (on the left) and slides (on the right) simultaneously, as the latter is shown on the right side of your screen.

Note that, to be displayed in an outline, text needs to be typed in a text placeholder, not a text box . A text placeholder is a box with the words “Click to add text” or “Click to add title”, and it appears when you choose a standard layout.

You can also use Outline View to promote bullet text to titles and the other way around. To do that, right-click on a relevant title or text and select the Promote or Demote options.

Be attentive about demoting a title, as this will delete the original slide and move its title and text to the adjacent slide.

PowerPoint only allows users to promote and demote text, not entire slides. Therefore, there’s no possibility to change the hierarchical order of slides.

3. Create a table of contents

All the aforementioned tips help you organize a presentation when formatting it. However, it’s crucial that your viewers can easily navigate through entire presentation too. One sure way to provide them with this opportunity is to create an interactive and structured table of contents.

Though there’s no native automatic outline in PowerPoint, it can be created manually:

• Press Ctrl+A to select all the names, and Ctrl+C to copy them. 
• Then Press Ctrl+V to paste the copied titles on the desired slide. In case there are too many titles and they don’t fit onto a single page, you can divide the table of contents into two columns or place it on two slides.

You’ll need to repeat this procedure to link all the chapters to corresponding slides. For more information, read this step-by-step guide on how to add a hyperlink in PowerPoint .

Now all the chapters can be accessed from a single table of contents, which is very convenient. However, you will also need to link them back to that unifying page. You can do this by inserting an Action Button on every slide of your presentation in Slide Master mode:

Now there is a single page from which all the other pages can be easily accessed. As well, it’s possible to go back to the table of contents at any time with the intuitive Home button.

Depending on the size of your presentation, the time it takes to create an interactive outline may vary, as you will need to add hyperlinks to every chapter manually. Be aware that if you rename a slide or simply delete it, these changes will not be automatically registered in the table of contents. For example, if you delete a slide, its title will still be displayed in the table of contents, but clicking on it won’t lead the viewer to another point in the presentation.

This is what our sample presentation looks like:

A Better Way to Structure a PowerPoint Presentation

Creating a table of contents manually might be fine for a small presentation, but if you have 122 slides, it would require too much time and energy to do so. That’s why, instead of manually creating a table of contents, we took advantage of iSpring Suite and simply enabled the automatic outline.  

iSpring Suite

Fully-stocked eLearning authoring toolkit for PowerPoint. No training required to start!

Note: iSpring Suite turns slides into HTML5 format, so your audience can view them online, right in their browsers. 

As you can see, the new presentation has a pop-up outline and a navigation panel, which make it possible to move to any slide at any time without leaving the slide show mode. 

How to set up navigation

To create navigation in your presentation, follow these simple steps:

• Get a free trial of iSpring Suite.

• When you’ve configured the Slide Properties settings, click on Save & Close in the upper-left corner.

How to configure an outline

Whereas PowerPoint requires the outline to be designed manually, iSpring Suite has already prepared it for you. At the same time, you don’t have to stick with the standard outline template, as you can easily customize the player’s final look and feel:

We recommend leaving Enable Search marked, as this will allow viewers to search for any content at any time, including the texts on the slides. This is especially useful for large presentations with a lot of text.

If you have previously arranged slides into multiple levels in the Slide Properties, then leave Multilevel outline marked. That way, the outline will display the nesting structure of the presentation, facilitating navigation. You can learn more about the other outline options here .

• When you have finished configuring the player, click on Apply & Close in the upper-left corner.
• Now you can publish your enhanced presentation either to HTML5, to make it easily accessible via browser on any device, or MP4 video format. If you’re going to upload your presentation to an LMS, you can publish it to any eLearning format: SCORM, AICC, Tin Can, or cmi5. 

While a standard PowerPoint slideshow is straightforward and limited, iSpring Suite saves viewers from having to follow a strict slide order. An interactive and searchable outline allows non-linear navigation, where any information can be accessed at any time at a glance.

Also read : → How to Convert PowerPoint to MP4 Video

Also read : →  How To Record Presentations With Audio

Another perk

iSpring Suite comes with Content Library , which provides a great collection of presentation templates and allows you to create professional-looking presentations in a matter of minutes. Each template includes basic course elements: a title slide, a table of contents, chapters, a timeline, and info slides. Organize them in the order you prefer, populate them with your texts and images, and your presentation is ready to go.

We hope this article will help you develop an ideal structure for your PowerPoint presentation and do this quickly and easily. Captivate your audience with a powerful and persuasive presentation!

Do you have any other insights on how to simplify PowerPoint slides design? Please share them in the comment section. We’d like to hear from you. 

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Content creator:

Helen Colman

She enjoys combining in-depth research with expert knowledge of the industry. If you have eLearning insights that you’d like to share, please get in touch .

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How to Structure your Presentation, with Examples

August 3, 2018 - Dom Barnard

For many people the thought of delivering a presentation is a daunting task and brings about a  great deal of nerves . However, if you take some time to understand how effective presentations are structured and then apply this structure to your own presentation, you’ll appear much more confident and relaxed.

Here is our complete guide for structuring your presentation, with examples at the end of the article to demonstrate these points.

Why is structuring a presentation so important?

If you’ve ever sat through a great presentation, you’ll have left feeling either inspired or informed on a given topic. This isn’t because the speaker was the most knowledgeable or motivating person in the world. Instead, it’s because they know how to structure presentations – they have crafted their message in a logical and simple way that has allowed the audience can keep up with them and take away key messages.

Research has supported this, with studies showing that audiences retain structured information  40% more accurately  than unstructured information.

In fact, not only is structuring a presentation important for the benefit of the audience’s understanding, it’s also important for you as the speaker. A good structure helps you remain calm, stay on topic, and avoid any awkward silences.

What will affect your presentation structure?

Generally speaking, there is a natural flow that any decent presentation will follow which we will go into shortly. However, you should be aware that all presentation structures will be different in their own unique way and this will be due to a number of factors, including:

• Whether you need to deliver any demonstrations
• How  knowledgeable the audience  already is on the given subject
• How much interaction you want from the audience
• Any time constraints there are for your talk
• What setting you are in
• Your ability to use any kinds of visual assistance

Before choosing the presentation’s structure answer these questions first:

• What is your presentation’s aim?
• Who are the audience?
• What are the main points your audience should remember afterwards?

When reading the points below, think critically about what things may cause your presentation structure to be slightly different. You can add in certain elements and add more focus to certain moments if that works better for your speech.

What is the typical presentation structure?

This is the usual flow of a presentation, which covers all the vital sections and is a good starting point for yours. It allows your audience to easily follow along and sets out a solid structure you can add your content to.

1. Greet the audience and introduce yourself

Before you start delivering your talk, introduce yourself to the audience and clarify who you are and your relevant expertise. This does not need to be long or incredibly detailed, but will help build an immediate relationship between you and the audience. It gives you the chance to briefly clarify your expertise and why you are worth listening to. This will help establish your ethos so the audience will trust you more and think you’re credible.

Read our tips on  How to Start a Presentation Effectively

2. Introduction

In the introduction you need to explain the subject and purpose of your presentation whilst gaining the audience’s interest and confidence. It’s sometimes helpful to think of your introduction as funnel-shaped to help filter down your topic:

• Introduce your general topic
• Explain your topic area
• State the issues/challenges in this area you will be exploring
• State your presentation’s purpose – this is the basis of your presentation so ensure that you provide a statement explaining how the topic will be treated, for example, “I will argue that…” or maybe you will “compare”, “analyse”, “evaluate”, “describe” etc.
• Provide a statement of what you’re hoping the outcome of the presentation will be, for example, “I’m hoping this will be provide you with…”
• Show a preview of the organisation of your presentation

In this section also explain:

• The length of the talk.
• Signal whether you want audience interaction – some presenters prefer the audience to ask questions throughout whereas others allocate a specific section for this.
• If it applies, inform the audience whether to take notes or whether you will be providing handouts.

The way you structure your introduction can depend on the amount of time you have been given to present: a  sales pitch  may consist of a quick presentation so you may begin with your conclusion and then provide the evidence. Conversely, a speaker presenting their idea for change in the world would be better suited to start with the evidence and then conclude what this means for the audience.

Keep in mind that the main aim of the introduction is to grab the audience’s attention and connect with them.

3. The main body of your talk

The main body of your talk needs to meet the promises you made in the introduction. Depending on the nature of your presentation, clearly segment the different topics you will be discussing, and then work your way through them one at a time – it’s important for everything to be organised logically for the audience to fully understand. There are many different ways to organise your main points, such as, by priority, theme, chronologically etc.

• Main points should be addressed one by one with supporting evidence and examples.
• Before moving on to the next point you should provide a mini-summary.
• Links should be clearly stated between ideas and you must make it clear when you’re moving onto the next point.
• Allow time for people to take relevant notes and stick to the topics you have prepared beforehand rather than straying too far off topic.

When planning your presentation write a list of main points you want to make and ask yourself “What I am telling the audience? What should they understand from this?” refining your answers this way will help you produce clear messages.

4. Conclusion

In presentations the conclusion is frequently underdeveloped and lacks purpose which is a shame as it’s the best place to reinforce your messages. Typically, your presentation has a specific goal – that could be to convert a number of the audience members into customers, lead to a certain number of enquiries to make people knowledgeable on specific key points, or to motivate them towards a shared goal.

Regardless of what that goal is, be sure to summarise your main points and their implications. This clarifies the overall purpose of your talk and reinforces your reason for being there.

Follow these steps:

• Signal that it’s nearly the end of your presentation, for example, “As we wrap up/as we wind down the talk…”
• Restate the topic and purpose of your presentation – “In this speech I wanted to compare…”
• Summarise the main points, including their implications and conclusions
• Indicate what is next/a call to action/a thought-provoking takeaway
• Move on to the last section

5. Thank the audience and invite questions

Conclude your talk by thanking the audience for their time and invite them to  ask any questions  they may have. As mentioned earlier, personal circumstances will affect the structure of your presentation.

Many presenters prefer to make the Q&A session the key part of their talk and try to speed through the main body of the presentation. This is totally fine, but it is still best to focus on delivering some sort of initial presentation to set the tone and topics for discussion in the Q&A.

Other common presentation structures

The above was a description of a basic presentation, here are some more specific presentation layouts:

Demonstration

Use the demonstration structure when you have something useful to show. This is usually used when you want to show how a product works. Steve Jobs frequently used this technique in his presentations.

• Explain why the product is valuable.
• Describe why the product is necessary.
• Explain what problems it can solve for the audience.
• Demonstrate the product  to support what you’ve been saying.
• Make suggestions of other things it can do to make the audience curious.

Problem-solution

This structure is particularly useful in persuading the audience.

• Briefly frame the issue.
• Go into the issue in detail showing why it ‘s such a problem. Use logos and pathos for this – the logical and emotional appeals.
• Provide the solution and explain why this would also help the audience.
• Call to action – something you want the audience to do which is straightforward and pertinent to the solution.

Storytelling

As well as incorporating  stories in your presentation , you can organise your whole presentation as a story. There are lots of different type of story structures you can use – a popular choice is the monomyth – the hero’s journey. In a monomyth, a hero goes on a difficult journey or takes on a challenge – they move from the familiar into the unknown. After facing obstacles and ultimately succeeding the hero returns home, transformed and with newfound wisdom.

Storytelling for Business Success  webinar , where well-know storyteller Javier Bernad shares strategies for crafting compelling narratives.

Another popular choice for using a story to structure your presentation is in media ras (in the middle of thing). In this type of story you launch right into the action by providing a snippet/teaser of what’s happening and then you start explaining the events that led to that event. This is engaging because you’re starting your story at the most exciting part which will make the audience curious – they’ll want to know how you got there.

• Great storytelling: Examples from Alibaba Founder, Jack Ma

Remaining method

The remaining method structure is good for situations where you’re presenting your perspective on a controversial topic which has split people’s opinions.

• Go into the issue in detail showing why it’s such a problem – use logos and pathos.
• Rebut your opponents’ solutions  – explain why their solutions could be useful because the audience will see this as fair and will therefore think you’re trustworthy, and then explain why you think these solutions are not valid.
• After you’ve presented all the alternatives provide your solution, the remaining solution. This is very persuasive because it looks like the winning idea, especially with the audience believing that you’re fair and trustworthy.

Transitions

When delivering presentations it’s important for your words and ideas to flow so your audience can understand how everything links together and why it’s all relevant. This can be done  using speech transitions  which are words and phrases that allow you to smoothly move from one point to another so that your speech flows and your presentation is unified.

Transitions can be one word, a phrase or a full sentence – there are many different forms, here are some examples:

Moving from the introduction to the first point

Signify to the audience that you will now begin discussing the first main point:

• Now that you’re aware of the overview, let’s begin with…
• First, let’s begin with…
• I will first cover…
• My first point covers…
• To get started, let’s look at…

Shifting between similar points

Move from one point to a similar one:

• In the same way…
• Likewise…
• Equally…
• This is similar to…
• Similarly…

Internal summaries

Internal summarising consists of summarising before moving on to the next point. You must inform the audience:

• What part of the presentation you covered – “In the first part of this speech we’ve covered…”
• What the key points were – “Precisely how…”
• How this links in with the overall presentation – “So that’s the context…”
• What you’re moving on to – “Now I’d like to move on to the second part of presentation which looks at…”

Physical movement

You can move your body and your standing location when you transition to another point. The audience find it easier to follow your presentation and movement will increase their interest.

A common technique for incorporating movement into your presentation is to:

• Start your introduction by standing in the centre of the stage.
• For your first point you stand on the left side of the stage.
• You discuss your second point from the centre again.
• You stand on the right side of the stage for your third point.
• The conclusion occurs in the centre.

Key slides for your presentation

Slides are a useful tool for most presentations: they can greatly assist in the delivery of your message and help the audience follow along with what you are saying. Key slides include:

• An intro slide outlining your ideas
• A  summary slide  with core points to remember
• High quality image slides to supplement what you are saying

There are some presenters who choose not to use slides at all, though this is more of a rarity. Slides can be a powerful tool if used properly, but the problem is that many fail to do just that. Here are some golden rules to follow when using slides in a presentation:

• Don’t over fill them  – your slides are there to assist your speech, rather than be the focal point. They should have as little information as possible, to avoid distracting people from your talk.
• A picture says a thousand words  – instead of filling a slide with text, instead, focus on one or two images or diagrams to help support and explain the point you are discussing at that time.
• Make them readable  – depending on the size of your audience, some may not be able to see small text or images, so make everything large enough to fill the space.
• Don’t rush through slides  – give the audience enough time to digest each slide.

Guy Kawasaki, an entrepreneur and author, suggests that slideshows should follow a  10-20-30 rule :

• There should be a maximum of 10 slides – people rarely remember more than one concept afterwards so there’s no point overwhelming them with unnecessary information.
• The presentation should last no longer than 20 minutes as this will leave time for questions and discussion.
• The font size should be a minimum of 30pt because the audience reads faster than you talk so less information on the slides means that there is less chance of the audience being distracted.

Here are some additional resources for slide design:

• 7 design tips for effective, beautiful PowerPoint presentations
• 11 design tips for beautiful presentations
• 10 tips on how to make slides that communicate your idea

Group Presentations

Group presentations are structured in the same way as presentations with one speaker but usually require more rehearsal and practices.  Clean transitioning between speakers  is very important in producing a presentation that flows well. One way of doing this consists of:

• Briefly recap on what you covered in your section: “So that was a brief introduction on what health anxiety is and how it can affect somebody”
• Introduce the next speaker in the team and explain what they will discuss: “Now Elnaz will talk about the prevalence of health anxiety.”
• Then end by looking at the next speaker, gesturing towards them and saying their name: “Elnaz”.
• The next speaker should acknowledge this with a quick: “Thank you Joe.”

From this example you can see how the different sections of the presentations link which makes it easier for the audience to follow and remain engaged.

Example of great presentation structure and delivery

Having examples of great presentations will help inspire your own structures, here are a few such examples, each unique and inspiring in their own way.

How Google Works – by Eric Schmidt

This presentation by ex-Google CEO  Eric Schmidt  demonstrates some of the most important lessons he and his team have learnt with regards to working with some of the most talented individuals they hired. The simplistic yet cohesive style of all of the slides is something to be appreciated. They are relatively straightforward, yet add power and clarity to the narrative of the presentation.

Start with why – by Simon Sinek

Since being released in 2009, this presentation has been viewed almost four million times all around the world. The message itself is very powerful, however, it’s not an idea that hasn’t been heard before. What makes this presentation so powerful is the simple message he is getting across, and the straightforward and understandable manner in which he delivers it. Also note that he doesn’t use any slides, just a whiteboard where he creates a simple diagram of his opinion.

The Wisdom of a Third Grade Dropout – by Rick Rigsby

Here’s an example of a presentation given by a relatively unknown individual looking to inspire the next generation of graduates. Rick’s presentation is unique in many ways compared to the two above. Notably, he uses no visual prompts and includes a great deal of humour.

However, what is similar is the structure he uses. He first introduces his message that the wisest man he knew was a third-grade dropout. He then proceeds to deliver his main body of argument, and in the end, concludes with his message. This powerful speech keeps the viewer engaged throughout, through a mixture of heart-warming sentiment, powerful life advice and engaging humour.

As you can see from the examples above, and as it has been expressed throughout, a great presentation structure means analysing the core message of your presentation. Decide on a key message you want to impart the audience with, and then craft an engaging way of delivering it.

By preparing a solid structure, and  practising your talk  beforehand, you can walk into the presentation with confidence and deliver a meaningful message to an interested audience.

It’s important for a presentation to be well-structured so it can have the most impact on your audience. An unstructured presentation can be difficult to follow and even frustrating to listen to. The heart of your speech are your main points supported by evidence and your transitions should assist the movement between points and clarify how everything is linked.

Research suggests that the audience remember the first and last things you say so your introduction and conclusion are vital for reinforcing your points. Essentially, ensure you spend the time structuring your presentation and addressing all of the sections.

How to Create the Best PowerPoint Presentations [Examples & Templates]

Discover what makes the best PowerPoint presentations with these examples to inspire you.

10 FREE POWERPOINT TEMPLATES

Download ten free PowerPoint templates for a better presentation.

Updated: 03/31/23

Published: 03/31/23

Some presentations are better than others. They may have gorgeous designs. Others have insanely actionable takeaways. Some just give down-to-earth advice. But the best presentations represent all three.

And if you're looking to get started making your own presentation, why not learn from the best of the best?

To help you kick your own presentations up a notch, we've curated 20 awesome PowerPoint and SlideShare decks below.

What Good Presents Have in Common

Best PowerPoint Presentations

How to create a presentation.

When you're clicking through the presentations below, notice how they weave an interesting story through the format, design their slides, and make their presentations interactive with features exclusive to the platform on which they were created.

These are all crucial elements to making an awesome presentation — ones that you can certainly adapt and apply to your own with the right approach.

Even better — you may just learn something new about marketing while you're at it.

10 Free PowerPoint Templates

• Creative templates.
• Data-driven templates.
• Professional templates.

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

What do good presentations have in common

The best presenters rehearse the material for smooth delivery, use eye contact, and engage their audience. You’ll also find great slides and a strong storyline.

Here are five elements you’ll find in every great digital presentation .

The presentation is highly relevant to the audience.

The best way to engage your audience is to talk about things that matter to them. By choosing topics that are genuinely interesting, solve their problems, answer their questions, or offer actionable ideas, you’re on the right track for a great presentation.

The icing on the cake? Having great titles. Your slide titles should pique people’s interest and curiosity while clearly stating the topic so your audience can decide if it’s relevant.

The presentation has a clear objective.

People sitting in on a presentation should have a reasonably clear idea of what you’re covering.

Whatever the topic, your slides and commentary should clearly relate to your key takeaways.

The presentation follows an organized storyline.

While closely related to the item above, your slides should tell a story that your audience can follow, with a beginning, a middle, and an end.

By following the key elements of storytelling, it’s much easier to demonstrate the point you’re leading towards.

The audience understands the next steps.

Defining the action you want your audience to take at the conclusion of your presentation and offering a compelling reason to do so helps them understand and follow your ideal course of action.

While this is often a call to action, it can also be a thought-provoking question or a list of key takeaways.

The audiences leave with contact information and/or resources.

Often, your audience wants to dive deeper into your material or topic. Offering contact information or additional resources helps listeners find what they need, whether it’s a conversation with you or a link to more information.

• Less is more.
• Keep text to a minimum.
• Rethink visuals.
• Incorporate multimedia.

Now that you know what to look for in a great slide deck, let’s dive in and explain how you can create your own. Follow these four guidelines for the best results.

1. Less is more.

Keep your slides simple when delivering a presentation to an audience in-person. You want the focus to be on the message, rather than just the slides themselves. Keep the slides on-topic but simple enough that people can still pay attention to what you're saying.

Remember, your visuals and text support your message. The true power is in your delivery.

2. Keep text to a minimum.

One way to accomplish the aforementioned simplicity is to reduce the amount of text in your presentation. Too much text can leave your audience overwhelmed. They’ll be preoccupied with reading your slides instead of listening.

Instead of large amounts of text, think about fewer words in a bigger font. This will help your audience up close and in the back of the room read your slides.

3. Rethink visuals.

People recall information better when it’s paired with images (as opposed to text). When you reduce the amount of text in your slides, you'll need compelling visuals to support the message you're delivering to your audience.

That doesn't mean you can just throw some nice-looking photos onto your deck and move on. Like any other content strategy, the visual elements of your presentation need to be strategic and relevant. We’ll discuss different types of visuals, and their best practices, below.

Download 10 PowerPoint Templates for Free

While PowerPoint templates have come a long way since the program was first unveiled to the world, chances are, they're still commonly used.

To make your presentation unique, choose a theme that your audience hasn't seen dozens of times before — one that matches your brand and complements the topic you're speaking about.

Sometimes, it pays to look at presentation platforms other than PowerPoint to find templates, like Prezi.

There are also many visual content design sites that offer customizable templates that you can adapt for your own brand and topic, like Canva. In fact, in addition to templates, Canva also offers its very own platform for building presentations from scratch .

Additionally, you can also take a look at Venngage's free presentation maker for more professionally designed templates, icons, and high-quality stock photos that you can use right away.

Charts and Graphs

Image Source

One of the best ways to support the message you're delivering in your presentation is by including data and statistics. That's where charts and graphs come in: They provide a colorful and engaging way to present the details that support your point.

That said, make sure they fit in with the rest of your presentation's visual theme. Otherwise, your data points can distract the audience from what you're talking about, rather than enhancing it.

Color Theme

There's been some research on the way color can influence our emotions, especially when used in marketing.

While the goal of your presentation may not necessarily be to make a sale, you might be trying to invoke certain feelings or impressions, which a strategic use of color can help you do.

Check out Coschedule's guide on the psychology of color in marketing, which highlights the ways different tones, shades, and combinations can influence purchasing decisions.

When you include text, you want it to be easy to read and interpret. If you include text that's too small or dense to easily read, participants become too focused on trying to decipher it to pay attention to what you're saying.

That's why the designers at Visage recommend choosing Sans Serif fonts that opt for "legibility over fun," noting that text should not only be big enough for people in the back of the room to read but also presented in the right color to maintain visibility over your background.

Image Quality

Incorporating this fabulous visual content into your presentation will go to waste if the images are low-quality. Make sure your photos and other visual assets are high-resolution enough to be crisp and clear when displayed on a huge presentation screen.

10 FREE PowerPoint Templates

Tell us a little about yourself below to gain access today., 4. incorporate multimedia..

There's a reason why we love examples. You can give out the best advice available, but sometimes, in order to believe it, people need to see it in practice.

Multimedia is one way to achieve that — in a manner that can also capture and maintain your audience's attention.

A simple Google search for " music in presentations " yields enough soundtrack results to suggest that it's a unique way of engaging your audience, or at least creating a welcoming atmosphere before and after you speak.

Within the presentation itself, video serves as valuable visual content to keep your audience engaged. After all, 43% of people want to see more video content from marketers .

Video helps to illustrate and explain theories in practice in a way that the spoken word or photographs can't do alone.

Every item on this list meets the criteria for a great PowerPoint presentation. As you peruse these examples, take inspiration from our favorites and use what you learn to create your best presentation yet.

1. ChatGPT What It Is and How Writers Can Use It by Ads

The presentation below explains what ChatGPT is and all of its functionality, all with the goal of making the writing process easy.

What we love: This presentation maintains a limited color palette. The designer makes use of bold white text over a blue background to call out important headings. Key definitions are centered in white space, allowing these sections to naturally catch the viewer’s eye.

2 . How Google Works by Eric Schmid

Ever wonder what it's actually like to work at Google? The presentation below from Eric Schmidt (Alphabet, Inc.'s Executive Chairman and ex-CEO of Google) could clue you in.

This presentation outlines some of the top lessons he and his team have learned from running and hiring at one of the top companies in the world. Besides giving you a peek behind the scenes, Schmidt inspires you to make changes to the way your business runs.

What we love: This presentation has minimalist slides that balance simple illustrations with short text. Viewers can consume information quickly. Just as valuable, Schmidt ends with a thought-provoking question and information about where to go for more information.

3. Fix Your Really Bad PowerPoint by Slide Comet

This presentation has some awesome takeaways we all could learn from. Even if you're following all the tips in this presentation (inspired by Seth Godin's ebook), you can surely be inspired by its expert copy and design.

Seth Godin is arguably one of the greatest marketing minds of our time, so a presentation based on his book had to achieve high marks. In addition to the compelling design, the simplicity of the text stands out, making it easy for viewers to follow along.

What we love: This presentation example is best for understanding principles of great design and organization, while simultaneously teaching you how to create better slides.

4. 2022 Women in the Workplace Briefing by McKinsey & Compan

This presentation outlines the key findings from McKinsey’s 2022 research on women in the workplace. Focusing on original data, the slides below use a variety of graphs and visual representations to show how the expectations women face at work have changed over time.

Pro tip: If your presentation focuses on original research, use multiple types of graphs to show your finding. Only using bar graphs or pie charts can be tedious. Using many forms of data analysis will keep your presentation engaging.

5. Email Marketing Trends by Gabriel Blanche

Most marketers are looking to grow, but sometimes they can get stuck making incremental improvements. To help you get unstuck, Gabriel Blanchet shares trends to keep an eye out for.

What we love: These slides use a bright color pallet and use clean flow charts to present information. Best of all, it drives action by explaining each trend and explaining why it works.

6. Digital Strategy 101 by Bud Caddel

Even though this presentation is almost 100 slides long, its content is pure gold. Caddell answers some of the biggest FAQs about digital strategy in a very accessible way.

The reason his slides are so straightforward is because of the way he's laid them out. He's really adept at making "animated" slides that explain his story — something we all should learn how to do.

What we love: In the first few slides, Caddell lays out his objective and explains exactly what the presentation will cover. Viewers instantly understand what they’re going to get out of the presentation.

7. A Product Manager's Job by Josh Elma

Product managers are the backbone of every new initiative. These slides from Josh Elman describe what the role actually entails on a daily basis.

This presentation uses limited text in big font to drive home the highlights of the role. Plus, Elman starts off by discussing brands he’s worked with in the past, giving his presentation credibility.

What we love: Elman’s slides have a consistent color. By adding a blue filter to images, each slide in the presentation feels cohesive.

8. SEO, PPC, and AI in 2023 and Beyond by Lily Ra

Smart designers choose a consistent theme for their presentations. In this presentation, Lily Ray and her co-presenter pull from the world of science fiction.

When discussing AI and the future of marketing, they playfully evoke imagery reminiscent of Blade Runner or Ghost in the Shell.

Pro tip: Picking a theme with cinematic imagery will help you stand out in a sea of corporate clipart.

9. The HubSpot Culture Code by HubSpot CTO Dharmesh Sha

Not to toot our own horn, but this presentation has been one of our most successful. The secret? Dharmesh chooses a central theme, the acronym HEART (Humble, Empathetic, Adaptable, Remarkable, and Transparent).

This simple phrase provides a concise framing of our company’s values, as well as a central message for the presentation. Plus, heart icons in the presentation make the connection clear.

Pro tip: Consider adding a theme or acronym that ties your presentation together.

10. How I Got 2.5 Million Views on SlideShare by Nick Deme

Feeling inspired to create a SlideShare of your own? Make sure you flip through Nick Demey's presentation first. He shares some tried-and-true tips for creating awesome presentations that rack up tons of views.

Here’s what works: right off the bat, Demey tells you how to get in touch with him. He’s already successful, so if someone wanted to reach out directly to his agency, they don’t have to wait until the end to connect with him.

11. Intro to Azure Data Platform by Karen Lope

Making technical information easy to digest is a formidable challenge, especially in a slide deck. Karen Lopez tackles the challenge in her slide deck. Her presentation makes use of tables and flowcharts — creating clear visual representations of complex technical ideas.

Pro tip: If you’re presenting on a complex process, find ways to explain each step using charts and infographics. A few images can help a greater portion of your audience understand what you do.

12. Insights from the 2022 Legal Trends Report by Clio

From a design perspective, your presentation should have imagery. However, these images don’t need to be photographs of a boring office. Consider something more abstract, like Clio has done below.

Each slide of the presentation includes simple objects, like triangles, rectangles, and circles. These shapes seamlessly integrate with the different charts and graphs in the presentation.

Pro tip: Instead of using cliche visuals, shapes, and patterns can give your presentation an artistic flair.

13. Displaying Data by Bipul Deb Nat

We admire this presentation for its exceptional display of data — now this post will explain how to do the same in your own presentations.

I also love how this presentation is concise and minimal, as it helps communicate a fairly advanced topic in an easy-to-understand way.

What works: This presentation example has a clear objective — showing the audience how to effectively display data. Because of that, the visuals here take center stage, expanding on the meaning of the text, which makes it easy to absorb the key takeaways from the presentation.

14. 2022 GWI's Social Report by GWI

In this presentation, Leticia Xavier shows the power of a limited color scheme. She uses different shapes of pink and purple to create contrast. All of the graphs, backgrounds, and images use different hues of the same colors.

When she breaks the color scheme, as she does on slide 12, the viewer’s attention is immediately recaptured.

Pro tip: If you’re worried about contrasting visuals, pick one or two colors. You can then choose different hues and tints of these colors to make your slides cohesive.

15. Digital 2023 Global Overview Report

If you’re looking for a dark color scheme to replicate, look no further. This slide deck from DataReportal uses a deep blue background throughout its presentation. Graphs are in bright yellows and greens, while the text is white.

Remember to keep a high level of contrast between your text and your background. This will make your slides easy to read.

Pro tip: If you’re going to present in person, consider your environment when choosing a color scheme. If the lights will be off in the room, a dark background will work for your slides. If everything will be bright, a light background with dark text will be easier to read.

16. How to Turn Wild Opinions into Traffic, Backlinks, and Social Proof by Animalz

SEO’s changed a lot in the past two decades. Most of us are concerned with keeping up with the latest and greatest changes. This presentation walks through today’s marketing landscape, where everyone has both opinions and ways to express them.

What we love: This presentation uses emojis, a staple of the social media world, as a stand-in for bullet points. Smart presenters match design elements with their subject matter.

17. 5 Killer Ways to Design the Same Slide by Crispy Presentations

While keeping everything consistent can be good for branding, it can also prevent people from noticing the new content you’ve put together. This presentation shows you a few different ways you can design the same slide — all depending on what you want it to accomplish.

What we love: Everyone who sees the title instantly knows what they’re going to learn. It’s short, which makes it easy to consume in very little time.

18.   The HubSpot Customer Code by HubSpot CTO Dharmesh Shah

When it comes to working with a company, it helps to set customer expectations and to clearly lay out your value proposition. HubSpot does both in the slide deck below. Instead of relying solely on product images, this presentation includes drawn images and lively colors.

Pro tip: Use bright colors for different words and phrases that you want to stand out. These will naturally catch your viewers’ eyes.

19.  ThinkNow Culture Report 2022 by ThinkNow

Thus far, we’ve seen slides that use neutral backgrounds that contrast with colorful charts and graphs. In this presentation, ThinkNow successfully subverts expectations.

The slides use colorful icons and accent colors in magenta and yellow. Meanwhile, graphs throughout the piece are made in black and white. This works well by creating high-contrast, easy-to-read visual representations.

Pro tip: Don’t be afraid of using classic color schemes like black and white. These simple colors can balance out loud accents.

20 . How to Gain a Massive Following on Instagram by Buffer

When choosing a presentation topic, find ways to hook your audience. For example, this presentation from Buffer makes use of a numbered list. Listeners know exactly what they’ll get from the presentation and how far along in the presentation they are.

Pro tip : Keep your slides simple. Instead of choosing a text-heavy design, Buffer limits text on the slide just to each tip.

The best PowerPoint presentations have gorgeous designs, give insanely actionable takeaways, and provide down-to-earth advice.

Learn from the presentation examples above to create your own that represents all three.

Don't forget to share this post!

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Video and audio file formats supported in PowerPoint

Recommended formats.

Video : .mp4 files encoded with H.264 video and AAC audio

Audio : .m4a files encoded with AAC audio

These names and formats may sound complicated, but you can easily convert to and use these formats without having to know anything more than the names.

Supported video file formats

* When you are using Windows 7 running on a virtual machine (VM) , the QuickTime Player is required to be installed for playing MP4 video files. (Read Download QuickTime for Windows , on the Apple site, for more information.)

Supported audio file formats

Additional information

If you experience slow playback, a lag between audio and video, audio stuttering, or frames being lost, see Tips for improving audio and video playback and compatibility .

PowerPoint may also support additional file types if you install additional codecs on your PC. If you want to learn about finding codecs for your PC, read Are you having playback issues (in PowerPoint)?

Certain older video file formats may not compress or export properly in Office on a Windows RT PC. Instead, use modern media formats such as H.264 and Advanced Audio Coding (AAC).

Add audio to your presentation

Insert and play a video file from your computer

File formats that are supported in PowerPoint

PowerPoint videos not playing on secondary monitor

Insert or link to a video on YouTube

Video recommendations

.mp4 files encoded with H.264 video and AAC audio

Audio recommendations

.m4a files encoded with AAC audio

These names and formats sound complicated, but you can easily convert to and use these formats without having to know anything more than the names.

Audio from the iTunes Store may not play back when shared

Music files purchased from the iTunes Store can only be played on authorized computers, so people whom you share presentations with might be unable to play iTunes files.

PowerPoint for macOS supported formats

Windows Media files (.wmv, .wma) aren't supported on PowerPoint for macOS. There are a number of third- party tools for Mac that can convert your .wmv or .wma file to one of the supported formats listed above.

Alternatively, if you have a Microsoft 365 subscription that includes Microsoft Stream, you can upload the .wmv or .wma file to Stream and insert it into your presentation from there.  Learn more about Microsoft Stream.

Music files purchased from the iTunes Store can only be played on authorized computers, and people with whom you share presentations might be unable to play iTunes files.

Insert media into your slide

Once you have a converted media file in a suitable format with the correct encoding, go back to the PowerPoint slide where you want to insert your video or audio file. On the Insert tab of the ribbon, click Audio or Video . (For complete details about inserting the media file, see Insert and play a video file from your computer or Add audio to your slides .)

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How-To Geek

How to change an entire presentation's formatting in powerpoint.

You don't need to change a PowerPoint presentation's formatting one slide at a time. You can do it all at once in the Master View. Here's how to use this time-saving feature.

If you’re wanting to reuse a PowerPoint presentation but would like to clear the slideshow's formatting, there’s no need to do it slide by slide---you can do it all at once. Here’s how.

First, open the PowerPoint presentation with the formatting you want to edit. To illustrate the before and after, here’s what we’ll be working with in this example.

Looking even closer, here are the formats our current slideshow is using:

• Colors: Gallery
• Headings: Gill Sans MT
• Body: Gill Sans MT
• Effects: Gallery
• Background Style: Style 10
• Background Graphics: Wooden Flooring

Once you’re ready to reformat, select the “ Slide Master ” option in the “Master Views” group of the “View” tab.

The first child slide is selected by default. Be sure to choose the parent slide above it, or the changes won’t take place for every slide.

If you want to assign a new theme to the presentation, you can do that here. Select “Themes” from the “Edit Theme” group and choose your desired theme from the drop-down menu.

Each theme comes with its own unique set of fonts, colors, effects, and so on---and there's certainly no shortage of items to choose from. If you want to stick with your current theme but change some of the individual formatting options, you can do so with the options available in the “Background” group.

Here are the different options available for reformatting:

• Colors: Changes all the colors used in your presentation, as well as the color options available in the color picker.
• Fonts: Changes all the headings and body fonts used in the presentation.
• Effects: Changes the appearance (shading, border, etc.) of objects in your presentation.
• Background Styles: Choose the background style for the selected theme.
• Hide Background Graphics: Hide (or unhide) background graphics that come with a theme. This can only be used on each slide type in the Master view.

To make changes, select the option from the menu and choose your desired change from the menu that opens. For example, if we wanted to change our colors from “Gallery” to “Green Yellow,” we’d select “Colors” from the “Background Group” and then choose “Green Yellow” from the drop-down menu.

Related: How to Change the Default Font in PowerPoint

Repeat these steps for whichever options you’d like to change. We’ll make the following changes to our slideshow in this example:

• Colors: Green Yellow
• Headings: Calibri
• Body: Calibri
• Effects: Glossy
• Background Styles: Style 10
• Hide Background Graphics: Title Slide only

Once you’ve made the desired changes, select the “Close Master View” button in the “Close” group.

Related: How to Create a Custom Template in PowerPoint

You’ll now see the changes applied throughout the entire presentation.

And a closer look shows all the finer details.

That’s all there is to it!

15 PowerPoint Tips & Tricks To Improve Your Presentations

Creating a presentation in PowerPoint will be significantly easier if you know a few tips and tricks. We’ve shown you how to change the size of your slides, insert a PDF , add music , and how to make your PowerPoint more engaging. 

Whether you’re brand new to creating PowerPoint presentations or you’re a pro, you can improve further by incorporating new PowerPoint design ideas. 

1. How to Lock an Image in PowerPoint

Locking an image in a PowerPoint presentation will prevent the image’s proportions or aspect ratio from getting distorted or out of scale.

To lock an image in PowerPoint, follow the steps below:

• Right-click on the image and select Size and Position .

• Check the box labeled Lock aspect ratio .

It’s also possible to lock an image or object so it cannot be resized or moved around the slide at all. This feature may be missing from most PowerPoint desktop versions. You might be able to right-click on an image, shape, or object and select Lock .

If you don’t see that option, one workaround is to place objects into the master slide. To learn how, read how to edit master slides in PowerPoint . 

2. Loop a Slideshow in PowerPoint

If you plan on continuously running a PowerPoint slide show, you can set the slideshow to loop instead of having to restart it manually.

• Open the PowerPoint you want to loop.
• Select the Slide Show tab.
• Select the Set Up Slide Show button.

• Check the box labeled Loop continuously until ‘Esc.’

• Select the OK button.

You’ll need to press the Esc key to end the looped PowerPoint presentation. Clicking on the final slide in your deck or pressing the right arrow key on your keyboard will cause the slideshow to restart.

3. How to Reduce the Size of a PowerPoint

PowerPoint files can become large if you’ve inserted high-resolution images or media files. We’ve got a few PowerPoint tips and tricks that can help reduce the size of your PowerPoint file.

• Embed only the font characters used in your presentation by selecting File > Options > Save in the menu on the left.

• If you’ve chosen to embed fonts in the file, select the Embed only the characters used in the presentation option.

• Select File > Options > Advanced .
• Under Image Size and Quality , check the box labeled Discard editing data .
• To further reduce the size of your PowerPoint, uncheck the box labeled Do not compress images in file and opt for a lower default resolution for your images.

• In the Picture Format tab, select the Compress Pictures button. You can choose whether to apply compression options to all images or only the picture you’ve chosen.
• Check the box labeled Delete cropped areas of pictures , and select Use default resolution . Press OK .

By reducing the size of your PowerPoint file, you’ll make the file easier to store and email.

4. How to Add and Print PowerPoint Notes

Add speaker notes to help the presenter remember what to say during the presentation by selecting the Notes button at the bottom of the PowerPoint. Type a script or just a few notes as reminders.

To print the presentation with the notes, select Notes Pages in the Settings section of the Print dialog box.

5. How to Edit PowerPoint Backgrounds

To add, remove, or edit a background graphic from your slides using the PowerPoint desktop app, you’ll need to select Slide Master from the View menu. Then, on the left, select the slide master or one of the layouts that appears below it: Right-click and select Format Background . Check a box labeled Hide background graphics .

If you’re using PowerPoint in a browser, you might have noticed there is no slide master. When you use the online version, you can directly add, remove, or edit any graphics that appear on a slide.

6. How to Link to Another Slide in the Presentation

Linking to another slide in the same presentation can be helpful if you anticipate the need to skip part of your presentation due to time constraints or refer back to a previous slide. It is as simple as adding a hyperlink.

• Select the text, image, or shape you want to use as a link.
• Select Insert > Link or right-click and select Hyperlink .
• In the Insert Hyperlink dialog box, under Link to , select Place in This Document .

• Choose which slide you want to link to and press the OK button.

7. Stay Consistent by Using the Format Painter

Consistency is a hallmark of a well-designed PowerPoint presentation. For example, slide headings should have the same color, font, and font size throughout the deck. Using the format painter makes standardizing all the headings and element labels in your presentation quick and easy.

• Select the content that has the formatting you like.
• In the Home tab, select the Format Painter .
• Next, select something else, and the formatting of the first element will automatically be applied.

Simple. To apply formatting to multiple elements, double-click the Format Painter and repeat step #3 above until you’ve applied the formatting to all the elements you want. Press the Esc key to stop using the Format Painter.

8. Look Smart with SmartArt

PowerPoint’s built-in SmartArt feature will help take your presentations to the next level. With SmartArt, you can convert plain, boring text to engaging graphics.

• Select the text you want to convert into a graphic.
• On the Home tab, select Convert to SmartArt .

• Select the option you like the most. As you move your mouse over the different options, you’ll see what your text looks like converted to that SmartArt option.
• If you’d like a SmartArt option that allows you to add pictures, select More SmartArt Graphics .
• In the menu on the left, select Picture .

• Select the option you like best.
• To add an image, select an image icon in a SmartArt element and choose whether to insert an image from a file on your computer or from an online source like Bing.

The SmartArt gallery has dozens of options to choose from. One of them is bound to make your slide more engaging.

9. Align Your Objects

You’ve used the Format Painter to ensure your formatting is consistent throughout your presentation. While you’re at it, make sure all your objects are perfectly aligned using PowerPoint’s Align tool.

• Select the objects you want to align by holding down Shift as you select each object.
• In the Format tab, select Align .
• Choose how you want the selected object to align.

• To distribute three or more objects evenly, select the objects, and then select Align and either Distribute Horizontally or Distribute Vertically .

Being intentional about how objects on your slides are aligned goes a long way to making a professional-looking presentation.

10. How to Use Picture Layout

When you’re working with a slide with one or more images, try using PowerPoint’s built-in Picture Layout tool. It’s SmartArt for images.

• Select all the images on the slide (hold down Shift to select multiple images).
• In the Picture Tools menu, select Format > Picture Layout .

• Mouse over the options to find the Picture Layout you like best, and select it.

If you decide you don’t want to use a Picture Layout, you can convert your images back to Shapes by selecting Design > Convert > Convert to Shapes .

11. Be Sparing with the Slide Transitions

Once you discover that you can add animations between slides, you might be tempted to try them all. However, you should remember the cardinal rule of PowerPoint presentations: less is more. If you absolutely must use a transition, stick to the simple ones like Cut and Fade .

• Select a slide.
• From the Transitions tab, select a transition.

• Select Effect Options if it’s available to choose additional settings for the transition.

• Select Preview to see the transition in action.

12. Use Animations Wisely

While you’re toning down your slide transitions, make sure you’re using animations judiciously, too. Animating text or objects on a slide can help the flow of your presentation, but too many animations can be distracting. Be discerning about when and where you use them.

To add animations and effects:

• Select the text or object you want to animate.
• On the Animations tab, select an animation.

• Next, select Effect Options to choose an effect. Note, the Effect Options will be different depending on which animation you have selected.

You can select different ways to start the animations. In the Timing section of the Animations tab, choose when to start the animation.

• On click . This option will start the animation when you click the slide.
• With previous . Choose this option if you want the animation to play at the same time as the previous animation in the sequence.
• After previous . The animation will begin immediately after the prior one concludes.
• Duration . This option allows you to make an effect last longer or shorter.
• Delay . Add some time before an effect begins.

To change the order your animations play:

• Select an animation marker on a slide (or toggle on the Animation Pane by selecting it in the Advanced Animation section of the Animation tab and select an animation in the list.)

• In the Timing section of the Animation tab, select either Move Earlier or Move Later .

To add an animation to a group of objects:

• Press Ctrl and select multiple objects.
• Select Format > Group > Group to create a group.
• Choose an animation from the Animations tab.

If you use them the right way, animations can make your presentation clearer and easier for viewers to understand.

13. K.I.S.S.

PowerPoint slides are most effective when they’re simple. When you include only the most important information on your slides, you make it easier for people to digest and remember your message. You can always say more about the topic, but don’t pack the slide with more content than you need. After all, your audience should be listening more than reading.

14. Seek Out High Quality Templates, Images, and Graphics

When you keep it simple, that means using images and graphics that look good. We’ve rounded up some great stock photo sites and places to get beautiful PowerPoint templates .

15. Export the Presentation as a Video

When you’re happy with your presentation, export it as a video:

• Select File > Export .

• Choose Create a video .

• Select the quality of the video and whether to use recorded timings and narrations.

• Set the duration of each slide.
• Select the Create Video button.
• Navigate to the folder where you want to save the video file.
• Select the Save button.

By implementing these tips and tricks, you’ll take your presentations to the next level!

However, perhaps despite all the tips and tricks you’ve learned, you’ve decided to swear off the software entirely. So many PowerPoint presentations have put audience members to sleep that we now have a term for it: “death by PowerPoint.” In that case, say goodbye to Powerpoint, and check out these seven alternatives to PowerPoint that you can use online. 

Maggie Marystone is a freelance technology writer, human rights worker, and storyteller based in Chicago. Read Maggie's Full Bio

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Blog Data Visualization 5 Foolproof Presentation Layout Ideas You Should Use

5 Foolproof Presentation Layout Ideas You Should Use

Written by: Eugene Cheng May 19, 2023

You’ve got that big meeting coming up tomorrow, but all you have are some really terrible looking reference slides and an empty page on PowerPoint with “Click to Add Title” staring you in the face.

Creating a presentation from scratch may sound like hefty work but with the right presentation layout, you’re basically off to a good start. 

Then again,  you don’t actually have to design your presentation from scratch. Not when you can find countless ready-to-use presentation templates that are designed to blow your audience away just a search away. 

But sometimes, having too many options can be a problem too. So here’s a collection of Powerpoint presentation templates along with tips for creating different types of presentations that you should totally check out.

Now, no more chit-chat – it’s time to dive right in and create the ultimate slide layout for an awe-inspiring presentation!

What is the layout of a presentation?

A presentation layout refers to the arrangement and organization of various elements within a presentation. It involves the placement of text, images, graphics, and other visual components on slides to effectively communicate information to the audience.

When it comes to delivering an effective presentation, the layout plays a crucial role in capturing and retaining your audience’s attention. A well-designed presentation layout not only enhances the visual appeal but also helps convey your message clearly and coherently.

A good presentation gets things moving – check out the top qualities of awesome presentations and learn all about how to make a good presentation to help you nail that captivating delivery.

The next question is — what makes up a presentation layout that can elevate your presentations to the next level? 

Top 5 tried and tested presentation layout ideas you should try

There have been numerous articles published online about how you can start upping your presentation design game. Most of them offer you some presentation ideas , but when you’re rushing to put something together quickly, can you really afford to spend time fiddling with presentation software?

At my company HighSpark , we develop presentations on a daily basis and we’ve found a way to significantly reduce the guesswork required to put together solid presentations .

One of the ways is by reusing proven presentation layouts that work.

Here are five presentation layout ideas that we’ve used time and time again to build awesome presentation slides in record time. Check out these presentation templates to use our layouts easily.

1. Presentation layout following the rule of three

The “rule of three” has been widely used in many mediums of communication to increase memorability and engage audiences. Similarly, if you want to take advantage of the rule of three, splitting the slide into three equally sized sections is an easy way to build layouts for a variety of purposes.

Team slides

Since team slides generally showcase the professional experiences of founders or teams. Splitting your slide into thirds will leave just enough space for a headshot, as well as bio information for each of the team members.

This three-part layout is also commonly used for pitch deck designs , where startups showcase their core founding team and advisors.

Remember you don’t want a boring pitch deck design to cost you opportunities!

This layout is also used when showing the steps in a process or timeline:

Big pointers

There will be instances where you have big distinctions as headlines that you’ll need to display on your presentation. These points are usually followed by additional evidence or information to support your stance.

For example, a “pointer” in this case could be: “China: The Next Big Economy”, followed by a statistic supporting that point.

When showcasing a few different statistics, it can be challenging to decide on a layout that will make data more interesting. If you’re using charts or icons to represent your data visually, having the visuals up top, accompanied by text below, is an easy way to make data more interesting.

So you get the gist. By using a simple three-part presentation layout, you’ll be able to organize content in a variety of ways, limited only by your imagination.

2. Left image, right text presentation layout

As dictated by the Picture Superiority Effect, pictures are more likely to be remembered than words . Pictures command attention more quickly. If you use more visuals than text in your presentation, your audience will be six times more likely to recall what you were talking about.

Having your pictures on the left side of your slide offers a comfortable eye-flow for your audience. Images have inherent meanings associated to them (if I asked you to think of a chicken, you’d probably think of a bird and not the letters “C-H-I-C-K-E-N”).

Using larger images lets you reduce the amount of words on your slide, especially if you’re telling a story.

There is no hard and fast rule for how big the proportions need to be, but what I’ve found works really well is to:

• Make the words on your slide as concise as possible
• Size the text to a minimum 12-point font and above
• Take a look at how much space you have left for your image, then pick the most ideal image

Some of the best types of images to use for presentation design are…

Images with faces

Using faces in your presentation helps to build trust with your audience. We’re “hardwired” to recognize human faces since birth, and that’s why they’re widely used in marketing content. For instance, having a “hero-character” helps viewers to imagine themselves in the character’s position.

For example, this character: “Neel” is used to demonstrate the need for a financial management platform.

The startup using this presentation is creating financial solutions for a very specific group of people: middle-class Indians. Using this image of “Neel”, the audience can very quickly understand the segment the company is trying to serve.

Using faces also helps you frame text, especially if the person is “looking” in the right direction. Our eyes naturally gravitate towards where the human figure in the image is looking towards.

Images with large whitespace

In the field of design, whitespace is used to reference how empty space is used for functional and aesthetic purposes. Certain images are more pleasing to the eye because of the space around them. It’s the reason why you find certain paragraphs of text on a website hard to read, because of the lack of space between the lines.

Having more white space means that you’ll have more room to play around with text, icons and other information that you might need to include on the slide.

Generally, if you pick an image with a lot of empty space, placing text at any of the intersecting “power points” that follow the Rule of Thirds will ensure an aesthetically pleasing slide overall.

One of the most famous examples of someone using white space with only text is Steve Jobs and his famous WWDC presentations.

You’ll notice that there’s a lot space in the slide–this draws your attention to the headline and avoids inundating the audience with visuals.

Images with a clear focus

Using images that are too busy will hinder your viewers from honing in on the information or visuals that matter. Picking images that have blurred backgrounds or a sharp focus on a specific subject can help to reduce noise.

3. Presentation layout with full bleed and whitespace

When you’re using evocative full bleed images to tell stories, as seen in presentations by orators like Elon Musk and TED speakers, you may want to include a few words to give the image context.

Elon Musk used full bleed images of pollution and satellite images of the Earth during his PowerWall presentation .  This helped to bring attention back to himself and also highlighted the very real problems that they seek to solve with their products.

This shot from a TED presentation also demonstrates how you can tell stories using images and a little bit of text for context.

There are three simple ways to include words on full bleed images…

Split your slide into nine parts

Split your slide into nine equal parts. Place any elements of focus at any of the four points where the lines intersect. This is a photography technique that applies to presentations too.

Frame text with a shape

If there isn’t enough contrast between the background and your text, consider using shapes to frame the text. This way, your audiences can still read the text and be able to see the image of interest as well.

Use empty space

If your full bleed image has empty space, it’s the perfect area to place your text without too much guesswork.

When picking font colors, a trick to pick something that’ll look good is:

• Having adequate contrast with the background
• Picking colors directly from the image itself!

For example, the picture you see below is of a mountain with quite a bit of whitespace above the photograph.

So, assuming we’re putting our text where the clouds are, we just have to pick a color that is darker than the background (in this case, the background is white).

Instead of just randomly selecting a color, we’ll select the turquoise color of the moss that is on the mountain in the picture, as well as the grey of the mountain itself.

The result is that you’ll have a very consistent-looking slide with colors that work well together.

4. Horizontal split presentation layout

By splitting your slide equally using horizontal bars, you can instantly see a usable layout for your information. It doesn’t take much guessing to know where you can place content in these cases. Just fit it to the grid you made.

This is similar to the three-part layout but allows for a different kind of representation of information.

Here are some examples of how a horizontal split can be used:

This presentation layout idea works great when you have:

• An image representing each of your points
• A heading for each point, when there are no more than four points (otherwise there won’t be enough space on the slide)
• Body text that might be a little too dense to put into a vertical grid layout

For example, you could use this layout in a team slide within an investor pitch deck, where you simply have too much information about the founders to force into a tight space.

Learn how to customize this presentation:

A horizontal split layout can also be used as an alternative to bullet points when you are listing the benefits of a product, or spelling out a timeline of execution:

5. Centred callout presentation layout

There will be instances where you need a big callout (a specific and short message). For example, it’s great to have big callouts for “thank you” slides when ending a presentation .

A great way to do this is to either pick a background image with contrasting space or to add the color contrast on your own using gradients.

When picking font colors for your callout, always ask yourself:

• Will people be able to see it?
• Is there adequate contrast?

How to pick fonts for your callouts

There are many different font types . There’s sans-serif fonts (fonts with no line embellishments, i.e. Arial, Helvetica), serif fonts (fonts with line embellishments, i.e. Times New Roman), and scripts (hand-written cursive or fanciful typefaces).

These fonts all communicate different personalities based on your audience. Naturally, you wouldn’t use Comic Sans when presenting to an executive audience, would you?

Fancy fonts that are harder to read have been shown to promote better recollection . If you only have a few words on your slide, using a script can help to bolster this effect.

However, to be on the safe side, if you’re not sure whether you can keep your words brief, it’s better to stick to more legible fonts where people can easily make out the letters.

To leave a lasting impression on your audience, consider transforming your slides into an interactive presentation. Here are 15 interactive presentation ideas to enhance interactivity and engagement.

When faced with a blank slide, keep in mind these distinctions so that you’ll put together functional, aesthetic slides:

• Think about how much content you need on your slide. That will limit or expand your layout options. If you have three big points, use a horizontal or vertical layout split, it’s easy and fuss-free.
• If you have the prerogative to keep your presentation brief, use larger images for callouts, to take advantage of the “picture superiority effect” for better audience attention and recollection.
• When picking images for your slides, try to pick ones with more whitespace and, if humans are concerned, ones with faces. This gives you more layout options as well as helps to build rapport with your audience.
• Always ensure there is adequate contrast between your text and the background. If there isn’t, either add a shape or gradient to make the words legible.
• When laying out elements or text, be deliberate. Use the rule of thirds and try not to choose too many fonts.

There you have it! If you ever find yourself stuck with layouts when preparing a presentation, refer back to this article and start moving from there. Any questions? Do leave a comment!

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Which presentation format should you choose for your UC Tech 2024 proposal?

• by Kayla Lee
• May 03, 2024

The format of your presentation can greatly influence its effectiveness, affecting the level of audience engagement and message memorability. To help you select the best format to enhance your presentation, we have listed key characteristics of each one.  

As you review the list below, you should also consider:  

• Desired outcome : What is your purpose? Is it to spread knowledge or collaborate with others to form new ideas?  
• Engagement strategy : How do you want to engage attendees? Are the interactions hands-on? Are they collaborative or individual?  

Presentation Formats  

Active learning/experiential activities (variable length, maximum 30-45 minutes)   .

These guided, participatory activities afford facilitators and attendees the opportunity to share ideas with each other and learn by doing. They include:  

• Multiple forms of active engagement to connect new concepts with prior knowledge (e.g. hands-on activities, writing, discussion, problem solving, question generation, reflection, etc.).  
• Low bar for participation by inviting all attendees to engage in the activities and with each other.  
• Opportunities for spontaneous discussion to bounce ideas off each other.  
• Timely feedback and opportunity for reflection from presenter(s) and attendees.  
• Relationship development and nurturing from learner to self, learner to others, and learner to the world at large.  

Birds of a Feather Meetings (45 minutes)   

These meetings allow attendees with common interests to gather and discuss issues. They include:  

• Casual, informal atmosphere for attendees to come together.  
• Flexibility and adaptability to short and long discussions about issues that may not fit within other presentation formats.  
• Conversational engagement between presenter(s) and attendees to share diverse perspectives and ask questions.  
• Networking opportunities to engage, collaborate, and build relationships with like-minded individuals.  

Interactive Presentations (45 minutes)  

These sessions are opportunities to share topics of interest through an innovative, thought-provoking format that fosters belonging. They include:  

• Nonlinear format , allowing presenter(s) to jump around to content that attendees find interesting.  
• Interactive content (e.g. videos, animations, polls, games), adding fun, novelty, and a personalized touch to the presentation.  
• Real-time participation and interaction between presenter(s) and attendees throughout the entire presentation, adding spontaneity and increasing attention to the material.  

Panel Discussions (45 minutes)   

These sessions feature two to four dynamic presenters coming together to explore a shared topic. They include:  

• Multiple perspectives by presenters, offering different approaches to a topic.  
• Structured conversations led by a moderator for an organized, respectful, and productive exchange of ideas.  
• Audience engagement , often at the end of the panel for attendees to seek clarification or deeper discussion.  

Poster Sessions (20 minutes)   

These sessions demonstrate the use of an emerging technology or innovative practice for teaching and learning. They include:   

• Visibility for your research in its early stage of development.  
• Short, insightful discussion and critique from peers to improve your work or discuss new ideas.  
• Networking opportunities to engage, collaborate, and build relationships with other attendees who are interested in your research.  

Standard Presentations (45 minutes)  

These sessions are opportunities to present in-depth on a project. They include:  

• Detailed presentation about a project to provide a comprehensive overview of your work.  
• Structured, focused delivery through clear sections, key points, and a logical flow.  
• Audience engagement at the end of the presentation through a Q&A.  

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