PowerPoint displays will be skilled, enticing, and actually assist your viewers keep in mind your message.
In the event you don’t have a lot expertise, that’s okay — I’m going to arm you with PowerPoint design ideas from professional presenters, the steps you should construct an interesting deck, and templates that will help you nail nice slide design.
Buckle up for a wide range of step-by-step explanations in addition to ideas and tips that will help you begin mastering this program. There are extra sources woven in, and also you’ll discover professional views from different HubSpotters alongside the best way.
Desk of Contents
The right way to Make a PowerPoint Presentation
Microsoft PowerPoint is sort of a check of fundamental skilled abilities, and every PowerPoint is principally a presentation made from a number of slides.
Successful PowerPoints depend upon three important components: your command of PowerPoint’s design instruments, your consideration to presentation processes, and being constant together with your fashion.
Maintain these in thoughts as we leap into PowerPoint’s capabilities.
Getting Began
1. Open PowerPoint and click on ‘New.’
A web page with templates will normally open routinely, but when not, go to the highest left pane of your display and click on New. In the event you’ve already created a presentation, choose Open and then double-click the icon to open the prevailing file.
2. Select a theme or create your personal.
Microsoft presents built-in themes and colour variations that will help you design your slides with a cohesive look. To select from these pre-built themes, select the File tab once more, choose New, select one of many choices, and click on Create.
There may be additionally an possibility to pick out a clean presentation when you want to start out from scratch. With this feature you should utilize PowerPoint parts, your design sense, and your model’s colour palette to make your personal theme.
Creating PowerPoint Slides
3. Insert a slide.
Insert a brand new slide by clicking on the Residence tab after which the New Slide button. Contemplate what content material you need to placed on the slide, together with heading, textual content, and imagery.
4. Create a wide range of slides for various functions.
You don’t need to current the identical actual slide every time, simply with completely different content material on it. This is able to bore your viewers, so just remember to create a number of variations.
Contemplate what sort of multimedia you’ll be utilizing, and select or create completely different layouts accordingly. At minimal, you’ll want:
- A title slide
- An agenda or desk of contents slide
- A slide that introduces the speaker
- Varied content material slides
5. Use the Duplicate characteristic to avoid wasting you time.
There’s no must create these designs time and again. Now that you’ve got just a few to attract from, merely duplicate them earlier than inputting your content material:
- On the left pane, right-click the thumbnail of the slide you need to duplicate.
- Select Duplicate Slide from the pop-up menu.
This can routinely add a duplicate of this slide to the presentation. From there, you’ll be able to customise it to your wants.
6. Add photographs to your slide.
Add photographs by clicking Insert and clicking the Photos icon. You’ll be able to add different parts through the use of options within the Residence and Insert tabs on the highest ribbon. Discover your format by dragging parts round.
7. Add transitions to your slides (optionally available).
When completed nicely, transitions can add a bit little bit of motion and showmanship to your presentation. PowerPoint has a number of transitions inbuilt so that you can select from.
Choose the Transitions tab from the highest ribbon. Choose a transition for it to preview in your display. To customise it additional, click on Impact Choices and play with the options to seek out one thing that fits your liking. To take away a transition, choose Transitions and click on None.
8. Add animations to your slides (optionally available).
Like transitions, animations can add motion, reveal data, and assist you to underscore the factors you need to hit throughout your speech. To animate a component, observe these steps:
- Choose the component you need animated by clicking on it.
- Select Animations from the highest ribbon.
- You may have the choice to select from a number of results displayed within the ribbon.
- Clicking on one gives you a preview.
- To customise the animation, choose Impact Choices.
- To take away an animation, click on None within the ribbon.
You may even have the choice to maneuver animations round as you edit your slides by clicking on the Animation Pane button, then reordering the animations within the pop-up record.
Ending Up Your Presentation
9. Save your presentation.
Click on File and Save, ensuring to specify the place you need your PowerPoint to be saved. In the event you’re utilizing your slides for schooling or educating, it may very well be useful to convert your presentation to an online course.
10. Run your presentation.
All the time do a trial run to make sure that your slides are arrange correctly and your animations fireplace the best way you anticipate them to.
To current your PowerPoint, go to the Slide Present tab and click on Play from Begin. The slide will cowl your entire display in order that your viewers (on this case, you) is solely centered on the visible parts of your presentation.
11. Advance the slides.
Everytime you’re in presentation mode and also you’re completed with one slide, click on your mouse to advance to the following slide.
PowerPoint Presentation Suggestions
- Do not let PowerPoint determine how you employ PowerPoint.
- Create customized slide sizes.
- Edit your slide template design.
- Write textual content together with your viewers in thoughts.
- Be sure your entire objects are correctly aligned.
- Use ‘Format Object’ to higher management your objects’ designs.
- Reap the benefits of PowerPoint’s shapes.
- Create customized shapes.
- Crop photographs into customized shapes.
- Current web sites inside PowerPoint.
- Attempt utilizing GIFs.
- Maintain it easy.
- Embed your font information.
- Save your slides as a PDF file for backup functions.
- Embed multimedia.
- Deliver your personal {hardware}.
- Use ‘Presenter View.’
PowerPoint Fashion
1. Don’t let PowerPoint determine how you employ PowerPoint.
Microsoft wished to offer PowerPoint customers with loads of instruments, however this doesn’t imply you need to use all of them. You don’t need it trying like your tweenage Geocities website and taking part in undesirable midi-files.
To maintain it skilled, listed here are some key issues to look out for:
- Be sure that any preset themes complement your wants earlier than you undertake them.
- Keep away from Microsoft Workplace’s default fonts, Calibri and Cambria — they’ll make the presentation really feel underwhelming.
- Professionals ought to by no means use PowerPoint’s motion sounds.
- PowerPoint makes bulleting automated. Bullets are sometimes applicable, however not at all times.
- All shapes begin blue with a small shadow. Take away this shadow if it is not wanted, and don’t depart shapes default blue — it reads as a mistake to different PowerPoint customers.
The simplest approach to know you’re getting it proper is to obtain some templates. We offer 10 free templates that you just’re welcome to check out. Even when you don’t find yourself utilizing them, you’ll get a way for greatest design practices.
2. Create customized slide sizes.
Default slide sizes work for many displays, however you might want to regulate it for bigger displays and/or weirdly-sized shows. Here is how:
- Within the top-left nook, select File.
- Choose Web page Setup.
- Sort the peak and width of the background you would like, and click on OK.
- A dialogue field will seem. Click on Scale if you wish to additionally resize your content material, or Don’t Scale if not. We advocate clicking Don’t Scale, then manually adjusting minor format points.
Professional Tip: You’ll be able to keep away from a headache when you resize your slides earlier than you add any objects to them. In any other case, the size of your objects will turn into skewed.
3. Edit your slide template design.
It‘s a lot simpler to edit your underlying PowerPoint template earlier than you begin — this fashion, you don’t must design every slide by hand. Here is how:
- Choose View within the high navigation.
- Click on Grasp.
- Within the drop-down, click on Slide Grasp.
- Make any adjustments you want, then click on Shut Grasp within the high ribbon. All present and future slides in that presentation will use that template.
4. Write textual content together with your viewers in thoughts.
Do not forget that no matter else your PowerPoint presentation does, it must assist the incredible content material you’re sharing with stakeholders.
A major a part of a PowerPoint’s content material is textual content, and nice copy could make or break your presentation.
Consider your written work from just a few completely different angles so you realize your whole viewers can see and perceive it.
Maintain the quantity of textual content beneath 6-8 traces (or 30 phrases max). Use a minimal of dimension 24 pt. How your textual content is acquired differentiates good presenters from one of the best.
Typography
Selecting the best font is necessary — the notion of your font kind may affect your viewers’s impression of you. The appropriate typeface is a chance to convey constant model persona and professionalism.
Some fonts are seen as clear {and professional}, however this doesn‘t imply they’re boring. A typical mistake is considering your font is not thrilling sufficient, which may lead you to decide on a font that distracts out of your message.
I like to recommend sticking to simple serif and sans-serif fonts. Keep away from script fonts due to potential readability points.
That mentioned, you’ll be able to nonetheless use enjoyable and eccentric fonts carefully. Offsetting a enjoyable font or giant letters with one thing extra skilled can create an interesting presentation.
Above all, make certain you are constant so your presentation seems cohesive all through every slide. Try this instance from HubSpot’s firm profile templates:
Interested in this presentation template? Download it for free here.
5. Be sure your entire objects are correctly aligned.
Having correctly aligned objects in your slide is the important thing to creating it look polished {and professional}. You’ll be able to manually attempt to line up your photographs, however everyone knows how that usually works out.
Do away with the guessing recreation and let PowerPoint work its magic to align a number of objects:
- Choose all objects by holding down Shift and clicking on all of them.
- Choose Organize within the high choices bar, then select Align or Distribute.
- Select the kind of alignment you would like.
Right here’s how one can align objects to the slide:
- Choose all objects by holding down Shift and clicking on all of them.
- Choose Organize within the high choices bar, then select Align or Distribute.
- Choose Align to Slide.
- Choose Organize within the high choices bar once more, then select Align or Distribute.
- Select the kind of alignment you would like.
PowerPoint Design Instruments
6. Use “Format Object” to higher management your objects’ designs.
Format menus can help you do tremendous changes that in any other case appear unattainable.
To do that, right-click on an object and choose the Format Object possibility. Right here, you’ll be able to fine-tune shadows, modify form measurements, create reflections, and way more. The menu seems like this:
Though the principle choices will be discovered on PowerPoint’s format toolbars, search for full management within the format window menu. Different choices embody:
- Adjusting textual content inside a form.
- Making a pure perspective shadow behind an object.
- Recoloring photographs manually and with automated choices.
7. Reap the benefits of PowerPoint’s shapes.
PowerPoint’s form instruments have come a great distance. Immediately’s shapes embody a extremely practical Good Shapes perform, which allows you to create diagrams and circulation charts very quickly.
These instruments are particularly beneficial as a result of paragraphing and bullet lists are boring to have a look at — you should utilize shapes to assist categorical your message extra clearly.
8. Create customized shapes.
Whenever you create a form, proper click on and press Edit Factors to create customized shapes that suit your particular want. For example, you’ll be able to reshape arrows to suit the size you want:
An alternative choice is to mix two shapes collectively. Choose the 2 shapes you’d wish to work with, then click on Form Format within the high ribbon. Faucet Merge Shapes. There are a number of choices to create customized shapes:
- Mix creates a customized form that has overlapping parts of the 2 earlier shapes reduce out.
- Union makes one fully merged form.
- Intersect builds a form of solely the overlapping sections of the 2 earlier shapes.
- Subtract cuts out the overlapping portion of 1 form from the opposite.
- Fragment will break up your form into completely different components relying on the place they overlap.
9. Crop photographs into customized shapes.
You may as well use PowerPoint to crop present photographs into new shapes:
- Click on on the picture and choose Image Format within the choices bar.
- Select Crop, then Crop to Form, after which select your required form.
10. Current web sites inside PowerPoint.
Imagine it or not, presenting web sites inside PowerPoint is one thing we’re nonetheless having to seek out work-arounds for.
From my expertise, these are some techniques which have labored previously which may be useful relying on which model of PowerPoint you could have:
- Historically, to point out a web site in a PowerPoint slide you’ll simply create a hyperlink to the web page and immediate a separate browser to open.
- Attempt including the third-party program LiveWeb that you just set up in your PowerPoint program. Head to the LiveWeb website and observe the directions. Sadly, Mac customers don’t have an analogous possibility.
- Take screenshots of a web site, insert the picture in your slide, and hyperlink in via a browser. You’ll be able to embed media (resembling a YouTube video) by downloading it on to your laptop.
- Some variations allowed a Net Viewer Add-on till Microsoft determined that was a safety danger. Insert>Get Add-ons, seek for Net Viewer, then click on on the Add button.
- Install ClassPoint, which primarily places an web window on high of your slide to be used till you’re completed with it, then you’ll be able to simply transfer to the following slide. You’ll be able to even bookmark the webpage you need forward of time to leap straight to it. Utilizing this does introduce a brand new navigation bar alongside the underside of your presentation. Right here’s a video Introduction to ClassPoint:
- Lastly, PowerPoint Stay is a brand new instrument that allows you to do extra seamless displays throughout video calls and could also be a greater general match for doing displays remotely. Try this video:
11. Attempt Utilizing GIFs.
GIFs are looped animated photographs used to speak a temper, thought, data, and way more.
Customers add GIFs to PowerPoints to be humorous or shortly demo a course of. They’re highly regarded with and simply acknowledged by Millenials and Gen Z, and it’s straightforward so as to add GIFs to your slides:
- Obtain and save the GIF you need.
- Go to the slide you need the GIF on.
- Go to the Residence tab, and click on both Insert or Image.
- From the Image drop-down menu, select Image from File.
- Navigate to the place you saved your GIF and choose it. Then, select Insert.
- It can play routinely the second you insert it.
PowerPoint Course of
12. Maintain it easy.
PowerPoint is a superb instrument to assist your presentation with visible data, graphics, and supplemental factors.
Your PowerPoint shouldn’t be your whole presentation, and the weather you do introduce must perform correctly.
If the presentation merely repeats your phrases, has damaged hyperlinks, or exhibits unreadable textual content, the hiccups can turn into the take-away of your speak regardless of how well-spoken the presentation.
Slam-dunking the fundamentals by conserving it easy is the best way to go. In case your slides have dense and cluttered data, it can distract your viewers and you might lose their consideration.
In brief? Maintain your presentation persuasive by conserving it clear:
- Restrict bullet factors and textual content.
- Keep away from paragraphs and lengthy quotes.
- Keep “white house” or “unfavourable house.”
- Maintain percentages, graphs, and knowledge tremendous fundamental.
13. Embed your font information.
One fixed downside presenters have with PowerPoint is that fonts appear to vary when presenters transfer from one laptop to a different.
The fonts usually are not really altering — the presentation laptop simply doesn’t have the same font files installed.
To embed your fonts on a PC:
- Click on File then Choices.
- Open up the Save tab.
- Choose the Embed fonts within the file verify field beneath Protect constancy when sharing this presentation.
Now, your presentation will hold the font file and your fonts is not going to change if you transfer computer systems.
To embed your fonts on a Mac:
- On the highest bar, click on PowerPoint, then click on Preferences.
- Beneath Output and Sharing, click on Save.
- Beneath Font Embedding, click on Embed fonts within the file.
14. Save your slides as a PDF file for backup functions.
In the event you’re nonetheless afraid of your presentation exhibiting up in a different way when it’s time to current, you’ll be able to create a PDF model simply in case.
It is a good possibility when you’ll be presenting on a unique laptop as a result of if it doesn’t have Powerpoint put in, you’ll be able to nonetheless use the system viewer to open a PDF.
The one caveat is that your GIFs, animations, and transitions gained’t switch over.
To avoid wasting your presentation as a PDF file:
- Go to File, then click on Save as…
- Within the pop-up window, click on File Format.
- A drop-down menu will seem. Choose PDF.
- Click on Export.
You may as well go to File, then Export, then choose PDF from the file format menu.
15. Embed multimedia.
PowerPoint lets you both hyperlink to video/audio information externally or to embed the media immediately in your presentation. For PCs, two nice causes for embedding are:
- Embedding lets you play media immediately in your presentation. It can look way more skilled than switching between home windows.
- Embedding additionally signifies that the file stays throughout the PowerPoint presentation, so it ought to play usually with out further work (besides on a Mac).
In the event you use PowerPoint for Mac it will get a bit difficult, however it may be completed:
- All the time convey the video and/or audio file with you in the identical folder because the PowerPoint presentation.
- Solely insert video or audio information as soon as the presentation and the containing folder have been saved on a transportable drive of their everlasting folder.
- If the presentation might be performed on a Home windows laptop, then Mac customers want to ensure their multimedia information are in WMV format.
- Think about using the identical working system for designing and presenting, it doesn’t matter what.
16. Deliver your personal {hardware}.
Between working programs, PowerPoint continues to be a bit jumpy. Even between differing PPT variations, issues can change. The simplest repair? Simply convey alongside your personal laptop computer if you’re presenting.
The subsequent best repair is to add your PowerPoint presentation into Google Slides as a backup possibility — simply be certain that there’s a good web connection and a browser accessible the place you propose to current.
Google Slides is a cloud-based presentation software program that can present up the identical manner on all working programs.
To import your PowerPoint presentation into Google Slides:
- Navigate to slides.google.com. Be sure you’re signed in to a Google account (ideally your personal).
- Beneath Begin a brand new presentation, click on the empty field with a plus signal. This can open up a clean presentation.
- Go to File, then Import slides.
- A dialog field will come up. Faucet Add.
- Click on Choose a file out of your gadget.
- Choose your presentation and click on Open.
- Choose the slides you’d wish to import. If you wish to import all of them, click on All within the higher right-hand nook of the dialog field.
- Click on Import slides.
After I examined this out, Google Slides imported every little thing completely, together with a form whose factors I had manipulated. It is a good backup choice to have when you’ll be presenting throughout completely different working programs.
17. Use Presenter View.
In most presentation conditions, there might be each a presenter’s display and the principle projected show to your presentation.
PowerPoint has a terrific instrument known as Presenter View, which will be discovered within the Slide Present tab of PowerPoint. Included within the Presenter View is an space for notes, a timer/clock, and a presentation show.
For a lot of presenters, this instrument may help unify their spoken presentation and their visible help. You by no means need to make the PowerPoint look like a stack of notes that you just’re studying off of.
Use the Presenter View possibility to assist create a extra pure presentation.
Professional Tip: At first of the presentation, you also needs to hit CTRL + H to make the cursor disappear. Hitting the “A” key will convey it again when you want it.
Your Subsequent Nice PowerPoint Presentation Begins Right here
Now that you’ve got these fashion, design, and presentation ideas beneath your belt, you need to really feel assured to create your PowerPoint presentation.
However when you can discover other resources to ensure your content material hits the mark. In any case, you want a powerful presentation to land your level and make an impression.
With a number of templates to select from — each in PowerPoint and accessible for free download — you’ll be able to swiftly be in your approach to creating displays that wow your audiences.
Editor’s be aware: This publish was initially revealed in September 2013 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.