PowerPoint has a number of premade templates that can be applied to presentations, each with four variants that change pieces of the design.
Experts disagree on the use of premade templates for PowerPoint Presentations. All agree, however, on consistency.
Slide design should be consistent throughout your presentation.
Check to see if your organization has a pre-made template they use in all presentations before crafting your own.
Take into account the visualization tips in this guide, and your own personal preferences, when designing your own PowerPoint presentations.
If you plan on using a premade template for your PowerPoint, be sure to choose one before crafting the informational portion of your presentation, as text and images will be moved/warped as the program reorganizes your work to fit with the design.
Garr Reynolds argues that the best PowerPoint slide actually contains no words, This means that the best PowerPoint presentation should require the presence of its presenter.
Compare these two options:
|
Slide Option 1
|
Slide Option 2
|
Garr argues the second slide is more engaging, and less distracting for your audience, keeping the focus on you.
Most experts agree that reading the text of your slides (including bullet points) is bad, and will lead to a disengaged audience. Content of your slides should be limited and should encourage the audience to listen to the presenter.
The Animations tab selects how selected text behaves on the slide: Select the text > choose the animation you want to apply
Animations can be used to:
Animations are also distracting and can get old quickly.
Animations may also appear slower on older computers, making the presentation look unprofessional.
Transitions are animations that take presenters from one slide to another.
Transitions can grab attention but are also distracting and yield diminishing returns.
Use no more than two types of transitions per PowerPoint presentation.
Do not place transitions between every slide.
