Eight steps to designing the perfect presentation
Create a perfect presentation with our top tips that will help you save time, be consistent and ensure you are communicating all of your key points and ideas.
1. Slide Master Magic
Instead of designing each slide separately for your presentation, save time and effort by using Slide Master. You’ll be able to create templates that appear on all slides, so you have a pre-formatted header, footer and animation.
2. Less is more
Don't try to cram too much into a presentation. Keeping each point or paragraph short will be less confusing for the audience and means they won’t be overwhelmed with information.
An ideal slide will contain a headline, three to six bullet points and a picture or graph.
3. Be consistent
A presentation design that’s too busy or inconsistent will be jarring for your audience. Stick to a colour scheme and make sure your font is the same size and font throughout.
As a general rule, use a font size of at least 24 for headings and 14 for the body copy.
4. Choose the right colour
Colours are one of the main components when designing a presentation. Use colours that highly contrast with each other so it’s easier to read for your audience.
For example, if you're using a dark colour in the background, try using white on top of it, so your text will stand out.
5. Picture perfect
Graphics and images add a lot to the design of a presentation, but using a poor-quality, low-resolution image will diminish the entire presentation rather than improve it.
Try to avoid generic images, such as those in clip art.
6. Animation
While simple transitions or animations can take your presentation to the next level, avoid cluttering your presentation with too many animations or overly complicated ones.
7. Graphs and diagrams
Charts are a great way to present a lot of data. Simple graphs or diagrams can help communicate complex information to your audience and make it more digestible.
Stick to simple graphs with colour that show key information and that you can explain clearly if you’re asked to do so.
8. Take time to review
Make sure you take a step back and have a look at your presentation once it’s done. Even better, ask your friends or family to take a look from a fresh perspective.