How to Create a Powerpoint Presentation: Tips and Advice
By Space Coast Daily // January 11, 2022
How to Create a Powerpoint Presentation: Expert Know-How
Modern business and marketing cannot do without effective presentations. It is essential to know how to create a powerpoint presentation and make a difference in a variety of situations. It is necessary for conference speeches, meeting new business clients, promoting products and services, or hosting webinars for the people of a certain area.
Business leaders and marketers acknowledge the high value of presentations. Sometimes, they fail to pay sufficient attention to the quality of such messages. They frequently have an excellent speech, but their presentations are weak or of poor quality.
Listening to a brilliant speaker, the audiences may wonder why they have not made use of a powerpoint presentation writing service to double the effect of the speech. Do you have a talent to inspire others? So, now the thing is to have a background presentation which can impress as well. Here are nice suggestions and ideas about making presentations more effective and powerful.
Your Title Slide Matters
Make sure that your first slide is eye-catching and easy to memorize. Your name should be in the middle of the slide. The letters should be large enough for the readers to see them from the distance. Your title can also be on the slide if this information is important to the audience. Check on the type of presentation to know which details are essential to these particular listeners. The background of the title slide should not be excessively bright. Consider that such colors distract the attention of the audiences. So, they will not ne able to keep in mind what you have said.
Emphasize the importance of the problem you are solving. The title of the presentation should reflect the initiative you have taken. Also, it has to be impressive and original.
Considering Particular Audiences
These are the questions you have to answer before you start working on the PowerPoint presentation:
■ What is the level of knowledge on the topic my audiences have?
■ What information should I provide?
■ What are their expectations?
■ Which details could be interesting for them?
■ Is there anything I can teach them?
■ What can make them engaged and focused?
The answers to these questions can determine the main idea of your slides. Try to sound persuasively and add colorful details to get the appropriate approach to the audiences. Use the images, text, and animations in a smart way.
Adherence to a 6×6 Rule
Have you worked on any powerpoint presentations already? Then you have made a mistake of a lot of writers. You have tried to insert as many details as possible into the slides to give more information for the listeners. That is the way to a failure! People will not be able to comprehend all the details at once. Their attention will not be focused at all. You are afraid of leaving white space on the slides. You should not! It is a great way to help your listeners focus on the important items.
Keep the text concise. There is a 6×6 rule about a neat look of a presentation. You can make your slide look great if there are not more than six bullet points in it. Consider that there should be no more than six words in each point.
In some presentations, there are six words at most in the slides! Always check on the last words of your phrases and sentences. If they get to the next line, you should either add some more words or delete the previous ones to fit the phrase into a single line.
No Sound Effects. No Transitions
You would like to draw the attention of your audience to essential points, but sound effects and transitions are not the best way to do that. In the majority of cases, they distract and confuse. Also, it may happen that another computer with a different pace of work runs the presentation a bit slower. So, the transitions and sound effects may have a comical effect as they happen unexpectedly in the wrong moments. Your idea is to enhance your important message, but the result could be absolutely different.
Expert powerpoint tips always recommend using no dissolves, cuts, fade-outs, fade-ins, splits, or checkerboards at all. The text with laser guidance is also very distracting. It makes no sense to focus on the use of technologies instead of the content you would like to send as a message to your audiences.
Excellent Design
These are the basics of a simple presentation design:
■ Use the font that is easy to read: Sans serif, including Calibri, Arial, or Helvetica will be perfect.
■ Limit the use of decorative fonts (German blackface, calligraphy, flowers, futuristic approaches, psychotic handwriting, etc.). They are fine only for slide headers. They should not make reading complicated. Large headlines with decorations are fine if they are at the top of the page. Take into account that the main text should be in Baskerville, Georgia, or some other serif font.
■ Use a perfect combination of text and background. The easiest to read is a light background and dark letters. In case some reasons make you use a dark background, you should choose a light color for the text. One more trick is to increase the font size a bit.
■ Ensure right or left alignment. It is not easy to read the text in the center, and your main task is to make your text easy to follow.
■ Clutters are not good. You will lose your audiences if you try to give them some images, bullet points, or headlines in one slide.
Use of powerful visual materials
Check on the origin of the images you are using. If the picture on the slide has a clearly visible watermark of the owner, the impression may be spoilt altogether.
Take into consideration that the quality of images is important. All of them should have high resolution. Also, they should look original and creative. Imagery that does not look unique is useless. If you are working on the presentation for your business, you should send an inquiry to the communication staff to clarify whether there is a database with unique photos of the products or activities of the company. Your presentation will be much more exciting if the materials in it are original. The answer to clipart is No way!
Practice with a person you can rely on
One reading of your presentation before you deliver it to the audience is not enough. You have a friend ready to assist you. It is your perfect chance to practice and deliver your speech as a practice run. Your friend will be your audience. It is just great if you can do the rehearsal in the same room where the actual presentation will take place. Ensure that your friend sits at a distance to check whether your voice is strong enough.
You are aware of how to create a PowerPoint presentation. Now it is time to present it to the audiences. Click on ‘Play from Start’ in the tab ‘Slide Show.’ Let the audiences get focused on the visual aspects of your presentation. The slide will block the desktop and cover the entire screen.
Try to practice and speak to real or imaginary audiences before the big day. You will check whether the length of the presentation is appropriate and whether the means you used to impress your listeners are good.
No fears! No Panic
It is always nerve-wracking to show your work to other people. You feel anxious about getting feedback from others, but you should do this presentation as it is your responsibility.
■ Show that you enjoy what you are doing. In case of issues with the hardware, seek advice and support from multimedia professionals.
■ Check the devices twice before you start your presentation. Are you sure that you have no questions about using a projector? Have you got one more extra laser pointer, just to be on the sage side?
■ Be ready for everything! You need to take into account all kinds of technical aspects.
Conclusion
You can claim that your PowerPoint presentation is good only if you have managed to engage your audience. Make sure it is timed well. Deliver streamlined information with confidence. Get prepared to answer the related questions and facilitate the discussion. We believe you can cope with the task of creating an impactful presentation!