best practices for presentation

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How to give a good presentation that captivates any audience

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What are the main difficulties when giving presentations?

How to create an effective presentation, after that, how do i give a memorable presentation, how to connect with the audience when presenting.

If you’ve ever heard someone give a powerful presentation, you probably remember how it made you feel. Much like a composer, a good speaker knows precisely when each note should strike to captivate their audience’s attention and leave them with a lasting impression.

No one becomes a great public speaker or presenter without practice. And almost everyone can recall a time one of their presentations went badly — that’s a painful part of the learning process.

Whether you’re working within a small creative team or a large organization, public speaking and presentation skills are vital to communicating your ideas. Knowing how to present your vision can help you pitch concepts to clients, present ideas to your team, and develop the confidence to participate in team meetings.

If you have an upcoming presentation on the horizon and feel nervous, that’s normal. Around 15-30% of the general population experience a fear of public speaking . And, unfortunately, social anxiety is on the rise, with a 12% increase in adults over the last 20 years . 

Learning how to give a good presentation can dismantle your fears and break down these barriers, ensuring you’re ready to confidently share your point of view. 

It’s the week before your presentation, and you’re already feeling nervous . Maybe there’ll be an important mentor in the room you need to impress, or you’re looking for an opportunity to show your boss your value. Regardless of your countless past presentations, you still feel nervous. 

Sharing your vision and ideas with any sized group is intimidating. You’re likely worrying about how you’ll perform as a presenter and whether the audience will be interested in what you offer. But nerves aren’t inherently negative — you can actually use this feeling to fuel your preparation.

It’s helpful to identify where your worries are coming from and address your fears. Here are some common concerns when preparing for an upcoming presentation:

Fear of public speaking: When you share your ideas in front of a group, you’re placing yourself in a vulnerable position to be critiqued on your knowledge and communication skills . Maybe you feel confident in your content, but when you think about standing in front of an audience, you feel anxious and your mind goes blank.

It’s also not uncommon to have physical symptoms when presenting . Some people experience nausea and dizziness as the brain releases adrenaline to cope with the potentially stressful situation . Remember to take deep breaths to recenter yourself and be patient, even if you make a mistake.

Losing the audience’s attention: As a presenter, your main focus is to keep your audience engaged. They should feel like they’re learning valuable information or following a story that will improve them in life or business.

Highlight the most exciting pieces of knowledge and ensure you emphasize those points in your presentation. If you feel passionate about your content, it’s more likely that your audience will experience this excitement for themselves and become invested in what you have to say.

Not knowing what content to place on presentation slides: Overloading presentation slides is a fast way to lose your audience’s attention. Your slides should contain only the main talking points and limited text to ensure your audience focuses on what you have to say rather than becoming distracted by the content on your slides.

Discomfort incorporating nonverbal communication: It’s natural to feel stiff and frozen when you’re nervous. But maintaining effective body language helps your audience stay focused on you as you speak and encourages you to relax.

If you struggle to incorporate body language into your presentations, try starting small by making hand gestures toward your slides. If you’re working with a large audience, use different parts of the stage to ensure everyone feels included. 

Each presenter has their own personal brand and style. Some may use humor to break the ice, while others might appeal to the audience’s emotional side through inspiring storytelling. 

Watching online presentations, such as TED talks, is an excellent way to expose yourself to various presentation styles and develop your own. While observing others, you can note how they carry themselves on stage and learn new ways to keep your audience engaged.

Once you’ve addressed what’s causing your fears, it’s time to prepare for a great presentation. Use your past experience as inspiration and aim to outshine your former self by learning from your mistakes and employing new techniques. Here are five presentation tips to help you create a strong presentation and wow your audience:

1. Keep it simple

Simple means something different to everyone.

Before creating your presentation, take note of your intended audience and their knowledge level of your subject. You’ll want your content to be easy for your intended audience to follow.

Say you’re giving a presentation on improving your company’s operational structure. Entry-level workers will likely need a more straightforward overview of the content than C-suite leaders, who have significantly more experience. 

Ask yourself what you want your audience to take away from your presentation and emphasize those important points. Doing this ensures they remember the most vital information rather than less important supporting ideas. Try organizing these concepts into bullet points so viewers can quickly identify critical takeaways.

2. Create a compelling structure

Put yourself in your audience member’s shoes and determine the most compelling way to organize your information. Your presentation should be articulate , cohesive, and logical, and you must be sure to include all necessary supporting evidence to strengthen your main points.

If you give away all of your answers too quickly, your audience could lose interest. And if there isn’t enough supporting information, they could hit a roadblock of confusion. Try developing a compelling story that leads your audience through your thought processes so they can experience the ups and downs alongside you. 

By structuring your presentation to lead up to a final conclusion, you’re more likely to keep listeners’ attention. Once you’ve reached that conclusion, you can offer a Q&A period to put any of their questions or concerns to rest. 

3. Use visual aids

Appealing to various learning styles is a great way to keep everyone on the same page and ensure they absorb your content. Visual aids are necessary for visual learners and make it easier for people to picture your ideas.

Aim to incorporate a mixture of photos, videos, and props to engage your audience and convey your key points. For instance, if you’re giving a presentation on anthropology subject matter, you could show your audience an artifact to help them understand how exciting a discovery must have been. 

If your presentation is long, including a video for your audience to watch is an excellent way to give yourself a break and create new jumping-off points for your speech.

4. Be aware of design techniques and trends

Thanks to cutting-edge technology and tools, you have numerous platforms at your disposal to create a good presentation. But keep in mind that although color, images, and graphics liven things up, they can cause distraction when misused.

  Here are a few standard pointers for incorporating visuals on your slides: 

• Don’t place blocks of small text on a single slide
• Use a minimalistic background instead of a busy one
• Ensure text stands out against the background color
• Only use high-resolution photos
• Maintain a consistent font style and size throughout the presentation
• Don’t overuse transitions and effects

5. Try the 10-20-30 rule

Guy Kawasaki, a prominent venture capitalist and one of the original marketing specialists for Apple, said that the best slideshow presentations are less than 10 slides , last at most 20 minutes, and use a font size of 30. Following this strategy can help you condense your information, eliminate unnecessary ideas, and maintain your audience’s focus more efficiently.

Once you’re confident in creating a memorable presentation, it’s time to learn how to give one. Here are some valuable tips for keeping your audience invested during your talk: 

Tip #1: Tell stories

Sharing an anecdote from your life can improve your credibility and increase your relatability. And when an audience relates to you, they’re more likely to feel connected to who you are as a person and encouraged to give you their full attention, as they would want others to do the same.

Gill Hicks utilized this strategy well when she shared her powerful story, “ I survived a terrorist attack. Here’s what I learned .” In her harrowing tale, Hicks highlights the importance of compassion, unconditional love , and helping those in need.

If you feel uncomfortable sharing personal stories, that’s okay. You can use examples from famous individuals or create a fictional account to demonstrate your ideas.

Tip #2: Make eye contact with the audience

Maintaining eye contact is less intimidating than it sounds. In fact, you don’t have to look your audience members directly in their eyes — you can focus on their foreheads or noses if that’s easier.

Try making eye contact with as many people as possible for 3–5 seconds each. This timing ensures you don’t look away too quickly, making the audience member feel unimportant, or linger too long, making them feel uncomfortable.

If you’re presenting to a large group, direct your focus to each part of the room to ensure no section of the audience feels ignored. 

Tip #3: Work on your stage presence

Although your tone and words are the most impactful part of your presentation, recall that body language keeps your audience engaged. Use these tips to master a professional stage presence:

• Speak with open arms and avoid crossing them
• Keep a reasonable pace and try not to stand still
• Use hand gestures to highlight important information

Tip #4: Start strong

Like watching a movie trailer, the first seconds of your talk are critical for capturing your audience’s attention. How you start your speech sets the tone for the rest of your presentation and tells your audience whether or not they should pay attention. Here are some ways to start your presentation to leave a lasting impression:

• Use a quote from a well-known and likable influential person 
• Ask a rhetorical question to create intrigue
• Start with an anecdote to add context to your talk 
• Spark your audience’s curiosity by involving them in an interactive problem-solving puzzle or riddle

Tip #5: Show your passion

Don’t be afraid of being too enthusiastic. Everyone appreciates a speaker who’s genuinely excited about their field of expertise. 

In “ Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance ,” Angela Lee Duckworth discusses the importance of passion in research and delivery. She delivers her presentation excitedly to show the audience how excitement piques interest. 

Tip #6: Plan your delivery

How you decide to deliver your speech will shape your presentation. Will you be preparing a PowerPoint presentation and using a teleprompter? Or are you working within the constraints of the digital world and presenting over Zoom?

The best presentations are conducted by speakers who know their stuff and memorize their content. However, if you find this challenging, try creating notes to use as a safety net in case you lose track.

If you’re presenting online, you can keep notes beside your computer for each slide, highlighting your key points. This ensures you include all the necessary information and follow a logical order.

Tip #7: Practice

Practice doesn’t make perfect — it makes progress. There’s no way of preparing for unforeseen circumstances, but thorough practice means you’ve done everything you can to succeed.

Rehearse your speech in front of a mirror or to a trusted friend or family member. Take any feedback and use it as an opportunity to fine-tune your speech. But remember: who you practice your presentation in front of may differ from your intended audience. Consider their opinions through the lens of them occupying this different position.

Tip #8: Read the room

Whether you’re a keynote speaker at an event or presenting to a small group of clients, knowing how to read the room is vital for keeping your audience happy. Stay flexible and be willing to move on from topics quickly if your listeners are uninterested or displeased with a particular part of your speech.

Tip #9: Breathe

Try taking deep breaths before your presentation to calm your nerves. If you feel rushed, you’re more likely to feel nervous and stumble on your words.

The most important thing to consider when presenting is your audience’s feelings. When you approach your next presentation calmly, you’ll put your audience at ease and encourage them to feel comfortable in your presence.

Tip #10: Provide a call-to-action

When you end your presentation, your audience should feel compelled to take a specific action, whether that’s changing their habits or contacting you for your services.

If you’re presenting to clients, create a handout with key points and contact information so they can get in touch. You should provide your LinkedIn information, email address, and phone number so they have a variety of ways to reach you. 

There’s no one-size-fits-all template for an effective presentation, as your unique audience and subject matter play a role in shaping your speech. As a general rule, though, you should aim to connect with your audience through passion and excitement. Use strong eye contact and body language. Capture their interest through storytelling and their trust through relatability.

Learning how to give a good presentation can feel overwhelming — but remember, practice makes progress. Rehearse your presentation for someone you trust, collect their feedback , and revise. Practicing your presentation skills is helpful for any job, and every challenge is a chance to grow.

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Elizabeth Perry, ACC

Elizabeth Perry is a Coach Community Manager at BetterUp. She uses strategic engagement strategies to cultivate a learning community across a global network of Coaches through in-person and virtual experiences, technology-enabled platforms, and strategic coaching industry partnerships. With over 3 years of coaching experience and a certification in transformative leadership and life coaching from Sofia University, Elizabeth leverages transpersonal psychology expertise to help coaches and clients gain awareness of their behavioral and thought patterns, discover their purpose and passions, and elevate their potential. She is a lifelong student of psychology, personal growth, and human potential as well as an ICF-certified ACC transpersonal life and leadership Coach.

How to write a speech that your audience remembers

6 presentation skills and how to improve them, 3 stand-out professional bio examples to inspire your own, tell a story they can't ignore these 10 tips will teach you how, how to make a presentation interactive and exciting, your guide to what storytelling is and how to be a good storyteller, reading the room gives you an edge — no matter who you're talking to, 18 effective strategies to improve your communication skills, writing an elevator pitch about yourself: a how-to plus tips, how to disagree at work without being obnoxious, the importance of good speech: 5 tips to be more articulate, the 11 tips that will improve your public speaking skills, 30 presentation feedback examples, fear of public speaking overcome it with these 7 tips, how to not be nervous for a presentation — 13 tips that work (really), 8 clever hooks for presentations (with tips), stay connected with betterup, get our newsletter, event invites, plus product insights and research..

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Tips for creating and delivering an effective presentation

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• Presentations

30 PowerPoint Presentation Tips to Make Good PPT Slides in 2024 (+ 6 Expert Tips)

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Here are 30 quick PowerPoint presentation tips to help you improve your presentations. 

Plus, get PowerPoint tips on changing your slide design to make your content shine. We've even called on six presentation experts for their best tips.

How to Make a Good PowerPoint Presentation (Watch & Learn)

This screencast is a speed round of my very favorite PowerPoint tricks. It's a great resource to learn how to make a presentable PowerPoint. I'll walk you through ten of my favorite PowerPoint tips and tricks to create a better presentation.

Keep reading for an illustrated version of these good PPT tips (and more) that you can use to improve your PowerPoint presentations. You'll see 30 of our favorite PowerPoint presentation tips and tricks, including techniques to update slide master PowerPoint 2024 designs.

Jump to content in this section:

• How Do You Give a Memorable PPT Presentation?
• Practice Makes Perfect
• Adapt Your Presentation to the Audience
• Use a Custom Font
• Use Contrast
• Avoid Too Many Animations
• Use the Rule of Three
• Use a Custom PPT Theme Design
• Make Use of Charts and Graphs
• Use the Built-in Slide Layouts
• Align Text Consistently
• Make Your Exports User-Friendly
• Try a Different Color Scheme
• Edit Slide Masters for Consistency
• Use the Alignment Feature
• Use Stock Assets
• Reduce Your Content
• Rethink Your Slide Order
• Use PowerPoint Animations
• Invite Collaborators
• Add Supporting Video Clips
• Use Infographic Templates
• Use Impactful Closing Techniques
• Include Data in the Appendix
• Alternate Between Solid Color and White Slides
• Present Information With Maps
• Keep the Design Best Practices in Mind
• Set a Time Limit
• Test Your Content Everywhere

30 Tips: How to Make Good PowerPoint Presentation Designs Fast in 2024

A few tried and true tips can help you speed up your PowerPoint presentation design. Check out 30 of my favorite PowerPoint tips to do just that. Each of these give you PowerPoint slideshow help to create good PowerPoint slides:

1. How Do You Give a Memorable PPT Presentation?

If you're learning the top PowerPoint presentation tips and tricks, you're probably asking yourself: how do I give a presentation that won't be forgotten?

We all want to be remembered. The best PowerPoint slideshow help to make a mark on the audience. There are tried-and-true ways to do just that, and expert Neil Tomlinson shares expertise on being remembered:

Get your main point into the presentation as early as possible (this avoids any risk of audience fatigue or attention span waning), then substantiate your point with facts, figures etc and then reiterate your point at the end in a ‘Summary’.

2. Practice Makes Perfect

Also, don’t forget to practice your presentation. Go through your slide deck a few times to make sure you know it like the back of your hand when the big day arrives. Doing so helps you feel more confident. It'll reduce any anxiety and nervousness you might feel as the presentation day approaches.

What's the best way to rehears for a good PowerPoint? Here's one of the top PowerPoint presentation tips from expert presenter Sandra Zimmer :

Once slides are ready, practice one slide at a time aloud until you feel like you know it and like the flow of speech. Be willing to change anything that does not feel in flow. At the end of learning all your slides, practice the whole talk.

If you want even more great PowerPoint presentation tips and tricks, check out the following post:

3. Adapt Your Presentation to the Audience

Let's say that you're a seasoned presenter with a pretty standard set of presentation topics. Maybe you're an expert in your field, and you're asked to give a PPT presentation frequently on similar topics.

That's the value of being an expert. You might have a standard spiel that you give your audiences, and your content won't totally change from one presentation to another. That's why it helps to make only slight tweaks to adapt your presentation to each audience.

Leading presentation expert Suzannah Baum offered up this advice:

Different audiences will have different needs and different challenges, which requires me to re-sequence the slides, or create new ones. I tend to do a lot of research on my audiences – via surveys, interviews, and conversations with the hiring manager – to help me better understand what information would be most relevant to them.

How do you adapt to your audience? Here are a few more tips:

• Learn about them. If you're asked to speak, talk to the curator of the presentation to learn more about the audience and their background.
• Ask about them! With contact details, send out a survey or a response link to ask for feedback and preparation info. Ask leading questions like "what do you want to learn?"
• Consider the environment.  If you're presenting via Zoom, your style will differ from presenting in person. The key is to acknowledge the difference and adapt to your environment.

Learn everything you can about your audience. Learning how to make a presentable PowerPoint is all about thinking of the recipient, not the presenter!

4. Use a Custom Font

A PowerPoint presentation tip that'll make your slideshow more interesting and more engaging is to use a custom font.

Fonts set the tone for your presentation. So, when you use a premium font, you’re opting for a high-quality font while also adding a personal or creative touch. 

When choosing a font, remember that you want everyone to read your text easily. 

5. Use Contrast

One PowerPoint trick is to use contrast to make some of your text stand out or make it easier to read.

If you’re putting text over an image on our PowerPoint slide, you may need to use a white box with black text in it to make your text easier to read. You can also use contrasting colors to highlight important text.

6. Avoid Too Many Animations

Another PowerPoint tip is to avoid having too many animations or transitions.

When you've got too many animations, it can be distracting to the audience. It’s not only distracting, but it's unprofessional.

It’s best to stick to one or two animations throughout your presentation. Also, if you've got any animations in your presentation, make sure to test them to see if they work before presenting.

7. Add Audio

Include audio on a slide on PowerPoint to increase audience engagement. Audio can be anything from fun sound effects to interview clips. You can even add an audio clip of your voice.

Audio gives you a break from speaking while also engaging the audience. Envato Elements has hundreds of premium audio clips if you want to add some.

8. Use the Rule of Three

One PowerPoint tip and trick is to follow the rules of PowerPoint.

One of those rules is the rule of three. It's where you start by dividing your presentation into thirds. Everything should come in thirds, so if you use bullet points, you should only have three. If you use icons, you should only have three.

When things come in threes, it's easier to remember them. For more information, read this informative article:

9. Use a Custom PPT Theme Design

Above all, consistently use custom PowerPoint themes. Microsoft has built-in themes that you can use for free, sure. But the premium themes that are on Envato Elements   are a major step-up from PowerPoint's built-in themes. 

When you subscribe to Envato Elements, you'll have access to unlimited downloads of all the PowerPoint themes. Right now, Envato Elements has almost 4,000 PowerPoint themes and that number is always growing. You'll learn tips for a good PowerPoint presentation by using the best templates.

10. Make Use of Charts and Graphs

Illustrate your data with the use of charts and graphs. Not only will you be able to make your presentation more visually appealing, but you'll also help your audience remember the information better.

Many PowerPoint templates already include chart and graph elements. Easily customize them to make your data and stats more interesting and easier to understand.

Want to learn more about how to use data? Turn to expert Adrienne J ohnston , a presentation professional:

When it comes to visualizing data in presentations, we have to remember that our audience does not need all the fine details of the data - they need the main takeaway and we need to make sure that's evident to them when looking at the slide.

11. Use the Built-in Slide Layouts

Inside of PowerPoint themes, you'll find layouts , which are custom slide designs.

Most themes include a selection of content layouts that you can use as a starting point for your own slide designs. You can leverage slide master PowerPoint 2024 designs with the help of layouts.

Layouts are like a starting point for your PowerPoint presentation slides. They contain combinations of placeholders for text boxes, images, and more.

Instead of clicking and drawing individual objects onto the slide, use one of these layouts to start your slide off. It's one of the top PowerPoint presentation tips and tricks to save time.

12. Align Text Consistently

When you're working with text on your slide, it helps to ensure that it aligns consistently. Keeping your text aligned in the same orientation really makes a slide look clean. 

In the example below, I've basically got three text boxes:

• list of bulleted points

Notice that all this text is aligned left. 

Aligning text was the " aha " moment that I learned when I started studying slide design. It's one of those steps that makes a slide look much neater and professional, so keep it in mind when designing.

13. Make Your Exports User-Friendly

No matter how great your PowerPoint presentation slides look, you need to think about how your user will use the presentation file. 

Any of these are likely scenarios if you're regularly sending presentations to other users:

• The viewer may not have PowerPoint installed on their computer.
• The recipient may be using a version of PowerPoint that renders the presentation differently.
• Maybe you don't want the user to be able to make any edits or see your notes in the presentation file.

In this case, my favorite tip is to export the presentation as a PDF. To do that, go to File > Export > Create PDF , and then save your presentation as a PDF.

This is sure to help most of your users see the presentation just the way you intended.

14. Try a Different Color Scheme

Many PowerPoint themes have more than one color scheme that you can apply to your presentation. On the Design  tab, click on the drop-down next to Themes to try out a different color scheme.

Typically, these will restyle your entire presentation. Premium themes that you might get from Envato Elements, for example, may have many versions inside the original presentation zip file.

15. Edit Slide Masters for Consistency

The slide master controls the design for your PowerPoint slide. Instead of making the same change to each slide, apply a change to a slide master. It'll affect all the PowerPoint presentation slides that use the same master.

It's ideal to apply a logo to the slide master itself, for example. This keeps the logo the same size and in the same position on each slide.

To do that, go to View > Slide Master.  On the right side, you're likely to see a variety of slide masters that control designs for many slides. Drop the elements that you want to remain consistent onto one of the slide masters.

16. Use the Alignment Feature

PowerPoint presentation slides look better when the objects on them are in line with one another. There's a certain visual rhythm that occurs when objects line up in the center or along certain boundary lines.

When you start dragging objects on your slide, you'll see guiding lines that pop up. These are very intuitive, and you'll likely notice that they help you line up your objects. You might seem them pop up when you've got a box that's equidistant between two other objects on the slide, for example.

This is one of the best tricks for improving the look of your PowerPoint slide. Spend some time making sure that your key elements line up cohesively.

17. Use Stock Assets

Earlier, I mentioned using Envato Elements to grab PowerPoint themes. But there's more that comes with an Envato Elements subscription for presentations.

That includes a wide variety of stock photos, graphics,  and custom designed fonts  that you can use in your presentation. Instead of reusing the same stock photo or clip art, Envato Elements has everything you need to supplement a presentation. 

Again, Envato Elements is the perfect subscription if you build presentations. It's a one-stop-shop that you can use to fill content.

18. Reduce Your Content

There's nothing that makes an audience tune out faster than being overloaded with slide content. Sometimes we try to make so many points that the audience misses all of them due to information overload.

Less is truly more. When you cut the weaker points of your presentation, the audience's attention will follow your key points accordingly.

It seems like cheating, but one of the best steps that you can take for your slide is to simply reduce the number of items that are on it. Convert some of your typed points to things you'll speak verbally.

19. Rethink Your Slide Order

Sometimes, I find that my presentations are out of order. I might spend too much time explaining my decision before I get to the conclusion.

In these cases, I like to use Slide Sorter View  to re-sequence the slides in my presentation. To access this view, go to View > Slide Sorter  on PowerPoint's ribbon.

From Slide Sorter view, you've got a top-down view of all the slides in your presentation deck. It sometimes becomes obvious that the slides can be reordered into a better sequence from this view.

20. Use PowerPoint Animations 

One of my favorite PowerPoint presentation tips is to complement your major points with a bit of animation. Using animation can bring a key point onto your slide with style!

Check out ten of the best PowerPoint tips for how to use animation from expert Sven Lenaerts below:

21. Invite Collaborators

Building a presentation often benefits from a second set of eyes. That's why it helps so much to invite a collaborator to work with you side-by-side in Microsoft PowerPoint.

Pushing your presentation up to OneDrive and inviting collaborators is easy. Thanks to the cloud-based approach, more than one user can edit a slide deck in real time. Learn how to do that in the tutorial below:

22. Add Supporting Video Clips

Building impactful presentations is all about adding other perspectives and angles to the content. One of my favorite ways to do that is to add a video clip. Maybe that's a production that you built on your own or found on sites like YouTube.

Either way, learn how to add and auto play a video clip in the quick tip below:

23. Use Infographic Templates

More presentations than ever will feature visuals that tell stories with data. But it's easy for an audience become overwhelmed with data. 

That's where infographics come into play. Learn to use them in PowerPoint in the tutorial below:

24. Use Impactful Closing Techniques

I've sat through many presentations in my life. I can only remember a few that really stick out, thanks to techniques that highlighted key points. You need PowerPoint tips and tricks that help leave your audience with an impact.

To do just that, make sure you use some of the techniques highlighted in the article below:

To do that, just drag and drop the thumbnails into the order you want. When you return to Normal view, the PowerPoint presentation slides will be in the resequenced order you set here.

25. Include Data in the Appendix

Many PowerPoint presentations include data in the form of charts and graphs. That means that you'll condense specifics into a few easy-to-follow charts.

But what if your audience wants more of the backing details? Maybe they want to validate and review the detail for themselves. In that case, a   set of  appendix slides  with extra data is sure to help.

Appendix slides are included at the end of a presentation deck for backup purposes. You might not present them, but your audience is certain to appreciate that you included them. That helps your presentation continue to be useful even after you leave the room.

Here's a great tip from: pro presenter  Graeme Thomas of Johnny F Designs:

If (my clients) are sending the deck straight to clients however, I would then put all the information on the slides but will often use more slides so that they aren't too cluttered. In cases where there is a lot of content, like financial statements, I would use  appendix slides.

Including an appendix helps your audience understand data  without  overwhelming them with that data. Follow these tips so that you get the best of both worlds.

26. Alternate Between Solid Color and White Slides

Alternating between solid color and slides with a white background can produce an interesting visual effect and engage your audience. You can use the solid-colored slides to signify a new section in your presentation.

Not to mention, solid-colored slides are the perfect way to re-enforce your brand colors and build your brand recognition.

27. Present Information With Maps

If you’re trying to make a case for a global expansion or need to report on how other branches are performing, consider using a map to help your audience visualize the data.

There's no shortage of quality PowerPoint templates with maps built in so be sure to take advantage of them.

28. Keep the Design Best Practices in Mind

The design of your presentation matters just as much as the content of your presentation. That’s why you need to devote an equal amount of time to making sure the design of your presentation is on point as you do to the actual content.

Familiarize yourself with best design practices and keep them in mind as you go about customizing your template.

29. Set a Time Limit

How many slides is the right number for you? Well, it all depends on the time limit you set for your presentation.

Believe it or not, setting a time limit is helpful to create good PowerPoint slides. If you want to learn how to make a presentable PowerPoint, it's a must to lock in the time limit and ensure that your slides support that timeframe. 

Expert presenter Stephanie Ottavan offers one of our top tips for a good PowerPoint presentation based on time limits:

A presenter is usually limited to a specific time frame and you want to adhere to that as closely as you can. If you have animations and transitions in your deck, these take added time so make sure to rehearse in “show mode” of PowerPoint or Keynote and time yourself.

Believe it or not, setting a time frame is one of the most important part of creating a PPT presentation. It helps you influence how many good PowerPoint slides you should design.

30. Test Your Content Everywhere

PowerPoint in 2024 could take place anywhere. Maybe you present, online, in-person, or beam it to mobile devices. It's important to remember that the content will appear differently on each device.

PowerPoint Online is a different medium than many other apps. Make sure that your presentation design appears the same by testing it with the help of this tutorial. It shows you how your PPT presentation appears even in a browser:

Discover Great Premium PowerPoint Templates With Google Slides (For 2024)

Creating a great presentation starts with a great template. And a great PowerPoint slide design use the best presentation practices, for example:

• Use high-quality photos and graphics to help tell the story.
• Keep text to a minimum.
• Stick to one idea per slide.

Designing a great template doesn’t mean you've got to start from scratch, though. Take a look at some of the best PowerPoint templates we've got on Envato Elements.

1. Neo PowerPoint Template

The Neo PowerPoint template features a modern and bold design and includes five color variations to get you started. Along with this, you'll also get 10 master slides and 30 individual slides for all your presentation needs.

2. Vexana PowerPoint Template

The Vexana template is a great choice for brands that need a touch of elegance. This template works with PowerPoint and Google Slides and comes with a grand total of 150 slides. It also has five color variations and includes infographic elements and photo placeholders.

3. Sprint PowerPoint Template

The Sprint PowerPoint template features a professional and modern design. The template is easy to customize. You'll find 20 masters in the standard 4:3 size, allowing you to choose the best layout for your information.

4. Travelicious PowerPoint Template

For any presentation that deals with the topic of travel, check out the Travelicious template. This template is compatible with both PowerPoint and Google Slides. It includes three premade color variations as well as 30 unique slides.

 As you can see from the examples above, there's no shortage of beautiful and professional PowerPoint slide designs on Envato Elements . What’s more, Envato Elements allows you to download as many PowerPoint templates as you want. Plus, get thousands of other design assets such as fonts, photos, and icons—all for one low monthly price.

Want to see even more great PowerPoint template examples? Be sure to check out our related roundup:

Need Help? Grab Our Making Great Presentations eBook (Free)

We've got the perfect complement to this tutorial. You can find more information in our eBook on making great presentations . Download this PDF eBook now for FREE with your subscription to the Tuts+ Business Newsletter. 

It'll help you master the presentation process from initial creative ideas through to writing, design, and delivering with impact.

PowerPoint Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Now that you’ve read about PowerPoint tips and tricks, if you want to learn more about PowerPoint, here are some FAQs:

1. What Is a Placeholder?

Placeholders in your slide on PowerPoint help you easily add text or images to your slide without changing your design.

In a template, sometimes the placeholders have prompts such as “Click to insert a picture” or “Click to add text.” These prompts let you know what kind of placeholder it is. To learn more about placeholders, read this article: 

2. How Can I Automatically Play a Video?

A PowerPoint tip is to insert an automatically played video in your presentation. When you've got a video that'll play automatically, it saves you the trouble of starting your video manually.

Videos can illustrate topics or specific points. They're also a great way to keep your audience engaged. If you want to learn how to play a video automatically, read this tutorial:

3. How Can I Add a Map to my Slide?

Another PowerPoint trick is to add a map to your slide. If you're discussing a specific location, then a map can help your audience visualize the location you're presenting. To learn how to add a map to your PowerPoint slide, read this tutorial:

4. How Do I Add a GIF to My Presentation?

Adding a GIF to your slide on PowerPoint is one way you can grab your audience's attention. To add a GIF to your slide, you’ll need to download a GIF.

Once you download it, upload it into PowerPoint and use it on your slide. For more information about how to add a GIF to your slide on PowerPoint, read this article:

5. Can I Recover My Unsaved Presentation?

Another PowerPoint trick is to learn how to recover unsaved PowerPoint files so that you can be prepared in case of an emergency. If you want to learn more, read this tutorial:

Learn More About How to Make Presentable PowerPoints

These quick PowerPoint Presentation tips are some of my favorite ways to rapidly improve a presentation. Keeping them in mind while you build a presentation can help you build a deck that you'll be confident about presenting.

Check out these tutorials to keep learning more about PowerPoint. These tutorials will give you more ideas for fixing up your PowerPoint presentation slides efficiently:

Find More Templates

Didn't see a template you like? Here are some more:

Use These PPT Presentation Tips on Your Next Presentation

Now that you've studied some of our best PowerPoint tips, it's time to put them to use. Download one of our top-notch PowerPoint themes from Envato Elements to get started. These PowerPoint presentation tips and tricks give you confidence to make you a skilled presenter.

Editorial Note : This post was first published in February of 2019. Our staff updates this post regularly — adding new, exciting PowerPoint tips and templates (with special help from Brenda Barron , Andrew Childress and Sarah Joy ).

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by Tom Rielly • May 12, 2020

When giving presentations, either on a video conference call or in person, your slides, videos and graphics (or lack of them) can be an important element in helping you tell your story or express your idea. This is the first of a series of blog posts that will give you tips and tricks on how to perfect your visual presentations.

Your job as a presenter is to build your idea -- step-by-step -- in the minds of your audience members. One tool to do that is presentation graphics, such as slides and videos.

Why graphics for your presentation?

A common mistake is using slides or videos as a crutch, even if they don’t actually add anything to your presentation. Not all presentations need graphics. Lots of presentations work wonderfully with just one person standing on a stage telling a story, as demonstrated by many TED Talks.

You should only use slides if they serve a purpose: conveying scientific information, art, and things that are hard to explain without pictures. Once you have decided on using slides, you will have a number of decisions to make. We’ll help you with the basics of making a presentation that is, above all, clear and easy to understand. The most important thing to remember here is: less is more.

Less is so much more

You want to aim for the fewest number of slides, the fewest number of photos, the fewest words per slide, the least cluttered slides and the most white space on your slides. This is the most violated slide rule, but it is the secret to success. Take a look at these examples.

As you can see in the above example, you don’t need fancy backgrounds or extra words to convey a simple concept. If you take “Everything you need to know about Turtles”, and delete “everything you need to know about” leaving just “turtles”, the slide has become much easier for your audience to read, and tells the story with economy.

The above example demonstrates that a single image that fills the entire screen is far more powerful than a slide cluttered with images. A slide with too many images may be detrimental to your presentation. The audience will spend more mental energy trying to sort through the clutter than listening to your presentation. If you need multiple images, then put each one on its own slide. Make each image high-resolution and have it fill the entire screen. If the photos are not the same dimensions as the screen, put them on a black background. Don’t use other colors, especially white.

Your slides will be much more effective if you use the fewest words, characters, and pictures needed to tell your story. Long paragraphs make the audience strain to read them, which means they are not paying attention to you. Your audience may even get stressed if you move on to your next slide before they’ve finished reading your paragraph. The best way to make sure the attention stays on you is to limit word count to no more than 10 words per slide. As presentation expert Nancy Duarte says “any slide with more than 10 words is a document.” If you really do need a longer explanation of something, handouts or follow-up emails are the way to go.

Following a “less is more” approach is one of the simplest things you can do to improve your presentation visuals and the impact of your presentation overall. Make sure your visuals add to your presentation rather than distract from it and get your message across.

Ready to learn more about how to make your presentation even better? Get TED Masterclass and develop your ideas into TED-style talks.

© 2024 TED Conferences, LLC. All rights reserved. Please note that the TED Talks Usage policy does not apply to this content and is not subject to our creative commons license.

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A Beginner’s Guide to Creating a Presentation With Visme

Written by: Nayomi Chibana

Whether you’re looking to publish a stand-alone slide deck to share online or preparing for a live presentation, using powerful visuals to reinforce your message is a must.

Nowadays, the power to create stunning visuals is no longer an ability limited to professional graphic designers and visual artists.

Like many other things in this Internet age, the ability to communicate visually has been democratized so that you, too, can get your message heard, no matter your professional background.

This is where Visme comes into the picture—an  all-in-one tool for creating engaging visual content.

Visme can help you create professional-looking presentations in a few minutes. They'll look like they took several days to create.

In this short, step-by-step tutorial, we show you how to create a presentation using Visme, which can be published online or used as support for a live presentation.

Looking for a shortcut or running out of time? Try the Visme AI Presentation Maker . In the presentation template library, choose the Generate with AI option. Type in a prompt that describes what you’re looking for. The Visme chatbot will ask follow up questions and suggest a style; choose one and wait for AI to create the design. Open it in your Visme editor and give it the final touches.

• Define Your Story
• Create an Outline
• Create a Project in Visme
• Select the Right Template
• Choose a Color Scheme
• Develop a Theme
• Find the Right Images
• Choose Legible Fonts
• Insert Text
• Use Icons, Illustrations and 3D Graphics
• Add Data Visualizations
• Make Your Presentation Interactive
• Revise and Improve Narrative and Flow
• Download, Share, Publish and Present

Giving a Memorable Presentation

Presentation tips & best practices, presentation creation faqs.

• Brainstorming is the first crucial step in crafting a presentation that can make all the difference between a dismal and a dazzling presentation.
• Define your story and create an outline that creates a flow for your presentation; the rest of the design will depend on it.
• Choosing the right template from Visme's presentation library is another deciding factor. Select a template that matches your theme, content, purpose and target audience.
• Use legible fonts, complementary color schemes, appropriate design elements and data visualizations to make your presentation more engaging and visually appealing.
• Add interactivity to your presentation with Visme's interactive tools like hotspots, polls, animations and links.
• Take advantage of the AI Presentation Maker to craft professionally designed presentation slides that you can easily customize with your brand assets.
• Sign up for Visme's powerful online presentation software and design a presentation without the hassle of software installation or learning to use complicated tools.

1. Brainstorm

One of the most common mistakes beginners make in crafting a presentation is diving straight into slide creation before having a clear idea of the presentation’s main message. This is a big no-no, according to presentation pro Aaron Weyenberg , TED’s in-house slide master.

We know it’s second nature to open an application and start adding text, but the best way to brainstorm is to actually write down your ideas using pen and paper. This will not only get your creative juices flowing but will also ensure that you don’t simply go with the first idea that comes to your mind.

Brainstorming can significantly improve the quality and effectiveness of your presentation. By generating and organizing ideas, brainstorming can help you create a clear, concise and engaging presentation that resonates with your audience.

Using a whiteboard is the best way to make the most out of your brainstorming sessions. Visme has introduced a powerful online whiteboard tool to make your brainstorming sessions more effective.

Visme’s whiteboard allows you to add text, images, charts and more. It’s easy to use, with a drag-and-drop interface that lets you move elements around freely. The boards are also shareable, so anyone in your organization can access them.

Here are some ways you can use our Whiteboard tool to brainstorm on creating your presentation:

• Brainstorm ideas for each topic, and write down any new thoughts.
• Create an outline of all the points you want to cover.
• Plan the order to present your points and how much time you have for each section.
• Gather data from previous presentations or reports and any relevant research studies.
• Identify gaps or holes in your presentation and fill them with relevant content.
• Assemble all your written content in a single document, then use the Whiteboard tool to organize and rearrange it.

Here is an article about 100+ creative presentation ideas that you can read while brainstorming and include some of them in your own.

2. Define Your Story

The next step is to clearly define your main message and the storyline that will carry it through to the end. To do this, ask yourself the following questions:

• Who is the intended audience?
• What message do I want to communicate to them?
• What is the purpose of this presentation? What do I want the audience to do in the end?

Once you have a clear picture of who your audience is and the result you’re aiming for, you can weave a story that catches the audience’s attention, takes them by the hand and leads them to a specific end destination.

The most challenging part will be keeping their attention so that they don’t trail off into some other undesired location, like checking their inbox or thinking about what they have to do after your presentation.

To do this, you must add some elements of surprise and suspense along the way. For example, you could add a slide with just one word or a stunning image to catch viewers off guard and keep them on their toes.

Also, you must make sure that each element you add to your presentation—whether it’s text, an image, a color, an icon—reinforces your main message; if it adds nothing or, even worse, detracts from it, then it has to go.

3. Create an Outline

Next, you should create an outline of your message’s main points and supporting ideas. You can make it as detailed as you want—even including the main message of each slide and references to visuals and highlighted quotes—depending on what you already have in mind to create.

Use the Visme AI Writer to help you write a detailed outline separated into slides. Just write the prompt explaining what you need, the topics you plan to talk about and a note about how you plan to include visuals and charts.

The AI will craft an outline detailing every slide. Finalize it as you see fit and continue with the rest of the steps.

Once you have a bare-bones presentation outline , ensure it accomplishes all of the goals defined in the previous step.

4. Create a Project

If you don’t already have a Visme account, you can create one by simply going to www.visme.co and entering your name, email and password.

Once you are logged in, click on the “Create New” button and hover over the “Project” option and choose “Presentations” to browse through Visme’s presentation templates library. Alternatively, you can choose a blank template if you want to design your presentation from scratch.

5. Select the Right Template

Depending on the message you want to send, you can either choose a template from the available options or decide to create one from scratch—it's up to you.

Visme features 500+ presentation templates divided into 20+ content categories: creative, interactive, business, marketing, pitch deck and more.

So, even if you don’t have any prior experience in presentation design, you’ll likely find a suitable template to get started.

Visme’s presentation templates are professionally designed and save hours of work. We aren’t winging it. Hear it from one of our customers, Kendra Bradley, Graphic Content Developer at WOW!

“PowerPoint templates are plain and boring, and we want to create more fun and engaging content. Visme has multiple slide templates to choose from, which makes this so much easier.”

“I just made a deck recently and it took me about 15-20 minutes. I found a template I really liked and tweaked it and put it in our brand colors. In PowerPoint, it would take anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half.”

Enroll in our free presentation design certification course , learn at your pace and become a certified presentation guru. Upon completion of the course, you’ll get a certificate to include in your resume or share on LinkedIn. Making a presentation and designing it will then become easier and faster than before.

If you want to move further with your favorite presentation template in Visme, watch the video below.

At this point in the Visme tutorial, you can also choose to use the Visme AI Presentation Maker to generate a set of slides based on your prompt. Then you can continue with the customization steps.

Continue reading to learn more about creating a presentation from scratch in Visme.

6 Choose a Color Scheme

Next, you can pick a background color using the integrated color dropper tool in Visme’s editor. The background color of your presentation slide is one of the critical elements. It will help convey your message, create a visual hierarchy and guide audience attention.

Though there are many color palette generators available online, Visme’s color dropper tool comes with everything you need, from extracting colors from a photo to typing color HEX codes.

And the best part is, you don’t need to go anywhere else to decide on the color palette.

As covered in our article on color psychology , the color combinations you choose for your presentation convey a message all on their own and trigger different emotions depending on the hue.

For example, the color scheme of the template below gives a creative tone to the presentation and is best if you are looking to focus on creativity.

On the other hand, this template below gives an entirely different feel and lets you start your presentation on a serious note.

So, choose your colors carefully to ensure they align with your main message and engage your audience. If you are creating a presentation on behalf of your company, you can use your brand colors strategically in your slides for consistent branding.

If you still want to know more about the importance of colors for your presentation, read our guide about how colors affect human perception of reality. And here are 50 presentation background templates that you can use or take inspiration from.

7. Develop a Theme

Now that you have an idea of the colors you want to use to reinforce your message, you can now choose a unifying theme for your presentation, which should provide unity and consistency.

Just take a look at how this presentation achieves a sense of cohesiveness by using similar elements throughout, such as high-quality images and two-toned color combinations.

The use of high-res images in combination with complementary colors such as yellow and black give this presentation a clean, professional look. The use of black and white allows the viewer to focus on the information without being distracted by color or other visual elements.

In Visme’s templates library, you’ll find a section called “Themes.” These templates are created based on a few themes so that you can find the template you are looking for.

8. Find the Right Images

The best presentations use visuals wisely as the images you choose will greatly influence the overall look and feel of your presentation.

They can mean the difference between a forgettable presentation and one that will stick in your viewers' minds for months to come.

With Visme, you get access to 1 million+ high-quality royalty-free images . Browse and search across any keyword to find the image of your choice. You can, furthermore, edit your images using the Visme photo editor to ensure they match the content of your presentation.

To help you find the perfect images for all your design needs, Visme has recently launched a free AI image generator tool . From 3D icons and illustrations to real-life images, just create a prompt, and the tool will give you exactly what you are looking for.

And the best part is that every graphic you generate will be automatically saved in your “My Files” folder in Visme.

Are you using images that need a bit more editing than what the integrated editing controls can do? Use the AI Editing Tools to remove backgrounds, erase or replace objects and upscale or unblur photos.

9. Choose Legible Fonts

Another design element that communicates all on its own is your choice of typefaces. Like with your choice of color combinations, make sure to keep it simple and stick to a maximum of three different fonts: one for your title, another for your subheaders and a third one for your body text.

Here are the 20 best fonts for presentations in 2023 that you can choose from. All of these fonts are present in Visme’s font library so you won’t have difficulty finding them.

A good rule of thumb is to use a title font that reflects the character of your brand while sticking to more simple and easy-to-read typefaces for your subheaders and body text.

If you are creating the presentation for business purposes, it’s better to use your brand fonts to add content to your slides and make the presentations reflect your brand voice .

Visme makes it easy for you to create and save your branding assets using the brand design tool . If you already have your brand's fonts, colors and logo, then you can copy and paste your website URL and Visme’s brand wizard will automatically extract them.

If you don’t have your branding elements ready, you can select fonts, colors, logos and company links in Visme’s branding kit and save them to use in the future.

Read this comprehensive guide to setting up your branding kit in Visme to learn more.

10 Insert Text

If you first wrote out a detailed, slide-by-slide script for your presentation in step number 3, then this part shouldn’t entail much effort.

If, on the other hand, you only have section and subsection titles, then this is where you should think about the actual wording of each slide’s content.

Visme’s drag-and-drop editor makes it super easy to add text to your slides. You can select a text block from the left panel and type your presentation content using your keyboard.

Or, you can choose from the professionally created font pairs in Visme. These font pairs complement each other and are perfect for conveying the type of message they are meant to convey.

In addition to adding text to your presentations, it’s also essential to take notes on what you’re going to say. This will help you stay organized and ensure that your presentation is concise and to the point.

Use the presenter notes feature in Visme to create bullet points or paragraphs of text that are visible to you only. It's like having your own teleprompter. So, the next time you forget your point while giving a presentation, you have the notes to get back on track.

11. Use Icons, Illustrations, 3D Graphics and More

Additional design elements such as icons, illustrations and other graphics help you communicate more effectively than just text. They can also help make your design more memorable, which is important when you’re trying to create a strong relationship with your audience.

For example, if you are designing a marketing presentation for a new product, you can use icons to communicate the benefits of your product.

As indicated in our previous tutorial on how to create infographics with Visme, it’s also important to choose one style of icon for your presentation.

For example, if you choose an outline style, then stick with the same type throughout your presentation to ensure consistency and professionalism.

And, to help you find the right graphics, Visme comes with 10,000+ vector icons , illustrations, 3D animated graphics , lines, shapes and more.

12. Add Data Visualizations

According to a study conducted by MIT, 90% of the information transmitted to our brain is visual. So, if you have some data points that you need to include in your presentation, make sure that your audience understands them quickly by using visual aids.

This is the part where you can resort to simple and effective data visualizations to support your main points. You don’t want your audience to get lost in the mire of numbers and graphs, so make sure that you use visual cues to help them follow along.

For example, if you want to illustrate how a certain metric has changed over time, then plot both values on a line graph with markers for each year.

For smaller data sets, you can choose from 30+ data widgets in Visme that help you create stunning data visualizations in just a few clicks.

If you have larger data sets to explain, choose from 20+ types of graphs and charts with various options like color filters, hover effects and more.

Here’s an example of a pie chart template from Visme’s library that you can use in your presentation.

Watch the video below to learn more about creating charts and graphs using Visme.

So, now you don’t have to worry about the data visualization part anymore. But what about capturing the data? If you use Visme to create all your marketing collaterals and other documents, you don’t have to worry about that as well.

Visme’s analytics feature allows you to track the traffic for any projects you have created in Visme. This will help you gauge the effectiveness of your design projects. You’ll be able to capture views, unique visits, activities, completion and more information such as date and time of view, visitor IP, location and more.

So, if you need any information from your past presentations or any other design you shared online, Visme Analytics has you covered.

Create a stunning presentation in less time

• Hundreds of premade slides available
• Add animation and interactivity to your slides
• Choose from various presentation options

Sign up. It’s free.

13. Make Your Presentation Interactive

Keeping your audience engaged while giving presentations is one of the most difficult tasks for a presenter. Studies show that if a presenter is unable to let the audience participate, then audience engagement drops by 14% .

This means you’ll have to come up with ways to make your presentation interactive . Visme gives you a wide range of interactivity options to engage your audience:

• Create a poll in Visme with a question and 2 or 3 possible answers. Then, share the link to your presentation with your audience and invite them to participate in the poll.
• Include hotspots in your presentation, which allow the viewers to click on a specific part of the slide and see more data or information.
• Animate your presentation with transitions, animations and video clips. You can add animation effects to almost any part of the presentation you want.
• Use clickable links in your presentation to direct the viewers to another webpage or video.
• Add a slideshow to your presentation by adding images, video clips and text slides in any order you want.

Here's a video that you can watch to learn more about crafting interactive presentations with Visme.

14. Revise and Improve the Narrative and Flow

Now that you’ve finished adding all the visual and textual elements to your presentation, you can go back over your slides to ensure that they flow smoothly from one section to the next.

Also, make sure that you have incorporated some visual cues between sections to let your audience know that you’re moving on to a new concept. As with any story, you should break the monotony with some type of variation, adding rhythm and texture to your presentation.

For example, you could use an inverted color scheme for every transitional slide or an eye-catching design element.

Creating a presentation often requires input from people across the organization. The finance team might add some revenue and expense figures, and the marketing team might want to show your increased customer base and more.

With Visme’s collaboration features , you and your team can work together on a project to improve it. You can invite them via email or a shareable link generated from the Visme app.

After accessing the document, every collaborator can pin, circle, annotate, highlight, add comments and more. The live editing feature enables collaborators to make changes to your presentations, which will appear live.

Furthermore, with workflows , you can assign projects and tasks to specific team members and keep track of what’s finished and what still needs work.

Visme’s collaborative capabilities are helping thousands of teams around the world work together with ease while having every design tool they need. Here is a video that proves why teams love using Visme.

15.  Download, Share, Publish and Present

With Visme, you get complete freedom of choice on how you want to use your presentation. Once you’re satisfied with your presentation, you can share a link to your slide deck, embed it into your site, upload it to SlideShare or download it as a PNG, JPG, PDF, MP4 and GIF file.

If you’re designing the presentation for learning management systems, you can download the presentation as SCORM or xAPI. This allows you to preserve all the interactivity and multimedia and track the completion of learning materials in your LMS.

And it doesn’t end here. With Visme’s Presentation Studio , you can record yourself presenting your presentations and send them to your viewers. This allows you to present asynchronously and take the pressure off.

This feature is extremely useful for creating webinars, holding prerecorded meetings, explaining learning materials and more.

If you are a beginner, giving a presentation might be more difficult than creating one. Studies have revealed that 90% of anxiety presenters feel before giving a presentation is due to a lack of preparation.

Below is a video with 11 simple tips for giving an excellent presentation to make sure that the delivery is as effective as the design of the presentation.

You can have the most amazing presentation in the world on paper, but without proper delivery, it can turn into a complete flop.

So, now that you have all the knowledge on how to make a presentation, it’s time to discuss how you can deliver that presentation in a powerful way. In this section, we’ll cover the best tips for better presentation delivery and impact.

1. Rehearse your presentation.

Practice, practice and practice again. That’s the way to presentation perfection.

That’s right. no matter how crazy you might sound to the downstairs neighbors practicing your speech out loud alone in your apartment, you need to do it.

Why? Because when you can actually hear yourself present your ideas out loud, you may realize that you’re missing key points of information.

While you’re at it, practice out loud. Go in front of a mirror and strike some power poses.

Body language is everything when it comes to presenting your presentation in a powerful way. It can make or break your entire speech. So, use open-handed gestures, smile often and loosen up a bit to come across as a confident presenter.

If you’ve been allotted a certain amount of time for your presentation, then you need to practice while using a timer.

By practicing out loud with a timer, you’ll be able to adjust and readjust the information on your slides to make sure you get all your important information across to your audience.

Another way you can boost your confidence and kick stage fright before the big day of your presentation is to do a practice run of your presentation in front of others.

This will not only help you get used to public speaking, but it also gives them a chance to give you honest feedback on your presentation and let you know if there was anything that could use improvement.

2. Memorize your presentation.

Memorizing your speech for your presentation is no easy task. But the more you can remember while you’re up on stage and the fewer “umm’s” and “uh’s” you say, the better.

We rounded up the best ways to memorize a presentation that will significantly help you with your presentation delivery, but we’ll share a few with you here as well.

• Build a memory palace: Just like the Greeks and Romans used to do, associating concepts and ideas with specific locations can help you remember them more easily.

• Write down the main points: Research shows that writing down information or creating an outline can help you learn and remember information more efficiently.
• Practice during the afternoon: According to a study, by studying in the afternoon, you will be much more efficient in retrieving memories .
• Record yourself: This study shows that recording and listening to yourself not only improves your practice sessions but also boosts overnight retention .

Apply the memorization techniques above while you’re rehearsing your presentation, but make sure you also understand each and every word.

3. Start strong to hook your audience.

When it comes to giving presentations, first impressions are extremely important.

The way you start can set the stage for the rest of your talk—you can either have the audience sit up in their seats and give you their full attention, or have them ready to doze off.

There are several proven techniques you can use to start your presentation in a powerful way, such as:

• Tell a personal story
• Make a provocative statement
• Share a shocking fact or statistic
• Ask a question
• Start with a prop
• Show a video or meaningful visual

If you want to learn more about these presentation hooks and more in detail, read our guide to starting a presentation with examples from famous TED talks.

If you prefer watching a video instead, we’ve got you covered.

4. Observe your audience’s behavior.

Remember, a presentation—or any talk for that matter—is not a one-way conversation. Effective communication involves constant feedback from the listener and requires the speaker to react to that feedback appropriately.

So, how does this apply to presentation delivery?

When you’re up on the stage giving your presentation, make sure you constantly observe your audience and their reactions—this includes their facial expressions, body language and even questions.

You might sense your audience is getting bored, for example, if you see a few people fidgeting in their seats, yawning or looking at their phones.

This is your cue to switch things up a bit. For example, you can:

• Change the subject
• Make them laugh with a joke or humorous statement
• Get people to stand up or do an activity
• Take a break if you have enough time
• Invite questions from the audience

Similarly, if you see your audience engaged with what you’re saying, continue with your enthusiasm and try to keep them hooked till the end.

5. Be authentic and vulnerable.

When giving a presentation, the worst thing you can do is try to be someone else and come across as pretentious and unoriginal.

In this TED talk, Brene Brown starts by revealing that she felt so vulnerable and embarrassed after one of her talks that she didn’t leave her house for three days.

Successful presenters are authentic, even if they are not perfect. They are relatable, grounded and vulnerable. Instead of hiding their failures, imperfections and insecurities, they share them with the audience and build an emotional connection.

When the audience finds you relatable, they are more inclined to listen to you and take you seriously.

6. Conclude your presentation on a high.

Just like it’s important to start your presentation with a powerful hook, likewise, you need to conclude your presentation in such a way that it impacts your audience and leaves them thinking about your take-home message for a long time after.

There are several ways to close your presentation with style:

• End with a memorable quote
• Drive your main points home
• Close with a story
• Use a strong call to action

Here’s an infographic summarizing the main points above and more.

Read our guide to learn more about how to close a presentation in a powerful way .

7. Leave time for questions at the end.

Our last piece of advice for preparing for and presenting an effective presentation is to get your audience involved and allocate time for their comments and questions at the end of your presentation.

Everyone wants to be heard, and if you did your job correctly, you should have sparked some conversation starters from your audience by the end of your presentation.

Give them your time and attention at the end of your presentation to show them you care about your presentation and most importantly, them.

8. Prepare backup content.

No matter how well prepared you are, it’s always better to have a backup because not everything may go the same as you planned.

Despite whatever your intention is, as a presenter, you should always have a plan B, C and sometimes D for your presentation. Put together statements that will cover you if you find yourself upsetting the audience.

Problems may occur due to location changes, technical difficulties and many other factors; you must always be prepared. Your backup content can be anything that can change the game as needed.

For example, you can prepare some backup questions that you can ask according to the situation, some additional relatable examples or even a few slides with different design elements that you might need to meet the requirements of your audience.

Last but not least, here are some of the best presentation tips and practices that you can use as a final checklist when preparing for your presentation. This includes, but is not limited to:

Limit the amount of text on your slides

You don’t want to overwhelm your audience with too much information, it’s a great idea to try to keep your text to about 6-8 lines per slide. To check if your text is concise enough try to use K.I.S.S (keep it stupid simple). This will ensure that you effortlessly know how to create a good presentation slide regardless of the topic at hand.

Include practical examples

To keep your audience on track and prevent boredom, utilize real-life or practical examples that they can relate to in their everyday lives. This approach leaves a much stronger impact than simply informing them that the information exists.

Use presenter’s notes for additional information

Avoid cluttering slides with text; instead, add important information into presenter's notes to ensure clarity without sacrificing slide design.All of Visme’s presentations with a section to add presenter’s notes visible to only you in the designated area at the bottom without sacrificing beautiful slide design.

Here's a video showing how to use presentation notes in Visme

Consider your presentation’s mode of delivery

The delivery of your presentation is just as important as the details it contains. This will affect your presentation's design as well. For example, for standalone presentations, it’s a great idea to add more text into your slides. On the other hand, if you’re holding an in-person presentation, it might be a good idea to have less text on your slides.

Keep your slides on-brand

While designing your slides, always keep your brand identity in mind, especially if creating a crucial business presentation. It will distinguish you from competitors, prompt people to refer your products and services to others and connect people with your brand emotionally.

So, consider your brand colors, brand fonts, logo and other elements of your company’s visual identity. If you have not defined any of these elements, try choosing the design elements that match your brand personality and the theme of your presentation.

Do you still have pressing questions regarding presentation creation and Visme? These FAQs will clear your doubts.

Q. Is Visme Good for Presentations?

Yes, Visme is a great tool for making presentations. Here are the most important reasons why:

• You can create presentations from scratch, with content blocks or with pre-designed templates.
• There are millions of design elements available in the editor to help you craft professional-looking slides.
• Develop complete presentations with the AI Presentation Maker.
• Generate branded presentation templates with the AI Brand Wizard.
• Use the whiteboard feature to brainstorm, plan and outline a presentation with your team.
• Collaborate with colleagues using workflows and assign specific tasks to different people.
• Share your presentation in several ways: as a live link in flipbook format, as a live link in slide format and as a PDF.

Q. Is Visme Really Free?

Yes, Visme really is free. The Basic Plan is the ideal choice to take Visme for a test drive. You don’t need a credit card to sign up. Upgrading is easy if you want access to premium features.

The best thing about Visme, apart from being free, is that it’s not just a presentation maker. Visme is an all-in-one content authoring tool where you can create infographics, documents, social media posts and much more. That’s not all. Visme has a whole suite of AI tools, like the AI Document Generator , to help you create content fast and easy. The document maker helps you craft many types of documents in less than two minutes. Once generated they only need minimal customization to be finalized.

Q. What Is the Difference Between PowerPoint and Visme?

There are several differences between PowerPoint and Visme. Here are the most important:

Visme has a drag-and-drop editor, while PowerPoint has a limited editor with simple functionality.

The Visme presentation library has hundreds of ready-to-use templates compared to the limited amount that PowerPoint offers.

Visme has robust interactive popup features, while PowerPoint does not. You can even present presentations as a flipbook, while PowerPoint cannot. There are over 10,000 icons and graphics, while PowerPoint has much fewer. The lead generation capabilities and performance analytics features are robust, while PowerPoint doesn’t have these features.

Visme offers an entire suite of AI tools, like the image generator and image editing tools , while PowerPoint does not. With Visme, you can design much more than just presentations, like infographics, social media posts, interactive documents, and much more.

Visme has over 30 types of data visualizations, while PowerPoint has only 15. There's also a cutting-edge collaboration feature that supports collaboration with teams of all sizes. The workflow feature lets team members assign each other tasks or projects and work together. PowerPoint doesn’t have these features.

We've created an in-depth article to compare Visme and PowerPoint.

Q. When Starting a Presentation, What Is the First Crucial Step to Take?

The crucial first step when starting a presentation is to know the audience you’ll be presenting to.

Having a clear grasp of the audience’s needs before even starting the presentation outline will help you craft slides and content that speak directly to the viewer.

Then, when presenting, start off with a comment that engages with them quickly, helping you keep their attention throughout the slides and speech.

Visme: The Ultimate Presentation Design Tool

A powerful and visually stunning presentation is crucial in today's business landscape. And Visme provides an excellent platform for achieving that goal. With its user-friendly interface and extensive design tools, even beginners can create professional-looking presentations in no time.

Here is what one of our customers has to say about Visme’s presentation software and Visme presentation templates:

“Visme is easy to use! I'm a beginner, and after only two hours, I'm already making professional-looking slides for our company's board meeting in three days.”

One of the most significant advantages of Visme is the ability to customize every aspect of your presentation. Visme allows you to create a unique and captivating visual experience from the background color to the font style.

Additionally, Visme offers a vast library of pre-made templates, graphics and icons to help you get started.

So, whether you want to create a research presentation or a pitch deck to secure funding , Visme has everything you need.

Sign-up for Visme’s free online presentation design tool and start your presentation design journey now!

Create effective and captivating presentations with Visme

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About the Author

Nayomi Chibana is a journalist and writer for Visme’s Visual Learning Center. Besides researching trends in visual communication and next-generation storytelling, she’s passionate about data-driven content.

10 tips on how to make slides that communicate your idea, from TED’s in-house expert

When your slides rock, your whole presentation pops to life. At TED2014, David Epstein created a clean, informative slide deck to support his talk on the changing bodies of athletes . Photo: James Duncan Davidson/TED

Aaron Weyenberg is the master of slide decks. Our UX Lead creates Keynote presentations that are both slick and charming—the kind that pull you in and keep you captivated, but in an understated way that helps you focus on what’s actually being said. He does this for his own presentations and for lots of other folks in the office. Yes, his coworkers ask him to design their slides, because he’s just that good.

We asked Aaron to bottle his Keynote mojo so that others could benefit from it. Here, 10 tips for making an effective slide deck, split into two parts: the big, overarching goals, and the little tips and tricks that make your presentation sing.

Aaron used this image of a New Zealand disaster to kick off a slide deck from TED’s tech team — all about how they prepares for worst-case scenarios. He asked for permission to use the image, and credited the photographer, Blair Harkness. View the whole slidedeck from this presentation.

The big picture…

• Think about your slides last . Building your slides should be the tail end of developing your presentation. Think about your main message, structure its supporting points, practice it and time it—and then start thinking about your slides. The presentation needs to stand on its own; the slides are just something you layer over it to enhance the listener experience. Too often, I see slide decks that feel more like presenter notes, but I think it’s far more effective when the slides are for the audience to give them a visual experience that adds to the words. .
• Create a consistent look and feel . In a good slide deck, each slide feels like part of the same story. That means using the same or related typography, colors and imagery across all your slides. Using pre-built master slides can be a good way to do that, but it can feel restrictive and lead to me-too decks. I like to create a few slides to hold sample graphic elements and type, then copy what I need from those slides as I go. .
• Think about topic transitions . It can be easy to go too far in the direction of consistency, though. You don’t want each slide to look exactly the same. I like to create one style for the slides that are the meat of what I’m saying, and then another style for the transitions between topics. For example, if my general slides have a dark background with light text, I’ll try transition slides that have a light background with dark text. That way they feel like part of the same family, but the presentation has texture—and the audience gets a visual cue that we’re moving onto a new topic. .
• With text, less is almost always more . One thing to avoid—slides with a lot of text, especially if it’s a repeat of what you’re saying out loud. It’s like if you give a paper handout in a meeting—everyone’s head goes down and they read, rather than staying heads-up and listening. If there are a lot of words on your slide, you’re asking your audience to split their attention between what they’re reading and what they’re hearing. That’s really hard for a brain to do, and it compromises the effectiveness of both your slide text and your spoken words. If you can’t avoid having text-y slides, try to progressively reveal text (like unveiling bullet points one by one) as you need it. .
• Use photos that enhance meaning . I love using simple, punchy photos in presentations, because they help what you’re saying resonate in your audience’s mind without pulling their attention from your spoken words. Look for photos that (1) speak strongly to the concept you’re talking about and (2) aren’t compositionally complex. Your photo could be a metaphor or something more literal, but it should be clear why the audience is looking at it, and why it’s paired with what you’re saying. For example, I recently used the image above—a photo of a container ship about to tip over (it eventually sank)—to lead off a co-worker’s deck about failure preparation. And below is another example of a photo I used in a deck to talk about the launch of the new TED.com . The point I was making was that a launch isn’t the end of a project—it’s the beginning of something new. We’ll learn, adapt, change and grow.

Here, a lovely image from a slidedeck Aaron created about the redesign of TED.com . View the whole deck from this presentation .

And now some tactical tips…

• Go easy on the effects and transitions . Keynote and Powerpoint come with a lot of effects and transitions. In my opinion, most of these don’t do much to enhance the audience experience. At worst, they subtly suggest that the content of your slides is so uninteresting that a page flip or droplet transition will snap the audience out of their lethargy. If you must use them, use the most subtle ones, and keep it consistent. .

• Try panning large images . Often, I want to show screen shot of an entire web page in my presentations. There’s a great Chrome extension to capture these—but these images are oftentimes much longer than the canvas size of the presentation. Rather than scaling the image to an illegible size, or cropping it, you can pan it vertically as you talk about it. In Keynote, this is done with a Move effect, which you can apply from an object’s action panel. .
• For video, don’t use autoplay . It’s super easy to insert video in Keynote and Powerpoint—you just drag a Quicktime file onto the slide. And when you advance the deck to the slide with the video that autoplays, sometimes it can take a moment for the machine to actually start playing it. So often I’ve seen presenters click again in an attempt to start the video during this delay, causing the deck to go to the next slide. Instead, set the video to click to play. That way you have more predictable control over the video start time, and even select a poster frame to show before starting. .

Lastly, I’d love to leave you with a couple book recommendations. The first is Resonate , by Nancy Duarte. It’s not so much about slides, but about public speaking in general – which is the foundation for any presentation, regardless of how great your slides are. In it, she breaks down the anatomy of what makes a great presentation, how to establish a central message and structure your talk, and more. (One of her case studies comes from Benjamin Zander’s charming TED Talk about classical music, a talk that captivated the audience from start to finish.) Think of this as prerequisite reading for my second recommendation, also by Duarte: Slide:ology . This is more focused on presentation visuals and slides.

Happy slide-making.

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Top Tips for Effective Presentations

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How can you make a good presentation even more effective?

This page draws on published advice from expert presenters around the world, which will help to take your presentations from merely ‘good’ to ‘great’.

By bringing together advice from a wide range of people, the aim is to cover a whole range of areas.

Whether you are an experienced presenter, or just starting out, there should be ideas here to help you to improve.

1. Show your Passion and Connect with your Audience

It’s hard to be relaxed and be yourself when you’re nervous.

But time and again, the great presenters say that the most important thing is to connect with your audience, and the best way to do that is to let your passion for the subject shine through.

Be honest with the audience about what is important to you and why it matters.

Be enthusiastic and honest, and the audience will respond.

2. Focus on your Audience’s Needs

Your presentation needs to be built around what your audience is going to get out of the presentation.

As you prepare the presentation, you always need to bear in mind what the audience needs and wants to know, not what you can tell them.

While you’re giving the presentation, you also need to remain focused on your audience’s response, and react to that.

You need to make it easy for your audience to understand and respond.

3. Keep it Simple: Concentrate on your Core Message

When planning your presentation, you should always keep in mind the question:

What is the key message (or three key points) for my audience to take away?

You should be able to communicate that key message very briefly.

Some experts recommend a 30-second ‘elevator summary’, others that you can write it on the back of a business card, or say it in no more than 15 words.

Whichever rule you choose, the important thing is to keep your core message focused and brief.

And if what you are planning to say doesn’t contribute to that core message, don’t say it.

4. Smile and Make Eye Contact with your Audience

This sounds very easy, but a surprisingly large number of presenters fail to do it.

If you smile and make eye contact, you are building rapport , which helps the audience to connect with you and your subject. It also helps you to feel less nervous, because you are talking to individuals, not to a great mass of unknown people.

To help you with this, make sure that you don’t turn down all the lights so that only the slide screen is visible. Your audience needs to see you as well as your slides.

5. Start Strongly

The beginning of your presentation is crucial. You need to grab your audience’s attention and hold it.

They will give you a few minutes’ grace in which to entertain them, before they start to switch off if you’re dull. So don’t waste that on explaining who you are. Start by entertaining them.

Try a story (see tip 7 below), or an attention-grabbing (but useful) image on a slide.

6. Remember the 10-20-30 Rule for Slideshows

This is a tip from Guy Kawasaki of Apple. He suggests that slideshows should:

• Contain no more than 10 slides;
• Last no more than 20 minutes; and
• Use a font size of no less than 30 point.

This last is particularly important as it stops you trying to put too much information on any one slide. This whole approach avoids the dreaded ‘Death by PowerPoint’.

As a general rule, slides should be the sideshow to you, the presenter. A good set of slides should be no use without the presenter, and they should definitely contain less, rather than more, information, expressed simply.

If you need to provide more information, create a bespoke handout and give it out after your presentation.

7. Tell Stories

Human beings are programmed to respond to stories.

Stories help us to pay attention, and also to remember things. If you can use stories in your presentation, your audience is more likely to engage and to remember your points afterwards. It is a good idea to start with a story, but there is a wider point too: you need your presentation to act like a story.

Think about what story you are trying to tell your audience, and create your presentation to tell it.

Finding The Story Behind Your Presentation

To effectively tell a story, focus on using at least one of the two most basic storytelling mechanics in your presentation:

Focusing On Characters – People have stories; things, data, and objects do not. So ask yourself “who” is directly involved in your topic that you can use as the focal point of your story.

For example, instead of talking about cars (your company’s products), you could focus on specific characters like:

• The drivers the car is intended for – people looking for speed and adventure
• The engineers who went out of their way to design the most cost-effective car imaginable

A Changing Dynamic – A story needs something to change along the way. So ask yourself “What is not as it should be?” and answer with what you are going to do about it (or what you did about it).

For example…

• Did hazardous road conditions inspire you to build a rugged, all-terrain jeep that any family could afford?
• Did a complicated and confusing food labelling system lead you to establish a colour-coded nutritional index so that anybody could easily understand it?

8. Use your Voice Effectively

The spoken word is actually a pretty inefficient means of communication, because it uses only one of your audience’s five senses. That’s why presenters tend to use visual aids, too. But you can help to make the spoken word better by using your voice effectively.

Varying the speed at which you talk, and emphasising changes in pitch and tone all help to make your voice more interesting and hold your audience’s attention.

For more about this, see our page on Effective Speaking .

9. Use your Body Too

It has been estimated that more than three quarters of communication is non-verbal.

That means that as well as your tone of voice, your body language is crucial to getting your message across. Make sure that you are giving the right messages: body language to avoid includes crossed arms, hands held behind your back or in your pockets, and pacing the stage.

Make your gestures open and confident, and move naturally around the stage, and among the audience too, if possible.

10. Relax, Breathe and Enjoy

If you find presenting difficult, it can be hard to be calm and relaxed about doing it.

One option is to start by concentrating on your breathing. Slow it down, and make sure that you’re breathing fully. Make sure that you continue to pause for breath occasionally during your presentation too.

For more ideas, see our page on Coping with Presentation Nerves .

If you can bring yourself to relax, you will almost certainly present better. If you can actually start to enjoy yourself, your audience will respond to that, and engage better. Your presentations will improve exponentially, and so will your confidence. It’s well worth a try.

Improve your Presentation Skills

Follow our guide to boost your presentation skills learning about preparation, delivery, questions and all other aspects of giving effective presentations.

Start with: What is a Presentation?

Continue to: How to Give a Speech Self Presentation

See also: Five Ways You Can Do Visual Marketing on a Budget Can Presentation Science Improve Your Presentation? Typography – It’s All About the Message in Your Slides

How-To Geek

8 tips to make the best powerpoint presentations.

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Table of contents, start with a goal, less is more, consider your typeface, make bullet points count, limit the use of transitions, skip text where possible, think in color, take a look from the top down, bonus: start with templates.

Slideshows are an intuitive way to share complex ideas with an audience, although they're dull and frustrating when poorly executed. Here are some tips to make your Microsoft PowerPoint presentations sing while avoiding common pitfalls.

It all starts with identifying what we're trying to achieve with the presentation. Is it informative, a showcase of data in an easy-to-understand medium? Or is it more of a pitch, something meant to persuade and convince an audience and lead them to a particular outcome?

It's here where the majority of these presentations go wrong with the inability to identify the talking points that best support our goal. Always start with a goal in mind: to entertain, to inform, or to share data in a way that's easy to understand. Use facts, figures, and images to support your conclusion while keeping structure in mind (Where are we now and where are we going?).

I've found that it's helpful to start with the ending. Once I know how to end a presentation, I know how best to get to that point. I start by identifying the takeaway---that one nugget that I want to implant before thanking everyone for their time---and I work in reverse to figure out how best to get there.

Your mileage, of course, may vary. But it's always going to be a good idea to put in the time in the beginning stages so that you aren't reworking large portions of the presentation later. And that starts with a defined goal.

A slideshow isn't supposed to include everything. It's an introduction to a topic, one that we can elaborate on with speech. Anything unnecessary is a distraction. It makes the presentation less visually appealing and less interesting, and it makes you look bad as a presenter.

This goes for text as well as images. There's nothing worse, in fact, than a series of slides where the presenter just reads them as they appear. Your audience is capable of reading, and chances are they'll be done with the slide, and browsing Reddit, long before you finish. Avoid putting the literal text on the screen, and your audience will thank you.

Related: How to Burn Your PowerPoint to DVD

Right off the bat, we're just going to come out and say that Papyrus and Comic Sans should be banned from all PowerPoint presentations, permanently. Beyond that, it's worth considering the typeface you're using and what it's saying about you, the presenter, and the presentation itself.

Consider choosing readability over aesthetics, and avoid fancy fonts that could prove to be more of a distraction than anything else. A good presentation needs two fonts: a serif and sans-serif. Use one for the headlines and one for body text, lists, and the like. Keep it simple. Veranda, Helvetica, Arial, and even Times New Roman are safe choices. Stick with the classics and it's hard to botch this one too badly.

There reaches a point where bullet points become less of a visual aid and more of a visual examination.

Bullet points should support the speaker, not overwhelm his audience. The best slides have little or no text at all, in fact. As a presenter, it's our job to talk through complex issues, but that doesn't mean that we need to highlight every talking point.

Instead, think about how you can break up large lists into three or four bullet points. Carefully consider whether you need to use more bullet points, or if you can combine multiple topics into a single point instead. And if you can't, remember that there's no one limiting the number of slides you can have in a presentation. It's always possible to break a list of 12 points down into three pages of four points each.

Animation, when used correctly, is a good idea. It breaks up slow-moving parts of a presentation and adds action to elements that require it. But it should be used judiciously.

Adding a transition that wipes left to right between every slide or that animates each bullet point in a list, for example, starts to grow taxing on those forced to endure the presentation. Viewers get bored quickly, and animations that are meant to highlight specific elements quickly become taxing.

That's not to say that you can't use animations and transitions, just that you need to pick your spots. Aim for no more than a handful of these transitions for each presentation. And use them in spots where they'll add to the demonstration, not detract from it.

Sometimes images tell a better story than text can. And as a presenter, your goal is to describe points in detail without making users do a lot of reading. In these cases, a well-designed visual, like a chart, might better convey the information you're trying to share.

The right image adds visual appeal and serves to break up longer, text-heavy sections of the presentation---but only if you're using the right images. A single high-quality image can make all the difference between a success and a dud when you're driving a specific point home.

When considering text, don't think solely in terms of bullet points and paragraphs. Tables, for example, are often unnecessary. Ask yourself whether you could present the same data in a bar or line chart instead.

Color is interesting. It evokes certain feelings and adds visual appeal to your presentation as a whole. Studies show that color also improves interest, comprehension, and retention. It should be a careful consideration, not an afterthought.

You don't have to be a graphic designer to use color well in a presentation. What I do is look for palettes I like, and then find ways to use them in the presentation. There are a number of tools for this, like Adobe Color , Coolors , and ColorHunt , just to name a few. After finding a palette you enjoy, consider how it works with the presentation you're about to give. Pastels, for example, evoke feelings of freedom and light, so they probably aren't the best choice when you're presenting quarterly earnings that missed the mark.

It's also worth mentioning that you don't need to use every color in the palette. Often, you can get by with just two or three, though you should really think through how they all work together and how readable they'll be when layered. A simple rule of thumb here is that contrast is your friend. Dark colors work well on light backgrounds, and light colors work best on dark backgrounds.

Spend some time in the Slide Sorter before you finish your presentation. By clicking the four squares at the bottom left of the presentation, you can take a look at multiple slides at once and consider how each works together. Alternatively, you can click "View" on the ribbon and select "Slide Sorter."

Are you presenting too much text at once? Move an image in. Could a series of slides benefit from a chart or summary before you move on to another point?

It's here that we have the opportunity to view the presentation from beyond the single-slide viewpoint and think in terms of how each slide fits, or if it fits at all. From this view, you can rearrange slides, add additional ones, or delete them entirely if you find that they don't advance the presentation.

The difference between a good presentation and a bad one is really all about preparation and execution. Those that respect the process and plan carefully---not only the presentation as a whole, but each slide within it---are the ones who will succeed.

This brings me to my last (half) point: When in doubt, just buy a template and use it. You can find these all over the web, though Creative Market and GraphicRiver are probably the two most popular marketplaces for this kind of thing. Not all of us are blessed with the skills needed to design and deliver an effective presentation. And while a pre-made PowerPoint template isn't going to make you a better presenter, it will ease the anxiety of creating a visually appealing slide deck.

• Microsoft Office

PowerPoint Presentation Best Practices: Tips & Resources

• Slide Content
• The Presentation: Public Speaking
• Tips & Resources

Watch your timing, both while speaking and going through your slides. You don't want to go too fast, but make sure you don't go over your allotted time, either. (This is where practice comes in!) You might want to leave a few minutes at the end for questions.

Sort Your Slides

Try breaking your slides into smaller chunks or segments, and make sure they flow. But don’t use too many slides, either; find a nice middle ground. If you look at all of them in the slide sorter, do they seem to flow logically without your speech backing them up?

The "B" Key

During your presentation (on either PowerPoint or Keynote) you can press the "B" key on the keyboard, and the screen will go blank. This is useful if you need to go off topic for a minute, or you want people to focus on you while you say something extremely important. Press "B" again and your presentation will reappear.

• Keep it simple, but not simplistic
• Have a theme and be consistent
• Be smart with colors
• Choose fonts wisely
• Use high-quality graphics, not clip art
• Try using video or audio
• Minimize distractions in your slides
• Pace yourself
• Break up your slides into small chunks
• Check your spelling and grammar
• Don’t use stale built-in templates
• Don’t throw off your audience with fancy fonts
• Don’t use distracting animations and transitions
• Don’t use clip art
• Don’t put an entire paragraph in your slide
• Don’t go too fast
• Don't read from cue cards word-for-word
• Don’t stress—act relaxed and natural, and your audience will be more receptive
• "Design Tips" - Garr Reynolds Tips and slide examples from a communication expert.
• "10 PowerPoint Tips to Make Your Slides More Effective" - iSpring Top 10 tips, written by Ferry Pereboom, the co-founder of a design agency.
• Presentation Zen: "What is good presentation design?" - Garr Reynolds Tips and slide examples from a communication expert.
• "Top 10 Tips to Make Your PowerPoint Suck Way Less" - Your PowerPoint Sucks Top 10 tips, other articles, examples, and resources.
• "Speak up: Preparing an Engaging Presentation" - Amherst College Tips on presenting a public speech from Amherst College's Writing Center.
• “Basic tasks for creating a PowerPoint presentation” - Microsoft A guide for getting started with PowerPoint, with tips for creating an effective presentation at the bottom.
• "Delivery Tips" - Garr Reynolds Public speaking tips from a communication expert.
• "Preparation Tips" - Garr Reynolds Preparation tips for presenting from a communication expert.
• Canva Slide builder with professional and artistic templates.
• SlideModel Professional slide and theme templates.
• PresentationGO Free templates, slides, graphics, diagrams, tables, etc.
• << Previous: The Presentation: Public Speaking
• Last Updated: Dec 8, 2023 12:36 PM
• URL: https://libguides.hccfl.edu/powerpoint

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Crush Your Next Virtual Presentation

by Gia Storms

Summary .   

While virtual communication platforms help keep remote teams connected, they’re not always the ideal venue for delivering engaging presentations. It’s difficult (or impossible) to read your audience’s nonverbal cues over video and audio — if you’ve lost them, you might not even realize it. You’re also up against the many distractions inherent to working from home. Delivering effective presentations over video requires a little extra preparation. Ask a few people you trust to help you out before and after the meeting by being ready to participate when called on and by giving you actionable feedback afterward. Learn about your audience in advance and build in a short, relevant personal story that will make them feel included. Above all, be concise and clear.

My coaching client, an engineer named Carlos, is a magnificent in-person storyteller. He talks with his hands and tells lengthy, animated stories replete with humorous metaphors and plot twists. His wit and warmth used to be received positively.

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Best practices for making awesome PowerPoint slides

Whether you’re presenting a slideshow to your executives, clients, or peers, you want to convey your message clearly and successfully, and at the very least prove that you know how to use PowerPoint . Unfortunately, many mistakes can be made when creating PowerPoint presentations.

Choose the fonts wisely

Select pleasing colors.

• Don’t overuse animations and effects

Use a standard presentation rule

From hard-to-read fonts to colors that hurt the eyes of your audience, here are some best practices to keep in mind for your next PowerPoint slideshow.

Using a fancy, dramatic, or even whimsical font can be tempting. But you must consider the readability of the font. You want your audience to easily see your headings and bullet points. Consider the two basic font styles: serif and sans serif.

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Serif fonts are more decorative, have a classic appearance, and are frequently used in print publications. Each letter has a stroke that extends from a point in the letter. Popular serif styles include Times New Roman, Garamond, Georgia, and Baskerville.

Sans serif fonts are more precise, have a clean appearance, and are frequently used in digital publications. Each letter is clear-cut without wings or curves at its points. Popular sans serif styles include Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, and Calibri.

Because of the extended strokes, serif fonts can appear a bit blurry on a screen. This makes a sans serif font the favored choice. The bottom line is that you should remain consistent and use the same type, serif or sans serif, for all fonts in the slideshow.

The colors you use in your PowerPoint presentation can be just as important as the content. You want to use those that enhance the appearance of the slideshow, not distract or give your audience a headache.

As Microsoft’s Robert Lane explains in his article about combining colors in PowerPoint, mixing red and blue or red and green can cause eye strain. Plus, red and green mixtures are difficult to see for those with color blindness.

The article mentions that warm colors like reds, oranges, and yellows are eye-catching, whereas cool colors like blues, greens, and purples draw less attention. Additionally, lighter colors are more noticeable than dark.

One of the easiest ways to choose the colors for your presentation is to use a built-in theme. Select the Design tab and you’ll see a collection of Themes in the ribbon.

Once you select a theme, you can then use the Variants section to choose a different color scheme. Each scheme includes eight complementing colors. You can also pick the font style you want to use in the Variants drop-down menu.

Tip : You can also check out the Design Ideas if you need help with the layouts for your slides.

Don’t overuse animations and effects

Animations can be attention-grabbing additions to a slideshow. But if you overuse or misuse them, they can be detrimental to your presentation and actually turn off viewers. The best thing to do is consider your audience and slideshow’s purpose.

For instance, if you are presenting the slideshow to a classroom of 8-year-old students, animations can grab and hold their attention more than simple images or words. However, if you’re presenting to your company’s executive team or board of directors, animations can come across as unprofessional. Also, be wary of embedding videos in PowerPoint — only do so when relevant.

If you really want to include animations, make them subtle or purposeful. As an example, you may want to expand on each bullet point in your list. You can create an animation to display the bullet points one by one and only when you click.

To do this, select the first bullet point, go to the Animations tab, and choose the Appear effect. Then, in the Timing section of the ribbon, choose On click in the Start drop-down list. Do the same for each bullet point in your list.

This creates a simple animation that benefits your presentation. It doesn’t distract but instead keeps your audience focused on your current talking point.

What is the 10/20/30 rule of PowerPoint? What is the five-by-five rule? What about the 5/5/5 and seven-by-seven rules? Rules, rules, rules. These are different standards that many recommend using when it comes to creating PowerPoint presentations.

• The 10/20/30 rule : Have no more than 10 slides, a presentation no longer than 20 minutes, and a font size no smaller than 30 points.
• The five-by-five rule : Have no more than five words per line and five lines per slide.
• The 5/5/5 rule : Have no more than five words per line, five lines per slide, and five text-heavy slides in a row.
• The seven-by-seven rule : Have no more than seven words per line and seven lines per slide.

What each of these rules basically means is: Keep it simple.

The first rule, 10/20/30, is a good rule to follow for your overall presentation. While it may not always be possible, the more succinct a presentation, the more successful it will be.

The last three rules are helpful ones to follow when you’re adding text to your slides. As you know, presentations are visual. Using too much text means your audience is reading more than watching.

Hopefully, these best practices will help you create a memorable and effective slideshow. For other ways to enhance your presentation, look at how to add audio to the slides or how to  include music in PowerPoint .

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The five new potential default font families are now available as a download for testing and have various themes. The list includes fonts with the unique names of Tenorite, Bierstadt, Skeena, Seaford, and Grandview. There's a separate artist behind each one, and the designs span different geometric, human, and industrial shapes, according to Microsoft.

Many of the apps from the Microsoft 365 suite now run natively on Apple's new M1-powered MacBooks. Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote are now all able to take full advantage of Apple's custom ARM-based silicon.

These new Microsoft 365 apps for Apple M1 Macs are all universal apps, which means that they will also run on traditional Macs with Intel processors. This also means that the Office apps on Apple's M1 Macs -- like the new MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini -- should all feel snappier and faster than when they were previously running under emulation with Rosetta 2.

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10 Tips For Giving Effective Virtual Presentations

What to know before you go live.

September 26, 2016

Presenting online? Try these suggestions to improve your results. | Illustration by Tricia Seibold

As audiences go global and you need to reach more people through technology (including webinars, conference calls and teleconference), you must consider the challenges to connecting with a virtual audience. Here I pinpoint 10 valuable best practices to ensure you communicate successfully.

1. Be Brief

Audiences begin to lose attention after roughly 10 minutes of hearing from the same presenter. If you have more than 10 minutes of content, use interactive activities to keep your audience engaged (for example, take a poll, give quizzes, or ask audience members for their opinions via chat).

2. Be Simple

Keep slides simple — avoid too many words, graphics and animation features. Less is definitely more!

Light yourself well | Illustration by Tricia Seibold

3. Be a TV Personality

Look straight into your camera, not the screen. Wear clothing that is neutral in color (no plaids or stripes). Light yourself well and from above. Be mindful of what appears behind you in the background. Invest in a good microphone.

4. Be Standing

Even though your audience cannot see you, stand when you present. This allows you to stay focused and use good presentation delivery skills such as belly breathing, vocal variety, and pausing.

5. Be Prepared

Practice delivering your presentation with your technology in advance of your talk. Make sure all of the features of the technology work. Record your practice using the recording feature of your tool. Watch and listen to learn what works and what you can improve.

6. Be Assisted

Have someone available to deal with technical issues and to field email/text questions. Also, if you have multiple remote audience members in one location, be sure to pick one of them to be your “eyes and ears.” Ask them to queue up questions and facilitate discussion on your behalf.

7. Be Specific

Ask pointed questions to avoid too many people answering at once. For example, rather than ask, “Are there any questions?” try “Who has a question about the solution I provided?” Set a ground rule that people state their names prior to speaking.

Imagine your audience | Illustration by Tricia Seibold

8. Be Synchronized

Transitions are critical. You must connect what you just said to what is coming next when you move from point to point. Transitions between topics and slides are good opportunities to get people reengaged to your talk.

9. Be Connected

Imagine your audience even though you can’t see them. You can place pictures of audience members behind your camera so you can look at people as you present.

10. Be Early

Encourage your audience to access your call or webinar in advance of the start time so you can iron out any technical issues in advance and get them familiar with the technology.

Matt Abrahams is a Stanford GSB organizational behavior lecturer, author, and communications coach.

For media inquiries, visit the Newsroom .

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More From Forbes

Best practices for virtual presentations: 15 expert tips that work for everyone.

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In today’s COVID-19 world, virtual meetings and presentations have become the norm. While many presentation skills and best practices apply to both in-person and virtual presentations, expert virtual presenters understand the importance of adjusting their approach to match the medium. With in-person presentations, you more or less have a captive audience — you still need be engaging, but your audience is kind of stuck with you for the duration. But with virtual presentations, your audience has a greater opportunity to stray. You now have to compete for their eyes, ears, hearts, and minds against diminished attention spans, increased home and work life distractions, and conflicting priorities. 

Here are 15 expert tips to set you up for success in your next virtual presentation:

1.     Get the Lighting Right:  As a presenter, it is essential that people can see you well. Make sure you have good front light—meaning the light shines brightly on your face. If your back is to a window, close the shades. While natural light is often the best choice, if your home office doesn’t have natural light and you do a lot of virtual presentations, consider purchasing supplemental lighting to enhance your image.

2.     Choose the Right Background:  Try to use a background that enhances your professional image and is aligned with your message. Avoid a cluttered background or anything that can be distracting. Learn whether your presentation platform enables you to use virtual backgrounds (like Zoom) or whether you can blur your background (like Microsoft Teams). Your background can either add to your professional presence or detract from it.

3.     Know the Technology:  Nothing kills a presentation faster than a presenter who fumbles with the technology. This is a performance, so make sure you know how to make it work. A dry run is essential so that you’re comfortable with the platform features. It’s best to have a co-host (or producer or moderator) assist you with the technology so that you can focus on your presentation. Make sure you practice with the same technical set up (computer and internet connection) that you will use when you deliver the presentation.

4.     Play to the Camera:  When you are the one speaking, look directly into your computer’s camera , not on the screen or at the other participants. This takes some practice, but it makes the viewer feel as if you are looking right at them. Some presenters turn off their self-view so that they aren’t distracted by their own image. Put the camera at eye level . Try not to have your camera too far above or below you. If it’s too low, then you run the risk of creating a double chin. A camera too high makes it difficult to maintain eye contact, as you may find your gaze dropping as you speak. If you are part of a panel or a team of presenters, make sure you are aware of when your camera is on. If you are not speaking but your camera is on, make sure you look like you are paying attention! Powerful presenters understand the importance of making eye contact with their audience, so this means you have to simulate the same effect virtually.

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5.     Get Close (But Not Too Close).  You want the camera to frame your face, neck, and shoulders. People are drawn to faces, so you don’t want to lose that connection by being too far away, but you also don’t want your face to take over the whole screen like a dismembered head because, well, that looks weird. Practice your positioning and distance.

6.     Stand Up:  If possible, use a standing desk or position your laptop so you can stand at eye level with your computer. Standing up provides a higher energy level and forces us to put our body in a more presentation-like mode. If you have to sit, lean forward as you would if you were presenting at a real meeting or as if you were a TV news anchor. Avoid slouching away from the camera, as that sends a signal that you are disconnected from the audience.

7.     Be Animated:  Just like in a live presentation, you want to present with a little energy and animation. Too slow or too monotone in your voice makes it easy for folks to disengage and tune out. Keeping people engaged virtually requires you to actually be engaging.

8.     Pace Yourself:  Without real-time visual audience feedback cues, getting the pacing right can be difficult. Even though you want to infuse some animation and energy into your presentation don’t pump up the speed too much. If you tend to be a fast talker in real life, practice slowing down just a bit. If you’re a slow talker, you may want to speed up just a bit.

9.     Do A Sound Check:  If your sound is garbled, people will tune out. While people may forgive less than perfect video, if they can’t clearly hear you, they will leave. Practice with someone on the other end of the presentation platform. Make sure your sound emits clearly. Sometimes headphones or external microphones work better than the computer audio, sometimes not. Every platform is different, so make sure your sound quality is excellent every time. And again, you should practice with the same technical configurations and location that you will use for your presentation.

10.  Plug into Your Modem:  If possible, plug your computer directly into your modem using an Ethernet cable. This will give you the strongest signal and most stable internet connection. The last thing you want to happen during your presentation is to have a weak or unstable internet signal.

11.  Incorporate Redundant Systems.  If using slides, make sure someone else (another webinar co-host or producer) also has a copy of the slides just in case your internet goes wonky and you have to present by calling in. If you are using slides, make them visually appealing. Use high-quality graphics and limit the amount of text on each slide. It’s your job as presenter to deliver the content. The slides are meant to enhance your spoken words, not replace them.

12.  Engage Your Participants. Just as if you were doing an in-person presentation, craft your presentation to engage the audience. Incorporate chats, polls, raised hand features, etc. Try not to speak for more than ten minutes without some sort of audience engagement. Use the participant list to interact with your participants by name. Have people chat or raise a hand if they want to speak. Keep track of the order of people and then call on them to invite them to turn on their mics or cameras. 

13.  Let Someone Else Check the Chats.  Don’t get sidetracked by the chats during your presentation. You’ll be shocked at how distracting it is to your train of thought if you attempt to read the chats while speaking. Instead, have your co-host or producer monitor the chats. If you ask people to chat you answers or comments to a question you’ve posed, then pause your talking and engage directly with the chats by acknowledging them, reading them out loud, and commenting on them. 

14.  Evaluate and Enhance:  If possible, record the session and take the time to play back and look for areas that worked well and areas that you might want to improve upon. Great presenters, whether virtual or in person, understand the value of continually honing their craft. Be sure to acknowledge your strengths as well as your areas of improvement.

15.  Be Yourself and Have Fun:  Again, just like in face-to-face presentations, audiences connect to authenticity, so be yourself! Let your personality show through. Have fun. If you look like you’re enjoying the presentation so will others. Research shows that happy people retain information better than bored or disinterested people, so model the energy that you want to create. The audience takes its cue from you.

Remember, whether you are presenting in-person or virtually, all presentations are performances. And all performances are in service to your audience. Their time is valuable, so honor that time by delivering the best presentation you can. No matter what kind of presentation you are giving, you must find ways to create authentic audience connection, engagement, and value.

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Presentation Tools, Tips and Techniques

• Best Practices
• Presentation Tools
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Best Practices Online Resources

Tips for presenters, slideshow presentation tips.

• Best Practices for Excellent Presentations in the Virtual World Document published by Mandel Communication
• 13 Best Practice Tips for Effective Presentation Handouts Your presentation handout is the lasting concrete manifestation of your presentation. It’s an important part of the total experience for the audience:
• 8 Key Points for Perfect Presentation Practice
• How to Give a Killer Presentation

Key pointers to help presenters

• Make eye contact early and often.
• Face the audience and connect with them.
• If you are in a large group and are taking questions, rephrase the question just asked because most others in the audience will likely not have heard the question.
• Demonstrate your own level of passion, interest in your venture through your physical engagement and tone of voice.

An effective presentation is a combination of presentation software and other forms of communication, writing and reporting to persuade, convince, inform and enlighten.

Some tips to keep in mind when designing:

• Keep it simple, elegant and professional. Limit the use of animation, transitions, and sound.
• Practice no more than 4 by 4 rule when possible, 4 bullets with 4 words.
• Edit ruthlessly. Have others proofread if possible.
• Use real images whenever possible, not clipart.
• Font size needs to be large enough to read, 18-24 pt is standard. Specialty fonts are hard to read.
• Colors - change for emphasis as needed, but be consistent with design
• Structure the presentation with an opening slide, outline of discussion, the subject material and a conclusion or summary.

Some tips when presenting:

• Do not read your slides; there should be a balance between you and the slide content, otherwise, you are not needed!
• Begin with a story to connect your audience, introduce yourself and the topic and make the subject matter relevant to them.
• Know your audience and respect them.
• Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse!

Respect Your Audience

• Respect your audience, how to make presentations that have impact View this slide share presentation on how to respect your audience and provide meaning, message, structure and form to your presentations. Schrover, B. (2011, October 27). Respect your audience, how to make presentations that have impact. [Slideshare]. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/BasSchrover/respect-your-audience-how-to-make-presentations

TED 10 commandments

The TED commandments can not only be applied to giving a TED talk, but to any public speaking presentation you may make. The commandments point out the importance of connecting to your audience with an engaging story, create a fun atmosphere and make sure to show your passion!

Handouts- Before or After?

There is much debate about distributing handouts for presentations before or after the presentation. There are pros and cons to both scenarios. Most researchers agree that print outs of your slides does not make the best handout, expecially if you are subscribing to the simpliar design with images and few words. It can be beneficial to have a way for attendees to take notes, so a simplified handout with blank space will not distract from your presentation. Save the detailed and multiple page handout for afterwards. 

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• Last Updated: Mar 11, 2024 5:27 PM
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