create powerpoint presentations like a pro

create powerpoint presentations like a pro

Mastering the Art of Creating Professional PowerPoint Presentations

1. Introduction to Effective Presentation Design

Creating professional presentations is key for everyone in today’s work environment. A great presentation comes from understanding your audience, carefully selecting what you will talk about, and then clearly and convincingly sharing your messages. Your visual presentation can bring your stories to life and influence thoughts, feelings, and actions. It is critical that the visual elements of your presentation compliment and extend the spoken word. A presentation is an opportunity to make a great first impression, share your expertise, persuade people, provide inspiration or education, and position you as an expert in a field. Help people remember you and your company/brand with audience-friendly slides. There are many books and articles on good public speaking and presentation, but developing effective visual material is a process, and it requires artistic and technical skills.

PowerPoint is a visual aid; an option that is there to help communicate in a more clear, engaging, and memorable way. The cornerstone of successful visual aids is to operate via ‘the principle of dissimilarity’ in order to take advantage of the cognitive benefits of ‘dual coding.’ PowerPoint design is an important part of how the audience perceives things. So, if you want your audience to view you as intelligent and your idea as intelligent, then you’ve got to connect the visuals with the points and then connect the points with the slide design. A successful presentation and good public speaking have to go together due to the fact that a large portion of successful public speaking is being prepared. When your slides are designed using correct formats, that tells the audience that you were ready. When your slides are designed as well thought out reorganizing of complex data – then it is about your intelligence. Logic. Your ideas are powerful. This is a must.

2. Utilizing Visual Hierarchy and Consistency

The visual design in a PowerPoint presentation can determine how your content is understood and perceived. Effective PowerPoint visual design arranges slide elements in a visual hierarchy for an audience to process and distinguish the importance of its contents. A visual hierarchy orders the contents from the most important to the least important, and the presenter guides the audience through the message. To create visual hierarchy in your PowerPoint presentations, use contrast, alignment, repetition, and proximity. These principles are taught in most graphic design curriculums and are used to create anything from PowerPoint presentations to websites. On a slide, they work together to craft your visual message. When planning a slide, think about what the audience should be looking at and in what order. That should be the focus of your design.

Creating a tailored PowerPoint template for visual hierarchy involves a singular appearance for slide level; title; multi-level title and content; blank slide. Doing so allows for a concrete flow of information in and across slides. The retention of distinct visual layers and alignment guarantees a one-look assessment on each controller level. Consistency in design contributes greatly to the professional appearance PowerPoint presentations require. Design consistency encompasses font typefaces, font size, font colors, image style, image alignment, image size, and the unified formatting of objects. Uniform font type, size, and color, for example, create a polished look. Font irregularities distract the audience from the data in a presentation. Design inconsistency translates to a lack of attention to detail in PowerPoint presentations. Consistent design appears more polished and erudite. It demonstrates dedication to creating a presentable final product.

3. Incorporating Engaging Multimedia and Interactive Elements

Even though you may have planned out all of your presentation’s information in a well-structured outline, it is still equally important to focus on incorporating media and interactive elements that can further engage the audience and help to communicate the information. Engaging multimedia, such as images or video clips, provide a momentary break in the visual flow that allows viewers to momentarily rest and digest, so they are able and willing to return to the written and spoken components of your PowerPoint. Multimedia can also illustrate and supplement points made in your slides. Interactive elements, regardless of whether they were created with built-in PowerPoint functions, such as slide transitions, or with coding software, such as Flash or JavaScript, maintain the attention of the audience. An occasional question, a poll, or inviting a member of the audience to give an opinion or an answer of a question within the presentation can provide an element of surprise, making the audience into active participants rather than passive receivers.

Keep in mind that incorporating these elements must be done strategically, not randomly as an afterthought. Images presented with an overall design that has coherence, balance and repose grab the attention and encourage the audience to forget distractions and concentrate on the main message of the slide. Videos and animations, when used effectively, can capture the audience’s attention and help communicate material that’s complex or hard to explain with mere words or still images. Important: make sure that you have permission to use whatever multimedia in your PowerPoint slides if it’s necessary to use copyrighted materials, including music, sound effects, and video clips. Always credit the source of the material if it is created by someone else.

4. Tips for Effective Delivery and Public Speaking Skills

Public speaking is a common fear that can prevent you from giving a good presentation, so a good tip would be to set yourself small challenges to help you grow your comfort and confidence in speaking to larger groups. With each success, your confidence will grow, building up from speaking in front of family to small interest clubs or social groups, to larger audiences. The following tips will help you deliver a professional and effective oral presentation filled with impact:

Audience awareness and expert knowledge: Before you begin drafting your presentation, think about your target audience. Once you gain clarity around who you are presenting to, you can select the right approach that will be effective, using layman terms where necessary.

Relaxation and confidence: Nerves are very common in public speaking and many experts continue to experience them even today. To best manage these nerves, ensure you practice your presentation, speaking slowly and clearly so that information is understood. Professional speakers often repeat their presentations to themselves or into a recording device, working on their mechanics of delivery which helps perfect their line of argument.

Forgiving your listener: If you happen to forget what you are about to say, don’t fret. Give yourself permission to make a mistake by practicing building rapport with your listeners. When you show the panache to be inclusive and use humor, people become much more forgiving. If you are prepared to make a mistake, people will be able to engage with you better as a public speaker.

Voice: Your presentation should be spoken at a pace which allows your listeners to understand you. Speak in your natural tone and don’t rush. Practice moderation by taking time to pause for effect or clarification. You should always speak with a strong, clear, and persuasive voice. While you may want to write out your complete speech, aim to not read from it as it will give little natural inflection in voice. Monitor the volume of your voice, it needs to be loud enough to be heard by all members of the audience. Maintain strong eye contact so you can spot the reactions of the individuals you address.

Lastly, ensure that your body language is reflective of your speech. A speaker should aim to dress from ‘inside out.’ When you are comfortable on the inside, it will show through in your physical presentation. Try to avoid fidgeting as it can show a lack of comfort or low integrity. When you stand up to speak, keep your hands away from your body. Gesticulate freely, as “open” gestures demonstrate open minds and are more engaging for your audience.

5. Conclusion and Final Touches

The end product you are aiming for is a polished slideshow that offers the necessary information through high quality and carefully curated visuals. Before you move on with any final touches on your slides, look back at the presentation and see how cohesive all slides are as a whole. They need to flow well and allow for your main points to be made clear to your audience. If you need some final adjustments, this is the time to make them.

Make sure to conclude your presentation powerfully and memorably, leaving an impact on your audience. A powerful conclusion offers a recap of the main ideas as well as the major takeaways and call to action. The best way to signal that your presentation is finished is to make use of a slide with a conclusive statement or sentiment. As an introduction to your conclusion, it’s a great idea to revisit the opening slide or content. A well-edited version of the introduction is also very effective in terms of bringing the presentation full circle. Next, introduce the conclusion of your presentation. This section should contain a wrap-up of your presentation where you quickly recap your main points. Following that, conclude with a powerful finish. A great way to conclude is to use a call to action. Offering your audience a call to action will give you the response you were planning and provide a connection and action step for your audience. Finally, close yourself. End off the presentation with a thank you slide containing your contact details. Showing your attitude and positivity on the final slide that displays your contact information will guarantee your professional approach towards potential business partners. Always attempt to end strongly and with confidence.