What are some important things to consider when making PowerPoint presentation?

Answer 1

Top 10 Important Things to Remember When Starting Your PowerPoint

Creating an effective PowerPoint presentation involves not just the content and design, but also making the best use of the features to streamline your workflow. Here are ten helpful tips that I use to help you get started on the right foot:

1. Set Up Your Page Sizes

Before you start adding content, decide on the page size and orientation for your presentation. To do this:

1. Go to the "Design" tab.
2. Click on "Slide Size" in the Customize group.
3. Choose "Standard (4:3)" or "Widescreen (16:9)" or select "Custom Slide Size" to input specific dimensions.
4. Choose between "Landscape" or "Portrait" orientation. Setting your page size at the beginning ensures your slides look consistent and professional throughout.

2. Create and Save Custom Templates

To save time on future presentations, create custom templates that include your preferred layouts, fonts, colors, and design elements:

1. Design your slide with the desired elements.
2. Go to "File" > "Save As."
3. Choose "PowerPoint Template (*.potx)" from the Save as type dropdown.
4. Name your template and save it in a location you can easily access. You can also pin frequently used templates to the "Recent Templates" section for quick access.

3. Use Slide Masters for Consistency

Slide Masters allow you to control the overall design of your slides, ensuring consistency:

1. Go to the "View" tab and select "Slide Master."
2. Customize the master slide with your desired design elements.
3. Edit the layouts under the master slide to include placeholders for text, images, and other content.
4. Close the Slide Master view to apply these changes to your entire presentation.

4. Leverage PowerPoint’s Design Ideas

PowerPoint’s Design Ideas feature can help you quickly create visually appealing slides:

1. Click on a slide.
2. Go to the "Design" tab.
3. Click "Design Ideas" in the Design group.
4. Choose from the suggested designs to enhance your slide’s appearance. This feature can be especially useful if you’re not a design expert or need inspiration.

5. Customize Quick Access Toolbar

Add frequently used commands to the Quick Access Toolbar for faster access:

1. Click the drop-down arrow at the end of the Quick Access Toolbar.
2. Select "More Commands."
3. Choose commands from the left pane and add them to the right pane.
4. Click "OK" to save your changes. This customization can save you time and improve your efficiency.

6. Pin Your Favorite Templates and Presentations

Pinning frequently used templates and presentations can save you time:

1. Go to "File" > "Open."
2. Hover over the template or presentation you want to pin.
3. Click the pin icon to move it to the top of the Recent list. This ensures your favorite files are always easily accessible.

7. Utilize Sections for Organization

Organize your presentation by grouping slides into sections:

1. Right-click between slides in the thumbnail pane.
2. Select "Add Section."
3. Name your section.
4. Repeat this process to create additional sections as needed. Sections help you manage and navigate large presentations more effectively.

8. Use Guides and Grids for Alignment

Ensure your content is properly aligned using guides and grids:

1. Go to the "View" tab.
2. Check the "Ruler," "Gridlines," and "Guides" options.
3. Use these tools to align text, images, and other elements precisely. Proper alignment makes your slides look more professional and visually appealing.

9. Embed Fonts for Consistency

To ensure your presentation looks the same on different devices, embed the fonts you use:

1. Go to "File" > "Options."
2. Select "Save" from the left pane.
3. Check "Embed fonts in the file."
4. Choose "Embed only the characters used in the presentation" for smaller file size or "Embed all characters" for full editing capability. Embedding fonts ensures your text appears as intended, even if the presentation is viewed on a computer without the fonts installed.

10. Utilize Presenter View

Presenter View helps you deliver your presentation more effectively:

1. Connect your computer to a projector or secondary monitor.
2. Start your slideshow.
3. Go to the "Slide Show" tab and select "Use Presenter View." Presenter View displays your notes, a timer, and a preview of upcoming slides on your computer screen, while the audience sees only the current slide. This feature helps you stay organized and keep track of your presentation.

Final Thoughts

By incorporating these tips into your PowerPoint creation process, you can streamline your workflow, enhance the visual appeal of your slides, and ensure a consistent and professional presentation. Mastering these features will not only save you time but also improve the overall quality of your presentations

Answer 2

You asked about PowerPoint presentations; the list of important things to consider for PowerPoint is an extension of the list for any presentation. Where to begin, there's so much … but let's cover the top items.

1) Get rid of all of the text on your slides (I'm exaggerating, but not much). When there's text on your slide, people can choose to read and not listen to you or listen to you and ignore the text. And you are more persuasive than text on your slides. And high on the list of most hated things in presentation are presenters who read slides to them; they can read it faster than you can talk.

2) Declutter your slides and your charts. What's the most important thing on each slide. Make sure that's what their attention is attracted to first.

3) Decide what are the one or two things you especially want them to remember from your presentation. I like to take polls a couple of days after a town hall. Hardly anyone remembers any specifics from most town halls. Emphasize that key point. Repeat it. Tell people that if they only remember one item, this is it. I coached an executive giving a Town Hall who wanted his department to remember that his project would be cost-effective even at $50/barrel oil returns. I had a slide that showed a $50 bill (and the photo filled the slide). A quarter later, everyone in his organization was still talking about and remembered that key point. Making it strikingly visual gave it emphasis and memorability.

4) Talk to your audience as you would one-on-one. Look at individuals as you talk. Don't look at your slides.

5) At the end, be clear about what you expect them to do next. Use complementary photos to emphasize & make the point memorable.

6) There are several effective ways to start the presentation, but they have to answer the question "why should I care" for the audience to keep their attention. Choose photos on your slides that complement what you're saying.

7) The big takeaway is not to be scared to use too many slides. I've given very successful, engaging, hour-long presentations with 3 slides. I've also given very successful, engaging, half-hour presentations with 50 slides. My presentations don't drag! And one unexpected advantage I've learned that comes from having lots of slides is that when you're presenting virtually, the audience doesn't tune out and start looking at email. If they go to read a message, they'll miss a bunch of slides. But my slides aren't busy and overwhelming, so I can get away with lots of slides, and it doesn't burn out the audience.

How's that for a start?

Answer 3

REMEMBER that PowerPoint just like any educational document should always have an:

1. INTRODUCTION - start with a splash. This can be an impactful structured graphic as found in SMART ART, a dramatic well created photo, an appropriate audio/video as an attention getter. Introductions can run from 1-3 slides.
2. BODY - develop your story well using all the supportive benefits of PowerPoint such as pictures, photos, audio, video, shapes, SMART ART, icons, screenshots, and charts and graphs. But REMEMBER the adage "less is more". You can all too quickly overwhelm your viewers with too much embellishment. And always remember that your PowerPoint presentation, at best, should be supportive to your story; you should never read line by line from your screen presentation - this would communicate to your audience that your message is not coming from within you. Why read to your audience when they could do that on their own.
3. CLOSING/CONCLUSION - after conveying your message in the BODY of your PowerPoint it's best to summarize/reinstate your postulates from the BODY. For example you might say "Dogs are great companions because they love us unconditionally." or "Bike riding is not only fun but it affords us exercise and transportation." Too often I have seen PowerPoint presentations fall right off a cliff as soon as the speaker finishes with the BODY.

If you stop and think of it a PowerPoint presentation pretty much mimics our everyday conversations. Listen to your conversation the next time you run into a friend.

In the end, always remember that YOU and YOUR KNOWLEDGE about your subject is more important than the mere structural building blocks of a presentation. A well-constructed PowerPoint, created by YOU, is supportive at best when communicating your message. BUT with this in mind you should be able to create, build, and deliver, a spectacular PowerPoint presentation.