7 Beginner Tips for Using PowerPoint

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Did you know that at least 35 million PowerPoint presentations are given daily by approximately 500 million worldwide users?

This presentation tool is commonly used in schools, corporate meetings, training sessions, workshops, and more. PowerPoint has several features that can help create a high-quality presentation. 

Though you can use PowerPoint to present any message, using PowerPoint can be challenging. So, how can you make your PowerPoint presentation captivating?

Here are some tips to help you have high-quality and engaging PowerPoint presentations. 

1. Know Your Audience

The first step in creating a good PowerPoint presentation is knowing your audience. Not all templates, tools, or PowerPoint designs are appropriate for every audience. To make an effective presentation, understand what your audience wants to see or what they can respond to better. 

The way you design your presentation will determine how much your audience retains. Since you aim to keep your audience engaged and receptive, ensure the presentation is rich and captivating. 

For example, if you are creating a data-driven or report-based presentation, you need to include several charts. However, since charts can be tedious, choose a beautiful chart with a unique appearance. 

Edit the colors, axis, values, and legend to suit your company or brand. Import your excel sheet to the software’s editor, where you can quickly turn it into visual data. Add widgets, tables, diagrams, and more to ensure it is captivating but professional. 

2. Choose a Presentation Template

PowerPoint has several modern features and templates. These templates are colorful and data-driven. Software services providers have several quality PowerPoint templates you can choose from and edit or customize to suit your presentations. 

You can also design a template and use it on all your future PowerPoint slides. Note that the kind of template you choose determines your presentation’s outcome. 

Once you pick a template, you can edit the color scheme, stickers, images, clipart, slide transitions, or any other design aspect. To make the presentation smoother and more manageable, pick a template matching your presentation. 

3. Use a Captivating Presentation Tool

Using the right slideshow tool is one of the best tips for creating a good PowerPoint presentation. The best tool should be able to help you make an exciting and professional-looking presentation quickly and efficiently, even as a beginner. 

The slideshow presentation maker from PowerPoint in Microsoft office or other sources such as Open Office should allow you to create your presentation and also import an existing presentation that you want to edit or improve on. After editing, the tool should allow you to export and use the presentation offline. 

Choose a tool that can do so much more than creating the presentation. Apart from the tools and templates, work with software with access to various advanced editing tools. This will ensure your presentation is unique and creative.

Use the tool and editing features to tap into free libraries or illustrations, icons, videos, photos, and more. Depending on your presentation, add animated texts and objects and change the color schemes to make the presentation more captivating. 

4. Add Eye-Caching Texts and Headings

Your presentation is more than just images, charts, videos, or graphics. It is crucial to ensure that the slideshow is also readable. To do this, use clear and engaging fonts that match your theme and topic. 

Some templates allow you to customize the color, size, style, and font of your headings and text. Do not forget to adjust the borders. Also, customize and animate the texts to make the slides more engaging. 

Remember, your headings and texts are a crucial part of the presentation. As you add content to the text boxes, use different styling features such as rotations, word art, and shape outlines.

However, be careful not to overdo it. Ensure the formatting style goes well with the rest of your content. 

5. Add Visuals and Animations When Using PowerPoint

It is impossible to have an engaging PowerPoint presentation without high-quality clipart, stickers, videos, and images. You can quickly lose your audience’s attention if your presentation lacks animations and visuals. 

The latest PowerPoint from Microsoft applications has several additional features. It allows users to upload and use preferred multimedia such as images, photos, audio, or video clips. You can use free stock images or videos if you do not have your photos. 

Use animations and visuals that suit your audience or message. To give your images a more modern and geometric look, add frames and shapes to them. 

6. Use a Minimalistic Approach

Though PowerPoint presentations look better with animations, images, visuals, and other graphics, try not to overcrowd your slides. Your presentation is your visual aid. Though it should present your message captivatingly, it should follow your lead. 

When creating your presentation, it may be best to use a basic or standard layout. Instead of adding several lines of texts, have enough spacing between texts and use visuals or animations. 

To keep your design sleek:

• Do not use several different typefaces per slide
• Focus on the essential points and verbally explain the charts, tables, or images
• Drive your point home with a large heading and a few points underneath

Using a negative space or a minimalistic approach in your presentation is also visually appealing. 

7. Work On the Background

Never ignore your presentation’s background. This is one of the most critical aspects of your presentation, especially if you want to add a personal touch to it. While creating your presentation, explore your options under the design tab. 

Instead of just using the inbuilt background styles, try to import an image as the background. This can be the brand or company logo. Set and custom the gradient fill and transparency to ensure your texts and images remain visible.

Level Up Your Presentation with PowerPoint

PowerPoint can help you take your presentation to the next level. To ensure you have a powerful presentation when using PowerPoint, explore different design tools from software services providers and create a high-quality and engaging slideshow.

If you want to learn more tips on creating modern PowerPoint designs, contact us to get expert help.