What You Need to Know About Making Presentation Slides

The moment the presenter grabs the remote and turns toward the screen, audience members immediately assume they are in for another boring slideshow presentation. The fact is, however, that it is possible to create stellar presentation slides. You just need to know how. You can’t engage audiences and convey a compelling message if your slides are cluttered, text-heavy, and boring. Consider the following tips for creating presentation slides that are aesthetically pleasing, engaging, and informative. 

#1: Structure Your Slides

First and foremost, you need to jot down a script of what you are planning to say. Rather than creating slides without any rhyme or reason, you need to prepare a detailed plan of the information you plan to present. Then, you need to create an outline of your presentation so your slides will be structured in a linear pattern, with a beginning, middle, and end. There should be no more than 10 slides total. 

#2: Keep it Simple

Less is more when it comes to creating powerful presentation slides. Too much text becomes confusing and will detract from what you are saying. The audience will be so busy reading the slides that they won’t hear anything you say. Limit your slides to no more than six words. Break down your points into smaller chunks and only display the most important words. This way, your audience will be focused on you rather than your text heavy slides. 

#3: Choose a Large Font

Choose a font size that can easily be seen from the back of the room and stay consistent with the font and size throughout the slideshow. Keeping the text uniform makes for a more cohesive presentation.

#4: Don’t Overdo it with Designs and Effects

PowerPoint and other presentation software offers all kinds of ways to jazz up your slides with fancy effects like fades, swipes, or flashing text. Avoid the temptation to dress up your slides with these over the top effects as they tend to take away from the content. They are distracting to audiences and make it difficult to read what’s on the slides. Keep your design simple and stick to basic text rather than decorative fonts and flashy backgrounds. 

#5: Use Visuals Sparingly

Images can be a great way to engage audiences and help them understand the information. Things like graphs and charts can be useful in displaying information regarding numbers and statistics. Visuals such as photographs and video clips can also enhance your slideshow, but these should be used sparingly. Only use visuals if they are relevant to your message and never use clip-art or other cheesy animations as this can take away from your presentation. 

#6: Slides are Meant to Support You

One of the biggest mistakes presenters make is relying solely on their slides. Remember that the slides are only there to support the presenter. The slides should not be the main source of information. You are the focus of the presentation so your slides should be simple and act solely as a guide.