Tips for Making a Good PowerPoint Presentation

It has become mandatory for employees to give presentations regarding a project that they have taken up or completed. Even students in schools as well as colleges are expected to give presentations on a particular subject. Presentations are where you have to stand before an audience and talk about the topic you have chosen.

Nowadays, along with the verbal discussion, it has become a trend to include a visual presentation to enhance the effect of the presentation. Visual presentations are done with the help of PowerPoint, an application which is part of the Microsoft Office package.

PowerPoint presentations help in supporting what you are going to deliver in your presentation. It has been found that visual images have a stronger impact on the minds of human beings. It is a good way of making your audience understand certain complicated concepts.

For instance, if it is a business or class presentation, it would be good to keep the visual presentation simple; however, if you are using PowerPoint to teach school children some important topic, it would be beneficial to make it interesting by using different colors and techniques.

• Once you are ready with the written material for your presentation, i.e., what you are going to say in front of your audience, write down the key points on a different paper or in a word file on your computer. The first slide would be where you write the main topic of your presentation followed by a subtitle or caption.

On the right side of the slides, you would find the task pane, where you would find different options regarding layouts, animation, table design, etc.

• The first thing you have to select is the layout of your presentation. After you finish with your first slide, you have to go to the menu bar, click 'slide' by going to the 'insert' button in the menu bar, and you would get a new slide.

The layout that you use for the first slide, need not be the same for every slide, i.e., you can use a different layout for every slide according to your requirements.

• Type all the data that you have prepared for your presentation. It is very important to use bullets to explain each point. Also, remember that you should never use long sentences in your presentation. Make short sentences using important keywords.

• In the task pane, you can also find patterns that you can use in the background of your presentation. Whatever presentation you give, it would be better to choose a simple background which remains consistent throughout the presentation.

Other than the background options that are already available, you can also use a picture saved anywhere on the computer as the background of your slides. Just right click and choose the option 'set background picture for slide'.

• Choose a font type and size that the audience would be able to see even from a distance. Though you can use different colors, not more than 2 colors should be used for the whole presentation.

Use colors that stand in contrast with the background color. Use one color to write the main presentation and the other color to highlight the most important points in the presentation.

• You can even include pictures either from clip art or from your personal or company folder in the slides. But one thing that should be kept in mind is that the picture that you use should be relevant to the data in the slide.

The thing that comes next is the animation. You can opt for a different type of special effect for each slide, and also adjust the speed and time as per your requirements.

Though you have made the best PowerPoint presentation, there are certain things that you have to remember while giving a presentation. Once you are done with the presentation, check for spellings, grammatical, and formatting errors. While practicing for your presentation, do it along with your visual presentation.

Remember not to give the presentation looking at the slides. The presentation is for the audience, and not for your reference, so do not read directly from the screen. Knowing your visual presentation thoroughly, i.e., which slide comes after what, would help you in giving the presentation with confidence.

It is important to keep in mind that though PowerPoint is a useful tool, it should not outweigh the actual presentation. It should not be too distracting, otherwise the audience would lose interest on what you are saying and focus just on the visual presentation.

Make sure that your presentation is short and simple, but conveys all the important things that you want to put across. Keep these points in mind and come up with a visual presentation that would aid your presentation in a positive way.