how to create the perfect presentation

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Blog Beginner Guides How To Make a Good Presentation [A Complete Guide]

How To Make a Good Presentation [A Complete Guide]

Written by: Krystle Wong Jul 20, 2023

A top-notch presentation possesses the power to drive action. From winning stakeholders over and conveying a powerful message to securing funding — your secret weapon lies within the realm of creating an effective presentation .  

Being an excellent presenter isn’t confined to the boardroom. Whether you’re delivering a presentation at work, pursuing an academic career, involved in a non-profit organization or even a student, nailing the presentation game is a game-changer.

In this article, I’ll cover the top qualities of compelling presentations and walk you through a step-by-step guide on how to give a good presentation. Here’s a little tip to kick things off: for a headstart, check out Venngage’s collection of free presentation templates . They are fully customizable, and the best part is you don’t need professional design skills to make them shine!

These valuable presentation tips cater to individuals from diverse professional backgrounds, encompassing business professionals, sales and marketing teams, educators, trainers, students, researchers, non-profit organizations, public speakers and presenters. 

No matter your field or role, these tips for presenting will equip you with the skills to deliver effective presentations that leave a lasting impression on any audience.

Click to jump ahead:

What are the 10 qualities of a good presentation?

Step-by-step guide on how to prepare an effective presentation, 9 effective techniques to deliver a memorable presentation, faqs on making a good presentation, how to create a presentation with venngage in 5 steps.

When it comes to giving an engaging presentation that leaves a lasting impression, it’s not just about the content — it’s also about how you deliver it. Wondering what makes a good presentation? Well, the best presentations I’ve seen consistently exhibit these 10 qualities:

1. Clear structure

No one likes to get lost in a maze of information. Organize your thoughts into a logical flow, complete with an introduction, main points and a solid conclusion. A structured presentation helps your audience follow along effortlessly, leaving them with a sense of satisfaction at the end.

Regardless of your presentation style , a quality presentation starts with a clear roadmap. Browse through Venngage’s template library and select a presentation template that aligns with your content and presentation goals. Here’s a good presentation example template with a logical layout that includes sections for the introduction, main points, supporting information and a conclusion: 

2. Engaging opening

Hook your audience right from the start with an attention-grabbing statement, a fascinating question or maybe even a captivating anecdote. Set the stage for a killer presentation!

The opening moments of your presentation hold immense power – check out these 15 ways to start a presentation to set the stage and captivate your audience.

3. Relevant content

Make sure your content aligns with their interests and needs. Your audience is there for a reason, and that’s to get valuable insights. Avoid fluff and get straight to the point, your audience will be genuinely excited.

4. Effective visual aids

Picture this: a slide with walls of text and tiny charts, yawn! Visual aids should be just that—aiding your presentation. Opt for clear and visually appealing slides, engaging images and informative charts that add value and help reinforce your message.

With Venngage, visualizing data takes no effort at all. You can import data from CSV or Google Sheets seamlessly and create stunning charts, graphs and icon stories effortlessly to showcase your data in a captivating and impactful way.

5. Clear and concise communication

Keep your language simple, and avoid jargon or complicated terms. Communicate your ideas clearly, so your audience can easily grasp and retain the information being conveyed. This can prevent confusion and enhance the overall effectiveness of the message. 

6. Engaging delivery

Spice up your presentation with a sprinkle of enthusiasm! Maintain eye contact, use expressive gestures and vary your tone of voice to keep your audience glued to the edge of their seats. A touch of charisma goes a long way!

7. Interaction and audience engagement

Turn your presentation into an interactive experience — encourage questions, foster discussions and maybe even throw in a fun activity. Engaged audiences are more likely to remember and embrace your message.

Transform your slides into an interactive presentation with Venngage’s dynamic features like pop-ups, clickable icons and animated elements. Engage your audience with interactive content that lets them explore and interact with your presentation for a truly immersive experience.

8. Effective storytelling

Who doesn’t love a good story? Weaving relevant anecdotes, case studies or even a personal story into your presentation can captivate your audience and create a lasting impact. Stories build connections and make your message memorable.

A great presentation background is also essential as it sets the tone, creates visual interest and reinforces your message. Enhance the overall aesthetics of your presentation with these 15 presentation background examples and captivate your audience’s attention.

9. Well-timed pacing

Pace your presentation thoughtfully with well-designed presentation slides, neither rushing through nor dragging it out. Respect your audience’s time and ensure you cover all the essential points without losing their interest.

10. Strong conclusion

Last impressions linger! Summarize your main points and leave your audience with a clear takeaway. End your presentation with a bang , a call to action or an inspiring thought that resonates long after the conclusion.

In-person presentations aside, acing a virtual presentation is of paramount importance in today’s digital world. Check out this guide to learn how you can adapt your in-person presentations into virtual presentations . 

Preparing an effective presentation starts with laying a strong foundation that goes beyond just creating slides and notes. One of the quickest and best ways to make a presentation would be with the help of a good presentation software . 

Otherwise, let me walk you to how to prepare for a presentation step by step and unlock the secrets of crafting a professional presentation that sets you apart.

1. Understand the audience and their needs

Before you dive into preparing your masterpiece, take a moment to get to know your target audience. Tailor your presentation to meet their needs and expectations , and you’ll have them hooked from the start!

2. Conduct thorough research on the topic

Time to hit the books (or the internet)! Don’t skimp on the research with your presentation materials — dive deep into the subject matter and gather valuable insights . The more you know, the more confident you’ll feel in delivering your presentation.

3. Organize the content with a clear structure

No one wants to stumble through a chaotic mess of information. Outline your presentation with a clear and logical flow. Start with a captivating introduction, follow up with main points that build on each other and wrap it up with a powerful conclusion that leaves a lasting impression.

Delivering an effective business presentation hinges on captivating your audience, and Venngage’s professionally designed business presentation templates are tailor-made for this purpose. With thoughtfully structured layouts, these templates enhance your message’s clarity and coherence, ensuring a memorable and engaging experience for your audience members.

Don’t want to build your presentation layout from scratch? pick from these 5 foolproof presentation layout ideas that won’t go wrong. 

4. Develop visually appealing and supportive visual aids

Spice up your presentation with eye-catching visuals! Create slides that complement your message, not overshadow it. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words, but that doesn’t mean you need to overload your slides with text.

Well-chosen designs create a cohesive and professional look, capturing your audience’s attention and enhancing the overall effectiveness of your message. Here’s a list of carefully curated PowerPoint presentation templates and great background graphics that will significantly influence the visual appeal and engagement of your presentation.

5. Practice, practice and practice

Practice makes perfect — rehearse your presentation and arrive early to your presentation to help overcome stage fright. Familiarity with your material will boost your presentation skills and help you handle curveballs with ease.

6. Seek feedback and make necessary adjustments

Don’t be afraid to ask for help and seek feedback from friends and colleagues. Constructive criticism can help you identify blind spots and fine-tune your presentation to perfection.

With Venngage’s real-time collaboration feature , receiving feedback and editing your presentation is a seamless process. Group members can access and work on the presentation simultaneously and edit content side by side in real-time. Changes will be reflected immediately to the entire team, promoting seamless teamwork.

7. Prepare for potential technical or logistical issues

Prepare for the unexpected by checking your equipment, internet connection and any other potential hiccups. If you’re worried that you’ll miss out on any important points, you could always have note cards prepared. Remember to remain focused and rehearse potential answers to anticipated questions.

8. Fine-tune and polish your presentation

As the big day approaches, give your presentation one last shine. Review your talking points, practice how to present a presentation and make any final tweaks. Deep breaths — you’re on the brink of delivering a successful presentation!

In competitive environments, persuasive presentations set individuals and organizations apart. To brush up on your presentation skills, read these guides on how to make a persuasive presentation and tips to presenting effectively . 

Whether you’re an experienced presenter or a novice, the right techniques will let your presentation skills soar to new heights!

From public speaking hacks to interactive elements and storytelling prowess, these 9 effective presentation techniques will empower you to leave a lasting impression on your audience and make your presentations unforgettable.

1. Confidence and positive body language

Positive body language instantly captivates your audience, making them believe in your message as much as you do. Strengthen your stage presence and own that stage like it’s your second home! Stand tall, shoulders back and exude confidence. 

2. Eye contact with the audience

Break down that invisible barrier and connect with your audience through their eyes. Maintaining eye contact when giving a presentation builds trust and shows that you’re present and engaged with them.

3. Effective use of hand gestures and movement

A little movement goes a long way! Emphasize key points with purposeful gestures and don’t be afraid to walk around the stage. Your energy will be contagious!

4. Utilize storytelling techniques

Weave the magic of storytelling into your presentation. Share relatable anecdotes, inspiring success stories or even personal experiences that tug at the heartstrings of your audience. Adjust your pitch, pace and volume to match the emotions and intensity of the story. Varying your speaking voice adds depth and enhances your stage presence.

5. Incorporate multimedia elements

Spice up your presentation with a dash of visual pizzazz! Use slides, images and video clips to add depth and clarity to your message. Just remember, less is more—don’t overwhelm them with information overload. 

Turn your presentations into an interactive party! Involve your audience with questions, polls or group activities. When they actively participate, they become invested in your presentation’s success. Bring your design to life with animated elements. Venngage allows you to apply animations to icons, images and text to create dynamic and engaging visual content.

6. Utilize humor strategically

Laughter is the best medicine—and a fantastic presentation enhancer! A well-placed joke or lighthearted moment can break the ice and create a warm atmosphere , making your audience more receptive to your message.

7. Practice active listening and respond to feedback

Be attentive to your audience’s reactions and feedback. If they have questions or concerns, address them with genuine interest and respect. Your responsiveness builds rapport and shows that you genuinely care about their experience.

8. Apply the 10-20-30 rule

Apply the 10-20-30 presentation rule and keep it short, sweet and impactful! Stick to ten slides, deliver your presentation within 20 minutes and use a 30-point font to ensure clarity and focus. Less is more, and your audience will thank you for it!

9. Implement the 5-5-5 rule

Simplicity is key. Limit each slide to five bullet points, with only five words per bullet point and allow each slide to remain visible for about five seconds. This rule keeps your presentation concise and prevents information overload.

Simple presentations are more engaging because they are easier to follow. Summarize your presentations and keep them simple with Venngage’s gallery of simple presentation templates and ensure that your message is delivered effectively across your audience.

1. How to start a presentation?

To kick off your presentation effectively, begin with an attention-grabbing statement or a powerful quote. Introduce yourself, establish credibility and clearly state the purpose and relevance of your presentation.

2. How to end a presentation?

For a strong conclusion, summarize your talking points and key takeaways. End with a compelling call to action or a thought-provoking question and remember to thank your audience and invite any final questions or interactions.

3. How to make a presentation interactive?

To make your presentation interactive, encourage questions and discussion throughout your talk. Utilize multimedia elements like videos or images and consider including polls, quizzes or group activities to actively involve your audience.

In need of inspiration for your next presentation? I’ve got your back! Pick from these 120+ presentation ideas, topics and examples to get started. 

Creating a stunning presentation with Venngage is a breeze with our user-friendly drag-and-drop editor and professionally designed templates for all your communication needs. 

Here’s how to make a presentation in just 5 simple steps with the help of Venngage:

Step 1: Sign up for Venngage for free using your email, Gmail or Facebook account or simply log in to access your account. 

Step 2: Pick a design from our selection of free presentation templates (they’re all created by our expert in-house designers).

Step 3: Make the template your own by customizing it to fit your content and branding. With Venngage’s intuitive drag-and-drop editor, you can easily modify text, change colors and adjust the layout to create a unique and eye-catching design.

Step 4: Elevate your presentation by incorporating captivating visuals. You can upload your images or choose from Venngage’s vast library of high-quality photos, icons and illustrations. 

Step 5: Upgrade to a premium or business account to export your presentation in PDF and print it for in-person presentations or share it digitally for free!

By following these five simple steps, you’ll have a professionally designed and visually engaging presentation ready in no time. With Venngage’s user-friendly platform, your presentation is sure to make a lasting impression. So, let your creativity flow and get ready to shine in your next presentation!

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How to make a great presentation

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How to give a good presentation that captivates any audience

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What are the main difficulties when giving presentations?

How to create an effective presentation, after that, how do i give a memorable presentation, how to connect with the audience when presenting.

If you’ve ever heard someone give a powerful presentation, you probably remember how it made you feel. Much like a composer, a good speaker knows precisely when each note should strike to captivate their audience’s attention and leave them with a lasting impression.

No one becomes a great public speaker or presenter without practice. And almost everyone can recall a time one of their presentations went badly — that’s a painful part of the learning process.

Whether you’re working within a small creative team or a large organization, public speaking and presentation skills are vital to communicating your ideas. Knowing how to present your vision can help you pitch concepts to clients, present ideas to your team, and develop the confidence to participate in team meetings.

If you have an upcoming presentation on the horizon and feel nervous, that’s normal. Around 15-30% of the general population experience a fear of public speaking . And, unfortunately, social anxiety is on the rise, with a 12% increase in adults over the last 20 years . 

Learning how to give a good presentation can dismantle your fears and break down these barriers, ensuring you’re ready to confidently share your point of view. 

It’s the week before your presentation, and you’re already feeling nervous . Maybe there’ll be an important mentor in the room you need to impress, or you’re looking for an opportunity to show your boss your value. Regardless of your countless past presentations, you still feel nervous. 

Sharing your vision and ideas with any sized group is intimidating. You’re likely worrying about how you’ll perform as a presenter and whether the audience will be interested in what you offer. But nerves aren’t inherently negative — you can actually use this feeling to fuel your preparation.

It’s helpful to identify where your worries are coming from and address your fears. Here are some common concerns when preparing for an upcoming presentation:

Fear of public speaking: When you share your ideas in front of a group, you’re placing yourself in a vulnerable position to be critiqued on your knowledge and communication skills . Maybe you feel confident in your content, but when you think about standing in front of an audience, you feel anxious and your mind goes blank.

It’s also not uncommon to have physical symptoms when presenting . Some people experience nausea and dizziness as the brain releases adrenaline to cope with the potentially stressful situation . Remember to take deep breaths to recenter yourself and be patient, even if you make a mistake.

Losing the audience’s attention: As a presenter, your main focus is to keep your audience engaged. They should feel like they’re learning valuable information or following a story that will improve them in life or business.

Highlight the most exciting pieces of knowledge and ensure you emphasize those points in your presentation. If you feel passionate about your content, it’s more likely that your audience will experience this excitement for themselves and become invested in what you have to say.

Not knowing what content to place on presentation slides: Overloading presentation slides is a fast way to lose your audience’s attention. Your slides should contain only the main talking points and limited text to ensure your audience focuses on what you have to say rather than becoming distracted by the content on your slides.

Discomfort incorporating nonverbal communication: It’s natural to feel stiff and frozen when you’re nervous. But maintaining effective body language helps your audience stay focused on you as you speak and encourages you to relax.

If you struggle to incorporate body language into your presentations, try starting small by making hand gestures toward your slides. If you’re working with a large audience, use different parts of the stage to ensure everyone feels included. 

Each presenter has their own personal brand and style. Some may use humor to break the ice, while others might appeal to the audience’s emotional side through inspiring storytelling. 

Watching online presentations, such as TED talks, is an excellent way to expose yourself to various presentation styles and develop your own. While observing others, you can note how they carry themselves on stage and learn new ways to keep your audience engaged.

Once you’ve addressed what’s causing your fears, it’s time to prepare for a great presentation. Use your past experience as inspiration and aim to outshine your former self by learning from your mistakes and employing new techniques. Here are five presentation tips to help you create a strong presentation and wow your audience:

1. Keep it simple

Simple means something different to everyone.

Before creating your presentation, take note of your intended audience and their knowledge level of your subject. You’ll want your content to be easy for your intended audience to follow.

Say you’re giving a presentation on improving your company’s operational structure. Entry-level workers will likely need a more straightforward overview of the content than C-suite leaders, who have significantly more experience. 

Ask yourself what you want your audience to take away from your presentation and emphasize those important points. Doing this ensures they remember the most vital information rather than less important supporting ideas. Try organizing these concepts into bullet points so viewers can quickly identify critical takeaways.

2. Create a compelling structure

Put yourself in your audience member’s shoes and determine the most compelling way to organize your information. Your presentation should be articulate , cohesive, and logical, and you must be sure to include all necessary supporting evidence to strengthen your main points.

If you give away all of your answers too quickly, your audience could lose interest. And if there isn’t enough supporting information, they could hit a roadblock of confusion. Try developing a compelling story that leads your audience through your thought processes so they can experience the ups and downs alongside you. 

By structuring your presentation to lead up to a final conclusion, you’re more likely to keep listeners’ attention. Once you’ve reached that conclusion, you can offer a Q&A period to put any of their questions or concerns to rest. 

3. Use visual aids

Appealing to various learning styles is a great way to keep everyone on the same page and ensure they absorb your content. Visual aids are necessary for visual learners and make it easier for people to picture your ideas.

Aim to incorporate a mixture of photos, videos, and props to engage your audience and convey your key points. For instance, if you’re giving a presentation on anthropology subject matter, you could show your audience an artifact to help them understand how exciting a discovery must have been. 

If your presentation is long, including a video for your audience to watch is an excellent way to give yourself a break and create new jumping-off points for your speech.

4. Be aware of design techniques and trends

Thanks to cutting-edge technology and tools, you have numerous platforms at your disposal to create a good presentation. But keep in mind that although color, images, and graphics liven things up, they can cause distraction when misused.

  Here are a few standard pointers for incorporating visuals on your slides: 

• Don’t place blocks of small text on a single slide
• Use a minimalistic background instead of a busy one
• Ensure text stands out against the background color
• Only use high-resolution photos
• Maintain a consistent font style and size throughout the presentation
• Don’t overuse transitions and effects

5. Try the 10-20-30 rule

Guy Kawasaki, a prominent venture capitalist and one of the original marketing specialists for Apple, said that the best slideshow presentations are less than 10 slides , last at most 20 minutes, and use a font size of 30. Following this strategy can help you condense your information, eliminate unnecessary ideas, and maintain your audience’s focus more efficiently.

Once you’re confident in creating a memorable presentation, it’s time to learn how to give one. Here are some valuable tips for keeping your audience invested during your talk: 

Tip #1: Tell stories

Sharing an anecdote from your life can improve your credibility and increase your relatability. And when an audience relates to you, they’re more likely to feel connected to who you are as a person and encouraged to give you their full attention, as they would want others to do the same.

Gill Hicks utilized this strategy well when she shared her powerful story, “ I survived a terrorist attack. Here’s what I learned .” In her harrowing tale, Hicks highlights the importance of compassion, unconditional love, and helping those in need.

If you feel uncomfortable sharing personal stories, that’s okay. You can use examples from famous individuals or create a fictional account to demonstrate your ideas.

Tip #2: Make eye contact with the audience

Maintaining eye contact is less intimidating than it sounds. In fact, you don’t have to look your audience members directly in their eyes — you can focus on their foreheads or noses if that’s easier.

Try making eye contact with as many people as possible for 3–5 seconds each. This timing ensures you don’t look away too quickly, making the audience member feel unimportant, or linger too long, making them feel uncomfortable.

If you’re presenting to a large group, direct your focus to each part of the room to ensure no section of the audience feels ignored. 

Tip #3: Work on your stage presence

Although your tone and words are the most impactful part of your presentation, recall that body language keeps your audience engaged. Use these tips to master a professional stage presence:

• Speak with open arms and avoid crossing them
• Keep a reasonable pace and try not to stand still
• Use hand gestures to highlight important information

Tip #4: Start strong

Like watching a movie trailer, the first seconds of your talk are critical for capturing your audience’s attention. How you start your speech sets the tone for the rest of your presentation and tells your audience whether or not they should pay attention. Here are some ways to start your presentation to leave a lasting impression:

• Use a quote from a well-known and likable influential person 
• Ask a rhetorical question to create intrigue
• Start with an anecdote to add context to your talk 
• Spark your audience’s curiosity by involving them in an interactive problem-solving puzzle or riddle

Tip #5: Show your passion

Don’t be afraid of being too enthusiastic. Everyone appreciates a speaker who’s genuinely excited about their field of expertise. 

In “ Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance ,” Angela Lee Duckworth discusses the importance of passion in research and delivery. She delivers her presentation excitedly to show the audience how excitement piques interest. 

Tip #6: Plan your delivery

How you decide to deliver your speech will shape your presentation. Will you be preparing a PowerPoint presentation and using a teleprompter? Or are you working within the constraints of the digital world and presenting over Zoom?

The best presentations are conducted by speakers who know their stuff and memorize their content. However, if you find this challenging, try creating notes to use as a safety net in case you lose track.

If you’re presenting online, you can keep notes beside your computer for each slide, highlighting your key points. This ensures you include all the necessary information and follow a logical order.

Tip #7: Practice

Practice doesn’t make perfect — it makes progress. There’s no way of preparing for unforeseen circumstances, but thorough practice means you’ve done everything you can to succeed.

Rehearse your speech in front of a mirror or to a trusted friend or family member. Take any feedback and use it as an opportunity to fine-tune your speech. But remember: who you practice your presentation in front of may differ from your intended audience. Consider their opinions through the lens of them occupying this different position.

Tip #8: Read the room

Whether you’re a keynote speaker at an event or presenting to a small group of clients, knowing how to read the room is vital for keeping your audience happy. Stay flexible and be willing to move on from topics quickly if your listeners are uninterested or displeased with a particular part of your speech.

Tip #9: Breathe

Try taking deep breaths before your presentation to calm your nerves. If you feel rushed, you’re more likely to feel nervous and stumble on your words.

The most important thing to consider when presenting is your audience’s feelings. When you approach your next presentation calmly, you’ll put your audience at ease and encourage them to feel comfortable in your presence.

Tip #10: Provide a call-to-action

When you end your presentation, your audience should feel compelled to take a specific action, whether that’s changing their habits or contacting you for your services.

If you’re presenting to clients, create a handout with key points and contact information so they can get in touch. You should provide your LinkedIn information, email address, and phone number so they have a variety of ways to reach you. 

There’s no one-size-fits-all template for an effective presentation, as your unique audience and subject matter play a role in shaping your speech. As a general rule, though, you should aim to connect with your audience through passion and excitement. Use strong eye contact and body language. Capture their interest through storytelling and their trust through relatability.

Learning how to give a good presentation can feel overwhelming — but remember, practice makes progress. Rehearse your presentation for someone you trust, collect their feedback , and revise. Practicing your presentation skills is helpful for any job, and every challenge is a chance to grow.

Enhance your presentation skills

Discover coaching that transforms your public speaking and boosts your confidence in presenting.

Elizabeth Perry, ACC

Elizabeth Perry is a Coach Community Manager at BetterUp. She uses strategic engagement strategies to cultivate a learning community across a global network of Coaches through in-person and virtual experiences, technology-enabled platforms, and strategic coaching industry partnerships. With over 3 years of coaching experience and a certification in transformative leadership and life coaching from Sofia University, Elizabeth leverages transpersonal psychology expertise to help coaches and clients gain awareness of their behavioral and thought patterns, discover their purpose and passions, and elevate their potential. She is a lifelong student of psychology, personal growth, and human potential as well as an ICF-certified ACC transpersonal life and leadership Coach.

6 presentation skills and how to improve them

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Home Blog Business How to Make a Presentation: A Guide for Memorable Presentations

How to Make a Presentation: A Guide for Memorable Presentations

A presentation goes beyond the idea of crafting a catchy document to present in front of an audience. It is an art in which a person relies on communication skills to introduce a topic relevant to a group of people, regardless of its size. Different elements participate in this communication process, such as body language, presentation skills, visual tools, etc. and are key in delivering an effective presentation.

In this article, we shall present a detailed guide on how to make a presentation, intended both for newcomers in this subject but also for professional presenters who seek to improve the performance of their presentations. Let’s get started.

Table of Contents

What is a presentation?

What is a powerpoint presentation.

• The Importance of a good PowerPoint presentation
• Choosing a topic

Consider the audience & presentation goals

Gather data, references, and source.

• Define the storyline
• Define the outline  

Using one idea per slide

Choose the presentation format, colors & styles, determine the use of metaphors and visual slides, proofreading and polishing process, prepare your speech, rehearse, rehearse and rehearse.

• How to give a memorable presentation

Start strong

Hook your audience, close your presentation.

• Selecting a PowerPoint template
• Add or delete slides in PowerPoint
• Adding images to slide templates
• Adding notes to your slides
• Adding animations to your slides
• Adding transitions to your slides
• Adding audio narration to your slides
• Ideal typeface and size

Color scheme

Printing your powerpoint presentation, powerpoint presentations tips, closing thoughts.

What is a presentation, and what is a PowerPoint presentation?

It is essential to highlight the difference between Presentation and PowerPoint Presentation, often interchangeable terms. One thing is a presentation, an audiovisual form of communication to present information. A PowerPoint presentation is a subset of a presentation. Since PowerPoint remains the leading tool in the market for creating presentations, the term was coined by both spectators and presenters. Let’s begin by checking the main differences between the two terms.

A presentation is any situation in which a person or group has to transmit a message in front of an audience. The format by which the audience attends can answer the following categories:

• Live crowd: A presentation in which the average number of spectators exceeds 100 people. 
• Massive event: Similar to the format above, but we speak about thousands of spectators. This format has specific requirements regarding scenario setup and logistics, and the usual presenters are influencers in worldwide conferences or corporate events (like All-Hands meetings).
• Private event : A selected number of attendants can listen to the presenter. Coaching sessions are the leading kind of private event for presenters, but multiple other categories can fit into this format.
• Online event: Following the trends of remote working and what the pandemic has left us in terms of digital immersion, multiple events shifted their large attendance numbers in favor of online settings. This has the advantage of a narrowed setting, as the area in which the presenter has to stand is considerably reduced – with simpler A/V inputs. Attendees are given a link to the event and watch from their computers or mobile devices.
• Offline event: This medium is what we consume via YouTube videos. Behind each and every YouTube video is countless hours of content development, editing, rehearsing a presentation, and so forth. We call it offline because attendees can browse the content at any time, replaying as desired, unlike Online Events in which the attendees must be logged in to a specific platform. No interaction with the presenter.
• Hybrid event: This is a format coined by large tech companies, the automobile industry, and even fashion brands. The idea is to create an event where a selected number of attendees are allowed to participate (using the Private Event model). Still, at the same time, the event is streamed for users worldwide (Online Event) and/or available on the official social media networks of the brand (Offline Event).

Each one of these formats exposed above has specific requirements in terms of interaction with the audience. For example, in-company presentations will differ from common presentations that seek to capture the interest of new consumers. It is vital to establish the presentation’s intent from the very first moment and then narrow it down according to the topic to present, as well as the knowledge level of your target audience.

A presentation does not necessarily requires to create a slide deck . It is a tool presenters use to make the content more interesting for the audience and also memorable. However, it is well-known that influencer speakers such as Tony Robbins or Warren Buffet ignore PPT documents altogether, preferring to articulate their narrative on the go.

A PowerPoint presentation is a specific type of presentation, which involves the usage of a slide deck crafted with Microsoft PowerPoint. This kind of tool allows presenters to communicate a message through a vast range of mediums, such as images, graphs & charts, audio, and video for a better impact.

Creating a PowerPoint presentation is an easy process, and there are two routes for it: working from a blank slide or using PowerPoint templates .

Some of the advantages of building a PowerPoint presentation:

• Better information retention by the audience, thanks to visual cues.
• Improves the audience’s focus.
• Easy to create powerful graphics.
• Templates are editable, meaning you can repurpose the original designs to meet your standards.
• Saves time to create presentations thanks to its user-friendly UI.
• Encourages teaching and learning processes.

The Importance of a Good PowerPoint presentation

There are some elements that presenters must take into account when making a PowerPoint presentation . It’s not just drag-and-drop, then magic happens. Creating a PowerPoint presentation involves a process of generating the graphic content to display and the narrative around it. The purpose of PowerPoint is to serve as a tool to enhance communication, not to make it overly complex.

We emphasize the relevance of working the speech and graphic content together since the speech itself gives the timeframes for each slide, what elements it contains, or whether it is relevant to use a slide or not to speak about a topic. 

Some points to highlight when preparing a presentation:

• Presenters often use the element of surprise. This means a presentation can start without a slide, use a video, or involve a discussion between two parties, then jump to the slide deck presentation. More on this topic later on.
• A good PowerPoint presentation can be your introduction card in multiple professional settings. The effort you put in terms of design and content shall pay back over time in contacts or business deals.
• Having a spare copy of your presentation, preferably in Google Slides presentation format, is a safe-proof technique in case the PPT file gets corrupted. The aesthetic remains the same and can be browsed by any computer with internet access.

How to Make a Presentation (5 Essential Points)

1. planning your presentation.

The first step in making a presentation is to plan the content according to our personal/business goals and the audience’s interest. Let’s break down each part in more detail.

Choosing the topic of your presentation

There are two situations for this. The first one is that you are open to presenting any topic of your preference. This usually happens in business presentations, inspirational presentations, product releases, etc. The second scenario is restricted, by which you have to pick a topic among a selected number of references. That’s the typical situation in which presenters see themselves when taking part in significant events – as not all topics are suitable for the main content of the event, and this is where creativity comes to play.

How to choose a topic, you may ask. Brainstorming is a good technique as long as you remain within the boundaries of this formula:

What you know and feel confident about + What is relevant to the current moment + What can resonate with your audience = Quality Content.

Again, if you experience restrictions due to the nature of an event, but your objective is to share specific information about your business, here are some tactics that can come to play:

• Do keyword research about the topics your business is involved. See the common patterns in your activity compared with the keywords. Then research the 15 articles on the 5 biggest volume keywords. Narrowing the possibilities in your business is a different take.
• Research whether there’s room for sponsored advertisement. That’s an alternative when directly speaking about your business is a no-no in a presentation.
• Turn your presentation into an inspirational story. That works in most events and brings the audience’s interest.

Another vital point to consider is how passionate you can be about the topic of your choice. Nothing speaks more about professionalism than a presenter being deeply involved with the topic in discussion. It sparks curiosity and gives validation as a reliable authority on the content. On the other hand, when a presenter delivers a talk about a topic they don’t connect with, body language usually betrays the presenter. Spectators feel that the speaker wished to be elsewhere, hence dooming the presentation’s performance (and badly impacting the presenter’s reputation).

Consider the purpose of the content to present. Is it going to be informative? Educational? Inspirational? That shall set the tone of your speech later on.

Like with any project, you can estimate the ROI of your presentation with two verifiable metrics: the behavior of the audience and how many contacts did you build after delivering an effective presentation .

Making a presentation has the implicit purpose of helping you construct your network of professional contacts. Even when the presentation has no explicit financial purpose – as in the case of non-profitable organizations, there is still the acknowledgment component. People want to feel validated for the work they do. People want to build long-lasting contacts that can later on turn to be part of a new project.

Considering the audience is imperative, and often one of the pitfalls many presenters fall prey to. You must be aware of the following:

• The knowledgeability of your audience about the topic to discuss. This filters the option of using technical jargon during a presentation.
• The age range and demographics of your audience. It is not the same to discuss a methodology to reduce financial risk to a group of corporate workers in their 40s than to a group of students in their early 20s. The language is different, the intention behind the message is different, and so is the information retention span.

On regards to presentation goals, they can be classified as professional goals (those who seek conversions or valuable business contacts), influential (to establish a brand in the market), educational (to inform a group of people about a topic you researched), etc. Depending on the presentation goals, you can then structure the content to list and the tone in which you speak to your audience.

2. Preparing content for your presentation

No presentation can be made without reference material. Even when you believe you are the most prominent authority about a topic – you have to prove it with valuable, referenceable material. For some niches, this is critical, such as scientific poster presentations, educational presentations, and other areas in which copyright might be an issue.

References for the material you used can be listed in different formats:

• If you are citing a book/article, you can do a bibliography slide, or screenshot the excerpt you want to cite, then include a proper source format below the image.
• You have to credit the author for images/videos that are subject to intellectual property rights. Depending on the context where the image is presented, you may even have to inquire the author about using the image. If the photo in question is yours, no citation is required. Learn more about how to cite pictures in PowerPoint .
• Graphs and charts should include a reference to what they mean, explaining in a short sentence their context. Cite the source if the graph is extracted from a book or article.

As a tip, prepare a document in which you jot down the references used to create the presentation. They can serve whenever a question is asked about your presentation and you must research extra material. 

Define the presentation storyline

We interpret the storyline as what is the connecting thread of your presentation. What do you wish to discuss? What motivated you to present this topic in this particular setting and in front of an audience? What can your message deliver in terms of new information and quality to your spectators?

All those questions are worth asking since they shape the narrative you build around your presentation. The storyline is the step before building an actual outline of your presentation.

Define the presentation outline

Now that you have a clear idea of your reference material and the story to tell behind your presentation , it is time to list down your presentation structure in a Table of Contents format. Keep in mind this is for internal reference, as the outline is a tool for writing the speech and creating the slides. You don’t have to list the outline in a presentation; if you desire, you can do a simplistic version with an agenda slide.

Be specific. Don’t let any topic be broad enough to lead to confusion. Sometimes, it is best to list many elements in a presentation outline, then trim them down in a second iteration.

This is perhaps the biggest mistake presenters make in the professional context when creating a new presentation. Slides are free; you don’t have to jam everything in, wishing people get an instant idea about EVERYTHING you will discuss in one slide. Not only does it become overwhelming for the audience, but it is also a faux pas in terms of design: when you use too many elements, the hierarchy does not seem clear enough.

Opt for the “one-idea-per-slide” technique, which, as the term refers, implies using one slide per concept to introduce. Work with as many slides as required, but just one main idea by slide. Your presentation becomes clearer, easy to digest for a non-knowledgeable audience, and also serves as reference material on how to pace your presentation.

3. Designing your presentation

The following section contains guidelines about the different aspects that shape a presentation structure . If you are looking for an all-in-one solution that implements these teachings into presentation design, try SlideModel’s AI Presentation Maker . A time-saver AI-generation tool for presenters powered by Artificial Intelligence.

Event organizers have a saying in the presentation format, which can be online or a live event. Depending on which, users have to structure the elements of their presentation to match the final output. An example of this: it’s not the same to create a PPT slide deck for an event in which you stand on a stage, in front of a live audience, than when you present via Zoom call, using your computer screen to cast the presentation. 

The format is different because text usage and images are perceived differently. For starters, an online presentation is most likely to draw users to read the entire content of your slides than a live presentation. The audience may not get your body language in an online presentation, merely watching slide after slide with the presenter’s voiceover. In some conditions, it can be incredibly dull and hard to follow. 

Do your research with the event organizers about which format shall be used. When it comes to in-company presentations or educational presentations, the format is usually live, as the audience is selected and part of the same organization (that being a company or a school/university). If a webinar is required for an in-company format, ask the organizers about the length of the presentation, if it is possible to interact with the audience, deliverable requirements, etc.

The aspect ratio for a presentation format usually follows the 16:9 format or 4:3 format. Presentations built in 16:9 aspect ratio are the standard , rectangular format PPT templates, which also serve to be printed without many distortions in regular A4 files. As we work with a rectangular format, there are two axes – horizontal and vertical, in which presenters can arrange the content according to its importance (building a hierarchy). Working with a 4:3 format is more challenging as it resembles a square. Remember, in a square there are no visible tensions, so all areas have the same importance. 

As a recommendation, the 4:3 aspect ratio is a safe bet for all projectors & beamers. When working with a 16:9 slide and the projector is 4:3, the content gets squeezed to fit the required ratio, and for that very reason, it is advised to increase the font size if you use a 16:9 slide on a 4:3 projector. Be mindful about logos or photographs getting distorted when this conversion happens.

The 16:9 ratio looks more visually appealing these days as we get used to TVs and mobile devices for browsing content. New projectors are usually intended for 16:9 format, so you won’t experience any inconvenience in this regard.

No, not every color works harmonically with other colors. Colors have a psychology behind their usage and impact, and to not make this guide extensive, we highly recommend you visit our article on color theory for presentations . You can find suggestions about which colors you should use for different kinds of messages to deliver and what each color represents in terms of color psychology.

The color you use in your presentations must be in accordance with your branding. For example: you should definitely not build a presentation with a bright, bold magenta neon tone when your logo contains green neon-like hues. If you work with a PPT presentation template that doesn’t match the color of your branding, we recommend you check our guide on how to change color themes in PowerPoint .

Regarding typefaces, do never use more than 3 different typefaces per design. It is best to stick to 1 or 2 typefaces, using the variations each font offers in terms of weight.

An example of this:

You create the heading title (H1 size) with Open Sans bold. Subtitles should be done in H2 size using Open Sans regular. Body text in paragraph size, using either Open Sans Regular or Light. Words to emphasize shall be bolded for important terms and italics for foreign terms to be explained.

Use a cohesive color scheme that fits the background, graphics (such as charts and bar graphs), text, and even images. It helps the audience to understand concepts more naturally and gives a pleasant experience to the sight.

Just as badly a slide deck filled with text is felt by the audience, the exact impact can be attributed to a slide deck that only contains images. The audience may feel disconnected, not understanding the purpose of the presentation. A second side-effect is when the spectators wish to browse the slides to study, as in the context of an educational presentation. If the presenter does not include any text guidance, the slide deck is a mere collection of images without any reference that helps remember the presentation.

Work in balance, like a 3:1 ratio between graphic elements and text. For every 3 graphic elements, a text box must be included.

Using metaphors in presentations is a great idea to introduce complex topics or to tell a story. Say, you want to make the audience aware of your company’s challenges to reach its current standing in the industry. Using a roadmap template that depicts a mountain is an excellent idea as it reinforces the ideas of “challenge” and “teamwork.” 

4. Final touches and polishing your presentation

Before giving any presentation, you should dedicate at least one day to this polishing process. Let’s break down the process for easier understanding.

• Do a first iteration of your slides. The objective here is to grasp how everything looks in terms of design. Check the alignment of images and text, any color inconsistencies, typos, etc.
• Rehearse your presentation one time, tracking how much time it takes to perform the presentation.
• If any information is missing that’s worth adding to the slides, proceed to add it. If there are elements that can be reduced, trim them.
• For time-restricted presentations, get a clear idea about how much time it takes to complete your presentation, plus 5 extra minutes for a Q&A session.
• The second iteration should check the tone of your writing, and double-proof any spelling, punctuation and grammar errors. 

After two complete iterations, your presentation is ready to go to the next stage.

Even though we believe the speech is partially built as you prepare your presentation slides, you should dedicate an extra section of time to prepare your speech correctly. This process involves the following steps:

• Identifying the purpose of your presentation. The core element of why you are speaking to this audience.
• Get to know your audience, their interests, their challenges, and what can they possibly wish to overcome.
• Adding value. This is vital – your presentation has to leave a lasting message to your audience on what they are interested.
• A strong start and a strong finish. Don’t neglect any of these elements.

Writing down your speech in notes is a must. It is the tool you can use to rehearse your presentation, and -in case you feel anxious- you can include some speaker notes in your presentation (which won’t be visible to your audience) to help you structure the speech.

Practice makes perfect. Rehearsing does not imply memorizing the entire presentation, as that would make your speech robotic, and prone to errors. How? Imagine a person asking you a question in the middle of your presentation, a question you didn’t expect. A prepared presenter can easily manage the situation because of the background built around the topic. A presenter that memorized a speech and robotically repeated its content can feel unease, losing focus for the remainder of the presentation.

Some valuable tips on the rehearsing process:

• Record your rehearsing sessions. You can use tools like Presenter View in PowerPoint to track your time. 
• Make it a memorable event. Creating an engaging presentation requires creativity, so consider brainstorming for new takes on adding exciting elements to your presentation for attention retention.
• An exercise recommended by Tim Ferris is to mimic the conditions as closely as possible. This helps to reduce presentation anxiety, and also to get used to cameras and spotlights or evaluate your body language.
• If possible, ask a friend for feedback on your presentation performance. This is particularly helpful for new presenters to get used to interacting with the audience.

5. Presenting (your presentation)

Now it’s time to talk about the presentation and your performance when delivering it in front of an audience. Giving a presentation has many aspects to discuss, from start to end, the techniques to keep your audience interested in the topic, and also recommendations to make a memorable event. Let’s get started.

How to give a Memorable Presentation – Delivering an Impactful Presentation

There are multiple methods to approach a presentation and deliver an impactful presentation. Let’s be honest, not everyone feels comfortable when standing in front of an audience. For that reason, we want to lay out some fresh ideas to help you bring your best to your spectators.

The first element you ought to be aware of is body language . It has to feel natural, not overly acted but also not stiff. Think of a presentation as a similar scenario in which you have a deep conversation with a group of people about a topic you are passionate about. That mindset helps to ease anxiety out of the equation. Avoid crossing arms or constantly pacing across the stage – that only shows impatience and lack of interest.

Keep the concepts simple. Don’t overload your presentation with unnecessary jargon; if you feel something cannot be easily explained, go break down concept by concept until the whole idea is understandable. Graphics are a fantastic asset to help you in this process and boost your performance as a presenter. 

Be mindful of not doing any of these common pitfalls:

• Including large chunks of text on a single slide.
• Using intense background colors that make it difficult to understand the contents of the slide.
• Don’t read every single element in your slides – this is perceived as boring by your audience.

One particularly interesting approach is by Guy Kawasaki, author of the book “The Art of the Start.” He considers the best presentations to be handled using 10 slides, lasting no longer than 20 minutes, and using a 30pt font size. That’s known as the 10-20-30 rule in presentations . It helps you to condense the content for the sake of information clarity.

In case you don’t use a PowerPoint presentation, there are multiple ways to make a presentation memorable:

• Tell a story, but connect with your audience in terms of body language. Play with the elements on the stage (much like TED presenters do), and let the audience feel the experience of your story by being as detailed as possible within the time frame.
• Using a video is an incredibly engaging tool, as it lets you introduce a topic you will discuss in more detail later.
• Use a visual impact in the form of an image with a dramatic element (i.e., climate change consequences, technological advancements, children engaging with technology or studying, etc.). This allows to hook the audience into what’s due to come next.

Knowing how to start a presentation is a critical skill all presenters ought to master. There are several approaches for this behalf, but for the sake of this guide, let’s stick to the following ones.

Using the Link-Back formula

This consists of throwing a story in front of your audience that explains who you are, what your background is, and why your speech should make a difference in the life of the spectators.

The Link-Back formula is beneficial for creating an emotional connection with the audience.

Using a Hook

Asking a rhetorical question, using a powerful fact, or other well-known hook techniques is a plus when starting a presentation. We shall talk about hook techniques for presenters in the next section.

Using a captivating visual

Much like the power of storytelling , visuals impact the audience’s psyche, especially if the presentation is about a trendy topic. Create a quality graphic with any of our designs at SlideModel, a graphic designer’s help, an AI Image Generator, or work with a video.

A hook is a tactic used by presenters as an opening statement but can be used in different areas of the presentation if it has an ample length. Much like the metaphor suggests, they serve to attract the audience to what you are communicating.

Research on attention span during lectures suggests a gradual decline in the audience’s interest in the presentation. That’s exponentially increased if you miss the chance to give a powerful first impression. Check this list of hook techniques to enhance the performance of your presentation skills:

• Asking rhetorical questions – better if a series of them on the topic to discuss.
• Using catchy phrases.
• Using a contrarian position, explain why such thinking harms the topic you wish to introduce.
• Historical event referencing.
• Making a powerful statement, best if data related. (i.e., “Every year, 8 million tons of plastic gets into the ocean, which equals to a truckload being dumped every minute” )
• Using the word “imagine”. It’s one of the powerful words in you can use in presentations .
• Add the comedy element – NB: be careful not to overdo it.
• Apply a “what if” scenario – this hook is similar to the “imagine” but with more data added.
• Tell a story.
• Spark curiosity.
• Smartly use quotations. Do not stick to text-book quotations but give your insight on why the quote is relevant for your speech.

Photo 9: Slide using a hook

Most people assume that ending a presentation equals doing a recap. It is a bad idea since your audience feels as if you haven’t planned a conclusion for your presentation. 

Another bad practice is to end with a Q&A format. Although questions and answers are often a required part of any presentation, they shouldn’t be the end of your presentation. You can include questions during your presentation or opt for a proper closure of the presentation past the Q&A session.

There are some powerful strategies to give a memorable ending to a presentation:

• Include a CTA on the lines like “Join our journey!” or similar that make the audience part of a bigger story.
• Close using a relevant quote. The idea is to deliver something that can linger, so the audience remembers your content.
• Use a story to close your presentation, as long as you avoid using a case study. The idea is to close with a meaningful thought, not with boredom.

We recommend you check our article on how to end a presentation for more ideas before reaching this stage of your presentation.

How to Make a PowerPoint Presentation (Quick Steps)

In this section, we will see how to use PowerPoint to make a presentation . Starting from creating a blank presentation or choosing a pre-defined PowerPoint template to preparing the presentation structure by adding PowerPoint slides and then working on the design of the presentation, we will explain how to make a visually-appealing and eye-catching PowerPoint presentation and how to create a slideshow in PowerPoint.

1. Selecting a PowerPoint template

When making a PowerPoint presentation, Professional PowerPoint Templates bring the advantage of not needing to think about complex graphic design decisions. However, there are certain aspects worth considering prior to picking the perfect PowerPoint template.

• Color aesthetic : If your presentation has to be done quickly, stick to PowerPoint templates that resemble your company’s branding palette. Although color can be changed, it is best not to lose time with extra adjustments.
• Opt for minimalistic designs : It is one of the most suitable ways to remain elegant in the professional world. You won’t be signaled for using a template that speaks seriousness on its design – and take for granted everyone shall badly remember the presentation that overdid color or graphics (or even worse, typeface effects).
• Avoid using heavy transition effects : Not all computers are as powerful as the ones you own. The simpler you make your presentation, the best it shall play on any PC.

As in life, there are advantages and disadvantages of using Premium or Free PowerPoint Templates vs. starting from a blank slate.

Advantages of PowerPoint templates when making a presentation

• Speed up the presentation design process.
• Reusable designs, ready for any situation.
• Helps to present data in an understandable format.
• Complex design decisions are made for users.
• Color pairing and font pairing are done for users.
• Helps to reduce the usage of text in slides.

Disadvantages of PowerPoint templates

• We are not learning to use advanced PowerPoint tools, as designs come pre-made for users.
• It can hinder creativity.
• Not every presentation template for PowerPoint is suitable for any topic.
• A professional team of PowerPoint template designers must be behind those templates to ensure quality.

2. Add or delete slides in PowerPoint

When we create PowerPoint Design ideas , not every slide makes the cut for the final presentation. Users then feel overwhelmed about those slides: will they be visible in the final presentation? Should you make a new PPT file without those extra templates? How to clone the “good” slides into a new file?

Instead of worrying about that process, we have here a guide on how to add, delete and rearrange slides in PowerPoint that explains, step by step, how to get rid of the unwanted slides or add more content to your presentation.

3. Adding images to slide templates

Some presentation templates and slide decks include entirely editable placeholder areas, and those boxes do not imply text only – they can include images, graphs, videos, etc. Say you want to add more images to your slides – it is as easy as replicating one of those placeholder areas with CTRL+C / CTRL+V (CMD for Mac users) or going to Insert on the Ribbon’s menu, then Picture . 

If you plan to move elements in your slide design, we recommend you get familiarized with how to lock an image in PowerPoint , so the images that shouldn’t be altered remain in position. This technique is ideal when your images are surrounded by plenty of editable graphics.

4. Adding notes to your slides

Presenters often struggle to remember key pieces of information due to performance anxiety or because they were moved from focus by an unexpected question. Using speaker notes in PowerPoint is the answer to prevent becoming stuck, since those notes won’t be available to the viewers – they remain visible only on the computer where the presentation is being streamed.

Keep in mind this technique works when the presenter is sitting next to the computer. If you have to stand in front of a crowd, opt to use different memory-recalling techniques when you feel out of focus.

5. Adding animations to your slides

Another technique presenters use adding animated objects or effects. This is as easy as following these steps:

• Select the object/text you desire to animate.
• Go to Animations in the Ribbon and select Add Animation .
• You can stack animations on a simple object to make unique effects.

Using animated presentation templates is an alternative when you don’t feel confident about adding animations. 

6. Adding transitions to your slides

Transitions are animated effects that happen when you change between slides during a presentation. Some people love them, while others prefer to stay away from them. 

If you want to add transitions to your slides, follow these steps:

• Select the slide you want to add the transition effect.
• Go to Transitions in the Ribbon, and choose a transition.
• If the transition allows the Effect Options menu, you can alter that transition’s direction and behavior.
• Click on Preview to visualize the effect.
• To remove a transition, select Transitions > None .

7. Adding audio narration to your slides

Sometimes, presenters opt to add audio narrations to the slides. The advantage of using this medium is to increase accessibility for visually impaired users. We created a guide on how to add audio narrations in PowerPoint that explains the procedure in detail.

Considerations for your PowerPoint presentation

Ideal typeface and font size.

There are multiple opinions on which typeface is ideal for presentations. Experience tells us the ideal typeface to work with is one that is system-available, meaning you don’t have to install a new font in the computer used to present. Why? You may ask. Simple: If the font used is not available on a computer, PowerPoint will automatically render a different font (sometimes even a different typeface) to replace and display the text appropriately. That action, which is replicated by other software such as Google Slides, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Apple Keynote, etc., can drastically change your design. 

Font size for titles should be between 36-44 pt. Paragraph font size between 24-28 pt. Use bold to emphasize concepts, and italics to insert foreign terms or quotations. Alternatively, you can make quotations to be displayed on a single slide, using 36 pt size, in italics.

Remember, these recommendations about size are intended for presentations in a live format. If the presentation is streamed through Zoom, using screen sharing, reduce the font size by 10-15% to avoid incredibly large texts. Test your presentation beforehand to be on the safe side.

The color scheme used is a primary part of your presentation design. When defining the presentation color palette , we recommend working within the colors that make part of your branding scheme. 

If we speak about a personal presentation or a presentation with no logo, then opt for pastel tones that don’t create harsh contrast between text and background.

Above all things, avoid these conflictive color combinations:

• Yellow and green
• Brown and orange
• Red and green
• Neon colors combined
• Purple and yellow
• Red and purple
• Black and navy
• Navy and red (unless you use a muted red tone or control the amount of red used)

Sometimes, printables are a requirement by event organizers, which represents a challenge to many presenters. We want to give a helping hand on this behalf, offering tips that can improve your printing experience:

• Always work within margins when adding content. It helps not to downsize the presentation, which often renders the text illegible. 
• If you have to print a presentation that uses intense background colors, opt for laser printing instead of inkjet. Laser printing won’t make the paper look odd when it is full-color print. The extra price is worth it when presenting a quality product.
• On the same lines about color-heavy presentations, ask for thicker printer paper than the average. This option is often advised when opting for laser printing.
• Run a print proof before ordering a large printing order. Colors can significantly change due to the RGB to CMYK conversion.

In this section, we want to list valuable tips to power up your presentations for their best performance. Some of these tips are tailored to presentation skills, others to design ideas, but ultimately, you can take in mind these tips the next time you need to make a powerful presentation in PowerPoint.

Tip #1. Using Video Presentations

An alternative to conventional presentations is to work with video presentations . These are particularly useful in academic and educational environments since they can convey large chunks of information in a memorable, easy-to-digest format. 

If we consider that social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok are transitioning into professional content for creatives, you should consider using video presentations when the situation arises. As a plus, you can repurpose that presentation on your website or other official social media channels for your company.

Tip #2. Drop Shadows and Text Shadows

When we intend to create interesting contrasts between elements, color isn’t the only option to try. Learn how to work with drop shadows in PowerPoint to make images and objects stand out from the presentation. It is an effect that boosts a tri-dimensional feeling in the presentation.

Using text shadows in PowerPoint – with extreme caution – is an excellent method to highlight titles instead of using fancy colors or other 3D effects. Do not overdo the text shadow, as it makes the text illegible. 

Tip #3. Working on your Presentation Skills

Giving presentations in front of an audience is, as we have seen, a process that involves many factors. One of those is the human element and the speaker’s ability to resonate with the audience. Therefore, we advise presenters to work on their presentation skills early, especially for mastering different kinds of presentation approaches, such as persuasive presentations (used in sales).

Tip #4. Editing Background Graphics in PowerPoint

Sometimes, PPT presentation templates include quality backgrounds that make the design pop from the screen. Yet, some of those backgrounds may not be suitable for all brands in terms of color, textures, etc.

Learn today how to edit background graphics in PowerPoint and create outstanding presentations in just minutes.

Tip #5. Google Slides compatibility

Finally, we want to remind users that almost every PowerPoint template has compatibility with Google Slides – if you intend to upload the presentation into the Cloud. Google Slides is an online tool for creating slideshow presentations, and one of its features is that we can convert PowerPoint presentations into Google Slides format. The converted slides are entirely editable, allowing presenters to count with a backup plan in case the PPT file doesn’t work or the computer to use doesn’t count with PowerPoint.

This is not an exhaustive list of presentation tips, but they offer a starting point for those who want to create attractive and effective PowerPoint presentations. You can also create presentations in other ways, and leveraging AI, for example. Check out the article how to create a PowerPoint presentation with ChatGPT to learn how to use Large Language Models to prepare presentations.

As we have seen, making a presentation is a complex process involving different skills, from knowing how to deliver a speech to having essential graphic design criteria. 

While it is true that PowerPoint presentation templates make the process far more manageable, we shouldn’t entirely rely on them. A PowerPoint presentation isn’t a presentation on its own. It is a medium by which presenters showcase their ideas and structure the speech, but one cannot live without the other.

We hope this guide can give you a better understanding of how to create a successful presentation. See you next time!

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Business Presentations, Presentation, Presentation Approaches Filed under Business , Presentation Ideas

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17 PowerPoint Presentation Tips From Pro Presenters [+ Templates]

Published: April 26, 2024

PowerPoint presentations can be professional, attractive, and really help your audience remember your message.

If you don’t have much experience, that’s okay — I’m going to arm you with PowerPoint design tips from pro presenters, the steps you need to build an engaging deck, and templates to help you nail great slide design.

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Buckle up for a variety of step-by-step explanations as well as tips and tricks to help you start mastering this program. There are additional resources woven in, and you’ll find expert perspectives from other HubSpotters along the way.

Table of Contents

How to Make a PowerPoint Presentation

Powerpoint presentation tips.

Microsoft PowerPoint is like a test of basic professional skills, and each PowerPoint is basically a presentation made of multiple slides.

Successful PowerPoints depend on three main factors: your command of PowerPoint's design tools, your attention to presentation processes, and being consistent with your style.

Keep those in mind as we jump into PowerPoint's capabilities.

Getting Started

1. open powerpoint and click ‘new.’.

A page with templates will usually open automatically, but if not, go to the top left pane of your screen and click New . If you’ve already created a presentation, select Open and then double-click the icon to open the existing file.

10 Free PowerPoint Templates

Download ten free PowerPoint templates for a better presentation.

• Creative templates.
• Data-driven templates.
• Professional templates.

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

Creating PowerPoint Slides

3. insert a slide..

Insert a new slide by clicking on the Home tab and then the New Slide button. Consider what content you want to put on the slide, including heading, text, and imagery.

• Finally, PowerPoint Live is a new tool that enables you to do more seamless presentations during video calls and may be a better overall match for doing presentations remotely. Check out this video:

11. Try Using GIFs.

12 Free Customizable Resume Templates

Fill out this form to access your free professionally-designed templates, available on:

• Microsoft Word
• Google Docs
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Google Slides

15. Embed multimedia.

PowerPoint allows you to either link to video/audio files externally or to embed the media directly in your presentation. For PCs, two great reasons for embedding are:

• Embedding allows you to play media directly in your presentation. It will look much more professional than switching between windows.
• Embedding also means that the file stays within the PowerPoint presentation, so it should play normally without extra work (except on a Mac).

If you use PowerPoint for Mac it gets a bit complicated, but it can be done:

• Always bring the video and/or audio file with you in the same folder as the PowerPoint presentation.
• Only insert video or audio files once the presentation and the containing folder have been saved on a portable drive in their permanent folder.
• If the presentation will be played on a Windows computer, then Mac users need to make sure their multimedia files are in WMV format.
• Consider using the same operating system for designing and presenting, no matter what.

16. Bring your own hardware.

Between operating systems, PowerPoint is still a bit jumpy. Even between differing PPT versions, things can change. The easiest fix? Just bring along your own laptop when you're presenting.

The next easiest fix is to upload your PowerPoint presentation into Google Slides as a backup option — just make sure there is a good internet connection and a browser available where you plan to present.

Google Slides is a cloud-based presentation software that will show up the same way on all operating systems.

To import your PowerPoint presentation into Google Slides:

• Navigate to slides.google.com . Make sure you’re signed in to a Google account (preferably your own).
• Under Start a new presentation , click the empty box with a plus sign. This will open up a blank presentation.
• Go to File , then Import slides .
• A dialog box will come up. Tap Upload.
• Click Select a file from your device .
• Select your presentation and click Open .
• Select the slides you’d like to import. If you want to import all of them, click All in the upper right-hand corner of the dialog box.
• Click Import slides.

When I tested this out, Google Slides imported everything perfectly, including a shape whose points I had manipulated. This is a good backup option to have if you’ll be presenting across different operating systems.

17. Use Presenter View.

In most presentation situations, there will be both a presenter’s screen and the main projected display for your presentation.

PowerPoint has a great tool called Presenter View, which can be found in the Slide Show tab of PowerPoint. Included in the Presenter View is an area for notes, a timer/clock, and a presentation display.

For many presenters, this tool can help unify their spoken presentation and their visual aid. You never want to make the PowerPoint seem like a stack of notes that you’re reading off of.

Use the Presenter View option to help create a more natural presentation.

Pro Tip: At the start of the presentation, you should also hit CTRL + H to make the cursor disappear. Hitting the “A” key will bring it back if you need it.

Your Next Great PowerPoint Presentation Starts Here

Now that you have these style, design, and presentation tips under your belt, you should feel confident to create your PowerPoint presentation.

But if you can explore other resources to make sure your content hits the mark. After all, you need a strong presentation to land your point and make an impression.

With several templates to choose from — both in PowerPoint and available for free download — you can swiftly be on your way to creating presentations that wow your audiences.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in September 2013 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation

• Carmine Gallo

Five tips to set yourself apart.

Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don’t underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice — a lot).

I was sitting across the table from a Silicon Valley CEO who had pioneered a technology that touches many of our lives — the flash memory that stores data on smartphones, digital cameras, and computers. He was a frequent guest on CNBC and had been delivering business presentations for at least 20 years before we met. And yet, the CEO wanted to sharpen his public speaking skills.

• Carmine Gallo is a Harvard University instructor, keynote speaker, and author of 10 books translated into 40 languages. Gallo is the author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman  (St. Martin’s Press).

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How to make a presentation: Tips + resources

Get your team on prezi – watch this on demand video.

Meghan Ryan June 29, 2022

Making a presentation might seem like a daunting task, but when you have the right advice and resources at your fingertips, you can create a presentation that makes you feel confident in front of a crowd. At Prezi, we’ve worked with countless creators and presentation experts to create some of the best presentations out there. Here are our tips for how to make a presentation.

How to make a Prezi presentation

Let’s kick it off with our bread and butter: how to make a presentation on Prezi. You can make a stunning presentation using Prezi Present , a software that helps you create interactive presentations that pull your audience in and get them invested in what you have to say. Use Prezi’s unique zooming feature to add movement to your presentation. Prezi’s non-linear format allows you to jump between topics instead of flipping through slides, making your presentation feel more like a conversation than a one-way speech.

Getting started is easy. Watch this video to learn how to make a presentation with Prezi:

Discover more great resources for making a great presentation on Prezi:

• Over 200 professionally-designed presentation templates catering to a good variety of use cases, roles, and design preferences. Find a template that suits your topic and helps structure your presentation in an engaging way, including several specifically made for online video meetings.
• Presentation examples curated by Prezi’s editors. Prezi works with keynote speakers, influencers, and content creators to make some of the most memorable presentations out there. View our favorites here to find inspiration, or you can reuse any presentation with a green symbol by adding your own content and making it your own.

6 tips for how to make a presentation

Learning how to create a presentation doesn’t happen overnight, but even the best presenters are constantly practicing and improving their craft. Read to see how you can make a good presentation with these 6 tips.

Structure your presentation so that it’s easy to follow

If you’ve attended a presentation and left feeling inspired or informed, it’s probably because the presenter did a good job structuring their presentation so that you could follow along and understand key take-aways. There’s research to back this. Studies show that audiences retain structured information 40% more accurately than unstructured information.

On top of that, structuring your presentation allows you to organize your thoughts and plan what you’re going to say, helping you feel more confident going into your presentation.

To structure your presentation, you need to first choose the purpose of it. Presentations typically fall into four main types: persuasive, informative, motivational, and instructive. Consider what you want your audience to do when you finish your presentation and structure your presentation around that.

Next, start writing the content of your presentation. We recommend using the same narrative framework as a story (a beginning, middle, and end). The storytelling framework allows you to set up conflict that needs to be resolved and show what could be. This is a particularly good framework for persuasive presentations, but it also creates a compelling narrative for any other type of presentation. Here’s how writer, speaker, and CEO Nancy Duarte charts out the storytelling framework :

Here’s how to think about each part of the story:

• Beginning – Describe the status quo and what the audience is used to (they might be nodding their heads in recognition of what you’re saying). Once you’ve set that baseline, introduce your vision of what could be. The rest of your presentation will bridge the gap between what is and what could be.
• Middle – Keep describing the differences between what is and what could be. As the audience learns more about your ideas, they will sound more alluring.
• End – Describe how much better the world will be with your new ideas and provide a call to action. Your ideas shouldn’t just benefit you, they should meet the needs of your audience, as well.

Remember to speak your audience’s language. That means understanding their knowledge base and point of view, and meeting them at their level. For instance, in a data-driven report, don’t include a lot of technical jargon if you’re presenting to people new to the field or from a different department.

To learn more on this topic, read our guide on storytelling in your presentations .

Do your research

The best way to feel confident going into your presentation is to know your topic inside and out. When you’ve taken the time to understand your topic fully, it’ll be easier for you to answer questions on the fly and get yourself back on track if you forget what you were going to say. It also allows you to provide bonus information if you end up having extra time at the end of your presentation.

The best way to do your research is to read up on information on the internet and at the library, or by reaching out to experts to weigh in (this would be a great way to pull quotes or sound bites).

If you’re an expert in your field, that’s perfect. Review your findings and pull from your past experiences to build a rich, information-dense story for your audience. Don’t just wing it, even if you know the topic well. You want the audience to walk away with a clear message, and that takes focus.

Pro tip: get in touch with your audience ahead of time and ask them what they want to see in your presentation. Researching topics that they’re interested in is how to make a presentation that clicks and keeps them hooked. 

Design your presentation

The easiest way to watch your audience’s eyes glaze over is to feature heavy blocks of text in your presentation. It doesn’t matter if the information you’re presenting is all important, you don’t want to overload your audience with too much visual stimuli.

Presentation design is one of the most important parts of making a presentation that keeps your audience engaged and interested in your topic.

• Limit the amount of text on each slide to only the essentials. If you’re worried you might forget something important, just use presenter notes that only you can see. More on these later in the article.
• White space is your friend. Don’t cramp content.
• It’s best to stick to just one thought per slide.
• Use images and a lot of them. Images grab people’s attention and are infused with more emotional meaning than text alone. Make sure your presentation images support your message and don’t seem out of place.
• Don’t use more than three types of fonts. Find the best fonts for presentations in our guide here.
• Visually highlight important information by bolding it, making it larger, or by using a different color.
• Keep the background the same or similar throughout your whole presentation. Prezi’s presentation templates make this easy, as they’re already styled with consistency.
• Add movement to grab attention.

Remember to keep the medium of your presentation in mind. If you’re presenting online, use a video presentation tool like Prezi Video that optimizes your presentation to the virtual format and allows you to share the screen with your content.

Grab your audience’s attention right at the start

First impressions matter, and in an era when there are so many distractions right at your fingertips, it couldn’t be more important to get your audience’s attention quickly to get them interested in what you have to say and hooked for the rest of the presentation.

The opening of your presentation is when your audience forms their impression of you. Telling a bad joke or a long, rambling story is an easy way to lose their interest and see their focus fade away – and you might not be able to get it back.

How to make a presentation interesting starts with an attention-grabbing hook. Here are a few ideas you can try:

• Share a shocking statistic
• Ask a rhetorical question
• Begin with a problem statement
• Show an eye-catching visual
• Tell a story

For a great example on starting your presentation with a story, watch this video by Elena Valentine , speaker and CEO of Skill Scout. She kicks her video presentation off with a compelling story. You’ll want to watch till the end, not just because she has you hooked, but because she shares tips for grabbing and maintaining audience attention throughout the presentation.

End on the emotional value for the audience

There’s no question that starting your presentation off with a hook is essential in getting your audience interested, but ending it with a strong conclusion is how you can ensure your message remains with them long after you’ve finished speaking.

Think back to the original goal of your presentation – what do you want your audience to do now that they’ve heard your piece? This is when you want your audience to have a clear understanding of what to do and how to feel.

Try these ideas to end your presentation on a strong, memorable note.

• Tell a compelling story
• Provide a call to action with clear next steps
• Reiterate your opening message
• Ask a question
• End with exactly three points – the rule of three is a pattern that makes things easy for people to follow and remember

Use presenter notes

A person can only absorb a certain amount of information at a time, so adding too much text to your presentation can be overwhelming for your audience (and is just bad design). Make sure to include the most essential pieces of information as text in your presentation. For everything else, use notes that only you can see.

Presenter notes help you to keep track of information and reference key points throughout your presentation. Having these available allow you to provide a more well-rounded experience for your audience, giving them the opportunity to absorb the essential information in your content and listen to you for more context. Presenter notes also act as a cheat sheet, should your audience ask questions or probe for more data.

You should practice delivering your presentation before the big day. Make sure you practice with your presenter notes to get the hang of referencing them without reading them verbatim. You don’t want your eyes to be focused too much on your notes and not on your audience.

You can access presenter notes on our presentation software Prezi Present and our video presentation software Prezi Video . Read our guide on using presenter notes to learn more. Note: presenter notes are available to users on Prezi Plus plans, so please contact us if you’d like to learn more about this feature.

How to make a video presentation

Even as people are returning to the office and working in person, there are going to be a fair number of virtual meetings on your calendar. Hybrid office workers and in-office employees have to meet with people working remotely. That means that it’s good for you to brush up on your online presentation skills.

Many of the tips that we’ve covered in this article are going to help you present in an online video setting, but there are a few nuances to get used to. Consider the following:

• Your background and home office setup
• How your voice sounds on a computer or home microphone
• How you’ll record and share your presentation
• Your audience’s mood and attention span in a remote setting

Get everything you need to succeed in a virtual setting with our guide to how to make a video presentation .

There are so many ways you can make a presentation interesting for your audience and leave them feeling inspired and informed. Contact us to learn more about the presentation and collaboration solutions that Prezi can provide your business.

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How to Make a PowerPoint Presentation (Step-by-Step)

• PowerPoint Tutorials
• Presentation Design
• January 22, 2024

In this beginner’s guide, you will learn step-by-step how to make a PowerPoint presentation from scratch.

While PowerPoint is designed to be intuitive and accessible, it can be overwhelming if you’ve never gotten any training on it before. As you progress through this guide, you’ll will learn how to move from blank slides to PowerPoint slides that look like these.

Table of Contents

Additionally, as you create your presentation, you’ll also learn tricks for working more efficiently in PowerPoint, including how to:

• Change the slide order
• Reset your layout
• Change the slide dimensions
• Use PowerPoint Designer
• Format text
• Format objects
• Play a presentation (slide show)

With this knowledge under your belt, you’ll be ready to start creating PowerPoint presentations. Moreover, you’ll have taken your skills from beginner to proficient in no time at all. I will also include links to more advanced PowerPoint topics.

Ready to start learning how to make a PowerPoint presentation?

Take your PPT skills to the next level

Start with a blank presentation.

Note: Before you open PowerPoint and start creating your presentation, make sure you’ve collected your thoughts. If you’re going to make your slides compelling, you need to spend some time brainstorming.

For help with this, see our article with tips for nailing your business presentation  here .

The first thing you’ll need to do is to open PowerPoint. When you do, you are shown the Start Menu , with the Home tab open.

This is where you can choose either a blank theme (1) or a pre-built theme (2). You can also choose to open an existing presentation (3).

For now, go ahead and click on the  Blank Presentation (1)  thumbnail.

Doing so launches a brand new and blank presentation for you to work with. Before you start adding content to your presentation, let’s first familiarize ourselves with the PowerPoint interface.

The PowerPoint interface

Here is how the program is laid out:

• The Application Header
• The Ribbon (including the Ribbon tabs)
• The Quick Access Toolbar (either above or below the Ribbon)
• The Slides Pane (slide thumbnails)

The Slide Area

The notes pane.

• The Status Bar (including the View Buttons)

Each one of these areas has options for viewing certain parts of the PowerPoint environment and formatting your presentation.

Below are the important things to know about certain elements of the PowerPoint interface.

The PowerPoint Ribbon

The Ribbon is contextual. That means that it will adapt to what you’re doing in the program.

For example, the Font, Paragraph and Drawing options are greyed out until you select something that has text in it, as in the example below (A).

Furthermore, if you start manipulating certain objects, the Ribbon will display additional tabs, as seen above (B), with more commands and features to help you work with those objects. The following objects have their own additional tabs in the Ribbon which are hidden until you select them:

• Online Pictures
• Screenshots
• Screen Recording

The Slides Pane

This is where you can preview and rearrange all the slides in your presentation.

Right-clicking on a slide  in the pane gives you additional options on the slide level that you won’t find on the Ribbon, such as  Duplicate Slide ,  Delete Slide , and  Hide Slide .

In addition, you can add sections to your presentation by  right-clicking anywhere in this Pane  and selecting  Add Section . Sections are extremely helpful in large presentations, as they allow you to organize your slides into chunks that you can then rearrange, print or display differently from other slides.

The Slide Area (A) is where you will build out your slides. Anything within the bounds of this area will be visible when you present or print your presentation.

Anything outside of this area (B) will be hidden from view. This means that you can place things here, such as instructions for each slide, without worrying about them being shown to your audience.

The  Notes Pane  is the space beneath the Slide Area where you can type in the speaker notes for each slide. It’s designed as a fast way to add and edit your slides’ talking points.

To expand your knowledge and learn more about adding, printing, and exporting your PowerPoint speaker notes, read our guide here .

Your speaker notes are visible when you print your slides using the Notes Pages option and when you use the Presenter View . To expand your knowledge and learn the ins and outs of using the Presenter View , read our guide here .

You can resize the  Notes Pane  by clicking on its edge and dragging it up or down (A). You can also minimize or reopen it by clicking on the Notes button in the Status Bar (B).

Note:  Not all text formatting displays in the Notes Pane, even though it will show up when printing your speaker notes. To learn more about printing PowerPoint with notes, read our guide here .

Now that you have a basic grasp of the PowerPoint interface at your disposal, it’s time to make your presentation.

Adding Content to Your PowerPoint Presentation

Notice that in the Slide Area , there are two rectangles with dotted outlines. These are called  Placeholders  and they’re set on the template in the Slide Master View .

To expand your knowledge and learn how to create a PowerPoint template of your own (which is no small task), read our guide here .

As the prompt text suggests, you can click into each placeholder and start typing text. These types of placeholder prompts are customizable too. That means that if you are using a company template, it might say something different, but the functionality is the same.

Note:  For the purposes of this example, I will create a presentation based on the content in the Starbucks 2018 Global Social Impact Report, which is available to the public on their website.

If you type in more text than there is room for, PowerPoint will automatically reduce its font size. You can stop this behavior by clicking on the  Autofit Options  icon to the left of the placeholder and selecting  Stop Fitting Text to this Placeholder .

Next, you can make formatting adjustments to your text by selecting the commands in the Font area and the  Paragraph area  of the  Home  tab of the Ribbon.

The Reset Command:  If you make any changes to your title and decide you want to go back to how it was originally, you can use the Reset button up in the Home tab .

Insert More Slides into Your Presentation

Now that you have your title slide filled in, it’s time to add more slides. To do that, simply go up to the  Home tab  and click on  New Slide . This inserts a new slide in your presentation right after the one you were on.

You can alternatively hit Ctrl+M on your keyboard to insert a new blank slide in PowerPoint. To learn more about this shortcut, see my guide on using Ctrl+M in PowerPoint .

Instead of clicking the New Slide command, you can also open the New Slide dropdown to see all the slide layouts in your PowerPoint template. Depending on who created your template, your layouts in this dropdown can be radically different.

If you insert a layout and later want to change it to a different layout, you can use the Layout dropdown instead of the New Slide dropdown.

After inserting a few different slide layouts, your presentation might look like the following picture. Don’t worry that it looks blank, next we will start adding content to your presentation.

If you want to follow along exactly with me, your five slides should be as follows:

• Title Slide
• Title and Content
• Section Header
• Two Content
• Picture with Caption

Adding Content to Your Slides

Now let’s go into each slide and start adding our content. You’ll notice some new types of placeholders.

On slide 2 we have a  Content Placeholder , which allows you to add any kind of content. That includes:

• A SmartArt graphic,
• A 3D object,
• A picture from the web,
• Or an icon.

To insert text, simply type it in or hit  Ctrl+C to Copy  and Ctrl+V to Paste  from elsewhere. To insert any of the other objects, click on the appropriate icon and follow the steps to insert it.

For my example, I’ll simply type in some text as you can see in the picture below.

Slides 3 and 4 only have text placeholders, so I’ll go ahead and add in my text into each one.

On slide 5 we have a Picture Placeholder . That means that the only elements that can go into it are:

• A picture from the web

To insert a picture into the picture placeholder, simply:

• Click on the  Picture  icon
• Find  a picture on your computer and select it
• Click on  Insert

Alternatively, if you already have a picture open somewhere else, you can select the placeholder and paste in (shortcut: Ctrl+V ) the picture. You can also drag the picture in from a file explorer window.

If you do not like the background of the picture you inserted onto your slide, you can remove the background here in PowerPoint. To see how to do this, read my guide here .

Placeholders aren’t the only way to add content to your slides. At any point, you can use the Insert tab to add elements to your slides.

You can use either the Title Only  or the  Blank  slide layout to create slides for content that’s different. For example, a three-layout content slide, or a single picture divider slide, as shown below.

In the first example above, I’ve inserted 6 text boxes, 3 icons, and 3 circles to create this layout. In the second example, I’ve inserted a full-sized picture and then 2 shapes and 2 text boxes.

The Reset Command:  Because these slides are built with shapes and text boxes (and not placeholders), hitting the  Reset button up in the  Home tab  won’t do anything.

That is a good thing if you don’t want your layouts to adjust. However, it does mean that it falls on you to make sure everything is aligned and positioned correctly.

For more on how to add and manipulate the different objects in PowerPoint, check out our step-by-step articles here:

• Using graphics in PowerPoint
• Inserting icons onto slides
• Adding pictures to your PowerPoint
• How to embed a video in PowerPoint
• How to add music to your presentation

Using Designer to generate more layouts ideas

If you have Office 365, your version of PowerPoint comes with a new feature called Designer (or Design Ideas). This is a feature that generates slide layout ideas for you. The coolest thing about this feature is that it uses the content you already have.

To use Designer , simply navigate to the  Design tab  in your Ribbon, and click on  Design Ideas .

NOTE: If the PowerPoint Designer is not working for you (it is grey out), see my troubleshooting guide for Designer .

Change the Overall Design (optional)

When you make a PowerPoint presentation, you’ll want to think about the overall design. Now that you have some content in your presentation, you can use the Design tab to change the look and feel of your slides.

For additional help thinking through the design of your presentation,  read my guide here .

A. Picking your PowerPoint slide size

If you have PowerPoint 2013 or later, when you create a blank document in PowerPoint, you automatically start with a widescreen layout with a 16:9 ratio. These dimensions are suitable for most presentations as they match the screens of most computers and projectors.

However, you do have the option to change the dimensions.

For example, your presentation might not be presented, but instead converted into a PDF or printed and distributed. In that case, you can easily switch to the standard dimensions with a 4:3 ratio by selecting from the dropdown (A).

You can also choose a custom slide size or change the slide orientation from landscape to portrait in the Custom Slide Size dialog box (B).

To learn all about the different PowerPoint slide sizes, and some of the issues you will face when changing the slide size of a non-blank presentation,  read my guide here .

 B. Selecting a PowerPoint theme

The next thing you can do is change the theme of your presentation to a pre-built one. For a detailed explanation of what a PowerPoint theme is, and how to best use it,  read my article here .

In the beginning of this tutorial, we started with a blank presentation, which uses the default Office theme as you can see in the picture below.

That gives you the most flexibility because it has a blank background and quite simple layouts that work for most presentations. However, it also means that it’s your responsibility to enhance the design.

If you’re comfortable with this, you can stay with the default theme or create your own custom theme ( read my guide here ). But if you would rather not have to think about design, then you can choose a pre-designed theme.

Microsoft provides 46 other pre-built themes, which include slide layouts, color variants and palettes, and fonts. Each one varies quite significantly, so make sure you look through them carefully.

To select a different theme, go to the  Design tab  in the Ribbon, and click on the  dropdown arrow  in the  Themes section .

For this tutorial, let’s select the  Frame  theme and then choose the third Variant in the theme. Doing so changes the layout, colors, and fonts of your presentation.

Note: The theme dropdown area is also where you can import or save custom themes. To see my favorite places to find professional PowerPoint templates and themes (and recommendations for why I like them), read my guide here .

C. How to change a slide background in PowerPoint

The next thing to decide is how you want your background to look for the entire presentation. In the  Variants area, you can see four background options.

For this example, we want our presentation to have a dark background, so let’s select Style 3. When you do so, you’ll notice that:

• The background color automatically changes across all slides
• The color of the text on most of the slides automatically changes to white so that it’s visible on the dark background
• The colors of the objects on slides #6 and #7 also adjust, in a way we may not want (we’ll likely have to make some manual adjustments to these slides)

Note: If you want to change the slide background for just that one slide, don’t left-click the style. Instead, right-click it and select Apply to Selected Slides .

After you change the background for your entire presentation, you can easily adjust the background for an individual slide.

Inside the Format Background pane, you can see you have the following options:

• Gradient fill
• Picture or texture fill
• Pattern fill
• Hide background

You can explore these options to find the PowerPoint background that best fits your presentation.

D. How to change your color palette in PowerPoint

Another thing you may want to adjust in your presentation, is the color scheme. In the picture below you can see the Theme Colors we are currently using for this presentation.

Each PowerPoint theme comes with its own color palette. By default, the Office theme includes the Office color palette. This affects the colors you are presented with when you format any element within your presentation (text, shapes, SmartArt, etc.).

The good news is that the colors here are easy to change. To switch color palettes, simply:

• Go to the  Design tab in the Ribbon
• In the Variants area, click on the  dropdown arrow  and select  Colors
• Select  the color palette (or theme colors) you want

You can choose among the pre-built color palettes from Office, or you can customize them to create your own.

As you build your presentation, make sure you use the colors from your theme to format objects. That way, changing the color palette adjusts all the colors in your presentation automatically.

E. How to change your fonts in PowerPoint

Just as we changed the color palette, you can do the same for the fonts.

Each PowerPoint theme comes with its own font combination. By default, the Office theme includes the Office font pairing. This affects the fonts that are automatically assigned to all text in your presentation.

The good news is that the font pairings are easy to change. To switch your Theme Fonts, simply:

• Go to the  Design tab  in the Ribbon
• Click on the  dropdown arrow  in the  Variants  area
• Select  Fonts
• Select  the font pairing you want

You can choose among the pre-built fonts from Office, or you can customize them to create your own.

If you are working with PowerPoint presentations on both Mac and PC computers, make sure you choose a safe PowerPoint font. To see a list of the safest PowerPoint fonts, read our guide here .

If you receive a PowerPoint presentation and the wrong fonts were used, you can use the Replace Fonts dialog box to change the fonts across your entire presentation. For details, read our guide here .

Adding Animations & Transitions (optional)

The final step to make a PowerPoint presentation compelling, is to consider using animations and transitions. These are by no means necessary to a good presentation, but they may be helpful in your situation.

A. Adding PowerPoint animations

PowerPoint has an incredibly robust animations engine designed to power your creativity. That being said, it’s also easy to get started with basic animations.

Animations are movements that you can apply to individual objects on your slide.

To add a PowerPoint animation to an element of your slide, simply:

• Select the  element
• Go to the  Animations tab in the Ribbon
• Click on the  dropdown arrow  to view your options
• Select the  animation  you want

You can add animations to multiple objects at one time by selecting them all first and then applying the animation.

B. How to preview a PowerPoint animation

There are three ways to preview a PowerPoint animation:

• Click on the Preview button in the Animations tab
• Click on the little star  next to the slide
• Play the slide in Slide Show Mode

To learn other ways to run your slide show, see our guide on presenting a PowerPoint slide show with shortcuts .

To adjust the settings of your animations, explore the options in the  Effect Options ,  Advanced Animation  and the  Timing  areas of the  Animation tab .

Note:  To see how to make objects appear and disappear in your slides by clicking a button,  read our guide here .

C. How to manage your animations in PowerPoint

The best way to manage lots of animations on your slide is with the Animation Pane . To open it, simply:

• Navigate to the  Animations tab
• Select the  Animation Pane

Inside the Animation Pane, you’ll see all of the different animations that have been applied to objects on your slide, with their numbers marked as pictured above.

Note: To see examples of PowerPoint animations that can use in PowerPoint, see our list of PowerPoint animation tutorials here .

D. How to add transitions to your PowerPoint presentation

PowerPoint has an incredibly robust transition engine so that you can dictate how your slides change from one to the other. It is also extremely easy to add transitions to your slides.

In PowerPoint, transitions are the movements (or effects) you see as you move between two slides.

To add a transition to a PowerPoint slide, simply:

• Select the  slide
• Go to the  Transitions tab in the Ribbon
• In the Transitions to This Slide area, click on the  dropdown arrow  to view your options
• Select the  transition  you want

To adjust the settings of the transition, explore the options in the  Timing  area of the Transitions tab.

You can also add the same transition to multiple slides. To do that, select them in the  Slides Pane  and apply the transition.

E. How to preview a transition in PowerPoint

There are three ways to preview your PowerPoint transitions (just like your animations):

• Click on the Preview  button in the Transitions tab
• Click on the little star  beneath the slide number in the thumbnail view

Note:  In 2016, PowerPoint added a cool new transition, called Morph. It operates a bit differently from other transitions. For a detailed tutorial on how to use the cool Morph transition,  see our step-by-step article here .

Save Your PowerPoint Presentation

After you’ve built your presentation and made all the adjustments to your slides, you’ll want to save your presentation. YOu can do this several different ways.

To save a PowerPoint presentation using your Ribbon, simply:

• Navigate to the  File tab
•  Select  Save As  on the left
• Choose  where you want to save your presentation
• Name  your presentation and/or adjust your file type settings
• Click  Save

You can alternatively use the  Ctrl+S keyboard shortcut to save your presentation. I recommend using this shortcut frequently as you build your presentation to make sure you don’t lose any of your work.

This is the standard way to save a presentation. However, there may be a situation where you want to save your presentation as a different file type.

To learn how to save your presentation as a PDF, see our guide on converting PowerPoint to a PDF .

How to save your PowerPoint presentation as a template

Once you’ve created a presentation that you like, you may want to turn it into a template. The easiest – but not technically correct – way, is to simply create a copy of your current presentation and then change the content.

But be careful! A PowerPoint template is a special type of document and it has its own parameters and behaviors.

If you’re interested in learning about how to create your own PowerPoint template from scratch, see our guide on how to create a PowerPoint template .

Printing Your PowerPoint Presentation

After finishing your PowerPoint presentation, you may want to print it out on paper. Printing your slides is relatively easy.

To open the Print dialog box, you can either:

• Hit Ctrl+P on your keyboard
• Or go to the Ribbon and click on File and then Print

Inside the Print dialog box, you can choose from the various printing settings:

• Printer: Select a printer to use (or print to PDF or OneNote)
• Slides: Choose which slides you want to print
• Layout: Determine how many slides you want per page (this is where you can print the notes, outline, and handouts)
• Collated or uncollated (learn what collated printing means here )
• Color: Choose to print in color, grayscale or black & white

There are many more options for printing your PowerPoint presentations. Here are links to more in-depth articles:

• How to print multiple slides per page
• How to print your speaker notes in PowerPoint
• How to save PowerPoint as a picture presentation

So that’s how to create a PowerPoint presentation if you are brand new to it. We’ve also included a ton of links to helpful resources to boost your PowerPoint skills further.

When you are creating your presentation, it is critical to first focus on the content (what you are trying to say) before getting lost inserting and playing with elements. The clearer you are on what you want to present, the easier it will be to build it out in PowerPoint.

If you enjoyed this article, you can learn more about our PowerPoint training courses and other presentation resources by  visiting us here .

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How can you make a good presentation even more effective?

This page draws on published advice from expert presenters around the world, which will help to take your presentations from merely ‘good’ to ‘great’.

By bringing together advice from a wide range of people, the aim is to cover a whole range of areas.

Whether you are an experienced presenter, or just starting out, there should be ideas here to help you to improve.

1. Show your Passion and Connect with your Audience

It’s hard to be relaxed and be yourself when you’re nervous.

But time and again, the great presenters say that the most important thing is to connect with your audience, and the best way to do that is to let your passion for the subject shine through.

Be honest with the audience about what is important to you and why it matters.

Be enthusiastic and honest, and the audience will respond.

2. Focus on your Audience’s Needs

Your presentation needs to be built around what your audience is going to get out of the presentation.

As you prepare the presentation, you always need to bear in mind what the audience needs and wants to know, not what you can tell them.

While you’re giving the presentation, you also need to remain focused on your audience’s response, and react to that.

You need to make it easy for your audience to understand and respond.

3. Keep it Simple: Concentrate on your Core Message

When planning your presentation, you should always keep in mind the question:

What is the key message (or three key points) for my audience to take away?

You should be able to communicate that key message very briefly.

Some experts recommend a 30-second ‘elevator summary’, others that you can write it on the back of a business card, or say it in no more than 15 words.

Whichever rule you choose, the important thing is to keep your core message focused and brief.

And if what you are planning to say doesn’t contribute to that core message, don’t say it.

4. Smile and Make Eye Contact with your Audience

This sounds very easy, but a surprisingly large number of presenters fail to do it.

If you smile and make eye contact, you are building rapport , which helps the audience to connect with you and your subject. It also helps you to feel less nervous, because you are talking to individuals, not to a great mass of unknown people.

To help you with this, make sure that you don’t turn down all the lights so that only the slide screen is visible. Your audience needs to see you as well as your slides.

5. Start Strongly

The beginning of your presentation is crucial. You need to grab your audience’s attention and hold it.

They will give you a few minutes’ grace in which to entertain them, before they start to switch off if you’re dull. So don’t waste that on explaining who you are. Start by entertaining them.

Try a story (see tip 7 below), or an attention-grabbing (but useful) image on a slide.

6. Remember the 10-20-30 Rule for Slideshows

This is a tip from Guy Kawasaki of Apple. He suggests that slideshows should:

• Contain no more than 10 slides;
• Last no more than 20 minutes; and
• Use a font size of no less than 30 point.

This last is particularly important as it stops you trying to put too much information on any one slide. This whole approach avoids the dreaded ‘Death by PowerPoint’.

As a general rule, slides should be the sideshow to you, the presenter. A good set of slides should be no use without the presenter, and they should definitely contain less, rather than more, information, expressed simply.

If you need to provide more information, create a bespoke handout and give it out after your presentation.

7. Tell Stories

Human beings are programmed to respond to stories.

Stories help us to pay attention, and also to remember things. If you can use stories in your presentation, your audience is more likely to engage and to remember your points afterwards. It is a good idea to start with a story, but there is a wider point too: you need your presentation to act like a story.

Think about what story you are trying to tell your audience, and create your presentation to tell it.

Finding The Story Behind Your Presentation

To effectively tell a story, focus on using at least one of the two most basic storytelling mechanics in your presentation:

Focusing On Characters – People have stories; things, data, and objects do not. So ask yourself “who” is directly involved in your topic that you can use as the focal point of your story.

For example, instead of talking about cars (your company’s products), you could focus on specific characters like:

• The drivers the car is intended for – people looking for speed and adventure
• The engineers who went out of their way to design the most cost-effective car imaginable

A Changing Dynamic – A story needs something to change along the way. So ask yourself “What is not as it should be?” and answer with what you are going to do about it (or what you did about it).

For example…

• Did hazardous road conditions inspire you to build a rugged, all-terrain jeep that any family could afford?
• Did a complicated and confusing food labelling system lead you to establish a colour-coded nutritional index so that anybody could easily understand it?

To see 15 more actionable storytelling tips, see Nuts & Bolts Speed Training’s post on Storytelling Tips .

8. Use your Voice Effectively

The spoken word is actually a pretty inefficient means of communication, because it uses only one of your audience’s five senses. That’s why presenters tend to use visual aids, too. But you can help to make the spoken word better by using your voice effectively.

Varying the speed at which you talk, and emphasising changes in pitch and tone all help to make your voice more interesting and hold your audience’s attention.

For more about this, see our page on Effective Speaking .

9. Use your Body Too

It has been estimated that more than three quarters of communication is non-verbal.

That means that as well as your tone of voice, your body language is crucial to getting your message across. Make sure that you are giving the right messages: body language to avoid includes crossed arms, hands held behind your back or in your pockets, and pacing the stage.

Make your gestures open and confident, and move naturally around the stage, and among the audience too, if possible.

10. Relax, Breathe and Enjoy

If you find presenting difficult, it can be hard to be calm and relaxed about doing it.

One option is to start by concentrating on your breathing. Slow it down, and make sure that you’re breathing fully. Make sure that you continue to pause for breath occasionally during your presentation too.

For more ideas, see our page on Coping with Presentation Nerves .

If you can bring yourself to relax, you will almost certainly present better. If you can actually start to enjoy yourself, your audience will respond to that, and engage better. Your presentations will improve exponentially, and so will your confidence. It’s well worth a try.

Improve your Presentation Skills

Follow our guide to boost your presentation skills learning about preparation, delivery, questions and all other aspects of giving effective presentations.

Start with: What is a Presentation?

Continue to: How to Give a Speech Self Presentation

See also: Five Ways You Can Do Visual Marketing on a Budget Can Presentation Science Improve Your Presentation? Typography – It’s All About the Message in Your Slides

How-To Geek

8 tips to make the best powerpoint presentations.

Want to make your PowerPoint presentations really shine? Here's how to impress and engage your audience.

Quick Links

Table of contents, start with a goal, less is more, consider your typeface, make bullet points count, limit the use of transitions, skip text where possible, think in color, take a look from the top down, bonus: start with templates.

Slideshows are an intuitive way to share complex ideas with an audience, although they're dull and frustrating when poorly executed. Here are some tips to make your Microsoft PowerPoint presentations sing while avoiding common pitfalls.

It all starts with identifying what we're trying to achieve with the presentation. Is it informative, a showcase of data in an easy-to-understand medium? Or is it more of a pitch, something meant to persuade and convince an audience and lead them to a particular outcome?

It's here where the majority of these presentations go wrong with the inability to identify the talking points that best support our goal. Always start with a goal in mind: to entertain, to inform, or to share data in a way that's easy to understand. Use facts, figures, and images to support your conclusion while keeping structure in mind (Where are we now and where are we going?).

I've found that it's helpful to start with the ending. Once I know how to end a presentation, I know how best to get to that point. I start by identifying the takeaway---that one nugget that I want to implant before thanking everyone for their time---and I work in reverse to figure out how best to get there.

Your mileage, of course, may vary. But it's always going to be a good idea to put in the time in the beginning stages so that you aren't reworking large portions of the presentation later. And that starts with a defined goal.

A slideshow isn't supposed to include everything. It's an introduction to a topic, one that we can elaborate on with speech. Anything unnecessary is a distraction. It makes the presentation less visually appealing and less interesting, and it makes you look bad as a presenter.

This goes for text as well as images. There's nothing worse, in fact, than a series of slides where the presenter just reads them as they appear. Your audience is capable of reading, and chances are they'll be done with the slide, and browsing Reddit, long before you finish. Avoid putting the literal text on the screen, and your audience will thank you.

Related: How to Burn Your PowerPoint to DVD

Right off the bat, we're just going to come out and say that Papyrus and Comic Sans should be banned from all PowerPoint presentations, permanently. Beyond that, it's worth considering the typeface you're using and what it's saying about you, the presenter, and the presentation itself.

Consider choosing readability over aesthetics, and avoid fancy fonts that could prove to be more of a distraction than anything else. A good presentation needs two fonts: a serif and sans-serif. Use one for the headlines and one for body text, lists, and the like. Keep it simple. Veranda, Helvetica, Arial, and even Times New Roman are safe choices. Stick with the classics and it's hard to botch this one too badly.

There reaches a point where bullet points become less of a visual aid and more of a visual examination.

Bullet points should support the speaker, not overwhelm his audience. The best slides have little or no text at all, in fact. As a presenter, it's our job to talk through complex issues, but that doesn't mean that we need to highlight every talking point.

Instead, think about how you can break up large lists into three or four bullet points. Carefully consider whether you need to use more bullet points, or if you can combine multiple topics into a single point instead. And if you can't, remember that there's no one limiting the number of slides you can have in a presentation. It's always possible to break a list of 12 points down into three pages of four points each.

Animation, when used correctly, is a good idea. It breaks up slow-moving parts of a presentation and adds action to elements that require it. But it should be used judiciously.

Adding a transition that wipes left to right between every slide or that animates each bullet point in a list, for example, starts to grow taxing on those forced to endure the presentation. Viewers get bored quickly, and animations that are meant to highlight specific elements quickly become taxing.

That's not to say that you can't use animations and transitions, just that you need to pick your spots. Aim for no more than a handful of these transitions for each presentation. And use them in spots where they'll add to the demonstration, not detract from it.

Sometimes images tell a better story than text can. And as a presenter, your goal is to describe points in detail without making users do a lot of reading. In these cases, a well-designed visual, like a chart, might better convey the information you're trying to share.

The right image adds visual appeal and serves to break up longer, text-heavy sections of the presentation---but only if you're using the right images. A single high-quality image can make all the difference between a success and a dud when you're driving a specific point home.

When considering text, don't think solely in terms of bullet points and paragraphs. Tables, for example, are often unnecessary. Ask yourself whether you could present the same data in a bar or line chart instead.

Color is interesting. It evokes certain feelings and adds visual appeal to your presentation as a whole. Studies show that color also improves interest, comprehension, and retention. It should be a careful consideration, not an afterthought.

You don't have to be a graphic designer to use color well in a presentation. What I do is look for palettes I like, and then find ways to use them in the presentation. There are a number of tools for this, like Adobe Color , Coolors , and ColorHunt , just to name a few. After finding a palette you enjoy, consider how it works with the presentation you're about to give. Pastels, for example, evoke feelings of freedom and light, so they probably aren't the best choice when you're presenting quarterly earnings that missed the mark.

It's also worth mentioning that you don't need to use every color in the palette. Often, you can get by with just two or three, though you should really think through how they all work together and how readable they'll be when layered. A simple rule of thumb here is that contrast is your friend. Dark colors work well on light backgrounds, and light colors work best on dark backgrounds.

Spend some time in the Slide Sorter before you finish your presentation. By clicking the four squares at the bottom left of the presentation, you can take a look at multiple slides at once and consider how each works together. Alternatively, you can click "View" on the ribbon and select "Slide Sorter."

Are you presenting too much text at once? Move an image in. Could a series of slides benefit from a chart or summary before you move on to another point?

It's here that we have the opportunity to view the presentation from beyond the single-slide viewpoint and think in terms of how each slide fits, or if it fits at all. From this view, you can rearrange slides, add additional ones, or delete them entirely if you find that they don't advance the presentation.

The difference between a good presentation and a bad one is really all about preparation and execution. Those that respect the process and plan carefully---not only the presentation as a whole, but each slide within it---are the ones who will succeed.

This brings me to my last (half) point: When in doubt, just buy a template and use it. You can find these all over the web, though Creative Market and GraphicRiver are probably the two most popular marketplaces for this kind of thing. Not all of us are blessed with the skills needed to design and deliver an effective presentation. And while a pre-made PowerPoint template isn't going to make you a better presenter, it will ease the anxiety of creating a visually appealing slide deck.

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How to Structure your Presentation, with Examples

August 3, 2018 - Dom Barnard

For many people the thought of delivering a presentation is a daunting task and brings about a  great deal of nerves . However, if you take some time to understand how effective presentations are structured and then apply this structure to your own presentation, you’ll appear much more confident and relaxed.

Here is our complete guide for structuring your presentation, with examples at the end of the article to demonstrate these points.

Why is structuring a presentation so important?

If you’ve ever sat through a great presentation, you’ll have left feeling either inspired or informed on a given topic. This isn’t because the speaker was the most knowledgeable or motivating person in the world. Instead, it’s because they know how to structure presentations – they have crafted their message in a logical and simple way that has allowed the audience can keep up with them and take away key messages.

Research has supported this, with studies showing that audiences retain structured information  40% more accurately  than unstructured information.

In fact, not only is structuring a presentation important for the benefit of the audience’s understanding, it’s also important for you as the speaker. A good structure helps you remain calm, stay on topic, and avoid any awkward silences.

What will affect your presentation structure?

Generally speaking, there is a natural flow that any decent presentation will follow which we will go into shortly. However, you should be aware that all presentation structures will be different in their own unique way and this will be due to a number of factors, including:

• Whether you need to deliver any demonstrations
• How  knowledgeable the audience  already is on the given subject
• How much interaction you want from the audience
• Any time constraints there are for your talk
• What setting you are in
• Your ability to use any kinds of visual assistance

Before choosing the presentation’s structure answer these questions first:

• What is your presentation’s aim?
• Who are the audience?
• What are the main points your audience should remember afterwards?

When reading the points below, think critically about what things may cause your presentation structure to be slightly different. You can add in certain elements and add more focus to certain moments if that works better for your speech.

What is the typical presentation structure?

This is the usual flow of a presentation, which covers all the vital sections and is a good starting point for yours. It allows your audience to easily follow along and sets out a solid structure you can add your content to.

1. Greet the audience and introduce yourself

Before you start delivering your talk, introduce yourself to the audience and clarify who you are and your relevant expertise. This does not need to be long or incredibly detailed, but will help build an immediate relationship between you and the audience. It gives you the chance to briefly clarify your expertise and why you are worth listening to. This will help establish your ethos so the audience will trust you more and think you’re credible.

Read our tips on  How to Start a Presentation Effectively

2. Introduction

In the introduction you need to explain the subject and purpose of your presentation whilst gaining the audience’s interest and confidence. It’s sometimes helpful to think of your introduction as funnel-shaped to help filter down your topic:

• Introduce your general topic
• Explain your topic area
• State the issues/challenges in this area you will be exploring
• State your presentation’s purpose – this is the basis of your presentation so ensure that you provide a statement explaining how the topic will be treated, for example, “I will argue that…” or maybe you will “compare”, “analyse”, “evaluate”, “describe” etc.
• Provide a statement of what you’re hoping the outcome of the presentation will be, for example, “I’m hoping this will be provide you with…”
• Show a preview of the organisation of your presentation

In this section also explain:

• The length of the talk.
• Signal whether you want audience interaction – some presenters prefer the audience to ask questions throughout whereas others allocate a specific section for this.
• If it applies, inform the audience whether to take notes or whether you will be providing handouts.

The way you structure your introduction can depend on the amount of time you have been given to present: a  sales pitch  may consist of a quick presentation so you may begin with your conclusion and then provide the evidence. Conversely, a speaker presenting their idea for change in the world would be better suited to start with the evidence and then conclude what this means for the audience.

Keep in mind that the main aim of the introduction is to grab the audience’s attention and connect with them.

3. The main body of your talk

The main body of your talk needs to meet the promises you made in the introduction. Depending on the nature of your presentation, clearly segment the different topics you will be discussing, and then work your way through them one at a time – it’s important for everything to be organised logically for the audience to fully understand. There are many different ways to organise your main points, such as, by priority, theme, chronologically etc.

• Main points should be addressed one by one with supporting evidence and examples.
• Before moving on to the next point you should provide a mini-summary.
• Links should be clearly stated between ideas and you must make it clear when you’re moving onto the next point.
• Allow time for people to take relevant notes and stick to the topics you have prepared beforehand rather than straying too far off topic.

When planning your presentation write a list of main points you want to make and ask yourself “What I am telling the audience? What should they understand from this?” refining your answers this way will help you produce clear messages.

4. Conclusion

In presentations the conclusion is frequently underdeveloped and lacks purpose which is a shame as it’s the best place to reinforce your messages. Typically, your presentation has a specific goal – that could be to convert a number of the audience members into customers, lead to a certain number of enquiries to make people knowledgeable on specific key points, or to motivate them towards a shared goal.

Regardless of what that goal is, be sure to summarise your main points and their implications. This clarifies the overall purpose of your talk and reinforces your reason for being there.

Follow these steps:

• Signal that it’s nearly the end of your presentation, for example, “As we wrap up/as we wind down the talk…”
• Restate the topic and purpose of your presentation – “In this speech I wanted to compare…”
• Summarise the main points, including their implications and conclusions
• Indicate what is next/a call to action/a thought-provoking takeaway
• Move on to the last section

5. Thank the audience and invite questions

Conclude your talk by thanking the audience for their time and invite them to  ask any questions  they may have. As mentioned earlier, personal circumstances will affect the structure of your presentation.

Many presenters prefer to make the Q&A session the key part of their talk and try to speed through the main body of the presentation. This is totally fine, but it is still best to focus on delivering some sort of initial presentation to set the tone and topics for discussion in the Q&A.

Other common presentation structures

The above was a description of a basic presentation, here are some more specific presentation layouts:

Demonstration

Use the demonstration structure when you have something useful to show. This is usually used when you want to show how a product works. Steve Jobs frequently used this technique in his presentations.

• Explain why the product is valuable.
• Describe why the product is necessary.
• Explain what problems it can solve for the audience.
• Demonstrate the product  to support what you’ve been saying.
• Make suggestions of other things it can do to make the audience curious.

Problem-solution

This structure is particularly useful in persuading the audience.

• Briefly frame the issue.
• Go into the issue in detail showing why it ‘s such a problem. Use logos and pathos for this – the logical and emotional appeals.
• Provide the solution and explain why this would also help the audience.
• Call to action – something you want the audience to do which is straightforward and pertinent to the solution.

Storytelling

As well as incorporating  stories in your presentation , you can organise your whole presentation as a story. There are lots of different type of story structures you can use – a popular choice is the monomyth – the hero’s journey. In a monomyth, a hero goes on a difficult journey or takes on a challenge – they move from the familiar into the unknown. After facing obstacles and ultimately succeeding the hero returns home, transformed and with newfound wisdom.

Storytelling for Business Success  webinar , where well-know storyteller Javier Bernad shares strategies for crafting compelling narratives.

Another popular choice for using a story to structure your presentation is in media ras (in the middle of thing). In this type of story you launch right into the action by providing a snippet/teaser of what’s happening and then you start explaining the events that led to that event. This is engaging because you’re starting your story at the most exciting part which will make the audience curious – they’ll want to know how you got there.

• Great storytelling: Examples from Alibaba Founder, Jack Ma

Remaining method

The remaining method structure is good for situations where you’re presenting your perspective on a controversial topic which has split people’s opinions.

• Go into the issue in detail showing why it’s such a problem – use logos and pathos.
• Rebut your opponents’ solutions  – explain why their solutions could be useful because the audience will see this as fair and will therefore think you’re trustworthy, and then explain why you think these solutions are not valid.
• After you’ve presented all the alternatives provide your solution, the remaining solution. This is very persuasive because it looks like the winning idea, especially with the audience believing that you’re fair and trustworthy.

Transitions

When delivering presentations it’s important for your words and ideas to flow so your audience can understand how everything links together and why it’s all relevant. This can be done  using speech transitions  which are words and phrases that allow you to smoothly move from one point to another so that your speech flows and your presentation is unified.

Transitions can be one word, a phrase or a full sentence – there are many different forms, here are some examples:

Moving from the introduction to the first point

Signify to the audience that you will now begin discussing the first main point:

• Now that you’re aware of the overview, let’s begin with…
• First, let’s begin with…
• I will first cover…
• My first point covers…
• To get started, let’s look at…

Shifting between similar points

Move from one point to a similar one:

• In the same way…
• Likewise…
• Equally…
• This is similar to…
• Similarly…

Internal summaries

Internal summarising consists of summarising before moving on to the next point. You must inform the audience:

• What part of the presentation you covered – “In the first part of this speech we’ve covered…”
• What the key points were – “Precisely how…”
• How this links in with the overall presentation – “So that’s the context…”
• What you’re moving on to – “Now I’d like to move on to the second part of presentation which looks at…”

Physical movement

You can move your body and your standing location when you transition to another point. The audience find it easier to follow your presentation and movement will increase their interest.

A common technique for incorporating movement into your presentation is to:

• Start your introduction by standing in the centre of the stage.
• For your first point you stand on the left side of the stage.
• You discuss your second point from the centre again.
• You stand on the right side of the stage for your third point.
• The conclusion occurs in the centre.

Key slides for your presentation

Slides are a useful tool for most presentations: they can greatly assist in the delivery of your message and help the audience follow along with what you are saying. Key slides include:

• An intro slide outlining your ideas
• A  summary slide  with core points to remember
• High quality image slides to supplement what you are saying

There are some presenters who choose not to use slides at all, though this is more of a rarity. Slides can be a powerful tool if used properly, but the problem is that many fail to do just that. Here are some golden rules to follow when using slides in a presentation:

• Don’t over fill them  – your slides are there to assist your speech, rather than be the focal point. They should have as little information as possible, to avoid distracting people from your talk.
• A picture says a thousand words  – instead of filling a slide with text, instead, focus on one or two images or diagrams to help support and explain the point you are discussing at that time.
• Make them readable  – depending on the size of your audience, some may not be able to see small text or images, so make everything large enough to fill the space.
• Don’t rush through slides  – give the audience enough time to digest each slide.

Guy Kawasaki, an entrepreneur and author, suggests that slideshows should follow a  10-20-30 rule :

• There should be a maximum of 10 slides – people rarely remember more than one concept afterwards so there’s no point overwhelming them with unnecessary information.
• The presentation should last no longer than 20 minutes as this will leave time for questions and discussion.
• The font size should be a minimum of 30pt because the audience reads faster than you talk so less information on the slides means that there is less chance of the audience being distracted.

Here are some additional resources for slide design:

• 7 design tips for effective, beautiful PowerPoint presentations
• 11 design tips for beautiful presentations
• 10 tips on how to make slides that communicate your idea

Group Presentations

Group presentations are structured in the same way as presentations with one speaker but usually require more rehearsal and practices.  Clean transitioning between speakers  is very important in producing a presentation that flows well. One way of doing this consists of:

• Briefly recap on what you covered in your section: “So that was a brief introduction on what health anxiety is and how it can affect somebody”
• Introduce the next speaker in the team and explain what they will discuss: “Now Elnaz will talk about the prevalence of health anxiety.”
• Then end by looking at the next speaker, gesturing towards them and saying their name: “Elnaz”.
• The next speaker should acknowledge this with a quick: “Thank you Joe.”

From this example you can see how the different sections of the presentations link which makes it easier for the audience to follow and remain engaged.

Example of great presentation structure and delivery

Having examples of great presentations will help inspire your own structures, here are a few such examples, each unique and inspiring in their own way.

How Google Works – by Eric Schmidt

This presentation by ex-Google CEO  Eric Schmidt  demonstrates some of the most important lessons he and his team have learnt with regards to working with some of the most talented individuals they hired. The simplistic yet cohesive style of all of the slides is something to be appreciated. They are relatively straightforward, yet add power and clarity to the narrative of the presentation.

Start with why – by Simon Sinek

Since being released in 2009, this presentation has been viewed almost four million times all around the world. The message itself is very powerful, however, it’s not an idea that hasn’t been heard before. What makes this presentation so powerful is the simple message he is getting across, and the straightforward and understandable manner in which he delivers it. Also note that he doesn’t use any slides, just a whiteboard where he creates a simple diagram of his opinion.

The Wisdom of a Third Grade Dropout – by Rick Rigsby

Here’s an example of a presentation given by a relatively unknown individual looking to inspire the next generation of graduates. Rick’s presentation is unique in many ways compared to the two above. Notably, he uses no visual prompts and includes a great deal of humour.

However, what is similar is the structure he uses. He first introduces his message that the wisest man he knew was a third-grade dropout. He then proceeds to deliver his main body of argument, and in the end, concludes with his message. This powerful speech keeps the viewer engaged throughout, through a mixture of heart-warming sentiment, powerful life advice and engaging humour.

As you can see from the examples above, and as it has been expressed throughout, a great presentation structure means analysing the core message of your presentation. Decide on a key message you want to impart the audience with, and then craft an engaging way of delivering it.

By preparing a solid structure, and  practising your talk  beforehand, you can walk into the presentation with confidence and deliver a meaningful message to an interested audience.

It’s important for a presentation to be well-structured so it can have the most impact on your audience. An unstructured presentation can be difficult to follow and even frustrating to listen to. The heart of your speech are your main points supported by evidence and your transitions should assist the movement between points and clarify how everything is linked.

Research suggests that the audience remember the first and last things you say so your introduction and conclusion are vital for reinforcing your points. Essentially, ensure you spend the time structuring your presentation and addressing all of the sections.

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How to Create the Perfect Presentation Handout

One of the most often overlooked parts of a presentation is the presentation handouts. So, in this post, we’ll give you a few examples of presentation handouts that you can create very easily and add impact to your speech or business meetings.

Good speakers and lecturers usually give presentation handouts to accompany their speeches. As a result, a great presentation handout can make your speech more memorable. It gives your audience the freedom to listen to your presentation instead of frantically taking notes.

The handouts you provide also help them remember the key points and highlights from your presentation, making your talk even more valuable. People are grateful for a good handout and will remember you (and the main points of your speech) long after the talk ended. Finally, your handout can be used as an exceptional marketing piece. If it is good enough, your audience members will both keep it and share it with others.

The Successful Speaker’s Guide to the How to Create the Perfect Presentation Handout.

The first rule of slide club is never handout your slides to slide club..

This has always been a hard and fast rule in my business presentation classes. But I have to admit, in recent years, I’ve changed my tune slightly here. When I first started teaching presentation classes, PowerPoint was still in its infancy. And the slideshows that people were creating were really awful. Folks would just create a never-ending series of bullet points on a never-ending slide deck. Since most presentations covered way too much content, it was impossible for the audience to retain most of it. In order to prevent information overload, presenters started printing off their slides and distributing the printed slide deck to their audience as a handout. As a result, the presenter ends up with a bad presentation accompanied by a bad handout.

However, if you get creative with your slides, you can actually use a printout of your slide deck to make your presentation more interactive (more on this later). The main point here is if you have a ton of content in your presentation, stuffing that content onto your slides and then just printing out your slides is not a good idea.

I sometimes make this point in class by starting to deliver a data-heavy slide deck. It typically only takes a few slides before someone in class figures out that I’m violating almost every tip that I’m giving them.

At that point, there is usually a nice laugh. I then switch to a better slideshow that is more audience-centered. The funny thing is, though, that before the class figures out that the bad PowerPoint presentation is a joke, someone in the class will often ask me if I will send them the slide deck.  So, if your audience is asking you for your slide deck, your presentation is probably not designed very well .

Three Easy Examples of Handouts for Presentations.

Presentation handout example #1: just use slide notes in powerpoint as a presentation handout..

One of the main reasons that I have always encouraged my class members to not print out their slides is that the slides, without the speaker, aren’t going to make a lot of sense. However, most people will jot a few speaker notes of important information they want to say in the presentation. If you use the techniques that I cover here, you’ll likely create an outline with a few key items. You’ll likely also use stories, examples, analogies, anecdotes, quotes, statistics, and the like. Well, if you already have that content created before you create your slide deck, you could just insert that content into the Slide Notes in PowerPoint. Viola! Instant presentation handouts.

The Second Example of a Presentation Handout: Give Main Concepts with Space for Audience to Add Notes.

A friend of mine leads three-day training boot camps where he teaches social media marketing and website development. His handout is a three-ring binder full of printed pages. Each page has a series of rules followed by a quarter page of blank space. I once asked him, since the content that he was delivering was so detailed, why didn’t he just type it up and include it in his manuals.

He laughed and told me that he used to do that very thing. But the content in his industry was changing so quickly that, the moment he printed a new manual, those additional details would already be outdated. So, now, he just prints the core message. Then, he allows his students to fill in the blanks with the most current content that he delivers from the stage. (He gets fantastic reviews, by the way.)

I love this technique. It keeps the audience involved. It also allows the audience members to write out the content that is most important to each of them at the time they attended the meeting.

The Most Effective Example: Create a Presentation Handout that Contains Extra Content Not in Your Presentation

You want to include the content from your presentation in a written format. But you also want to add additional information that you won’t cover in the presentation. This is the technique that we use in our seminars and workshops.

For instance, if you are going to use a story as a piece of evidence in your verbal presentation, use a different story in your handout. If you use an analogy in your presentation, use a quote in your handout. When you use audience participation in your presentation, use a unique photograph in your handout.

If you do this, your target audience will see you as a valued expert on the topic. By the way, it is okay to use some of the same content in your slideshows, your oral presentations, and your handouts. It is important to be consistent. However, you want your verbal presentation to cover some key ideas that aren’t in your handout. And you want your handout to cover detailed information that you don’t speak about.

This type of presentation is a great handout because it becomes a textbook for your presentation. It does take longer to create a well-prepared handout. But you will find that the value to your audience far outweighs the additional effort.

During the presentation, you’ll want to say something like, “I’ve given you additional examples in your handout,” or “If you want the full step-by-step approach, you can download the handout from my website at [your URL].”

A Few Bonus Tips to Add Impact to Your Handouts.

Add a list of reference material for further reading

Your audience members will want to pick your brain. They want to know where you went to school, what kind of work experience you have, and most of all, where they can read more about your topic.

There’s a ton of resources out there, so instead of having your audience sort through them (or risk boring them with way too much detail in the presentation), just lead them in the right direction with your recommended reading. If the book is hard to find, or only available online, remember to include the link to where it can be purchased.

Consider adding a worksheet or action sheet

Depending on the type of presentation or speech you’re giving, you will likely have a call to action at the end, where you will encourage people to change or act on something related to your talk.

If a worksheet helped you implement these changes before, include it for your audience. Even a notes section located in the back of your handout will be an effective tool in case your audience wants to jot something down.What did your last handout look like? What will you change for next time? Let us know if you end up implementing any of these tips.

For additional help, here are a few additional posts:

• How Many PowerPoint Slides Should You Have for Your Presentation .
• Make Your Handout Look Great without a Graphic Designer .
• How to Design Your Presentation in a Few Simple Steps .
• We Use the Software Canva to Create Great Presentation Handouts with a Professional Layout

Download the Free How to Create a Great Presentation Handout… Handout.

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5 Steps to Preparing an Engaging Industry Presentation You can make a great impression and generate interest with an exciting, informative presentation. Find out my five secrets to creating an industry presentation guaranteed to wow.

By Cyrus Claffey Edited by Chelsea Brown May 28, 2024

Key Takeaways

• This article offers practical advice for delivering impactful presentations at industry events, emphasizing the importance of a comfortable stage presence, understanding your audience, designing effective slides and more.

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Industry events are a chance to network with your colleagues and impress distributors — but to really make the most of your time at a conference, you need to learn how to prepare a presentation that engages, informs and leaves an impact.

I've presented at some of the most important real estate and property technology events in the country as the founder of ButterflyMX . Here are a few tricks I've picked up along the way to wow any audience.

Related: 6 Tips for Making a Winning Business Presentation

1. Getting comfortable with the stage

I recommend taking a walk around the stage before your presentation. By familiarizing yourself with your environment, you can prepare yourself better.

And while you're on stage, a relaxed, comfortable presence goes a long way in keeping your audience engaged . Whether you want to play your presentation casually or more formally, audiences can sense discomfort, which prevents them from fully connecting with your message.

To project your sense of comfortability, focus on your body language . You can project confidence by speaking slowly and clearly and by walking across the stage to keep the audience's attention — even if there's already a podium or lectern set up on stage.

Unfortunately, if a speaker spends too long standing behind the podium, an audience might interpret that as a sign of indecision and inaction from the speaker. Instead, you can remove any barriers between yourself and the audience by using the whole length of the stage.

2. Familiarity with industry statistics

An audience that doesn't know me might be wondering why they should be taking my advice. I certainly don't blame them. When I'm watching a new presenter, I ask the same question.

If you can back up your claims with hard data, your presentation will ring true with listeners. You can cite industry-wide statistics or establish your own bona fides by citing stats that buttress your own credibility by establishing your company's success.

In my case, I'm happy to use a couple of statistics that prove how successful my company, ButterflyMX, is in the proptech industry. For instance, we serve more than one million apartment units, and if you're interested in how consumers feel about us, look no further than the internet — we have over 20,000 five-star reviews !

Related: 7 Ways to Captivate Any Audience

3. Knowing your audience

Depending on who your audience is , you'll have to adjust your game plan and prepare for different things.

I've spoken at conferences where the audiences couldn't be more different — a presentation that wows one crowd might have no information that's applicable to another. As the founder of a property technology company, I have the pleasure of speaking at a variety of different conferences that serve different markets.

For example, integrators and installers might value a talk on product features and hardware more than others. And if I'm presenting to an audience of property managers, I'll know to dial down the technical talk and focus on the benefits a robust video intercom offers, such as simplifying their day-to-day workloads.

Depending on your audience, you need to strike the right balance between talking about hardware specs and features.

4. Designing your slides carefully

Slides are a good opportunity to share the aesthetics, tone and values of your company — but you've got to make sure you use them effectively.

A slide with too much text looks busy, and it'll distract your audience and draw focus away from you. Instead, consider putting that information into your notes and speaking it aloud. Slides should focus on one or two visual elements, like bullet points, charts and graphs.

As for the actual design of your slides, you should ensure that you adhere to your company's brand guidelines. If you're unfamiliar with the concept, brand guidelines are a single, governing document that goes over important design concepts like the colors and logos that your company has.

Related: 6 Ways to Take Your Next Presentation to the Next Level

5. Asking for audience participation

Asking for audience participation is the ultimate way to ensure everybody is locked in and paying attention — but it's also a double-edged sword. You also need to be prepared in case asking the audience to participate doesn't necessarily go your way.

For example, you might generally ask if an audience has any questions at the end of your presentation. But you run the risk of running into a hostile, bad-faith question — or you might even be met with silence.

That's why I'd recommend you give the audience questions and tasks that have a little more structure. You could do things like asking for a show of hands, asking for specific anecdotes or taking a poll.

Polls have gotten an especially high-tech upgrade recently — see if you can set up an electronic voting system that allows audience members to vote with their smartphones. Then, you'd be able to throw the results on screen and watch them update in real time!

You should pepper these interactive sections throughout your presentation to ensure that audiences are engaged throughout your entire talk.

Entrepreneur Leadership Network® Contributor

Founder of ButterflyMX

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

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