Last Updated on May 16, 2016 by Tim
Many people need to make presentations for school, work, startup investor pitches, or pretty much anything. Yet, not many people know how to make good PowerPoint Presentations.
If you struggle with creating slides that standout, you’re in luck:
Today we are going to be sharing FIVE clever “presentation tips” that will help make your slides look great.
From knowing where to find beautiful fonts to downloading quality pre-made graphics, this visual guide of presentation design tips by PresentationPanda.com has got you covered!
Let’s kick things off with an infographic and then we will explain each hack in further detail.
Here’s a summary of the 5 presentation tips covered in the infographic:
Tip #1 – Use Quality Presentation Images From Unsplash
Good looking slide decks and beautiful visuals/images are like two peas in a pod.
A few years back it was not that easy to find free high resolution images for your presentations. But nowadays it seems like every day a new photography website is popping up.
While there are many sites to grab images you really need to look no further than Unsplash.
Why?
Unsplash has a huge library of 100% FREE high-res images that will look great in your next presentation.
They hand pick each one saving you time from going through the sucky ones.
Tip #2 – Take Your Text to New Levels With Custom Fonts From Font Squirrel
Good news! You no longer have to settle for Times New Roman or Arial for every single presentation you create.
Today you can take your presentations to whole new levels by downloading custom fonts like the ones over at Font Squirrel.
Font Squirrel offers a huge selection of free fonts to download. Some fonts you may want to check out include:
Bebas Neue – This popular all caps font goes nicely with pretty much everything.
Pacifico – Pacifico is a nice handwritten font which can add some much needed playfulness to a boring deck.
Mathlete – Another handwritten font with plenty of personality.
The other benefit to Font Squirrel is that you can search for “most popular fonts” which will save you time figuring out what are the best fonts to choose.
Just make sure to do your homework and select a font that fits your brand’s personality.
Tip #3 – Apply “Focused Blurs” To Images For Creating More White Space
Ok … so imagine you just found a great image for your presentation but realize that the image is just too “busy” to add any text to it.
How annoying!
One way to get around this problem is to blur the image.
PowerPoint has its own blurring tool (hidden within the Artistic Effects tab). However, this tool only blurs the ENTIRE image.
Sometimes you may not want to blur the entire image because you want a particular part of your image to remain not blurred (as demonstrated earlier in the infographic above).
With PicMonkey (an online image editor) you can use their “focal zoom” feature to easily blur out a specific part of the image.
They also have several other image editing tools you can use to enhance your slides images.
These tools are great if you want a quick and simple way to edit your images and don’t have Adobe Photoshop.
Tip #4 – Create Simple Graphics In Seconds Using PowerPoint
Over time PowerPoint has created an arsenal of tools that make it possible to create your own custom graphics similar to how you would create things in Adobe Illustrator.
With the careful combination of some simple shapes can create some nifty looking vector graphics without ever having to leave PowerPoint.
You heard that right! No Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop needed!
Here’s what you need to do to create your own custom graphics in PowerPoint:
Step #1: Arrange some various shapes on your slide however you want
Step #2: Select all of your shapes you want to combine. Note: You can select all the shapes at once by lassoing them with your mouse.
Step #3: Click on the “Shape Union” tool.
With a little patience you will be creating your own awesome graphics in no time.
Tip #5 – Save Time Creating Visuals With “Pre-made” Graphics From FreePik
Sometimes you may simply not have the time to create your own graphics from scratch. In this case you should consider looking into downloading some pre-made graphics from FreePik.
With FreePik you can download premade graphics (developed by professionals) and then insert them into your slides.
Note: You will need to provide attribution when downloading the images. If you don’t want to deal with attribution you can pay a monthly fee of $10 to skip the attribution all together.
Conclusion
We hope you found these 5 presentation hacks helpful and have hopefully been inspired to get out there and create some slides that rock for your next important presentation.
So, after learning about these five different presentation hacks are you willing to give them a shot? Which of the five hacks is your favorite?
Sound off in your comments below
Author Bio
Adam Noar is the founder of Presentation Panda, a presentation design firm that develops presentations that stand out. He also writes about presentation tips and tricks for creating beautiful looking slides including his book, Slides Made Simple. If Adam isn’t writing about clever PowerPoint hacks or building award winning presentations with his team of experts, you’ll find him playing soccer, surfing, or taking a long run along the San Diego coastline. For more information about the company’s products and services visit presentationpanda.com
