Creating a PowerPoint presentation can seem like a daunting task, but it doesn’t need to be.
In this list, you’ll find the best practices and tips for creating a powerful PowerPoint presentation for beginners.
You’ll learn how to:
So without further ado, let’s jump right in.
So, you need to create a PowerPoint presentation but don’t know where to start. The very first and most important thing you’ll need to do is to decide on your topic.
You’ll want to make sure that the topic you choose is interesting and engaging for those who will be listening to you present your slideshow.
If you’re not in control of your topic and you’ve been assigned a task to present, don’t worry. There are lots of different ways that you can capture your audience’s attention, and transform a boring topic into an incredibly interactive and engaging presentation.
You can do this by using an effective PowerPoint presentation template that will capture your audience’s attention, no matter how bland the subject.
Learn more about PowerPoint templates and how you can use them to your advantage in tip #4!
Once you’ve chosen your PowerPoint presentation topic, you need to make sure that you get all of your facts straight.
Do a deep dive into your research and come up with useful and interesting information that you can use at your next presentation.
Once you’ve gathered up some information, it’s time to make a bullet point list of topics you want to cover, to make sure you don’t leave anything important out in your presentation.
After you’ve created a bullet point list full of your main points and all the important points that you want to convey, you can then make an outline of your speech.
This can be a rough draft, or you can write out in great detail your entire “script”, so to say. If you’re a spontaneous writer, then you may want to write directly in the slideshow editor of your choice.
If not, you can write it all out on a document, so that you’re ready to copy and paste right onto your slideshow presentation.
The best way to create an amazing slideshow is by using an equally amazing slideshow tool.
A tool like Visme will help you create a professional-looking and exciting PowerPoint presentation efficiently and quickly, even as a beginner.
Visme is a slideshow presentation maker that lets you easily create your entire presentation from start to finish. You can even import existing PowerPoint presentations into Visme and edit them there. When you’ve finished editing, you can export editable PowerPoints to present offline.
Visme is a diverse tool that does so much more than just create PowerPoint presentations. You can create anything design-related there, including videos, social media posts, ebooks, manuals, infographics and more.
Other than hundreds of slide templates and fully designed presentations, you also get access to advanced editing tools to make your presentation unique and creative.
Add and replace backgrounds, tap into free libraries of photos, videos, icons and illustrations, add pre-animated assets or manually animate objects and text, and switch up the color scheme with a single click.
With Visme, creating presentations that stand out is as easy as 1-2-3.
Now, let’s jump into the specifics of how to make an effective presentation.
our browser does not support the video tag.Next on our list of PowerPoint tips for beginners is picking out the perfect template.
Visme is an amazing presentation software that has an abundance of slideshow presentation templates that you can choose from and customize.
We have modern PowerPoint templates, data-driven presentation templates, colorful templates and everything in between. Just scroll through all the templates and we’re confident you’ll find the perfect one for you.
If you want, you can even design templates of your own and save them for future slideshows that you want to create in a similar fashion.
You can also browse through our presentation themes, which include hundreds of pre-made slides you can mix and match to create your own presentation deck.
Once you pick out your template, you can edit every single design aspect, from the overlays to images, to the color scheme, clipart and stickers, slide transitions and more.
We recommend finding a template that resembles the presentation that you need so that the design process goes as smoothly and easily for you as possible. Creating a presentation should be enjoyable, and Visme makes that process possible.
If you are feeling confident and you don’t want to use one of our professionally designed slideshow templates, you can start from scratch and create your own. Add and remove as many pages are you want and benefit from our stock images and videos, stickers, text templates and more.
Once you’ve chosen your template, you need to think of your audience. Not every presentation design is going to be appropriate for every audience.
In order to make an effective PowerPoint, you need to get in your audience’s head. Ask yourself, “What do they want to see?” or “What value can I bring to them?”.
The design approach you take will greatly impact the results of your audience’s retention. You want to make sure that you please your audience as much as possible and keep them engaged with what you’re trying to convey to them.
If you need to create a report-based, data-driven presentation, then you need to add lots of charts. But not just any type of boring chart. You can use one of Visme’s beautiful charts and edit the values, axis, legend, colors, appearance and more.
If you already have your data in an Excel sheet or Google sheet, you can import them into Visme’s editor and they will automatically be turned into visual data.
You can also add charts and graphs, diagrams, tables, maps and data widgets. Whatever you need, Visme has it.
You want to make sure that your PowerPoint slideshow’s readability is on point. You can do this by choosing the clear and engaging fonts that go with your presentation topic and theme.
In Visme, you can customize the font, style, size and color of your text. Adjust spacing, borders and even animate the text to make your slides more engaging.
We have tons of typefaces for you to choose from, from Helvetica to Calibri and Arial, to sans-serif and serif fonts, we know you’ll find the perfect one to create a great presentation.
Remember, less is more when it comes to a seamless design. Instead of lines upon lines of text, you should be strategic about your text design.
Make sure not to use more than 3 different typefaces per slide. This will keep your design looking sleek and not overloaded.
You can do also use premade text templates created by our professional designers. Simply scroll through all the different text templates, find one you like, and drag and drop it onto your slide. From there, you can customize it as much as you please.
It’s important to keep all the design elements and text on your slideshow aligned, so take advantage of our grid and keep everything visually pleasing and aligned.
You can drive your main points home with a large heading, and align other, smaller text boxes beneath to make sure you stay on track and don’t deter from your main points.
One way you can make your text stand out is to incorporate shapes. If you want to make your text pop out and come to life, add a shape behind them.
Make sure the shape color you choose is a good contrast to the text color so that you can easily see what is written out without having to squint your eyes and decipher what’s written.
You can also take advantage of negative space in your design. If you feel like there’s an empty spot in your slide that looks a little awkward, it’s the perfect place to add some text.
Using negative space for showcasing text is always visually appealing, so use those blank spaces to your advantage!
Another great way you can keep your audience engaged with your presentation is by animating objects. Instead of just showing them a boring, static slide, why not animate the text and objects to bring everything to life?
In Visme’s editor, you can animate any object with just the click of a button.
Make any element slide in and out, bounce, fade in or fade out, spin, appear from thin air and more. There are so many ways you can animate objects and fit your design style to make your presentation stand out from the rest.
You can even go through our library of professionally designed animated graphics and drop them onto your slide. Choose from animated characters, illustrations, icons, special effects and avatars.
Once you add an animated graphic to your design, you can customize them in many different ways, such as editing the pose, speed, repetitions and colors.
Add animated characters to your PowerPoint presentations! Try It For FreeInstead of just having your next slide show up as a static image, use a transition between the two slides in order to make the transition seamless.
Visme has lots of elegant and modern transitions to choose from. Scroll through our transition presets and try them out to see which one suits your style best. You might like the zoom-in transition, slide-in or fade.
There are so many transitions for you to choose from, but we recommend you find the one you like most and use it for all slide transitions for the entire slideshow presentation. This will keep your design cohesive and easy on the eyes.
Don’t forget, you can also use sound effects in your presentation when necessary and you want to grab your audience’s attention!
Throughout the entire presentation, you’ll want to make sure that you keep things interactive and entertaining for your audience.
Even though PowerPoint is widely used for creating slideshows, there are many different presentation softwares you can use.
If you use Visme’s presentation maker, you can make your slideshow interactive. One way you can do that is by adding external links to any graphic in the presentation. This way, you can quickly access different pages and documents without ever needing to leave the slideshow.
Another amazing interactive feature of Visme’s is the interactive maps and data visualizations. You can have your viewers simply scroll and hover over an object and more information will pop up.
For example, if you want to create a map with statistics regarding each state, you could add the information to each state in the chart, and then when someone hovers over the state, the statistic will pop up.
This is very convenient for conveying lots of information in an organized way.
our browser does not support the video tag.You can’t have a good presentation without adding high-quality images, videos, stickers and clipart to your presentation. Without engaging visuals, you’ll quickly lose your viewer’s attention, and risk having a boring PowerPoint presentation.
Visme makes it incredibly simple to add your own multimedia. If you want to upload your own photos, video or audio, you can do so by clicking on “photos” or “media” and clicking “upload.”
Once you click on the “upload” button, you can upload your multimedia from your computer, then find it in your Visme library.
If by chance you aren’t happy with the media you have, or you don’t have any images to upload at all, there’s no need to worry.
Visme is loaded full of high-quality videos and images that are free for you to use in your presentation designs.
If you want to browse through millions of stock videos and stock images, just click on “photos” in the left menu toolbar. This will take you to all of our stock images. To search for a specific image, type a keyword in the search bar to find exactly what you’re looking for.
Once you find the perfect image or video, you can drag and drop it onto your presentation. You can then add shapes and frames to your image for a modern, geometric look.
If you’d like to edit and enhance your chosen image, you can do so in the Visme editor. You can change the brightness, contrast, colors, shadows and more. You can add and customize filters to your images for a cohesive color scheme.
For a highly effective and great presentation, you need to feel confident when presenting.
Firstly, You can rest assured that after creating a PowerPoint presentation in Visme, your design will be professional and engaging for your crowd, but now it’s up to you.
You need to be as engaging and exciting as your presentation is, so don’t wait until the last minute to practice your public speaking. Rehearsing your slideshow presentation will simplify the public speaking process and things will go much better if you practice.
Having a bulleted list next to you so you stay on track and making eye contact with your audience will help them pay attention, and will make a good presentation an excellent one.
The more you practice, the more comfortable you’ll be with your presentation. So make sure to run through it a few times and you’ll be good to go.
The best way you can create a powerful Microsoft PowerPoint presentation is by using a tool that isn’t necessarily PowerPoint.
Visme is an all-in-one design tool that will aid you in not only creating slideshows but any other type of visual content that you need, such as infographics, social media posts and documents.
Give Visme a go and create a free account today. You might become addicted to its awesomeness, so use it at your own risk!
We know that after reading all these tips, your presentation skills have gone through the roof. You’re practically a master slide-maker by now.
If want even more information and tips that can help you create modern PowerPoint designs, you can check out some of our tutorials on our YouTube channel.
We hope this article was helpful to you and we wish you the best of luck on your upcoming presentation. We know you’re going to smash it!
We have received lots of questions regarding PowerPoint presentations and we want to make sure you get the answers you're looking for.
So let’s dive into your questions.
The 10 20 30 Rule of PowerPoint suggests that each presentation should have 10 slides, shouldn’t last any more than 20 minutes in total and all fonts should be at least 30 points or larger.
This is a great rule of thumb to keep in mind when creating a PowerPoint presentation.
The 5 by 5 rule was put in place to help keep your audience from feeling overwhelmed by text.
The text on each slide should be short and to the point and have no more than five words per line and no more than five lines of text per slide.
A good PowerPoint presentation is created in a great design tool like Visme.
Choose an engaging template, know your main points, use engaging images and animations, and drive home your main points by practicing presenting your presentation before going public with it.
You can create an effective PowerPoint presentation by using no more than 10 slides, not overwhelming your audience with big chunks of text, having all your design elements aligned, using a great template, knowing your main points and driving them points home with a great closing argument.
Some of the advantages to using PowerPoint templates are that you get professionally designed slideshows without having to know how to design and you can quickly copy and paste your text into the text boxes already set up for you.
But you don’t have to use PowerPoint to create PowerPoint presentations. You can use a design tool like Visme to create amazing PowerPoint Presentations.
One powerful way you can make your PowerPoint presentation attractive is by using high-quality visuals. This includes having high-quality images, videos, stickers, transitions, animations and more.
One easy way you can do this is by using a Visme PowerPoint presentation PowerPoint and customizing it to suit your needs.
A good PowerPoint presentation should include about 10 slides full of useful information, engaging visuals, interactive elements and high-quality images among other important things.
You text should be clear and easy to read, the images shouldn’t be blurry, your main points need to be easy to spot as soon as you open the slide and you should include seamless transitions.
The best alternative to PowerPoint in our opinion is Visme.
Visme is a presentation maker, but it's also much more than that. You can create animated slideshows, documents, infographics, social media posts, videos, and more quickly and easily.
Unlike other tools, Visme gives you the most value for your money. You can also tap into features like data visualization, brand management, team collaboration, customizable animated assets like illustrations, icons and characters, and much more.
Ready to get started? Sign up for a free Visme account today and take it for a test drive for as long as you like.
