We use essential cookies to make Venngage work. By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts.
Manage Cookies
Cookies and similar technologies collect certain information about how you’re using our website. Some of them are essential, and without them you wouldn’t be able to use Venngage. But others are optional, and you get to choose whether we use them or not.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
These cookies are always on, as they’re essential for making Venngage work, and making it safe. Without these cookies, services you’ve asked for can’t be provided.
Show cookie providers
- Google Login
Functionality Cookies
These cookies help us provide enhanced functionality and personalisation, and remember your settings. They may be set by us or by third party providers.
Performance Cookies
These cookies help us analyze how many people are using Venngage, where they come from and how they're using it. If you opt out of these cookies, we can’t get feedback to make Venngage better for you and all our users.
- Google Analytics
Targeting Cookies
These cookies are set by our advertising partners to track your activity and show you relevant Venngage ads on other sites as you browse the internet.
- Google Tag Manager
- Infographics
- Daily Infographics
- Template Lists
- Graphic Design
- Graphs and Charts
- Data Visualization
- Human Resources
- Beginner Guides
Blog Data Visualization
18 Presentation Design Tips For Success
By Midori Nediger , May 15, 2023
Bad presentations. We’ve all had to sit through them. Heck, we’ve probably all given one or two. I know I have.
You know the type: twice as long as they need to be, slides chock-full of text, no visuals in sight.
How can you ensure you don’t fall victim to these presentation faux-pas when designing your next presentation for your team, class, or clients?
In this blog, I’ll walk you through tips on how to design an impactful presentation along with presentation templates that can help you deliver it with style to leave a lasting impression.
Tips for designing and delivering an impactful presentation
What makes a presentation memorable?
It usually comes down to three things:
- The main idea.
- The presenter.
- The visuals.
All three elements work together to create a successful presentation. Just like how different presentation styles serve different purposes, having a good presentation idea will give the audience a purpose for listening.
Here are some top tips to consider to help you design and deliver an impactful presentation:
- Include less text and more visuals in your presentation design
- Identify one core message to center your presentation design around
- Eliminate any information that doesn’t immediately support the core message
- Create a strong presentation outline to keep you focused
- Use text to reinforce, not repeat, what you’re saying
- Design your presentation with one major takeaway per slide
- Use visuals to highlight the key message on each slide
- Use scaffolding slides to orient your audience and keep them engaged
- Use text size, weight, and color for emphasis
- Apply design choices consistently to avoid distraction
- Split a group presentation by topic
- Use a variety of page layouts to maintain your audience’s interest
- Use presentation templates to help you get started
- Include examples of inspiring people
- Dedicate slides to poignant questions
- Find quotes that will inspire your audience
- Emphasize key points with text and images
- Label your slides to prompt your memory
1. Include less text and more visuals in your presentation design
According to David Paradi’s annual presentation survey , the 3 things that annoy audiences most about presentations are:
- Speakers reading their slides
- Slides that include full sentences of text
- Text that is too small to read
The common thread that ties all of these presentation annoyances is text. Audiences are very picky about the text found in presentation slide decks .
In my experiences speaking at conferences and in webinars over the past few years, audiences respond much more positively to presentations that use visuals in place of text.
Audiences are more engaged, ask more questions, and find my talks more memorable when I include lots of visual examples in my slide decks.
I’m not the only one who has found this. We recently surveyed nearly 400 conference speakers about their presentation designs and found that 84.3% create presentations that are highly visual.
A great example of a high visual presentation is the iconic AirBnB pitch deck design , which includes no more than 40 words per slide. Instead of repeating the speaker’s script on the slides, it makes an impact with keywords, large numbers, and icons:
Learn how to customize this presentation template:
To help you take your presentations to the next level, I’d like to share my process for creating a visually-focused presentation like the one above. I’ll give you my top presentation design tips that I’ve learned over years of presenting:
- Class presentations
- Online courses
You can then apply this process to our professional presentation templates or pitch decks , creating unique presentation decks with ease! Our user-friendly editor tools make customizing these templates a breeze.
To leave a lasting impression on your audience, consider transforming your slides into an interactive presentation. Here are 15 interactive presentation ideas to enhance interactivity and engagement.
We’ll cover the most important steps for summarizing lengthy text into a presentation-friendly format. Then we’ll touch on some presentation design tips to help you get visual with your slide decks. Read on for the best creative presentation ideas .
2. Identify one core message to center your presentation design around
We know from David Paradi’s survey that audiences are easily overwhelmed with lots of text and data, especially when presentations are long.
(You when you see a presentation with lots of text and data and it’s long)
So unlike in a white paper , report , or essay , you can’t expect to tackle many complex ideas within a single presentation.
That would be a recipe for disaster.
Instead, identify a single central message that you would like to communicate to your audience. Then build your presentation around that core message.
By identifying that core message, you can ensure that everything you include in your presentation supports the goal of the presentation .
As seen below, a great presentation tells you exactly what you’re going to learn (the core message), then gets right to the facts (the supporting information).
To ensure you create an asset that’s clear, concise, impactful, and easy to follow, design your presentation around a single core message.
3. Create a strong presentation outline to keep you focused
Think of your outline as a roadmap for your presentation. Creating a strong presentation outline straight away helps make sure that you’re hitting all of the key points you need to cover to convey a persuasive presentation .
Take this presentation outline example:
- Introduction and hellos
- Vision and value proposition
- Financial profit
- Your investment
- Thanks and questions
These are all things that we know we need to talk about within the presentation.
Creating a presentation outline makes it much easier to know what to say when it comes to creating the actual presentation slides.
You could even include your presentation outline as a separate slide so that your audience knows what to expect:
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.
4. Eliminate any information that doesn’t support the core message
Next, use that core message to identify everything that doesn’t belong in the presentation.
Aim to eliminate everything that isn’t immediately relevant to the topic at hand, and anything remotely redundant. Cut any information that isn’t absolutely essential to understanding the core message.
By cutting these extra details, you can transform forgettable text-heavy slides:
Into memorable slides with minimal text:
Here’s a quick checklist to help you cut out any extra detail:
Get rid of:
- Detailed descriptions
- Background information
- Redundant statements
- Explanations of common knowledge
- Persuasive facts and figures
- Illustrative examples
- Impactful quotes
This step may seem obvious, but when you’re presenting on a topic that you’re passionate about, it’s easy to get carried away with extraneous detail. Use the recommendations above to keep your text in check.
Clarity is key, especially if you’re presenting virtually rather than in-person. However, Lisa Schneider (Chief Growth Officer at Merriam-Webster) has had plenty of experience making that adjustment. She recently shared her tips for adapting in-person presentations into virtual presentations on Venngage that you can check out.
Watch: How to design a presentation [10 ESSENTIAL TIPS]
5. Use text to reinforce, not repeat, what you’re saying
According to presentation guru Nancy Duarte , your audience should be able to discern the meaning of your slides in 6 seconds or less.
Since your audience will tend to read every word you place on each slide, you must keep your text to an absolute minimum. The text on your slides should provide support for what you’re saying without being distracting.
Never write out, word for word, what you’re going to be saying out loud. If you’re relying on text to remember certain points, resist the urge to cram them into your slides. Instead, use a tool like Venngage’s speaker notes to highlight particular talking points. These can be imported into PowerPoint — along with the rest of your presentation — and will only be viewable to you, not your audience.
For the actual slides, text should only be used to reinforce what you’re saying. Like in the presentation design below, paraphrase long paragraphs into short bulleted lists or statements by eliminating adjectives and articles (like “the” and “a”).
Pull out quotes and important numbers, and make them a focus of each slide.
6. Design your presentation with one major takeaway per slide
As I mentioned above, audiences struggle when too much information is presented on a single slide.
To make sure you don’t overwhelm your audiences with too much information, spread out your content to cover one major takeaway per slide.
By limiting each slide to a single simple statement, you focus your audience’s attention on the topic at hand.
My favorite way to do this is to pick out the core message of whatever I’m talking about and express it in a few keywords, as seen in this presentation slide below.
This helps ensure that the visuals remain the focus of the slide.
Using the text in this way, to simply state a single fact per slide, is a sure-fire way to make an impact in your presentation.
Alternatively, pull out a significant statistic that you want to stick in your audience’s minds and make it a visual focus of the slide, as seen in this popular presentation by Officevibe .
This might mean you end up with a slide deck with a ton of slides. But that’s totally ok!
I’ve talked to many professionals who are pressured by their management teams to create presentations with a specific number of slides (usually as few as 10 or 15 slides for a 30-minute presentation).
If you ask me, this approach is completely flawed. In my mind, the longer I spend sitting on a single slide, the more likely I am to lose the interest of my audience.
How many slides should I use for a 10 minute presentation?
A good rule of thumb is to have at least as many slides as minutes in your presentation. So for a 10 minute presentation you should have at least 10 slides .
Use as many slides as you need, as long as you are presenting a single message on each slide, (as seen in the lengthy presentation template below). This is especially important if you’re presenting your business, or delivering a product presentation. You want to wow your audience, not bore them.
7. Use visuals to highlight the key message on each slide
As important as having one major takeaway per slide is having visuals that highlight the major takeaway on each slide.
Unique visuals will help make your message memorable.
Visuals are a great way to eliminate extra text, too.
You can add visuals by creating a timeline infographic to group and integrate information into visual frameworks like this:
Or create a flowchart and funnels:
Or by representing simple concepts with icons, as seen in the modern presentation design below. Using the same color for every icon helps create a polished look.
Using visuals in this way is perfect for when you have to convey messages quickly to audiences that you aren’t familiar with – such as at conferences. This would also make the ideal interview presentation template.
You can alternatively use icons in different colors, like in the presentation templates below. Just make sure the colors are complimentary, and style is consistent throughout the presentation (i.e. don’t use sleek, modern icons on one slide and whimsically illustrated icons on another). In this example, presentation clipart style icons have been used.
Any time you have important stats or trends you want your audience to remember, consider using a chart or data visualization to drive your point home. Confident public speaking combined with strong visualizations can really make an impact, encouraging your audience to act upon your message.
One of my personal favorite presentations (created by a professional designer) takes this “key message plus a visual” concept to the extreme, resulting in a slide deck that’s downright irresistible.
When applying this concept, don’t fall into the trap of using bad stock photos . Irrelevant or poorly chosen visuals can hurt you as much as they help you.
Below is an example of how to use stock photos effectively. They are more thematic than literal and are customized with fun, bright icons that set a playful tone.
The content and visual design of a presentation should be seamless.
It should never seem like your text and visuals are plopped onto a template. The format and design of the slides should contribute to and support the audience’s understanding of the content.
8. Use scaffolding slides to orient your audience and keep them engaged
It’s easy for audiences to get lost during long presentations, especially if you have lots of slides. And audiences zone out when they get lost.
To help reorient your audience every once in a while, you can use something I like to call scaffolding slides. Scaffolding slides appear throughout a presentation to denote the start and end of major sections.
The core scaffolding slide is the agenda slide, which should appear right after the introduction or title slide. It outlines the major sections of the presentation.
At the beginning of each section, you should show that agenda again but highlight the relevant section title, as seen below.
This gives audiences the sense that you’re making progress through the presentation and helps keep them anchored and engaged.
Alternatively, you can achieve a similar effect by numbering your sections and showing that number on every slide. Or use a progress bar at the bottom of each slide to indicate how far along you are in your presentation. Just make sure it doesn’t distract from the main content of the slides.
You can imagine using this “progress bar” idea for a research presentation, or any presentation where you have a lot of information to get through.
Leila Janah, founder of Sama Group, is great at this. Her Innovation and Inspire talk about Sama Group is an example of a presentation that is well organized and very easy to follow.
Her presentation follows a logical, steady stream of ideas. She seems comfortable talking in front of a crowd but doesn’t make any attempts to engage directly with them.
9. Use text size, weight and color for emphasis
Every slide should have a visual focal point. Something that immediately draws the eye at first glance.
That focal point should be whatever is most important on that slide, be it an important number, a keyword, or simply the slide title.
We can create visual focal points by varying the size, weight, and color of each element on the slide. Larger, brighter, bolder elements will command our audience’s attention, while smaller, lighter elements will tend to fade into the background.
As seen in the presentation template above, this technique can be especially useful for drawing attention to important words within a long passage of text. Consider using this technique whenever you have more than 5 words on a slide.
And if you really want your audience to pay attention, pick a high-contrast color scheme like the one below.
When picking fonts for your presentation, keep this technique in mind. Pick a font that has a noticeable difference between the “bold” font face and the “regular” font face. Source Sans Pro, Times New Roman, Montserrat, Arvo, Roboto, and Open Sans are all good options.
The last thing to remember when using size, weight, and color to create emphasis on a slide: don’t try to emphasize too many things on one slide.
If everything is highlighted, nothing is highlighted.
10. Apply design choices consistently to avoid distraction
Audiences are quick to pick out, and focus on, any inconsistencies in your presentation design. As a result, messy, inconsistent slide decks lead to distracted, disengaged audiences.
Design choices (fonts and colors, especially), must be applied consistently across a slide deck. The last thing you want is for your audience to pay attention to your design choices before your content.
To keep your design in check, it can be helpful to create a color palette and type hierarchy before you start creating your deck, and outline it in a basic style guide like this one:
I know it can sometimes be tempting to fiddle around with text sizes to fit longer bits of text on a slide, but don’t do it! If the text is too long to fit on a slide, it should be split up onto multiple slides anyway.
And remember, a consistent design isn’t necessarily a boring one. This social media marketing presentation applies a bright color scheme to a variety of 3-column and 2-column layouts, remaining consistent but still using creative presentation ideas.
11. Split a group presentation by topic
When giving a group presentation it’s always difficult to find the right balance of who should present which part.
Splitting a group presentation by topic is the most natural way to give everybody the chance to attempt without it seeming disjointed.
When presenting this slide deck to investors or potential clients, the team can easily take one topic each. One person can discuss the business model slide, and somebody else can talk about the marketing strategy.
Top tips for group presentations:
- Split your group presentation by topic
- Introduce the next speaker at the end of your slide
- Become an ‘expert’ in the slide that you are presenting
- Rehearse your presentation in advance so that everybody knows their cue to start speaking
12. Use a variety of page layouts to maintain your audience’s interest
Page after page of the same layout can become repetitive and boring. Mix up the layout of your slides to keep your audience interested.
In this example, the designer has used a variety of combinations of images, text, and icons to create an interesting and varied style.
There are hundreds of different combinations of presentation layers and presentation styles that you can use to help create an engaging presentation . This style is great for when you need to present a variety of information and statistics, like if you were presenting to financial investors, or you were giving a research presentation.
Using a variety of layouts to keep an audience engaged is something that Elon Musk is an expert in. An engaged audience is a hyped audience. Check out this Elon Musk presentation revealing a new model Tesla for a masterclass on how to vary your slides in an interesting way:
13. Use presentation templates to help you get started
It can be overwhelming to build your own presentation from scratch. Fortunately, my team at Venngage has created hundreds of professional presentation templates , which make it easy to implement these design principles and ensure your audience isn’t deterred by text-heavy slides.
Using a presentation template is a quick and easy way to create professional-looking presentation skills, without any design experience. You can edit all of the text easily, as well as change the colors, fonts, or photos. Plus you can download your work in a PowerPoint or PDF Presentation format.
After your presentation, consider summarizing your presentation in an engaging manner to r each a wider audience through a LinkedIn presentation .
14. Include examples of inspiring people
People like having role models to look up to. If you want to motivate your audience, include examples of people who demonstrate the traits or achievements, or who have found success through the topic you are presenting.
15. Dedicate slides to poignant questions
While you might be tempted to fill your slides with decorative visuals and splashes of color, consider that sometimes simplicity is more effective than complexity. The simpler your slide is, the more you can focus on one thought-provoking idea.
16. Find quotes that will inspire your audience
A really good quote can stick in a person’s mind for weeks after your presentation. Ending your presentation with a quote can be a nice way to either begin or finish your presentation.
A great example of this is Tim Ferriss’ TED talk:
Check out the full talk below.
17. Emphasize key points with text and images
When you pair concise text with an image, you’re presenting the information to your audience in two simultaneous ways. This can make the information easier to remember, and more memorable.
Use your images and text on slides to reinforce what you’re saying out loud.
Doing this achieves two things:
- When the audience hears a point and simultaneously read it on the screen, it’s easier to retain.
- Audience members can photograph/ screencap the slide and share it with their networks.
Don’t believe us? See this tip in action with a presentation our Chief Marketing Officer Nadya gave recently at Unbounce’s CTA Conference . The combination of text and images on screen leads to a memorable presentation.
18. Label your slides to prompt your memory
Often, presenters will write out an entire script for their presentation and read it off a teleprompter. The problem is, that can often make your presentation seem too rehearsed and wooden.
But even if you don’t write a complete script, you can still put key phrases on your slides to prompt jog your memory. The one thing you have to be wary of is looking back at your slides too much.
A good presentation gets things moving! Check out the top qualities of awesome presentations and learn all about how to make a good presentation to help you nail that captivating delivery.
Audiences don’t want to watch presentations with slide decks jam-packed with text. Too much text only hurts audience engagement and understanding. Your presentation design is as important as your presentation style.
By summarizing our text and creating slides with a visual focus, we can give more exciting, memorable and impactful presentations.
Give it a try with one of our popular presentation templates:
Like what you're reading?
Presentation design guide: tips, examples, and templates
Get your team on prezi – watch this on demand video.
Anete Ezera January 09, 2023
Presentation design defines how your content will be received and remembered. It’s responsible for that crucial first impression and sets the tone for your presentation before you’ve even introduced the topic. It’s also what holds your presentation together and guides the viewer through it. That’s why visually appealing, easily understandable, and memorable presentation design is what you should be striving for. But how can you create a visually striking presentation without an eye for design? Creating a visually appealing presentation can be challenging without prior knowledge of design or helpful tools.
With this presentation design guide accompanied by Prezi presentation examples and templates, you’ll have no problem creating stunning and impactful presentations that will wow your audience.
In this guide, we’ll start by looking at the basics of presentation design. We’ll provide a simple guide on creating a presentation from scratch, as well as offer helpful tips for different presentation types. In addition, you’ll discover how to organize information into a logical order and present it in a way that resonates with listeners. Finally, we’ll share tips and tricks to create an eye-catching presentation, and showcase some great presentation examples and templates you can get inspired by!
With our comprehensive introduction to designing presentations, you will be able to develop an engaging and professional presentation that gets results!
What is presentation design?
Presentation design encompasses a variety of elements that make up the overall feel and look of the presentation. It’s a combination of certain elements, like text, font, color, background, imagery, and animations.
Presentation design focuses on finding ways to make the presentation more visually appealing and easy to process, as it is often an important tool for communicating a message. It involves using design principles like color, hierarchy, white space, contrast, and visual flow to create an effective communication piece.
Creating an effective presentation design is important for delivering your message efficiently and leaving a memorable impact on your audience. Most of all, you want your presentation design to support your topic and make it easier to understand and digest. A great presentation design guides the viewer through your presentation and highlights the most essential aspects of it.
If you’re interested in learning more about presentation design and its best practices , watch the following video and get practical insights on designing your next presentation:
Types of presentations
When creating a presentation design, you have to keep in mind several types of presentations that shape the initial design you want to have. Depending on the type of presentation you have, you’ll want to match it with a fitting presentation design.
1. Informative
An informative presentation provides the audience with facts and data in order to educate them on a certain subject matter. This could be done through visual aids such as graphs, diagrams, and charts. In an informative presentation, you want to highlight data visualizations and make them more engaging with interactive features or animations. On Prezi Design, you can create different engaging data visualizations from line charts to interactive maps to showcase your data.
2. Instructive
Instructive presentations teach the audience something new. Whether it’s about science, business strategies, or culture, this type of presentation is meant to help people gain knowledge and understand a topic better.
With a focus on transmitting knowledge, your presentation design should incorporate a variety of visuals and easy-to-understand data visualizations. Most people are visual learners, so you’ll benefit from swapping text-based slides for more visually rich content.
3. Motivational
Motivational presentations try to inspire the audience by giving examples of successful projects, stories, or experiences. This type of presentation is often used in marketing or promotional events because it seeks to get the audience inspired and engaged with a product or service. That’s why the presentation design needs to capture and hold the attention of your audience using a variety of animations and visuals. Go beyond plain images – include videos for a more immersive experience.
4. Persuasive
Persuasive presentations are designed to sway an audience with arguments that lead to an actionable decision (i.e., buy the product). Audiences learn facts and figures relevant to the point being made and explore possible solutions based on evidence provided during the speech or presentation.
In a persuasive presentation design, you need to capture your audience’s attention right away with compelling statistics wrapped up in interactive and engaging data visualizations. Also, the design needs to look and feel dynamic with smooth transitions and fitting visuals, like images, stickers, and GIFs.
How to design a presentation
When you first open a blank presentation page, you might need some inspiration to start creating your design. For this reason, we created a simple guide that’ll help you make your own presentation from scratch without headaches.
1. Opt for a motion-based presentation
You can make an outstanding presentation using Prezi Present, a software program that lets you create interactive presentations that capture your viewer’s attention. Prezi’s zooming feature allows you to add movement to your presentation and create smooth transitions. Prezi’s non-linear format allows you to jump between topics instead of flipping through slides, so your presentation feels more like a conversation than a speech. A motion-based presentation will elevate your content and ideas, and make it a much more engaging viewing experience for your audience.
Watch this video to learn how to make a Prezi presentation:
2. Create a structure & start writing content
Confidence is key in presenting. You can feel more confident going into your presentation if you structure your thoughts and plan what you will say. To do that, first, choose the purpose of your presentation before you structure it. There are four main types of presentations: informative, instructive, motivational, and persuasive. Think about the end goal of your presentation – what do you want your audience to do when you finish your presentation – and structure it accordingly.
Next, start writing the content of your presentation (script). We recommend using a storytelling framework, which will enable you to present a conflict and show what could be possible. In addition to creating compelling narratives for persuasive presentations, this framework is also effective for other types of presentations.
Tip: Keep your audience in mind. If you’re presenting a data-driven report to someone new to the field or from a different department, don’t use a lot of technical jargon if you don’t know their knowledge base and/or point of view.
3. Research & analyze
Knowing your topic inside and out will make you feel more confident going into your presentation. That’s why it’s important to take the time to understand your topic fully. In return, you’ll be able to answer questions on the fly and get yourself back on track even if you forget what you were going to say when presenting. In case you have extra time at the end of your presentation, you can also provide more information for your audience and really showcase your expertise. For comprehensive research, turn to the internet, and library, and reach out to experts if possible.
4. Get to design
Keeping your audience engaged and interested in your topic depends on the design of your presentation.
Now that you’ve done your research and have a proper presentation structure in place, it’s time to visualize it.
4.1. Presentation design layout
What you want to do is use your presentation structure as a presentation design layout. Apply the structure to how you want to tell your story, and think about how each point will lead to the next one. Now you can either choose to use one of Prezi’s pre-designed templates that resemble your presentation structure the most or start to add topics on your canvas as you go.
Tip: When adding content, visualize the relation between topics by using visual hierarchy – hide smaller topics within larger themes or use the zooming feature to zoom in and out of supplementary topics or details that connect to the larger story you’re telling.
4.2. Color scheme
Now it’s time to choose your color scheme to give a certain look and feel to your presentation. Make sure to use contrasting colors to clearly separate text from the background, and use a maximum of 2 to 3 dominating colors to avoid an overwhelming design.
4.2. Content (visuals + text)
Add content that you want to highlight in your presentation. Select from a wide range of images, stickers, GIFs, videos, data visualizations, and more from the content library, or upload your own. To provide more context, add short-format text, like bullet points or headlines that spotlight the major themes, topics, and ideas in your presentation.
Also, here you’ll want to have a final decision on your font choice. Select a font that’s easy to read and goes well with your brand and topic.
Tip: Be careful not to turn your presentation into a script. Only display text that holds significant value – expand on the ideas when presenting.
4.3. Transitions
Last but not least, bring your presentation design to life by adding smooth, attractive, and engaging transitions that take the viewer from one topic to another without disrupting the narrative.
On Prezi, you can choose from a range of transitions that take you into the story world and provide an immersive presentation experience for your audience.
For more practical tips read our article on how to make a presentation .
Presentation design tips
When it comes to presentations, design is key. A well-designed presentation can communicate your ideas clearly and engage your audience, while a poorly designed one can do the opposite.
To ensure your presentation is designed for success, note the following presentation design tips that’ll help you design better presentations that wow your audience.
1. Keep it simple
Too many elements on a slide can be overwhelming and distract from your message. While you want your content to be visually compelling, don’t let the design of the presentation get in the way of communicating your ideas. Design elements need to elevate your message instead of overshadowing it.
2. Use contrasting text colors
Draw attention to important points with contrasted text colors. Instead of using bold or italics, use a contrasting color in your chosen palette to emphasize the text.
3. Be clear and concise.
Avoid writing long paragraphs that are difficult to read. Limit paragraphs and sections of text for optimum readability.
4. Make sure your slide deck is visually appealing
Use high-quality images and graphics, and limit the use of text to only the most important information. For engaging and diverse visuals, go to Prezi’s content library and discover a wide range of stock images, GIFs, stickers, and more.
5. Pay attention to detail
Small details like font choice and alignments can make a big difference in how professional and polished your presentation looks. Make sure to pay attention to image and text size, image alignment with text, font choice, background color, and more details that create the overall look of your presentation.
6. Use templates sparingly
While templates can be helpful in creating a consistent look for your slides, overusing them can make your presentation look generic and boring. Use them for inspiration but don’t be afraid to mix things up with some custom designs as well.
7. Design for clarity
Create a presentation layout that is easy to use and navigate, with clear labels and instructions. This is important for ensuring people can find the information they need quickly and easily if you end up sharing your presentation with others.
8. Opt for a conversational presentation design
Conversational presenting allows you to adjust your presentation on the fly to make it more relevant and engaging. Create a map-like arrangement that’ll encourage you to move through your presentation at your own pace. With a map-like design, each presentation will be customized to match different audiences’ needs. This can be helpful for people who have different levels of expertise or knowledge about the subject matter.
9. Be consistent
Design consistency holds your presentation together and makes it easy to read and navigate. Create consistency by repeating colors, fonts, and design elements that clearly distinguish your presentation from others.
10. Have context in mind
A great presentation design is always dependent on the context. Your audience and objective influence everything from color scheme to fonts and use of imagery. Make sure to always have your audience in mind when designing your presentations.
For more presentation tips, read the Q&A with presentation design experts and get valuable insights on visual storytelling.
Presentation templates
Creating a presentation from scratch isn’t easy. Sometimes, it’s better to start with a template and dedicate your time to the presentation’s content. To make your life easier, here are 10 useful and stunning presentation templates that score in design and engagement. If you want to start creating with any of the following templates, simply go to our Prezi presentation template gallery , select your template, and start creating! Also, you can get inspired by the top Prezi presentations , curated by our editors. There you can discover presentation examples for a wide range of topics, and get motivated to create your own.
Business meeting presentation
The work desk presentation templates have a simple and clean design, perfectly made for a team or business meeting. With all the topics visible from start, everyone will be on the same page about what you’re going to cover in the presentation. If you want, you can add or remove topics as well as edit the visuals and color scheme to match your needs.
Small business presentation
This template is great for an introductory meeting or pitch, where you have to summarize what you or your business does in a few, highly engaging slides. The interactive layout allows you to choose what topic bubble you’re going to select next, so instead of a one-way interaction, you can have a conversation and ask your audience what exactly they’re interested in knowing about your company.
Mindfulness at work presentation
How can you capture employees’ attention to explain important company values or practices? This engaging presentation template will help you do just that. With a wide range of impactful visuals, this presentation design helps you communicate your ideas more effectively.
Business review template
Make your next quarterly business review memorable with this vibrant business presentation template. With eye-capturing visuals and an engaging layout, you’ll communicate important stats and hold everyone’s attention until the end.
History timeline template
With black-and-white sketches of the Colosseum in the background, this timeline template makes history come alive. The displayed time periods provide an overview that’ll help your audience to grasp the bigger picture. After, you can go into detail about each time frame and event.
Storytelling presentation template
Share stories about your business that make a lasting impact with this stunning, customizable presentation template. To showcase each story, use the zooming feature and choose to tell your stories in whatever order you want.
Design concept exploration template
Not all meetings happen in person nowadays. To keep that face-to-face interaction even when presenting online, choose from a variety of Prezi Video templates or simply import your already-existing Prezi template into Prezi Video for remote meetings. This professional-looking Prezi Video template helps you set the tone for your meeting, making your designs stand out.
Employee perks and benefits video template
You can use the employee benefits video template to pitch potential job candidates the perks of working in your company. The Prezi Video template allows you to keep a face-to-face connection with potential job candidates while interviewing them remotely.
Sales plan presentation template
Using a clear metaphor that everyone can relate to, this football-inspired sales plan presentation template communicates a sense of team unity and strategy. You can customize this Prezi business presentation template with your brand colors and content.
Flashcard template
How can you engage students in an online classroom? This and many other Prezi Video templates will help you create interactive and highly engaging lessons. Using the flashcard template, you can quiz your students, review vocabulary, and gamify learning.
Great presentation design examples
If you’re still looking for more inspiration, check out the following Prezi presentations made by our creative users.
Social media presentation
This presentation is a great example of visual storytelling. The use of visual hierarchy and spatial relationships creates a unique viewing experience and makes it easier to understand how one topic or point is related to another. Also, images provide an engaging and visually appealing experience.
Leadership books presentation
Do you want to share your learnings? This interactive presentation offers great insights in an entertaining and visually compelling way. Instead of compiling leadership books in a slide-based presentation, the creator has illustrated each book and added a zooming feature that allows you to peek inside of each book’s content.
Remote workforce presentation
This is a visually rich and engaging presentation example that offers an interactive experience for the viewer. A noteworthy aspect of this presentation design is its color consistency and matching visual elements.
A presentation about the teenage brain
Another great presentation design example that stands out with an engaging viewing experience. The zooming feature allows the user to dive into each topic and choose what subject to view first. It’s a great example of an educational presentation that holds the students’ attention with impactful visuals and compelling transitions.
Remote work policy presentation
This presentation design stands out with its visually rich content. It depicts exactly what the presentation is about and uses the illustrated window frames in the background image as topic placements. This type of presentation design simplifies complex concepts and makes it easier for the viewer to understand and digest the information.
Everyone can create visually-appealing presentations with the right tools and knowledge. With the presentation design tips, templates, and examples, you’re equipped to make your next presentation a success. If you’re new to Prezi, we encourage you to discover everything it has to offer. With this presentation design guide and Prezi, we hope you’ll get inspired to create meaningful, engaging, and memorable content for your audience!
Give your team the tools they need to engage
Like what you’re reading join the mailing list..
- Prezi for Teams
- Top Presentations
20 Great Examples of PowerPoint Presentation Design [+ Templates]
Published: January 17, 2024
When it comes to PowerPoint presentation design, there's no shortage of avenues you can take.
While all that choice — colors, formats, visuals, fonts — can feel liberating, it‘s important that you’re careful in your selection as not all design combinations add up to success.
![→ Free Download: 10 PowerPoint Presentation Templates [Access Now]](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/53/2d0b5298-2daa-4812-b2d4-fa65cd354a8e.png "help with designing presentations")
In this blog post, I’m sharing some of my favorite PowerPoint tips and templates to help you nail your next presentation.
Table of Contents
What makes a good PowerPoint presentation?
Powerpoint design ideas, best powerpoint presentation slides, good examples of powerpoint presentation design.
In my opinion, a great PowerPoint presentation gets the point across succinctly while using a design that doesn't detract from it.
Here are some of the elements I like to keep in mind when I’m building my own.
1. Minimal Animations and Transitions
Believe it or not, animations and transitions can take away from your PowerPoint presentation. Why? Well, they distract from the content you worked so hard on.
A good PowerPoint presentation keeps the focus on your argument by keeping animations and transitions to a minimum. I suggest using them tastefully and sparingly to emphasize a point or bring attention to a certain part of an image.
2. Cohesive Color Palette
I like to refresh my memory on color theory when creating a new PowerPoint presentation.
A cohesive color palette uses complementary and analogous colors to draw the audience’s attention and help emphasize certain aspects at the right time.
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.
Tell us a little about yourself below to gain access today:
It‘s impossible for me to tell you the specific design ideas you should go after in your next PowerPoint, because, well, I don’t know what the goal of your presentation is.
Luckily, new versions of PowerPoint actually suggest ideas for you based on the content you're presenting. This can help you keep up with the latest trends in presentation design .
PowerPoint is filled with interesting boilerplate designs you can start with. To find these suggestions, open PowerPoint and click the “Design” tab in your top navigation bar. Then, on the far right side, you'll see the following choices:
This simplistic presentation example employs several different colors and font weights, but instead of coming off as disconnected, the varied colors work with one another to create contrast and call out specific concepts.
What I like: The big, bold numbers help set the reader's expectations, as they clearly signify how far along the viewer is in the list of tips.
10. “Pixar's 22 Rules to Phenomenal Storytelling,” Gavin McMahon
This presentation by Gavin McMahon features color in all the right places. While each of the background images boasts a bright, spotlight-like design, all the characters are intentionally blacked out.
What I like: This helps keep the focus on the tips, while still incorporating visuals. Not to mention, it's still easy for me to identify each character without the details. (I found you on slide eight, Nemo.)
11. “Facebook Engagement and Activity Report,” We Are Social
Here's another great example of data visualization in the wild.
What I like: Rather than displaying numbers and statistics straight up, this presentation calls upon interesting, colorful graphs, and charts to present the information in a way that just makes sense.
12. “The GaryVee Content Model,” Gary Vaynerchuk
This wouldn‘t be a true Gary Vaynerchuk presentation if it wasn’t a little loud, am I right?
What I like: Aside from the fact that I love the eye-catching, bright yellow background, Vaynerchuk does a great job of incorporating screenshots on each slide to create a visual tutorial that coincides with the tips. He also does a great job including a visual table of contents that shows your progress as you go .
13. “20 Tweetable Quotes to Inspire Marketing & Design Creative Genius,” IMPACT Branding & Design
We‘ve all seen our fair share of quote-chronicling presentations but that isn’t to say they were all done well. Often the background images are poor quality, the text is too small, or there isn't enough contrast.
Well, this professional presentation from IMPACT Branding & Design suffers from none of said challenges.
What I like: The colorful filters over each background image create just enough contrast for the quotes to stand out.
14. “The Great State of Design,” Stacy Kvernmo
This presentation offers up a lot of information in a way that doesn't feel overwhelming.
What I like: The contrasting colors create visual interest and “pop,” and the comic images (slides 6 through 12) are used to make the information seem less buttoned-up and overwhelming.
15. “Clickbait: A Guide To Writing Un-Ignorable Headlines,” Ethos3
Not going to lie, it was the title that convinced me to click through to this presentation but the awesome design kept me there once I arrived.
What I like: This simple design adheres to a consistent color pattern and leverages bullet points and varied fonts to break up the text nicely.
16. “Digital Transformation in 50 Soundbites,” Julie Dodd
This design highlights a great alternative to the “text-over-image” display we've grown used to seeing.
What I like: By leveraging a split-screen approach to each presentation slide, Julie Dodd was able to serve up a clean, legible quote without sacrificing the power of a strong visual.
17. “Fix Your Really Bad PowerPoint,” Slide Comet
When you‘re creating a PowerPoint about how everyone’s PowerPoints stink, yours had better be terrific. The one above, based on the ebook by Seth Godin, keeps it simple without boring its audience.
What I like: Its clever combinations of fonts, together with consistent color across each slide, ensure you're neither overwhelmed nor unengaged.
18. “How Google Works,” Eric Schmidt
Simple, clever doodles tell the story of Google in a fun and creative way. This presentation reads almost like a storybook, making it easy to move from one slide to the next.
What I like: This uncluttered approach provides viewers with an easy-to-understand explanation of a complicated topic.
19. “What Really Differentiates the Best Content Marketers From The Rest,” Ross Simmonds
Let‘s be honest: These graphics are hard not to love. I especially appreciate the author’s cartoonified self-portrait that closes out the presentation. Well played, Ross Simmonds.
What I like: Rather than employing the same old stock photos, this unique design serves as a refreshing way to present information that's both valuable and fun.
20. “Be A Great Product Leader,” Adam Nash
This presentation by Adam Nash immediately draws attention by putting the company's logo first — a great move if your company is well known.
What I like: He uses popular images, such as ones of Megatron and Pinocchio, to drive his points home. In the same way, you can take advantage of popular images and media to keep your audience engaged.
PowerPoint Presentation Examples for the Best Slide Presentation
Mastering a PowerPoint presentation begins with the design itself.
Get inspired by my ideas above to create a presentation that engages your audience, builds upon your point, and helps you generate leads for your brand.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in March 2013 and has been updated for comprehensiveness. This article was written by a human, but our team uses AI in our editorial process. Check out our full disclosure to learn more about how we use AI.
![Blog - Beautiful PowerPoint Presentation Template [List-Based]](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/53/013286c0-2cc2-45f8-a6db-c71dad0835b8.png "help with designing presentations")
Don't forget to share this post!
Related articles.
![17 PowerPoint Presentation Tips From Pro Presenters [+ Templates]](https://blog.hubspot.com/hubfs/powerpoint-design-tricks_7.webp "help with designing presentations")
17 PowerPoint Presentation Tips From Pro Presenters [+ Templates]
![How to Write an Ecommerce Business Plan [Examples & Template]](https://blog.hubspot.com/hubfs/ecommerce%20business%20plan.png "help with designing presentations")
How to Write an Ecommerce Business Plan [Examples & Template]
![How to Create an Infographic in Under an Hour — the 2024 Guide [+ Free Templates]](https://blog.hubspot.com/hubfs/Make-infographic-hero%20%28598%20%C3%97%20398%20px%29.jpg "help with designing presentations")
How to Create an Infographic in Under an Hour — the 2024 Guide [+ Free Templates]
Get Buyers to Do What You Want: The Power of Temptation Bundling in Sales
How to Create an Engaging 5-Minute Presentation
![How to Start a Presentation [+ Examples]](https://blog.hubspot.com/hubfs/how-to-start-presenting.webp "help with designing presentations")
How to Start a Presentation [+ Examples]
120 Presentation Topic Ideas Help You Hook Your Audience
![How to Create the Best PowerPoint Presentations [Examples & Templates]](https://blog.hubspot.com/hubfs/Powerpoint%20presentation.jpg "help with designing presentations")
How to Create the Best PowerPoint Presentations [Examples & Templates]
The Presenter's Guide to Nailing Your Next PowerPoint
![How to Create a Stunning Presentation Cover Page [+ Examples]](https://blog.hubspot.com/hubfs/presentation-cover-page_3.webp "help with designing presentations")
How to Create a Stunning Presentation Cover Page [+ Examples]
Marketing software that helps you drive revenue, save time and resources, and measure and optimize your investments — all on one easy-to-use platform
{{indesign-features}}
Captivate your audience with stylish, professional presentations.
Design effective slide decks that help you make a lasting impression with {{adobe-indesign}}.
{{free-trial}} Buy now
Tell a visual story to create engaging presentations.
Stick to a visual theme., keep it simple., find the right tools for every job., incorporate video, audio, or animations..
Do more with tools from Adobe Creative Cloud.
Access other Creative Cloud tools that make InDesign an even more effective presentation maker.
Choose unique fonts.
Pick from over 17,000 high-quality fonts from Adobe Fonts to make your information organized and easy to read. User-friendly font styles make slides simpler to digest.
Start with Adobe Stock.
Find inspiration with Stock assets. Use Stock photos for stunning background images or transitional slides, and use Stock to find a presentation template as a basis for your custom design.
How to design a presentation from scratch.
With some creativity, and these simple steps, you can create a custom presentation with InDesign.
- Find the right page size. Whether you’re presenting a keynote on a massive screen or creating for mobile devices, start by selecting the dimensions you’ll use for your presentation.
- Choose your background. Pick a striking background image that works with text overlay. The deck’s title can also become part of the background.
- Create paragraph styles. Create no more than three text styles so you can keep the title font, body font, and footnote font consistent throughout the presentation. Set paragraph styles to change font and size with a click of a button.
- Set up master pages. Create a few master pages to help ensure your presentation looks professional and well designed. Add image and text frames to the master pages so you can drop your content in later without having to overthink the layout.
- Add images and text. Drag and drop Photoshop (PSD) files, PDFs, Illustrator (AI) files, JPEGs, PNGs, or GIFs into the image frames. To add text, just copy and paste text files or select the Type tool from the toolbar and type directly into the text frame.
- Add page numbers. Insert page numbers to keep you and your audience on the same page. InDesign can automatically number the slides.
- Add finishing touches. From movies and sound clips to hyperlinks, cross references, and page transitions, you’ve got plenty of interactive options to make your story more compelling.
- Export your slide deck. The final step is to export your presentation in a format that can be projected or distributed in any presentation program. Exporting as Adobe PDF (Interactive) lets you play or click through interactive content in real time during the presentation.
Discover more presentation design skills.
Explore these tutorials to start mastering design tools and techniques to help you create beautiful presentations with InDesign.
Create stylish layouts.
Learn how to design slide layouts with text and graphics that will effectively deliver information and impress your audience in projected or online presentations.
Learn how to design slide layouts
Keep it organized.
Enhance your slideshows with tables that clearly display information and can be adjusted to different sizes with ease.
Enhance your slideshows with tables
Make it interactive.
Bring animated videos, hyperlinks, slide transitions, and more into your slideshow with interactive presentations in PDF format.
Make interactive PDF presentations
Explore free presentation templates.
Add polish to your professional presentations with stylish templates.
Presentation templates
License for free
See all presentation templates
InDesign templates
See all InDesign templates
https://main--cc--adobecom.hlx.page/cc-shared/fragments/merch/products/indesign/merch-card/segment-blade
- {{adobe-cc}}
- {{adobe-indesign}}
- Presentation Design
ATLANTA, MAY 23-24 PUBLIC SPEAKING CLASS IS ALMOST FULL! RESERVE YOUR SPOT NOW
- Public Speaking Classes
- Corporate Presentation Training
- Online Public Speaking Course
- Northeast Region
- Midwest Region
- Southeast Region
- Central Region
- Western Region
- Presentation Skills
- 101 Public Speaking Tips
- Fear of Public Speaking
How to Design Presentations Quickly
In this session, I cover how to determine what content (and how many bullet points) are needed for each type of presentation. If you follow this format, you can design your entire presentation very quickly and easily.
How to Design a Presentation Quickly and Easily.
Sometimes, when people are looking into taking one of our two-day public speaking seminars they have big questions. How can you teach a process that will help any person design any type of presentation for any type of industry? Is it just going to be a “generic” presentation design format that will fit any presentation? Interestingly, the answer to that question s both “yes” and “no.”
“Yes,” we teach a structure that will help any person deliver any type of presentation in just about an industry. However, the presentations are definitely NOT generic. In fact, they are much more specific than most presentation designs. Both of these statements are true because the process that we teach is extremely flexible.
When you want to design a presentation, picture the structure like a put-together storage cabinet unit. (Picture one of those stand-alone units with double doors and adjustable shelves on the inside.) The cabinet itself is the presentation. The shelves inside the unit represent the main items (or bullet points) that you’ll cover. The interesting things that you will put on the shelves are what we call “impact items.” These are presentation enhancers that use to reinforce each bullet point.
The Prettier Your Presentation Cabinet Looks, The Better Your Audience Will Like It.
These put-together storage cabinets come with a number of adjustable shelves. Technically you could cram a lot of shelves into the cabinet. However, every time you add a new shelf, the storage space per shelf gets smaller. The problem that a lot of presenters make is that they think that people buy a cabinet to look at the shelves. “If I have a lot of bullet points, then my presentation is going to be better.” That is like saying, “The more shelves that I have, the better the cabinet. Who cares if I can’t actually store anything in it.”
The “Presentation Cabinet” that we teach in Fearless Presentations ® is called “The Three-Point Talk.” It is a flexible structure than can easily be adjusted based on the purpose of the presentation . In the class, we focus on designing a presentation around three important points (bullets.) The reason why is that three points provide the most balance between solid content and entertainment. If you have too many bullet points, your presentation will be boring and hard to deliver. On the other hand, if you design presentations with too few points, the content will seem fluffy (vague.)
There are presentations, though, that have either fewer or more than three bullet points. It’s just that a major portion of the types of presentations that people present in the business world fall into the three-point type.
A Good Presentation Will Typically Contain One to Five Bullet Points.
Our philosophy of presenting is that a few bullets covered really well are better than a lot of boring bullets . We encourage presenters to limit their content to five main points. However, the number of points depends primarily on the purpose of the presentation. If your purpose is to inform, you want to have more bullets and fewer impact items. However, if your purpose is to entertain, you need to cut back on the points in your presentation. In these situations, you will increase the number of impact items. If you want to persuade, you want a balance between the two.
Although some business presentations are designed to just entertain, these speeches are pretty rare. And although some presenters deliver very content-heavy presentations, they are often pretty boring. So, in the 2-Day Fearless Presentations® class , we teach people to be somewhere in the center. We want presenters to give solid content but also make the content interesting.
Examples of Presentations Designed Using this Guide.
This diagram explains how your content and impact items shift depending on the purpose of the presentation. On the far left side of the chart are presentations that are for entertainment or to generate an emotion. The ones on the right side are presentations that are designed for knowledge or content.
When you look at the chart, there are two intersecting triangles. One triangle depicts “Content” (the number of items covered.) The other triangle represents the impact ideas (the entertaining items that are inserted into your presentation.) The gold triangle in the middle where the original triangles intersect is where we are persuasive.
So, if you are designing a lecture or a briefing, your audience wants content. Entertainment isn’t a priority. However, if you are delivering a training session, your audience wants content, but they don’t want to be bored. When you need to persuade your boss to make a purchase, you might want to have a balance between content and emotion. If you are trying to motivate your team, some content is important, but they really want emotion. And finally, if you are delivering a wedding toast or a eulogy, emotion is way more important than content.
So When You Design a Speech, How Many Bullets Do You Use?
The chart below shows how to adjust the number of bullets and supporting items to fit each type of presentation.
High emotion speeches have one or two main points and lots of stories or examples for each point. High-content presentations have more bullets and fewer stories. So, if you are giving a eulogy or an after-dinner speech, you may only have a single theme or main item. You might have three stories that explain that theme, however. For instance, a eulogy might have the theme, “My dad was a great father.” Then, you will likely tell three stories about how your dad helped you become the adult that you are today. For an end-of-year company banquet, the theme might be “A Celebration of Success.” During the after-dinner speech, the CEO might just tell a few of this year’s biggest company success stories.
On the other side of the chart, a briefing may have five main points and just a few examples or stories. For instance, we have weekly team meetings at our office. These meetings aren’t conducted to persuade or entertain. They are mainly used to deliver important information to the team so everyone is on the same page. So, we will often make a list of the three to five main items that are important to the team’s performance. Since we don’t want to waste anyone’s time, each of these items is delivered in just a couple of minutes. The entire meeting may last just 10 to 15 minutes.
Since we don’t like boring meetings, we often either start or end these briefings with “good news.” We let the team members tell a few success stories from the week. Our meetings are more fun that way.
Once You Know the Purpose, Design Your Presentations Based on the Guide.
Once you understand the purpose of your presentation, start designing it. We have a handy Online Speech Creator that can help you organize your thoughts. The speech creator is designed for a three-point persuasive talk. However, you can use it to create other types of presentations as well.
The step-by-step guide is to do the following:
- Start with a Good Title – The title should be a summary of the results that the audience can expect from listening to the presentation.
- Create Your Main Points Following the Guide Above – Your bullet points should be statements that you are trying to prove to your audience. Pretend like you are an attorney presenting to a jury. Your bullets should be statements that prove your case.
- Add Appropriate Impact Items to Prove Each Bullet Point – Use real-life examples or stories when possible. Analogies, quotes from experts, and other Impact Ideas can work as well. These items are the proof that the statements that you made are true.
Still Need Help?
Our class instructors are available during normal business hours every day. Call our presentation hotline at (800) 975-6151 for a free 15-minute consultation.
Podcasts | presentation skills
View More Posts By Category: Free Public Speaking Tips | leadership tips | Online Courses | Past Fearless Presentations ® Classes | Podcasts | presentation skills | Uncategorized
- SUGGESTED TOPICS
- The Magazine
- Newsletters
- Managing Yourself
- Managing Teams
- Work-life Balance
- The Big Idea
- Data & Visuals
- Reading Lists
- Case Selections
- HBR Learning
- Topic Feeds
- Account Settings
- Email Preferences
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).
Partner Center
Apply Visit Give | Alumni Parents Offices TCNJ Today Three Bar Menu
7 Tips for Designing and Delivering PowerPoint Presentations
PowerPoint presentations are a great way to support a speech, visualize complicated concepts or focus an audience’s attention. However, a bad presentation can achieve the opposite. Poorly designed slides with too much text or distracting graphics can lead the audience away from your message. Consider these tips to avoid common mistakes:
1.Create a simple design template.
Use the slide master feature or a provided template to create consistency in your design. The method of content presentation (list, image, text) depends on the content, but consistency with other elements such as font, colors, background, throughout the presentation is essential. Establish consistent contrasting colors (dark/light) for text and background.
2. Use appropriate font and size.
Choose your font and size carefully. Use sans serif fonts (such as Arial Rounded MT Bold) and 32 point font size for text. Anything smaller is difficult to read. Avoid all caps. Use color to highlight. Limit punctuation. Follow the 6×6 rule: No more than 6 lines of text per slide and no more than 6 words in each line of text.
3. Use good quality images.
Images should reinforce and complement your message. They should be impactful, not space-fillers. Empty space on the slide will actually enhance readability. Don’t clutter the slide with images unless they add value. Also, test your images to make sure they retain quality when projected on a larger screen. Clip art generally lacks emphasis. If you are willing to purchase quality images to enhance your presentation, try corbis.com .
4. Avoid too many special effects.
These features seem impressive at first, but they tend to distract from your message and get old quickly. Transitions, text fly-ins, animations and sounds may reduce the professionalism you desire to portray. Special effect are similar to graphics, they should impact the presentation not detract from the presentation.
5. Limit the number of slides.
Limit the number of slides according to the time you have available for the presentation. Flipping to the next slide constantly and rushing through the presentation not only distracts the audience, but typically does not get your message across. A good rule of thumb is one slide per minute.
6.Learn to navigate your presentation in a non-linear fashion.
PowerPoint allows the presenter to move forward and backwards without paging through interim slides. Practice moving forward and backward within your presentation. Your audience may want to see a previous slide or you may want to skip ahead to something of immediate relevance. Know these shortcuts:
7. Do not read from your slides or speak to them.
Don’t face the screen and read your slides. The bulleted information on your slides should be supplementary to what you are saying. Use the slides to trigger your comments or to pace yourself, but do not read them. The audience can read. Remember that your slides are only there to support, not to replace your talk! You’ll want to tell a story, describe your data or explain circumstances, and only provide keywords through your slides. If you read your slides, the audience will get bored, stop listening and not get your message.
7 AI Presentation Tools To Design Your Slides in Minutes
If you’ve ever scrambled to make a presentation at the last minute, you’ll understand the immense value of AI presentation tools. What if you could use your precious time elsewhere while AI does the heavy lifting for you? If it sounds too good to be true, it’s not. Advancements in AI have picked up recently, as we’ve seen with things like AI character generators . Fortunately for you, there are several platforms that do AI presentations reasonably well.
Say goodbye to tedious Powerpoints and hello to your new digital assistant.
Unlimited Designs & Presentations
Try Penji risk-free for 30 days & never have to DIY again
What makes a good AI presentation tool?
Here are the features to look out for:
- An Intuitive Interface : A good AI presentation tool should have a user-friendly interface, allowing users to easily navigate and use its features without a ton of training or expertise.
- Media Integration : The ability to seamlessly incorporate various multimedia elements such as images, videos, and animations enhances engagement and helps convey complex ideas to your audience.
- Customization : The more, the better. This includes templates, layouts, fonts, and colors so users can create presentations that align with their branding and messaging.
- Collaboration Features : Things like real-time editing, comments, and version history streamline teamwork, especially for remote teams with deadlines.
- AI Enhancements : Things like like smart suggestions for content organization, automated design suggestions, and speech-to-text capabilities can significantly boost productivity – not to mention the quality of presentations.
AI Presentation tools that make it easy
1. beautiful.ai.
First on the list is Beautiful.AI. You can reduce the number of minutes or hours you spend creating a presentation. You don’t have to edit or adjust elements manually. Their AI is intuitive in helping you predict your next move. Plus, their AI can make your data look more presentable and clear when shown to your audience or stakeholders .
In addition to those, Beautiful.AI is collaborative, allowing team members to comment on slides without the need for back and forth on chat apps or emails.
Pro – $12/mo (billed annually) Team – $40/user/mo (billed annually) Enterprise – Schedule a Demo
Design a Presentation with Beautiful.AI
Beautiful.AI has two ways to get AI-assisted presentations. The first method involves choosing a smart template. You can add and edit the content while Beautiful.AI helps you stay on brand and makes engaging content. Its intuitive controls will beautify your presentation as you add content.
The second method is entering a prompt. Then, you choose a template and edit! Plus, make it visual with charts and images!
2. Designs.AI
Designs.AI is more than just AI graphic design software. They can also help users create videos, speeches, and presentations. Users can use their AI-powered presentations with their Designmaker feature. They have various templates for your marketing, pitch presentations, and webinars, and so much more!
Basic – $29/mo Pro – $69/mo Enterprise – Customized
How Can You Design a Presentation with Designs.AI?
Designs.AI is similar to Canva, where you can select from a template or create one from scratch. However, Designs.AI has an AI assistant helping you with your presentations and making them look captivating!
You can start by clicking “DesignMaker” from the dashboard.
Then, search “Presentation.”
From there, Designs.AI lets you choose a template.
Or, you can load a blank presentation by clicking “Generate” and selecting “Blank Presentation”. Then, edit the presentation as needed! The AI-powered template should help you with designing better presentations.
Get quick presentation designs customized to your brand.
If testing out various AI presentation apps sounds like a drag, you can get custom presentations by pro designers. We create crisp presentation designs tailored to your unique needs. Just open a project and submit a design request in just 2 minutes. In as little as 24 hours, you’ll have a design draft ready to review and download. Revisions are unlimited.
Using Penji for Expert-level Presentation Designs
Once subscribed to Penji, you get access to the dashboard where you can submit requests. Fill out a title and choose a category. Usually, the Penji AI will suggest categories. But you can search your preferred category.
Afterwards, select the number of designs or slides you’ll need.
Then, click the presentation size.
After that, supply details about your pitch deck. Make sure that it’s detailed but it will allow designers to be flexible. Click Next and choose your preferred file type.
Once done, click “Create Project” and let our Penji designers work their magic.
Once the designer submits a draft, you can tell them to move on to the next slide designs.
Or, use the handy revision tool if there are necessary changes.
However, if the designer already fulfilled your design request, you can click “Download.”
Then, click “Mark as Complete” to move on to another design request!
Want to learn more? Check out a demo and see how Penji can work for you.
3. presentations.ai.
If you want an alternative collaborative tool, Presentations.AI is one of the best AI presentation tools out there. You can expect well-designed presentation templates and their AI to aid you when adding various elements to your slides.
Presentations.AI is ideal for those who have a lot of presentations . Although their Starter Plan has the basics down, such as collaborative features, integrations, and unlimited presentations, their Pro Plan will give you more, such as:
- Access to premium templates
- Custom colors and fonts
- Revision history and export tools
- Video collaboration
Starter – $10/mo Pro – $25/mo Gold – Talk to Sales
How Can You Design a Presentation with Presentations.AI?
This depends on what you choose for the onboarding.
Then, you select the template you want and input the Company Name and Product Type.
Once added, you can customize various fields, such as company name, sub-industry, product name, and more!
Wait for the AI to load. Then, you can edit the presentation before downloading it.
4. Kroma.AI
Kroma.AI is much more expensive than the other AI presentation tools on this list, but they do offer a free option, ideal if you want to do a test run before committing to their subscription plan.
Their AI specializes in pitch deck designs that will make investors say YES. If you’re a startup founder needing funding, you can definitely use Kroma.AI to give you a presentation in minutes. One of their main features is helping you organize data neatly with their charts and graphs. Aside from that, you will have access to their high-resolution library packed with images, icons, and videos to make your presentation pop. Plus, you can even add your startup logo to give it a professional look.
Explorer – Free Premium – $49.99/mo Enterprise – $1699/yr
How Can You Design a Presentation with Kroma.AI?
Kroma.AI lets you choose which presentation type you’ll need.
From there, select the appropriate presentation template.
Then, you can download your chosen presentation. They ensure that their slides are AI-powered, making editing fast and easy!
6. Slidebean
Slidebean is another AI presentation tool ideal for those who need better-looking pitch decks and other business presentations. Although you can build your own presentation or use their presentation design service, Slidebean has an “Arrange with AI” option to give you different design alternatives.
Basic – Free All Access – $29/mo
How Can You Design a Presentation with Slidebean?
Slidebean lets you choose a template or create one from scratch.
When choosing a template, you can click your preferred design.
From there, select “Use this Template” and edit as necessary.
But their AI works its magic when you click “Auto Design” or “Next Option.”
This allows the AI to rearrange your current presentation into a more compelling one.
If you want to make a presentation from scratch, select a Blank Template. From there, Slidebean lets you choose how to edit the page by selecting a slide option. As you edit, you can let the AI help you redesign it by referring to the steps above!
Alternatively, you can ask for help from their designers by selecting: Start a Project.
Pitch is one of the most popular presentation tools out there on the market. You can build presentations from scratch here or use one of their well-designed templates for your new presentation. Their AI feature is limited to editing and cropping, giving the user full control over most of the functions in the presentation maker.
Starter – Free Pro – $8/mo Enterprise – Contact Sales
Design a Presentation with Pitch
When you’re in the dashboard, you can choose from a template or create a blank presentation.
If you choose a template, the AI will help you change the background without any fuss.
You can select that by clicking “background image.”
Then, choose your preferred background image.
Additionally, you can change the style of the whole presentation by choosing “Slide Style” and the design you prefer!
What’s the Best AI for PowerPoint Presentation?
Most AI presentation software apps don’t have a PowerPoint presentation feature yet. However, some AI presentation apps can help you save a PPT file, allowing you to edit it on Microsoft software. Here are the best AI presentation apps to save a PPT file:
- Presentations.AI
Don't Do It Yourself -Get Pro Designers
Try Penji risk-free for 30 days & get all the presentations you need
Related articles
How to Hire a Logo Designer (5 Different Options)
10 Best Sites for Logo Design in 2024
Let Your Business Soar to Success with These 10 Amazing Airline Logos
30 Striking Letter X Logos to Captivate Your Audience
Get custom presentations & designs done for you
How-To Geek
6 ways to create more interactive powerpoint presentations.
Engage your audience with cool, actionable features.
Quick Links
- Add a QR code
- Embed Microsoft Forms (Education or Business Only)
- Embed a Live Web Page
- Add Links and Menus
- Add Clickable Images to Give More Info
- Add a Countdown Timer
We've all been to a presentation where the speaker bores you to death with a mundane PowerPoint presentation. Actually, the speaker could have kept you much more engaged by adding some interactive features to their slideshow. Let's look into some of these options.
1. Add a QR code
Adding a QR code can be particularly useful if you want to direct your audience to an online form, website, or video.
Some websites have in-built ways to create a QR code. For example, on Microsoft Forms , when you click "Collect Responses," you'll see the QR code option via the icon highlighted in the screenshot below. You can either right-click the QR code to copy and paste it into your presentation, or click "Download" to add it to your device gallery to insert the QR code as a picture.
In fact, you can easily add a QR code to take your viewer to any website. On Microsoft Edge, right-click anywhere on a web page where there isn't already a link, and left-click "Create QR Code For This Page."
You can also create QR codes in other browsers, such as Chrome.
You can then copy or download the QR code to use wherever you like in your presentation.
2. Embed Microsoft Forms (Education or Business Only)
If you plan to send your PPT presentation to others—for example, if you're a trainer sending step-by-step instruction presentation, a teacher sending an independent learning task to your students, or a campaigner for your local councilor sending a persuasive PPT to constituents—you might want to embed a quiz, questionnaire, pole, or feedback survey in your presentation.
In PowerPoint, open the "Insert" tab on the ribbon, and in the Forms group, click "Forms". If you cannot see this option, you can add new buttons to the ribbon .
As at April 2024, this feature is only available for those using their work or school account. We're using a Microsoft 365 Personal account in the screenshot below, which is why the Forms icon is grayed out.
Then, a sidebar will appear on the right-hand side of your screen, where you can either choose a form you have already created or opt to craft a new form.
Now, you can share your PPT presentation with others , who can click the fields and submit their responses when they view the presentation.
3. Embed a Live Web Page
You could always screenshot a web page and paste that into your PPT, but that's not a very interactive addition to your presentation. Instead, you can embed a live web page into your PPT so that people with access to your presentation can interact actively with its contents.
To do this, we will need to add an add-in to our PPT account .
Add-ins are not always reliable or secure. Before installing an add-in to your Microsoft account, check that the author is a reputable company, and type the add-in's name into a search engine to read reviews and other users' experiences.
To embed a web page, add the Web Viewer add-in ( this is an add-in created by Microsoft ).
Go to the relevant slide and open the Web Viewer add-in. Then, copy and paste the secure URL into the field box, and remove https:// from the start of the address. In our example, we will add a selector wheel to our slide. Click "Preview" to see a sample of the web page's appearance in your presentation.
This is how ours will look.
When you or someone with access to your presentation views the slideshow, this web page will be live and interactive.
4. Add Links and Menus
As well as moving from one slide to the next through a keyboard action or mouse click, you can create links within your presentation to direct the audience to specific locations.
To create a link, right-click the outline of the clickable object, and click "Link."
In the Insert Hyperlink dialog box, click "Place In This Document," choose the landing destination, and click "OK."
What's more, to make it clear that an object is clickable, you can use action buttons. Open the "Insert" tab on the ribbon, click "Shape," and then choose an appropriate action button. Usefully, PPT will automatically prompt you to add a link to these shapes.
You might also want a menu that displays on every slide. Once you have created the menu, add the links using the method outlined above. Then, select all the items, press Ctrl+C (copy), and then use Ctrl+V to paste them in your other slides.
5. Add Clickable Images to Give More Info
Through PowerPoint's animations, you can give your viewer the power to choose what they see and when they see it. This works nicely whether you're planning to send your presentation to others to run through independently or whether you're presenting in front of a group and want your audience to decide which action they want to take.
Start by creating the objects that will be clickable (trigger) and the items that will appear (pop-up).
Then, select all the pop-ups together. When you click "Animations" on the ribbon and choose an appropriate animation for the effect you want to achieve, this will be applied to all objects you have selected.
The next step is to rename the triggers in your presentation. To do this, open the "Home" tab, and in the Editing group, click "Select", and then "Selection Pane."
With the Selection Pane open, select each trigger on your slide individually, and rename them in the Selection Pane, so that they can be easily linked to in the next step.
Finally, go back to the first pop-up. Open the "Animations" tab, and in the Advanced Animation group, click the "Trigger" drop-down arrow. Then, you can set the item to appear when a trigger is clicked in your presentation.
If you want your item to disappear when the trigger is clicked again, select the pop-up, click "Add Animation" in the Advanced Animation group, choose an Exit animation, and follow the same step to link that animation to the trigger button.
6. Add a Countdown Timer
A great way to get your audience to engage with your PPT presentation is to keep them on edge by adding a countdown timer. Whether you're leading a presentation and want to let your audience stop to discuss a topic, or running an online quiz with time-limit questions, having a countdown timer means your audience will keep their eye on your slide throughout.
To do this, you need to animate text boxes or shapes containing your countdown numbers. Choose and format a shape and type the highest number that your countdown clock will need. In our case, we're creating a 10-second timer.
Now, with your shape selected, open the "Animations" tab on the ribbon and click the animation drop-down arrow. Then, in the Exit menu, click "Disappear."
Open the Animation Pane, and click the drop-down arrow next to the animation you've just added. From there, choose "Timing."
Make sure "On Click" is selected in the Start menu, and change the Delay option to "1 second," before clicking "OK."
Then, with this shape still selected, press Ctrl+C (copy), and then Ctrl+V (paste). In the second box, type 9 . With the Animation Pane still open and this second shape selected, click the drop-down arrow and choose "Timing" again. Change the Start option to "After Previous," and make sure the Delay option is 1 second. Then, click "OK."
We can now use this second shape as our template, as when we copy and paste it again, the animations will also duplicate. With this second shape selected, press Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V, type 8 into the box, and continue to do the same until you get to 0 .
Next, remove the animations from the "0" box, as you don't want this to disappear. To do this, click the shape, and in the Animation Pane drop-down, click "Remove."
You now need to layer them in order. Right-click the box containing number 1, and click "Bring To Front." You will now see that box on the top. Do the same with the other numbers in ascending order.
Finally, you need to align the objects together. Click anywhere on your slide and press Ctrl+A. Then, in the Home tab on the ribbon, click "Arrange." First click "Align Center," and then bring the menu up again, so that you can click "Align Middle."
Press Ctrl+A again to select your timer, and you can then move your timer or copy and paste it elsewhere.
Press F5 to see the presentation in action, and when you get to the slide containing the timer, click anywhere on the slide to see your countdown timer in action!
Now that your PPT presentation is more interactive, make sure you've avoided these eight common presentational mistakes before you present your slides.
Top searches
Trending searches
18 templates
26 templates
16 templates
17 templates
pediatrician
27 templates
41 templates
Create your presentation
Writing tone, number of slides.
AI presentation maker
When lack of inspiration or time constraints are something you’re worried about, it’s a good idea to seek help. Slidesgo comes to the rescue with its latest functionality—the AI presentation maker! With a few clicks, you’ll have wonderful slideshows that suit your own needs . And it’s totally free!
Generate presentations in minutes
We humans make the world move, but we need to sleep, rest and so on. What if there were someone available 24/7 for you? It’s time to get out of your comfort zone and ask the AI presentation maker to give you a hand. The possibilities are endless : you choose the topic, the tone and the style, and the AI will do the rest. Now we’re talking!
Customize your AI-generated presentation online
Alright, your robotic pal has generated a presentation for you. But, for the time being, AIs can’t read minds, so it’s likely that you’ll want to modify the slides. Please do! We didn’t forget about those time constraints you’re facing, so thanks to the editing tools provided by one of our sister projects —shoutouts to Wepik — you can make changes on the fly without resorting to other programs or software. Add text, choose your own colors, rearrange elements, it’s up to you! Oh, and since we are a big family, you’ll be able to access many resources from big names, that is, Freepik and Flaticon . That means having a lot of images and icons at your disposal!
How does it work?
Think of your topic.
First things first, you’ll be talking about something in particular, right? A business meeting, a new medical breakthrough, the weather, your favorite songs, a basketball game, a pink elephant you saw last Sunday—you name it. Just type it out and let the AI know what the topic is.
Choose your preferred style and tone
They say that variety is the spice of life. That’s why we let you choose between different design styles, including doodle, simple, abstract, geometric, and elegant . What about the tone? Several of them: fun, creative, casual, professional, and formal. Each one will give you something unique, so which way of impressing your audience will it be this time? Mix and match!
Make any desired changes
You’ve got freshly generated slides. Oh, you wish they were in a different color? That text box would look better if it were placed on the right side? Run the online editor and use the tools to have the slides exactly your way.
Download the final result for free
Yes, just as envisioned those slides deserve to be on your storage device at once! You can export the presentation in .pdf format and download it for free . Can’t wait to show it to your best friend because you think they will love it? Generate a shareable link!
What is an AI-generated presentation?
It’s exactly “what it says on the cover”. AIs, or artificial intelligences, are in constant evolution, and they are now able to generate presentations in a short time, based on inputs from the user. This technology allows you to get a satisfactory presentation much faster by doing a big chunk of the work.
Can I customize the presentation generated by the AI?
Of course! That’s the point! Slidesgo is all for customization since day one, so you’ll be able to make any changes to presentations generated by the AI. We humans are irreplaceable, after all! Thanks to the online editor, you can do whatever modifications you may need, without having to install any software. Colors, text, images, icons, placement, the final decision concerning all of the elements is up to you.
Can I add my own images?
Absolutely. That’s a basic function, and we made sure to have it available. Would it make sense to have a portfolio template generated by an AI without a single picture of your own work? In any case, we also offer the possibility of asking the AI to generate images for you via prompts. Additionally, you can also check out the integrated gallery of images from Freepik and use them. If making an impression is your goal, you’ll have an easy time!
Is this new functionality free? As in “free of charge”? Do you mean it?
Yes, it is, and we mean it. We even asked our buddies at Wepik, who are the ones hosting this AI presentation maker, and they told us “yup, it’s on the house”.
Are there more presentation designs available?
From time to time, we’ll be adding more designs. The cool thing is that you’ll have at your disposal a lot of content from Freepik and Flaticon when using the AI presentation maker. Oh, and just as a reminder, if you feel like you want to do things yourself and don’t want to rely on an AI, you’re on Slidesgo, the leading website when it comes to presentation templates. We have thousands of them, and counting!.
How can I download my presentation?
The easiest way is to click on “Download” to get your presentation in .pdf format. But there are other options! You can click on “Present” to enter the presenter view and start presenting right away! There’s also the “Share” option, which gives you a shareable link. This way, any friend, relative, colleague—anyone, really—will be able to access your presentation in a moment.
Discover more content
This is just the beginning! Slidesgo has thousands of customizable templates for Google Slides and PowerPoint. Our designers have created them with much care and love, and the variety of topics, themes and styles is, how to put it, immense! We also have a blog, in which we post articles for those who want to find inspiration or need to learn a bit more about Google Slides or PowerPoint. Do you have kids? We’ve got a section dedicated to printable coloring pages! Have a look around and make the most of our site!
What Is Copilot Pro and How Do You Use It?
Quick links, what is copilot pro, how to use copilot pro to generate ai images, how to use copilot pro in microsoft 365 apps.
- Copilot Pro offers GPT-4 priority access and integration with Microsoft 365 apps for $20/month.
- Copilot Pro also gives you access to DALL-E 3 and 100 boosts a day for image generation.
- You can utilize Copilot in Microsoft 365 to write content in Word, generate formulas in Excel, draft emails in Outlook, and plan presentations in PowerPoint.
Copilot Pro comes with extra features that make you more creative and productive. Let’s dive into what it is and how to use it to create images and do more in Microsoft 365 apps. Here’s what you need to know.
Copilot Pro is the premium version of Copilot with enhanced performance and more features. The subscription costs $20 per month, and you can subscribe from the Microsoft website.
In terms of enhanced performance, you get priority access to GPT-4, an advanced version of GPT-3 , during peak times. Peak times are when people use Copilot the most, leading to reduced performance and access for regular users.
The same goes for GPT-4 Turbo, which is faster and more advanced than GPT-4. To access it, you need to change Copilot's conversation style to "Creative" or "Precise" before typing in your prompts.
A notable added feature of Copilot Pro is integration with Microsoft 365 apps . You can use Copilot directly within apps like Office and Excel to be more productive.
When it comes to creativity, you have advanced image-creation tools like DALL-E 3 and 100 boosts per day. The former improves Copilot’s ability to understand content and context, leading to more impressive results. The latter are credits you spend on increasing the speed at which Copilot generates the images (free users get 15 per day).
You can also train your own GPT in Copilot Pro. That means you can create a GPT tailored to your needs by giving it a name, description, and set of instructions.
Generating an image using Copilot Pro is easy. Just open the Copilot website in your browser, and then describe the image you want it to create. For example, we asked it to create a cool scene where The Avengers and Men in Black fend off an alien invasion.
Since this is AI, the results will have some obvious issues that humans can easily avoid (Tony Stark being an MIB agent), which is why AI can’t replace human creativity.
To use Copilot Pro in Microsoft 365 apps, you’ll also need a Microsoft 365 subscription, which costs $6.99 per month. Also, make sure you’re using the latest version of the 365 apps. Afterward, you’re good to go.
How to Add Copilot to 365 Apps
When you open a Microsoft 365 app like Word or Excel, you should be able to see the “Copilot” button on the ribbon of the “Home” tab (except for Outlook).
If it’s grayed out, ensure the “AutoSave” toggle in the top-left corner is turned on. Copilot Pro requires that this feature be enabled.
If the Copilot button is still grayed out, updating the license can fix the issue. To do that, click “File” on the left side of the top menu.
Then, click “Account” in the bottom left corner.
Afterward, click “Update License” below Product Information in the right panel.
Click “Sign In” and follow the instructions to sign into your Microsoft account. Make sure it’s the one with the Microsoft 365 and Copilot Pro subscriptions.
You should now be able to see the “Copilot” button in the ribbon of the Home tab. Clicking it, will open a panel on the right where you can prompt Copilot.
Keep in mind that any AI-generated content might be incorrect, so always make sure to double-check it. If you want to find out which prompts you can use, click the “View Prompts” button—the book icon—at the bottom of the Copilot panel.
You’ll see that Copilot can help you with a lot of tasks. This includes summarizing the document, checking for specific information (i.e., deadlines and key points), or expanding certain sections.
Writing Documents in Word
In Word, Copilot can help you draft and rewrite content. To draft something with Copilot, select a new line and then click the Copilot icon on the left or press Alt+i.
In the prompt, type what you want Copilot to draft, and click "Generate" or press Enter.
After it generates the output, you can further tweak it from within the prompt by asking Copilot to, for instance, “make it longer” or “make it formal.” Then, click the right arrow button to regenerate Copilot’s response based on the tweaks you want.
Make sure to click “Keep It” —the blue button—if you like the output.
You can also rewrite text by highlighting it, clicking the Copilot icon on the left, and choosing “Rewrite with Copilot” in the menu.
Generate Formulas and Analyze Data in Excel
You can use Copilot to be productive in Excel by generating formulas. In our sample sheet, we have a Budget and Revenue column for each campaign. We can then prompt Copilot for the profit using these columns.
Copilot will create a new column based on your prompt. To see a preview of the output, hover your mouse pointer over the “Insert Column” button. If it’s accurate, click the button to add it to the sheet.
You can also analyze data in your sheet by typing something like: What is the average revenue of each campaign type as a pie chart? You can even insert the resulting chart into the document by clicking the “Insert to a New Sheet” button.
These are just a few examples of how to generate formulas and analyze data. You can even do some basic editing with Copilot, such as highlighting cells and sorting or filtering items within the sheet.
Creating Presentations in PowerPoint
Copilot is one of the tools that can help you plan a presentation. Click the “Copilot” button in the ribbon of the Home tab. Then, describe the presentation you want it to create. In our example, we typed: Create a presentation about procrastination, including what it is, what causes it, and how to overcome it.
Copilot will create the presentation, complete with content, images, and notes.
You can also prompt Copilot to add more slides by typing something like i nclude a slide about [topic] . You can also add an image by typing something such as a dd an image about [topic].
Drafting Emails in Outlook
You need to use the new Outlook or the web version instead of the classic Outlook if you want to be able to use Copilot. The “Copilot” button only shows up when you’re drafting or responding to an email. Once you click the “Copilot” button in the ribbon of the Message tab, select “Draft with Copilot” in the menu.
Tell Copilot what you want to draft and then click “Generate” in the bottom right of the prompt.
Then, you can choose to keep, discard, or regenerate the response. Alternatively, you can prompt Copilot further by clicking the text box that says “Anything You’d Like to Change?”
From there, you can, for instance, ask Copilot to “make it longer” or “make it sound more direct,” based on your needs.
Copilot Pro has even more advanced features that you can dig into, too. This includes things like enhanced code generation, collaboration tools, and the ability to create your own GPTs.
However, you should be able to use it now to be creative when creating images and being productive in Microsoft 365 apps. Keep in mind that Copilot cannot do everything a human does. In some cases, it might be faster and more accurate to do certain things manually.
Use the SharePoint Standard communication, Showcase, and Blank communication site templates
A SharePoint communication site is a great place to broadcast information to others. Share news, reports, status updates, and more in a visually appealing format. Use communication sites to engage and inform broad audiences.
Create portals, department, or project-specific sites
Share company news, announcements, and events
Engage dozens, or thousands, of viewers
If you need a site for collaborating with your team, use a team site instead.
Basic communication site template options
When you create a communication site in SharePoint , you can start with a Blank site or choose one of the other site templates, each of which comes with a default set of web parts . Some of the communication site template options are:
Standard communication to share information such as news, events, and other content.
Showcase to use photos or images to showcase a product, team, or event.
Blank to create your own design.
Note: The Standard communication site is the default SharePoint communication site.
Follow the steps below to create, customize, and share a communication site.
Step 1: Create a communication site
Start by creating a new communication site. By default, you will get a new Standard communication site template.
To browse more communication site templates, select Settings and then Site templates to view template options.
Step 2: Review site contents
1. Standard communication site contents
When you choose the Standard communication site template, you get a home page that includes several web parts ready for you to customize. The web parts included by default on a communication site that uses the Standard communication design are:
Hero : Use the Hero web part to bring focus and visual interest to your page. You can display up to five items in the Hero web part, and you can add compelling images to draw attention to each. For more information, see Use the Hero web part on a modern page .
News : You can keep your team in the loop as well as engage them with important or interesting stories by using the News web part. For more information, see Use News Headlines and News List web parts on a modern page .
Events : Display upcoming events using the Events web part. For more information, see Use the Events web part .
Documents : displays the default document library on your home page where you can open and edit documents directly. You may prefer to add the Highlighted content web part that lets you dynamically show documents from a library, site, site collection, or all sites. For more information, see Use the Highlighted content web part .
2. Showcase site contents
The Showcase site template also comes with a home page that includes several web parts ready for you to customize. Here are the web parts included by default on a communication site that uses the Showcase template:
Hero : Use the Hero web part to bring focus and visual interest to your page. With the Showcase template, you can choose from two layouts, Tile and Layer , and add compelling images to draw attention to each item. For more information, see Use the Hero web part on a modern page .
Image gallery : Use the Image gallery web part to share collections of pictures on a page. For more information, see Use the Image Gallery web part .
3. Blank site contents
When you start with a Blank communication site, there's no need to remove web parts you don't need. Just choose your page layout and add the web parts you want.
Step 3: Customize the look and site navigation
Customize your site's look , site navigation , web parts , and content to fit the needs of your viewers and of the organization. When making customizations, ensure the site is in edit mode by selecting Edit in the top right of the site. As you work, select Save as draft to save your edits without publishing them to viewers or Republish your changes to make your updates available to your audience.
Edit document libraries by updating the folder names and uploading resources .
Edit and customize site navigation.
Change the look of your site by customizing the theme, logo, header layouts, and the look of your site .
Add or remove pages to this site or the site navigation to accommodate existing content.
Choose to associate this site with a hub site within your organization, or add this site to an existing hub site navigation if needed.
Step 4: Share your site with others
Share your site with others after you've customized your site, reviewed for accuracy, and published the final draft.
Select Settings and then Site Permissions .
Select Share site .
In the Share site pane, enter the name(s) of all users you want to grant access to site content and select their level of control ( Read , Edit , Full Control ). You can choose Everyone except external users if you would like everyone in your organization to have access to the site. The default permission level is Read .
Enter an optional message to send with the email notification that will be sent when the site is shared, or clear the Send email checkbox if you don't want to send an email.
Select Add when finished adding members and setting permissions.
Step 5: Maintain your site
After you create and launch your site, the next important phase is maintaining site content. Ensure you have a plan to keep content and web parts up to date.
Site maintenance best practices:
Plan for site maintenance - Establish a schedule to review the site content as often as needed to ensure content is still accurate and relevant.
Regularly post news - Distribute the latest announcements, information, and status across the organization. Learn how to add a News post on a team site or communication site, and show others who will be posting announcements how they can use SharePoint news.
Check links and web parts - Keep links and web parts updated to ensure you are leveraging the full value of your site.
Use analytics to improve engagement - View site usage by using the built-in usage data report to get information on popular content, site visits, and more.
Periodically review your site settings - Once you've created a site in SharePoint, you can make changes to the settings, site information, and permissions for the site.
Learn more about communication sites and SharePoint
Learn more about planning , building , and maintaining SharePoint sites.
See more SharePoint site templates .
Need more help?
Want more options.
Explore subscription benefits, browse training courses, learn how to secure your device, and more.
Microsoft 365 subscription benefits
Microsoft 365 training
Microsoft security
Accessibility center
Communities help you ask and answer questions, give feedback, and hear from experts with rich knowledge.
Ask the Microsoft Community
Microsoft Tech Community
Windows Insiders
Microsoft 365 Insiders
Was this information helpful?
Thank you for your feedback.
An official website of the United States government
Here's how you know
The .gov means it's official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.
The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.
What the New Overtime Rule Means for Workers
One of the basic principles of the American workplace is that a hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay. Simply put, every worker’s time has value. A cornerstone of that promise is the Fair Labor Standards Act ’s (FLSA) requirement that when most workers work more than 40 hours in a week, they get paid more. The Department of Labor ’s new overtime regulation is restoring and extending this promise for millions more lower-paid salaried workers in the U.S.
Overtime protections have been a critical part of the FLSA since 1938 and were established to protect workers from exploitation and to benefit workers, their families and our communities. Strong overtime protections help build America’s middle class and ensure that workers are not overworked and underpaid.
Some workers are specifically exempt from the FLSA’s minimum wage and overtime protections, including bona fide executive, administrative or professional employees. This exemption, typically referred to as the “EAP” exemption, applies when:
1. An employee is paid a salary,
2. The salary is not less than a minimum salary threshold amount, and
3. The employee primarily performs executive, administrative or professional duties.
While the department increased the minimum salary required for the EAP exemption from overtime pay every 5 to 9 years between 1938 and 1975, long periods between increases to the salary requirement after 1975 have caused an erosion of the real value of the salary threshold, lessening its effectiveness in helping to identify exempt EAP employees.
The department’s new overtime rule was developed based on almost 30 listening sessions across the country and the final rule was issued after reviewing over 33,000 written comments. We heard from a wide variety of members of the public who shared valuable insights to help us develop this Administration’s overtime rule, including from workers who told us: “I would love the opportunity to...be compensated for time worked beyond 40 hours, or alternately be given a raise,” and “I make around $40,000 a year and most week[s] work well over 40 hours (likely in the 45-50 range). This rule change would benefit me greatly and ensure that my time is paid for!” and “Please, I would love to be paid for the extra hours I work!”
The department’s final rule, which will go into effect on July 1, 2024, will increase the standard salary level that helps define and delimit which salaried workers are entitled to overtime pay protections under the FLSA.
Starting July 1, most salaried workers who earn less than $844 per week will become eligible for overtime pay under the final rule. And on Jan. 1, 2025, most salaried workers who make less than $1,128 per week will become eligible for overtime pay. As these changes occur, job duties will continue to determine overtime exemption status for most salaried employees.
The rule will also increase the total annual compensation requirement for highly compensated employees (who are not entitled to overtime pay under the FLSA if certain requirements are met) from $107,432 per year to $132,964 per year on July 1, 2024, and then set it equal to $151,164 per year on Jan. 1, 2025.
Starting July 1, 2027, these earnings thresholds will be updated every three years so they keep pace with changes in worker salaries, ensuring that employers can adapt more easily because they’ll know when salary updates will happen and how they’ll be calculated.
The final rule will restore and extend the right to overtime pay to many salaried workers, including workers who historically were entitled to overtime pay under the FLSA because of their lower pay or the type of work they performed.
We urge workers and employers to visit our website to learn more about the final rule.
Jessica Looman is the administrator for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. Follow the Wage and Hour Division on Twitter at @WHD_DOL and LinkedIn . Editor's note: This blog was edited to correct a typo (changing "administrator" to "administrative.")
- Wage and Hour Division (WHD)
- Fair Labor Standards Act
- overtime rule
SHARE THIS:
IMAGES
VIDEO
COMMENTS
Tip #17: Use Negative Space to Your Advantage. Negative space, or white space, is your best friend when it comes to making a visually appealing presentation slide. While many times overlooked or seen as a design inconvenience, you can use extra space to actually make your design look ten times better.
Emphasize key points with text and images. Label your slides to prompt your memory. 1. Include less text and more visuals in your presentation design. According to David Paradi's annual presentation survey, the 3 things that annoy audiences most about presentations are: Speakers reading their slides.
To ensure your presentation is designed for success, note the following presentation design tips that'll help you design better presentations that wow your audience. 1. Keep it simple. Too many elements on a slide can be overwhelming and distract from your message. While you want your content to be visually compelling, don't let the design ...
Choose a design from our presentation templates or create your own from scratch. Customize your presentation with colors, fonts, and key information. Add animations, videos, images, illustrations. Use assets and other media content from your Brand Kit (Pro) to stay consistent with your business or school brand.
Here are 30 quick PowerPoint presentation tips to help you improve your presentations. ... How to Create & Present a PowerPoint Presentation Online in 2020. Andrew Childress. 23 Sep 2020. Discover Great Premium PowerPoint Templates With Google Slides (For 2024)
Here's another one of our top PPT tips: tap into Envato Elements' unlimited stock photo library. People are more likely to take you seriously if your presentation is visually appealing. Users view attractive design as more usable. Similarly, they'll view a more attractive PowerPoint as more effective. 11.
With Visme's Presenter Studio, you can record your presentation and share it with your audience. Record your screen, audio, and video, or switch off your camera for an audio-only presentation. Present asynchronously on your own time, at your own pace. Let your colleagues watch it at their convenience. Create Your Presentation.
Getting Started. 1. Open PowerPoint and click 'New.'. If a page with templates doesn't automatically open, go to the top left pane of your screen and click New. If you've already created a presentation, select Open then double-click the icon to open the existing file. Image Source.
Free online presentation maker. Try our new tool to edit this selection of templates for people that want to let their creativity run free. Create interactive resources easily, quickly and without the need for any software. A really useful tool for teachers and students. Move the content, add images, change colors and fonts or, if you prefer ...
Here are a few tips for designing readable presentations. White space is your friend. Make sure there is enough margin around your text to keep it from feeling cramped. When writing, try to be ...
7. "Healthcare Napkins," Dan Roam. This presentation dates back to 2009, but the design is still as good as ever. The colorful, quirky doodles help tell the story while also serving as an interesting way to illustrate data (see slides 20 and 21).
Create a presentation. Open PowerPoint. In the left pane, select New. Select an option: To create a presentation from scratch, select Blank Presentation. To use a prepared design, select one of the templates. To see tips for using PowerPoint, select Take a Tour, and then select Create, . Add a slide.
Summary. A strong presentation is so much more than information pasted onto a series of slides with fancy backgrounds. Whether you're pitching an idea, reporting market research, or sharing ...
Tool #4: Color Themes. While many of the presentation themes and templates come with an already established color scheme, absolutely nothing is set in stone. You can switch out the color of every item in your presentation to match your company or your topic. One great presentation tool that Visme has is color themes.
Set up master pages. Create a few master pages to help ensure your presentation looks professional and well designed. Add image and text frames to the master pages so you can drop your content in later without having to overthink the layout. Add images and text. Drag and drop Photoshop (PSD) files, PDFs, Illustrator (AI) files, JPEGs, PNGs, or ...
Right-click the graphic and choose Group > Ungroup. Now, the individual shapes are easy to select and edit. Right-click on PowerPoint graphics and choose Group > Ungroup to separate a graphic into separate parts. The best graphics for PowerPoint presentations help you explain your ideas more easily.
When you want to design a presentation, picture the structure like a put-together storage cabinet unit. (Picture one of those stand-alone units with double doors and adjustable shelves on the inside.) The cabinet itself is the presentation. The shelves inside the unit represent the main items (or bullet points) that you'll cover.
Go to the Design tab on the editor. Simply type a descriptive prompt in the search bar, and the AI presentation maker will generate beautiful drafts of slides for you. You can then edit the content and use other awesome AI tools to perfect your presentation. These AI features are super helpful for people new to design, as well as pros and teams ...
Say goodbye to clip art and having to scour Google images! Canva's alternative presentation maker has an intuitive graphs and charts tool to help you turn your numbers into awesome pieces of data visualization. Open the charts folder and start creating your own bar, line, pie, doughnut charts, or pictograms (opens in a new tab or window).
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 ...
5. Limit the number of slides. Limit the number of slides according to the time you have available for the presentation. Flipping to the next slide constantly and rushing through the presentation not only distracts the audience, but typically does not get your message across. A good rule of thumb is one slide per minute.
Designs.AI is more than just AI graphic design software. They can also help users create videos, speeches, and presentations. Users can use their AI-powered presentations with their Designmaker feature. They have various templates for your marketing, pitch presentations, and webinars, and so much more! Pricing: Basic - $29/mo Pro - $69/mo
2. Embed Microsoft Forms (Education or Business Only) If you plan to send your PPT presentation to others—for example, if you're a trainer sending step-by-step instruction presentation, a teacher sending an independent learning task to your students, or a campaigner for your local councilor sending a persuasive PPT to constituents—you might want to embed a quiz, questionnaire, pole, or ...
AI presentation maker. When lack of inspiration or time constraints are something you're worried about, it's a good idea to seek help. Slidesgo comes to the rescue with its latest functionality—the AI presentation maker! With a few clicks, you'll have wonderful slideshows that suit your own needs. And it's totally free!
Copilot is one of the tools that can help you plan a presentation. Click the "Copilot" button in the ribbon of the Home tab. Then, describe the presentation you want it to create.
Project documentation is how leaders create a timeline for their projects, a framework for measuring progress, and a system that ensures accountability. There are about a million ways for a project to "go wrong" — from inadequate resource allocation to a lack of monitoring and communication — and project managers must plan for every ...
Troubleshooting: I don't see Automatic Replies. If you don't see Automatic Replies after selecting File, you're probably using a Gmail, Yahoo, or other POP or IMAP account that doesn't support the Outlook Automatic Replies feature.You can set up a rule that will reply to incoming messages—if you leave Outlook running while you're away.
If you need a site for collaborating with your team, use a team site instead.. Basic communication site template options. When you create a communication site in SharePoint, you can start with a Blank site or choose one of the other site templates, each of which comes with a default set of web parts.Some of the communication site template options are:
Visme's AI Presentation Maker is a simple tool to create custom presentations in seconds. Design high-quality slides and level up your content. ... We've harnessed the power of AI to help you produce amazing presentations and wow your colleagues or customers. Visme AI Designer generates presentations for any purpose: choose a style that fits ...
We heard from a wide variety of members of the public who shared valuable insights to help us develop this Administration's overtime rule, including from workers who told us: "I would love the opportunity to...be compensated for time worked beyond 40 hours, or alternately be given a raise," and "I make around $40,000 a year and most ...