5 tips for better presentations with PowerPoint

7 min read
October 25, 2014

Presentations remain an essential part of the modern work environment: whether it's an internal meeting, appointments with clients, or training materials - nowadays almost everything is done with PowerPoint. To help you present yourself optimally in all situations, we present 5 tips that will help you deliver a strong presentation.

Tip 1: PowerPoint presentation ≠ handout

Although everyone seems to know it, people still often fail to distinguish whether a presentation should be used as a handout or as a lecture. If you are presenting in front of a group of people, you should by no means present a text-overloaded slide, because the chance is far too great that your audience will not listen but study the slide. Moreover, you will no longer be able to control the key message, as your audience will draw their own conclusions.

Instead, an optimal presentation should contain as few words as possible. Ideally, punctuate your points with large-scale images. Just think of the news: the speaker is in the foreground and the news is only underlined with minimal text and extensive images.

better presentations with Powerpoint fewer words

better presentations with Powerpoint use pictures

 

Now you might say that you also need a handout for the participants. This is certainly common, but you should not shy away from the work and prepare a second presentation with more text which to distribute after your presentation. When preparing your slides, feel free to start with a detailed presentation and then reduce the presentation for your talk.

 

Presentation tip 2: Make use of the PowerPoint features

To ensure that you can deliver your chic minimalist presentation with confidence, PowerPoint's presenter view is a great way to do it. It shows your notes as well as the next slide on your laptop, while your audience can only see the current slide. This means you don't have to make index cards and you can always be certain that you are able to see the most important key points.

To enter the presenter view, click on "Slide Show" and check "Use Presenter View".

better presentations with Powerpoint activate presenter view

To add notes, go to the "View" tab and select "Notes Page".

better presentations with Powerpoint add notes for presenter view

Now you can add notes to your slides.

better presentations with Powerpoint add notes for presenter view

When you start your slide show now, you will find the following selection menu in the lower left corner.

better presentations with Powerpoint select menu for presenter view

The two arrows allow you to move to the previous or next slide. The brush icon offers you the option of highlighting important information in the presentation itself in color or highlighting it using your mouse as a laser pointer or pen.

better presentations with Powerpoint presenter laserpoint, textmarker

Clicking the better presentations with Powerpoint overview button icon opens a general overview of all slides of the presentation.

better presentations with Powerpoint all slides overview

You can exit this view by clicking the arrow in the upper left corner, or by pressing the escape key.

To get to the presenter view now, click the better presentations with Powerpoint open menu for presenter view icon. The following menu opens.

better presentations with Powerpoint show presenter view

Now click "Show Presenter View", and you will get to this screen.

screen presenter view better presentations with Powerpoint

On the right side of the presenter view, you will see the next slide. Below are your notes. Using the better presentations with Powerpoint notes in presenter view icons, you can magnify enlargen notes in presenter view better presentations with Powerpoint or reduce better presentations with Powerpoint reduce size of notes in presenter view their size.

At the top left above the slide, you will see how long you have been presenting.

better presentations with Powerpoint timer in presenter view

The functions also offer you the option to stop or restart the timer.

 

Tip 3: Put an end to bullet lists in PowerPoint Presentations

better presentations with Powerpoint use smartarts

According to an estimate by Microsoft, 70% of all slides worldwide are in the form of a bullet list! No wonder, when this is the standard slide in PowerPoint. But it doesn't have to be! To quickly turn a bullet list into a descriptive infographic, you can use PowerPoint's SmartArt. Just select the bullet list you created and look at the different previews, until your find an illustration to your liking.

better presentations with Powerpoint utilize features

better presentations with Powerpoint utilize features smartart

If you don't want to part with your bullet lists after all, the pictograms provided by Microsoft are a wonderful way to enhance your slides.

better presentations with Powerpoint use icons and pictograms

Don't like either option? At empower®, we not only ensure that your employees save time when creating documents - but we also provide you with SmartArt and diagrams tailored to your corporate design.

Presentation tip 4: The perfect PowerPoint master

Does your company have a professional template that provides convenient layouts, appropriate colors, and little helpers like leading lines, footers, and languages? If not, a consistent presentation is almost impossible. We have summarized some tips for creating PowerPoint master slides, as well as expert tips for the perfect PowerPoint master for you.

But our best tips don't guarantee that all your employees will have the time and inclination to implement them. Learn more about our Brand Control Solution for company-wide consistent and corporate design compliant presentations and documents!

 

Tip 5: use a professional tool to create and maintain your PowerPoint presentations


better presentations with Powerpoint layout tools for the perfect presentation

Do you already work with a central library where relevant slides are shared across the company? And do you have productivity tools to quickly create presentations in your corporate design? Our Brand Control Solution offers all that and a lot more features to work more efficiently in Office.

Contact us and learn from our experts without any obligation how you can create professional presentations with empower® in a short time and save a lot of time for your employees and yourself.

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