Knowing These Secrets Will Make Your Presentations Look Amazing

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The cheat sheet to make killer presentations

People make bad presentations. Period.I’ve made 100’s of presentations and sat through 1000’s of them and most of them have me sleeping halfway through them or fidgeting on my phone.

Making an impactful presentation is easier than it seems but harder than it feels.

With the hundreds of tools available on PowerPoint and elsewhere it is easy to get distracted and spoil the broth, but I’ll be sharing some tips I’ve learned on my way so you don’t repeat those mistakes.

Before we start I want you to repeat with me:

Presentation tools are not Disney rides, you don’t have to ride (use) all of them.

1. Content is King

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Don’t cover up your shortcomings with fancy gimmicks.

This is a rookie mistake I’ve seen the most experienced individuals make.

Your content will define your presentation, don’t try to trick the audience into falsely impressing them but rather work on your details.

2. Be Consistent

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A variety is always good to have except when creating a presentation.

Don’t overdo the themes, don’t experiment with the colors. Commit to a particular style and let your presentation support you, not distract.

It can be a good idea to choose from 1000’s of pre-determined Usage-based themes that Microsoft provides and work on the different design options within them.

3. Less Text Please

I will repeat this, a PPT is there to support you not replace you. Having boatloads of text will distract the audience from you which will ultimately result in them leaving the room confused and un-inspired.

In case you have text which you want to share with your audience, it is a good idea to mail it to them before or after the presentation rather than sticking up 100’s of words on a slide.

Which one do you prefer?

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4. Embed Videos

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Videos are an important part of any presentation, and it is equally important to present them professionally.

Many people overlook this very important feature of embedding their videos and rather carry them in different folders and the constant switching between the Presentation and Videos breaks the flow and makes you look unprofessional.

You have the option of directly embedding a link or uploading a video from your device. The latter is preferred since it saves you from any connectivity issues which might arise while playing an online video.

Powerpoint>Insert>Video>Online Video/Video on my pc

5. Don’t Go Wild With the Fonts

The 100’s of fonts provided by Microsoft can look appealing and fun, but it’s not your work to deliver fun, it’s to deliver your point across, and using a variety of illegible fonts is a great way to make sure people are distracted and walk away from your presentation unimpressed.

A little bit of variety can be good to gain attention but it shouldn’t be overdone and you should try to stick with a maximum of 3 fonts and follow-through with them for the entirety of the presentation.

What font impresses you?

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6. 2/4/8 Rule

This can be considered as the holy grail of making presentations- I kid you not.

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You can see how I have made sure that I follow the 2/4/8 rule, which ultimately makes it easier for the audience to understand and absorb the bulletins without being overflowed with a dump of information.

It also makes your work look aesthetic and well refined.

Mastering this rule is 50% of acing any presentation and you should work on improving this skill to gain mastery over your presentation skills.

7. Ask Questions

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You’re not a robot and neither is your audience.

It’s a bad idea to just keep delivering your content as it is. Your bulletins should be in the form of a question and it is very optimum to have at least one question per slide.

Asking questions makes it easier to have attention and keep the audience engaged while allowing for you to deliver the content as you would have.

8. Quiz your audience

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It is good practice to keep quizzing your audience in between the presentation to know whether you have their attention and have real-time feedback on their understanding and your delivery.

It also gives you an overview of what requires a deeper explanation allowing you to smartly allocate resources in real-time while making sure the audience goes back satisfied and wanting more.

It is also a good idea to have real-time polls that can be achieved using software such as Mentimeter (this is not an affiliate link).

9. Use Formal Language

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Formal Language is a must no matter what you are speaking about.

You don’t want your audience guessing what does FYI, NSFW, TMI, TY, NGL mean. It is important to connect with everyone and such slangs can create barriers.

You can be informal in your delivery according to the situation but make sure that you create easy to understand and formal presentations.

10. Don’t Shout From Your Slides

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DON’T WRITE LIKE THIS.

Uppercase Letters are the worst way of conveying a point across since it equates to virtual shouting and writing in such a way can induce negative feelings in the audience leaving them overwhelmed and leave feeling attacked.

It can be a good idea to use it once a blue moon but I would use it with great caution because of it’s risky nature.

11. Use More Visuals

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Visuals are an effective way of gaining attention and conveying a message effectively.

According to research, 80% of people remember what they see compared to a measly 20% of people who remember what they have read. Using high-quality relevant visuals is a strategy that will never fail you and make sure that your audience walks away with information they’ll remember for times to come.

12. Use GIFs

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GIFs are a great way to demonstrate a process and make sure your presentation is fun to look at.

GIFs make sure that a point is delivered in a bite-sized visual without showing long videos each time you have to display a process. It also gives you the flexibility of breaking down steps at a binary level and having visuals to explain as you proceed with your presentation.

13. Secret Tip: Designer Ideas

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Designer ideas is a cool feature by Microsoft which allows you to customize every single slide with a plethora of slide and content specific suggestions from Microsoft.

It makes your presentation aesthetically appealing by providing various templates, icons, etc while making it super easy to customize your slides.

Powerpoint>Design>Designer

14. Canva is a GameChanger

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Various online resources provide templates but Canva is a different league. You can create anything that you can think of: presentations, logos, calendars, visiting cards, etc.

It replaces the need for hardcore design knowledge.

It has so many free templates to make cool presentations and most of their designs are topic-specific so you always have templates to choose from no matter the occasion.

Not many people know about it, so using it already takes you to the top of the chain.

You can check out canva at https://www.canva.com/join/jpz-vyx-qwp (this is my referral link)

15. Have an Assistant

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What’s worse than a bad presentation?

A distracted Presenter.

It is not a good sight to see the presenter continuously turn back and bend to toggle between slides. You can ask someone to assist in you moving between slides or use a remote if that is available.

16. Carry the Original Device

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Please carry the device in which you created the presentation.

I cannot count the number of times I’ve witnessed presenters being embarrassed because the Presentation just won’t run due to- incompatibility. It is better to carry your device rather than risking incompatibility on a new device or a different version of the windows.

It is also preferred to carry your presentation in multiple formats such as- JPEG, PDF, etc.

17. Use the Slide Show

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Using the presenter’s view/slide show looks professional and aesthetic as compared to toggling between all the slides on the screen. You can also rehearse your timings, record your presentation, and pre-define aspects of how the presentation will be presented.

You can also use Ctrl+H to hide the cursor on the presenter’s view and use A key to bring the cursor back.

Ctrl+P can be used to bring up a pen tool during the slide show allowing you to draw during your presentations.

Powerpoint>Slideshow>From Beginning

18. Avoid Overwhelming Transitions

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Avoid Using Any Comical Animations.

Don’t reveal your text letter by letter, don’t have the text fly-in, don’t have that comical audio, don’t have those transitions.

Powerpoint presentation is not Disney movies and you don’t need to show your animation skills because all that makes you look is a fool who has just learned how t use PowerPoint.

19. Practice, Practice, Practice

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It is very important to practice until you can give a fantastic presentation even if you did not have your Presentation on you.

Speaking out your presentation in front of the mirror and timing it is a good way to be in better control on the D-day. It also allows you to work upon your presentation and experiment with what works and what doesn’t.

20. Don’t Go Wild With the Colors

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It is a strict no when it comes to using dark background colors.

Many people use colors on PowerPoint-like they’re using paint. I always result in bad looking unprofessional presentation

Dark background colors with either contrasting or dark font color are always a bad idea owing to the stress dark colors create on our eyes and the difficulty it creates for the farther seated audience to read the Presentation.

It is a good practice to stick with light colors and preferably White.

21. Be Thoughtful of the Font Size

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A good presentation with an illegible font size is a bad presentation.

It is a good idea to be thoughtful of the farthest seating audience and keeping the text size above 30 and the title size above 40.

The art of presenting is like every other skill, it takes practice, experience, and a lot of mistakes to figure out what works and how to deliver the best presentations.

These tips are what I have learned from my experience and I hope they help you in avoiding mistakes I’ve experienced.

Every skill is an individual journey to be experienced and I wish you all the best for your presentations.

Please feel free to reach out in case of questions, suggestions, tips.