16 Ideas to Create Excellent PowerPoint Presentations

30,000,000 PowerPoint presentations are made around the world daily. How many more bad onesshould we have to sit through?

Sitting through a long, boring, PowerPoint presentation that no person wants to listen to can betorture.

The much worse scenario is that you are the one giving the presentation that nobody likes . . .

The truth is that we all want all of them to be much more engaging, to the point, and effective.

Follow these 16 PowerPoint presentation tips to create a presentation that is out of this world.

1) Start With Your Audience

Who are the people that you are going to be presenting to? What is their age, who are they, what istheir income and occupation? These things will help you to craft your PowerPoint presentation.

2) Your Message is Important

Tailor the message to your audience to help them understand why you are presenting and to reachyour goal. This infographic is a great source to use when deciding how to craft a presentation.

Source: visualistan.com

3) Keep Your Slides Short and to the Point

Each slide should only be about one key point or take away. If you put too much information on oneslide it will become confusing to the viewer. Try to focus on putting one point and then some bulletsexplaining it on each slide.

4) You Don't HAVE to Use PowerPoint

If you don't have PowerPoint you don't have to worry! There are some great free options that youcan make a great presentation with as well.

Canva is a great and powerful photo editing tool. It has great fonts and filters to make it incrediblyeasy to create powerful, engaging, professional and custom presentations. Canva gives you access tohundreds of design templates and gives you the ability to customize your presentations to your exactspecifications. The best part is that all of it is free.

Check out canva.com for more information.

Prezi and Google Slides are also both web-based, free options that allow you to give a presentationanywhere from the web.

5) Use These PowerPoint Presentation Templates

Use these 14 PowerPoint Presentation Tips and Templates. They will help you create a presentationwith style. You don't have to use every single tool that PowerPoint provides you with. These aresome that you can definitely use to take your presentation to the next level.

Source: hubspot.com

6) Use Pictures and Visuals When They Add to the Presentation

Use visuals in your presentation that help get your point across. Know your audience. Here is agreat Slideshare on creating visual presentations.

Source: Slideshare.net

7) Use Bullet Points Rather Than Paragraphs

When you use bullet points on your slides, it gives your audience key points from your presentation.It also gives you speaking cues, incase you lose your train of thought. Don't overload your slides withbullets. This will keep your audience engaged with you and not reading slides.

Your slides shouldn't do the talking for you. Limit your words to 6 words per line, and 6 lines perslide.

8) Don't Read Your Slides Word for Word

Your presentation should help to supplement what you have to say and give key points. You are thepresenter, use your slides to get your key points across keep them simple. Elaborate on theinformation in your slides, don't read them word for word. With each point, if you are using bullets,you can then elaborate by telling an interesting story, or a joke.

9) Use Easy to Read Text

Use text that is easy to read for your audience when you are giving your presentation. Use text suchas Arial, or Helvetica. Save text that is fancy for large headlines in your presentation.

10) Bring Your Own Hardware

Formatting is important if you bring your own USB. It's best practice to bring your own laptop thatyou want to use. Just make sure you have prepared how to connect it. Bring your presentation on aUSB flash drive as a backup just in case. It is also possible to email the presentation to yourself, orsave it on dropbox.

11) Try to Keep it Under 20 Minutes

A study at from the University of Tennessee stated that the average attention span of an adult is 20minutes.

Try to keep your presentations under this amount of time or give your audience a break by showinga video or demo to keep them interested.

12) Use Videos to Add Engagement

Sometimes a video will add a little something extra to your presentation. Use them when they arebeneficial. Communicate your idea in a 2-4 minute video. Ensure that the production value of the thevideo is good. The video should directly relate to your presentation. Ensure that you are only usingvideos in your presentation to add value.

13) Quality Over Quantity

Don't waste your audience's time with fluff and nonsense. Use your slides for quality information andonly use them to enhance your presentation. Less is more. The more words and fluff on a slide, themore chances your audience will have to tune out. You don't want that.

14) Practice, Practice, Practice

Preparation is the key to giving an effective presentation. So, write a complete outline of your talk inbullet point detail. Don't write it word for word, but write it out as bullet points. Next, dictate yourtalk into a voice recorder or cell phone, and then listen to it. It's amazing how much different itsounds when you hear your own voice. You'll see ways that you could have presented it differently.

Sometimes just changing the order of points increases their impact.

15) Learn From the Best PowerPoint Presentations

Some presentations are better than others. Look at other presentations for ideas before creatingyour own. Keep an eye on how the use of visuals and layouts.

Here is a great presentation to fix your really bad PowerPoint based on Seth Godin's e-book.

16) Make it Actionable

Provide something at the end of your presentation that your audience can do immediately to takeaction. This is the exclamation point at the end of your talk. It's where you wrap everything up andbring everything together. What can your audience do when they walk out of the room to put whatthey learned into action?

Conclusion

Do you have any other tips to add to the list? Share them in the comments below.

If you liked this post, and want to end the cycle of bad presentations, share it with your friends.

« Previous Post

How to Do Right In Business Life with Dina Dwyer-Owens Next Post »

27 Useful Tips to Overcome Your Fear of Public Speaking

About Brian Tracy -- Brian is recognized as the top sales training and personal success authority inthe world today. He has authored more than 60 books and has produced more than 500 audio andvideo learning programs on sales, management, business success and personal development,including worldwide bestseller The Psychology of Achievement. Brian's goal is to help you achieveyour personal and business goals faster and easier than you ever imagined. You can follow him onGoogle+, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Linkedin and Youtube.

http://www.briantracy.com/blog/business-success/16-powerpoint-presentation-tips-examples/