You have a big presentation coming up, but you are not satisfied with the slides you have. Don’t worry! Here are 5 tips you can apply right now to substantially enhance your presentation slides.
1. Leave White Space
We all know what it’s like to sit through a presentation that is overloaded with long paragraphs and crowded images. It may cause undue stress because you will have to organize information, figure out important elements, and consume key messages all at once. That’s why white space is important! It’s a natural divider that pushes away separate elements to make information more organized and easier to read. On top of that, it makes your slides more aesthetically appealing because it creates balance and harmony.
Take, for example, the slide below. Imagine if all the content were in one big paragraph; that would be very hard to read. But, when you split the content into a few elements with white space around them, your audience will immediately understand the structure—and the slide itself draws audiences’ attention to those elements. I also recommend leaving some empty space around each slide border. Keep in mind that the white space can be in any color or it can also be any clean background images.
2. Use Grid Layout
The grid layout makes it very easy to create a well-organized slide. It breaks your slide into several sections, and you know where exactly you can display your content. Three of the best grid layouts are vertical grids, horizontal grids, and 3 x 3 grids.
As the name suggests, vertical grids divide your content vertically. Some of the most used vertical grid layouts are two-grid, three-grid, and four-grid layout. You can decide which grid layout to use based on your content. The slide below is an example of a four-grid vertical layout.
As you can probably deduce, horizontal grids divide your content horizontally. Some of the most used horizontal grid layouts are two-grid, three-grid, and four-grid layout. Again, you can decide which horizontal grid layout to use based on your content. The slide below is an example of a three-grid horizontal layout.
The 3 x 3 grid layout divides your slide into three grids both horizontally and vertically. According to the Rule of Three design principle, if you display your content in any of the boxes or the intersection of any two boxes, the content will appear balanced.
3. Select High-Quality Images
We all know the power of good images in a presentation. But where can you find high-quality images? Below are some websites where you can find free, high-quality stock images:
If you can’t find what you are looking for in the above two websites, you can also take a look at Unsplash and Pixabay.
One more reminder: every image you select to be used in the slide should not only be of a high-quality, but they also have to be relevant. Once you download the images, you can display the image in any shape you like, as shown in the slide below.
4. Limit Color Variation
In the past, when I created PowerPoints, I would get carried away using a rainbow of different colors, until one day my manager pointed out that it didn’t look very professional. I came to realize that this was because of the overuse of colors. Since then, I’ve tried to limit the color variations in my presentation. One tip for using various colors without making the slide looks unprofessional is to use the eyedropper tool to choose the color from the existing images on your slide. Take the slide below as an example: I need eight different colors for each item. Since the given image has a balanced color scheme, that means if I use the eyedropper to choose as many colors as possible from the image, all eight colors in the background bar will still complement one another.
5. Use a Template
Last of all, if you have limited time to prepare for your next presentation, it’s not a bad idea to use an online presentation template. The template websites listed below are great resources for creating PowerPoint slides.
If you can’t find what you are looking for in the above two websites, you can also take a look at Slidebean, Infograpia, and Slidesgo.
Though now you have the template websites, I recommend you create your own PowerPoint templates as a reserve in case you have to create some slides using your company template for your manager on short notice. Meanwhile, you can visit the template websites frequently and see how those templates are designed—and get inspired. If you follow these 5 tips, you’ll have one of the best presentations in the office!