Standing up in front of a room full of people to give a speech can be intimidating. However, when you have a presentation tool like PowerPoint to help guide you through it, things are much easier.
Using PowerPoint gives your audience something to look at intermittently, rather than just staring at you throughout the entire presentation. PowerPoint also guides you through your data, keeping you on track and gently nudging you if you get lost during your speech.
There’s a lot of room for error when it comes to designing a presentation, but the right PowerPoint tips and tricks can help. Keep reading for our best advice on how to keep your presentation clear, concise, engaging, and successful.
1. Be Prepared
Whether you’re looking for PowerPoint tips and tricks for a college presentation to be given in front of your class or a work assignment to be given in front of co-workers, you must be prepared. The more you know about the data (and the information behind the data), the smoother your presentation will go and the more confident you’ll be giving it.
Take time to rehearse the presentation in front of the mirror, using the slideshow exactly as you would during the real presentation. Then, take it a step further and perform a mock presentation to your family or friends. Maks sure you’re timing yourself so you know roughly how much time your presentation will take.
Finally, go into presentation day with a backup plan in case something doesn’t work. For example, if you used Keynote instead of PowerPoint, do you know how to convert the file? It never hurts to bring your own computer in, rather than depending on a portable hard drive and someone else’s hardware.
2. Know Your Audience
One of the most important PowerPoint tips and tricks reminds you to cater to your audience. Your presentation will only be as good as your audience perceives it to be. Don’t make the mistake of targeting your presentation towards the wrong audience.
Keep the following questions in mind:
- Who are you presenting to?
- What motivates them?
- Is there room for comedic relief or is this not the time?
- What do they value?
- What is the overall goal or message you’re trying to get across?
Once you have a better understanding of your audience, you’ll be able to design your presentation more appropriately.
3. Use High-Quality Images and Graphics
Next, the right image, photograph, graph, or chart can be exactly what’s needed to keep people engaged and focused on your presentation. However, many PowerPoint users make the mistake of using low-quality media, which can detract from the overall effect.
Make sure all of your media files are the right size. You don’t want any blurry and/or unreadable images coming up. It makes the information they present useless and your presentation sloppy.
4. Use Imagery to Keep Things Interesting
While you need to be careful about the quality and content of media you use for a presentation, it’s incredibly important that you do. Most people easily become bored and distracted during slideshow presentations, even when they’re interested in the subject matter.
One of the best PowerPoint tips and tricks you can use to keep everyone’s attention is incorporating photos, graphs, charts, and other images. Additionally, studies have shown that information is much easier to remember through imagery.
5. Keep Things Simple
When you’re creating your PowerPoint presentation, remember not to overcomplicate things. Keep your word count down on each slide. Use headers rather than huge bodies of text and don’t use extravagant fonts.
Additionally, while the imagery is important, too much of it can be overwhelming. Keep your images and any graphics clean and simple. This includes using simple colors (no more than four).
Finally, when it comes to slide transition, keep it conservative and simple. Don’t use anything that will detract from the content of the presentation. This includes avoiding sound effects (for slide transitions, bullet points, etc.).
6. Don’t Rely on Your Text to Get Your Point Across
Finally, whether you’re using PowerPoint or Keynote, and are presenting to fellow students or co-workers, you don’t want to be a monotonous robot up there. If you’re simply reading slides or note cards to an audience, you’re going to lose them. They can read for themselves, that’s not the point of you standing up in front of them.
Use your voice to accentuate and highlight certain parts of your presentation. Don’t rely on exclamation marks and bold font to make people understand important points.
7. Use GIFs and Videos
When appropriate, use GIFs and videos in your presentation to help keep people engaged. This is one of the best PowerPoint tips and tricks for entertaining your audience. Gauge the types of GIFs and videos you use based on your intended audience.
For example, just because you’re giving a presentation on productivity and time management, it doesn’t mean you can lighten it up with some humor.
8. Connect With the Audience
One of the hardest parts of giving a presentation or speech is connecting with your audience. If you’re uncomfortable in the spotlight, it’s vital that you relax enough to give an organic presentation where you can look at audience members, engage with them, and keep their attention.
Start by slowing down. Don’t get in a rush to finish the presentation and sit down. Your audience will sense it and they won’t even have time to take in the information.
Make sure you’re continuously making eye contact (with different people) and are pausing after key points to let the information sink in. Encourage people to ask questions. Engage with the audience by asking their opinions, observations, etc.
9. Present Your Slide One Piece at a Time
Finally, make sure your slideshows aren’t presenting information ahead of you. This is another one of the top PowerPoint tips and tricks used by the pros.
Almost always, your audience will start reading any text as soon as it’s displayed on the screen. They’ll be down to your last bullet point before you’ve finished presenting the first one.
Make sure the slides you create present one piece of information at a time. That way, the audience will be listening to you rather than reading ahead.
Looking for More PowerPoint Tips and Tricks?
If you’re looking for more advice on PowerPoint tips and tricks, be sure to check out some of the other articles in our blog. However, if you’re looking for a free source to help you convert your files, you’re already there! We can help you convert images, presentations, spreadsheets, documents, and more.