PowerPoint tips to make your presentations more engaging

Objective — Mon, 08 Aug 2022 20:00:04 +0000

Do you have to give a PowerPoint presentation soon? Are you feeling a little nervous about it? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Many people feel anxious about giving presentations, especially if they don’t do it often. But don’t let that stop you from delivering an awesome presentation! In this article, we’ll discuss tips to make your PowerPoint presentation more engaging.

Understand your target audience

Before preparing your presentation, do some research about your target audience. Think about what kind of presentation they would enjoy. What sort of media do they prefer most, and what kinds of images and typefaces should you use to pique their interest?

Doing your homework on your audience will help ensure your PowerPoint presentation receives the full attention of your audience.

Talk about one idea per slide

Never cram several topics into a single slide, as this can overwhelm your audience. Instead, concentrate on one theme or topic per slide. This will help your audience better comprehend the message you’re trying to get across.

Use images instead of bullet points

Using pictures, graphical elements, or other visual components instead of bulleted lists, can help you command more attention during your presentation. Images can help your audience focus more on what you’re saying instead of reading what’s on the screen.

Use white space to enhance readability

White space, also known as negative space, is a design concept that refers to empty spaces in a layout. It isn’t always white; rather, it’s the background of the design, regardless of color or pattern, that doesn’t contain any text or images. When used correctly, white space will draw your audience’s focus to the most essential parts of your presentation.

Practice

Practice delivering your presentation days before a live or recorded event. You can try practicing in front of a mirror or recording yourself to see how well you’re delivering your presentation. Rehearsing several times can help you determine the flow of your presentation and identify areas for improvement.

Keep these tips in mind the next time you’re making a PowerPoint presentation to increase audience engagement. For more detailed information on how to make compelling PowerPoint presentations, give us a call today.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

Presenting using PowerPoint? Use these tips

Objective — Wed, 03 Mar 2021 21:00:42 +0000

Do you find it difficult to keep your audience’s attention whenever you do a PowerPoint presentation? You’re in luck because we have some of the best tricks of the trade to share with you.

Start slideshows instantly

The audience doesn’t want to see the speaker’s cluttered desktop or unread emails as the PowerPoint presentation is being set up. Therefore, while waiting for everything to be ready, make sure the projector does not display anything — either have the operator cover it or display something else via the dual monitor function. Take this time to introduce yourself and do a short spiel about what you’re going to talk about. Then, once the slideshow is ready, cue the operator to uncover the projector or switch the dual monitor screens.

If you’re both the presenter and the projector operator, you can take steps so that your PowerPoint file instantly opens as a slideshow (i.e., it bypasses PowerPoint’s editing mode):

Before presenting, save your file as a PowerPoint Show in the folder of your choice.
When you’re about to present, open the folder and double click your file.

It’s that easy! Take note that this won’t work if you try to open the file via any of PowerPoint’s Open functions — you have to go to the file’s location and double click from there. And to end the show, just press the Esc key.

Say no to bullet points

Audiences hate it when presenters just read walls of text off of their slides. It’s supposed to be a presentation, not a tedious read-along. Some say that bulleted items that have no more than seven words each is good, but both Steve Jobs and Tim Cook agree that bulleted lists aren’t the ticket. A better way to create lists is to drop each item in one at a time, if possible, next to a big image that is the main focus of your presentation. Don’t forget to talk about each individual list item, but not with bullets.

Insert pictures from Flickr and OneNote

Jazz up presentations by including images or memes that’ll make the audience laugh instead of doze off. Head to the Insert tab and select Online Pictures — you’ll see Office.com Clip Art, Bing Image Search, Flickr, OneNote, and even Facebook. A vast pool of online images is now at your disposal. Alternatively, you can just take photos of yourself and use those to help drive your point home in an engaging and relatable way.

Pull back the focus with blackouts and whiteouts

Audience members tend to lose focus or drift away when presentations are longer than usual. If you suspect audience members are starting to lose focus, hit the B key for a complete blackout or the W key for a total whiteout. Then hit any key or click the mouse to return to the slides — this technique helps get the eyes back on you, where they belong.

Chart animation

The challenge doesn’t lie in inserting a chart into the presentation, but in making it interesting. Enter chart animation. After inserting the chart, click the Animations tab and activate the Animations pane. From there, click Add Animation. Pick an animated effect. Then, in the Animation Pane where you see the entry for the chart’s animation, right-click and select Effect Options.

This lets you customize sound and animation timing. But on the final tab — Chart Animation — be sure to change Group Chart from “As One Object” to “By Category.” This displays charts one element at a time as you click, with bars or slices of pie arriving one after the other, as if each was its own slide.

Extend music over multiple slides

To add music to your slide, go to the Insert tab, select Audio > Audio on My PC. Then, in File Explorer, find the music file you want to use and then select Insert. But why confine your favorite tunes to just one slide? Expand it over the duration of your presentation by clicking on the speaker icon that indicates the embedded audio. On the Playback tab, choose Play in Background to have the audio play across the next few slides or until the music stops.

Duplication

If you are constantly reusing the same element throughout your presentation, the good old Ctrl-C + Ctrl-V keyboard shortcut is fine, but Duplication is better. Hold Ctrl while you click and drag on the object to create an exact dupe; keep selecting and making dupes and they’ll all space themselves out evenly. You can even duplicate entire sets of slides: simply select one or more slides on the left navigation pane, select Insert > New Slide > Duplicate Selected Slides.

Animate, animate, animate

Any element of a PPT slide can be animated. Choose the element, go to the Animations tab, and at the right end of the Animations Gallery, click the down arrow to get “More.” You can choose from many options about how an element appears, gets emphasis, or disappears — but for animated motion, go to the fourth section. If you pick Custom Path, you can get the object to do just about any wild motions you want on the screen before it settles down.

Use animations to add flair to your presentations. Don’t overdo them — you don’t want your audience to get motion sickness.

PowerPoint slideshows don’t have to be complicated. In fact, if animations and music cramp your style, then don’t use them. At the end of the day, it’s you who’ll be carrying the presentation and discussion. The slideshow is just a visual aid that helps people understand your points and remember them better.

If you have any further questions regarding our tips or how to execute them, please feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We’re more than happy to answer all of your questions.