5 Tips to Improve Your Slides Immediately

1- Less is more

Too much text on your slides will kill everything. Remember this formula: Take the oldest person in the room (their age) and divide by 2. That’s the smallest font to use.

If you have more than one point divide them on multiple slides. This grabs attention to each point.

One. Point. Per. Slide.

 

2- don’t rely on text, use images. Lots of images.

I’m not saying you can’t put a few words on the page. But engage people’s emotions with images. And pick good images. Nice ones. Not the bad clipart that is available in PowerPoint . Get yourself an account with a stock images service.Spending a bit of money can ensure you getting the right image for the right slide.

 

3- Keep the colors simple

Stick to simple light and dark colors. Exceptionally bright text can cause eye fatigue, so use those colors sparingly. Dark text on a light background or light text on a dark background will work well. Also avoid intense gradients, which can make text hard to read.

If you are presenting on behalf of your brand, check what your company’s brand guidelines are. Companies often have a primary brand color and a secondary brand color, and it’s a good idea to use them in your presentation to align with your company’s brand identity and style.

 

4- Leave some space for breathing

Most people put too much stuff on a single screen. They put text, clip art, and graphs all on one. That’s bad. Just plain bad.

White space is your friend. You need to learn to love white space. I’m not saying it has to be white. But give your main point room to breathe. Give your images room to breathe.

 

5- Keep your slides consistent.

Whatever style you pick, you want to keep it consistent throughout the piece. Having one style for one slide and then a different style for a different slide can be jarring to the audience.

Instead, one consistent tone makes the presentation flow much better. If you are doing an internal presentation, it’s best to use a branded template for your decks (and if you don’t have a branded template for your organization, make one).