A Little PowerPoint Cosmetics Goes A Long Way

Not every client has a big budget for a major redesign of their PowerPoint presentations. I’ve had a few non-profit companies who have hesitated to even call me because they have literally no money to spend on a decent looking presentation. When they do call, I tell them they can get a lot of bang for the buck by just having their presentation look a little more consistent. By that I mean having headlines the same size and on the same baseline as you click from one slide to the next. The same holds true with text. Our brains are wired to recognize (and be comfortable with) order. When we see something that breaks that order, we get distracted and sometimes even annoyed. You don’t want anyone getting distracted when you’re presenting. Another cosmetic consideration is picture placement. If you have an image on the right of your slide, I’d keep it in the same spot for subsequent slides. That predictability helps the viewer to focus on the meaning of the visual, instead of thinking “Hey, why is that picture in a different place?” Finally, transitions and animations should be kept minimal. If you have text that rises up from the bottom of the slide, you should repeat that treatment on subsequent slides, rather than changing to a different effect, such as crawling in from the left. Just remember that even though PowerPoint offers us lots of design options, it still takes a good eye to prepare a tasteful looking presentation that is easy on your viewer’s eyes.