7 PPT Tricks for More Creative PowerPoint Slides

PowerPoints have a variety of uses, which is why they’re still so popular even after being around since 1987. They can show off a product, explain an idea, and are often used to help teach.

Any business can benefit from organizing their thoughts with a PowerPoint. It gives presentations structure and, when created properly, engages the audience.

Continue reading for seven PPT tricks to make your slides more creative.

1. Use Custom Templates

PPT comes with a bunch of free templates to sift through. This gives you an array of options. The bad news is that millions of people have already made presentations with these templates.

You don’t want a cookie-cutter PPT devoid of personality. Dig a little deeper to find the perfect PPT template for your presentation. There are multiple websites that make free and quality-looking templates.

You can make your slides more unique by using the “Edit Master” feature. Under “Slide,” select “Slide Master” to change the layout of your slides and the color.

2. Choose a Good Font

It might be hard to believe that a font can make or break your PPT presentation, but it’s true. The font you choose shouldn’t be boring and it also shouldn’t be too crazy.

A font that’s too exciting will distract your audience from the content of the PPT. Avoid using bland fonts such as Times New Roman, Calibri, and Cambria. These basic fonts are overused and won’t show your personality.

Some fonts are difficult to read even on a big screen. Try not to have content in cursive.

Test out the PPT to make sure the font size isn’t too small. Everyone in the audience has to be able to read what’s on your slides.

A good font will show your professionalism while also fitting your brand. You don’t need to stick with one font either. You can use fun fonts for titles that will grab the audience’s attention, and then go back to a more toned-down font.

However, your PPT should be consistent. Every slide has to look the same in order to avoid distraction.

3. Use Flowchart Animation

PPT’s animation feature gives presenters a chance to get creative. Instead of every slide showing all of its content at once, the person can decide what they want to show up, in what order, and how.

This is particularly useful when explaining a concept with a flowchart. Flowcharts simplify information, but it may not be as helpful if it pops up all at once.

With animation, each part of the flowchart can reveal itself one at a time. This gives you the chance to focus on explaining one point. The audience will also be more attentive to that point and what you’re saying.

4. Use Shapes

We’re all familiar with the classic slide title and bullet points. This type of PPT may be a fine summary of your presentation, but it’s boring. Bullet points aren’t the only way to get your ideas across and paragraphs can get too wordy.

Try utilizing PPT’s shape tools to organize your concepts. It’s more visually appealing than mere horizontal lines. It can express information more clearly by being interesting and easier to look at.

The shape tool can be used to make little blurbs of information, diagrams, and flowcharts. Draw your own custom shapes with the Freeform or Scribble tool. You can even make a shape by combining multiple shapes.

5. Shape Images

Images bring life to a PPT. They give something besides words for the audience to look at.

Pretty much all images are either square or rectangle. Luckily, you can crop images “Mask to Shape” tool. The tool lets you pick the shape of the image.

You can pick a heart, diamond, circle, and more. This adds a bit more creativity to your presentation.

6. Show a Website

Normally if you wanted to show something from a website, you had to copy and paste the link and leave the PPT to get to the website. This process slows down your presentation and can break your audience’s focus.

PC users have the option of embedding links into their PPTs so they can show the website without having to leave their presentation. LiveWeb is third-party software that embeds websites using an HTML iframe.

You can put an entire webpage into your PPT or a YouTube video. Mac users can’t embed links into PPTs. The next best thing is to take screenshots of the website you want to show or paste the link in your PPT.

To embed media such as videos, Mac users have to download it to their computer.

7. Use a Custom Font

As mentioned before, picking the right font is important for the look of your presentation. If you can’t choose between the PPT options, you can search online for free fonts to download.

Perhaps your company has its own font someone designed just for them. This would be appropriate to use because it’s on-brand.

Make sure you embed any custom fonts you have in your PPT. The program will revert these fonts to default ones if you open the file on another computer.

To embed a font, go to Save > Preserve Fidelity when sharing this presentation and check the box called “Embed fonts in the file.”

Get Creative with these PPT Tricks

PowerPoints don’t have to be bland. They can serve their purpose and be an engaging experience.

Adding personality while still maintaining your professionalism will get your audience interested in your PPT. Use these seven PPT tricks to make creative presentations.

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