You have a presentation to create. It's important. But, formatting diagrams can take forever and the text on your slides seems to have a mind of its own. Then, there's the sad fact that everybody's Microsoft PowerPoint presentations look the same.
Sound about right? If so, I've got good news for you! Creating professional, unique presentations can be much easier than you think.
This article will help you find the right tools to get exactly the presentation you want. We'll look at three components of creating effective presentations, and provide time-saving tips to help send your presentation off in style:
* Grab the viewer’s attention
* Clearly communicate your information
* Stay in control of your presentations
Grab the viewer’s attention
Creating slides that get the viewer's attention is not about how much you can fit on the screen. It's about using the space on your slides effectively. Don't crowd your slides, and only include elements that contribute to the points you want to make. When you use graphics on a slide, choose images that serve a purpose (such as a chart or diagram that displays a direct benefit of your idea).
1. Select or create your own theme.
Themes are the evolution of design templates in PowerPoint, but they’re also much more than that. The themes features was introduced in Microsoft Office 2007 to help you easily create the right look for your presentations and to coordinate all of your Microsoft Office documents almost instantly.
A theme is a coordinated set of fonts, colors, and graphic effects that you can apply to your entire document with just a click. The same themes are available for your Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, Microsoft Word documents, Microsoft Excel workbooks, and even your Microsoft Outlook email messages (and in Office 2010, your Microsoft Access database forms and reports), so it’s easy to create your own personal or business branding throughout all of your documents.
In PowerPoint, the theme also includes the slide master and slide layouts, which you will learn more about later in this article, and slide background options.
When you apply a theme in your presentation, you automatically get slide layouts, color, fonts, and graphic effects that go together, and you can format content with just a few clicks, as you’ll see later in this article.
* Find many built-in themes in the Themes gallery on the Design tab, in the Themes group. Just point to options to preview that theme in your documents. In Office 2010, you also see a selection of themes in this gallery that are automatically updated periodically from Office.com.
* You can also mix and match a slide design with different theme colors, fonts, and effects to quickly create your own look. Select separate theme color, theme font, and theme effect sets from their respective galleries on the Design tab.
You can even easily create a completely custom theme with your own colors, fonts and slide designs.
Tip: If you change the theme in your presentation and the formatting doesn’t change, you may not have used theme-ready formatting when you created your presentation. When you start with a new PowerPoint 2010 or PowerPoint 2007 presentation, theme-ready formatting is automatic for fonts and colors on slide layouts and for Microsoft Office graphics, such as SmartArt graphics, charts, and shapes.
2. Use video and audio to convey your message more effectively.
Dynamic content, such as a brief video that illustrates an important point, is a great way to engage your audience. Using audio that helps convey your message can also help you keep your slides clean and approachable, such as by adding recorded narration to slides when sending your presentation to others to view on their own.
In PowerPoint 2010, video you insert from your files is now embedded by default, so you don’t have to include multiple files when sharing your presentation electronically. You can also customize your embedded videos with easy-to-use tools such as video trim, fades, and effects. And with PowerPoint 2010, you can insert a video that you’ve uploaded to a web site to play directly in your presentation.
3. Use graphics to emphasize key points
A well-chosen chart or diagram can often convey much more to your audience than boring bulleted text. Fortunately, creating charts and graphics has never been easier. In Office 2010 and Office 2007, Office graphics coordinate automatically with the active theme in your presentation.
* If Excel is installed on your computer, you automatically get the power of Excel charts when you create a chart in PowerPoint. Just click the chart icon on any content placeholder in the PowerPoint presentation to create a chart.
When your chart is created, an Excel worksheet opens where you can add and edit your data. And when you select the chart in your document, you see the Chart Tools Design, Layout, and Format tabs that make it easy to format and edit your chart. Find chart styles on the Design tab that automatically coordinate with your active document theme.
SmartArt graphics, introduced in Office 2007, enable you to create a professional-quality diagram literally as easily as typing a bulleted list. You just type in the SmartArt text pane and the diagram is automatically built for you. SmartArt layouts are available for many types of diagrams, ranging from simple lists to process diagrams, organization charts, timelines, and much more. Click the SmartArt icon on any content placeholder to add a SmartArt graphic.
When you select a SmartArt diagram, the SmartArt tools tabs become available on the Ribbon. On the SmartArt Tools Design tab, you can use galleries to select a SmartArt style that coordinates with the effects of your theme and choose from several color options that also coordinate with your theme. You can even select a different SmartArt layout to apply to your active diagram. The layout is updated, but your content and formatting remain. And you can just point to options in any of those galleries to see a preview of your selection on your active graphic before you apply it.
Tips:
o Convert a bulleted list to a SmartArt graphic with just a few clicks. To do this, right-click in the list, point to Convert to SmartArt, and then point to a layout to see a preview of the diagram on your active slide, or click to apply the layout of your choice.
o In Office 2010, dozens of additional SmartArt graphics are available, including more organization chart and picture layouts, as well as improved tools for working with picture diagrams.
4. Use animations and transitions wisely.
Having text and graphics appear on-screen just when you need them can be a nice touch. However, using too much animation can distract from your presentation's content.
* For effects that emphasize your points without overwhelming your audience, limit animation to key points, and use consistent animation choices throughout the presentation.
Customize, preview, and apply animations directly from the Animations tab in PowerPoint 2010. In PowerPoint 2007, find the Custom Animation pane on the Animations tab.
Tip: Animation effects in PowerPoint 2010 are improved to provide more realistic movement. You can also trigger the animation of an object to begin when you reach a specific point in the playback of audio or video content on your slide.
* Consistent or complementary choices in slide transitions can also provide a professional touch without being distracting.
Clearly communicate your information
Want slides that clearly communicate your most important points? You might be surprised at how little work it takes to go from basic to brilliant. PowerPoint provides a host of tools for keeping your slides consistent, precise, and professional.
Take a look at two versions of a basic bulleted text slide below. The text in both slides is identical. Which would you prefer to present?
Image of two slides with same content and one formatted
5. Start by outlining your presentation.
Take time to outline your presentation before you begin to create your slides. Doing so can save time and help you give a more clear and effective presentation.
You can create your outline by typing a slide title and bullets points for your main topics on each slide. But you can also use the Outline pane to type your entire presentation outline in one window and add slides to your presentation as you go. To do this:
1. In the Slides pane that appears on the left of your PowerPoint screen in Normal view, click the Outline tab. (If you don’t see the Slides pane, on the View tab, click Normal.)
2. Notice that a slide number and icon appears for your first slide. Type a title for the slide and then press ENTER to create your next slide.
3. Press TAB to demote the text level and add points to the current slide in your outline. Or press SHIFT+TAB to promote the text level and add an additional slide.
Tip: PowerPoint 2010 adds a new feature called slide sections that enables you to divide your presentations into logical sections for easier organization, such as to assign a set of slides to one author or to easily print just one section of slides.
Source : http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/skills/presentations.aspx
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