how to make a powerpoint presentation less boring

Michael Aragon

• March 18, 2019
• business , presentation , presentations

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7 PowerPoint Tips to Banish Boring Presentations

You know it and I know it: PowerPoint is boring.

Why? Because the minute we sit down to create a PowerPoint presentation, we forget everything we know about engagement and persuasion .

How do you make a PowerPoint presentation interesting?

It starts with the realization that attention is the only currency that matters. You need to hook your audience’s attention the moment you begin—and you can’t let go for even a second.

Fortunately, it’s not as difficult as you might think. And in this post, I’ll walk you through 7 PowerPoint tips to make your presentations more effective, so you can banish boring presentations forever.

PowerPoint Tip 1: Think Visual

The #1 most common mistake in PowerPoint presentations—and the reason they’re so boring—is that that we create them for us rather than our audience.

And the temptation is real. If you’re afraid of forgetting an important point, you’ll want to put every word into your slideshow.

But your PowerPoint slides aren’t notecards to keep your presentation on track. They aren’t for you at all. They’re for your audience.

The slides are a supplement to your speech, not a transcript . Their job is to capture your viewers’ attention and clarify your points. And to do that, you need to create a slideshow that’s visual, not textual.

Here is how to make your PowerPoint presentation more visual:

Use text sparingly. You may have a slide with only 1 word, or no words at all. After all, less is more with PowerPoint presentations.

Be liberal with images and graphs. Use them as illustrations for your main points or to add another layer of meaning to your message. And don’t be afraid to let them fill up the screen—with no words at all.

Use videos for pacing and engagement. Videos are especially engaging. They can capture people’s attention at the beginning of your presentation and reengage them after a slow or boring section. They can also be used to transition from one part of your presentation to a dramatically different part, since they create a natural break.

Don’t try to be cute. Visuals should support your presentation. And yes, they may be entertaining, but they should never distract or interfere with the readability of your slides. At all costs, avoid creating slides like this :

Of course, there may be times when visuals won’t work, and that’s okay. In some video sales letters , for example, the words are your visuals.

But even in a purely text-based presentation, you need to think about how it looks. Don’t put too many words on a single slide. Provide lots of white space. Give your audience just one thought at a time, so they stay engaged.

PowerPoint Tip 2: Think “Brand”

Whether it’s your company’s brand or your personal brand, you want to have a recognizable style.

When people see your presentations, they should know it’s yours—because the color and style scream you .

Apple is a good example of this. They’re the masters of “distinctive minimalism,” and everything they do reflects that.

You can pull any 2 slides from their presentations—often even years apart—and they still look like they belong to the same presentation.

Notice the trademark simplicity in this slide from an old Steve Jobs presentation.

And here’s Tim Cook years later. The slides are almost identical.

But how do you make sure you are creating your own well-branded presentation?

Don’t copy other brands’ designs. Your brand should be distinctive. Your presentations should be too. Stick with your brand’s fonts, colors, and unique style.

Design your slides to reflect your brand’s personality. If your brand is bold, go bold in your design. If your brand is understated, go simple. The point is to stay true to your own branded look and feel.

PowerPoint Tip 3: Create a Quality Layout

To create recognizable presentations, you need to develop a high-quality layout that can become your signature style .

A good layout involves everything we’ve talked about so far. It includes the way you come across visually and your branded fonts, colors, and personality. But it’s strategic as well—because you want the layout of every slide to look like you .

To do that, you need to decide in advance how you’re going to handle different design elements, and then stay consistent.

For example, the presentation below could be laid out any number of ways. It could have a traditional layout, like this:

Here, the text primary text box is at the top of each slide, with a secondary text box at the bottom. Images are centered with a yellow border that keeps them from bleeding into the blue background.

But if your brand is more modern, you might choose a more artsy layout, like this:

Now, both of these layouts can work. While most designers would agree the second version is “better,” in reality, the right choice is the one that aligns with your brand and works with the information you’ll be presenting. Here, the image is placed in the background and text is minimized. With this layout, slides are more engaging—less predictable.

What’s more important is that you create a PowerPoint layout that’s attractive to your audience. Then stick with it—don’t jump from one style to another.

And you can do that in several ways:

Use white space to your advantage. White space is the unfilled space between elements on the page (or in this case, the slide). It keeps things from feeling crowded and helps you keep your audience focused on what matters. White space is your friend. Embrace it.

Use animated transitions and multimedia sparingly. Animations can be classy or cheesy—and overdone, they’re usually irritating. An effective use of animation is to show one sentence or bullet point at a time. Avoid garish transitions that could become distracting.

Clip art is almost always a no-no.

Please. No.

Keep your layout simple. Every slide should have just one focal point.

Use gifs sparingly. Movement attracts attention, and gifs move nonstop. The problem is, they can distract people from your main message. So if you use gifs, don’t leave them up while you’re sharing important information. Show them, then move to the next slide while you talk.

PowerPoint Tip 4: Use a Template

Once you’ve settled on a good design for your presentation, turn it into a template. Then create a few variations for the different types of information you’ll present—say, a layout for lists, another for text with an image, and yet another for charts.

For example, this presentation by Edureka! has 3 primary layouts that keep everything looking consistent.

This is the primary template, which has text above and below a graphic:

This is the template for introducing new subtopics:

And this is the template for discussions, case studies, and examples:

Templates can make your life much easier. Instead of reinventing the wheel every time you need to create a presentation, you can simply pull out your template. With the design work already done, you can focus on the content—so you’re sure your presentation will be interesting.

PowerPoint Tip 5: Create Flow

In a strong presentation, every idea leads to the next. There should be no “stops” or awkward transitions. That’s true for your speech and for your PowerPoint slides.

Every slide should bring your audience closer to your final slide—or call to action.

Of course, flow is nebulous. It’s hard to create it, but easy to spot when it’s missing. While there aren’t many hard-and-fast rules to ensure flow, there are several things you can do to make it easier.

Know your goal. It’s a lot easier to lead people to a place when you know what that place is. Every slide should bring your audience closer to your final slide—or call to action.

Edit content to fit your template. Don’t depart from your template. If an image doesn’t fit, edit the image. If your text doesn’t fit on the screen, break it up and create extra slides. To make a PowerPoint presentation attractive, you need to embrace the boundaries of your template.

Create transition slides. If you need to transition smoothly from one subtopic to another, create transition slides to bridge the gap.

PowerPoint Tip 6: Test Your Hardware

If you’re presenting live—whether on a webinar or at an event—make sure your technology will work.

Nothing’s worse than apologizing to the audience for 15 minutes because your slide show isn’t loaded and ready. Always have a back-up plan.

For presentations, have your laptop or tablet ready. Make sure your PowerPoint is already open—just in case.

For webinars, do some dry runs to make sure the internet and your hardware and software work.

PowerPoint Tip 7: Use Presenter View

Finally, use PowerPoint’s Presenter View when delivering your presentation.

Presenter View lets you to view the entire presentation—along with any notes you’ve written to yourself—while the audience sees only your finished slides.

PowerPoint’s presenter view lets you see the final slides PLUS presenter notes.

If PowerPoint doesn’t prompt you to select Presenter View when you start your slideshow, you can find the option in the “SlideShow” tab. To find it after you’ve begun the slideshow, look for 3 dots below the main slide view—you can click on them to bring it up.

Use Presenter View to write notes to yourself. This is how you can avoid using your slides as index cards. Add prompts, tips on movements or gestures, or specific stats and numbers that you didn’t want to include on your slide.

Meanwhile, your audience just sees the slides flowing seamlessly, and you look like a genius, pulling stats and figures seemingly from thin air.

Pull up the appropriate slide if someone asks a question. In many cases, questions relate to one of the slides in your presentation. When that happens, find the slide in Presenter View before you put it on the screen—rather than forcing your audience to watch as you flip through the entire stack.

Final Thoughts

PowerPoint can be your best friend or your worst enemy. So many people use it badly that it’s almost synonymous with boring.

In fact, there’s even a political party focused on removing PowerPoint from business presentations.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

With a little thought and time, you can make effective PowerPoint presentations that grab your audience’s attention.

Make PowerPoint your friend: Keep it simple. Keep it focused. Keep it visual. And people will be excited that you’re the one giving the next presentation.

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Blog > 6 Tips to turn your boring slides into stunning presentations

6 Tips to turn your boring slides into stunning presentations

01.18.22   •  #design #tips #powerpoint.

Recall those conferences or meetings where you were forced to sit through slide after slide of hard-to-read and overcrowded text with nebulous or no images. Didn’t you feel claustrophobic or overwhelmed? Now, let’s do a reality check! Even though we all abhor a distracting, boring, and cluttered presentation, when it comes to crafting our own, do we really ace it? Well, most of us fail to prepare winning slides despite putting in lots of effort and investing tons of hours. Do you know that you don’t have to be an experienced and professional graphic designer to add a spark to your slideshows? Yes, you heard it right! You can make your monotonous slides dazzle with just a few easy tips. So, let's take a bit of a deeper dive into the blog!

1. Structure and Organize Your Presentation Aptly

According to research studies, the information presented in a structured format is retained 40% more accurately by the audience than unstructured information. Craft your presentation in a simple and logical way so that you can stay on topic while presenting, and your audience can easily grab the key message. The structure of your presentation depends on several factors, such as the settings where you will be delivering your speech, whether you need any visual assistance, how knowledgeable your audience is on the given subject, etc.

• What is the objective of your presentation?
• Who is your audience?
• What key message do you want your audience to take home?

Pro Tip: You can choose pre-designed PowerPoint templates to give a logical flow to the information and a professional touch to the overall presentation.

2. Less is more

Many presenters put everything they know about the topic on the slides for the sake of making the presentation information-rich. But the truth is, too much information in the form of bullet points or long paragraphs will only make your slides look cluttered and difficult to comprehend, drifting off the audience in a few minutes. Keep in mind that the audience is more likely to be enlightened, engaged, and influenced if you provide them meaningful information with fewer words.

• Slides stuffed with too many images do more harm than good to your presentations. If you need to include multiple images, rather than putting them all in one slide, put one on each side.
• Use the fewest characters and words on slides to tell your story. Provide handouts or do follow-up emails if you want to furnish longer information.
• Keep titles and subtitles short.

Pro Tip : Your slides should not be a data/information dump; instead, they must be an aid to support your key points.

3. Power Your Slides with the Right Visuals

You will be surprised to know that the average attention span of humans (8 seconds) is shorter than a goldfish’s (9 seconds). So, to grab their attention really quick and keep them hooked to your slideshow without getting distracted, include the right visuals, and you are all set to deliver a gripping presentation. Moreover, adding visuals save you valuable time compared to writing out a whole bunch of text and increases your credibility as a presenter.

People tend to grab the information quickly and remember it for longer if it is presented in a visually appealing manner. Research also confirms that in comparison to plain text, visuals are processed 60,000 times faster. So, if you really want the linguistically diverse, neuro-diverse, and culturally diverse audience to get more out of your presentation, use high-resolution and good-quality visuals that reinforce and complement the core message. Depending on your presentation, you can include graphs, images, icons, videos, charts, infographics, screenshots, memes, or GIFs.

Pro Tip : Visuals do make a great impact if they are formatted properly, perfectly match with the slide content, and evoke the right emotion.

4. Keep the Formatting (Color and Font) Simple Yet Engaging

Your presentation acts as an ambassador of your brand. Misaligned text boxes, wrong line spacing, and other formatting mistakes may undermine your key message. In a nutshell, a poorly-formatted presentation can put your company’s/brand’s reputation at stake. So, take time to format your slides properly and give them a professional touch before you present them in front of the intended audience.

• Leave adequate white space around the text to give it clarity and an uncramped look. But refrain from double spacing errors.
• Use the right size and color of fonts to improve the readability of the content. Avoid using multiple font colors.
• For increasing comprehension, use contrasting color palettes for text and background.
• Keep the design consistent in all the slides.

5. Make it Audience-Centered and Interactive

• Include only relevant and meaningful points.
• Avoid using jargon or technical language.
• Add a title to each slide to make your audience understand what the slide is all about.
• Make your slides interactive by adding questions, polls, surprising facts, and other icebreaking elements to keep the audience active.
• Allow the audience to ask questions and share their feedback to increase their participation and make your presentation a two-way communication.

6. Include a powerful Call-to-Action

End your presentation with an effective call-to-action (CTA) that guides the audience about what to do with the information you have shared and encourages them to take the right action.

• Choose the CTA that closely matches the purpose/objective of your presentation.
• The CTA should not be complicated and confusing; it should be concise and clear. For example, “Download Now,” “Subscribe Today,” etc.
• If you want to elicit a strong response from the audience, your CTA must be enthusiastic. For example, “plan your dream vacation today,” “buy now and get 60% off,” etc.

The bottom Line

The above tips will help you create a truly amazing presentation, but you can achieve success only if you deliver it with confidence. It is important to prepare thoroughly and practice a lot to deliver a unique experience to the audience. In addition, to avoid your slideshow from being a “snoozefest,” make your narration exciting and lively. Also, make sure you speak neither too slow nor too fast/loud.

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About the author.

Ashish Arora

Ashish Arora is the Co-Founder of SketchBubble.com , a leading provider of result-driven, professionally built presentation templates. Travelling the world to gather new creative ideas, he has been working in the digital marketing space since 2007 and has a passion for designing presentations. You can also find him on Twitter or LinkedIn .

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What Makes a Good Presentation? How to Make a PowerPoint 101

Clémence Daniere

Table of contents

How to create a powerpoint presentation, presentation tips and tricks.

• Create a Video to Share Your Slides After Your Presentation 

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Microsoft PowerPoint, Google Slides, and other slide presentations have become an absolutely essential part of any presentation.

They’re easy to use, offer a great way to combine images, video, and text, and require almost no training.

So, why are so many presentations so boring?

All the elements are there for creating effective, eye-catching, and engaging presentations, but so often we’re forced to sit through slide after slide of overcrowded, hard-to-read text and fuzzy (or non-existent) images.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to make your presentations dazzle with just a few easy tips.

Your slide deck has the power to add to or take away from the overall effectiveness of your presentation. Learning how to make a presentation more interesting requires skillful collaboration between the strength of your content and knowing how to make your slides look good. 

So, before you open PowerPoint, let’s go through some basics.

Less is more

Less is more with slide content.  

Your slides should not be stuffed with content, especially text-heavy content. Incorporating bullet points helps your audience follow your message without getting distracted by trying to read the slide.

Use engaging slide designs

You don’t have to start from scratch with every presentation! Chances are, you are not a graphic designer so why not use the templates that have been created by professionals ? 

Using presentation templates can help you make PowerPoint slides, Google slides, or slides for other platforms as well without spending too much time trying to create a professional look. 

You can easily find templates online through Slidesgo and Slidescarnival for Google Slides and for PowerPoint. Each of these platforms offers themes within their software as well. 

All you’ll need to do is make minor adjustements to the design!

Be on-brand

Using consistent branding is an easy way to build familiarity and trust with your audience. If you have an established brand in place be sure to use it when building your slides.  

The colors and fonts used in your design should always adhere to your brand standards without deviation. 

If you don’t have a brand guide to work from, select a specific color palette, using color theory to ensure the message of your presentation is not counteracted by your color choices. 

Stick with just a few colors, and go the same route with fonts. Only choose a few to use, and avoid overly scripted options as they are difficult to read on screen.

Use visual aids

Visuals make a huge difference in your presentations. But there are a few rules to follow.

Stick with high-quality images. Adding images to your slides that are blurry, pixelated, or otherwise low in quality is an easy way to quickly disengage with your audience.

If you don’t have access to high-quality branded photos, use sites like Unsplash and Shutterstock .

Plus, adding screenshots can make your presentation more interesting than stock photos. 

Annotate and edit screenshots with Snagit

Professional mark-up tools and powerful features make it easy to create helpful images.

Share data analytics or upcoming project plans by taking a simple screenshot. Screenshots are the perfect addition to your presentations.

Third-party tools like Snagit are made just for that. You can add callouts , arrows , and other tools that draw your audience’s attention . 

For a more fun visual, use GIFs to highlight some key points.

GIFs are a great middle-ground option between static images and videos. They can be used effectively to drive home a specific point or to highlight a specific piece of data.  

Visuals always help with memorability and GIFs usually include a touch of humor and personality – both qualities that help information stick.

You can make your own GIFs using Snagit so that they are perfectly catered to your presentation.

We live in a video world. Embedding videos directly into your slides can play a role in creating an interesting presentation. 

Videos can be an easy way to show a tutorial or demonstrate a process. Whatever your presentation is about, there are videos you can make or outsource that will support your point.

However, using too many videos can take away the impact your own content has. Try to stick to three or fewer videos in one presentation. 

According to Forbes , thirty to sixty seconds is ideal for a presentation video.

You want your visual aids to support your presentation, not take over it. The focus of your presentation should still be you and the value you are bringing to your audience!

Video messages > meetings

Record your screen and camera with Snagit for quick updates and feedback.

For your presentation to shine, you need to combine storytelling, authenticity, and visual aids.  

Basically, it’s all about what you say and how you say it.

Tell a story 

Often times when we think about how to make an effective presentation, we focus on the visuals. We add animations and transitions, hoping that will keep our audience engaged. 

If most of your attention and time is spent on design, you are missing out on a key element that is crucial for making presentations interesting – the story. 

The best presentations draw in their viewers with a relatable narrative, but the narrative also helps the presentation to gain memorability as well. 

You should be spending a large portion of your preparation time crafting your content – the actual information you will be sharing and how you will be sharing it. It doesn’t matter how good your slide designs are if they aren’t supporting compelling content. 

You don’t have to weave an epic tale for your presentation, but if you are looking to make your presentation interesting you need to incorporate some storytelling aspects, like personal connection and impact.

To achieve your purpose, you’ll need an outline. That way, your purpose is kept at the center of your presentation and you follow a familiar structure. You need to make sure that you have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Just like a regular story!

Presentations that are interesting from beginning to end take the audience on a journey. Steer away from reciting facts and from long tangents. Find a middle ground that’s personable and informative!

To create an interesting presentation, be sure you structure your content in a way that makes it easy to tell the story and provide your audience with a journey that is relevant and memorable. 

Be authentic and engaging

A key point that often gets forgotten when preparing presentations? YOU are the presentation.  

Leslie Chamberlain , Senior Director, Customer Education explains on The Visual Lounge Podcast :

“What it comes down to. Whenever you’re doing any kind of presentation, whether you’re doing it on a video, whether you’re doing it in front of folks in person, it comes down to your audience is building the relationship with you. Your slides, your images are not the presentation. You are the presentation. So as you go forward to present, be true to yourself, speak from your heart, and enjoy every minute of it.”

Lean into the parts of your personality that best serve the presentation’s purpose. Tell personal stories, speak in the same manner you normally do, and be open. Public speaking is always a little daunting, but with confidence, you can achieve anything!

Your body language should be easygoing, so try to use natural hand gestures and smile. Make sure to maintain eye contact with audience members. It will create a bond between you and them, which will increase their confidence in you.

Your energy is contagious. To make your presentation more interesting, you’ve got to bring the right energy. 

High-energy presenters get more engagement from their audiences while coming in with low energy is a surefire way to destroy any hope of engagement, regardless of how good a story you have crafted with your presentation’s content. 

Memorize your content rather than relying on reading your slides, and be sure to use different speeds and volumes throughout the presentation to make it more interesting, draw attention to specific points, and present authentically.

And don’t forget to use organic visuals in your presentation to support your purpose and drive home the information you’re sharing. 

Create a Video to Share Your Slides After Your Presentation 

To wrap it up, you can make a video of your presentation. That way, you’ll be able to use it again in the future without going through the hassle of presenting over and over.

To do so, you can simply video record your screen and your camera. With Snagit, you can do so easily and use some fun tools like Screen Draw to direct attention to certain parts of your slides. 

Record your screen with Snagit

Snagit makes it easy to share quick updates and how-to’s by capturing exactly what’s happening on your screen.

Once you’re done recording and making simple edits, send the video as a link through Screencast. Hit the Share Link button to create a unique link to your video. Then, send it out to anyone who might’ve missed your presentation!

This is also a great way to get feedback on your presentation before it happens. Record a mock-up presentation using Snagit, and send it to your team for honest, constructive criticism. That way, your presentation will be so much better when the day comes!

Additional Resources

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• Storytelling

9 Ways To Turn a Boring Topic Into An Engaging Presentation

Hey! Wake up!

Do you have to present on a boring topic?

Let’s do something about that!

The first thing you need to know is that your topic is fine!

Initially, almost all my client’s say that their subjects are boring, and other people have more interesting topics. Whether they are presenting about Marketing, Economics, Biotechnology, Big Data, Quality Assurance, Deep Learning Algorithms, or Sales, they always point outside to other fields and departments and say that others have more interesting topics.

If I buy into their premises, then there will be no interesting topics on this whole earth.

That’s why I share the belief of the English philosopher, G.K. Chesterton, that there are not any dull topics out there; there are only disinterested audiences.

That’s closer to the truth. So, instead of blaming your subject for being boring, you can start to look for ways to stir your audience’s interest (and awaken their minds.)

If your topic is not perceived as hot and sexy enough, then you need to speak about it with more confidence, authority, and conviction and soon people will be interested. Think about it like this: if Tobacco Companies sold smoking cigarettes as sexy, I am very sure you can sell your topic too.

Here are some ways to help you get your audience interested in your topic:

1- Start with why

How you start your presentation will determine if people listen to you or not. Two of the big questions your audience members have when they are in the room with you is “Why am I here?” “Why is this is important to me?”

If you don’t quickly tell them why they should care about the topic; then the audience will focus on other items they deem more important.

Simon Sink started a whole movement based on the idea that companies that explain the why of their product end up on top of the food chain. He stated in his famous Ted talk that the fundamental difference between the “Apples” of the world and everyone else is that Apple always starts with “why.”

Sinek based his idea on the fact that people are starving for meaning and relevance. I add that we live in a busy and noisy world, and your audience is careful with their time and attention. If you don’t show them the reason they should listen, then they will tune you out.

Now, starting with why does not mean that you forget about the why throughout the presentation. You have to keep connecting your topic to your audience’s interests throughout the talk.

Remember, your audience is always listening to one radio station: WIFM . What’s In it For Me. And to keep them interested in the topic, you have to keep tying your topic back to their interests.

2- Be interested in your topic

If you think your topic is boring, then how can you expect anyone else to like it when you present.

It’s impossible.

People will detect your lack of passion, disinterest, and insecurities about the topic. Your disinterest is like a virus that spreads and infects everyone around you.

Besides, even if you hint that your topic is boring, you will be missing out on an enormous influence phenomena: It’s called Social Curiosity Driver.

The Social Curiosity Driver tells us that if other people show interest in something in front of you, then we will get curious too.

Example, you are walking down the street, and you see ten people staring and pointing at the sky with amazed looks on their faces.

Would you be interested in finding out what they are looking at?

Of course, it’s human nature.

Now imagine leveraging that same phenomenon in your presentations.

Next time you present get interested in your topic and don’t fake it; just tap into real interest , and you will see how this will peak the curiosity of your audience. They will be sitting there, saying to themselves, “I don’t know what she sees in the topic, but there must be something interesting here.”

Social Curiosity Driver is a biologically hardwired phenomena. Don’t miss out on it.

Remember, if you can’t get yourself interested in what you are talking about, there is no way you will get your audience to be interested.

3- Let your personality shine through

Even, if you topic is boring – which is not.

Don’t be a boring person yourself.

Nearly every day, people ask you what you do for a living, you engage in conversation about your work, and maybe tell work-related anecdotes.

Sometimes our preconceived notions about how to put together and give a presentation can interfere with the important and simple goal of being interesting.

Don’t be constricted by a particular telling of the story on the slides. Be yourself. Interject anecdotes that support your talk. Add context with interesting “did you know” facts.Look your topic up on Wikipedia, and you might find out something you never knew before.

For example, if you’re talking about cash vs. accrual accounting, did you know that U.S. tax authorities started accepting accrual methods in 1916? That means 2016 is the 100th anniversary of accrual! Pretty exciting stuff! I am not in accounting, and I find that fascinating as an entrepreneur.

Your topic is not boring, and you are not boring.

Personal Confession:

Somehow, when I was an engineer, I bought into the misleading cultural premise that engineers are not exciting; that they are boring people. Honestly, I bought into it because it allowed me to be lazy and not have to try too hard to make my topic interesting to my audience.

Please don’t make the same mistake. Whatever you do for a living can be fascinating. You just have to put some effort into it.

Nowadays, I work with so many professionals, directors, and C-level executives from many industries, and when I see them put just a little bit of effort, they turn into superstar presenters and the go to people in their organization to represent the whole company.

4- There is no such thing as a boring topic, only boring angles

When you talk to reporters, they always use the word “angle.” The angle is how you approach and present about a subject. Reporters know the power of the angle, and that’s how they get you interested in reading their stories.

So instead of complaining about your boring topic, think, what angle should I use to get people interested in this topic.

A computer science client of mine was presenting in front of neuroscientists. Instead of jumping into his algorithms right away, he started talking about some problems neuroscientists are facing and then presented his work as a possible interesting solution to those problems. The audience was riveted instead of bored to death with algorithms. That’s an example of a good angle.

Let’s say for example your topic is doodling. Or what happens when you encounter a broken web page and get a “404” error message. Hard to imagine less interesting subjects isn’t it? Somehow “Doodlers Unite” and “404, The Story of a Page Not Found” are among a list of the 22 best TED Talks ever !

That’s an example of how Renny Gleeson found a great angle to present on the topic of 404 error messages.

TED Talks can be great examples of making any subject interesting.

Sure, many TED speakers speak on what we might think of as interesting topics like business, information technology, and public policy.

But there are hundreds and hundreds of speakers who give interesting talks on how to be a better grocery shopper, how painting a house led to a better community, and the physics of pizza.

Notice that all good Ted talks have good angles.

5- Break up the flow of the presentation

Maybe your presentation topic requires information dense, flat and “uninteresting” (or difficult to absorb) slides. One way to make this type of presentation more interesting is to break up the flow.

At appropriate points in the story, you could stop, insert an audience poll, a video, a graphic of a recent news item, or a quote relevant to the topic.

Some free or inexpensive audience polling tools work well with PowerPoint, such as Poll Everywhere , and ParticiPoll . The Tech Republic has some suggestions on others.

If a poll is not appropriate, you can utilize a variety of interactive games to make your presentation more interesting. Use interactive techniques that work with your personality.

6- Include something entirely irrelevant in your presentation

Can you guess what the image above means?

It means nothing 🙂 Just wanted to add a break to demonstrate the point below:

If your audience has a sense of humor and the occasion is appropriate, some speakers like to break up a presentation by inserting something entirely irrelevant to re-engage the audience.

For example, if the time of year/timing is right you could pick one of your favorite holiday photos and put it on the slide and speak to it. Some people add a photo of their family or a picture of their car. You could even acknowledge, “Hey I know this material is a little demanding so I thought we’d take a break and talk about Thanksgiving dinner. Ir will be a quick break to help you digest the material better.”

In the Science of Influence, this is called, “breaking state.” If people get in a bored state, the best way to get them out of it is to break that state. One of the best ways to do so is to do something completely off topic.

While this does briefly interrupt your story, it can be an effective way to rekindle the participation of audience members who may have started checking email or are otherwise losing their focus on your presentation.

It’s a great technique especially late in the afternoon when people are sleepy from lunch.

Always give a reason for the break, or when you talk about irrelevant things, otherwise, some of your audience will think you are wasting their time.

Here are some examples of reasons you can use for introducing something irrelevant to the topic:

1- “Just to give you a little break from the material, I wanted to ….”

2- “To help you compartmentalize the previous information and separate it from the rest of the talk, I would like to introduce a quick visual break….”

3- “Just to break this dense material up a little bit, I wanted to give a quick break…”

7- Take a different approach to slide design

You can make a “seemingly” flat topic more lively by taking an innovative approach to slide design.

Who doesn’t have a hard time looking at spreadsheets and bullet points for 45 minutes or an hour? What if instead, you use a historical theme for your presentation, supporting it with memorable images from the past that help supports your speaking point?

If you want to consider using images from the past, the National History Education Clearinghouse offers some great resources for finding memorable images online. And of course, there’s ever faithful Google Image Search. But with all of these, you’ll want to consider copyright implications if you give your presentation publicly or publish it.

You can even change up the color palette of your theme. The popularity of various colors has changed over the years. Here’s a blog post on historical color themes you can use to give your presentation a retro look that might fit the story you’re trying to tell. Don’t settle for the generic templates all the people in your department use. Think outside the box and use more interesting templates.

It’s a general rule of presentation design that form follows function. In other words, the data you are presenting and the concepts that you’re trying to get across are more important than the graphics. But you can use an unusual graphical concept if it does not interfere with getting your message across, and it can help give your presentation some variety and make it more interesting to your audience.

8- Offer people an Easter egg

Easter eggs are something children hunt for on Easter. But it’s also a term from the world of movies. An Easter egg is a little something the director or producer has hidden in the scene with perhaps secret or additional meaning. You could put one or more Easter eggs in your presentation.

Let me explain how you would do that. Let’s continue with the accounting example. You could start your presentation by telling people that there are three references to famous economists hidden throughout your presentation, and at the end of your talk, you’ll ask your audience if anyone found all three.

If you’re an author, you can even offer a free copy of your book to the first person to correctly identify all three references. You’d be surprised at how closely people pay attention when they are challenged to be competitive.

9- Create the illusion of a conversation to hook your audience

Your audience doesn’t want you to “speak at” them. They want you to engage them in a conversation. Since the presentation format is restrictive, you sometimes have to create the illusion of a conversation.

The best way to do that is to use rhetorical questions. These are questions that you ask and then answer on stage. Rhetorical questions create the illusion of dialog when presenting and instinctively interest your audience.

Here is a formula to use when applying rhetorical questions:

1- Make a point

2- Ask a question about the point

3 – Answer

Here is an example that I use:

1- Make a point: Public Speaking is hard.

2- Ask a question about the point: So why is public speaking hard?

3 – Answer: The answer is not because we are stupid. It’s because we are conditioned all our lives to think that it’s hard. Since childhood, we have been conditioned not to speak up in class, not to challenge authority and not to make eye contact with strangers.

And after all, that, as adults we are expected to drop years of conditioning, stand up, make eye contact, and speak up to give presentations in front of groups of strangers.

Using rhetorical questions along with open ended and closed ended questions will turn your topic into an engaging presentation. When your audience feels that they are active participants in your presentation they will get a sense of ownership in the topic and that alone will keep them interested.

Conclusion:

How to Make a “Boring Topic” Interesting? Leverage available tools and practices to interest people in your topic. After all, there are no boring subjects only disinterested minds. Figure out how to re-interest those minds and you can become a fascinating person in your peer group at work.

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• Presentations
• Public Speaking

How to Avoid Death By PowerPoint (No More Boring Presentations)

The last thing that anyone wants is a boring presentation. There's a reason people use the phrase "death by PowerPoint." But you can avoid dull presentations.

Presentations are common whether they're for work or school. You want the audience to remember the information you’re presenting. There are tricks that you can do so that the audience does remember your presentation better.  

In this tutorial, I’ll show you ten tips on how to make your presentation more interesting. I’ll also share some great deals on presentation templates that are professionally-designed and eye-catching .  

10 Tips on How to Make Your PowerPoint Presentation More Interesting

When giving a presentation, the last thing you want is to have a boring presentation. So, if you want to know how to make a boring presentation interesting, keep reading.

I’ll use the Deep Multipurpose template   to show some points, but you can also download your own template and follow along..  

Now let's get to our tips on how to avoid death by PowerPoint:

1. Stick to One Message Per Slide

When you’re presenting, it's best to have only one message on a slide. When your slide has more than one message, your audience loses focus on the presentation. When your audience loses focus, it’s because you've got a boring presentation.

So, if you’re wondering how to make a boring presentation interesting, write a simple one- or two-word main point that you want the audience to remember on each slide. You can also include one image that matches with your main point.  

2. Involve the Audience

One way to make a boring presentation interesting is to involve the audience. There are many ways to involve the audience:

• ask questions
• poll the audience by asking them to raise their hands
• have a Q&A at the end of your presentation

If you’re giving your audience a quiz, you can give a prize at the end to make your presentation even more exciting for the audience. Involving the audience makes it more interesting and also more memorable for the audience.  

3. Beware of the Redundancy Effect

If you've got the same text on the slide as what you’re saying in your narration at the same time, your audience won’t learn. This is called the Redundancy Effect.

To make your slide more interesting and memorable for your audience, put your important information in the PowerPoint slide notes. Just put a few words or an image on your actual slide. Then the audience will focus on your narration, which has the important information, and not on your slide.  

4. Don’t Print Your Presentation

When giving your presentation in a business meeting or lecture, it's tradition to print your presentation and pass your printed presentation out to the audience. If you need handouts, prepare a dedicated handout that's unique from your presentation.

Many people design their presentation as a handout. But with a dedicated handout design, you make the handout look different. This gives you the freedom to design your presentation how you need to.

5. Eyes Are Drawn to Big Objects and Moving Objects

Traditionally slide titles are the biggest text on the slide. This isn't good if you want to make a boring presentation interesting .  People’s eyes are drawn to the biggest sentence or image on a page.

People’s eyes are also drawn to moving objects. To draw attention to important subjects, make sure the important information is bigger than any other text on the slide, including the slide title.

If you need to present bullet points, add movement to your presentation. With each new bullet point, use animation to have the bullet point fly in or appear. Here are some steps to help you animate a bullet point in PowerPoint:

How to Animate a Bullet Point

• Highlight the text that you want to animate.
• Once your text is highlighted, click on the Animations tab. In the toolbar, you’ll see green stars. These green stars are the Entrance Effects menu.
• Choose the animation effect of your choice. You’ll know that you’ve added animation when a little number appears near the bullet point.  

6. Use Contrast in Your Slide Design

For a less boring presentation , use contrast. The contrast makes your presentation less boring, but it helps the audience to remember your main point.

For example, add contrast to your presentation by using a dark background. This means you'll need to use white text. Then the audience will focus on the person giving the presentation and not on the bright white PowerPoint presentation.

Also, if you’re talking through bullet points use contrast. And make the point that you're currently discussing brighter than the points you’re not discussing. Here are some steps to help you de-emphasize bullet points after you discuss them:

How to Grey Out Previous Bullet Points

• Highlight the text that you want to grey out.
• Next, click on the Animations tab.
• Click on the Fade option in the Entrance Effects menu.
• Next, click on the number next to your bullet point. This brings up a side panel.
• Click on the animation that you want to edit in the play animation menu.
• Next, select the color that you want the text to fade to in the After Animation field. It's best to use a slightly brighter color than the background of your slide so that your text looks faded.  

7. Declutter Your Slide Design

This idea is similar to limiting the objects on your slide. But this time we're talking about design elements.

Some people may think I don’t want to have a boring presentation, so I'll put a bunch of design elements on the slide. That's how not to create an effective PowerPoint.

You can have design elements on your slide, but it's best to keep it simple. You don’t want the design elements of your slide to overshadow your text.

8. Know How Many Design Elements to Use

When creating your presentation and thinking about how to make a boring presentation interesting consider how many objects and words you've got on your slide. It's best to limit your objects to six.

When there are more objects and words, people stop paying attention. If you must present a bulleted list with more than six points, reveal one bullet point at a time and grey out the previous bullet point. By revealing the bullet points separately and greying out the previous points, the audience’s main focus is on the point you’re discussing.  

9. Use the Fade to Black Feature  

If you want to say something important you need the audience to focus on what you’re saying. To make your boring presentation interesting, fade your presentation screen to black while you discuss an important topic.

The fade forces the audience to pay attention to what you’re saying instead of reading the screen. Here's how to use the Fade to Black effect in PowerPoint:

How to Make Your Screen Fade to Black

• To make your slide fade to black, click on the Transitions tab.
• Next, in the Transition Styles menu, click on the Fade option.
• To have the slide fade to black and not just fade, click on the Effect Options button. When you click on this button, a menu drops down. 
• Click on the Through Black option on the menu.
• Next, click on the Duration field and create a custom duration.  

10. Make Sure Your Audience Can See Your Presentation

The best way to have a boring presentation is to present a presentation that an audience member can’t see. So, you want your presentation to be visible to everyone in the room. The farthest person in the room should be able to read your slide.

To learn more about how to avoid death by PowerPoint, there's a TEDxTalk given by David JP Phillips on the subject. For even more information on how to avoid boring PowerPoints, study this helpful article on Tuts+:

Where to Find Interesting Presentation Templates

Envato Elements is a subscription service where you get unlimited downloads of digital assets for a low monthly price. The digital assets you get include:

• PowerPoint templates
• stock images
• audio files

 All the digital assets are high-quality. Professionals design the presentation templates to look stylish and high-quality.  

Professionals design each Envato Elements template to look stylish and impressive. Premium templates save you time because you start with a professional presentation. Then, all you need to do is add information and make any customizations that you want. 

But if you only want to buy a single presentation template, we've got you covered. You can buy professionally-designed Envato Market presentation templates one at a time on GraphicRiver .

Avoid Death by PowerPoint in Your Next Presentation

It's easy to create a presentation and not think about what the audience wants. But when that happens, you’re creating a boring PowerPoint presentation.

Instead, you want your presentation to be memorable and interesting. You've just learned ten tips on how to avoid death by PowerPoint.

Another thing that helps you create a more memorable presentation is to start by downloading a premium PowerPoint template that's professionally designed .   To find professionally designed and high-quality templates check out Envato Elements or GraphicRiver. They've got hundreds of premium PowerPoint presentation templates .

HUGH CULVER

Author, speaker, coach, 10 easy ways to make any powerpoint presentation awesome.

Updated to Speaking on May 3, 2023.

This post was updated in 2023.

It was 20 minutes before lunch, my client was frantically looking at the clock, and the audience was squirming. We had suffered through endless forgettable PowerPoint slides and were all hoping for a merciful end. That’s when the presenter announced, “I see I’m running out of time, so I’ll just hurry through my last 30 slides.”

We’ve all suffered through slide shows with long lists of unreadable bullets, unnecessary YouTube clips, and overuse of graphics. Instead of holding our attention and making their point even stronger, each slide distracts the audience with more content they don’t need. Bad slides are agnostic. You can use PowerPoint, Keynote, Prezi, Google Slides, or hold up a piece of paper – it’s all a distraction if you don’t do it well.

Done well, a thoughtfully prepared slide deck can be the perfect slide dish for your full meal presentation. Done poorly and your audience will feel like they made one too many trips to the buffet table. This post will help you do it well.

For the first years of my speaking career, I presented with 35mm slides. You know, the photographs framed by cardboard that got jammed in the projector? That was me – hauling out the projector, clicking in the carousel, and praying that tonight it would all work. I soon learned that the more slides I showed the less the audience listened to me. So I cut back on the slides. I also noticed that when I switched to a black screen (see #9) the audience turned all their attention to me. So I practiced fading to black whenever I told a story or had an important point to make.

How I started

When I switched to PowerPoint I suddenly had a candy shop full of treats to sweeten my presentations with. And I started making all the same mistakes again: too many slides, too much content on each slide, and too distracting. After every presentation I always do a quick debrief – what worked, what needs to change? And slowly I developed a checklist for slide presentations.

I have shared with checklist with hundreds of speakers to help put the spotlight on them. Some were designing a new speech, some were preparing for a webinar and others needed slides to back up a video presentation. In every case, this checklist made their presentation better. They sold more products, got more referrals, and, in most cases, spent a lot less time working on their slide deck.

If you’ve ever struggled to create interesting slides or worry your slides are too wordy or you have too many of them, this will help.

Here are my 10 easy ways to make any PowerPoint presentation awesome.

1. Build your slides last

This might be the most important rule on the list. Don’t build your slide deck until you build your presentation.

You could be tempted to start monkeying with slides early in your speech writing process – after all, it’s a fun way to procrastinate from all that hard thinking – don’t. Building your slide deck before you build your presentation is like building a road before you know where it’s going.

Your slides are there to ADD to a well-designed speech, not to replace it.

2. Don’t try to replace you

People come to hear you. If you are launching your service on a webinar, they want to know how this solution has helped you and whether is it right for them. If you are delivering a keynote speech or workshop, they want a glimpse into your solutions that can help move them forward in their work or in life.

Fancy transitions, superfluous video clips, and endless bullet points will get your audience’s attention, but take their attention off of you. Every time you hit the clicker the audience leaves you and goes to the screen.

Your goal for every presentation is to deliver the goods, not the slides.

3. Use a consistent theme

We are easily distracted and confused. That’s why brands always anchor advertising on their unique colors, fonts, slogan, or a jingle. They know that consistency in their brand theme builds recognition and puts more attention on the message. You should do that with your slides.

Start with a simple, white background and san serif fonts.

A consistent, simple theme helps your audience focus on the content of each slide. Watch TED talks that have gone viral to see how simple a slide theme can be, like the ones by Dan Pink The puzzle of motivation (30M views), and Shawn Achor The happy secret to better work (25M views).

4. More images, less text

Want to quickly reenergize a tired slide deck? Make your images larger ( in this post I share where to get free images ) and reduce the text size. Remember, the theme in this post is that you are the presentation, not your slides.

Your brain can process images 60,000 times faster than text. When you use images (and less text) you allow your audience to process the image without distracting them away from your powerful story, or making a critical point. Like subtle mood music in the background of a dramatic movie scene, images can augment and enhance what you are saying without stealing the show.

5. One story per slide

When I started using PowerPoint I would have 60 to 80 slides for a 60-minute speech. It was a lot of work to prepare each deck and when I was deep into the speech I would sometimes forget where I was and have to jump forward a couple of slides.

Then it became 30-35 slides and I could breathe easier, knowing that fewer clicks meant less to worry about. As my confidence grew it became 10-12 slides and each slide became a key part of storytelling or point-making—they had to earn their place.

I might use a slide as a backdrop to a story or for a short list that supports a lesson I’m delivering. Either way, it’s always on ‘story’ per slide. If I don’t need a slide, I fade to black (#9).

But, I always stick to one story per slide.

6. Reveal one bullet at a time

This is an easy one – reveal one bullet at a time. The function of bullets is to reinforce (not replace) what you are delivering. That’s why they need to be short (see the 2/4/8 rule, below). A good bullet point is complete on it’s own, but much better when combined with a live presentation of it. Here’s an example from a list of (very wordy) time management strategies:

• Infrequent visits to your Inbox give you more time for deep work
• time blocking allows you to protect time for important work
• the Pomodoro technique can help you focus with fewer distractions

A better list – like one you might use on a PowerPoint slide – would be:

• visit your Inbox less often
• block time for important work
• the Pomodoro technique helps you focus

To reveal one bullet at a time in PowerPoint, right-click on your text box, select Custom Animation > Add Entrance Effect and then choose the effect you want. In Keynote, click Animate > Build in and choose the effect you want.

7. Leave the fireworks to Disney

It’s great that you know how to turn text into flames and make images spin with the click of your mouse – but leave those fireworks to Disney. Your job is to make your content the star of the show. Every time you haul the audience’s attention away to some animation you lose a truckload of opportunity to help them.

Your slides can still be amazing and helpful, but that should always be secondary to your primary purpose of helping people. Simple transitions, clean, san serif fonts, and large, attractive graphics trump PowerPoint tricks, every time.

8. The 2/4/8 rule

When I am advising other speakers I often don’t know their topic—certainly not as well as they do. So I rely on certain rules I have developed over many years. For slide decks, I use my 2/4/8 rule. Here’s how it goes…

• about every 2 minutes I have a new slide (that’s 30 slides for a 60-minute speech),
• no more than 4 bullets per slide, and
• no more than 8 words per bullet.

Just like any recipe, you can mess with the ingredient a bit. If your content is more technical, you might need more slides. Sometimes I need 5 or 6 bullets. I use the 2/4/8 rule to remind me that slides are there to support what I have to say, not replace me.

9. Fade to black

The last time I was shopping for a car, I noticed the salesperson had a clever technique. While he asked how I liked the car and if I had any questions, he kept his sales offer face-down on the table. Because there were no other distractions, he had my full attention. And when it was time to reveal his offer, it was much more dramatic (so was the price!) Use the same technique with your slides.

When you fade to black you regain your audience’s attention. For example, after I present a solution, I’ll fade to black while I expound on how to apply that solution in my audience’s work/life. When I’m finished, I turn black off and go to the next point. Or if I’m halfway through a story I’ll fade to back before the punchline so I know I have everyone’s attention.

It’s no different than a close-up scene in a movie—the director wants you to focus only on the speaker. Note that if you are shopping for a slide remote, be sure that yours has the black screen feature.

10. When in doubt, delete

This might be the most advice I can leave you with. When in doubt, delete it.

There is a weird attraction to more. Authors add more pages thinking it makes the book more valuable. Sales people who talk too much miss the opportunity to ask for the sale. And presenters add more slides thinking it will make them look better. Wrong.

When you are doing the final edits on your slide deck, the ultimate question you should be asking about each slide is, “Will it make my speech better?” If not, dump it.

Remember, nobody will miss what isn’t there. Also fewer slides allows you more time for side stories, spontaneous thoughts or even time for Q&A.

Remember this…

I’ve said it numerous times in this post, but it’s worth repeating. You are the show, not your slides. More slides means more time your audience is not paying attention to you. Fewer (and better) slides means you have more time to build rapport, share memorable stories, explain your solutions and motivate your audience to action. You are there for a reason. Now go and deliver.

One last thing. Spend the $80 and pack a remote (with spare batteries.) Nothing’s worse than watching a speaker repeatedly lean over, hunt for the right key, and then peck away to advance the slides.

If you enjoyed this article, here is more about presentation skills:

How the experts create world-class PowerPoint Slides (and you can too) PowerPoint Primer – the only 3 slides you’ll ever need How to add video to PowerPoint and Keynote like a pro

Slide by  Nathan Anderson  on  Unsplash

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How to Fix Busy PowerPoint Slides

• April 12, 2013
• Kevin Lerner

10 quick and easy tips to fix busy PowerPoint slides, reduce on-screen clutter, and improve boring presentations.

Busy PowerPoint slides? You’ve worked and worked on your presentation…but it still looks cluttered and ugly. Here are 10 quick and easy methods to improve busy PowerPoint slides, reduce on-screen clutter and improve boring presentations.

Fixing Busy PowerPoint Tip #1: Simply provide more breathing space.

Rather than cramming all the graphics and text items together, taking up all the available space on a slide, bring the items into the center a bit…shrink them down to a reasonable size…and provide at least 80% “white space” around the items. It creates a more clean and inviting look.

Fixing Busy PowerPoint Tip #2: Group bullets and objects into shapes (SmartArt).

Rather than having a whole page of bullets or graphics, try grouping the points into a few colorful rectangles or squares. That way, they’re psychologically perceived as a collective entity. Also, we remember graphics more readily than text, so work to find a graphic from a stock photo collection or a scanned photo that will support the bullet and make it come alive with graphics.

#3: Eliminate the template.

On slides where there’s no way around the busy-ness (like an organizational chart), simply place your graphics or text on a pure black background. Though templates are great for creating a consistent look, there’s nothing bad about deviating from it once in a while with a non-competing image to get the point across.

#4: Span Bullet Points Across Multiple Pages

It’s a good idea to limit your bullets no more than 6 per page. But this may not be practical in all cases, so rather than cram them all on a single page, split them over 2 or 3 pages. You may consider creating a separate page for each bullet point with related graphics. Though it can add many pages and take longer to develop, the fast-moving graphical pages work to maintain a strong level of interest with the audience. And don’t get worried that you’re adding so many pages to your presentation…it’s virtual! With this method, it’s not uncommon for a 30-minute presentation to have more than 90 slides.

#5: Create a video montage of your graphics.

Instead of a single page comprised of many images, edit a brief video in Google Picasa or Adobe Premiere,(or any other video editing program that imports still images), with each of the graphics moving and dissolving from one to another. Remember to include this video file if you distribute your presentation.

#6: Print Handouts for Complex Concepts

#7: Use animations to introduce text and elements.

Bringing items in one at a time helps to keep the eye focused. Take the time to add transitions and entry/exit effects to your text (dimming bullets after they’ve appeared is also effective), and they’ll flow easier on the eyes of your audience.

#8: Reduce Text, Merge Points, and Eliminate Single Bullets. (Edit).

Bullet points should highlight key words…not showcase entire sentences or paragraphs of text. Let the speaker elaborate/expand upon each bullet point rather than having the audience read the whole speech on screen. Work to reduce your text to only the crucial information. And then work at it again.

#9: Text and Graphics shouldn’t compete for attention.

#10: Drill-Down and Create Interactivity

By using drill-down “hierarchical navigation,” you can navigate from a high level overview (main menu), to different sections of your presentation, with each bullet, title, or graphic, serving as a link to another page with more detailed information.

Though many of these techniques may add time to your development, it’ll pay off in the end with a more memorable and effective presentation.

busy powerpoint , clutter , design , fix busy powerpoint , help , ideas , powerpoint , tips

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Avoid Death by PowerPoint with These 10 Engaging Presentation Tips

Avoid boring PowerPoint presentations by keeping slides simple and focused . Use one main idea per slide, limit objects, and choose clear fonts . Tell a story , use visuals wisely , and engage your audience with eye contact and questions . Practice your public speaking skills to deliver powerful presentations.

Did you know that people give 88 million PowerPoint presentations every day? Learn how to make your presentations stand out and keep people awake.

Bad presentations can hurt your chances, waste time , and damage how people see you at work. Boring slideshows can lead to death by PowerPoint , making people lose interest and miss your main points. Here, you'll find useful tips to make interesting talks that grab attention and clearly explain your ideas, helping you do well in business meetings .

Making Lively Presentations

People often call boring and unproductive presentations "Death by PowerPoint." To improve, presenters should focus on three main things: making content simpler , cutting down on distracting visuals, and using design features wisely. Getting good at these skills helps you create interesting presentations that clearly share your message and avoid death by PowerPoint.

Each Slide Should Contain One Main Idea

A common mistake in PowerPoint slides is putting too much information on them. Too much information confuses people and weakens your point. Stick to one main idea for each slide. This method keeps viewers interested and makes your key messages easier to understand.

Using short phrases instead of long sentences helps your slides support what you're saying without distracting listeners. Remember that your visuals should make your speech better, not replace it. As David Phillips, an expert in presentation techniques, says:

"Use PowerPoint for what it's supposed to be used for: short, sweet bits of text and an image." — David Phillips

Limit Objects on Slides

Studies show that the human brain can only handle a small amount of information at once. Keep each slide simple by using fewer elements to avoid confusing your viewers. According to presentation expert Don McMillan:

"The magical number is six. The correct number is six, not five or seven." — Don McMillan

Using more than six objects makes your audience work much harder to understand your slide. This extra work often leads to people losing interest. Clear, simple slides help people focus on what you're saying instead of struggling with busy visuals.

Use Differences in Appearance and Size

Using different sizes and contrasting elements helps guide viewers to important parts of your slides. Big text works well for main ideas and encourages brief content. But don't overdo it – extremely large fonts might look unprofessional.

You can highlight certain details by using contrast. One way is to show information step-by-step using PowerPoint features to control what the audience sees. This method helps keep listeners interested and focused on what you're talking about now. Your main goal should be to create slides that people can quickly understand.

Making Captivating Talks

A compelling presentation needs more than just good-looking slides. You need to organize your information well, choose suitable text styles, and add helpful images thoughtfully. These parts work together to create a unified and powerful presentation that connects with viewers.

Narrative Framework for Presentations

Good talks often use a story-like format similar to books and films. This layout has three parts: a beginning that shows the current situation, a middle that discusses problems and answers, and an end that reviews main ideas and suggests future actions.

For example, when proposing a new business, you could start by explaining a market problem, then show your solution and its benefits, and finish with costs and what you want people to do next. This layout keeps viewers engaged and makes your talk flow smoothly.

Pick Good Fonts

The text style you use can greatly affect how people understand your message. Simple fonts often look more relaxed and modern , while fancy fonts can seem more serious. It's important to use fonts that are easy to read and fit the mood of your talk.

Don't use fancy or curvy letters, as they can be hard to see, especially from far away. Pay attention to how big the letters are – if they're too small, people can't read them; if they're too big, it might look unprofessional. Generally, it's best to use letters at least 24 points big for the main text and 36 points for titles.

Use Pictures and Graphs Wisely

Images and charts can make your talk better, but you should use them carefully. Use pictures, graphs, or simple diagrams to explain your ideas instead of slides full of words. Websites like Unsplash offer free, good-quality images to make your slides look better.

If you use charts or graphs, make sure people can quickly understand them. Don't put too much information or complicated visuals on your slides. Remember that your slides should help your talk, not be a complete document on their own. According to presentation specialist Caya:

"Images are often more effective than text, so use visuals when possible." — Caya

Creating Impactful Talks

How you present is just as important as your slides and material for a successful presentation. Looking at your listeners, adding jokes and questions, and improving your public speaking can turn your presentation from good to great.

Maintain Eye Contact

Looking at your listeners directly helps build a strong connection and keeps them focused on you. Meeting people's eyes shows you're confident about what you're saying and makes them feel more involved. By watching your audience, you can see how they respond and change your talk if needed.

For good eye contact, try not to read everything from your presentation or paper. Know your topic well so you can talk freely and only look at your slides now and then. Look around the whole room, meeting the eyes of different people in your audience for a moment. Doing this makes all listeners feel part of your talk and keeps them interested.

Use Jokes and Ask Questions

Adding some funny comments and asking the audience things can really get them involved in your talk . A good joke or funny story at the right time can make people relax and help them remember what you said. Make sure your jokes fit the crowd and don't overshadow your main point.

Asking questions during your talk has several benefits. It helps listeners stay focused, gets them involved, and shows you if they're following along. You can use thought-provoking questions or ask directly to start conversations. After asking, wait a moment to let people think and answer.

Improve Your Public Speaking Skills

How you talk can significantly affect how well your presentation goes over. Work on speaking clearly and not too fast, changing your voice to highlight important parts. Try not to use words like "um" or "uh," as they can take away from what you're saying and make you seem less confident.

How you move and stand is also very important when giving a good presentation. Keep good posture, use normal hand movements, and walk around the stage when it makes sense. Your body language can support your words and make you seem more confident. Remember that practice helps you improve . Practice your talk many times to get better at giving it and feel more confident.

Learn to Give Powerful Talks

Using these tips, speakers can change their PowerPoint slides from boring to effective ways of sharing information . The key is to keep things simple, stay on topic, and connect with your audience. Don't forget to have a backup: bring paper copies or a PDF of your talk in case something goes wrong with the technology. Being ready like this shows you're professional and makes sure people hear what you have to say, no matter what happens. As you get better at presenting, try using fewer slides . See if you can share your main ideas using only three slides. When you try new things, you'll find better ways to engage people and make them remember you. Before your next talk, think about how you can make it really stand out and stick in people's minds, avoiding death by PowerPoint and creating a memorable experience for your audience.

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Turn Boring PowerPoint Slides into Visual Masterpieces using these 11 Image Hacks [Presentation Hackathon Part 2]

Anuj Malhotra

This article is second in the series of “ Presentation Hackathon ” where we share incredibly simple and quick hacks that any presenter can use to create the most professional slides without any professional designer’s help.

We, the digital natives, are visual learners. We prefer to watch a video tutorial rather than go through a PDF document, prefer an infographic over a bullet-point article and a picture quote over a text quote. Several sources claim that the human brain processes visual information 60,000 times faster than text. Studies prove our visual memory is also far superior to auditory one. We are able to recall only 10-20% of a spoken lecture but 65% if the lecture is visual and verbal.

These claims become all the more worthy of our attention if the reports of human attention span shrinking to just 8 seconds- below that of goldfish- are true. What does this mean for your presentations? Make the most of the power of visuals!  

Wait, you must be asking “Where do I put all the text?”. First of all, try to brutally cut down the word count on your slide. Keep ONLY the most important words on the slide (we have to free up space for visuals!). Now what? Now, get ready to turn those slides into a visual masterpiece with these 11 hacks:  

Note: You have to invest time in finding the best visuals from the web. There are plenty of free or Creative Commons licensed pics on the web that you can use for your presentation without any copyright issues.

So here we go:

Hack 1: Full-Size Image + a Transparent Text Box

Everyone loves larger-than-life things. Compare watching the tyrannosaurus rex, velociraptor and other gigantic predators on your mobile screen versus the 70 mm screen. Now, compare seeing on projector a slide full of words on leadership versus a slide with Chris Pratt leading raptors to a dangerous mission (it didn’t work out well for Chris in that movie scene though). That would be an unforgettable slide, right?

But time to get more serious now. Every slide, be it on some complex chemical equation or an organization’s new marketing strategy, can have a striking visual that you can play up on your slide canvas. Next, take your text box, give it a solid fill and set the transparency to a level so that you have the best of both: Visuals as well as text. With this simple, no-brain hack, you can turn a text slide into a visual feast. Here’s an example for you:

It’s pretty simple to create transparencies behind your textual content:

• Select the text box
• Right click and click Format Shape
• Select the Solid Fill radio button
• Adjust the level of transparency so that text is visible and the visual is not cut off either.

Alternative: Put Text Inside a Shape and Give Transparency to the Shape

Try choosing a shape from the Shapes menu (under the Insert tab) and placing text inside it. Keep the image full-size, and this time set transparency to the shape rather than the text box. Look how placing a circle at the centre of the image with 35% transparency creates a beautiful visual effect:

Hack 2: Split Slide into 2: Image and Text (Without Transparency)

An alternative to the first hack is to give as much importance to the text as to the image. You need not necessarily split the slide into 50:50 ratio, it can be 60:40 or any other. The idea is to treat text here as a visual element itself. You can either crop the image or give a Solid Fill color to the text box without setting any transparency. Check out the slide below to have a clearer understanding:

Vertical Split:

Horizontal Split:

Hack 3: Split Slide into 2: Image and Text (With Transparency)

This is simply a variation of the second hack or you can say a combination of the first two. If you love the visual and do not wish to crop it in half, then don’t. Simply put a transparent layer on one half of the slide and place your text there. The visual would not be sacrificed for accommodating text in this case. Here’s how the variation now looks:

Hack 4: Use Gradient Fill to Mask the Image

There is an alternate technique to set transparency over images. In the above hacks, you can clearly make out that a separate element, with transparency given to it, has been added over the image. In this hack, we’ll show how you can deceive the viewers by masking portion of the image in such a manner that the transparency looks part of the image. It gives a very professional look to your slide as you can see below:

Here are the steps to apply this hack:

• Insert a rectangle from the Shapes menu under the Insert tab
• Right click on the shape and click Format Shape
• Under Fill , select the Gradient Fill radio button
• Add two to three gradient stops and choose their color as white
• Keep decreasing the transparency level of each gradient stop (the first stop with transparency between 95-100%, the second stop with transparency between 40-50% and the last having transparency between 0-5%).

Hack 5: Small Image + Customized Shape

Big is better, but not always. You can make your slide look visually attractive by using small visuals too. The trick is to give it a customized shape so that it stands out. If you want to put your mugshot in the slide, filling the complete slide space with it would look narcissistic and non-professional. There are 2 ways to do this:

Option A: Insert a shape and give it a picture fill

We shared this hack in the first hackathon guide: 5 Incredibly Simple Hacks to Create Stunning Slides . Having picture enclosed within a shape, say a circle, looks very professional. Take a look at this slide for instance:

Follow these steps to create the same effect in your slide:

• Click the Insert tab
• Under Shapes , choose the oval shape
• Press shift and drag to have a symmetrical circle
• Right click on the circle and click Format Shape
• Under the Line menu, give the circle a solid outline and increase the width of the line (dark blue outline with 1.75 width in the above slide)
• Under the Fill menu, select Picture Fill
• Locate the file on your computer and insert the same

To move the picture within the circle, follow these steps:

• Select the image in the circle
• Click the Format tab
• Under Crop drop down, click Fill
• Move the image in the crop rectangle as per your requirements

Option B: Crop Image to a Shape

This is a wonderful feature that, if used well, can make your slide look pretty unique. Say you are making a presentation on Valentine’s Day. What better than to have an image of a couple cut into a heart shape!

You can achieve this and many such interesting shape effects in PowerPoint in just 10 seconds! Just follow these simple steps:

• Insert a picture into the slide
• Click the Format tab on the PowerPoint ribbon
• In Crop drop-down menu, choose Crop To Shape
• Select the shape you would like your picture to be cropped into.

You can tilt the shape a little and give it a shadow and outline to make it stand out even further. Like we did in the Valentine slide above. Play with different shapes but don’t crop the image into any shape just for the heck of it. It should complement the slide.  

Hack 6: Create a Grid Collage

Grid Collage is different from other collages in that it doesn’t have multiple pictures scattered randomly at different angles. You can do that too if you are creating a picture album or showing your portfolio. A Grid Collage, on the other hand, places multiple images around specific grid lines creating neat blocks of graphics that look sleek and professional.

For this hack, we advise you to use the 16:9 slide ratio. PowerPoint 2013 uses this aspect ratio for a new presentation by default. You can limit the number of visuals to three or four in order to free up space for your written content. Infact, with this style, your text will stand out more prominently and balance out the visual-heavy slide. You can free up some space on the left, right or centre of the slide for your content. Take this slide for example:

If you want more space for your content, then simply change your layout. Like this:

You can create equal picture blocks either using your own judgement or the "Gridlines" feature in PowerPoint. It requires just 2 clicks:

• Click the View tab on the PowerPoint ribbon
• Under the Show group, select the Gridlines check box (see the screenshot below).

Or you can simply use the Shift+F9 shortcut.

Hack 7: Blur the Image (Partial or complete blur)

This is the hack to use when you have a lot of text on your slides. Also the best hack if you wish to give an artistic effect to your slide. You needn’t install a photo app on your system to give some artistic effects to your slide. Microsoft PowerPoint gives you tons of options to choose from its built-in Artistic Effects . Locate them right on the PowerPoint Ribbon by following these steps:

• Insert an image (with strong colors, preferably not more than 2 or 3 colors) into the slide
• Click the Format tab in Picture Tools on the ribbon
• Click the Artistic Effects drop down menu
• Select the Blur option.

You can now easily place your text in contrasting color over the blurred image. Although the purpose of this hack is to give prominence to your text without sacrificing the visual appeal, you get an added advantage. Your audience would definitely stare at the visual to know what is being blurred out. That’s good for you as the audience will be forced to engage their senses.

You will however have to invest time in choosing a visual with colors that matches your topic and content. For instance, we chose a visual having yellowish-orange and black colors to speak about innovation in the slide below:

You can increase the size of the blur so that only the hues remain on the slide thereby giving it an abstract touch.

• Click Artistic Effects Options in the drop down (see the screenshot below)
• Format Picture pane will open on the right
• Move the Radius slider or manually enter a number in the box next to the slider. The larger the radius, the blurrier the picture will be.

Hack 8: Use Picture Styles

Why rack your brains when PowerPoint has in-built picture effects to make your slides look spectacular! We are talking about Picture Styles : a group of ready-made picture effects such as picture frames, drop shadows, reflected rectangles, etc available in PowerPoint. Have a look at the slide below. The reflected perspective effect given to the image creates a dramatic effect. Imagine if the same image had been placed as a regular rectangular box. It would have surely looked a deliberate addition to the slide and give the impression that the presentation was made by an amateur. But not this one:

If you haven’t already tried your hands at these styles, you can do it right away by following these steps:

• Insert an image into the slide
• Locate the Picture Styles group and select the one you like

Hack 9: Use Picture Embellishments like transparent stickers, clips, etc.

Small embellishments can make large differences to the overall look and feel of your slide. Where can you get such embellishments from? You'll find many design elements for your PPT slides in our Free Business PowerPoint Templates section. You can download free PowerPoint templates, free maps and free icons without shelling a penny. Here are some embellishments you must try on one of your presentations:

Transparent Stickers: These give an old-look and a handmade touch to your slide. It’s great for use when you are presenting on personal experiences, sharing images of your latest getaway or going a trip down the memory lane. It can be used for a PPT on historical monuments, wonders of the world or any image that would have been worth sticking in your scrapbook. You can download the transparent sticker from this PowerPoint template .  

Thumbtacks: Just as you use sticky notes and pin it on your boards with thumbtacks to post important info, why not do the same on the slide canvas. Pin the visuals on your slide to give a personal touch to the slide. Download embellishments like thumbtacks and others from this page .

Paper Clips: This is a great embellishment to give an academic touch to your presentation. You can include multiple images and clip them on to the slide or use a single image clipped to a piece of paper as shown in the slide below:

Hack 10: Create a Filmstrip to Add Drama to Slide

Another cool way to include multiple pictures within a slide is to create a film strip or reel. This hack is surely going to help you capture the audience attention. It can be used to show a sequence or your company’s timeline. Just ask yourself: would the audience like to see a bullet point list of your achievements or through a filmstrip like the slide below. The answer is obvious.

It’s pretty easy to create a filmstrip on your own. All you need to do is create a black rectangular box, then create a small white square box, duplicate it and spread the white squares in a line at the top and bottom. Or else, you can simply download the filmstrip template and place your own images in the slide.

Hack 11: Use an Abstract Pattern on Slide Corners

Use this hack when you are clueless which visual to use for your slide. An abstract image such as a geometric pattern can bring visual relief to your text-heavy slide. You’ll find plenty of such designs on web. Place them on the corners freeing the entire middle portion for your text.

An alternative can be to fill the entire slide canvas with the abstract image and place a square box for text in the centre for your content. The pattern will thus be visible only on the corners.

That’s all we had to share with you for today. You must give these hacks a try in your next presentation. Trust us, in no time you’ll become a master at creating visually breathtaking slides!

If you need to hire services of a Professional Presentation Design Agency , SlideTeam has a 50+ team of PowerPoint designers that daily churn out high-impact slides for Fortune 500 companies and business professionals. Why should you spend a few dollars on a presentation design company ? One if you have a deadline hanging like a sword on your head. Secondly, an ugly looking slide will cost you a lot more instead!

Of all the hacks we shared today, which one did you like the most? Let us know in the comments below.

Related posts:

• 25 Best PowerPoint Slides for the Financial Services Industry to Win Clients
• [Updated 2023] 25 Best Aviation PowerPoint Templates for the Air Transport Industry
• [Updated 2023] Top 10 Business Strategy Google Slides Templates To Empower Your Team
• Top 10 Pitch Deck Google Slides Templates For Successful Fundraising

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Virtual powerpoint presentations don't have to be boring: 7 ways keep people engaged.

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Add interactive in-slide features, embed your webcam, choose your layout carefully, limit your animations, use live chat (and have a moderator), pre-record your presentation, have a backup plan.

With online conferencing the twenty-first-century norm, you might find yourself creating and presenting a virtual PowerPoint presentation. You may well be used to delivering a slideshow to a live audience, but you can face a completely different set of challenges when doing this online.

The biggest difference between in-person and virtual presentations is that you're less likely to be able to read people's body language or glean verbal feedback when presenting online, so it can be more difficult to adjust your tone or pace accordingly. Your audience might also be more easily distracted by the dog barking in the background or a child running through the room, so you have to use methods that are more likely to keep your audience engaged.

As someone who led a school's English Department through the pandemic, I'm all too used to staring at my camera in the hope that my colleagues haven't zoned out, so I'd like to share some tried and tested ways to make virtual PowerPoint presentations at least a little more gripping.

One way to engage your virtual audience is to get them to interact directly with your PowerPoint presentation . Two examples that work for me are adding a QR code and including a countdown timer.

QR codes are a great way to direct your audience to a website or quiz. On Microsoft Edge, right-click anywhere on a web page where there isn't already a link, and left-click "Create QR Code For this Page." You can then copy or download the code to wherever you like in your presentation.

People like using their phones, so even if you can't see your audience, it's a safe bet that as soon as you direct them to scan a QR code with their camera, they'll engage straightaway. If the QR code directs people to a quiz-building website, such as Google Forms or SurveyMonkey, you can use this as a way to check if your audience has been listening!

Countdown Timer

In any situation, it's human nature to feel the pressure of a countdown timer. Countdown timers are a really effective way to maintain your audience's attention , as people will naturally keep checking back in with your PowerPoint slide to see how long they have left to do whatever you've tasked them to do. They're also a handy way to let your audience know when you plan to move on to the next slide in your presentation, serving as a clear boundary marker.

To create a countdown timer, you need to add the Disappear animation to text boxes or shapes containing your countdown numbers , adjusting the timing to one second for each.

Another reason a virtual audience might be less engaged is that, to them, seeing the presenter and their expressions is as important as reading the content of the slides. PowerPoint recognizes this, which is why they have the Cameo tool that lets you embed your webcam into your slideshow .

Providing you or your organization are subscribed to Microsoft 365, using Cameo is very straightforward. Simply type Cameo into your PowerPoint search box at the top of your window, and choose from the options there. To keep your webcam visible throughout your presentation, click "All Slides."

If you go down this route, make sure you avoid placing a prominent light directly behind you (otherwise, you'll just appear as a silhouette!), and make a conscious effort to repeatedly look at your camera directly as often as you can.

If you are creating an in-person PowerPoint presentation that will be beamed onto a large projector screen, you can afford to have smaller fonts and more writing on your slides. However, when you're running a virtual presentation, it's worth remembering that some people may well be viewing it on a mobile device with a small screen.

As a result, if you have lots of diminutive text on your slides, you're more likely to frustrate and, ultimately, disengage your audience. As a rule of thumb, I try to avoid using anything smaller than a size-40 font in a virtual presentation, and I also make every effort to have no more than four lines of text on each slide.

As well as adapting your layout to suit the virtual setting, also consider reducing the number of fancy animations in your slideshow.

As you're streaming your presentation over the internet, you can't rely on your viewers to have a strong connection and a decent device. An animation that appears to last a second on your screen can be jumpy and take longer on someone else's, resulting in a laggy presentation that looks unprofessional.

Regardless of whether you're presenting in-person or online, it's always a good idea to reduce the number and variety of animations you use in PowerPoint. That's not to say you shouldn't use any animations at all—after all, you are trying to keep your viewers engaged—but sticking to the Fade entrance animation will help you to make sure your presentation isn't a visual overload for your audience, doesn't experience jumpiness, and looks professional.

One of the most frustrating barriers to a successful virtual presentation is having people interrupt each other—not least when people try to jump in over you , the presenter. Similarly, that annoying two-second delay often causes awkward and unwanted speech overlaps.

Most videoconferencing platforms, including Microsoft Teams and Google Meet, let you stream your PowerPoint presentation within the call and have a live-chat facility at the same time, and you can make use of this feature so that your session runs as smoothly as possible.

When creating your PowerPoint presentation, plan in some time for you to address written comments that your audience is adding to the live chat as you present.

By doing this, you're giving your viewers the opportunity to ask questions, something that is often lost in virtual presentations, while also helping yourself to stay focused and finish whichever segment of your slideshow you are currently presenting.

Even better, if you are able to recruit a moderator, they can answer the typed questions for you within the chat as the presentation is ongoing, so you can just focus on giving an excellent presentation.

Are you presenting a particularly difficult topic? Or is it that you're simply not the most confident of presenters? One way to overcome these potential pitfalls is to pre-record either your whole presentation or even just the more complicated parts.

To do this, click "Record" in the top-right corner of your window, and when you finish, your slides and voiceover will be saved as an MP4.

You can then play the video or videos of your presentation during your video conference, pausing when necessary to answer any questions or elaborate on one of your points. Using this method will mean you can rehearse and perfect your slideshow, keeping your viewers engaged as a result.

We at How-To Geek know all too well about the unreliability of technology, and things always seem to go wrong at the most inconvenient moments. Even if you have perfected your PowerPoint layout and rehearsed its content to death, you should always have a backup plan in case things go awry.

Before your meeting begins, send the PowerPoint file to your viewers, and print off a copy of the slides for you to have by your side. This way, if your PowerPoint glitches for any reason, you can instruct your audience to open their copy of the presentation, and you have your notes ready to go so you can carry on from where you left off.

Many people make the same mistakes in their PowerPoint presentations, regardless of whether they're designed for a virtual or in-person meeting. Make sure you check out our top tips to avoid making these mistakes and impress your audience with the perfect slideshow.

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3 PowerPoint HACKS to Never Hold a Boring Presentation Again

This post will introduce you to three PowerPoint techniques that you can use to impress your colleagues and boss.  They will think you spent HOURS honing and crafting your presentation…

…but you won’t.

This will be our little secret.

Watch video tutorial

In this tutorial:

• Tip #1 – No More Bullet Points
• Ungroup the SmartArt Shapes
• Tip #2 – Effortless Animation
• Tip #3 – Enhanced Morph
• Practice Workbook

We’ve seen and read repeatedly how bullet points “are so 20 th  Century”; we need to get with the times and break from the traditional bullet point slide format.

The problem is that most people still use the old-school bullet point format because

• its what we’re used to.
• our time to be creative is limited.
• our audience doesn’t expect anything different.

Here is how we can create amazing slides without relying on traditional bullet point techniques.

Insert a simple  Text Box  with your slide information ( Insert (tab)-> Text (group) -> Text Box ).

Do not worry about formatting of any of the text; just type your main points as you would have if you were typing bullet points.

Convert the Text Box to a SmartArt Object

Once your main points have been typed, with the text box selected, select  Home (tab) -> Paragraph (group) -> Convert to SmartArt .

If you hover ( without clicking ) over the various thumbnail options, you can see that the text in the  Text Box  is broken into fancier pieces.

If you don’t see something that you like, select  More SmartArt Graphics…  at the bottom of the list.

Looking through the categories on the left, we will go with the  List  category and use the  Vertical Curved   List  option.

This will convert our boring Text Box text to exciting SmartArt text.

Because we want to customize the SmartArt beyond what the default customization options will allow, we will convert the SmartArt to individual shapes.  To perform the conversion, we will ungroup the SmartArt by selecting the entire SmartArt object and press

It is likely that a SmartArt object may contain multiple layers of groups.  To ungroup this to its lowest level, perform another

If you can’t remember the keyboard shortcut for  Ungroup , you can also right-click on the SmartArt object and select  Ungroup  from the context menu.

There are additional  Ungroup  actions located on various ribbons.

Customize the Shapes

Perform any cosmetic changes you wish to get the “look and feel” that best suits your needs.  For this example, we will use a dark blue fill for the rectangles that contain text and a dark blue outline for the circles and arc.

To add numbering to the inside of the circles, insert another Text Box and place it inside of the top-most circle.  We will type the number 1 in this first  Text Box .  Change the font style, size, and color as you see fit.

After we have customized to look of the “1”  Text Box , copy and paste the Text Box twice; place the pasted Text Boxes in the middle and bottom circles.  Change the text to read “2” and “3” respectively.

Regroup the SmartArt Shapes

To regroup the SmartArt shapes, we must first select the pieces we want grouped.  We don’t want to regroup the entire set of shapes into a single shape; this would limit our flexibility when we animate the objects.

Our first group will consist of the “1” Text Box, the circle surrounding the “1”, and the blue rectangle labeled “Goodbye Bullet Points!”.

This can be done by clicking on the first object to be part of the group, then hold down the  CTRL  key and click the remaining objects.

Another way to select the object, assuming there is enough space between the needed versus unneeded objects, is to click and hold your left mouse button and drag a box to surround the desired objects.

Selection Tip:  Any object that is  100% contained  in the selection box will be selected.  If you happen to capture the edge of a surrounding object, but that object is only partially contained in the selection box, the object will be ignored.

After you have selected the three objects, regroup them by pressing

Repeat the process for the remaining #2 and #3 items.

We want to start our presentation with an opening title slide and then progress to our slide that has our three main points.  We have drafted the following two slides.

If we run the presentation as-is, the presentation will be boring and uninteresting; slide #2 instantly replaces slide #1 and everyone watching becomes instantly bored.

We could use some form of slide transition, like a fade or a wipe effect, but those transitions are also common, and our audience has seen them so many times that the effects have lost their luster.

Let’s transition between the slides in a way that most audiences have never seen.

Enter the Morph Transition!

The  Morph  transition is a relatively new slide transition effect that can perform same rather amazing feats of animation without the user knowing anything about  entrance/emphasis/exit   effects  or  motion paths .

The way you build a Morph transition is as follows:

Create the slide you are transitioning into.  In our case, this will contain our title at the top and our 3-item SmartArt object in the middle of the slide.

Copy the slide so you have two of the same slides.

Selecting the slide we are transitioning  FROM  (we’ll call this “slide #1”), zoom out so you can see much of the surround empty space.   Holding your  CTRL  key while spinning the wheel on the mouse is a great trick zooming for in and out of Office documents.

Move the three text objects below the slide, the arc line to the left of the slide, and the title to the middle of the slide.

Think of these moved objects as standing off-stage waiting for their big showbiz break.

Select the slide you are transition  TO  (we’ll call this “slide #2”) and apply a  Morph  transition.  This is done by selecting  Transitions (tab) -> Transition to This Slide (group) -> Morph .

Run the slideshow and advance from slide #1 to slide #2.  You will see the title move up, the arc line fly in from the left side of the screen, and the three text objects fly in from the bottom of the screen.

The way the Morph transition works is that it looks for an item on the starting slide (slide #1) and that same item on the ending slide (slide #2).  If those two items are not in the same position, Morph will calculate a motion path to move the item from the start position to the end position.  Morph will also compare size, rotation, color, etc. Any differences between the same item on different slides are calculated when going from one to the other.

The result, to the untrained eye, appears to be a great investment in time, skill, and patience to achieve.  The truth of the matter is that it couldn’t be simpler.  It’s as if someone else did the work for you.

Let’s See More of the Morph Transition in Action

Let’s duplicate the slide with our title and three main talking points.

Next, we’ll move the title and the first and second talking point to the off-stage space above the slide.

Now move the arc line off-stage to the left and the third talking point to the upper-left corner of the slide.

Since we duplicated the slide that contained the Morph transition, the duplicate slide also contains the Morph transition.

Return to slide #2 and run the slide show starting from the current slide position.  This can be easily done by pressing

Advance to slide #3 and watch as the slide elements move to their new positions.

Adjusting the Transition Speed

If you feel that the transition is taking too long to complete or is moving too quickly, you can adjust the speed of the transition by going to  Transitions (tab) -> Timing (group) -> Duration  and adjust the transition interval.

You can also adjust the effect options to control how you morph when using shapes (objects) or items containing text.  Each of these settings brings different behaviors to the transition.  It’s best to experiment to see what works best for you.

At the time of this posting (April 2019),  Enhanced Morph  is available to Office 365 subscribers who are members of the Insiders track.  The full release should happen “soon”.

Here’s how  Enhanced Morph  works.  Imagine we wish to show our audience what the new Office icons are going to look like.  We show a slide with the old icons, then show them a slide with the new icons.

Moving from slide to slide results in a very boring, instantaneous switch from one set of icons to the other.

If we apply a  Morph  transition to the second slide, the result is only a slightly less boring transition.  The icons fade from one set to the other.

The reason for this is that  Morph  tries to find the same object on the second slide that was on the first slide and calculate the differences between them.  Since the same icons are not on both slide,  Morph  defaults to a simple fade transition.

Here’s where the new  Enhanced Morph  come in to play.

Follow these steps to morph one object into another object.

Starting with the two slides: Slide 1 with the old logos and Slide 2 with the new logos.

Open the  Selection Pane .  The  Selection Pane  can be activated by pressing  Alt-F10  on the keyboard or by selecting  Home (tab) -> Editing (group) -> Select -> Selection Pane…

Select an icon on the first slide and rename the icon’s label in the  Selection Pane .  In this case, we will select the Excel icon and rename the icon to “Excel”.

Perform the same operation on the other icon.  In this case, we select the PowerPoint icon and rename its label to “PowerPoint”.

Repeat this process for the corresponding icons on Slide 2.

These steps alone  will not  give you the desired result.  The result remains a simple  fade  transition.

Here is the key to get all of this to work.  You must place  2 exclamation points  in front of the item label.

This will programmatically connect these to object together and perform the necessary calculations in size, placement, shape, and color.

Notes about Enhanced Morph when working with complex images and shapes

When working with images or complex shapes; because there are so many variables in color, size, placement, and relationships from elements of one image to another,  Enhanced Morph  will only resize and fade between the two items.

If you are working with shapes that are relatively simple, like regular polygons ( i.e. triangles, quadrilaterals,  pentagons, hexagons, octagons, etc… ),  Enhanced Morph  will have a much greater chance of calculating a smooth, multi-stepped conversion from one object to another.

The key here is to experiment with different shape, sizes, colors, and positions to see what  Enhanced Morph  can accomplish.

Even in situations where the objects are too diverse of one another, you will at least save time from plotting motion paths and various other trickery to achieve the same result as a single click of the  Morph  button.

Feel free to Download the Presentation  HERE.

Leila Gharani

I'm a 6x Microsoft MVP with over 15 years of experience implementing and professionals on Management Information Systems of different sizes and nature.

My background is Masters in Economics, Economist, Consultant, Oracle HFM Accounting Systems Expert, SAP BW Project Manager. My passion is teaching, experimenting and sharing. I am also addicted to learning and enjoy taking online courses on a variety of topics.

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How to Make Dry, Boring Presentations More Interesting

Today we’re tackling a question that I get All. The. Time.

This question from Sandy is on a lot of people’s minds:

Hi Lauren – you’re a very energetic presenter, and I’m hoping you can help me inject some energy into my presentations. I’m an civil engineer and need make lots of technical presentations. The content is very dry and is usually created by another department according to strict guidelines. I want to engage my audience more, but can’t change much about the content or the slides that I use in my presentations. How can bring energy and interest into these dry, boring presentations? Thanks for your insight, Sandy

I’m of the belief that ANY topic can be interesting if we make the effort, so today I’m going to help Sandy and all of you transform your dry presentations into something interesting and engaging. We get into the nitty gritty of how to make dry, dull presentations more interesting and engaging. Learn how to discover your own spark of interest, make overwhelming or dense information easier for your audience to understand, and even inject some fun into your sawdust-dry content. It’s time to stop putting your audience to sleep and discover how interesting your “boring” content actually is!

Is the embedded video being fussy? Click here to watch it on YouTube . Remember to hit that like button, subscribe to my channel, and ring the bell to get notifications for all my upcoming videos!

Now it’s over to you – do you have to talk on a subject that you find especially dry? What have you tried to boost up your audience’s interest and engagement? Tell me in the comments below or Tweet it out to @lsergy !

And remember to share the presentation joy and pass this video along to any friends or colleagues who may need a little boost to their own presentations.

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Is it a little dry in here? It’s definitely dry for Sandy, who sent in this question:

Hi Lauren – you’re a very energetic presenter, and I’m hoping you can help me inject some energy into my presentations. I’m an civil engineer and need make lots of technical presentations.

The content is very dry and is usually created by another department according to strict guidelines. I want to engage my audience more, but can’t change much about the content or the slides that I use in my presentations. How can bring energy and interest into these dry, boring presentations?

Thanks for your insight, Sandy

The technical presenter’s dilemma! Sandy, your predicament is actually a very common one, especially with people working for large corporations or in very technically or legally dense fields like finance, engineering, health, insurance, and so on.

Often, in these fields, presentations need to follow specific formats and must present information in a very specific way. Presentations are often developed by one department and get presented by many different employees. These presentations are stamped with the Headquarters seal of approval, and individual presenters don’t have a lot of leeway to change them.

Even though you don’t have a lot of agency to change your presentations, Sandy, there are steps you can take to bring life to the content.

First, figure out what it is about that piece that sparks your own interest and excitement. Being able to be excited about the content or topic is going to help you show more energy in the presentation. When you show the audience that you’re excited, they take your lead and become more excited and interested yourself.

You don’t need to go completely over the top here, but you do have to put in the effort to project that enthusiasm, and this is easier to do if you’re genuinely interested in the content.

Sometimes you need to dig pretty deep to find that spark of interest, but you must dig. I once worked with a client in the oil and gas industry, and he had to give incredibly dry presentations on oil extraction methods. He wasn’t interested in this at at all, so we started to dig for something that was of interest to him.

He thought the process was dry as dust, and there wasn’t anything in there that he could be even remotely excited about, but he was really into fancy cars. And what’s one of the results of oil extraction? The gas we put into cars. We boiled it down to this mantra: This makes cars go, and that’s pretty cool. Whenever he found himself getting annoyed with his presentation or starting to take on a droning tone, he would repeat “this is what makes our cars go!” with as much enthusiasm as he could muster. Is it simplistic? Yes. But it was a genuine spark that helped him build up more interest in the content he was presenting.

Once you’ve identified that personal spark, hone in on what the audience needs to figure out the most, and work on making this information as easy and accessible as possible to them. This is where you make technical information more digestible to non-experts; dress up the presentation with analogies and stories to make the information more human and relatable.

Can you describe a complex system by comparing it to a crazy frat house party? Can you take a dry process and explain it like a football play? Can you illustrate the data using stories, fables, or metaphors? Get creative. Facts, figures, and statistics can be explained in many ways, so take some creative risks and get inventive with how you present the information.

Finally, offer the audience your personal insights on the information. Tell them what you find interesting, what you think is most useful, or any other thoughts you have on the material. Everyone has a unique interpretation based on our individual experiences, education, interests, and so on. What’s your unique insight or interpretation? Make that part of the conversation with the audience; this helps you make the content your own and shows the audience that they’re speaking with a real, engaged human being instead of some corporate drone.

The best part is that all of these steps can be done off-script and without changing a single slide.

So there’s your homework for your next presentation, Sandy. If you take these steps – identifying the info that excites you, using metaphors, stories, and analogies to explain dense information, and sharing your unique insights with the audience – I guarantee your next presentation will be more lively and enjoyable…for your audience AND yourself.

Now it’s over to you – what sort of boring information have you had to dress up to make it more interesting? Share your stories in the comments.

And please help spread the presentation joy by liking this channel, subscribe and hit that notice bell to stay up to date on my latest videos, and be sure to head to laurensergy.com and sign up for more great tips and resources that I only share via email.

Thanks for being here today, and I’ll see you next time!

Author:  Lauren Sergy

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Cheat Death by PowerPoint!

How to make presentations less boring

March 2, 2016 by Laura Foley 1 Comment

“There is no such thing as a boring project. There are only boring executions.” So said Irene Etzkorn, one of the United States’ leading experts on plain English writing and simplifying communications.

Many of us will be faced at some point with communicating information on a boring subject. But what is boring? Cell mitosis, Massachusetts tax codes, the rules of football, town meetings, plumbing…these might seem like dull topics. But presented in the right way, each of these topics could come alive and be fascinating! And no matter what the subject, somewhere in the world there lives an enthusiastic fan. The trick is to channel that enthusiasm and spread it around.

Here are some things you can do the next time you’re faced with presenting on a “boring” subject to make it more interesting for you and your audience:

Tell a story

People have been storytelling since time immemorial. Stories are relatable, repeatable and memorable, making them excellent vehicles to convey information about your subject. For example, if you’re talking about bankruptcy law, don’t just list the steps that one must complete in order to file for bankruptcy or talk in strictly legal terms. Tell the story of an actual person who has gone through bankruptcy proceedings. What were they doing before it happened (accumulated then blew through a massive fortune, suffered a tragic accident, ignored warnings from a trusted advisor, became the victim of identity theft, etc.)? How long did it last? How did it affect their financial lives afterwards? A juicy story can really make a subject come alive!

Use pictures

When I redesign presentations for my clients, I always, always always include photographs. Not only do photos break the monotony of text, they can communicate ideas far more effectively and quickly than words often do. Not that it’s impossible to paint vivid mental pictures using words; writers do this all the time. But presentations are about the performance of the speaker and the visuals. People don’t attend meetings and presentations to read evocative passages. They’re there to learn, and the more efficiently you do it the better for everyone.

What does this picture say to you? I’ll bet your response is immediate and unambiguous!

Don’t just stand there, DO something!

Here’s a clip from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off that shows a very uninteresting teacher:

His monotonous voice, his lack of movement and his boring body language all add up to a huge snooze. By varying the pitch, tone and tempo of your voice you can make what you’re saying more interesting. Using expressive body language and broad gestures can grab and hold your audience’s attention.

Bringing things that engages the senses really make a presentation interesting! I know of a sales rep from a local egg farm who instead of just talking about the omega 3 fatty acids in the eggs or the cage-free environment the hens enjoy, he cooks up a batch of scrambled eggs when he’s making his pitch. He lets prospective distributors see, smell and taste the eggs he’s trying to get them to sell. How cool is that? Think of things you could bring to your next presentation that would help your audience to better understand what you’re talking about.

Think like your audience

Finally, think about your presentation from the audience’s point of view. If you were talking to yourself, would you be interested in what you have to say? If you can’t imagine what that’d be like, ask a colleague, friend or family member to listen to your presentation and offer suggestions for improvement. Getting a fresh perspective can really help you to improve!

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How to Make a Presentation Interesting

March 14, 2023

Do you want to make an interesting presentation? You can use core presentation skills to make a boring presentation interesting.

If you talk about a dry topic in a dull manner, your audience will struggle to stay attentive., instead, to make an interesting presentation, you need to make an impact and make your presentation memorable. this can feel intimidating: some topics don’t appear to offer much scope for drama. but you can apply simple presentation skills to add interest, whatever your subject..

As our example, imagine that you need to give a talk on Customer Service in your organisation. We’ll look at five ways you could communicate the message ‘Our customer service needs to be improved’ more powerfully and turn a dull subject into an interesting presentation.

How to make your presentation interesting -11 Top Tips:

1. ditch the text heavy, number heavy slides.

We’ve all been there: slides crammed with text, leaving the audience squinting and scrambling to take notes. Fight this information overload by embracing visual storytelling .

Instead of lengthy paragraphs, make your presentation interesting using powerful images, infographics, and videos to convey your message. Remember, a picture (or video) is truly worth a thousand words.

Even better, write a brilliant report that you circulate beforehand (ideally one side of A4) and then speak to your board with no slides. It may sound radical, but it’s what all the best people do.

Remember, leaders don’t do PowerPoint.

2. An interesting presentation has a compelling narrative

People are hardwired for stories.

So, ditch the lecture and transform what you want to say into a compelling narrative . This could involve highlighting a real-world case study, sharing a personal anecdote, or even framing your presentation as a problem-solution journey.

When you speak to your audience on an emotional level, you’ll make your message far more memorable. And the drier your subject – the more important this is. The read art is to turn a dry boring presentation into something interesting.

3. In an interesting presentation, “less is more”

Don’t overwhelm your audience. Instead, focus on the key takeaways you want them to remember. Imagine your audience asking ‘So What?’ ‘What’s in it for me?’ throughout. These are the presentation topics your audience wants covered. If you can answer these two questions for them, they will see your presentation as an interesting presentation.

Learn how we can help – schedule a free consultation now

4. Spark interaction, not inaction

Passive presentations are a recipe for audience disengagement. Incorporate interactive elements to keep your audience engaged.

Interactive presentation ideas include posing thought-provoking questions, conducting quick polls, or even having small group discussions. Remember, your goal is to create a dialogue , not a monologue. When your audience feels involved, they will feel that you are giving an interesting presentation.

5. Use surprise to make a boring presentation interesting

“Me talking to you about improving customer service is a complete waste of time… But any of us doing something that improves our customer service is time well spent.”

A surprising phrase will make your audience pay attention, as their expectations are jolted. The second line then mirrors and twists the first. The use of personal pronouns – me, you and us – keep the sentence active and involve your audience.

6. Use a set of three to make a boring presentation interesting

“Three unanswered calls; two unhappy customers; five wasted minutes hanging onto the phone. Would you accept that from BT? So why should anyone accept that from us?”

This uses a set of three – a powerful tool in spoken language – in the first sentence. Then it connects the issue to an experience we all recognise before tying it back to the task in hand.

7. Use a story to make an interesting presentation

“This morning, Mary waited 20 rings for her call to be answered. When the phone was finally picked up by John, the CSR, he denied all knowledge of her case. He suggested she call back next week.”

Using a story structure creates the right frame of mind in your listeners. Stories convey a challenging perspective in a safe way, avoiding putting your audience on the defensive. Read about the seven ways stories can make your speeches and presentations more powerful here.

8. Use rhetorical questions to make a presentation more interesting

“What did you do today to improve your customers’ experience? And what could you have done? I want to show you three simple ideas that you can use every day to make your customers happier.”

Here, using two rhetorical questions prompts the audience to start to answer them in their heads. The second half shares up-front the benefits that listeners will get from continuing to pay attention.

9. Use rhyme to make an interesting presentation

“When the customer rings – hear them sing. When the customer moans, listen to them on the phone.”

Our brains love rhyme and rhythm, which is why we find it so easy to remember songs. If you include a rhyme you can help the audience recall the main takeaway of your talk or presentation.

10. Be Yourself, and Let Your Passion Shine Through:

There’s nothing more convincing than a speaker who is passionate about their topic . Don’t be afraid to inject your personality into your presentation and speak with genuine enthusiasm . Your passion will be contagious, and your audience will be more receptive to your message.

11. Bonus Tip: Practise, practise, practise!

The more comfortable you are with your material and delivery, the more confident and engaging you will appear to your audience. Learn how to practise your presentation like a professional.

Remember: it’s not about how much you say, but how much impact you make.

How to make your presentation more interesting

Top presentation and public speaking tips from Benjamin Ball

Each of these examples shows how small, easy-to-use presentation skills can transform a boring presentation into an interesting, engaging presentation. At first, it might feel odd to change the way you use language, but after a little practise these techniques will soon become part of your public speaking toolkit.

How to make your presentations interesting – for ever

We specialise in coaching executives to be brilliant presenters. we’ve been doing this for 15 years and are recognised as being brilliant at what we do. our tailored public speaking coaching sessions are fast, intensive and effective, we can help you to communicate clearly, confidently and with impact, in time for your next talk or presentation., call louise on +44 20 7018 0922 or email [email protected] to find out more., understand the benefits of presentation training, transform your presentation skills with tailored coaching.

We can help you present brilliantly. Thousands of people have benefitted from our tailored in-house coaching and advice – and we can help you too .

“I honestly thought it was the most valuable 3 hours I’ve spent with anyone in a long time.” Mick May, CEO, Blue Sky

For 15+ years we’ve been the trusted choice of leading businesses and executives throughout the UK, Europe and the Middle East to improve corporate presentations through presentation coaching, public speaking training and expert advice on pitching to investors.

Unlock your full potential and take your presentations to the next level with Benjamin Ball Associates.

Speak to Louise on +44 20 7018 0922 or email [email protected] to transform your speeches, pitches and presentations.

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