How to Write Great PowerPoint Slides 5 great tips

PowerPoint is a powerful tool for creating and delivering presentations, but it can also be challenging to use effectively. Many people struggle with designing slides that are clear, engaging, and persuasive. Here are our top 5 tips and best practices for writing great PowerPoint slides, to help you communicate your message clearly.

Tip 1: Know your purpose and audience

Before you start writing your slides, you need a clear idea of what you want to achieve with your presentation and who you are speaking to. What is the main goal or message of your PowerPoint presentation? What do you want your audience to learn, feel, or do after listening to you? How much do they already know about your topic? What are their interests, needs, and expectations? These questions will help you tailor your content and style to suit your purpose and audience.

Tip 2: Plan your structure and flow

Once you have defined your purpose and audience, you need to plan the structure and flow of your presentation. A good presentation has a clear beginning, middle, and end. In general, the beginning should introduce your topic, establish your credibility, and capture the attention of your audience. The middle should present your main points, arguments, or information in a logical and coherent way. The end should summarize your key takeaways, restate your main message, and provide a call to action or next steps. You can use an outline or a storyboard to organize your ideas and create a logical sequence for your slides.

A popular consulting method for structuring your presentations is to apply the the PowerPoint Minto principle. The Minto principle is based on the idea that any message can be divided into a main point and supporting points. The main point should be stated at the beginning of the presentation, followed by the supporting points in order of importance. This presentation structure is very popular with Strategy consultants, especially from McKinsey & Co as it was formulated by former McKinsey consultant Barbara Minto. Learn more about the Minto Principle and how to implement this in your slides in our article. Think of the Minto structure as structured storytelling for presentations.

For longer PowerPoint presentations, it can be useful to add Sections to your document so you can easily navigate and re-order your presentation if required. Learn about PowerPoint Sections in our Article 'How to organize PowerPoint Presentations with PowerPoint Sections'

Tip 3: Write clear and concise headlines

One of the most important elements of a great PowerPoint slide is the headline. The headline is the first thing your audience will see and read on your slide. It should summarize the main idea or message of your slide, in a clear and concise way. A good headline should be short (no more than two lines), specific (avoid vague or generic terms), and catchy (use keywords, questions, or statements that spark interest or curiosity). You can use the headline to introduce a new topic, make a claim, ask a question, or provide a transition.

Tip 4: Use visuals and multimedia

A great way to make your PowerPoint slides more effective is to use visuals and multimedia to support your content. Visuals and multimedia can help illustrate your points, show data or examples, create contrast or comparison, or evoke emotions. They can also help you reduce the amount of text on your slides and make them more appealing and memorable.

Some examples of visuals and multimedia that you can use are images, icons, graphs, charts, diagrams, maps, videos, audio clips, animations, or transitions. However, you should use them in a considered and appropriate way. Make sure they are relevant to your content, high-quality and clear, consistent with your theme and style, and properly cited (if needed).

Access thousands of visuals for use in your slide presentations via the PPT Productivity Slide Library for PowerPoint.

Tip 5: Follow the design principles

Finally, you should follow some basic design principles to ensure that your PowerPoint slides look professional and polished. These principles include:

• Contrast: use different colors - but not too many and try to to stick to your theme/brand colors, fonts, sizes, or shapes to create visual hierarchy and emphasis
• Alignment: use the PPT Productivity Align features to align elements on your slide to create order and balance
• Repetition: Repeat elements such as colors, fonts, or shapes to create consistency and unity
• Proximity: group related elements together to create clarity and connection, and
• Whitespace: leave some empty space on your slide to avoid clutter and distraction (a handy feature we recommend is to use the PPT Productivity No Fly Zone feature to define the usable area of the slide verses, what should be left as whitespace). You can also use templates or themes to apply these principles automatically.

Learn more about using PowerPoint Templates and themes in our article 'How to create a PowerPoint Template?'

Conclusion
If you're just getting started, writing great PowerPoint slides is not easy, but it is possible. We hope these tips make it a bit easier. By knowing your purpose and audience, planning your structure and flow, writing clear and concise headlines, using visuals and multimedia, and following the design principles, you can create PowerPoint presentations that are clear, engaging, and persuasive.