Online PowerPoint Presentation.com

An important design technique in any PowerPoint presentation is proper alignment of text and graphics, particularly with frequent slide transitions and online PowerPoint presentations. It can be quite distracting when headers, footers, and logos jump from one location to another, creating an animation of sorts.

Using the Slide Master
The slide master allows you to edit your header, footer, company logo, and other information you would like to see on all of the slides in your presentation. Modifying this single master slide will make your changes global throughout your presentation. Creating the slide master should be the first step in creating any new online PowerPoint project.

To access the slide master, go to VIEW > MASTER > SLIDE MASTER

If you have a graphic or header that you would like to appear in the same location on only a few slides, you can either “duplicate” the slide and make changes to the parts that you don’t want to be identical, or simply “copy” and “paste” the graphics or information from one slide to the next. This will retain its location on the new page.

Today, many people distribute a copy of their online PowerPoint presentation to the audience at the end of their web conference or webinar. To make sure that all recpients are able to flawlessly view the presentation on their own computer, here are some design tips that will help prevent viewing problems:

1. Use fonts that come pre-installed with Microsoft Windows, or better yet, standard cross-platform fonts like Arial and Times New Roman, which are pre-installed on both Windows and Macintosh systems. If you use special fonts that the recipient of the presentation doesn’t have, it will default to a different font that may not be as flattering or style appropriate when viewed on their system.

2. Avoid embedding video and audio files. These will not necessarily go from Macintosh to Windows (and vice-versa) systems gracefully. You have to be very careful about how you insert the files in order to get them to “travel” properly. These media files can make a PowerPoint presentation very large and difficult to send via Email. Media files may also have difficulty playing properly in a web conference.

3. Go through all of the slides in your presentation on a different platform (Macintosh and Windows); be prepared for slight visual changes and make sure they are all acceptable. If your presentation is complex, try it on multiple machines. Most importantly, if you are presenting the PowerPoint online, be sure to do a few run-throughs with your web conference software.

1. Present Compelling Material

Even the most stunning presentation won’t hold an audience that isn’t interested in the material, especially if you’re presenting at an online web conference. PowerPoint should be used to help illustrate a good idea, not to misdirect them from a poor one.

2. The KISS Principle (Keep it Simple Stupid)

The most effective PowerPoint presentations are simple — charts that are easy to understand, and graphics that reflect what the speaker is saying. Some experts suggest no more than five words per line and no more than five lines per individual slide.

3. Minimize Detailed Facts and Figures in Slides

An effective PowerPoint presentation doesn’t overwhelm an audience with too much data. Save the technical details for handouts distributed after the presentation. If they’re trying to digest too much information during your presentation, they’re likely to miss your key concepts.

4. Time Your Remarks

As you click to a new slide, give your audience a chance to briefly review it before you start speaking. Never read directly from your slides. Instead make remarks that clarify and extend beyond the information on the page.

5. Distribute Handouts at the End of the Presentation

While presenting, you want the audience paying attention to you and not reading through your handouts and chatting amongst themselves. Distribute handouts at the end of the presentation, or if presenting via web conference, email handouts to everyone that attended after the presentation is finished.

Keeping the file size of your PowerPoint images under control is one of the most important components to keeping your overall presentation running smoothly and streamlined. Too often PowerPoint presentations are built with very large image files that are scaled down within the program. While the image looks small on the screen, the full size image is still embedded in the presentation, only it is scaled on the fly. This scaling process can greatly slow down slide transitions and affect other aspects of the presentation, particularly while presenting an online PowerPoint presentation during an online web conference or webinar.

MY-i-size.com is a free online resource to actually shrink the size of your image files. The end result will look the same as if you scaled it within PowerPoint, however the program won’t have to scale the image each time it is loaded.

MY-i-size allows you to upload an image from your computer, or input the URL of an image to grab from the web. You only need to input the width (in pixels) that you want the image to be resized to, and it will proportionately calculate the height. This application is also useful in quickly resizing images for sending in emails or posting on your blog.

The perfect PowerPoint presentation must carefully combine and balance interesting content, a great design and engaging delivery. Too much emphasis or lack of emphasis on any of these elements can cause your audience to quickly lose interest in your topic.

When choosing your content, decide on two or three key issues and have the rest of the presentation circle back to those issues. Think Zen. Keep the content clear, simple and in an order that is easy to follow. Tailor the content to your audience and use terminology that is at their level. Never speak down to your audience, but be careful not to go over their heads either.

The design of your presentation will create an instant connection with your audience. The style you choose should again be tailored to your audience and reflect the content of your presentation. The most important aspect of the design, regardless of the style you choose, is to have large, legible text. Make sure the text and your background colors always contrast. Use discretion with pictures, animations and movie clips and make sure they serve a purpose of helping make points more clear… if they don’t, they only serve as a distraction.

Finally, you need to sell all of your hard work with a winning delivery. Memorize your presentation, and only glance at it for reference while you speak directly to your audience. Never read directly from your slides. If you are constantly looking at the screen, so will your audience. When presenting an online PowerPoint presentation, you still must be familiar enough with your content so that you can speak beyond the slides and keep your audience listening and engaged. The PowerPoint presentation is only a visual aid to assist you, the presenter.