Have you ever been giving a presentation to a room full of people, only to look up midway and notice that nobody is paying attention to you? Perhaps the reason is that your public speaking skills aren’t at an all-time high, but the reason could also be that the PowerPoint template you are using in your presentation is nowhere near captivating.
Before you panic and fall into a state of depression because your PowerPoint templates are simply not up to par, rest assured that there is a way to remedy the issue! The first step, of course, is to understand why no one is paying attention to your PowerPoint templates.
Are You Using the Right Colors?
If you’re in a rush it’s natural to stick with the basic “blank” PowerPoint template offered by Microsoft Office. But did you know that certain colors and tones can affect your audience psychologically?
Take a look at the infographic below that highlights various colors and their relative emotions:
In a study called Impact of Color in Marketing, researchers found that up to 90% of snap judgments made about products can be based on color alone, depending what your product is. That’s a powerful statement! So naturally, the choice of color used in a presentation you are giving to a room full of people can hugely determine whether or not they continue to pay attention to what you have to say.
Have You Included Images or Data Visualizations?
The use of images in your PowerPoint templates is crucial to holding on to someone’s attention. In fact, blog posts, emails, and presentations that contain visual content are retained by the brain 60,000x faster than text.
On top of that, the brain can register images that are displayed for only 13 milliseconds. By complementing the text in your presentation with an image, the chances that your audience will remember the context increase substantially.
If the thought of having to find visual content online to add to your presentations is freaking you out, there exist plenty of free and paid services online that offer PowerPoint templates for download. You can also use a tool like an online infographic maker to produce captivating images and icons clusters.
Another point to keep in mind is that data visualizations make understanding complex data, or big numbers much easier. Again, you can use a tool like Beam which is a chart maker to produce visuals in a matter of seconds making the process of creating a visually appealing chart easier to do than a using a post-it note.
Are You Using a Respectable Amount of Text?
It’s very common for presenters to include paragraphs of text in their PowerPoint templates. Unfortunately, no one really wants to read during a presentation, and individuals tend to lose interest very quickly.
So what is a respectable amount of text? There is a rule called the rule of 33, which refers to the fact that a single slide should contain no more than 33 words, and no more than 4 to 5 bullet points.
Think of it this way: your presentation is meant to act as a summary of the subject you are trying to relate. Too little text won’t provide the proper amount of information to your audience for them to learn anything of importance. Too much text will simply make it too difficult to keep up, and their focus will be on trying to see all of the words, rather than listening to your instruction.
Unless the words included are incredibly crucial to understanding the topic at hand, they aren’t necessary. Try to stick to 1 or 2 important sentences per slide.
Preparing PowerPoint Templates
When I was in school, I always considered PowerPoint templates a final step in the presentation process. I would plan and write out my speech, make notes on all the important elements to mention, and then the night before the presentation, copy and paste all of the information into a slide. The result would often be a boring slideshow and a monotonous presentation.
What I later realized is that I should have been preparing the template along with my speech the entire time. The reason: to ensure that the presentation flows smoothly and cohesively, rather than as two separate entities.
Nadya Khoja
Latest posts by Nadya Khoja (see all)
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Hi Nadya,
Yes, you are absolutely right. Sometimes we are ignoring the color combination of the powerpoint presentation.
Found an Impressive post to Grab users attention over power point presentation. Even after using high quality images and good data, there is no improvement. Whereas after using some charts, Graphs and some attractive templates the presentation had gone to next level and looks quite informative and awesome. Thanks for the great tips.
We provide some free PPT templates and vectors, photos, cms, and web templates. Please visit our link for free downloading of free templates.
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i just want to share 2 tips based on my experiences. Keep one sentence per slide and always choose contrast color between text,background and images. This is because human mind can only focus on for about 30 minutes. If we are to give presentation,it is our job to capture audiences attention by giving them the best and simplest slides.
Great article summarizing everything pretty well. You could also mention some more websites where you can get free website templates – like http://bestpowerpointtemplates.com/ or https://templates.office.com
Other than that, the article was great.
I couldn’t agree more with you, right choice of colours ,pictures, charts and venn diagrams are easier and interesting ways to communicate.Thanks for sharing these really useful tips dear
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I am concentrating on power point slides on my blog. I never use this think but now working on this. Thanks for this helpful info.
Regards,
Sachin Alam,
India
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Color choice and presentation templates can be important, as you shared. The statistic claiming that up to 90% of snap judgments in product choice are determined by color really emphasizes that point.
Thank you for sharing some incredibly helpful information Nadya!
I only wish, I was aware of your extremely valuable information, long
before I started using Power Point graphics and templates in my youtube videos!LOL!
I could have probably increased their overall effectiveness, by leaps
& bounds!
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Hey Nadya,
Really Nice blog!!
From business pitches to board meetings, there are many reasons to put together a PowerPoint presentation. Regardless of the purpose of the PowerPoint presentation, there are guidelines that one should follow to make sure you get your point across correctly, clearly and professionally.Thanks a lot for sharing these tips. I will surely consider them in my next presentation.
Cheers!!
You have done a great job . you share a very good information . you describe the word in a unique way. you give nice information about powerpoint Template .
Thanks for sharing such a beautiful article with us.
User can check beautiful and responsive all business type template here . http://scriptsbundle.com/
Great post! Very informative. I realize that I have to really work on my presentations in the office. I’ll forward this post to my office mates . Cheers!
In my recent showcasing work in the present, I have had an analysis that if you have too many slides without a proper graphics and entertainment factor then chances to lost the connection from the audience.
I suggest, to have only a few slides along with full on useful details that can increase the engagement.
Cheers
The type of colors, content and pictures all contribute to creating an attention grabbing powerpoint display. Putting too much information on the slides of your power point display can cause people to become disinterested in what you have to say.
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this is a very important blog for me thankyou very much…and also Thanks for sharing different and new templates – PowerPoint templates. Good Job Work….
Fantastic post. Office 2010 is a fantastic software to create PPT.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge on Power point.
Very informative blog post. Everything makes sense though. Keep up the good work ahead too. Really appreciate the effort.Thanks..!!
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Preparing an attractive power point presentation is one of the on demand marketing need. There are plenty of websites which accept such presentation and rank them better in search engines.
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It is very informative article. Great strategies. I am new to the scene. I will be implementing these tomorrow. Thanks!
Great design of power point templates. The information that you provide is very useful and informative. I really appreciate it. Thanks for sharing the post.
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Khoja,Above are all valid points regarding ppt.And it also conveys how a good ppt should be.Very imporatntThanks and useful information on presentation.Best of luck:)
Interesting post. Using Office 2010 and it is a fantastic software to create PPT.
Thanks for sharing your views on Presentation.
Hi Bharat,
Some are surprised to discover that most freelancers are using Microsoft Office 2010 running on Windows 7. Those who automatically upgrade to whatever the latest version is are always shocked by this. We prefer 2010 for usability and Win 7 for stability and less invasion of privacy.
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slides.com is a great free tool to make fast, simple, and modern presentations. I used them for client pitches all the time! Though I still use PowerPoint for my longer and more detailed reports/presentations.
Very informative article regarding powerpoint presentations, the overall designs and looks are very much important for an effective powerpoint presentation, choosing the appropriate template is the key!
Hi Nadya,
This is a very helpful article, Thank you! I really enjoyed reading this piece. It is true that visualization is a factor for making an interesting presentation . It will be easier for the audience to understand when you add illustrations that will catch the viewers or audience attention .
Thank you for sharing your ideas. I really appreciate your work Nadya! Great job and Keep it up! 🙂
Nice article what i had seen here for templates whcih will really help in a lot of desig with different types of templates and many new idea from it what i got here
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Hey,
Thank you a big big time !
I was looking for something like this for so long. How came I have not seen this post yet?? You are in my bookmark now. Thank a million zillion trillion times!!
Thanks for the valuable
input about powerpoint presentation. I totally agree that presentation theme makes the first impression on viewers. I will follow these tips.
Your expertise always helps me tremendously.
Thank You.. 🙂
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Using correct colours and appealing typography are a must for powerpoint presentations,blogs and articles.Using only text is a wrong way of portraying your thoughts,
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In my opinion ! Color selection is the most decisive factor during the selection of your PowerPoint templates. Love the way you have explained all this. Important tips i will always use in my future pp projects. Thanks
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The design more important than text in power point. Choosing the right PowerPoint can make a huge difference in your presentation.
HI Nadya,
The designing portion is more important as well as information. I liked the post.
Thanks for sharing.
This is a very helpful article and I really enjoyed reading this piece. Clip art is usually a big no-no in PP because it is basic. You can put a little twist on your clipart. I’ve included an article showing you how to make your presentation pop with remixed art.
You are right around 2006 or 07 is was very popular even i used to use it in my school days. But now there are so many people who even don’t who why power point use ?. I still believe that you can create a very dynamic and strong presentation.
Hello Varun,
PowerPoint is still used for presentations and also to create SlideShares.
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Nice article,and useful tips for preparing presentations.The content inside slide is more important.
Thanks for sharing this article.
Well the design defintiely so important in ppt, espcially if uni have good design ppt, students would be more productive.
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All these points are critical for ppt. Your Article is impressive and very informative. I will now regular visitor of your website and bookmarked it.
These article ideas are superb to present the presentation in any company or organization. Texting the color, showing the graphical images to express the views.
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Choosing the right PowerPoint can make a huge difference in your presentation. It also makes the data or content easier to read and understand.
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Wonderful information! It’s not work for only powerpoint templetes but also for any kind of presentation. Thanks for sharing it.
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Pretty Good Article !! Clean and Clear view about an Presentation will use tips advised here in my next Presentation
yeah, in preparing power point presentation very important not only the content but how it looks. It must be entertaining to the audience like having neat but colorful and informative. whenever the content is informative if there is no creativity then the audience might get bored.
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I would push it so far as to say that one should keep their slides to a sentence a slide just as key points to the point which you should be able to talk about from the top of your head in that way you can keep eye contact with the audience.