5 PowerPoint Tips and Tricks to strengthen your presentations
There are PowerPoint Tips and Tricks for every type of presentation. PowerPoint is an incredible tool for any presenter. Undoubtedly, this tool allows you to create clean slideshows to tell your story, give a pitch, or educate your audience. However, most people do not use it to its full potential. Even worse, most people do not use it correctly and end up losing their audience’s attention.
History of PowerPoint
Interestingly, Microsoft did not create PowerPoint. Rather, Microsoft purchased it for a mere $14 million in 1987 from a company called Forethought. Moreover, by the late 1990s it had taken over 95% of the presentation software worldwide.
Powerpoint Tip 1: 10/20/30 Rule
Use the 10/20/30 rule to make powerful presentations. Moreover, the 10/20/30 rule was coined by Guy Kawasaki, a well-known venture capitalist, author, and social media influencer. Subsequently, the rule helps marketers build excellent PowerPoint presentations that keep the viewer’s attention.
Simply put, Guy Kawasaki states that a PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points. Justifiably, he claims that no one’s attention span can handle more than 10 thoughts at one time. Further, he claims you need plenty of time left over for a discussion, so keep it to 20 minutes. Last, the 30 points keep your viewers from reading ahead of you and allows you and your audience to stay in sync.
PowerPoint IT Tip 2: Make a Video
Videos are rising in popularity on social media. In fact, over 487 million videos are expected to be uploaded to Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and Twitch in 2021. Consequently, that breaks down to 1.3 million videos uploaded a day, or 55,594 an hour. Fortunately, as a small- and medium-sized business, you don’t need to compete with all of these videos. Indeed, you only need to be concerned with those in your niche, community, and industry.
Most importantly, videos can play a vital role on your website, in your personalized marketing strategies, and in your social media presence. In fact, this is a very handy tool for introverts who still need to make their presence known.
How to Make a PowerPoint Video
Interestingly, making a video in powerpoint is easy. Simply go to the Slide Show section of the website and click on Recording. With this feature, you can record your voice on each slide or choose one voice recording throughout the entire presentation. Best of all, you can practice over and over again until you have it perfected.
Once you have the recording the way you want it, simply go to File and select Export. Then choose to create a video. After that, you just need to choose the quality of video you want. I always choose the Full HD, Ultra HD, which takes a little longer. However, it is the best quality to upload to social media or websites.
PowerPoint IT Tip 3: Creating Cool Powerpoint Morph Effects
The Morph Effects were added in to the new 2019 version. Interestingly, it can make objects appear as though they are getting smaller or larger. Moreover, it allows you to create seamless object animation from one slide to another. Above all, it creates the illusion you have done some really cool video graphics for your presentation.
How to Create a Morph Effect
First, select two slides with one object in common. On the second slide make the change you want to transition to, i.e., larger, smaller, moved across the page, etc. Then, go to the Transition tab and select Morph. Afterward, select the Effects Option, which will allow you to choose the type of transition. Examples include Objects, Words, Characters, etc. Now all you have to do is click preview and see the results. It’s really that simple.
PowerPoint IT Tip 4: Make it Interactive with Triggers
Simply put, a Trigger is an action in PowerPoint that allows the user to choose a pre-recorded action when an object is selected. For example, with a single click, you can make a picture appear, play a video, or hear a recording. Subsequently, this is useful if you want to control the timing or create a personalized presentation.
How to Create a Trigger
Objects – To create a trigger for an object, first create the object you want to set as a Trigger. Then, go to Animations, Advanced Animations, and Animation Pane. Once in the Animation Pane, select the object you want to Trigger and point to On Click.
Videos & Recording – Create the object you want to set as a Trigger and go to Animations, Advanced Animations, and Animation Pane. Then choose Advanced Animation, Trigger, and Bookmark.
PowerPoint Tip #5 – Embed a Functional Excel Spreadsheet
Using an Excel spreadsheet in your presentation is an awesome way to make your presentation interactive. For example, you can show pricing changes based on selections, implications on decisions, and impacts on outcomes.
How to Integrate an Excel Worksheet into PowerPoint
This is so simple; you are going to wonder why you didn’t do this before. Simply, click the Insert Menu and choose Object from the menu ribbon. Then click on Create New and browse for the Excel worksheet you want.
Summary
I hope these helpful PowerPoint tips and tricks will make your next PowerPoint presentation successful. As always, INSI is always here to make your technology a useful tool to meet your business goals. Contact INSI, the best MSP in Atlanta today at 770-387-2424, Option 2.
About the Author
Deborah Frazier is the author of IT Outsourcing Secrets – A Small Business Guide to Compare IT Support Companies. With nearly 20-years’ experience consulting small and medium-sized businesses on their IT support needs, she brings a wealth of knowledge to INSI as Head of Marketing and Sales. If you like this article and would like to get notified when a new article is posted, click here
