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How To Make a Good Presentation [A Complete Guide]

By Krystle Wong , Jul 20, 2023

How to make a good presentation

A top-notch presentation possesses the power to drive action. From winning stakeholders over and conveying a powerful message to securing funding — your secret weapon lies within the realm of creating an effective presentation .  

Being an excellent presenter isn’t confined to the boardroom. Whether you’re delivering a presentation at work, pursuing an academic career, involved in a non-profit organization or even a student, nailing the presentation game is a game-changer.

In this article, I’ll cover the top qualities of compelling presentations and walk you through a step-by-step guide on how to give a good presentation. Here’s a little tip to kick things off: for a headstart, check out Venngage’s collection of free presentation templates . They are fully customizable, and the best part is you don’t need professional design skills to make them shine!

These valuable presentation tips cater to individuals from diverse professional backgrounds, encompassing business professionals, sales and marketing teams, educators, trainers, students, researchers, non-profit organizations, public speakers and presenters. 

No matter your field or role, these tips for presenting will equip you with the skills to deliver effective presentations that leave a lasting impression on any audience.

Click to jump ahead:

What are the 10 qualities of a good presentation?

Step-by-step guide on how to prepare an effective presentation, 9 effective techniques to deliver a memorable presentation, faqs on making a good presentation, how to create a presentation with venngage in 5 steps.

When it comes to giving an engaging presentation that leaves a lasting impression, it’s not just about the content — it’s also about how you deliver it. Wondering what makes a good presentation? Well, the best presentations I’ve seen consistently exhibit these 10 qualities:

1. Clear structure

No one likes to get lost in a maze of information. Organize your thoughts into a logical flow, complete with an introduction, main points and a solid conclusion. A structured presentation helps your audience follow along effortlessly, leaving them with a sense of satisfaction at the end.

Regardless of your presentation style , a quality presentation starts with a clear roadmap. Browse through Venngage’s template library and select a presentation template that aligns with your content and presentation goals. Here’s a good presentation example template with a logical layout that includes sections for the introduction, main points, supporting information and a conclusion: 

creating designing presentation

2. Engaging opening

Hook your audience right from the start with an attention-grabbing statement, a fascinating question or maybe even a captivating anecdote. Set the stage for a killer presentation!

The opening moments of your presentation hold immense power – check out these 15 ways to start a presentation to set the stage and captivate your audience.

3. Relevant content

Make sure your content aligns with their interests and needs. Your audience is there for a reason, and that’s to get valuable insights. Avoid fluff and get straight to the point, your audience will be genuinely excited.

4. Effective visual aids

Picture this: a slide with walls of text and tiny charts, yawn! Visual aids should be just that—aiding your presentation. Opt for clear and visually appealing slides, engaging images and informative charts that add value and help reinforce your message.

With Venngage, visualizing data takes no effort at all. You can import data from CSV or Google Sheets seamlessly and create stunning charts, graphs and icon stories effortlessly to showcase your data in a captivating and impactful way.

creating designing presentation

5. Clear and concise communication

Keep your language simple, and avoid jargon or complicated terms. Communicate your ideas clearly, so your audience can easily grasp and retain the information being conveyed. This can prevent confusion and enhance the overall effectiveness of the message. 

6. Engaging delivery

Spice up your presentation with a sprinkle of enthusiasm! Maintain eye contact, use expressive gestures and vary your tone of voice to keep your audience glued to the edge of their seats. A touch of charisma goes a long way!

7. Interaction and audience engagement

Turn your presentation into an interactive experience — encourage questions, foster discussions and maybe even throw in a fun activity. Engaged audiences are more likely to remember and embrace your message.

Transform your slides into an interactive presentation with Venngage’s dynamic features like pop-ups, clickable icons and animated elements. Engage your audience with interactive content that lets them explore and interact with your presentation for a truly immersive experience.

creating designing presentation

8. Effective storytelling

Who doesn’t love a good story? Weaving relevant anecdotes, case studies or even a personal story into your presentation can captivate your audience and create a lasting impact. Stories build connections and make your message memorable.

A great presentation background is also essential as it sets the tone, creates visual interest and reinforces your message. Enhance the overall aesthetics of your presentation with these 15 presentation background examples and captivate your audience’s attention.

9. Well-timed pacing

Pace your presentation thoughtfully with well-designed presentation slides, neither rushing through nor dragging it out. Respect your audience’s time and ensure you cover all the essential points without losing their interest.

10. Strong conclusion

Last impressions linger! Summarize your main points and leave your audience with a clear takeaway. End your presentation with a bang , a call to action or an inspiring thought that resonates long after the conclusion.

In-person presentations aside, acing a virtual presentation is of paramount importance in today’s digital world. Check out this guide to learn how you can adapt your in-person presentations into virtual presentations . 

Peloton Pitch Deck - Conclusion

Preparing an effective presentation starts with laying a strong foundation that goes beyond just creating slides and notes. One of the quickest and best ways to make a presentation would be with the help of a good presentation software . 

Otherwise, let me walk you to how to prepare for a presentation step by step and unlock the secrets of crafting a professional presentation that sets you apart.

1. Understand the audience and their needs

Before you dive into preparing your masterpiece, take a moment to get to know your target audience. Tailor your presentation to meet their needs and expectations , and you’ll have them hooked from the start!

2. Conduct thorough research on the topic

Time to hit the books (or the internet)! Don’t skimp on the research with your presentation materials — dive deep into the subject matter and gather valuable insights . The more you know, the more confident you’ll feel in delivering your presentation.

3. Organize the content with a clear structure

No one wants to stumble through a chaotic mess of information. Outline your presentation with a clear and logical flow. Start with a captivating introduction, follow up with main points that build on each other and wrap it up with a powerful conclusion that leaves a lasting impression.

Delivering an effective business presentation hinges on captivating your audience, and Venngage’s professionally designed business presentation templates are tailor-made for this purpose. With thoughtfully structured layouts, these templates enhance your message’s clarity and coherence, ensuring a memorable and engaging experience for your audience members.

Don’t want to build your presentation layout from scratch? pick from these 5 foolproof presentation layout ideas that won’t go wrong. 

creating designing presentation

4. Develop visually appealing and supportive visual aids

Spice up your presentation with eye-catching visuals! Create slides that complement your message, not overshadow it. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words, but that doesn’t mean you need to overload your slides with text.

Well-chosen designs create a cohesive and professional look, capturing your audience’s attention and enhancing the overall effectiveness of your message. Here’s a list of carefully curated PowerPoint presentation templates and great background graphics that will significantly influence the visual appeal and engagement of your presentation.

5. Practice, practice and practice

Practice makes perfect — rehearse your presentation and arrive early to your presentation to help overcome stage fright. Familiarity with your material will boost your presentation skills and help you handle curveballs with ease.

6. Seek feedback and make necessary adjustments

Don’t be afraid to ask for help and seek feedback from friends and colleagues. Constructive criticism can help you identify blind spots and fine-tune your presentation to perfection.

With Venngage’s real-time collaboration feature , receiving feedback and editing your presentation is a seamless process. Group members can access and work on the presentation simultaneously and edit content side by side in real-time. Changes will be reflected immediately to the entire team, promoting seamless teamwork.

Venngage Real Time Collaboration

7. Prepare for potential technical or logistical issues

Prepare for the unexpected by checking your equipment, internet connection and any other potential hiccups. If you’re worried that you’ll miss out on any important points, you could always have note cards prepared. Remember to remain focused and rehearse potential answers to anticipated questions.

8. Fine-tune and polish your presentation

As the big day approaches, give your presentation one last shine. Review your talking points, practice how to present a presentation and make any final tweaks. Deep breaths — you’re on the brink of delivering a successful presentation!

In competitive environments, persuasive presentations set individuals and organizations apart. To brush up on your presentation skills, read these guides on how to make a persuasive presentation and tips to presenting effectively . 

creating designing presentation

Whether you’re an experienced presenter or a novice, the right techniques will let your presentation skills soar to new heights!

From public speaking hacks to interactive elements and storytelling prowess, these 9 effective presentation techniques will empower you to leave a lasting impression on your audience and make your presentations unforgettable.

1. Confidence and positive body language

Positive body language instantly captivates your audience, making them believe in your message as much as you do. Strengthen your stage presence and own that stage like it’s your second home! Stand tall, shoulders back and exude confidence. 

2. Eye contact with the audience

Break down that invisible barrier and connect with your audience through their eyes. Maintaining eye contact when giving a presentation builds trust and shows that you’re present and engaged with them.

3. Effective use of hand gestures and movement

A little movement goes a long way! Emphasize key points with purposeful gestures and don’t be afraid to walk around the stage. Your energy will be contagious!

4. Utilize storytelling techniques

Weave the magic of storytelling into your presentation. Share relatable anecdotes, inspiring success stories or even personal experiences that tug at the heartstrings of your audience. Adjust your pitch, pace and volume to match the emotions and intensity of the story. Varying your speaking voice adds depth and enhances your stage presence.

creating designing presentation

5. Incorporate multimedia elements

Spice up your presentation with a dash of visual pizzazz! Use slides, images and video clips to add depth and clarity to your message. Just remember, less is more—don’t overwhelm them with information overload. 

Turn your presentations into an interactive party! Involve your audience with questions, polls or group activities. When they actively participate, they become invested in your presentation’s success. Bring your design to life with animated elements. Venngage allows you to apply animations to icons, images and text to create dynamic and engaging visual content.

6. Utilize humor strategically

Laughter is the best medicine—and a fantastic presentation enhancer! A well-placed joke or lighthearted moment can break the ice and create a warm atmosphere , making your audience more receptive to your message.

7. Practice active listening and respond to feedback

Be attentive to your audience’s reactions and feedback. If they have questions or concerns, address them with genuine interest and respect. Your responsiveness builds rapport and shows that you genuinely care about their experience.

creating designing presentation

8. Apply the 10-20-30 rule

Apply the 10-20-30 presentation rule and keep it short, sweet and impactful! Stick to ten slides, deliver your presentation within 20 minutes and use a 30-point font to ensure clarity and focus. Less is more, and your audience will thank you for it!

9. Implement the 5-5-5 rule

Simplicity is key. Limit each slide to five bullet points, with only five words per bullet point and allow each slide to remain visible for about five seconds. This rule keeps your presentation concise and prevents information overload.

Simple presentations are more engaging because they are easier to follow. Summarize your presentations and keep them simple with Venngage’s gallery of simple presentation templates and ensure that your message is delivered effectively across your audience.

creating designing presentation

1. How to start a presentation?

To kick off your presentation effectively, begin with an attention-grabbing statement or a powerful quote. Introduce yourself, establish credibility and clearly state the purpose and relevance of your presentation.

2. How to end a presentation?

For a strong conclusion, summarize your talking points and key takeaways. End with a compelling call to action or a thought-provoking question and remember to thank your audience and invite any final questions or interactions.

3. How to make a presentation interactive?

To make your presentation interactive, encourage questions and discussion throughout your talk. Utilize multimedia elements like videos or images and consider including polls, quizzes or group activities to actively involve your audience.

In need of inspiration for your next presentation? I’ve got your back! Pick from these 120+ presentation ideas, topics and examples to get started. 

Creating a stunning presentation with Venngage is a breeze with our user-friendly drag-and-drop editor and professionally designed templates for all your communication needs. 

Here’s how to make a presentation in just 5 simple steps with the help of Venngage:

Step 1: Sign up for Venngage for free using your email, Gmail or Facebook account or simply log in to access your account. 

Step 2: Pick a design from our selection of free presentation templates (they’re all created by our expert in-house designers).

Step 3: Make the template your own by customizing it to fit your content and branding. With Venngage’s intuitive drag-and-drop editor, you can easily modify text, change colors and adjust the layout to create a unique and eye-catching design.

Step 4: Elevate your presentation by incorporating captivating visuals. You can upload your images or choose from Venngage’s vast library of high-quality photos, icons and illustrations. 

Step 5: Upgrade to a premium or business account to export your presentation in PDF and print it for in-person presentations or share it digitally for free!

By following these five simple steps, you’ll have a professionally designed and visually engaging presentation ready in no time. With Venngage’s user-friendly platform, your presentation is sure to make a lasting impression. So, let your creativity flow and get ready to shine in your next presentation!

A Beginner’s Guide To Presentation Design [+15 Stunning Templates]

A Beginner’s Guide To Presentation Design [+15 Stunning Templates]

Table of Contents

  • What Is Presentation Design? 

What Is the Significance of Presentation Design?

Understanding various forms of presentations.

  • 10 Tips to Create a Compelling Presentation Design 

5 Inspirational Presentation Design Trends

  • 15 Best Presentation Design Templates to Consider 
  • Key Takeaways 
  • Conclusion 

Once you’ve mapped out your presentation, it’s time to tackle the intimidating task of creating a visually stunning presentation design . Creating an excellent presentation design becomes simpler by learning and adhering to fundamental presentation design standards. Here is a presentation design guide to creating an engaging and well-designed presentation,  regardless of the kind of project you are putting together. 

What Is Presentation Design?

Presentation design focuses on the visual facet of your presentation to captivate your audience. An outstanding presentation design may significantly impact your target audience, whether it is investors, employees, collaborators, or potential customers. The design must ideally complement the material of your presentation to help get your views across and convince your audience.

Creating a presentation for the first time to present in a professional setting or to a large audience might feel challenging. This guide to presentation design will walk you through the elements required for building a visually appealing presentation. 

creating designing presentation

A presentation is much more than just a layout of slides with text and graphics on them. You need to make sure it’s visually appealing too. It is mainly because visuals are much more engaging than written words in your presentation slides. Presentation design is crucial because it allows you to combine your ideas, narrative, graphics, facts, and statistics into one cohesive tale that drives your audience to the decision you desire.

A robust presentation design may unlock doors you never imagined could be opened. An effective design is much simpler to understand and earns a lot of credibility for your brand. You can communicate your message effectively, encourage your audience to take subsequent actions, and get them to engage with what you’re saying with excellent presentation design.

You have the potential to communicate your point of view, create a brand identity, and get your audience to see and hear you loud and clear when you build a presentation with impeccable design. The material of your presentation is crucial to your project’s success, but a poor design may divert the listener’s attention (and not for a good reason). Don’t let a lousy presentation design force you to lose out on a huge business opportunity.

Creating a winning presentation design involves combining design components to produce slides that will neither bore nor exhaust your audience. Instead, it will engage and inspire them effectively. So, instead of creating a lousy presentation using shoddy designs, it is significant to master the fundamentals of creating the best presentation design.

Presentations may be used for several purposes and can come in different forms. A quarterly sales presentation with your team will not be the same as a presentation focused on employee training. 

In the first scenario, you’ll strive to advance your team to achieve targeted sales growth. In the second, you’ll focus on imparting essential knowledge and skills to your employees. Looking at some of the most prevalent presentation types can give you a better idea about presentation design and when to begin constructing your own.

1. Investor pitch presentation

Using facts to convince rather than enlighten is the primary goal of this presentation style, as indicated by the name. If you’re a startup or a small firm looking for investment, you’ll need to use this form of presentation to your advantage. An investor pitch presentation will be required when you’re explaining your company’s user acquisition growth rate to prospective investors. Such presentations are created using the classic pitch deck concept to make the perfect, thoroughly professional pitch.

2. Educational presentations

Educational presentations are sometimes misunderstood as informative presentations since they are designed to teach viewers new skills and educate them on a new subject. You may need to produce a presentation for a school for various reasons, such as presenting an idea or providing an academic report.

Academic and corporate training programs often employ this presentation format. A video tutorial with comments and suitable themes may be added to the slides to improve them. Educators are always looking for new and unique methods to provide engaging and enthralling presentations for their students. Using an educational presentation template may guarantee that your presentation is visually appealing as well as easily comprehensible.

3. Webinar presentations

Webinar presentations are the newest craze, and they’re a win-win for presenters and the audience alike. A webinar refers to an online presentation, but unlike a video posted elsewhere, the webinar takes place in real-time and with the active participation of the audience. There are several themes and settings for which webinar presentations might be utilized. 

Short surveys, quizzes, and Q&A sessions let participants feel more involved in the webinar. Most commonly, a webinar is meant to disseminate information, but it may also act as a marketing tool, a source of leads, or a way to generate new sales and sign-ups.

4. Report presentations

A report presentation is intended to offer the necessary information to those engaged in a process or project. Report presentations are critical in ensuring these stakeholders that the procedures that must be followed for the project’s completion are effectively planned and executed. Sample reports are also accessible to these stakeholders. 

A report presentation may take numerous forms, such as a business report or an infographic. Reports on sales and marketing performance, website statistics, income, or any other data that your team or supervisors wish to know about can be presented during the report presentation.

5. Sales presentations

Sales presentations are often the initial phase in the sales cycle, and are, therefore,  critical. A sales presentation, often known as a sales pitch deck, is a form of presentation you would need to provide a prospective customer or client with when pitching a product or service.

Not every sales presentation is designed to close a deal right away. The goal might be to pique the curiosity of the people concerned. Sales presentations often include your company’s unique selling proposition (USP), product price points, and testimonials. Your sales presentation must be engaging and successful in influencing potential customers, using a well-thought-out approach.

6. Inspirational presentations

An inspiring presentation is a standard tool used by managers, team leaders, motivational speakers, and business owners to stimulate and encourage their audience. Inspirational presentations are essential to influencing others and achieving your individual and business goals. 

To get a desirable result from this kind of presentation, elicit an emotional response from the audience and motivate them to act. Using a presentation template that has been professionally developed provides you with an advantage over others. 

7. Keynote presentations

Keynote presentations are given in front of a larger audience. A good example can be those shown at TED Talks and other conferences. While the presenter gives the entire speech, there are advantages to using slides, such as keeping an audience engaged and on track.

10 Tips to Create a Compelling Presentation Design

If your presentation is lousy, you might come across as unprepared, uninterested, and lacking any credibility. A well-designed presentation makes you appear reliable and competent. Here are some fantastic points to help you develop the best presentation design.

1. Outline your content and fine-tune the message

It’s crucial to prepare your content and fine-tune your main message before you begin developing your presentation. Try to figure out what your target audience wants to know, what they may already know, and what will keep them engaged. Then, when you create your presentation’s content, keep those things in mind and furnish designs accordingly. It is vital to remember the key takeaway of each deck you create.

Too much information shown on a single slide is difficult for most viewers to comprehend. Make sure you don’t overwhelm your viewers; each presentation slide should include no more than one key point. Make your information as brief as possible, yet make it detailed enough and valuable.

2. Use more visuals and less text in your decks

Your audience recalls information considerably better when images complement it because they can better understand visual features than simple text. Presenters that employ images instead of words get more favorable feedback from their audience than those who rely only on text.

creating designing presentation

Using visual examples in slide decks increases audience engagement, encourages more questions, and registers your message in the minds of your audience. Remove any unnecessary text from your slides and replace it with visuals that will engage your audience.

You may use various methods for adding images, but the most common is using your data’s visual representation. It’s important to note that adding visuals does not mean sprinkling fancy images and symbols across your slides. Relevant images and iconography are a must.

3. Limit the use of fonts and colors

It is vital to pay attention to color schemes and other design components, such as fonts, to ensure your presentation succeeds. Although it may be thrilling to employ as many fonts and colors as possible, the best presentation design practices imply that you should only use two or three colors overall. Also, make sure the content in your slides is of a different font than the headers.

When it comes to color schemes, certain combinations work better than others. When choosing colors, keep in mind that they should not detract from the message you want to convey. Add an accent color to one or two of your primary hues for a cohesive look. It’s critical that the colors you choose complement one another and communicate your purpose effectively. Headers should be in one typeface, while body content should be in another. Add a third font for the accents, if you’d like. 

4. Create a visual hierarchy

Visual hierarchy is an important consideration when including text in a presentation. Visual hierarchy is one of the most significant but underappreciated presentation design principles. Color, size, contrast, alignment, and other aspects of your slide’s elements should all depend on their value.

When creating a visual hierarchy, you must clearly understand the story and its structure. Your audience’s attention should be drawn to the most critical components first, then to the second-most essential aspects, and so on. When creating your presentation, think about the story you want to tell and the visual hierarchy you need to support it. If you do this, the essential ideas you wish to convey will not be lost on your audience. 

5. Incorporate powerful visuals

It is important to use visual aids to make a compelling presentation: think images, icons, graphics, films, graphs, and charts. You should also ensure your slides’ aesthetics accurately portray the text they contain. Alternatively, if you don’t have words on the slide, make sure the visuals mirror the words you’re saying in your speech.

Visual aids should enhance your presentation. In addition, you’ll want to ensure that your slide has some form of visual representation so that you’re not just dumping a bunch of text onto a slide.

6. Avoid using bullet points

These days, any excellent presentation design instruction would encourage you to avoid bullet points as much as possible. They’re dull and old-fashioned, and there are more effective methods to display your material. 

A slide consisting of icons, images, and infographics is more exciting and conversational than one written in list form. Using bullet points for each slide’s primary theme is a standard PowerPoint design recommendation that you should refrain from while designing your presentation.  

7. In group presentations, segregate slides by theme

While making a group presentation, finding an appropriate balance of who should be demonstrating which presentation segment is often challenging. Arranging a group presentation by topic is the most natural technique to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to speak, without the presentation becoming incoherent. Your group presentation should be divided into sections based on the subject.

Prepare your presentation ahead of time so that everyone understands when it’s their turn to talk. It’s up to each person in the group to pick one thing to talk about when they give this presentation to investors or potential customers. For instance, the business model slide may be addressed by one person, while another can discuss the marketing approach.

8. Maintain consistency

Consistency is essential when you work on the design of your presentation. Your presentation is still one presentation, no matter how many slides it has. Design elements, color schemes, and similar illustrations can all be used to achieve design consistency.

Although some of the slides in your presentation may appear to be styled differently than the others, the overall presentation must be held together by a single color scheme. To ensure that your viewers don’t lose track of what you’re saying, make sure each of your slides is visually connected.

9. Emphasize important points

It is pertinent to use shapes, colorful fonts, and figures pointing to your material. They help emphasize vital information to make it stand out. This not only keeps the reader’s attention on the page but also makes your design more streamlined. Emphasizing the point you’re trying to put across with visual elements makes it easier for your audience to grasp what you’re saying.

10. Integrate data visualization

Consider utilizing a chart or data visualization to drive your argument home, especially if you have vital figures or trends you want your audience to remember. This might be a bar graph or a pie chart that displays various data points, a percentage indication, or an essential value pictogram. 

Confident public speaking mixed with good visuals may greatly influence your audience, inspiring them to take action. The use of design features makes it simpler for your audience to grasp and recall both complex and fundamental data and statistics, and the presentation becomes much more enjoyable too. 

Even though trends come and go, effective presentation design paired with some inspiration to get you started will always be in style. Think about what’s current in the world of graphic design before you create a staggering presentation deck for a creative proposal or a business report. To help you better, we’ve come up with a list of the most popular presentation design concepts. 

1. Dark backdrops with neon colors

While white backgrounds have long dominated web design, the advent of “dark mode” is gradually altering that. Designers may use dark mode to play with contrast and make creative things stand out.

creating designing presentation

This is a great way to get your audience’s attention and keep them interested in what you have to say. The key is to pick one or two bright colors and utilize them as highlights against a dark backdrop, rather than using an abundance of them.                                                                                            

2. Monochromatic color schemes

In recent years, color schemes originating from one base hue, such as monochromatic color schemes, have been given a subdued pastel makeover. The usage of monochromatic color schemes in presentation design is always seen as clean and professional. It’s ideal for pitch decks and presentations since monochrome is generally utilized to assist people in concentrating on the text and message, rather than the colors inside a design.

3. Easy-to-understand data analysis

The fundamentals of data visualization should be restored. In other words, even the most complicated measurements may be made easy to grasp via effective design. Designers, marketers, and presenters are generating snackable stats in the same way infographics have found a place on visual-first social networks.

Create a dynamic proposal or presentation with the help of an infographic template that is easy to use. You can create distinctive slides with animations and transitions to explain your point more effectively. With the help of templates, you can convert your data into bar graphs, bar charts, and bubbles that represent your idea simply, guaranteeing that every data point is simple to comprehend.

4. Straightforward minimalism

Minimalism is a design trend that will probably never go out of style. It has always been a show-stopper. Each slide should offer just enough information to let the reader comprehend what’s going on. You should use a color palette that isn’t distracting. Your simple presentation will enthrall your audience if you boldly highlight your most significant points and use trendy fonts.

5. Geometric structures

There’s a good reason why designers are so fond of geometric patterns, 3D objects, and asymmetrical layouts. They’re basic yet stunning, making them perfect for times you want to make a lasting impression with the information you’re sharing. 

More cutting-edge components, such as 3D shapes and floating objects, are used in presentation graphics these days. Go for a presentation template that contains editable slides that enable you to easily add your visuals and material to brighten your presentation. 

15 Best Presentation Design Templates to Consider

In the case of presentation designs, you should never sacrifice quality. Ideally, you should have a design that improves your brand’s image, amplifies your message, and enables you to deliver various content forms efficiently. 

The problem is, it’s pretty challenging to locate premade themes and templates of this merit. We’ve made it easy for you by putting together a list of the best 15 presentation design templates out there. These presentation design suggestions are a great place to start.  

1. Business plan presentation template

This is a crucial business presentation template with a significant emphasis on visualizations and graphics. To create a business strategy, you need this presentation template. It consists of several crucial elements, such as a mind map, infographics, and bar graphics. Replace the placeholder text with your own to complete the presentation.

creating designing presentation

2. Pitch deck template

Startups seeking financing require a clean and eye-catching pitch deck design to impress investors. You may use it to present significant aspects and achievements of your company to investors. You can include slides for mockups, testimonials, business data like statistics, and case studies.

creating designing presentation

The pitch deck presentation template is excellent for your next client pitch, as it allows you to pick from a range of different startup tales to showcase the most crucial features of your firm.

3. Brand guidelines presentation template

Creating a bespoke presentation talking about the company dos and don’ts may be a terrific approach to discuss your brand rules with your team and stakeholders. You can easily show off your brand’s typeface and color schemes using this presentation template.

creating designing presentation

4. Marketing plan presentation template

Marketing is a vast concept, and the slides included in this design stock set reflect that broadness. A well-executed marketing strategy is essential to the success of any team. A marketing plan presentation template should ideally include slides for charts, timelines, and competition research. You can create executive summaries or mission statements with the below-mentioned presentation’s elegant and minimalistic slides.

creating designing presentation

5. Keynote presentation template

This keynote template has a lovely color scheme that is equal parts captivating and professional. You can employ a keynote presentation template if you’re going to be a keynote speaker at an upcoming event and want to ensure that your design stands out.

creating designing presentation

In addition to several slides, the template comes with various predefined color schemes. This template is perfect for any business presentation requiring a well-designed layout.

6. Training manual presentation template

A training manual presentation template may be used to convey new hire training to your workforce. It is essential for the design to be as clean and straightforward as possible.

creating designing presentation

These training material decks created with a predesigned template make it easy for new employees to learn the ins and outs of their jobs. 

7. Case study presentation template

A case study is an excellent way to illustrate a point in your presentation. The best way to attract new consumers using a case study presentation is to show them how your existing customers are using your product or service. Make sure to highlight how your product solved their pain points.

creating designing presentation

8. Interactive brief presentation template

It’s common to provide a creative brief when working with a contractor, freelancer, or designer to ensure everyone involved understands what the final product should look like.

creating designing presentation

An interactive presentation template like a creative brief is a terrific concept for absorbing and memorizing that information.

9. Workforce handbook presentation template

When hiring a new employee, your company needs to create an employee handbook to ensure they know the company’s objective and general working norms. You may connect this presentation to your intranet or website, or just distribute the digital version through a password-protected or private link.

creating designing presentation

10. Ignite presentation template

Using this template as a starting point for an Ignite presentation would be ideal. An Ignite presentation is a five-minute presentation consisting of 20 slides, compelling the speaker to speak fast and concisely. As a result, an Ignite presentation template prevents you from using too much text on any slide. 

creating designing presentation

11. Informative presentation template

The need to create an educational presentation may arise due to several reasons, such as onboarding new hires, explaining a concept to students, and more. An informative presentation template is a suitable solution in all cases.

Regardless of who they are meant for, presentations are the optimal format for sharing information with any audience. Create an educational presentation that you can embed in a blog post or publish on several platforms online. Make presentations to provide knowledge at conferences and other meetings.

creating designing presentation

12. SWOT analysis presentation template

A strength, weakness, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis is a valuable tool for gauging where your business stands, and how your strategic planning measures are paying off. This presentation template is an excellent tool for SWOT analysis or refining your marketing strategy.

creating designing presentation

It comes in several formats; circular design and hexagonal shapes being two of them. You may modify the colors as desired.

13. Competitor analysis presentation template

Knowing your competition and what they offer is essential for a successful business. Competitor analysis means researching your competitors’ key strengths and weaknesses, which can, eventually, help you define your goals and USPs more clearly. 

creating designing presentation

There are built-in interactive elements in this competitor analysis presentation template, which can help hook your audience. 

14. Bold presentation template

Ideal for non-corporate sales presentations, a bold and daring presentation template includes slides with a vibrant, attention-grabbing theme that is neither overbearing nor distracting. The color combination is striking without being oppressive.

creating designing presentation

15. Company overview template

Creative presentation templates are all the rage today. Using a lot of negative space will allow your audience to take a breath and direct their attention to the most crucial parts of your presentation. It is suitable for corporate presentations, since it doesn’t stick out more than is necessary.

creating designing presentation

Key Takeaways

  • Audiences tend to forget a large percentage of what was addressed before the presentation is through. This is why it is important to create a presentation design that is memorable.
  • A presentation is much more than just a layout of slides with text and graphics on them. You need to make sure it’s visually appealing too. 
  • Use a wide range of best presentation design tools, components, and styles until you discover the one that resonates with your target audience. 
  • Consider the most recent trends and best practices, and dedicate time to thoroughly crafting every presentation.
  • Fine-tuning your message, avoiding the use of bullet points, incorporating visual hierarchy, and incorporating data visualization are a few design tips to create a winning presentation. 

Both your presentation style and design are crucial. You can deliver more dynamic, memorable presentations by creating visually pleasing decks. It’s advisable to create a resourceful presentation design if you want to elevate your personal as well as professional credibility.

Take cues from some popular presentation templates, and enhance one little aspect at a time. Now is the time to practice everything you’ve learned in this presentation design guide. As with any other visual communication, creating the best presentation design requires time, effort, and patience. Never be afraid to try something new; you’ll quickly see the benefits a strong presentation can have on your project.

A presentation design puts ideas, tales, words, and pictures into a series of slides that convey a narrative and engage your audience.

A presentation design template is used to achieve a uniform look for your slides. Templates are pre-made presentations into which you may insert your data.

People remember images and words better than just words. The design of your slides should be simple and consistent. This way, your audience will focus on the most important points.

Use high-quality images to back your message, but don’t use too many special effects. Make sure you don’t read from your slides.

A well-presented, memorable introduction and conclusion are two essential parts of a presentation. Don’t forget them when you write your outline.

Presentation design is essential, because it helps you weave your ideas, narrative, images, facts, and statistics into a unified story that leads your audience to the choice you want them to make.

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Presentations

Presentation Design: A Step-by-Step Guide

Nailing your presentation structure can have a big impact on your target audiences, whether they are investors, coworkers, partners, or potential customers. It helps get your ideas across and persuade others. 

For a presentation to work, its contents must be paired with great design. In fact, 91% of presenters feel more confident with a well-designed slide deck.

Now, design may not be something that interests you or something you’re good at. But like it or not, the moment you fire up Powerpoint, or Keynote you are a designer. And there is no escape. 

So instead of designing a poor presentation with lousy templates, why not learn the essentials of designing a beautiful presentation?

In this guide, we’ll discuss how to design a captivating presentation, and break down the whole process into small chunks so you can tackle each step easily. 

If you’re eager to put these principles into practice, create a Piktochart account and start creating beautiful presentations in minutes.

What makes a presentation well designed?

A bad presentation can give the impression that you lack preparation, care, and credibility. A well-designed presentation, on the other hand, makes you look professional and trustworthy. Here’s what it means: 

Less text and more visuals

Humans are visual beings. Our comprehension of visual elements is way more than just plain text. And we retain any information much better when it’s paired with imagery. 

If you want your message to connect with your audience, remove the extra text in your slides and replace it with visual content .

There are many ways to add photos , one of which is visualizing your data into timelines , flowcharts, graphs , and other frameworks. For example, this presentation by Trinh Tu uses data visualization really well to convey key stats and details.

Example of data visualization used in a presentation.

However, adding visuals doesn’t mean just throwing some fancy pictures and icons onto your slides. Your icons and photos need to be relevant.

Before you add a visual element, always check if it contributes to the message you are trying to communicate. 

Well-placed pictures can go a long way in helping the audience connect with your presentation. So use them cautiously and strategically. 

Summarize points instead of writing them all out

According to a survey by David Paradi , the three things that annoy audiences most about presentations are:  

  • Speakers reading their slides 
  • Slides that include full sentences of text 
  • Text that is too small to read 

Graph of top three things that annoys the audience most about presentations.

Notice what’s common to all these annoyances? The text. People have extremely short attention spans, especially when it comes to reading heaps of text. 

So the text in your presentation slides should be just enough to complement the speaker, no more. It should not compete with what’s being said. 

For example, this simple presentation does a great job of summarizing the message of each slide in just a few words and breaking up the text nicely into multiple slides. 

Example of simple design which perfectly uses fonts, bullet points, and other elements.

Crowding your slides with all the information you have makes you unnecessary. You don’t want people to be distracted by reading when they’re trying to listen to you. 

Instead, the slides should only be considered as a visual aid. So keep them simple. Focus on the message, not the slides themselves. 

One takeaway per slide

As we discussed, people find it hard to absorb too much information from a single slide. So don’t overwhelm your audience, and remember that less is more. Make sure not to have more than one key point in each presentation slide.  

For example, this presentation about startup weekend has minimalistic slides walking viewers through one message at a time. It also shows that you don’t need a ton of fancy elements to make your presentation visually appealing.

Example of one takeaway per presentation slide.

Limit each of your slides to a simple statement, and you’ll easily be able to direct your audience’s focus to the main topic and subtopics. 

Arranging your text this way is one of the best ways to make a powerful impact on your presentation design.  

Clear hierarchy in design

Visual hierarchy is easily one of the most important yet most overlooked design principles. Simply put, it means the color, size, contrast, alignment, and other factors related to each element of your slide should be based on its importance. 

The most important elements should capture the attention of your audience first, followed by the second most important elements, and so on. 

Needless to say, you must know the whole narrative and outline before you start planning the visual hierarchy. It’s all about the message you want each slide and your whole presentation to get across. 

For example, in this presentation about building a good team, see how the header text, the description text, and the button text are different from each other. The header font is the largest and placed at the top, catching immediate attention. 

Then your eyes go to the button text because it captures attention with a red background. And finally, you see the description, the illustration, and other elements. 

Example of visual hierarchy in a presentation design.

So as you design your presentation, consider the narrative and plan the visual hierarchy needed to justify the story. This will ensure that your audience will not miss out on the key points you want to emphasize. 

Design consistency across slides

People are quick to identify inconsistencies in a presentation design, and these inconsistencies prevent them from having a fully engaging experience. So keep your presentation design consistent with a single theme.

Consistency creates a better flow and shows that each slide in your presentation belongs to the same story. To understand this better, see the below slide from this presentation . 

Example of consistency in presentation slides.

Notice how the slide primarily uses only two colors (white and red) for all the elements. And the image dimensions, fonts, and styling for each team member are exactly the same. 

You’ll notice the same thing in other slides of this presentation too. The same colors, the same font family , and similar backgrounds have been used in the overall design . This is what we mean by consistency. 

If the presentation you’re making is part of a company, the company may already have a style guide that dictates how to keep your presentation consistent with the company’s branding. If not, it’s never too late to create one . 

Call to action

A presentation is not complete without a call to action (CTA). If there is no CTA, your audience will think, “Is that it?” and you’ll leave them wondering what they’re supposed to do next with the information you provided.

The best CTAs are simple and easy. For example, you can ask the audience to contact you, connect on social media, sign up for a product or webinar. 

Call to action button in the presentation.

Also, make sure to highlight the incentive. Your audience should be clear on the main benefits they will get by following through with your call to action. 

The bottom line is: Make it a no-brainer and make it easy for people to take action right away. 

Designing a great presentation

Now that you know the ingredients of appealing presentation design, let’s see how to design a presentation that wows your audience, and also drives your key points home at the same time. Follow the below presentation, ideas, steps, and best practices to create a stunning presentation.

Prepare slide backgrounds and images

Backgrounds and pictures go a long way in setting the right mood and feel for your presentation. And there is no one right way to do this. Your options are limited only by your creativity.

For example, this presentation from Zuora makes masterful use of background images. Almost every slide has a beautiful background photo, along with a color overlay above the background to make the text easy to read. 

Example of usage of images as background in presentation slides.

Pay attention to the following best practices as you work on your backgrounds and photos:

  • Make sure your images have enough contrast with your words. 
  • Use simple images that are closely relevant to your messages. You can use multiple free and paid stock photo sites to find photos that resonate with what you want to convey. These include Picography , Unsplash , Freepik , and Gratisography .
  • Don’t pick common, generic stock images that people have already seen hundreds of times elsewhere. Also, avoid clipart for the same reasons. 
  • Don’t crowd too many pictures into a single slide.
  • Ensure that your images are of high quality, with a resolution that allows a comfortable viewing experience. They should come off as clear and crisp on both small and large screens. 

Zero in on your slide layouts

Contrary to what you may believe, great presentation design is not about being very artistic or creating complex layouts. Instead, your focus should be on communicating information in a nice, user-friendly way.

For example, this presentation has many slides that emphasize a great alternative to the conventional approach of putting text over an image. It leverages a split-screen layout for each slide, resulting in clean and elegant quotes paired with stunning visuals. 

Alt-Text: A presentation slide with split-screen for image and text.

Pay attention to the following best practices as you work on slide layouts:

  • Make sure you have a reason for aligning elements in a certain way for each slide. If possible, use frames or grids to align your images and text appropriately. 
  • When used too often, center alignment makes your design look amateurish. Use it only as a last resort.  
  • Don’t keep using the same layout for consecutive slides. It makes your presentation dull and repetitive. Mix up the layouts to keep your audience engaged. 
  • Have enough white space around each element. Don’t feel like you have to fill vacant spaces with more objects. Giving each visual room to breathe makes your whole design easier on the eyes, while a cluttered composition is hard to make sense of. 

Pick your colors wisely

Colors influence emotions and contribute to the identity of your brand. They also lift the audience’s overall sense of enthusiasm and move people to action. So you must use colors strategically to pull the audience into your presentation. 

For example, this colorful presentation for Adidas was designed to show how its deck could give a combination of fun and luxurious vibes. 

Usage of colors to make Adidas presentation engaging

Notice the colors used in the above slide. There is a lot of white, purple, and blue, with some variations used sparingly around the illustrations. Only three main colors are doing most of the heavy lifting. That’s why the overall design still works even with some extra colors thrown in. 

Pay attention to the following best practices as you work on your presentation colors:

  • If your company already has a color palette in place, stick to it. If not, pick a strong color scheme with no more than five colors to serve as a base for your presentation design. Too many colors can make your audience frantic. 
  • Use tools such as Adobe Color CC , Kuler , Piknik , and 0to255 to play around with different colors and color schemes and see what works with what. 
  • Make sure your color scheme has colors that can contrast and complement each other. Colors that don’t clash will make your presentation look clean and polished. 

Select the right fonts

Typography is another factor that can make or break your presentation. Fonts have a subtle but powerful impact on how the audience views both your presentation and your brand. 

But choosing fonts is a major challenge for those without any form of design education or experience. They mistakenly think that simple and basic fonts are too dull and boring. So they try to look for some fancy fonts to make their presentation exciting, eventually ending up with some hideous or outdated font such as Comic Sans.

Instead, you should consider the readability of the message you want to convey. For example, this presentation by With Company makes great use of modern typography . 

Crisp and clean use of text in a presentation.

Since many of the slides have lengthy quotes, they are split in ways to make the message easy to digest. In addition, see how all the text is super clean and concise. 

Pay attention to the following best practices as you work on your presentation fonts: 

  • Just like with your color scheme, use the same set of fonts and the same font sizes in all the slides of your presentation. For example, if your slide heading is Verdana 40pt, then each slide heading should be Verdana 40pt. In fact, you don’t need more than three fonts that work well together. 
  • If you feel like using some animated text that bounces, soars, or glitters, just don’t. Curb the temptation. Hyperactive words and phrases are annoying and distracting. 
  • If you already have standard font pairs based on your company’s brand identity, use those. If not, choose fonts that convey the voice and tone you’re aiming for. 
  • The best fonts for presentations are simple, professional, modern, and readable. Pick a font such that there is a significant difference between its regular and bold font faces.
  • Don’t shy away from using standard fonts. Avoid using some rare font that’s unlikely to be available on all computers and mobile devices.
  • Pair fonts that work well with each other. Granted, this can be tricky and hard for an untrained eye to pull off. But there are many collections known to be effective. So you can pick from those. Resources like FontPair and FontJoy make it easy to find great font combinations.
  • As discussed before, size the fonts based on visual hierarchy. For example, headlines should be larger than body text. But even the least significant texts should be large enough to read, with appropriate line and letter spacing. 

Wrapping up

We know this may be a lot to take in. It’s not easy to design a mesmerizing presentation. But the final result is worth all the trouble. A great presentation can open doors that you may have never thought to be possible. 

A clean design is much easier to take in. It makes you and your brand look more credible and professional. So use the above steps to push your design skills as far as you can. 

Start improving one thing at a time, and your efforts will add up to a point where you’ll design stunning presentations without thinking. You can also accelerate the process with a tool like Piktochart that comes with hundreds of ready-made templates and intuitive features. So get started today.

About The Author

hiteshsahni

Hitesh Sahni is an editor, consultant, and founder of http://smemark.com/ , an upscale content marketing studio helping brands accelerate growth with superior and scalable SEO, PPC, and copywriting services.

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How do you design a good presentation?

creating designing presentation

Presentations are an integral part of our workplace experience. Whether you’re presenting a project at an all-hands meeting or giving an informal presentation during a weekly check-in, presentations are a cornerstone of how we work.

Despite how often we give presentations, designing one can feel pretty daunting. After all, we’re under pressure to create something informative, to-the-point, and visually appealing — and we have to deliver it in front of an audience!

In this blog post, we’ll go over some basic principles of presentation design, including tips for designing a great presentation and layout designs you can use for your own work. By the end of the blog, you’ll have the confidence and ability to design presentations that shine.

  • Presentation design principles

Designing a presentation can feel overwhelming. When you have a lot to say but a short amount of time to say it, deciding what to include (and how to present it) can be a daunting task. Here are three principles to think about when you’re designing your next presentation.

Know your audience

Everything about your presentation — what you include, what you don’t, how to lay it out — will depend on your audience. As you start planning your presentation, ask yourself a few questions. Who is your audience? How much do they know about this topic? What is the context in which they’ll be listening to your presentation?

For example, let’s say you’re a content marketing manager giving a presentation about an editorial calendar. If you’re designing that presentation for a product marketer, it’s going to look and sound differently than if you were designing it for an engineer; you might choose to emphasize or explain different elements with fonts or graphics. Let your audience drive your design.

Employ a visual hierarchy

When you sit down to create a presentation, you have a lot of creative tools at your disposal. It’s easy to get carried away with colors, fonts, animations, and builds. That’s why it’s important to employ a visual hierarchy for each slide.

A visual hierarchy is how you choose to arrange the information on your slide so that its importance is immediately clear to your audience. Visual hierarchies impact your font sizes, titles, the colors and animation you use, whether your text is bold or italic, whether you use images, and more.

For your first slide in your deck, start by jotting down what you want people to get out of this part of your presentation. Then arrange the elements on your slide to emphasize those key points.

Design accessibly

It’s important to remember that not everyone in the audience will consume information in the same way. Some people are auditory learners, while others are more visual. Some audience members might have visual or hearing impairments. And some simply might not be able to see the presentation very well from where they’re sitting. An important part of designing good presentations is designing accessible presentations.

Fortunately, there are a couple of rules of thumb that can help you design more accessible presentations. For one, don’t use color as the only method for distinguishing information. That makes it harder for visually impaired participants to follow your presentation. Use bold typefaces, different fonts, or larger text to highlight that something is important.

In general, use large, simple, san serif fonts like Arial, Verdana, and Helvetica, and minimize the amount of text on each slide. When presenting charts or graphs, be sure to make the graphics as digestible as possible. In addition to showing the charts or graphs on a slide, take the time to explain them orally, as well. If your slides contain videos, make sure to caption them and describe the audio.

  • Tips for designing a great presentation

Now that you have a foundation, here are a few quick tips that will help you design your next presentation with ease.

Start by brainstorming

Before you even open up your design tools, it’s a good idea to begin with a quick brainstorm. Even if you already know what you want to talk about, use your brainstorming session to figure out specifically what you want your audience to come away with. Do some freewriting, bounce ideas off of your collaborators, or use a brainstorming technique like mind mapping, brain writing, or random word picker .

Treat your presentation like an essay

Remember those five-paragraph essays you used to write in high school? There’s a reason that format is so enduringly popular. It’s a clear, intuitive way for your audience to absorb information. Think of your presentation as an essay, with an introduction, a thesis, three to five supporting points, and a conclusion. That way, you’ll get right to the point, present your evidence, and wrap up efficiently.

Get creative with the visuals

Part of our goal when we design a presentation is to keep our audience engaged. Don’t be afraid to dress up your presentation with fun photos, icons, charts, and other visuals. Make sure your slides are easy to read but remember to have fun with it too!

Share your slide deck with collaborators for feedback

Just as you would with any project, gather feedback on your slide deck before delivering your presentation. Ask your teammates whether it’s clear, engaging, and easy to follow.

Practice your presentation in front of an audience

There’s no substitute for practice. To build your confidence and work out any snags in your presentation, be sure to do a practice run in front of an audience at least once before the real thing.

  • Best presentation layout designs

Here are a few presentation layout designs to get your creativity flowing. Don’t be afraid to customize them to your own needs. Be sure to check out Miro’s free presentation template, or browse our library of presentations created by the Miroverse community .

Try Miro’s free presentation template

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Design engaging presentations with these templates from the Miro community

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  • Presentation Design

Tell a visual story to create engaging presentations.

Stick to a visual theme., keep it simple., find the right tools for every job., incorporate video, audio, or animations..

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Do more with tools from Adobe Creative Cloud.

Access other Creative Cloud tools that make InDesign an even more effective presentation maker.

Choose unique fonts.

Pick from over 17,000 high-quality fonts from Adobe Fonts to make your information organized and easy to read. User-friendly font styles make slides simpler to digest.

Start with Adobe Stock.

Find inspiration with Stock assets. Use Stock photos for stunning background images or transitional slides, and use Stock to find a presentation template as a basis for your custom design.

How to design a presentation from scratch.

With some creativity, and these simple steps, you can create a custom presentation with InDesign.

  • Find the right page size. Whether you’re presenting a keynote on a massive screen or creating for mobile devices, start by selecting the dimensions you’ll use for your presentation.
  • Choose your background. Pick a striking background image that works with text overlay. The deck’s title can also become part of the background.
  • Create paragraph styles. Create no more than three text styles so you can keep the title font, body font, and footnote font consistent throughout the presentation. Set paragraph styles to change font and size with a click of a button.
  • Set up master pages. Create a few master pages to help ensure your presentation looks professional and well designed. Add image and text frames to the master pages so you can drop your content in later without having to overthink the layout.
  • Add images and text. Drag and drop Photoshop (PSD) files, PDFs, Illustrator (AI) files, JPEGs, PNGs, or GIFs into the image frames. To add text, just copy and paste text files or select the Type tool from the toolbar and type directly into the text frame.
  • Add page numbers. Insert page numbers to keep you and your audience on the same page. InDesign can automatically number the slides.
  • Add finishing touches. From movies and sound clips to hyperlinks, cross references, and page transitions, you’ve got plenty of interactive options to make your story more compelling.
  • Export your slide deck. The final step is to export your presentation in a format that can be projected or distributed in any presentation program. Exporting as Adobe PDF (Interactive) lets you play or click through interactive content in real time during the presentation.

Discover more presentation design skills.

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Learn how to design slide layouts

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Presentation Design: Your Complete Guide to Better Presentations

Presentation Design: Your Complete Guide to Better Presentations

We don’t like boring presentations either. here’s how to dial your next presentation design to eleven..

Presentation design is that “I told you so” friend. You can have the best stage presence around, the most pertinent information for your audience, a simply stellar narrative . . . and none of it matters if your design doesn’t work.

That’s when presentation design swoops in and gives ya the big ole, “I told you so.”

Look—presenting information to other human beings without slowly (or quickly) starting to look like you dove headfirst into the deep end of your community pool is hard enough. We’ve all been there. We get it.

That’s why this guide exists. Treat it as a cheat code to better presentations. We’ll cover all things slide design—tips, examples, and tools you can use to make your next presentation look good (no complicated game controller combos required).

Table of Contents

The Pillars of Any Great Presentation

10 presentation design tips that work, presentation design ideas, how to design a presentation.

Five white pillars against a black background, with the words "purpose," "narrative," "content," "cohesion," and "delivery" on each, meant to represent five pillars of presentation design.

There are a million different things you can do when designing a presentation. That’s the challenge. You’re in the center of a maze, and if you spin around you’ll see twenty pathways. Each one of these takes you to twenty more, and on and on and on.

Let’s start with some basic pillars of great presentation design: purpose, narrative, content, cohesion, and delivery. Everything that comes after rests on top of these building blocks.

Presentation mockup featuring various types of slide layouts.

Even though we’re talking about five pillars, purpose might be the most important one. Or, at least the deepest dug, supporting everything else.

Without a purpose for your presentation, there is no hope. That sounds grim—because it is. 

Go to the grocery store with no list, and what happens? A $100 overdraft charge and seven pounds of crab cakes with a “Sell by” date of tomorrow. Dive into a presentation with no purpose, and you have a similar theme: sadness.

Start simple—what type of presentation are you making? Is it a quarterly review? Sales report? Pitch? Perhaps you’re the keynote speaker at a once-every-three-years global conference? (Okay, hotshot.)

Figure out what kind of presentation you need. That informs its purpose. Then, factor in your audience. Who are you speaking to, and what do you want them to gain from this soon-to-be beautifully visualized information sharing session?

That brings us to . . .

Say you’re crafting a pitch presentation. Your purpose is to inform and persuade investors to finance your product. This gives you what you need to develop your theme: “XYZ product isn’t just showy, it makes users’ lives easier.”

Great. Now, like any good writer or painter or filmmaker , your job is to develop this theme over the course of your narrative, A.K.A. the overarching journey of your presentation.

You’ll pepper this narrative journey with elements of storytelling . For example: Where you were when you had your big idea is a story that supports your larger narrative—how it all started, why it matters, and where it’s going.

Typewriter with "Storytelling is the best marketing" typed out on page.

Make sure there’s conflict. Take it from famed screenwriter Syd Field : “All drama is conflict. Without conflict, you have no action; without action, you have no character; without character, you have no story; and without story, you have no screenplay.”

A presentation that’s all sunshine and rainbows is a presentation that lacks realism. And, just like moviegoers don’t want to spend $20 to see a movie where everything is wonderful and nothing could be better, your audience wants engaging information that’s rooted in conflict. 

Because, that means it’s real.

Your product will change the world because it’s solving a real-world problem , and guess what? You’ve faced problems of your own in getting said product off the ground. They were A, B, and C, and you solved them by . . .

Here’s where we get designer-y (author’s choice—that’s a word today). You know your purpose, you understand how that purpose creates a theme, and you see how to develop this theme through narrative.

Now, you need awe-inspiring content. This is where design choices start to have an effect. Your job is to make the complexity of presentation design look simple. No sweat, right?

Graphic of man walking across tightrope being drawn by hand with pencil in it.

Opt for high-quality stock photos , readable fonts , and a balanced color scheme . In a way, it’s like tightrope walking across the Grand Canyon.

Also—don’t ever actually tightrope walk across the Grand Canyon.

Your visual content should complement your message and help an audience understand exactly what you want them to take away from your presentation.

Ever seen a Baz Luhrmann film? He’s a man with a distinctive style. If you need proof, go watch Moulin Rouge! , or his adaptation of The Great Gatsby .

We’ll wait.

See? Distinctive style. You look at a Baz film, in all of its creative chaos, and just know—that was made by him. Good or bad doesn’t matter. Baz Luhrmann stays on-brand . Even if on-brand is nine million things happening at once in a single frame.

Cohesion is of the utmost importance when crafting a presentation. The easiest way to achieve visual cohesion is to keep your design on-brand. Be it personal or business, use images, colors , and fonts that represent you.

And if you don’t have those? Decide upon them. Then use them.

If purpose is the deepest pillar, this is the . . . not so deepest . . . if only because it’s the last pillar to consider. We’re not talking about you talking —that is important, but in terms of presentation design, delivery is about slide layout.

How you’re using content, how you’re creating cohesion, and how you’re layering slides and building narrative—that’s your delivery. 

It’s a tall task, for sure. Each pillar seemingly heavier than the last. 

Ready for some tips? Let’s talk through ten quick and actionable tips that you can use when creating your next presentation.

You’ll find nifty previews of Shutterstock Create’s multi-page presentation templates included with these tips.

Note: There’s no shame in starting with a template , nor do you need to spend hours finagling with PowerPoint or Google Slides. Just grab one that’s right for your presentation type, then customize it to match your brand and flaunt your info. 

1. Use Presentation Slides as a Complement to an Outline

 A 2018 study found that only 20% of people finish reading an article online. What’s worse, the average visitor in the study would only read 25% of an article. 

If you’re still with us—thanks. We’re well past the 25% point.

We bring this up because presentation slides aren’t meant to be inundated with information, at least not via words (more on this soon). 

That’s what your outline is for. It’s the notes you put together in tandem with your presentation. No one will see it but you, so, unlike your presentation layout, it can look like a house of horrors as long as the only one experiencing the terror is you ( and you can still decipher it).

Think of an outline as your pseudo-script. Maybe not word for word what you’ll say, but the map for your entire presentation (like speaker notes), with each gorgeous presentation slide backing up your words.

2. Create Narrative Progression from Beginning to End

"Brand Guidelines" Create template number one with colorful rainbow gradient rectangular lines and same colored logo against grey background

Narrative progression means using storytelling to develop your theme and strengthen the overall journey of your presentation. 

  • This is who we were, who we are, and who we will be .
  • This is where we were, where we are, and where we will be.
  • This is what you want, how to get it, and where “getting it” will take you.

In the example above, the first slide introduces “brand guidelines” the second slide expands the topic with a strategy, and the third slide dives into more specific advice. There’s a steady and progressive unpacking of information. 

3. Corral Your Colors and Fonts

Reel in those colorful and scripty design elements .

Two complementary colors are more than enough, and if you opt for extra, make sure there’s a reason behind it (intentional flashiness, a third color used for emphasis, etc.)

In the above example, you see black and grey are the dominant backgrounds, with a nice rainbow gradient header and footer here and there. Regardless, the use of rainbow is intentional and scarce, serving as a nice accent.

Same goes for fonts—keep ‘em under control. Using too many fonts creates reader confusion. Sans serif and simple serif fonts are easy to read. 

Also, “easy to read” doesn’t translate to “boring.” If you crave extra fonty flavor, learn how to pair your fonts . Not only does it look good, but it’s a simple way to create visual interest.

If you do this, use one font in your slide headings, and the other in the body copy. Keep it consistent throughout your presentation slide design.

  4. Cut Text Like It’s the Last Piece of Pie

Create's "Current Trends" presentation slide with rainbow piechart in the middle followed by snippets of text surrounding it

It’s the day after Christmas . There’s one piece of pie left and, in a moment of charity (or foolishness), you decide to share it with the entire family. Good for you. 

That single piece of pie is sliced into tiny slivers, each one put on its own plate.

Cut to now. You’re making a presentation. You notice a heavy paragraph full of ideas, and it’s hanging out on a single slide . . .

. . . share it with the rest of your presentation. Give each slide its own [singular] idea. This makes your information digestible. Maybe a few slides merit more than one sentence. Fine. So long as they support one idea, concept, point, etc.

5. You’re Not Presenting a Resume

Lose the bullet points. They’re an eyesore and a recipe for subconsciously adding way too much information to a single slide. 

“But, but . . . I use bullet points to break everything up!” Nice. So, why are there seventeen of them?

If you want to “bullet” out sentences, use graphics or icons as separators. They’re more interesting.

6. If There Is an Opportunity for Dynamic Visuals, Take It

To a degree. Viewers retain 95% of a message from video compared to 10% from reading. Strike a conversation with any content marketer and they’ll pile on the merits of creating video content .

There’s a reason YouTube has over two billion monthly active users .

If you have a thematically relevant and omnipotent piece of video content, then consider using it. Same goes for animation . A bit of dynamism isn’t a bad thing.

Unless you overuse it. Don’t stuff your presentation full of videos, don’t overload it with animation, and certainly don’t mix and match. This isn’t 8th grade U.S. History, where fading in Thomas Jefferson’s greatest accomplishments might take you from a B+ to an A-. 

7. Make Your Presentation Design Reflect Your Brand

We’ve harped on this already, and it’s worth repeating—the easiest way to keep your presentation consistent is to maintain its brand focus. Dig into that wondrous brand kit of yours (or make one), where all your glorious design elements exist.

There are plenty of times to experiment with new looks and tonal pivots. But, the quarterly sales meeting with the executive leadership team is probably not one of them.

8. Help Your Audience by Creating Visual Hierarchy

Brown presentation design slide example about "How to design great ads," with visual hierarchy established through colors and text size.

Visual hierarchy is about arranging your design elements in a way that shows their order of importance. Sure, you should be using as little text as possible on your slides, but that short chunk of text is there to be read, yeah? 

Text size, colors , spacing, texture, style, and contrast all play a role in crafting airtight visual hierarchy. First off—limit yourself to a single image, illustration , or chart. Use multiple and you’re leaving your audience to guess what’s most important.

Heading text should be bigger than body text. This creates contrast. Same deal with colors—does a vibrant red against a soft white direct your viewers’ eyes? 

Tell your viewers where to look . . . without telling them anything at all.

9. Use Design Elements as Points of Emphasis

Real estate presentation slides with neon yellow being used as a point of emphasis for various data and timelines.

Let’s stay on that vibrant red / soft white thought—you can use colors , graphics, and icons as points of emphasis in your presentation. A huge contrast in color or text size draws the eye where you want it to look.

It creates emphasis, and this is really how you design a good presentation. Use design elements to help build your narrative and speak to your audience. 

This way, as you deliver your two cents, they’re already looking at and interpreting exactly what you want them to. 

10. Develop Trust Through Consistency

Beyond visual bliss, a consistent design builds trust with your audience. These slide design tips by themselves can pump up your next big Prezi, but together they’ll help you create a consistent and powerful visual message that supports your equally potent dialogue.

Captivate your audience and gain their trust. When everything’s said and done, and you’ve won over your crowd, that’s your queue to ask something of them. Call ‘em to action .

Whether that’s something as simple as “Questions, anyone?” for a company presentation or something more business-driven (download this, sign up for our newsletter, connect with us on social media, etc.), the key to people actually doing it is them trusting you first.

We’ve talked about the pillars of great presentation design , built upon those pillars with ten actionable tips, and now—before we get down to the business of actually making a presentation—it’s time for some inspiration.

If you know how but not what , here are a few slide design ideas. 

Use Powerful Background Imagery

Double Exposure

Images can elevate or completely derail your presentation. The latter happens when you stuff your slides full of low-quality photos, or content that’s cliché or too on-the-nose.

Luckily, you’ll never run out of top-notch stock photography with Shutterstock’s library . Start stockpiling your stock now. Remember, you don’t have to use a picture of a lightbulb to resemble that one idea you had that started everything.

Look for powerful images that tell a story of their own. They can be related to your topic without overshadowing it in “Look at me, I’m exactly what the words say!”-ness.     

Boost Your Presentation Design with a Quote

Green Create presentation template slide that reads, "Every problem is a gift—without problems we would not grow" with work icons (calendar, destination, bell) in the background

We like quotes. The millions of quotes + images = my next Instagram post have taught us that. And hey, if you find an interesting quote—particularly by someone well-known —that relates to your message, then go for it. 

Quotes can be engaging transitions into new presentation material.

Distinguish Offerings via Color

Presentation design example with dark green, red, yellow, and mint used to emphasize company service offerings.

Here’s a cool idea—if your presentation is about certain offerings or services, consider pairing these offerings with their own unique colors . 

Then, you can color code them throughout the presentation. Subtle enough to create better understanding without your audience even realizing it.

Embrace Trendy Looks

PicMonkey presentation template example that uses various gradient colors to capture a trendy look.

There are new design trends every year, and then some that seem to never go away. Take gradient colors for example. For a “That person really knows how to stay relevant!” look, pick a design trend that speaks to you and work it into your slides.  

Channel Your Modern Elegance

Modern and elegant black and white presentation design template at PicMonkey.

We’ve talked ad nauseum about black and white designs before because they’re amazing and timeless and 900 other adjectives. Here’s the formula for the example above:

Stunning photography + black and white color scheme + a dab of another color (thanks logo) = modern elegance.

Take the photos yourself , call in a few favors from us , or turn those amazing color photos of yours into elegant black and white art .

Now that you’re loaded with presentation advice, let’s make one using Shutterstock Create .

1. Open a Presentation Template

Create editor, with template menu open and presentation template, "Fitness is Fun," ready to be added to canvas

Inside Create , click File > Create new > Templates . Search by category, or type “Presentation” into the text box.

Once you have your template selected, click Add all ___ pages to add the entire template to your design canvas. Click a single slide to edit it individually. 

2. Customize the Design

The left Adjust menu in Create, used for customizing a fitness presentation slide

Use the left tabs to customize your design however you want. 

Swap images and text with your own from their respective tabs, change colors, emphasize points with graphics, and give your slides unique looks with textures and effects.

3. Use the Layers Panel to Navigate Between Slides and/or Add Pages

Presentation design open in PicMonkey, emphasizing how the Layers panel can be used to navigate design elements and slides when working.

The Layers panel is your best friend when working on a multi-page design. Switch between the Layers tab and Pages tab to navigate your design. 

The Layers tab lets you select individual design elements to customize on a single slide. Click the Pages tab to navigate between slides, or use the blue page icon and arrows on the bottom toolbar.

Click the paper/plus sign icon to add a page to your design. The double paper icon lets you duplicate the page you’re working on, and the garbage can icon will delete the selected page. 

4. Download Your Finished Presentation

Create's download menu, showing how to download all 7 pages of a presentation design as PNG files

Download your finished presentation as a PNG/JPG/PDF (images only), GIF (animated image), or MP4 (video) file.

If you download as a PNG or JPG, your file will export as a .ZIP file. Simply unzip and save the images to your desktop. You can download your entire project, individual pages, or select a page range. 

If downloading as an MP4, you have the choice to export as a single video file or individual files.

Alright, newly-minted presentation savant—get to it.

Cover image via Stilesta .

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What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation

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Five tips to set yourself apart.

Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don’t underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice — a lot).

I was sitting across the table from a Silicon Valley CEO who had pioneered a technology that touches many of our lives — the flash memory that stores data on smartphones, digital cameras, and computers. He was a frequent guest on CNBC and had been delivering business presentations for at least 20 years before we met. And yet, the CEO wanted to sharpen his public speaking skills.

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  • Carmine Gallo is a Harvard University instructor, keynote speaker, and author of 10 books translated into 40 languages. Gallo is the author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman  (St. Martin’s Press).

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Generate presentations in minutes

We humans make the world move, but we need to sleep, rest and so on. What if there were someone available 24/7 for you? It’s time to get out of your comfort zone and ask the AI Presentation Maker to give you a hand. The possibilities are endless : you choose the topic, the tone and the style, and the AI will do the rest. Now we’re talking!

Customize your AI-generated presentation online

Alright, your robotic pal has generated a presentation for you. But, for the time being, AIs can’t read minds, so it’s likely that you’ll want to modify the slides. Please do! We didn’t forget about those time constraints you’re facing, so thanks to the editing tools provided by one of our sister projects —shoutouts to Wepik — you can make changes on the fly without resorting to other programs or software. Add text, choose your own colors, rearrange elements, it’s up to you! Oh, and since we are a big family, you’ll be able to access many resources from big names, that is, Freepik and Flaticon . That means having a lot of images and icons at your disposal!

creating designing presentation

How does it work?

Think of your topic.

First things first, you’ll be talking about something in particular, right? A business meeting, a new medical breakthrough, the weather, your favorite songs, a basketball game, a pink elephant you saw last Sunday—you name it. Just type it out and let the AI know what the topic is.

Choose your preferred style and tone

They say that variety is the spice of life. That’s why we let you choose between different design styles, including doodle, simple, abstract, geometric, and elegant . What about the tone? Several of them: fun, creative, casual, professional, and formal. Each one will give you something unique, so which way of impressing your audience will it be this time? Mix and match!

Make any desired changes

You’ve got freshly generated slides. Oh, you wish they were in a different color? That text box would look better if it were placed on the right side? Run the online editor and use the tools to have the slides exactly your way.

Download the final result for free

Yes, just as envisioned those slides deserve to be on your storage device at once! You can export the presentation in .pdf format and download it for free . Can’t wait to show it to your best friend because you think they will love it? Generate a shareable link!

What is an AI-generated presentation?

It’s exactly “what it says on the cover”. AIs, or artificial intelligences, are in constant evolution, and they are now able to generate presentations in a short time, based on inputs from the user. This technology allows you to get a satisfactory presentation much faster by doing a big chunk of the work.

Can I customize the presentation generated by the AI?

Of course! That’s the point! Slidesgo is all for customization since day one, so you’ll be able to make any changes to presentations generated by the AI. We humans are irreplaceable, after all! Thanks to the online editor, you can do whatever modifications you may need, without having to install any software. Colors, text, images, icons, placement, the final decision concerning all of the elements is up to you.

Can I add my own images?

Absolutely. That’s a basic function, and we made sure to have it available. Would it make sense to have a portfolio template generated by an AI without a single picture of your own work? In any case, we also offer the possibility of asking the AI to generate images for you via prompts. Additionally, you can also check out the integrated gallery of images from Freepik and use them. If making an impression is your goal, you’ll have an easy time!

Is this new functionality free? As in “free of charge”? Do you mean it?

Yes, it is, and we mean it. We even asked our buddies at Wepik, who are the ones hosting this AI Presentation Maker, and they told us “yup, it’s on the house”.

Are there more presentation designs available?

From time to time, we’ll be adding more designs. The cool thing is that you’ll have at your disposal a lot of content from Freepik and Flaticon when using the AI Presentation Maker. Oh, and just as a reminder, if you feel like you want to do things yourself and don’t want to rely on an AI, you’re on Slidesgo, the leading website when it comes to presentation templates. We have thousands of them, and counting!.

How can I download my presentation?

The easiest way is to click on “Download” to get your presentation in .pdf format. But there are other options! You can click on “Present” to enter the presenter view and start presenting right away! There’s also the “Share” option, which gives you a shareable link. This way, any friend, relative, colleague—anyone, really—will be able to access your presentation in a moment.

Discover more content

This is just the beginning! Slidesgo has thousands of customizable templates for Google Slides and PowerPoint. Our designers have created them with much care and love, and the variety of topics, themes and styles is, how to put it, immense! We also have a blog, in which we post articles for those who want to find inspiration or need to learn a bit more about Google Slides or PowerPoint. Do you have kids? We’ve got a section dedicated to printable coloring pages! Have a look around and make the most of our site!

Don't start your work presentations by simply saying 'hello.' Here's how to be more engaging in the conference room.

  • I'm a public-speaking expert, and I've trained many executives and senior teams.
  • I tell all of them to stop starting work presentations with a salutation or a "hello."
  • Instead, you should engage your audience by telling a story or asking a question.

Insider Today

I'm sure you've sat through plenty of presentations where the presenter starts with a polite salutation like, "Hello, thank you for having me here today," or, "I am so glad to be here" — often followed by their name and professional résumé . Sometimes, if it's an internal meeting, you get the same salutations followed by an agenda slide with bullet points and the presenter narrating it.

As a public-speaking coach who has worked with many executives and senior teams, I know how to make work presentations more engaging. Here's how you should change your approach.

If you stick to your old ways, you aren't leaving a memorable first impression

Your audience is thinking three things when you walk into that conference room or onto that stage: Who is this person, why should I care, and how are they going to solve my problem?

Let's face it: Most people are more interested in how you will solve their problem than in you and your professional résumé. So let's flip the script a bit. Start with the solution to their problem, briefly talk about yourself for credibility, and then give them a reason to care.

Instead, try to capture their attention

Begin your presentation with a hook or a story — something that grabs their attention right from the start. For instance, your hook might be, "Did you know this?" or "What if that?" It could also be a short story that humanizes your services or products.

Most presentations are predictable; wouldn't it be better for both your time and your audience if you could introduce an element of surprise?

Some might feel it rude not to thank the organizer or greet the audience, so I suggest finding another place in your presentation for this. Here's a good structure:

Intro: "What if you could be a more confident and credible presenter? What if you could engage with your audience so they remember your products or services?"

Credibility: "My name is Meridith, and I've been coaching entrepreneurs and executives on how to speak with spark for over a decade, and I am really excited to be here. I want to thank [insert name] for inviting me to share the afternoon with you."

Solution: "Today, I will give you three ways to make your audience remember your products and services, helping you stand out in a competitive market. Let's get this party started!"

You could also try to form a personal connection

Often, presentations lack a personal touch. Try sharing a relevant personal anecdote or experience that relates to your topic. This not only makes your work presentation more relatable but also helps to establish a deeper connection with your audience.

For example, you could say: "When I was younger, I often hid in the back of the classroom, hoping the teacher wouldn't call on me because I didn't want to sound stupid or have the wrong answer. Later in life, I discovered acting and improv comedy . It was through the practice of these two art forms that I developed my confidence and learned how to engage more courageously with others. Today, I will give you solutions for how you can also better engage your audience with spark."

Try to encourage interaction

At the very least, you should try to engage your audience from the beginning — whether in person or on virtual calls. You can ask a thought-provoking question or propose a challenge that involves them directly. This approach shifts the dynamic to more interactive and engaging sessions.

If you implement any of these suggestions, you can make your presentation memorable and impactful immediately. And you'll most likely get a larger return on your investment of time and energy.

In today's fast-paced world, where attention spans are increasingly shorter than ever, it's crucial to grab and hold your audience's attention from the very beginning. By doing so, you set the stage for a more engaging and productive interaction. So challenge yourself to break free from presentation norms and embrace a style that resonates deeply with your audience and leaves a lasting impression.

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Watch: A public speaking champion reveals 3 keys to nailing your business presentation

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  • Main content

AI Tools 101

  • Plus AI Review: The Best Free AI Presentation Maker?

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Table Of Contents

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Presentations are an integral part of professional and educational endeavors. Whether pitching a business idea, delivering a lecture, or showcasing a project, presentations are crucial to conveying information effectively.

But who has the time to create a presentation from scratch? I know I don't. As much as making sure your presentation design is visually appealing, it can quickly become time-consuming when you could be focusing on more important things like refining how you deliver your presentation.

Luckily, we now have exceptional tools like Plus AI that revolutionize presentation creation. With its advanced artificial intelligence capabilities, Plus AI takes the hassle out of designing eye-catching slides and allows you to focus on delivering your message with impact!

In this Plus AI review, I'll explain what it is, who it's best for, and its key features. From there, I will show you how I used Plus AI to generate a Google Slides presentation on dinosaurs for kindergarten students in a few minutes. I'll finish by sharing my top three Plus AI alternatives so you know which AI presentation generator is right for you!

Let's take a look!

Plus AI is the best tool for quickly creating polished Google Slides presentations. It has an intuitive interface and robust AI-driven features, making it ideal for professionals and educators seeking efficiency and quality when creating slideshow presentations.

While its restriction to Google Slides may limit some users, such as those who use PowerPoint, its 100+ templates, seamless integration, and artificial intelligence tools make it an excellent choice for anyone looking to streamline their presentation creation process.

  • The best free AI Google Slides presentation maker to generate professional slideshows in minutes.
  • Instantly turn long-form text into captivating Google Slides presentations.
  • Use artificial intelligence to change the layout, rewrite and translate text, and make design changes.
  • 100+ professional templates, or create your own to match your branding.
  • Integrates with various apps to streamline your workflow.
  • Functions seamlessly with ChatGPT.
  • Hundreds of slide layouts.
  • 7-day free trial.
  • Limited to Google Slides.

What is Plus AI?

Overview of Plus AI for Google Slides

Plus AI (Plusdocs) is the best AI presentation generator for Google Slides that lets you generate and edit presentations using artificial intelligence. All you have to do is install the Plus AI extension from Google Workspace Marketplace, and you can start using Plus AI directly in Google Slides – no need to learn another design tool !

Once you have the Plus AI extension installed, you can access it from Google Slides and tell Plus AI what kind of presentation you want to make. Plus AI will generate a complete, custom presentation within minutes based on your preferences. You never have to design a presentation from scratch again!

Once your presentation has been generated, you can continue using Plus AI's handy AI tools by inserting new slides, rewriting text, automatically changing the layout, and updating the design. With Plus AI, creating and editing Google Slides presentations has never been easier!

Plus AI comes with over 100 templates to choose from. But if none resonate with you, you can always create a custom theme by adding your logo and customizing the fonts and colors to match your branding.

Who is Plus AI Best For?

Plus, AI is an excellent tool for anyone who wants to create stunning presentations using AI instantly, convert long-form text into stunning presentations, and more. However, there are specific types of people Plus AI benefits the most:

  • Businesses: With Plus AI's ability to quickly generate custom presentations, companies can save time and resources by making professional slides in minutes. For sales pitches, client presentations, or internal meetings, Plus AI ensures that businesses can impress their audience with visually appealing and engaging presentations!
  • Educators: Teachers and professors can use Plus AI to create captivating presentation materials for their lessons quickly. Using artificial intelligence, educators can transform dry content into visually stimulating slides that grab students' attention and enhance their learning experience. That means more time researching and refining lectures and less time obsessing over presentation design!
  • Startup Owners: Every opportunity to pitch their business is crucial for startup owners. Plus AI's tools can help them create captivating and professional pitch decks that grab the attention of potential investors or clients. Startup owners can focus more on perfecting their business strategy and leave the presentation design to Plus AI.
  • Freelancers: Freelancers often have to wear multiple hats and juggle various projects. With Plus AI, they can save time by quickly generating visually stunning presentations without compromising on quality. Whether showcasing their portfolio, pitching new ideas, or presenting project updates, Plus AI empowers freelancers to create impressive presentations effortlessly.
  • Marketers: Marketing professionals can leverage Plus AI to create visually appealing slides for social media campaigns and presentations. Plus AI is perfect for quickly preparing persuasive presentations for client meetings, making it easy for marketers to create impactful content that drives results.
  • Bloggers: With Plus AI, bloggers can quickly transform their written blog posts into visually appealing slideshows, making their content more interactive and shareable. Whether it's a tutorial or a roundup of products, Plus AI enables bloggers to present their content more compellingly and attract a larger audience.

Plus AI Key Features

Here are the key features that Plus AI offers:

  • Prompt to Presentation
  • Convert Text to Slides
  • AI in Any Language
  • 100+ Professional Layouts
  • Transform Your Slides
  • Design Slides with AI
  • AI Writer & Editor for Google Docs
  • Live Snapshots

1. Prompt to Presentation

Create presentations using AI with Plus AI for Google Slides

Plus AI's primary feature is its ability to generate AI-powered presentations from text prompts. Tell Plus AI what your presentation is about, and watch it generate the perfect Google Slides presentation in a couple of minutes!

The prompt-to-presentation feature lets you generate impactful and engaging content for your presentations. It saves significant time compared to creating Google Slides manually, meaning you can focus on delivering more compelling presentations rather than spending hours brainstorming content ideas and refining your presentations.

Here's how to turn a single text prompt into a presentation in minutes with Plus AI:

  • Give Plus AI a Prompt: Tell Plus AI the presentation you want to create or select one of their presets if you feel uninspired.
  • Customize the Outline: Customize the outline Plus AI generates to your liking by rearranging and editing the slide titles.
  • Choose a Theme: Select the theme that matches your project or brand the most.

Later on, I'll show you how I used Plus AI's Prompt to Presentation feature to generate a Google Slides presentation in minutes, so you can too!

2. Convert Text to Slides

How to convert Google Docs to Google Slides

Another helpful feature of Plus AI is its ability to convert text into slides in minutes! You can transform your text-based content, such as research papers, reports, manuscripts, or any other document, into visually appealing slides with just a few clicks.

Plus AI's technology intelligently analyzes the text and automatically generates visually appealing, structured, and professional slides. This feature is particularly beneficial for individuals or teams working with a large amount of text, as it simplifies creating engaging presentations.

Here's how to convert text to slides in minutes using Plus AI:

  • Paste in Your Text: Highlight and paste your entire text into Plus AI's Text to Presentation feature. You can paste up to 120,000 characters.
  • Add Context: Give Plus AI some context by specifying your target audience, voice, and tone.

Converting text to slides with Plus AI was simple and user-friendly. Forget manually copying and pasting text from documents to slides. Plus AI automates this process so you can focus on more important things!

3. AI in Any Language

How to translate a presentation in Google Slides

Plus AI doesn't stop at creating entire presentations with single text prompts and converting lengthy texts into visually-pleasing presentations! You can also use Plus AI to translate Google Slides presentations and Google Docs into nearly any language!

Here's how you can use Plus AI to translate your Google Slides and Google Docs in any language:

  • Enter Your Text or Prompt: Use any language when entering your text or prompt.
  • Specify the Language: Tell Plus AI what language you want it to write in.
  • Translate: Using the Plus AI Extension in your Google Slide or Google Doc, use Rewrite to translate.

Whether presenting to an international audience or catering to clients from different regions, Plus AI ensures that your presentations can be created in any language!

4. 100+ Professional Layouts

Plus AI presentation templates.

Besides the words on the slides and the presentation itself, the visuals of the slides play a crucial role in capturing the audience's attention and conveying your message effectively. This should never be overlooked!

Luckily, Plus AI offers over 100 professional layouts, ensuring that your slides look visually appealing and engaging. Whether you prefer a sleek and minimalist design or a bold and vibrant one, Plus AI has what you need.

When generating a Google Slides presentation, Plus AI handles all the formatting and design elements, so you don't have to spend hours tweaking every slide. From clean and minimalist designs to bold and vibrant ones, these professional layouts are designed to enhance your message and make it more impactful. You'll find the perfect style that aligns with your project or brand.

Whether you're delivering a sales pitch, presenting research findings, or giving a keynote speech, Plus AI offers a wide range of professional layouts guaranteed to fit your brand or topic.

5. Transform Your Slides

Want to see how your presentation looks in a different theme and layout without the hassle of manually changing each element on every slide? With Plus AI, you can quickly transform your slides with just a few clicks! Whether you want to switch to a different color scheme, change the font style, or try a new layout, Plus AI makes it effortless.

Pick a layout to transform your slides, and Plus AI will intelligently remix your content to fit the new design. You can also tell Plus AI to write to a specific audience or change the tone of your text.

By using the powerful features of the Plus AI Extension, you can instantly apply different themes and styles to your presentation. Explore various options and see which best suits your content and resonates with your audience!

6. Design Slides with AI

Slides designs by Plus AI.

With Plus AI, you don't have to worry about being a skilled designer. Plus AI comes with an AI-powered design tool to create custom themes, fonts, and colors to get your presentations looking exactly how you want them!

Plus AI's design feature leverages artificial intelligence to offer design suggestions, color palettes, and visual elements that pair harmoniously. As a result, you can effortlessly create visually stunning presentations aligned with your brand or personal style.

You can select one of the existing themes or create a theme from scratch using AI:

  • Name Your Theme: Give your theme a name to get Plus AI to select fonts and colors.
  • Customize: Choose the font and colors to match your branding and optionally upload a logo.
  • Use Your Theme: You can now apply your custom theme to existing presentations and when generating new slides.

This seamless integration of design and technology enables you to streamline the presentation creation process, reducing the time spent on design iterations and ultimately producing high-quality, professional slides!

7. AI Writer & Editor for Google Docs

Plus AI also seamlessly integrates with Google Docs as an AI writer and editor! Add Plus AI as an extension; you can generate and edit content directly in Google Docs. It's an excellent tool for whatever you're writing: a blog post, Facebook ad, newsletter, lesson plan, academic paper, and more!

To start generating content, tell Plus AI what you want to write. Within seconds, your content will be generated directly on your Google Doc! You can ask Plus AI to see multiple variations at once, and it will give you tips and suggestions to help you along the way.

From there, you can use Plus AI's Edit feature to rewrite content sections, translate, change the tone, summarize, and more!

With Plus AI for Google Docs, you can generate high-quality presentations effortlessly.

8. Live Snapshots

Using Plus to build a daily dashboard without setting up any integrations

Live Snapshots by Plus AI allows you to embed snapshots from any app or website in your favorite productivity tools. These snapshots stay up-to-date automatically, so you can access all your data in one place rather than setting up complicated integrations! These snapshots can be shared directly with others or embedded into apps like Slack, Google Slides, Notion, and more.

Taking Live Snapshots with Plus AI is like taking screenshots, except it's constantly being updated, so you always have the latest data. You can choose how often your screenshots refresh (the free tier lets you automatically refresh daily or every six hours), or you can manually refresh them with the click of a button.

The history of each snapshot is saved so you can go back in time and see how things have changed. Within Plus, you'll have access to all the snapshots you and your team have taken nicely organized into folders.

Live Snapshots is an invaluable tool for tracking and storing data. You and your team will always have the latest data at your fingertips whenever needed!

How to Use Plus AI to Create a Presentation in Minutes

Now that we know about Plus AI's features, it's time to see how they work! I tested Plus AI's main feature, the Prompt to Presentation, and generated a slideshow on dinosaurs for kindergarten students.

Here's how I used Plus AI to create a Google Slides presentation in a few minutes! I'll break everything down step-by-step so you can follow along.

  • Create a Plus AI Account
  • Install the Plus AI Extension
  • Go to Google Slides
  • Create a Blank Presentation
  • Open the Plus AI Extension
  • Start a Free Trial
  • Start a Presentation
  • Choose a Preset
  • Generate an Outline
  • Choose a Theme
  • Edit with Plus AI

Step 1: Create a Plus AI Account

Selecting Try Plus AI on the homepage.

I started by going to the Plus AI homepage (www.plusdocs.com) and clicking “Try Plus AI.” Since Plus AI works with Google Slides and Google Docs, you will need a Google account to use Plus AI.

Step 2: Install the Plus AI Extension

Selecting Individual Install to install Plus AI for Google Slides and Google Docs.

After signing up with my email, I was redirected to Google Workspace Marketplace, where I could install Plus AI for Google Slides and Google Docs . I selected “Individual Install.”

Step 3: Go to Google Slides

Once installed, I headed to Google Slides and created a new presentation. To do this, I ensured I was logged into the Google account where I just installed the Plus AI extension. Next, I went to Google.com .

Selecting Google Slides from the applications on the Google homepage.

On the top right, next to my profile picture, I selected the grid icon to open my Google applications. Next, I selected Google Slides.

Step 4: Create a Blank Presentation

Selecting Blank presentation in Google Slides.

From here, I selected “Blank presentation.”

A blank Google Slides presentation.

This created a blank Google Slides presentation!

Step 5: Open the Plus AI Extension

Creating a new presentation in Google Slides with Plus AI.

Next, I had to launch the Plus AI add-on within Google Slides. I went to Extensions > Plus AI for Google Slides and Docs > New Presentation with Plus AI to do this.

Step 6: Start a Free Trial

Choosing a Plus AI subscription plan and selecting Start free trial.

I was then asked to start my 7-day free trial with Plus AI. Looking at my options, I chose the plan that best suited me and selected “Start free trial.” I could change subscription plans or cancel anytime, so there was no risk.

Step 7: Start a Presentation

Selecting Start a presentation in the Plus AI extension.

After signing up, I returned to Google Slides and selected “Start a presentation.”

Step 8: Choose a Preset

Selecting Plus AI's Education preset.

I first had to choose one of the presets to get Plus AI to generate a presentation. I could keep it on “General” and manually describe my presentation, but I chose the “Education” preset.

Plus AI automatically populated the field below with a description when I selected it. I kept it as is, but you can edit the description according to the type of presentation you want Plus AI to generate.

On the right, I ensured the language and number of slides I wanted Plus AI to generate were correct. Once I was happy with everything, I selected “Generate Outline” on the bottom right!

Step 9: Generate an Outline

Modifying a Plus AI outline.

Plus AI immediately started generating a Google Slides presentation for me based on the information given. After a few seconds, I could modify the outline, which meant that I could rearrange and edit the titles of the slides exactly how I wanted.

Once I was happy, I selected “Generate Slides.”

Step 10: Choose a Theme

Selecting a theme using Plus AI.

Next, I picked a theme. Since my presentation is about dinosaurs and the audience is kindergarten students, I went with the “Plus Vintage” theme because it was bright and earthy and hit “Next” when I was ready.

Creating custom templates is always possible if you can't find one you like! This is especially useful for businesses that want to keep their branding consistent.

Step 11: Generate!

Final presentation generated with Plus AI.

Within seconds, my presentation was complete! I have to admit I'm impressed with the results. The presentation that Plus AI generated within minutes is far better than what I could've come up with. Everything was laid out nicely with images, tips, charts, and more to keep the audience engaged!

From here, I continued customizing within Google Slides by doing the following:

  • Insert a slide to add more content.
  • Use Plus AI to rewrite the text to improve phrasing, tone, or translation.
  • Remix the slides to switch up the layout.

Step 12: Edit with Plus AI

Selecting Edit with Plus AI under Extensions on Google Slides.

These customization features are always accessible within Google Slides by going to Extensions > Plus AI for Google Slides and Docs > Edit with Plus AI.

The Plus AI Editor in Google Slides.

This opened a panel on the right, which displayed four tabs for inserting new slides, rewriting, remixing, and designing.

Have fun seamlessly designing engaging presentations with Plus AI!

Final Thoughts on Creating Presentations with Plus AI

Plus AI is an incredible tool that will save you time and effort in creating professional presentations. Its ability to automatically generate an outline and slides based on simple inputs is remarkable, and the option to modify the outline gives you the flexibility to customize the presentation according to your preferences.

The variety of themes available ensured I could find one to suit my needs. If I felt none of the pre-designed themes met my requirements, creating a custom theme allows for consistent branding.

Lastly, the speed at which Plus AI generates the presentation is truly impressive. Within seconds, I had a well-organized layout with visually appealing slides ready to be presented. This is particularly beneficial for teachers or other individuals who are already busy writing lectures and have the time to create a presentation from scratch!

Thanks for reading my Plus AI review! I hope you found it helpful. Why not give Plus AI a shot and see how you like it?

Top Three Alternatives to Plus AI

While Plus AI offers powerful AI presentation-making capabilities, other notable alternatives that may be more suitable for you are available on the market. Here are the best Plus AI alternatives that I've tried.

Beautiful.ai

Create beautiful slides 10x faster in PowerPoint | Beautiful.ai PowerPoint Add-In

Beautiful.ai is an AI-powered presentation maker that uses text prompts to create slides. It also comes with different types of templates to choose from to match your vision.

The interface is spotless and straightforward, making editing your presentations a breeze. Plenty of layouts exist for impressive visuals and automatic formatting, so you don't have to arrange everything on your slides meticulously. Beautiful.ai makes customizing your slideshows effortless.

Beauitful.ai and Plus AI are simple tools to enhance your slideshow creation workflow and function similarly. But based on my experience with the platforms, Beautiful.ai has a slight edge over Plus AI by offering better customization. Plus AI has more visually appealing presentations, and you can edit the outline before it generates your presentation, giving you more flexibility.

If you want better customization, go for Beauitful.ai. For more modern presentations and an outline you can customize using Google Slides, choose Plus AI!

So what is Slidebean?

Slidebean is another AI presentation generator specifically geared toward founders and business owners. It offers AI pitch deck software and pitch deck design services.

Slidebean offers hundreds of pitch deck templates, so you'll find something that matches your vision. Feel free to create your own if you don't see anything that resonates!

Slidebean and Plus AI make creating captivating presentations that look professional a breeze. However, if you're a founder or business owner, I'd highly recommend going with Slidebean. You'll get far more business-oriented templates and tools you'll find helpful. Otherwise, choose Plus AI for a simple way to instantly generate beautiful templates on Google Slides.

What is Tome | AI-powered Communication

Tome is an AI-driven presentation maker that creates polished presentations and documents at lightning speed.

Tome relies heavily on text prompts to generate captivating presentations. And it doesn't stop at presentations – you can also use text prompts on Tome to create images , pages, documents, and more.

To create a presentation with Tome, you start by telling it about your presentation and how many slides you want it to be. From there, Tome will generate a customizable outline. Once you're happy with it, Tome will instantly generate an entire presentation for you in seconds!

Tome and Plus AI function the same and generate stunning presentations. However, Tome has more features for building web pages , microsites, and generating images , whereas Plus AI is the best AI presentation generator for Google Slides.

If you want the best tool for generating beautiful Google Slides, choose Plus AI. For beautiful slideshow presentations plus additional features for web design and image generation, Tome is an excellent choice!

Plus AI Review: The Best AI Presentation Maker?

After using Plus AI to instantly generate an engaging slideshow presentation about dinosaurs for kindergarten students, I can confidently say that it's one of the best AI presentation makers on the market. The entire process was fun and easy, and it sped up my presentation creation process significantly. After just a few minutes, I was blown away by how professional the presentation looked!

Plus, AI's prompt-to-presentation feature was my favorite, allowing me to turn my ideas into visually appealing slides effortlessly. All I did was tell Plus AI what my presentation would be about, and Plus AI took care of the rest!

From there, Plus AI made adding additional slides and editing my presentation incredibly easy with the edit tools. I could effortlessly rewrite, remix, and customize the design of my presentation, all with the AI Plus extension in Google Slides!

Sure, other excellent AI presentation generators on the market produce outstanding results. For example, Beautiful.ai has excellent customization tools, and Tome has additional image generation and web design features. Regardless, Plus AI is the perfect tool for a wide range of users, from professionals in business and education to individuals looking to elevate their presentations. I loved it, and I know you will, too!

Thanks for reading my Plus AI review! I hope you found it helpful. Plus AI offers a free 7-day trial that you can cancel at any point during the trial, so why not try Plus AI and see what you come up with?

Frequently Asked Questions

Is plus ai safe to use.

Plus AI is a reputable company and is committed to safety and security for all customer data. They employ industry-standard encryption to protect user data and ensure it remains secure. In addition, Plus AI's privacy policy outlines how they collect, use, and share user information to give you peace of mind.

Is Plus AI for Google Slides free?

Plus AI for Google Slides offers a 7-day free trial where you can try the software for free and cancel at any point during the trial. After the free trial, you must upgrade to a paid plan to continue generating beautiful slideshow presentations using AI.

How do I use Google Plus AI?

To use Google Plus AI, create a Google account if you don't already have one. Next, install the Plus AI extension. From there, open Google Slides and make a new slideshow presentation, go to your extensions, and create a new presentation with Plus AI. Follow the instructions by telling Plus AI what your presentation will be about and selecting a theme, and Plus AI will generate a presentation for you instantly! You can edit your presentation using the Plus AI editing tools.

What is the best AI tool for Google Slides?

Plus AI is the best AI tool for Google Slides. Based on your description, it generates captivating Google Slides presentations in minutes, making creating presentations easier than ever.

How does Plus AI work?

Plus AI leverages artificial intelligence and uses advanced machine learning algorithms to power its software. You only have to give it a text prompt, and Plus AI will generate a visually appealing Google Slides presentation!

How to install Plus AI?

To install Plus AI , go to Google Workspace Marketplace and search for Plus AI. Once you have found Plus AI, install it, and you can find it in your Extensions on Google Slides and Google Docs.

What is the best AI for presentation?

The best AI for generating presentations is Plus AI. You can instantly generate beautiful, customizable Google Slides presentations by providing a simple text prompt.

Can AI make Google Slides?

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Janine Heinrichs is a Content Creator and Designer helping creatives streamline their workflow with the best design tools, resources, and inspiration. Find her at janinedesignsdaily.com .

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School of Medicine Greenville Showcases Research at the 5th Annual National Big Data Health Science Conference

Big Data has the power to revolutionize healthcare. The National Big Data Health Science Conference, hosted by the USC Big Data Health Science Center (BDHSC) on February 2-3, celebrated its fifth year and was at the forefront of this healthcare innovation.

SOMG participated in two significant presentations at this year’s conference, which brings together luminaries from academia, industry, government, and healthcare systems to explore the transformative potential of big data in improving healthcare.  

It was exciting to engage with some of the brightest minds in research and gain invaluable insights into the growing field of medicine.

Zoe Sanders, a SOMG second-year medical student mentored by SOMG Associate Professor Dr. Jennifer Grier and Assistant Professor Dr. Debbie Barrington, shared her poster presentation titled "Severity Score Variability for Pediatric Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Infection Severity: A Systematic Review" and received an award for the “Best Poster Presentation from an Emerging Scholar.” The work of this team on the research project — which included second-year medical student Jacob Estrada and first-year medical student Kenny Nguyen — exemplified the dedication to excellence and innovation that defines the School of Medicine Greenville.

“Presenting our research on RSV infections and severity scoring tools at the BDHS Conference was a special experience,” said Sanders, the lead author on the presentation. “It was exciting to engage with some of the brightest minds in research and gain invaluable insights into the growing field of medicine. It is incredibly rewarding to be able to contribute to advancements in medicine, especially in the post-COVID world where big data integration offers so many new avenues for improving patient outcomes. Our findings hold a lot of promise in aiding clinicians in making informed decisions and it has been amazing to witness this project evolve from the beginning. My understanding of research has blossomed, and this project has helped to shape my future as a physician. I’m grateful for the guidance and dedication of Dr. Grier, Dr. Barrington, and the rest of the team and I know we are all eager to see where this research leads us in improving pediatric healthcare.”

Dr. Anna Blenda, Professor and Director of Research Strategy and Operations at the USC School of Medicine Greenville, also presented on the topic of the "Integration of Molecular and Clinical Data from Cancer Patients" during the Genomics Core session. Her oral presentation showcased research at the intersection of cutting-edge science and clinical applications, which was conducted by several of her mentored medical students at SOMG. The presentation included research on galectin and glycomic profiling of cancer patients, as well as the impact of DNA mutations landscape on galectin protein landscape. Additionally, the use of bioinformatics tools and AI was discussed for the integration of molecular and clinical data.

“The School of Medicine Greenville and our Office of Research place significant emphasis on medical student research, and witnessing students' work shine at a prestigious national conference is exceptionally rewarding,” said Dr. Blenda. “More than 90 percent of SOMG medical students engage in research, particularly during the summer SOARinG program after their first year of study. They are actively contributing to studies that have the potential to enhance the lives of many."

The School of Medicine Greenville is focused on improving patients’ treatments. Research projects — such as those presented at the conference, which implement Big Data tools — are poised to significantly advance medical knowledge and improve patient outcomes. Ultimately, the integration of Big Data analytics into medical research opens unprecedented opportunities for enhancing diagnostic accuracy, personalizing treatments, and predicting health trends.

The National Big Data Health Science Conference continues to serve as a beacon of innovation, inspiring stakeholders to harness the transformative power of big data in shaping the future of healthcare.  

Challenge the conventional. Create the exceptional. No Limits.

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Create a form in Word that users can complete or print

In Word, you can create a form that others can fill out and save or print.  To do this, you will start with baseline content in a document, potentially via a form template.  Then you can add content controls for elements such as check boxes, text boxes, date pickers, and drop-down lists. Optionally, these content controls can be linked to database information.  Following are the recommended action steps in sequence.  

Show the Developer tab

In Word, be sure you have the Developer tab displayed in the ribbon.  (See how here:  Show the developer tab .)

Open a template or a blank document on which to base the form

You can start with a template or just start from scratch with a blank document.

Start with a form template

Go to File > New .

In the  Search for online templates  field, type  Forms or the kind of form you want. Then press Enter .

In the displayed results, right-click any item, then select  Create. 

Start with a blank document 

Select Blank document .

Add content to the form

Go to the  Developer  tab Controls section where you can choose controls to add to your document or form. Hover over any icon therein to see what control type it represents. The various control types are described below. You can set properties on a control once it has been inserted.

To delete a content control, right-click it, then select Remove content control  in the pop-up menu. 

Note:  You can print a form that was created via content controls. However, the boxes around the content controls will not print.

Insert a text control

The rich text content control enables users to format text (e.g., bold, italic) and type multiple paragraphs. To limit these capabilities, use the plain text content control . 

Click or tap where you want to insert the control.

Rich text control button

To learn about setting specific properties on these controls, see Set or change properties for content controls .

Insert a picture control

A picture control is most often used for templates, but you can also add a picture control to a form.

Picture control button

Insert a building block control

Use a building block control  when you want users to choose a specific block of text. These are helpful when you need to add different boilerplate text depending on the document's specific purpose. You can create rich text content controls for each version of the boilerplate text, and then use a building block control as the container for the rich text content controls.

building block gallery control

Select Developer and content controls for the building block.

Developer tab showing content controls

Insert a combo box or a drop-down list

In a combo box, users can select from a list of choices that you provide or they can type in their own information. In a drop-down list, users can only select from the list of choices.

combo box button

Select the content control, and then select Properties .

To create a list of choices, select Add under Drop-Down List Properties .

Type a choice in Display Name , such as Yes , No , or Maybe .

Repeat this step until all of the choices are in the drop-down list.

Fill in any other properties that you want.

Note:  If you select the Contents cannot be edited check box, users won’t be able to click a choice.

Insert a date picker

Click or tap where you want to insert the date picker control.

Date picker button

Insert a check box

Click or tap where you want to insert the check box control.

Check box button

Use the legacy form controls

Legacy form controls are for compatibility with older versions of Word and consist of legacy form and Active X controls.

Click or tap where you want to insert a legacy control.

Legacy control button

Select the Legacy Form control or Active X Control that you want to include.

Set or change properties for content controls

Each content control has properties that you can set or change. For example, the Date Picker control offers options for the format you want to use to display the date.

Select the content control that you want to change.

Go to Developer > Properties .

Controls Properties  button

Change the properties that you want.

Add protection to a form

If you want to limit how much others can edit or format a form, use the Restrict Editing command:

Open the form that you want to lock or protect.

Select Developer > Restrict Editing .

Restrict editing button

After selecting restrictions, select Yes, Start Enforcing Protection .

Restrict editing panel

Advanced Tip:

If you want to protect only parts of the document, separate the document into sections and only protect the sections you want.

To do this, choose Select Sections in the Restrict Editing panel. For more info on sections, see Insert a section break .

Sections selector on Resrict sections panel

If the developer tab isn't displayed in the ribbon, see Show the Developer tab .

Open a template or use a blank document

To create a form in Word that others can fill out, start with a template or document and add content controls. Content controls include things like check boxes, text boxes, and drop-down lists. If you’re familiar with databases, these content controls can even be linked to data.

Go to File > New from Template .

New from template option

In Search, type form .

Double-click the template you want to use.

Select File > Save As , and pick a location to save the form.

In Save As , type a file name and then select Save .

Start with a blank document

Go to File > New Document .

New document option

Go to File > Save As .

Go to Developer , and then choose the controls that you want to add to the document or form. To remove a content control, select the control and press Delete. You can set Options on controls once inserted. From Options, you can add entry and exit macros to run when users interact with the controls, as well as list items for combo boxes, .

Adding content controls to your form

In the document, click or tap where you want to add a content control.

On Developer , select Text Box , Check Box , or Combo Box .

Developer tab with content controls

To set specific properties for the control, select Options , and set .

Repeat steps 1 through 3 for each control that you want to add.

Set options

Options let you set common settings, as well as control specific settings. Select a control and then select Options to set up or make changes.

Set common properties.

Select Macro to Run on lets you choose a recorded or custom macro to run on Entry or Exit from the field.

Bookmark Set a unique name or bookmark for each control.

Calculate on exit This forces Word to run or refresh any calculations, such as total price when the user exits the field.

Add Help Text Give hints or instructions for each field.

OK Saves settings and exits the panel.

Cancel Forgets changes and exits the panel.

Set specific properties for a Text box

Type Select form Regular text, Number, Date, Current Date, Current Time, or Calculation.

Default text sets optional instructional text that's displayed in the text box before the user types in the field. Set Text box enabled to allow the user to enter text into the field.

Maximum length sets the length of text that a user can enter. The default is Unlimited .

Text format can set whether text automatically formats to Uppercase , Lowercase , First capital, or Title case .

Text box enabled Lets the user enter text into a field. If there is default text, user text replaces it.

Set specific properties for a Check box .

Default Value Choose between Not checked or checked as default.

Checkbox size Set a size Exactly or Auto to change size as needed.

Check box enabled Lets the user check or clear the text box.

Set specific properties for a Combo box

Drop-down item Type in strings for the list box items. Press + or Enter to add an item to the list.

Items in drop-down list Shows your current list. Select an item and use the up or down arrows to change the order, Press - to remove a selected item.

Drop-down enabled Lets the user open the combo box and make selections.

Protect the form

Go to Developer > Protect Form .

Protect form button on the Developer tab

Note:  To unprotect the form and continue editing, select Protect Form again.

Save and close the form.

Test the form (optional)

If you want, you can test the form before you distribute it.

Protect the form.

Reopen the form, fill it out as the user would, and then save a copy.

Creating fillable forms isn’t available in Word for the web.

You can create the form with the desktop version of Word with the instructions in Create a fillable form .

When you save the document and reopen it in Word for the web, you’ll see the changes you made.

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  • Category: Games

How Times & Galaxy Turns Journalism into a Game Mechanic

  • Times & Galaxy ’s unique Build-A-Story feature lets players tell the story how they see it.
  • Copychaser Games’ Creative Director shares how his past as a crime reporter shaped the game’s approach to journalism.
  • Times & Galaxy is coming to Xbox in mid-2024.

Ever wanted to experience the rush of breaking news? In Times & Galaxy , you’ll chase down scoops as the newest robo-intern of a trusted holopaper. Your assignments might initially seem less than glamorous, like intersolar cat shows and underground dirt fairs—you are an intern, after all. But what, and how, you report is up to you: by picking your way through branching conversations and exploring each level, you’ll discover hidden information, new sources and surprising quotes, allowing you to craft your story your way through the game’s unique Build-A-Story feature.

“Branching conversations are the bread and butter of a lot of larger Western RPGs, and they are, in many ways, what you do as a reporter doing an interview,” Copychaser Games Creative Director Ben Gelinas explains. “You have to decide what to ask, and how to ask it to get the information you need.”

Times & Galaxy Screenshot

Gelinas knows that from experience: before he began writing for games—with credits on Dragon Age: Inquisition , Mass Effect 3 , and Control , among other titles—Gelinas was working as a crime reporter for a daily newspaper in Canada. Drawing on his past career offered new opportunities for well-established conversation systems.

“In Times & Galaxy , we’ve turned information into a collectible,” he adds, “which excited me from a narrative standpoint. It’s always so tricky to combine narrative elements with gameplay.”

The Build-A-Story feature breaks each story down into five parts: headline, lede, nut graf (a summarizing, ‘in a nutshell’ paragraph), key quote, and color context. Your options for each will expand as you pull quotes from conversations and scour levels for context and clues. Depending on how you frame what you’ve discovered, your story can turn out sensational, informational, or “alien” interest—each with lasting consequences for your paper’s reputation and readership.

Gelinas notes that it’s not so much about finding the “right” answer as it is deciding how best to present what you find.

“I didn’t want to do a binary,” he says. “I didn’t want to do ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Having three extremes makes things more complicated. And these are all pulled from types of journalism that people do in the real world.”

Times & Galaxy Screenshot

In his reporter days, Gelinas noticed how different newspapers, covering the same story, would produce very different takes on the same thing.

“We were all reporters doing our jobs,” Gelinas notes. “But the result was different depending on who was reporting and the overarching goals of the newspaper.”

So when it came time to gamify journalism in Times & Galaxy , Gelinas built his narrative team mostly out of former and current journalists, with histories in alt-weeklies and student journalism, to lend their lived experience with the craft—and to help shape the 100-plus memorable characters that populate the game, both on and off the news ship.

Times & Galaxy Screenshot

“For whatever reason, journalism attracted, and still continues to attract, some of the most interesting people you’ll ever meet,” Gelinas says. “I wanted Times & Galaxy to reflect that: I wanted to fill it with very memorable weirdos… ​​And then you get to join them and decide what kind of weirdo you are.”

Times & Galaxy will come to Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S in 2024.

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A screenshot from an AI-generated video of woolly mammoths.

Sora: OpenAI launches tool that instantly creates video from text

Model from ChatGPT maker ‘simulates physical world in motion’ up to a minute long based on users’ subject and style instructions

OpenAI revealed a tool on Thursday that can generate videos from text prompts.

The new model, nicknamed Sora after the Japanese word for “sky”, can produce realistic footage up to a minute long that adheres to a user’s instructions on both subject matter and style. According to a company blogpost, the model is also able to create a video based on a still image or extend existing footage with new material.

“We’re teaching AI to understand and simulate the physical world in motion, with the goal of training models that help people solve problems that require real-world interaction,” the blogpost reads.

One video included among several initial examples from the company was based on the prompt: “A movie trailer featuring the adventures of the 30-year-old space man wearing a red wool knitted motorcycle helmet, blue sky, salt desert, cinematic style, shot on 35mm film, vivid colors.”

The company announced it had opened access to Sora to a few researchers and video creators. The experts would “red team” the product – test it for susceptibility to skirt OpenAI’s terms of service, which prohibit “extreme violence, sexual content, hateful imagery, celebrity likeness, or the IP of others”, per the company’s blogpost. The company is only allowing limited access to researchers, visual artists and film-makers, though CEO Sam Altman responded to users’ prompts on Twitter after the announcement with video clips he said were made by Sora. The videos bear a watermark to show they were made by AI.

Introducing Sora, our text-to-video model. Sora can create videos of up to 60 seconds featuring highly detailed scenes, complex camera motion, and multiple characters with vibrant emotions. https://t.co/7j2JN27M3W Prompt: “Beautiful, snowy… pic.twitter.com/ruTEWn87vf — OpenAI (@OpenAI) February 15, 2024

The company debuted the still image generator Dall-E in 2021 and generative AI chatbot ChatGPT in November 2022, which quickly accrued 100 million users. Other AI companies have debuted video generation tools, though those models have only been able to produce a few seconds of footage that often bears little relation to their prompts. Google and Meta have said they are in the process of developing generative video tools, though they have not released them to the public. On Wednesday, it announced an experiment with adding deeper memory to ChatGPT so that it could remember more of its users’ chats.

https://t.co/uCuhUPv51N pic.twitter.com/nej4TIwgaP — Sam Altman (@sama) February 15, 2024

OpenAI did not disclose how much footage was used to train Sora or where the training videos may have originated, other than telling the New York Times that the corpus contained videos that were both publicly available and licensed from copyright owners. The company has been sued multiple times for alleged copyright infringement in the training of its generative AI tools, which digest gargantuan amounts of material scraped from the internet and imitate the images or text contained in those datasets.

  • Artificial intelligence (AI)

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  24. School of Medicine Greenville

    Zoe Sanders, a SOMG second-year medical student mentored by SOMG Associate Professor Dr. Jennifer Grier and Assistant Professor Dr. Debbie Barrington, shared her poster presentation titled "Severity Score Variability for Pediatric Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Infection Severity: A Systematic Review" and received an award for the "Best Poster Presentation from an Emerging Scholar."

  25. Create a form in Word that users can complete or print

    In Word, you can create a form that others can fill out and save or print. To do this, you will start with baseline content in a document, potentially via a form template. Then you can add content controls for elements such as check boxes, text boxes, date pickers, and drop-down lists. Optionally, these content controls can be linked to ...

  26. How Times & Galaxy Turns Journalism into a Game Mechanic

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