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How to make slideshows work better?

Photo Sales Engineer at whiteboard

I think you all must have gone through this pain of bad slideshows or presentations. Creating a flawless slideshow that is just perfect for the audience can sometimes be a challenging task. A lot of creativity and unique ideas are needed for a perfect slideshow. 

 

Thus many people struggle a lot in making the slideshows work better. A well-defined slideshow delivers the message effectively to the audience. So it is quite necessary to create the best one possible!

I have gone through many presentations and slideshows which have certain problems that can be easily fixed. Here in this blog, I’ll try to highlight some amazingly easy and simple tips to make the slideshows work better. So let’s get started!

 

1.Enable the presentation mode.

I think this is the most important point to keep in mind. Some people make blunders by simply scrolling through the slides and that though in edit mode. As in the editing mode, the featured slide takes half of the place and on the left side of the screen, other slides could be seen along with the editing tools. 

If I talk specifically about Google slides or Powerpoint then both of them provide a separate option of enabling the presentation mode for the viewers. In the presentation mode, the entire screen is occupied by the individual slide arranged accordingly. Because in this way you are giving your audience or the viewers a rich experience of watching the slideshow. It looks much pleasing to the eye and attracts the viewer’s attention completely and the motive of the slideshow that is to deliver the message completely is also fulfilled. 

For enabling the presentation mode in Powerpoint at the top menu click on the slide show and then you can select whether to start from the first slide or any other slide. In the case of Google slide click on the top right button of the Present button and choose different options for your perfect slideshow. 

 

2.Cut down the texts.

Slides are the best way to enhance the delivery of your message. That’s probably because of its visual effects, the viewers feel much engaged and they also understand the topic or the message given by it. But there is one thing that you need to remember that slides cannot be taken away from all your content. Because too many texts often make the slides confusing for the viewers to understand the exact message. 

You can’t put all the information in the slide as the viewer will eventually lose interest in your presentation. Don’t worry, That’s not much difficult just follow these simple steps for the desired slideshow.

  • If your slide contains information in bullet points then try to shorten it up to some extent. Short points are easily grasped by the viewer and the message is also delivered successfully. Long phrases or sentences should be avoided because there is already less space in the slide and when you add too many texts it does not even look good and seems confusing also. The best thing is to include the short points in bullets and then you can explain each point in detail verbally to the audience, in this way the point is well explained and it also gives a good impression on the viewers when you are explaining it by yourself. 
 
  • Explain each point on different slides. The viewers want to have a rich experience while watching so adding more slides gives it a good experience. Rather than adding all the information in one slide go for different slides.
 
  • One more way to make your slideshow memorable for the viewers is to create a handout and distribute it to the audience so that they can view it later and access your content. the handouts can be either handwritten or in the form of Pdfs. It can be a reference in the future for the viewers which they can see at their convenience. 
 
 

3.Update all the tools.

To make your slideshow work better you need to update all the outdated fonts or artwork that you have used in your slides. I think the clipart available on the application is quite outdated and really needs replacement. I’ll suggest that you can use free images available on Pexels and Pixabay, just like I’ve used the featured image in this particular blog which is from pexels. For fonts, now you have thousands of options available on both Powerpoint and Google Slides. You can also download freely available fonts online and add them to your presentation. But remember do not include very fancy kinds of fonts, make sure whatever style you are choosing is easily legible by the viewers. 

 

4.Do not overdo with animations.

There are a variety of options available for introducing animation. But I think now the audience finds it a bit old fashioned. Your core attention should not be on using the best of the animation but on the written content, because at the end of the day the message will be delivered by the written content only. Make sure if you are using animation in your slideshow it should appear at the right time when you are explaining that particular topic. Using limited animation will make the presentation concise and up to the mark. 

 

5.Include agenda and signboards.

It is very important from the viewer’s perspective that they are aware of what to expect in the slideshow presentation. It would be very confusing for them if they do not even know what is being shown to them. So including the agenda at the beginning of the slide show is a must. If the presentation is well organized the audience can grasp things with full concentration and insert. It is very simple to add an agenda. You just need to add one extra slide in the beginning in which all the points are briefly listed.

 

6.Must proofread the slides.

Proofreading the slides before the actual presentation is very important. There are high chances of errors in a slideshow so multiple proofreading is very much recommended. The best way to proofread is to read loudly, as this increases the chances of detecting any error in the content.

 

Conclusion

You can use the above-mentioned points for better working of your slideshow. A successful slideshow must meet all the expectations of the audience which can be done by following some basic steps. 

 

Photo by Christina Morillo from Pexels.

Final image

Mayuresh S. Shilotri writes on Product, EdTech, UX, Customer Development & Early Stage Growth. 2,000-Word posts only. You can discover more about me here

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