10 details to pay attention to when perfecting PPT/Keynote presentations
I make a ton of presentations in my job, and it often happens that I spend large parts of my day perfecting PPTs and Keynotes. Being a bit of a detail-oriented perfectionist, I find this fun. Still, I know many people hate spending their time this way and find the rigor it requires boring. Here's a cheat sheet of details to pay special attention to that will help make the presentation perfection process go more smoothly.
1. Titles
All titles should look the same. Ideally, they should be limited to one line.
2. Subheadings
These don't need to be present on all slides, but they can flesh out the title for slides where more detail is required. They should be significantly smaller than the title so that people can't confuse the two.
3. Fonts
Sticking to something readable should be the priority, but I think there are use cases for more fun fonts too. The underlying theme of consistency applies: the presentation will look more polished if you use fonts from the same family throughout.
4. Colors
If your company/brand has a color palette, it's a good idea to use it. Employing colors from a coordinated palette helps to effectively promote your brand and its recognition and tie your presentation together.
5. Image Alignment
My personal obsession. Images should basically always be aligned with 1) each other / text boxes and 2) the slide.
6. Text boxes
There are different schools of thought RE the amount of text to include on a slide. I'm of the opinion that some text is fine (some people think there should be hardly any text at all), but I think it's almost universally-agreed that there shouldn't be so much text that the audience is reading vs. listening to the presenter.
7. Page Numbers/Progress Bar
I like including both of these because I've found that people like knowing how much time is left in the presentation. They help manage the audience's expectations.
These are usually the last thing I review before considering a PPT/Keynote "finished"
8. Logos/Slide Layout
I like putting a logo on each of my slides, as somewhat of a copyright reminder. The easiest way to do this is to stick it in a corner of each slide via the slide layout functionality.
9. Section Headers
When used sparingly, these can provide breaks in presentations and clear departure points as new sections are introduced. I like it when their background is in the "secondary" color of the presentation, as it really makes them stand out while still being formulaic and predictable.
10. Footers
I've found the date to be a useful footer, but you could also consider the title of the presentation or section.
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