There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all presentation template. There are however, a few universal principles and tricks that can help you avoid death by PowerPoint.

1. POWERPOINT
TO MAKE YOUR DECKS
A LITTLE LESS SUCKY
HACKS
10 Andreas Krasser
Head of Strategy & Innovation
DDB Group Hong Kong

2. “Free Pitch Presentation Format
to Save You Hours of Work”
“Great Digital Marketing Plan
Template For Free”

3. TEMPLATES

4. There Are However, Certain
UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLES &
TACTICAL DESIGN HACKS
That Can Save Your Audience From Death By PowerPoint

5. 01.DO YOUR SLIDES LAST

6. Open Word Script Delete Script Again Edit…
WRITE A SPEECH FIRST

7. Next, print out your final
speech, and make
next to the parts you think
should be supported with slides.

8. DO I REALLY NEED THIS SLIDE?
WHAT’S THE ONE POINT I WANT THE
AUDIENCE TO TAKE AWAY FROM IT?

9. 02.CREATE YOUR OWN DESIGN

10. Helvetica Neue
Thin
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
Typography Matters
Keep It Simple.
Use a maximum of two to three different font styles.
The easiest way is to just stay within the same font family.

11. Create Color Palettes

12. 03.CHOOSE YOUR WORDS WISELY

13. VS.
PRESENTATION
DECK
LEAVE-BEHIND DECK
Those are usually not presented
but read – therefore, you’d use
more than just headlines to make
sure the reader really understands
the content as well as the context
of every slide.

14. 04.USE IMAGES…WISELY

15. PICTURES
CAN BE
REALLY
POWERFUL
BUT…

16. …ONLY IF THE IMAGES YOU
PICK REALLY EMPHASIZE OR
ENHANCE THE POINTS
YOU'RE TRYING TO MAKE

17. My Advertising Week Asia presentation* on
how our agency ventured into its very own
start-up business
Here, I wanted to show what our expectation of
running a start-up looked like in our heads.
When I reached the point of explaining how our
experience actually felt, that is like an emotional,
and very scary roller coaster ride, I animated a
picture of a – you might have guessed – scary
roller coaster ride into the slide.
*See the full presentation here

18. STOCK IMAGES
NOT SO COOL

19. TRY THESE INSTEAD
Google Images
https://images.google.com/
Pixabay
https://pixabay.com/
Morguefile
https://morguefile.com/

20. WHEN USING MULTIPLE
IMAGES ON ONE SLIDE,
THE CROP TOOL IS
YOUR BEST FRIEND

21. Picture Format > Crop
> >

22. Picture Format > Crop Crop to Shape > Aspect Ratio 1:1
> > >

23. ANOTHER THING TO WATCH
OUT FOR WHEN USING
IMAGES, IS LEGIBILITY
OF YOUR TEXT…

24. 05.CREATE COLOR OVERLAYS

25. NOT SO GOOD GOOD
BEHOLD THE POWER OF
COLOR OVERLAYS

26. VIEW NEXT SLIDE
IN FULL SCREEN MODE

27. 01 02 03
04 05 06
Click on the
second stop and
adjust
transparency
again – most likely
a higher level than
the first, if not
even full
transparency.
Fine-tune gradient
type, direction,
angle and
transparency
levels until you
find the right mix.
Now click on one
of the stops and
adjust
transparency to a
level that would
allow legibility of
your text.
Create two
gradient stops in
either one or two
colors of your
liking.
Go to ‘Format
Shape’ and set fill
options to
‘Gradient Fill’.
Create a
rectangular shape
that covers your
entire slide (or the
image on your
slide).

28. TOO MANY LAYERS?

29. FEAR NOT!
‘REORDER OVERLAPPING OBJECTS’
HAS GOT YOUR BACK!

30. Drag & Drop

31. 06.BEAUTIFY BULLET POINTS

32. WHITE
NOISE

33. TWO METHODS
TO CIRCUMVENT WHITE NOISE SLIDES
POINT 01 POINT 02
POINT 03 POINT 04
01 02 03 04
METHOD 01 METHOD 02
Break Bullet Points Up Into Separate Slides Organize Bullet Points In A List

34. BREAKING UP YOUR BULLET
POINTS INTO SEPARATE SLIDES,
MAKES SURE THE AUDIENCE IS
FOCUSING ON YOU

35. When turning
bullet points
into lists,
DON’T USE
SMARTART

36. Try instead to
create similar
arrangements that
FIT THE COLOR AND
FONT SCHEME
of your presentation
TEXT |
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
tempor admodum
TEXT |
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
tempor admodum
TEXT |
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
tempor admodum

37. 07.USE ICONS

38. THE BEST WAY TO
SPICE UP YOUR BULLET
POINTS IS WITH ICONS

39. NO NEED TO PAY ANY
NO NEED TO KNOW ANY
All you need is a little patience, some image search
luck and a few PPT tricks up your sleeve.

40. This is a process chart, which I had
created to explain a 4-step insights
generation model.
For step three, I felt a microphone was
an appropriate icon, so I searched in
Google image search for
microphone icon png.
I was quite happy with the first result
and copied it into PowerPoint. The
only problem, it was black, while I
wanted use white icons.
Find out on the next slide how I
changed the color of the icon…

41. Double click the icon Under ‘Format Picture’,
find ‘Picture Corrections’
Dial up the Brightness
to 100%
And Voila!

42. ALREADY
DREADING THE
ALIGNING OF
ICONS, SHAPES,
TEXT BOXES, ETC.?

43. 1. GROUP
2. ALIGN

44. 08.MODIFY GRAPHS & CHARTS

45. Graphs often disturb the look & feel

46. Simply change colors and fonts

47. IF YOU HAVE MORE TIME, YOU
CAN ALSO TRANSLATE CHARTS
GRAPHS, AND OTHER STATS
INTO INFOGRAPHICS

48. 25%
25%
50%
Skills
Patience
Imagination
CREATING SIMPLE
INFOGRAPHICS
25% 25% 50%
Skills Patience Imagination
Creating Simple Infographics

49. 09.ANIMATE & TRANSITION SUBTLY

50. WHEN IT COMES TO
ANIMATIONS,
LESS IS MORE

51. doesn’t feel as abrupt as
the ‘Appear’ animation
and is still subtle enough
not to be in your face.

52. applies to transitions.
Just make sure to keep
it consistent. It’s either
all or nothing.

53. 10.STEAL & REMIX

54. &
Slideshare
Presentations
Favorite
Websites
Design
Blogs
Print
Adverts
Steal &
Remix
Your Own
PPT Design
Language

55. 1MORE
THING…

56. PREPARE A SUMMARY
SLIDE, SO IT’S CLEAR
TO YOUR AUDIENCE
WHAT YOU WANT THEM
TO TAKE AWAY FROM
YOUR PRESENTATION

57. 10 POWERPOINT HACKS
TO MAKE YOUR DECKS A LITTLE LESS SUCKY
01 | Do Your Slides Last
02 |
03 |
04 |
05 |
Create Your Own Design
Choose Your Words Wisely
Use Images…Wisely
Create Color Overlays
06 | Beautify Bullet Points
07 |
08 |
09 |
10 |
Use Icons
Modify Charts & Graphs
Animate & Transition Subtly
Steal and Remix

58. Thank You!
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