eSign Powerpoint Made Easy

Esign powerpoint

A lot of work goes into creating, well-designed PowerPoint slides. Unfortunately, many of the millions of slides that are created every day aren't engaging the audience at all. In fact, many are hard to read and understand. But there are a few really important and easy to implement tips that can really make a difference in your slide design. Let's check them out. (upbeat music) (icon pops) Before we get started, a brief thanks to Skillshare for sponsoring today's video. Skillshare is a learning platform with lots of great classes. I have a special link for you that gives you two months, free premium access. You're going to find it in the description of this video, and I'll be chatting more about them towards the end. Now let's get started with my slide design tips. Number one, visualize your data. Presenting numbers and data can be a challenge. For one, it's probably not the most exciting topic. And second, if you put a lot of data on your slide, the audience is going to be busy reading the slide instead of paying attention to you. Here's an example, a slide like this, encourages the audience to read and try to make sense of the data. Their attention is going to be on the slide, not on what you're saying. Instead, you could present it like this. Already from the title of the slide the audience can get the critical information. The supporting charts makes it easier to interpret the slide. The important thing here is that you guide the eyes to the most important topics and avoid distractions on the slide. Which brings me to my next tip. Number two, use white space and don't clutter. White or negative space refers to the empty space in between your content on the slide. Sometimes we feel the urge to make use of every little space available to us on the slide. We plaster it with information and visual elements, but more, isn't necessarily always better. If you throw too much on the screen, you get a cluttered page that's unattractive and difficult to read. People get frustrated when information bombards them, you're going to lose their attention. So don't do that. White space is also important because it creates separation between the objects on your slide and it focuses the eyes and the message you want to get across. It also makes text easier to read. And also for the viewer it's calming letting them breathe. And don't get me wrong, white space doesn't have to be white. White space can also be any solid color or even a blurred background. It just means that there is no other content or design element. Apple, is a master when it comes to applying this concept. It creates the feeling of luxury and puts the product in focus. So when designing PowerPoint slides, don't create slides like this, which results in visual overload, the viewers eyes will be all over the place. Instead, remember a few key rules. Keep the slide background clean. Company logos and other corporate identity elements don't have to be on every single slide. White space principles also apply to your text on the slide. Use a font size that's big enough with generous spacing. If you can't fit all your texts this way, it's probably too much text. So it comes down to less is more. Give the elements on your slide, some breathing room. This way the eyes land straight on the main message and the slide is going to have a greater impact. Number three, apply instant design ideas. Design ideas is a new feature in Microsoft 365, that's powered by Microsoft's AI or intelligence services. You can find it on the Home tab, which as we know is the prime real estate in any Office product. So what does it do? Let's say we have this rather uninspiring slide about some timeline. And we want to make it more visually appealing. If you click on Design Ideas up here, it will make several suggestions. Like this one. Or this one is nice too. And immediately by just clicking a button, you have a much improved version of the slide. Or, if you work with images in your slides, design ideas can convert these uncropped pictures, into a neatly organized slide automatically for you. Like this one. It also doesn't seem to like bullet points that much. So if it sees a slide like this, it will suggest a more visual version of the slide. You can exchange the icons or colors as you like, but if the shape or color is a part of the slide background, you can't adjust it. If you have poor design skills like me, or if you're just in a hurry, then design ideas can definitely give you a good start. Number four, use Scalable Vector Graphics. The next tip is about the images in your presentations. When you use raster images like JPGs or PNGs in your slides, be careful when resizing them. Take a look at this Excel logo here, it looks fine in the current size. I can scale it down without problems, but when I scale it up, it's going to become pixelated. Scaling down is okay, scaling up is not. Not if you have these images. But, if you use SVGs, which is short for Scalable Vector Graphics, you can scale up without pixelation. SVGs can be resized from small to large without losing quality because they consist of mathematical lines and fills instead of pixels. They are also much smaller in size. For example, the icons option in the insert tab are SVGs and recent versions of PowerPoint allows you to edit these graphics. You can use the eyedropper tool to change the fill, or you can even disassemble the SVG image by converting it to an Office shape. This way you can change the fill of individual parts of the image. So whenever you can, choose vector graphics over raster images. You can scale them up without loss of resolution and they are smaller in size as well. Number five, apply the rule of thirds. In photography and cinematography, there is a basic guideline about how a shot should be composed. It's called the rule of thirds. This also applies to PowerPoint slides. Let me show you how. Here, we have a slide with an image and some text. Let's see how we can improve it. The rule of thirds basically divides the canvas into three horizontal rows and three vertical columns. The lines intersect at these four points. Guess what these are called? PowerPoints. What are the odds? The rule says that the key elements of this slide should be pleased to run these PowerPoints or along the lines. So let's position the image like this with the head on this PowerPoint and the texts boxes along the horizontal lines like this. Let's compare them side by side. What do you think? Most people will prefer to second version, it's just more visually appealing. An easy way to apply the rule of thirds in PowerPoint, is by using the guides. Just go to the View tab and check the box next to guides. You can add an additional horizontal and vertical guide to create the grid. Give the rule of thirds a try and check it out for yourself. So these are my tips when it comes to PowerPoint slide design. I hope you found them helpful. If you're interested in design in general, and you'd like to explore other areas such as logo design, or brand identity, or just the core principles of visual design, check out the graphic design classes on Skillshare. I personally enjoy the Graphic Design Basics course by Ellen Lupton. It's short and concise, and you get a good understanding together with many examples of the five basic design principles. Aside from this class, you're going to find classes on many other topics in Skillshare, which in case you're not familiar is an online learning community with thousands of great classes. Topics range from freelancing, entrepreneurship, technical skills like Office skills and a lot more. Joining Skillshare is also really affordable. An annual subscription is less than $10 a month and premium membership gives you unlimited access so you can learn more about any topic that interests you. And because Skillshare is sponsoring this video, I have a special link for you in the description. The first 1000 of my subscribers to click the link are going to get a two month free trial of premium membership so you can explore new skills or improve existing ones. If you like this video, please give it a thumbs up. And if you want to improve your skills, consider subscribing to this channel. Thank you for watching and I'll see you in the next video (upbeat music)