Creating a professional presentation means paying attention to the materials, not just the content and delivery. Professional PowerPoint templates are widely available, but you still need to know the most efficient way to use them in a professional setting. 

In a presentation, the audiences are more likely to remember your tone and delivery. Therefore, a good presenter makes sure that the PowerPoint slides support their delivery, not the sole focus. Follow this guide to create professional slides.

Recommended Visual Elements in PowerPoint Templates

One of the worst ways to use presentation slides is treating them as textbooks, filling them with texts. Professional templates cleverly use visual elements to help presenters deliver the materials without distracting them. Each slide should serve as a “pointer”, guiding the audience throughout the explanations.

Here are several visual elements you must include to create professional PowerPoint templates.

• Relevant, High-Quality Images

Relevant images add values to your presentation slides and support your explanations. Many professional templates have picture placeholders that you can replace with high-definition photos. You can choose photos from your materials or professional stock photos that are relevant to your explanations.

If possible, avoid using standard clip art images or free cartoonish pictures. They make your presentation look less professional, especially if your topic is important.

• Data Visualizations

Many professional PowerPoint templates have handcrafted infographics and various forms of data visualizations, like charts and diagrams. Use them whenever you have data to present. Using images is more effective in capturing your audience’s attention than just texts. 

When you need to use data visualization, make sure to put it at the center. Add a bold, clear title to describe the data. Please do not use the graph or diagram as an afterthought on the slide since it will distract your audience.

• Simplified Tables

What if you need to create tables? Make sure they are simplified. Unlike data visualizations, tables are already crammed with texts and numbers. Use one full slide to present a table and delete unnecessary elements like multiple colors, borders, outlines, and irrelevant images. If your slides come with default illustrations as parts of the theme, put your table on a blank slide.

• Proper Fonts

Fonts are important parts of presentation slides, so make sure they are readable and interesting. You can get a little creative with opening and closing slides by using trendy fonts, which can be useful to give hints about the theme of your presentation. However, when it comes to body texts, you must stick to standard legible fonts.

Since everyone must read your slides, make sure the fonts are pleasing for the eyes. Verdana, Tahoma, Calibri, Helvetica, Cambria, and Arial are considered comfortable for the eyes. The ideal sizes are 22 to 24 for titles and 18 to 20 for body texts.

• Color Schemes

Colorful presentation is interesting, but too many colors will make your slides look childish and unprofessional. Many PowerPoint templates come with built-in color schemes, from neutral tones like brown, grey, and white to bolder colors like blue, orange, red, and yellow. Some templates even have unique combination like pastel colors.

The safest way to apply colors in your professional template is by following the default schemes. If you want to use multiple colors in your presentation, make sure to use the ones that are included in the template. This way, you can avoid weird, clashing, or childish color combination.

• Contrast

Contrast is important to make the text readable. Make sure the combination of text and background colors creates comfortable visual for your eyes. White background and dark texts are usually the safest combinations, but you can experiment with other colors as long as they are comfortable for the eyes.

What if you use the image as the background of your slide? Make sure to create contrast between the background and the texts. Surround your texts with solid background or shadow.

• Layout

Just because a slide has a spacious empty area does not mean that you need to fill every space. Ideally, each slide has no more than five lines, and each of them must be short. Keep the urge to fill all the space; a good presentation layout gives the opportunity to “breathe.”

Making a professional presentation means applying the formal design elements in your template without making them boring or too standard. Download these PowerPoint templates and create a proper presentation in any professional fields.